EARLY VIRGINIA CLAIMS IN PENNSYLVANIA The early inhabitants of Pennsylvania seem to have been doomed to trouble. Beside the Connecticut claims, which took in almost the entire northern half of the province, Virginia laid claim to a large portion of the western part. The origin of this claim dates very far back in the history of the country. The charter of 1607 granted to the London Company all the territory in America lying between the 34th and 38th degrees of north latitude.* In 1609 the charter was amended and enlarged, so that it comprised a region stretching two hundred miles north and the same distance south of Point Comfort, and extending "up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest." In 1623 the London Company was dissolved by a decree of the King's Bench, and the territory above described, except where grants had been made to private individuals, reverted to the Crown. But the Virginians never fully accepted this decision. Penn's grant was respected; but any other territory within the limits of their charter they continued to claim, notwithstanding the action of the King's Bench. To explore and occupy this vast domain was one of the most fascinating objects to the early Virginians.† It was to vindicate their claim to the valley of the Ohio that the youthful Major Washington was sent to the French posts in 1753. The authorities of Pennsylvania, however, now began to contend that the claims of Virginia overlapped the charter granted to William Penn, and some correspondence on the subject took place between Gov. Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and Gov. Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, in the years 1752 and 1753. In the early part of this latter year, the Virginians undertook to secure possession of the country about the Forks of the Ohio against the common enemy, the French, by building a fort on the point of land where the city of Pittsburgh now stands; but the latter, under Contrecœur, descended the Allegheny, drove them away from the unfinished work, and themselves built a stronghold at the same place, which they called Fort Duquesne. The disputed territory remained in the hands of the French until the fall of Fort Duquesne, in the latter part of the year 1758. No revival of the dispute took place until January, 1774, when one Dr. John Conolly, whom * Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. I., p. 120. + See ** The Knights of the Horseshoe," by Dr. Wm. A. Caruthers Bancroft describes as "a physician, land-jobber and subservient political intriguer," came from Virginia with authority from Lord Dunmore, the governor of that colony, and took possession of Fort Pitt, which had been dismantled by the British government, and named it Fort Dunmore. He also issued a call to the public to assemble as a militia at Redstone.* For this conduct he was apprehended by Arthur St. Clair, a magistrate of Westmoreland county, afterward a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary and Indian wars, and thrown into jail at Hannastown. He was not held in durance long, however, but was released on bail and returned to Virginia. Here he was appointed by Dunmore a justice of Augusta county, which the Virginians contended embraced the territory in debate, and shortly returned to Pittsburgh with a tolerably strong force. He captured the court at Hannastown, and at Pittsburgh, on the 9th of April, 1744, he arrested the justices Æneas Mackay, Devereux Smith, and Andrew McFarlane, and sent them prisoners to Staunton, Virginia.† Conolly's high-handed proceedings called out a letter from Gov. John Penn to Lord Dunmore, in which he points attention to the performances of Conolly, and after complimenting his lordship by assuring him that he understands his character too well to admit the least idea that he "would countenance a measure injurious to the rights of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, or which might have a tendency to raise disturbances within the Province," he proceeds to describe the boundaries of Pennsylvania. "The western extent of the Province of Pennsylvania," he says, " by the royal grant is five degrees of longitude from the river Delaware, which is its eastern boundary." From the 233d milestone on the line run by Mason and Dixon, he continues, “a north line hath been since carefully run and measured to the Ohio, and from thence up to Fort Pitt," etc. From the various data, he says, "the most exact calculations have been made by Dr. Smith, provost of our college, Mr. Rittenhouse and our Surveyor-General, in order to ascertain the difference of longitude between Delaware and Pittsburg, who all agree that the latter is near six miles eastward of the western extent of the Province." He adds that if his lordship should still entertain any doubt respecting the matter, he hopes he will "defer the appointing of officers, and exercising government in that neighborhood, and suffer the people to remain in the quiet and undisturbed possession of the lands they hold under this Province," until some temporary line of jurisdiction can be agreed on, or until the "affair can be settled by His Majesty in Council." ± *Colonial Records of Penn., Vol. X, To this reasonable letter Dunmore made answer March 3, 1774, in which he contravenes the opinion of Gov. Penn with respect to the boundaries of Pennsylvania, and adds, " In conformity to these sentiments, you will easily see I cannot possibly, in compliance with your request, either revoke the commissions and appointments already made, or defer the appointment of such other officers as I may find necessary for the good government of that part of the country, which we cannot but consider to be within the Dominion of Virginia, until His Majesty shall declare the contrary." His lordship also resents the arrest and commitment of Conolly, and demands the dismission of St. Clair, "who had the audacity, without any authority, to commit a magistrate acting in the legal discharge of his trust;" unless, indeed, Mr. St. Clair can prevail by proper" submission," on Mr. Conolly, "to demand his pardon of me."* To this, ont he 31st of March, Gov. Penn replies in a long letter, in which he recapitulates the history of the claim, etc., from the beginning. He declines, however, to dismiss Mr. St. Clair from his office; and as it does not appear that the latter ever attempted to make any "submission" to Mr. Conolly, it is likely he died at last without the benefit of Gov. Dunmore's " pardon." On the 7th of May, James Tilghman and Andrew Allen were appointed commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania to settle the question in dispute, and on the 19th of the same month they reached Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia. At a conference with Gov. Dunmore, he requested them to present their proposition "in writing," which they did on the 23d. The substance of the paper which they submitted was, that a survey of the Delaware River should be made as soon as convenient, by surveyors appointed jointly by the two colonies, from the mouth of Christiana Creek, or near it, where Mason and Dixon's line intersected the Delaware, to a point on the river in the same latitude as Pittsburgh, "and as much farther as may be needful for the present purpose." That Mason and Dixon's line should be continued to the end of five degrees from the Delaware, and that from the end of that line a line or lines should be run corresponding in direction to the courses of the Delaware, and drawn at every point at the distance of five degrees of longitude from that river; and that Mason and Dixon's line thus protracted, with the said line or lines" similar to the courses of the Delaware," should be accepted by both parties as the line of jurisdiction between Virginia and Pennsylvania, until the boundaries of the latter province should be run and finally settled by "royal authority."+ This proposition would have made the western boundary of Pennsylvania of the same form as the eastern. *Col. Rec., Vol. X., p. 156. Col. Rec., Vol. X., p. 182. In reply to this, Dunmore, the next day, gave it as his view, that it could not possibly have been the intent of the Crown that the western boundary of Pennsylvania “should have the very inconvenient, and so difficult to be ascertained shape, as it would have, if it were to correspond with the course of the river Delaware." He then proceeds to describe the boundaries of Pennsylvania as he understands them; namely, on the north by a straight line from the Delaware on the 42d parallel westward five degrees; on the south by a straight line westward from the circle drawn at the distance of twelve miles from Newcastle to a meridian line which should pass through the western extremity of the northern boundary line; that meridian line being, as he says, "the limits of longitude mentioned in the royal grant, and no other, as it appears to me."* It is a fact worthy of remark that Gov. Penn's proposition gave to Virginia nearly all that she claimed, while Dunmore's gave to Pennsylvania far more than she demanded; the boundary lines as he defined them being almost if not quite identical with those at present established. Some further discussion of the subject passed between the commissioners and Gov. Dunmore, but no agreement could be reached. With respect to Fort Pitt, Dunmore absolutely refused to relinquish his authority over that place "without his Majesty's orders," and as the end of the controversy he regretted that he could do nothing "to contribute to re-establish the peace and harmony of both colonies," and to evince his good intentions as well towards the one as the other.t Meanwhile Conolly's conduct was outrageous. He not only oppressed the people along the border, but stirred up a war with the Indians,‡ who committed great barbarities. Gov. Penn did all he could to conciliate the Indians, but to little purpose. On the 28th of June he wrote to Lord Dunmore deprecating an Indian war, and begging that his lordship would join with him in endeavoring to "prevent the further progress of hostilities." He also complains bitterly of the "behavior of Doctor Conolly," who, among other acts of outrage and lawlessness, "seized upon the property of the people without reserve, and treats the persons of the magistrates with the utmost insolence and disrespect," and is about sending out "parties against the Indians, with orders to destroy all they meet with, whether friend or foe."§ The records of the time are full of accounts of the "great confusion and distress" of the inhabitants of Westmoreland. county. In June, John Montgomery writes from Carlisle that he had just returned from Westmoreland county, and that many families were returnCol. Rec., Vol. X., p. 190. *Col. Rec., Vol. X., Col. Rec., Vol. X., p. 193. ing to the eastern side of the mountains, while others were about "building forts in order to make a stand."* About the same time Æneas Mackay writes from Pittsburgh of "the deplorable state of affairs" in that region, and says, "We are robbed, insulted, and dragooned by Conolly and his militia in this place and its environs." Further, he says, "We don't know what day or hour we will be attacked by our savage and provoked enemy the Indians, who have already massacred sixteen persons to our certain knowledge."+ Against these evils the law could furnish no protection. In February, 1775, the magistrates addressed a statement to Gov. Penn, in which they say: "Our difficulties on account of the Conolly party are now grown to an extreme. Any person applying for justice to us, may be assured to be arrested by them. James Smith, Captain, was taken and bound over to the Virginia Court, for only applying to the laws of Pennsylvania for to have a banditti of villains punished for pulling down his house." It was in the course of the war incited by Dunmore and Conolly that the family of Logan, "the friend of the white man," were killed at Captina and Yellow Creek.§ * * * As the difficulties between the colonies and the mother country developed, Dunmore and his lieutenant in mischief took strong sides against the former. In April, 1775, Dunmore threatened to free the slaves, and turn them against their masters. This threat caused great horror and alarm throughout the South, but could not stay the progress of events, and he himself on the night of June 7th, 1775, was compelled to seek safety on board the "Fowey," an English man-of-war, at York, and "thus left the Ancient Dominion in the undisputed possession of its own inhabitants." | Conolly soon joined Dunmore in his place of refuge The further history of this worthy pair is not connected with our subject, and we cheerfully dismiss them from our page. In December, 1776, the legislature of Virginia proposed a line of demarcation a little different from either of those that had been already suggested. Their proposition was to extend the boundary of Virginia northward from the western extremity of the line run by Mason and Dixon to the 40th parallel of north latitude, then due west to the curved line proposed by Governor Penn. This was not accepted by the Pennsylvanians. In the meantime matters continued in the same unsettled state as before; -the inhabitants of Westmoreland county were still distracted by the controversy, and the common cause of the colonies against Great Britain was * Penna. Archives, Vol. IV., p. 505. Penna. Archives, Vol. IV., p. 517 Bancroft's Hist U. S., Vol. VII., p. 386. |