The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 6, Letters & Writings 1772 – 1775 – Benjamin Franklin, John Bigelow
It is easy to be persuaded that Mr. John Bigelow’s edition of ‘The Works of Benjamin Franklin’ is likely to be the most complete, the most scholarly and acccurate, the ‘Federal’ edition. Mr. Bigelow was confessedly the foremost authority on Franklin. Beside the material now in print, carefully collated for the present purpose, so far as possible, with the original manuscripts, he has had free use of the supplementary Franklin MSS. purchased by the State Department in 1881, and not published before his work, and the autobiography has been printed for the first time in any collected edition of Franklin’s Works, from the original manuscript, which was in Mr. BigeIow’s possession. Mr. Bigelow promises upwards of 350 letters and documents which have never appeared in any previous collection, beside a thorough revision of the text throughout, and a new, chronological, arrangement of matter. The notes and other editorial additions are limited strictly to the illustration of the text. This is volume six out of twelve, covering letters and writings from the years 1772 through 1775.
The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 6, Letters & Writings 1772 – 1775.
Format: eBook.
The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 6, Letters & Writings 1772 – 1775.
ISBN: 9783849654030.
Excerpt from the text:
CCCCLXX: SETTLEMENT ON THE OHIO RIVER
DR. FRANKLIN’S ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING REPORT (Continued.)
From the foregoing detail of facts it is obvious—
1. That the country southward of the Great Kenhawa, at least as far as the Cherokee River, originally belonged to the Shawanese.
2. That the Six Nations, in virtue of their conquest of the Shawanese, became the lawful proprietors of that country.
3. That the king, in consequence of the grant from the Six Nations, made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix in 1768, is now vested with the undoubted right and property thereof.
4. That the Cherokees never resided nor hunted in that country, and have not any kind of right to it.
5. That the House of Burgesses of the colony of Virginia have, upon good grounds, asserted (such as properly arise from the nature of their stations and proximity to the Cherokee country) that the Cherokees had not any just pretensions to the territory southward of the Great Kenhawa.
And, lastly, that neither the Six Nations, the Shawanese, nor Delawares do now reside or hunt in that country.
From these considerations it is evident no possible injury can arise to his Majesty’s service, to the Six Nations and their confederacy, or to the Cherokees, by permitting us to settle the whole of the lands comprehended within our contract with the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. If, however, there has been any treaty held with the Six Nations, since the cession made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix, whereby the faith of the crown is pledged both to the Six Nations and the Cherokees, that no settlements should be made beyond the line marked on their Lordships’ report; we say, if such an agreement has been made by the orders of government with these tribes (notwithstanding, as the Lords Commissioners have acknowledged, “the Six Nations had ceded the property in the lands to his Majesty”), we flatter ourselves that the objection of their Lordships in the second paragraph of their report will be entirely obviated, by a specific clause being inserted in the king’s grant to us, expressly prohibiting us from settling any part of the same, until such time as we shall have first obtained his Majesty’s allowance, and full consent of the Cherokees, and the Six Nations and their confederates for that purpose.
III. In regard to the third paragraph of their Lordships’ report, that it was the principle of the Board of Trade, after the treaty of Paris, “to confine the western extent of settlements to such a distance from the sea-coast, as that these settlements should lie within the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom,” etc., we shall not presume to controvert it; but it may be observed that the settlement of the country over the Alleghany Mountains, and on the Ohio, was not understood, either before the treaty of Paris, nor intended to be so considered by his Majesty’s proclamation of October, 1763, “as without the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom,” etc.; for, in the year 1748, Mr. John Hanbury, and a number of other gentlemen, petitioned the king for a grant of five hundred thousand acres of land over the Alleghany Mountains, and on the river Ohio and its branches; and the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations were then pleased to report to the Lords committee of his Majesty’s most honorable Privy Council, “That the settlement of the country lying to the westward of the great mountains, as it was the centre of the British dominions, would be for his Majesty’s interest and the advantage and security of Virginia and the neighboring colonies.”
And on the 23d of February, 1748-9, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations again reported to the Lords of the committee of the Privy Council, that they had “fully set forth the great utility and advantage of extending our settlements beyond the great mountains (‘which report has been approved of by your Lordships’); and as, by these new proposals, there is a great probability of having a much larger tract of the said country settled than under the former, we are of opinion that it will be greatly for his Majesty’s service, and the welfare and security of Virginia, to comply with the prayer of the petition.”
And on the 16th of March, 1748-9, an instruction was sent to the governor of Virginia to grant five hundred thousand acres of land over the Alleghany Mountains to the aforesaid Mr. Hanbury and his partners (who are now part of the company of Mr. Walpole and his associates); and that instruction sets forth that “such settlements will be for our interest, and the advantage and security of our said colony, as well as the advantage of the neighboring ones; inasmuch as our loving subjects will be thereby enabled to cultivate a friendship, and carry on a more extensive commerce, with the nations of Indians inhabiting those parts; and such examples may likewise induce the neighboring colonies to turn their thoughts towards designs of the same nature.” Hence, we apprehend, it is evident that a former Board of Trade, at which the late Lord Halifax presided, was of opinion that settlements over the Alleghany Mountains were not against the king’s interest, nor at such a distance from the sea-coast, as to be without “the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom,” nor where its authority or jurisdiction could not be exercised. But the report under consideration suggests that two capital objects of the proclamation of 1763 were, to confine future settlements to the “sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest” (or, in other words, to the eastern side of the Alleghany Mountains), and to the three new governments of Canada, East Florida, and West Florida; and to establish this fact, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations recite a part of that proclamation.
But if the whole of this proclamation is considered, it will be found to contain the nine following heads, viz.: Ref. 002
1. To declare to his Majesty’s subjects that he had erected four distinct and separate governments in America, viz., Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada.
2. To ascertain the respective boundaries of these four new governments.
3. To testify the royal sense and approbation of the conduct and bravery, both of the officers and soldiers of the king’s army, and of the reduced officers of the navy, who had served in North America, and to reward them by grants of land in Quebec, and in East and West Florida, without fee or reward.
4. To hinder the governors of Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida from granting warrants of survey, or passing patents for lands beyond the bounds of their respective governments.
5. To forbid the governors of any other colonies or plantations in America from granting warrants or passing patents for lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest, or upon any lands whatever “which, not having been ceded to or purchased by the king, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them.”
6. To reserve, “for the present,” under the king’s sovereignty, protection, and dominion, “for the use of the said Indians,” all the lands not included within the limits of the said three new governments, or within the limits of the Hudson’s Bay Company; as also all the lands lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest, and forbidding the king’s subjects from making any purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of the lands so reserved, without his Majesty’s leave and license first obtained.
7. To require all persons who had made settlements on land not purchased by the king from the Indians, to remove from such settlements.
8. To regulate the future purchases of lands from the Indians, within such parts as his Majesty, by that proclamation, permitted settlements to be made upon.
9. To declare that the trade with the Indians should be free and open to all his Majesty’s subjects, and to prescribe the manner how it shall be carried on.
And, lastly, to require all military officers, and the superintendent of Indian affairs, to seize and appre hend all persons who stood charged with treasons, murders, etc., and who had fled from justice and taken refuge in the reserved lands of the Indians, to send such persons to the colony where they stood accused.
From this proclamation, therefore, it is obvious that the sole design of it, independent of the establishment of the three new governments, ascertaining their respective boundaries, rewarding the officers and soldiers, regulating the Indian trade, and apprehending felons, was to convince the Indians “of his Majesty’s justice and determined resolution to remove all reasonable cause of discontent,” by interdicting all settlements on land not ceded to, or purchased by, his Majesty; and declaring it to be, as we have already mentioned, his royal will and pleasure, “for the present, to reserve, under his sovereignty, protection and dominion, for the use of the Indians, all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest.” Can any words express more decisively the royal intention? Do they not explicitly mention that the territory is, at present, reserved, under his Majesty’s protection, for the use of the Indians? And as the Indians had no use for those lands which are bounded westerly by the southeast side of the river Ohio, either for residence or hunting, they were willing to sell them; and accordingly did sell them to the king in November, 1768, the occasion of which sale will be fully explained in our observations on the succeeding paragraphs of the report. Of course, the proclamation, so far as it regarded the settlement of the lands included within that purchase, has absolutely and undoubtedly ceased. The late Mr. Grenville, who was, at the time of issuing this proclamation, the minister of this kingdom, always admitted that the design of it was totally accomplished, so soon as the country was purchased from the natives.
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