This pamphlet is assumed to have been written by Thomas Barton: 1730–1780. Barton graduated from Dublin College, 1751, and settled in Philadelphia, where he became a tutor in the academy; in 1754 was ordained a minister of the Anglican Church; in 1755 returned to America and for nearly twenty years was rector of the St. James Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. All lettered footnotes are by Barton; all numbered, by the editor.
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The Author of this Letter, hopes he will not be understood as approving of these People’s having taken up Arms. Such violent Steps can never possibly be productive of anything, but WILD UPROAR and CONFUSION. Whatever therefore can have a Tendency to promote this; or that offers the least Insult to the LAWS and GOVERNMENT of his Country, he will ever think it his Duty to bear his Testimony against, and to discountenance by every Means in his Power.
See Governor MORRIS’S Message of November 22, 1755.
See the Speeches and Messages between the Governor and Assembly, from the Year 1753, to the Year 1760.
Teedyuscung: 1700?-1763. Delaware chief. After Braddock’s defeat he assembled the Delawares and Shawnees in Wyoming Valley to fight the whites. He was pacified by treaties at Easton in 1756 and 1757.
This he declared at the last Treaty at Lancaster.
See the Quaker-Address to the Assembly, November 6, 1755.
This unchristian and ungenerous Speech was made by N---------L G--------В, a Quaker, Member of Assembly for Chester County, and some others.
Israel Pemberton and Joseph Fox. This refers to their work as leaders in The Friendly Association.
James Hamilton.
That you may be convinced that such was the Opinion of the Indians, I must observe to you, that one PATRICK AGNEW, of the Borough of Lancaster, White-Smith, having been duly sworn upon the HOLY EVANGELISTS, before the CHIEF BURGESS of that Town, hath deposed and said, That he, the said Deponent, being a Constable at the last Indian Treaty at Lancaster, was commanded by the Governor, to proclaim, that no Person should sell or give any Kind of spirituous Liquors to the Indians, on any Pretence whatever; that he proclaimed this Order thro’ the Town accordingly, and that upon his making Proclamation, and saying, by Order of the Governor, an Indian named TEDYUSGUNG, cry’d out ‘D—n your G--------r, D—n your G--------r; P-m-t-n is my Governor, P-m-t-n is our Governor, he allows RUM enough;’ and offer’d Violence to this Deponent; who also, upon his Oath, declares that, notwithstanding the Proclamation, the Indians were privately enter-tain’d at a certain Tavern in the Town. 6 Sir William Johnson.
Depraved condition of the body politic.
By this Expression, I am told, these People mean, that they will renew their Application and ADDRESSES, with DOUBLE the NUMBER of Signers; and it is said, they are likely to get TEN to ONE, that they had before, to remonstrate with them.
See the NARRATIVE, and a Letter from SQUIRE READ, the JERSEY DEMOSTHENES, &c.
Si vult decipi, decipiatur. If he wishes to be deceived, let him be deceived. (k) A Phrase made use of by a QUAKER TEACHER, to his Congregation in Philadelphia, in exhorting them to adhere to their PEACEFUL PRINCIPLES.
See the first Note upon this Letter.
It is confidently said, that the PAXTONIANS were not above twelve Minutes altogether in the Town, and not above two Minutes in dispatching the Indians.
See some Papers published by him in the German Language, and dispersed thro’ Berks County.
Notwithstanding the solemn Engagements and Articles of Agreement into which these Indians had entered with WILLIAM PENN, often broke thro’ them, even in his Time.-In Governor KEITH’S Time, about the Year 1719, these Indians were accused by one JOHN GARTLIDGE, of many Misdemeanors, and among the rest of having furnished our Enemies with Ammunition, which obliged Mr. KEITH to write to them, and threaten them, if they did not behave better. These are Facts well known to many now living.
It is well known to some of the Officers now in Philadelphia, that many of those Indians were engag’d against Colonel Bouquet and his brave Men.-The Murderer of Stinton, has been visited and comforted; a warm Bed and Stove have been set up for him, while many of our Fellow-Christians, less criminal than him, have been neglected; and left to struggle with their Misery and Chains, in the Dungeon.-----That the Moravian Indians have been Traytors to us, is prov’d by the Deposition of one Thomas Moore, who being sworn on the Holy Evangelists, before the chief Burgess of Lancaster, has declar’d, that during his four Years Captivity with the Indians, they had frequent Intelligence and Advice of the Motions of the English, from the Bethlehem Indians, who came constantly among them, and kept up a Correspondance with them.
These are no aggravated Scenes, in order to raise the Gommisseration of the Reader; they are shocking Matters of Fact: It was done in the GREAT GOVE.
This was near Shippensburg.
In Sheerman’s Valley; all in Cumberland County.
James Smith, Son of Robert Smith, late of Chester County, who was a Captive four Years and an half among the Indians, reports, that he at sundry Times saw the Remains of mangled Bodies in the Woods, that were burnt by the Indians; and that the Captives told him they were Witnesses to these horrid Cruelties exercised towards their Fellow Captives, sometimes only for attempting to escape; and that this was done even by the Tawawaas, the gentlest of the Savages.
This was the dismal Fate of Gnadenhutten, a Moravian Village, in Northampton.
Quis taliafando temperet a lacrimis? Who in telling such things would keep himself from tears? See Virgil, Aeneid, 2. 6–8. Quis taliafando Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulixi temperet a lacrimis?
Ollis saluspopuli suprema lex esto. Cicero, de legibus, 3. 8. For them (the magistrates of the ideal state) let the safety of the people be the supreme law.
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© 1957 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Dunbar, J.R. (1957). The Conduct of the Paxton-Men, Impartially represented: with some Remarks on the Narrative. In: Dunbar, J.R. (eds) The Paxton Papers. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1005-9_23
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