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(•283) d k €^t #\pnr!) limtrol! IN PENiNSYLVANIA. le In the notes to the edition of Mr. Longfellow's poem of Evangeline, published in London in 1853, I find the fol- lowing statement. Speaking of the Acadian exiles, the annotator says : "One thousand arrived in Massachusetts Bay, and be- came a public expense, owing, in a great degree, to an unchangeable antipathy to their situation, which prompted them to reject the usual beneficiary but humiliating esta- blishment of paupers for their children. They landed in a most deplorable condition at Philadelphia. The govern- ment of the colony, to relieve itself of the charge such a company of miserable wretches would require to maintain them, proposed to sell them with their own consent; but when this expedient for their support was offered for their consideration, the neutrals refused it with indignation, alleging that they were prisoners, and expected to be maintained as such, and not forced to labour." (285) 286 THE FKENCII NEUTRALS No Pennsylvanian can K-ad this remarkable statement of what is assumed to be an historical fact, without a bhish deeper than any other imputed misdeed excites, and as certainly will Pennsylvanians feel some solicitude to know if it be true or not. To show that it is utterly without foundation, is the object of this little essay j in which only incidentally do I mean to speak of that fami- ,liar tale of sorrow — the exile of the Acadian Neutrals in 1755. On reading the note which I have quoted, my first desire was to know how far Mr. Longfellow was responsible for it; and a Cambridge friend, of whom I made the in- quiry, assured me that the poet disavowed all knowledge of it, the notes having first appeared in England. This was exactly what I expected; for among the tenderest and most beautiful passages in Evangeline (and to its exquisite beauty let me here bear my testimony) are those Avhich describe the end of her pilgrimage, her lover's death within the sound of Christ Church bells, and the tomb of them both in the little Philadelphia churchyard. There is no trace in the poem of Pennsylvania's cruelty or her proffered sale to slavery. I had to look elsewhere for the origin of the aspersion. In Judge Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia,' I at last found it in the very words used by the English annotator, and here — for no authority or document is cited — the responsibility must rest. The best mode of refuting the accusation thus made against colonial Pennsylvania, is to tell, in a simple and perfectly authentic form, Avhat did occur here, and in ' Haliburton's Nova Scotia, i. 183. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 287 doing so to revive the incinory — for every day, till Evan- geline appeared, the tradition was becoming feebler — of as sad an episode as the modern world's great history affords. I know nothing more deeply pathetic; and we may wonder, with a sentiment kindred to religious awe, at the retribu- tion on this deed of wrong, when, at the end of a century, we find Poetry stooping to pick up from oblivion the ob- scure tradition of the Acadian exiles, and writing it in characters of living light, to last forever. Let any one look through accredited histories of the day, or even contemporary correspondence more recently published, and he will find no allusion to this Exodus of the Acadians. I have curiously examined, but in vain. Neither Lord Chesterfield, nor George Grenville, nor Horace Walpole, who says a good deal about American aflairs in his light way, nor any letter-writer of the day, alludes to what was doing in the obscure corner of Nova Scotia. It was too humble a tragedy for the courtly gossipers of English society to trouble themselves about; and, so far as my studies go, there is no trace of it. The most that I find are a few allusions in the Gentleman's Magazine of 175G and 1757. It occurred, let me note in passing, in a dismal and diminutive period of British story ; and it is matter of pride to those who reverence (and what American student does not ?) the grand, heroic character of the elder Pitt, that no part of this stain rests on his administration. It was llir more characteristic of Newcastle and Bubb Doddington. For my purposes I assume the reader to be familiar with the story of the French Neutrals down to the time 288 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS when tlicy loft Acadia, and I therefore turn to Pennsyl- vania's welcome of them, whatever it was, merely pre- mising that the number of exiles who left Nova Scotia early in September, 1755, was one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three — four hundred and eighty-three men, three hundred and thirty-seven women, and one thousand and fifty-three children. Of this number, one account says eight hundred came to Philadelphia; though my im- pression is, as I have said, that it was much less. It was certainly an unpropitious time for French Roman Catholics to come to these Puritan or Protestant colonies. It was the day of natural as well as of unreasonable excitements. It was the time when an Indian and a Frenchman were looked on with equal horror. It was the day when the actual association did exist, and when within three hundred miles of Philadelphia and two from New York, French and Indians were advancing in victo- rious array. General Braddock w'as defeated in July, 1755, and every English settlement on the seaboard trembled for its existence. The Endish lanffuaue and the Reformed Religion, for a time, seemed to be in danger all over the world, in America and in India. This was the actual state of things, and yet it may well be doubted whether even the hostile Frenchmen of those days liad not worse designs attributed to them than they deserved. "• May God," writes a gentleman in Philadelphia, after the panic had subsided, "be pleased to give us success against uU our copper-coloured cannibals and French savages, equally cruel and perfidious in their natures."' V ' 4 ' Shippen Papers, 93. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 289 'A' Yet wlion, in 175G, Washington, then a provincial colonel, defeated a party of French and Indians and ob- tained possesi^ion of the French counnander's instructions, they were found to contain these explicit words : " Le Sieur Donville cmployera tous ses Talents et tout son credit li eiiipecher les Sauvages d'usor d'aucun Cruaute, sur ceux qui tomberont entre leurs mains. L'llonneur et rtlumanito doivent en cela nous servir de guide;"' and again, later, in 1757, in the instructions found in the pocket of a French cadet, killed near Fort Cumberland : "Suppose qu'il fassc de Prisonniers il empechera que les Sauvages de son Detachment n'exercent a leur Egard Aucune Cruaute Fait." One pauses pleasantly over these disinterred memorials of kind and merciful feeling so little looked for, softening the hideous front of savage warfare ; but it must be recollected our terrified and excited ances- tors knew nothing of them. Wliat they knew, and were made to know, of Frenchmen and French Papists, is very clear from the exaggerated public documents and messages of the Colonial governors, who found no language strong enough wherewith to stir the sluggish liberality of the Assemblies, who raised money grudgingly, even when most friglitened ; or from pulpit oratory, never more acrimonious than then; or from such rumours as this, which I cut from a Phila- delphia paper of September, 1755, a short time before the Roman Catholic exiles arrived, under date of Halifax. " A few days since three Frenchmen were taken up and imprisoned on suspicion of having poisoned some wells in this neighbourhood. They are not tried yet, and it's 19 ' Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 600. 290 TUE FRENCH NEUTRALS imagined if they arc convicted thereof, they will have but a few hours to hve after they are once condemned." And the first rumour of the intention forcibly to remove the Acadians from their country, was accompanied with the statement that, from among them, '-three Priests or Jesuits had been taken and sent to IlaliHix, and put on board the Admiral's ship for security." ' Admiral Boscawen's great armament of ships-of-the-line and frigates, was employed in awing unarmed peasants and capturing fugitive Jesuits ! It was to an atmosphere of public feeling thus excited, that the poor exiles came. Let us see how they were heralded, how they arrived, how they were treated here in Philadelphia. The first intimation, in a popular form, of the intention to drive the Acadians from their homes, is in a letter from Halifax, dated August 9th, and printed in the Pennsylva- nia Gazette of the 4th of September, 1705, the day before the memorable 5th of September, Col. Winslow's " day of great fatigue and trouble," when the meeting was held in the church at Grand Pre, and the doom was told.' It is as follows, and is very characteristic : '• We are now upon a great and noble scheme of sending the neuti-al French out of the Province, who have always been secret enemies, and have encouraged our savages to cut our throats. If we can effect their expulsion, it will be one of the greatest things that ever did the English in America ; for, by all accounts, that part of the country they possess is as good land as any in the world : in case, some good English fiirmers in their therefori gel f I Pennsylvania Gazette, Sept. 4, 1755. ' Ilalibuiton, i. 335, 338. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 291 room, this Province v.ould abound in all sorts of provi- sions." Between this date and the arrival of the exiles, I find no precise reference to the subject, though but little inter- mission of the inflammatory appeals to national and sec- tarian antipathies. It may be that the public mind was not a little excited by what seemed to be supernatural warning — an earthquake, which, in the early part of No- vember, 1755, went round the world, devastating European cities, and at least startling those in America. The shock of an earthquake, the advent of a ship-load of Koman Catholics, and the news, utterly groundless as it must have been, which I find in the newspapers of the \ery day the exiles came, that the Indians and French had attacked Liincaster, prepared for them a sorry welcome. On the 19th and 20th of November, 1755, three sloops, the Hannah, the Three Friends, and the Swan, arrived in the Delaware, with the Neutrals on board. Tliey had cleared from Ilalifiix. One of them, say the newspapers of the day, came up to town, but was immediately ordered down again. IIow the authorities at first received them can only be gathered from the Executive records ; nothing of tiie action of the Assembly having survived, or being accessible, but its meagre journal. The Governor was Robert Hunter Morris, of whom it may at least be said, that he had had his full share of those deplorable squabbles with the popular representatives, which William Penn left as a continuing legacy to his family and successors. Go- vernor Morris's administration had had also to encounter the trial of actual war close at hand. The arrival of the 202 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS Neutrals seems to have thrown him into a state of terrible alarm ; and on the day the first cargo of them arrived, he thus wrote to Governor Shirley, having previously laid the matter before the Council : <• I wrote your Excellency a few days ago by Mr. Benzill, who, 1 hope, will find you safe at New York, since which two vessels are arrived here with upward of three hundred neutral French from Nova Scotia, who Governor Law- rence has sent to remain in this Province, and 1 am at a very great loss to know what to do with them. The people here, as there is no military force of any kind, arc very uneasy at the thought of having a number of enemy's scattered in the very bowels of the country, who mny go off from time to time with intelligence, and joyn their countrymen now employed against us, or foment some intestine commotion in conjunction with the Irish and German Catholics, in this and the neighbouring province. I, therefore, must beg your particular instructions in what manner I may best dispose of these people, as I am desiious of doing any thing that may contribute to his majesty's service. I have, in the mean time, put a guard out of the recruiting partys now in town, on board of each vessel, and ordered these neutrals to be supplied with provisions, which must be at the expense of the crown, as I have no Pro- vincial money in my hands ; for this service I have pre- vailed on Capt. Morris, who is recruiting here lor Col. Dunbar's Regiment, to postpone the sending off his recruits till I could here from you upon the head, which I hope to do by the return of the post." ' ' Pa. Arch. ii. 500; Colonial Rt'curJs vi. 71'J. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 293 We have not Shirley's answer, but there is some corre- spondence accidentally extant which shows that Governor Morris found at least one response to his anxieties and alarms at the sudden incursions of the poor exiles. The Chief Magistrate of the neighbouring province of New Jei-sey was Jonathan Belcher, the father of him who, as Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, according to Mr. Bancroft, had by his stern opinion that they were "rebels," and " recusants," fixed the doom of the Acadians. Father and son seem to have had harsh sympathies. On the 22d of November, Morris writes to Belcher very much to the same effect as he had written to Shirley, and the day but one after (25th) Belcher replies : '• I am truly surprised how it could ever enter the thoughts of those who had the ordering of the French Neutrals, or rather Traitors and Rebels to the crown of Great Britain, to direct any of them into these Provinces, where we have already too great a number of foreigners for our own good and safety. I think they should have been transported directly to old France, and I entirely coincide with your honor that these people would readily join with the Irish Papists, &c., to the ruin and destruction of the King's Colonies, and should any attempt to land here, I should think, in duty to the King and to his good people under my care, to do all in my power to crush an attempt." ' It is well none of the exiles wandered as far as Eliza- bethtown. They would have been effectually "crushed out" there. ' Pa. Arch. ii. 513. <> -i 294 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS On the 24tli November, Gov. Morris made the arrival of the Neutrals the subject of a special message to the Assembly, informing them he did not think it safe to per- mit them to land; that he had ordered guards to be placed on the vessels below the town, and that in consequence of an alarm of sickness amongst the crowded suflerers, some of them had been landed at Province Island. It is pleasant now to turn from this record of Proprietary harshness — this intolerant sympathy of Deputy Execu- tives, to the action of the representatives of the people and of the people themselves ; and here my defence of Penn- sylvania properly begins. Tiie student of our colonial history need not be reminded of the dismal continuity of disputes between the Assembly and the Governors on the questions of taxation and supplies. It is hard to deduce any political principle from our records, unless it be new conlirmation of the truth that all absenteeism, and all imitation of feudalism, with its manors, and its quit-rents, and its privileged estates, are especially uncongenial to our Pennsylvania habits of thought and action. It is scarcely worth wliile now to inquire who were right and who were wrong, for it is all swept away as part of the rubbish of our story. The poor Deputy Governors, agents of the Proprietaries, had a hard time. Exactions from the metropolitan authorities — actual inva- sion and danger on tiie one hand, and on the other, annoy- ing resistance, and cavilling, and nuu-murs on the part of those who alone could raise revenue to meet their demands and requisitions. The Neutrals arrived, however, at a propitious moment. There happened to be a lull in the t IN PENNSYLVANIA. 295 \ storm of controversy. On the very day that Governor Morris sent to the Assembly his message about the Neutrals, he communicated the soothing news that the Proprietaries, on hearing of General Braddock's defeat, had sent an order on the Receiver General for £5000, to be applied for the common safety. The Assembly was for the time pacified. They voted a new Bill of Supplies, and resolved at the same moment to make provision for the sustenance and protection of the Neutrals.* I am proud to say that, in their relations to those unfor- tunate fugitives, I find on the records of the popular repre- sentative body no trace of the malignant animosity and sectarian antipathy which actuated the Executive. Pain- fully impracticable as Penn's principles had shown them- selves when applied to periods of war and invasion, and danger from the strong and armed hand without, yet when the homeless fugitive and stranger came and asked a place of refuge, the beautiful feature of the Quaker character, charity, in its highest sense, and charity, too, which knows no diflerence of creed, seemed more beautiful than ever. The great principle of liberty of conscience and toleration was put in practice towards these exiled " Papists," and it certainly is very hard, with this unquestioned record before us, that the Friends of Pennsylvania should be now-a-days charged with mercenary inhumanity. But our meagre records show there was another influence in favor of the exile. There were hereditary national sympathies at work aside from all matters of technical reli'^-ion, which gave the French exiles in Philadelphia a ' Votes, 519, 523. -1 296 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS welcome that they had no right to expect. Papists or not, they were French men, and women, and children — and t lere were in Quaker garb, living in Philadelphia, men of French descent, who, though Huguenots, and sprung from that glorious race of men, the European Protestants of the sixteenth century, still felt kindly to those who were Frenchmen like themselves. The Benezets, and Lefevres, and De Normandies, of Philadelphia, came from the same soil years ago, as did the Landrys, and Galerms, and Le Blancs, and Melangons, and Thibodeaus, and accordingly I find that while the Assembly paused in no unreasonable delay of counsel, this minute is made. "Antony Benezet, attending without, was called in, and informed the House that he had, at the request of some of the members, visited the French Neutrals now on board sundry vessels in the river, near the city, and found that they were in great want of blankets, shirts, stockings, and other necessaries ; and he then withdrew, (whereupon) Resolved, That this House will allow such reasonable expenses as the said Benezet may be put to in furnishing the Neutral French now in the Province." ' Antony Benezet, the Huguenot Quaker, was the first almoner to these poor fugitives, and it '^as with no reluctant gratitude that one of their number, in the first memorial to the Assembly, said : — " Blessed be God that it was our lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, where our wants have been relieved, and we have, in every respect, been treated with Christian benevolence and charity." ^ Nothing, however, beyond the general trust in Mr. ' Votes, 524. Ibid, 538. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 297 1 i Benezet and the other citizens connected with him, was done ; for early in December, the Assembly adjourned till March, 1756. Before they reassembled, it appears from the public accounts that at least £1000 currency had been expended for the relief of the Neutrals.' The Assembly was convoked specially by the Governor early in February, and on the 11th, their attention was called to the Neutrals by a petition from one of their number, Jean Baptiste Galerm, Jind a list of the names of the individuals and the families of the exiles given. The petition is preserved in a translated form, but the list is unfortunately lost. The petition contains a brief and temperate statement of the causes which led to the exile of the Acadians, a strong expression of gratitude for the kindness with which they had been received, and a protestation of their passive loyalty (and more than this no one had a right to expect) to the British crown. It contains no prayer for specific assistance. A bill for the relief, or, as it is rather ambiguously expressed in its title, for " dispersing" tlie inhabitants of Nova Scotia into the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, and Lancaster, was immediately introduced, and on the 5th of March, 1750, became a law by the Executive approval.^ This law is now before me, and I can see nothing in it but considerate kindness. The exiles were to be divided, not dispersed, among the counties designated, in order " to give mem an opportunity of exercising their own labour ' See also Morris' Letter, 1st Feby., 1750, to Gov. Dinwiddle, Pa. Arch. 562. ' Votes, 537, 545. 298 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS and industry, and they were to be supported at the public expense, and among the commissioners named to carry it into execution were not only those who, as Friends, had been active in this and every scheme of benevolence, but those whose French descent and sympathies may be inferred from their names. Antony Benezet was not one, but there were Jacob Duche, and Thomas Say, and Abraham do Normandie, and Samuel Lefevre. There is nothing like a disruption of families hinted at. It was to continue in force twelve months, and no longer. Wimt exactly was done, or attempted under this act, there is no means of knowing. Down to July of this year, when Governor Denny arrived, upwards of £1200 had been spent in their support, and this too, although there were difficulties created by the exiles themselves, who, though willing to be supported as objects of charity, evi- dently thought — for 'his is tlie fair construction of tlieir recorded conduct — that by refusing to work, they would force a recognition of their rights as prisoners of war, and as such be entitled to be exchanged or sent back to France. One cannot blame them for this sort of contumacy, and yet it made the duty of kindness and protection not an easy one. Governor Morris, who seems to have been an especial victim of the Gallophobia of his time, took his farewell of his function by letters to Lord Loudoun, the new Governor-General, and to Sir Charles Hardy, filled with alarms as to French spies and Papal inlluence. If any one now-a-days, afllicted with a fear of Romanistic or Foreign influences, will look back to the terrors of a century ago, he may, if capable of any rational process, learn a IN PENNSYLVANIA, 299 salutary lesson. " By means," writes Governor Morris, on 5th July, 175G, "of the Roman Catholicks who are allowed in this and the neighbouring Province of Maryland, the free exercise of their Religion, and therein the other privileges of English Freemen, the French may be made acquainted with the steps taken against them ; nor do I see how it is possible to detect them, as from the head of Chesapeak Bay the roads thro' this Province to Potomic are open and much travelled, especially by Germans, who have a large settlement at Frederick town in Maryland, a frontier place near Kittochtinny Hills ; none are examined who pass that way." To which Sir Charles, the Governor of New York, promptly replies : " I am inclined to think the Treasonable correspondence must have been carried on by some Roman Catliolieks, and I have heard you have an Ingenious Jesuit in Philadelphia." ' Let me here pause and ask which, now-a-days, seems most preposterous — Frederick town, in Maryland, being a frontier town, or an American Governor being afraid of a Jesuit! And yet both were so, one hundred years ago. On the 27th of August, and on the 2d of September, the Neutrals addret^sed, in person, earnest and pathetic memorials both to the Assembly and the Executi\e Coun- cil. A candid examination of those papers, written with great elocpience and precision, satisfies me that they were meant not merely to tell their tale of actual sorrow, but to use, as I have already hinted, their suflerings as an argument for restoration to liberty, or their return to Europe. The two ideas are alwa}s closely interwoven. ' Pa. Arch. ii. 0S>0, 094. 300 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS "We humbly pray," they say to the Assembly, "that you would extend your goodness so far as to give us leave to depart from hence, or be pleased to send us to our nation, or anywhere to join our country-people ; but if you can- not grant us these favours, we desire that provision may be made for our subsistence so long as we are detained here. If this, our humble request, should he refused, and our wives and children be suffered to perish before our eves, how jrrievous will this be ! — had we not better have died in our native land ?" They admit they have refused cows, and gardens, and modes of industry, because, say they, "we will never consent to settle here." To the Governor they spoke the same language of supplication and remonstrance; though one may almost suspect satire in their aflectionate loyalty, when they beg to be suffered to join their own nation "in the same manner which it has pleased his Majesty, King George {ivJiom mai/ God p-cserve!), to cause us to be transported here contrary to our will." ' The remonstrance, be its object what it may have been, had no effect ; for, while the Assembly paused, the Governor sternly repelled the supplicants, with the decision that they could not and should not be treated as prisoners of Avar, and hinted to the Assembly that it was expedient that the Neutrals should be more generally dis- persed.* On the meeting of the Assembly in October, 175G, there is a sad revelation on its records of the sufferings of these poor people — made, too, not by them, but by one of the kindest of the voluntary almsgivers. It is the petition of ' Col. Rec. vii. 239. « Ibid. vii. 241. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 301 William Griffitts, one of the Commissioners. Disease and death had been busy among the exiles. Many had died of the small-pox, and, but for the care that had been be- stowed on them, many more would have perished miser- ably. The overseers of the rural townships refused to receive them. The prejudice against the foreigners pre- vented the employment of those who were willing to work; "and many of them," says this paper, "have had neither meat nor bread for many weei^s together, and been necessitated to pilfer and steal for the support of life.'" The simple Acadian farmers, who, in their once happy and secluded homes, a short year ago, « Dwelt in the love of God and of man," had become, or were becoming, mendicant pilferers in the streets of Philadelphia! It is piteous to think of the contrast. This appeal again moved the Assembly, and in as short a time as the dilatory forms of legislation of the times permitted, a new bill was enacted, entitled an Act for binding out and settling such of the Inhabitants of Nova Scotia as are under age, and for maintaining the aged, sick, and maimed at the charge of the Province." It was of this measure— the compulsory binding out, to learn trades, of the children of those who could not support them — that the exiles most loudly complained ; and the most elaborate remonstrance that is to be found on our records, was induced by it. It is a document of impassioned, and, to my mind, rather a rtificial jrhetorjc, ~^Votes,6l5: nbid. 677, G85. 302 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS of which, as before, the key-note was a prayer for deliver- ance ; but, let it be observed, no one word, from first to last, of complaint of personal or harsh treatment. " From this Province," they say, "we have experienced nothing but good ; for wiiich ourselves, our wives, and our child- ren, shall not cease to supplicate the Almighty that He will heap upon you all blessings, spiritual and temporal."' . Hard as is the lot of the poor and incapable parent to be deprived temporarily of his children — especially hard is it where there are difForences of language and religion — it is idle to deny the right and the duty of the Legis- lature, when the necessity arises, to make such compulsory provision. I confess I am unable to see what less or what else the Assembly could have done ; and so, in their per- plexity, they seemed to think ; for, after a vain attempt to confer further with the Governor and his Council, and to ascertain what they thought best to be done, the whole subject was dropped. The Act of January, 1757, with a short supplement remedying some matter of detail, was the last legislative act, with the exception of constant and liberal appropriations of money, amounting, in six years, from November, 1755, to 17G1, to the not inconsiderable sum of upwards of £7000 ; to which neither the Crown nor the Proprietaries, as f\ir as I can discover, contributed a farthing — the first having its hands full with a Euro- pean war and schemes of conquest, and the latter watch- ing their estates and devising schemes, to use Thomas Penn's phrase in a letter to Mr. Hamilton, of "getting the better of the Assemblies."^ TT ! ' Votes, 685. Hamilton ]MSS : Letter, 25 February, 1755. IN rENNSYLVAXIA. oUo f On or about the 7th of March, Pennsylvania and its capital were honored by the presence of the new com- mander-in-chief, a Peer of the Realm, John, Earl )f Loudoun. His was the first coronet that had ever sh jnc on this distant and simple land. There was feasting and rejoicing when he came, and around him no doubt clus- tered the loyal worshippers of rank and authority; but all the while, so say the legislative records, the poor Neutrals were pining away in misery — not the less intense because, in some measure, self-inflicted. On the 3d of March, 17o7, the authorities were instructed by the Assembly to act for their relief, " so as to prevent them (these are the words of the resolution) from perishing from want."' Lord Loudoun remained but a few days in Philadelphia, but quite long enough to inflict, by the exercise of his high powers, a new pang and a new indignity on the poor Neutrals. He, or rather Secretary Peters for him, found it necessary to ascertain the exact number of Roman Catholics in the Province, so that this terrible danger might be guarded against ; and in the Colonial Records I find the following modest letter from the priest, which one would think might Lave lulled to rest the anti-papal elements of the time : " Honored Sir : — I send you the number of Roman Catholics in this town, and of tliosc whom I visit in the country. Mr. Sneider is not in town to give an account of the Germans, but I have heard him often say, that the whole number of Roman Catholics, English, Irish, and ' Votes, 700, 715. 304 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS Germans, inclutling men, women, and children, does not exceed two tliousand. " I remain, Robert Hardy." The poor remnant of French Neutrals did not seem worth counting! The Karl of Loudoun was a fit representative of the ministry of that day; for he was utterly incapable, and perversely tyrannical. He was considered "a man of judgment and ability" by the Duke of Newcastle.' He was superseded promptly and contemptuously by Mr. Pitt, on his accession to office a few months later, who sent to America manly men to do his work of beneficent energy. It was Lord Loudoun of whom Dr. Franklin has preserved the traditionary jest, that he was like St. George on the signs, always on horseback and never advancing. He distrusted and disregarded Washington. He fretted Franklin. He was just the man for a little persecution of these poor exiled Neutrals. He was in riiiladelphia, as I have said, but a few days ; but long enough for his work of small despotism. Li the Colonial Records of 1757,' is a Sheriff's warrant, issued by the Governor, at the request of Lord Loudoun, directing the apprehension of Charles Le Blanc and Jean Baptiste Galernie, now in Philadelphia city; Philip Me- langon, at Fran k ford ; Paul Bujauld, at Chester; and Jean Landy, at Darby, as suspicious and evil-minded persons, who have uttcivd menacing speeches against his Majesty and his liege subjects. They are to be arrested and com- mitted to jail. ' Chatham Correspondence, i. 237. * Col. llec. vii. 4-16. IN PENXSYLVANIA. 305 To this warrant the Sheriff made no return that has been preserved; but the following curious and characteristic letter from Lord Loudoun, for which I am indebted, within the last few days, to Mr. Bancroft, and which has never before been made public, explains the act of wrong. There is in it something much more like a delivery of these poor people to slavery than anything that Pennsyl- vania annals afford. The indignity of petitioning in French sounds strangely to us of a century later. The letter, however, speaks for itself: [earl of LOUDOUN TO WILLIAM PITT.] Extract. "25th J^>W/, 1757. '•Sir— * * * =:= When I was at Pensilvania I found that the French Neutrals there had been very mutinous, and had threatened to leave the women and children and go over to join the French in the back country; they sent me a Memorial in French setting forth their grievances. I returned it and said I could receive no Memorial from the King's subjects but in English, on which they had a general meeting at which they determined they would give no Memorial but in French, and as I am informed they come to this resolu- tion from looking on themselves entirely as French su!> jects. "Captain Cotterell, wno is Secretary for the Province of Nova Scotia, and is in this Country for the recovery of his health, found among those Neutrals one who had been a Spie of Colonel Cornwallis and afterwards of Governor 20 ■Hi 306 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS Lawrence, who he tells me had behaved well both in giving accounts of Avhat those people were doing and in bringing them inte ligence of tbc situation and strength of the French forts and in particular of Beausejour; by this man I learnt that there were five principal leading men among them who stir up all the disturbance these people make in Pensilvania, and who persuade them to go and join the enemy and who prevent them from submitting to any regulation made in the country, and to allow their children to be put out to work. " On finding this to be the cnse, I thought it necessary for me to prevent, as far as I possibly conld, such a junc- tion to the enemy: on which I secured those five ring- leaders and put them on board Captain Talkingham's ship, the Sutherland, in order to his carrying them to England, to bo disposed of as his Miijesty's servants shall think l^ropcr ; but I must inform you that if they are turned loose they will directly return and continue to raise all the disturbance in their j)ower, therefore it appears to me that the safest way of kce[)ing them would be to employ them as sailors on board thips of war. Loudoun. •' The Right Hon. " William Pitt. (Indorsed) " K. July Gtli." It is quite possible that the men thus exiled (and of their fate there is no trace) ma}' have been the leaders, the speakers, the writers for the exiles; for after they went away, there appears no recorded remonstrance or petition from the others. Tliey wasted away in uncom- IN PENNSYLVANIA. 307 plaining misery, — pensioners on charity. They are rarely referred to in public documents. On the 9th of February, 1761, a committee of inquiry on the subject was appointed by the Assembly, and on the 2Gth they reported as follov»^s : "We, the committee appointed to examine into the state of the French Neutrals, and to report our opinion of the best method of lessening their expense to this pro- vince, have, in pursuance of the said appointment, made in(piiry, and thereupon do report — " That the late extraordinary expenses charged by the overseers of the poor, have been occasioned by the general sickness which prevailed amongst them, in conmion with other inhabitants, during the last fall and part of the winter; this, added to the ordinary expense of supporting the indigent widows, orphans, aged and decrepid persons, lias greatly enlarged the accounts of this year. They have likewise a number of children, who, by the late acts of Assembly, ought to have been bound out to service, but their parents have always opposed the execution of these huvs, on account of their religion ; many of these children, when i'l health, require no assistance from the public; but in time of sickness, from the poverty of their parents, become objects of charity, and must perish with- out it. "Your ('ommittee called together a number of their chief men, and acquainted them with the dissatisfaction of the House on linding the public expense so nuich incrciised by their opposition to those laws, which were framed with a compassionate regard to them, and tending 308 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS immediately to their ease and benefit, and assured tlieni that, unless they could propose a method more agreeable to themselves for lightening the public burden, their children would be taken from them, and placed in such families as could maintain them, and some eflectual method taken to prevent the ill effects of idleness in their young people. "They answered, with appearance of great concern, that they were very sorry to find themselves so expensive to the good people of this Province; reminded us of the late general sickness as the principal cause of it, which they hoped might not happen again during their continuance here ; that in expectation of lessening this expense, and of obtaining some restitution for the loss of their estates, they had petitioned the Court of Great Britain, and humbly remonstrated to his Majesty the state of their peculiar suft'erings, and as the Governor had been so kind as to transmit and reconnnend their said i)etition and remon- strance, they doubted not but the King would be so gra- cious as to grant a part of their country, sullicient for their families to resettle on, where they ilatter themselves they shall enjoy more health, and be free from the apprehen- sions of tiieir children being educated in families whose religious sentiments are so dill'erent from theirs. In the mef;n time they pray the indulge.nce of the government in suflering them to retain their children, as they find, by experience, that those few who are in Protestant Itunilies, soon become estranged and alienated IVom theii' parents j and, though anxious to return to Nova IScotia, they ])eg to be sent to old France, or anywhere, rather than part with I IN PENNSYLVANIA. 309 their cliiklren ; and they promise to excite and encourage all their young people, to be industrious in acquiring a competency for their own and their parents' subsistence, that they may not give occasion for complaints hereafter. How far they may succeed in this, or their application to the Crown, is very uncertain. We are of opinion that nothing short of putting in execution the law, which directs the Overseers of the Poor to bind out their child- ren, will so ellectually lessen this expense, unless the Governor, with the concurrence of the Commander-in- Chief of the King's forces, shall think fit to comply with their request and transport them out of this Province. '• Nevertheless, your Committee being moved with com- passion for these unhappy people, do recommend them to the consideration of the House, as we hope that no great inconvenience can arise from the continuance of the pub- lic charity towards them for a few months longer; and think it just to observe, that there are amongst them numbers of industrious labouring men, who have been, during the late scarcity of labourers, of great service in the neighbourhood of this city. " Submitted to the House." ' I find but one other minute, and that tell" a sad tale. I quote it in the simple words in which it appears on the Journal of Assembly. It is on the 4th of January, 17C.G : '* A petition from John Hill, of the city of Philadelphia, joiner, was presented to the House and read, setting forth that the petitioner has been employed from time to time ' Votes, 143. ill 310 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS to mako cofTins for tlio French Neutrals ^vllo have died in and about this eity, and has Imd his accounts reguhuly allowed and paid by the Government, till lately; that he is now informed by the gentlemen commissioners, who used to pay him, that they have no public money in their hands for the payment of such debts ; that he has made sixteen coffins since his last settlement (as will appear from the account) without any countermand of his former orders ; he therefore prays the House to make such pro- vision for his materials and labour in the premises as to them shall seem mec,\ Ordered to lie on the table." ' With this coffin-maker's memorial, so far as I have been able to trace it, ends the authentic history of the French Neutrals in Tennsylvania. All the rest is tradition ; and with tradition, that fruitful source of error, I have nothino- to do. Mr. AVatson, in his Annals, tells us that for a loii"- time the remnant of the Neutrals occupied a row of frame huts on the north side of Pine street, between Fifth and Sixth, on proj)erty owned either by xMr. Powel or Mr. Emlen; and those ruined houses, known as the Neutral Huts, are remembered distinctly by persons now liviiiu'. What at last became of these poor creatures, it is not eas\- to ascertain from evidence. Their very names have perished. I have diligently searched the earliest extant Directories, and eamiot lind any one of the name that are known to us as belonging to them. One other fact, proved by the oflicial records, is that which I have already alluded to, that from November, 17oo, till the Revolution, when ruder cares occupied the ' Votes, 405. mi IN PENNSYLVANIA. 311 attention of our Pennsylvania legislators, there appears to have been expended for the support of the exiles, by pub- lic authority alone, aside from private benefaction — always bountiful in Philadelphia — no less a sum than £7500, cur- rency, or about $20,000. In this retrospect of a sad chapter of local history, I find nothing to wound the proper pride or excite the blush of Pennsylvania, and nowhere a trace of truth to justify the wanton aspersion on our fame, that Pennsylvania sold, or wished to sell, or thought of selling, these or any other human beings into slavery. The only colour for it comes in the shape of a very slight tradition oinbalmcd in Mr. Vaux's Life of Bcnczet. It is this: "Such was Penezet's care of the Neutrals, that it produced a jealousy in the mind of one of the oldest men amouix them, of a vcrv novel and curious description, which was communicated to a friend of Penezet, to whom he said : 'It is impossible that all this kindness can l)e disinterested ; Mr. Ponezet must certainly intend to recompense himself by treache- rously selling us.' When their patron and protector." adds Mr. Vaux, "was informed of this ungrateful suspi- cion, it was so far from producing an emotion of anger or indignation, that he lifted u[) his hands and laughed im- moderately." ' Pointless as this gossiping anecdote is, the aspersion on our character rests on no other foundation. I have tracked the humble story of the Acadian exiles through authentic and ollicial proofs, with little or no aid from contemporary correspondence, though much may exist that 1 iiave not had access to. There is no allusion to the Neutrals in the 8hi[)[)en Papers, or in that far more inte- ' Life of JJenezet, 88. 312 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS 5 IP-:'*'?' resting and valuable collection, the Hamilton MSS. ; and Dr. Franklin, who wrote letters and pamphlets on almost every subject, and who was in Philadelphia when the Neutrals came, and for months afterwards, is silent about them. I have no doubt, however, that my vindication rests upon truth. And closing this little essay, written rapidly, and at such short intervals as I have been able to snatch from daily drudgery, I cannot but recall the moral with which I began, made more pointed by the rellection the sad his- tory suggests, that no kindness, no charity, no compassion can heal entirely the wound which religious persecution inllicts on the heart of man ; no sympathy, slow or active, can lull to rest resentments which a sense of such wrong excites. These poor Catholic fugitives died in their faith. They hugged it to their wasted bosoms more closely, be- cause they were persecuted and exiles. They died heart- broken, and the stain of their agony rests on the English name. It is made immortal, as I have said, in poetry of the iMiglish language ; for Evangeline will live long after the feeble, persecuting statesmen of George the Second's reign are forgotten. Let those — and there seems a sort of centenary cycle in matters of this kind — who would persecute or proscribe for opinion's sake, and limit by political exclusion the right to worship God in the form which he who worships chooses ; who would, if let alone, join in the hunt or exile of those who, like the Acadians, cherish the faith of their childhood and their ancestors, let them read this story, and beware of the sure retribu- tion of history. \ IN PENNSYLVANIA. 313 Should the opportunity occur, and, what is fiir more uncertain, the inclination continue, I hope on some future day to read a paper, as desultory as this, on the next visit of the French to Philadelphia; when, twenty-five years later, they came here triumphant, our welcome auxiliaries; when French noblemen and French priests were about the streets ; and when, perhaps, as we may hope, they walked across the Potters' Field, which I remember, to Pine and Sixth streets, to look at the mouldering remains of the Neutral huts, or trace out the Neutral graves. ;u THE FRENCH NEUTRALS A EELATIOX OF TTTE MISFORTUNES OF THE FRENCH NEUTRALS, h hid Mm the /.sstmbly of the Proviocc of PennsylvaDia II Y JO II N 15 A 1' T I S T I' (i A L E R M , ONE OF TIIK SAID rKOri.K.* AnOLT tlie yciir ITl-*, when AuudpDh'a Royal was taken from the Froirfi, our Fathers being then settled on the Buy of Fumll, upon tlie Surrender of that Country to the Eiif/lifli, had, by virtue of the Treaty of Utreeht, a Yeir granted them to remove w'tli their Eft'ecfs; but not being willing to lose the Fruit of many Years labour, they chose rather to remain there, and become Subjet'ts of Gi((it J'n'/fiin, on Condition that they niiglit be exemjited from bearing Arms against France (most of them having near llt'laticms and Friends amongst the Fnnrli, which they might have destroyed with their own Hands, had they consented to bear Arms against them\ This Kerjuest they always understood to be granted, on their taking the Oath of Fidelity to her late Majesty, t^ueen Annr; which Oath cif Fidelity was by us. about 27 Years ago, renewed to his Majesty, King Ci'ior'/i. liy (ieneral rhiliji^i . who then alloweil us an Kxemption of bearing Arms against Fraitn ; which Kxemption, till lately, (that wo were told to the contrary) we always thought was apjjroved of by the King. Our Oatii of l''idelit3', we that are now lirought into this I'rovince, as well as those of our Community that are carried into the neighbouring I'roviiices, have always inviolably observed, and have, on all Occasions, been willing to afford all the Assistance in our I'uwer to his 31ajesty's (iovernors in erecting Forts, making Fioads, liridges. \c., and providing Provisions for liis Majesty's Service, as can be testified by the several (Jovernors ami Officers that have commanded in his Majesty's Frovinee of Xani S''<>liii ; and this, notwithstanding the repeated Sollicitations, Tiireats, and Abuses, wliieh we have continually, more or less, suffered from the Fnndi and FniirJi Indidux of (\nhiihi on that Account, particularly about ten Years ago, when 50U Fn mh and /in/iniia came to our Settlements, intending to attack AnmijiiillA lin/jnl, which, had their Intention succeeded, would have ' Jiruiiilsiile, ill 11 \'ijluiiie nt' tlio IV'misylviiiiia (lii/.i'ttc, riiiliiik'l|iliiii l/iliriiry, Folio No. 002. As it follows tlu> paiiur issue, No. It 18. of Koliruiiry 'H\, 17-')(1, I presuint' that is atiovit the diito '' its piiblic.ilion. It is in'oper to state' that, fiom the ahscnco (jf Mr, I'i'imI in Cnina, as .Ministci' l'l('iii|Mitciitiary fium tlio L'liiteil States, tlio forojroiiijj; paiicr has not rccoivcil his corroctioii, in passing through the ress. — T. Waud. IN PENNSYLVANIA 315 inadc them blasters of all Kova Scotia, it being the only Place of Strength then in that Province, they earnestly soUicited us to join with, and aid them therein ; but wc persisting in our Picsolution to abide true to our Oath of Fidelity, and absolutely refusing to give them any Assistance, they gave over their Intention, and returned to Canada. And about seven Years past, at the settling of IlaUfn.r, a Body of 150 Indians came amongst us, forced some of us from our Habitations, and by Threats and Blows would have compelled us to assist them in Way-laying and destroying the Enijllsh, then employed in erecting Forts in different Parts of the Country ; but we positively refusing, they left us, after having abused us, and made great llavock of our Cattle, &c. I myself was six Weeks before I wholly recovered of tic IMows I received from them at that Time. Almost numberless arc the Instances which might be given of the Abuses and Ijosses we have undergone from the Fniuh Indiana, on Account of our steady Adhenince to our Oath of Fidelity; and yet, notwithstanding our strict Observance thereof, we have not been able to prevent the grievous Calamity which is now come upon us, which wo apprehend to be in a great Jlleasure owing to the unhappy Situation and Conduct of some of our I'eople settled at Cltiiynrcto, at the Bottom of tiie l?:iy of Fundi, where the Firncli, about four Years ago, erected a Fort; those of our People who were settled near it, after having had many of their Settlements burnt by the Firnch, being too far from Ila/i/ax and Annajwiis Roi/al to expect sufficient Assistance from the Fhi/HhIi, were obliged, as we believe, more through Compulsion and Fear than Inclination, to join with and assist the Fn nvlt ; wliicli also appears from the Articles of Capitulation agreed on between Colonel MiHukUm aud the Fnnch Commander, at the Delivery of the said Fort to the Ewjlish, which is exactly in the following words. ' ]\'illi rti/ard to the Acadians, ((.s tluj have been fomd to tahi', up Arms on Fain of Ikath, tluij sita// be pardoncif for the Fart they hare been takinij. Notwitlistandiiig this, as these People's Conduct had given just Umbrage to the (Jovernment, and created suspicions to the Prejudice of our wliolo Community, we were summoned to appear before the Governor and Council at llalifa.e, where we were retiuired to take the Oath of Alle- '■■iance, without any e.Kccplion, which we could not comply with, because, as that Government is at present situate, we appreliend we should have been obliged to take up Arms; but were still willing to take Oath of Fidelity, and give the strongest Assurances of continuing peaceable and faithful to bis llritanniek M:ije>ty, with that K.xception. But this, in the present Situation of Affairs, not being Satisfactory, we were made Prisoners, and our Kstates, both real and personal, forfeited for the King's Use; and ' (.ieiitU'MiaiiV M;i'j:\ziin' fur.Iulv, IT'i'i. I'lit'L' ■'•'-■ 316 THE FRENCH NEUTRALS. Vessels being provided, we were sometime after sent off, with most of our Families, and dispersed among the Kmjlish Colonies. The Hurry and Confusion in which we were embarked was an aggravating Circumstance attending our 3Iisfortunes ; for thereby many, who had lived in AiBuence, found themselves deprived of every Necessary, and many Families were separated. Parents from Children, and Children from Parents. Yet blessed be God that it was our Lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, where our Wants have been relieved, and we have in every Respect been received with Christian Benevolence and Charity. And let me add, that notwithstanding the Suspicions and Fears which many here are possessed of on our Account, ^s tho' we were a dangerous People, who make little Scruple of breaking our Oaths, Time will manifest that we are not such a People : No, the unhappy Situation which we are now in, is a plain Pividence that this is a false Charge, tending to aggravate the Misfortunes of an already too unhappy People ; for, had wo entertained such pernicious Sentiments, we might easily have prevented our falling into the melancholy Circumstances we are now in, viz : Deprived of our Substance, banished from our native Country, and reduced to live by Charity in a strange Land ; and this for refusing to take an Oath, which we arc firmly persuaded Christianity abso- lutely forbids us to violate, had we once taken it, and yet an Oath which we could not comply with, without being exposed to plunge our Swords in the Breasts of our Friends and Relations. We shall, however, as wc have hitherto done, submit to what, in the present Situation of Affairs, may seem necessary, and with Patience and Resignation bear whatever God, in the Course of his Providence, shall suffer to come upon us. We shall also think it our Duty to seek and promote the Peace of the Country into which we arc transported, and inviolably keep the Oath of Fidelity that we have taken to his gracious Majesty, King Geonje, whom we firmly believe, when fully acquainted with our Faithfulness and Sufferings, will commiserate our unhappy Condition, and order that some Compensation be made us for our Losses. And may the Almighty abundantly bless his Honour, the Governor, the honourable Assembly of the Province, and the good People of Philu' dclphia, whose Sympathy, Benevolence, and Christian Charity, have been, and still are, greatly manifested and extended towards us, a poor distressed and afilicted People, is the Sincere and earnest Prayer of JouN Baptiste Galer.m.