Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/439

vidual formed a part. Indeed, religious enthusiasm suggested, as they were heathen, there was a divine command to exterminate them. Even the mild John Ewing, the divine who was filling Provost Smith's chair in his absence wrote to his young friend Joseph Reed then in London, Our public money is lavishly squandered away in supporting a num- ber of savages, who have been murdering and scalping us for many years past This has so enraged some desperate young men, who had lost their nearest relations, by these very Indians, to cut off about twenty Indians that lived near Lancaster, who had, during the war, carried on a constant intercourse with our other enemies ; and they came down to Ger- mantown to inquire why Indians, known to be enemies, were to be sup- ported, even in luxury, with the best that our markets afforded, at the public expense, while they were left in the utmost distress on the Frontiers, in want of the necessaries of life. Ample promises were made to them that their grievances should be redressed, upon which they immediately dis- persed and went home. * * * Few, but Quakers, think that the Lancaster Indians have suffered anything but their just deserts. 'Tis not a little surprising to us here, that orders should be sent from the Crown, to apprehend and bring to justice those persons who have cut off that nest of enemies that lived near Lancaster. * * * What surprises us more than all, the accounts we have from England, is, that our Assembly, in a petition they have drawn up, to the King, for a change of Government, should represent this Province in a state of uproar and riot, and when not a man in it has once resisted a single officer of the Government, nor a single act of violence committed, unless you call the Lancaster affair such, although it was no more than going to war with that tribe, as they had done before with others, without a formal proclamation of war by the Gov- ernment. 5 We cannot wonder at Franklin's indictment of the Govern- ment, two months later, in his Cool Thoughts on the Present Situ- ation of Our Public Affairs : At present we are in a wretched situation. The Government, that ought to Keep all in order, is itself weak, and has scarce authority enough to keep the common peace. Mobs assemble and Kill (we scarce dare say murder) numbers of innocent people in cold blood, who were under the protection of the Government. Proclamations are issued to bring the rioters to justice. Those proclamations are treated with the utmost indig- nity and contempt. Not a magistrate dares wag a finger towards discover- 5 Life and Correspondence of President Reed, William B. Reed, i. 35.