being sufficiently strong to attack them, wrote to, the Council for re-enforcements. Much exertion was made throughout the counties of Northampton, Bucks and Berks, to raise troops for another expedition to Wyoming; but the public mind had become averse to the measure, and no re-enforcements could be procured. Many of the people of Pennsylvania began to consider the inhabitants a persecuted people, and all the influence of the landholders in the Council and Assembly was necessary to maintain even a small armed force at post. This disposition of the public mind was much strengthened by the proceedings of the Council of Censors, to which President Dickinson alluded in his letter.

By the first Constitution of Pennsylvania, which was established immediately after the Declaration of Independence, the Government of the Commonwealth was vested in a House of Representatives, a President, and Council. Another inefficient Council was also established, called the "Council of Censors," who were chosen by the people, and directed to meet every seventh year; "and whose duty it shall be," says the constitution, "to en

quire whether the constitution has been preser"ved inviolate in every part, and whether the "Legislative and Executive branches of the Gov"ernment have performed their duty as guardians "of the people, or assumed to themselves, or exer"cised, other or greater powers than they are en<titled to by the constitution. They are also to "enquire whether the public taxes have been justN

ly laid and collected in all parts of the Common"wealth; in what manner the public monies have "been disposed of, and whether the laws have been "duly executed. For these purposes they shall "have power to send for persons, papers and re"cords. They shall have authority to pass public 66 censures, to order impeachments, and to recom"mend to the Legislature the repealing such laws ❝as appear to them to have been enacted contrary "to the principles of the constitution."

This Council of Censors met at Philadelphia in the summer of 1784, and having received information of the transactions at Wyoming, on the 7th of September, ordered, that the President and Supreme Executive Council should furnish certain documents in relation to their proceedings in the case of the Connecticut settlers, at and near that place; and that William Bradford, Jun. and James Wilson, Esquires, Council for Pennsylvania in this case, should furnish all the documents in their hands on the subject. On the 8th. Mr. Bradford surrendered the documents in his hands in obedience to the order, and the Secretary of the Supreme Executive Council informed the Council of Cen. sors by letter that the documents required of them had been transmitted to the General Assembly. On the following day the Council of Censors passed a resolution requiring the General Assembly to furnish the said documents. The Assembly proceeded immediately into the consideration of the order, and passed a resolution refusing to comply with it. In consequence of this refusal on the

part of the Assembly, the Council of Censors, on the 10th. of the same month, issued process against the General Assembly in the following words:

"The Council of Censors, in the name, and by the authority of the people of Pennsylvania, to the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, Send Greeting:-We demand of you that you without delay or excuse, forthwith send into this Council of Censors, the documents and papers hereumder mentioned, now, as it is said, in your keeping, that is to say, the Report of the Committee appointed the 9th. of December last, to enquire into the charges contained in a petition from a number of the inhabitants of Wyoming, and the papers and affidavits accompanying the same, and the letter from Zebulon Butler and others of Wyoming, read in the Supreme Executive Council on the 28th. of May, 1784, and which was by them transmitted to the house.

"Signed by order of the Council of Censors, now sitting in the State House, in the city of Philadelphia, on this 10th. day of September, Anno Domini, one thousand seven hundred and eighty four."

"FREDERICK A. MUHLENBERG,

President of the Council of Censors. "Attest, SAMUEL BRYAN, Secretary." The mandamus of the Censors was received by the General Assembly with the utmost contempt, and the House, as if forgetful of the dignified character of the Council, and unmindful of the high authority vested in them by the Constitution, refused.

not only to send the required papers, but also te give any answer whatever to the process. When it was ascertained that no answer was to be expected from the Assembly, the Council declared that "this unwarrantable conduct of the wrong doers themselves has but the more decidedly convinced this Council of the truth of the complaints of the settlers at Wyoming, and of the utter neglect of the Government to protect the oppressed inhabitants." On the same day the Council of Censors passed a public censure upon the conduct of the Government of Pennsylvania in relation to the Connecticut settlers in the following words :

"It is the opinion of this Council that the decision made at Trenton early in 1783, between the State of Connecticut and this Commonwealth, concerning the territorial rights of both, was favourable to Pennsylvania. It likewise promised the happiest consequences to the confederacy, as an example was thereby set of two contending sovereignties adjusting their differences in a court of Justice, instead of involving themselves, and perhaps their confederates, in war and bloodshed. It is much to be regretted that this happy event was not improved on the part of this State as it might have been.--That the persons claiming lands at and near Wyoming, occupied by the emigrants from Connecticut, now become subjects of Pennsylvania, were not left to prosecute their claims in the proper course without the intervention of the legislature. That a body of troops was enlisted after the Indian war had ceased and the civil gov

ernment had been established, and stationed at Wyoming for no other apparent purpose than that of promoting the interests of the claimants under the former grants of Pennsylvania.—That these troops were kept up, and continued there, without the license of Congress, in violation of the confederation. That they were suffered, without restraint to injure and oppress the neighboring inhabitants, during the course of the last winter.--That the injuries done to these people excited the compassion and interposition of the State of Connecticut, who thereupon demanded of Congress another hearing in order to investigate the private claims of the settlers at Wyoming, formerly inhabitants of New England, who from this instance of partiality in our own rulers have been led to distrust the justice of the State, when in the mean time, numbers of these soldiers, and other disorderly persons, in a most riotous and inhuman manner, expelled the New England settlers, before mentioned, from their habitations, and drove them towards the Delaware through unsettled and almost impassable ways, leaving those unhappy outcasts to suffer evcry species of misery and distress.-That this armed force stationed as aforesaid at Wyoming, as far as we can see, without any public advantage in view, has cost the Commonwealth the sum of £4460, and upwards, for the bare levying, providing, and paying of them, besides other expenditures of public monies.-That the authority for embodying these troops was given privately, and unknown to the good people of Pennsylvania, the

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