same being directed by a mere resolve of the house of Assembly, brought in and read the first time on Monday the 22d. September, 1783, when on metion, and by special order, the same was read a second time and adopted.--That the putting this resolve on the secret journal of the House, and concealing it from the people, after the war with the savages had ceased, and the inhabitants of Wyoming had submitted to the government of the State, sufficiently marks and fixes the clandestine and partial interest of the armament, no such condition having been thought necessary in the defence of the northern and western frontiers during the late war.--And lastly, we regret the fatal example which this transaction has set of private persons, at least equally able with their opponents to maintain their own cause, procuring the interest of the Commonwealth in their behalf, and the aid of the public treasury. The opprobrium which from hence has resulted to this State, and the dissatisfaction and prospect of dissention, now existing with one of our sister States, the violation of the confederation, and the injury hereby done to such of the Pennsylvania claimants of lands at Wyoming, occupied as aforesaid, as have given no countenance to, but on the contrary have disavowed, these extravagant proceedings. In short, we lament that our government has in this business manifested little wisdom, or foresight; nor have acted as guardians of the rights of the people committed to their care. Impressed with the multiplied evils which have sprung from the imprudent

management of this business, we hold it up to pub lic censure, to prevent, if possible, further instances of bad government, which might convulse and distract our new formed nation."

Notwithstanding the respectable authority from which these opinions proceeded, and the public manner in which they were pronounced, the Supreme Executive Council regarded them with as much indifference as they did the letter of the President; and as if anxious to show their contempt for public opinion, they not only sent Colonel Armstrong with a second expedition to Wyoming, but continued to exert their utmost endeavours to furnish him with re-enforcements. In this measure, however, they totally failed, for the declaration *pronounced by the Censors, furnished a reasonable excuse for refusing to obey the orders of the Council, and Colonel Armstrong and his forty men continued to occupy the Block House in the ruins of fort Dickinson, with a force too weak to support an extensive system of plunder, and the certainty of an approaching winter with a very limited means of support.

The inhabitants who supported a garrison at Forty-fort, continued, under the protection of guards, to gather their corn; but as they expected Armstrong would soon be in force sufficient to de>prive them of their means of subsistence, viewed the prospect before them as gloomy and discouraging, They however sent memorials to Congress, to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and to the. Legislature of Connecticut. To the last men

tioned body they gave an account of the transactions at Wyoming for the last few years, alluded to the decision of the jurisdiction in favor of Pennsylvania, and of their submission to the authority of the State, but complained that although they supplicated like children, yet they found no protection; that their petitions to the government of Pennsylvania were treated with neglect, and the government instead of relieving their distresses, had sent an armed force against them; that their numbers were at that time reduced to about two thousand souls, most of whom were women and chil❤ dren, driven in many cases from their proper habitations, and living in huts of bark in the woods, without provisions for the approaching winter, while the Pennsylvania troops and land claimants, were in possession of their houses and farms, and wasting and destroying their cattle and subsistence. The Legislature, then sitting at New Haven, in answer to this memorial, alluded to their want of Jurisdiction, recommended an application to Congress, and promised the aid and assistance of that Legislature, both with Congress and the government of Pennsylvania.

As winter approached, Armstrong, finding that re-enforcements were not to be expected, abandoned the post at Wyoming, and having discharged his troops, returned to Philadelphia. Thus ended the last expedition fitted out by the government of Pennsylvania, to operate against her own peaceful citizens. Various attempts were made by the inhabitants of Wyoming, during the two succeeding

years, to effect the appointment of a tribunal for trying the title to the lands between themselves and the Pennsylvania claimants, but all to no effect, the government of Pennsylvania successfully interfering at all times to prevent it. At length the inhabitants concluded to propose a compromise of their claims, and accordingly sent a memorial to the General Assembly, which was read in March 1787, proposing that in case the Commonwealth would grant them the seventeen Townships which had been laid out, and in which settlements had been commenced previous to the decree at Trenton, they would on their part, relinquish all their claims to any other lands within the limits of the Susquehanna purchase. These townships were Salem, Newport, Hanover, Wilkesbarre, Pittston, Northmoreland, Putnam, Braintrim, Springfield, Claverack, Ulster, Exeter, Kingston, Plymouth, Bedford, Huntington and Providence. The towns are represented to be as nearly square as circumstances would permit, and to be about five miles on a side, and severally divided into lots of three hundred acres each, as near as may be, of which one was to be appropriated to the use of the first settled minister of the Gospel in fee-one for the Parsonage-and one for the support of a school-three to remain as public lots, subject to the future disposition of the Towns-and the remainder, to be appropriated to purchasers or settlers. In consideration of which arrangement being confirmed by the Assembly, the Pennsylvania claimants were to relinquish such lands lying within those Townships, as the

State had previously granted to them. On the 25th. of the preceding September, an act had been passed, erecting all that part of Northumberland county, extending from the falls of Nescopeck to the northern boundary of the State, into a separate county, to be called "Luzerne," in honor of the Minister from France, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, who had a short time before the passage of the act, returned to Paris. This County included all the Wyoming settlements ; it had been erected at the request of the inhabitants, and furnished an evidence that the measures of the government would in future be less hostile to their peace and security. On the 28th. of March, 1787, an act was passed, complying with the request of the inhabitants in relation to their lands. Commissioners were appointed to cause a re-survey of the lots claimed by the respective settlers, and to give them Certificates of the regularity of their claims. These Commissioners were Timothy Pickering, William Montgomery, and Stephen Balliot, Esquires, who proceeded to Wyoming and entered upon the duties of their appointments. Although a very large proportion of the inhabitants resided within the seventeen Townships, yet there were many whose farms were not situated within those limits, and as they were consequently not included among the number of those to whom the law would apply, they made a determined opposition to its execution. Their object appears to have been to contend for the whole territory, or to procure such terms as would satisfy all the inhabitants. A number of those persona