Source:Fleming-thrilling-days
George T. Fleming. "Thrilling days at Fort Pitt in 1776: Patriotic citizens of city frustrate evil designs of Connolly and Dunmore: Logan and his speech." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, May 23, 1915, sec. 5, p. 2. Newspapers.com 85758619.
HAVING gone into the history of the stirring times about Fort Pitt during the years immediately preceding the Revolutionary War, it is necessary to complete that history—otherwise it is but half told.
The history of these eventful days evolve from the biographies of two Pittsburgh pioneers, Thomas Smallman and Devereaux [sic] Smith, both magistrates in the territory about Fort Pitt and arrayed respectively on the sides of Virginia and the Penns in the protracted and bitter boundary dispute between these colonies of the Crown of Great Britain.
These historical facts given today are a sequel to several preceding stories on this page, the first arising from the consideration of Thomas Smallman, the others from that of Devereaux [sic] Smith, both commemorated for many years in the names of well known streets.
Today the story may be considered a continuation, or it may be taken as evolved from the mention of Logan, the Mingo, or of Col. John Neville or even the Penns, since we have Penn avenue, Pennsylvania avenue, Neville street and Logan street. Logically and chronologically, it is pertinent and material in the recital of the happenings about the forks of the Ohio during 1773–74–75.
When the crisis came in 1775 and allegiance must be continued to the sovereign George the Third or cast off with contempt and hatred, both Thomas Smallman and Devereaux Smith were staunch patriots. The claims of the colony of Virginia untenable in equity and fact, were forgotten in the common cause of independence.
Fort Is Abandoned.
We have seen how, under orders from Gen. Thomas Gage, commander in chief of his majesty's forces in North America, the commander of the little garrison at Fort Pitt, Major Edmundstone, sold the great fort and abandoned it as a military post in 1772; how in 1773 it was reoccupied and repaired by Dr. John Connolly under orders from Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia; how the boundary dispute arose, the highhanded proceedings here during the years that Dunmore exerted his supremacy by armed forces under his tool Connolly; how, September 11, 1775, the fort was occupied by Virginia troops under Capt. John Neville, later a distinguished officer in the continental army.
It is necessary to tell how the nefarious Connolly fell and how Dunmore was checkmated by Virginia patriots and fled.
Parenthetically it may be remarked that Fort Pitt after the war began was constantly garrisoned by Continental troops, under Neville, Gen. Lachlan McIntoch [sic], Gen. Edward Hand, Col. Daniel Broadhead and Gen. William Irvine.
Arthur St. Clair tells of Neville's arrival, which was unexpected and created much excitement. He recites much of what had occurred in a letter to Gov. John Penn dated September 17 1775. St. Clair stated that this step on the part of Virginia served to exasperate the dispute between the inhabitants of the country and entirely destroyed the prospect of a cessation of the grievances complained of by the Pennsylvania adherents, and was not in accord with the salutary and conciliating advice of the delegates in the Continental Congress who had sent a circular letter to the people urging forbearance.
St. Clair is admitted to have always been very watchful of the interests of Pennsylvania and especially during the controversy. Nevertheless Neville's was a wise move. There were strong reasons why Fort Pitt should be occupied by the patriots.
Reasons for Move.
The War for Independence had begun. Lexington and Concord had set the colonies aflame. Connolly, bold, able and enterprising, was already plotting, his mind intent upon a scheme of operations in which Fort Pitt would be an important and controlling position. This scheme he did not abandon until the end of the war. Through a long imprisonment he nursed it carefully and his first act on release were active steps to put it into operation.
Neville B. Craig quotes justly that it seemed "to have been nothing more than an act of ordinary prudence and foresight to send here an officer in whose firmness, fidelity and discretion, implicit confidence could be placed."
Neville was such a man. He acted with great prudence and none of the evils predicted by St. Clair occurred.
The statement has been made that the boundary dispute was bitter. It was characterized by much bitterness by the respective partizans and on the part of the Virginia authorities. Not so on the part of the Penns themselves. Their course was dignified and just throughout. They relied on the merits of their claim and attempted nothing by force of arms and coercion.
Richard Penn, a younger brother of John Penn, was lieutenant governor, 1771–73, and John Penn from August, 1773, until July, 1776, when independence was proclaimed. These were sons of Richard Penn, who died in 1771, and grandsons of William Penn.
These two, with their uncle, Thomas Penn, were the proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania. Thomas Penn died in London March 21, 1775.
St. Clair was the agent of the Penns in Western Pennsylvania. He was also prothonotary, clerk and recorder of Westmoreland county.
John Penn showed his Quaker love of peace. As early as April 22, 1774, he wrote William Crawford, who subsequently adhered to Virginia.
Penn Writes Letter.
Penn addressed his letter to
"Wm. Crawford and his associate Justices of the Peace in Westmoreland County."
Its text ran:
Gentlemen—The present alarming Situation of our affairs in Westmoreland county occasioned by the very unaccountable Conduct of the Government of Virginia requires the utmost Attention of this Government and therefore I intend with all possible Expedition to send Commissioners to expostulate with my Lord Lunmore [sic] upon the Behavior of those he has thought proper to invest with such authority as hath greatly disturbed the peace of that country.
As the Government of Virginia hath the Power of raising a Militia and there is not such in this Province, it will be in vain to contend with them in the way of Force. The Magistrates therefore at the same time that they shall continue with Steadiness to exercise the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania to the Distributions of Justice and Punishment of Vice, must be cautious with the officers of Lord Dunmore, as may tend to widen the present unhappy Breach, and therefore as Things are at Present Circumstances I would not advise the Magistracy of Westmoreland County to proceed by way of Criminal Prosecution against them for exercising the Government of Virginia.
I flatter myself that our Commissioners to Virginia will succeed according to our expectations and that our Affairs Westward will soon be put upon a peaceable and quiet Footing.
Gov. Penn wrote the Pennsylvania justices the same day:
Gentlemen: I received your several Letters informing me of your Arrest and Confinement on Warrants issued by Dr. Connolly and cannot but greatly approve your Spirit and the Attachment you have shown the Interests of this Province. But as the Confinement of your Persons at so great a Distance from your Homes must be injurious to your private Concerns, if you can procure your Enlargement by finding Bail, I shall by no Means disapprove of such a Step.
Aid Is Promised.
I shall with all possible Expedition send Commissioners to Lord Dunmore, to apply for your Discharge, and as Col. Wilson is so obliging as to offer to call at Staunton in his way home, I have instructed him to procure for you any Security or Credit you may stand in need of, and shall do every Thing in my Power to free you from your disagreeable Situation, or to make it as comfortable as may be.
I am Gentlemen,
Your Very Humble Servant,
JOHN PENN.
To Aeneas Mackay, Devereux Smith, and Andrew McFarlane Justices of the Peace for Westmoreland County.
Devereux Smith made affidavit at Hannastown February 10, 1775, before Joseph Spears, J. P., one of his majesty's justices for Westmoreland county, deposing that:
On the 8th inst. between 8 and 9 oc, 12 or more armed men belonging to the garrison kept up by Lord Dunmore's orders surrounded the house of Devereux Smith in Pittsburgh in said county of Westmoreland and attempted to break open his doors and windows to the great terror of his family, at the same time telling him what the Virginia boys could do.
That with the violence of their throwing stones they split one of his window shutters, and continued about the street until near 12 o'c. during which he was under necessity of sitting up in arms to protect his infant family.
William Crawford was blamed for many such outbreaks, as he was a violent partisan of Virginia. In the archives of Pennsylvania we find records of Robert Hanna of Hannastown, William Lochry, a justice of the peace; John Carnaghan, sheriff of Westmoreland county; James Smith and Samuel McKenzie, citizens, complaining to Gov. Penn of acts of violence of the Virginia partisans.
Much data is found in these archives published by the state of Pennsylvania, including Gov. Penn's letter to the Assembly of the province; letters to Arthur St. Clair at Ligonier and messages of Penn to the Shawanese and Delawares, concerning troubles brought about by Virginia in the summer of 1774.
Many Letters Preserved.
There are also instructions to James Tilghman and William Allen, commissioners to Lord Dunmore, regarding the boundary dispute; letter to Sir William Johnson, the king's superintendent of Indian affairs at Fort Stanwix, New York; letters to Dunmore concerning the danger of a general Indian war and remonstrating against conduct of Connolly; letter to St. Clair on the danger of Indian war and suggesting measures to prevent it—all these items are to be found in the "Fourth Series—Messages of the Governors of Pennsylvania," to which reference is invited.
Incidental to the boundary troubles was the murder of the family of Logan, the great chief and friend of the whites, especially the Pennsylvanians. All historians dilate upon this phase of border history and Thomas Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia," sought to immortalize it, and succeeded. Subsequently a controversy arose over its genuineness.
In 1797 one Luther Martin, an able lawyer and son-in-law of Capt. Michael Cresap, alleged to have murdered Logan's family on the Ohio River, near Yellow Creek, in the spring of 1774, write [sic] to one James Fennell, a public declaimer in Philadelphia, protesting against the use of this speech as a calumny upon the Cresap family and attacking Jefferson for his part in incorporating the speech in literature.
Cresap was said not to have murdered the family of Logan and not to have been near the locality where it occurred.
Martin's letter is very long. It is reproduced by Neville B. Craig in the second volume of "The Olden Time," and also the voluminous correspondence that ensued—long letters from Jefferson to Gen. John Gibson, to whom Logan entrusted the alleged speech to be given Dunmore.
The Logan Affair.
Jefferson demanded of Gibson all the particulars of the affair and Gibson replied with an affidavit, to wit:
Allegheny County, State of Pennsylvania, ss:
Before me, a justice of the peace, in and for the said county appeared John Gibson, Esq., an Associate Judge of same county, who being duly sworn deposeth and saith that in the year 1774, he accompanied Lord Dunmore on the expedition against the Shawanese and other Indians on the Sciota; that on their arrival within fifteen miles of the towns they were met by a flag, and a white man by the name of Elliott, who informed Lord Dunmore that the chiefs of the Shawanese had sent to request his Lordship to halt his army and send in some person who understood their language; that this deponent, at the request of Lord Dunmore, and the whole of the officers with him, went in; that on his arrival at the towns, Logan, the Indian, game to where this deponent was sitting with Cornstalk, and the other chiefs of the Shawanese and asked him to walk out with him; that they went into a copse of wood, where they sat down when Logan, after shedding abundance of tears delivered to him the speech nearly as related by Mr. Jefferson in his notes on the State of Virginia, that he, the deponent told him it was not Colonel Cresap who had murdered his relatives and although his son, Capt. Michael Cresap was with the party who killed a Shawanese chief and other Indians, yet he was not present when his relatives were killed at Baker's near the mouth of Yellow Creek, on the Ohio; that this deponent on his return to camp delivered the speech to Lord Dunmore; and that the murders perpetrated as above were considered ultimately the cause of the war of 1774, commonly called Cresap's war.
JOHN GIBSON.
Sworn and subscribed the 4th of April, 1800, at Pittsburgh before me.
JERR. BAKER.
The assertions as to the delivery in Craig's reproduction are italicized, nevertheless Craig thinks the language vague. There is no language that can be construed to state the real case—whether the speech was written or spoken.
Charges Still Stand.
No reply by Logan is indicated when Gibson sought to vindicate Cresap, the charges against Col. Cresap stood and yet stand in the speech.
Theodore Roosevelt, always pronounced in opinion, reviews the whole ground in his "Winning of the West," Vol. I. (see appendix F, page 347). He says that Logan's speech can be unhesitatingly pronounced authentic.
We stop right here. That is enough. Craig came to the same conclusion. He is vindicated, ditto Jefferson et al.
Jefferson's version of the speech is the commonly accepted one, though Craig gives the first form published, stating that he finds two copies in the first volume, fourth series of the "American Archives," and that the first copy appeared at Williamsburg, Va., in February, 1775.
Jefferson has it—
I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat, if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace.
Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, "Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature.
This calling on me for revenge, I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance; for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace.
But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.
In February, 1847, in the number of the "Olden Time" for that month, Craig says in the opening of his long article, on Logan:
The speech no matter by whom produced has been quoted and admired wherever the English language was understood.
This opinion was 68 years ago and the time from delivery was 73 years. The words what a heart-broken man would naturally say.
Story of Logan.
Now who was Logan? A chief, one easily answers. Yes, a chief, but with an English name.
Logan is usually referred to as a Mingo. He was a Cayuaga [sic]; the son of the great Shikelimus, who resided at what is now Sunbury on the Susquehanna, then called Shamokin, to be distinguished from the present of that name.
Logan was called for James Logan, long prominent in the affairs of Pennsylvania under the Penns. Logan, the Indian, became a sot. After Dunmore's war, he became more gloomy, and melancholy, drank more and more, and exhibited symptoms of mental derangement.
He went to Detroit, where he remained some time and evinced by his conduct that he was weary of life. He openly proclaimed life had become a burden. He said he knew not what pleasure was and thought it had been better had he never existed.
In a state of despondency, he left Detroit after a brutal assault on his new wife, while drunk, and on his way to the Miami was murdered.
All the greatness of character of the man was wiped away in rum, which to be candid, is no respecter of races.
Logan lives in the geography of the United States as well as in history and literature. Thanks are surely due to Jefferson, who preserved Logan's pathetic effusion:
"For many years," says Atwater, an early historian of Ohio, "on the farm of one Wolf, near Circleville, the oak stood under which the splendid effort of heart-stirring eloquence was faithfully delivered by the person who carried wampum."
This is a new version. Where does Gibson come in?
John Gibson was reputed to have married, in the Indian way, a sister of Logan. Whether she was slain with the other's [sic] of Logan's kin or had died previously, historians do not say.
Gibson and his brother, George, were natives of Lancaster, Pa. John Gibson was with Forbes at the taking of Fort Duquesne. Both brothers were in active service in the Virginia line during the revolution. George Gibson was the father of Pennsylvania's great jurist, John Bannister Gibson.
In 1801, John Gibson was appointed by President Jefferson, secretary of Indiana territory, in which office he served until Indiana became a state in 1816, when he returned to Pittsburgh. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, George Wallace in Braddock, April 10, 1822.
Connolly and Dunmore.
Connolly has been left in this story under arrest at Frederick, Md., by the continental authorities in November, 1775. With other Tories he was kept closely confined until the winter of 1780–'81 when he was exchanged and immediately proceeded to Canada and endeavored to put into effect his expedition against Fort Pitt, but was frustrated.
Dunmore fled to the British and was more or less active against the colonies.
As showing how utterly repugnant to Washington's estimate of Connolly was the man's real character, we have a competent witness in John Ormsby, a sterling Pittsburgh pioneer. Washington, who met Connolly in Pittsburgh in 1770, said he was a sensible, intelligent man, probably with some reason.
A recent historian, Elroy M. Avery, characterizes Connolly as "a man not easily to be admired; his violence and outrages had brought even white men to the verge of open war."
Connolly tried to embroil John Gibson in his nefarious schemes but failed.
John Ormsby left a book of his ownership, in which he inserted copious notes. This book was "The History of the Civil War in America," of London publication. Neville B. Craig had Ormsby's copy and extracted the following in regard to Connolly:
Dr. Connolly was born and bred near Wright's Ferry on the Susquehanna. His father was a grubber among the farmers, who found the secret of pleasing a Quaker orderly widow of the name of Ewing. This match as might be expected proved very disagreeable so that he left nothing to commemorate his memory but the above villainous Doctor.
This fellow had traversed the Illinois country until he could subsist there no longer, so that he appeared at Pittsburgh a few years before the commencement of the Revolution. He was introduced to Lord Dunmore here, who traveled through the Western country to sound the inclinations of the inhabitants as well as the Indians. Connolly, like a hungry wolf, closed with Dunmore a bargain that he would secure a considerable interest among the white inhabitants and Indians on the frontier.
In consequence of this agreement my Lord made him a deed of gift of 2,000 acres of land at the Falls of the Ohio, and 2,000 more to Mr. John Campbell, late of Kentucky, both of which grants are now owend [sic] by the heirs of Col. Campbell.
Connolly Gets Busy.
Connolly immediately set himself to work in disseminating his hellish insinuations among the people. He employed an adjutant to drill the militia, and had the audacity to engage artificers to repair the old fort and in every respect acted the part of a tyrant. He sent runners among the Indians far and near with large promises of soon supplying them with goods and money.
Having thus paved the way for his atrocious designs, he met Dunmore at Alexandria, where they concerted the infernal scheme of massacreing [sic] all those on the frontiers who would not join in their work.
Matters being thus arranged, Dunmore sent Connolly to Gen. Clinton in New York. (This is an erroneous statement. Connolly went to Gage at Boston), who approved the scheme and appointed Connolly a lieutenant colonel and commander of two or three regiments of Whites and Indians, with authority to draw on the Paymaster General for cash.
Upon this exaltation the great and-mighty Connolly set out for Baltimore, where he joined the persons who were taken along with him and who, no doubt, were as sanguinary villains as himself.
A report was whispered among the Minute men at Hagerstown, etc., of Connolly's schemes so that they had a sharp lookout for him, and happily succeeded in arresting him and his comrades, and all the Commissions for the new regiments, with the general place of their operations were found upon him, upon which he was committed to prison.
This news, you may be sure, was joyfully received on the frontier and especially at Pittsburgh, where the writer of these lines resided with his family.
When Lord Dunmore arrived at Pittsburgh he lodged at my house and often closeted with me, as he said for information respecting the disposition of the inhabitants. He threw out some dark insinuations as to my usefulness, in case I would be concerned, but as he found I kept aloof. When he divulged his plans to Connolly, and I suppose to Campbell, else why give him the aforesaid grant of land which he enjoys and which is very valuable?
Plot Not Carried Out.
Had Connolly and his associates reached Pittsburgh there were a great many drunken, idle vagabonds waiting to join him. The savages were also in high expectation, that they would soon glut their vengeance on the distressed frontier inhabitants. But the Almighty Lord showed Himself to be our protector against all the machinations of our European and American foes. Connolly and Arnold, both of whom merited a halter, are now on half pay in the British establishment.
The grant at the Falls of the Ohio covered the site of Louisville, Ky.
Campbell was a patriot. He made the first plan of lots in Pittsbrugh [sic] in 1764. When Connolly sought his Kentucky land at the end of the war he found it had been confiscated by the Continental authorities.
Such was the infamy of the man who tried to make our region part of Virginia and who was fought by Devereux Smith, Arthur St. Clair, Aeneas MacKay, John Ormsby and other Pittsburgh patriots of 1776.