1st day's march to Hellman's, from Pittsburgh 2d, to Dutchman's, two miles west of Greensburg 3d, to Nine-Mile Run (Youngstown) 4th, two miles 'mat of Ligonier 5th, Wells' r., foot Laurel ri 6th, Stony Creek, two miles E 7th, Ryan's 8th, Bedford 9th, Crossings of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata 10th, E. side of Sideling Hill 11th, Burd's, Fort Lyttleton 12th, Stradsburg 13th, Shippensburg  14th, Carlisle

Miles. 15 14 11 11 9 11 15 24 14 20 12 17 11 21

List of persons excepted from pardon by terms of Governor Lee's proclamation, 29th November, 1794: Benjamin Parkinson. John Holcroft. Thomas Lapsley. Edward Cook. Richard Holcroft. John Mitchell. Thomas Spiers. George Parker. Edward Magner, Jr. David Lock. Peter Lyle. William Hay. Thomas Patton. Athur Gardner Daniel Hamilton. William Millar. Edward Wright. David Bradford. Alexander Fulton. William Bradford. William Hanna. Thomas Hughes. Ebenezer Gallagher. John Shields. William McElhenny. Stephenson Jack. Patrick Jack. Andrew Highlands. Of the State of Pennsylvania. William Sutherland Robert Stephenson. William McKinley John Moore. John McCormick. Of Ohio County. in the State of Virginia. " As the army returned through Westmoreland two arrests were made in the southern extremity of that country and one in the neighboring parts of Fayette; they were taken to Philadelphia. . . . One of the two prisoners from Westmoreland was found guilty of setting fire to the house of Wells, the collector, and condemned to be hanged, but was afterwards reprieved and then pardoned by the President. He was a very ignorant man, said to be of an outrageous temper, and subject to occasional fits of insanity."—Brackenridge's History of the Insurrection. WILLIAM FINDLEY - 207 John Mitchell was the man who robbed the Pittsburgh mail, and who was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. He was also reprieved and pardoned by the President. It is a curious circumstance that the two persons who were regularly tried and sentenced to death, the one for arson and the other for ,robbing the mail and murder, should have both committed the crimes within the county of Westmoreland. It was right that they should be pardoned from their punishment when we consider the enormity of the offenses, their magnitude, and their number, which for a full season were perpetrated without punishment in the other portions of the official survey, growing out of the same occasion. CHAPTER XXXVIII. WILLIAM FINDLEY. William Findley, the First Member of Congress from Westmoreland—His Colleague in the Commission to the President of the United States at the Time of the Whiskey Insurrection, David Redick—His Account of his Early Life and his Motives in settling in Pennsylvania—His Settlement in the Octorara Settlement and his Efforts to remove the Obligations of the Scotch Covenanters in Matters Civil—His Early Advantages—His Opinions on Slavery—Elected Member of the Assembly, of the Council of Censors, Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1790, and Member of Congress—" Modern Chivalry" and Findley Caricatured—His Views on the Federal Constitution— His Answer to Rev. Samuel B. Wylie's Strictures on the American Constitutions—His Account of the Publication and Statements of his" History of the Insurrection"—Antagonism of Brackenridge and Findley—Their Political Opposition and Personal Dislikes of each other—Findley's Contributions to the Register—His Shrewdness and Sagacity as a Politician—Debasement of the Politics of that Day–Instances of Personal and Party Abuse—Other work of Findley—His Industry—His Residence—Its Location—His Death and Grave—His Appearance and Dress—His Neighbors—His Family—His identification with the Whiskey Insurrection, and the important part he acted in it. OF the Westmorelanders who were identified with the insurrection, William Findley is the most conspicuous. He was at that time the member of Congress from this district, and his influence and standing are evident from the fact that he with Redick was sent after the meeting at Parkinson's to explain to the President the state of affairs in the western counties, and to arrange a plan by which, if possible, there could be a mutual understanding without the intervention of the army. David Redick, the colleague of Findley, was a native of Ireland, and was by profession a lawyer. He was admitted to the Washington County bar in 1782. In 1786 he was elected a member of the Supreme Executive Council, and in 1788 was chosen vice-president of Pennsylvania. He held other offices of trust, and at the time of the insurrection took an active and prominent part in defense of law, order, and the constitution. William Findley was born in the north of Ireland in 1741 or 1742, and came to Pennsylvania in 1763. He was a descendant of one of the old signers of the Solemn League and Covenant in Scotland, and another of his ancestors bore a prominent part in the memorable siege of Derry in Ireland. The family was thus Scotch-Irish, and sprang from among those whom the persecutions in Scotland under James the Second impelled to seek shelter elsewhere. It was his first intention to go to Carolina, whither many of his father's countrymen had gone, but he changed his mind, and coming to Pennsylvania a mere lad, made one of that famous Octorara settlement, whose history appears to be the pride of all those who in any way are connected with it. He here early brought himself to notice among these "new American covenanters." He says that the motives which impelled him to come to Pennsylvania in preference to going to Carolina were those which arose out of the question of slavery. He had some scruples of the conscience about this matter, and even at that young age considered both the moral and political effects of slavery on the country. He therefore chose to hold his own plow and reap his own grain here rather than raise a family where slavery prevailed. He determined to have no slaves, and never had any ; but he protests that he ever once thought of consigning to perdition, on moral or political grounds, those patriarchs and patriots who held slaves. He defended the course the government of the United States took with regard to the evil, and was apprehensive, as late as 1812, that total abolition in this country would lead to the same results which manumission had led to in Santo Domingo.1 In this religious community he 1 Findley's views on slavery appear to be paradoxical, but they may be reconciled. In his remarkable essay, "Observations, etc.," he says, "Before I had a house of my own, I resided in some families, and very pious families too, who held a number of slaves, and was very intimate in others ; and I was myself then opposed to slavery, as I have been ever since; but I did not, like the author [Dr. Wylie], oppose it with slander and declamation, but with such views as I had of expediency, and of the moral law and the gospel. I was, however, powerfully combatted with the judicial law, the examples of the patriarchs, and of the ancient civilized nations; nor was the curse on Cain forgotten" (p. 236). This whole chapter from which we have taken the above extract is an apology for the institution of slavery as it existed in Pennsylvania. One other extract is pertinent : "But the author [Dr. Wylie] mentions a certain `portion of them [slaves] being doomed to hopeless bondage.' I deny the charge ; at least, as far as it relates to Pennsylvania, it is an infamous slander. No law of the State has doomed any man or class of men to hopeless bondage. There were, indeed, slaves in Pennsylvania under the English government. Those being already by law the property of their owners, the Legislature could not interfere more than they could do with real estates. Such interference would have been an ex post facto law,—a law made after the act was done. The principle is abhorrent both to the laws of God and man." Mr. Findley's notions, however, would seem to have undergone a change if the record is any evidence thereof: "August Sessions, 1817. "ANN FINDLEY.—On the petition of Matthew Jack, of the County of Westmoreland, stating that by Indenture duly executed and bearing date the 9th day of March, A.D. 1799, Ann Findley, a female negro, was in due form bound as a servant to William Findley, Esquire, to serve the said William Findley, his executors, or assigns from the date of the said Indenture for and during the term of nineteen years then next ensuing. And the said William Findley by assignment executed the 2nd day of April, A.D. 1816, did assign and transfer all his right, title, and claim to the said Ann Findley unto the petitioner agreeably to the said Indenture. That the said Ann Findley being a single woman during the time of her servitude did commit fornication, and was pregnant 208 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. advanced more liberal ideas than had been advanced or even entertained before, and he refused to answer in public, questions of a secular and temporal nature which were interspersed with questions of a religious or spiritual nature, and which he, as a lay officer of the church, was necessitated to answer and to propound. He helped by this and other reasonable innovations to break the traditional obligations which some wanted to make as binding in America as in Scotland. While he was under his father's roof, he had the advantage of a larger library of books on church history and divinity than was possessed by most of his neighbors. He says that he had also been taught to read the Bible, and that he had inclined to some books on ancient history. 1 The evidence of his application and taste is seen in his subsequent productions, because it was not possible for him, for a length of time after he came to America, to devote himself studiously to literary pursuits. When the Revolution commenced he took sides with his adopted country and served in the army. He rose to the rank of captain, and he is so designated in some of the old records. About the close of the war, 1782, he came into Westmoreland, And bought the farm upon which he resided until his death. He could not pay for his farm at once, but he was strong-armed, young, and willing to work. His farm, now a beautiful and valuable tract between Latrobe and St. Vincent's, through which the Pennsylvania Railroad passes, had then been just opened out, and more than four-fifths of it was covered with bushes, briers, and swamp-growth. He was a weaver by trade, and he set up his loom in one of the low rooms of his first log cabin, and it remained there till the house was demolished. The community around him was, in religious preference, Presbyterian, and in no long time he was one of the chief members of the church body, a prominent layman, and for many years an elder. Nor was he less prominent in political affairs. He was a born leader, and had from the first not only the confidence of the most substantial citizens of his district, but obtained and held an ascendency over the common people which was relaxed only with his death. He was, before he had been here any length of time, elected to the Assembly, and was a colleague of Brackenridge there. He was one of the Council of Censors during all the sittings of the board. In this body he voted invariably against with and delivered of three bastard children within the time of her said servitude, one of whom within the period of her servitude with the said petitioner. By reason whereof he has sustained great loss and damage, and praying the Court to order and direct that the said Ann Findley serve the said petitioner such further time beyond the term in the aforesaid Indenture mentioned as the Court might think fit and sufficient to compensate the petitioner for the loss and damage which he sustained as aforesaid. The Court upon due proof and consideration of the premises do adjudge and order that the said Ann Findley do serve the said petitioner, Matthew Jack, for the term of eighteen months from and after the expiration of the term of nineteen years in the said petition mentioned." 1 "Observations, etc.," p. 234. the party which professed Federalism, and his vote at all times is found upon the opposite list from St. Clair's, who sat as a censor from Philadelphia. This board sat from November the 10th, 1783, until the Constitution of 1790 was adopted. Findley, with William Todd as his colleague, represented Westmoreland in the Constitutional Convention of 1789-90. In the Convention he introduced a resolution, which he hoped to become a law under the Constitution, to educate the poor gratis. In 1791 he was elected to Congress from the Westmoreland district, and he sat in the House until 1799, and then, after an interval of two terms, from 1803 to 1817. Some of his old friends say that he would have been returned to this time had he lived. In Congress his political enemies said he was inconsistent, but such was his tact that his constituents never forsook him. He always managed to come out on the side of the people, not only in the matter of his opposition to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, but in the far more serious matter to him and to them of the Whiskey Insurrection, and in the handling of the causes which brought about the war of 1812. He was something of a fluent talker, but not much of a public speaker ; his strength lay in the power with which he controlled the people, by going to them while they were at work in the field, treating them to a glass of grog, and giving a push at a house-raising. He seldom, indeed, spoke at public meetings, but none could plan a public meeting or control the ends of one better than he, whence Brackenridge fails not to call him a demagogue, one who temporized with the populace, and who would descend to anything for the sake of the " sweet voices of. the people." Party lines were not drawn so finely then as they were somewhat later, and although after the adoption of the-Constitution he and Brackenridge were of the same political .cast in all essentials, yet neither of them was of the material to follow the other ; each of them must be a leader. We call coolly appreciate the feeling with which a man of the temperament, the learning, and the aspiration of Brackenridge, who lately adorned the Supreme Bench with his legal acumen and his philosophy, could look upon a man like Findley, who was self-educated, and used all' his life to associate with the commonest kind of common people. In the volubility- of his language and the keenness of his wit Brackenridge had the advantage. He has told us in " Modern Chivalry" the kind of popularity Findley longed for and sought after. The character of "Mr. Traddle" at the cross-roads, where the people were collected to fill an occasional vacancy, is intended for Findley. He has a sling at him all through the book. Among the reasons which Capt. Farrago gives for not voting for Traddle, the popular candidate, is this, that he does not object to him " because he is a weaver, but because he is nothing else but a weaver."' 2 2 As a curiosity in literature, and lest no other opportunity should offer to give an extract from this rare book, “Modern Chivalry," to cos. WILLIAM FINDLEY - 209 The use of the word demagogue is in our day used interchangeably with the word politician. It is thus that it is sometimes hard to discriminate, and admitting the distinction we cannot sometimes see the difference. Findley Was a consummate politician, and something more than a mere puller of threads and a disentangler of skeins. He helped to shape political opinion here as much possibly as any other man in Western Pennsylvania in his day, and as a politician was more effective out of Congress than in it. He had a large personal acquaintance, and his manners were such as to make him a favorite in a democracy. Besides this, be had the sympathy and the influence of the strongest church organization in the country at that day. The Scotch-Irish swore by Findley. The parties of Federal and anti-Federal, strictly speaking, ended with the adoption of the Federal Constitution, although the name itself which distinguished them was used long after there was any necessity for the distinction which brought it into use, and when in truth the distinction was on account of different causes altogether from those which gave rise to that party appellation. The original elements vey an idea of the satire therein to those to whom it is not accessible, we give the following, which is near the close of the book, the character of "Traddle" itself being introduced very early therein : "On the third day, renewing their journey, the conversation between the captain and his servant turned on the character and history of the present revenue officer, the late Teague O'Reagan. The captain gave Duncan a relation of what had happened in the case of the attempt to draw him off to the Philosophical Society, to induce him to preach, and even to take a seat in the Legislature of the United States; that had it not been for a certain Traddle, a weaver, whom they had been fortunate enough to substitute for him, the people would most undoubtedly have elected Teague and sent him to Congress. "'Guid deliver us!' said Duncan; ' do they make Parliament men o' weavers i' this kintra? In Scotland it maun be a duke or a laird that can hae a seat there.' " This is a republic, Duncan,' said the captain, 'and the rights of man are understood and exercised by the people' " And if he could be i' the Congress, why did you let him be a gauger ?' said Duncan. "'This is all the prejudice of education, Duncan,' said the captain. 'An appointment in the revenue, or any other under the executive of the United States, ought not to have disgrace attached to it in the popular opinion, not even in the case of the hangman, for it is a necessary, and ought to be held a sacred, duty.' "'I dinna ken how it is,' said Duncan, but I see they has everything tail foremost in this kintra to what they hae in Scotland,—a gauger a gentleman, weavers in the Legislature, and even the hangman respectit' "Just at this instant was heard by the wayside the gingling of a loom in a small cabin with a window towards the road. It entered the head of Duncan rather indiscreetly to expostulate with the weaver, and to know why it was that he also did not attain a seat in some public body. Advancing to the orifice, as it might be called, he applied his mouth and bespoke him as he sat upon the loom thus: 'Traddle,' said he, giving him the same name that the captain had given the other, why is it that ye sit here, treading these twa stecks, and playing wi' your elbows as you throw the thread, when there is one o' your occupation not far off that is now a member of the house o' lords, or commons, in America, and is gene to the Congress o' the United States? Canna you get yoursel elected? or in it because ye dinna offer that ye are left behind in this manner? Ye should be striving, man, while gold posts are geeing, and no be sitting there wi' your hurdies on a beam. Diuna your neighbours gie ye a vote? Ye should get a chapin o' whiskey, man, and drink till them, and gar them vote, or, ye should gas out and talk politics and mak speeches.'" of these parties became commingled after having been disturbed, and some of the most violent opponents of the Constitution before it was adopted took their stand in support of it when it was adopted, while such as Madison and Brackenridge united with Gallatin and Findley in condemning some of the most prominent measures of the first administration. The feelings which actuated this opposition (which appears to have been the strongest from those who were born outside of America), was the fear that that instrument was too republican in its nature ; that the people would have so much liberty that in a little time through anarchy they would have none, and that a constitution less democratic, and modeled closer after that of England, would be more durable and less liable to be broken. Findley even published a work in which he vindicated the American constitutions. This work, called " Observations on the Two Sons of Oil," was an answer to the illiberal strictures of the Rev.. Samuel B. Wylie, who, in his holy zeal in a work under that title, took occasion to propagate the false doctrine that the written constitutions of these States did not prohibit the violation of the laws of God, and who asserted that because the Church and the State were not united the people werelnot answerable to the moral law, and that the nation was a nation of infidels, in which, in short, he grossly misrepresented the government of the State and of the United States, while professing his " slippery titled" book to be a commentary on the symbolical vision of the prophecy of Zechariah. Findley, being a prominent churchman, was picked upon as the person to answer the charges of the reverend gentleman. He applied himself laboriously to the task, and brought to bear all his polemical as well as his political knowledge. He took the position that the Church and the State were separate institutions ; the one divine and the other human. His answer swelled out to a volume of nearly four hundred pages. He is somewhat prolix, and at times a little stupid, but he goes through a wide range, and supports his assertions and statements by numerous quotations from, and references to, the writers of church history, both modern and patristic, and by texts from the Scriptures. Findley's "History of the Insurrection" has been quoted by nearly every general and local historian who has written upon that subject. But his treatise, on the whole, was written but to give a partial view of the matter, and as an apology for his own share in it, as was Brackenridge's account, who thought it worth while to recount the affair at large to illustrate and explain his own peculiar course. Findley's account was not in all particulars correct, so his contemporaries said, and he himself afterwards acknowledged that in some matters he had been misinformed, and in others he had relied on vague reports. In writing that history he delayed the work for a year after he had commenced it, in. order, as he says, to 210 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. obtain correct information, and having in the mean time consulted Addison, Hamilton, Redick, Irvine, and others, yet after it was published he found that it was in detail not correct as he intended it should be. A new editor was proposed for a new and corrected edition. Hamilton Rowan, a respectable Irish refugee, while in this country proposed to have it printed in Ireland, where it could be done cheaper at that time than in this country.1 The author, in revising it, found that his informers had been mistaken or misinformed in some things, and that he must make considerable alteration respecting the conduct of particular persons, such as Addison and Ross. The corrections were sent with the copy, but the ship was taken at sea and both lost, and he himself lost the notes of revision. There was only one edition of the " History" printed, and copies are now scarce, the few extant being in the possession of various historical societies, of bibliopolists, or in the State library. This work is undoubtedly the most substantial and important one he wrote, and treating as it did of a political subject, and giving the views of one of the most active participants in that great civil disturbance, it could not but be a work to which the attention of many should be directed. It has been quoted and drawn upon by eminent legal and historical writers, such as Wharton and Hildreth ; while, on the other hand, it has been assailed with virulence by the political opponents of the author, and ridiculed by the New England Federalists. " Shall we match Joel Barlow," exclaimed Fisher Ames, indignantly, 'against Homer and Hesiod? Can Thomas Paine contend against Plato? or could Findley's history of his own (Whiskey) insurrection vie with Sallust's narrative of Catiline ?" Touching the criticisms and the attacks his book received, all of his adversaries are free to admit that in the statement of facts he would not knowingly deviate from truth, but they assert that his prejudices were strong, and that his personal enmity biased his judgment. 2 Findley and Brackenridge were very bitterly opposed to each other. In the matter of substantial gain and advantage, Findley probably had the best of Brackenridge ; but now that they and their gen- 1 The authority for this is Findley himself, in a letter in the Register. Archibald Hamilton Rowan was a noted Irish patriot who had been imprisoned in his own country on account of his efforts as an agitator. In 1797 he established himself as a calico-printer and dyer on the banks of the Brandywine. Subsequent to this he went to Ireland. (See Harper's Monthly Magazine, January, 1881, article on "Calico-Printing" Rowan is mentioned in "The Irish Bar," chap. ix. He there figures as a friend of Simon Butler, a barrister, who, for publishing a libel against the House of Lords (Ireland), was sentenced and fined by the Lord Chancellor. In the course of the sentence words were used which were construed as a personal insult, and Rowan for his friend waited on the Lord Chancellor, John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare, Who had been something of a duelist. Mr. Rowan is here called " a well-known Irish gentleman." 2 Even the editor of Brackenridge's " Whiskey Insurrection" allows the above admission. eration have passed, Brackenridge still gets the ear of the people in his inimitable satire in which Findley is caricatured. These two politicians first came into contact in the Assembly. Brackenridge .was elected at the instance of the inhabitants of Pittsburgh and that region about, for the avowed object of securing the erection of a new county. Findley then was a member for Westmoreland. Here they came into collision frequently, and especially on the subject of a loan-office, a measure for which the people of the West were clamorous. Findley supported the bill ; Brackenridge opposed it. Brackenridge cared little for the opinion of the people on questions upon which he regarded them unable to judge intelligently, and he frequently gave expression to his contempt for them. " What do they know about such things," said. he, indignantly. These expressions and the speech on this occasion were reported against him, and much use was made of them- A long paper war then followed between him and Findley, and from the recrimination which passed between them, aggravated by their personal dislikes, was laid the foundation of their personal and political enmity. In a five-column letter in the Farmer's Register for Nov. 18, 1808, Findley acknowledges himself to be the author of many articles which had been published in that paper for more than three years past under the nom de plume of "Sidney." He had indeed, from the establishing of the Register in 1798, furnished circular letters from time to time during the whole term of his official career. The paper was pledged to the support of the Democratic-Republican ticket, and it was a powerful instrument in his hands and in the hands of his friends. It was the onhy paper within the county, and the source of all public news and information. The mildness of its editoriah articles did not make it offensive to the general reader, and its political course and preferences were to be gathered from the department of news, from the resolutions of the local meetings, and from the leaders which were disguised under the signature of professedly disinterested correspondents. Of Findley's articles many appeared between 1805 and 1808. Some of these articles were lengthy and prolix, extending to two numbers of the paper, and filling as many as ten closely printed columns of matter. While there undoubtedly was a censorship exercised over the paper by the editors, there appeared to be a show of fairness in the offer that its columns were open to any one who felt disposed to take exceptions at anything that appeared in it. Probably there was nothing Findley so much counted on as on an outspoken adversary. This offer, it is true, was sometimes taken advantage of, but never without the controversial article being answered, and repaid with full interest in kind. The result in every event was that Findley always carried the election, and this notwith- WILLIAM FINDLEY - 211 standing open charges of time-serving and of apparent changes of principles and measures.1 The most noted of these changes was from his opposition to his support of James Ross, one of the foremost leaders of the Republican-Democratic party in the West, in his candidacy for Governor. Throughout this region Ross was very popular, and was early acknowledged as a representative man. Findley was charged for supporting McKean for the Governorship as against Ross in 1799, and then for supporting Ross in 1808. In 1799, Findley had been one of a committee which was made up of politicians over all the State to select one who would be the most acceptable candidate for that office. He says that, finding McKean to be without doubt the one, he gave him his support. This change in 1808 opened out many batteries. If the speeches, the resolutions, the publications which passed in that campaign in Western Pennsylvania were before us we should be amused, and then astonished. There has probably been none other like it since that day. Politics had then one element in it which is now, so far as an element that makes results is concerned, totally absent. It was the day when the infidelity of the French encyclopaedists and politicians had taken possession of those Americans who professed deism, or downright atheism. We have seen attacks and replies as glibly arranged and far more scurrilous than those of the popular haranguers and writers of the " Free Thought School" of our own day. To repeat these would be to shock the moral sensibilities of any free-thinker or rationalist with whom we are acquainted, and who carries the memory of a Christian father or mother. But in such a controversy, and in such a conflict, it could not be otherwise than that Findley should be the gainer. In the Register, one writer who styles himself the " Friend of Truth," attacked Findley for opposing Ross on religious grounds, ostensibly because Ross had not subscribed to the religious test, and because he, on a current report, had somewhere in Westmoreland County given the sacrament to his dog, in contempt and derision of the most sacred ordinance of Christians. Then Findley gathering his arrows, shot them in showers at Tom Paine and the infidels who attempted to overthrow the Christian religion and to change the Constitution. What argument could resist the political defense that covered itself behind texts from the Scriptures? In 1812, Findley was opposed in the election for congressman by Thomas Pollock. The announcement of Pollock was in the form of an advertisement, which said that Pollock " was descended from a family well known on the frontiers in times of danger." He had been county commissioner, a justice of the peace, 1 A writer in the Gazette so late as 1823 (August 15th) has this to say : "In 1817 we were required to vote, but were denied the right of choice; we had freedom of thought, speech, and action, but were forbidden to 'favour opposition to William Findley.'" and a member of the Assembly three successive times. Pollock made a strong run, but as the result in the thirteen election districts which made up the congressional district of Westmoreland, Indiana, Jefferson, and Armstrong, Findley had 1260 votes, and Pollock, 1116. It was indeed a time of vituperation and abuse in politics, and this vituperation and abuse was not confined to the hustings. The evidence of most of this being made public in political speeches and in the common newspapers, is not at present accessible to us. That which found its way into more permanent literature has been in part preserved. The individual and political character of no public man of his day was more bitterly and acrimoniously attacked than that of Findley. In addition to his "History of the Insurrection of Western Pennsylvania," published in 1796, and " Observations," vindicating religious liberty, published in 1812, he had published previously (1794) " A Review of the Funding System." Upon the question of the Federal Constitution, Findley took sides with Gallatin, and Gallatin was to Jefferson what Hamilton was to Washington. He attacked Hamilton severely in his " History of the Insurrection," and their respective statements sometimes do not coincide. He did not agree with some of the acts of the first Federal administration, but this disagreement was more on the construction of powers than in opposition to their ends. When the vote on Jay's treaty was taken in the House, to avoid giving his vote he left the House, and was brought up by the sergeant-at-arms. But from the records it is very apparent that Findley was no idler. Besides .these productions which we have mentioned there were other contributions of his which appeared in the papers printed in the East. These would indicate that be was a very assiduous and a laborious worker. He was present at every session of Congress. When at home he superintended his farm and overlooked the interests of his children, who were married and who lived near him. He took a very active interest in the affairs of his church, Unity, of which he was for many years an active elder. In the councils of the congregation his voice was all potent. Findley's residence was in Unity township, and the site of his first house is very nearly indicated by the location of the ovens of the "Monastery Coke-Works" along the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. That house was lately burnt down. It was built of hewed logs, was two stories in height, and for its day must have been a very credible building. In this house he lived till he became old and infirm, when he took up his abode in the house of his daughter, Mrs. Carothers, which was on a farm .taken off the original tract, and was located on the left side of the road going from the monastery to Latrobe, and nearly opposite the residence of John George, Esq. In this house he died. His body was buried in the grave- 212 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. yard of Unity Church, and over it is a plain gray tombstone with the following. inscription : The Venerable William Findley DEPARTED THIS LIFE April 5, 1821 In the 80th year Of His Age In size Mr. Findley was a large man ; his complexion was florid ; he wore no beard, and was very tidy and tasteful in his dress. When at home he dressed in homespun, but on going out in fair weather wore a complete suit of white, with white hat having a broad rim, silk stockings, and cue. In the cold season his dress was the conventional shad-belly coat, long waistcoat, dark knee-breeches, long boots, but always the broad-rimmed white beaver hat. His manners, as one would infer, were agreeable and plain, although when he was busied at work writing upon a subject that kept his attention for days at a time he did not like it when he was disturbed, and when one came even on business he soon dismissed him. He had many visitors. Of his neighbors those who were near and who had taken a more or less active part in public concerns were William Todd, his colleague in the Constitutional Convention of 1789-90 ; Gen. St. Clair, who usually met Findley at the village of Youngstown, which was intermediate between the two ; George Smith, Esq., a noticeable man in the Whiskey Insurrection on the side of law, and afterwards an officer in the War of Eighteen-Twelve ; the Sloans and the Craigs, who lived farther down the Loyalhanna ; and the Proctors and Lochrys, who lived towards St. Xavier's Convent from his place. An old lady who passed her childhood in the family of Findley, and to whom we acknowledge indebtedness for items of a personal nature, has said that the periodical occasion of his going to Congress was one of the greatest magnitude not only in the family but in the neighborhood. He went of course on horseback, and on a horse which he used for that purpose only. For weeks before he started arrangements were making, his horse was well housed and well cared for, and none was allowed to use him, and an abundance of the finest white linen was prepared for the use of the congressman until he should get home. On the day which had been fixed for his departure all the neighbors round came to see him off, to lift their hats and say good-by. The women part of the household would always be in commotion, for the journey at that day was great, the distance long, and the goodman would be away so long. Findley was twice married. His second wife was a widow Carothers, a very beautiful woman, and much younger than he. By his first wife he had three children,—David, an officer in the regular army ; Nellie, who married a Carothers, a son of Findley's second wife by her former husband ; and Mary, who was married to John Black. If he has any descendants within our own county it is not generally known. Findley's identification with the Whiskey Insurrection is such that he must ever be regarded one of the principal characters figuring in it. That he accredited himself with honor and as a patriot none at this day would deny. That he was indiscreet, and at first inactive, something of a time-server, and gave the seditious some occasion to think he was for open rebellion and resistance, will likewise not be denied- But in this he went not so far as either Brackenridge, Gallatin, or Cook. From his local habitation and from the situation of his district he was at the outer edge of that whirlpool. He came to his senses quicker than most of the rest, and when he did he, with the greatest tact and with a display of knowledge of human nature rarely exceeded, used all his influence for the establishing of " law, order, and the constitution." In this he was eminently successful, for he had the confidence of Washington probably to almost as great an extent as any man of his day in Western Pennsylvania, and certainly more of the confidence of his constituents than any other man in it. In his plan of settlement he displayed what Macaulay says is the highest statesmanship, the statesmanship that uses every available means for a successful compromise. 1 One extract from his correspondence extending throughout this period will probably give his views on the subject quite as well as the whole of his correspondence together. In a letter written to Governor Mifflin as early as Nov. 21, 1792,2 he says,— " Though Congress is fully vested with the Power of levying Excises, yet the necessity, the time, the subjects of excise, and the People's prejudices respecting it are questions of serious importance to government. For my part, from a consideration of those things, I thought that power was about to be exercised prematurely, and with an honest zeal for the success of the government, exerted myself in my station to prevent it ; but being once made and its effects not experienced I did not move last session for a repeal, but endeavoured to procure such alterations as I conceived would have had a tendency to give it effect. The industry and zeal with which, in all my correspondence, I have endeavoured to promote a regular line of conduct among the people has been such as will never occasion me to blush ; but that I should, in the pressnt. situation of things, undertake to advise the people to go on with distilling and pay the excise would be lost labour. Thus far, however, I freely declare that I shall certainly continue to use what influence I have to direct the opposition into a regular and orderly channel. And this, I presume, is all that is contemplated by the mass of the People." 1 Since this sketch of William Findley was written, an autobiographical sketch has appeared in the "Pennsylvania Magazine of History." From this article we give these additional details: Purposing to go to the frontier of Pennsylvania as early as Bouquet's time, he was prevented by the Indian wars, and taught school in the Octorara settlement for several years, until the office was opened for the sale of western lands. In 1760 he married, and purchased land in now Franklin County. Was elected County Commissioner for two terms of three years each. Came to Westmoreland County about 1781. Shortly after his arrival here refused to be sent to the Assembly, but was sent ss one of the Council of Censors. From that time until 1812 (so he writes), he had never been but one whole winter with his family, and that was when he declined serving in Congress. He was then successively elected a member of the Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution ; a member of the Supreme Executive Council ; a member of the first Stab Legislature under the Constitution of 1790; a member of the Second Congress; and a member of the State Senate. 2 Papers relating to the Whiskey Insurrection, "Penn. Arch.," New Series, vol. iv., 49. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR - 213 CHAPTER XXXIX. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. Nativity and Birth—History of his Family in Scotland—Is sent to College, and thence to London to study Medicine—Enters the British Army as an Ensign—Comes to America in the French and Indian War —Serves under Wolfe in Canada—Marries in Boston—Appears in Western Pennsylvania— Commands at Fort Ligonier—Appointed to Office in Bedford County under the Proprietary Government and in Westmoreland County—Takes an active part in the Border Troubles with Virginia, and in Dunmore's War—Agent of the Penns—Accompanies the Congressional Committee to Fort Pitt, 1775—Resolutions of May 16, 1775, at Hannastown—The Associators—Plan to go against Detroit—Takes part with the Colonies in the Revolutionary War—Appointed and Commissioned Colonel in Pennsylvania Service—Sent to Canada—At Three Rivers—Services in Canada—Joins Washington—His Services in the Jersey Campaign of 1776—Is sent to Command at Ticonderoga—Campaign of 1777—Burgoyne's Advance—Surrender of Ticonderoga—Court of Inquiry—St. Clair at Yorktown—And with Greene—Enters Civil Life—Member of the Council of Censors—Member of Continental Congress—Elected its President—Erection and Organization of the Northwestern Territory—Appointed its Governor—Enters upon his Duties as Governor—Indian War—Made Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the American Army—Expedition against the Miami Indians—Account of the Battle and Defeat—His Politics-His Duties as Governor—Is Removed from Office—Returns to Ligonier Valley—His Residence—His Financial Embarrassment—Its Causes—Treatment of the Government in regard to these Claims—Is sold out by the Sheriff—Removes from his Home—His Last Days—His Death, Funeral, and Monument—Chattering over his Grave—Observations on hie Character and Misfortunes. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR is a historic character, and as such a great part of his public career belongs to the history of the republic. But as he was so intimately connected with the formation of our county, it is natural that any one who inquires into our early history should be interested in the particulars of the life of this man, whose name is met with so often, and who is so inseparably connected with it. St. Clair was by birth a Scot, and was of a family of early note in their native country, they taking their name itself back in the middle centuries. Arthur was born in 1734,1 at Thurso Castle, in the county of Caithness, and was the son of William St. Clair, of the same stock as the then Earl of Caithness, from a common ancestry.2 The deeds of the ancient family 1 The day or month is not known. 2 A gentleman with a taste for research has thus traced the family of St. Clair down from very early times: “The St. Clairs of Scotland are descended from a Norman family. Walderne de St. Clair, a Norman knight, married Margaret, daughter of Richard, Duke of Normandy. William de St. Clair, their second son, a brave and adventurous knight, settled in Scotland in the reign of Malcom Canmore, and obtained from that monarch large grants of land. In the wars about the crown of Scotland between Baliol and Bruce the St. Clairs adhered to the side of Bruce, and on his final success participated in his good fortune by an increase of their domains. John de St. Clair was a member of the first Parliament summoned by Bruce. The chief of the St. Clairs married a Douglass, whose mother was daughter of Robert Bruce. William St. Clair married Elizabeth, daughter of Malice Spar, Earl of Orkney and Stratherne, in whose right their son was created Earl of Orkney by Haco, King of Norway, to which country the Orkney Islands then belonged. The title remained with the family of St. Clair until 1471, when it was annexed to the crown of Scotland by act of Parliament. In exchange for the Orkney Islands and title of their earl, the domains of Ravenscraig were bestowed npon William St. Clair, who was entitled Earl of Caithness. The St. Claim built the castle of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, and also the castles of Ravenscraig and Beall., on the mainland. were sung to the harp by many of the border minstrels, and the last and sweetest of them all, the " Wizard of the North," in " The. Song of Harold," tells of the " storm-swept Orcades, where once St. Clairs held princely sway." 3 But through the vicissitudes of fortune the family had lost their once high position, and their ancestral estates, situate mostly in the cold and barren Orkneys, no longer yielded a revenue after the abolition of the feudal tenures, and, like other of the most ancient families of that part of the island, they were of no influence in their native land. The St. Clairs, with "About 1750 the St. Clairs were at the height of their power and opulence. At that time William St. Clair, the bead of the family, was Prince of the Orkneys, Earl of Caithness and Stratherne, Baron of Roelle: and Pentland, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Warden of the Marches, and High Chancellor of Scotland. When the chief St. Clair visited the royal court he traveled in great state, with more than a thousand gentlemen in his train, all of whom were his vassals and retainers. " At length things changed, and Oliver St. Clair, the unworthy favorite of James V., lost by bad conduct the battle of Solway Moss, and so broke the heart of that monarch. From the civil war of 1642, between king and Parliament, in the Scottish rebellion in 1715, the St. Claire adhered loyally to the house of Stuart, and hence suffered by defeat banishment and confiscation." Mr. William H. Smith (see "Life and Public Services of Arthnr St. Clair") says that the generally accepted opinion that Clair was a grandson of the then Earl of Rollin is erroneous, but they were descendants of a common ancestor. The brief memoir which we contribute was written before the publication of " The St. Clair Papers," published 1882 (Cincinnati : It. Clarke & Co.). We are of opinion that it would not have detracted from the intrinsic worth of that excellent memoir—the most complete yet published, and which we anxiously looked for—if the compiler had expressed his indebtedness to some gentlemen of onr own connty whose work and labor he has appropriated to such good advantage; who dug out, so to speak, the ore which he cast into the crucible of history. The title of Earl of Caithness, we may further remark, in the Scottish peerage extends back to 1455, when the family were raised to the nobility by James II. of Scotland, Henry VI. being the king of England. This did not entitle those bearing the name to sit in Parliament, but in June, 1866, the late earl was created Baron Barrowgill, and thus became member of the House of Lords. This late earl, who died on the 10th of March, 1881, in the city of New York, where he had but just landed Intending to make a tour of the United States for pleasure and health, was James Sinclair (the family having long since Anglicized their name), F.R.S., Earl of Caithness and Lord Berriedale in the peerage of Scotiand, Baron Barrowgill, of Barrowgill Castle, in that of the United Kingdom, and Baronet of Nova Scotia. He was born Dec. 18, 1821 ; succeeded his father as fourteenth earl Dec. 24,1855, and was created Baron Barrowgill June 12, 1866. Like his father, he became Lord Lieutenant of Caithness-shire. Caithness is a maritime connty in the extreme north of Scotland , on the west side is a spot of green turf known to all school-boys as John O'Groat's House, one of the extreme ends of Great Britain. Barrowgill Castle, the present home of the family, is in Caithness, and is over six hundred years old, and the possessions include six continuous miles of sea-coast. The other country seats are Tister House, Caithnessshire, and Stagenhoe Park, in Welwyn, and there is a London residence besides. Jam Saris. 3 " Then from his seal, with lofty air, Rose Harold, bard of brave St. Clair; St. Clair, who, feasting with Lord Home, Had with that lord to battle come. Harold was born where restless seas Howl ronnd the storm-swept Orcades ; Where once St. Clair held princely sway O'er isle and islet, strait and bay Still nods their palace to its fall, Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall." See also note in " Lay of the Last Minstrel," Canto VI.; and also Capt. Wedderburn's courtship, "English and Scottish Ballads," vol. viii. 214 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. their numerous retainers, remained loyal to the Stuarts during the rebellion, and they were recompensed with banishment and the confiscation of their estates. At length an effort was made to restore in the learned professions some of that honor which had passed to other hands, which distinction was partly theirs when the sword was mightier than the pen, and the dignity of the gown was confined to the yew tree shade of the cloister. As Arthur could not inherit any of the landed property entailed in the direct line of primogeniture, being the son of a younger son, he made choice of the medical profession, and to secure his education entered the University of Edinburgh, famous at that day for its prominent schools in that department. After the death of his father he removed to London for the benefits afforded by the clinical practice at the great hospitals of the metropolis, and was there indentured to the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. But the noise of arms then shaking the world, he chose to relinquish his scientific calling and to follow the vocation of the soldier. When he came into 'the great heart of the world it was throbbing with the anticipation of future glorious actions. The rattling of drums, the blare of bugles, and the measured tramp of the files of soldiers echoed round the street corners of the capital day and night. War had been declared between Great Britain and France, 1 and under the new life infused into the nation by Pitt the young men were everywhere forsaking the pursuits of peace and enlisting. Arthur, with the help of his family, purchased an ensign's commission in the army,2 and soon after, in 1758, came to America with the corps of Gen. Amherst, in the fleet under Admiral Boscawen. This was at the commencement of the French and Indian war, which, after enduring for seven years, resulted in the acquisition of the Canadian Provinces, then under the French, by the British to the American appendages of the crown. While in this army he learned the military science under such leaders as Murray, Monckton, and Wolfe, the commander of this expedition. Under Wolfe he served in the campaign against Quebec, and was with that hero when he fell in the moment of victory, after the escalading of Mount Abraham. After remaining some time at the garrisoned fortress of Quebec, St. Clair went with a part of his regiment to Boston, then the capital town of the Northeast. In May, 1760, he was married to Miss Phoebe Bayard, in Trinity Church, Boston, by the rector, the 1 1756. 2 His mother, upon whom had rested the care of his training, died in the winter of 1756-57. His regiment was the Sixtieth, or Royal American Regiment of Foot. Date of his ensignry, 3d May, 1757. His regiment was projected by the Duke of Cumberland. It consisted of four battalions of one thousand men each. The first battalion was commanded by Monckton, the second by Lawrence. St. Clair belonged to the second battalion. It was organized under act of Parliament, 29 George II , c. v. Col. Bouquet belonged to this regiment —Pens. Magazine, etc., No. 2, vol. iii. Rev. William Hooper. Mrs. St. Clair was born in 1743, and survived her husband some six or seven years. She was the daughter of Balthazer Bayard and Mary Bowdoin, a half-sister of Governor James Bowdoin, of Massachusetts Bay. 3 With his wife he got much money. In 1759 he had been commissioned a lieutenant; this he resigned in April, 1762.4 It is very likely that for a few years after his marriage he remained at Boston or Philadelphia, and that he took no further part in the French and Indian war, which terminated in 1764. But shortly after this time he manifestly was in Western Pennsylvania, as he had a parcel of the ground about Fort Pitt, which was granted him by Gen. Gage, 5 and we believe that from 1765 until 1771 all his attention and time were centred in this region, either in watching his own pecuniary interests or in a supervisory capacity, under the commander-in-chief of the British army in America, with whom he was related, or latterly, and especially after the treaty of 1768, as an agent of the proprietors of the Province. The documentary evidence which we refer to shows that he had charge of Fort Ligonier, then one of His Majesty's forts, and that he was authorized to and did grant permits the same as a regular officer, before the Penns passed titles. 6 Immediately after the opening of the land office, in 1769, he is identi- 3 She married Balthazer Bayard (or Byard, as they wrote it) in 1727. Died 1780. 4 For dates see chronological table at end of this chapter. From the date of his resignation in the British army, that is 1762, to 1767 there is a hiatus which has not been satisfactorily filled. The copy of the permit to Frederick Rhorer, which we give in the note to Chapter VII., and which has not before this time been made public, but which fixes a part of the disputed facts, shows that in April, 1787, Arthur St. Clair, " late lieutenant in his Majesty's Sixtieth Regiment of Foot, having the care of his Majesty's fort of Legonier," was employed in the parts. But the dates of his commissions and his resignation correspond with the official records of the British army, from which they were taken. A copy of the " British Army Lists"' is in the library of the New York Historical Society, and these exactly agree with those furnished from the British War Office. Many writers say that after the close of the French and Indian war (1764) Gen. Gage (who was a relative, and who afterwards commanded the British at Boston) appointed him to take command of the forts in Western Pennsylvania, and have the military stoms contained in those forts removed to the headquarters of the army at New York. See sketch in National Intelligencer, quoted in Life and Public Services, etc.; also report of Committee of Claims, etc , Senate of the United Statss, Mr. Brodhead, Chairman, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session ; also Day's " Historical Collections," pp. 688 and 887, and Rupp's " History of West ern Pennsylvania," p. 281). We cannot be led to believe, from the evidence within reach, that he served with Bouquet in 1763-64. There was a Capt. St. Clair with Bouquet, but not Arthur. 5 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. x. p.483. St. Clair to president of Penn. sylvania, 1785. 6 Fort Ligonier was garrisoned part of the time after Pontiac's war, 1764, by provincial troops, commissioned by the Province. (See Col. Miles' Journal, elsewhere referred to, and in Penn. Arch., Second Seriss, vol. ii. p. 560.) " In the year 1759 I was stationed at Ligonier, and had twenty-five men, picked out of the two battalions, under my command." At present we are not prepared to say that the Province garrisoned these forts in Western Pennsylvania prior to the purchase of 1768, but think it did not; but that they were garrisoned or at least under command of regular officers. "His Majesty, the king of Great Britain, having conquered the French in this country, all the forts and settlements the French had is now become the property of the king of England"—Crogan's Journal, 1765. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR - 215 fled with some transactions as their agent. He then, with his brother-in-law, Capt. Bayard, took up large bodies of land in Ligonier Valley. In the description of boundary lands in old title papers he is sometimes designated as captain and sometimes as lieutenant, but always by a military title. In May, 1770, he, with Crawford, Thomas Gist, and Pentecost, was among the justices of the peace appointed by the proprietary government for Cumberland County. In March, 1771, he was reappointed for Bedford County, and made prothonotary and chief clerk of the courts when that county was erected at ,that time. He earnestly advocated the erection of a new county to the west of Laurel Hill, and when Westmoreland was formed in 1773 he was appointed by Richard Penn to the same offices he had held in Bedford. From this time till the beginning of the Revolutionary war he was the outspoken agent of the proprietaries. During 1774 his efficiency is made apparent by the records of the Province. He was in constant communication with those in authority, he advised with them, and the entire management of local affairs was left to him. In the exercise of his trust he became especially obnoxious to Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, who demanded of the Governor of Pennsylvania that St. Clair be delivered over to him, but the demand was refused, and met with the intimation that the proprietaries were responsible for the official acts of their magistrates. During the excitement of 1774 he was the foremost one in the sight of the people ; he rode day and night, and prevailed on the inhabitants not to leave, as they were about to do. But he made them take up arms in their defense; the government could not assist them, so they must assist themselves. He organized a permanent militia, and promised the rangers pay, which was guaranteed by his own obligation. Under his direction and supervision the chain of block-houses along the rivers and the old military road was established. He advised the Penns to open a road for military purposes from Kittanning to Ligonier, and to erect a fort at that point, to be garrisoned by the soldiers of the Province. This point had been pointed out by Forbes as early as 1758 as important in a military view, and was the site of Fort Armstrong. 1 The preservation of the Westmoreland settlements in 1774 is as much to be attributed to St. Clair's influence over the Indian tribes as to any other cause. He spoke to them in manly and plain words, and they had the utmost confidence in him. In one of their conferences when he was not present they called him their friend and the Pennsylvanians their brothers. Afterwards when the agents appointed by Congress came outto visit the tribes about Fort Pitt and to secure their alliance they stopped with St. Clair on their way, and prevailed with him to accompany them. 1 For a full account of these affairs see Penn. Archives, vol. iv. There is no doubt that St. Clair watched attentively the struggle between the colonies and the crown, and there is likewise no doubt that from the first his mind was made up. With all the traditions of the Scotch uppermost it was not in his strong nature to give in to the latest of the tyrannical rulers of his native country, which the Scotch allowed was at that day held by the tenure of usurpation. And although the war of the Revolution found him busied in domestic relations, yet he was recognized from the first as the friend of the colonies, and was in correspondence with the patriots in the East. That he was instrumental in calling the meeting at Hannastown of May 16, 1775, and that he secured the passage of the remarkable resolutions that day adopted there can be no reasonable doubt.' DURING THE REVOLUTION. In that pathetic and heart-moving letter which he wrote in his old age to the Congressional Committee he says that his first connection with the United States began in the year 1775. Congress had appointed commissioners to repair to Fort Pitt to treat with the Indians. On their way they called upon St. Clair, and requested him to accompany them and act as their secretary. He did so, and in the course of the negotiations formed the project of a volunteer expedition to surprise Detroit, which he thought practicable. The commissioners entered into the project warmly, and in a very short time he engaged between four and five hundred young men, who were to furnish their own horses, forage, and provisions. The measure being referred to Congress by the commissioners, was disapproved, for the reason 'that Gen. Arnold was at that time before Quebec, and its fall was considered certain. But Arnold failed. St. Clair was called to Philadelphia, and, resigning his office, he went to that city for instructions. We can, in the absence of any memoir, partially trace his career through the war. He first assisted to perfect the Associators in 1775, and on Jan. 1, 1776, in the " Account of the Rules and Regulations" for the Associators sent to the committees of the different counties, there is a memorandum that those for Westmoreland were sent by Col. St. Clair. In the early 2 With the extreme modesty and unobtrusiveness which always were characteristic in him, he says in his letter to Governor Penn, May 25, 1775, "I got a clause added, by which they bind themselves to sestet the civil magistrates in the execution of the lawn they have been accustomed to be governed by." This clanse was the fourth, and began, "That we do nut wish or advise any innovations," etc. But that he drafted this paper I have little doubt. In his letter to Lieut.-Col. Allen, nearly a year and a half after this (Ticonderoga, Sept. 1, 1776), he says, "If I remember rightly, there were two points on which we were perfectly agreed: First, that independence was not the interest of America if the liberties of America could be otherwise secured ; Secondly, if foreign troops were employed to reduce America to absolute submission, that independence or any other mode was justifiable." This letter is a most noble one. Here is the substance of the third and fifth clauses, and part of the conditions for which the colonies went to war. Who else here was likely to talk of a " licentious soldiery" in the same sense as he, from a personal knowledge? 216 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. part of 1776 he was commissioned colonel by Congress in the Continental service, and was stationed in the eastern part of the State, where he was engaged in different capacities in organizing, recruiting, supplying, and provisioning the volunteers. 1 He advanced money to his own detriment in this service, some of which he did not get reimbursed for till many years after the war was over. As fast as the troops could be furnished for campaigning he forwarded them, and being himself ordered with other contingents to cover the retreat of the American army from Canada under Arnold, he recruited and equipped for his own command six full companies without expense to the State, and marched them by the 1st of May to the vicinity of Quebec. 2 This campaign had been planned by Gen. Montgomery, but it came to an unfortunate termination. Montgomery was killed before Quebec, and Arnold, the next in command, who himself was wounded, conducted the retreat. St. Clair served with Wayne under Gen. Thompson, the successor of Arnold, but who dying soon after he came to the command was succeeded by Gen. Sullivan. Here his former military knowledge was of much advantage, for he it was who suggested to Gen. Thompson, who was then in command, the practicability of taking post at the village of Three Rivers to prevent the British transports from passing up the river. The plan was approved, and St. Clair was sent to take up a position. Sullivan now having arrived and taken command of the army, detached Thompson with reinforcements to support St. Clair and to take the command. But being overpowered and pushed back, and Thompson having been killed, the command fell to St. Clair, who carried the broken detachment back through the midst of a constantly increasing enemy to the headquarters at Sorel. The American army now withdrew from Canada in as masterful a manner as it had marched thither. The army went into quarters at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and there St. Clair remained during the summer in camp duty. On Sunday, the 28th of July, to the soldiers drawn up in long lines, he read the Declaration of Independence which had been adopted by the Congress, when they threw their caps in air and cheered for the cause of the United Colonies. In August of this year, 1776, he was made a brigadier, and joined Washington, who was then retreating across the Jerseys before the elated British army under Howe. He fought under the eyes of the com- 1 The Council of Safety on the 18th of July, 1775, recommended the enrollment of all able-bodied men into regiments or battalions. The militia of Westmoreland were enrolled, and St. Clair was elected colonel. See Memorandum Book of the Committee and Council of Safety for 1776 and 1777; Pa. Arch., Second Series, vol. i., for services in the colony and State. He was commissioned colonel of the Second Battalion Jan. 3. 1776. He with Cols. Shee, Wayne, and Magaw were in command of the four battalions of Pennsylvania troops to be raised for the Continental Service. For history of the Second Battalion, see Chap. XVIII. 2 For his services and the campaign in Canada, see Chapter XVIII. mander-in-chief in the closing battles of this campaign, at White Plains, at Trenton, and at Princeton, 3 and all informed writers agree that he suggested to Washington that ruse of war by which the Hessians were surprised at Princeton. The campaign of 1777 opened with favor to the British. The fearful retreat from Long Island, and the miserable condition of the Continental army, encouraged the British to push this campaign with energy, and thus speedily crush out this rising sedition. The plan of the British generals was to divide the colonies by the line of Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain. Clinton was to go up the river, and above Albany to unite with Burgoyne, who was to come down from. Canada. The success of this plan would have been well-nigh fatal to the prospect of American independence. Between Lake Champlain and Lake George was situated the strong fortress of Ticonderoga, the same which Col. Ethan Allen had taken by the authority of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress. This fortress commanded the lakes and the passage of the isthmus. While it was held it debarred Burgoyne from effecting the junction. To hold this point was, therefore, of the utmost importance. St. Clair, who enjoyed the confidence of the commander-in-chief, was raised to the rank of major-general, and superseding Gen. Schuyler, was sent with three thousand men to take command of the post, and at all hazards to hold it. Burgoyne, passing Lake Champlain, took Crown Point and advanced against Ticonderoga. Gen. Schuyler, before he was transferred, had put the fortress in good order. On the 19th of June, 1777, operations were commenced against the post. On the 20th of July the soldiers of Burgoyne took possession of Mount Defiance, a point on the right of the Americans. This position adjoined and overlooked the fortress, but being deemed inaccessible, it had remained unoccupied by the Continentals. By the use of tackle, cannon were hoisted up its side by the enemy until the arms and the force there were sufficient to dislodge the garrison. St. Clair called a council of officers, and among them it was unanimously agreed that the hills which 3 Respectively, Oct. 28, 1776, Dec. 25, 1776, and January, 1777. Bencroft goes to extra pains to prove that St. Clair did not advise Washington in this successful engagement, and he labors hard to support contrary position, but in this he is at issue with numerous authorities. See Wilkinson's "Memoirs," G. W. Greene's "Life of Gen. Nathaniel Greene," and St. Clair's "Narrative." It is not, however, questioned that he directed the details of the march and the incidental preparation (Bryant's " Popular History of the United States," chap. xxi., 532). "Soon after midnight the troops quietly withdrew by detachments, and marching by the right moved upon Princeton. St. Clair's brigade of New Hampshire, Connecticut, and,. Massachusetts troops, with two six-pounders, marched at the head of the column, with which Gen. Washington rode"—" Life and Public Services," etc., vol. i. p. 37, as quoting Wilkinson. This campaign made him a major-general. In March, 1777, on the resignation of Col. Reed, St. Clair was detailed by Washington as adju. tant-general. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR - 217 commanded the fort ought to have been previously fortified; that it was too late for them now to be fortified; that if fortified it would require fully ten thousand men to mad and .hold them ; and that the force at the disposal of the general was not in any way adequate to meet the enemy. It was determined, therefore, to abandon the post. But the withdrawing the army now was a retreat. The American force retired under cover to Hubbardstown and thence to Castleton, about thirty miles from Ticonderoga, where a stand was made. The British and German light troops had been sent in pursuit, and on the 7th of August overtook the rearguard under Col. Warner at Castleton. The attack was sharp and bloody, and the British at first were routed, but the Americans not being supported by their comrades, the British and mercenaries renewed their attack, and with the bayonet dispersed the whole force of the rear-guard, with the loss to us of three hundred men. Col. Warner came in with the rest of his troops at Fort Ann. Altogether the loss of the Americans in this, one of the most disastrous retreats of the war, was about one thousand men, killed, wounded, and prisoners. Of course a clamor was raised. Reasons plenty as blackberries were given why St. Clair should not be shot, hung and quartered., banished. Some said he was incompetent, some cowardly, some treacherous. He said little, but demanded of right an inquiry in due form into his conduct and the circumstances of the surrender. After waiting for a long time a court of inquiry at last was formed, which was composed of some of the best officers in the army, which after sitting and considering the whole affair critically and with deliberation exculpated him from guilt; and some then said that although he lost a fortress he saved a State. Burgoyne was forced to give his srord to Gates at Saratoga, and the two British armies were not, after all, joined together, notwithstanding their sanguine anticipations. 1 1 From the surrender of Ticonderoga and the retreat a prejudice was raised against St. Clair which he never could get rid of, and which his enemies never ceased to make capital of. Good military men say that no better generalship was displayed throughout the war than that displayed by him in withdrawing his army and saving it from capture. The United States Gazette, a high authority in the army, has said on this subject in a sketch of St. Clair. in speaking of his defense before the court of inquiry, " His defense on that occasion is still extant, and exhibits &sample of profound generalship. Whilst the English language shall be admired, it will continue to be an example of martial eloquence." Facts dispel illusions. Gen. Burgoyne's army numbered 7863 men, including 200 Canadians and 400 Indians; St. Clair bad 2200 men. Burgoyne's artillery numbered 142 guns, and his was the best equipped army for an offensive campaign in the field. The American works were equipped with 100 cannon of indifferent calibre and a small force of inexperienced artillerymen to serve them.—Life and Public Services, etc., p. 60. St. Clair left the Northern Department on the 20th of August (1777), In obedience to the orders of Congress, to report at headquarters and await an inquiry into his management at the North. Washington still remained faithful to !mini and never lust confidence in him. He, after St. Clair demanded it, urged the court of inqniry to be held. In September, 1778, a court-martial, of which Maj.-Gen. Lincoln was presi- During the time which intervened from the surrender till the board of inquiry had finished their sittings he was suspended from any command. He was, however, with the army, and at Brandywine fought as a volunteer, and had a horse shot from under him during the engagement. He was with the army at headquarters at Valley Forge. The court of inquiry not censuring him he was reinstated in public confidence, and was intrusted with the very arduous duties of organizing the levies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and sending them out to the armies in the field when needed. After the treason of Arnold, St. Clair was detailed by Washington to hold West Point, and he succeeded Gates in command at Philadelphia. On September the 29th, 1780, he sat with Lafayette, Parsons, Clinton, Knox, Huntingdon, and others, all well known for their uprightness, on the trial of Maj. Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, who made their unanimous report that Andre ought to be considered as a spy from the enemy and suffer death. When the last campaign was closing in the South, St. Clair with Wayne, who together were using all their ingenuity in converting three old long-tailed coats into two short ones, and two old hats into one infantry cap, so that the men would bear some similarity with each other, was assigned with reinforcements to the Southern department, where the war was then raging. When the combined American and French armies circled around the British at Yorktown, St. Clair was there. Having arrived some time before the surrender, he was with that galaxy of illustrious men who stood in the trenches when the cause of the colonies was decided. He was then sent to reinforce Greene with the Pennsylvania troops, and they formed a junction in the beginning of 1782. 2 IN CIVIL LIFE. St. Clair came out of the Revolutionary conflict, not with the glory of some, but with the confidence of his great commander, and with the undiminished respect and esteem of his fellow-officers. He immediately entered into civil affairs. In 1783 he was elected a member of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, this department of the State government dent, was organized, and after a thorough hearing concluded their finding in the following words: "The Court having duly considered the charges against Major-General St. Clair and the evidence, are unanimously of opinion that he is not guilty of either the charges preferred against him, and do unanimously acqnit him of all and every of them with the highest honor." 2 In 1783, at the solicitation of Congress, then in Philadelphia, be went to the new levies (who bed marched from Lancaster to the Congress to demand their pay, having refused to accept their discharge nntil they were paid), and succeeded by his personal influence, together with Lafayette as his colleagne, in quieting their mutinous spirit and sending them back to Lancaster. Feb. 24, 1784, he was made auctioneer of the city of Philadelphia by a resolution of the General Assembly. He got into much trouble from this, as will be seen further on, he having appropriated some of the money he collected to pay individual debts,—bail money. The of floe was lucrative. On the 13th of April, 1787, he was relieved of the Aloe. 218 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. reposing in a Council of Censors. He was returned for the county of Philadelphia, with Frederick A. Muhlenberg as his colleague. He made Philadelphia his home, and his family had resided there while he was in the army. He attended all the sittings of the Council. In its proceedings, and in the proceedings incident to the calling of the Constitutional Convention of 1791, we have the first visible line between the old political parties whose hostility to each other became so great. St. Clair invariably took sides with that party which afterwards was known as the Federal party, and which, under the leadership of Hamilton, antagonized the administration of Jefferson. In 1785, St. Clair was elected to Congress, the members of that body being returned by the vote of the Assembly. In 1787 he was chosen president of that body. In. 1790 he was the Federalist candidate for Governor of the State, but was defeated by Gen. Mifflin. This was at the first election for a chief magistrate under the constitutional form. Mifflin was not only a popular man, but he belonged to the party which was the popular party of the State. But although St. Clair was unfortunate for his own advantage in falling in with the destinies of that party, no one that knows his character would be bold enough to say that he belonged to it without principle. No man could separate principle from consequences better than he. Under the act of Congress of July 13, 1787, St. Clair was appointed by President Washington and confirmed by Congress Governor of the Northwestern Territory, the Territory embracing all the region of country lying north and west of the Ohio River.1 On July the 9th, 1788, he arrived at Fort Harmar, now. Marietta. At this place, as the seat of the territorial government, he resided with his family. 2 On the 15th of July he published the order of Congress for the government, and soon after appointed judges and other officers. On January the 2d, 1791, when he arrived at Fort Washington, the site of Cincinnati, previous to his military expedition, he organized Hamilton County, which name he gave it after Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the United States Treasury, and the beau ideal of the Federalists. Cincinnati was called in compliment to the Society of the Cincinnati, organized by officers who had seen actual service in the armies of the continent, and of which society St. Clair was an active member. The Indians being still hostile to the settlers in the western country where these were unable to resist 1 The Congress of which he was president passed the ordinance. 2 The citizens of Marietta gave special attention to the preparation of a residence for Governor St. Clair, and in the winter of 1790 his son Arthur, twenty-one years of age, and three daughters, Louisa, Jane, and Margaret, with a middle-aged, sensible colored woman, who acted as cook and housekeeper, took possession. Mrs. St. Clair still remained in the East.—(Life and Public Services, etc., p. 160.) For a description of Louisa St. Clair, the eldest of these daughters, and of the brilliance of her intellectual accomplishments, etc., see Hildreth's " Pioneer History," quoted in " Life and Public Services," etc., p. 160. them under their strange confederation and the new leaders who had risen among them, Gen. Harmar was sent out with a body of regulars and militia to subdue them and to destroy their towns. But Harmar was defeated with terrible slaughter among his ranks, and his army was so crippled that a new one had to be organized for further operations. In the following year, 1791, St. Clair, on the recommendation of President Washington, was appointed commander-in-chief of the army, and vested with powers almost dictatorial within his territory. He had a force of two thousand regulars placed at his disposal, and was empowered to call out such reinforcements of militia as might be necessary- In September, 1791, an army the largest and most efficient in officers, in numbers, and in equipage of any yet seen in the West was assembled at Fort Washington, the site of Cincinnati. This was under command of St. Clair. There were three complete regiments of United States infantry, two companies of artillery, and one company of cavalry. There were six hundred militia to join him there, but most of these came up after he had left. They commenced their march on the 17th of September. They cut a road through the wilderness and erected Fort Hamilton, on the Great Miami, some distance above Fort Washington. On the 4th of October they marched twenty miles farther, and built Fort Jefferson. A garrison was left at both posts. On the 24th of October they marched from the latter post. Shortly after they had left one of the militia regiments deserted, as these not infrequently did when about to meet the enemy, not being under regular discipline, called out only for a short time in an emergency, and commanded by officers who disliked superior authority. The First Regiment of regulars was detached in pursuit of these, so that the army was now weakened and did not number above fourteen hundred men. The main body, however, moved forward to where Fort Recovery was afterwards erected by Gen. Wayne, now within the limits of Mercer County, Ohio. The villages of the Miami Indians were supposed to be only about twelve miles in distance from here. At this place, it being the head-waters of the Wabash River, where a number of small creeks flowed in from various directions, the army encamped. The general had it in view to throw up some earthworks in order to hold a secure position, and to protect his baggage and artillery till the other regiment should come up, before advancing farther in the hostile country. This was on the 3d of November. Late that afternoon, and in the evening, the general was engaged with the engineers in planning the proposed works. At night the sentries were posted, and everything appeared quiet. The army was encamped in two lines. The front of the first line was covered by a creek, the one side by the river, while a creek protected the flank of the second line. During the night there was no alarm whatever, and consequently no suspicion of danger. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR - 219 Some few hours before daybreak, under the expectation of an attack, or at least to have the men in a I state of readiness, the general had the reveille beaten I and the troops paraded under arms. They thus stood watchful till daybreak, when they were dismissed to their tents to get some further rest. But the men had scarcely lain down when a rifle fired from some of the militiamen in front was followed by a sharp irregular volley in the same direction. The drums beat, the officers formed the men, the militia came pouring in from the front, and in a few minutes all was stir and confusion. The militia coming in, pursued by swarms of Indians, broke over the ranks' of the regulars, and bore down all before them. The Indians themselves penetrated beyond the first ranks, and tomahawked some of the wounded officers who had been carried back to have their wounds dressed. In no long time the whole body of the army was encompassed by a livid stream of fire on all sides round. St. Clair was suffering from a fever, and was unable to mount a horse, but part of the time during the battle was carried from place to place on a litter. False allegations of cowardice were imputed to him ; but there is nothing to warrant this. He was not in respect to his person a coward, but the reverse is the truth. During this engagement he had eight bullet-shots through his clothes, and he was among the last to leave the field of battle. He directed the men to carry him to the place where the firing was the heaviest, and where the men were falling on all sides. Here the brave Col. Darke, an officer of Revolutionary distinction, was trying his utmost to allay the consternation of the men and to hold the lines steady. When St. Clair came up he directed the colonel and his men to make a sudden and rapid charge with the bayonet. The charge was made and with some effect, for swarms of the red-backed creatures rose up before the lines of infantry out of the high grass and fled before them. But as the soldiers could not overtake them, they recovered their courage, and soon after from behind every kind of shelter poured such a fire upon the soldiers that they in turn were driven back. A second time was the charge with the bayonet made and followed with the same result. When the artillery was brought up the horses and the men were destroyed before they could do any service. But we cannot recount the battle at length. Its enough to say that the whites resisted bravely, but were borne back through the wild lands. Discipline availed little. The panic spread to all the troops. Behind every tree was an Indian, and with the bullets came flights of arrows, whose murderous wounds made the men shriek out. It is said the savages never showed more bravery. They ran in screamning, and tomahawked the men in the ranks or among their comrades. The men were sometimes huddled together like sheep, whence the slaughter, in respect of the number engaged, was prodigious. The ranks could not be formed in military order, and the field- pieces of the regulars were of no use. These were finally captured by the Indians, with the exception of two which were thrown into one of the streams. Many died heroically. Acts of daring and of heroism which have delighted two generations of readers are recorded in the various tales of the border. It was long reported, and it is yet historically asserted, that the water of the creek to the front was reddened with blood. The men at last gave way, and the retreat became a panic. A part of the army reached Fort Washington. Few of the munitions were saved, for the men threw away even their arms. When the second army of Kentucky volunteers which afterwards came out took possession of the battle-field, the found within a little space three hundred skull-bones, and for miles the road was strewn with the remains of the army. From the official lists of the adjutant-general, five hundred and ninety-three were reported' dead and two hundred and fourteen wounded. The chief of the hostiles in this battle was Mishikinakwa, or Little Turtle, a son of a Miami chief by a Mohican woman. He was the chief leader of the warriors of all the tribes in that country. He died in 1812, and his grave is shown to the whites near Fort Wayne. His portrait may be seen in the War Office at Washington. He has been described by one who saw him at Montreal soon after the defeat. He was at that time a little over forty-five years of age, was six feet high, of a very sour and morose countenance, and appar- 1 Echoes of the Battle.—"On the day of battle Gen. St. Clair was not in his uniform, but wore a coarse caffo coat and a three-cornered hat. He had a long cue and large locks flowing beneath his beaver. Early in the action, when near the artillery, a grazed the side of his face and cnt off a portion of one of his locks. During the action eight balls passed through his clothes and hat. After his horses were killed he exerted himself on foot for a considerable time during the action with a degree of alertness that surprised everybody who saw bim. After being on foot for some time, and when nearly exhausted, a pack-horse was brought to him. This he rode during the remainder of the day, although he could scarcely prick him out of a walk." He had two horses killed, one after the other, in the act of mounting them. Narrative of the Campaign. The great Mohawk chief, Tha-yen-da-ne-ge-a (Joseph Brant, alias Capt. Brant), was, 90 well-informed historians say, in this battle, although not suspected on account of the professions of friendship for the Americans. This calls to mind the "legend of Louisa St. Clair," in which the story is that young Brant, the eon of the great chief, and who was in love with Louisa St. Clair, was there, and that he ordered his warriors to shoot St. Clair's horses but not him. To this waa accounted the noteworthy reason of his having so many horses killed about him and himself escaping unhurt. This "legend," being nothing but a romantic love story, was once very popular in the Northwest, and is yet to be met with in republications.—See" Life and Public Services," etc., quoted above. From the Congressional Committee's Report Appointed to Inquire into the Defeat. "The committee conceive it but justice to the commander-in-chief to say that in their opinion the failure of the late expedition can in no respect be imputed to his conduct, either at any time before or during the action, but that as his conduct in ell the preparatory arrangements was marked with peculiar ability and zeal, so his' conduct during the action furnishers strong testimonies of his coolness and intrepidity." 220 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ently very crafty and subtile. His dress was Indian moccasins, a blue petticoat that came half-way down his thighs, a European surtout and waistcoat. His head was bound by an Indian cap, which hung halfway olown his back, and almost entirely covered with plain silver brooches, to the number of more than two hundred. He had two earrings to each ear. The upper part of each of these was formed by three medals about the size of a dollar; the lower part was formed of quarter-dollars, and fell more than twelve inches from his ears, one from each ear over his breast, the other over his back. He had three very large nose jewels of silver, which were curiously plaited. St. Clair held the commission of Governor of the Northwestern Territory from 1787 to 1802, a period of fifteen years, when he was removed by President Jefferson. Fault has been found with Jefferson for this act, and those who take exception assert that it was done with a spiteful political spirit. St. Clair was a strong Federalist, an adorer of the political doctrines of Hamilton. He had been indiscreet in his expressions of favor for the unpopular administration of John Adams, who brought contempt and opprobrium upon his party by the countenance he gave the notorious and justly obnoxious alien and sedition laws. But, taken on the whole, we are of opinion it would necessitate a misconstruction of motives and facts and require yet undiscovered testimony to establish authoritatively the assertion that St. Clair's removal was instigated by the malevolence of Jefferson.1 As Governor of that Territory which now exists as five independent States and includes millions of the foremost citizens of the Republic, his duties were arduous, his Oil unceasing, and the results marvelous. 1 The truth is great opposition had grown up against St. Clair as Governor on account of antagonism to the formation of a State out of a portion of the Territory, which was the nearly unanimous wish and desire of the inhabitants of Ohio, and also on account of his avowed opposition to the new State'. constitution, and of his disagreement with a majority of the Legislature of the Territory. His biographer, the Hon. W. H. Smith, who certainly has not countenanced ihe action of Jefferson in removing St. Clair, says, "It is known that Mr. Jefferson's friendship for St. Clair influenced him, and that it was only after it was reported to him some months later, upon what seemed to be reliable authority, that Governor St. Clair had spoken against Democratic government that he issued the order of removal."—Life and Public Services, etc., vol. i., 240. "He even entered the lists in a public discussion, and printed a pamphlet in defense of the administration after the blunder of the alien and sedition law, and sent it to Mr. Adams with his compliments."—Ibid., 234. Announcement of Removal. "DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 1802. " ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, ESQ.: " SIR,The President observing in an address lately delivered by you to the Convention held at Chillicothe an intemperance and indecorum of language towards the Legislature of the United States, and a disorganizing spirit and tendency of very evil example, and grossly violating the rules of conduct enjoined by your public station, determines that your commission as Governor of the Northwestern Territory shall cease on except of this notification. “ I an etc., “James Madison.” For an idea of the duties incumbent on him and the large discretionary power vested in him, one should examine the ordinances and the laws of Congress relative to the subject. By these he was made not only the executive but the law-giver of that vast extent of country, as he and his judges in council had the power not only to enforce but to make the laws for its government. But he devoted himself here, as he did elsewhere, wholly to the duties of his trust. The early records of the State of Ohio attest his labors. Although his salary was not adequate to cover even his traveling expenses, he never once relaxed his exertions. He seems to have been well aware of the importance and the magnitude of the trust reposed in him. He established laws, erected counties, selected officers, fixed titles, held treaties with the Indians, and saw that justice was administered in due form of law. He refers to this subject in the answer to the ladies of New York, who in his latter days had presented him with a small sum of money : " I had fondly hoped." says he, " that my military services had been of benefit to my country ; but let that pass. Besides these services, which you have so kindly eulogized, I, at my own expense in a great measure, raised up a colony to the United States from thirty men to sixty thousand ; amalgamated the most heterogeneous mass of population; carried law, religion, and manners to the extreme bounds of the Territory ; made the people happy, and laid the foundation for the continuance of that happiness to millions yet unborn, in the accomplishment of which every faculty of mind and body were unceasingly employed" And in this he evidences the prescient wisdom of prophecy. HIS LAST DAYS. Upon his removal from the governorship St. Clair came back to Ligonier Valley. Here, in the midst of a large tract of land, he had in the latter part of his official career erected a house in anticipation of the time when he should be relieved of public duties ; here part of his family resided before he came back, and here he fondly hoped to pass the remainder of his life in the agreeable ease and rest which the soldier in the camp and the statesman in the council-room always anticipates. The building was regarded as a sumptuous and well-apportioned mansion-house for the time. It was handsomely painted and papered, and besides ordinary apartments had a suite of bedrooms. It was situated about two miles northwest of Ligonier, near Mill Creek. Nothing now remains of the original structure intact except the room which he left with its quaintly-carved mantel-piece and wainscoting. The painting over the fireplace has been destroyed. Here he settled down with his family, and began to build up in his old days his broken fortune. He erected a furnace, and for a time carried on the manufacture of castings, but after a few years leased the works to James Hamilton & Co. at a rental of three thousand dollars per annum. He also got his mill in running order, and continued actively engaged in business until he was crippled by the executions of his creditors. The history of his financial embarrassment is not. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR - 221 devoid of interest. The blind goddess in this as in all things treated him rudely. He got with his wife fourteen thousand pounds (equivalent to seventy thousand dollars). Besides this he had large donations of land from the king, from the Penns, from the State, and from Congress. His investments in real estate, so far as the investments went, were judicious, but these all in his sinister fortune melted away like snow in the sunshine. He drew salaries and was in the possession of emoluments and perquisites during all his public life, but these scarcely reached from one accounting day to the next. He was always in a position to invest and speculate in remunerative and safe enterprises, but he never tainted his hands with bribes or touched what bore the semblance of peculation. In a letter to his friend, the Hon. William B. Giles, he says that the office of Governor of the Northwestern Territory was forced on him by his friends, who thought it would be an opportunity of replenishing his finances ; but it proved otherwise, for he "had neither the taste nor the genius for speculation in land, nor did he consider it consistent with his office " So when he retired here, after his removal from office, he was hopelessly in debt, and some years later was sold out by the sheriff. It is perhaps true that some of his losses were caused by negligence, and might not have happened had he been more provident, but nearly all his financial embarrassment is chargeable to the zeal with which he served his country, and were debts due and owing by the people of the republic, in whose service he was employed all his life. When he went to the Revolutionary army he left his mill—the first one erected in the West—to his neighbors for their use while he was gone. When he took possession of it on his return he found it a pile of rubbish. In one of his memorials he states that when he went to the army he could not leave his young wife, born and bred in the city of Boston, of the first connections there, and accustomed to the most fashionable circles, on a frontier so hostile, and was thus compelled to dispose of his principal farm, on which he had expended a large amount of money, at great sacrifice. He sold it for £2000, payable in installments, but so rapid was the depreciation of the Continental currency that of this amount he lost £1900. He then had to purchase a house in the East for his family while he was in the service. This he sold at the end of the, war ; one-half of the price he lost by the bankruptcy and suicide of the purchaser. He indorsed for his friends and fellow officers, and by this lost large sums, which he paid upon demand so far as he was able. From 1803 to 1813, at various times, St. Clair presented memorials to Congress and to the Assembly of Pennsylvania for relief. In these memorials he himself gives the cause or occasion which induced him to present them. To the Assembly he says that as early as 1774 he supplied nearly all the forts and block- - 15 - houses in Westmoreland County with arms and the means of defense at his own expense. When, in the darkest days of the Revolution, Washington, seeing his army melting away like snow, appealed to him to save to him the Pennsylvania line, the flower of the army, St. Clair immediately responded by advancing the money for recruiting and for bounty, and by St. Clair's and Col. William Butler's individual exertions and influence their object was accomplished. To .part of this claim the government afterwards pleaded the statute of limitations. He was shut out on this statute by substantially the following argument : " True it is, we, the government of the United States, do justly owe you so and so much, but because you have never asked to be repaid until now the presumption of the law is that you have been repaid." But the indebtedness which was the direct cause of his losing his real property had been contracted during his governorship. During his incumbency of this office he acted as superintendent of Indian affairs in the Territory, and in that capacity negotiated several treaties of importance, in the transaction of which to a successful termination it was apparent that the appropriation by Congress was inadequate, whence he was compelled to advance funds out of his own pocket to consummate his ends. In negotiating one of these treaties he expended about $16,000, and for which only $8000 had been appropriated. When the army for the campaign of 1791 had collected together, and it was found that the sum authorized by Congress for the purpose was loo small for the exigencies of the project, he personally guaranteed to the quartermaster-general, James O'Harra, the repayment of a large sum in order that the army might be victualed and supplied. When he presented his account in 1799 for payment, he was informed by the Secretary of the Treasury that there " were no moneys appropriated by the Legislature to pay such further disbursements." On this subject St. Clair says that he became personally liable to the contractor, O'Harra, to whom he gave his bond for $7042, on the express promise of the Secretary of the Treasury that it should be repaid with interest. This bond remaining unpaid, suit was brought, and judgment obtained against St. Clair by his own confession for $10,632.17, debt and interest. Upon this judgment execution was from time to time issued, and upon it the entire remaining part unsold, which included all his real estate, was sold. The time of sale could not have happened at a more inopportune time. The embargo had driven money out of the country. The valuation of that part of his real estate levied upon under these executions has been fixed at $50,000 ; but it did not fetch more than paid the debt and accrued interest upon this one judgment. James O'Harra, by his lawyer, bought all the property. Judgment was confessed upon the O'Harra bond in August, 1803, and the sheriff, Alexander Johnston, Esq., soon after, by the orders of O'Harra through 222 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Mr. Ross, his attorney, levied upon all the property, but no sales were made until June, 1808. The tract of land, upon which were the mansion-house, gristmill, and furnace, was sold for four thousand dollars, although at the time it was rented out at three thousand dollars per annum. The last tract was sold Oct. 15, 1810. Previous to this a nameless, heartless wretch—a Shylock of a neighbor—had bought up all his due-bills, brought suit upon each one separately, and on them sold all his goods and chattels. They took everything from him they could get, and left him only one bed and bedding, a few books of his English and classical library (among which was, his favorite Horace), and a bust of John Paul Jones, which had been sent to him by Jones himself from Paris, and which he prized highly. In his days of adversity the Assembly of Pennsylvania pensioned him with a small amount, which in 1817, the year before his, death, was increased to fifty dollars a month. Congress, the year of his death, passed an act allowing him sixty dollars a month, and dated it back one year. Of this he got not one cent, for greedy creditors were watching, and it was attached before it left the fingers of the treasurer. Had it not been for the little he got from the State of Pennsylvania, and what he received through charity, he would not have had enough to relieve the pangs of hunger. The last period of his life is a period not pleasing to contemplate. After he was turned out of house and home he removed to the summit of Chestnut Ridge, and there lived in a log house alongside the old State road. The cabin stood on a barren and rocky piece of land which his son Daniel, who had saved some little money, bought as an asylum for his old father and family. Here, to nurse life a little longer, to keep his family together, to care for his wife, now hurt in intellect, and to get coarse bread for his dependent flock of children and grandchildren, he kept tavern for the entertainment of the traveling public. 1 His hereditary disease (the gout) afflicted him greatly, No that his declining days were as full of misery as of grief. But the lack of bread was of all his ills the least. 2 Poverty of itself is no disgrace, and to men like him who had given all for others, and who found no one to give him anything, it is a crown of glory though of thorns, around which rests an aureola of never-ending radiance. There is a text in the Holy Scriptures which reads, "At two things my heart is grieved: a man of war fainting through poverty ; and a man of sense despised."' There were those who mocked and jeered at the Samson now shorn of his locks,—these were the asses who came and kicked their heels into the face of the dying lion,—mean, brainless, insulting men, who in their cups sang ditties within his hearing which charged him with the death of those who had fallen in battle, and still more worthless curs who charged him to his face with cowardice.' But no one who was capable of appreciating nobleness, and who could instinctively recognize true manhood, ever stepped beneath his lowly roof without recognizing himself to be in the presence of a gentleman, a scholar, a soldier, a statesman, a patriot.' Nowhere 1 Arthur St. Clair was recommended for tavern licenses, Jan. 24, 1814. We may say here, in passing, the Westmoreland court records show among other things that in 1793 (June 11th), St. Clair gave his recognizance for the appearance of some defendants in court. Aug. 30,1793, his name is at the head of a petition for a road, which being granted the order was lifted in September, 1794, by " Gen. St. Clair." These show that he was in Westmoreland at those dates. 2 In his justly admired letter of thanks to the ladies of New York, who had sent him four hundred dollars, which letter is dated "Chestnut Ridge, 4th March, 1813," is this paragraph "To soothe affliction is certainly a happy privilege, and it is the appropriate privilege of the fair sex, and nobly have the ladies of New York exercised it; and though I feel all I can feel for the relief brought to myself, their attention to my daughters touches me the most. lied I not met a ith distress I should not have, perhaps, known their worth. Though all their prospects in life (and they were once very flattering) have been blasted, not a sigh, not a murmur has been allowed to escape them in my presence, and all their pains have been directed to rendering my reverses less affecting to me, and yet I can truly testify that it is entirely on their account that my situation ever gave me one moment's pain." 3 Ecclesiasticus, xxvi., 25, 26.—Douay Edition. 4 The ballad of St. Clair's defeat was in the early part of this century very popular in Western Pennsylvania. 1 have heard from old persons that there were some drunken, abandoned creatures who took especial delight in singing at it when St. Clair was in Youngstown or in Ligonier. One verse was this: "'Twas on the fourth day of November in the year of ninety-one, We had a sore engagement near to Fort Jefferson ; St. Clair was our commander, which may well remembered be, For we lost nine hundred merlin the Western Ter-ri-to-ree." Several versions of this ballad sill exist, and there are two preserved in Dr. Frank Cowan's " Poems and Ballads," etc. 5 The biographer of Gen. Lewis Casn, quoted in " Life and Public Services," etc., p. 252, refers to Cass' acquaintance with St. Clair, and thus describes him : " Gen. St. Clair was a most interesting relic of the Revolutionary period; tall, erect, though advanced in years, well educated, gentlemanly, thoroughly acquainted with the world, and abounding in anecdotes descriptive of the men and scenes he had encountered in his eventful career. Lewis Casn saw him for the last time some years before his death in a rude cabin, supporting himself by selling supplies to the ARTHUR ST. CLAIR - 223 and at no time and under no circumstance did the superior manhood of the man appear to better advantage. Here he forgot that the country had taken from him the best years of his life, and after having taken and appropriated his services and his money when it was needy and helpless, refused to recompense him now that it was able and strong. He even forgot himself, and of all those whose names were subscribed to the institution of the Order of the Cincinnati, of which he was president for the State of Pennsylvania, none could so appropriate the motto which encircled the medallion on the breast of the eagle of their decoration, " Omnia relinquit servare rempublicam." At length this life, of which want, neglect, contumely, ingratitude and injustice, domestic inquietude and disease so largely made a part, drew to a close. On the 30th of August, 1818, as he was coming down the road from his home to Youngstown, at the foot of the ridge, driving his pony in a rough, jolting wagon, by some means he fell or was thrown out on the ground. The road was rough and very abrupt, and as the turnpike had lately been opened this road was suffered to fall into neglect. When he was found he was insensible. His pony had moved no great distance. He was taken home and cared for ; but he never gained consciousness, and on the next day the great soul, overladen with unutterable woe and misery, was at rest for evermore. 1 From a copy of the Register which contains the wagoners who traveled the road, one of the most striking instances of the mutations which chequer life." The following reminiscence is taken from the celebrated letter of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey to Hon. Richard Brodhead, chairman of the Committee of Claims United States Senate. Mr. Whittlesey, by the way, was the first representative of the Ashtabula District in Ohio in Congress, the Garfield district. Until Mr. Garfield ceased to represent that district it had but three representatives, Mr. Whittlesey, Mr. Joshua Giddings, and Mr. Garfield. He says, " In 1815 three persons and myself performed a journey from Ohio to Connecticut on horseback in the month of May. Having understood that Gen. St. Clair kept a small tavern on Chestnut Ridge, eight miles east of Greensburg, or the distance may have been greater, I proposed that we stop at his house and spend the night. He had no grain for our horses, and after spending an hour with him in the most agreeable and interesting conversation respecting his early knowledge of the Northwestern Territory, we took our leave of him with deep regret. "I never was in the presence of a man that caused me to feel the same degree of veneration and esteem. He wore a citizen's dress of black of the Revolution ; his hair clubbed and powdered. When we entered he arose with dignity and received us most courteously. His dwelling was a common double log house of the western country, that a neighborhood would roll up in an afternoon. Chestnut Ridge was bleak and barren. There lived the friend and confidant of Washington, the ex-Governor of the fairest portion of creation. It was in the neighborhood, if not in the view, of a large estate at Ligonier that ho owned at the commencement of the Revolntion, and which, as I have at times understood, was sacrificed to promote the success of the Revolution. Poverty did not cause him to lose self-respect ; and were be now living his personal appearance would command universal admiration." This reminiscence was written May 16, 1856. 1 When I was quite a boy I often spoke with the old lady who found him on the roadside. She, with another woman, were going ont for berries when they came upon him. Her name was Susan Steinbarger. proceedings of the meetings at Greensburg we obtain the following:2 " When, therefore, the news of the death of the general reached Greensburg, the inhabitants of the town, who held his services and his character in high regard, met in a public meeting at the court-house; James Brady, Esq., was called to preside, and Richard Coulter, Esq., was selected as secretary. At the meeting the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : " Resolved, That the wishes of the corporation and citizens of Greensbnrg that the remains of the late Maj.-Gen. Arthur Saint Clair may be interred in the burying-ground in said place be respectfully communicated to the family of the deceased. "Resolved, That the following gentlemen be a committee of arrangement to soperintend the funeral, if the family of the deceased consent to the removal of the remains, Dr. James Postlewaithe, A. W. Foster, John Reed, Simon Drum, Jr., John H. Wise, George Armstrong, Daniel keelson, and Richard Coulter. " JAMES BRADY, Chairman " RICHARD COULTER, Sec." The following letter was sent to Mrs. Louisa Robb, the eldest daughter of the general : "GREENSBURG, August 31st, 1813. " MADAM "In obedience to the resolution of the corporation and citizens of Greensburg, we beg leave respectfully to present to the family of Gen. St. Clair their condolence at the melancholy event of his death. Desirous to express some small token of respect for the memory of man whose name is conspicuous on the page of our history as one of the heroes who achieved our independence, we are directed to obtain permission from the family that the body of our lamented friend may be deposited near us. " Mr. Drum will have all necessary arrangements made at Youngstown, in unison with those which are preparing here, to do honor for the occasion. " We are, Madam, respectfully (signed by the Committee of Arrangement). "MRS. LOUISA ROBB." In addition to the prompt action taken by the citizens of the borough, arrangements had also been made both at Ligonier and at Unity burying-ground, with the expectation that the remains would be laid at one or the other of these places,3 but the consent of the family was finally obtained to have them rest in the graveyard of the Presbyterian congregation at Greensburg. The committee went to the home of the deceased and accompanied the remains. The funeral was received about a mile from town by the Greensburg Volunteers, commanded by Col. Ely Coulter, and the Masonic lodge joined the procession on the road about half a mile out. The procession halted in the 2 The article, in addition to this, gives a biographical sketch of St. Clair, which,, we may remark, has furnished the substantial material for every sketch which we have yet met with. That part of it was copied entire and submitted as an original contribution to Morris it Willis' New York Mirror, nnder the heading of "American Biography," and from thence copied extensively into other periodicals. Although the article is scholarly and elegant, yet in some essentials it is defective, and in some statements, as later research has shown, not exact. 3 Hamlet. "It is not very strange, for my nncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mouths at trim while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred dncats apiece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out."—Hamlet, Act III. S. 2. 224 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. square in the middle of the town, where the family were assisted out of their conveyances, and from here all on foot walked to the grave in the following order: military, by the left; with arms and its colors reversed and drums muffled ; citizens generally ; committee of arrangement; judges ; clergy ; coffin containing the remains, with six pall-bearers on each side; relations; officers of the Revolutionary army ; corporation of the borough. The body was interred with the rites of the Masonic brotherhood. The monument over his grave was erected some years later by the same fraternity, and the inscription upon it is perhaps the most appropriate one ever yet carved upon granite over any servant of the republic. 1 1 The inscription on the north side: "THIS STONE is erected over the bones of their DEPARTED BROTHER, by members of the MASONIC SOCIETY, resident in this vicinity." Thus much of the public life and services of this distinguished citizen. It has been truly said that the afflicting spectacle of his last days melts the heart with sorrow. Perhaps there was not a prominent character of the Revolutionary period, with the exception of Morris, that gave so much of his life and service and means to the cause of America as did St. Clair, and there was none, with that exception, who was so poorly and so meanly recompensed. It is true that he died poor, but in such poverty there was no shame. " It is true, it is a pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true." A man with a superior education and the instinets of a gentleman, a companion and associate of Lafayette, of Steuben, of Hamilton, and of Washington, and a sharer of their glory, a general-in-chief of the army and a president of Congress, closing his life in neglected solitude! The commencement of the Revolution found him in affluent circumstances, in the vigor of manhood, rising with the destiny of the young Commonwealth, and when his race was run, his course finished, he found himself old and poor, an outcast, at the mercy of men more heartless than wolves, on the summit of the ridge as cold and as desolating as the gratitude of his country, within sight of his former home,—his home ?—his home no more, for it too was sold over his head to pay the debt incurred for the liberty of the States. He spoke knowingly who, seeing him as he passed by, was reminded of the Roman exile's reply, "Tell the citizens of Rome that you saw Caius Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage." In his social life, before it was saddened, he is said to have felt the tender sympathies of our nature to the fullest extent. His conversation was instructive and interesting, enlivened by wit and embellished with science. His manners never underwent a change, and although age had its power over his, body, it could not disturb the, high breeding or change the habit of his manners. On meeting a person, as old ones remember, he would bow low in his saddle, and always raise his hat on passing a woman. In his latter days he was given to reflection, to which his exile and loneliness were in a measure conducive. He was often seen walking with his hands behind his back, a posture natural to the great Napoleon when at St. Helena, and to Themistocles when at Argos. He The inscription on the south side: "THE Earthly Remains of Major-General ARTHUR ST. CLAIR are deposited beneath this humble monument, which is Erected to supply the place of a nobler one due from his country. He died August 31st, 1818, in the 84th year of his age."