IN
PEN N S Y LTVA N IA.
IN the notes to the edition of Mr. Longfellow's poem of
Evangeline, published in London in 1853', I find the fol.
lowing statement. Speaking of the Acadian exiles, the
annotator says:
"One thousand arrived'in Massachusetts Bay, and becanme a public expense, owing, in a great degree, to an
unchangeable antipathy to their situation, which prompted
them to reject the usual beneficiary but humiliating establishment of paupers for their children. They landed in
a most deplorable condition at Philadelphia. The government of the colony, to relieve itself of the charge such a
company of miserable wretches would require to maintain
them, proposed to sell them with their own consent; but
when this expedient for their support was offered'for their
consideration, the neutrals refused it with indignation,.alleging that they were prisoners, and expected to be
maintained as such, and not forced to labour."
(285)




286         THE FRENCH NEUTRALS
No Pennsylvanian can read this remarkable statement
of what is assumed to be an historical fact, without a
blush deeper than any other imputed misdeed excites, and
as certainly will Pennsylvanians feel some solicitude to
know if it be true or not. To show that it is utterly
without foundation, is the object of this little essay; in
which only incidentally do I mean to speak of that fami-,liar tale of sorrow-the exile of the Acadian Neutrals in
1755. On reading the note which I have quoted, my first
desire was to know how far Mr. Longfellow was responsible
for it; and a Cambridge friend, of whom I made the inquiry, assured me that the poet disavowed all knowledge
of it, the notes having first appeared in England. This
was exactly what I expected; for among the tenderest
and most beautiful passages in Evangeline (and to its
exquisite beauty let me here bear my testimony) are those
which describe the end of her pilgrimage, her lover's death
within the sound of Christ Church bells, and the tomb of
them both in the little Philadelphia churchyard. There
is no trace in the poem of Pennsylvania's cruelty or her
proffered sale to slavery.
I had to look elsewhere for the origin of the aspersion.
In Judge Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia,' I at last
found it in the very words used by the English annotator,
and here - for no authority or document is cited- the
responsibility must rest.
The best mode of refuting the accusation thus made
against colonial Pennsylvania, is to tell, in a simple and
perfectly authentic form, what did occur here, and in
I Haliburton's Nova Scotia, i. 183.




IN  PENNSYLVANIA.                 287
doing so to revive the memory - for every day, till Evangeline appeared, the tradition was becoming feebler- of as
sad an episode as the modern world's great history affords.
I know nothing more deeply pathetic; and we may wonder,
with a sentiment kindred to religious awe, at the retribution on this deed of wrong, when, at the end of a century,
we find Poetry stooping to pick up from oblivion the obscure tradition of the Acadian exiles, and writing it in
characters of living light, to last forever.
Let any one look through accredited histories of the
day, or even contemporary correspondence more recently
published, and he will find no allusion to this Exodus of
the Acadians. I have curiously examined, but in vain.
Neither Lord  Chesterfield, nor George Grenville, nor
Horace Walpole, who says a good deal about American
affairs in his light way, nor any letter-writer of the day,
alludes to what was doing in the obscure corner of Nova
Scotia.  It was too humble a tragedy for the courtly
gossipers of English society to trouble themselves about;
and, so far as my studies go, there is no trace of it. The
most that I find are a few allusions in the Gentleman's
Magazine of 1756 and 1757. It occurred, let me note in
passing, in a dismal and diminutive period of British
story; and it is matter of pride to those who reverence
(and what American student does not?) the grand, heroic
character of the elder Pitt, that no part of this stain
rests on his administration. It was far more characteristic
of Newcastle and Bubb Doddington.
For my purposes I assume the reader to be familiar
with the story of the French Neutrals down to the time




288          THE'FRENCH  NEUTRALS
when' they left Acadia, and I therefore turn to Pennsylvania's welcome of them, whatever it was, merely premising that the number of exiles who left Nova Scotia
early in September, 1755, was one thousand nine hundred
and twenty-three-four hundred and eighty-three men,
three hundred and thirty-seven women, and one thousand
-and fifty-three children.  Of this number, one account
says eight hundred came to Philadelphia; though my impression is, as I have said, that it was much less.
it was certainly an unpropitious time for French Roman
Catholics to come to these Puritan or Protestant colonies.
It was the' day of natural as: well as of unreasonable
excitements. It was the time when an Indian and a'Frenchman were looked on with equal horror. It was
the' day when the actual association did exist, and when
within three hundred miles of Philadelphia and two from
New York, French and Indians were advancing in victorious array.. General Braddock was defeated in July,
1755, and every English settlement on the seaboard
trembled for its existence. The English language and
the Reformed Religion, for a time, seemed to be in danger
all over the world, in America and in India. This was
the actual state of things, and yet it may well be doubted
whether even the hostile Frenchmen of those days had
-not worse designs attributed to them than they deserved.
"'May God," writes a gentleman in Philadelphia, after the
panic had subsided, "be pleased to give us success against
all our copper-coloured cannibals and French savages,
equally cruel and perfidious in their natures."'
Shippen Papers, 93.




IN' PENNSYLVANIA.                 289
Yet when, in 1756, Washington, then a provincial
colonel, defeated a party of French and Indians and obtained possession of the French commander's instructions,
they were found to contain these explicit words: "Le
Sieur Donville employera tous ses Talents et tout son
credit a empacher les Sauvages d'user d'aucun Cruaute,
sur ceux qui tomberont entre leurs mains. L'Honneur et
l'Humanite doivent en cela nous servir de guide;"' and
again, later, in 1757, in the instructions found in the
pocket of a French cadet, killed near Fort Cumberland:
"Suppose qu'il fasse de Prisonniers il empachera que les
Sauvages de son Detachment n'exercent a leur Egard
Aucune Cruaut6 Fait."  One pauses pleasantly over these
disinterred memorials of kind and merciful feeling so little
looked for, softening the hideous front of savage warfare;
but it must be recollected our terrified and excited ancestors knew nothing of them. What they knew, and were
made to know, of Frenchmen and French Papists, is very
clear from the exaggerated public documents and messages of
the Colonial governors, who found no language strong enough
wherewith to stir the: sluggish liberality of the Assemblies,
who raised money grudgingly, even when most frightened;
or from pulpit oratory, never more acrimonious than then;
or from such rumours as this, which I cut from a Philadelphia paper of September, 1755, a short time before the
Roman Catholic exiles arrived, under date of Halifax.
" "CA few days since three Frenchmen were taken up and
imprisoned on suspicion of having poisoned some wells in
this neighbourhood.  They are not tried yet, and it's
1 Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 600.
19




290          THE FREN C'H NEUTRALS
imagined if they are convicted thereof, they will have
but a few hours to live after they are.once condemned."
And the first rumour of the intention forcibly to remove
the Acadians from their country, was accompanied with
the statement that, from among them, C"three Priests or
Jesuits had been taken and sent.to Halifax,. and put on
board the Admiral's ship for security."'
Admiral Boscawen's great armament of ships-of-the-line
and frigates, was employed in awing unarmed peasants and
capturing fugitive Jesuits!  It was to an atmosphere of
public feeling thus excited, that the poor exiles came. Let
us see how they were heralded, how they arrived, how
they were treated here in Philadelphia.
The first intimation, in a popular form; of: the intention
to drive the Acadians from their homes, is in a letter from'Halifax, dated August 9th, and printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette of the 4th'of September, 1755, tile day before
the memorable 5th of September, Col. Winslow's "day of
great fatigue and trouble," when the meeting was held in
the church at Grand: Pr6, and the doom was told.2  It is
as follows, and is very characteristic:
"We are now upon a great and.noble scheme: of sending'the neutral French zout of the Province, who -have always
-been secret enemies, and have encouraged our savages to
cut our throats. - If we can effect their expulsion, -it will
be one of: the greatest things that ever did the English in
America; for, by all accounts, that part.of: the country
they possess is as good land as any in the world: in case,
therefore, we could get some good English farmers in their' Pennsylvania Gazette, Sept. 4, 1755.   2 Haliburton, i. 335, 338.




IN  PENNSYLVANIA.                  291
room, this Province would abound -in all sorts of provi.
sions.;-: -.  -:. Between. this. date - and the arrival of the exiles,.:I find
no precise reference to the subject, thoughllbut. little interr
mission of the inflammatory appeals to.national and. sectarian antipathies. It may be that.. the public mind.was
not a little. excited by what seemed to be supernatural
warning - an earthquake, which, in the early part. of November, 1755, went round the world, devastating European
cities, and at least startling those in America. The shock
of an earthquake, the advent of a ship-load of Roman
Catholics, and the.news, utterly. groundless as it. must
have been, which I find in the newspapers of the.very
day the -exiles came, that the Indians and tFrench had
attacked Lancaster, prepared for them a sorry welcome.
On the 19th and 20th of November, 1755, three -sloops,
the Hannah, the Three Friends, and the Swan, arrived in
the Delaware, with.the Neutrals.on. board.  They:had
cleared from Halifax., One of them, say the newspapers
of the day, came up to.town, but was immediately ordered
down again.  How the authorities, at first received. them
can only be gathered from the Executive records; nothing
of the action. of the Assembly having survived, or. being
accessible, but its meagre journal.  The Governor was
Robert Hunter: Morris, of whom it may at. least be said,
that he had. had his full share of those deplorable squabbles
with the popular representatives, which William Penn left
as a continuing legacy.to his family and successors. Governor Morris's administration had had also to encounter
the trial of actual war close at hand.  The arrival of the




292.         TRE FRENCH NEUTRALS
Neutrals seems to have thrown him into a state of terrible
alarm; and on the day the first cargo of them arrived,
he thus wrote to Governor Shirley, having previously laid
the matter before the Council:
"I wrote your Excellency a few days ago by Mr. Benzill,
who, I hope, will find you safe at New York, since which
two vessels are arrived here with upward of three hundred
neutral French from  Nova Scotia, who Governor Lawrence has sent to remain in this Province, and I am at a
very great loss to know what to do with them. The
people here, as there is no military force of any kind, are
very uneasy at the thought of having a number of enemy's
scattered in the very bowels of thd country, who may go
off from time to time with intelligence, and joyn their
countrymen now  employed against us, or foment some
intestine commotion in conjunction with the Irish and
German Catholics, in this and the neighbouring province.
I, therefore, must beg your particular instructions in what
manner I may best dispose of these people, as I am desirous
of doing any thing that may contribute to his majesty's
service. I have, in the mean time, put a guard out of the
recruiting partys now in town, on board of each vessel, and
ordered these neutrals to be supplied with provisions, which
must be at the expense of the crown, as I have -no Provincial money in my hands; for this service I have prevailed on Capt. Morris, who is recruiting here for Col.
Dunbar's Regiment, to postpone the sending off his recruits
till I could here from you upon the head, which I hope to
do by the return of the post."'
Pa. Arch. ii. 506; Colonial Records vi. 712.




IN PEN.N-SYLVANIA.               29'3
We have. not Shirley's answer, but there is some correspondence accidentally extant which shows that Governor
Morris found at least one response to his anxieties and.
alarms at the sudden incursions of the poor exiles. The
Chief Magistrate of the neighbouring province of New
Jersey was Jonathan Belcher, the father of him who, as
Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, according to Mr. Bancroft,
had by his stern opinion that they were 1"rebels," and'" recusants," fixed the doom of the Acadians. Father and
son seem to have had harsh sympathies. On. the 22d of
November, Morris writes to Belcher very much to the same
effect as he had written to Shirley, and the day but one
after (25th) Belcher replies:
"I am truly surprised how it could ever enter the
thoughts of those who had the ordering of the French.
Neutrals, or rather Traitors and Rebels to the crown of
Great Britain, to direct any of them into these Provinces,
where we have already too great a number of foreigners
for our own good and safety. I think they should havebeen transported directly to old France, and I entirely
coincide with your honor that these people would readily
join with the Irish Papists, &c., to the ruin and destruction
of the King's Colonies, and should any attempt to land
here, I should think, in duty to the King and to his good
people under my care, to do all in my power to crush an
attempt." 1
It is well none of the exiles wandered as far as Elizabethtown. They would have been effectually "crushed:
out" there.' Pa. Arch. ii. 513.




294         THE FRENCH  NEUTRALS
On the 24th November, Gov. Morris made the arrival
of the Neutrals the subject of a special message to the
Assembly, informing them he did not think it safe to permit them to land; that he had ordered guards to be placed
on the vessels below the town, and that in consequence of
an alarm of sickness amongst the crowded sufferers, some
of them had been landed at Province Island.
It is pleasant now to turn from this record of Proprietary
harshness —this intolerant sympathy of Deputy Executives, to the action of the representatives of the people and
of the people themselves; and here my defence of Pennsylvania properly begins.
The student of our colonial history need not be reminded
of the dismal continuity of disputes between the Assembly
and the Governors on the questions of taxation and
supplies. It is hard to deduce  any political principle from
our records, unless it be new confirmation of the truth that
all absenteeisin, and all imitation of feudalism, with its
manors, and its quit-rents, and its privileged estates, are
especially uncongenial to our Pennsylvania habits of thought
and action. It is scarcely worth while now to inquire who
were right and who were wrong, for it is all swept away
as part of the rubbish of our story. The poor Deputy
Governors, agents of the Proprietaries, had a hard time.
Exactions from the metropolitan authorities — actual invasion and danger on the one hand, and on the other, annoying resistance, and cavilling, and murmurs on the part of
those who alone could raise revenue to meet their demands
and requisitions. The Neutrals arrived, however, at a
propitious moment. There happened to be a lull in the




IN  PENNSYLVANIA.                 295
storm of controversy. On the very day that Governor
Morris sent to the Assembly his message about the Neutrals,
he communicated the soothing news that the Proprietaries,
on -hearing of General Braddock's defeat, had sent an order
on the Receiver General for ~5000, to be applied for the
common safety. The Assembly was for the time pacified.
They voted a new Bill of Supplies, and resolved at the same
moment to make provision for the sustenance and protection
of the Neutrals.'
I am proud to say that, in their relations to those unfortunate fugitives, I find on the records of the popular representative body no trace of the malignant animosity and
sectarian antipathy which actuated the Executive.  Painfully impracticable as Penn's principles had shown themselves when applied to periods of war and invasion, and
danger from the strong and armed hand without, yet when
the homeless fugitive and stranger came and asked a place
of refuge, the beautiful feature of the Quaker character,
charity, in its highest sense, and charity, too, which knows
no difference of creed, seemed more beautiful than ever.
The great principle of liberty of conscience and toleration
was put in practice towards these exiled" Papists," and it
certainly is very hard, with this unquestioned record before
us, that the Friends of Pennsylvania should be now-a-days
charged with mercenary inhumanity.
But our meagre records show there was another influence
in favor of:- the exile.  There were hereditary national
sympathies at work aside from all matters of technical
religion, which gave the French exiles in Philadelphia a'Votes, 519, 523.




296          THRE FR-EN CHi  NEUTR-A.LS
welcome that they had no right to expect. Papists or not,
they were French men, and women, and children-and
there were in Quaker garb, living in: Philadelphia, men of
French descent, who,.though Huguenots, and sprung from
that glorious race of men, the European Protestants of the
sixteenth century, still felt kindly to those who were
Frenchmen like themselves. The Benezets, and Lefevres,
and De Normandies, of Philadelphia; came from the same
soil years ago, as did the Landrys, and Galerms, and Le
Blancs, and Melangons, and Thibodeaus, and accordingly
I find that while the Assembly paused in no unreasonable
delay of counsel, this minute is made.
"Antony Benezet, attending without, was called in, and
informed the House that he had, at the request of some
of the members, visited the French Neutrals now  on
board sundry vessels in the river, near the city, and- found
that they were in great want of blankets, shirts, stockings,
and other necessaries; and he then withdrew, (whereupon)
Resolved, That this House will allow  such reasonable
expenses as the said Benezet may be put to in furnishing
tile Neutral French now in the Province."'
Antony Benezet, the Huguenot Quaker, was the first
almoner to these poor fugitives, and it was with no reluctant
gratitude that one of their number, in the first memorial
to the Assembly, said -" Blessed be God that it was our
lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, where our wants have been
relieved, and we have, in every respect, been treated with
Christian benevolence and charity." 
Nothing, however, beyond the general trust in Mr.'Votes, 524.                  2- Ibid, 538.




IN  PENNSYLVANIA.                  297
Benezet' and the other citizens connected with him, was
done; for early in December, the Assembly adjourned till
March, 1756. Before they reassembled, it appears from
the public accounts that at least ~1000 currency had been
expended for the relief of the Neutrals.'
The Assembly was convoked specially by the Governor
early in February, and on the 11th, their attention was
called to the Neutrals by a petition from one of their
number, Jean Baptiste Galerm, and a list of the names
of the individuals and the families of the exiles given.
The petition is preserved in a translated form, but the
list is unfortunately lost.  The petition contains a brief
and temperate statement of the causes which led to the
exile of the Acadians, a strong expression of gratitude for
the kindness with which they had been received, and a
protestation of their passive loyalty (and more than this
no one had a right to expect) to' the British crown.  It
contains no prayer for specific assistance.  A bill for the
relief, or, as it is rather ambiguously expressed in its title,
for "dispersing" the inhabitants of Nova Scotia into the
counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, and Lancaster,
was immediately introduced, and on the 5th of March, 1756,
became a law by the Executive' approval.2
This law is now before me, and I can see nothing in it
but considerate kindness.  The exiles were to be divided,
not dispersed, among the counties designated, in order " to
give them an opportunity of exercising their own labour
I See also Morris' Letter, 1st Feby., 1756, to Gov. I)inwiddie, Pa.
Arch. 562.
2 Votes, 537,,545.




2298         TH E F R E NCH NEU T RAL S
and industry, and they were to be supported at the public
expense, and amtong the commissioners named to carry it
-into execution: were not only those who, as Friends, had
been active.in: this. and:every scheme of benevolence, but
those whose French descent and sympathies may be inferred
from their names.. Antony Benezet was not one, but there
were -Jacob Duch, and Thomas Say, and Abraham  de
Normandie, and Samuel Lefevre. There is nothing like a
disruption of families hinted at. It was to continue in
force twelve months, and no longer.
What exactly:was.. done, or attempted under this act,
there is no means of knowing. Down to July of this year,
-when Governor. Denny arrived, upwards of ~1200 had. been spent in their support, and this too, although there
were difficulties created by the exiles themselves, who,
-though willing to be supported as objects of charity, evidently thought — for this is the fair construction of their
recorded conduct — that by refusing to work,:they would
force:a recognition:-of their rights as prisoners of.war, and
as- such be entitled to be exchanged or sent back to France.
One cannot blame: them for this sort of contumacy, and
yet. it made the. duty of kindness and protection not an
easy one. Governor Morris, who seems to: have been an
especial victim of the Gallophobia of his time, took his
farewell of his function by letters to Lord Loudoun, the
*new Governor-General, and to Sir Charles:Hardy, filled
with alarms as to French. spies and Papal influence.  If
any one now-a-days, afflicted with a fear of Romanistic or
Foreign influences, will look back to the terrors of a century
ago, he may, if capable of any rational process, learn a




N PEN'N:SYLVANIA.                   2'99
salutary.lesson.  " By means," writes Governor Morris, on
5th July,:1756, "of the. Roman Catholicks who.are allowed
in this and- the neighbouring:Province -of:Maryland,-:the,
free:. exercise of their. Religion,.and: therein- the other
privileges of English.-Freemen,e the: French.may.be. made
acquainted with the- steps taken. against them; nor do I
see.how it is possible to detect them, as from. the head of
Chesapeak Bay the roads:thro' this Province to Potomic
are opensi and much travelled, especially by Germans,.who.
have: a: large settlement at Frederick town in.Maryland, a
frontierr. place near- Kittochtinny. Hills:; none -are examined.
who pass that way."'. To which Sir-:Charles,. the Governor.of New..York, promptly replies:' "I am. inclined to think
the Treasonable correspondence must have, been carried
on by some Roman Catholicks, and I have heard you have
an Ingenious Jesuit in Philadelphia.'.'. Let me: here pause
and ask-which,: now-a-days, seems -most.preposterous --
Frederick:town,.in.Maryland, being -a frontier town, or -an
American. Governor being.afraid- of a.. Jesuit!   And- yet
both were so, one hundred years. ago..On the 27th of August, and on the 2d of September,
the: Neutrals addressed,- in::person, earnest and. pathetic
memorials both.: to the. Assembly and the Executive Council. A.candid examination of these papers,.written. with
great eloquence and precision, satisfies me that they were
meant "not merely:to.tell:.their tale of actual sorrow, but
to- use, as-:I- Ihave. already: hinted,. their:sufferings. as an.
argument for' restoration:-to liberty, or- their return to
Europe.-: - The  two ideas are always closely interwoven.
-Pa. Arch. ii. 690, 694.




300;         THE FRENCH- NEUTRALS
"We humbly pray," they say to the Assembly, "''that you
would extend your goodness so far as to give us leave to
depart from hence, or be pleased to send us to our nation,
or anywhere to:join our country-people; but if you cannot grant us these favours, we desire that provision may
be made for-our subsistence so long as we are detained
here. If this, our humble request, should be refused, and
our wives and children be suffered to perish before our
eyes, how grievous will this be!  had we not better have
died in our native land?" They admit they have refused
cows, and gardens, and modes of industry, because, say
they, "we will never consent to settle here."  To the
Governor they spoke the same language of supplication
and remonstrance; though one may almost suspect satire
in their affectionate loyalty, when they beg to be suffered
to join their own nation "in the same manner which it
has pleased his Majesty, King George (wlhom may God
preserve!), to cause us to be transported here contrary to
our will."' The remonstrance, be its object what it may
have been, had no effect; for, while the Assembly paused,
the Governor sternly repelled the supplicants, with the
decision that they could not and should not be treated as
prisoners of war, and hinted to the Assembly that' it was
expedient that the Neutrals should be more generally dispersed.2
On the meeting of the Assembly in October, 1756, there
is a sad revelation on its records of the sufferings of these
poor people- made, too, not by them, but by one of the
kindest of the voluntary almsgivers. It is the petition of' Col. Rec. vii. 239.          2 Ibid. vii. 241.




-IN. PEN NS YLVANIA.               301
William Griffitts, one of the Commissioners. Disease and
death had been busy among the exiles.'Many had died
of the small-pox, and, but for the care that.had been bestowed on them, many more would have perished miserably. The overseers of the rural townships refused to
receive them. The prejudice against the foreigners prevented the employment of those who were willing to
work; "and many of them," says this paper, "have had
neither meat nor bread for many weeks together, and
been necessitated to pilfer and steal for the support of
life." 1
The simple Acadian farmers, who, in their once happy
and secluded homes, a short year ago,
"Dwelt in the love of God and of man,"
had become, or were becoming, mendicant pilferers in the
streets of Philadelphia! It is piteous to think of the
contrast.
This appeal again moved the Assembly, and in as short
a time as the dilatory forms of legislation of the times
permitted, a new bill was enacted, entitled an Act for
binding out and settling such of the Inhabitants of Nova
Scotia as are under age, and for maintaining the aged,
sick, and maimed at the charge of the Province.'
It was of this measure - the compulsory binding out,
to learn trades, of the children of those who could not
support them-that the exiles most loudly complained;
and the most elaborate remonstrance that is to be found
on. our records, was induced by it. It is a-.document of
impassioned, and, to my mind, rather artificial rhetoric,' Votes, 645.                     2 Ibid. 677, 685.




302          THE F.:RE.NC.H NE UTRALS
of which, as before, the key-note was a prayer for deliverance; but, let.it be observed, no one word, fronm:first to
last, of complaint of personal or harsh..treatment-.: *" Froml
this Province," they say, "we have: experienced nothing
tIut good; for which ourselves, our wives, and our children, shall not cease to supplicate the:Almighty that He
will heap upon you all blessings, spiritual and temporal."l
Hard as is the lot of the poor and incapable. parent to
be deprived temporarily of. his children -. especially hard
is it where there are differences of language and religion
it is idle to deny the right and the duty of the Legis-lature, when the necessity arises, to make such compulsory
provision. I confess I am unable to see what less or what
else the Assembly could have done; and.so, in their perplexity, they seemed to think; for, after a vain attempt
to confer further with the Governor and his Council, and
to ascertain what they thought best to be done, the whole
subject was dropped. The Act of January, 1757, with a
short supplement remedying, some matter of detail, was
the last legislative act, with the exception of constant and
liberal appropriations of money, amounting, in six years,
from November, 1755, to 1761, to the not inconsiderable
sum of upwards of ~7000; to which neither the Crown
nor the Proprietaries, as far as I can discover, contributed
a farthing -the first having its hands full with a European war and schemes of conquest, and the latter watching their estates and devising' schemes, to use Thomas
Penn's phrase in a letter to Mr. Hamilton, of "getting
the better of the Assemblies."2' Votes, 685.   2 Hamilton MSS: Letter, 25 February, 1755.




IN' PENNSYLVAN I-A.                303
On or. about -the. 7th:of Marchi,  Pennsylvania and its
capital were honored by the presence -of the new, comr
mander-in-chief, a Peer.of the Re'alm, John, Earl of
Loudoun. His was the ifirst coronet that: had ever shone
on this distant and: simple land. There was feasting and
rejoicing when he.came, and.around- him  no doubt.clustered the loyal worshippers. of rank and.authority; but all
the.while,.so say the legislative records, the poor Neutrals
were -pining awayin..rmisery-not the less intense because,
in some measure,. self-inflicted. On the 3d of March, 1757,
the. authorities were instructed-.by the. Assembly to act for
their relief,." so as to- prevent them (these.are.the." words of.the resolution).-from perishing from want.",
- Lord Loudoun remained but a few days in Philadelphia,
but quite.long enough to inflict, by the exercise of. his
-high powers, a new pang and a new indignity on the poor.Neutrals.' He, or. rather Secretary Peters for him, found
it necessary to ascertain the exact number.of Roman:Catholics. in the. Province, so:that this terrible danger
might be guarded against; and in the Colonial. Records I
find the following. modest letter from  the. priest, which
one:would think might have lulled to rest the anti-papal
elements of the time:
"Honored Sir:- I send you' the number of Roman
Catholics in this town, and of those whom I visit in the
country. Mr. Sneider is not in town to give an account
of the Germans, but I have heard him often say, that the
whole number of Roman Catholics, English, Irish, and
1 Votes, 700, 715.




304          THE FRENCH  NEUTRALS
Germans, including men, women, and children, does not
exceed two thousand.
"I remain,        ROBERT HARDY."
The poor remnant of French Neutrals did not seem
worth counting!
The Earl of Loudoun was a fit representative of the
ministry of that day; for he was utterly incapable, and
perversely tyrannical.  He was considered "a man of
judgment and ability" by the Duke of Newcastle.' He
was superseded promptly and contemptuously by Mr.
Pitt, on his accession to office a few months later, who
sent to America manly men to do his work of beneficent
energy. It was Lord Loudoun of whom Dr. Franklin has
preserved the traditionary jest, that he was like St. George
on the signs, always on horseback and never advancing.
He distrusted and disregarded Washington. He fretted
Franklin. He was just the man for a little persecution
of these poor exiled Neutrals. He was in Philadelphia,
as I have said, but a few days; but long enough for his
work of small despotism.
In the Colonial Records of 1757,2 is a Sheriff's warrant,
issued by the Governor, at the request of Lord Loudoun,
directing the apprehension of Charles Le Blanc and Jean
Baptiste Galerme, now in Philadelphia city; Philip Melangon, at Frankford; Paul Bujauld, at Chester; and Jean
Landy, at Darby, as suspicious and evil-minded persons,
who have uttered menacing speeches against his Majesty
and his liege subjects. They are to be arrested and committed to jail.'Chatham Correspondence, i. 237.  2 Col. Rec. vii. 446.




~ IN PENNSYLVAN I A.              305. To.- this'.warrant'the Sheriff made -no return.that has
been preserved; but the following curious and characteristic
letter.`from  Lord Loudoun, for which I am  indebted,
within the last'few days, to Mr. Bancroft, and which has
never before been made public, explains the act of wrong.
~There- is in it something much more like a delivery of
these poor people to slavery than anything: that Pennsylvania annals afford. The indignity of petitioning' in French
sounds strangely to us of a century later.
The letter, however, speaks for itself:
[EARL OF LOUDOUN TO WILLIAM PITT.]
Extract.
" 25th April, 1757.
"~SIR-  *  *  * *    When I was at Pensilvania I
found that the French Neutrals there had been very.mutinous, and had threatened to leave the women and
children and. go over to join the French in the back
country; they sent me a Memorial in' French setting
forth their grievances. I returned it and said I could
receive no Memorial from  the King's subjects but in
English, on which they had a general meeting at which
they determined they would give no Memorial but in
French, and as I am informed they come to this resolution from looking on themselves entirely as French subjects.
"Captain Cotterell, who is Secretary for the Province
of Nova Scotia, and is in this Country for the recovery of
his health, found among. those Neutrals one who. had been
a Spie of Colonel'Cornwallis and afterwards of Governor
20




306         THE FRENCH NEUTRA"LS
Lawrence, who he tells me had behaved- well' both' in
giving accounts of what those people were doing and ini
bringing' them intelligence of the situation and strength
of the French: forts and. in particular of Beausejour; by
this man I learnt that there were five principal leading
men among them who stir up all the disturbance these
people make in Pensilvania, and who persuade them to go
and join the enemy and who prevent them from submitting
to any regulation. made in the country, and to- allow their
children to be put: out to work.
"On finding this to be the case, I thought it necessary
for me to prevent, as far as I possibly could, such a junction to the enemy: on which I secured those five ringleaders and put them on board Captain Talkingham's ship,
the Sutherland, in order to his carrying them to England,
to be disposed of as his Majesty's servants shall think
proper; but I must inform you that if they are turned
loose they will directly return and continue to raise all
the disturbance in their power, therefore it appears to me
that the safest way of keeping them would be to employ
them as sailors on board ships of war.
L. OUDOUN.
"'-The Right Hion.
"WILLIAM PITT.
(Indorsed) "R. July 6th."
It is quite possible that the men thus exiled (and of
their fate there is no trace) may have been the leaders,
the speakers, the writers for the exiles; for after they
went away, there appears no recorded remonstrance or
petition from the others. They wasted away in uncom



IN':' E N N N SY L V A NIA-. "'  307
plaining misery,- pensioners on charity.' They are-rarely
referred to in public documents.,
On the 9th- of February, 1761, a committee of inquiry
on the; subject was appointed by the Assembly, and on the
26th they reported -as' follows:   -
"We, the committee appointed to examine into the
state of the French Neutrals, and to report our opinion
of the best method of lessening their expense to this province,- have, in pursuance of the said appointment, made
inquiry, and thereupon do report -
" That the late'extraordinary expenses charged by the
overseers of the poor, have been occasioned by the general
Sickness which prevailed amongst them, in common with
other inhabitants, during the last fall and part of the'
winter; this, added to the ordinary expense of supporting
the indigent widows, orphans, aged and decrepid persons,
has greatly enlarged: the accounts of this year. They
have likewise a number of children, who, by the' late acts
of Assembly, ought to have been bound out. to service,
but their parents have always opposed the execution of
these laws, on account of their religion; many of these
children, when in health, require no assistance from the'
public; but in time of sickness, from the poverty of their
parents, become objects of charity, and must perish without it,''-'"Your Committee called together a number of their;
chief men,- and acquainted them with the dissatisfaction"
of the House on finding the public expense so much:
increased by- their opposition to those laws, which were
framed' ith a compassionate regard to them, and tending




308.         THE FRENCH NEUTRALS
immediately to their ease and benefit, and assured them
that, unless they could propose a method more agreeable
to themselves for lightening the public burden, their
children.would be taken from them, and placed in such
families as could maintain them, and  some effectual
method taken to prevent the ill effects of idleness in
their young people.
": They answered, with appearance of great concern, that
they were very sorry to find themselves so expensive to
the good people of this Province; reminded us of the late
general sickness as the principal cause of it, which they
hoped might not happen again during their continuance
here; that in expectation of lessening this expense, and
of obtaining some restitution for the loss of their estates,
they had petitioned the Court of Great Britain, and humbly
remonstrated to his Majesty the state of their peculiar
sufferings, and as the Governor had been so kind as to
transmit and recommend their said petition and remonstrance, they doubted not but the King would be so gracious as to grant a part of their country, sufficient for their
families to resettle on, where they flatter themselves they
shall enjoy more health, and be free from the apprehensions of their children being educated in families whose
religious sentiments are so different from theirs. In the
mean time they pray the indulgence of the government in
suffering them to retain their children, as they find, by
experience, that those few who are in Protestant families,
soon become estranged and alienated from their parents;
and, though anxious to return to Nova Scotia, they beg to
be sent to old France, or anywhere, rather than part with




IN  PENNSYLVANIA.                  309
their children; and they promise to excite and encourage
all their young people, to be industrious in acquiring a
competency for their own and their parents' subsistence,
that they may not give occasion for complaints hereafter.
How far they may succeed in this, or their application to
the Crown, is very uncertain.. We are of opinion that
nothing short of putting in execution the law, which
directs the Overseers of the Poor to bind out their child-:ren, will so effectually lessen this expense, unless the
Governor, with the concurrence of the Commander-inChief of the King's forces, shall think fit to comply with
their request and transport them out of this Province.'" Nevertheless, your: Committee being moved with compassion for these unhappy people, do recommend them to
the consideration of the House, as we hope that no great
inconvenience can arise from the continuance of the public charity towards them for a few months longer.; and
think it just to observe, that there are amongst them
numbers of industrious labouring men, who have been,
during the late scarcity of labourers, of great service in
the neighbourhood of this city.
"Submitted to the House."'
I find but one other minute, and that tells a sad tale.
I quote it in the simple words in which it appears on the
Journal of Assembly. It is on the 4th of January, 1766:'"A petition from John Hill, of the city of Philadelphia,
joiner, was presented to the House and read, setting'forth
that the petitioner has been- employed from time to time
Votesj 143.




310          THE.EFRENCH  NEUTRA.LS
to make coffins for the French Neutrals who have died in
and about this city, and'has had his accounts regularly
allowed and paid by the Government, till lately; that he
is now informed by the gentlemen commissioners, who
used to pay him,- that they have no public money in their
hands for' the payment of. such debts;. that he has made
sixteen coffins since his last settlement (as will appear from.the account) without  any countermand of his former
orders; he therefore prays:the House to make such provision for his materials and labour in the premises as to
them shall- seem meet. Ordered to lie on the table."'
With this coffin-maker's memorial, so far as I have been
able to trace it, ends the authentic history of the French
Neutrals in Pennsylvania. All the rest is tradition; and
with tradition, that fruitful source of error, I have nothing
to do.' Mr. Watson, in his Annals, tells us that for:a long
time the remnant of the Neutrals occupied a row of frame
huts on the north side of Pine street, between Fifth and
Sixth, on property owned either by Mr. Powel or Mr.
Emlen; and those ruined houses, known as the Neutral
Huts, are remembered distinctly by persons now living.
What at last became of these poor creatures, it is not easy
to ascertain from evidence. Their very names have perished.
I have diligently searched the earliest extant Directories,
and cannot find any one of the name that are known to
us as belonging to them.
One other fact, proved by the official records, is that
which I have already alluded to, that from November,
1755, till the Revolution, when ruder cares occupied the
- Votes, 4W65.




IN  PEN.NSYLVANIA..                311
attention of our Pennsylvania legislators, there appears to
have been expended for the support of. the exiles, by public authority alone, aside from private benefaction   always
bountiful in Philadelphia-no less a sum than ~7500, currency, or about $20,000...
In this retrospect of a sad chapter of local history, I
find nothing to wound.the proper pride or excite the blush
of Pennsylvania, and nowhere a trace of truth:to justify
the wanton aspersion on our fame, that Pennsylvania sold,
or wished. to sell, or thought. of selling, these or any other
human beings: into slavery. The only colour for it comes
in the shape of a very slight tradition embalmed in Mr.
Vaux's Life of Benezet. It is this: "Such was Benezet's
care of the Neutrals, that it produced a jealousy in the
mind of one of the oldest men among them, of a very
novel and curious description, which was communicated
to a friend. of.Benezet, to whom he said:' It is impossible
that all this kindness can be disinterested; Mr. Benezet
must certainly intend to recompense himself by treacherously selling us.' When their patron and protector,"
adds Mr. Vaux, "was informed of this ungrateful suspicion, it was so far from producing an emotion of anger or
indignation, that he lifted up his hands and laughed immoderately."l Pointless as this gossiping anecdote is, the
aspersion on our character rests on no, other foundation.
I have' tracked the humble story of the Acadian exiles
through authentic and official proofs, with little or no aid
from contemporary correspondence, though much may exist
that I have not had access to. There is no allusion to. the
Neutrals in the Shippen Papers, or in that. far more inte,'Life of Benezet, 88.




312          THE' FRENCH NEUTRALS
resting and valuable collection; the Hamilton MSS.; and
Dr. Franklin, who wrote letters and pamphlets on almost
every subject, and who was:in Philadelphia. when-, the
Neutrals came, and for months afterwards, is silent about
them.  I have no doubt, however, that my vindication
rests upon truth,
And closing this little essay, written rapidly, and at
such short intervals as I have: been:.able to snatch from,
daily drudgery, I cannot but recall the moral with which
I began, made more pointed by the reflection the sad his-.
tory suggests, that no kindness,- no charity, no compassion
can heal entirely the wound which religious persecution
inflicts on the heart of man; no sympathy, slow or active,
can lull to rest resentments which a sense of such wrong
excites.  These poor Catholic fugitives died in their faith.
They hugged it to their wasted bosoms more closely, because they were persecuted and exiles. They died heartbroken, and the stain of their agony rests on the English
name. It is made immortal, as I have said, in poetry of
the English language; for Evangeline will live long after
the feeble, persecuting statesmen'of George the Second's
reign are forgotten. Let those -and there seems a sort
of centenary cycle in matters of this kind' -who would
persecute or proscribe for opinion's sake, and limit by
political exclusion the' right to worship God in the form
which he who worships chooses; who would, if let, alone,
join in the hunt or exile of those who, like the Acadians,
cherish the faith of their childhood and their ancestors,
let' them read this story, and beware of the sure retribution of history.




.:.IN:x EN:  S Y LE VNSYVANIA.:   313
Should the. opportunity occur, and, wht is far uiore
uncertain, the inclination continue, I hope on some future
day to read a:paper, as desultory as this,. on the next visit
of the French to Philadelphia; when, twenty-five years
later, they came here triumphant, our welcome auxiliaries;
when French noblemen and French priests were about the
streets; anhd when, perhaps, as we may hope, they walked
across the Potters' Field, which I remember,:to Pine and
Sixth streets, to look at the mouldering remains of the
Neutral huts, or trace out the Neutral graves.




314:             THtE. FRENCH NEUTR'ALS
A RELATION OF THE MISFORTUNES OF THEE
FRENCH NEUTRALS,
As laid, before- the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania 
BY JOHN B APTISTE GA'LE R M.
ONE OF THE SAID PEOPLE.1
ABOUT the year 1713, when Annapolis Royal was taken from  the
French, our Fathers being then settled on the Bay of Fundi, upon the
Surrender of! that Country to the English, had, by virtue of the Treaty of
echtrl.t~ a Year granted them to remove with their Effects; but not being
willing to lose the Fruit of many Years labour, they chose rather to remain
there, and become Subjects of Great Britain, on Condition that they
might be exempted from  bearing Arms against France (most of them
having near Relations and Friends amongst the FPrench, which they might
have destroyed with their own Hands, had they consented to bear Arms
against them). This Request they always understood to be granted, on
their taking the Oath of Fidelity to her late Majesty, Queen Anne; which
Oath of Fidelity was by us, about 27 Years ago, renewed to his Majesty,
King George, by General Philipse, who then allowed us an Exemption of
bearing Arms against France; which Exemption, till lately, (that we were
told to the contrary) we always thought was approved of by the King.
Our Oath of Fidelity, we that are now brought into this Province, as well
as those of our Community that are carried into the neighbouring Provinces,
have always inviolably observed, and have, on all Occasions, been willing
to afford all the Assistance in our Power to his Majesty's Governors in
erecting Forts, making Roads, Bridges, &c., and providing Provisions for
his Majesty's Service, as can be testified by the several Governors and
Officers that have comrmanded in his Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia;
and this, notwithstanding the repeated Sollicitations, Threats, and Abuses,
which we have continually, more or less, suffered from the French and
French Indians of Canada on that Account, particularly about ten Years
ago, when 500 French and Indians came to our Settlements, intending to
attack Annapolis Royal, which, had their Intention succeeded, would have
1 Broadside, in a Volume of the Pennsylvania' Gazette, Philadelphia Library,
Folio No. 992. As it follows the paper issue, No. 1418, of February 26, 1756, I
presume that is about the date of its publication. It is proper to state that, from
the absence of Mr. Reed in China, as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United
States, the foregoing paper has not received his correction, in passing through the
ress.- T. WARD.




IN  PENNSYLVANIA.                         315
made them Masters: of all Nova Scotia, it being the only Place of Strength
then in that Province, they earnestly sollicited us to join with, and aid them
therein; but we persisting in our Resolution to abide true to our Oath of
Fidelity, and absolutely refusing to give them any Assistance, they gave
over their Intention, and returned to Canada.  And about seven Years
past, at the settling of Halifax, a Body of 150 Indians came amongst us,'forced some of us from our Habitations, and by Threats and Blows would
have compelled us to assist them in Way-laying and destroying the English,
then employe. in erecting Forts in different Parts of the Country; but we
positively refusing,' they left us, after having abused us, and made great
Havock of our Cattle, &c. I- myself was six Weeks before I wholly
recovered of the Blows I received from  them  at that Time.  Almost
numberless are the Instances which might be given of the Abuses and
Losses we have undergone from the French Indians, on Account of our
steady Adherance to our Oath of Fidelity;:and yet, notwithstanding our
strict Observance thereof, we have not been able to prevent the grievous
Calamity which is now come upon us, which we apprehend to be in a great
Measure owing to the unhappy Situation and Conduct of some of our
People settled' at Chiegnecto, at the Bottom of the Bay of Fundi, where
the French, about four Years ago, erected a Fort; those of our People who
were settled near it, after having had many of their Settlements burnt by
the French, being too far from Hab/ax and Annapolis Royal to expect
sufficient Assistance from the English, were obliged, as we believe, more
through Compulsion and Fear than Inclination, to join with and assist the
French; which also appears from the Articles of Capitulation agreed on
between Colonel Monckton and the French Commander, at the Delivery of
the said Fort to the English, which is exactly in the following words.
With regard to the Acadians, as they have been forced to take up Arms
on Pain of Death, they shall be pardoned for the Part they have been
taking.  Notwithstanding this, as these People's Conduct had given just
Umbrage to the Government, and created suspicions to the Prejudice of
our whole Community, we were summoned to,appear before the Governor
and Council at Halbfax, where we were required to take the Oath of Allegiance, without any exception, which we could not comply with, because,
as that Government is at present situate, we apprehend we should have
been obliged to take up Arms; but were still willing to take Oath of
Fidelity, and- give the strongest Assurances of continuing peaceable and
faithful to his Britannick Majesty, with that Exception. But this, in the
present Situation of Affairs, not being Satisfactory, we were made Prisoners,
and our Estates, both real and personal, forfeited for the King's Use; and,
1 Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1755, Page 332.




316             THE FRENCH NEUTRALS.
Vessels'being provided, we were sometime after sent off, with most of our
Families, and dispersed among the English Colonies.  The Hurry and
Confusion in which we were embarked was an aggravating Circumstance
attending our Misfortunes; for thereby many, who had lived in Affluence,
found themselves deprived of every Necessary, and many Families were
separated, Parents from Children, and Children from Parents. Yet blessed
be God that it was our Lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, where our Wants
have been relieved, and we have in every Respect  been received with
Christian Benevolence and Charity. And let me add, that notwithstanding
the Suspicions and Fears which many here are possessed of on our Account,,as tho' we were a dangerous People, who make little Scruple of breaking
our Oaths, Time will manifest that we are not such a People: No, the
unhappy Situation which we are now in, is a plain Evidence that this is a
false Charge, tending to aggravate the Misfortunes of an already too
unhappy People; for, had we entertained such pernicious Sentiments, we
might easily have prevented our falling into the melancholy Circumstances
we are now in, viz: Deprived of our Substance, banished from our native
Country, and reduced to live by Charity in a strange Land; and this for
refusing to take an Oath, which we are firmly persuaded Christianity absolutely forbids us to violate, had we once taken it, and yet an Oath which
we could not comply with, without being exposed to plunge our Swords in
the Breasts of our Friends and Relations. We shall, however, as we have
hitherto done, submit to what,'in the present Situation of Affairs, may
seem necessary, and with Patience and Resignation bear whatever God, in
the Course of his Providence, shall suffer to come upon us. We shall also
think it our Duty to seek and promote the Peace of the Country into which
we are transported, and inviolably keep the Oath of Fidelity that we have
taken to his gracious Majesty, King George, whom we firmly believe, when
fully acquainted with our Faithfulness and Sufferings, will commiserate our
unhappy Condition, and order that some Compensation be made us for our
Losses. And may the Almighty abundantly bless his Honour, the Governor,
the honourable Assembly of the Province, and the good People of Philadelphia, whose Sympathy, Benevolence, and Christian Charity, have been,
and still are, greatly manifested and extended towards us, a poor distressed
and afflicted People, is the Sincere and earnest Prayer of
JOHN BAPTISTE GALERM.