mission with instructions to proceed to Wyoming, and restore peace by disarming both parties. And it happened to be the approach of the commissioners under this resolution, that caused the raising of the siege of Fort Dickinson. They arrived on the 29th, and on the following day a conference was held between both parties, but without any reconciliation being effected. The commissioners* next made a demand, under the authority of the State, for the mutual surrender of the arms of the parties, and also of a suitable number of persons as hostages, for the preservation of the peace.

But neither persuasion nor demand produced the slightest effect upon either party. The truth was, both had heard that after the arrival of the express in Philadelphia, announcing the beleaguerment of the fort by the people, the Council of State had directed the Lieutenant of the county of Northampton to call forth a body of three hundred infantry, with a squadron of dragoons, to march for the subjugation of the people of Wyoming. A simultaneous order was also given to the Sheriff of Northumberland to proceed with the power of his county, to the aid of the Lieutenant of Northampton. On the same day, viz: the 29th of July, the Honourable John Boyd and Colonel John Armstrong were appointed commissioners for concerting and executing such measures

* Chapman is the authority for these details. The commissioners were Thomas Hewitt, David Mead, and Robert Martin.

as they should judge necessary for establishing the peace and good order of the disaffected district. Under these circumstances, neither party would listen to the proposition for disarming. The Pennamites* counted upon adequate military support, while the Yankees were not disposed to surrender their arms, at a moment when a larger military force than any they had yet encountered was marching for their subjugation.

Colonel Armstrong proceeded to Easton on the 1st of August, where his forces were already collecting. On the 3d he advanced to the eastern verge of the Pokono mountain. He had, however, previously detached Colonel Moore, with a party of volunteers, to a station called Locust Hill, about midway of the mountains, which the Major was directed to hold for the purpose of keeping the passage clear. Hearing of this advance of Moore, the people of Wyoming sent forward a company under the command of Captain Swift, to meet and repel him. This enterprise was executed with fidelity. Swift took the party of Moore by surprise early on the morning of the 2d of August, and after a brisk attack upon the log-house in which they were sheltered, Moore retreated with the loss of one man killed, and several wounded. Swift thereupon returned to Wyoming, where Colonel Armstrong soon appeared

* Pennamites was the name given the Pennsylvanians by the Connecticut settlers, who in turn were designated as Yankees, - Intruders, Insurgents, &c. Those civil broils are still called the Pennamite wars in Wyoming.

at the head, all told, of about four hundred men, including Patterson's troops, and a few militia-men from Northumberland.

The armed forces of the people were so strongly entrenched in Fort Forty, that Armstrong dared not hazard an attack. He therefore had recourse to stratagem. A plausible manifesto was issued, declaring that he had come merely for the dispensation of justice, and the pacification of the valley. His object was the protection of the peaceable inhabitants, to which end it was necessary that both parties should be disarmed. For a time his professions were distrusted by the people; but ultimately the earnestness and apparent sincerity of his protestations overcame their scruples, and numbers of them repaired to Fort Dickinson, to comply with his terms, and also to make reclamation of the property of which they had been plundered. But they had ample cause to lament their credulity, being arrested by scores, pinioned with strong cords, and marched off, in pairs, strongly guarded, to the prisons of Easton and Sunbury. Forty-two were sent to the latter prison, ten of whom, however, escaped on the morning after their arrival. In both prisons they were treated with inhumanity; but the imprisonment at Easton was of short duration. On the morning of September 17th, as the jailor was conveying their breakfast to them, he was knocked down by a young man named Inman, and the whole body made their escape.

On the departure of the prisoners, Armstrong had discharged the principal part of his forces, and made preparations with the residue to gather the. crops planted to his hands by those whom he had dispossessed. But his army had been prematurely disbanded. With the return of the self-liberated prisoners, the residue of the inhabitants took arms, and being strengthened by a body of emigrants from Vermont, Fort Forty was again occupied, and dispositions promptly made to protect what remained unharvested of their crops. On the 20th of September, a party of Armstrong's men, engaged in harvesting grain that did not belong to them, were attacked and driven into Fort Dickinson. A strong detachment was immediately despatched in pursuit of the "Insurgents," as Armstrong now called the people in arms; but the latter took refuge in a log-house, which they defended with such spirit as to repulse their assailants, who bore away, as their only trophies, two wounded men.

The people were suffering greatly by reason of the surrender of their fire arms; and hearing that Colonel Armstrong had sent to Philadelphia for reinforcements, they resolved to make an effort for the recovery of those arms, before any more troops should arrive. Having ascertained the particular block-house in which the arms were deposited, they made an attack on the night of the 25th, but were repulsed. On the following day Colonel Armstrong proceeded to Philadelphia;

and on the next, the block-house was carried by the people under John Franklin, two of the Pennamite magistrates, Reed and Henderson, mortally wounded, and the arms recovered. A full statement of the transaction was forwarded to the government by Franklin, acting for the people, in which it was declared that they had not been prompted by any disposition to disregard the laws, but only to be avenged upon Patterson and Armstrong for their treachery.*

Another military expedition against the "insurgents" was immediately determined upon by the Council, to consist of two companies of fifty men each. The command was again entrusted to Colonel Armstrong, who was simultaneously promoted to the office of Adjutant General of the State. The President, Mr. Dickinson, made a strong remonstrance against this proceeding, in writing; but the Council was resolutely bent upon perseverance. The people of the state, however, were by this time becoming weary of the contest. Nor was this all: they were beginning to look upon the settlers of Wyoming as the persecuted party, and

* Chapman.

† Pennsylvania, at that time, had no officer bearing the title of governor. Under its first independent state constitution, the government of the commonwealth was vested in a House of Representatives, a President, and a Council. There was also another branch of the government instituted by that constitution, called a Board of Censors, chosen by the people, and directed to meet once in seven years, to inquire whether the constitution had in the meantime been violated; whether the legislative and executive branches had performed their duties faithfully; whether the laws had been duly and equally executed, &c. &c. They could also try impeachments, and recommend the repeal of unwholesome laws, &c.