Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Lieutenant-Colonel George Washington to James Hamilton, Governor of Pennsylvania, April 27, 1754

Will's Creek, 27 April, 1754.
SIR,

It is with the greatest concern I acquaint you, that Mr. Ward, ensign in Captain Trent's company, was compelled to surrender his small fort at the Fork of the Monongahela to the French, on the 17th instant, who fell down from Venango, with a fleet of three hundred and sixty batteaux and canoes, upwards of one thousand men, and eighteen pieces of artillery, which they planted against the fort, drew up their men, and sent the enclosed summons to Mr. Ward, who, having but an inconsiderable number of men, and no cannon, to make a proper defence, was obliged to surrender. They suffered him to draw off his men, arms, and working-tools, and gave leave that he might retreat to the inhabitants.

I have heard of your Honor's great zeal for his Majesty's service, and for all our interests on the present occasion. You will see, by the enclosed speech of the Half-King, that the Indians expect some assistance from you; and I am persuaded you will take proper notice of their moving speech, and their unshaken fidelity.

I thought it more advisable to acquaint your Honor with it immediately, than to wait till you could get intelligence by the way of Williamsburg and the young man, as the Half-King proposes.

I have arrived thus far with a detachment of one hundred and fifty men. Colonel Fry, with the remainder of the regiment and artillery, is daily expected. In the mean time, we advance slowly across the mountains, making the roads, as we march, fit for the carriage of

our great guns; and are designed to proceed as far as the mouth of Red-stone Creek, which enters the Monongahela about thirty-seven miles above the fort taken by the French, from whence we have a water carriage down the river. And there is a storehouse built by the Ohio Company, which may serve as a receptacle for our ammunition and provisions.

Besides these French, that came from Venango, we have credible accounts, that another party are coming up the Ohio. We also have intelligence, that six hundred of the Chippewas and Ottawas are marching down Scioto Creek to join them. I hope your Honor will excuse the freedom I have assumed in acquainting you with these advices; it was the warm zeal I owe my country, that influenced me to it, and occasioned this express.

I am, with all due respect and regard, your Honor's most obedient and very humble servant.*
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This letter was immediately laid before the legislature by the governor. A bill was then pending for a grant of ten thousand pounds for the King's use, but it was obstructed in its progress by the opposition of the Governor to the plan proposed by the Assembly for raising the money, and no relief was obtained for the expedition. — Votes of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Vol. IV. p. 313.

Whatever doubts there may have been in the minds of some members of the Assembly, as to the King's title to the Western lands, these doubts were not publicly urged as a reason for withholding a grant of money. But the truth is, that, when the contest between France and England began, neither power had any just title to the lands west of the Ohio River. There could be no pretence, by either party, of conquest, purchase, or occupancy. The French had been accustomed to pass from Canada and the Lakes down the Wabash and through the Illinois country to Louisiana, and a few English traders had recently gone over the mountains and bartered with the Indians. The English government had even granted five hundred thousand acres of land there to the Ohio Company. The claim by the English was founded on the treaties of Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle, in which France consented that Great Britain should have jurisdiction over all the regions possessed by the Iroquois, or Six Nations. But there is no proof, that the territory in question belonged to the Iroquois. In fact, there is the strongest evidence to the contrary.

SOURCE: Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington: Volume 1, p. 12-13

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