First Excise Laws of Pennsylvania Enacted
March 17, 1684
The first excise tax in Pennsylvania was imposed by the Assembly of the Province March 17, 1684, in an act entitled “Bill for Aid and Assistance of the Government.”
This act seems to have been prompted by a record in the minutes of the Assembly for February 20, 1684: “The Govr. & Provll Councill have thought fitt. from the Exteriordinary in the Case, to place Patrick Robinson as administrator to Benj. Acrods Estate, and to have a recourse to this board from time to time.
“Wheras, the Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury was, that Benj. Acrod killed himselfe with drinke, wch might give the Province a pretence to his Estate therin. The Propor & Govr. Relinquished all his Claime thereunto in Council, and desired ye Council to take Care that some person be appoynted to take Care of ye Estate of ye sd Acrod, for ye paymt of his debts, and the remaineder to be disposed of according to Law, &c.”
At the session held on March 26 a bill was read that it should be left to the Governor and Provincial Council to discuss with Indians matters concerning the use of rum among them. Another bill was read which prohibited bargains being made “when People are in Drinke.” This bill was passed.
The objectionable features of the first excise bill passed by the Assembly were soon after repealed and not again renewed until the year 1738, when the Provincial Assembly, August 14, heard a bill “sent by the House of Representatives, entitled an Act for laying an Excise on Wine, Rum, Brandy and other Spirits.” This bill was passed without amendments and signed by Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, August 25, 1738.
This bill proved to be very unpopular, and it remained in force only a few months.
In 1744 this subject was again revived when at the session of the Provincial Council held May 25 Lieutenant Governor Thomas in a message sent to him by the Assembly was advised among other things that “We are also of the Opinion that it will be for the Interests of Our Constituents to make further Provision concerning the Excise Act and we have a bill before us to this Purpose; and we hope these Bills, and such others as shall be truly useful to the Province, when offered, will meet with the Governor’s assent. And we, on our Part, shall then Cheerfully make Provision for his Support for the Current Year, equal to any granted for the like Time to either of his immediate Predecessors.”
This bill proposed an excise tax as a means of providing money without resorting to a general tax, not only to be used to purchase arms and ammunition for defense, but as well to answer such demands as might be made upon the inhabitants of the Province by his Majesty for distressing the public enemy in America. This bill, like the former ones, was not long in operation.
March 31, 1764, a bill was passed by the Assembly and Council and signed by Lieutenant Governor John Penn, which tended to suppress “Idleness, Drunkenness, & other Debaucheries, within this Government.”
The attention of the Assembly was once more called to the excise as a productive source of revenue on February 24, 1772, when Lieutenant Governor Richard Penn laid before the Council a bill sent to him by the Assembly, entitled “An Act for the support of the Government of this Province making the Excise on Wine, Rum, Brandy, and other spirits more equal, and preventing Frauds in the Collecting and paying the said Excise.”
That a considerable portion of the money expended in the Provincial Government was raised by excise is evidenced from a report made by Governor John Penn June 26, 1775, which was an account of the several amounts of the excise tax collected for the years 1771, 72, 73 and 74, the total amount of which, after deducting the commissions to the Treasurer and collectors exceeded £28,000. Together with this report was another indorsed “State of the Bills of Credit struck on the Excise for several years, laid before the Governor with the bill for the support of Government & paymt of public debts.”
In the Act of 1722 a duty was levied on domestic and foreign spirits. At first, however, as to home-distilled spirits it was not executed, and, indeed, hardly any steps were taken for the purpose particularly in the older counties. But, during the Revolutionary War, the necessities of the State and a temporary unpopularity of distillation, owing to the immense amount of grain consumed, when the troops so much needed it as a food, rendered the collection of duties both necessary and practicable, and a considerable revenue was thereby obtained. Toward the end of the war the act was repealed.
In 1780 Congress resolved that an allowance of an additional sum should be made to the army, to compensate the troops for the depreciation in their pay. This was distributed among the several States for discharge. Pennsylvania made several appropriations for the purpose, but the revenues so applied turned out to be unproductive.
The depreciation fund was always favorably regarded, and upon an application of officers of the Pennsylvania Line, another effort was made, the revenue arising from the excise remaining uncollected was appropriated to this fund, and vigorous measures were taken for its collection.
Great changes, however, had taken place in the disposition of the people since the first imposition of these duties. The neighboring States were free from the burden, and in New Jersey, where a law had been passed for the purpose, its execution had been entirely prevented by a powerful combination. The Pennsylvania law, therefore, met with great opposition, especially west of the Allegheny Mountains and there is no evidence that the excise was ever paid in that section.
The excise law of Pennsylvania, after remaining for years a dead letter, was repealed, and the people were to submit to a similar law passed by the Congress of the new Federal Government March 3, 1791. This laid an excise of fourpence per gallon on all distilled spirits.
The members of Congress from Western Pennsylvania, Smilie, of Fayette, and Findley, of Westmoreland, stoutly opposed the passage of the law, and on their return among their constituents loudly and openly disapproved of it. Albert Gallatin, then residing in Fayette County, also opposed the law by all constitutional methods.
The majority of the people in the western counties of the State were of Scotch-Irish descent. They had heard of the exaction and oppression in the Old Country under the excise laws—that houses were entered by excise officers, the most private apartments examined, and confiscation and imprisonment followed if the smallest quantity of whisky was discovered not marked with the official brand. They also remembered the effective resistance to the Stamp Act, that those who forced the repeal of the odious law were the real factors in bringing about the independence of America. Holding these opinions, it is not to be wondered at that the more hot-headed resorted to threats of violence and precipitated the riotous proceedings known in Pennsylvania history as the Whisky Insurrection.
Pittsburgh Built in 1760, Incorporated April
22, 1794, and Chartered as City
March 18, 1816
On April 17, 1754, Ensign Ward was surprised by the appearance of Frenchmen, who landed, planted their cannon and summoned the English to surrender. The French soon demolished an unfinished fort and built in its place a much larger and better one, calling it Fort Duquesne, in honor of the Marquis Duquesne, the French Governor of Canada.
This was the actual beginning of what is now Pittsburgh, but there were many stirring conflicts for permanent possession of the site at the “Forks of the Ohio.”
When General John Forbes invested Fort Duquesne November 25, 1758, he marched into a place which had been abandoned by the French and instead of a formidable fortress it was now nothing but a mass of blackened and smoldering ruins. The enemy, after burning the barracks and storehouses, had blown up the fortifications. Forbes’ first care was to provide a better defense and shelter for his troops, and a strong stockade was built, which he named Pittsburgh, in honor of England’s great Minister William Pitt.
A strong fort was subsequently built, which was known as Fort Pitt, and which continued until after the Revolutionary War to be the western base of the military department.
The first town of Pittsburgh was built near Fort Pitt in 1760. In a very carefully prepared list of the houses and the inhabitants outside of the fort, headed “a return of the number of houses of the names of the owners and number of the names of the owners and number of men, women and children in each house Fort Pitt, April 14, 1761,” the number of inhabitants is 233, with the addition[addition] of ninety-five officers, soldiers and their families residing in the town, making the whole number 328. There were 104 houses. The lower town was nearer the fort, the upper on higher ground, principally along the bank of the Monongahela, extending as far as the present Market Street.
This town enjoyed comparative quiet until the Pontiac War, in 1763, when Fort Pitt was completely surrounded by the savage foe and the garrison reduced to dire straits until relieved by Colonel Bouquet.
The second town of Pittsburgh was laid out in 1765, by Colonel John Campbell, by permission of the commandant of Fort Pitt. It comprised the ground bounded by present Water Street, Second and Ferry Streets. Campbell’s plan of lots was subsequently incorporated unaltered in the survey made by George Woods for the Penns in 1784, and is known as the “Old Military Plan.” Several of these houses built of hewn logs and weather-boarded stood until quite recently and the old redoubt of Colonel Bouquet, built in 1764, north of the present Penn Street, west of Point, remains the most valued relic of the pre-Revolutionary days in Western Pennsylvania.
The little building is of brick, five-sided, with two floors having a squared oak log with loop holes on each floor. There are two underground passages, one connecting it with the fort, and the other leading to the Monongahela River. This building and ground upon which it stands is owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County, who keep it in excellent repair. It was the gift of Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, April 1, 1894.
During the Revolution the Assembly confiscated the property of the Penn family, excepting certain manors and other property which the Proprietaries held in their private capacities by devise, purchase, or descent. The Manor of Pittsburgh contained 5766 acres and included the present city of Pittsburgh and the country eastward of it and south of the Monongahela; this was surveyed March 27, 1769, and remained as the property of the Penns.
In 1784 Tench Francis, of Philadelphia, as agent for the Proprietaries, laid out this Manor in town and outlots. The surveyor’s work was done by George Woods, of Bedford. These lots found ready sale and by 1786 there were 100 houses and 500 population. The fur trade was still the most important, although the general business was improving.
The first newspaper published west of the Alleghenies was the Pittsburgh Gazette, now the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, established July 29, 1786. Pittsburgh was incorporated as a borough April 22, 1794.
Another important event occurred May 19, 1798, when the galley President Adams was launched at Pittsburgh. She was the first vessel built here which was competent for a sea voyage, and was constructed by the Government, in preparation for the threatened war with France. The Senator Ross was launched the following spring.
The first glass works were established here in 1797 by James O’Hara and Isaac Craig. William Eichbaum was brought from near Philadelphia to superintend this new enterprise, the first real manufacturing venture in this place. The first paper mill west of the Alleghenies was erected this same year in Pittsburgh.
During the three years from 1802 to 1805 four ships, three brigs and three schooners were built in Pittsburgh.
The first bank in the western part of the State was a branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania, which opened for business January 1, 1804, on Second Street, between Ferry and Chancery Lane. An iron foundry was established by Joseph McClurg during 1804.
On March 24, 1811, the New Orleans, the first steamboat ever built or run on Western waters, was launched at Pittsburgh. This boat started on its initial trip to the Crescent City, December 24 following. The second such boat was christened the Comet and launched in Pittsburgh in 1813. A large number of boats was built in this city, and the trade was immense.
The first canal boat ever built or run west of the mountains was the General Abner Lacock. She was owned by Patrick Leonard, of Pittsburgh, but was built in Apollo[Apollo]. This was a fine packet boat, with berths and dining service, as well as capacity for carrying freight.
The first railroad entered Pittsburgh in the fall of 1834, on the completion of the Philadelphia and Columbia, and the Allegheny[Allegheny] portage railroads.
Pittsburgh became a city by an Act of Assembly at the sessions of 1815–1816, the date of the change in city government being March 18, 1816. At the first election for municipal officers under the City Charter, Major Ebenezer Denny was chosen Mayor.
The first great consolidation was effected March 29, 1872, when the South side was united with Pittsburgh. This brought into the city the boroughs of Birmingham, East Birmingham, Ormsby, Allentown, St. Clair, South Pittsburgh, Monongahela, Mount Washington, Union, West Pittsburgh and Temperanceville.
The population of Pittsburgh according to the census of 1920 was 588,343.
Margaret Junkin Preston, Poetess-Laureate,| Died March 19, 1897
It is a matter of just pride that the most brilliant and beloved poetess of yesteryear was none other than a Pennsylvania girl, Margaret Junkin Preston, who through her writings, both in prose and poetry, attained Nation-wide distinction and won the title “Poetess-Laureate of the South.”
Margaret Junkin was born in Milton, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1820, the eldest child of Rev. George and Julia Rush Miller Junkin.
Her parents were of that stalwart, heroic race, the Covenanters of Scotland.
Dr. Junkin’s life was devoted to religion and education, and at the time of his marriage he was the minister of the Presbyterian Church at Milton.
When Margaret was ten years old her parents moved to Germantown, where her father assumed charge of the Manual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania. After a delightful residence of two years Dr. Junkin was called to the first presidency of Lafayette College, and the family moved to the “Forks of the Delaware.”
It was during the incumbency of Dr. Junkin that the college, which for two years was conducted on a farm south of the Lehigh, was moved to the present site, on what has since been known as College Hill Easton, and Old South College built. President and Mrs. Junkin and their seven children moved into the original building, where they continued to reside until March 30, 1841, when the doctor accepted the presidency of Miami College, Oxford, O.
It was during her residence at Easton that Margaret and her sister, Eleanor, became members of the First Presbyterian Church and that her first productions in verse appeared in the columns of a local newspaper; they were “Childhood,” “The Forest Grave” and “Where Dwelleth the Scent of the Rose.” After her removal to Oxford, O., she wrote “Lines Written on Reading Letters Bringing Sad News From Easton.”
In 1844 Dr. Junkin returned to Easton to again assume the presidency of Lafayette College, in which position he capably served until 1848, when he accepted the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va.
Upon Margaret Junkin’s return to Easton, she wrote “Love’s Tribute to the Departed,” occasioned by the death of an intimate friend, and “The Fate of a Raindrop.” These were followed after removing to Lexington, by “Thoughts Suggested by Powers’ Proserpine,” “The Old Dominion,” “The Solaced Grief,” “Galileo Before the Inquisition,” and “The Polish Boy.”
The life of Margaret Junkin at Lexington differed from that which she experienced as a young girl at Germantown, Easton and Oxford. She had reached the age of twenty-eight, and the old town in the Shenandoah Valley, with its educational institutions, social atmosphere and local culture brought many interesting persons as visitors, not to speak of the quaint life among the slaves. This all appealed to her. She entered into the spirit of this environment to the fullest extent. Her lovely character, unusual attainments, literary and social, were fully recognized at home and abroad.
The death, in 1849, of her brother, Joseph, followed by that of her mother, in 1854, and only a few months later by that of her favorite sister, Eleanor, brought profound grief to the Junkin household.
The sister, Eleanor, survived only a year her marriage to Major Thomas J. Jackson, a graduate of West Point, and then a professor in the Virginia Military Institute, who later achieved fame in the Civil War and gained the sobriquet of “Stonewall Jackson,” second only to his commander-in-chief, Robert E. Lee. After the death of Mrs. Jackson, her husband continued to be a member of Dr. Junkin’s household for four years.
Margaret Junkin married, August 3, 1857, Major T. L. Preston, professor of Latin in the Virginia Military Institute, a widower with seven children. To this family she proved to be an affectionate and devoted mother.
Two sons were born to Major and Margaret Junkin Preston—George Junkin Preston, for many years a successful specialist in nervous diseases at Baltimore, now deceased, and Herbert Preston, now General Solicitor for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.
The war clouds were lowering for a bitter conflict between the North and South, and the Junkin family became divided. The father, Rev. George Junkin, a pronounced abolitionist and opposed to secession, resigned the presidency of Washington College, and, with his widowed daughter departed for Philadelphia.
The story told of this trip, which was made overland, is that when the Mason and Dixon line was reached the team pulling the heavy load of household effects, and the one attached to the carriage in which the doctor and his daughter were riding, were halted, the goods unloaded, the horses, harness, wagon, carriage and themselves all carefully washed, then again loaded and driven over the boundary line into Pennsylvania. As the doctor afterwards related, no Southern soil should be brought into Pennsylvania, he wanted to leave it all where it belonged.
His son, William, espoused the Southern cause and became a captain, but his son, John M., served as a surgeon in the Federal Army.
Following the close of the Civil War, Mrs. Preston devoted much time to reviewing books for various publishers, and in compiling and arranging for publication her own compositions in prose and verse, the latter resulting in the publication, in 1866, of her “Bechenbrook,” a book of poems voicing the sorrow and patriotism of the Southern people, and of “Old Songs and New” in 1870.
These were followed by “Cartoons,” “Handful of Monographs,” “For Love’s Sake,” “Colonial Ballads and Sonnets,” “Chimes for Church Children” and “Aunt Dorothy.” In addition she contributed to Century Magazine in the early eighties some reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee, and personal reminiscences of General “Stonewall” Jackson.
Colonel Preston resigned his professorship in 1882, when he and his talented wife traveled and visited among their children. The husband died July 15, 1890, and Mrs. Preston continued to live at Lexington for two years, but late in December, 1892, she removed to Baltimore and made her home with her eldest son, Dr. George Junkin Preston.
Margaret Junkin Preston died March 19, 1897.
There was much written about this poetess at the time, and possibly the best known was “An Appreciation of Margaret J. Preston, a Sketch of her Fifty Years of Literary Life,” by Prof. James A. Harrison, of the University of Virginia.
Mrs. Elizabeth Randolph Preston Allan compiled and published a volume[volume] entitled “The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston,” and an excellent sketch of her interesting life has also been written by Ethan Allen Weaver, of Germantown, from which much of this story of the “Poetess-Laureate of the South” has been taken.
Military Laws of Province Repealed by
Import Act, March 20, 1780
On March 20, 1780, a law was passed to effect a reorganization of the whole militia system in Pennsylvania. It provided for the appointment of a lieutenant for each county, and two sub-lieutenants or more, not exceeding the number of battalions, which were to be divided into classes as heretofore. Fines, however for non-attendance on muster days were fixed for commissioned officers at the price of three days’ labor.
When called out, the pay of privates was to be equal to one day’s labor. Persons called out, but neglecting or refusing to go, were liable to pay in each case the price of a day’s labor during the term of service, beside a tax of fifteen shillings on the hundred pounds upon their estates. As a relief to this class, the hiring of substitutes was allowed. Pensions were promised the wounded in battle, and support to the families of those militiamen who were killed, at rates to be fixed by the courts. Considerable opposition was made to this law, from the fact that by permitting the hiring of substitutes it would relieve the disaffected and Tories.
While this bill, undoubtedly, had many defects, it was the first real effort toward the establishment of a military system in the Commonwealth upon a practical basis.
Militia companies were provided in each county, the State being divided into districts, and all males were required to enroll, who were between eighteen and fifty-three years of age.
This act was modified in 1783, when a more specific code of discipline was adopted. This act remained in force until 1793.
The militia act of March 20, 1780, was the outgrowth or development of the militia system of Pennsylvania which may be considered to have begun in the year 1747. Altho in the charter given to William Penn, the Governor was given authority to levy, muster and train men, to make war upon and pursue the enemy, even beyond the limits of the province.
As early as 1702, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton asked the Assembly to enact a bill to provide for “what may come against us by land or by sea.”
Several years later Lieutenant Governor Evans urged a similar law, but the idea was unpopular. Several other similar bills were subsequently defeated, yet the Assembly occasionally appropriated funds for “the King’s use,” for the purchase of bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat and “other[“other] grain.” Franklin later commented that “other grain” meant black grains of gunpowder.
It was through the effort and influence of Franklin, in 1747, that a volunteer military association was effected, consisting of about 1200 of the most influential men in the province. This soon grew to 10,000 and the following year the “Associated Companies,” by which name the organization became known, had enrolled 12,000 horse, foot and artillery, each armed and equipped at personal expense, and the officers chosen from the members. Franklin was one of the original colonels.
This association rendered conspicuous service in the French and Indian wars and preserved its organization. Many of the companies volunteered for service in the Revolution and formed the backbone of the State’s militia.
In 1756 there were in Philadelphia three of these companies, with a total of seventeen officers and 260 private men, one troop of horse with five officers and forty men and one battery of artillery with three officers and 150 men. In Bucks County there were nine companies with thirty-nine officers and 513 men; in Chester County there were several companies, under command of Captain John Singleton, Samuel West, Robert Boyd and Jacob Richardson. In York County there were eight companies with an enrollment of 642 men and in Lancaster County there were nine companies and 545 men.
It was not until Braddock’s defeat that the Assembly voted a substantial sum for the “King’s use,” but made no provision for an organized military force. November 25, 1755, the Assembly passed “an Act for the better ordering and regulating such as are willing and desirous to be united for military purposes within the province.”
This was the first act of Assembly which in any way provided for the organized defense of the province, and this was to remain in force only until October 30, 1756.
By March 29, 1757, the Quakers had become a minority in the Assembly and an act was passed which was more satisfactory. It also provided for the compulsory enrollment of all male persons between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five years. It also stated the financial responsibility required of those who would serve as officers.
One section of this act provided “that all Quakers, Menonists, Moravians and others conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, who shall appear on any alarm with the militia, though without arms, and obey the commands of the officers in extinguishing fires, suppressing insurrection of slaves or other evil-minded persons during an attack, in caring for the wounded, conveying intelligence as expresses or messengers, carrying refreshments to such as are on duty, and in conveying to places of safety women and children, aged and infirm, and wounded persons are free and exempt from penalties of this act.” This act remained in force until the close of the French and Indian War in 1763.
There was no special control of military affairs again until June 30, 1775, when the Assembly passed an act for “the defense of their lives, liberty and property.”
At this same session there was established a Committee of Safety, of twenty-five members, which constituted the Board of War, whose powers enabled them to call into service so many of the associators as they deemed necessary or the occasion required.
The Committee of Safety was organized July 3, 1775, with Benjamin Franklin as president.
This committee exercised supreme control of the land and naval forces of the province until October 13, 1777, when its powers were transferred to the body known as the Council of Safety, this comprising the Supreme Executive Council and nine others. The Council of Safety was dissolved December 6, 1777, when the military authority was assumed by the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly.
The aggregate number of men furnished by the Associators during the Revolution was in excess of 35,000.
Pennsylvania furnished in all arms of the service, under the various calls, a total of 120,514 men, which number does not include many bodies of militia and many men who were under arms for a brief period, a record of which service was not kept during the early years of the war.
Laws were passed during the war relating to the military forces, but these were all repealed by the formal act of March 20, 1780.