The scene before the barracks, and the narrow escape of the German butchers, was made the subject of several poems and farces, written by members of the Presbyterian faction, to turn their opponents into ridicule; for which, indeed, the subject offered tempting facilities.
[389] Haz. Pa. Reg. XII. 11.
[390] Haz. Pa. Reg. XII. 12.
[391] This statement is made in “The Quaker Unmasked,” and other Presbyterian pamphlets of the day; and the Quakers, in their elaborate replies to these publications, do not attempt to deny the fact.
[392] Sparks, Writings of Franklin, VII. 293.
[393] Barton, Memoirs of Rittenhouse, 148. Rupp, Hist. York and Lancaster Counties, 362.
[394] David Rittenhouse, in one of his letters, speaks with great horror of the enormities committed by the Paxton Boys, and enumerates various particulars of their conduct. See Barton, Mem. of Rittenhouse, 148.
[395] “Whether the Paxton men were ‘more sinned against than sinning,’ was a question which was agitated with so much ardor and acrimony, that even the schoolboys became warmly engaged in the contest. For my own part, though of the religious sect which had been long warring with the Quakers, I was entirely on the side of humanity and public duty, (or in this do I beg the question?) and perfectly recollect my indignation at the sentiments of one of the ushers who was on the opposite side. His name was Davis, and he was really a kind, good-natured man; yet from the dominion of his religious or political prejudices, he had been led to apologize for, if not to approve of an outrage, which was a disgrace to a civilized people. He had been among the riflemen on their coming into the city, and, talking with them upon the subject of the Lancaster massacre, and particularly of the killing of Will Sock, the most distinguished of the victims, related with an air of approbation, this rodomontade of the real or pretended murderer. ‘I,’ said he, ‘am the man who killed Will Sock—this is the arm that stabbed him to the heart, and I glory in it.’”—Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania, 40.
[396] “Persons who were intimate now scarcely speak; or, if they happen to meet and converse, presently get to quarrelling. In short, harmony and love seem to be banished from amongst us.”
The above is an extract from the letter so often referred to. A fragment of the “Paxtoniad,” one of the poems of the day, is given in the Appendix. Few of the party pamphlets are worth quoting, but the titles of some of them will give an idea of their character: The Quaker Unmasked—A Looking-Glass for Presbyterians—A Battle of Squirt—Plain Truth—Plain Truth found to be Plain Falsehood—The Author of Plain Truth Stripped Stark Naked—Clothes for a Stark Naked Author—The Squabble, a Pastoral Eclogue—etc., etc.