On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive functions again devolved on the Provincial Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president; he served until the arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker of the Assembly, as Lieutenant Governor, November 23, 1749.
The harvests of the years 1750 to 1752 were so abundant that an extract of the time is interesting: “The years 1751 and 1752 have been so fruitful in wheat and other grain that men in wanton carelessness sought to waste the supply: for the precious wheat which might have supported many poor, they used to fatten hogs, which afterward they consumed in their sumptuousness. Besides, distilleries were erected everywhere, and thus this great blessing was turned into strong drink, which gave rise to much disorder.
These years of plenty were followed by three years of scarcity, 1753–1755, and on the heels of it came the terrible Indian hostilities.
The progress of the white population toward the West alarmed and irritated the Indians. The new settlers did not suffer the delays of the land office, nor did they pay for their lands, but in search for richer soils sought homes in regions where the Indian title had not been extinguished. Some of these settlements were commenced prior to 1740, and rapidly increased, despite the complaints of the Indians, the laws of the Province or the several proclamations of the Governor.
An alarming crisis was now at hand. The French in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes were sedulously applying themselves to seduce the Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawnee had already joined the French cause; the Delaware only waited for an opportunity to avenge their wrongs; and of the Six Nations, the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca were wavering and listening to overtures from the agents of both the English and French.
To keep the Indians in favor of the province required much cunning diplomacy[diplomacy] and many expensive presents. In the midst of this alarming condition the old flame of civil dissension burst out with increased fury. The presents so frequently procured for the Indians, the erection of a chain of forts along the frontier and the maintenance of a military force drew too heavily upon the provincial purse, which never was burdened with any great surplus.
The Assembly urged that the Proprietary estates be taxed, as well as those of humble individuals. The Proprietaries, as would be expected, refused to be taxed and pleaded prerogative, charter and law; the Assembly in turn pleaded equity, common danger, common benefit and at common expense.
The Proprietaries offered bounties in lands not yet acquired from the Indians by treaty or purchase, and in addition proposed the issuing of more paper money. The Assembly was not satisfied; they wanted something more tangible. They passed laws laying taxes and granting supplies, but the Proprietaries opposed the conditions. They were willing to aid the Assembly in taxing the people, but not the Proprietaries. Here were sown the germs of the Revolution, though not fully matured until twenty years later.
During those frivolous disputes in the Assembly the frontiers were left fully exposed. The pacific principles, too, of the Quakers, Dunkards, Mennonites and Schwenckfelders came in to complicate the strife, but as the danger increased they prudently kept aloof from public office, leaving the management of the war to sects less scrupulous. The pulpit and the press were deeply involved, and the inhabitants divided into opposing factions upon this question.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was scarcely regarded more seriously than a truce by the French in America. In their eagerness to extend their territories and connect their northern possessions with Louisiana, they projected a line of forts and military posts from one to the other along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. They explored and occupied the land upon the latter stream, buried in many places leaden plates, by which they claimed possession of those lands.