During the summer of 1753 the Six Nations, Shawnee, Delaware and Twightwee held a great treaty in Virginia, where they were called by Governor Dinwiddie, but who much offended them by his failure to attend the conference in person.
On their return the Indians sent word to Governor James Hamilton, at Philadelphia, that they desired to negotiate a new treaty at Carlisle. The Governor learned that Dinwiddie had not met them in Virginia and he thought Carlisle too far distant to travel on such a mission, so Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, Richard Peters, the secretary, and Dr. Benjamin Franklin were commissioned September 22, 1753, to meet and treat with the Indians.
Those who today wander through the streets of historic old Carlisle cannot realize that Franklin and his companions found little more than a frontier fort. John O'Neal, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, dated May 27, 1753, says there were only five houses in the town and but twelve men in the garrison.
Fort Lowther, on High street, near the Public Square, was a harbor of refuge for pioneer families so frequently exposed to Indian attack. Court was held in a log building on the northeast corner of Center Square.
Franklin never forgot his experience at Carlisle and referred to it frequently. His visit to help make a new treaty with the Ohio Indians was a mission of much importance. Through daring wiles of the French, England’s position in the New World was being imperiled more and more.
What attitude the Indians would take in a contest between English and French was of vital importance, not only to the King, but more especially to Pennsylvania settlers, who well knew the terror of Indian massacres and wars.
The Indians attending the Carlisle pow-wow wanted fire water as soon as the commissioners arrived, but Franklin and the other members were shrewd enough to promise rum only when the conference had been completed.
Scarouady, an Oneida chief, sometimes called Half King, who was a person of great weight in their councils, went into caucus with the commissioners before formal sessions began.
He regretfully advised that deliberations could not proceed until belts, strings and goods sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly as condolences arrived “to cover the graves of braves killed by the French and their Indians, and were spread out on the ground” before the assembled red men.