On Monday, January 20, Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson, with about 400 militia, composed of the two Westmoreland independent companies, of Wyoming, Pa., and New Jersey militia, defeated a foraging party of the enemy of an equal number, near a bridge at Millstone River, two miles from Somerset Court House, New Jersey, and took forty wagons and one hundred horses, a large number of sheep and cattle, and some prisoners. General Dickinson lost but five men.
To return to internal affairs: early in January, 1777, Continental Congress received information “that certain tribes of Indians living in the back parts of the country, near the waters of the Susquehanna within the Confederacy and under the protection of the Six Nations, the friends and allies of the United States,” were on their way to Easton for the purpose of holding a conference or treaty with the General Government.
Congress thereupon appointed a commission, consisting of George Taylor, of Easton; George Walton and others to purchase suitable presents for the Indians and conduct a treaty with them. The Assembly of Pennsylvania named Colonels Lowrey and Cunningham, while the Council of Safety sent Colonels Dean and Bull. Thomas Paine was appointed secretary to the commission.
On January 7, a company of Indians arrived at Wilkes-Barre to announce the coming of the larger body en route to Easton. About January 15 the main delegation reached Wilkes-Barre. There were seventy men and one hundred women and children in the party.
Among the chiefs were the following: Taasquah, or “King Charles,” of the Cayuga; Tawanah, or “The Big Tree,” of the Seneca; Mytakawha, or “Walking on Foot,” and Kaknah, or “Standing by a Tree,” of the Munsee; Amatincka, or “Raising Anything” of the Nanticoke; Wilakinko, or “King Last Night” of the Conoy, and Thomas Green, whose wife was a Mohawk, as interpreter.
The Indians held an informal conference there and received food from the Wyoming authorities.
The conference was formally opened at Easton, January 27, in the new First (German) Reformed Church, on North Third street. It is said that while the organ played the members of the commission and the Indians shook hands with each other and drank rum to the health of the Congress and the Six Nations and their allies before proceeding to business.
It was soon learned that the English, through the influence of Colonel John Butler, in the King’s service at Niagara, were making a great effort to turn the Indians against the Americans.
In an official report of the treaty, subsequently made to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, it was stated: “The Indians seem to be inclined to act the wise part with respect to the present dispute. If they are to be relied upon, they mean to be neuter. We have already learnt their good intentions.”
The members of the Supreme Executive Council, chosen under the Constitution of the State, met for the first time March 4, 1777, and proceeded to form an organization and the Council of Safety was dissolved. In joint convention with the Assembly, Thomas Wharton, Jr., was elected president, and George Bryan, vice president. To give new dignity to the executive of the new Government, the inauguration took place on the following day, March 5.