First of all, Fithian's Journal gives insight into the possible motivation for such independent action. In an entry for Thursday, July 27, 1775, he writes of reviewing "the 'Squires Library," noting that "After some Perusal I fix'd in the Farmer's memorable Letters."[44] Fithian was reading John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, which he had come across in the library of John Fleming, his host for a week in the West Branch Valley. Dickinson's dozen uncompromising epistles in opposition to the Grenville and Townshend programs both inspired and incited liberty-lovers. Furthermore, Fleming himself was a leader among the Fair Play settlers, and may have been aroused to action by the eloquence of Dickinson's expression. Every idea is an incitement to action and the ideas of Letters from a Farmer, which made Dickinson the chief American propagandist prior to Thomas Paine, reached into the frontier of the West Branch Valley.
The best contemporary evidence in support of the Pine Creek declaration is found in the widow's pension application of Anna Jackson Hamilton, daughter-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, who was one of the early settlers and a prominent leader along the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Mrs. Hamilton, whose pension application and accompanying statement were made in 1858, lived within one mile of the reputedly historic elm. In her sworn statement she says, "I remember well the day independence was declared on the plains of Pine Creek, seeing such numbers flocking there, and Independence being all the talk, I had a knolege of what was doing."[45] Her son John corroborates this in his statement that "She and an old colored woman are the only persons now living in the country who remembers the meeting of the 4th of July, 1776, at Pine Creek. She remembers it well."[46] Mrs. Hamilton was ninety years old at the time of her declaration, which was made some eighty-two years after the celebrated event.[47]
Following the outbreak of the Revolution and the meeting of the Second Continental Congress, the Fair Play system of the West Branch Valley was soon augmented by another extra-legal organization, the Committee of Safety. Ostensibly created for the purpose of raising and equipping a "suitable force to form Pennsylvania's quota of the Continental Army," it soon exercised executive authority dually with the assembly.[48] The Council of Safety was instituted as the successor to the Committee of Safety by a resolution of the Provincial Convention of 1776, then meeting in Philadelphia to draw up a new constitution for Pennsylvania. It was continued by an act of the assembly that same year. It functioned from July 24, 1776, until it was dissolved on December 6, 1777, by a proclamation of the Supreme Executive Council.[49] Locally, however, the township branches continued to function and were still referred to as "committees."
It appears from the resolutions and actions of the local committee that the Fair Play men maintained jurisdiction in land questions, but that all other cases were within the range of the committee's authority. In fact, a resolution dated February 27, 1776, asserted that "the committee of Bald Eagle is the most competent judges of the circumstances of the people of that township."[50] This resolution was made in conjunction with an order from the county committee to prevent the loss of rye and other grains which were being "carried out of the township for stilling."[51] Although cautioned against "using too much rigor in their measures," the committee was advised to find "a medium between seizing of property and supplying the wants of the poor."[52] The county committee even went so far as to recommend the suppression of such practices as "profaning the Sabbath in an unchristian and scandalous manner."[53] In April of 1777, the county committee required an oath of allegiance from one William Reed, who had refused military service for reasons of conscience.[54]
Although Bald Eagle Township did not, at this time, extend into Fair Play territory,[55] it is interesting to note that the local committee, whose three members frequently changed, often included settlers from that territory or those who were in close association with the Fair Play men.[56] The Revolution apparently gave a certain quasi-legality to the claims of the "outlaws" of the West Branch Valley.
One further political note is worthy of mention. After Lexington and Concord and the formation of the various committees of safety, the civil officers of Bald Eagle Township, that is to say the constable, supervisor, and overseers, were often chosen from among settlers on the borders of, or actually in, Fair Play territory.[57]
The politics of fair play then was nothing more than that—fair play. It was a pragmatic system which the necessities of the frontier experience, more than national or ethnic origin, had developed. The "codes" of operation represented a consensus, equally, freely, and fairly arrived at—a common "law" based upon general agreement and practical acceptance. There were subsequent appeals to regular courts of law, but, surprisingly enough, in every instance the fairness of the judgments was sustained. No Fair Play decision was reversed. Furthermore, the frequency of elections and the use of the principle of rotation in office were additional assurances against the usurpation of power by any small clique or ruling class. Popular sovereignty, political equality, and popular consultation—these were the basic elements of fair play.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Colonial Records, X, 95. The Fair Play settlers were outlawed by a proclamation of the Council signed by Governor John Penn on Sept. 20, 1773. The proclamation was issued "strictly enjoyning and requiring all and every Person and Persons, already settled or Residing on any Lands beyond the Boundary Line of the Last Indian Purchase, immediately to evacuate their illegal Settlements, and to depart and remove themselves from the said Lands without Delay, on pain of being prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the Law." The "Last Indian Purchase" referred to here is, of course, the Stanwix Treaty of 1768.
[2] Smith, Laws, II, 195.