Yesterday Congress received a Letter from the Governor of the State of Connecticut dated the 24th December 1784, inclosing a Resolve of the General Assembly of that State upon the Memorial of John Franklin and others Settlers and Claimers of Lands &c to which the right of Jurisdiction was lately in Contest between the States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania.(1)
The Memorialists bring Complaints against the Executive of the Citizens of Pennsylvania which are sufficiently pointed and bitter of which I shall not trouble you with a Copy as the Paper is pretty long and you may already have received such Copy from Governor Griswald. The Act of Assembly transmitted to Congress is in the following words
"Resolved by this Assembly that it is expedient for the Memorialists to pursue their Application to the Congress of the United States for a Trial of their Right of Soil and Possession agreeably to the ninth of the Articles of Confederation and that this State will countenance and patronize them in such Application and Tryal in order to obtain for them that Justice this State apprehends the Memorialists are entitled to. And the delegates from this State in Congress are directed to give them all necessary Assistance in the premises. And His Excellency the Governor is requested to address the Congress of the United States on the Subject of their Situation and Sufferings and also address a full State of their Claim &c to the State of Pennsylvania, remonstrating against the Barbarities and Cruelties exercised towards the Memorialists and request a Redress of their Grievances and a Restoration of their Rights, Properties and possessions under the protection of the Laws and Government of said State of Pennsylvania." The Letter from the Governor of the State of Connecticut and the inclosed papers are referred to a Committee of the whole House which is to set on Tuesday the twenty fourth instant.(2)
If there had been any Member present from the State of Pennsylvania it would have been their duty to inform Your Excellency of the Train in which this unpleasing but very serious Business is placed, and they would doubtless, in a more clear and pointed manner than I have been able to do it, have justified the State in shewing that her late Conduct on this very head is a full proof that she is by no means inattentive to the Cries of those who complain.
As You may probably wish to be represented in Congress when the Letter and other Papers from Connecticut are to be considered or
I have the honor to be with the utmost Regard Sir, Your most obedient and very humble Servant, Hugh Williamson.
Tr (PHarH: RG 27).
1 Gov. Matthew Griswold's letter, the October 20 memorial of the Wyoming Valley settlers, and two copies of the entire resolve of the Connecticut assembly, part of which is quoted below, are in PCC, item 66, 2:276-79, 282-89. See also Susquehannah Co. Papers, 8:123-26, 139-41, 161n.2.
These latest submissions in the Yankee-Pennamite struggle in the Wyoming Valley followed the failure of Congress the preceding June to act on a committee recommendation to postpone the June 28 meeting of Connecticut and Pennsylvania agents for selecting judges to determine the private right of soil or to consider Zebulon Butler's May 7 petition concerning the harsh treatment of Connecticut settlers by Pennsylvania officials. See Committee of Congress Report, January 21; Roger Sherman to John Franklin, February 21; Sherman to Zebulon Butler, June 15;and Edward Hand to Catharine Hand, June 29, 1784, note 2.
2 In fact, Tuesday the 25th, when the committee of the whole postponed further action on Griswold's letter. Not until August 19 did Congress set aside September 15 for further consideration.
For discussion of this Connecticut effort to secure a trial to determine private right of soil in the Wyoming Valley, which was apparently quickly reconsidered when it appeared that Pennsylvania was better prepared to present its case to Congress, in part because of Williamson's alert to Dickinson, see Susquehannah Co. Papers, 8:xxii-xxiv.
3 For Dickinson's January 18 reply, see Pa. Archives, 1st ser. 10:397.