Details
[FRANKLIN, Benjamin]. MONTGOMERY, William (1736-1816), Pennsylvania State Judge. Autograph letter signed TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Northumberland County, [PA.], 20 May 1786. 1 page, folio, integral address leaf with Franklin's autograph docket "Wm. Montgomery May 20th 1786." GOVERNOR FRANKLIN IS WARNED OF A REVOLT IN PENNSYLVANIA, LED BY ETHAN ALLEN. A letter relating to a little-known chapter in American frontier history. In the late 1760s, numerous settlers received land grants from Connecticut in the Wyoming Valley. After the Revolution, Pennsylvania demanded these be annulled, as the Valley now lay within its borders. Many settlers resisted Pennsylvania's requirement that they purchase new deeds for the land. They solicited aid from Revolutionary hero Ethan Allen, who was already working to secure Vermont's independence from New York. Allen suggested the formation of a militia and joined them on April 27, 1786, promising to help them create a new state.
Here, Franklin, President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, receives a report on the crisis from Montgomery, a state judge in the counties of Northumberland and Luzerne. Local officials, he warns, agree that "no time, not a moment should be lost...there is the greatest & most imminent danger of a dismemberment of the state... the party under Ethan Allen, John Franklin & Solomon Strong increase daily...from the nature of their views they will be a combined force acting constan[t] and in concert, as their encroachments...will furnish the reward of their adherents and followers: And no person in [this region of] the State...can hope to continue a Pennsylvanian without the most speedy, effectual, and vigorous exertion of Government in suppressing this dangerous insurrection."
Rebellion and the "dismemberment" of Pennsylvania was averted when the state, taking a suggestion offered by Allen, created the new county of Wyoming and recognized the original land deeds.
Here, Franklin, President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, receives a report on the crisis from Montgomery, a state judge in the counties of Northumberland and Luzerne. Local officials, he warns, agree that "no time, not a moment should be lost...there is the greatest & most imminent danger of a dismemberment of the state... the party under Ethan Allen, John Franklin & Solomon Strong increase daily...from the nature of their views they will be a combined force acting constan[t] and in concert, as their encroachments...will furnish the reward of their adherents and followers: And no person in [this region of] the State...can hope to continue a Pennsylvanian without the most speedy, effectual, and vigorous exertion of Government in suppressing this dangerous insurrection."
Rebellion and the "dismemberment" of Pennsylvania was averted when the state, taking a suggestion offered by Allen, created the new county of Wyoming and recognized the original land deeds.
Special notice
This lot is exempt from Sales Tax.