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Show . TrDJT OWED THE SEEDS KiNOHENDRICK ($f t 3 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON V Y t " l JULY 4 the American people will lf r5SJY? V 1 &sJ i I if celebrate the one hundred sixty- X JL J .? wl eighth anniversary of the event WH fcraieW -"""S 4 which won them their liberty the Z X A l W) adPtion of the Declaration of In- WZ" Ot Zs& A M dependence. On that day, officially A j4 "V mnm'V called Independence day, but bet- l -t O bef ; $ those "50 Immortals" who signed V3" oNArsE CARTOON y f , j t Sehpi?enVnM!Ch htM CetaT "trUHlS in other papers throughout the colonies, who k if iV'" K I ZkIk 1 TDt' m,w 1 S0,emnly soon had an opportunity to put into practical v f j ' ' 3 publish and declare that these united colonies effect the lesson which it taught but who, as , k J M ! ,SlR. are and of right ought to be, free and inde- usual, muffed the cnance. That was at the fa. V ) J. WILLIAM pendent states and m winch "for the support of mous Albany congress of 1754. For as George l I 4Ij0HN5OS this declaration, wUh a firm reliance on the M- Wron author of the voiume ,.The Conquegt V k By ELMO SCOTT WATSON y""v X JULY 4 the American people will 1 a celebrate the one hundred slxty-.? slxty-.? VI eighth anniversary of the event . '''- Mj-f which won them their liberty the uSSl adPtion of the Declaration of In-6tW In-6tW M dependence. On that clay, officially lnnnnr' called Independence day, but bet-U bet-U ' PSL ter known as the "Fourth of July," fUU they will honor the memory of those "50 immortals" who signed the document in which they held certain "truths to be self-evident," in which they did "solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent inde-pendent states" and in which "for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence," they did "mutually "mu-tually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes for-tunes and our sacred honor." Vv"e know the names of most of them the men who took the first decisive step toward winning Independence and forming a new nation. But how many Americans know the names of other men who, many years before, had sowed the seeds of that liberty and of that new nation? How many of us know of Robert Livingston who, as early as 1701, was proposing colonial co-operation and a colonial union? And to how many of us does the name of Teoniahagarawe, or King Hendrick, a chief of the Mohawk Indians, In-dians, have any significance in the struggle for liberty? It Is with these two men, but more particularly with King Hendrick, and with the events which foreshadowed the Declaration that ' this article deals. Although the British Crown encouraged the Idea of a colonial union to aid in its struggle with France for mastery of North America, the colonies paid little heed to such an Idea coming from the Mother country and either disregarded or evaded directly her appeals to them to contribute con-tribute to the conduct of the wars. So it seemed that the only possibility for co-operative effort lay in voluntary action on the part of the colonies. colo-nies. Sensing this fact, Robert Livingston, a leading merchant of New York who was much Interested in opening up the rich resources of the back country, came forward with a plan of colonial union In 1701. Livingston realized that the colony of New York alone could not carry out his ambitious scheme of development so in a long letter, dated May 13, 1701, he laid before the British Council of Trade and Plantations his scheme for uniting the colonies in "one form of government," divided into three groups, a southern, a central and a northern. Each year there was to be raised from this government a certain sum of money which would be administered from Albany by a board of commissioners selected from each of the groups. The Crown was to send troops and equipment and the three groups were to supply labor, under a quota arrangement, for building and garrisoning forts which were to be built in the wilderness to protect settlers who were to be encouraged to take up lands in the West. Every two years the British government was to send out "two hundred youths" as replacements for 200 of the soldiers who were to be mustered out of service but who, If they would remain In the country, were to receive free land. It was an excellent scheme and the British Crown was quick to realize its advantages. But, as usual, a lack of co-operation among the colonies colo-nies prevailed and nothing came of Livingston's plan. For another half century they went their separate ways. By the middle of the Eighteenth century the menace of French expansion. in the West and the tightening of their alliance with the Indians began to alarm the colonies seriously. seri-ously. In 1753 young George Washington, sent by Virginia to the Ohio country to warn the French away from this region claimed by the British, returned with their flat refusal to go. Then Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent Captain Trent and his backwoodsmen to build a fort at the forks of the Monongahela, but before they could finish their work the French drove Trent away. On May 9, 1754, the Pennsylvania Gazette of Philadelphia contained an account of Trent's surrender of the fort and predicted that unless something were done, the French would "kill, seize and imprison our Traders and confiscate their Effects, at Pleasure (as they have done for several Years past), murder and scalp our Farmers, with their Wives and Children, and take an easy Possession of such parts of the British Territory as they find most convenient for them: which If they are permitted to do, i must end in the Destruction of the British In- terest, Trade and Plantations in America." Along with this appeal for concerted action ( there appeared In the Gazette the first real cartoon, drawn by the publisher of the Gazette, Benjamin Franklin. It showed a disjointed snake, each part labeled with the Initals of one of the colonies, and under it the motto "Join, or Die." Later Franklin's graphic portrayal of the urgent necessity for colonial union was reprinted In other papers throughout the colonies, who soon had an opportunity to put into practical effect the lesson which it taught but who, as usual, muffed the chance. That was at the famous fa-mous Albany congress of 1754. For as George M. Wrong, author of the volume "The Conquest of New France" in "The Chronicles of America" series, says : "The English colonists showed a political blindness that amounted to Imbecility. Albany was the central point from which the dangers on all sides might best be surveyed. Here came together in the summer of 1754 delegates dele-gates from seven of the colonies to consider the common peril. The French were busy in winning, win-ning, as they did, the support of the many Indian In-dian tribes of the West ; and the old allies of the English, the Iroquois, were nervous for? their own safety. "The delegates to Albany, tied and bound by instructions from their assemblies, had to listen to plain words from the savages. The one Englishman Eng-lishman who, in dealing with the Indians, had tact and skill equal to that of Frontenac of old was an Irishman, Sir William Johnson. To him the Iroquois made indignant protests that the English were as ready as the French to rob them of their lands. . . ." Outstanding among these native orators who spoke such plain words to the delegates was Teoniahigarawe or King Hendrick of the Mohawks. Mo-hawks. Although he is not so well known to most Americans as that other Mohawk leader, Thay-endanegea Thay-endanegea or Joseph Brant, Hendrick was one of the most important Indian figures In colonial history. He was born about 1672 near the present pres-ent site of Westfield, Mass. Although he was the son of a Mohegan of the Wolf clan, his mother was a Mohawk woman, so he became a member of the latter tribe. Some time between 1690 and 1692 Teoniahigarawe was converted to Christianity Chris-tianity by a Dutch preacher named Godefridus Dellius and given the name of Hendrick Peters, later shortened to Hendrick. ... As a Christian preacher and a natural leader, Hendrick rapidly rose to a position of prominence promi-nence among the Mohawks as an orator and a councillor. After the failure of General Nicholson's Nichol-son's expedition against Canada during Queen Anne's war, the provincial authorities of New York became fearful that the Iroquois might join forces with the French. To prevent this and to gain more active support from the Mother country coun-try in carrying on the war, Col. Peter Schuyler decided to make a journey to England and to take with him several Iroquois leaders. Hendrick was one of the five chosen to go and in April, 1710, Schuyler and his Iroquois delegation arrived ar-rived in London where they were received with great ceremony as "native kings" of the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. Upon their return to America King Hendrick took an active part In the preparations for the . campaign against the French, but the Treaty of Utrecht ended the war before any important results were accomplished. From that time on Hendrick was much in the limelight as a war leader of his people but more as an orator and a frequent speaker at councils with the provincial pro-vincial authorities in Albany. For a time he was swayed toward the cause of the French, but the influence of Sir William Johnson, with whom he later became such a firm friend, kept him loyal to the English. During the negotiations with the Iroquois at the Albany congress Hendrick was the chief speaker for the Indians. In answer to charges that the Iroquois were leaning to the French, he replied hotly: "You have asked us the reason of our being driven like leaves before the wind. The reason Is because of your neglect of us these three years past. You have thrown us behind your back and disregarded us, whereas the French are always turning this way and that, with their eyes ever upon the trail, ever using their utmost endeavors every day, walking softly like the wolf in winter to seduce and bring our people over to them. 'Tis your fault, brethren breth-ren that we are not strengthened by conquest, for 'we would have gone and taken Crown Point but you hindered us. We had concluded to go and take It, but we were told it was too late and that the ice would not bear us; instead of this you burnt your own forts at Seraghtoga and run away from it, which was a shame and a scandal to you. Look about your country and see You have no fortifications ahout you. no, not even to this city. Look at the French. They are men They are fortifying everywhere. But, we are ashamed to say it, you are all like womenweak wom-enweak and defenseless.". But this stinging Indictment of the faltering . military policy of the English was overshadowed overshad-owed in importance by another of Hendrick'a speeches at the congress. It was delivered on July 4, 1754, and in it he anticipated by 22 years - to the day some of the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence. He said: "Brethren, it Is very true, as you told us, that the clouds hang heavy over us and It is not very pleasant to look up ; but we give this belt to clear away all the clouds, that we may all live in bright sunlight, and keep together In strict union and friendship. Then we shall become strong and nothing can hurt us. "Brethren, I will just tell you what a peopla we were formerly. If any enemies arose against us, 'we bad no occasion to lift up our whole hand against them, for our little finger was sufficient suffi-cient ; and as we have now made a strong confederacy con-federacy If we are truly in earnest therein, we may retrieve the ancient glory of the Five Nations." It is easy to imagine how attentively one delegate to that congress listened to the words of the Mohawk chieftain as he told of the ancient an-cient power of the Iroquois confederacy, a power gained so many years before because these "savages" "sav-ages" realized that "in union there is strength" and put that realization into practical effect. That delegate was Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Penn-sylvania, who had In his pocket a plan for a union of the colonies which he had brought from Philadelphia with him. His plan provided for the appointment of a president-general for the colonies, appointed by the Crown, and the election by the various colonial assemblies of a legislative body to be called the grand council. The powers which they were to exercise resembled In many ways those conferred upon the President and congress by our federal Constitution. The delegates to the Albany congress unanimously adopted Franklin's plan, but it was defeated when brought to a vote in the colonial assemblies. So the colonies and the Mother country turned deaf ears to the wisdom that came from the lips of such men as King Hendrick of the Mohawks Mo-hawks and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and went back to their policy of "blundering through." They blundered seriously several times in the campaign against Crown Point the next year. One of their blunders was In disregarding disre-garding the advice of King Hendrick who had led his Mohawks to aid his friend, Sir William Johnson, who commanded the expedition. When it was proposed to send a detachment of 1,000 troops and 300 Indians to the aid of besieged Fort Edward, the Mohawk chief objected. ob-jected. "If they are to fight, they are too few," he said. "If they are to die, they are too many." But the council of war overrode him. Then when it was proposed to send the detachment against the enemy In three parties, Hendrick again preached his message of "In union there is strength." Picking up three sticks from the ground, he said : "Put these together and you cannot break them ; take them one by one and you will do it easily." But again his advice was disregarded and the detachment started against the gallant and able commander, Dieskau. The result was the ambush at Bloody Pond, the defeat of the colonials with the loss of 100 men, including the leader of the detachment. Col. Ephraim Williams, and stout old Hendrick. His horse was shot down at the first volley and before he could extricate himself him-self a French bayonet pierced his heart So the great Mohawk died before he could ee his English allies blunder through the French and Indian war to a successful conclusion. But his oft-repeated "in union there is strength" wag not utterly lost. Another man who had preached the same message at the Albany congress continued con-tinued to preach It through his snake cartoon, through his writings and in his speeches in the Continental congress. So Benjamin Franklin lived to see it become an accomplished fact He helped write a pledge to such a union in the Declaration of Independence and even though during the dark days of the Revolution the bonds of that union seemed about to be broken, they survived long enough to win American liberty. But before he died he saw that union imper-Ishably imper-Ishably preserved In the Constitution of the United States of America. by Western Newspaper Union. |