Great excitement prevailed all over the State of Pennsylvania, and the Democracy of the great Commonwealth were thrown into intense perturbation and indignation, January 13, 1857, by dispatches from Harrisburg announcing that Representatives Samuel Manear, of York County, William H. Lebo, and G. Wagenseller, of Schuylkill County, Democratic members of the Legislature, had not only refused to support John W. Forney, the caucus nominee of their party for United States Senator, but had given their votes to the opposition candidate, Simon Cameron.

Forney was one of the favorites of the Philadelphia Democracy at this time, and they were moved to the warmest feelings of resentment by the base treachery which had removed from his grasp the cherished object of his ambition.

Meetings were held by various clubs and organizations, denouncing the traitors in unmeasured terms. The names of Manear, Lebo and Wagonseller remained for many years synonymous with corruption.

At Harrisburg the hotels long refused to receive them, and in Philadelphia and other places there yet remain some who have not forgotten to regard them with contempt.

The result of this unforeseen defeat of Colonel Forney was the loss of an accomplished publicist and statesman, and to give Philadelphia, in the career which opened before him a few months later, its most eminent journalist.

The story of this political event is interesting to students of the history of our state.

When Hon. James Buchanan was appointed Secretary of State, by President Polk, in 1845, he resigned from the United States Senate to accept the cabinet portfolio.

This vacancy brought into the political limelight Simon Cameron, then one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in the State.

Cameron had arisen from his printer’s case in his native county of Lancaster, and had attained prominence as a newspaper publisher in Doylestown and Harrisburg, and had been appointed to the office of Adjutant General by Governor Shulze, when he was but thirty years of age. He had extensive banking and large iron interests for that day. He had become a wealthy and influential man.

On account of his business interests he did not give enthusiastic support to Polk, yet held his grip on the management of the party in Pennsylvania.

There were a number of prominent candidates for the senatorship to succeed Buchanan, one of whom was the able George W. Woodward, who finally received the nomination of his party, and there did not seem to be a ripple on the political surface.

But Cameron saw his opportunity, and with the power of the canal board, which he controlled, together with a combination of Protection or Cameron Democrats with the Whigs, Cameron defeated Woodward, and served from 1845 to 1849. His election was a keen disappointment to President Polk and Secretary of State Buchanan.

The new Republican Party became a national organization in 1856.

Former Senator Simon Cameron was in the Know Nothing organization but was smarting under his long and bitter contest for Senator in 1855, when he was defeated by former Governor William Bigler.

Colonel John W. Forney was chairman of Democratic State Committee and had absolute charge of the battle that was fought for the election of James Buchanan, to whom he was romantically attached.

In the event of Buchanan’s election Forney was assured the editorship of the Washington Union, the organ of the administration, and the Senate printing. There were subsequent developments which led the President to assent to the sacrifice of Forney, and when tendered a cabinet position, the President was forced to recall it.

President Buchanan then turned to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which was still Democratic, and asked that Colonel Forney be elected United States Senator.

The Democratic Party was demoralized in 1856, when many of its most distinguished members supported Fremont, and in this condition, the party lines were rather closely drawn. The Senate stood fifteen Democrats to eighteen opposition, and the House had fifty-three Democrats to forty-seven opposition, giving the Democrats three majority on joint ballot.

The nomination of Forney was not cordially supported by those who were smarting under the defeat he had given them in October, but there were very few who were favorable to Cameron, and certainly not one-fourth of the members would have preferred him as a candidate.

But Cameron, with his exceptional shrewdness as a political manager, saw that he could depend upon the resentments against Forney among the opposition members to support him if he could assure them of his ability to defeat Forney.

Cameron was most fortunate in having in the Senate as one of his earnest friends Charles B. Penrose, of Philadelphia, a former Senator, and a man of ripe experience and great political sagacity. He was quite as earnest in his desire to punish Forney as he was to promote his friend, General Cameron.

Cameron was not nominated in the caucus, but had the assurance from Representatives Lebo, Manear and Wagonseller, all Democrats, that they would vote for him if their votes could elect him.

This information was communicated to Senator Penrose, who very shrewdly stated to the Republican caucus that the defection of these three votes would elect General Cameron, if they would unite in their support. The Republicans refused to take any action until the members could have absolute information as to the Democratic defection.

Penrose had the caucus name three members who could be trusted and he would arrange for an interview. This was held at Omit’s Hotel, and Lebo, Manear and Wagonseller gave the assurance required, and the committee reported the fact to the caucus, but they were pledged not to divulge the names of the three persons.

The caucus was somewhat distrustful, but agreed to vote once for Cameron.

The voting took place only in joint convention, and when the House and Senate met, the compact was carried out to the letter, and Cameron was elected over Forney for a full term senatorship.

The whole arrangement was conducted with such secrecy that not one of the opposition legislators had any idea as to what Democrats had bolted, and the Democrats themselves did not doubt the fidelity of any of their members.

It was but natural that the great undeveloped wealth of the Mississippi Valley should attract those who had any vision as to the future of this vast country. This enormous wealth must be dumped into the great cities planted along the Atlantic seaboard.

General Washington, skilled surveyor that he was, early trained his eyes westward, and he spent much time in outlining plans for connecting the Potomac and Ohio Rivers by means of a canal. Twenty-five years after his death the Erie Canal was opened, when the merchants of Philadelphia and Baltimore realized they must awaken or succumb.

Baltimore believed a railroad should be built to the West. The Baltimore and Ohio, first of all great railroads, shows by its name the purpose for which it was incorporated. Pennsylvania, however, undertook to connect the West by a system of combined railroads and canals.

From the first both cities looked to Pittsburgh as the logical terminus of their improvements. Then began a struggle of Philadelphia-Baltimore rivalry, which lasted for forty-three years, from 1828 to 1871.

In 1828 Pennsylvania had given a charter to the Baltimore and Ohio, by which it could construct its line through Southwestern Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh. The members of the Legislature at that time did not consider future competition, for the State works had not been built.

The charter was granted for fifteen years, and, in 1839, another act extended its provisions until 1847. This act, among other onerous conditions, was discriminating in favor of traffic to Philadelphia; it also contained a heavy State tax on freight, and the company could not accept it.

The Pennsylvania State works from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were completed in 1834. When the charter of the Baltimore and Ohio expired in 1843, the road was completed only as far as Cumberland.

The company tried to obtain better terms from Pennsylvania. The residents of the western part of the State were all eager for an additional outlet to the coast, but the Philadelphia politicians were unwilling to yield any concession to their Baltimore rivals.

Several years later it was admitted that the State works would never provide adequate transportation facilities to the West, even though in excess of $10,000,000 had already been expended and the State seriously involved. Pennsylvanians were made to realize that railroads were superior to canals and that the commercial solution of Philadelphia lay in a central railroad to Pittsburgh.

The feeling in all three cities reached fever heat. The legislative hall was the battleground and all interests were well represented. The battle centered on the bill granting right of way through Pennsylvania to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Public meetings were held in Philadelphia and elsewhere. A State railroad convention was held at Harrisburg, January 14, 1846, where resolutions were adopted favoring the Central Railroad scheme and against the Baltimore and Ohio right of way grant.

The people of Pennsylvania believed since a railroad must be built it would be better for it to be run entirely through Pennsylvania and be a Pennsylvania institution. They also felt that if the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was given the franchise, it would be next to impossible to raise money to build the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Pittsburgh business interests were fearful if the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was refused admission to Pennsylvania that road would extend its rails farther down the Ohio to Wheeling, perhaps, and thus control river trade, which had been long enjoyed at Pittsburgh. Many meetings were held in Pittsburgh urging the support of the Baltimore bill. It must also be understood that State prejudice held back railroads from entering other States. In 1846 States rights theories were more potential than they are today.

In this connection the position of the Baltimore and Ohio was unfortunate and interesting. Either Pennsylvania or Virginia must charter the company before a road of great importance could be built. Neither State was willing to do so.

The Baltimore and Ohio bill was defeated in the Senate February 23, 1846, by a single vote. Philadelphia rejoiced and Pittsburgh was sad. The Senate reversed itself February 26, and Philadelphia was maddened beyond reason.

On April 10 the Baltimore bill passed the House, with an amendment providing that the grant to the Baltimore and Ohio should be null and void if the Pennsylvania Railroad obtained subscriptions of $3,000,000 in capital stock, of which $900,000 must be paid in cash by July 31. The bill passed the Senate and was signed by Governor Shunk, April 21.

Every effort was exerted to procure the subscriptions, a house-to-house canvass resulting in 2600 subscriptions. Nearly all of which were for five shares or less.

Philadelphia won the struggle and the conditions were met in time. Governor Shunk issued a proclamation announcing the grant to Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to be null and void.

In 1837 a group of Pittsburgh men obtained a charter for the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. This with the design to get into Baltimore, as it would build fifty-eight miles of the route to that city.

That scheme fell through, but in 1843 the charter was renewed and the interest of the Baltimore crowd was obtained. But they did not seem to appreciate the advantage secured for them by the astute Pittsburgh business men, and the Pittsburgh and Connellsville relapsed into slumberland until 1853.

The Baltimore and Ohio had completed its line to Wheeling and the Pennsylvania was about to finish its line into Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh and Connellsville obtained authority to make connection with the Baltimore and Ohio at Cumberland. But new troubles arose. The president of the company embezzled the funds and the City of Baltimore failed to give as liberally as promised.

In spite of those obstacles the road was opened from Pittsburgh to Connellsville January, 1857. Then came the panic of 1857 and the depression by the prospect of the Civil War.

In 1864 the stretch of ninety miles between Uniontown and Cumberland again became a political matter. Thomas A. Scott, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, determined this link should not be built, as the last thing he wanted was a competing line in Pittsburgh.

On April 11, 1864, two bills were introduced into the Legislature. One claimed the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad had misused its charter; the other incorporated a new railroad from Connellsville. The bills passed and became laws without the approval of Governor Curtin.

Judge Grier in United States Court June 20, 1865, held the repeal of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville to be unconstitutional. This case now became a legal battle for years and eventually got into Congress and back into the Pennsylvania Legislature. On January 29, 1868, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unanimously decided in favor of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. The next day the Legislature repealed the Act of 1864.

The happy ending was in spite of all litigation. Pittsburgh and the great mineral and lumber wealth along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Valleys was opened up, and on June 26, 1871, the Pittsburgh, Washington and Baltimore Railroad was formally opened and the long struggle for Pittsburgh ended.

Andrew Gregg Curtin, of Bellefonte, was inaugurated Governor of Pennsylvania January 15, 1861, and assumed the office at a time when the gravest problems ever presented to American statesmanship were to be solved. The mutterings of the coming storm were approaching nearer and nearer, and the year opened up gloomily.

In his inaugural he took occasion “to declare that Pennsylvania would, under any circumstances, render a full and determined support of the free institutions of the Union,” and pledged himself to stand between the Constitution and all encroachments instigated by hatred, ambition, fanaticism and folly.

He spoke with words of deliberation, decision and wisdom, and made a record of statesmanship that stood the severe test of years of bloody and lasting war. The conflict obliterated old and sacred landmarks in political teaching.

On February 17, the House adopted resolutions pledging to Maryland the fellowship and support of Pennsylvania. On January 24, the House had adopted resolutions taking high ground in favor of sustaining the Constitution of the Union.

Threatening as was the danger, while the Legislature was in session and meetings were being held in Philadelphia and throughout the State, no one anticipated that the strife would actually break forth so suddenly, nor that it would grow to such fearful proportions at the very beginning.

It is true, that the soldiers of the South, who had long secretly been preparing to dissolve the Union unmasked their design when the guns of Fort Moultrie were trained on Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, April 12, 1861. No State in the Union was less prepared, so far as munitions of war were concerned, to take its part in the conflict than Pennsylvania. Her volunteer soldiery system had fallen in decay.

There were fewer volunteer companies of militia in Pennsylvania at that moment than ever before on the rolls of the Adjutant General’s office. But when the first overt act was committed, and the news was flashed over the Northland, it created no fiercer feeling of resentment anywhere than it did throughout the Keystone State.

On the morning of April 12, 1861, a message was handed to Governor Curtin in Harrisburg which read as follows:

“The war is commenced. The batteries began firing at 4 o’clock this morning. Major Anderson replied, and a brisk cannonading commenced. This is reliable and has just come by Associated Press. The vessels were not in sight.”

Later in the day, in response to the Governor’s suggestion, the Legislature passed an act reorganizing the military department of the State and appropriated $500,000 for the purpose.

President Lincoln issued a proclamation, April 15, calling out 75,000 militia from the different States to serve for three months. A requisition was at once made on Pennsylvania for fourteen regiments. The alacrity with which these regiments were furnished demonstrated not so much the military ardor as it did the patriotic spirit of the people. Sufficient men were rushed to Harrisburg not only to fill up the State quota of fourteen regiments, but enough to organize twenty-five.

There were two distinguished patriotic Pennsylvanians who comprehended the seriousness of the situation from the outset. General Simon Cameron, who had resigned his seat in the United States Senate to become the Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s Cabinet, advised the organization of the most powerful army the North could raise, so that at one blow armed rebellion might be effectually crushed. Governor Curtin took advantage of the excess men offering their services and began at once, after the complement of the three months’ men had been furnished to the Federal Government, to organize the famous Reserve Corps.

He discovered the approaching tornado in the distance, and thus commenced to prepare for its fury, the Reserves being the only troops well organized and disciplined in the North ready for the services of the Union at the moment of the disaster of the first battle of Bull Run.

During the second year of the Civil War, Governor Curtin broke down his health through overwork and anxiety, and was compelled to give himself, for weeks at a time, to the exclusive care of eminent physicians.

President Lincoln, appreciating Curtin’s faithful services, and recognizing the necessity for a change of climate and employment, formally tendered him a first-class Foreign Mission, which the Governor signified his willingness to accept when his term should expire. But in the meantime he was nominated for re-election, and again entered upon the canvass, and was elected by more than 15,000 majority.

As is well known, the early part of the war went against the Union forces. All through the North there were many persons, the “peace at any price” men, who thought war was wrong, or a failure, and tried to have it end. Governor Curtin, in order to check this feeling, issued an invitation to the Northern Governors to hold a meeting, for the purpose of considering how the Government might be more strongly supported and how the loyalty of the people might be increased.

In September, 1862, just after the battle of Antietam, which stopped Lee’s invasion of the north, eleven Governors met at Altoona. They adopted an address to President Lincoln, warmly commending his Emancipation Proclamation. The Governors then went to Washington, presented the address, and asked Lincoln to keep on hand in the various states a reserve army of 100,000, and pledged “Loyal and cordial support, hereafter as heretofore.” It gave Lincoln renewed courage for his heavy task.

In 1866, his health was such that his life was despaired of and in November his physicians ordered him to Cuba to recuperate. President Johnson offered him a foreign post but he again declined to leave his executive duties in the state and completed his term.

In 1867 he was a strong candidate for the United States Senate and a year later received a large vote for vice president in the Republican Convention which nominated General Grant for President. Soon after Grant became President, he nominated former Governor Curtin for Minister to Russia, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate.

Before embarking for his new post of duty Governor Curtin was the recipient of a marked evidence of devotion. The Councils of Philadelphia unanimously invited him to a public reception in Independence Hall and in addition, the leading citizens, without distinction of party, united in giving him a banquet at the Academy of Music, that has seldom been equalled for elegance and every manifestation of popular affection and applause.

He sailed June, 1869, and in the discharge of his diplomatic duties proved himself one of the most popular representatives ever sent abroad by our nation. He was again supported for the vice presidential nomination in 1872.

Governor Curtin died October 7, 1894, in fullness of years, and Bellefonte mourned as it had never done before, and there was given to the great War Governor the biggest soldier’s funeral that the Bald Eagle Valley ever saw.

Much of the ride along the Susquehanna trail on the western side of the Susquehanna River is at the base of majestic hills along the old Pennsylvania Canal bed, and more beautiful scenery it is not possible to find anywhere. Especially is this true as the motorist nears the quaint town of Liverpool. A few miles before reaching this place there is a gap in the mountains long known as Girty’s Gap, named in memory of one of the most despised outlaws in the provincial history of Pennsylvania.

The rocks on the face of the precipitous hills at this point have formed an almost perfect Indian head; indeed, it seems to be smiling down upon the thousands who pause to view this wonderful natural likeness of the primitive American race.

So important is this rock-face that when the new State highway was being built at this point summer of 1922, the engineers intended that the rocks should be blasted out and the road straightened at this bend, but on account of the sentiment connected with this really wonderful image the roadway was finally laid around the rocks and so the Indian face at Girty’s Notch is still to be seen.

Simon Girty, Senior, was a licensed Indian trader on the frontiers of Pennsylvania as early as 1740, and about that period he located on Sherman’s Creek, in what is now Perry County. Here his son, Simon, who figures so conspicuously in the annals of border life, was born January 16, 1744. There were three other sons, Thomas, George and James.

In 1750, the father and sundry other “squatters” on Sherman’s Creek, were dispossessed of their settlements by the Sheriff of Cumberland County and his posses, under orders of the Provincial authorities.

Girty removed his family to the east side of the Susquehanna River, near where the town of Halifax is now situated. Afterward he moved to the Conococheague settlement, where it is related he was killed in a drunken brawl. In 1756, his widow was killed by the savages, and Simon, George and James were taken captives by the Indians. Thomas, the eldest brother, being absent at his uncle’s at Antietam, was the only one who escaped.

Simon Girty was adopted by the Seneca and given the Indian name of Katepacomen. He became an expert hunter, and in dress, language and habits became a thorough Indian. The author of “Crawford’s Campaign” says that “it must be passed to his credit that his early training as a savage was compulsory, not voluntary as has generally been supposed.”

George Girty was adopted by the Delaware and became a fierce and ferocious savage, while James, who was adopted into the Shawnee nation, became no less infamous as a cruel and bloodthirsty raider of the Kentucky border, “sparing not even women and children from horrid tortures.”

Simon Girty and his tribe roamed the wilderness northwest of the Ohio, and when the expedition under Colonel Henry Bouquet, at the close of the Pontiac War, in 1764, dictated peace to the Indian tribe on the Muskingum, one of the hostages given up by the Ohio Indians was Simon Girty. Preferring the wild life of the savage, Girty soon escaped and returned to his home among the Seneca.

One of the conditions of the treaty referred to, was the yielding up by the Ohio Indians of all their captives, willing or unwilling. This being the case, Girty was again returned to the settlements and took up his home near Fort Pitt, on the little run emptying into the Allegheny and since known as Girty’s Run.

In the unprovoked war of Lord Dunmore, in company with Simon Kenton, Girty served as a hunter and scout. He subsequently acted as an Indian agent, and became intimately acquainted with Colonel William Crawford, at whose cabin on the Youghiogheny he was a frequent and welcome guest, and it is stated by some writers, although without any worthwhile evidence to substantiate it, was a suitor for the hand of one of his daughters, but was rejected.

At the outset of the Revolution, Simon Girty was a commissioned officer of militia at Fort Pitt, took the test oath as required by the Committee of Safety, but March 28, 1778, deserted to the enemy, in company with the notorious Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott.

Simon Girty began his wild career by sudden forays against the borderers, and in his fierceness and cruelty outdid the Indians themselves. Hence the sobriquet of “Girty the White Savage.”

Many atrocious crimes were attributed to the notorious renegade, but the campaign against the Sandusky Indian towns in 1782, under the command of Colonel William Crawford, proved to be the one in which Girty displayed the most hardened nature and showed him to be a relentless foe of the Colonies.

Girty’s brutality reached its climax when he refused any request, even to discuss terms of easier punishment for his former friend and brother officer, but viewed with apparent satisfaction the most horrible and excruciating tortures which that ill-fated but brave and gallant Crawford was doomed to suffer. This episode in his career has placed his name among the most infamous whose long list of crimes causes a shudder as the details are told, even after a lapse of a century and a half.

During the next seven years but little is recorded of this renegade and desperado, except that a year after Crawford’s defeat, he married Catharine Malott, a captive among the Shawnee. They had several children and she survived her husband many years, dying at an advanced age.

Notwithstanding Girty’s brutality and depravity he never lost the confidence of the Indians; the advice of Simon Girty was always conclusive.

Girty acted as interpreter when the United States attempted to negotiate with the Confederated Nations, for an adjustment of the difficulties during which his conduct was insolent, and he was false in his duty as interpreter.

In the defeat of General St. Clair, Girty saw and knew General Richard Butler, who was writhing in agony with his wounds. The traitor told a savage warrior he was a high officer, whereupon the Indian buried his tomahawk in General Butler’s head, scalped him, took his heart out and divided it into as many pieces as there were tribes engaged in the battle.

When General Anthony Wayne in 1795 forever destroyed the power of the Indians of the Northwest, Girty sold his trading post and removed to Canada, where he settled upon a farm near Malden, on the Detroit River, the recipient of a British pension. Here he resided until the War of 1812 undisturbed, but almost blind.

After the capture of the British fleet on Lake Erie, Girty followed the British in retreat and remained away from his home until the treaty of peace was signed, when he returned to his farm, where he died in the fall of 1819, aged seventy-four years.

There have been efforts to make a hero of Girty, but without success. He was without one redeeming quality. He reveled in the very excess of malignity and above all in his hatred for his own countrymen. Such was the life and career of Simon Girty, the outlaw and renegade.

Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and printer, was born in Boston January 17, 1706, youngest son of the seventeen children of Josiah and Abiah Folger Franklin.

Born a subject of Queen Anne of England and on the same day receiving the baptismal name of Benjamin in the Old South Church, he continued for more than seventy of the eighty-four years of his life a subject of four successive British monarchs. During that period, neither Anne nor the three Georges, who succeeded her, had a subject of whom they had more reason to be proud nor one whom at his death their people generally supposed they had more reason to detest.

Franklin learned the art of printing with his brother, but they disagreeing, Benjamin left Boston when seventeen years old, sought employment in New York, but, not succeeding, went to Philadelphia and there found success, and for much more than half a century was the greatest man in Pennsylvania.

Franklin soon attracted the attention of Governor Keith, who, making him a promise of the Government printing, induced young Franklin to go to England to purchase printing materials. He was deceived and remained there eighteen months, working as a journeyman printer in London. He returned to Philadelphia late in 1726, an accomplished printer and a man of the world.

In 1730 he had a printing establishment and newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and stationers’ shop of his own. Was married to Deborah Read, a young woman whose husband had absconded, and was already pressing upon public opinion with a powerful leverage.

For many years he published an almanac under the assumed name of Richard Saunders. It became widely known as “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” and is still one of the marvels of modern literature.

As a practical printer Franklin was reported to have had no superiors. As a journalist he exerted an influence not only unrivaled in his day, but more potent, on this continent at least, than either of his sovereigns or their parliaments.

Franklin was the chief founder of the Philadelphia Library in 1731. The organization of a police and later of the militia for Philadelphia; of companies for extinguishing fires; making the sweeping and paving of the streets a municipal function, and establishment of an academy which has matured into the now famous University of Pennsylvania, were among the conspicuous reforms which he planted and watered in the columns of the Gazette.

In 1736 he became clerk of the Provincial Assembly, and the following year was postmaster of Philadelphia. He was the founder of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia in 1744, and six years later was elected to the Provincial Assembly.

In 1753 Franklin was appointed deputy postmaster for the English-American colonies. In 1754 he was a delegate to the Colonial Congress at Albany, in which he prepared a plan of union for the colonies, which was the basis of the Articles of Confederation adopted by Congress more than twenty years afterward.

Franklin graduated from journalism into diplomacy as naturally as winter glides into spring.

The question of taxing the Penn Proprietary estates for the defense of the Province from the French and Indians had assumed such an acute stage in 1757 that the Assembly decided to petition the King upon the subject, and selected Franklin to visit London and present their petition. The next forty-one years of his life were virtually spent in the diplomatic service.

Franklin was five years absent on this first mission. Every interest in London was againstagainst him. He finally obtained a compromise, and for his success the Penns and their partisans never forgave him, and his fellow Colonists never forgot him.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, but not to remain. The question of taxing the Colonies without representation was soon thrust upon them in the shape of a stamp duty, and Franklin was sent out again to urge its repeal. He reached London in November, 1764, where he remained the next eleven years, until it became apparent that there would never be a change during the reign of George III.

Satisfied that his usefulness was at an end, he sailed for Philadelphia March 21, 1775, and on the morning of his arrival was elected by the Assembly of Pennsylvania a delegate to Continental Congress.

Franklin served on ten committees in this Congress. He was one of five who drew up the Declaration of Independence, July, 1776, and in September following was chosen unanimously as one of the three commissioners to be sent to solicit for the infant Republic the aid of France and the sympathies of Continental Europe.

Franklin had begun his investigations and experiments in electricity, by which he demonstrated its identity with lightning, as early as 1746. The publication of his account of these experiments procured his election as an honorary member of the Royal Society of London and his undisputed rank among the most eminent natural philosophers of his time.

He received the Copley gold medal and the degree of LL.D. from Oxford and Edinburgh in 1762. Harvard and Yale had previously conferred upon him the degree of master of arts.

When Franklin arrived in Paris, therefore, he was already a member of every important learned society in Europe.

The history of his mission and how Franklin succeeded in procuring financial aid from the French King, and finally a treaty of peace more favorable to his country than either England or France wished to concede, has been often told.

Franklin’s reputation grew with his success. More was published about him in the newspapers of the world than of any other man that ever lived.

Franklin landed in Philadelphia on September 13, 1785, on the same wharf on which sixty-two years before he had stepped, a friendless and virtually penniless runaway apprentice of seventeen.

Though now in his seventy-ninth year and a victim of infirmities, he had hardly unpacked his trunks when he was chosen a member of the Municipal Council of Philadelphia and its chairman. Shortly after he was elected President of Pennsylvania, his own vote only lacking to make the vote unanimous.

He was unanimously elected for two succeeding years, and while holding that office was chosen a member of the convention which met in May, 1787, to frame the Constitution under which the people of the United States are still living. With the adoption of that instrument, to which he contributed as much as any other individual, he retired from official life, though not from the service of the public.

His last public act was the signing of a memorial to Congress on the subject of human slavery by the Abolition Society, of which he was the founder and president.

He died in Philadelphia April 17, 1790, and four days later his body was interred in Christ Church burying ground. His funeral was such as the greatest philosopher and statesman had deserved.

January 18, 1876, was an eventful day in Mauch Chunk, the county seat of Carbon County, and, in fact, for the State of Pennsylvania and the entire country.

On that day Michael J. Doyle, of Mount Laffee, Schuylkill County, and Edward Kelly were arraigned charged with the crime of the murder of John P. Jones, of Lansford.

For years preceding this murder the coal regions of Pennsylvania had been infested by a most desperate class of men, banded together for the worst purposes—called by some the Buckshots, by others the Mollie Maguires. They made such sad havoc of the country that life was no longer secure and the regions suffered in many ways.

The unusual circumstance of this trial was the fact that it was the first indictment of a “Mollie Maguire” in this country which had a possible chance for ultimate conviction.

John P. Jones was a mine boss who had incurred the illwill of some of the Irish connected with the organization of Mollie Maguires, masking under the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and on the morning of September 3, 1875, he left his home in Lansford, in which were his wife and seven children, and traveled toward the breaker where he was employed. The three assassins, James Kerrigan, Mike Doyle and Edward Kelly, were lying in wait for him and cruelly shot him down, killing him on the spot.

This crime was no more revolting or cruel than the many others committed by this murderous organization, but it was the one in which the Pinkerton detective, James McParlan, had been able to connect all the facts in the case, and with the additional assistance of James Kerrigan turning State’s witness the civil authorities were able to conduct such a trial that the two other murderers were convicted.

Michael Doyle was found guilty January 22, 1876, and sentenced to death. This was the first conviction of a Mollie Maguire in this country. Edward Kelly was subsequently placed on trial for the same crime and on March 29 was found guilty. Doyle and Kelly both were hanged at Mauch Chunk, June 21, 1876, and the Mollie Maguires ceased to be the terror of civilized people.

To form some idea of the operations of these desperadoes it must be known that the Mollie Maguires were more than bloodthirsty and active in 1865. On August 25, that year, David Muir, superintendent of a colliery, was shot and killed in broad daylight. On January 10, 1866, Henry H. Dunne, a well known citizen of Pottsville, and superintendent of a large colliery, was murdered on the highway near the city limits, while riding home in his carriage. On Saturday, October 17, 1868, Alexander Rea, another mining superintendent, was killed on the wagon road, near Centralia, Columbia County. Several arrests were made but no convictions.

On March 15, 1869, William H. Littlehales, superintendent of the Glen Carbon Company, was killed on the highway enroute to his home in Pottsville. F. W. S. Langdon, George K. Smith and Graham Powell, all mine officials, met death at the hands of assassins.

On December 2, 1871, Morgan Powell, assistant superintendent of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal and Iron Company, at Summitt Hill, Carbon County, was shot down on the street.

In October, 1873, F. B. Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company and the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, employed Allan Pinkerton, the noted detective, to take charge of a thorough investigation of this organization.

Pinkerton accepted the commission and selected James McParlan, a young Irish street-car conductor of Chicago, to be his chief operative in this hazardous enterprise. On the evening of October 27, 1873, there arrived at Port Carbon a tramp who gave his name as one James McKenna, who was seeking work in the mines. This McKenna was none other than Detective McParlan and well did he perform his task.

McParlan cleverly assumed the role of an old member of the order, and as one who had committed such atrocious crimes in other parts of this country that he must be careful of undue publicity. He could sing and dance, and was an all around good fellow, but only feigned the drunken stupor in which he was so constantly being found by his associates.

The crowning event in his three years’ work was his initiation into the Ancient Order of Hibernians, at Shenandoah, April 14, 1874. He was soon appointed secretary on account of his better education. In fact, he was a leader and supposedly the most hardened criminal of the coal regions.

October 31, 1874, George Major, Chief Burgess of Mahanoy City, was shot and killed by Mollie Maguires. On April 6, 1875, a despicable plot to destroy the great bridge on the Catawissa Railroad only failed because the Mollies in charge of the work failed to make the fire burn the structure. McParlan was in on this crime, but had much to do with its failure.

Conditions were so serious by June 1, 1875, that Governor Hartranft sent militia to Shenandoah and in their very faces 700 Mollies attempted to capture and destroy a breaker, June 3. August 11 there was a great riot in Shenandoah. Edward Cosgrove and Gomer James were murdered and a bystander was killed during the riot.

August 14, 1875, has since been known as “Bloody Saturday” in the coal regions. On that day Thomas Gwyther, a justice of the peace, of Girardville, was murdered. Miners rioted in many places.

September 1, Thomas Sanger, boss at Heaton & Co., colliery, near Ashland, and William Uren were murdered. On September 3, John J. Jones, already mentioned, was killed.

At the great trial the Commonwealth was represented by E. R. Siewers, the able district attorney; F. W. Hughes, of Pottsville; General Charles Albright, of Mauch Chunk, and Allen Craig. For the defense appeared Linn Bartholomew, J. B. Reilly and John W. Ryon, of Pottsville; Daniel Kalbfus and Edward Mulhearn of Mauch Chunk. James Kerrigan gave State’s testimony, which left no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, and this also was the death knell to the Mollies. Arrests rapidly followed for the other murders.

When the Mollies learned of McParlan’s true character, they planned his destruction, March 5, 1876, but now it was too late. Their nefarious work was at an end.

What might be said to be the closing climax of this reign of terror was the trial in Bloomsburg, February 24, 1877, when Pat Hester, Pat Tully and Peter McHugh were arraigned for the murder of Alexander Rea. The first trial February 2, 1869, had resulted in acquittal for Thomas Donahue, and the other cases were dropped, but this time the three prisoners were found “guilty” and were hanged in Columbia County jail, March 25, 1878, nine years after the murder of Rea.

On May 21, 1877, Governor Hartranft signed the death warrants for eight other Mollies and on June 21 they were hanged. These, with the three hanged at Bloomsburg, brought to a close the business of the Mollie Maguires.