Show chiy 50 D TH 1 arty A N t 10 J FRANKLIN 4 AM KING HENDRICK 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON at A N JULY 4 the amerlean people will se 0 1 celebrate the one hundred sixty eighth anniversary of the event which won them their liberty the adoption of the declaration of in 0 dependence on that day officially called independence day but be A ter known as the fourth of july 1 WS they will honor the memory of anake CARTOON those 50 immortals who signed the document in which they held certain 11 truths in other papers the colonies who to be self evident in which they did solemnly soon had an opportunity to put into practical publish and declare that these united colonies effect the lesson which it inight but mhd as oz are an d of right ought to be free and inde usual muffed the chance that was at the fa I 1 A pendent states and in which for the support of albany congress of 1754 for as george az z 4 a firm reliance on the volume the protection of divine providence they did mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortune tu nes and our sacred honor we know the names of most of them the men who tools 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 bowed 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 operation cooperation co and a colonial union and to how many of us does the name of or king hendrick lck a chief of the mohawk indians have any significance in the struggle for liberty it Is with these two men but more particularly with king hendrick lck and with the events which shadowed foreshadowed fore the declaration that this a article bicle deals although the british crown encouraged the idea of a colonial union to rid 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 to the conduct of the wars so it seemed that the only possibility for operative cooperative co effort lay in voluntary action on the part of the colonies 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 lie he laid before the british council of trade and plantations ills his scheme tor for uniting the colonies in one form of government divided into three groups a southern a centric 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 as to send troops and equipment and the three groups were to supply labor under a quota arrangement for building and garrisoning farls which were to be built in the wilderness to protect settlers who were to be encouraged to take up III lands in the west every two years the british government was to send out two hundred youths as replacements for 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 us as usual a lack of operation cooperation co among the colonies prevailed and nothing came of Livings tons 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 a and nd the fighte tightening ning of their alliance with the indians began to alarm the the colonies seriously 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 dinwiddle of virginia sent captain trent and his backwoodsmen backwoods men to build a fort at the forks of the monongahela but before they could finish their wa work k the F rench french drove trent away on oa may 9 1751 1754 the pennsylvania gazette of philadelphia contained an atcon account nt of trents arents 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 it if they are permitted to io do must end in I 1 the destruction of the british interest trade and plantations in america along this appeal tor for concerted action there appeared la in the gazette the first real cartoon drawn bidrawn by the publisher of the gazette flen benjamin jarn il h franklin it showed a disjointed snake each part labeled with the Ini of f ond one of the colonies and under it the motto join jobi or diek die later franklins graphic portrayal of we the urgent urgen t nece necessity for colonial union was waa reprinted of now france in the chronicles of america series says the english colonists showed a political blindness that amounted to imbecility albany f was as the central centra point from which the dangers on all sides might best be surveyed here came together in the summer of 1754 delegates from seven of the colonies to consider the common peril the french were busy in winning as they did the support of the many indian tribes of the west and the old allies of the english the iroquois were nervous tor for their own safety the delegates to albany tied a and nd bound by instructions from their assemblies had to listen to plain words from the savages the one englishman 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 or king hendrick of the mo hawks although he Is not so well known to most americans as that other mohawk leader thay abay or joseph brant hendrick lck was one of the most important indian figures in colonial history he was born about 1072 near the present site of westfield mass although lie he was the son of a mohegan of the wolf clan his m other mother was a mohawk woman so he be became a member of the latter tribe some time between 1690 and 1092 1692 was converted to christianity by a dutch preacher named dellies and given the nama name of hendrick peters later shortened to hendrick As aa a Chris christian fian preacher and a natural leader hendrick rapidly rose to a position of prominence among the mohawks as an orator and a councillor after the failure ot of general nichol sons pons expedition against canada during queen annes annea war the provincial authorities ot 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 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 Iro quola delegation arrived 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 froin that time on hendrick lck 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 authorities in albany alba ny 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 0 ur ua 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 your fault brethren that we vve are not strengthened by conquest for we would lave gone and taken crown point but you yon hand hindered ered us we bad concluded to go and take it but we were told it wai was too late and that the ace would not cot bear us instead of this you burnt your own forts at and run away from it which was a shame and a scandal to you look about your country and see you have no fortifications about you no not even to this city lookyat look at the french they are men they are fortifying buts but we are ashamed to say eay it you are en weak and defenseless but this stinging indictment of the faltering military policy of the english was overshadowed in importance by another ot of hendricks speeches at the congress it was delivered on july 4 1754 and in it he anticipated by 22 years yeara 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 clouda hang heavy over us and it Is not very pleasant to look up but we give this belt to clear away all the clouds tha aba e 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 1 will just tell you what a people we were formerly if any enemies arose against us we had no occasion to lift up our whole hand against them for our little finger was sufficient and as we have now made a strong confederacy it 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 worda of the mohawk chieftain as he be told of the ancient power of the iroquois confederacy a power gained so many years before because these savages realized that in union there Is strength and put that realization into practical effect that delegate was benjamin franklin of pennsylvania who had in his pocket a plan for a union of the colonies which he had brought from philadelphia with him ilia 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 franklins 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 lck of the 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 the advice of king hendrick lck 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 1000 troops and indians to the aid of besieged fort edward the mohawk chief objected if they are to fight they are too few he said if they are to die they are too ma many ray but the council of war overrode him then when it was proposed to send the detachment against the enemy in three parties hendrick lck again preached his message of in union there Is strength picking up three sticks from the ground he sald said put these together and you cannot break them the n 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 Dl eskau The result was waa the ambush at bloody pond the defeat of the colonl colonials als with the loss of mon men including the leader of the detachment col ephraem m williams and stout old Hend iluk his horse was waa shot down at the tha first brat volley and before he could extricate himself a french bayonet pierced his heart so the great mohawk died before he could see his bla english allies blunder through the french and indian war to a successful conclusion but bla big oft repeated in union thero there ls strength was wag not utterly lost another man who had preached the same message at the albany congress continued to preach it through US big snake cartoon through his writings and in lils bla speeches in the Contla continental intal congress so benjamin franklin lived to see it become an accomplished tact fact he ha helped write a pledge to such euch a union in the declaration of independence and even though during thi the dark days of the revolution the bonds bonda of f that union seemed about to be broken they survived long enough to win american alber liberty but before he died he ha saw that union im lmar lah ably preserved ld in the constitution 0 ot f te th united states of america 0 tr by western newspaper Nw anim |