Sweet Land of Liberty
by Francis S. Fox
Officeholders in Pennsylvania's fledgling Revolutionary government were beholden to militia rank and file who had pulled down the provincial government, raised a new state, and elected them. As a result, the Assembly legislated the Militia Act (March 17, 1777) and the Test Act (June 13, 1777). The first statute compelled men between the ages of eighteen and fifty-three to serve in the militia or pay heavy fines. The second ordered all men to swear allegiance to the state or lose their rights as citizens. Consequently, the radicals'imperial vision of promoting the happiness of the peo-ple survived only as a rhetorical flourish in the Constitution of the new state.
Waving the Militia Act and the Test Act or, more often than not, self-serving interpretations of them, extremists in Northampton whipsawed Moravians and Mennonites who refused to bear arms or swear allegiance because of their religious beliefs. Wrapped in the newly consecrated Amer-ican flag, these opportunists set out to bankrupt sectarians, force them out of the county, and seize their land.Their success on the first count dealt a blow to Northampton's Moravian communities from which they never recovered.
Most Northampton men took the Test. However, this compact with the state did not give them immunity from prosecution under the Militia Act. Many of them risked courts-martial and fines rather than muster for active duty. Even when the enemy threatened to overrun their homes, they could not overcome their fear of bullets and arrows and the scalping knife. Protect us, they hollered to the president and the Supreme Executive Council. Send more money, cried battalion colonels.
Despite amendments to the Militia Act, Pennsylvania's Revolutionary government failed to win the hearts of Northampton's militiamen. The farmers had grown weary of their role as soldiers. Moreover, a byzantine relationship between Northampton's county lieutenant, a civilian commander of the militia who had been appointed by the president, and battalion officers, who had been elected by their men, foiled the dictates of the law. Isolated by natural boundaries, hampered by poor communications, red tape, and intramural disputes, each Northampton battalion became a fiefdom whose leaders distanced themselves from the county lieutenant, county offi-cials, the president, and the Council.
Apprized of mutinous rumblings in Northampton, the president pleaded with the militia: "Let there be one dispute:who shall serve his country best?" 16 But pep talks and patriotic slogans had lost their sizzle in Northampton. Fearing for his life, the sheriff refused to collect fines from 300 delinquent militiamen. "They wont suffer no sheriff, constable, or any other fit person to serve any executions on them, "he reported. 17 Later, when Indians and Tories threatened to clear settlers from the frontier, the presi-dent promised battalion commanders ammunition and money for scouting parties and scalps, but he warned them that the militia could not be useful if "they meet at taverns and spend their time in amusement and frolick." 18 In the months ahead, the mutiny escalated.
By 1784 most Northampton inhabitants wished to put the war behind them and get on with their lives. A revitalized citizenry pounced on the Test Act, but Constitutionalists defeated all attempts to amend one of the cornerstones of Pennsylvania's Revolutionary government. Despite the Constitutionalists'effort, in March 1786 the Assembly passed a Republican-sponsored bill that substantially amended the statute. Republicans achieved this victory with help from the entire five-man Northampton delegation, which, a year earlier, had voted unanimously to preserve the Test Act. To effect this turnabout, the electorate replaced two legislators who had voted in favor of the Test. The three remaining legislators retained their seats, but they doubtless had heard the drumbeat. 19
The noise in Northampton over the Test Act was muted in contrast to the clamor to amend the Militia Act. With each passing year, more and more men refused to serve in the militia, or send a substitute, or pay a fine. In 1784, for example, when the state ordered units of Northampton's militia to put down a disturbance caused by the presence of illegal settlers in the northern part of the county, "not more than one-third of the number called appeared at the place of rendezvous, and among these, but very few declare themselves to be perfectly willing to go farther." 20 Northampton citizens did not oppose a well-regulated militia, but they insisted that the "present mode of conducting it is, in fact, one of the greatest nuisances in the state. . . . Battalion days . . . subserve only the purposes of idleness, disorder, and vice, de-praving the morals of the rising generation so that many of us, otherwise not averse to militia duty, have withdrawn ourselves and grown sons from such musterings."The inhabitants also protested delinquent fines and special collectors who abused their power to serve their own "vicious and sinister purposes." 21 Finally, in 1788 the Republican-controlled Assembly suspended the collection of militia fines levied under earlier versions of the law. This maneuver gutted the Militia Act and, with it, the Constitutionalist Party. 22
In brief, the Revolution in Northampton burst forth overnight. The Committee ruled the county with courts of inquiry and armed guards. Ex-tremists marched to their own drummer. Undeclared martial law spread fear in the county and caused revulsion from the Constitutionalists. After the war a majority of Northampton's citizens embraced the Republican Party, which advocated the repeal of the Test Act and the Militia Act, the ratification of the Federal Constitution, and, in 1790, the adoption of a new state constitution. Constitutionalists failed to bring happiness to the people of Pennsylvania. To deliver that promise, Northampton turned to a new generation of silver-tongued orators.
Sweet Land of Liberty brings the Revolution alive with sketches of men and women caught up in it. These sketches range from the quasi-biographical to lean cuttings.Robert Levers, whose dream of rising in the world had been shattered, embraced the cause of freedom and started a new career as a powerful county official. Lewis Gordon, who was a longtime servant of the king, could not find his way in the storm. Elias Long spoke out against the radicals, but his independence came at a steep price. Henry Geiger, an old soldier, unsheathed his sword and wielded it like a scythe. Michael Ohl started off on the right path, but he changed his mind and twice landed in jail. John Wetzel and John Ettwein engaged in a struggle that exhausted both men and left them and their followers worse off for it.Elizabeth Kurtz sang her own song, and what a song it was. Joseph Romig stood up to local tyrants, only to be denounced as a traitor. Notwithstanding elected county and state officials, Jacob Stroud set the pace in the sparsely settled area north of Blue Mountain. George Taylor understood the what, why, and how of colonial politics and initiated the rebellion in Northampton, but severe ill-ness and the failure of his business cut short a promising future in the Revolutionary government. Phillis, a slave, told her secret, but to what end? Mathew and Mary Myler numbered among the thousands of wartime tran-sients whose presence in Northampton drew the county into a much larger world.Isaac Klinkerfuss, a Hessian soldier, found a bride and a home in hostile territor y. A dead mercenary named Henry Legel became the focus of a mischievous contest between two men who had more urgent business at hand. Finally, Eve Yoder and Esther Bachman, who refused to be evicted from their homes, seized the initiative and sent Constitutionalists in the As-sembly hurrying for political cover.
16. Joseph Reed to Colonels of Northampton County, August 3, 1779, Pa. Arch., 1st ser., 7:616.
17. Sheriff Jonas Hartzell to Lieutenant Jacob Shoemaker, August 20, 1779, Pa. Arch., 1st ser., 7:655.
18. Joseph Reed to Nicholas Depui, John Chambers, and Jacob Stroud, May 1, 1781, Pa. Arch., 1st ser., 9:113-14.
19. This explanation simplifies the actual course of events.The topic may be pursued beginning with the election returns found in Pa. Arch., 6th ser., 11:257-70.
20. John Boyd and John Armstrong Jr. to John Dickinson, August 7, 1784, Pa. Arch., 1st ser., 10:630-32.
21. Petition from inhabitants of Northampton County to President Benjamin Franklin, March 20, 1786, RG 27, 22:862-65.
22. The Militia Act of 1780, which replaced the act of 1777, was repealed in 1793.
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