The Conduct of the Paxton Men Impartially Represented - 23
The Faith of Government, we are told, was pledged to these Indians.----No doubt of it:----And so it is to every Robber and Villain before he becomes such: (p) But will any Man suppose that a Robber and Villain should rely upon that Faith, when he has forfeited it; and claim Protection from the Gallows or the Gibbet, or from being shot down if he cannot be brought to Punishment any other Way? Now whatever might have been the Behaviour of these Indians to the first Settlers of Pennsylvania, it is notorious that their Conduct of late has been such, as could give them no Manner of Claim to the Faith, Friendship, or Protection of this Government---That they have been Spies upon all our Actions---have treacherously held a Correspondence with our avowed Enemies---and have often lent a helping Hand to bring Ruin and Desolation upon the Province---and yet to such Wretches as these, it seems we ow’d Protection!----and it was Murder to put them to Death! The Author of CATO’s Letters very justly observes, that ‘It is a most wicked and absurd Position, to say, that a People can ever be in such a Situation, as not to have a Right to oppose a Tyrant, a Robber, or a Traitor, who, by Violence, Treachery, Rapine, infinite Murders and Devastations, has deprived them of Safety and Protection.’
‘It was a known Maxim of Liberty amongst the great, the wife, the free Antients, that a Tyrant, or a Traytor, was a Beast of Prey, which might be killed by a Spear as well as by a fair Chace; in his Court as well as in his Camp; that every Man had a Right to destroy One, who would
(p) Notwithstanding the solemn Engagements and Articles of Agreement into which these Indians had entered with WILLIAM PENN, they often broke thro’ them, even in his Time.---In Governor KEITH’s Time, about the Year 1719, these Indians were accused by one JOHN CARTLIDGE, of many Misdemeanors, and among the rest of having furnished our Enemies with Ammunition, which obliged Mr. KEITH to write to them, and threaten them, if they did not behave better. These are Facts well known to many now living.
