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dered in 1763 at Bethlehem and Gnadenhutten (God's House), by Paxton boys, "insatiate as fiends," for the simple reason that their victims were Indians.
"The Indians' Right of Occupancy on the Land"
There was one right, and one right only, which the rulers of England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland acknowledged to exist in America, at the time of the early settlements - "The Indians' right of occupancy on the land."
Note well this admission of a right bestowed by the Great Creator at the time of the creation of man, not only upon the Indians but upon all other individuals of the human race; but mark well its inhuman supplement, "which right remains to be extinguished by purchase or by conquest."
Conquest never yet extinguished a right which is as inextinguishable as God, the author of all rights bestowed upon mankind. Conquest has subverted right - has in defiance of the justice of God, trampled them in the dust; and so it was in the dealings of whites with the Indians of America.
William Penn, it is true, essayed to purchase the Indians' "right of occupancy" on part of the soil of Pennsylvania, but the consideration given the Indians was as infinitessimally small in proportion to the value of the land granted as a grain of gold is to the entire deposits of the mines of California.
Penn's descendents for some time followed his example and Thomas Penn, in 1732, purchased lands at Tulpehocken, Berks County, that had been settled upon by whites; for the whites were ever encroaching upon the lands of the Indians; and on one occasion the Proprietaries, as the heirs of Penn were called, had the cabins of encroaching settlers burned, hence the appellation "Burnt Cabins."
The first act of hostility between whites and Indians was committed by whites when an Indian was killed. At this time, it was deemed necessary by the Penns to placate the Six Nations of Indians, a powerful Indian confederacy in the north-eastern part of the United States, called at first the Five Nations, composed of the Oneydas, Onondagers, Senecas, Tuscaroras and Cayuses, which became by the accession of the Mohocks or Mohawks, the Six Nations.
In 1786, one Frederick Stump and his servant, John
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