Introduction. ixxi

On November 5, 1763, Sharpe sent a message to the Lower House that
"Mr. Cresap [Colonel Thomas Cresap], one of your members for Frederick
County, having represented to me Since the last Session of Assembly [1762]
& before the Indians recommenced hostilities against these Colonies, that parties
of the Six Nations who were then considered as Friends, frequently called at
his house on their Excursions to the southward, & insisted upon his Supplying
them with Provisions & other Necessaries". The Governor with the advice
of his Council recommended Cresap to continue furnishing these Indians with
supplies of food to prevent them from committing depredation on the frontier
inhabitants, and encouraged him to believe that he would receive satisfaction
from the next Assembly. Sharpe now asked that the Lower House take
measures to reimburse Cresap for his expenditures (p. 359), but he was not
reimbursed at this session.

Again some two weeks later, on November 19, the Governor sent a message
to the Lower House saying that the night before he had received letters by
express from a member of that house (doubtless Colonel Cresap) and others
living on the western frontier of Frederick County, saying that there had
lately been an incursion of a party of Indians which had done some mischief
at a place called the Cove; that this had caused the greatest consternation on
the frontier; and that unless an armed force were sent to the relief of the
settlers, there was great reason to believe that they would desert their habita-
tions, and that the frontier would again become the scene of distress and
desolation (p. 380). The house promptly replied that it was heartily desirous
of relieving the back inhabitants, and thought that as the license fees from
ordinaries or public-houses were not to be used for the establishment of a
college, they should be used to relieve these distressed people now calling for
assistance. The Lower House bill which applied the licenses from ordinaries
for the support of a college had just been refused consideration in the upper
chamber, and the Lower House thereupon, on the motion of Colonel Edward
Tilghman, ordered a bill brought in for the regulation of ordinaries under
which the licenses would be applied to the defense of the frontier inhabitants
against the Indians. This bill was passed by the Lower House and rejected
in the upper chamber, and with the rejected bill the Upper House sent a mes-
sage to the Lower House, dated November 24, expressing its sincere desire
to protect the inhabitants of the frontier, but urging that certain unexpended
balances now accumulated in the Loan Office from the £40,000 Supply bill
of 1756 be used for this purpose. The Upper House suggested, as a gesture
of compromise, that should these balances not be sufficient the licenses from
ordinaries be used to make up any deficiencies. By a vote of twenty-nine to
four, most of the members of the Proprietary party voting with the Popular
majority, the Lower House refused to consider this proposal. Notwithstanding
this vote, on the following day a motion was made by Edmund Key, a Pro-
prietary follower, that a bill be brought in to support a force of fifty rangers
to be paid out of balances in the Loan Office, but this was defeated by a vote
of twenty-eight to four (pp. 385,393,397,277-278,407-408,410). On the
last day of the session, November 26, the controversy was closed when the