Friendly Association.
In the middle of the eighteenth century the descendants of
William Penn; who succeeded to the proprietorship of
Pennsylvania, departed from the just course pursued by the great founder of the commonwealth towards the Indians and the white people, and exasperated both by their greed and covetousness.
The
Indians were made thoroughly discontented by the frauds practised on them in the purchase of lands and the depredations of banditti called traders.
So much had they become alienated from the
English that in 1755 the Delawares and others joined the
French in making var. For some time the Friends, or Quakers, had observed with sorrow the treatment of the Indians by
Thomas and
John Penn and the traders, and, impelled by their uniform sympathy with the oppressed, they formed a society in 1756 called the Friendly Association for Regaining and Preserving Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures.
The society was a continual thorn in the sides of the proprietors and Indian traders, for the active members of the association watched the interests of the red men with keen vigilance, attended every treaty, and prevented a vast amount of fraud and cheating in the dealings of the white people with the natives.
Charles Thomson, afterwards secretary of-the Continental Congress, was a very efficient co-worker with them, making truthful reports of the proceedings at treaties, and preventing false or garbled statements.
The Friendly Association continued until 1764.
