Western Pennsylvania: Law and the U.S. Frontier
A Primary-Source Exhibit at the Duquesne Club
Exhibit Courtesy of
Stanley L. Klos
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania
Duquesne
Club Exhibit Overview
Western Pennsylvania: Law and the U.S. Frontier explores
the decisive role of Western Pennsylvania in the military, diplomatic,
constitutional, and economic formation of the United States. Through original
manuscripts, treaties, proclamations, and printed laws, the exhibit traces the
transformation of the region from a contested imperial frontier into a governed
American territory, and ultimately into a proving ground for federal authority
and national expansion.
Spanning 1754 to 1916, the exhibit centers on Fort
Duquesne, Fort Pitt, the Ohio Country, and the Northwest Territory,
demonstrating that Western Pennsylvania was not peripheral, but foundational
to the American Republic.
George
Washington and the Western Frontier
The exhibit opens with George Washington’s formative
experiences in Western Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War and the
early Republic, episodes that shaped both his military reputation and his
understanding of frontier governance.
- Fort
Necessity (1754): Contemporary account of Washington’s defeat,
including the full printed Articles of Capitulation.
- Braddock’s
Defeat (1755): Detailed narrative of British Major General Edward
Braddock’s failed expedition against Fort Duquesne, highlighting
Washington’s survival and emergence as a frontier leader.
- Treaty
of Harmar Transmission: Letter signed by Washington forwarding Arthur
St. Clair’s treaty with the Six Nations, authorizing settlement of the
Ohio Territory and Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Arthur
St. Clair and the Architecture of American Expansion
Arthur St. Clair (1737–1818),
Ninth President of the United States in Congress Assembled
Term: February 2, 1787 – October 29, 1787
Arthur St. Clair stands at the center of this exhibit not
merely as a frontier governor, but as a constitutional actor whose
leadership shaped the future of the United States.
Frontier Justice and Native Relations
- 1771
Autographed Letter Signed, as Prothonotary of Bedford County
(including Fort Pitt), describing the arrest and confinement of a murderer
of two Six Nations Indians to demonstrate colonial justice to Native
leaders, an unrecorded and exceptionally rare document illustrating early
federal-territorial authority.
President of Congress and the Northwest Ordinance
- 1787:
As President of the United States in Congress Assembled, St. Clair
presided over the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the
most consequential legislative act of the Confederation Congress.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Contemporary Newspaper
Printing
The New-Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine,
Vol. II, No. 24
New Haven: Josiah Meigs, August 2, 1787
Rare four-page contemporary newspaper printing (8½ × 9¾
in.), untrimmed with generous margins, preserving the full text of the
Ordinance shortly after enactment.
The Northwest Ordinance established:
·
Civil government for Western territories
·
A process for admitting new states on equal
footing
·
Guaranteed civil liberties
·
A permanent prohibition of slavery and
indentured servitude north of the Ohio River
It stands as one of the cornerstones of the United States
Republic, and St. Clair’s role as presiding officer places Western
Pennsylvania at the heart of American constitutional development.
The Constitution Sent to the States
Act to Ratify the U.S. Constitution, September 28, 1787
The New-Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine,
Vol. II, No. 36
New Haven: Josiah Meigs, October 25, 1787
This newspaper printing announces congressional action
transmitting the Constitution to the states and calling for elections of
ratifying delegates.
A rare full 1787 front page printing of the resolution,
unanimously adopted after three days of debate under St. Clair’s presidency,
which sent the Constitution to the thirteen states without amendment. A
decisive act that enabled ratification and the transition from the
Confederation to the federal government.
“The United States in
Congress Assembled, Friday September 28, 1787 PRESENT: New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia and from Maryland Mr.
Ross. Congress having received the Report of the Convention lately assembled in
Philadelphia, Resolved Unanimously, That the said Report, with the resolutions
and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several Legislatures,
in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates, chose in each State by
the People thereof, in conformity to the resolves of the convention, made and
provided in that case. CHARLES
THOMPSON, Secretary.”
Law,
Land, and Native Diplomacy
Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1769)
Exceptionally rare official document transmitted and signed
by Joseph Galloway, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly,
pledging the Assembly’s commitment to honoring treaty boundaries between the
Six Nations and the proprietors of Pennsylvania.
Native American Deeds for Western Pennsylvania
(1784–1789)
Three vellum deeds transferring the Western Quarter of
Pennsylvania to the Commonwealth:
·
October 23, 1784: Signed by the Six
Nations and Oliver Wolcott at Fort Stanwix
·
January 21, 1785: Signed by the Wyandot
and Delaware tribes and William Bradford at Fort McIntosh
·
June 1789: Presque Isle (Erie) deed
signed by multiple tribes and Arthur St. Clair as Governor of the Northwest
Territory
Benjamin
Franklin and the Constitutional Moment
- 1787
Land Grant: Signed May 23, 1787, by Benjamin Franklin,
conveying property at Donaldson’s Crossroads, Washington County.
One day later, Franklin would attend the Constitutional Convention at Independence Hall.
General
Anthony Wayne and Federal Authority
- 1793
Letter Signed: Two-page letter from Anthony Wayne,
Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, directing reconnaissance and
intelligence gathering in Western Pennsylvania prior to the Northwest
Indian War, demonstrating federal military planning in the
post-Constitution era.
The
Whiskey Rebellion: Federal Power Tested
·
1794 Washington Proclamation: Signed
proclamation summoning state militias to suppress insurrection in Western
Pennsylvania.
·
Congressional Appropriation Act (1794):
Federal funding legislation authorizing $200,000 for militia forces, signed by Edmund
Randolph.
These documents mark the first major domestic test of
federal authority under the Constitution.
Western
Pennsylvania and Industrial Power
Documents tracing the rise of Andrew Carnegie from
immigrant laborer to global industrialist:
·
1860: Pre-Civil War handwritten note as a
railroad employee
·
1904: Autograph Note Signed extending a
widow’s pension through the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
·
1916: Letter from Skibo Castle requesting
steel-industry data for a New York address
Henry Clay Frick
- 1893:
Signature clipped from a stock certificate of Henry Clay Frick,
emblematic of Gilded Age industrial consolidation
Andrew Mellon
- 1925
Typed Letter Signed: By Andrew Mellon, relating to a Coast
Guard resignation; Mellon was also a Pennsylvania Society Gold Medalist
Sponsor:
The Pennsylvania Society
“Cultivating social intercourse among its members, and
collecting historical material relating to the State of Pennsylvania, keeping
alive its memory in New York.”
In fulfillment of this mission, the Society presents Western
Pennsylvania: Law and the U.S. Frontier, an exhibit grounded entirely in original
primary sources.
Western Pennsylvania was a testing ground for American
governance, where imperial conflict, Native diplomacy, constitutional law,
federal authority, and industrial capitalism converged. The Northwest
Ordinance, frontier treaties, and early federal enforcement actions show the
Republic being built in real time, under pressure.
This is not mythology.
It is documentary history.
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