From the moment Colonial officials learned of Stump’s deeds, they feared that this was the spark to ignite the tinderbox that Pennsylvania found itself atop as 1768 dawned.
When Governor Penn issued the arrest orders to the Cumberland County magistrates, he noted that only by bringing Stump to justice could the Colony “satisfy our Indian Allies that the Government does not countenance those who wantonly Spill their Blood.” If the Native Americans living on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River reacted strongly to the news that would certainly reach them, a pattern of violent frontier reprisals could ensue. Such an “Effusion of much innocent Blood” had not been seen since the end of Pontiac’s Rebellion. The Stump Massacre was simultaneously a legal matter and a dire diplomatic emergency.
To face the public relations problem head-on, Penn turned to Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the British. Penn wrote to Johnson on January 21, asking him to allay the fears of the Iroquois leaders with whom he communicated from his headquarters in upstate New York. Penn confessed to Johnson his utter dread of prolonged warfare:
I am under the greatest apprehensions that this unhappy affair will, at this Juncture, when the Indians are so much discontented by the Injuries already done them, be productive of the most Calamitous Consequences.
Johnson answered Penn’s request in late February, noting that the Colony and the Crown could do only so much to dampen the rising anger of the Six Nations. “No Present or Gratification will avail,” Johnson warned, “unless the Conduct of the Frontier Inhabitants should change, or that by a vigorous exertion of sound Laws they be restrained from Murders, Encroachments & Outrages in future…” The Native Americans of the Six Nations had been resentful toward Pennsylvania’s government for some time, Johnson reminded Penn, but the Senecas, in particular, due to “the Murder of the White Mingo & his Family,” were reaching a point of no return.
Others within the Pennsylvania law enforcement structure thought along the same lines. William Patterson was a farmer, a surveyor, a captain from the Seven Years’ War, and the namesake of “Fort Patterson,” a stockade in the Tuscarora Valley near present-day Richfield. After Patterson had captured Stump and Ironcutter and was preparing to deliver them to the Carlisle jail, he composed a letter to the local Native Americans. His words echoed the concerns expressed by many prominent government officials over the Stump incident’s potential effect on frontier-Indian relations.
In the letter, Patterson assured the Indians that the colonists of Fort Augusta and the surrounding area condemned the actions of Stump and Ironcutter just as strongly as their native brothers. Following Patterson’s condemnation was a plea to the Native Americans for this tragedy to not affect relations between the two peoples; although the natives had the potential to remain peaceful trading partners, he knew they could just as easily become foes of the frontier. He implored them to resume trade at Fort Augusta and not let the actions of two “bad men” destroy the close ties so painstakingly forged.
So committed to maintaining peace, Patterson professed he would not rest until he received a reply to his letter from the six Indian nations. He hoped the relationship between the settlers and Indians could be salvaged with an appropriate punishment for the two criminals…death.
British officials agreed. The Earl of Hillsborough, the newly-appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies, informed Penn that King George III wished that a “most exemplary Punishment, in the manner most satisfactory to the Indians,” be imposed on Stump once he was arrested. He also connected the capture and prosecution of Stump to the larger issue of white settlers encroaching on lands “beyond the Line of His Majesty’s Proclamation.”
The powers-that-be, whether they were local to the Susquehanna Valley, administering the Colony from Philadelphia, or overseeing diplomacy from London, were all deeply concerned that Stump’s actions would start a cataclysmic series of events.