York people, then, we were not the United States of America until 1781. But let us refer back to the Journalsof Congress. On 4 June 1777, a resolution of the Board of War stated "Whereas Congress did on the 16th day of September in the year 1776 resolve, that the legislative powers of each of the

The Effort to Build a State Penitentiary at Lancaster A Bit of Local History Recently the Lancaster County Historical Society purchased at a public sale several documents for a modest sum. One of the documents was a "memori- al" sent to the Pennsylvania legislature by the Commissioners of Lancaster

century and early twentieth century. The city had 8,417 persons in 1840 but ten years later 12,369 were counted by the census taker. In 1900 the city population had soared to 41,459. In any community the increase of population generally results in a rise in crime and its attendant evils, sin �106 JOURNAL

before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was in behalf of a slaveholder who was trying to regain possession of his slave who claimed freedom in Pennsylvania. Thirty years later he would attract national attention ny his successful defense of the defendants in the Christiana Riot treason trial wherein the

1739, a strange transaction took place which ranks high among the records of "double-double crossing." The ownership of the community land had never been given much consideration, and apparently Israel assumed one of the householders possessed the tract. One bf Eckerling's faction, Jan Meyle (John