should harm the other nor his creatures; that where either injured the 

 other, satisfaction should be made and the wrong forgotten ; and that 

 both Christians and Indians should acquaint their children with this 

 "league and firm chain of friendship made between them, and that it 

 should always be made stronger and stronger, and be kept bright and 

 clean, without rust or spot, between our children and our children's 

 children, while the creeks and rivers run, and while the sun, moon and 

 stars endure." 



Benjamin West, whose painting of the Great Treaty is famous, 

 has left us an interesting account of the loving care with which the 

 old elm was guarded, long years after that occasion. 



"This tree," he writes, "to which I well remember, about the year 

 1755, when a boy, often resorting with my school- fellows, was in some 

 danger during the American War, when the British possessed the 

 country, from parties sent out in search for wood for firing, but the 

 Jate General Simcoe ordered a guard of British soldiers to protect it 

 from the axe." 



It spite of precautions, however, the grand old tree did not remain 

 many years longer to serve as a shrine for patriots, but was blown 

 down in 1810, though one cannot help regretting that it did not sur- 

 vive another century. 



Judge Peters, a friend of Washington, wrote the following lines 

 in honor of the old elm: 



"Let each take a relic from that hallowed tree, 

 Which like Penn, whom it shaded, immortal shall be; 

 As the pride of our forests, let elms be renowned, 

 For the justly-prized virtues with which they abound. 

 Though time has devoted our tree to decay, 

 The sage lessons it witnessed survive to our day; 

 May our trustworthy statesmen, when called to the helm, 

 Ne'er forget the wise treaty held under the elm." 



Descendants of the Penn Treaty Elm 

 General Oliver's Tree 



When the land where the Treaty Elm had stood, came into the 

 possession of General Paul A. Oliver's ancestors, a shoot was dis- 

 covered springing up from the old tree's roots. This was transplanted 

 to Bay Ridge, N. Y., where it flourished until after fifty years it had 

 almost reached the size of the parent tree. Then the General removed 

 it to his home at Wilkes-Barre, Penn., where it has continued to 

 thrive. 



On Arbor Day, April 10, 1896, a shoot from General Oliver's 

 tree was planted on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 Philadelphia, by Governor Hastings of that State, in honor of Wil- 

 liam Penn, first Governor of the Commonwealth. The tiny sapling 

 grew into a healthy tree which has rounded out its first quarter 

 century. It is one of the youngest of the Great Elm's descendants. 



Another scion of the old tree stands on the grounds of the Penn- 

 sylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, and yet another in the yard of the 



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