1767.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 273 



the necessity of doing to others as they would have others do 

 unto them, it may be profitable."' 



All the meetings had committees to inquire into the treat- 

 ment of slaves held by Friends ; whether they were taught to 

 read, and encouraged to attend meetings, kc. Reports were 

 generally favorable. 



The odious Stamp Act was repealed on the 18th of March, 

 1766, the news of which event, when it reached America, caused 

 unbounded demonstrations of joy. Though the Quakers gene- 

 rally would not have violently resisted the execution of the law, 

 they shared with others the joy produced by the tidings of its 

 repeal. The French and Indian wars had been happily termi- 

 nated, and the controversy with the mother country appeared 

 now to be the only event that could again give rise to the "wars 

 and figlitings," which had already become a snare to many 

 youthful members of the Society. Regarding the repeal as the 

 harbinger of a protracted peace, our local meetings with renewed 

 vigor set about purging the Society from a variety of evil prac- 

 tices, which for some time had claimed its serious consideration. 

 Next to dealing in and holding slaves, intemperance and the 

 sale of intoxicating drinks, and being concerned in lotteries, 

 were the most prominent. 



The most important event of 1767 was the final determination 

 of the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland — 

 Mason and Dixon's line. The final deed, under which this very 

 protracted controversy was eventually closed, was executed on 

 the 4th of July, 1760.^ Under this deed Commissioners were 

 appointed, who at once engaged in the work assigned to them, 

 by tracing, with the aid of the best sui-veyors they could find, 

 the east and west peninsular line, and the twelve-mile circle 

 around New Castle. The work was accomplished by means of 

 sighting along poles, and measuring with the common surveyor's 

 chain, as nearly horizontal as possible. 



The slow progress of these surveyors induced the Penns and 

 the then Lord Baltimore to agree with Thomas Mason and Jere- 

 miah Dixon, "two Mathematicians or surveyors," to complete 

 the work. These gentlemen arrived in Philadelphia on the loth 

 of November, 1763, and immediately commenced the survey. 

 The peninsular line had been run, and the tangent-point had 

 been fixed by their predecessors with so much accuracy that they 



• Notwithstanding this apparent desire to do even and exact justice to the African 

 race, there was a law at this time in force in Pennsylvania that established a special 

 tribunal for the trial of negroes charged with the higher grades of crime, which 

 proves conclusively that the rights of the two races were not generally regarded as 

 equally sacred. The record of a single trial under this law at Chester, given in the 

 Appendix, Xote L, will explain the whole matter. 



2 Address of J. H. Latrobe, 26. 

 18 



