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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
^-
CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
H ISTORY
OF
PHILADELPHIA.
1609 -1884.
BY
J. THOMAS SCHARF and THOMPSON WESTCOTT
IN THREE V O L, U lVl E S.
Vol. I.
PHILADELPHIA.:
L. ti. EVERTS & CO.
1884.
E.M.
>H —
936271
Copyright, 1884, by L. H. Everts & Co.
PRESS OF
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
PHILADELPHIA.
t
PREFACE.
In presenting this History of Philadelphia to the public no apology is necessary. As a
record of events, as an exhibition of men, as a chronicle and exposition of institutions and
resources, the work in this particular field, it is believed, will be found a complete and satisfac-
tory record, in its every department, of the growth, development, and expansion of a munici-
pality. This is asserted with a thorough knowledge of what has been done elsewhere since
the revival of public interest in and enthusiasm for local details, and with a consciousness also
of the suspicion of arrogance and self-assumption naturally incidental to such pretensions. To
accomplish so much, and with such a degree of self-satisfaction, has been no holiday task. Of
the labor, expense, and responsibility involved, very little need be said. The proof is presented
in these volumes. In their preparation more than twenty times the compass of material,
expressly procured and arranged, in addition to the great collection of books read and examined
for collateral information, was digested, condensed, and, in the pertinent newspaper phrase,
" boiled down" to the present limits. In no sense of the word is this work founded upon,
built up out of, or repeated from, any previous one on the same subject, or any of its branches.
It is a new book, treating its theme in a new, comprehensive, and original manner, after
exhaustive research, thorough examination, and critical comparison of the best authorities, and
the most authentic documents and authoritative records. This digesting and assimilating
process has not, perhaps, been carried as far as exigent critics might demand, but in this busy
and bustling world there is not time enough to polish the front of a city hall as nicely as
one would a mantel ornament of Parian marble. The proprieties of style have, however, not
been neglected, for carelessness in that respect would have been equally unworthy of a theme so
dignified, and of the liberality and beauty of form of the publishers' work.
A history so comprehensive in its objects and scope, and embracing such an infinitude of
details, must necessarily have its limitations and defects, because of the impossibility of dis-
cussing fully a great variety of subjects without occasional errors. It would have been easy
to escape from them by making the work less copious, by avoiding dangerous or controverted
themes, and so gliding swiftly over the surface, generalizing and summing up instead of dis-
playing all the facts.
The desire to leave nothing untold which could in any way throw light upon the history
of men, events, and institutions in Philadelphia has made it impossible at times to escape
repetition. Facts, which fall within the proper cognizance of the narrative of general events,
will sometimes reappear in another shape in the records of institutions or in special chapters.
But the fault will claim the reader's indulgence, because intelligent persons prefer a twice-told
tale to one neglected or half told.
iv PKEFACE.
Several of the themes or chapters of the homogeneous whole have been treated by those
who have some particular association or long acquaintance with the subject. In the diversity
of writers there will of course be variety of opinions, but they make good the poet's description,
"Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea,"
and may not be the worse for each offering a reflection, according to its turn to the light, without
marring the unity of the general expanse.
Without Mr. Westcott's indispensable aid and invaluable stores of material on the History
of Philadelphia, which he has been diligently collecting for the past thirty years, and which have
been used in every department of this work, it would have been impossible to present the history
of this great city in the satisfactory shape it now assumes. Indeed, as has been frequently stated
in the following pages, Mr. "Westcott has devoted a lifetime to the faithful, industrious, and
intelligent pursuit of this history ; few records have escaped him, and he has supplemented their
evidence with recollections of a trustworthy character, and with testimony from a thousand
sources, such as none but the most indefatigable antiquarian would seek or could procure.
Mr. Westcott has also contributed to the work many valuable and unique drawings, portraits,
maps,. plans, etc., which are now printed for the first time; and during its progress he has
also been constantly consulted by all engaged in the preparation of the special chapters, and
besides furnishing important suggestions, facts, and items, he has read and corrected all the
proofs, from the first page to the last. Besides the very efficient aid thus rendered during the
various stages of the work, he has specially prepared for it the chapters on " Progress from
1825 to the Consolidation of the City, in 1854;" "Music, Musicians, and Musical Societies;"
" Charitable, Benevolent, and Religious Institutions and Associations ;" " Military Organiza-
tions, Armories, Arsenals, Barracks, Magazines, Powder-Houses, and Forts ;" " Municipal,
State, and Government Buildings ;" " Court-Houses, Prisons, Reformatory and Correctional
Institutions, and Almshouses;" "Public Squares, Parks and Monuments;" "Roads, Ferries,
Bridges, Public Landings and Wharves ;" " Telegraph," and many other minor subjects.
The authors would be unjust to themselves, and to the city whose history they have written,
if they did not acknowledge, in this place, with feelings of profound gratitude, the cordial aid
extended to them and to their undertaking by the press and people of Philadelphia. They have
given the fullest encouragement throughout, and have helped materially in elaborating and
perfecting the work. Important and valuable assistance and information have been received
from the following persons, to whom also particular recognition is clue :
To Frederick D. Stone, librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, for valuable memo-
randa and suggestions made to the authors during the progress of their work ; to Frank Willing
Leach, for biographical sketches and details in regard to the press and libraries of Philadelphia ;
to Rev. W. B. Erben, for the preparation of the hist6ry of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia
and its institutions and church work ; to Martin I. J. Griffin, for the history of the Catholic
Church, and its institutions, societies, schools, and church work; to Bishop Matthew Simpson,
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. William Cathcart, D.D., of the Baptist Church,
Rev. Charles G. Ames, of the Unitarian Church, Rev. W. J. Mann, D.D., of the Lutheran
Church, Rev. W. M. Rice, of the Presbyterian Church, John Edmunds, of the Congregational
PKEFACE.
Church, and Rev. Chauncey Giles and T. S. Arthur, of the Swedenborgian Church, for essential
assistance in the preparation of the history of their respective denominations; to Albert H.
Hoeckley, for his chapter on " Clubs and Club Life ;" to Charles R. Hildeburn, the librarian of
the Athenseum, for many kindnesses of various sorts ; to Isaac H. Shields, attorney-at-law, for
his complete chapter on the intricate and important subject of "The Municipal Government
of Philadelphia ;" to Lloyd P. Smith, librarian of the Philadelphia and Ridgway Library, for
many kindnesses and courtesies in smoothing the way, and contributing to the work the
details for the history of the libraries under his charge, including free access to and use of
valuable documents; to William Perrine, who contributed to the work the chapters on " Progress
from the Consolidation Act, in 1854, to the Civil War," "After the Civil War," and "Educa-
tion ;" to Rev. Jesse Y. Burke for sketch of the Pennsylvania University ; to Hon. James T.
Mitchell, who kindly revised the chapter on the " Bench and Bar ;" to John Hill Martin, author
of " The Bench and Bar of Philadelphia," who furnished valuable Civil Lists, and, with a kind-
ness and courtesy not to be forgotten, allowed the authors to extract all that they wanted from his
able work ; to Wm. B. Atkinson, M.D., who revised the chapter on the " Medical Profession,"
and S. D. Gross, M.D., LL.D., who read the proofs of the same ; to Charles A. Kingsbury, M.D.,
D.D.S., for materials on Dental Surgery and Institutions; to Lewis D. Harlow, M.D., for
sketches of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Medical Colleges ; to Miss May Forney, for the
chapter furnished by her upon "The Distinguished Women of Philadelphia;" to Professor
R. M. Johnston, who prepared the chapter on " Literature and Literary Men ;" to Robert R.
Dearden, A. J. Bowen, J. H. C. Whiting, and John A. Fowler, for much valuable material on
the history of insurance in Philadelphia ; to Clifford P. MacCalla, Charles E. Mayer, Edward
S. Roman, John W. Stokes, George Hawkes, Walter Graham, William Hollis, John M.
Vanderslice, and John Magargee, for valuable assistance in the preparation of the chapter on
" Secret Societies and Orders."
Among others to whom acknowledgments are especially due may be mentioned the late
Edward Spencer, Charles H. Shinn, Nathaniel Tyler, Professor P. F. de Gournay, John Sar-
tain, Samuel W. Pennypacker, Dr. W. H. Burke, Professor Oswald Seidensticker, James J.
Levick, M.D., Rev. W. M. Baum, D.D., Frederick Emory, and Professor W. H. B. Thomas,
who have furnished much valuable information and assistance.
The publishers have most liberally met every desire, in respect of letter-press and engrav-
ings of portraits, maps, and other illustrations ; they have spared no expense or effort to make
the mechanical execution of the volumes equal to its subject, and they have helped in every
difficulty while the work was in progress.
Philadelphia, March 1, 1884.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER I.
Topography op Philadelphia . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER II.
The Geological Structure, Vegetation, and Animals op the Site of Philadelphia . . 17
CHAPTER III.
The Indians . . ... 30
CHAPTER IV.
Discovery and Occupation of the Hudson and Delaware Piters by the Dutch • . 52
CHAPTER V.
The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware ... .... 61
CHAPTER VI.
The Planting of Philadelphia ... 72
CHAPTER VII.
"William Penn ... .... ... . . .77
CHAPTER VIII.
"William Penn as a Law-Giver and Statesman . . 87
CHAPTER IX.
Pounding the Great City — Penn in Philadelphia— His Administration 94
CHAPTER X.
Rapid Growth of the Province and City — " Asylum for the Oppressed of all Nations" —
Movements of William Penn, 1684-1699 . . 113
CHAPTER XL
Manners and Customs of the Primitive Settlers 129
CHAPTER XII.
Penn's Administration, 1699-1701— Pennsbury Manor— The Proprietary Returns to England. 157
CHAPTER XIII.
The Quaker City, 1701-1750 . 174
fii
viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER XIV.
PAGE
Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia .... 218
CHAPTER XV.
Local History and Growth, 1750 to 1775 . . . 243
CHAPTER XVI.
Philadelphia during the .Revolution. Part I. — Prom the Stamp A'ct to the Declaration of
Independence 267
CHAPTER XVII.
Philadelphia during the Revolution. Part II. — From July 4, 1776, to the End op the British
Occupation 322
CHAPTER XVIII.
Philadelphia during the Revolution. Part III. — Prom the American Reoccupation to the
Declaration of Peace, Jan. 22, 1784 . . . . .... 386
CHAPTER XIX.
Growth of Philadelphia from the Declaration of Peace, Jan. 22, 1784, to the Passage of the
Embargo Laws of 1794 . . 433
CHAPTER XX.
Philadelphia from 1794 to the Close of the Century . 476
CHAPTER XXI.
First Years of the Nineteenth Century to the Trial of the Embargo Act in 1807 . 50"
CHAPTER XXII.
From the Embargo to the Close of the War of 1812-15 . . . 530
CHAPTER XXIII.
From the Treaty of Ghent to the Close of the Quarter-Century . . . 580
CHAPTER XXIV.
Progress from 1825 to the Consolidation, in 1854, of the various Corporations, Boroughs,
Districts, and other Municipal Bodies, which now in their united form constitute
the City of Philadelphia ... . 617
CHAPTER XXV.
From the Year of Consolidation, 1854, to the Beginning of the Civil War . . 716
CHAPTER XXVI.
The Civil War ' . . .... . . 735
CHAPTER XXVII.
Philadelphia after the Civil War .... . . 833
ILLUSTRATIONS OF VOLUME I.
PAGE
Almshouse, Friends' Old 191
Andre, Major J 381
Arms op Penn 80
Arnold, Gen. Benedict 389
Association Battery . . . . . .215
Autographs of Governors, Deputy Governors, Presi-
dents of Councils, Assistants in the Govern-
ment, and Speakers of Assembly, from 1682 to
1700 128
Autographs of Penn and Attesting Witnesses to the
Charter of 1682 Ill
Bank Meeting-House 121
Barry, John 304
Bartram's House 234
Biddle, Capt. James ....... 557
Bouquet, Henry 252
British Barracks . . 253
British Stamp .... ... 271
Cadwalader, John 295
Caricature of Coebett . . ... 498
Carpenters' Hall . . 290
Chestnut Street in 1803 511
Chew, Benjamin ... . 345
Chew Mansion ... .... 356
Clarke's Hall and Dock Creek . . . .181
Continental Currency ....... 336
Cooper's Prospect frontispiece
Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon . . 831
Court-House, Town Hall, and Market in 1710 . . 187
Delaware Indian Family 49
Delaware Indian Fort 43
De Vries, David Pietersen 60
Diagram of Indian House . . . . 41
Dickinson, John 276
Duche, Rev. Jacob 291
Duche's, Rev. Jacob, House . .... 292
Evans, Oliver 521
Evans' Steam Carriage 522
Fac-Simile of "Weekly Mercury" .... 227
Ferguson, Mrs. Elizabeth 391
Fort Casimir or Trinity Fort 70
'Fort Wilson," Residence of Jajies Wilson . . 401
page
Franklin at the Age of Twenty .... 220
Franklin, Benjamin 458
Franklin's Birthplace ...... 219
Franklin's Certificate as Member of Assembly, and
Receipt for Salary 240
Franklin's Grave 459
Franklin's Press 229
Gallatin, Albert 580
Germantown Academy ....... 255
Girard, Stephen 630
Girard's Dwelling and Counting- House in 1831 . 631
Goddard, William 285
Gordon, Patrick 178
Great Seal of Pennsylvania in 1712, Obverse and
Reverse 122
Head-Dress for the Meschianza .... 380
Henry, Alexander 803
Holme's Map of Philadelphia and Surrounding Ter-
ritory 108
Holme's Portraiture of Philadelphia ... 96
Horticultural Hall . 847
House where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence 320
Hudson, Henry 53
Independence Bell . . ... 245
Independence Hall in 1778 322
Independence Hall in 1876 (Interior) . . 318
Indian Autographs ... ... 39
Kane, Dr. Elisha K 725
Keith, Governor Sir William . ... 177
Lafayette Arch . . 609
Letitia House 109
Lindstrom's Map of Delaware Bay and River . 74
Lindstrom's Map of New Sweden on the Delaware. 73
Logan, James 161
London Coffee-House ...... 282
Machinery Hall 845
MAcrnERSON Blue, A 494
Main Centennial Exhibition Building . . 841
Map of Delaware Bay and River .... 71
Market-House (Second and Pine Streets) . . 213
McLane, Col. Allen 375
ix
ILLUSTKATIONS OF VOLUME I.
Meade, Gen. George G
Meeting-Place of the Piest Assembly at Upland .
Memorial Hall
Meschianza Procession
Meschianza Ticket
Miles, Gen. Samdel
Mifflin, Thomas
Monument to mark the Site of the T:
Morris, Robert
"Morris House" (Samuel B. Morris'
ington's Residence in Germantown in 1793)
Mount Pleasant
Mud Island in 1777
Markham
Nixon, John
Oath and Signatures of Governor
in 1681
Oath of Allegiance
Oswald, Col. Eleazer
Paine, Thomas
Paoli Monument
Patterson, Gen. Robert
Penn, John
Penn, William
Penn's Burial-Place
Penn's Brew-House
Penn's Clock .
Penn's Treaty-Tree in
Pennsylvania Hall
Pennsylvania Journal
Philadelphia Arcade
Philadelphia Bank
Pillory .
Plan of British Fortifications around
in 1777 . . .
Plan of Fort Mifflin .
Plan of the Battle of Germantown
Plan of the Town and Fort of Christiana
Plat of Approaches to Germantown .
1800
reaty-Thee
House, Wash-
's Council
page
812
102
844
379
378
308
280
106
277
278
390
361
321
94
338
425
309
349
755
258
77
82
153
163
104
651
2S1
618
536
201
Philadelphia
360
363
354
64
353
1800
Plat of Operations on the Delaware
Poor Richard Almanac, 1733, Title-Page op
President's Chair, and the Desk upon which
Declaration of Independence was Signed
Provincial Currency ....
Reed, Joseph ......
Residence of Lord Howe
RlTTENHOUSE, DAVID ....
rlttenhouse observatory at norriton
Sanitary Fair Building
Schuylkill Club Emblem
Scull & Heap's Map of Philadelphia in 1750
Seal of Philadelphia in 1683
Seal of Philadelphia in 1701
Second Street north from Market about
Shee, John
Shippen, Edward (First Mayor) .
Slate-Roof House
Slave Advertisements ....
State-House in 1744 ....
Stewart, Capt. Charles
Stone Prison
St. Augustine's Catholic Church .
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur
Stuart, George H.
Stuyvesant, Governor Peter
susquehannah indian
Thomson, Charles
Thomson's, Charles, Residence
Title-Page of Frame's Poem
Unite or Die
Walnut Street Prison ....
Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge
Washington Guards
Welsh, Hon. John ....
Wharton Mansion ....
Whitefield, George
Willing, Thomas ....
PAGE
306
237
. 317
. 197
. 279
. 351
. 263
. 261
. 815
. 233
. 14
. Ill
. 173
. 511
. 307
. 158
. 147
200, 256
. 207
748
202
667
437
830
68
33
274
275
223
303
267
369
563
842
377
238
276
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY OF PHILADELPHIA.
" Pulchra duos inter sita Stat Philadelphia rivos ;
Inter quos duo aunt niillia longa via.
Delawar hie major, Sculkil minor ille vocatur;
India et Suevi6 notus uterque diu.
JEdibus oruatur multis urbs limite longo,
Quse parva emicuit tempore magna brevi.
Hie plateas mensor spatiis delineat acquis,
Kt dotnui recto est ordine juncta domus."
— Thomas Makin, In laiides Pen-nstjlvaniif jwnrn, 1729.
HlSTOKY, as men have come to learn, is not simply
the annals of kings and queens, of factions and par-
ties, nor must it rest with recording the hattles and
movements of armies and the proceedings of parlia-
ments and assemblies. To satisfy intelligent inquiry,
to instruct as well as amuse, it should present a pic-
ture of the country and the people, and show how
external circumstances and internal relations have
reciprocally acted one upon the other to mould char-
acter and determine events. The court, the forum,
the public assemblage are not to be neglected, but the
full history of a country or a period cannot be written
until we have accompanied the people to their firesides,
and seen how they lived, ate, dressed, thought, spoke,
and looked. The historian should be an artist, full
of sincerity, full of imagination, and even a degree
of sentiment for his work, but that work must be
founded in the first instance upon close, accurate, ex-
haustive study of the age, the men, the manners and
customs, and all the private concerns, as well as the
public performances of the community which is
dealt with. In the pursuit of such inquiries nothing
which is relevant can be trivial, for history resembles
a post-mortem examination, which must be so con-
ducted as to enable us not only to reconstruct an
Note. — The author wishes to state in advance that not only the present
chapter, but much of all that succeeds it, has been prepared in associa-
tion with Thompson Westcott, and with the indispensable aid of his
manuscripts, his collections of material, his researches, and his exten-
sive publications on the subject of the history of Philadelphia. He has
devoted a lifetime to the faithful, industrious, and intelligent pursuit of
this history; few records have escaped him, and he has supplemented
their evidence with recollections of a trustworthy character and testi-
mony from a thousand sources, such as none but the most indefatigable
antiquarian would seek or could procure access to. Such aid, such cheer-
ful co-operation, such fruitful products of untiringindustry in special in-
vestigation cannot fail to make the present work luminous in respect
of that intimate local information and those obscure but essential par-
ticulars into which so few histories descend.
1
actual living frame from inanimate remains, giving
accurately all the details of race, age, sex, complexion,
frame, general conformation, and individual peculi-
arity, but to show also with firm and irrefutable
demonstration what was the lesion under which the
vital powers were extinguished, what organs were
affected, and how their disorder came to be climaxed
in dissolution. An era or an epoch is as the life of a
man, and must be studied with the aid of the scalpel
and the microscope. In no other way can an accurate
and vivid reproduction of the past be effected. Es-
pecially should the historian avoid interpreting a past
age by the feelings, sentiments, and experiences of the
present. He must, as nearly as possible, assimilate
himself to the times and the men he is describing,
analyze their shortcomings and prejudices in the same
atmosphere and light that engendered them, and
enter into the period as if he belonged to it. Thus,
as Taine has acutely said, " through reflection, study,
and habit we succeed by degrees in producing senti-
ments in our minds of which we were at first uncon-
scious ; we find that another man in another age
necessarily felt differently from ourselves ; we enter
into his views and then into his tastes, and as we place
ourselves at his point of view we comprehend him,
and in comprehending him find ourselves a little less
superficial."
The historian who holds this opinion of his duty
and his task must always look with peculiar pleasure
upon all that concerns the birth, growth, and develop-
ment of cities, for it is in these congregated and
crowded communities that man is seen working at
most freedom from the restrictions and limitations of
nature and evolving the greatest results from that
complex and co-operative force which we call society.
Civilization itself is the product of civic and social
life, and depends for its continuance upon the main-
tenance of society in a healthy civic condition. The
city is the fountain of progress ; it is the type, how-
ever, and exemplar of the State, though often its fore-
runner.
The city of Philadelphia must always be an object
of particular and inexhaustible interest to the student
of American history and American institutions. Pecu-
liar in its origin and initial institutions, — a city which
was made and did not spring spontaneously from the
concurrence of circumstances and surroundings,— it
yet took its place at a very early day as the focus of
1
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
American tendencies and aspirations, and became the
centre and the birthplace of the United States as an
independent Commonwealth. In the military and in
the political history of this nation Philadelphia occu-
pies the foremost place. It was founded as an asylum
of peace and the home of pacific industry, but it be-
came not only the sport and the prey of contending
armies, but the arsenal of the war-making power of
the continent during seven years of eager and fluctu-
ating contest. The greatest of deliberations were
carried forward to national conclusions within its ven-
erated walls, and from it as a centre were derived those
impulses to sublime action which attain even grander
proportions as they recede in the vista of time. Here,
too, American industry was first fostered in a pecu-
liarly national and American way, until a continental
policy grew out of local practice and the successes
which attended local experiment. Philadelphia has
besides a history of its own, which catches in a pecu-
liar manner the light of the genius loci. In many re-
spects of constitution, institutions, municipal rule and
law, construction, manners and customs, it is dissimi-
lar from other cities and possesses a physiognomy all
its own. It is the aim of the present work to give the
history of Philadelphia with accuracy and intelli-
gence, omitting nothing that will contribute in any
degree to illustrate its origin and growth, its national
importance, and its peculiar local features, — to paint
a portrait of the city as it was and as it is, in which
every lineament shall be truthfully portrayed and
represented with life and vigor enough to make its
fidelity acknowledged by all. If these objects can be
attained by zeal, sincerity, and faithful, patient, and
exhaustive research, the author has no fear of the
reception which awaits his formidable undertaking.
"Philadelphia," says the worthy Dr. James Mease,
in his "Picture" of the city, published in 1811, "lies
on a plain nearly level, and on the western bank of
the river Delaware, in 39 degrees 57 minutes of north
latitude, and 75 degrees 8 minutes of longitude west
of London. It is about one hundred and twenty miles
distant from the ocean by the course of the river, and
sixty in a direct line ; its elevation above low-water
mark ranges from two to forty-six feet, the highest
part being between Seventh and Eighth Streets from
Schuylkill." This topographical description is not,
however, so accurate as that of Mr. Makin, the learned
schoolmaster, quoted at the head of this chapter, and
which his successor, Proud, the historian, has rendered
into stanzas after the style of Alexander Pope, —
" Fair Philadelphia next is rising seen,
Betwixt two rivei'B plac'd, two miles between," —
and so on. This is not precisely what Mr. Makin says,
but it will serve. The peculiarity of the site proceeds
from the fact that the city, placed upon the western
side of one great river, lies almost immediately upon
the delta of another stream not so large, yet of con-
siderable length and volume, and draining a wide sec-
tion of country. The Delaware empties at a distance
below into a wide bay, but the Schuylkill has a true
delta, comprising several mouths. When the Swedes
first came upon the spot these outlets were still more
numerous than now, and it has been conjectured, not
without probability, that in some prehistoric period
some one of the main debouches of the stream was
from Fairmount, or some point between that and the
Falls of the Schuylkill, eastward across to the Dela-
ware at or about Kensington, by the beds of the strea ms,
creeks, and coves now or formerly known by the names
of Frankford, Cohocksink, Pegg's Run, Gunner's
Run, etc.1 If this were the case really, Philadelphia
would properly be described, so far as the original
city is concerned, as occupying the upper part of an
island in the delta of the Schuylkill, where its several
mouths empty into the Delaware.
The range of hills and mountains in Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania is invariably from
northeast to southwest. The streams of these sec-
tions, on the other hand, flow in a general course
from northwest to southeast. They are thus forced
to cut through the ranges transversely in their
course to the sea. What the Potomac does at Har-
per's Ferry and Point of Rocks and the Susquehanna
between Harrisburg and Port Deposit, the Delaware
repeats at the " Water-Gap" and the Schuylkill at
Fairmount. The Potomac, in bursting through the
South Mountain of Maryland and Virginia, needed
the waters of the Shenandoah to aid it. In the same
way the Schuylkill is reinforced by the Wissahiccon
before it cuts through the Fairmount barriers. The
Delaware and the Susquehanna neither of them have
risen as far west as the loftier and broader breast-
works of the Alleghanies, their upper streams pass-
ing to the eastward of these ranges and descending
almost on north and south parallel courses from the
neighborhood of the noble table-lands of central New
York, where the flattening out of the mountains has
enabled an easy artificial stream for commerce to be
constructed from the great lakes to the Hudson River.
The Schuylkill rises in the eastern foot-hills of these
mountains, and, fed by many small streams and forest
rills, makes a tortuous way through an uneven coun-
try to the Delaware, with which it mingles by mouths
so obscure and insignificant that the Dutch called it
" hidden river," and the early Swede cartography con-
founded it with the minor coves and creeks which in-
dent the western bank of the Delaware in so many
places from the Horekill to the Neshaminy. Leaving
l On Hill's map of the rity,1706, the approach of Falls' Eun to the head
of Wingohocking, which flows into Frankford Creek, and the ponds nnd
hollows stretching across on the line of Pegg's Run, are marked iu such
relief as to give a topographical plausibility to this Idea. A canal was at
that time cut across part of the peninsulain such away as toshowadesign
to unite the two rivers at that point. An original cut-off of the Schuyl-
kill at the Falls -would account for this insignificance of the river's mouth
where it actually and finally empties into the Delaware. The assump-
tion that there was such a cut-off, however, must be left where it belongs,
in the domain of pure conjecture.
TOPOGKAPHY.
out the strictly alluvial country, we may assume that
it is the general topographical characteristic of Phila-
delphia County to consist of gentle ranges of hills
running from northeast to southwest, separated by
valleys or low plains, and cut transversely by numer-
ous streams flowing from northwest to east and south-
east, except where the water-shed deflects them into
the Schuylkill, in which case their course is from a
little east of north to a point or two west of south.
This of course is the general description only. There
are many exceptions, the character of which will be
shown farther on. Each of these streams, cutting
through the ranges of high ground, had its own con-
terminous valley, and these valleys interrupted and
broke up the blufl's bordering on the Delaware, which
otherwise would have been continuous. These bluffs,
it must be remarked, on the Delaware side had the
true characteristics of river dykes or levees, the result,
in part at least, of glacial action. They rested upon
gravel, and were higher than the land back of them,
so that the original ground upon which Philadelphia
stands did not drain to the river directly, but back-
wards to the smaller streams, which broke through
the dyke at intervals. In the tide-washed flat lands
near the debouch of the Schuylkill the minor streams
originally flowed indifferently between the Delaware
and the Schuylkill, with openings into both rivers,
like canals. When there was a freshet in the Dela-
ware that river must have overflowed by Hollandaer's
Kyi and half a dozen more such estuaries into the
Schuylkill.
The true latitude and longitude of Philadelphia
we give from a compilation made by Prof. B. A.
Gould for one of the numbers of "The American
Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac." The data are
determined for the observatories in each case (Inde-
pendence Hall being here taken) :
Philadelphia, N. Latitude, 39° 57' 7.5"- (MS.
communication from Prof. Kendall) ; Longitude E.
from Washington (U. S. Coast Survey) :
m. b.
By 5 sets Eastern clock-signals . . 7 33.66
By " Western " . 33.60
Mean
. 7 33.63
The mean, by comparison with the
next East station (Jersey City), is 7 33.64
Hence the longitude in arc is 358° 6' 35.4" from
Washington, and from Greenwich, 75° 9' 23.4".1
1 Oil July 5, 1773, tlie "Right Honorable the Earl of Dartmouth, who
was at that time Colonial Secretary (he had succeeded Lord Hillsbor-
ough one year before) in the cabinet of George III., wrote to the Deputy
Governor of Pennsylvania (John Penn, the son of Richard Penn, who
was the fifth child of William Penn by his second wife, Hannah Callow-
hill) propounding certain "Heads of Enquiry relative to the present
State and Condition" of Pennsylvania. The answers to these inquiries
were transmitted to Lord Dartmouth under date of Jan. 30, 1775. In
tbe communication the following occurs: " Tlie City of Philadelphia, sit-
uated near the Conflux of Delaware and one of its chief Branches, the
Schuylkill, is the most considerable Town in the Province, or indeed in
The city is 96 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, 125
miles in a direct line northeast of Washington, and
85 miles southwest of New York. Its greatest length ,
north-northeast, is 22 miles; breadth, from 5 to 10
miles ; area, 82,603 acres, or 129.4 square miles. The
surface between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill
varies in elevation from 30 to 300 feet, the alluvial
flats, however, having originally no actual relief
above the line of high tide, while in the district west
of the Schuylkill the face of the country is undu-
lating to a degree which is almost rugged in contour
and romantic in aspect. The valley of the Wissa-
hiccon and the reservations made for Fairmount Park
have long been celebrated for their effective scenery
and the fine composition of forest and stream, rocky
hillsides; deep vales, and wild ravines.
Penn's original city was laid off in the narrowest
part of the peninsula between the Delaware and the
Schuylkill Rivers, — the belt of the ir-
regular-shaped urn or vase, so to speak, ^f::;:;:<^
which is thus formed, — and five or six
miles above the mouth of the latter
river. If we might take the peninsula w/im
to be a guitar, and could place the strings across
the instrument instead of lengthwise, they would rep-
resent the contour of the old city's streets, bounded
on the west by the Schuylkill, on the east by the
Delaware, determined on the north by Vine Street,
and on the south by South Street, or Cedar Street,
as it was formerly called. The distance between the
Delaware and the Schuylkill on Market Street was
10,922 feet 5 inches (2^^ miles). The distance from
north side of Vine Street to south side of Cedar
(or South) Street was 5370 feet 8 inches, being 90 feet
8 inches over one mile. Excluding the width of
streets the space was divided thus : From Cedar to
North America. The State-House in this City lies in North Latitude,
39° 50' 53"; its Longitude from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich,
computed West, 75° 8' 45" ; or, in lime, 5 hours and 35 secondB. This
Latitude and Longitudo were both fixed by accurate astronomical Ob-
servation at the Transit of Venus, 1769." In the Journal of Mason and
Dixon, November, 1763, we learn that these surveyors established an
observatory in the southern part of Philadelphia, in order to find the
Btarting-point of the parallel which they were to run oif. Their point
of departure was "the most Southern part tif Philadelphia," which they
ascertained to be tlie north wall of a house on Cedar Street, occupied by
Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle, and their observatory must have
been immediately adjacent to IhiB. The latitude of this point they de-
termined to be 39° 06' 29". 1 north. In 1845, when the northeast corner-
stone of Maryland could not be found (it had been undermined by a
freshet, and was then taken and built into the chimney of a neighbor-
ing farm-house), the Legislatures of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Dela-
ware appointed ajoint commission, who employed Col. Graham, of the
United States Topographical Engineers, to review Mason and Dixon's
work so far as was requisite in order to restore the displaced corner.
Col. Graham, in the course of his measurements, determined the latitude
of the Cedar Street observatory to be 39° 56' 37.4" north. This is 8.3"
more than the latitude given by Mason and Dixon. If we add the dis-
tance from Cedar Street to Chestnut Street, 2650 feet, we have for Inde-
pendence Hall latitude as determined by Mason and Dixon, 39° 56' 55";
as determined by Col. Graham, 39° 57' 03". The slight variation in
these calculations is surprising. That reported by Governor Penn may
have been based upon data differing from those of the surveys of 1761
and of Mason and Dixon. The bouse selected by Mason and Dixon was
on the south side of Cedar, east of Front, No. 30, standing in 1883.
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Lombard Street, 322 feet ; to Pine, 282 feet ; to Spruce,
473 feet; to Walnut, 820 feet; to Chestnut, 510 feet;
to Market, 484 feet ; to Arch, 664 feet ; to Race, 616.5
feet; to Vine, 632.3 feet, making, with the width of
the streets added, an area of nearly two square miles,
or twelve hundred and eighty acres. The width of
the squares from the Delaware to the Schuylkill varied
from three hundred and ninety-six to five hundred
feet.1 In 1854 the limits of the city were widely
extended, so as to embrace the whole of Philadelphia
County, including the area and dimensions given
above. This was effected by the "consolidation"
of all the suburbs and outlying districts and town-
ships with the city proper. Consolidated Philadel-
phia is bounded on the east by the Delaware River,
on the northeast by Bucks County, on the north-north-
west and west by Montgomery County, on the west and
the south again by Delaware County and the Delaware
River. The northeast boundary line follows Poques-
sing Creek from its mouth along towards its source,
the ancient boundary of Byberry; just northwest of
the old road to Newtown the line corners and runs
southwest in a straight line to the Tacony at what
was called Grubtown ; from this point it goes straight
northwest on the boundary of Bristol township to a
corner more than a mile northeast of Mount Airy;
thence a mile southwest to the line of German
township ; thence northwest four miles to a corner ;
thence southwest straight to the Schuylkill at the
point of the old soapstone quarries, crossing the Wis-
sahiccon about half a mile northwest of Chestnut
Hill. The line now follows the bed of the Schuyl-
kill southeast to a point just below the mouth of the
Wissahiccon, from this corner crossing southwest in
a straight line to Cobb's Creek at a point a mile and
a fourth west from Haddington ; thence by Cobb's
Creek to the junction of Bow Creek north of Tinnecum,
and by the east bank of Bow Creek to the Delaware.
The distance from the extreme northeast corner of By-
berry to the extreme southwest corner of Kingsessing
is between twenty-three and twenty-five miles. From
League Island northwest to the Chestnut Hill corner
is very nearly fifteen miles ; from the soapstone
quarry on the Schuylkill across to the mouth of the
Poquessing it is fifteen miles ; and from Gloucester
Point to the ford at the old Blue Bell tavern is seven
miles. The general statement of the " face of the
country" in the old maps, made on the basis of town-
ships, is: City, " level ;" built part of Northern Liber-
ties and Southwark, "level;" Blockley, "gentle de-
clivities;" Bristol, " hilly ;" Byberry, " pretty level ;"
Dublin, "gentle declivities;" Germantown, "hilly;"
Kingsessing, " mostly level ;" Moyamensing, " level ;"
Moorland, "pretty level;" Northern Liberties (out
part), " mostly level ;" Oxford and Frankford, " gen-
tle declivities;" Passayunk, " level ;" Penn, "mostly
level ;" Roxborough, " hilly." Of the townships,
1 Hazard's third volume of WatHon's A minis.
Blockley and Kingsessing were west of Schuylkill,
bordering on Montgomery and Delaware Counties;
Kingsessing, Passayunk, Moyamensing, Southwark,
City, Northern Liberties, Oxford, and Dublin were
touched by or bordered on the Delaware ; Byberry
bordered on Bucks and Montgomery ; Moreland,
Dublin, Oxford, Bristol, Germantown, and Roxbor-
ough bordered on Montgomery ; and Roxborough,
Penn, City, and Passayunk had the Schuylkill on
their west.
The most picturesque and agreeable approach to
Philadelphia is from the northwest, crossing the
Schuylkill above the Falls, and descending by way of
the Ridge or the Germantown road. The least im-
posing approach, so far as the land surface is con-
cerned, is by the west bank of the Delaware, following
the line of the old King's road and the Philadelphia,
Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. This road,
however, is made beautiful by the aspect of the noble
river lying upon the right in broad and generous
reaches, and seeming to rise above the level of the
foot-passenger as he looks across its populous and
busy bosom ; by the multitudinous evidences of a
gigantic industry, employing force and machinery
with an intelligent usurpation that inspires new con-
ceptions of man's power over nature ; and by the
gentle beauty of the margin of firm land in Delaware
County parallel to the river at about an average dis-
tance of a mile inland. This, called " the water-
shade," marks the bank of the prehistoric river be-
fore its present margin of fiats was upheaved, and its
moderate elevation and rounded slopes afford many
fine building sites, while contributing largely to the
advantage of the adjacent manufacturing establish-
ments. This line of approach, moreover, was that by
which the early settlers came to Philadelphia, the
route of the Swedes and of William Penn. We can-
not do better than follow in their footsteps in attempt-
ing to trace up the topography of Philadelphia.
The circle of twelve miles radius from New Castle
as a centre which defines the boundary of the State of
Delaware on the northeast, touches the banks of the
Delaware River a few rods northeast of the mouth of
Naaman's Creek or Kill, a stream whose several forks
rise not far inland of the water-shed line. The land
through which the body of the creek flows is fiat and
diluvian in its origin, as is all the land from the
river's margin to the " water-shade," from this point
until Crum and Ridley Creeks are reached, when we
begin to encounter marsh, swamp, and pure alluvium
or mud deposits. The Swedes held most of the land
in this section at the time of Penn's arrival. Oelle
(or Woolley or Willy) Rawson owned the mill-site on
the creek where the King's road crossed it. Naaman,
it is supposed, was an Indian chief who gave his
name to this kill, a fact which Lindstrom's map
seems to show. He was one of the sachems treating
with Governor Printz on his first arrival, and Cam-
panius quotes a friendly speech he made on that occa-
TOPOGRAPHY.
sion. The arc of the boundary circle dips into the
river in what was the land of Nathaniel Langley.
Adjoining him on the northeast were plantations sold
by Penn to William Hewes, Robert Bezar, William
Clayton, William Flower, Sandeland, and other old
settlers. These lands lie in Chichester township. The
main public road from Concord to Chichester (or
rather to Marcus Hook landing), which was laid out
as early as 1686, reached the Delaware between the
lands of Clayton and Sandeland, and here was doubt-
less a landing and a shipping place from a very early
period. Marcus Hook, with the adjacent creek,
variously called Marrieties Kill, Chichester Creek,
Memanchitonna [La Riviire des Marikes is Lind-
strom's translation of the name), was deeded by Queen
Christina to Lieut. Hans Amundsen Besh, the deed
including all the land to Upland. It afterwards fell
into various hands. The Marrieties Kill, like Naa-
man's, was the main channel of several forks rising in
the front part of the water-shade. All the rivers in
this section which have been or will be described are,
without exception, tidal and salt-water streams from
their mouths to the rising ground of the water-shed,
where they lose their character of. coves or estuaries
and become brooks, rills, or inland rivers, with volume
ample for milling purposes but too much fall for navi-
gation. The Swedes gave the name of " Finland" to
this entire township, the Indian name of the district
being Chamassung.
Several creeks or kills of minor importance, but all
of which extend inland across the railroad and the
ancient King's road, succeed one another to the north-
east of Marcus Hook — Middle Run, Stony Creek,
Harwick's Kill, Lamako Kill, etc. — until we come to
Chester Creek. The character of the face of the
country hereabouts as it was originally may be
gathered from the fact that before Upland (now
Chester) acquired its importance as the seat of the
colonial court, the old King's road diverged to the
left to avoid the low lands, and crossed the creek at
Chester Mills, at the foot of the water-shed. After-
wards it was continued along the water-front, passed
through the town, and then made a sharp angle to
the left in quest of firmer ground. On the southwest
side of Upland Kill, from the mill and ford to the
Delaware, the land was originally owned by Holbert
Henriksen, John Bristow, and Robert Wade, the
latter a Quaker early settler, who entertained Penn
at his house, Essex House, the site at least of which
had been formerly occupied, and the house probably
built, by the daughter of the Swedish Governor
Printz, Armgart Pappagoya. Chester Creek, Up-
land Kill, or Mecoponacka was called by Lindstrom
Tequirasi (otherwise Techoherassi), from the Indian
name of a property bordering on it and fronting on
the Delaware, which had been patented by Oele
Stille, and was later the home of Rev. L. Carolus.
This Stille property, however, some of it marsh or
flooded land, extended northeastward probably from
Ridley Creek to Crum Kill, and Lindstrom seems to
have wrongly named it Stille's or Priest's Kill, being
the alternate names of Ridley Creek, and the stream
was most likely called also after Stille's property.
The streams which give volume to Chester Creek rise
some of them in Chester County, flowing through
several townships of Delaware County, and furnish-
ing a good deal of water-power to factories and mills.
Many of Penn's thrifty followers — Caleb Pusey, the
Sharplesses, Crosby, Brassy, Sandeland, etc. — took
up land on it or adjacent to it. Ridley Creek and
Crum Kill, the next streams northeast of Chester,
were also important for mill purposes. The neck of
land at the debouch of these creeks upon the Dela-
ware was marshy, and this was mostly occupied by
Swedes. Mattson, Van Culen, Johnson, Hendrik-
son, Cornelis, Mortenson, Nielson are names of set-
tlers along this water-front from Ridley Creek to
Tinnecum, while back of them, on the water-shade,
we find the Quakers took up large tracts, — Simcock,
Harvey, Maddock, Steadman, Ashcom, Hallowell,
Whitacre, etc. The Swedes called the settlements
northeast of Finland "Upland," then came "Car-
coen's Hook" lands, then " Tennakong." Amesland
comprised a portion of Darby and Ridley townships.
Crum Kill was, as Lindstrom interprets, La RiviSre
Courbee, or Crooked Kill, otherwise Paperack or
Peskohockon in Indian dialect. These names on
the Delaware present almost insuperable difficulties
from their variety and confusion, the fact that the
Indians seem to have had no standard titles for their
streams, and the want of any rule in guiding the at-
tempts of Europeans to give a phonetic interpretation
to the Indians' indistinct, guttural pronunciation.
Amesland Creek (Amesland, or Amas-land, is said
to mean the " midwives' land") was formed by the
junction of Darby and Cobb's Creeks. It flowed
southeast into the Delaware, separating Tinnecum
from the mainland and Amesland. But at this
point we find a network equally of names and
rivers, all equally running into swamp and confu-
sion. The delta of the Schuylkill begins here, and
here also Philadelphia begins, for, though Bow Creek
is the formal county line at the Delaware, the actual
boundary is Darby Creek, after it has united with
Minquas Kill, Cobb's Creek, and the true Amesland
Kill, the Muckinpattus or Mokornipates Kill, a
smaller stream than the Darby, flowing into it be-
tween its junction with Cobb's Creek and its mouth.
The topography of this lower part of Philadelphia
is peculiar and must not be slighted. There have
been great changes in the face of the country, in its
levels and contour, and in the direction and beds of
its water-courses since the days of the Swedes and the
early Quakers. Some streams have disappeared,
some have changed their direction, nearly all have
been reduced in volume and depth by the natural silt,
the annual washing down of hills, by the demands
of industry for water-power, the construction of mill-
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
dams and mill-races and bridges, the emptying of
manufacturing refuse from factories, saw-pits, and
tan-yards, and by the grading and sewerage necessary
in the building of a great city. In this process old
landmarks and ancient contours are not respected,
the picturesque yields to utility, and the face of nature
is transformed to meet the exigencies of uniform
grades, levels, and drainage. The Board of Health,
the Police Department, the City Commissioners, and
the Department of Highways have no bowels of com-
passion for the antiquarian and the poet. They are
the slaves of order, of hygiene, of transportation, of
progress.
Darby and Cobb's Creeks both rise in the slate beds
of the upper corner of Delaware and the adjacent
townships of Montgomery County and flow eastward
towards the Delaware, each augmented in volume as
they descend through the mica, slate, and gneiss
regions parallel to each other. After they reach the
margin of the " water-shade,'' which is here as far
inland as Heyvilleon the Darby andtheBurd Asylum
on Cobb's Creek, the two streams approach each
other in the diluvial lowlands, uniting just below the
towns of Darby and Paschallville. The common
stream, now called the Darby, flows east with serpen-
tine course until it touches the edge of the alluvium
and marsh section, when it turns more towards the
left, and with two or three sweeping curves reaches
the Delaware. Just after the turn is made the Darby
receives the waters of the Amesland or Muckinpattus
Kill, and the neck of land between was well known to
the Swedes under the name of Carcoen's Hook, a
name it still retains.1 This section at the bend, alow,
marshy flat, is cut by several canal-like streams or
guts, forming the two islands, Hay and Smith's. The
neck was early occupied by the Swedes, and the names
of the Boons (Bondes), Mortonsons, Keens, Streckets,
Cornells, Jonsens, Mounsens, Jorans, Petersons, Hans-
sens, Joccums, Urians, and Cocks may be found on
all the old land-plats of that region. Darby Creek
was called by the Indians Nyecks, Mohorhoottink,
or Mukruton ; Cobb's Creek, named after William
Cobb, a contemporary of Penn, was also called Kar-
kus or Carcoen's Creek by the Swedes, a corruption
of the Indian name of Karakung, or Kakarakonk,
and by the English, Mill Creek. This name came
from the old Swedes' mill, built by Governor Printz,
at the ford where the old Blue Bell tavern and Pas-
challville now stand, the crossing of the Darby road.
Cobb took the mill after Penn came in, and gave his
name to the stream. The mill was used by a wide
circuit of people, from the Swedes at Upland and
Tinnecum to the Welsh at Haverford and Merion
and the first Quakers in Bucks County. From its
bend towards the left to its mouth Darby Creek flowed
west and south of Tinnecum Island, dividing it from
iCarcoen'H Hook, Kiilkonhutten, place of wild turkeys. Culcoen's
Hook was tliunec.k former] liy the junction of Crum Kill and Little Crinn
Kill.
the main land. This tract is all alluvium, except one
spot of firm ground, where the underlying gneiss rock
comes boldly to the surface. Tinnecum, Tennakong,
Tutenaiung was the site selected by the Swedish
Governor, Johann Printz, for his fort of Nya Gothe-
borg, and for his residence of Printz Hall. The
channel used by vessels at that time probably flowed
on the west side of the Delaware, in which case
Printz's fort commanded it. Off Tinnecum in the
Delaware was a long, narrow sand and mud and marsh
spit, designated by the name of Little Tinnecum
Island, and somewhat above it, in the river channel,
was Hog Island, as it is now called, but which the
Indians knew as Quistquonck, or Kwistkonk, and the
Swedes dignified with the title of Keyser Island, or
Iledes Empereurs, as Lindstrom explains on his map.
Tinnecum Island is cut in half by a kill of many
forks, uniting it with the Darby, and traversing the
island in several directions. This stream is known
as Plum or Plom Hook, and its branches are vari-
ously called Long Hook, Grom Creek, and Middle
Creek. On the Delaware side of Tinnecum were
situated Printz's Hall and the first Swedish Church
and churchyard on the'Delaware, consecrated in 1646.
This spot is now occupied by the Philadelphia Quar-
antine station and the Lazaretto Hospital, the site of
the ancient fort and grounds belonging to it being
adjacent to what is now Tinnecum Hotel.
On the right or east side of Darby Creek, midway
between the junction with the Karakung and the
sharp bend of the creek to the left, Minquas Kill en-
ters it. This once broad tidal estuary, which united
the Schuylkill and the Delaware with the Darby by
a four-pronged fork, is differently called Mincus and
Mingoes Creek, and derives its name from the Indian
nation, the Iroquois, whom the Delawares called
Minquas or Mingoes. The Susquehannocks, who
were of this race, frequented these swamps, probably
to facilitate their military operations against the war-
like Nanticokes of the Delaware peninsula. The
Swedes called this kill with its southernmost fork
Church Creek, because they used it in going by boat
from Kingsessing, Karakung, and the islands near
the Schuylkill to the church at Tinnecum. At the
elbow of Darby Creek, where it turns to encircle
Tinnecum, it is joined by Bow Creek, another tidal
estuary, which connects it with the Delaware op-
posite Hog Island. Bow Creek or Kill, the south-
ern boundary of Philadelphia, was called by Lind-
strom Boke Kyi, Beech Creek, and also Kyrke Kill,
or Church Creek, as it was another route to Tini-
cum. Bow Creek, with Church Creek, Bonde's Creek,
and another small kill, one of the mouths of the
Schuylkill, combined with the Minquas Kill, the
Delaware, and the Schuylkill to form three small
islands, more or less entirely marsh land and liable
to floods and tide overflow. These were Minquas
' or Andrew Bonde's Island, Aharommuny Island, and
Schuylkill Island, the first occupied by Andrew
TOPOGRAPHY.
Boone or Bonde, and the other two by Peter Cock,
both of them Swedes and among the earliest settlers.
All this region is now fast, firm land, and the streams
we have been describing, once so considerable, have
dwindled into insignificance or disappeared. The
Swedes called the district east of Darby Creek and
Minquas Kill, Tennacong ; that west of Minquas Kill,
between Cobb's Creek and the Schuylkill, was King-
sesse or Kingsessing, a Swedish hamlet, where the
Duke of York's court used sometimes to hold its
sessions instead of at Upland, and west of that, and
divided from Kingsessing by the Darby road, was the
district called Arunnamink. Above Quistkonk or
Hog Island, and immediately at the mouth of the
Schuylkill, on the west, was Mud Island, a bank of
tide-washed alluvium, where Mud Fort was built
and offered such a gallant resistance to the English
during the Revolutionary war. This island is now
fast and solid and united to the mainland.
We have now reached the point of junction of the
Schuylkill and the Delaware Rivers. The Schuyl-
kill was called by the Indians indifferently Mana-
yunk, Manajungh (Swedish spelling), Manaiunk, and
Lenni Bikbi (having some allusion to the linden-tree
or its bark). Lindstrom terms it the Menejackse Kill
(another Indian name), but also designates it as the
Skiar-kill, elk (or) Linde River. Shiar-hill in Swed-
ish would be " Brawling Creek," a derivation no
better than that from the Dutch of hidden or " Skulk-
ing Creek," from its insignificance and obscurity of
its mouth. On Lindstrom's map, indeed, the river is
marked as if it were no bigger than Crum Kill or Plum
Hook. It is really, however, a stream of extensive
drainage, having its source in the coal-fields west of
the Blue Mountains, descending by Pottsville, Read-
ing, and Norristown, by beautiful valleys, to the Dela-
ware. Its chief tributaries — Maiden Creek, Mana-
tawny, Monocasy, Tulpehocking, Little Schuylkill,
Norwegian, Mill Creek, Perkiomen, and Wissahiccon
— flow through a goodly expanse of territory. From
its junction with the Delaware to the Falls above
Fairmount no important affluents are received by the
Schuylkill upon either side. Opposite the mouth of
Minquas Kill there is still a small stream draining
through the swamp, called Sepakin Kill, and above it
the Piney or Pinneyes(an Indian name, interpreted
to mean "sleepy"), a small creek, emptied into the
east side, at the site of the Swedish fort and trad-
ing-post, Korsholm, now occupied by the Point Breeze
Gas-Works. Drainage has obliterated this stream ;
the old Passayunk road used to border it. Nearly
opposite, marking the boundary line between King-
sessing and Arunnamunk, the Inkoren Kill (named
after Andries Inkhooren, a Swedish landholder)
flowed from the west side of Schuylkill. The next
stream on that side which was important enough to
bear a name (excepting the runlets called Botanic
Creek and Peach Creek, on the property of Peter
Joccum and Moens Jonson, which afterwards John
Bartram owned) was Mill Creek, abrook large enough
to support two mills. It rose in Upper Merion town-
ship. Near its mouth was the property of Hans Moens,
containing such an eligible mill-seat that the Upland
court gave the owner the option of erecting a mill
upon it or surrendering the land to his neighbors
who would build. Gray's Ferry bridge is three blocks
below the mouth of Mill Creek. This ferry was for
the convenience of travelers to Darby by the Darby
road. In the neck between Mill Creek and the Schuyl-
kill is situated Woodlands Cemetery, which was laid
out upon the fine grounds of William Hamilton's
country-seat, called " The Woodlands." Mill Creek,
in the course of its descent from Merion, passes through
the grounds of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the
Insane and a corner of the Cathedral Cemetery.
This stream, now obliterated, was once romantic and
attractive. A branch of it, called George's Run, nearly
touches the southwestern extremity of Fairmount
Park, and bisects Hestonville. In the part of Phila-
delphia (Twenty-seventh Ward) we have been speak-
ing of only one brook of importance — Thomas' Run
— flows into Cobb's Creek. Beyond the Almshouse
grounds, on the north, is Beaver Creek, then no more
streams on the west side of the Schuylkill until Fair-
mount Park is reached. On the east side used to be
Minnow Run, flowing from Bush Hill through Logan
Square, and reaching the Schuylkill by a winding
route, in the course of which two or three spring-
heads lent their waters to it. Another small brook
emptied into the east side of the Schuylkill below
Fairmount; a third, Darkwoods Run, below Lemon
Hill; a fourth, Falls Run, reached it at the Falls.
About half a mile beyond the Falls the Schuyl-
kill receives the waters of the romantic Wissahiccon.
The Quakers gave this stream, which has delighted
both poets and artists, aud is the most charming acces-
sory to the beauties of Fairmount Park, the unromantic
name of Whitpaine's Creek, from the original settler
on its bank, John Whitpaine, who built a " great
house" in Philadelphia, too big for his humility, and
in the large front room of which the Provincial
Assembly used to meet. The Indian meaning of
Wissahiccon, however, is said to be '" catfish," and
certainly " Catfish Creek" is not susceptible of adap-
tation to poetical forms of speech. The Wissahiccon
rose in Montgomery County, in the same water-shed
which supplies the sources of Stony Run, the Skip-
pack, Pennepacka Creek, and the southwestern branch
of the Neshaminy. Its chief branches were Paper-
Mill Creek, on which the father of the astronomer
Rittenhouse built the first paper-mill in Pennsyl-
vania, a mill that supplied the presses both of Wil-
liam Bradford, of Philadelphia, and Christopher Sau r,
of Gerniantown, and Cresheim Creek, named for the
Rhenish town from which the earlier settlers of Ger-
mantown came. The northwest corner of Philadel-
phia approaches, but does not touch, the banks of the
Perkiomen.
8
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA..
The Delaware River, the eastern boundary of Phil-
adelphia, which the Indians called by several names
not having any especial relevancy,1 rises on the border
of Greene and Delaware Counties, N. Y., on the
western slope of the Catskill Mountains, in two
branches, the Popacton and the Oquago, which unite
at Hancock, on the line between Pennsylvania and
New York: It flows southeast, continuing to form the
boundary between those States, until it reaches Port
Jervis, where it turns southwest, flowing at the west-
ern base of the Kittatinny Mountains until it bursts
through these at the Water Gap. At Easton it re-
ceives the volume of the Lehigh River, and from the
Water Gap to Bordentown speeds southeastward as
if intent upon reaching the Atlantic at Barnegat or
Egg Harbor. At Bordentown it encounters the bluffs,
however, and turns southwestward again, until at
New Castle it resumes its seaward direction, soon
widening into Delaware Bay. Between Port Jervis
and the mouth of Naaman's Creek it is the boundary
separating New Jersey from Pennsylvania; below
that it divides New Jersey from Delaware. It has
many tributaries within the limits of Philadelphia,
besides inclosing several islands in the arms of its
channel. The first of these islands above the mouth
of the Schuylkill is that low-lying mud-bank (as it
used to be) called League Island, a tract of over nine
hundred acres, which during the civil war the city of
Philadelphia purchased and presented to the United
States government for a navy-yard, in order to expe-
dite the removal of the existing navy-yard from its
place on the river-front in South wark. League Island is
separated from the mainland by a narrow sort of canal
called the Back Channel. Into this Back Channel
empties Hollandaer's Creek, named for Peter Hol-
landaer, second Swedish Governor on the Delaware.
This stream also flows into the Delaware at the be-
ginning of Oregon Avenue. It is a tidal estuary
traversing what was once a swamp, and is consider-
ably diverted from its original course, since there
seems to be no doubt that it once crossed the neck,
also uniting the Schuylkill as well as the Back Channel
with the Delaware. The Swedish records make men-
tion of Rosamond's or Roseman's Kill, which cannot
now be traced with certainty, beyond the fact that it
was one of the branches of Hollandaer's Creek. Hay
Creek was another of these intersecting streams; a
third bore several names, among which were Dam,
Hell, Holt, Float, or Little Hollandaer; Jones' Creek
was a fourth, and Malebore fifth of these marshland
conduits for the tide. Malebore's Creek was called
by the name of an Indian chief; it was also called
Shakanoning, or Shakaning. The Indian name for
Rosamond's Creek was Kikitchimus, meaning the
woodchuck. Hollandaer's Creek and its branches
made two islands of the extremity of the peninsula,
the one on the Delaware side being originally called
1 See Chapter III. fov tlie n:iinefc Jtnd dates nf disci ivet'iefi, etc.
by the Swedes by a name which Lindstrom interprets
as He de Rasins, Grape Island, now Greenwich
Island, and the one on the Schuylkill side Manasonk
or Manayunk Island. Careful study of the old sur-
veys and narratives will enable all these points of
interest in the southwestern necks to be made out with
sufficient accuracy, and their relations to one another
determined. Moyamensic (Moyamensing) marsh,
which also had a kill of its own, we read, comprised
sixty-four acres, lying between Hollandaer's and Hay
Creek. This latter creek was 93 perches south of Hol-
landaer's and Rosamond's Creeks, 158 perches south
of Hay. Bonde's Island is called 1| Swedish miles —
8.31 English miles — from the old Swedish Church at
Wicaco ; Matson's Ford, 17J English miles from that
central point of Swedish associations ; Kingsessing,
5 miles ; Carcoen's Hook, 9.9 miles.
Dock Creek, the next stream towards the northeast
after passing Hollandaer's, was in many respects the
most interesting of all the Delaware tributaries within
the limits of Philadelphia. A street now covers its
bed, -a. wharf marks the place where it emptied into
the Delaware, but its course may still be distinctly
traced. In fact, the Philadelphia of the primitive
Quakers was built quite as much with reference to
this stream as to Penn's plans and the plats of Sur-
veyor Holme. The Indians called it Coocanocon, but
the name of Dock Creek was shorter and more descrip-
tive from the time of the English settlement, for the
obvious reason that the stream was used as a dock or
quay for all the smaller craft. Boat-yards and tan-
yards were established along its banks, it was encum-
bered with depots for lumber, and the first landing-
place and the first tavern of Philadelphia were
planted at its mouth. In those early days it was
thought to be a good thing for the well-to-do mer-
chant of the Quaker City to build his mansion on
the slope in sight of the creek, his garden and lawn
extending down to its green banks. One of its
branches rose west of Fifth Street and north of
Market Street, another began west of Fifth Street
between Walnut and Prune Streets, the two uniting
about where the Girard Bank now stands. At Third
Street the creek widened into a cove, receiving here
another branch, which flowed into it from the rear
of Society Hill. Penn and the early inhabitants
were anxious to have this creek become a perma-
nent dock, but it lost its usefulness from being filled
up and made shallow with rubbish and tan-bark, it
became foul and unwholesome from accumulated
filth, and the doctors raised an outcry against it as
the fruitful source of malaria, typhus and yellow
fever, and the summer diseases of children, so that
in 1784 an act was passed requiring it to be arched
over. At the northeastern mouth of this creek was
the sandy beach known as Blue Anchor Tavern land-
ing, for several years the chief public wharf the city
had. Opposite the wharves on the Delaware front
between Fitzwater and Arch Streets, and in mid-
TOPOGRAPHY.
channel of the river, was one long, narrow island,
since separated into two by a canal. Smith's Island
and Windmill Island, as the upper and lower ones
were subsequently named, are really but one island
of gradual growth and importance. On the maps
of Thomas Holme, the first surveyor, the island
is put down as bars or shoals in the river's bed, ex-
tending from opposite Spruce Street to a point below
Cedar Street. The accumulation of sand, silt, and
refuse brought down by the ice and by spring floods
united these bars and flats and lifted them above the
surface and the overflow of tides. They became fast
land, and the new island was leased unto an enter-
prising man. John Harding built a wharf and a wind-
mill on it, and it took its name from the latter structure.
The island was not exactly a permanent establish-
ment for some time, as it washed away at one end as
fast as it grew at another ; however, bathing resorts
were stationed upon it, willow-trees were planted and
flourished on it, and Thomas Smith, an old occupant,
became so identified with it that it finally took his
name. A canal was cut through the island in 1838
to promote the rapid transit of ferry-boats, and rail-
road companies now own the southern section, that
to the north of the canal being called at present Ridg-
way Park, and used as a public resort. The present
Treaty Island, which belongs to New Jersey and lies
in the bed of the Delaware opposite Kensington, was
patented as early as 1684 by Thomas Fairman (an
early Quaker, in whose house Penn spent the first
winter in Philadelphia), under the name of Shacka-
maxon Island, of which name Treaty Island is a re-
flection, Shackamaxon or Kensington being the place
where Penn's reputed treaty with the Delawares was
negotiated. After Fairman's death it was called
Petty's Island, from John Petty, the then owner.
Willow Street, as laid out at present, represents
part of the bed of the stream called Pegg's Run,
named from Daniel Pegg, who owned extensive tracts
of meadow, marsh, and upland in the Northern Lib-
erties on the Delaware border. The Indian title of
this stream was Cohoquinoque ; one of its branches
rose about the neighborhood of Fairmount Avenue
and Fifteenth Street, the other west of Eleventh be-
tween this avenue and Green Street ; at Vine Street
east of Tenth Street they united to flow northeast to
the Delaware. Much of the ground bounding on this
stream was marshy and alluvian, liable, to be flooded
both by tides and freshets, and requiring dykes and
ditches to fit it for cultivation even as meadow. At
the next bend of the Delaware above the mouth of
Pegg's Run the river received the waters of Cohock-
sink Creek, a stream composed of Mill Creek (so called
from its being the site of the mill built by Penn, where
the Globe Mills were later) and the Coozaliquenaque,
rising above Jefferson Street near Broad, where the
Gratz property lay. Cohocksink (Cuwenasink) is
supposed to mean "pine grove." About the north-
ern limits of Kensington another kill flowed into the
Delaware from the west, by the English called Gun-
ner's Run, after Gunner Rambo, a Swede settler who
held adjacent lands ; the Indian name was Tumanara-
maning; its sources were, found on the west of Fair
Hill, near Harrowgate, where was a mineral spring,
and near Nicetown and the old Cedar Grove property.
At " Point-no- Point" is the mouth of Frankford
Creek, the product of the Wingohocking, Tacony,
Little Tacony, and Freaheatah Creeks. The Swedes
called the whole stream Tacony (Taokanink), and
gave the same name to all the districts north and east
of Wicaco, or, as some say, and the tax -lists of the
Dutch and Duke of York's Governors show, from
Carcoen's Hook to the Falls of the Delaware. The
source of the name is doubtful ; some take it from
Tekene, a Lenape word supposed to mean " inhab-
ited." On Lindstrom's map the Swedish and French
equivalents are Aleskyns Kylen, " La Riviere des An-
guilles ecorchees," Skinned Eels River. The Wingo-
hocking (Winge-hacking) is thought to mean " a good
place for planting." This stream is also called " Lo-
gan's Run," because it flows by Stenton, the country-
seat of James Logan, Penn's secretary ; it rises near
Mount Airy, and the Tacony in Montgomery County.
Indian dialects afford the philologists the same
chances to disagree which they seek in more polished
tongues. A small stream rising in Dublin township
and entering the Delaware near the United States
Arsenal staggers under the triplicate alias of Sissin-
iockisink, Wissinoming, and Little Wahank, derived,
says one, from Wischanmunk, " where we were
scared ;" says another, from Wissachgamen, " vine-
yard." '
Above Frankford Creek what is called Dublin
Creek empties into the Delaware, <i stream which is
the product of four small forks, and which is often
called by its Indian name of Pennipacka or Penni-
ceacka. Two miles north of this is the Poquessing,
the northeast boundary of Philadelphia, a stream
1 Very little dependence can be placed on the spelling or interpretation
of these Indian words, and particularly little upon attempts to get at the
meaning of Indian names of things and places by analyBiHand recom posi-
tion of their roots. Some illustration of this fact may be found in the vo-
cabularies collected by Maj.Ebenezer Denny, and inserted in his journal,
which has been lately published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
Maj. Denny collected these words in Ohio in 1785-80, while at Forts Mc-
intosh and Finney, from Delawares. One gives for " very bad" the word
machelesfio, the other matla-icmtih ; the words are similar, but the conso-
nants differ. Probably Maj. Denny heard the same word each time, but the
pronunciation was not distinct enough to enable him to catch the proper
form of spelling. So, again, "woman" is in one place ochgwe, in an-
other auquawan; evidently the same word, with the same difficulty in
writing it down phonetically. " Sleep" in one place is nepaywah, in the
other caaweela: "pipe," ohquakay and hobocaw ; the numerals are guttee,,
or necooLay ; necJishaa, or nee.sicay ; nochJiaa, or vtethway ; nevaa,ovneaway,
etc. When it comes to give these Indian sounds an English form and
interpretation after reaching us through a Swedish, Dutch, or French
medium, the difficulty is increased almost immeasurably, and a decent
Bltepticism is the only defense behind which criticism can shelter itself
if it would avoid absurdities and escape glaring contradictions. It is for
this reason that in this chapter Indian words and their translations are
treated as allegations rather than facts ; and this will continue to be done
throughout.
10
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
coming down from Montgomery County by a circui-
tous course, in which it receives the waters of Byberry
Creek and several minor brooks. The ancient spell-
ing of this name is Poetquessingh and Pouquessinge,
interpreted by Lindstrom as "Riviere de Kahamons,"
or (as a variation) " Riviere des Dragons.''
We describe an eligible farm as being well watered,
and having due proportions of meadow, intervale,
upland, and forest, with a various and undulating
surface, all susceptible of tillage. By well watered a
farmer means " water in every field." The descrip-
tion suits the topography of the site of Philadelphia
exactly. If the city as Penn found it had been di-
vided into twenty-five-acre lots, it would have been
so proportioned as to have water in every field. A
perfect network of small brooks and spring-heads
inland joined one another on their way to the main
trunk arteries, the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Their
courses were various, their volumes now small now
great, and the surface of the city's site was like a
complicated map, yet the general topography of Phil-
adelphia obeyed the general rule of the Atlantic
States, — streams flowing from northwest to southeast,
hills ranging from southwest to northeast. In this
case the Delaware from Burlington, in its changed
course, represented the ocean, the common receiver,
and the Schuylkill flowed southeast into it after tak-
ing up the small streams on its eastern side, which
were prevented by the water-shed from reaching the
Delaware directly. The intersection of the valleys
between hills by the valleys following water-courses
apparently cut up the surface into detached eleva-
tions and depressions, but there was still a regular
rise from tide-level at the Schuylkill delta to three
hundred feet in Bristol, and three hundred to four
hundred feet in Germantown and Roxborough, and
there was besides a regular " water-shade" at the
margin of the alluvium, beginning at Point Breeze on
the Schuylkill, and tending northeast to Society Hill.
From this point the " water-shade" ran flush with
the bank of the Delaware, except where the stream
valleys cut through it, up to near Kensington, where
it receded inland for some distance. The first spot in
the southeast where the underlying gneiss rock broke
through the alluvium so as to form an elevation was
at a point midway in Kingsessing, east of Minquas
Kill. Here, at a place called Blakeley, and near by
the old Bowling Green, was a considerable hill, a
spur repeated opposite on the west side of Darby
Creek, and again just by the mouth of the Schuylkill,
where the old pest-house used to be. This was
Peter Cock's land at one time, and his house may
have been here. The next elevation on Cobb's Creek
was a spur adjacent to the bridge at the Blue Bell
Tavern, called Pleasant Prospect. St. James' Church
was built on it. This elevation corresponded with
that which began on the east side of the Schuylkill
below Gray's Ferry. It was the beginning of the
"water-shade" which extended east toward South-
wark. From Society Hill the bluffs on the Dela-
ware front were continuous, except where streams
cut through, with an elevation of fifteen to fifty feet,
averaging about thirty feet. A line drawn from the
Blue Bell Tavern bridge to Southwark would touch
Point Breeze, which is the beginning of continuous
rising ground on the Schuylkill. The Passayunk
road, midway between Schuylkill Lower. Ferry and
Cedar (now South) Street, passed over another con-
siderable elevation. The plateau of the original
Philadelphia laid out by Penn was not broken much
except on its eastern and western sides, where it came
to the rivers. On the line of the Northern Liberties,
however, Philadelphia County showed a sort of ter-
race, extending from Cobb's Creek almost to the
Delaware, and rising into occasional domes, as at
Fairmount and Bush Hill, with corresponding eleva-
tions west of the Schuylkill. North of this terrace
another rose still higher, beginning with Green Hill
on Cobb's Creek (the Morris property), then, as we
pass eastward, George's Hill, Lansdowne, Belmont,
and Mount Prospect, and east of Schuylkill, Fair-
mount, Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant, Edgely Point,
Vineyard Hill, Laurel Hill, Green Hill, and several
other elevations. From the spurs of Lower Merion
township another terrace stretched eastward, having
among its domes various gentle rises, but not so
steep or abrupt as near the Schuylkill River. Still
another terrace rose to the northward, conspicuous
in which range were Mount Airy and Chestnut
Hill.
The hills and streams are included in the class of
natural landmarks. Roads are artificial landmarks,
which nearly always are found to be as old as any set-
tlement, and almost as enduring. A certain habit of
use clings to all old-established roads, making a change
in their bed very difficult. We have elsewhere spoken
to some extent of the oldest roads in Philadelphia
County. The first of these was the Darby road,
though it is possible that there was a still older road of
the Swedes from the Lower Schuylkill Ferry between
Tinnecum and Wicaco. The Darby road crossed
Cobb's Creek at the Swedes' mill and Blue Bell Tav-
ern; it ran northeast towards the Schuylkill, crossing
it at Gray's Ferry, but originally, it is supposed, only
at Middle Ferry, where High Street touched the
river. The old York road followed the bed of this
road from Upland, proceeding through Market Street
(High Street) in Philadelphia to Front Street, and
thence by the bed of the road to Bristol. Another
route was to go north by way of Second Street to the
junction of the Germantown and Frankford roads, and
follow the latter. Later the York road followed
the margin of the Delaware from Chester, crossing
Tinnecum, and crossing the Schuylkill by the Lower
Ferry, where it could either pass eastward, striking
the Moyamensing road to Wicaco on the Greenwich
and Gloucester Point road, or else follow the Passa-
vunk road to Dock Creek draw-bridge, and so get into
TOPOGKAPHY.
11
Second or Front Street. What was called the " Fed-
eral road," from Gray's Ferry to Southwark (to meet
the Darby and Great Southern road), was not laid off
until 1788. The " Baltimore Post and Stage Road,"
however, long preferred the line from Middle Ferry
(Market Street bridge) to the Blue Bell Ford. AtMid-
dle Ferry (or Woodlands, just west of it) the Chadd's
Ford road began, running southwest, crossing Cobb's
Creek where the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti-
more Railroad now crosses it, and thence to Kellysville.
This road, now Baltimore Avenue in Philadelphia,
became Delaware County turnpike after crossing the
county line. The Westchester road ran due west
from Middle Ferry, on the line of the present Market
Street, for some distance. The road to Lancaster ran
northwest from the same ferry, crossing Cobb's Creek
at West Haverford. The Haverford road ran north-
ward above the Lancaster and the West Chester roads,
passing through Haddington. The ManatawDy or
Ridge road, running from the corner of Vine and
Ninth Streets, in Philadelphia, to Norristown, in
Montgomery County, had its counterpart in the River
road, which started from the Lancaster road and fol-
lowed the west bank of the Schuylkill into Montgom-
ery County. From Vine Street and Schuylkill Front
Street a road proceeded to Fairmount, then dimin-
ished to the narrow dimensions of a country lane,
turned northward, rounding Lemon Hill, and .cutting
the Ridge road at Turner's lane, which latter extended
to the Germantown road north of Fair Hill. There
were several minor roads, all now streets, between the
Germantown and Ridge roads north of Turner's lane,
and between that and the county bounds. The Ger-
mantown road passed from the end of North Second
Street through the Northern Liberties to Fair Hill,
nearly due north. Just beyond this elevation the
Township Line road left the Ridge road at the old Bo-
tanic Garden, and went northwest in a straight line,
dividing Roxborough township from Germantown.
This road crossed the Wissahiccon at Dewees' mill and
went to Perkiomen Town. Another Township Line
road crossed the Germantown road at Logan's Hill,
and the Wissahiccon at Weiss' mill, going thence to the
Lutheran Church at Barren Hill, where it intersected
the Ridge road. At Naglee's Hill the Germantown
road parted with Fisher's lane, running northeast
across the Old York road. At the market-house in
Germantown Indian Queen lane led off southwest;
parallel to it, a little more north, was School-house
lane, opposite which Church lane branched off north-
eastward to Lukens' mill, where it struck the Lime-
kiln road running north. Farther up Germantown
road, at Green Tree Tavern, was Meeting-House lane
running east, and Rittenhouse Mill lane running west;
the road to Abington crossed at Chew's house ; Trul-
linger's lane and Gorgas' lane at Beggarstown ; Mil-
ler's lane went east from Mount Airy ; Allen's lane
west from the same point; Mermaid lane east and
Kerper's and Weiss' Mill lanes west from Chestnut
Hill. At this point the Germantown road forked, one
branch going towards Reading, the other towards
Bethlehem. Mermaid lane going northeast inter-
sected the Limekiln road, and the two became the
road to Skippack, a more easterly branch running
towards Bethlehem. The old York road (one branch
of it) followed the Germantown road to Sunville, and
thence went north by Miles Town through Bristol
township. The Frankford road ran eastward from
Front Street, passing farther east by Harrowgate and
Holmesburg. It had many branches and feeders
leading to various points in Bucks and Montgomery
Counties.
The sites of forts afford another means for clearing
up the topography of any locality. They are ordi-
narily put in commanding places, where lines of travel
or a wide sweep of country may be kept under con-
trol of their guns. The Dutch, the Swedes, the Eng-
lish, and our own countrymen have all erected forts
at different epochs within the present limits of Phila-
delphia. The history of these forts belongs to subse-
quent chapters, as part of the regular account of
events to be narrated. Their sites, however, are part
of the topographical history of the city. The earliest
of these structures was Fort Beversrede, erected by
the Dutch, and, it is affirmed, before the Swedes es-
tablished themselves upon the river. It was built
where it would be convenient for the beaver trade
with the Indians, and it must have served that pur-
pose, for we find that the Swedish Governor Printz
went the length of building a trading-house directly
in front of it, not a biscuit-toss away, in order to de-
stroy its utility. Fort Beversrede stood on the east
bank of the Schuylkill, in the district of Passayunk,
opposite the debouch of Minquas Kill, where the
river-bank begins to rise, beyond the Penrose Ferry
bridge. The Susquehanna Indians appear to have
used Minquas Kill to come out from their hunting-
grounds, and a trading-post at that point would
naturally attract them. The Delawares and Iroquois
also came down the Schuylkill in their canoes,
making a portage at the Falls. The second Swedish
fort was built at Nya Gotheborg, or New Gottenburg,
on that outcrop of gneiss rock which gave a patch of
dry land to Tinnecum Island. The Swedes imitated
the Dutch in building a fort in Passayunk, on the
property given by Queen Christina to Lieut. Sven
Schute. It was on the east side of the Schuylkill
above Beversrede, probably on the rising ground at
Point Breeze. Manayunk, another Swedish stockade
on the Schuylkill, " on Manayunk Island," probably
near thejunction with the Delaware. Fort Gripsholm
was built by Governor Printz on an island in the
Schuylkill, " within gunshot of its mouth." Its site
is disputed, but Mr. Westcott conjectures that from
the Dutch descriptions of it by Andrew Hudde it
was most probably built at the mouth of Minquas
Kill, on the west bank of the Schuylkill, on Province
Island. The block-house at Wicaco, which was con-
12
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
verted into a church in 1677, became the site of the
venerable- church Gloria Dei of the Swedes, and was
convenient to the settlers of that race in the district
of Passayunk and Moyamensing. This spot was the
first rising ground on the Delaware above the mouth
of the Schuylkill, and as such was a favorite point of
defense against foes expected to come up the river.
As such it was used in 1747 when the " Association
Battery,'' the first fortification of the Quaker City,
was erected by a committee at the time of the
renewal of hostilities between France and Great
Britain. The Friends would not build forts, but the
Penn family promised the artillery if the citizens
would erect the breastworks, and the Association
Battery was built with this understanding by " the
Association for General Defense," part of the funds
for it being raised by a lottery. About the same time
and by the same devices another battery was erected
upon Society Hill, on the bluff between Lombard and
Cedar Streets. During the Revolution a fort was
erected on Mud Island, in the Delaware, off the shore
of Kingsessing and between Hog Island and Province
Island. This fort was begun in 1773 by the Province
of Pennsylvania. It was a position commanding the
channel of the river and the chevaux-de-frise between
it and Red Bank. Subsequently to the Revolution it
was called Fort Mifflin, after Pennsylvania's general
and Governor, Thomas Mifflin. At the capture of
Philadelphia by the British the fort was gallantly de-
fended by Col. Samuel Smith, of Maryland, holding
out against an overwhelming force of British until
nine-tenths of its garrison was hors du combat. In
1776, Gen. Israel Putnam was deputed by Congress to
provide for the safety of Philadelphia and look after
its fortifications. The object sought was defense on
the land as well as the seaward side. Putnam made
his surveys and began his intrenchments, of which
next year the British showed their approval by adopt-
ing and completing them. A battery was thrown up
on Darby Creek or Tinnecum Island, below Mud
Fort. The British entered the city in 1777 and com-
menced fortifying it, after they had reduced Mud
Fort and Red Bank. A battery was erected near Reed
and Swanson Streets, the Association Battery at Wicaco
was renovated and armed, and a third battery put up
near Swanson and Christian Streets, on the other side
of Wicaco. A fourth battery was erected on a wharf
at Kensington, above the mouth of the Cohocksink.
On the land side Putnam's unfinished lines were fol-
lowed up with a series of redoubts and intrenchments,
protected by outworks and abattis. The first of these
was on the bank of the Cohocksink, east of Front
Street and above the Frankford road, a square redoubt,
commanding the approach to the Northern Liberties
by three important roads. It was flanked with abattis
and redans. The next redoubt was west of the Ger-
mantown road, north of Poplar Street; the third was
on the same line, west of Third Street, and the fourth
northwest of that, with a redan to support its flanks.
The fifth battery and redoubt was at the corner of the
present Poplar and Sixth Streets ; the sixth, east of
the Ridge road near Fairmount Avenue ; the seventh,
near Fairmount Avenue on Bush Hill. An advance
battery on the Ridge road covered the approach to this
redoubt. Number eight was near the intersection of
Twentieth Street with Fairmount Avenue; ninth, near
Lemon Hill ; tenth, on the northwest slope of Fair-
mount Hill. This commanding point had also small
batteries on its west and northeast slopes. There
were rifle-pits in advance of the redoubts on all the
main roads, and a lunette was thrown up on the Ridge
road below the present site of Girard College. This
line, it will be noted, was the line also of fine resi-
dences and country-seats. It commanded generally
what would have been the south bank of the Schuyl-
kill, provided that river ever actually crossed to the
Delaware from above Fairmount to Kensington.
Two or three fascined redoubts were built on the hills
on both sides of the Schuylkill commanding the Lower
and Middle Ferries. In the time of the late civil war,
when it was feared Philadelphia would not be safe
from Confederate raids, this important spot was once
more fortified. In 1812 forts were erected on the east
side of Gray's Ferry, commanding that road of ap-
proach, and on the same elevation west of the
Schuylkill, opposite Hamilton's Grove.
A good deal has been said in regard to the early
occupants of land along the Schuylkill and Delaware
on the site of Philadelphia, and much more will be
found on this subject in connection with the narra-
tive as it progresses. It is necessary to the full com-
prehension of a city's topography, and it is also an
integral part of that city's history, to trace the lines
on which population spread from point to point until
the wilderness became thickly settled. It is not need-
ful, however, to give the names and the lots taken by
all the first settlers of Penn's newly laid off city, since
one lot is but the pattern of all the others, and the
history of one is the history of all. That history will
be found to be fully treated. But with regard to
land outside the city the case was different. Here
men had a choice, and the eligibility of this or that
locality is illustrated by the promptness of its occu-
pancy as compared with the taking up of others.
Fortunately there are extant maps which enable us
to give the ownership of tracts in Philadelphia at
several intervals with very satisfactory exactness.
The first and most important of these maps is that of
Thomas Holme, Penn's first surveyor-general, who
began in 1681 " A Map of the Improved Parts of the
Province of Pennsylvania." It is remarkably clear
and accurate for the first survey of a wooded wilder-
ness, is well engraved, and a handsome facsimile of
it has recently been republished. Beginning, as we
did when tracing the streams, at the south corner, we
find the line of swamp northeast of Bow Creek very
clearly marked and colored in green. Peter Ellet,
who held the point of land where Cobb's and Darby
TOPOGRAPHY.
13
Creeks unite, held also the point on the east side of
Cobb's Creek, and a piece of dry land in the swamp
to the east, which he had to reach by a bridge or
causeway. There are three other dry spots in these
swamps, occupied by Andrew Boon, Ernest Cock,
and Peter Cock. These were old Swedish titles, con-
firmed by patents from Upland Court under the Duke
of York's laws. No other land is marked as being
held southwest of Schuylkill and east of Minquas
Kill. Northwest of this kill and of Peter Ellet's land
is the tract of Otto Ernest Cock, running up to the
Swedes' Mill tract. On the east of these are the lands
of Oelle Dalbo, 1. Hunt, Enochson and Jonas Neil-
son, and then come the farms of Widow Justice, An-
dreis Justeison, Andrew Peterson, and Robert Long-
shore. A large tract northwest of these is assigned
to Peter Joccum, Thomas Pascall, Wm. Clayton,
Meil Jonson, Mouns (Moens) Jonson, and Lawrence
Hedding. Northwest of these again are " The Lib-
erty Lands of Philadelphia City," a broad, long belt,
crossing the Schuylkill above the city, extending to
Frankford Creek and the Wingohocking in one direc-
tion, and descending to the Delaware between Pegg's
Run and Vine Street. This tract included Spring-
ettsbury Manor, Fairmoant, and in fact the entire
townships of Blockley, Penn, and Northern Liberties,
except a part of the latter on the Delaware front.
On the east side of Schuylkill, northwest of this tract,
are lands which belonged to Robert Turner, Richard
and Robert Vicaris, and the " German TowDship
Company," their tract being bounded north and
northwest and northeast by " Gulielma Maria" and
" Penn's Manor of Springfield." Roxborough is as-
signed respectively to Phil. Tathman, Francis Fin-
cher, James Claypoole, Samuel Bennett, Charles
Hartford, Richard Snee, Charles Jones, Jonas Smith,
Jasper Farmer, and the Plymouth Company, whose
tract extends into Montgomery County. When we
return to the Delaware we find the farms on that
stream from the Liberties up marked down to An-
drew Salung, Michael Neelson, Thomas Fairman,
Samuel Carpenter, John Bowyer, Robert Turner,
Gunnar Rambo and Peter Nelson, Mouns Cock,
George Foreman, Wm. Salway, and Eric Cock.
Northeast of Frankford Creek is Toaconing (Tacony)
township, bounded by the Little Tacony and the Del-
aware. Between the Little and Great Tacony were
holdings of Thomas Fairman, Henry Waddy, Robert
Adams, John Harper, John Hughes, John Bunto,
Henry Waddy again, Benjamin East, etc. In Bris-
tol, between the Tacony and Wingohocking, the
holders were John Moon, Griffith Jones, Thomas
Bowman, Barnabas Wilcox, John Goodson, Richard
Townshend, John Barnes, Samuel Carpenter, John
Songhurst, and Benjamin Whitehead. From Tao-
coning township to Dublin or Pennepack Creek on
the Delaware were Enoch & Keene, George Hutch-
inson, Charles Claus, Neels- Nelson, Peter Rambo,
Erick Meels, Antony Salter, Elenor Holme, Ha.
Salter, Charles Thomas, Thomas Sare. West of
these were John Ducket, John James, Kat. Martin,
Joseph Ashtot, John Simmer, Richard Worrul,
Thomas Levesly, Robert Fairman, Walter King,
Richard Dungworth, William Chamberlin, and Jo-
seph Phipps. Coming down on the northeast side
of Dublin Creek, and south of Moreland Manor, we
find Daniel Heaphy, William Stanley, Silas Crispin,
John Mason, Allen Foster, Jam. Atkinson, Joseph
Fisher, Robert Turner, Samuel Claridg, Thomas
Holme, Peter Rambo, Jr., Lase Bore, and Benj.
Acrod. This brings us to the Poquessing. The
original occupants of Byberry were Robert Fairman,
Thomas Young, John Carver, Edward Godwin,
Nicholas Rideout, Giles Knight, John Tibby, Thomas
Cross, Samuel Ellis Daniel Jones, Andrew Gris-
comb, George John, and Collis Hart.
The names upon Holme's map, however, do not
always include a case of actual occupancy. Many
allotments were never taken up at all by the parties
who subscribed for land; many never immigrated;
many let their subscriptions lapse without payment,
and the assignments in numerous cases were altered
or modified by the Proprietary Government. This
is shown, for example, in Reed's map, reproduced in
facsimile in 1846. On this map the Northern and
Western Liberties are no longer unoccupied, and it
is evident that many landholders under Swedish,
Dutch, and English grants, ignored by Holme, have
had their claims and locations recognized. Peter
Cock, for instance, had a two-hundred-acre tract of
this description in Blockley west of Mill Creek;
William Warner and son three large tracts north-
west of this, stretching from Schuylkill half-way to
Cobb's Creek on the line of the Haverford road.
Jurian Hartfelder's patent for four hundred and
fifty-seven acres at what was afterwards Camping-
ton, southwest of Cohocksink Creek, is now mapped.
The Swansons, who owned Coaquinnoc as well as land
at Wicaco, having given up the former, are assigned
in recompense a large tract, twelve hundred and
twenty acres in all, west of Springettsbury, and lying
between that and the Welsh purchase of Griffith
Jones and John Roberts. This Swanson tract was on
both sides the Schuylkill from the Falls to Fairmount.
Northwest of it and between it and the purchases
of Pastorius for the Frankford (Germantown) Com-
pany were numerous small farms averaging not over
fifty acres, of which one is put down to Penn's Dep-
uty Governor, William Markham, and one to Dennis
Rockford. Actual settlers and " Welcome" passengers
or immigrants of 1682-83 are found among these land-
holders' names in goodly numbers. Shakhamaxunk
(Shackamaxon, Kensington) lands appear in a large
tract without names, while Kensington proper ap-
pears to be laid off into town lots ; but northwest of
these many names familiar in the first years of Penn's
proprietorship are found, and they do not agree in
many instances with names attached to the same
14
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
localities in Holme's map. Among these names are
those of Holme himself, Nicholas Moore, Thomas
Lloyd, John Goodson, James Claypoole, James Har-
rison, Christopher Taylor, Robert Turner, Joseph
Fisher, Isaac Norris, Joseph Growden, Society of
Free Traders, John Mifflin, Samuel Carpenter, John
Songhurst, Enoch Flower, John Barber, Thomas
Bowman, Robert Greenway, Silas Crispin, Nicholas
Wain, Thomas Pudyard, etc., all names recorded
among those of the first Quaker settlements and
names of persons prominent in the history of Phila-
delphia and the province.
The quaint-looking map of Nicholas Scull and I.
Heap is dated 1750. It is small and not very precise,
yet it conveys a good deal of topographical informa-
tion. On this map Bow Creek is distinctly marked
and named, but it opens on the Delaware at Mud
Island ; Minquas Kill is called Kingsesse Creek, Boon's
Island retains its name, but Simcock now owns Peter
Ellett's land, and the names of Boon and Cock are no
longer found on these swampy lands. The middle of
the three islands that now appear east of Mingo
Creek is called Carpenter's; the one at the mouth
of Schuylkill, Province Island. Joccum holds his
own southeast of the Darby road, and the lands west
of Penrose Ferry belong to Bonsai and Jones Hunt.
On the east side of Schuylkill at this point, going
northwest, the names are Hannis, Penrose, Cox, Lord,
Morris, Cadwallader, Rambo, and then we come to
Gray and Gray's Ferry. Besides these there are not
many names in all of the Southwark, Moyamensing,
and Passayunk peninsula; Cox, Brockden, Morris,
Wharton (Wharton's lane named for him), Duche,
Pemberton, Lorenz, Turner, Davey, Sims, Griffin,
Powell, Lawrence, Crouse, and Poll are all of them.
Northwest of the Darby road, on Cobb's Creek, the
names are found of Rambo, Stilly (Stille), Whitman,
showing that the Swedes stil] held their own here. On
the Darby road, between Blue Bell Tavern and Gray's
Ferry, were Gibson, Bartram, Hanby, White, Jones,
Coffman (Kaufman), Richard, Lois, and George.
The Warners still held on the Schuylkill west from
Fairmount; Scull kept the Upper Ferry, Springett-
bnry became a small, insignificant tract. Bush Hill ad-
joins ground of Plumsted, Swansons still hold (under
the name of Shute) their tract east of Schuylkill, and
Mifflin, Harrison, etc., remain where they originally
planted. The house of Isaac Norris at Fair Hill is
given with a cupola on it. There is another on James
Logan's mansion at Stenton. The families of Wain,
Greenway, More, Ashmead, Whitman, Griffith ap-
pear still on original sites in the northeast, yet after
all there has been a woful thinning out of " first
purchasers."
In 1762, Matthew Clarkson and M.Biddle published
a map, principally of the front of the city, as far west
as Eighth Street, and in Southwark to Second Street
at that day. Windmill Island then lay in the channel
between Pine and Christian Streets, the mill on the
extreme north end. There was a fort just south of
Wicaco lane, closing Swanson Street in that direction.
Coates' wharf was midway between Wicaco lane and
Christian Street, Dennis' factory, the Swedes' Church,
Gloria Dei, Wharton's, immediately above Christian
Street. The Dock at that- time extended from Third
Street, half-way between Chestnut and Walnut
Streets, diagonally to a point just east of the foot
of Spruce Street. Reynolds and Penrose were wharf-
owners foot of Queen Street; Trotter, foot of Cath-
arine Street; Niemans, Lewis, Allen, and Penrose,
to beyond Almond Street; Moes, Hockley, Mifflin,
Church, Morton, Moore, and Willing, to Lombard
Street; Eagan & Nixon, Rhoads & Emlin, Plum-
stead, Sims, May & Allen, Powel, and Stamper, as
far as Dock Creek. On the east side of the Dock
the wharf belonged to "The Corporation;" then came
Hamilton, Penrose, Dickinson, Fishbourne & Mere-
dith, Carpenter, Flower, Morris, King, Pemberton,
and then the "Crooked Billet" public landing, foot
of Chestnut Street. Old Ferry Slip and Austin's
Ferry were at the foot of Arch Street. From Chest-
nut Street to Callowhill Street the names of wharf-
holders were Sims, Lawrence, Allen, Henry, Masters,
Hoop, Potts, Bickley, Aspend & House, Clifford, Rawle
& Peel, Warner, Okill, 'Wilkinson, Hoops, Shoe-
maker, James, Hodges, Hasell, Parrock, Goodman,
Mifflin, West, Hewling, Salter, Allen, Clifton, Moyer,
and Huston.
William Faden, of London, got out a map in 1777,
which is founded upon Scull and Heap's with few
alterations, even copying the names of occupants of
country-seats, etc., from the latter, although in the
course of twenty-five years many of them were dead.
A few prominent alterations were made by Faden,
whose enterprise was no doubt stimulated by the
curiosity of the British people in relation to America,
and particularly Philadelphia, where the Congress
sat. The streams are precisely the same as in Scull
and Heap's maps. The principal novelty is the
marking of a fort on Mud Island, the line of the
chevaux-de-frise in the Delaware, and Governor John
Penn's seat at Lansdowne, with a little more promi-
nence to the claim of Kensington to be a settlement
than was allowed in 1750. P. C. Varle, geographer
and engineer, about 1797 or 1798, drew, and Scott en-
graved, a very interesting map, which took in the Del-
aware and the Schuylkill from about Wharton Street
on the south to Columbia Avenue on the north.
Hill's maps of 1796 and 1808 (the circular map)
are almost purely topographical, and their leading
features have been embodied in the foregoing pages.
The Swedes' Church at Wicaco appears on the edge
of the river bluff; the bed of Church Street, in the
rear, runs through a deep ravine, widening at Whar-
ton Street. There is a pond by the Passayunk road,
south of Prime Street, and several of them south of
Cedar Street between Shippen's and Irish lane. The
changes in the channel, some land emerging, some
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TOPOGRAPHY.
15
sinking, and the peculiar way in which the ranges of
hills are divided into knobs and domes by the trans-
verse ravines along the course of the streams, are
curiously illustrated upon these maps. No Phila-
delphian would be able to recognize the contour of
his city if the streets, roads, and houses should be
removed from this checker-board scheme of knolls
and ravines, with a stream at the bottom of every
hollow. The idea that Philadelphia is a flat and
level city disappears in the presence of so much evi-
dence of variety of grade. It may be added, in con-
clusion, that both the surface contour and the subsoil
of Philadelphia are favorable to good drainage ; none
of the rock-masses are so continuous nor are the
underlying clays so tenacious as to prevent water
from sinking through them.
To complete the chronographic history of Phila-
delphia it is proper to add something concerning the
city's political and quasi-political divisions. The city,
laid off in 1681-83, was part of Philadelphia County,
which, having about its present northern and south-
ern boundaries, with the Delaware on the east, ex-
tended westward indefinitely towards the State line.
From time to time other counties were cut out of it
until the present western boundary was practically
established by the erection of Montgomery County
in 1784. In 1701 (October 25th), Philadelphia was
chartered by "William Penn as a sort of borough city,
with a government of its own, separate from that of
the State and county. This charter, which is said to
have been modeled upon that of the old city of Bris-
tol, England, bestowed only a very limited sort of
municipal authority upon the mayor and corporation
of the town. It was, however, divided into wards as
the population increased, though the adjoining dis-
tricts, boroughs, and townships of this county were
not incorporated with the city until its final consoli-
dation in 1854. The previous act of incorporation of
the old city was passed March 11, 1789, but the charter
of 1701 had been materially modified several times in
this interval. In 1749, when Dr. Franklin, Joseph
Shippen, Chief Justice Allen, and others took the
census of the city, it comprised ten wards, named
Mulberry, Dock, Lower Delaware, Upper Delaware,
South, North, Middle, and the wards between, and
named for High (or Market) Street, Chestnut Street,
and Walnut Street, inclusive, with Fourth Street on
the west. Upper and Lower Delaware, High, Chest-
nut, Walnut, Dock were on the east. There were four
western wards, — Mulberry, North, Middle, and South.
In 1800 the ward division was improved and the
number increased to fourteen, seven commencing at
the Delaware and ending at Fourth Street, and seven
extending from Fourth Street to the Schuylkill. This
shows that half the population of the city at that
time was east of Fourth Street, south of Vine Street,
and north of South Street. These wards were thus
laid off— Delaware side: New Market Ward, South
to Spruce Street ; Dock Ward, Spruce to Walnut
Street; Walnut Ward, Walnut to Chestnut Street;
Chestnut Ward, Chestnut to Market Street; High
Street Ward, Market to Arch Street ; Lower Delaware
Ward, Arch to Sassafras Street; Upper Delaware
Ward, Sassafras to Vine Street. Schuylkill side:
Cedar Ward, South to Spruce Street (west of Fourth
Street) ; Locust Ward, Spruce to Walnut Street ;
South Ward, Walnut to Chestnut Street; Middle
Ward, Chestnut to Market Street ; North Ward, Mar-
ket to Arch Street ; South Mulberry Ward, Arch to
Race Street; North Mulberry Ward, Race to Vine
Street.
Philadelphia now comprises thirty-one wards, a
less number, in proportion, to the increase of area
and population, than it had in 1800. The First Ward
of the city begins on the Delaware at Wharton Street,
runs west to the Passayunk road, down the latter to
Broad Street, and thence south to the Delaware, taking
in the whole of League Island. This ward includes
part of Southwark, partly incorporated in 1762, the
oldest district of Philadelphia County. Parts of the
Swedish settlements of Wicaco and Moyamensing are
within its limits, and it includes also Greenwich
Island, with Girard Point, Martinsville, etc. Adjoin-
ing the First Ward on the left, and bounded by the
Schuylkill River, up to Washington Avenue, Ells
worth Street, Passayunk road, and Broad Street down
to League Island, the Twenty-sixth Ward is found.
It includes a portion of what was once Moyamensing
and part of Passayunk ; it lies " down the Neck," and
includes what was once nearly all meadow, with, how-
ever, solid ground above Point Breeze. Moyamensing,
originally a farm tract deeded to Stille, Clensinith,
and Andries, Swedes, in 1664, and confirmed to Stille,
Andries, Bankson, and Mattson in 1684, later became
a township. When it was incorporated, in 1812, it had
an area of two thousand five hundred and sixty acres.
Passayunk (called by Lindstrom, Paisajungh, and
variously named in former times Passuming, Persla-
yonk, Passayon, etc.) is said to have been the site of
an Indian village, and to mean " a level place.'' The
first survey of it included a tract of one thousand
acres, granted to Lieut. Swen Shute in 1653. It
was afterwards patented by Governor Nichols to the
brothers Ashman and others. The Twenty-sixth
Ward contains two cemeteries, the County Prison
and the Point Breeze Gas- Works, Point Breeze Park,
Girard Point, and the oil wharves. Opposite the
Twenty-sixth Ward, on the other side of the Schuyl-
kill, is found the Twenty-seventh Ward, taking in all
the southwestern part of the city, between Bow, Darby,
and Cobb's Creeks and the Schuylkill to Market Street,
in West Philadelphia. Suffolk Park, the Almshouse
property, Mount Moriah and Woodlands Cemeteries
are within its extensive limits. It contained King-
sessing and part of Blockley townships, the Darby and
Baltimore roads, and the villages of Paschallville,
Maylandville, West Philadelphia, Hamilton, and
other ancient and modern settlements. North of the
16
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Twenty-seventh Ward, still on the west side of the
Schuylkill, and bounded by the city limits from Cobb's
Greek to the corner opposite the mouth of the Wissa-
hickon, is the Twenty-fourth Ward, which included the
rest of Blockley, part of West Philadelphia, Mantua,
Hestonville, Haddington, etc., with the grounds of
the insane asylum and the greater part of Fairmount
Park, with all its historic sites. Originally it was
part of the Western Liberties, and it contained the
district of Belmont also, which took its name from
the country-seat of the Peters family, so distinguished
in the Revolutionary and subsequent periods of the
history of Philadelphia. Blockley was one of the
oldest townships of the county, and contained origi-
nally seven thousand five hundred and eighty acres.
Returning to the Delaware side we find the Second
Ward small and compact in comparison with those
just mentioned, lying north of the First, from Whar-
ton to Passayunk road, then to Ellsworth, to Broad,
and to Christian Streets. This was a part of Wicaco,
and the old United States Navy- Yard, now occupied
by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, was within
its limits. The Third Ward, having the same bound-
aries south, east, and west as the Second (Broad
Street and the Delaware), lies north of it, following
Mead Street from Delaware Avenue to Second, and
German Street west to Passayunk road, to Fitzwater
Street, thence to Broad Street. The Fourth Ward
is north of the Third, within the same limits east and
west, running up to South Street, west to Broad Street.
These three wards include all the remaining part of
Southwark and a portion of Moyamensing to the old
city limits. West of them, from Broad Street to the
Schuylkill, lies the Thirtieth Ward, between South j
and Washington Avenue, running west along the J
latter to Gray's Ferry road, up that road to Ellsworth
Street, along Ellsworth to the Schuylkill River, then
to South Street and to Broad Street. The United
States Arsenal and Naval Asylum are in this ward.
The Fifth Ward lies between Seventh Street and the
Delaware, South Street on the south and Chestnut
north. It abounds in the historic monuments of
Philadelphia, for here the town began, here Penn
first landed, and here the Declaration of 1776 was
adopted and signed. Windmill Island, in the Dela-
ware, belongs to the Fifth Ward.
The Sixth Ward lies north of the Fifth, with Sev-
enth Street for its western limit, and Vine Street on
the north. West of Seventh Street, extending to the
Schuylkill, are the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth
Wards, Spruce Street marking the north limit of the
Seventh, its southern line South Street; Chestnut
Street is the north boundary of the Eighth ; Arch
Street of the Ninth, and Vine Street of the Tenth.
Old Philadelphia, therefore, is entirely included in
Wards Five to Ten, inclusive.
The Eleventh Ward extends up the Delaware from
Vine Street to Poplar, with Third Street on the west.
On the west of Third Street, as far as Sixth Street,
from Vine to Poplar Street, is the Twelfth Ward;
west of that the Thirteenth Ward extends to Tenth
Street; the Fourteenth, to Broad Street; and the
Fifteenth, to the Schuylkill, all three with Poplar
and Vine Streets on north and south. The Elev-
enth and Twelfth and part of the Thirteenth Wards
were in what was the Northern Liberties. The
land was part of Jurian Hartfelder's original pur-
chase, called Hartsfield. Part of the Fourteenth
and of the Fifteenth were in Springettsbury Manor,
including Fairmount and Lemon Hill. Willow
Street occupied the bed of Pegg's Run. Spring
Garden District was partly in this parallelogram. It
contains the Eastern Penitentiary and the Fairmount
Water- Works. In this group were also to be found
the so-called town of Callowhill, between Vine and
Willow Streets and Front and Second, in the Northern
Liberties, Campington, where the British barracks
stood, the towns of Bath and Morrisville. Fairmount
Park extends along the western boundary. The Six-
teenth Ward is bounded on the east by the Delaware
River, and on the south by Poplar Street. It extends
on the north along Maiden or Laurel Street to the
Frankford Road or Avenue, northward along the
latter to Girard Avenue, and thence to its western
boundary at Sixth Street. The Seventeenth Ward
lies just north of it, between Girard Avenue and
Oxford Street, and Sixth and Frankford road. The
Eighteenth Ward is part of old Kensington, with
the Frankford road on the west, the Delaware on the
east, Maiden Street on the south, and Norris Street
on the north. Immediately above is the Thirty-first
Ward, cut out of the old Nineteenth, bounded east
by the Delaware, south by Norris Street, west by
Frankford road as far northwest as Oxford Street,
then along Oxford to Sixth, Sixth to Lehigh Avenue,
along the latter to Frankford road, and then by that
road to Westmoreland Street, thence to the Point
road, and thence, substantially in the same direction
as Westmoreland Street, to the Delaware River.
Here was an Indian town, perhaps a council-seat,
called Shackamaxon ; here was the tree in front of
Fairman's house, under the branches of which, it is
alleged, William Penn held his treaty with the
Indians, and here was ground owned before Penn's
time by Lasse Cock, Gunner Rambo, and other
Swedes. The Nineteenth Ward lies north of the
Seventeenth. It extends along Frankford road from
Norris to Oxford Street, then to Sixth, then to Ger-
mantown Avenue, then to Lehigh Avenue, along the
same to Kensington Avenue, then to Front Street,
along the latter to Norris, and along Norris to the
intersection of Frankford road. The Twentieth Ward
is west of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth
Wards, extending along Sixth Street from Poplar to
Susquehanna Avenue, then west to Eleventh, south
to Montgomery Avenue, and along the latter west to
Broad Street, thence south to Poplar, and thence to
the place of beginning. The Twenty-ninth, again,
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
17
is west of the Twentieth, with Broad Street on the
east, and extending west to the Schuylkill, with Mont-
gomery Avenue on the north and Poplar Street south.
Girard College is in the Twenty-ninth Ward. The
Twenty-eighth, a large ward, lies north and west of the
Twentieth and Twenty-ninth, and westof the Twenty-
fifth and Nineteenth, Sixth Street and the German-
town road marking its east line, and the Schuyl-
kill its west, Montgomery Avenue on the south,
School lane northwest, and Wissahickon and Roberts
Avenues north. This ward has seven cemeteries in
it, with Laurel Hill and Schuylkill Falls on the west.
The villages of Nicetown and Eising Sun are partly
in it. The Twenty-first Ward, on both sides the
Wissahickon, contains Manayunk and the township of
Roxborough. The Twenty-second Ward, besides Ger-
mantown and Chestnut Hill, has a number of villages,
— Somerville, Branchtown, Crescentville, McCarters-
ville, Olney, Feltonville, Milestown, Pittville, etc.
The Twenty-fifth Ward, created out of portions of the
old Nineteenth and Twenty-third Wards, begins on
the Delaware River at a point where Lehigh Avenue
would intersect if continued in a right line, and
along Lehigh Avenue to Germantown Avenue, along
the latter to the line of the Twenty-second Ward,
along that line to Frankford Creek, along the creek to
the Delaware, and down the latter to the place of be-
ginning. It has in it Hunting Park, the New Cathe-
dral Cemetery, Cooperville, Harrowgate, Franklin-
ville, and Bridesburg. The Twenty-third Ward, the
city's northeast corner, contains the old townships of
Oxford, Byberry, Lower Dublin, and Moreland, the
boroughs of Frankford, Tacony, and Holmesburg, and
the settlements and villages of Olney, Milestown,
White Hall, Volunteertown, Cedar Grove, Rockville,
Hollinsville, Torresdale, Mechanicsville, Pleasant-
ville, Smithfield, Knightsville, Bustleton, Vereeville,
Sandy Hill, and Fox Chase. Byberry, Oxford, More-
land, and Dublin are all old-established townships.
Philadelphia County before 1784 contained much
territory which had not been subdivided into town-
ships. On the creation of Montgomery County, the
following were in the county as of its present boun-
daries : Moyamensing, Passyunk, Northern Liberties,
Oxford, Bristol, Byberry, Moreland, Lower Dublin,
Frankford, Germantown, Roxborough, Blockley, and
Kingsessing. These were all that remained of forty-
seven townships existing in 1741. The county of
Montgomery took away with it the townships of
Amity, Abington, Creesham, Cheltenham, Douglass,
Upper Dublin, Franconia, Frederick, Gwynedd, New
Hanover, Upper Hanover, Horsham, Limerick, Mont-
gomery, Upper Merion, Lower Merion, Norriton, Ply-
mouth, Providence, Perkiomen, Skippack, Salford,
Springfield, Towamensing, Whitpaine, Worcester,
and Wayamensing. Berks took Allemingle, Amity,
Colebrookdale, Exeter, Murder Creek, and Oley.
In Philadelphia's 82,700 acres there are more than
twelve hundred miles of streets. Their continuous
length would extend four hundred miles beyond Chi-
cago, or reach to New Orleans. A man walking four
miles an hour and ten hours a day would need a good
month to traverse them all. There are about six
thousand streets, lanes, alleys, and courts, all told,
but a plain and simple method of enumeration en-
ables the stranger to find any place in any one of
them, the number of the house describing in what
part of the city it is to be sought. Names of streets
have undergone great changes in Philadelphia since
Penn established his system of numbering them from
the Delaware running from north to south, and using
names of trees for streets running east and west. An'^
such method ought to have been adhered to, if for no
other reason at least to protect a city from the niai-
series and bad taste of city councilmen, who are com-
monly presumptuous in proportion to their ignorance.
At present the nomenclature of streets in Philadelphia
resembles a " Dolly Varden" print of a very irregular
pattern, — one style here, another style there, parti-
colored and piebald all over. A street name should
not be outre in its form, nor difficult to pronounce ; it
should signify something, either an object, a person,
or an event, and it should never be changed when
once permanently bestowed.
CHAPTER II.
THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE, VEGETATION, AND
ANIMALS OF THE SITE OP PHILADELPHIA.
The geology and the flora and fauna of a section
so large as that occupied by the city of Philadel-
phia must needs be a comprehensive and interest-
ing study, embracing, as this region does, an area of
i 129.4 square miles, and including within that area
all the varieties of soil and all the diversities of
surface to be looked for in a range of elevation
' from tide-washed, alluvial flats to rock-faced bluffs
J and granite ledges three hundred feet high (over four
hundred at Chestnut Hill), and scarred with the
| marks of those rude wars of the giants which are
typical of the glacial period. Much attention has
been given to this subject from the days of James
Logan, Benjamin Franklin and the American Philo-
j sophical Society, John Bartram, and Alexander Wil-
son down to the present time, and much has been
' written and published concerning the natural history
and physical characteristics of Philadelphia, in both
a comprehensive and a fragmentary and special way.
It is hard to find, however, any brief and clear resumes
of the general subject, couched in language such as all
can understand without having scientific vocabularies
at their fingers' ends, and condensed within such a
i space that it does not become a laborious task to read
them. No ordinary reader can afford to ransack the
18
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
journals of the American Philosophical Society, or
compare together all the five hundred and seventy
thousand specimens in the collections of the Philadel-
phia Academy of Natural Sciences in pursuit of infor-
mation of this kind, but every one is capable and will-
ing to master the important features, briefly and plainly
set forth, of the order of rocks, plants, and animals
appertaining to his place of abode. Without having
room for hypothesis, without giving space to specula-
tion, it is proposed here to present the leading facts
bearing upon these matters, in as concise a form as
may be. We will not be quite so brief and concise,
however, as some of the old writers. For instance,
Dr. Mease, in his " Picture of Philadelphia," seems
to have conceived that such a subject could be ex-
hausted and dismissed in a paragraph. " The imme-
diate substratum of Philadelphia," he says, " is clay
of various hues and degrees of tenacity, mixed with
more or less sand, or sand and gravel. Underneath,
at various depths, from twenty to nearly forty feet, and
also on the opposite shores of New Jersey, are found
a variety of vegetable remains, which evidently appear
to have been left there in remote period of time by the
retiring waters; hickory-nuts were found a few years
since in digging a well upwards of thirty feet beneath
the surface, and the trunk of a sycamore (buttonwood)
tree was discovered in Seventh near Mulberry Street,
near forty feet below, imbedded in black mud, abound-
ing with leaves and acorns. About sixty feet distant
from that place, and nearly at the same depth, a bone
was found ; the stratum above was a tough potter's
clay. In various other parts of the city, and even at
the distance of several miles in the country, similar
discoveries have been made. Sharks' teeth are occa-
sionally dug up many feet below the surface near
Mount Holly. All these facts seem to prove the truth
of the opinion first delivered by our countryman,
Lewis Evans, that the site of Philadelphia formed
part of the sea, whose coast was bounded by a reef of
rocks (they are formed of gneiss, micaceous schist,
and other primitive rocks), some two, three, or six
miles broad, rising generally a little higher than the
adjoining land, and extending from New York west-
wardly by the Falls of Delaware, Schuylkill, Susque-
hannah, Gunpowder, Patapsco, Potomac, Rappahan-
nock, James River, and Roanoke, which was the
ancient maritime boundary, and forms a regular
curve. The clay and other soil which compose the
borders of the rivers descending from the upland
through this tract are formed by the soil washed
down with the floods and mixed with the sand left
by the sea." And that is all which Dr. Mease has to
say of the geology of Philadelphia.1
The geology of Philadelphia presents many diffi-
culties, and no satisfactory solution of them has yet
been reached. There was a geological survey of the
State of Pennsylvania made fifty years ago, under
the supervision of Prof. Henry D. Rodgers, which
established many facts in the geognosy of the State,
but was not sufficiently thorough to enable the geol-
ogy of the difficult eastern portion to be determined.
The geological map of this survey was published in
1858. Since that time great advances have been
made in systematic investigation. A second geolog-
ical survey of the State is in progress, the prelimi-
nary reports of which were made in 1874, and further
reports have been made annually since then, under
the auspices of a State commission and the superin-
tendence of Prof. Peter Lesley, State geologist. Mr.
Charles E. Hall is making the examination of the
rocks on the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.
Mr. H. C. Lewis and Rev. G. F. Wright are studying
the surface deposits, moraines, etc., of this section.
Mr. Hall has already made a report of progress (1881)
for his section, including a large geological map of
Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery Counties, with
special analyses of minerals, made by Dr. F. A. Genth
and his son. There have also been published in this
connection a historical sketch of geological explora-
tions in Pennsylvania and other States by J. P. Les-
ley, a preliminary report of the mineralogy of the
State by Dr. Genth, and a "Special Report on the
Trap Dykes of Southeastern Pennsylvania" by Prof.
T. Sterry Hunt. These various reports enable the
1 It iH of course understood that geology as u science is altogether
modern. It did not properly exist before Werner wrote, and the Freiberg
professor was not born until 1750. Werner, De Snussure, Cuvicr, Hut-
ton first brought paleontology into existence by showing that rocks
were to be profitably studied, not as stones, but as beds of fossils. This
was the key t-> the cryptogram of the rocks. But the meteorology and
geognosy, the flora and fauna and mineralogy of the earth, had been
universally studied before that, and the philosophers of early Philadel-
phia gave as much attention to their own section as most others were
contemporaneously receiving. Isaac Lea, of Wilmington, in 1S17 con-
tiibutcd to the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences a brief study
of" the minerals of Philadelphia. Gerhardt Troost, an alumnus of Ley-
dcn and Paris, who camo to this country in 1810 in the interest of man-
ufacturers of chemicals, and who did much to advance the knowledge of
the country's mineral wealth in several sections, in Maryland and Ten-
nessee as well as Pennsylvania, published in 1S20 a regular " Geological
Survey" of Philadelphia, giving pretty accurately the rock forms and
stratifications of the environs of the city. Since then the subject has
been handled more or less fully by P. A. Brown, G. W. Carpenter, II. D.
Rodgers, F. A. Genth, II. C. Lewis, C. E. Hall, and others. The earlier
treatises, however, while they contain many facts, are worthless as sys-
tematic presentations of scientific knowledge. Accurate examination
and acute observation go for nothing in support of antiquated and ob-
solete formulas. Modern geology takes no account of the ancient con-
test between the Neptunians and Plutouians. Science is greater than its
greatest masters, and it resigns even a Newton and a Cuvier to oblivion
in respect of matters where their hypotheses have been superseded by
the progress of modern discovery. In mineralogy, Berzelius, Werner,
De Lisle, Hally, and Mohs are giving place to a modern school which is
growing up under the light of the new chemistry ; in botany, Linnasus
and De Candolle arebecoiningasobsoleteasDioscoridesand Cassalpinus;
in geology and the associated sciences, Catastrophists are no longer
heeded, and even Agassiz, Cuvier, and Carpenter are falling in the rear
behind the followers of Lamarck and Darwin, and incisive and destruc-
tive heralds of development and evolution like Herbert Spencer, Hux-
ley, Tyndall, Buchner, Haeckel, Vircbow, Cope, and Gegenbaur. The
old geologists, it lias been well remarked, are like the knights who fought
about the color of the shield. In fact we cannot, in this science, advance
from limited, pjfrticular data to broad generalization; we must bring
the sum of extensive general knowledge to the understanding of special
facts revealed by particular localities.
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
19
progress made in determining .the geological features
of the Pennsylvanian country to be understood.
Prof. Lesley, in speaking of the geological maps
and profiles of cross sections accompanying the report
on Philadelphia County, remarks that "it must not
be supposed that the geology of the district is fully
understood. Geologists will have much to discover
in years to come. A deep obscurity still shrouds
parts of its underground structure and constitution,
especially west of the Schuylkill." There are many
difficulties, says the professor, in making proper ex-
aminations. " The surface of the country is under
Iiigh cultivation. The water-courses are shallow.
Extensive areas are marked by recent gravel and
rlay deposits. Rock exposures, though numerous,
are small and isolated. Plications, faults, and even
overturns are the rule, rather than the exception ;
and metamorphism is universal. Mineral beds are
rare. Fossils are absolutely wanting. Character-
istic lithological features are evident enough on a
large scale ; but when looked for on a small scale
they fail the geologist at every stage of his progress,
along any belt of outcrop, and fade into each other,
or repeat themselves and alternate so rapidly and
monotonously, in the visible groups of strata exposed,
that special classification in vertical order becomes
almost impossible." The future systematic geology
of the district, the professor adds, must largely de-
pend on artesian well borings. In constructing the
map there is a practical difficulty growing out of
the' number and confusion of azoic rocks, all of a
metamorphic character. " We have a country of
mica schists, garnet schists, granitic, syenitic, horn-
blendic, and micaceous gneisses, with included ser-
pentine, steatite, talc schists, chrome iron beds, and
disseminated gold, all of them rocks which it is still
impossible to assign with the least confidence to any
age."
Geology is so much a matter of classified, tabulated
names and their definitions that it cannot be intelli-
gently discussed apart from this system of grouping
and interpretation. Prof. Hitchcock, in preparing a
tentative geological map of the United States, adopts
the following scheme, the oldest formations being first
given :
(a) EOZOIC. (b) PALjEOZOIC.
(1) Silurian ; (2) Devonian ; (:j) Coal Measures.
(and lower carboniferous). (and permo carboniferous).
(c) MESOZOTC. (rf) CENOZOIC.
(1) Triassio (2) Cretaceous. Tertiary; Alluvium ; Volcanic.
and
Jurassic.
"The eozoic (dawn of life) embraces all formations
older than the parodoxide beds, including the meta-
morphic Appalachian schists," says Prof. Hitchcock.
Philadelphia, in Prof. Hitchcock's map, rests entirely
upon the eozoic formation. A better and more gen-
eral scheme is that of Prof. James D. Dana, and
which our geologists usually follow, with some mod-
ifications. It may be rudely represented thus :
5 1
<
s
Z b
< o
P a
o
AGE OF MAN. Epochs and Sub-Epochs.
C Post-Tertiary (xvii.) Pleistocene.
Tertiary..
(xv
■ < (x-v
I (xi
(xvi.) Pleiocene.
xv.) Miocene.
iv.) Eocene.
Cretaceous..
Wealden
Epoch.
Oolitic
Epoch.
Li as sic
Epoch.
Triassic.
(xiii.) Upper and Lower Chalk
{Upper CretaceoiiB).
(xii.) Middle CreraceoiiH
(Upper Green Sand).
(xi.) Lower Cretaceona
(Lower Green Sand).
(x.) Wealden.
(ix.) Upper Oolite (Portland
Clay),
(viii.) Middle Oolite (Oxford
Clay;.
(vii.) Lower Oolite (Stones-
field),
fvi.) Upper Lias,
(v.) Marl Stone.
(iv.) Lower LiaB.
(iii.) Keuper.
hi.) Muschelkalk.
(i.) Buntersandstein.
f Permian
Carboniferous .
Sub- Carboniferous..
Catskill
Chemung ..
Hamilton .
Upper Helderberg..
(xv.) Permo Carboniferous.
f (xiv. cj Upper Coal Measures.
-< (xiv.b) LnwerCoal Measures.
I (xiv. a) Millstone Grit.
f (xiii.h) Upper Sub-Carbou-
I iferous.
j (xiii. a) Lower Sub-Carbon-
ic iferous.
..(xii.) Catskill.
(xi. b) Chemung,
(xi. a) Portage.
(x. c) Gpnesce.
(x. b) Hamilton.
(x. aj Marcelhis.
(ix. c) Upppr Helderberg.
\ix. b) Schoharie.
_ (ix. a) Cauda-Galli.
Upper
Silurian.
Lower
Silurian.
Oriskany (viii.) Oriskany.
Lower Hel-
derberg.
Salina
Niagara... ■
Hudson....
Trenton .
■j (vii.) Lower Helderberg.
..(vi.) Saliferous.
(v. b) Medina.
(v. a) Oneida.
f (iv. b'\ Hudson.
[ (iv. a) Utica.
C (iii. b) Trenton, Black River,
Birds' Eye.
t (iii. a) Chazy.
f (ii. b) Calciferous.
1 (ii. a) Potsdam.
. (i.) Azoic.
The ascent from primitive rocks to those more re-
cent is from the bottom of the column, beginning
with azoic rocks, or those in which there are no
fossils, corresponding to Prof. Hitchcock's eozoic.
Geologists recognize two great divisions of rocks: (1)
the massive or (igneous) primitive rocks, which form
the earth's crust. These have been formed by the
action of heat, underlie all others, or have been
forced up through them from beneath. Such are
granite, basalt, porphyry, etc. (2) The sedimentary
20
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
or stratified rocks, which have been deposited by
water as limestone, clays, etc. A third form of rock
is the metamorphic, resting on the igneous rocks, un-
derlying the stratified rocks, containing no fossils, or
scarcely any, stratified, yet having been violently
changed (metamorphosed) by heat or water, or both.
Of such are gneiss, mica slate, talcous slate, etc.
The rocks which underlie Philadelphia are almost all
of them metamorphic. Geologists divide rocks as to
their antiquity into several ages, as the azoic (eozoic),
paleozoic (or the age of primary forms of life, etc.,
such as mollusks), mesozoic, or secondary age, and
cenozoic, or tertiary age. Philadelphia County shows
none but rocks of the azoic and the paleozoic ages.
The paleozoic age is divided into Upper and Lower
Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous periods or
epochs, and Philadelphia can show but few paleozoic
strata of a more recent epoch than the Lower Silurian
formation. This formation comprises eight stages or
groups, and Philadelphia County again confines itself
principally to the lowest of these groups, the Potsdam
sandstone. The primitive rocks are in many places,
however, overlaid by the drift brought down by floods
and glaciers and by the mud deposited from rivers.
This is not a stratification, but a superficial and (ge-
ologically speaking) a recent deposit. It is classed as
belonging to the modern epoch, the age of man. The
glacial drift period is assumed to be like a wedge be-
tween the tertiary or post-tertiary period and the age
of man. Its characteristic mark is the deposit of
gravel and bowlders. The county of Philadelphia
shows many of these erratic bowlders or "gray-
heads.'' In many places the primitive rock is over-
laid with deep beds of gravel, and in other places
the recent alluvium rests in deep beds both upon
the primitive rock and upon the gravel ; sometimes
it rests upon both at once, overlying the gravel which
overlies the bed of azoic rock.
The general system for the rocks embraced in Mont-
gomery, Bucks, and Philadelphia Counties is recent
alluvium, Trenton Gravel, Red Gravel, Philadelphia
Brick Clay, Yellow Gravel, Bryn JIawr Gravel, Iron-
Bearing Clay, Wealden Clay, Trap, New Red Sand-
stone (mesozoic), Serpentine, Chestnut Hill Garnetif-
erous Schists, Manayunk Mica Schists and Gneiss,
Philadelphia Mica Schists and Gneiss, Quartzose
Slate and Mica Schists of South Valley Hill, Slate
and Limestone alternations, Magnesian Limestone
and Marble (No. 2), Edgehill Rock (Quartzite and
Conglomerate), Potsdam Sandstone (No. 1), Syenitic
and Granitic Rocks. Of these the first six are of
recent formation ; Wealden clay belongs to the Ceno-
zoic epoch ; the slate, sandstone, and conglomerate of
the new red sandstone formation are of Mesozoic ;
the syenites and granites are of the Laurentian sys-
tem of primitive or metamorphosed rock, and the
slates, mica schist, marble, limestone, and slate and
limestone alternations belong to the calciferous,
Trenton and Hudson River groups, Cambro-Silurian
epoch, Paleozoic period, metamorphosed rocks. With
respect to distribution, we find the Potsdam sandstone *
along the northern edge of Philadelphia County in
two places. The syenite group is found north of
Chestnut Hill. " Otherwise," says Mr. Charles E.
Hall, "the mica schists and gneisses occupy the
entire county, unless limestone be proven to exist
north of Somerton and flanking the Potsdam sand-
stone on the south. Its existence is exceedingly
doubtful." 2 Thegneissic and micaceous series of rocks
in Philadelphia County seem to belong to one geo-
logical formation. Sharply-defined subdivisions have
not been thus far detected. The belts of rocks fade
into and blend with one another in a sort of imper-
ceptible gradation and transition. The "pitch" of
the rock is generally northwestward except along the
northern edge, where there is a reverse " dip." This
is so invariable as to be a great aid to the geologist
in tracing the true relations of these rocks to one
another. The entire northern portion of Philadel-
phia County is covered by gravel. Along the Dela-
ware River mud or alluvial deposits are frequent.
They cover the greater part of the south end of the
city. The gravel-beds flank these mud deposits along
the course of the river. This belt of gravel was de-
posited by the river before it had receded to its present
channel ; it marks the ancient bed of the Delaware.
The gravel is exposed wherever streets have been
graded down. The Trenton or river-shore gravel
gradually merges into what are known as the Phila-
delphia brick clays, mixed with or bounded by the
red and yellow gravels. These red gravels are so
characteristically high in their colors that William
Penn would not employ them when he laid out the
walks of his garden and lawn at Pennsbury Manor,.
and directed his steward to get the gravel from the
pit near by and not from Philadelphia, as that was.
" too red." In other words, he preferred the Trenton
to the Philadelphia red clay gravel. The gravel-beds
in the southern part of Philadelphia are at least one
hundred feet deep. The gravels are composed of and
have been derived from the paleozoic rocks along the
course of the upper Delaware, — debris brought down
by ice action and floods.
The garnetiferous group of Philadelphia County is
exposed across the, northern end, between Chestnut
1 So called from a sandstone found and determined iu New York by
the State geological survey. All the groups in geology east of the Alle-
ghanies are arranged on the liasis of this survey. The Potsdam stone is
a fine agglomerate of sand, with occasional specks of mica in it. In
Philadelphia its strata are sijncHmd generally ; i e., they dip towards e.'trli
other so as to foim basins.
- Report of Progress, C°, p. On. By syenite is meant simply a form of
granite (from Sycne, in E,^ypt) in which the tough hornblendo pre-
dominates instead of mica. Granite is composed of feldspar(tho chief
ingredient), quart/, or flint, and mica. Gneiss is a bastard granitic ag-
glomerate, with a slaty structure. Quartz is a form of flint, and w hen
ground produces sand; feldspar, when ground, yields clay; thus the allu-
vium of the Philadelphia flats overlying the gravel and the primitive
rucks is, iu fact, composed of the same substance us these solid masses of
crystallized and apparently adamantine solidity. So it is also with the
soils.
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
21
Hill and the Schuylkill River. " Its northern limit
is a diagonal line across the northern corner of the
county." Its southern limit is less clear, but indica-
tions are found half-way between Lafayette Station
and Manayunk. The rocks in this belt are garnet-
iferous mica schists (schists are rocks having a slaty
structure, but otherwise not dissimilar to gneissic
rocks), thin-bedded sandy gneisses, and hornblendic
slate. They are peculiar in having deposits of ser-
pentine and steatite.1 Serpentine occurs on the north-
western edge of Chestnut Hill, extending across the
Wissahiccon to a point half-way to the Ridge road.
It is also found not far above Manatawna, and again
half-way between that point and Lafayette. These
strips of serpentine are on a line with and belong to
the same geological " horizon" as the steatite quarry
on the Schuylkill below Lafayette Station.
The belt of Manayunk mica schists and gneisses is
-visible along the Schuylkill from the Falls to a point
half-way between Manayunk and Lafayette Station,
its north boundary being south of Chestnut Hill, and
its south line in the vicinity of Germantown. There
is a gradual transition of this belt on the north to the
Chestnut Hill schists, and on the south to a micaceous
feldspathic gneiss. There are extensive exposures of
hornblendic slates between the Falls and Manayunk,
on the line of the Schuylkill, and there is a small
bed of steatite below the mouth of Cresheim Creek.
The belt of Philadelphia mica schist and gneiss ex-
tends from the Poquessing to Cobb's Creek, and from
the Delaware to the Falls of Schuylkill. In the
eastern part of the county it extends north beyond
the county line. Exposures of it may be found on
the Schuylkill from Gray's Ferry up, and on the Po-
quessing, Pennepack, and Tacony Creeks. All through
this belt, as in the other belts which have been de-
scribed, the gneisses and schists are continually merg-
ing into one another with an avoidance of sharp
transitions. There are beds of hornblendic rock in
several places, the largest along the Schuylkill above
Columbia bridge, and on the river-bank at the south
end of the river road, below the Strawberry Mansion.
Above this point there is an alternation of feldspathic
micaceous gneiss and slaty micaceous schists. This
same alternation is observed below Columbia bridge
to Gray's Ferry, with occasional lenticular beds of
quartz in the mass. Feldspar predominates near
Gray's Ferry, and forms deposits of kaoline, some of
which are very pure and white. South of Gray's
Ferry the micaceous gneiss is exposed along the river.
At the western end of Market Street, on the east bank
of Cobb's Creek, is a quarry of quartzose hornblendic
gneiss, resembling that at Columbia bridge, and there
is a quarry of compact gray gneiss at Frankford.
1 Serpentine is a compact rock of a greenish drab color; it is an un-
ratified hydrated silicate of magnesia in composition, while steatite is
aoapstone, a magneBian silicate also, and allied to talc, mica, and asbes-
tos. All these minerals are apt to occur in close proximity to one an-
other, and serpentine is often, if not usually, accompanied with chromic
The arrangement of the Delaware River gravels
and clays illustrates the geological history of Phila-
delphia. The Delaware flows in a southeast direction
from Easton to a point a short distance below Tren-
ton, where it turns and flows southwest to and beyond
Philadelphia. This bend is a right angle, and is
caused by the river striking the hilly outcrop of the
New Jersey cretaceous formation. At an earlier
period the river passed by or through much more of
this marl or chalky formation than now. Its bed was
apparently north and northwest of its present bed,
and it must have worked its way along the line where
the marl-beds joined the solid rock. The bed of the
old river is probably marked by the limits of the
Trenton gravel. This extends along the river from
Yardleyville, on the Delaware, in Bucks County,
above Trenton, to Darby Creek, below Philadelphia.
Between Morrisville, opposite Trenton, and the mouth
of the Poquessing Creek there are two sets of terraces
and escarpments, marking an earlier course of the
river, and showing that at one time it cut off across
country without going around the long angle at Penns-
bury. The belt of red clay and gravel which extends
above the Trenton gravel is composed of the dfibris
of all the geological formations existing along the
course of the Delaware, together with those of the
sands and conglomerates of the edge of the New
Jersey Cretaceous and perhaps Tertiary formations
also, undermined by the river and carried down by
its floods in the process of time. Among these debris
are large angular blocks of sandstone and quartzite.
The clay is in many cases bedded with the gravel, or
deposited in large masses, as, for example, one west
of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane and
several patches on this range east of the Schuylkill.
Mr. Hall is not satisfied whether this deposit be the
wash of the cretaceous beds or a deposit similar to
the glacial clays of the Hudson River, but he seems
to incline to the latter opinion. The age of the de-
posit, he observes, is " unquestionably not remote from
the glacial period. The material which forms much
of the gravel with which the clay is associated owes
its transport to glacial agencies. Whether the ice
did or did not extend to this latitude may still be
questioned; but I think there is little question as to
the period when the angular blocks were brought
south and deposited here with the gravel." Frag-
ments of unmistakably fossiliferous rock — Oriskany
sandstone and Helderberg slate — have been found in
various places. As to the Bryn Mawr gravel, which
only exists at an elevation of four hundred feet above
tide, Mr. Hall does not know its origin, though he
suggests it may be the remains of a Tertiary or Upper
Cretaceous formation swept away by flood and gla-
ciers, and that it is connected with the Cenozoic de-
posits of New Jersey, the ancient Delaware having
carried away all the deposits of this sort covering
the intervening space, — that is to say, having once
flowed with a current three hundred feet deep above
22
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the present city of Philadelphia. But, in fact, Mr.
Hall looks upon the Delaware River from Trenton to
Chester as representing, in part at least, "the ancient
coast line of the Atlantic Ocean."
Professor Lesley, after summing up the results of
the survey thus far, comparing the results attained by
Professor Rogers in 1836-58 with those reached by Mr.
Hall, and stating the difficulties attending the inves-
tigation, concludes that it is impossible just now to
locate the Philadelphia series of rocks exactly as to
time and place in the general geological series ; " all
speculation is therefore fruitless," he says, " and we
are left in almost total ignorance of the real state of
things." We only know that these deposits are enor-
mously thick. " If it were not for these faults"
(breaks in the strata), says Professor Lesley, " we
could assert that from the kaoline outcrops at Gi-ay's
Ferry up to the soapstone quarries above Manayunk
the total pile of micaceous and hornblendic schists
and gneisses measured about twenty-five thousand
feet, representing in ancient times a mountain range
as high as the Alps, now eroded nearly to a level no-
where more than four hundred feet above sea-level."
Allowing for every fault, he thinks the ancient thick-
ness might have been equivalent to a level of ten
thousand feet above tide. Nothing can more em-
phatically illustrate the intensity of the geological
disturbance at this point than the fact that the site of
Philadelphia may at one time have occupied the side
of a mountain range from ten thousand to twenty-five
thousand feet high, and at another may have been two
hundred or three hundred feet below the surface of an
ocean. In regard to the glacial movement, the Penn-
sylvania geologists are waiting for the report of Mr.
Henry Carvill Lewis, who is now (racing the moraine
deposits across Pennsylvania. But some interesting
facts are already known on this subject so far as Phil-
adelphia is concerned. The great Delaware glacier
has been partly traced by the moraine which it left,
ft crosses the Delaware River near Belvidere, below
the Water Gap, in a straight line north of west to
Beach Haven, on the North Branch of the Susque-
hanna, and thente to Lycoming Creek near Rals-
ston. It passed diagonally over mountains and val-
leys without ever swerving from its course, crossing
the top of the Kittatinny Mountain as if it despised
to creep through the Water Gap at the mountain's
foot. On the very top of the mountain, as a sign that
it had been there, it left a block of Helderberg lime-
stone more than six feet long. It had brought this
from a valley below and five miles distant. The Oris-
kany stone has been brought sixty miles down the
valley of the Schuylkill and deposited in West Phila-
delphia. Others have come down the Delaware
through the Water Gap, yet Professor Lesley thinks
it " more than doubtful" whether solid ice ever
reached Philadelphia. "Floating fragments of the
back country glaciers undoubtedly reached the Phila-
delphia neighborhood." The professor also doubts if
the ocean level ever rose sufficiently to explain the
Bryn Mawr gravel, four hundred feet above tide. " It
is, however, quite certain," he concludes, "that the
Delaware River once flowed in a channel several
hundred feet above its present bed, and has cut down
since then to its present level. Its deposits of various
ages are visible in terraces and patches at various ele-
vations. This is in conformity with what we know
of most of the rivers of the world," and the cases
of the French rivers, the Seine and the Somme,
are adduced in illustration. In the graveled ter-
races of the latter river at Abbeville remains of pre-
historic man have been found. "Similar gravels,"
says Professor Lesley in conclusion, "line the sides
of the Delaware River valley, and human imple-
ments of a remote antiquity have been found in
them at Trenton." Attention has been called to the
fact of such deposits in the alluvium and gravel by
Kalm, the Swedish botanist, by Dr. Mease, in his
" Picture of Philadelphia," and by John F. "Watson,
the antiquarian. Kalm's account in 1749 is curious.
It may be found in the second volume of his travels,
where he says that he once called together the oldest
inhabitants of the village of Raccoon (Gloucester Co.,
N. J.) to converse with them on the natural history
of the country. There came to the meeting Mans
Keen (Kyn), Aoke Helm, Peter Rambo, William
Cobb, Sven Lock, and Eric Ragnilson. They told
Kalm that whenever a well was dug in Raccoon,
they always found at the depth of twenty or thirty
feet great numbers of clam and oyster shells, some-
times reeds and rushes, once a hank of flax. " Char-
coal, firebrands, great branches, blocks, and Indian
trowels had often been found very deep in the
ground." Peter Rambo found marine animals, pet-
rified or burnt wood, a huge spoon, and some bricks.
Mans Keen, at the depth of forty feet, found chestnut
wood, roots, and stalks, etc., and reported that at
Elfsborg, when the Swedes first built their fort there,
they found, twenty feet below the surface, broken
earthen vessels and good whole bricks.1
In connection with the soil and rocks which under-
laid the site of Philadelphia a great variety of min-
erals were found. The binary compounds, sulphides
and arsenides, were represented by a bastard graphite
or plumbago which has been found at Robinson's Hill ;
bismuthite exists in tourmaline in a granite vein in the
masses of gneiss on the west side of Schuylkill, over
against Fairmount Water- Works, and these rocks, as
well as the Frankford gneiss, contain molybdenite.
The Frankford gneiss also shows copper pyrites in
pinchback brown crystals, as well as fluorite or fluor-
spar in purplish crystalline masses. Menalcite exists-
in a quarry near Columbia bridge and in the gneiss
opposite Fairmount ; magnetite or lodestone at Chest-
nut Hill ; crystals of limpid quartz in the soil at sev-
eral places, in the Darby country particularly and
1 Miekle, *' Reminiscences of Old Gloucester.'
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
23
in the peaty hollows and spring-heads at the foot of
rocky hills ; smoky quartz from the Schuylkill across
to Upper Darby ; flint chalcedony is found in connec-
tion with serpentine rock, and in rolled fragments in
the Schuylkill and Delaware gravel-beds. White
hornstone exists along the Wissahiccon ; pseudo-mor-
phous quartz in a quarry between the German town
and old York roads; hyolite in the gneiss at Frank-
ford and at the Wissahiccon paper-mills. Actinolite,
in association with hornblende or serpentine, exists in
talcose rocks at Columbia bridge and on the Wissa-
hiccon ; asbestos and amianthus exist near the serpen-
tine and steatite formations, as at Falls of Schuylkill ;
it is found with crystalline quartz in a quarry of horn-
blendic gneiss on the upper Schuylkill ; white beryl,
in large, well-defined crystals, is found on the old
York road, some distance out, and it is traced beyond
Schuylkill to Delaware County ; a yellowish-green va-
riety exists in the same place and from the Fairmount
gneiss across to Darby Creek. Garnet is found in sev-
eral places, red, brownish-red to black, near German-
town, on Wissahiccon, at Flat Rock tunnel, Schuylkill
Falls, Fairmount, Haverford, and in the bed of Darby
Creek ; zircon on the old York road ; dark bottle-green
crystals of epidote in the gneiss at Frankford, on Wis-
sahiccon, and Falls of Schuylkill; zoisite in crystals
and gray masses in the Schuylkill hornblende gneiss ;
muscovite mica in West Philadelphia above Gray's
Ferry, and elsewhere distributed largely ; green mica
at Chestnut Hill ; moonstone in Schuylkill gneiss ;
crystals of orthoclase feldspar much disseminated ;
black tourmaline in the gneissic rocks in numerous
outcroppings ; fibrolite in coarse fibres and columnar
masses on the Wissahiccon ; cyanite in beautiful speci-
mens at Darby Ferry and on Wissahiccon ; titanite in
yellow and brown crystals in Schuylkill and Frank-
ford gneiss ; staurolite in the soapstone beds ; lamo-
nite at Columbia bridge; apophyte in the Frankford
gneiss; talc in serpentine at Wissahiccon and Rox-
borough ; apatite, at McKinstry's quarry, and alumin-
ium sulphate in gneiss rock on Wissahiccon and at
Hestonville. Calcites, marble, granular and compact
limestone, are found at Columbia bridge and Flat
Rock tunnel; building marble at Marble Hall and
near Conshohocken ; malachite in bright emerald-
green masses at Frankford quarry ; glockerite in
brownish, stalactitous, resinous masses at Columbia
bridge and Hestonville ; ochrcous clay, deeply tinged,
in bed of Delaware at Tinicum.
The minerals around Philadelphia include most of
the compounds in which silica predominates, such as
quartz, chalcedony, jasper, hornstone, spar, many in
which alumina is the controlling component, as cor-
undum, fibrolite, cyanite, staurolite, spinella, some
of the magnesian earths, etc. The alkaline earths
are well represented by mica, feldspar, chlorite, tour-
maline, etc. ; the useful acidiferous minerals are
found, and some of the metalliferous ones, as goethite,
chromate of iron, cupreous bismuth, and some of the
combustible minerals. The marsh of Tinicum Isl-
and, and probably that of the lowlands northeast of it,
overlies an ancient cedar or cypress swamp, and it is
supposed that Fort Gotheborg (Gottenburg) was built
by Governor Printz of the logs of these cypresses not
then altogether submerged.
The analyses of minerals and rocks in Philadelphia
County, made under the auspices of the State Geo-
logical Survey, while they present many points of
interest to the expert and the scientist, are too techni-
cal for the lay reader. These analyses show the exact
character and chemical composition of the under-
lying rocks of Philadelphia, and how and wherein
the granite, gneisses, and schists of this locality varv
from those found elsewhere, as well as how they differ
from other specimens found in adjacent localities.
We subjoin a table, made up from Dr. Genth's report,
showing the results of analyses of some leading min-
erals in the rocks of Philadelphia County :
Ingrf.mknts.
Silicic acid
Alumina
Potash
Lime
Ferric oxide
Magnesia
Lithia
Soda
Titanic acid
Phosphoric acid
Chromic oxide
Mangauoue oxide..
Ferrous oxide
Cupric oxide
74.24
13.71
4 84
1.08
2H1
1.(19
trace.
1,38
0.36
0.26
i I
.2— I p
•z'jitj\ S en
73.59
11.37
4.65
1.62
2 82
0.77
trace.
2.07
1.S0
0.07
trace.
— ^ =
41. R0
10.30
o.oc
3.89
•§ \X
26. 71
0.27
0 52
trace.
30.G0
0.67
29.50
6.24
trace
7.29 1 0.90
06.04
z- ^
19 02
11.68
0.18
0.21
0.09
,;
9 25
2.13
3.17
9.39
trace.
0.29
2.20
0.07
10.44
0.10
40.50
12.47
0.53
9.50
9.15
9.50
C "3
^r 5
_r
c
fc£)
"J E
£ >
:*
a
m"
o>
r-
43.S1
27 52
8.SIJ
0.19
7.30 '
1.77 ;
trace.
1.01 ; 0.56 I
5.00 ! 3.78
| 0.13
59.31
16.S5
1.89
5 51
2.43
2.68
! 2
2.57
0 90
0.28
7.79 i
. trace. 6.37
79.001 50.70
9.48 | 19.80
1.54' 0.95
0.72 194
1.77 7.34
0.70 1 5.86
(race, .trace.
1.83 1 3.55
0.71
0.19
0.07
1.49
0.68
0.30
trace.
trace.
1.79
«,«
07.51 00.32
14.40 12.00
0.211 1.76
4.20 5.25
6.54 1 2.22
4.47 4.13
3.22 j 3.06
2.01 2.11
0 33 I 0 32
0.07 ; trace.
6.49 I 1.44
50.02
15.70
O.90
9.42
2.13
7.01
40.25
12.32
1.02,
11.02!
3.05
10.37 I
3.79
1.34
0.20
0.14
7.49
I 41 1
1.50|
24
HISTORY OE PHILADELPHIA.
While there are no conspicuous treatises on the
specific subject and limited to the one locality, our
information in regard to the natural history of Phila-
delphia, its flora and fauna, is full and satisfactory.
All the early descriptive writers have had much to
say on this subject, as if it fascinated them. The
works of the Bartrams, the Darlingtons, Kalm,
Wilson, and others have added a touch of genius for
pleasant writing to the attractiveness of the theme
itself. The scientific treatises of Darlington are be-
come classics, and every lover of flowers and birds
has heard something charming about John and Wil-
liam Bartram and Alexander Wilson. With Darling-
ion and other writers on Chester, with the exhaustive
way in which various naturalists have from time to
time illustrated the botany and animal life of Bucks,
Montgomery, and Chester Counties and the sections
of New Jersey opposite to Philadelphia, it is easy to
tell the whole story of the city's flora and fauna. The
beauty and the strangeness, the wild luxuriance and
shaded mysteries of the primeval forest, however,
must be left to the imagination. The pen cannot
describe them. In subsequent chapters will be found
many quotations from the early writers, showing how
vividly they were impressed with the landscape.
That was wild without being savage. It was stately
and imposing, yet had something of a parklike look,
while the occasional birch-bark canoe along shore
and the thin curling blue smoke from an Indian's
lodge here and there did not disaccord. The under-
growth was not greatly tangled, save in damp and
springy places, and the immense proportion of full-
grown trees in the primitive forest always lends to it
a certain dignity and patriarchal aspect. In the
swamps there were great white cedars, almost as ven-
erable as the cypresses of the South, but one missed
their bearding of gray Spanish moss. The stately
elm spread and branched with full-grown vigor, and
the oak was so much at home that Bartram enumer-
ates twenty-one varieties as being found within the
boundaries of Philadelphia County. Penn, in one of
bis early letters, enumerates black walnut, cedar,
cypress, chestnut, hickory, sassafras, beech, and the
oaks as among the most useful native trees. Of fruits
growing wild he mentions the white and black mul-
berry, plums, strawberries, cranberries, huckleberries,
etc. Apples and peaches were plentiful wherever the
Indians had clearings, and Penn found them as good
as any English peaches, " except the true Newington."
His mind is not made up as to whether the fruit is
native to the soil or not. Gabriel Thomas, in his
little history of Pennsylvania and West New Jersey,
after mentioning such wonders as the salamander
stone (asbestos), "having Cotton in Veins within it,
which will not consume in the Fire, though held there
a long time," speaks of several sorts of wild fruits, —
"as excellent Grapes, Bed, Black, White, Muscadel, and Fox, which upon
frequent Experience have produe'd Choice Wine, being daily Cultivated
by skilful Viuermt. . . . Walnuts, Chesmita, Filberts, Mockery Nnt«,
Hartleberries, Mulberries, Rasberries, Strawberries, Cramberries,
Plumbs of several surts, and many other Wild Fruits in great plenty,
which are common and free for any to gather." " The common Planting
Fruit-Trees are Apples, which from a Kernel (without Inoculation) will
shoot up to be a large Tree, and produce very delicious, large and pleas-
ant Fruit, of which much excellent Cyder is made, in taste resembling
tliatin England press'd from Pippins and Pearmains,sold commonly for
between Ten and Fifteen Shillings per Barrel, Pears, Peaches, &c, of
which they distil a Liquor very much like the taste of Rumm, or Brandy,
which they yearly make in great quantities. There are Quinces, Cher-
ries Gooseberries, Currants, Squashes, Pumpkins, Water-Mellens, Musk-
mellens, and other Fruit in great Numbers, which seldom fail of yield-
ing great plenty. There are also many curious and excellent Physical
Wild HerbB, Roots, and Drugs of great Yertue, and very sanative, as the
Sassafras and Sarsaparilla, so much us'd in Diet Drinks for the Cure of
the Venereal Disease, which makes the Indians, by a right application
of them, as able Doctors and Surgeons as any in Europe, performing
celebrated cures therewith, and by the use of some particular Plants
only, find Remedy in all Swellings, Burnings, Cuts, &c. There grows
also in great Plenty the Black Snake-Root(fam'd for its sometimes pre-
serving, but of Ten curing the Plague, being infused only in Wine, Brandy,
or Rumm), R,ittle-Snake Root, roke-Root,caird in England Jallop, with
several other beneficial Herbs, Plants, and Roots, which Physicians have
approved of, far exceeding in Nature and Vertue those of other Countries."
Campanius, in his lively but careless narrative,
speaks of the great quantity of rushes, with thick,
strong roots, that grow in the marshes, and the hog's
turnip, like the Jerusalem artichoke, that the Indians
eat when their bread and meat give out. He speaks
of " the fish-tree, which resembles box-wood, and
smells like raw fish." It cannot be split, but melts
away if fire be built around it. The Indians had
peas, beans, and squashes before the white settlers
came in, with gourds and melons. In the dialects of
the Unamis, or Delawares of the lowlands, there
were- many names for tree, shrub, and plant which
they must have become familiar with in the vicinity
of where Philadelphia now stands. Schau-we-min-shi
means the red-beech ; ga-wunsch, the green brier; hob-
be-nac, the potato ; Coaquonnoc, the site of Philadel-
phia, is a corruption of Cu-we-quen-a-ku, "the grove
of tall pines;" cu-wen-ha-sink (Cohocksink), meaning
" where the pines grow," from cu-we, pine-tree, co-wa-
nesque [ga-wun-shes-que), "overgrown with briers;"
Hob-ben-i-sinJc, " where there are wild potatoes ;" Per-
kiomen (Pak-ih-mo-mink), "place of cranberries,"
from pak-him, cranberry ; si-pu-o-man-di-can, " wild
plums;" topi, the alder; tom-bic, crab-apple; woap-i-
min-schi ("the white tree"), the chestnut-tree; woap-
hallach, "wild hemp;" wech-que-tauk, the willow; wi-
sach-gim, grapes ; win-ak, sassafras ; schind, spruce ;
mitz-hack, gourd, squash, etc. ; ge-scund-hac, pump-
kins ; musquem, corn ; mis-si-me-na, apple.
A complete catalogue of plants in Philadelphia
County would be out of place in a work of this character,
but some mention may be made of prominent families,
species, and varieties. The ferns were largely repre-
sented in a place containing so many shady and moist
spots, rocks, and hollows and spring-heads in the
depths of groves. Among these were several of the
horsetail ferns [Equisetacece), as the E. arvense, E. syl-
vaticum, E. hyemale, or scouring rush ; the various poli-
podia, including maiden-hair, the purple brake, the
Dirksoniapunctilobula, or bladder-fern , ophioglossum,
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
25
and all the tribe of lycopods found in the latitude of
Philadelphia ; the spagnida, phascidce, hypnidce, etc.
There were full representations of the hcpaticw, or liver-
wort family, etc. Of the general class of phaenoga-
mous plants, the typical clematis (virgin's bower), tall
anemone, the wind-flower, meadow-rue, crow-foot,
buttercup, marsh marigold, wild columbine, lark-
spur, and black snake-root represent the order Ra-
nunculaeece ; the magnolias have the Magnolia glauca
(sweetbay, growing in the southeast of the county)
and the Liriodendron tulipifera, or tulip-tree, so often
called poplar. Of the Anonacece, the papaw (Asimina
triloba) is mentioned by the early writers, and is said
to grow now on Darby Creek ; the moonseed (Meni-
spermum) is common along streams ; the Berberis
canadensis, the Podophyllum peltatum (May-apple),
and Nelumbium luteum (water-chinquapin, introduced
from Connecticut), represent two small families. Of
the Nymphacea:, or water-lily family, Philadelphia
used to be famous for its spatterdocks (yellow pond-
lily, Nwphar advena), and its sweet water-lily [Nym-
phaea odorata). The Sarracenia purpurea (pitcher-
plant, very rare) is found in wet places about Tinicum ;
the poppy family has the celandine and the blood-
root to represent it. Among the Fumaracece are the
common climbing fumitory, the Dicenira cucallaris
(Dutchman's breeches), and the Cory dalis glauca. The
Cruciferm have Nasturtium, officinale (common water-
cress), N. sylvestre (yellow cress, peculiar to Philadel-
phia low grounds), N. palustre (marsh cress), Carda-
mine rhomboidea (spring cress), C. hirsuta, Arabis
dentata, Barbarea proscox (scurvy grass), Sisymbrium
canescens (tansy mustard), Sinapis alba et nigra (but all
natives of Europe), Draba verna (whitlow grass), Le-
pidum virginicum (wild pepper-grass), Capsella (shep-
herd's purse), Herperis matronalis (rocket), and Lu-
naria rediviva (honesty). The Isatis tinctoria, or
woad, was introduced by Penn. Of the violet family,
Philadelphia has Solea concolor (green violet), and
Viola rotundifolia (round-leaved), V. lanceolata, V.
blanda (sweet white), V. cucullata (common blue), V.
palmata, V.villosa, V. sagittata, V.pedata (bird's-foot,
grows on mica slate soils), V. Mahlenberghii (dog
violet), V.pubescens, V. tricolor (pansy), and V. odo-
rata. The sundew family (Droseraceoz) has D. fili-
formis. The St. John's-wort family [Hypericaceoe)
has Hypericum perforatum (common St. John's-wort),
Ascyrum Crux Andrece (St. Andrew's cross), H. ellip-
ticum, H. corymbosum, H. adpressum, H mutilum (the
Parviflorum of Muhlenberg), H. Virginicum {Elodea
Virginica of Nuttall). The pink family [Caryo-
phyllacece) is represented by Dianthas armeria (Dept-
ford pink), Saponaria officinalis (common soap-wort,
"Bouncing Bet"), Silene slellata (starry campion),
S. Pennsylvanica (common wild pink), S. antirrhina
(sleepy catchfly), Agrostemma Oithago (corn-cockle),
Stellaria media (chickweed), S. pubera, S. longifolia,
Cerastiumvulgalum, C.viscosum, C.oblongifolium (north
of Chestnut Hill), C.nutans. The purslane family (/w-
talacacea) has Portulaca oleracea (common pursley),
and Claytonia Virginica (spring beauty). The mal-
lows [Malvacece) are represented by Malva rotundi-
folia (common mallow), Abutilon, Avicenna, Hibiscus
moschentos (Bow Creek swamp rose-mallow), H. tri-
onum. The Linden or Basswood family (Tiliacece)
has Tilia Americana (basswood ; not common, though
the Swedes and Indians both gave it as the local name
of water-courses). The Linum Virginianum (wild
flax) is the only one of that family. The wood-sor-
rels ( Oxalidaceos) have chiefly the Oxalis stricta, the
yellow species. The Geraniacece (Cranesbill family)
have the O. maculatum (the common plant) ; G. Caro-
linianum. The Balsaminaceae (Balsam family) have
the Impatiens pallida (Touch-me-not), /. fulva, and
Tropceolum majus (from Europe). The sumachs have
Rhus typhina (staghorn sumach), R. glabra, R. vene-
nata, and R. toxicodendron (poison oak and poison
sumach). The Vine family show Vitis labrusca (fox-
grape), V. cestivalis (chicken grape), V. cordifolia
(winter grape), V. vulpina (muscadine), and Ampelopsis
quinquefolia (Virginia creeper, American ivy). The
Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceoz) show Rhamnus cathar-
ticus and Ceanothus Americanus (Jersey tea). The
Celastraceaz yield Celastrus scandens (climbing bitter-
sweet), Euonymus atropurpureus (burning bush), and
E. Americanus (strawberry-tree). The Sapindacew
yield Staphylea trifolia (the bladder-nut) ; Acer sac-
charinum (sugar-maple); A. rubrum (swamp maple;
this is the "fish-tree" of Campanius) ; Negundo acer-
oides (box-elder). The Milkwort family furnishes
Polygala sanguinea, P. cruciata, P. verticillata, P. arn-
bigua, P. Senega (Seneca snake-root, referred to by
Gabriel Thomas), P. polygama (P. rubella of Muhlen-
berg). Of the Leguminosoz, there are Lupinus perennis
(wild lupine, Chestnut Hill), Grotalaria sagittalis
(rattle-box), Trifolium arvense (stone-clover), with T.
pratense, T. repens, T. agrarium, and T.procumbens (all
the useful clovers); Melilotus officinalis and alba;
Medicago sativa (lucerne), Amorpha fruticosa ; Robinia
pseudacacia (common locust), R. viscosa, Tephrosia
Virginiana (goats' rue), Desmodium nudiflorum, D.
acuminatum, D. rotundifolium, D. canescens, D. cuspi-
datum, D. paniculatum, D. rigidum, D. Marylandicum,
etc. ; Lespideza violacea (three sorts), L. procumbenst
L. repens, etc. ; Vicia sativa (vetch) ; Lathyrus venosus
and Palustris, L. latifolius, L. odoratus, deer arie-
linum, Phaseolus perennis (wild bean), P. helvolus, P.
vulgaris ; Apios tuberosa (ground-nut) ; Galactia gla-
bella (milk-pea) ; Amphicarpea monoica ; Baptisia tinc-
toria (wild indigo), B. Australis, Cercis Canadensis
(Judas-tree), Cassia Marylandica (wild senna), C.
chamozcrista (partridge pea), C. nictitans (wild sensi-
tive-plant), and Gleditschia triacanthus (honey-locust).
Of the Rose family there are Prunus Americana (wild
plum), P. chicasa (chicasaw plum), P. spinosa (sloe),
P. Pennsylvanica (wild cherry), P. avium, P. serotina,
P. vulgaris, P. Virginiana; Spircea opulifolia (wine-
bark), S. salicifofia (meadow-sweet), S. tommtosa ; Gil-
26
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tenia trifoliata (Indian physic); Agrimonia eupatoria
and parvifolia ; Potentitta Canadensis (common five-
finger), P. palustris ; Fragaria Virginiana and vesca
(wild strawberries) ; Rubus strigosus, P. occidentalis
(red and black raspberry), R. villosus (blackberry),
R. Canadensis (dewberry), R. hispidus, and R. cunei-
folius ; Rosa Carolina, R. lucida (wild-rose), R. rubi-
ginosa (sweet-brier) ; Crataegus cordata, C. oxyacanlhece
(hawthorn), C. coccinece, C. tomentosa (blackthorn), C.
parvifolia; Pyrin coronaria (crab-apple), P. arbuti-
folia, P. malus, P. communis (the Seckel pear is a
native of Philadelphia), P. Americana (mountain
ash), Amelanchier Canadensis (service-berry), and
("Jydonia vulgaris (quince). The Lytheraceos have
Ammonia humilis, Lythrum lineare, Nesa?a verticillata,
and Cuphea viscosissima. The Evening Primrose
family (Onagracece) furnish Epilobium palustre, E.
coloratum, Oenothera biennis (common primrose), (E.
fruticosa (sun-drop), CE. pumilla, Gaura biennis, Lud-
ivigia palustris (water parsley), and Circcca lutetiana
(nightshade); Myriophyllum scabratum, M. ambiguum
(pond plants), and Opuntia vulgaris. The Currant
family is represented by Ribes hirtellum (wild goose-
berry), R. Floridum (black currant), and R. rubrum.
The Gourd family has Sicyos angulatus, Cucumis sa-
tivns, C. melo, C. citrullus, Cucurbita pepo, C. melopepo,
C. uurantia, and Lagcnaria vulgaris (all cultivated by
Indians). Of the order of Saxifrages there are Saxi-
fraga Virginiensis, S. Pennsylvania, 8. erosa (Penni-
pack Creek), Heuchera Americana (alum-root), Mitella
diphylla (bishop's cap), Chrysosplenium Americanum
(golden saxifrage), Pea Virgiuica, and Philadelphus
coronarius. The Witch-hazel family gives Hamamelis
Virginica, Liguidambar styraciflua (sweet gum or
liquidamber tree, used by the Swedes to make hubs
for their cart-wheels, as Campanius notes). The
Umbellifcra or Parsley family is represented in Phila-
delphia by two species of pennyworts (Hydrocotyle
Americana and umbellata), two species of black snake-
root, the Eryngium yucccefolium (rattlesnake root),
Daucus carola (carrot), Heracleum lanatum (cow-
parsnip), Pastinaca sativa (common parsnip), Ar-
chemora rigida (cowbane), Archangelica hirsuta and
atrnpurpurea, Thaspium bardinode, Tliaspium atropur-
pureum, Cicuta maculaia (musquash-root, water hem-
lock), Sium lineare, Cryptotosnia Canadensis (hone-
wort), Osmorrhiza longistylis (sweet-cicely), Conium
maculatum (hemlock), Erigcnia bulbosa, Apium petro-
sclinum (parsley), A. graveolens (celery ), A. fceniculum
(fennel), Anathum graveolens (dill). The Ginseng
order have Aralia spinosa (Hercules' club), A. race-
mosa (spikenard), A. medicaulis (wild sarsaparilla),
and A. trifolia (dwarf ginseng). The Dogwood fam-
ily have Cornns Florida (common dogwood), C.
sericea (silky cormel or kinikinnik), C. paniculata, C.
alternifolia, and Nyssa inultiflora (black gum). The
Honeysuckle family is represented by Lonicera sem-
pervirens (trumpet honeysuckle), L. grata (woodbine),
Diervilla Canadensis, Trinsteum perfoliihtum (horse
gentian), Sambucus Canadensis (elder), Viburnum
nudum, V. prunifolium (black haw), V. lentago (sheep-
berry), V. dentatum (arrow-wood), V. acerifolium, V.
opulus (snow-ball), and V. lantanoides (hobble-bush).
; The Madder family has Galium aparine (goose-grass),
j 67. asprellum, 67. obtusum, 67. triflorum, 67. pilosum,
i 67. circazans and lanceolatum (wild liquorice) ; Diodia
| teres (button-weed), Mitchella repens (partridge berry),
and Oldenlandea ccerulea (bluets). Of the Composite
order there are iron-weed ( Vernonia noveboracensis),
Elephantopus Carolinianus, Liatris squarrosa, L. spi-
cata, and L. dubia ; Eupatoreum purpureum (trumpet-
weed), E. teucrifolium, E. rotundifolium, E. perfoli-
atum (boneset), E. ageratoides (white snake-root), E.
aromaticum ; Mikania scandens ; Conoclinium cceles-
tinum (moist-flower), Tussilago farfara, Sericoc.arpus
solidageus, S. coryzoides ; Aster and starworts, a dozen
leading varieties ; Erigeron canadense (butter-weed),
E. Philadelphicum (fleabane), E. annuum (sweet
scabious), E. strigosum ; Diplopappus Unarifolius, D.
umbellattts, and D. amygdalinus ; Bottonia asteroides
(Bartram), Solidago squarrosa (golden-rod), S. bicolor,
and fourteen other varieties; Chrysopsis mariana
(golden aster), Inula helenium (elecampane), Polymnia
Canadensis; Iva frutescens ; Ambrosia irijida (rag-
weed), A. artemesia/olia (hogweed), Xanthium stru-
marium (cockle-bur), A", spinosum, Eclipta procumbens,
Ileliopsis la'vis (ox-eye), RudbecJcia (cone-flower),
four varieties; Helianthiis (sunflower), five varieties,
including H. tuberoxus (Jerusalem artichoke), and H.
annuus (garden sunflower) ; Coreopsis trichinosperma,
Bidens frondosa (beggar-lice), B. connata, B. cernua,
B. chrysanthemoides, B. bipinnata (Spanish needles) ;
Helenium autumuale (sneeze-weed), Morula cotula
(Mayweed), Achillea millefolium (yarrow, or mill-
foil), Leucanthemum vulgare (ox-eye daisy), Ma-
tricaria parthenium (feverfew), Tanacetum vulgare
(tansy), Artemisia, raudata (wormwood). A. vulgaris
(mugwort), Gnaphalium polycephalium (everlasting),
G. purpureum (purple cudweed) ; Filago Germanica,
Erechtites hieracifolia, Cacalia a.triplicifolia (plantain),
Senecio aureus (squaw-weed), Centaurea cyanus (blue-
bottle), Girsium (thistle), seven varieties, including
common thistle ( C. lanceolatum), and Canada thistle
(C. arvc.nse) ; Lappa major (burdock), Cichorium
intybus (chiccory), Hieracium scabrum (hawkweed),
//. Gronovii, H. venosum (rattlesnake-weed), and H.
paniculatum ; Nabalus albus, iV. altissimus, Taraxacum
densleonis (dandelion), Lactuca elongata (wild let-
tuce), Mulgedium acuminatum, Sonchus oleraceus (sow
thistle) and S. asper. The Lobelia family have the
cardinal flower, the great lobelia (L. syphilitica), the
L. infiata (Indian tobacco), the blue lobelia (L.
spicata), and L. Nuttallii. The Campanulas have the
marsh bell-flower, the tall bell-flower, and Venus'
looking-glass. Of the heaths there are Gaylussaccia
frondosa and 67. resinosa (the blue and the black
huckleberry), Vaucinium macrocarpon (cranberry). V.
.ttanii.ueiiiii (squaw huckleberry), V. Pennsylvanicum,
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
27
and V. vacillans ; the Epigwa (trailing arbutus),
Gaultheria procumbens (wintergreen teaberry), Leu-
cothoe racemosa, Clethra alnifolia (white alder), Ktilmia
latifolia (mountain laurel), K. angusti/olia (sheep
laurel), Azalea viscosa (swamp honeysuckle), A. nudi-
flora (Pinxter flower), Pyrola rotundifolia, P. ellip-
iica, Chimaphila umbellata (pipsissewa), C. maculata,
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe), and M. hypo-
pitys (pine-sap). The Aquifoliacem or Holly fam-
ily give specimens (but infrequent) of Ilex opaca
(American holly), and I. verticillata (black alder).
The Ebony family is represented by Diospyros Vir-
tjiniana (persimmon); the plantains by Plantago
major, P. lanceolata-, and P. virginica ; the primulas
(primroses) by Dodecatheon Meadia (American cow-
slip), Lysimachia stricta (loose-strife), L. quadrifolia
and L. eiliata, and the pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis).
There is one bladderwort, JJtricularia vulgaris; and
one hignonia, the catalpa. The Orobanchaceoc have
Epiphegus Virginiana (beech-drop), Conopholis Ameri-
cana (cancer-root), and Aphyllon urciflorum. The
Scropliulariacew have the common mullein, the moth
mullein, the toad-flax (Linaria Canadensis and L. vul-
garis, "butter-and-eggs"), Scrophularia nodosa, Che-
lone glabra (turtle-head), Mimulus alatus and M. rin-
gens (the monkey-flower ), Semianthusmicranthemoidcs,
Veronica (speedwells, seven varieties), Buchnara
Americana, Oerardia (five sorts), Castilleia coccinea.
(scarlet painted cup), Pedicularis Canadensis (wood
betony), P. lanceolata. The verbenas have V. hastolu
(blue vervain) and the white variety. The Labiatte,
or Mint family, are represented by the wood-sage or
American germander, spearmint (Mentha viridis),
peppermint and wild mint (M. Canadensis) ; Lycopus
Virginicus (bugle-weed), Cunila mariana (dittany),
Pycnanthemum incanum (basil), and five other sorts,
Origanum vulgare (horse-mint or wild marjoram),
Thymus serpyllum, T. vulgaris (thyme), Melissa officin-
alis (balm), Sedeoma pulegioides (pennyroyal), Col-
linsonia Canadensis (rich-weed, horse-balm), Salvia
lyrata and S. officinalis (sage ; the fine flowering sages
are from South America); Monardia fistulosa (wild
bergamot), Lophanthus (hyssop), two sorts; Nrpeta
cataria (catnip) and N. glechoma (ground ivy) ; Scu-
tellaria (skull-cap), six sorts ; Marrubium vulgare (hore-
hound), Leonurus cardiaca (motherwort). The Borage
family have Echium vulgare, Onosmodium Virginianum,
Lithospermu/m arvense (common gromwell), Myosotispa-
luslris (forget-me-not), Cynoglossum officinale (hound's
tongue), C. Virginicum, C. Morisoni (beggar's lice) ; of
the Water-leaf family (Hydrophyllacea:) there are two
sorts besides the Ellisia nyclelea and the Phaceliapar-
vifolia; of the Polemoniacece, Polemoniareptans (Jacob's
ladder) and Phlox maculata (wild sweet-william), P.
pilosa and P. subulata, with Pyxidanthera barbulata.
Of the Convolvulus family, Ipomea purpurea (morning-
glory), I. pandurata, Convolvulus arpensis (bindweed),
Cuscuta Gronovii (dodder). The Nightshade family
have Solatium dulcamara (bitter-sweet), S. nigrum
(nightshade), S. Carolinense (horse-nettle) ; Physalis
pubescens and viscosa (ground cherry), Datura stra-
monium (jimson-weed) ; the Solatium tuberosum (potato),
S. melongena (egg-plant), Lycopersicum esculentum (to-
mato), Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Nico-
tiana tabacum and Capsicum annuum (red pepper, Cay-
enne) are all allied to this family and all naturalized in
Philadelphia County. The Gentian family gives the
centaury, fringed gentian, Oentiana saponaria (soap-
wort gentian), G. Andrewsii (closed gentian), Bartonia
tenella, and Obolaria Virginica; the family of Apocy-
nacem gives the spreading dogbane and the Indian
hemp (Apocynum Cannabinum). The Milkweed order
yields Asclepias cornuti (common milkweed) and ten
other varieties; the Olive family yields privet, fringe-
tree ( Chionanthus Virginica), white-ash, red-ash, and
black or elder-leaved ash. There are two sorts of
Aristolochiacece, the asarabacca (wild ginger) and Aris-
tolochia serpentaria (Virginia snake-root). The poke-
weed family have Phytolacca decandea (common poke) ;
the Goosefoot family, Chenopodium album (lamb's
quarters), C. ambrosioides (Mexican tea worm-seed);
the amaranth, Amuranthus albus, A. hybridus (pig-
weed), A. spinosus — prince's feather ("love lies bleed-
ing"), is of this family — and Acnida Cannabina. The
Buckwheat family has Polygonum orientate, P. Penn-
sylvanicum, P. persicaria (lady's thumb), and ten other
sorts ; Fagopyrum esculentum (buckwheat), Rumex
( water-dock), four varieties, R.acetocella (sheep-sorrel),
Rheum rhaponicum (pie-plant) ; of the Lauracece there
are sassafras and benzoin (spice-wood); of the Meze-
reums, the Dirca palustris ; of the Santalaceoz, the Co-
niandra umbellata ; of the mistletoes, Phoradendron
flavescens. There are besides the Saururus cernuus, the
Ceratophyllum demersum, Callitriche verna, Podostemon
ceratophyllum, Euphorbia corollata (spurge), E. macu-
lata, and E. hypericifolia, and the Acalypha gracilens.
Of the Urticacece or Nettle family there are Ulmus
fulva (slippery elm), U.Americana (native elm), Celtis
occidcntalit (hackberry), Morus rubra (red mulberry),
M. alba, M. papyri/era, Madura aurantiaca (osage
orange, naturalized), Urtica dioica (stinging nettle),
Laportea Canadensis, Pilea pumila (rich weed), Parie-
taria Pennsylvanica (pellitory), Cannabis sativa (hemp),
Stimulus lupidus (hop). Of the Plane-tree family, Plata-
nus occiden talis (the sycamore or buttonwood-tree) ; of
the walnuts, Juglans cinerea and J. nigra (buttern ut and
black-walnut), Carya alba (shellbark), C.sulcata (hick-
ory-nut), C. tomentosa and C. microcarpa (hickories), C.
glabra (pig-nut hickory), C. amara (swamp hickory).
Of the Oak family ( Cupiliferce) there are found in Phila-
delphia the Querent obtusiloba (post-oak), Q. alba (white-
oak), swamp chestnut-oak, swamp white-oak, yellow
chestnut-oak, chinquapin-oak, willow-oak, laurel-
oak, black-jack, scrub-oak (Q. i/icifolia), Spanish oak,
pin-oak, quercitron-oak ( Q. tinctoria), scarlet-oak, red-
oak, the chestnut, chinquapin, beech, hazel-nut, and
horn-beam or ironwood. Of the Myricacecc are the
wax-myrtle (bayberry) •and the sweet fern ; of the
28
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Birches, Betula nigra (red-birch), and Alnus serrulata
(smooth alder) ; of the Willow family (Salicacece),
there are the Salix tristis (dwarf gray-willow), the
low bush, weeping, basket, or osier, silky-leaved,
petiolate, black, white, and brittle willows ; the quiv-
ering aspen, large-toothed aspen, Athenian, Lom-
bardy, and silver poplar (naturalized since 1785), and
the Populus candidans (Balm of Gilead). Of the
Coniferoz, there are Pinus inops (Jersey pine), P. rigida
{pitch-pine), P. strobus (white-pine), Abies Canadensis
(hemlock-spruce), Thuja occidentalis (American arbor-
vitse), C'upressus thyoides (white-cedar), and the Juni-
perus communis and Virginiana (savin). Of the Arum
family there are Arisema triphyllum (Indian turnip),
and Dracontium, the skunk-cabbage, the golden-club,
and the Calamus or sweet-flag ; of the Cat- tails, Typha
latifolia, Sparganium simplex, and S. ramosum ; of the
Duck-weeds, Lemna minor and L. polyrrhiza ; of the
Pond-weeds (Naiadacew), Naias flexilis, Ruppia mari-
tima, Potamogetonnatans, P. perfoliatum, P. lucens, etc. ;
of the Alismacece, Alismaplantago, Sagittaria variabilis;
of the Frog-bits, Anacharsis Canadensis and Vallisneria
spiralis (eel-grass) ; of the Orchid family, Orchis spec-
tabilis, Oymnadenia tridentata and flava, five sorts of
Plantathera, Ooodyerapubeseens, Spiranthes gracilis and
cernua ; three sorts of Pogonia, Calopogon pulchellus,
Mycrostyllis ophioglossoides, Liparis liliifolia, Coral/or-
rhiza, three varieties; Aplectrum hyemale (Adam-and-
Eve), Cypripedium pubescens, and acaule (lady's slip-
per). Of the Amaryllises, there is Hyposcys erecta
(star-grass); of the Blood worts, Aleiris farinosa ; of
the Irises, the blue flag and fleur-de-luce, the Bermuda
grass, the crocus, blackberry lily, and tiger-flower;
of the Yams, Dioscorea villosa; of the Smilaxes, S.
rotundifolia (greenbrier), 8. glauca, and S. herbacea
(carrion-flower) ; Trillium cernuum (wake-robin), and
Madeola Virginiea (Indian cucumber). Of the Lily
family there are Asparagus officinalis, Polygonaluln
giganteum (Solomon's seal), Smilacina racemosa, S.
Canadensis, Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley),
day-lily, Star-of-Bethlehem, wild leek, field garlic,
meadow garlic, Lilium Philadelphicuni, L. Canadense,
L. superbum (Turk's cap), Erythronium Americanum ;
of the Colchicum family, there are the bellwort, the
bunch-flower, the white hellebore, the Amianthium
miiscoetoxicum, the Chamcelirium luteum, and Tofieldia
pubens. Of the Rush family, Juncus effusus (common
rush), and six others; of the Pontideriaceos, Pontideria
condata, the mud-plantain, and the water star-grass;
of the Spiderworts, Commelyna Virginiea and Trades-
cantia Virginiea; of the Xyridaceos, Xyris Caroliniana;
of the Pipeworts, Eriocaulon gnaphalodes. The Sedges
are represented by five varieties of Cyperus, seven of
Scirpus, five of Fimbristylis, thirty-three of Garex, be-
sides Dulchium spathaceum, Eleocharis obtusa, E. tenuis,
and E. acicularw, and Eriophorum Virginicum; Cype-
rus rotundus is nut-grass ; the carices do not vary much
in appearance, though the catalogue of their varieties
in Gray's Manual occupies nearly thirty pages. Of
the family of Oraminece, or grasses, Philadelphia was
the habitat of a great many genera and species ; there
were two Leersice, three Agrostes, five Muhlenbergioz,
five Pocs, three sorts of Elymus, fifteen of Panieum,
and three of Andropogon ; among these were rice-
grass, fly-catch, water-oats, meadow fox-tail, timothy,
drop-seed grass, bent-grass, thin-grass, orchard-grass,
herd-grass, poverty-grass, blue-grass, green-grass,
cheat, wild-oats, bur-grass, red-top, nimble will, hair-
grass, joint-grass, rattlesnake-grass, spear-grass, wire-
grass, meadow fescue, darnel, couch-grass, wild-rye,
sweet-scented vernal grass, millet, bottle-grass, sesame,
and broom-corn.
Of the animals, birds, and fishes, the reptiles and
insects of Philadelphia, the old writers make much
mention, but it is still rather of a confused sort. Penn
dwells upon the elk and deer, the bears, beavers, rac-
coons, rabbits, and squirrels, the turkeys, pheasants,
pigeons, and partridges, and the water-fowl. The
abundance of flsh struck him, and he frequently com-
mented upon them. Gabriel Thomas names "swans,
duck, teal, geese, divers, brands, snipe, curlew, eagles,
Turkies (of Forty or Fifty Pound Weight), Pheasants,
Partridges, Pigeons, Heathbirds, Blackbirds, and the
strange and remarkable fowl called (in these parts)
the Mocking-Bird, that Imitates all sorts of Birds in
their various Notes. And for Fish, there are prodigious
quantities of most sorts, viz. : Shadd, Cat-Heads, Sheep-
Heads, Herrings, Smelts, Roach, Eels, Perch. As also
the large sort of Fish, as Whales (of which a great deal
of Oyl is made), Salmon, Trout, Sturgeon, Rock, Oys-
ters (some six Inches long), Crabs, Cockles (some as big
as Stewing Oysters, of which are made a Choice soupe
or Broth), Canok, and Mussels, with many other sorts
of fish, which would be too tedious to insert. There are
several sorts of wild Beasts of great Profit, and good
Food, viz. : Panthers, Wolves, Fitchow, Deer, Beaver,
Otter, Hares, Musk-Rats, Minks, Wild Cats, Foxes,
Raccoons, Rabbits, and that strange creature, the
Possum, she having a false Belly to swallow her Young
ones, by which means she preserveth them from dan-
ger when anything comes to disturb them. There are
also Bears, some Wolves, are pretty well destroyed by
the Indians for the sake of the Reward given them
by the Christian for that service. Here is also that
Remarkable Creature, the Flying Squirrel, having a
kind of Skinny Wings, almost like those of the Batt,
though it hath the like Hair and Colour of the Com-
mon Squirrel, but is much less in Bodily Substance.
I have (myself) seen it fly from one Tree to another
in the Woods, but how long it can maintain its Flight
is not yet exactly known. There are in the Woods
abundance of Red Deer (vulgarly called Stags),
for I have bought of an Indian a whole Buck (both
Skin and Carcass) for two Gills of Gunpowder.
There are vast Numbers of other Wild Creatures,
as Elk, Buffaloes, etc., all which, as well Beasts, Fowl,
and Fish, are free and common to any Person who can
shoot or take them, without any lett, hinderance, or
GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY.
29
opposition whatsoever. There are among other vari-
ous sorts of Frogs, the Bull-Frog, which makes a
roaring noise, hardly to be distinguished from that
well known of the Beast from whom it takes its
Name. There is another sort of Frog that crawls
up to the tops of Trees, there seeming to imitate the
Notes of several Birds, with many other strange and
various Creatures, which would take up too much
room here to mention." Campanius mentions tor-
toises, sturgeons, and whales. The rattlesnake, he
says, has a head like a dog, " and can bite a man's
leg off as clear as if it had been hewn down with an
axe." The "sea-spiders" (king crab) are "as large
as tortoises, and like them have houses over them of
a. kind of yellow horn. They have many feet, and
their tails are half an ell long, and made like a three-
edged saw, with which the hardest trees may be sawed
down." The "tarm-fish" has no head, and is like a
smooth rope, one-quarter of a yard in length and four
fingers thick, and somewhat bowed in the middle.
At each of the four corners there runs out a small
bowel three yards long and as thick as coarse twine.
" With two of these bowels they suck in their food,
and with the other two eject it from them" (a sort of
medusa, probably). There is also a devil-fish, called
by the Indians " manitto," which plunges deep in the
water and spouts like a whale.
That whales once frequented the Delaware does not
admit of question. De Vries established the colony
at Swaanendael as a point d'appui for the whale fish-
ery ; Vanderdonck says these mammals were fre-
quently stranded on the shores and captured by
Indians and settlers ; Lambrechtsen mentions cod,
tunny, and whale as among the fish of the North and
South Rivers ; Du Simitiere's manuscripts contain an
account of a whale that came up to Philadelphia. It
will be noticed that Thomas mentions buffaloes as
among the animals of Eastern Pennsylvania ; the
same thing is done by the author of the so-called
" Plantagenet's Albion" pamphlet, and by Vander-
donck, the latter saying that " the buffaloes keep to-
wards the southwest, where few people go." It has
been said very positively that the American bison
never came east of the Allegheny Mountains, and
the general silence of early naturalists on the subject
seems to make the statement probable. But the
cause assigned, that the bison, a prairie animal,
avoids mountains, is no longer admissible, for we
now know that he hides in the deepest valleys of
the B,ocky Mountains, and climbs cliffs as daringly
as he storms the snow-drifts. Besides, the bison
could easily have passed round the mountains by
way of the northern lakes, descending the Hudson,
Delaware, and Susquehanna. The animal's frequent-
ing-place was doubtless the treeless plains ; but he
may have easily come to visit, though not to stay, in
the East. Evidently the Delaware Indians knew of
the beast ; they had a name for him (xiasUle), and they
called one of the branches of the Allegheny Biver
Sissilie Hanna, " the stream where the buffaloes re-
sort." The city of Buffalo, on Lake Erie, would
seem to have its name from the resort of these ani-
mals, and there are four townships and one town called
Buffalo in Pennsylvania. One Buffalo Creek, in this
State, empties into the Juniata ; another into the
Susquehanna, both east of the Alleghenies; the name
is also found in North Carolina, Georgia, and Mary-
land, at points east of the mountains. This is posi-
tive evidence, so far as the names of places go, in
favor of eastern migrations of the bison ; the non-
mention of the animal by early writers is negative
evidence against such migrations.
It is not necessary to present a full account of the
zoology of Philadelphia County. Dr. Michener, B.
H. Warren, Prof. Cope, Alexander Wilson, Spencer F.
Baird, John Cassin, Dr. Joseph Thomas, Mr. Brewer,
Mr. Barnard, etc., have collected all the information
on the subject that is desirable, and a hundred times-
more than can be used here. Of the insectivora
there are several bats, five shrews, and two moles,
which are named ; of the carnivora there are the pan-
ther, {Felis concolor), Lynx rufus (American wildcat),
L. Canadensis/ the American wolf, red fox, gray fox,
weasels (three sorts), the mink, the ferret, the otter,
the skunk, the raccoon, and the black bear. Of the
marsupials, only the opossum ; of the rodents, the
squirrel family, including the cat, gray, red, black,
and flying squirrels, the ground-squirrel or chip-
munk, and the ground-hog or American marmot ; of
the muridw. or rat family, there were the beaver, the
musk-rat, the jumping mouse, the black and brown
rats, the wood-rat, the house-mouse, field-mouse,
meadow-mouse, and upland meadow mouse ; of the
porcupine family there was the American hedgehog ;
of the rabbits, two, the white and the gray. Of ru-
minants, the elk, the red deer, the buffalo (besides
domesticated animals), the horse, and (among fossils
near by in Chester County and in New Jersey) the
Elepha* primogenius and the mastodon. Among the
birds Dr. Michener and Mr. Barnard have recognized
two hundred species as belonging to the vicinity of
Philadelphia, of which nearly a fourth might still be
found. The vultures are represented by the turkey-
buzzard; the falcons or hawks by the duck-hawk, the
pigeon-hawk, the sparrow-hawk, the goshawk, and
seven other species, the kite, the marsh-hawk, the
golden and the white-headed eagle, and the fish-hawk.
The owls have the barn-owl, the great horned owl, the
screech, the long-eared, the short-eared, the barred,
" saw-whet," and snowy owls ; the cuckoos have
two varieties ; the woodpeckers eight varieties ; the
humming-birds have only one sort; there are five
varieties of swallows ; the whip-poor-will and shrike,
or night-hawk, are common, and there are the king-
fisher and the king-bird. There are eight sorts of
fly-catchers, including the pewee ; six varieties of the
thrush, including the robin and the wood and her-
mit thrush ; two kinds of wren, the blue-bird, the
30
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
titlark and the black and white creeper, the yellow-
throat, the redstart, and the three water thrushes
(sciurus). Of the warblers twenty -four varieties
have been specified ; of the vireos and fly-catchers
twelve varieties ; the butcher-bird and the mocking-
bird were much more frequent in former times, but
the cat-bird holds its own, though the brown thrush
(Mimus rufus) is getting scarce. The marsh wren is
common, but not so the other thryothori. The gray
creeper, the nut-hatcher, the titmouses and chicka-
dees, the larks, tanagers, red-birds, grosbeaks are
common ; of the finches and cross-bills several va-
rieties are named ; there are thirteen named sorts
of sparrows, four grosbeaks, two orioles, two black-
birds, two sorts of crows; the jay, turtle-dove, wild
pigeon, pheasant, partridge ; twelve cranes, herons,
bitterns, and ibises ; three sorts of the plover ; the
kildeer, phalarope, woodcock ; fifteen species of
snipe, sand-pipers, etc., and seven or eight sorts of
rail, curlew, and marsh-hen. The coot, swan, wild-
goose, brant, and loon used to be very abundant
on the Delaware — now scarce; the mallard, black
duck, sprig-tail, teal, shoveler, summer duck, scaup,
canvas-back, red-head, buffel-head, spine-tail, shell-
drake, merganser are still shot, and in winter the
Delaware is still frequented by five or six varieties of
gulls and three sorts of grebes.
The reptiles of Philadelphia were never very for-
midable, but still, numerous. Sixteen varieties of
salamander are catalogued, and eleven toads and
frogs, including all the Bufonidce, Iiylidw, and Ran-
idce. Of the ophidians, two were venomous, — the
banded rattlesnake ( Crotalus horridus) and the cop-
perhead. The other snakes were the worm snake,
ring snake, chain snake, house snake, grass snake,
black snake, garter snake, ribbon snake, yellow-bel-
lied snake, water snake, and spotted and black viper.
There was but one lizard, but nine tortoises, including
the snappers.
The fish include ten varieties of perch (with the
pike), four darters, a miller's thumb, a stickleback,
a gar, trout, salmon, a dozen chubs, dace, shiners, etc.,
in the small streams; seven or eight mullets or suckers,
six sorts of cat-fish, one variety of eel, two of stur-
geon, three lampreys, etc. Of the mollusca there is
no end of slugs and snails, pupadce, etc., eighty-six
varieties being catalogued, thirty or forty sorts of
mussels and pectino-branchiates, and this is in addi-
tion to the salt-water shell-fish.
CHAPTER III.
THE INDIANS.
When Henry Hudson, in 1609, after having exam-
ined and sounded the entrance to Delaware Bay, en-
tered and explored New York Bay and the North or
Hudson River, he encountered the natives of the
country, who called themselves Mohegans or Mohe-
canne. These savages had never seen white men ;
but after the first surprise and wonder, they met the
strangers with the utmost confidence, and made a
graceful display of their inexhaustible, generous hos-
pitality, bestowing presents and spreading before the
new-comers the choicest treasures of their little store.
This visit of Hudson's seems to have made an indel-
ible impression upon the Indians. The incident was
handed down in vivid traditions from generation to
generation, and Heckewelder heard an account of it
from the Pennsylvania Indians, among whom he was
doing his gentle duties as a missionary. The ship
was mistaken for a supernatural visitant, and its cap-
tain and crew were esteemed as being far superior to
earthly men. The simple natives fancied themselves
blessed with the presence of some great Manitou, and
they did their utmost to honor the occasion and pro-
pitiate the powerful strangers, whose house had white
wings and at whose command were the resources of
the elements, the lightning and the thunder. The
Indians put on their gala-day costumes and bravest
paint, brought out their fetishes and amulets, and
prepared a sacrifice, a feast, and a dance. Hudson,
deus ex machind, not to be outdone, met the natives
in ceremonious state, furnished them with draughts
of nectar, — in this case it was true Holland schnapps,
poured forth from a junk-bottle, "fire-water," as the
deluded savages most appropriately denominated it,
— and made them drunk after the ancient English
fashion. It is a point in the unconscious satire of
history that the Indians of the temperate zone of
North America were not sufficiently " civilized" to
have discovered the means of intoxicating themselves
by the manufacture of fermented or distilled liquors.
The Mexicans had their pulque, the South American
Indians their cushaw beer and wine, the Mobilians
their "black drink," the Peruvians their coca and
probably their "pisco" also, but the Algonkins and
their kindred had no other drink but water, and their
sole stimulant was tobacco, in the fumes of which they
quieted their brains after the fullness of the banquet,
or when the excitement of the chase or the war-path
was over. This tobacco, and their bronze and clay
pipes, handsomely ornamented, the Indians put at
the service of their visitors, and it may be remarked,
in proof of the universal reciprocity of service in ex-
changes, that if the whites taught the Indians the
use of rum and introduced the smallpox among them,
the Indians in return have taught the whole world,
civilized and uncivilized, how to smoke tobacco.
The Indians who received Hudson were of the same
nation as those who dwelt upon both sides of the Del-
aware Bay and River. They called themselves Lenni
Lenape, or Renni Renappi, a name said to signify the
" original people" or its equivalent.1 The river upon
1 There is some doubt as to whether Lenni Lenape is to be taken as
meaning autochthones in an abstract sense, or whether it means, in a
personal way, the boast that " we are the people," the men par excel-
lence.
THE INDIANS.
31
whose banks some of them dwelt they called after
their own name, Lenape Wihittuck, Lenape River,
and when the English decided that the name of the
river should be Delaware they translated the Indian
generic title into Delaware also, and so the tribe are
called Delawares to this day. Between Hudson's ,
voyage and the beginning of the eighteenth century
there is frequent contemporary mention of the Lenape
Indians and their kinsmen, the Nanticokes, and their
neighbors, the Mengwes, Minquas, or Mingoes, who
were known in Maryland as the Susquehannas. and
whose remnant afterwards became known in Pennsyl-
vania as the Conestogas. Capt. Cornelis Hendrickson,
who explored part of the Delaware in 1615-16 in a
small yacht built by Capt. Block in New York Harbor '■
to replace his vessel which had been burned,1 reported
having met and traded with the Minquas, from whose
bonds he redeemed three prisoners belonging to the
Dutch trading company at Fort Nassau, up the Hud-
son. It is probable that Hendrickson encountered
these natives at Christina or Upland Creek. His
intercourse with them was the beginning of the Dela-
ware River fur trade.
In 1623, Capt. Cornelis Jacobson Mey built Fort
Nassau on the east side of the Delaware River, just
below where Philadelphia now stands. Mey was
agent for the Dutch West India Company, and the
fort was intended as a trading-post. It was alternately
occupied or deserted as trade demands required. In
1633, De Vries found the Indians in possession of it.
De Vries himself, acting for some members of the
Dutch Company, had bought from thelndians bodies
of land on both sides of Delaware Bay near the
ocean, and in 1630 a colony was planted under his
direction at the Horekills or Lewes Creek, in Lower
Delaware, and called Swaanendael, or Swanvale, a
house being built and surrounded with palisades, to
which the name of " Fort Oplandt" was given. In
spite of the land purchase the garrison of this fort
got into trouble with the Indians, and the entire
party, some thirty men, were massacred. This land at
Swaanendael was bought by Hossett and Heysen, the
commissary and captain of the expedition organized
by De Vries, on May 5, 1631, from Sannoowouns, Wie-
wit, Pemhacke, Mekowetick, Teehepewwya, Matha-
raen, Sacoock, Anchoopoen, Janqucns, and Pokahake,
who were either Lenape or Nanticoke Indians. De
Vries, humane as he was intelligent, saw at once on his
return to the Delaware that the massacre at Fort Op-
landt was provoked by some act of the garrison or its
commander. He did not care to investigate too closely
a deed which was irreparable, and which he was
assured in his own consciousness must have originated
in some brutality or debauchery of his own people,
so he simply called the Indians together and made
a treaty of peace with them, sealing it with presents.2
1 See next chapter.
2 De Vries liuil witnessed with extreme disgust the cruelty and bad Faith
of the whites in their dealings with the Indians. He attributed the mas-
At the time of De Vries' plantation, and his expe-
dition afterwards in 1633 up the Delaware, the Min-
quas appear to have been at war with the Lenapes on
the other side of the river, and this may in part ex-
plain the hostile attitude in which the navigator
found the Indians at several points. This fact will
also explain the readiness of the sachems of New
Jersey in that year to sell to Arent Corssen the land
on the westside of the river on which Fort Beversrede
was afterwards erected. In 1638 the Swedes came
to the Delaware, and having established themselves
at Christina and subsequently at other points, began
an active and intimate trade with the Indians for
furs. They too bought the land which they occupied,
and appear to have lived with the savages on very
familiar terms, for we find that they supplied inter-
preters for many years, supplanted the Dutch in the
fur trade, and annually visited the Minquas in their
strongholds in Cecil County and on the Susquehanna.
When the Iroquois came to attack the Susquehan-
nocks in their castle in 1662, they were baffled by a
regular fort, constructed in European style by Swe-
dish engineers, with bastions and mounted cannon.3
The Swedish Governors appear to have understood
how to conciliate the Indians effectively, and were
much preferred to the Dutch. The natives aided
Pappegoya to put on shore the last party of Swedish
immigrants who arrived in the Delaware after the
subjugation of the colony by Stuyvesant. The in-
structions by Queen Christina's government to both
Printz and Risingh were very minute in their in-
junction of friendliness and good conduct to the
Indians.
De Laet, the contemporary Dutch historian, who
was also one of the directors of the Dutch West In-
dia Company, and one of the patrons for whom
De Vries purchased Indian titles on the Delaware,
names some of the Indian bands in that section in
his volume, Novus Orbis. Campanius states that the
Swedes in his time had no intercourse except with
"the black and white Mengwes," and he holds that
the Lenapes were cannibals, in proof of which he
adduces a story which is fully as authentic as his ac-
count of the rattlesnake. This author also speaks of
sacre of Hossett and his men to " mere jangling with the Indians" (in
his interesting journals), and he himself had experience of Indian loy-
alty and kindness when kindly treated. Tho suggestion of debauchery
grows out of the name given by the Dutch to Lewes Creek, which, says
Smith, the historian of New Jersey, on the authority of a manuscript
in the British Museum giving a Swedish account of the early settle-
ments on the Delaware, " had its rise from the liberality of the Indians
for lavishly prostituting, especially at that place, their maidens and
daughters to our Hollanders." Hossett's party had no women with
them, and it will be remembered that one of tho earliest complaints of
the Delawares to Tenii's government was founded upon the charge that
a settler's servants had made the males drunkand then debauched then-
wives. The complaisance which, according to Cadwallader Colden, the
Indians extended to tho whites on their first arrival might easily become
a grave indignity when the whites were discovered to be no longer su-
perior beings, but men like themselves. To meet with Amphitryons
visitors must not cease to he Jupiters.
;1 Parkman," Jesuits in North America,1' p. 442.
32
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the broad faces, flat noses, large lips, and square teeth
of the savages, adding that they often had their heads
artificially flattened in infancy. The warriors some-
times wore necklaces made of thumbs of their ene-
mies cut off after battle ; the Indians (again Cam-
panius is responsible) ate just when they happened
to be hungry ; they wore head-dresses of feathers and
snake-skins, and fed upon bear's meat, venison, birds,
fish, and maize, either in the shape of hominy or
]}one. When they traveled they mixed their cakes
with tobacco juice to quench thirst. They painted
their bodies with river mud or ochreous clays, and
made no use of salt except as an antidote to epi-
lepsy. In short, Campanius is utterly untrustworthy
as an observer, although he is sensational enough as
a raconteur. De Laet says the earth was their table
as well as their bed, — •" humo strati, aut super storeas
junceas, somnum pariter aigue cibum capiunt,'' — while
Campanius (giving Pastorius as his authority, how-
ever) absurdly makes them out as being such churls
as to mount and sit cross-legged upon tables in Chris-
tian houses to which they were asked; they never, in
fact, sitting cross-legged under any circumstances.
We learn from De Vries that the Indians used the
reed-pipe as a musical instrument, and Penn men-
tions the tambourine. De Laet seems to suppose that
they had no religion. " Nullus ipsis religioiris sensus,
nulla Dei veneratio," he says, a singular misconcep-
tion. George Alsop, in his little tract called " A
Character of the Province of Maryland" (London,
1(566), devotes a chapter to " A Relation of the Cus-
toms, Manners, Absurdities, and Religion of the Sus-
quehanock Indians in and near Maryland." These
were the Mengwes of Campanius, and the Susquesa-
hannoughs of Capt. Smith. Alsop says they are re-
garded as "the most Noble and Heroick Nation of
Indians that dwell upon the confines of America;
also are so allowed and lookt upon by the rest of the
Indians, by a submission and tributary acknowledg-
ment, being a people cast into the mould of a most
large and warlike deportment, the men being for the
most part seven foot high in altitude and in magni-
tude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch ; their voyce
large and hollow, as ascending out of a Cave, their
gate and behavior straight, steady, and majestick,
treading on the Earth with as much pride, contempt,
and disdain to so sordid a Centre as can be imagined
from a creature derived from the same mould and
Earth." They go naked summer and winter, says
Alsop, " only where shame leads them by a natural
instinct to be reservedly modest, there they become
cover'd. The formality of Jezabel's artificial Glory is
much courted and followed by these Indians, only in
matter of colours (I conceive) they differ." They
paint their faces in alternate streaks of different
colors, and Alsop thinks, with other early writers,
that their skins are naturally white but changed to
red and cinnamon-brown by the use of pigments.
Their hair is 'black, long, and harsh," and they do
not permit it to grow anywhere except upon the head.
The Susquehannas tattooed their arms and breasts
with their different totems, "the picture of the Devil,
Bears, Tigers, and Panthers," says Alsop. They are
great warriors, always at war, and keep their neigh-
bors in subjection. Their government is complex
and hard to make out; " all that ever I could observe
in them as to this matter is, that he that is most
cruelly Valorous is accounted the most Noble,'' which
is a very good approximation of the fact that the war-
chief derives his rank or influence from his deeds.
Our author adds that " when they determine to go
upon some Design that will and doth require a con-
sideration, some six of them get into a Corner and sit
in Juncto, and if thought fit their business is made
popular and immediately put in action ; if not, they
make a full stop to it, and are silently reserv'd."
On the war-path they paint and adorn their persons,
first well greased ; their arms, the hatchet and fusil,
or bow and arrows. Their war parties are small; they
march out from their fort singing and whooping ; if
they take prisoners they treat them well, but dress
them and anoint them so that they may be ready for
the stake and torture when their captors return home.
Alsop gives a full account of the process of torture,
and declares that prisoners are hacked to pieces and
eaten by the warriors. The religion of the Susque-
hannas Alsop regarded as an absurd and degrading
superstition, they being devil-worshipers ; but he ad-
mits that, "with a kind of wilde imaginary conjecture,
they suppose from their groundless conceits that the
World had a Maker." They sacrifice a child to the
devil every four years, and their medicine men have
great influence among them. Their dead are buried sit-
ting, face due west, and all their weapons, etc., around
them. The houses of the Susquehannas " are low and
long, built with the bark of trees arch-wise, standing
thick and confusedly together." The hunters go on
long winter hunts ; the women are the menials and
drudges, and yet they are commended for their beauty
of form, and their husbands are said to be very con-
stant to them. " Their marriages," says Alsop, in con-
clusion, " are short and authentique; for after 'tis re-
solv'd upon by both parties, the Woman sends her
intended Husband a kettle of boil'd "Venison, or
Bear, and he returns in lieu thereof Beaver or Otter
Skins, and so their Nuptial Rites are concluded with-
out other Ceremony."
What has been quoted above serves rather to prove
how difficult it is to extract from contemporary
writers a clear account of the Indians than to fur-
nish an illustration of their actual situation and
character. Nor do we get the satisfactory narratives
we should expect from observers like Penn and Ga-
briel Thomas and Thomas Budd, though they must
have seen the Indians often, face to face, in their
homes and in the wigwams likewise. It is greatly to
be regretted that a keen observer and judge of men
like James Logan did not write the history- of the
THE INDIANS.
33
Delaware Indians, whom he knew so long and so in-
timately. As it is, the best account of these Indians
which is to be found anywhere is a fragmentary
sketch, only a few pages, by Charles Thomson, the
secretary to the Continental Congress. This brief
paper, which breaks off in the middle of a sentence,
is yet sufficient
to explain to us
why both whites
and Indians dig-
nified Thorn-
son as the very
incarnation
f una-
ulterated
truth, and
adds to
the re-
g r e t
which
all
must
feel
that
smaaL
nent patriot and civilian should have shrunk from
writing the history of those great events in which
lie bore so large and yet so nebulous a part. We
will presently speak further of this paper of
Thomson's, which has been published among the
memoirs of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
Budd, who arrived in Burlington, N. J., as early as
T668, and had many opportunities to see and study
the Indians, said of them, " The Indians told us in a
conference at Burlington, shortly after we came into
the country, they were advised to make war on us and
cut us off while we were but few, for that we sold
them the smallpox with the match-coats they had
bought of us, which caused our people to be in fears
and jealousies concerning them; therefore, we sent
for the Indian kings to speak with them. . . . One
3
of them, in behalf of the rest, made the following
speech in answer :
"' Our young men may speak such words as we do not like nor approve
of, and we cannot help that, and Bome of your young men may speak
such words as you do not like, and you cannot help that. We are your
brothers, and intend to live like brothers with you ; we have no miDd to
have war, for when we have war we lire only skin and bones, the meat
that we eat doth not do us good; we always are iu fear, we have not the
benefit of the sun to shine on us, we hide us in holes and corners; we
are minded to live in peace. If we intend at any time to make war we
will let you know of it, and the reasons why we make war with you;
and if yon make us satisfaction for the injury done us, for which the
war was intended, then we will not make war on you ; and if you intend
at any time to make war on us, we would have you let us know of it
and the reason, and then if we do not make satisfaction for the injury
done unto you, then you may make war on us, otherwise you ought nut
to do it ; you are our brothers, and we are willing to live like brothers
with you ; we are willing to have a broad path for you and us to walk
in, and if an Indian is asleep in this path the Englishman shall pass by
and do him no harm ; and if an Englishman is asleep in this path, the
Indian shall pass him by and say, ' He is an Englishman, he is asleep;
let him alone, he loves to sleep.' " . . .
Budd adds that
" The Indians have been very serviceable to us by selling ub venison,
Indian corn, peas and beans, fish and fowl, buck-skins, beaver, otter,
and other skins and furs; the men hunt, fish, and fowl, and the women
plant the corn and carry burthens. There are many of them of a good
understanding considering their education, and in their publick meet-
ings of business they have excellent order, one speaking after another,
and while one is speaking alt the rest keep silent, and do not so much
as whisper to one another; we had several meetings with them, . . ,
The kings sat on a form, and we on another over against them ; they
had prepared four belts of wampum (so their current money is called,
being black and white beads made of a fish-shell) to give us as sealB of
the covenant they made with us; one of the kings, by the consent and
appointment of the rest, stood up and spoke."
William Penn, in his letter to the Free Society of
Traders, written in 1683, has discoursed copiously
about the Delaware Indians. It was not until his
second visit, in 1699, that he became much acquainted
with other tribes. In a letter of prior date to the one
just spoken of, written to Henry Savell, from Phila-
delphia, 30th of Fifth month, 1683, the proprietary
says,
" The natives are proper and shapely, very swift, their language lofty
They speak little, but fervently and with elegancy. I have never seen
more naturall sagacity, considering them without y° help— I was going
to say y» spoyle— of tradition. The worst is that they are y° wors for y«
Christians who have propagated their views and yielded them tradition
for y« wors & not for y= better things, they believe a Diety and Immor-
tality without y help of metaphysicks & some of them admirably sober,
though y« Dutch & Sweed and English have by Brandy and Rum almo-t
Debaucht y-» all and when Drank ye most wretched of spectacles, often
burning & sometimes murdering one another, at which times y» Chris-
tians are not without danger as well as fear. Tho' for gain they will run
the hazard both of y' and y Law, they make their worshipp to consist
of two parts, sacrifices w<> they offer of their first fruits with marvellous
fervency and labour of holy sweating as if in a bath, the other is their
Canticoes, as they call them, w°>> is performed by round Dances, sonic-
times words, then songs, then shouts, two being in ye midle y't begin
and direct y chorus ; this they performe with equal ferve.icy but great
appearances of joy.i In this I admire them, nobody shall want w< an-
» Penn appears particularly anxious to show here and in his letter to
the Society of Free Traders that the songs (or Canticoes.as he calls them)
and dances of the Indians, which he enjoyed heartily, were purely reli-
gious in their character,— actB of exalted spiritual fervor. In fact ha
34
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
other has, yett they have propriety (property)but freely communicable,
they want or care for little, no Bills of Exchange nor Bills of Lading,
no Chancery suits nor Exchequer Acct. have they to perplex themselves
with, they are soon satisfied, and their pleasure feeds them, — I mean
bunting and fishing."1
This letter is made much more full in the one to
the Free Society of Traders, written in August of the
same year. The natives, Penn says, are generally
tall, straight in their person, —
" well built, and of singular proportion [i.e., of symmetry]; they tread
strong and clever, and mostly walk with alofty chin. 2 Of complexion
black, but by design, as the gipsies in England. They grease them-
selves with bear's fat clarified, and using no defence against sun and
weather, their skins must needs be swarthy. Their eye is livid and
black, not unlike a straight- looked Jew. The thick lips and fiat nose,
so frequent with the East Indians and blacks, are not common to them;
fori have seen as comely European-like faces among them, of both sexes,
as on your side the eea ; and truly an Italian complexion hath not more
of the white ; and the tioses of several of them have as much of the
Roman. Their language is lofty, yet narrow ; but, like the Hebrew, in
signification full. Like short-hand in writing, one word serveth in the
place of three, and the rest are supplied by the understanding of the
hearer; imperfect in their tenses, wanting in their moods, participles,
adverbs, conjunctions, and interjections. I have made it my business to
understand it, that I might not want an interpreter on any occasion;
and I must Bay that I know not a language spoken in Europe that hath
words of more sweetness or greatness, in accent and emphasis, than
theirs ; for instance, Octockekon, Rancocas, Oricton, Shak, Marian, Fo-
quesian, all which are names of places, and have grandeur in them. Of
words of sweetness, anna is mother ; issimus, a brother ; neteap, friend ;
usqueoret, very good ; pane, bread ; metsa, eat ; maltu, no ; haita, to have ;
payo, to come; Sepassen, Passijon, the names of places ; Tamane,Secane,
Menanse, Secatareus, are the names of persons. If one ask them for
anything they have not, they will answer, matta ne hatla, which, to
translate, is ' not I have,' instead of * I have not.'
" Of their customs and manners there is mucli to be said. I will begin
with children. So soon as they are born they wash them in water, and
while very young and in cold weather to choose, they plunge them in
the rivers to harden and embolden them. Having wrapt them in a
clout, they lay them on a strait thin board a little more than the length
and breadth of the child, and swaddle it fast upon the board to make it
straight; wherefore all Indians have flat heads; and thus they carry
them at their backs. The children will go [walk] very young, at nine
months commonly. They wear only a small clout around their waist
was on record as opposing ordinary song and dance, saying of dancing,
in the words of one of the ancients, " As many paces as a man maketh
in dancing, so many prices doth he make to go to hell." (" No Cross, no
Crown," 16G9, p. 86.) The Indians may have sung and danced at their
religious services (if they had any), but unfortunately they sung and
danced likewise after all their feasts, and especially when they had had
one of their orgies, aud the rum and cider were masters of the savages'
ordinary decorum and stoical 6elf-containment.
i Penn. Archives, vol. i. pp. G8-9.
2 Penn had noticed a singularity in the Indians' gait, yet did not detect
what it was ; yet it is f>o obvious that a few years back, in Kentucky,
where the people still walk like the Indians, even a school -boy would
recognize a person from the East by differences in his way of walking
from the way of those to the manner born. The Indian Bteps with a
perfectly straight foot and without turning his toes out, so that if the
sun were upon his back the shadow of his shanks would entirely cover
his feet. This tread is the antithesis of that of the Bailor, who walks
with his toes very much turned out, and the European and the Eastern
man walk like him. In both cases convenience and propriety are suited:
the sailor, by his mode of locomotion, is enabled to tread more firmly and
safely upon an uncertain deck that is always uneasy ; the Indian, by
bis mode, is able to walk more safely the narrow forest path, and to step
also with greater stealth and softness in pursuit of bis enemy and his
game where leaves to rustle and twigs to break are numerous. But the
difference is that the sailor "rolls" in his gait and his shoulders swing
from side to side, while the Indian's walk makes him carry himself sin-
gularly straight, his shoulders never diverging from a perpendicular.
This little circumstance added materially to the outward appearance of
gravity in the savage's general demeanor.
till they are big. If boys, they go a-fishing till ripe for the woods,
which is about fifteen. There they hunt; and having given some proofs
of their manhood by a good return of skins, they marry ; else it is a
shame to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mothers, and help
to hoe the ground, plant corn, and carry burthens ; and they do well to
use them to that, while young, which they must do when they are old;
for the wives are the true servants of the husbands; otherwise the men
are very affectionate to them. When the young women are fit for mar-
riage they wear something upon their heads for an advertisement, but
so as their faces are hardly to be seen but when they please. The age
they marry at, if women, is- about thirteen and fourteen; if men, seven-
teen and eighteen. They are rarely older. Their houses are mats or
barks of trees, set on poles in the fashion of an English barn, but out of
the power of the winds, for they are hardly higher than a man. They
lie on reeds or grass. In travel they lodge in the woods about a great
fire, with the mantle of duffils they wear by day m rapt about them and
a few boughs stuck round them. Their diet is maize or Indian corn
divers ways prepared, sometimes roasted in the ashes, sometimes beaten
and boiled with water, which they call homine. They also make cakes
not unpleasant to eat. They have likewise several sorts of beans and
peas that are good nourishment, and the woods and rivers are their
larder. If an European comes to see them, or calls for lodging at their
house or wigwam, thoy give him the best place and first cut. If they
come to visit ns they salute us with an Itah ! which is as much as to say,
'Good be to you!' and set them down, which is mostly on the ground,
close to their heels, their legs upright ;it may he they speak not a word,
but observe all passages [all that passes]. If you give them anything to
eat or drink, well, for they will not ask ; and, be it little or much, if it
be with kinduess, they are well pleased ; else they go away sullen, but
say nothing. They are great concealers of their own resentments,
brought to it, I believe, by the revenge that hath been practiced among
them. In either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians. A
tragical instance fell out since I came into the country. A king's
daughter, thinking herself slighted by her husband in suffering an-
other woman to lie down between them, rose up, went out, plucked a
root out of the ground, and ate it, upon which she immediately died;
and for which, last week, he made an offering to her kindred for atone-
ment and liberty of marriage, as two others did to the kindred of their
wives, who died a natural death ; for till widowers have done so they
must not marry again. Some of the young women are said to take
undne liberty before marriage for a portion; but when married, chaste.
When with child they know their husbands no more till delivered ; and
during their month they touch no meat, they eat but with a stick, lest
they should defile it; nor do their husbandB frequent them till that time
be expired.
"But in liberality they excel; nothing is too good for their friend;
give them a fine gun, coat, or other thing, it may pass through twenty
hands before it sticks; light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent.
The most merry creatures that live, feast and dance perpetually ; they
never have much, nor want much ; wealth circulateth like the blood;
all parts partake; and though none shall want what another hath, yet
exact observers of property. Some kings have sold, others presented
me with several parcels of land ; the pay or presents I made them wore
not hoarded by the particular owners ; but the neighboring kings aud
their clans being present when the goods were brought out, the parties
chiefly concerned consulted what and to whom they should give them.
To every king then, by the hands of a person for that work appointed,
is a proportion sent, bo sorted and folded, and with that gravity that is
admirable. Then that king subdivideth it in like manner among his
dependants, they hardly leaving themselves an equal share with one of
their subjects ; and be it on such occasions as festivals, or at their com-
mon meals, the kings distribute, and to themselves last. They care fol-
licle, because they want but little; aud the reason is, a little contents
them. In this they are sufficiently revenged on us; if they are ignorant
of our pleasures, they are also free from our pains. . . . Since the Euro-
peans came into these parts they are grown great lovers of strong liquor^,
rum especially, and for it they exchange the richest of their skins and
furs If they are heated with liquors they are restless till they have
enough to Bleep, — that is their cry, Some more and I will go to sleep ; but
when drunk one of the most wretched spectacles in the world!
"In sickness, impatient to be cured ; and for it give anything, espec-
ially for their children, to whom they are extremely natural. They
drink at these times a tisan, or decoction of some roots in spring-water;
aud if they eat any flesh it must be of the female of any creature. If
they die they bury them with their apparel, be they man or woman, and
the nearest of kin fiiug in something precious with them as a token of
their love. Their mourning is blacking of their faces, which they con-
THE INDIANS.
35
tinue for a year. They are choice of the graves of their dead, for, leBt
they should be lost by time and fall to common use, they pick off the
grass that grows upon them, and heap up the fallen earth with great care
and exactness. These poor people are under a dark night in things re-
lating to religion ; to be sure the tradition of it ; yet they believe a God
and immortality without the help of metaphysics, for they say, ' There
is a Great King that made them, who dwells in a glorious country to the
southward of them, and that the souls of the good shall go thither where
they shall live again.' Their worship consists of two parts, sacrifice and
cantico. Their sacrifice is their first fruits; the first and fattest buck
they kill goeth to the fire, where he is all burnt, with a mournful ditty
■of him that performeth the ceremony, but with such marvellous fer-
vency and labor of body that he will even sweat to a foam. The other
part is their cantico, performed by round dances, sometimes words, some-
times songs, then shouts, two being in the middle that begin, and by
singing and drumming on a board direct the chorus. Their postures in
i ho dance are very antick and differing, but all keep measure. This is
dune with equal earnestness and labor, but great appearance of joy. In
ihe fall, when the corn cometh in, they begin to feast one another.
There have been two great festivals already, to which all come that will.
I was at one myself; their entertainment was a great seat by a spring
under some shady trees, and twenty bucks, with hot cakes of new corn,
both wheat and beans, which they make up in a square form in the leaves
of the stem and bake them in the ashes, and after that they fall to dance.
But they that go must carry a small present in their money ; it may be
sixpence, which is made of the bone of a fish ; the black is with them
as gold, the white silver ; they call it all wampum.
" Their government is by Kings, which they call Sachama, and these
by succession, but always on the mother's side. For instance, the chil-
dren of him who is now king will not succeed, but his brother by the
mother, or the children of his sister, whose sons (and after them the chil-
dren of her daughters) will reign, for woman inherits. The reason they
render for this way of descent is, that their issue may not bo spurious.
Every King hath his Council, and that consists of all the old and wise
men of his nation, which, perhaps, is two hundred people. Nothing of
moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, or traffick, with-
out advising with them, and, which is more, with the young men too.
It is admirable to consider how powerful the Kings are, and yet how
they move by the breath of their people. I have had occasion to be in
council with them upon treaties of land, and to adjust the terms of trade.
Their order is thus: The king sits in the middle of an half moon, and
hath his council, the old and wise, on each hand ; behind them, or at a
little distance, sit tho younger fry in the same figure. Having consulted
and resolved their business, the King ordered one of them to speak to
me; he stood up, came to me, and, in the name of his King, saluted me;
then took me by the hand and told me, ' He was ordered by his King to
speak to me, and that now it was not he, but the King that spoke; be-
cause what he should say was the King's mind.1 He first prayed me ' to
excuse them, that they had not complied with me the last time, he feared
there might be some fault in the Interpreter, being neither Indian nor
English; besides, it was the Indian custom to deliberate and take up
much time in council before they resolve, and that if the young people
and owners of the laud had been as ready as he, I had not met with so
much delay.' Having thus introduced his matter, he fell to the bounds
of the land they had agreed to dispose of and the price, which now is
little and dear, that which would have bought twenty miles not buying
now two. During the time that this man spoke not a man of them was
observed to whisper or smile, the old grave, the young reverent in their
deportment. They speak littl e but fervently, and with elegance. I have
never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I
was going to say the spoil) of tradition, and he will deserve the name of
wise that outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand.
"When the purchase was agreed great promises passed between us, ' of
kindness and good neighborhood, and that the Indians and English must
live in love as long as the sun gave light,' which done, another made a
speech to the Indians in the name of all the Sachemakers or Kings, first
to tell them what was done, next to charge and command them ' to love
the Christians, and particularly live in peace with me and the people
under my government ; that many governors had been in the river, but
that no Governor had come himself to live and stay here before, and hav-
ing now such an one, that had treated them well, they should never do
him or his any wrong,1 at every sentence of which they shouted and said
Amen in their way. The justice they have is pecuniary. In case of any
wrong or evil fact, be it murder itself, they atone by feasts and presents
of their wampum, which is proportioned to the quality of the offence, or
the person injured, or of the sex they are of. For in case they kill a
woman they pay double, and the reason they render is, ' that 6he breedeth
children, which men cannot do.' It is rare they fall out if sober, and if
drunk they forgive it, saying, ' It was the drink, and not the man, that
abused them.'
" We have agreed that in all differences between us six of each side
shall end the matter. Do not abuse them, but let them have justice and
you win them. The worst is that they are the worse for the Christians,
who have propagated their vices and yielded their traditions for ill and
not for good things. But as low an ebb as these people are at, and as in-
glorious as their own condition looks, the Christians have not outlived
their sight, with all their pretensions to an higher manifestation. What
good, then, might not a good people graft where there is so distinct a
knowledge left between good and evil? I beseech God to incline the
hearts of all that come into these parts, to outlive the knowledge of the
natives, by a fixed obedience to their greater knowledge of the will of
God, for it were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of
the poor Indians' conscience, while we make profession of things so far
transcending.
1 For their original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race; I
mean, of the stock of the ten tribes, and that fur the following reasons:
First, they were to go to a 'land not planted nor known'; which, to be
sure, Asia and Africa were, if not Europe, and He that intended that ex-
traordinary judgment upon them might make the passage not uneasy to
them, as it is not impossible in itself, from the easternmost parts of Asia
to the westernmost of America. In the next place, I find them of the
like countenance, and theirchildren of so lively resemblance that a man
would think himself in Duke's Place, or Berry Street, in London, when
he Beeth them. But this is not all : they agree in rites; they reckon by
moons ; they offer their first fruits ; they have a kind of feast of taber-
nacles; they are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones ; their mourn-
ing a year ; customs of women, with many other things that do not now
occur."
So much wrote Penn concerning the aborigines of
his province. Gabriel Thomas says (not repeating
those matters in which Penn and he write identically)
that
' When they bury their Dead, they put into the Ground with them
some House-Utensils and some Money (as Tokens of their Love and Af-
fection) with other Things, expecting they shall have Occasion for them
again in the other World. And if a Person of Note dies very far from
the Place of hiB own Residence they will carry hisBones home some con-
siderable time after to be buried there. They are also very curious, nay,
even nice, in preserving and repairing the Graves of their Dead. They
do not love to be asked twice their Judgment about one Thing. They
are a People who generally delight much in Mirth, and are very studi-
ous in observing the Vertues of Hoots and Herbs, by which they cure
themselves of many Distempers in their Bodies, both internal or exter-
nal. They will not suffer their Beards to grow, for they will pluck the
Hair off with their own fingers as soon as they can get hold of it, hold-
ing it a great Deformity to have a Beard. . . Their chief Imploymeut
is in Hunting, Fishing, and Fowling, and making Canoes, or Indian
Boats and Bowls, in all which Arts they are very dexterous and ingeni-
ous. Their Women's Business chiefly consists in planting of Indian
Corn and pounding it to Meal in Mortars, with Pestile (as we beat our
Spice), and make Bread, and draw their "Victuals, which they perform
very neatly and cleanlily. They also make Indian Mats, Ropes, Hats,
and Baskets (some of curious Workmanship) of fheirHemp, which there
grows wild and natural in the Woods in Great Plenty, In short the
Women are very ingenious in their several Imployments as well as the
Men. Their young Maids are naturally very modest and shamefae'd.
And their young Women when newly married are very nice and shy,
and will not suffer the men to talk of any immodest or lascivious Mat-
ters. Their Houses are, for the most part, cover'd with Chestnut Bark,
but very close and warm, insomuch that no Rain can go through. Their
Age in Computation may be compared with the Christians. Their wear-
ing Habit is commonly Deer-Skins or Duffles. They don't allow of men-
tioning the Name of any Friend after his Death, for at his Decease, they
make their Face black all over with black Lead, and when their Affairs
go well with them they paint theirFaces with red Lead, it being a Token
of their Joy, as the other is of their Grief. They are great Observers of
the Weather by the Moon. They take great Delight in Cloths of vari-
ous Colours. And are bo punctual that if any go from their first Offer or
Bargain with them, it will be very difficult for that Party to get any
Dealings with them any more, or to have any further Converse with
them, and moreover, it is worthy of Remark, that when a company of
them are got together they never interrupt or contradict one another,
36
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
'till two of them have made an end of their Discourse, for if uever so
many be in Company only two must discourse at a time, and the rest
must keep Silence. The English and they live together very peace-
ably, by reason that the English satisfies them for their Land. . . . The
Dutch and Sweads inform me that they are greatly decreased in num-
ber to what they were when they came first into this country, and the
Indians themselves say that two of them die to every one Christian that
comes in here." *
To show what the early settlers of America thought
about the Indians is a very different thing from show-
ing what they really were. Observers were not trained
in those days to report things as they are. They went
to their work with settled prejudices, preconceived
opinions, predilections, and that obstinate half-knowl-
edge which is in so many cases worse than no knowl-
edge at all. They would not look at the Indians ex-
cept as they conformed to or differed from European
standards and European social systems, and the narrow
theories of the day, upon all matters connected especi-
ally with ethnology, absolutely prevented them from
forming just opinions, even in respect to what they
clearly saw. Hence a thousand wild and ridiculous
speculations and dreams, mixed up with very little
plain fact. Our early writers gave us, so to speak,
all the alchemy and astrology of Indian history, while
neglecting its plain chemical analysis, and the simple
but comprehensive mathematical laws, by which its
vital system could be intelligently explained. We
are told much of Indian kings and emperors, of coun-
cil fires, peace-pipes, and wampum belts, but almost
nothing of the Indian social system and domestic
economy, and practically less than nothing in regard
to Indian languages, since nearly all there is said upon
that necessary factor in ethnological study is false and
illusory. The hardest task which students of Ameri-
can antiquities to-day have to encounter is that of
rescuing hard solid facts from the mass of opinion
and speculation in which they are hidden and buried.
The day for these theories is not yet quite passed
away, as Prof. W. D. Whitney has observed in his
lectures on i( Language and the Study of Language :"
" When men sit down with minds crammed with scat-
tering items of historical information, abounding
prejudices, and teeming fancies to the solution of
questions respecting whose conditions they know
nothing, there is no folly which they are not prepared
to commit." But still men are content to speculate
far less absurdly to-day than they did a century
and more ago on this subject. We have just seen
how gravely and calmly Peun put forward his hy-
pothesis that the Delawares are descendants of the
ten tribes of Israel ; but scholars who have much
more pretentiously devoted themselves to American
antiquities have not rested with the ten tribes. The
Indians have been derived successively from nearly
every civilized country of the Old World ; Wales,
1 Gabriel Thomas. "Historical Description of the Province and
Country of West New Jeisey in America. London, 1G98." In hiB His-
tory of Pennsylvania, Thomas simply repeats what Penn had to nay
about the Indians.
Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain, Egypt, Phoenicia, India,
and China have been called upon in turn to make
themselves responsible for the institutions and the
monuments of our American aborigines, and China
and Mongolia are still favorites in this matter with
the most serious and best instructed historians.2
" Bancroft, in his first edition, permits himself enough dalliance with
the hypothesis of a Calmuck or Mongolian immigration as tu attempt
to show that it was not impossible, perhaps not improbable. Grotius,
De Laet, etc., speculated with less information perhaps than our his-
torian, and with more prejudices, but not more widely from the purpose.
Seme writers have assumed that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, be-
cause they made adventurous voyages and passed outside the Straits of
Hercules, must have come to America. Plato's myth of the Atlautides
has been made to do service in buoying up a sunken continent out of
the oozy depths of the ocean and the mermaiden grottoes of fantastic
legend. Mexico and Peru, as has been infallibly shown time and again,
must have got their monuments from Egypt or from India, — Curnacr
Luxor, Elepbanta are reproduced at Palenque and Uxmal, at Cholula
and Cuzco. Aristotle is quoted to show that the ancients must have
had a knowledge of and intercourse with America. Slight similarities
of costume, face, and habits have been seized upon as eagerly as Penn
seized upon the fact that the Indians counted time by moons (as if Penn
bimself did not do the same thing!) to establish relationship for our
barbarians with the children of Israel, with the fugitive Cauaauitesr
etc. The sons of Prince Madoc of course have not been neglected.
White Indians in North Carolina spoke the purest sort of a Cymric dia-
lect, and some of tlieShawaueseare reported to have been seen currying
around Welsh Billies in the same belt along with their tomahawks and
scalping-knives. Mcnassah Ben Israel concludes, upon the same sort
of data as those which convinced Penn, that the lost tribes emerged be-
tween California and the Mississippi, but Spizelius and those who fol-
lowed him in the last century were content to ascribe the origin of our
Indians to a country less distant than the Levant. China, Tartary, Si-
beria, and Kamtschatka, with the Aleutian archipelago, afforded a
natural route for immigration, though no attempt is made to explain
how the hordes of savages were able to make their way through the
frozen wastes of Alaska and British America. The fact that Leif, son
of the Northman, Eric the Red, did discover America in the year 1000
A.n. has made work fur the pseudo-ethnologists as well as the poets in
the scratchings on the Digbton rocksin Massachusetts, and the old mill
lit Newport, R. I., and has even led to the factitious discovery of suit-
posed inscriptions upon the face of the masses of Seneca sandstone at
the falls of the Potomac. The Norsemen themselves encouraged the
belief tbat on the Atlautic coast, between Virginia and Florida, a white
nation existed, who clothed themselves in long, snowy robes, carried
banners on lofty poles, and chanted songs and bymus. These were sup-
posed to be the Irish immigrants, who replied in pure Gaelic when
Raleigh's seamen accosted them, and spared Owen Chapelain's life in
16G9 because he spoke to them i n Weleh. Alexander v*n Humboldt had
condescended to listen to some of these fables, and to repeat them in his.
Cosmos. The Chinese or Japanese settlement of our continent, by
vessels coming over the Pacific Ocean, has found many advocates. Span-
ish legendB are adduced to confirm this view. M. do Guignes, in a
memoir read before the French Academy of Inscriptions, contends that
the Chinese penetrated to America a.j>. 45S, and adduces the description
and chartof Fon Sangin proof. In ourown daythat ripe Philadelphia
scholar, Charles G. Lelaud, has republished the Btory of the so-called
island of Fou-Sang aud its inhabitants Do Guignes holds that the
Chinese were familiar with the Straits of Magellan, and that the Coreans
had a settlement on Terra del Fuego. Another Chinese immigration is
assigned to a.d. 1270, the time of the Tartar invasion of the " Central
Flowery Kingdom.'1 But there are other speculations still on this sub-
ject Thomas Morton, in his" New Canaan1' (a.d. 1637), argues for the
Latin origin of the Indians, because he heard thi'm use Latin words,
and make allusions to the god Pan. "Williamson thinks that the race
unquestionably springs from a Hindoo or a Cingalese source. Thorow-
good, Adair, aud Boudinot agree with Penn and Rabbi ben Menasaah.
Roger Williams also said, "Some taste of affinity with the Hebrew I
have found." Cotton Mather thought that "probably the Devil, Beduciug
the first inhabitants of America into it, therein aimed at the having of
them and their posterity out of the sound of the silver trumpets of the
gospol, then to be heard throughout the Roman empire. If the Devil
THE INDIANS.
37
The study of our antiquities is certainly engirt with
tremendous difficulties, and these are especially promi-
nent when we approach the linguistic side of our eth-
nology. All the conditions of the problem of our
native languages are perplexing. "The number, va-
riety, and changeableness of the different tongues is
wonderful." Each family almost constitutes a tribe;
each tribe has its dialect ; each dialect changes from
year to year, so that the speech of this generation is
barely intelligible to the next. Warfare was the
normal state of the Indian, and the perpetual strife
of petty tribes is thought to have been gradually ex-
tinguishing American civilization for many years; the
culture of Mexico was yielding to the influence of
barbarism, just as the mound-builders of our Missis-
sippi Valley were extinguished before a later and
more savage race. Climate and mode of life have
also contributed to accelerate the differentiation of
our American dialects, which are mobile and change-
able intrinsically to a remarkable degree. We have
studied these dialects only indifferently well and
iiad any expectation that by the peopling of America he should utterly
deprive any Europeans of the two benefits, literature and religion, which
dawned upon the miserable world (one just before, the other just after
the first famed navigation hither), 'tie to be hoped he will be disap-
pointed of that expectation." As for the source of the Indians Mather
fancied them Scythians, because they answered Julius Caesar's descrip-
tion of " dijjicilms invenire quam interjicere" But the fact of idle and
comical opinions on this Bubject does not destroy the interest in these
speculations, nor the utility of continuing our investigations, on a
rational basis, into American archaeology. Humboldt has said, partly
in apology and partly in a spirit of protest, that " I do not participate
in the rejecting spirit which has but too often thrown popular traditions
into obscurity, but I am, on the contrary, firmly persuaded that by
greater diligence and perseverance many of the historical problems
which relate to the maritime expeditions of the Middle Ages, to the
striking identity in religious traditions, manner of dividing time, and
works of art in America and Eastern Asia, to the migrations of the
Mexican nations, to the ancient centres of dawning civilization in
Aztlan, Quivira, and Upper Louisiana, as well as in the elevated plateaux
of Cundinamarca and Peru, will one day be cleared up by discoveries of
facts with which wehave hitherto been entirely unacquainted." (Cosmos,
to], ii., 610, note.) Professor Whitney is less sanguine. " The linguistic
■condition of America," he says, " and the state of our knowledge re-
specting it being such as we have Been, it is evident how futile must be
at present any attempt to prove by the evidence of language the peopling
of the continent from Asia, or from any other part of the world outside.
. . . What we have to do at present is simply to learn all that we can
of the Indian languages themselves, to settle their internal relations,
elicit their laws of growth, reconstruct their older forme, and ascend
toward their original condition ae far as the material within our reach
and the state in which it is presented will allow ; if our studies shall at
length put us in a position to deal with the question of their Asiatic
derivation, we will rejoice at it. I do not myself expect that valuable
light will ever be shed upon the subject by linguistic evidence ; others
may be more sanguine, but all must at any rate agree that ns things are
the subject is in no position to be taken up and discussed with profit."
Nevertheless, Professor Whitney insists that greater diligence should be
devoted to the study of our antiquities. " Our national duty and honor,"
he contends, "are peculiarly concerned in this matter of the study of
aboriginal American languages as the most fertile and important branch
of American archaeology. Europeans accuse us, with too much reason,
of indifference and inefficiency with regard to preserving memorials of
the races whom we have dispossessed and are dispossessing, and to pro-
moting a thorough comprehension of their history. Indian scholars and
associations which devote themselves to gathering together and making
public linguistic anil other archaeological materials for construction of
the proper ethnology of the continent are far mrer than they should he
among ue."
during a brief period ; they have no literature, their
traditions are scanty and ill-preserved ; the tribes
themselves in many instances have wasted away from
war, pestilence, famine, and the blighting shadow of
the white man. These things make the search for
the elements and radical character of our American
dialects a difficult and arduous undertaking, and it is
no wonder, the circumstances being such, that the
ancient history of the continent is buried in the
deepest obscurity. But we know that the continent
had a history.
" Indicia of a numerous and civilized population,
over whose memories and labors unnumbered ages
have rolled, are yet discoverable on the shores of our
ocean lakes, on the banks of our mighty rivers, and
in the depths of our impenetrable forests. But these
teach us no more of the ancient inhabitants than is
known of the most aged of mortals, — that they were,
and are not. We are doomed, perhaps, to be forever
ignorant of the origin and progress of that race which
preceded the inhabitants found upon our coasts at the
first visits of Columbus and his successors, who are
supposed not only to have adorned our country with
the works of science and art, but to have conquered
and enlightened a large portion of those climes which
ignorance and pride have denominated the Old
World."1
Gordon here refers to the theory of Thomas Jefferson,
which many others have coquetted with, that America,
being the oldest hemisphere, might also have been the
home of the elder races of men. The theory, what-
ever its merits may be in other respects, ought to be
useful in the way of "retort courteous" to those who
insist that our continent has been peopled from else-
where. There is no necessity within the domains of
strict science for believing that our Indians are not
autochthones, — spruug from the soil itself. Voltaire
has suggested that we should be no more astonished
that the discoverers found men in America than that
they found flies. But if the hypothesis of migration
be insisted upon, America is as good a place to migrate
from as to migrate to. Franklin, upon this point, seems
to have coincided with Jefferson. Hector St. John
Crevecceur,2 in his account of Franklin, represents
"Poor Richard," in the course of some comments
upon the works of the mound-builders, as saying,
"This planet is very old. Like the works of Homer
and Hesiod, who can say through how many editions
it has passed in the immensity of ages?" And the
philosopher throws out the suggestion, without advo-
cating it, that the mound-builders may have been
swept away by some cataclysm of nature in prehis-
toric time. " The rent continent, the straits, the gulfs,
the islands, the shallows of the ocean, are but vast
fragments, on which, as on the planks of some wrecked
vessel, the men of former generations who have es-
1 Gordon's History of Pennsylvania, Chap. I.
- " Voyage dans la Haute Penusylvanie," Chap. II.
38
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
caped these commotions have produced new popula-
tions. Time, so precious to us, the creatures of a
moment, is nothing to nature." And the obverse of
the shield can be presented to those who insist upon
the Old World as the mother of our people with no
little effect. Geologically, the continental mass of
North America is far older than that of the other
hemisphere. In the western part of this country, in
California, Arizona, New Mexico, there are evidences,
such as we find in the Syrian deserts, the plains of
Mesopotamia, the Campagna of Rome, and the sandy
wastes of Chinese Turkestan, of a country worn out
and wasted by man's occupancy. The deep canons
and sun-baked valleys of Arizona once teemed with
populations like Palmyra and Babylon and Nineveh.
The Basque tongue in Europe is thought to be the
oldest now spoken, if not the very language of the
primitive race. It is older than the ancient Aryan
speech, than the oldest Turanian tongue, and it has
more affinities with the American dialects than any
other which is known. These affinities are not devel-
oped or understood enough to warrant the building
of any conclusions upon them. But as far as they
have been studied they do nothing to negative the
hypothesis that the Indian race is the surviving rem-
nant of an older civilization which once peopled this
continent with men and adorned it with monuments.
Some of these monuments in the Mississippi Valley
are so old that they belong to older geological forma-
tions. The epochs of glacier and drift have cast their
debris upon the foot of these mounds, which must
have been standing when down from the north, over
mountain, lake, and river, with resistless might, the
vitreous mass of the great glacier stream moved slowly
southward. Why may not Algonkin and Iroquois
have been survivors, like these mounds, from the
elder civilization which built them?
When we descend to historic times, when we come
to understand the Indian as he has been since the
white man first visited these shores, we find one
single race of men occupying practically the entire
continent, excepting the Esquimaux of. the far North,
with whom we have no concern. This race, so far as
the section of country we speak of is in debate, pos-
sessed a belt extending certainly from the Mississippi
River to the Atlantic Ocean, and from some point,
not exactly defined, north of the St. Lawrence River
to North Carolina Sounds on the east, and the Ken-
tucky cane-brakes on the west. It is probable that,
as science progresses, it will be discovered that the
one common race need not be divided into more than
four or five nations, and that the subdivision of these
nations into tribes and bands which now exists
serves no ethnological purpose. Within the limits
of the United States east of the Mississippi River,
south of Hudson's Bay, and north of Georgia, only
two nations need to be considered in historic times.
One of these is the Delaware, Lenape, or, to speak
more generally, the Algonkin nation ; the other is
the Iroquois nation. Each of these nations was rep-
resented upon the soil of Pennsylvania, and on the
site or in the vicinity of Philadelphia. The re-
searches of John Gilmary Shea, Francis Parkman,
and others who have given a special and intelligent
attention to the subject, have established the fact
that the tribe called Minquas or Minquosy by the
Dutch (in the Latin of De Laet, Machoeretini) , Meng-
wes by the Swedes (the English corruption of which
was Mingoes), Susquehannocks or Susquehannoughs
(Sasquesahannogh is the rendering by Capt. John
Smith) by the Marylanders,*and Andastes or Gan-
dastogues (corrupted in Pennsylvania into Conesto-
gas) was a branch of the Iroquois nation, settled
above tide on the Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers.
This ambitious race of savages, inspired with a con-
quering instinct which put them on a par with the
ancient Romans, not only consolidated its strength
at home by a political and military confederacy, but
extended its power and influence abroad by the estab-
lishment of military colonies, just as republican Rome
was in the habit of doing. One of these colonies con-
stituted the tribe of the Tuscaroras, occupying part
of North Carolina and Georgia, upon the flanks of
the Cherokee nation. Another was the Nottaways,
south of the James River, in Virginia. A third col-
ony was the tribe of the Nanticokes, afterwards (in
Pennsylvania) known as the Conoys, who held the
Delaware and Eastern Shore of Maryland peninsula
from the Brandywine southward. They were joined
on the north by the Minquas or Susquehannas, whose
" fort" was on the Susquehanna River at or near the
mouth of Conestoga Creek. The Huron Iroquois of
Canada were of this same nation, which thus occu-
pied a belt of territory from north to south extend-
ing from Lake Simcoe to the southern limits of North
Carolina, all in the country of the Algonkins, yet as
distinctly separate from them by difference of language,
character, and habit as a vein of trap rock in a body
of gneiss or granite. The Andastes (to call them by
their own tribal name, Andasta meaning a cabin-pole,
and the tribe wishing to imply by it that they were
house-builders rather than dwellers in lodges), like
the Lenapes, claimed a Western origin, and they were
the most warlike race upon the continent, proud and
haughty as the Romans whom they so closely resem-
bled, and, like them, enabled to conquer by their com-
pact military and civil organization. Other tribes
were split into small bands, between which there
was only a feeble and defective concert and unity of
action. The Iroquois, on the other hand, were a na-
tion, and wherever we find them we discover that
they lived and acted together in co-operative union.
In Pennsylvania, for example, in all the land pur-
chases made by Dutch, Swedes, and English, we find
the Minquas acting as one tribe, dealing as one peo-
ple and one name, whereas with the Lenapes each
petty chief seemed to do what was best in his own
sight. Tamine or Tamanend was probably the great
AUTOGRAPHS OF DELAWARE INDIANS.
39
chief of the Lenapes in the time of Penn, and his su-
preme authority was manifest in the councils, but
when it came to selling land he was no more than
on a level with the twenty or thirty sachems who
signed their marks to the deeds of conveyance for
the various tracts. The Minquas ruled all the tribes
adjacent to them and received tribute from them.
Before the confederacy of the Five Nations entered
KowyorkknJcox.
July 15, 1682.
£
Allowkam.
July 15, 1682.
Tamanen.
June 23, 16S3.
Tamanen.
June 23, 1683.
JS
Tamanen {Receipt for Money).
June 23, 1683.
)
Neneshikken.
hth Mo. 14, 1683-
Malebone.
bth Mo. 14, 1683.
*
Secane.
hth Mo. 14, 1683.
JV
Icquoquehan.
hth Mo. 14, 1683.
C C
Ewepenaike.
June 23, 1683.
Okettarickon.
June 23, 1683.
Wingebone.
June 25, 1683.
X
vanpet
e 23, 1
Swanpees.
June 23, 1683.
Wt.Bnapof.tU
June 23, 1683.
Kehelappan.
June 23, 1683.
Pendanoughah Neahannock.
6th Mo. 14, 1683.
Reherappan.
Sept. 20, 1683.
*\
Malebone.
hth Mo. 30, 1683.
Maugkhoughai'n.
4th Mo. 3, 1684.
Shakakoppek.
bth Mo. 30, 1685.
King Tnmanent.
June 15, 1692.
Mettam icon.
June 7, 1684.
King Tangours.
June 15, 1692.
upon their ambitious course (the confederacy seems
to have been formed during the second decade of the
seventeenth century), the Iroquois probably were rec-
ognized as superiors by all the tribes of the Algonkins.
Their Wyandot branch in Canada overawed the Al-
gonkins there, though the latter were much more
numerous. The Mohawks and Senecas kept in check
the Mohegans of New York, New Jersey, and New
England ; the Susquehanna Minquas and the Nanti-
cokes dominated among the Lenape of Pennsylvania
and Maryland ; the Erie Iroquois were where they
could look after the Moncey tribes of the Lenape,
the most warlike branch of that comparatively gentle
race ; the Nottaways kept in check the branch of the
Powhatan Lenapes, and the Tuscaroras were in guard
upon the Cherokees and the Florida Indians. When
the five nations of the Iroquois of the lakes — the Mo-
hawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas —
formed their confederacy and entered upon their
career of conquest their conduct was obnoxious to
their kindred both north and south of them, and
they speedily found themselves at war both with the
Wyandots in Canada, the Eries in the West, and the
Andastes-Conestogas on the Susquehanna. In such
a state of affairs the semi-hostile relations long ex-
isting between them and the Lenapes would of course
be very embarrassing, and it was probably atthis time
that they made a neutral nation of the tribe of the
Algonkins who occupied the territory on both sides
of the Niagara River between them and the Hurons,'
subjecting the Lenapes of the Delaware and Hudson
to the same sort of taboo. Heckewelder, whose crit-
ical discernment was blinded by his unvarying par-
tiality for the Lenape and his admiration for their
mildness and amiability of character, has told a
1 The neuter nation were culled by the Senecas Kahkwae, and by the
French A tliwandarom, Attiwendaronki, AlirhayenreneU, Hlmgenratlias, or
Attimddarom. The Niagara Eiver, flowing through their territory, was
called Ongwiaahra, or river of the neutrals. This tribe in 1640, Re-
cording to Lallemant, numbered forty villages, twelve thousand souls.
(" Jesuit Relations," quoted by Parkmau.)
40
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
story, often repeated, of how the Delawares were
made " women," or reduced to a state of neutrality,
by the astute contrivance and diplomatic dissem-
bling of the Iroquois, who are said to have induced
them to assume metaphorically the garments of
women and surrender their warlike apparatus upon
the pretext that there was an exalted and honorable
merit in the feminine function of peace-maker. This
might suit the notions of a simple-hearted Moravian
missionary like Hecke welder; but, stripped of its sen-
timental environment, the naked fact seems to be that
the Iroquois, finding they had these wars with their
own kindred on their hands, disarmed the Lenapes
and the Attiwandarons who surrounded them, and
who had become by conquest more or less their trib-
utaries, and guaranteed to them both peace and pro-
tection if they would abstain from hostilities on
cither side. It is likely that the Hurons and the
Susquehannas also ratified these guarantees on their
own behalf. The compact put a species of taboo upon
the neutralized tribes. Their persons, their property,
and their territory were to be respected by the bellig-
erents, and while war-parties could march through
their country, it was not to be made the scene of
conflict, nor were their villages, plantations, or trade
to be disturbed. The neuter nations could frequent the
countries of both the hostiles with the impunity of am-
bassadors or heralds. At the same time they were
classed as " women,'' were treated as such, and Heck-
ewelder did not need to be told that the name of
woman was an epithet of reproach which no nation
of warriors would submit to save under the pressure
of dire necessity. Nor did the enforced neutrality of
the Lenape protect them from the contempt and the
tyranny of the Iroquois. After these had conquered
their enemies they did not respect the terms of the
convention with the Lenapes. During Governor
Fletcher's rule in Pennsylvania the latter appealed
to him to save them from the necessity of going to
war with the French, as they had been ordered to do
by the Five Nations; and at the time of the consum-
mation of the " walking treaty" in 1744, when the
Delawares were dissatisfied with the results of the
contract, they were brutally told by the Iroquois that
they had no rights and no say in the matter whatever ;
they were women, and could not sell land without
consent of their masters; they had lost their senses,
and deserved to be taken by the hair of the head and
jerked around as some lords of creation are i n the hab it
of serving their wives in order to brighten their wits.
They were, in fine, ordered to remove into the inte-
rior of Pennsylvania, where they could be " watched,"
and they obeyed. Here after a while they were
joined by their kindred, the Shawanese, from the
valleys and mountains of Virginia, and by some frag-
ments of Maryland and other tribes. They made war
upon the whites, and after the Revolution, in Ohio and
Western Pennsylvania, in league with the tribes of
the Eastern prairies, they finally forced the survi-
vors of the Five Nations to remove the taboo and
the stigma of womanhood from them.
The Maryland and Pennsylvania Mingoes were a
tribe of stalwart warriors, whose fighting qualities were
of a superior sort, and their strategy equal to that of
their kinsmen on the lakes. Prior to a.d. 1600 they
are said to have been at war with the Mohawks, whom
they wellnigh exterminated in the course of a ten
years' struggle. Capt. Smith found this war still rife
when he met the Susquehannas in 1608. The name
he gave to the Mohawks was Massawomakes. In
1633 De Vries found them at war with the Lenape
bands on the east side of the Delaware, the Arme-
wamen and the Sankikans. They were on good terms
with the Dutch and the Swedes, with whom they had
an extensive trade in peltries, by which they were
supplied with fire-arms and ammunition ; and they
were alternately at peace and war with Maryland and
the Maryland Indians. They so harassed the Chesa-
peake and Potomac tribes during the first ten years
of the Maryland settlement that Governor Calvert in
1642 proclaimed them as public enemies. In 1647
they had thirteen hundred warriors trained to the use
of fire-arms by Swedish soldiers. Then they offered
their aid to the Canadian Wyandots, who were being
crushed by the Five Nations, having first sent an
embassy to Onondaga to propose a general peace be-
tween the Iroquois cantons, which overtures were
rejected by the Five Nations. In 1652 the Susque-
hanna Andastes, in the presence of a Swedish deputy,
ceded to Maryland all the territory of the Eastern
Shore and that of the Western Shore from the Patux-
ent to the Susquehanna, and four years later they were
again at war with the Iroquois of the lakes, while the
smallpox was destroying their population by whole-
sale. They maintained a bold front, however, drove
the Cayugas across Lake Ontario, and injured mate-
rially the fur trade of the Senecas. The Iroquois,
supported by the French, sent a force of eight hun-
dred warriors against the Susquehanna fort in 1663,
but it was too strong and well defended to be attacked,
and a stratagem attempted by the Iroquois cost them
twenty-five warriors, who were burned at the stake.
The war continued until 1675, when it ended with the
complete overthrow of the Susquehannas. Some of
their warriors retreated into Maryland, and the mur-
der of a portion of these led to Bacon's war in Vir-
ginia, and a border war in Maryland which still fur-
ther reduced the number of the surviving Mingoes.
Finally they made peace both with the Five Nations
and Lord Baltimore, and were permitted to remain
at their ancient fort. From this time they began to
dwindle away. They were at peace, however, with
Pennsylvania from the time of Penn's treaty with
their chief, Canoodagtoh, in 1701, until the last
wretched remnant of the tribe, then only known as
Conestogas, living on their reservation farm at Cones-
toga, in Manor township, Lancaster County, were
cruelly set upon by the Paxton rangers and brutally
THE INDIANS.
41
murdered in Lancaster jail, whither the authorities
had sent them for protection. Thus perished a race
of formidable Indian warriors, hunters, and states-
men, whose war-chief, Hoe.hitagete (Barefoot), is a
Hector in Indian legend, and whose last survivor,
" Logan,'' or Tah-gah-ju-te, is known to general fame
as a master of that noble, sententious eloquence in
which his race excels. Capt. Smith saw the Susque-
hanna warriors in their prime, and describes them as
'' such great and well proportioned men as are seldom
seen, for the)7 seemed like giants to the English ; yea,
and to the neighbors, yet seemed of an honest and
simple disposition, with much adoe restrained from
adoring vs as Gods, ... for their language it may
well beseame their proportions, sounding from them
as a voyce in a vault. . . . Five of their chief wero-
wances came aboord vs and crossed the Bay in their
Barge. The picture of the greatest of them is signi-
fied in the Mappe [accompanying Smith's narrative],
the calfe of whose leg was three-quarters of a yard
about, and all the rest of his limbes so answerable to
that proportion that he seemed the goodliest man we
ever beheld."
The Iroquois of the Susquehanna, or Andastes, as
their name and residence imply (Connadago, the
name of their fort, signifying the same as andalagon,
— from andata, village, — meaning he is in the house
or village of ridge-poles), differed in their mode of
dwelling from the Algonkins. The identity of the
word for house and town shows that they, too, like the
Wyandots and the Five Nations, lived in "long
houses," on the community principle. In fact, with
all the Indians, relationship and rank passed through
the female ; the band represented the members of a
family, and, among the Iroquois, as among the ancient
Mexicans and the modern Zunis and Pueblo Indians,
the family dwelt in one house and under one roof.
This house was added to as the family increased in
numbers and want, just as the bees add cells to
their combs. No man or woman could marry in
their own family, or with any one bearing the same
totem or gens mark ; that is to say, descended from
the same mother. The man or woman of the Bear,
the Beaver, the Wolf, the Serpent, or the Tortoise
totem or family could marry in any of the others, but
no Tortoise could wed with Tortoise, nor Serpent with
Serpent, etc. The children born to the woman of the
Tortoise symbol became Tortoises, whether their
father was Beaver or Wolf, or of any other family,
and these families lived together in the long houses,
the construction of which was as in the diagram
below :
) ' ' ' i I I
I (7) A (6) A (5) A (4) A (3) A (2) A (1) B
II |-| i_l I-! M l~i n
II II I l_ J 1 LL LJ
A, i>a.«niige-way ; B, entrance; (1) to (7), fire-pits.
This house would accommodate seven fires, twenty-
eight families, representing probably three or four
generations and their increase by birth and accretion
of wives and husbands. A Seneca long house, as it
was in 1677, and as above represented, is described by
Hon. Lewis H. Morgan in a paper called " A Study
of the Houses of the American Aborigines," pub-
lished in the first Annual Eeport of the Archaeologi-
cal Institute of America, 1880. The facts are gath-
ered from the description of Greenhalgh. " The
interior of the house was divided into compartments
at intervals of six or eight feet, leaving each chamber
entirely open, like a stall, upon the passage-way or
hall, which ran through the centre of the house from
end to end. Between each four apartments, two on a
side, was a fire-pit in the centre of the hall, used in
common by their occupants. Thus a house with six
fires would contain twenty-four apartments, and would
accommodate as many families, unless some of the
apartments were reserved for storage-rooms. Raised
bunks were constructed around the three sides of each
stall for beds, and the floor was slightly raised above
the level of the ground. From the roof-poles were
suspended strings of maize in the ear, braided to-
gether by the husk ; also strings of dried squash and
dried beans. Each house, as a rule, was occupied by
related families, the mothers being sisters, own and
collateral, who, with their children, belonged to the
same gens or clan, while their husbands, the fathers of
these children, belonged to other gentes, consequently
the gens, or clan, of the mother predominated in
numbers in the household, descent being in the female
line. Whatever was taken in the hunt or raised by
cultivation by any member of the household was for
the common benefit. Provision was held as common
stock within the household. The Iroquois had but
one cooked meal each day, a dinner. Each house-
hold, in the matter of the management of their food,
was under the care of n matron. When the daily
meal had been cooked at the several fires the matron
was summoned. It was her duty to divide the food
from the kettle to the several families within the
house, according to their needs. What remained was
put aside to await the further direction of the matron."
This was the sort of communism in which the Iro-
quois and their kin, the Minquas or Conestogas, lived,
until the long houses finally disappeared under the
influence of the whites. To this methodical and
economical household communism the Iroquois un-
doubtedly owe their tribal unity, their faculty of con-
federating for defense and offense, and their military
strength and political influence. John Bartram, in
his account of his journey to Onondaga, in company
with the Indian interpreter, Conrad Weiser, in 1743,
gives a description of one of these long houses, in
which he was entertained. It was the official house
of the tribe, besides being a community home.
" They showed us," he says, " where to lay our lug-
gage and repose ourselves during our stay with them,
42
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
which was in the two end apartments of this large
house. The Indians that came with us were placed
over against us. This cabin is about eighty feet long
and seventeen broad, the common passage six feet
wide, and the apartments on each side five feet, raised
a foot above the passage by a long sapling, hewed
square, and fitted with joists that go from it to the
back of the house. On these joists they lay large
pieces of bark, and on extraordinary occasions spread
mats made of rushes, which favor we had. On these
floors they sit or lie down, every one as he will. The
apartments are divided from each other by boards or
bark, six or seven feet long from the lower floor to
the upper, on which they put their lumber. . . . All
the sides and roof of the cabin are made of bark,
bound first to poles set in the ground, and bent round
on the top, or set aflat for the roof as we set our
rafters. Over each fireplace they leave a hole to let
out the smoke, which in rainy weather they cover
with a piece of bark, and this they can easily reach
with a pole to perch it on one side or quite cover the
hole."
The Algonkins, the Lenni Lenapes in Pennsyl-
vania, were also variously called Wapanacki (Euro-
pean corruptions: Openaki, Openar/i, Abenaquh, and
Apmakis). The Delaware regions appear to have
been their principal seat, though affiliated and de-
rivative nations of their stock were found from Hud-
son's Bay to Florida, and from Lake Superior to East
Tennessee. Forty tribes acknowledged the Lenapes
as grandfather or parent stock. Their traditions,
which are not always authentic, relate that the tribe
once upon a time dwelt in the far distant wilds of the
West, whence they moved eastward towards sunrise
by slow stages, often passing a year in a single camp>
but eventually reaching the bank of the Named Sipu,
the River of Fish (Mississippi), where they found the
Mengwes or Iroquois, migrating like themselves, but
who had descended from the northwest. The Lenape
scouts reported the country east of the river to be
held by a people called the Allegewi (whence the
name. Alleghany River and Mountains), who were
numerous, tall, stout, some of them giants, all dwell-
ing in intrenched or fortified towns. The Lenape
were denied leave to settle among the Allegewi, but
obtained permission to pass through their country.
When they were half over the river, however, the
Allegewi attacked and drove them back with great
loss. The Lenape now formed an alliance with the
Mengwe ; the two nations united forces, crossed the
river, attacked the Allegewi, and after a long and
desperate war defeated them and expelled them from
their country, they fleeing southward. The conquered
country was apportioned between the conquerors, the
Mengwes choosing the northern part, along the lakes,
the Lenapes choosing the more southern section,
binding on both sides of the Ohio. Moving eastward
still, they came finally to the Delaware River and the
ocean, and thence spread beyond the Hudson on the
north and beyond the Potomac on the south. This
legend, however, is full of inconsistencies and incom-
patibilities, and hardly answers to what was known of
the condition and location of the great Algonkin race
at the time of the first settlement of the whites among
them. As to their origin as members of the human
family, they have divers legends. They claim to have
come out of a cave in the earth, like the woodchuck
and the chipmuck ; to have sprung from a snail that
was transformed into a human being and taught to
hunt by a kind Manitou, after which it was received
into the lodge of the beaver and married the beaver's
favorite daughter. In another myth a woman is dis-
covered hovering in mid-air above the watery waste
of chaos. She has fallen or been expelled from
heaven, and there is no earth to offer her a resting-
place. The tortoise, however, rose from the depths
and put his broad, shield-like back at her service, and
she descended upon it and made it her abode, for its
dome-like oval resembled the first emergence of dry
land from the waters of the deluge. The tortoise
slept upon the deep, and round the margin of his
shell the barnacles gathered, the scum of the sea col-
lected, and the floating fragments of the shredded
sea-weed accumulated until the dry land grew apace,
and by and by there was all that broad expanse of
island which now constitutes North America. The
woman, weary of watching, worn out with sighs for
herlonesomeness, dropped off into a tranquil slumber,
and in that sleep she dreamed of a spirit who came
to her from her lost home above the skies, and of that
dream the fruits were sons and daughters, from whom
have descended the human race.1 Another legend
personifies the Great Spirit under the form of a gigan-
tic bird that descended upon the face of the waters,
and brooded there until the earth arose. Then the
Spirit, exercising its creative power, made the plants
and animals, and lastly man, who was formed out of
the integuments of the dog, and endowed with a
magic arrow that was to be preserved with great care,
for it was at once a blessing and a safeguard. But
| the man carelessly lost the arrow, whereupon the
Spirit soared away upon its bird-like wings and was
: no longer seen, and man had henceforth to hunt and
struggle for his livelihood. Manabozho, relates the
general Algonkin tradition, created the different
tribes of red men out of the carcasses of different
animals, the beaver, the eagle, the wolf, the serpent,
the tortoise, etc. Manabozho, Messou, Michaboo, or
Nanabush is a demi-god who works the metamor-
phoses of nature. He is the king of all the beasts ;
his father was the west wind, his mother the moon's
great-grandfather, and sometimes he appears in the
form of a wolf or a bird, but his usual shape is that
of the Gigantic Hare. Often Manabozho masquerades
in the figure of a man of great endowments and ma-
1 CampaniilB' History of New Sweden. Dltponceau's translation,
Book III. chap. i.
THE INDIANS.
43
jestic stature, when he is a magician after the order
of Prospero ; but when he takes the form of some
impish elf, then he is more tricksy than Ariel, and
more full of hobgoblin devices than Puck. " His
powers of transformation are without limit; his
curiosity and malice are insatiable;'' he has inspired
a thousand legends; he is the central figure in the
fairy realm of the Indian, which, indeed, is not very
full nor genially peopled. Manabozho is the restorer
of the world, submerged by a deluge which the ser-
pent-manitous have caused. Manabozho climbs a
tree, saves himself, and sends a loon to dive for mud
from which he can make a new world. The loon fails
to reach the bottom ; the muskrat, which next at-
temps the feat, returns lifeless to the surface, but with
a little sand in the bottom of its paws, from which
the Great Hare is able to recreate the world. In other
legends the otter and beaver dive in vain, but the
muskrat succeeds, losing his life in the attempt.1
The Atlantic Algonkins, the Lenapes, were sub-
divided into three tribes, of which the Unamis or the
Tortoise were one, the Unalachto or Turkey the sec-
ond, and the third the Wolf, the Mind. These were
equally the tribal names and the totems of these
tribes, of whom the greatest and most intelligent
were the Unamis, living on the lower Delaware and
adjacent streams near the tide, a fishing people, and
to some extent planters as well as hunters, having
numerous villages under minor chiefs, who were sub-
ordinate to the great council of the nation. The
DELAWARE INDIAN FORT.
[From Campanius1 " New Sweden."]
Minsi, often called Monceys by the English, the most
warlike of the tribes of Delaware Indians, dwelt in
the interior, between the other tribes and the Iroquois.
Their towns extended from their council-seat at the
Minisink to the Hudson on the east, the Susque-
hanna on the southwest, the Catskills on the north,
and the Muskenecum hills in New Jersey. Subordi-
1 Manabozho is also called Micliabou, Cliiabo, Tarenyawagon ; he is
the Hiawatha of the Ojibways, the Onondagas, and Mr. Longfellow, —
"Skilled in all the craft of hunters,
Learned in all the lore of old men,
In all youthful sports and pastimes,
In all manly arts and labors."
nate bands had their names from their places of
residence, as the Shackamaxons and the Nesham-
ineks, or from some other accidental circumstance.
The Lenapes suffered much from the warlike pro-
pensities and the strategic devices of the Iroquois,
who did not hesitate to murder members of other
tribes with the weapons of the Delawares in order to
involve them in hostilities. In this way they pro-
voked the Cherokees to fall upon the Lenapes, who
suffered much in tne long and bloody war which en-
sued. For nearly two generations after the first
treaty between Deputy Governor Markham and the
Lenapes in 1681, in which they surrendered lands to
William Penn, these Indians maintained pacific re-
lations with the whites of Pennsylvania. Still they
had begun to suffer and to feel impatient in conse-
quence of the increase and the pressure of the land-
hungry English in the province. After their with-
drawal to Wyoming and Shamokin by order of the Five
Nations they were reinforced by the restless bands of
their kindred, the Shawanese, who had settled as far
south as the basin of the Cumberland River in Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, whence they had been driven by
the Creeks and Cherokees, a part north of the Ohio
River, a part to the valley of Virginia about Win-
chester, their principal band having crossed into the
hilly section of South Carolina. They numbered
about two thousand souls on the Susquehanna after
the government of Pennsylvania allowed them to
settle there. There were numerous treaties between
the proprietary government and the Delawares, the
Shawanese and their kindred, and the Mengwes
from the time of Penn's negotiations in 1701 to 1754,
the time of the first overt act of hostility on the part
of the Lenape. The causes of this alienation after a
peace of seventy years were the abuses in the Indian
trade, which rested on avarice, rum, and fraud, de-
spoiling and besotting the poor savages, whose wives
were often debauched by the traders ; on the execu-
tion of a Delaware chief, Wekahelah, in New Jersey
for what was regarded as an accidental homicide,2
and on their being unjustly despoiled of their lands.
The " walking treaty" was sorely resented by the
Delawares. This is an unsavory part of the history
of Pennsylvania. In 1685 Penn had secured a deed
from Packenak, Essepertank, and some other chiefs
of the Delawares for land from Neshaminy Creek
westward " as far in the woods as a man could go in
a day and a half." This land was not wanted at that
time, and the treaty was left unexecuted. Penn's
last will left to his grandson, William Penn, a tract of
2 Smith, however, in his History of New Jersey, declares that the
deed was a deliberate assassination, and the execution only took place
after a legal trial and regular conviction and sentence. Weekqueliela^
as he styles the chief, was an Indian living near Shrewsbury, and of
great account both among Christians and his own people, being a
wealthy man with an extensive farm, cattle, horses, and negroes ; ho
raised large wheat crops, had a handsome house, feather beds, curtainB.
to his bed, etc., often entertiiined distinguished persons, and was thought
to he fully civilized.
44
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ten thousand acres. The grandson sold the devise to
William Allen, a land speculator. Allen had the
land located on the Minisink, in the country of the
Minsis, where the whites had hought no territory. A
land lottery was got up at the same time, and Indian
lands about Easton were squatted upon. When the
Minsis resented this, the Iroquois were called upon,
and the Delawares forced to remove. In 1737, John
and Thomas Penn conferred with the Indians at
Pennsbury, and demanded a confirmation of the
deed of 1685 ; the day and a half s walk was in-
trusted to hired and trained runners, who ran out a
line of eighty odd miles into the heart of the best
reserved lands of the Indians on the Kittatinny
range. The Indians denounced this as a fraud.
Tedyuscund, the Delaware chief, at the conference at
Easton in 1756, boldly declared against the swindle.
Stamping his foot upon the ground, he told Governor
Denny that —
" This very ground that is under me was my land and inheritance, and
it is taken from me by fraud. When I say this ground, I mean all the
hind between Tohiccon Creekand Wyoming on the Susquehanna." And
Tedyuscund explained his accusation with definite and unmistakable
precision: " WThen one man had formerly liberty to purchase lands,
and he took the deed from the Indians for it and then dies, and after his
death his children forge a deed like the true one, with the same Indian
names to it, and thereby take lands from the Indians which they never
sold, litis is fraud I Also, when one king has land beyond the river, and
another king has land on this 6ide, both bounded by rivers, mountains,
and springs, which cannot he moved; and the proprietaries, greedy to
purchase-lauds, buy of one king what belongs to another, this likeioise is
fraud /"
The fact was indisputable ; the French fanned the
flame of discontent and furnished arms, and the Dela-
wares went to war, harassing the frontier settlements
and doing many deeds of blood. The Quakers patched
up a peace with them ; they fought for the American
side in the Revolution, but their doom was sealed.
They moved West, joined the Shawanese, the Miamis,
the Maumees, the Wyandots, and Iroquois ; went
farther West, to Missouri, to Kansas, to the Indian
Territory. To-day the tribe has ceased to exist as a
tribe ; a few scattered hunters and scouts are the sole
survivors of this representative and leading tribe of
the great Algonkin race, who once occupied a terri-
tory extending over fifteen degrees of latitude and
twenty-five degrees of longitude in the most fertile
parts of the United States, where now there is a popu-
lation of thirty million souls and an annual value of
products exceeding $4,000,000,000.
The Lenapes had not the compact tribal unity of
the Iroquois, nor did they seem to dwell like them in
communal houses, yet Mr. Morgan is convinced that
the community system was more or less established
among all the American Indians ; he traces it among
the Mandans and the Sioux, the Arickarees and the
Cherokees, and declares that Lewis and Clark found
it among the Columbia River Indians, in Oregon, in
1808. Campanius, in speaking of the Delawares, says
that they have no towns or fixed places of habitation ;
" they mostly wander about from one place to another,
and generally go to those places where they think
they are most likely to find the means of support. . . .
When they travel, they carry their meats with them
wherever they go and fix them on poles, under which
they dwell. When they want fire, they strike it out
of a piece of dry wood, of which they find plenty ; and
i n that manner they are never at a loss for fire to warm
themselves or to cook their meat." ■
Iu constructing their lodges, says Campanius, the
Lenapes " proceed in this manner: they fix a pole in
the ground and spread their mats around it, which
are made of the leaves of the Indian corn matted
together ; then they cover it above with a kind of
roof made of bark, leaving a hole at the top for the
smoke to pass through ; they fix hooks in the pole on
which they hang their kettles ; underneath they put
a large stone to guard themselves from the fire, and
around it they spread their mats and skins on which
they sleep. For beds, tables, and chairs they use
nothing else; the earth serves them for all these
purposes. They have several doors to their houses,
generally one on the north and one on the south side.
When it blows hard, they stop up one of them with
bark, and hang a mat or skin before the other. Some-
times they fasten their doors to guard themselves
against the sudden attacks of their enemies, and
they surround their houses with round or square
palisades, made of logs or planks, which they fasten
1 Campanius speaks far too lightly here of the complicated, arduouB
methods of obtaining fire which prevail among savages, as if they in-
herited the possession and uses of flint and steel. When and how bar-
barous nations learned to produce fire is a mystery. Their first knowl-
edge of fire and its effectB and uses could of course he easily learned
from the volcano and the thunderbolt; but how came they to know that
friction would generate a degree of heat such as would result in flame?
It could not have been by experiment; was itadiBcovery which came by
accident, or was it a consequence of observation, such as that of the fric-
tion of one falling tree upon the trunk of another? The process is such
a difficult one in getting fire by friction, and its civilizing influences
are so extensive, that the question seems to be worth an archaeological
investigation. In the Osage logenditis the Master of Life himself who
instructs the snail-man in the use of fire and the cooking of meat. The
Ojibwavs hold fire to be a sacred mystery. The flint from which it is
struck is their emblem of purity, and the lighting of the peace-pipe is
one of the most sacerdotal acts. The sacrifice of fire is a sacrifice to fire
likewise, and the ancient and original worship of all the Indians was
probably directed to the sun, the source of fire. The Indians had great
difficulty in getting fire before they learned the use of flint and steel.
Some tribes kept fires burning always, and had watchers to see that
they never wen tout. The methods of generating it by friction are vari-
ous. Gen. George Crook has described a fire-stick used by the Indians
of the Siena Nevada and Cascade ranges. "The fire-stick," he says,
"consists of two pieces. The horizontal stick is generally from one foot
to a foot and a half long, a couple or three inches wide, and ab.>ut one
inch thick, of some soft, dry wood, frequently the sap of the juniper.
The upright stick is usually some two feet long and from a quarter to half
an inch in diameter, with the lower end round or elliptical, and of the
hardest material they can find. In the sage-bush country it is made of
'grease-wood.' When they make fire they lay the first piece in a hori-
zontal position with the flat side down, and place the round end of the
upright near the edge of the other stick; then taking the upright be-
tween the hands they give it a swift rotary motion, and as constant use
wears a hole in the lower stick, they cut a nick in its outer edge down
to a level with the bottom of the hole. The motion of the upright works
the ignited powder out of this nick, and it is there caught and applied
to a piece of spunk or some other highly combustible substance, and
from this the fire is started." (Smithsonian Report, 1871.)
THE INDIANS.
45
in the ground." The mode of fortifying an Indian
village was to dig a ditch around it, throwing up the
dirt on the inside. The trees of which the posts or
"puncheons" of the palisades were made were felled
by means of fire, the burnt parts hacked with hatchets
until the tree was cut through in proper lengths. The
logs were then planted upright in the embankment,
in one or several concentric rows, those of each row
bent towards the others till they intersected. Where
the palisades crossed, a gallery of timber was thrown
for the use of the defenders. These works were not
regular except in cases where the Indians were taught
by foreign soldiers, as the Hurons by the French, the
Iroquois by the Dutch, and the Susquehannocks by
the Swedes. The palisades were planted first in rude
post-holes, and the dirt from the ditch thrown up
around them.1 The chief articles of furniture were
the kettle, the dishes of bark and cedar wood, the curi-
ous-woven baskets and the calabashes. In Campa-
nius' time the Indian manufacture of pottery had
almost ceased, European utensils serving their ends
so much better. Pastorius, speaking of the Indian
diet, said, " I have once seen four Indians eating to-
gether with great delight ; their repast consisted of a
pompion (pumpkin) boiled in water, without any
meat or fat or any kind of seasoning ; their tables
and seats were the naked earth ; their spoons were
muscle-shells, out of which they dipped the warm
water ; and their plates were large leaves of trees
that stood near them.'' Yet the Indian commissariat
was not entirely bare. Besides their meats and fish,
fresh and dried, their melons and squashes, beans and
peas and berries, of which they dried many for winter
use, there were several roots and plants of which they
ate largely. In spring and summer many succulent
herbs served them for greens and salads ; they con-
sumed regularly the tuckalwe {Sclerotium giganteum),
the tauquauh of the Mohegans, the petahgunnug of
the Delawares, called "Indian loaf" by the whites.
It is a curious root, fancied by some to be a sort of
truffle, the shape of a flattened globe, and varying in
size from an acorn to the bigness of a man's head.
Kalm considers the tuckahoe to be identical with the
Arum Virginianum, the wake-robin. It was roasted
in the ashes, and the root of the Arum triphyllvm,
the Indian turnip, prepared in the same way, was
deprived of its noxious qualities and pungent, bitter
taste, and yielded a wholesome farina. The Apios
titberosa (Glycine apios of Linnreus), the ground-nut
or wild bean, was also a regular article of diet, to-
gether with the arrow-head (Saglttaria sagittafolia)
and the root of the golden-club ( Orontium aquat-
imtm).
In winter the huts of the Lenape were not very
comfortable, no matter how picturesque they might
be, but probably they afforded as nice lodgings as
those of the English gipsies. The interior of the
1 Parkman,
chapter.
'Jesuits in America." Introduction. An invaluable
cabin was stained and dingy with smoke that could
find no regular outlet, and it was so pungent and
acrid as to cause much inflammation of the eyes and
blindness in old age. The fleas and other vermin
were bad, and the children were noisy and unruly
beyond parallel, raising a pandemonium in each
lodge, which the shrill shrieking of the Hecate-like
squaws added to without controlling it. Parkman
draws a, vivid picture of a lodge on a winter night,
lighted up by the uncertain flickers of resinous flame,
that sent fitful flashes through the dingy canopy of
smoke, a bronzed group encircling the fire, cooking,
eating, gambling, or amusing themselves with idle
chaff; grizzly old warriors, scarred with the marks of
repeated battles ; shriveled squaws, hideous with toil
and hardship endured for half a century; young war-
riors with a record to make, vain, boastful, obstrep-
erous; giddy girls, gay with paint, ochre, wampum,
and braid; "restless children, pell-mell with restless
dogs." What a long step from this scene to the quiet
decorum, the serene beauty, and the accumulation of
comforts and conveniences of the civilization which
has succeeded it !
The tools of the Lenape were rude and poor, strictly
those of the stone age, for they had no knowledge of
any metal save a little copper for ornament, yet they
handled them with great skill and neatness.
'■They make their bows with the limb of a tree," says Campanius, "of
about a man's length, and their bow-strings out of the sinews of ani-
mals; they make their arrows out of a reed a yard and a half long, and
at one end they fix in a piece of hard wood of about a quarter's length,
at the end of which they make a hole to fix in the head of the arrow,
which is made of black flint-stone, or of hard bone or horn, or the teeth
of large fishes or animals, which they fasten in with fish glue in such a
manner that the water cannot penetrate ; at the other end of the arrow
they put feathers. They can also tan and prepare the skins of ani-
mals, which they paint afterwards in their own way. They make much
use of painted feathers, with which they adorn their skins and bed-
covers, binding them with a kind of network, which is very handsome,
and fastens the feathers very well. "With these they make light and
warm clothing and covering for themselves; with the leaves of Indian
corn and reeds they make purses, mats and baskets, and everything
else that they want. . . . They make very handsome and strong mats
of fine roots, which they paint with all kinds of figures ; they hang their
walls with these mats, and make excellent bed-clothes out of them.
The women spin thread and yarn out of nettles, hemp, and some plants
unknown to us. Governor Printz had a complete set of clothes, with
coat, breeches, and belt, made by these harbarians with their wampum,
which was curiously wrought with the figures of all kinds of animals.
. . . They make tobacco-pipes out of reeds about a man's length; the
bowl is made of horn, and to contaiu a great quantity of tobacco. They
generally present these pipes to their good friends when they come u>
visit them at their houses and wish them to stay some time longer;
then the friends cannot go away without having first smoked out of
the pipe. They make them, otherwise, of red, yellow, and blue clay, of
which there is a great quantity in the country; also of white, gray,
green, brown, black, and blue stones, which are so soft that they can
be cut with a knife. . . . Their boats are made of thebark of cedar and
birch trees, hound together and lashed very strongly. They carry them
along wherever they go, aud when they come to some creek that they
want to get over they launch them and go whither they please. They
also used to make boats out of cedar trees, which they burnt inside and
scraped off the coals with sharp stones, hones, or muscle shells."
Charles Thomson, in the fragmentary " Essay
upon Indian Affairs," found among his manuscripts,
speaks of the very unusually good opportunities
46
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
afforded him in 1757 (while at Easton as commis-
sioner for Pennsylvania to negotiate a peace with
the Indians) to study their institutions, manners, and
customs.
By a concurrence of circumstances, he says, he
gained the confidence of the Indians, was admitted to
their councils, and "obliged to enter deep into their
politics and investigate their claims."1 Of the In-
dians he says, after speaking of their diet, to which,
in addition to the articles of food already enumerated,
he contributes the very prolific and nutritious sweet
potato (which might be kept during winter in kilns
dug under the lodge fireplaces) :
"They were perfect strangers to the use of iron. The instruments
with which they dug up the ground were of wood, or a stone fastened
to a handle of wood. Their hatchets for cutting were of stone, sharp-
ened to an edge by rubbing and fastened to a wooden handle. Their
arrows were pointed with flint or bones. "What clothing they wore was
of the skins of animals took in hunting, and their ornaments were prin-
cipally of feathers. They all painted or daubed their face with red.
The men suffered only a tuft of hair to grow on the crown of theirhead;
the rest, whether on their head or faces, they prevented from growing
by constantly plucking it out by the roots, so that they always appeared
as if they were bald and beardless.2
" Many were in the practice of marking their faces, arms, and breast
by pricking theskiu with thorns and rubbing thepartswith a fine pow-
der made of coal (charcoal), which, penetrating the punctures, left an
indelible stain or mark, which remained as long as they lived. The
punctures were made in figures according to their several fancies. The
only part of the body which they covered was from the waist half-way
down the thighs, and their feel they guarded with a kind of shoe made
of hides of buffaloes or deerskin, laced tight over the instep and up to
the ankles with thongs. It was aud still continues to be a common
practice among the men to slit their ears, putting something into the
hole to prevent its closing, and then by hanging weights to the lower
part to stretch it out, so that it hangs down the cheek like a large ring.
They had no knowledge of the use of silver or guld, though some of
these metals were found among the Southern IndianB. Instead of
money they uBed a kind of beads made of conch-shell, manufactured
in a curious manner. These beads were made,Bome uf the white, some
of the black or colored parts of the shell. They were formed into cyl-
inders about one-quarter of an inch long and a quarter of an inch in
diameter. They were round and highly polished and perforated length-
wise with a small hole, by which they Btruug them together and wove
them iuto belts, some of which, by a proper arrangement of the beads
of different colors, were figured like carpeting with different figures,
according to the various uses for which they were designed. These were
made use of in their treaties aud intercourse with each other, and served
to assist their memory aud preserve the remembrance of transactions.
When different tribeB or nationB made peace or alliance with each other
they exchanged belts of one sort; when they excited each other to war
they used auother sort. Hence they were distinguished by the name of
peace belts or war belts. Every message sent from one tribe to another
wab accompanied with a string of these beads or a belt, and the string
01 belt was smaller or greater according to the weight and importance
of the subject. These beads were their riches. They were worn as
bracelets on the arms and like chains round the neck by way of orna-
ments."3
1 He was in fact adopted by them. He took minutes of the conference
proceedings in short-hand, and these were so accurate as to be preferred
by the commissioners to the official record, and so just to the Indians
as to win their profound gratitude. They adopted him into the Lenape
nation, and gave him the name of Wugh-wu-hiw-mo-end, " the man who
tells the truth."
2 Naturally " impubea and imberbea" said Dr. Duuglas ; but Proud de-
nied that this was the case with all the Pennsylvania Indians. The
habit of going naked and anointing their persons with unguents made
the resort to depilatories very natural.
3 There is enough concurrent testimony to it to warrant the conclu-
sion that the original purpose of wamjjum was exclusively mnemonic.
The Indians were few in number, says Mr. Thom-
son, as compared with the extent of territory. How
few has not been generally realized by writers on this
subject. Gordon, who is always moderate, thinks that
at the most populous period there must have been less
than forty-seven thousand Indians within the limits
of Pennsylvania. Yet there have been repeated esti-
mates of fifteen million Indians in the country at the
time of the arrival of the English, and we have seen
it confidently claimed that there could not have been
less than three thousand Indians — six hundred war-
riors— within the present limits of Philadelphia two
hundred and fifty years ago. The computation is
very extravagant, and there are means of showing it
to be so. The Virginia mode of calculating used to
be to allow one Indian for every square mile. This
would give three millions to the United States, forty-
six thousand to Pennsylvania, one hundred and thirty
to Philadelphia. But the estimate is too liberal. A
hunting tribe of Indians cannot subsist upon a square
mile of territory per capita. According to Lyell, the
geologist, "it has been computed that eight hundred
acres furnish only as much subsistence to a commu-
nity of hunters as half an acre under cultivation.''
The United States, with five acres per capita under
Tt was a sort of memoria technica, like the knotted cords of the ancient
Peruvians, and doubtless, if the Indians had had intelligence enough to
word it out, a system of written language could have been constructed
of wampum bead figures as expressive as that of a signal code and more
serviceable than the Runic arrow-head writingofthe Northmen. There
is a much greater chance for variety of expression in strings of beads of
two colors than there is in Prof. Morse's telegraphic alphabet of dots and
lineB. Wampum was given not only as a present and a courteous reminder,
but as a threat and a warning. Thus, when, at Lancaster in 1747 the chiefs
of the Five Nations forbade the Lenapes to Bell any more land, and or-
dered them to remove to the interior, they emphasized the command by
handing them a belt. If the belts presented before the uses of wam-
pum had degenerated and become comparatively meaningless could
have been closely and intelligently examined, it is likely that some sort
of language could have been made out of the varying forms of the belts
aud strings and the different arrangements of the beads. The use of
wampum for ornament was secondary to its use menioriler. As money
its use came about in this way : It was a memorandum of exchange, of
business transactions. Passyund, of the Munsis, agreed to let his daugh-
ter marry the Bon of Secanee, of the Unamis, and to give with her a
dowry of so many beaver-skins, in return for which Secanee's son was
to hunt so many days for Passyund. How bind the bargain and prove
it? By making a mutual note of it in the exchange of wampum.
That particular belt or striug represented and vouched for that particu-
lar transaction. Menanee, on the Alleghany, agrees to sell toTamanee,
on the Delaware, a dozen buffalo robes for forty fathoms of duffle, with
buttons, thread, and red cloth to ornament. A belt is exchanged to
prove the transaction. But that cannot be completed till the goods are
exchanged. The next step is easy : to put a certain fixed value on each
bead, so that when Tamance pays a belt to Menanee for his robes, Men-
anee can at once hand the beltover to the trader Mho has the goods and
get from him the duffle and trimmings. Viewed in this light wampum
takes rank as an instrument of as various and important uses as any
ever employed by niau. It is as if the rosary of the pious Catholic were
suddenly invested with the powers of a historical monument, a diplo-
matic memorandum and business "stub11 book, a short-hand inscription
system, which is equally understood by tribes of every variety of lan-
guage and dialect, a currency of uniform value and universal circulation
in the exchange of a continent, a bank of deposit, a jewelry and per-
sonal ornament, all in one. There is no parallel instance in all the
economic history of mankind of an article bo utterly useless and value-
less in itself acquiring such a wide and multifarious range of derivative
uses and values.
THE INDIANS.
47
cultivation, are ODly able to spare seven and one-half
per cent, of food products for export. Thus there are
four and six-tenths acres needed to keep each member
of this highly cultivated population. On the basis of
Lyell's computation, therefore, each member of a pop-
ulation of hunters would require eleven and one-half
square miles to keep him. There is a scientific reason
for this enormous allowance, which Liebig explains
in his "Animal Chemistry." "A nation of hunters
on a limited space," he says, "is utterly incapable of
increasing its numbers beyond a certain point, which
is soon attained. The carbon necessary for respira-
tion must be obtained from the animals, of which only
a limited number can live on the space supposed.
These animals collect from plants the constituents of
their organs and their blood, and yield them in turn
to the savages who live by the chase alone. They
again receive this food, unaccompanied by those
compounds destitute of nitrogen" which, during the
life of the animals, served to support the respiratory
process. In such men, confined to an animal diet, it
is the carbon of the flesh and of the blood which must
take the place of starch and sugar. But fifteen pounds
of flesh contain no more carbon than four pounds of
starch, and while the savage, with one animal and an
equal weight of starch, could maintain life and health
for a certain number of days, he would be compelled,
if confined to flesh, in order to procure the carbon
necessary for respiration during the same time, to
consume five such animals." Such Indian statistics
as we possess bear out these conclusions. The hunt-
ing range of the Iroquois Five Nations was never less
than sixty thousand square miles. They had corn and
other sources of carbonaceous food. They were pros-
perous, comparatively rich, and took tribute and sup-
plies from the tribes surrounding them. Yet, by care-
ful comparisons made in 1877 under the auspices of
the Bureau of Education, it is ascertained that they
never exceeded a population of twenty thousand
souls, — four thousand warriors, — three square miles
per capita. This is a guide to the number of the
tribes surrounding them. The Iroquois in 1665 had
two thousand three hundred and fifty warriors, —
eleven thousand seven hundred and fifty souls. The
Susquehannas, who put old men and boys in the field,
never had more than two thousand warriors, — eight
thousand souls. The Canada Hurons never exceeded
thirty thousand in all. The most populous branch of
the Algonkins, the Mohegans of New York and New
England, Parkman computes could not have had more
than eight thousand fighting men, — forty thousand in
all. The Lenapes of Pennsylvania and New Jersey
could scarcely have reached half so many. We do not
find any mention among them of populous towns like
those of the Pequods, the Wampanoags, the Iroquois,
the Hurons, the Powhatans. They had nothing but
small and obscure villages, and of these not many.
They had but six hundred fighting men from the
Delaware to the Ohio in 1759. Proud, who knew
much about them, is not able to enumerate many
bands.1
Secretary Thomson remarks that it is difficult to
distinguish the Indians into distinct and different
nations :
"Almost every nation being divided into tribes, and these tribes sub-
divided into families, who from relationship or friendship united to-
gether and formed towns or clans; these several tribes, families, und
towns have commonly each a particular name and chief, or head man,
receive messages, and hold conferences with strangers and foreigners,
and hence they are frequently considered by strangers and foreigners
as distinct and separate nations. Notwithstanding this, it is found
upon closer examination and further inquiry that Ihe nation is com-
posed of several of these tribes, united together under a kind of federal
government, with laws and customs by which they are ruled. Their
governments, it is true, are very lax, except as to peace and war, each
individual having in his own hand the power of revenging injuries,
and when murder is committed the next relation having power to take
revenge, by putting to death the murderer, unless he can convince the
chiefs and head men that he had just cause, and by their means can
pacify the family by apresent, and thereby put an end to the feud. The
matters which merely regard a town or family are settled by the chiefs
and head men of the town ; those which regard the tribe, by a meeting
of the chiefs from the several towns ; and those that regard the nation,
such as the making wnr or concluding peace with the neighboring na-
tions, are determined on in a national council, composed of the chiefB
and head warriors from every tribe. Every tribe has a chief or head
man, and there is one who presides over the nation. In every town they
have a council house, where the chief assembles the old men and ad
visi'S what is best. In every tribe there is a place, which is commonly
the town in which the chief resides, where the head mon of the towns
meet to consult on the business that concerns them ; and in every mat-
ter there is a grand council, or what they call a council-fire, where the
beads of the tribes and chief warriors convene to determine on peace
or war. In these several councils the greatest order and decorum is ob-
served. In a council of a town all the men of the town may attend,
the chief opens the business, and cither gives his opinion of what is best
or takes the advice of such of the old men as are heads of families, or
most remarkable for prudence and knowledge. None of the young men
are allowed or presume to speak, but the whole assembly at the end of
every sentence or speech, if they approve it, express their approbation
by a kind of hum or noise in unison with the speaker. The same order
is observed in the. meetings or councils of the tribes and in the national
councils."
Gordon, in his "History of Pennsylvania," observes
of the language of the Lenape that it is said to be
" rich, sonorous, plastic, and comprehensive in the
highest degree," adding that a cultivated language
usually denotes great civilization. On the contrary,
a cultivated, elaborate language, abounding in regu-
lar forms and great numbers of distinctions, qualifi-
cations, conjugations, and declensions, is not a sign of
civilization, but the opposite, to a certain extent.
The Sanscrit is more perfect and comprehensive and
regular than the Greek, the Greek than the German,
the Latin than the French, the Anglo-Saxon [pace
Mr. Edward A. Freeman) than the English. The
Indian languages were comprehensive in the sense, of
being complicated with many forms. They were not
plastic, however. That is the property of the lan-
guages of civilization, which are intended to be la-
bor-saving machines. They are plastic, oblique,
elliptic, direct, waste no muscular force on the regu-
l He mentions the Assunpinks, Kancocas, Neshamineks, Shackamax-
ons, Mantas (at Gloucester, N. J.), the Tuteloes (who were remnants of
the Virginia Nottoways), Minisiuks, Pomptons, Namtaconks, Capiti-
nasses, and Gauheos.
48
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
larity of forms. The Algonkin tongue, like all the
Indian languages, belonged to what philologists re-
gard as one of the lowest orders of speech. It is of
the incorporative or polysynthetic type. In the words
of Prof. Whitney, " it tends to the excessive and ab-
normal agglomeration of distinct, significant elements
in its words, whereby, on the one hand, cumbrous
compounds are formed as the names of objects,1 and
a character of tedious and time-wasting polysyllabism
is given to the language, — see, for example, the three
to ten syllabled numeral and pronominal words in our
Western Indian tongues, or the Mexican name for
'goat,' kwa-hwauh-tentsone, literally, 'head-tree (horn),
lip-hair (beard),' or 'the horned and bearded one,' —
and, on the other hand, and what is of more import-
ance, an unwieldy aggregation, verbal or gwosi-verbal,
is substituted for the phrase or sentence, with its dis-
tinct and balanced members. . . Not only do the
subjective and objective pronouns enter into the sub-
stance of the verb, but also a great variety of modi-
fiers of the verbal action, adverbs, in the form of
particles and fragments of words ; thus almost every-
thing which helps to make expression forms a part of
verbal conjugation, and the verbal paradigm becomes
wellnigh interminable. An extreme instance of ex-
cessive synthesis is afforded in the Cherokee word-
phrase, wi-ni-taw-ti-ge-gi-na-li-skaw-lung-ta-naw-ne-li-
ti-se-sti, 'they will by that time have nearly finished
granting [favors] from a distance to thee and me.' "
Such a language could never become the vehicle of
science or the agent of business. As Bancroft has
expressed it, the Indian's language was "held in
bonds by external nature." It could not and did not
rise above the narrow area of his imperfect experiences.
It was poor just where the Indian mind and morals
were impoverished. " It had no name for continence
or justice, for gratitude or holiness," and equally not
for covetousness. Loskiel has said that it required the
labor of years to make the Lenape intellect capable
of expressing abstract truth. Eliot could only trans-
late the gospels by resorting to a series of happy
analogies. The Indian tongue was materialistic, but,
because it proceeded from one obvious visible object
to another, it abounded in trope and metaphor, be-
came highly picturesque, and was furnished with rich
supplies from the most efficient armories of eloquence.
Plain dealing became " a straight and broad path;"
1 " They ]i:ive but few radical words, but they compound their words
without end; by this their language becomes sufficiently copious, and
leaves room for a good deal of art to please a delicate ear. Sometimes
one word among them includes an entire definition of a thing ; for ex-
ample, they call wine oncharadeaelioengstseraglierie^s to say 'a liquor
made from the juice of the grape.' The words expressing things lately
come to their knowledge are all compounds; they have no labials in their
language, nor can they pronounce perfectly any word wherein there is
a labial, and when one endeavors to teach them to pronounce these
words, they tell one they think it ridiculous that they must shut their
lips to speak. Their language abounds in gutturals and strong aspira-
tions; these make it very sonorous and bold, and their speeches abound
with metaphors, after the manner of the Eastern nations." (Proud,
"History of Pennsylvania," ii. 300. J
if the word was peace, it was conveyed by the con-
crete idea of " burying the hatchet ;" to conciliate was
to " polish the chain of friendship ;" to be allies was
to "eat with one mouth ;" to condole with a person
was to "wipe the tears from his eye;" to repair an
injury was to " wipe the blood off the council-seat ;"
when James Logan was ill and retired he was said to
be " hid in the bushes ;" to be slow to resent injuries
was to "sit with the head between the legs." An
Indian cannot conceive of father in the abstract; he
j must say " my father," or "your father." His pan-
j theon was a procession of idealized images of single
! objects, animate or inanimate; every tree, every ani-
j mal, every stone had its particular " manitou," but
Gitche Manitou, the Father of Life, was only a faint
and colorless adumbration of the Great Spirit, if
indeed it existed at all previous to intercourse with
the whites. Eliot could not find an Indian word to
express the act of kneeling, he had to resort to para-
phrase to express the idea; in fact, words must all
the time be coined to embody the primal European
conceptions of faith, submission, reverence, religion,
goodness. Yet the Indian vocabulary is rich in words
which signify the dark and tumultuous passions, hate,
revenge, etc., and the acts that result. In the forms
of homicide the Indian language is as copious as an
old English indictment for murder, and there is no
lack of words to express what is bad, vicious, filthy,
obscene, and shameful.
The Indian's end in life was to act out the propen-
sities of his untamed nature. He had no word to
express continence, and chastity was but a half-formed
idea in his brain. He bought his wife, and purity of
blood was assured by the rule of descent on the female
side. Marriage was a physical convenience and a
transaction by purchase ; religion was as dim perhaps,
with rites of sacrifice and worship left to the indi-
vidual will. But vengeance was a duty, and revenge
the strongest and most enduring passion of the In-
dian's soul. To gratify it time, distance, hardship,
danger, all went for nothing ; the stealthy blow, the
reeking scalp torn from the prostrate victim, the yell
of triumph when the deed was done — this was com-
pensation for all. Nor did death suffice ; the enemy,
public or private, must be tortured, and nothing but
his agony and his groans could satiate the wolfish
thirst of the savage for blood. His warfare was con-
ducted by stealth and strategy and surprise; he imi-
tated the panther, not the lion, in his assaults, and he
lay by his victim and mangled him like the tiger.
Sometimes he ate his victim, if he was renowned,
that all of the valor and virtue of the slain might not
be lost, but some of it pass into the slayer's own
person. If conquered or wounded to death his stoi-
cism was indomitable; his enemy might see his back
in flight, but never behold him flinch under torture. ;
when his finger-nails were plucked out one by one,
and the raw skull from which his scalp was torn seared
with live coals, and red-hot gun-barrels thrust into
THE INDIANS.
49
the abdominal cavity after he had been disemboweled,
he would still sing his death-song and gather breath
to hurl a last yell of defiance at his enemy as he ex-
pired. To attain this sort of endurance was the aim
of all the Indian culture ; it was part of his religion,
for a distinguished reception in the happy hunting-
grounds beyond the grave was the promised reward
of. the resolute warrior and the successful hunter.
The Indian brave was by this system encouraged to
set his own personality above everything else. His
individuality was most conspicuous and pronounced.
He was haughty, proud, boastful, vain. He bragged
loudly of his own deeds. He painted and adorned
his person with the utmost pains and
in the most gaudy and glaring colors.
His body was tattooed ; his scalp-lock
was a study for his ideas in decorative
art; he daubed his face in white, red,
and green colors till he vied with Har-
lequin; and his robes, his leggins, his
moccasins were beaded and embroid-
ered in a thousand complicated patterns
and devices.
The squaw did this fancy work for her
lord and master, but she had no time to
do it for herself. The Indian woman's
life, as Parkman has said, had no bright
side. It was a youth of license, an age
of drudgery. There was not much
passion, but a great deal of dissolute-
ness. The Lenape women were no
more chaste than the men were con-
tinent. Amours in youth were no ban
to marriage afterwards. Child-bearing
was scarcely painful to the woman, and,
as she alone had charge of her offspring,
children were no burthen nor obstacle
to the man. Delicacy and modesty
could have no existence in the iDromis-
cuous lodge-life of these savage tribes,
and the virtue which the male did not
protect was naturally no treasure to the
female. " Once a mother,'' says Park-
man, describing the Hurons, the woman
" from a wanton became a drudge. In
March and April she gathered the
year's supply of firewood. Then came
sowing, tilling, and harvesting, curing
fish, dressing skin, making cordage and clothing, pre-
paring food. On the march it was she who bore the bur-
den, for, in the words of Champlain, 'their women were
their mules.' The natural effect followed. In every
town were shriveled hags, hideous and despised, who in
vindictiveness, ferocity, and cruelty far exceeded the
men. To the men fell the task of building the houses
and making weapons, pipes, and canoes. For the rest,
their home-life was a life of leisure and amusement.
The summer and autumn were their seasons of serious
employment, — of war, hunting, fishing, and trade. . . .
4
These pursuits, with their hunting, in which they
were aided by a wolfish breed of dngs unable to bark,
consumed the autumn and early winter." With win-
ter the men were idle, the women more at leisure.
The festive season ensued, — gambling, smoking, danc-
ing, feasting to gluttony consumed the vacant hours.
The Indian was a desperate gambler. He staked his
all upon a throw ; he stripped himself naked in mid-
winter to raise the means for another stake. It was a
common feature in the meagre comedy of this dull
existence for the young brave who had gone forth gay
and resplendent in all his bravery and trappings to
visit his kinsmen in the next village to return after :i
DELAWARE INDIAN FAMILY.
[From Campanius' "New Sweden."]
day or two like a plucked crow, all his finery gone,
and no leggins nor moccasins even left to protect his
denuded limbs from frost and snow.
Indian feasts and dances had more or less of a mys-
tical and religious character, but the substantial part
of them, gluttony and wild license, were never neg-
lected. At the so-called religious feasts indeed glut-
tony was part of the ritual. Each was expected to
eat all before him, under penalty of vengeance by the
special manitou who was to be honored, and prizes
were offered to the victor who soonest devoured his
50
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
portion. The dances were wild, furious, delirious,
and intoxicating. At religious dances men and some-
times women flung off all their clothing ; they shouted
wild songs, they gesticulated fiercely and contorted
themselves like dervishes till their glistening hodies
foamed with sweat. The war-dance and war-songs
were intended to supply the spark to the tinder of
enthusiasm and ferocity, and there was a terrible
vividness in the mimic pantomime of battle and mur-
der and sudden death, of the tomahawk thrown with
unerring aim, the knife driven hilt-deep in the vic-
tim's breast, the scalp waved aloft as if just wrested
from the head of the slain. The drum, the rattle, '
and the Indian flute were heard at these dances, but
the song was the true accompaniment. It was the
chorus that directed the dance, and the dancers acted
its words while their motions followed its rhythm.
Some of these songs have the true lyric quality. They
burst from the monotony of the chant which is usual
to the Indian with a sort of inspiration that the
savage's excitable nature always responds to.
The dance was an important ingredient in the
scanty materia medica of the Indian conjurer and
medicine-man. He esteemed it above the squaw's
simple and the warrior's sweat-box or Russian bath.
That, indeed, was a good thing to cure rheumatism
and restore suppleness and elasticity to the Indian's
frame, and the squaw's roots and herbs were wonderful
coadjuvants when the savage lived so simple and active
a life in the open air; but the medicine-man could
not live by these. His profit lay in maintaining the
general opinion of the efficacy of his rattle and drum,
his pinches, howls, and dancing. Disease came, in
the Indian's creed, from the malevolence of spirits,
and, as the necromancer had power over these, he
must be able to expel disease likewise. The im-
agination is so powerful a factor, the mind has such
unlimited influence over the body in its morbid
states, that we are quite willing to believe the Indian
medicine-man, shallow charlatan though he was, a
far more successful doctor than he usually gets credit
for being. In fact, the sorcerers were too numerous
not to have been lucky sometimes. In the Indian
belief the whole material world swarmed with unseen
influences and powers that controlled human destinies
with good and evil spirits, with manitous and exist-
ences that from dawn till night and from night again
to dawn were working with dim indefinite agencies
but untiring restlessness to prevent the obvious prom-
ises of each person's path in life in some unguessable
way. Nature was full of sorceries, and each might be
a conspiracy of some sort against human life, health,
or happiness. Universal superstition made nameless
panics universal, and as only sorcerers could deal with
sorcery, each Indian community harbored a pack of
conjurers, diviners, medicine-men, who were by turns
the village magicians and the village doctors. They
were learned in the legends of the past, and they
pretended to the lore of the future in order to control
the faith of the present. Their arts were numerous,
but the tools of their trade were few and rude, and
they were too slavishly adherents of tradition ever to
deviate from the established tricks of that trade. In
the words of Parkman, " The sorcerer, by charms,
magic songs, magic feats, and the beating of his drum,
had power over the spirits and those occult influences
inherent in animals and inanimate things. He could
call to him the souls of his enemies. They appeared
before him in the shape of stones. He chopped and
bruised them with his hatchet; blood and flesh issued
forth ; and the intended victim, however distant, lan-
guished and died. Like the sorcerer of the Middle
Ages, he made images of those he wished to destroy,
and muttering incantations, punctured them with an
awl, whereupon the persons represented sickened
and pined away."
This poor conjurer was the only doctor the Indian
had. His magic was more to him than herbs and
surgery, and it was his code that if his magic, his
drum and rattle, his feasts, howls, and contortions
could only expel the demon, nature would expel the
disease and the patient was sure to recover. The Al-
gonquin conjurer was also a haruspex and diviner. He
watched the flight of birds, interpreted the running
of water and the flicker of flame. He locked himself
in a cabinet and communed with unseen spirits, for
all the world like the most modern and most shame-
less of our charlatans. He built a low conical lodge
of poles and hides, immured himself therein for
hours, beat his drum, sounded his rattle, sang his
songs, and at last emerged charged with the commu-
nications the spirits had vouchsafed to him after his
arduous and awe-inspiring wrestle with them. Still,
this conjurer was not the priest of even the Indian's
debased religion. Every man was priest in his own
right, made his own sacrifices, and propitiated the
powers to which he yielded deference as suited his
own pleasure. The Indian was too poor and too hun-
gry to make many and costly oblations. He sprinkled
a little tobacco upon the breeze; he immolated a white
dog, or he burned a scrap of meat to Manitou ; but
when he made a genuine sacrificial feast he and his
guests were careful to consume the offering to the last
fragment in Manitou's name and behalf. The com-
pleteness of the gormandise was the compliment which
Manitou was thought to appreciate most, and thus
piety became its own reward. Feasts of this sort
would of course be followed by dreams in proportion
to the sumptuousness of the vicarious offering, and
these dreams the conjurer made his profit by inter-
preting.
If the Indian was not extravagant in his offerings to
Manitou, he was yet scrupulously and invariably po-
lite in all his dealings with him. He slew the bear
and the deer with a sententious courtesy, and was pro-
fuse in apologies and civilities to the spirit of every
victim of his skill in the chase, and even upon the
war-path. This was a sincere proceeding for one so
THE INDIANS.
51
deeply imbued with the notion that the entire mate-
rial world was sentient and intelligent, and that every
object and being in nature had a share in ruling hu-
man destinies. All things had souls, and the souls of
all things could hear man's soul while incapable of
responding to it. They were not powerless because
dumb ; they were none the less to be propitiated
because their reconnoissance was inaudible. The uni-
verse quivered throughout with mystery, and the mys-
terious was synonymous, in the Indian's creed, with
the divine. Hence in every undertaking the Amer-
ican savage made a factitious offering of first fruits.
He even propitiated the fishing-nets he had just made
with his own hands, and secured a good haul by wed-
ding the nets to the virgins of his tribe. Each Indian
had besides his own particular manitou, and the man-
hood vigil of the young warrior before he went upon
his first hunt or his first war-path was a propitiatory
acknowledgment made to this spiritual inward guide,
friend, and monitor. The object that appeared to
him in his fasting dreams during this vigil became
his totem, his fetish, the "medicine'' which he must
henceforth wear about his person.
Sooth to say, however, the Indian did not save all
his urbanity for the spirits and the manitou. The
elaborate courtesy which he bestowed upon the bear
he had just killed was ihe distinguishing trait of all
his daily intercourse with his neighbor and his guest.
Politeness, deference, respect for the persons and feel-
ings of others constituted the social law of the Indian,
and stood him instead of municipal and police ordi-
nance. The consequence was that these wild and in-
tractable barbarians were able to live together har-
moniously even in large communities. Gregarious as
the buffalo, the Indian was, as Parkman has said, " in
certain external aspects, the most pliant and complais-
ant of mankind." He had on all occasions that docile
acquiescence in the whims and oddities of strangers
which is the quintessence of politeness. The Indian of
whom Franklin wrote illustrates this spirit cleverly.
The missionary had told him how Adam fell, to which
he listened with grave assent, telling, in his turn, the
Indian fable of the origin of maize and tobacco. The
missionary repudiated the story with contempt, where-
upon the Indian said, "My brother, it seems your
friends have not done you justice in your education.
They have not well instructed you in the rules of
common civility. You see that we, who understand
and practice those rules, believe all your stories. "Why
do you refuse to believe ours?" An Indian who re-
sented being stared at and gaped at by the town mob
complained to his interpreter. " We have," said he,
" as much curiosity as your people, and when you come
into our towns we wish for opportunities of looking at
you ; but for this purpose we hide ourselves behind
bushes where you are to pass, and never intrude our-
selves into your company.'' The Jesuit priests, when
first among the Indians in Canada, fancied they were
making converts at once of the entire population, but
afterwards found out that they had mistaken for con-
viction what was simple courtesy, unwillingness to
deny and contradict. Instinctive self-control helped
the Indian to maintain this courteous exterior upon
all occasions. The self-respect of the Indian, one of
his strongest qualities, made him considerate and re-
spectful to the feelings of others. His code of honor
was rigid to punctiliousness, and he exacted the same
deference to himself which he so willingly yielded
to others. He liked popularity, and made sacrifices
to secure it. He was hospitable to a fault, and really
charitable and generous to distress and suffering.
The village hags united to supply the fresh-wedded
bride's wood-pile; the whole people turned out to
rebuild a lodge if any one had lost his by flood or fire.
No man, no matter what his condition, could enter
the Indian's wigwam and seat himself but what food
would at once be placed before him, if food there was.
They were sociable, fond of visiting, and jocose in
their sociability. The story-teller always had a high
seat at their feasts. Said the Jesuit Father Brebeuf,
whom the Iroquois murdered with such atrocious
tortures, " They have a gentleness and an affability
as it were incredible in savages; they are not easily
offended; . . they keep up their excellent kind re-
lations one with another by frequent interchange of
visits, by their mutual helpfulness to the sick and ail-
ing, and by their feasts and family alliances. They
are less in their own wigwams than in those of their
friends. If they have some tidbit or other at once
they make a feast of it for their friends, and never
think of eating it without company."
The political organization of each Indian nation,
so far as it has been observed, is identical in the es-
sential with that of every other Indian nation. The
race or nation was a confederacy of tribes of contigu-
ous territory and common descent ; each tribe was
divided into clans, and each clan into families. The
nation was governed by chiefs, whose office was he-
reditary in the female line of descent ; the power of
the chiefs was great, but it was through respect and
deference to their opinions rather than submission to
their authority, for their influence was almost entirely
advisory and persuasive. " There were two principal
chiefs, one for war and one for peace ; there were
chiefs assigned to special national functions ; there
were numerous other chiefs, equal in rank, but very
unequal in influence, since the measure of their influ-
ence depended on the measure of their personal abil-
ity ; each nation of the confederacy had a separate
organization, but at certain periods grand councils of
the united nations were held, at which were present
not chiefs only, but also a great concourse of the
people ; and at these and other councils the chiefs
and principal men voted on proposed measures by
means of small sticks or reeds, the opinion of the
majority ruling."1
Parkman, " Jesuits in America.'
52
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
The power of chiefs and councils, great in degree,
was limited in extent. There were few things for it
to be exercised upon in that savage state where indi-
viduals were so free. Now and then a witch or a
traitor or obnoxious person was ordered to be mur-
dered by the council in secret session. But there was
no property for the law-making proclivity to exercise
itself upon, and there could not be much stealing
without property. In fact, the Indians never robbed
or stole except away from home. Crimes against the
person were individual matters, and redressed by in-
dividual methods. This was even the case with mur-
der. If murderer and victim belonged to the same
clan, it was looked upon as a family quarrel, to be
settled by the immediate kin. As a rule, public
opinion compelled the acceptance of the atonement
in lieu of bloodshed. If the murderer and victim
were of different clans, the whole tribe went to work
to prevent a feud from arising and leading to more
bloodshed. Every effort was made to get the victim's
clan to accept the atonement offering. Thirty pres-
ents was the price of a man's life, forty for a woman.
If the victim belonged to a foreign tribe, the danger
of war led to council meetings, formal embassies, and
extensive making of actual and symbolical presents.
A strange race the Indians were, and their institu-
tions, now so rapidly disappearing, are worthy of close
and careful study. If this generation shall not profit
by the vestiges of Indian antiquities still remaining
to secure a, knowledge of their institutions and the
languages of the people who observed them, nothing
will be left for the inquiring spirits of the next age.
No matter whether the race remains or not, the aborig-
inal American Indian, such as he appeared to Penn and
to Capt. Smith, to Campanius and De Laet and the
Jesuit Fathers, will no longer be found in this con-
tinent. It should be our pleasure, as it is our duty,
to try to restore the fading picture of Indian life in
the spirit of Philip Freneau's graceful poem on " The
Old Indian Burying-Ground :"
" Tlie Indian, when from life released,
Again is seated with his friends,
And shares again the joyous feast.
" His imag'd birds, and painted bowl,
And ven'son for a journey dress'd,
Bespeak the nature of the soul,
Activity, that wants no rest. . . .
" By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews,
In vestments for the chase array'd,
The hunter still the deer pursues,
The hunter and the deer — a 6hade."
CHAPTER IV.
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION OF THE HUDSON AM)
DELAWARE RIVERS BY THE DUTCH.
There is no ground for reasonable doubt that John
and Sebastian Cabot, natives of Venice, probably
sailors almost from birth, but doing business in Bris-
tol, England, at the time of their commission under
King Henry VII., were the first navigators, at least
of historic times, to discover the actual coast-line of
the North American continent, along which they
sailed from Newfoundland to the parallel of Gibraltar,
that is to say to about the latitude of Cape Hatteras.
John Cabot, the senior of these sailors and traders,
excited by the news of the great discovery made by
Christopher Columbus, and with the certainty thus
warranted of reaching land by sailing westward, ob-
tained a commission under the great seal of England
from King Henry VII., dated March 5, 1496, author-
izing the navigator and his three sons, or either of
them, their heirs or their deputies, to sail into the
Eastern, Western, or Northern seas, with a fleet of
fiveships, at their own expense, in search of unknown
lands, islands, or provinces ; to plant the banner of
England on these when found, and possess and oc-
cupy them as vassals of the English crown. The pro-
vision that the explorers should voyage at their own
expense was characteristic of the thrifty monarch,
but the commission of a king at that day was the
only safeguard the navigator had to protect him from
suspicions of piracy, and the exclusive right of fre-
quenting and trading to the new countries when found
was a privilege for which nations were soon to con-
tend. Cabot, with his son Sebastian, came in sight
of the mainland, in the region of Labrador, on June
24, 1497, fourteen months before Columbus, on his
third voyage, had reached the continent, and two
years before Amerigo Vespucci sailed from the Cana-
ries.1 It is not so certain that Verazzano, also an
Italian, discovered the bay of New York in a voyage
made by him in 1506 from the Carolinas northward,
under the commission- of King Francis I. of France.2
It is certain that the first practical discovery of the
Delaware Bay and River and of the New York Bay
and Hudson River was made in 1609, by Henry
Hudson, an English navigator in the service of the
Dutch East India Company, whose title to immor-
tality seems to be assured by the fact that one of the
largest bays and one of the noblest rivers in the world
1 Bancroft, vol. i. Hakluyt, Divers Voyages. Brodhead, Hist. New
York. The account of Cabot's voyage is given by Peter Martyr.
2 The account of Verazzauo's voyage is contained in a letter from the
navigator to King Francis, dated July S, 1524, describing what he saw
and did and the strange peoplo he encountered. This letter is given to
the world first by the historian Ramusio, a Venetian, who also, by in-
cluding this in his collection, made himself responsible for the voyages
of Cadamosto, the travels of Amerigo Vespucci, and of Marco Polo, all
of which first saw the world in this most interesting collection. The
three volumes of Ramusio also contain the apocryphal voyages of the
brothers Zcni beyond the north of Scotland in 1400, the works of the
credulous Ovicdo, and the earliest histories of the conquests made by
Cortes and Pifcarro. They are capital reading, but, as the accurate Hal-
lam observes, their subject matter "could as yet only be obtained orally
from Spanish and Portuguese sailors or adventurers, and was such as their
falsehood and blundering would impart.11 Ramusio is also convicted of
having garbled Marco Polo's narrative by interpolations of his own
Judge Henry C. Murphy, of the Long Island Historical Society, a very
competent geographical critic, is disposed to believe that the entire letter
of Verazzano to King Francis I. is spurious.
SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
53
equally bear his name and are admitted to have been
■discovered by him. The discovery of Delaware Bay
and River was made, according to the journal kept
by Robert Jewett (or Juet), the first officer of Hud-
son's ship, on Aug. 28, 1609 (new style), and on this
discovery the Dutch founded their claim to the
countries binding upon and adjacent to the North
(Hudson) and the South (Delaware) Rivers.1
The accounts of Hudson's third voyage and his
discovery of the North and South Rivers are too ac-
curate, circumstantial, and satisfactory to allow of any
question in regard to them. Hudson's journal as well
as that of Robert Juet are preserved in Purchas' Pil-
1 We know surprisingly little of Henry Hudson. He ie said to have
been the personal friend of Capt. John Smith, the founder of Virginia,
and it is probable that he was of the family of that Henry Hudson who,
in 1554, was one of the original incorporators of the English Muscovy
Company. This man's son, Christopher, supposed to have been the
father of the great navigator, was aB early as 1560 and up to 1601 the
factor and agent on the spot of the London Company trading to Russia,
and it seems likely that the younger Hudson, from his familiarity with
Arctic navigation, and his daring pertinacity in attempting to invade
the ice-bound northern wastes, may have served his apprenticeship as a
navigator in tradins, nn behalf the Muscovy Company, from Bristol to
Russia, as was then often
done through the North
Channel, and round the
Hebrides, Orkneys, 'Shet-
lands, and North Cape to
the White Sea and Arch-
angel. At any rate when
Hudson makes his first
picturesque appearance
before us, in the summer
of 1607, in the Church
of St. Ethelburge, Bish-
opsgate Street, London,
where he and his crew
are present to partake of
the Holy Sacrament to-
gether, it is preparatory
to a voyage in the ser-
vice of the newly-or-
ganized "London Com-
pany," in Jewett's own words, " for to discover a passage by the North
Pole to Japan and China." The navigator was at that time a middle-aged
man, experienced and trusted. Hudson reached Spitzbergen,and there
the ice forced him back. He repeated next year the attempt to reach
Asia by crossing directly over the Pole, and again he failed after having
reached Nova Zembla. The London Company now became disheart-
ened, and Hudson at once transferred his services to the Dutch, who
were then also eagerly seeking a northern route to Asia, and preparing
under the ardent urgings of Usselincx (of whom more will be said
presently) to establish a West India Company. The Amsterdam direc-
tors of the Dutch East India Company put him in command of a yacht
or vlie-boat, the "Half-Moon"' (the "yagt 'Halve-Maan'"), of forty
"lasts" or eighty tons burden, and bade him continue to search for a
route to the Eastern seas such as the Spaniards and Portuguese could
not obstruct. It was on hU third voyage when, beaten back by the ice
from the Greenland seas, he sailed as far south as the capes of the
Chesapeake, and discovered Delaware Bay and Hudson River. In his
fourth voyage he returned again to the service of England, discovered
and entered Hudson's Bay, wintered there, and in the spring, having
angered his crew by harshness and by persisting in going westward, was
cast adrift by them in a small boat and left, with his son, to perish in the
ice on the desolate border of the bay which bears his name. He was never
heard of afterward. For further particulars of this stern, bold, and in-
telligent navigator, who was a man full of spirit, energy, and well-defined
purpose, the reader may consult Pnrchas, Hakluyt, and the monographs
■of Hon. H.C. Murphy, Dr. Asher, Gen. John M. Bead, Jr., and Rev. B.F.
de Costa.
HENUY HUDSON.
grims, and Juet has given not only the courses and
distances sailed on the coast, but the various depths
of water obtained by soundings off the bars and with-
in the capes of the two bays. Juet's log-book of Aug.
28, 1609, has indeed been tested by actual soundings
and sailing distances, and is found to be so accurate
to this day that his route can be minutely followed.
The English early gave the name of Delaware Bay
and River to the South River of the Dutch, upon the
pretext that it was discovered by Lord de la Warr in
his voyage to Virginia in 1610. Mr. Brodhead and
other writers, however, have plainly shown that Lord
La Warr never saw Delaware Bay, and that the name
Cape La Warr was given to Cape May by the roister-
ing Capt. Samuel Argalls, of Lord Somers' squadron,
who, being separated from his commander in a fog off
the Bermudas, in that voyage the narration of which
is supposed to have given Shakspeare his theme for
the Tempest, was carried by a cyclone as far north as
Cape Cod, and descending the coast again to Virginia,
sighted the cape in question and gave his lordship's
name to it.2 The above few sentences embody all
that is certainly inown in regard to the discovery of
Delaware Bay and River. If we let loose the pen to
conjecture and to debatable views and statements,
there is ground for very wide discussion, for which,
however, there is no room in a volume like this.3
2 See several notes in the text and appendices of Brodhead's History
of the State of New York, vol. i.
3 For i nstance, Van Materen, one of the early historians of the Nether-
lands, assumes that the detention of Hudson in England on his return
from his third voyage was because the English wanted time to prepare
ships to look up and take possession of the newly discovered rivers. But
Van Materen himself says at the same time of Hudson that, " as he was
about to sail with his ship and crew [from Dartmouth] to go and report the
results of his voyage, he was arrested in England and commanded not to
depart, but that he must enter the service of his country, which command
was also extended to the other English who were in the vessel." On 15th
December, 1644, the (Dutch) Chamber of Accounts of the West India
Company presented a "Report and Advice" to the effect that " New
Netherland, Btretching from the South River, situated in thirty-eight and
a half degrees, to Cape Malabarre, in the latitude of forty-one and a half
degrees, was first visited by the inhabitants of this country in the year
1598, and especially by those of the Greenland Company, but without
making fixed habitations and only as a refuge in winter." Nearly all
the historians of New York accept this apocryphal statement, which Mr.
Brodhead guardedly says " needs confirmation ." In fact, the picturesque
Indian legends so distinctly confided to Heckewelder prove that Hud-
son and his crew were the first white men ever remembered to have been
seen by the Indians on the Hudson. A stranger story jb that of Sir
Edmund Ployden, or Plowdeu, Earl Palatinate of New Albion, who, by
English Charter of 1G32, was granted by indefinite description a tract
of land between Cape Cod and Cape May, extending westward to some
untraceable boundary. This tract, which included New Jersey, Dela-
ware, part of Maryland, and perhaps of Pennsylvania, was divided,
according to "Beauchamp Plantagenet" in his pamphlet, into Lord-
ships and other great divisions. Yet before the Dutch came to estab-
lished settlements, Plowden and his colouists had disappeared. Each
government founded its claim to the territory between thirty-eight
and forty-one degrees north latitude. In April, 1632, Governor Peter
j Minuet, recalled in disgrace from the New Netherlands, was driven
J by a storm into Plymouth, England. He and his staff were detained
upon a charge of illegally trading with the Indians of Virginia. A
| diplomatic correspondence immediately ensued between the two gov-
| ernments, in which King Charles I. declined to release Minuet until he
! had looked into the matter further, as he was " not quite sure what his
rights were." Then was the time, if ever, for the claim of 1598 to be pul
54
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Those who wish to pursue these subjects minutely
will find ample details in the historical collections of
Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and
Maryland. They will not, however, after all discover
much to disturb the general conclusion that the Dutch
claim to the New Netherlands rests upon discovery
and possession taken by Henry Hudson in 1609 ; the
English claim to general discovery by the Cabots in
1497-98.
The Dutch did not immediately profit to any great
extent by the magnificent discoveries made for them
and in their name by Henry Hudson. The report
upon the Hudson River must indeed have attracted
great attention when received at home, but the navi-
gator merely said of the Zuydt (South or Delaware)
River,1 that he found the land to "trend away towards
the northwest, with a great bay and rivers, but the
bay was shoal," and dangerous by reason of sand-
bars. This sort of character would not tend to divert
navigators or sea traders in that direction. There
were as yet, for reasons which will presently appear,
no attempts at colonization either on the North or
the South River. But the Dutch, born traders, were
fully acquainted with the value of the fur trade
through their traffic with Russia, frequently sending
as many as sixty to eighty ships a year to Archangel,
the czar having made the fur trade practically free.
Hudson had revealed to these shrewd traders what
a wealth of cheap furs was to be obtained from the
Indians on the river bearing his name, and his old
vessel, the "Half-Moon,'' was no sooner released and
restored to her owners, in 1610, than she was sent
back to the North River with a trading cargo, and
returned with a profitable cargo of furs. In 1611,
Hendrick Christiaensen, of Cleves, near Niemguen,
Holland, West India trader, and Adrian Block, of
Amsterdam, chartered a ship, in company with the
Schipper Rysar, and made a successful voyage to the
Manhattans and the "great river of the mountains,"
returning with furs, and bringing also two sons of
chiefs with them, whom they kindly christened " Val-
entine and Orson." These young savages, and the
cheap and abundant furs of their native land, at-
tracted public attention in Holland to the newly
discovered territories. A memorial on the subject
was presented to the Provincial States of Holland
forward on the one side, and those of Argall and Plowden and Lord de la
Warr on the other. But the Dutch simply rested on Hudson's discovery
in 1G09, the return of some of their people in 1610, a specific trading
charter in 1614, and permanent occupancy by the Dutch West India
Company in 1623. Tho claims of King Charles, on the other hand,
though formulated by the skillful hand of Sir Edward Coke himself,
rested entirely upon the discovery of America by Onbot and the New
England and Virginia patents of King James I.
1 Also variously called by the IndiaD names of Poutaxat, Makiri-
skitton, Makarish-Kiskeu, and Lenape Wihittuck, while Heylin, in his
Cosmography, bravely gives it the further name of Arasapha. When it
became better known, the Dutch sometimes called it the Nassau, Prince
Hendrick's or Prince Charles' River; and the Swedes, New Swedeland
stream. The earliest settlers sometimes styled it New Port May and
Godyn's Bay.
and West Friesland by several merchants and in-
habitants of the United Provinces, and "it was judged
of sufficient consequence to be formally communicated
to the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and
Enckhuysen."2 In 1612, Christiaensen and Block,
with the encouragement and material aid of leading
and enterprising merchants, fitted out two vessels,
the " Fortune" and the " Tiger," and sailed again to
the Manhattans, to trade along the Hudson as before.
Other merchants joined in these profitable ventures,
and in 1613 the " Little Fox," under command of
John De Witt, and the "Nightingale," under Thys
Volkertsen, were sent out from Amsterdam, while
the owners of the ship " Fortune," of Hoorn, sent
out their vessel under charge of Oapt. Cornells Jacob-
sen May, or Mey. Block's vessel, the " Tiger," was
burnt at Manhattan Island just as he was about to
return to Holland, but the undaunted mariner built
a hut on shore on Manhattan Island, and spent the-
winter of 1613-14 in constructing a yacht of sixteen
tons, which he appropriately named the Onrust, or
"Restless." In the spring of 1614, when Block's
little yacht was ready for service, the companion
vessels of the previous year, as above enumerated,
were coming out for their second voyage. But they
came under new auspices, for the States General had
considered and acted upon the memorials and peti-
tions spoken of above, passing an ordinance3 de-
claring that as it was " honorable, useful, and profit-
able" that the people of the Netherlands should be
encouraged to adventure themselves in discovering
unknown countries, and for the purpose of making
the inducement " free and common to every one of
the inhabitants," it was granted and conceded that
"whoever shall from this time forward discover any
new passages, havens, lands, or plaees, shall have the
exclusive right of navigating to the same for four
voyages." Reports of discoveries were to be made
to the States General within fourteen days after the
return of vessels to port, and where the discoveries
were simultaneously made by different parties, the
rights acquired under them were to be enjoyed in
common.
When the spring voyaging began, Christiaensen
pushed up the Hudson and erected a trading-post
and block-house on Castle Island, just below where
Albany now stands. Block, with the " Onrust," ex-
plored Long Island Sound, and many rivers and in-
lets to the eastward, naming Rhode (Roode) Island
and giving his own name to Block Island. Mey, on
the contrary, sailed immediately southward, charted
the coast from Sandy Hook to the Delaware, and en-
tering thatbay gave his surname, May, to the northern
cape, his Christian name, Cornelis, to the southern
cape opposite, and to the southern cape facing the
ocean he gave the name of Hinlopen, the name of a
' Brodhead, i. p. 46. N. T. Hist. Coll., 2d series, ii. 35S.
3 27th March, 1614.
SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
55
town in Friesland. There is no evidence that May
attempted to change the name of the Delaware Bay
and River from that given it by the Dutch, the South
River, or that he landed at any point.1
All the vessels of the trading squadron returned
early in the fall to Holland, except the " Onrust,"
which remained at Manhattan under the command
of Cornelis Hendricksen. Block, who no more
visited our coasts, returned in his old companion's
ship, the "Fortune," Capt. Hendrick Christiaen-
sen, to Holland. There the navigators and their as-
sociated merchants and owners formed a company,
drew a chart and report of their several discoveries,
and proceeded to the Hague to claim a concession
under the ordinance of March 27, 1614. They spread
their "figurative map" upon the council table in the
presence of the twelve mighty lords of the States
General, presided over by John van Olden Barneveldt,
the "Advocate" of Holland, told their tale of adven-
ture, discovery, loss, and gain, and claimed the mon-
opoly which was theirs by right under the ordinance.
It was conceded at once, and a special charter to them
of exclusive privilege to trade for four voyages in the
region they had explored was drawn up and signed
in their presence. The penalty for infringing upon
this charter was a fine of fifty thousand Netherland
ducats for the benefit of the grantees. The territory
covered by the charter was all the land between New
France, as the French possessions in Canada were
called, and Virginia, and the grantees were given three
years in which to make the four voyages. This char-
ter, besides conferring a valuable franchise tempora-
rily upon the grantees, in effect asserted that the
Dutch territory of the New Netherlands embraced all
the territory and coast line of North America from
the fortieth to the forty-fifth parallel. Nor did any
of King James' charters negative this pretension, for
they expressly excepted any lands settled or occupied
by the subjects of any European sovereign or State.
While the new company were spreading their
"figurative map" before the Council at the Hague,
the little yacht " Onrust," on the other side of the
ocean, now under the command of the enterprising
Capt. Hendricksen, was making the first actual ex-
ploration of the Delaware Bay and River. Hendrick-
.-.en landed at several places, took soundings, drew
charts, and discovered the contour of the bay and the
1 Some romantic circumstances have gathered about the fact of the
Delaware Bay and River and ttie State of Delaware deriving their name
from Lord de la Warr. It has been said that he died off the capes of
Delaware on his homo voyage, that he was poisoned, etc. The better-
received opinion, however, is that he was alive in 1618, and then died
either at his seat in England or when about to re-embark for Virginia.
He was only Lord de la Warr by courtesy, being actually Sir Thomas
West, third son of Lord de la Warr. He married in Virginia, his wife
being a daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley, from whom the old Virginia es-
tate of that name derives its title. West Point, in New York, gets its
name from him. The family of the Sackville- Wests, owners of the
stately manor-house of Knole, which in QueiJn Elizabeth's day belonged
to the Sackvilles, are the stock from whom sprung the present British
Minister at Washington, Hon. Lionel Sackville- West.
capabilities of the river. While landing at Christi-
ana Creek a strange thing happened. Hendricksen's
party encountered a band of Minqua Indians and
redeemed from captivity three white men, who in the
spring of the year 1616 had left Fort Nassau, on
Castle Island, at the head of navigation on the North
River, and strayed into the wilderness and forest in
which the Mohawks and Lenni Lenape had their
wondrous hunting-grounds. These men had wan-
dered up the Mohawk Valley, crossed the dividing
ridge into the Delaware Valley, and then descended
that stream, thus being the first white men who ever
trod the soil of Pennsylvania.2 On Aug. 19, 1616,
Hendricksen, having returned to Holland, laid his
claim for extensive trading privileges before the
States General, asserting that "he hath discovered
for his aforesaid masters and directors certain lands,
a bay, and three rivers, situate between thirty-eight
and forty degrees, and did there trade with the in-
habitants, said trade consisting of sables, furs, robes,
and other skins. He hath found the said country
full of trees, to wit : oak, hickory, and pines, which
trees were in some places covered with vines. He
hath seen in said country bucks and doe, turkeys and
partridges. He hath found the climate of said coun-
try very temperate, judging it to be as temperate as
this country (Holland)." Hendricksen's claim, how-
ever, was not granted, and in January, 1618, the
general ordinance granting exclusive trading privi-
leges expired by limitation. An entirely new policy
was in contemplation by the Netherlands govern-
ment." 3
This new policy looked to stepping at once from
simple trading in the New Netherlands to colonization
by means of a West Indies Company. Its develop-
ment and its fluctuations during many years, in
obedience to the ups and downs of political agitation
in the Netherlands, are described graphically in the
brilliant pages of Mrs. Martha J. Lamb's just pub-
lished History of New York, but at too great length
to be followed here. Holland, as Brodhead has de-
scribed it, was the greatest trading country at this
time. Amsterdam was the Venice of the North, and
the Dutch pushed their commerce into every zone.
But the Netherlanders were more than this. They
were ardent and even fanatical politicians. They
2 Armor's Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, pages 17 and 20.
The fact of this meeting is not disputed. Most authorities say, however,
that the three men were not whites but Indians, employes of the trad-
ing-post on Castle Island.
3 Another historic doubt clouds this voyage of Hendricksen. It migh t
be supposed that this" third river" must be the Schuylkill, and that l.e
was thus the first white man to gaze upon the site of Philadelphia. But
a writer so accomplished as Dr. George Smith, historian of Delaware
County, says that it cannot be fairly inferred that the voyage of the
"Restless" was extended so far inland even as the mouth of the Dela-
ware Biver.iiud that the original "Carte figurative" attached to the
memorial of his employers proves this. He suggests that if any new
and original information was contributed to the States General by Hon.
dricksen, it was derived not from his own exploration, but from the
statements of the three rescued traders from Fort Nassau.
56
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
had just conquered their freedom from the Spaniards,
whom they hated bitterly, and proclaimed the repub-
lic which had enabled them to maintain the bitter
struggle, and which consequently they devotedly
loved. Up to 1606 they had been completely united
both in foreign and domestic policy, and in that year
they had been about to found a West Indies Company,
not merely for trade, but to carry on the war with
Spain more actively and relentlessly. When Vir-
ginia was occupied by the London Company in 1608,
they had proposed to the British government to join
them in a common foreign and trading policy, mean-
ing, of course, to war more energetically still upon
Spanish commerce. But the British coolly declined,
saying that they feared " that in case of joining, if it
be upon equal terms, the art and industry of their
people will wear out ours." This suggestion of over-
reaching was not forgotten by the Dutch. In 1620,
when Robinson, Brewster, and their large congrega-
tion of Puritans, exiles in Leyden and other parts of
the Netherlands for twelve years, had determined to
emigrate to America, and had been disappointed in
theirnegotiations with both the Virginia colony and the
Plymouth Company, they applied to the Netherlands
through the Amsterdam merchants for leave to settle
on the North River, Robinson offering to go and take
. four hundred families with him, provided they were
ussured of protection. " They desired to go to New
Netherlands,'' said Robinson, "to plant there the
true Christian and pure religion, to convert the sav-
ages of those countries to the true knowledge and
understanding of the Christian faith, and through
the grace of the Lord and to the glory of the Neth-
erlands government, to colonize and establish a new
empire there under the order and command" of the
Prince of Orange and the High Mighty Lords States
General.1 The Amsterdam Company submitted the
proposition to the Hague with their approval, hav-
ing made at the same time " large offers" of free trans-
portation, stock, etc., to the Puritans. The Prince
of Orange, the stadtholder, referred the memorial
to the States General, and that body, after careful
deliberation, resolved peremptorily to reject the
offer of the Puritans. But for this action there might
have been no Plymouth Rock, and the whole course
of American history might have been changed.
The truce of the Netherlands with Spain, which
was negotiated in 1609, to last twelve years, was in
lieu of a permanent treaty of peace. Philip II. con-
sented to" the independence of the Netherlands, but
would not consent to give them free trade in the East
Indies. The Netherlands would not treat finally
without a recognition of their commercial freedom,
and so a truce was the compromise agreed upon. The
treaty was the work of Grotius and Barneveldt, sup-
ported by James I. of England and Henry IV. of
France. Its negotiation had the effect to destroy the
1 Brodlifnil, i. 1-M.
project for a West India Company, and on this and
other grounds was opposed bitterly by the " stal-
wart" party of the day in the Netherlands, headed by
William Usselincx, a merchant of Antwerp, who had
spent many years in Spain, the Azores, and other
Catholic countries, for which he seemed to have a
deep personal hatred, and by Plancius, Linschoten,
and other leading scholars and merchants, who com-
posed a distinctive " war party," and were eager to
resort to every means to injure and humble their
haughty and arrogant enemy. This party was
strengthened by the fierce temper of religious contro-
versy. The Calvinists and Puritans were in bitter
antagonism to the Arminians, who controlled the
State. It was an old controversy, old as the days of
Augustine and Pelagius, and it was fought over again
in Holland. Finally, in 1619, the Reformers carried
everything before them in the Synod of Dort, the
Arminians were put down, and Barneveldt, in his
seventy-second year, was beheaded as a traitor.
The charter of the Amsterdam merchants for trade
with the Netherlands had expired, the ordinance
under which the concessions were granted had also
ceased, Usselincx and his party and their policy were
triumphant, and there were many reasons why the
long-suspended project for a West India Company
should be carried through without further delay.
The Virginians began to look with concern at the
presence of the Dutch upon the Zuydt or South River,
and indeed had already sent one abortive expedition
against them.
The twelve-year truce with Spain expired in the
spring of 1621, and the United Provinces knew that
the old struggle must soon be renewed. The English
government was preparing to remonstrate more or
less vigorously against the expansion of the Nether-
lands colonies both on the South River and on the
New England side. The time was ripe for the con-
summation of the great scheme of Usselincx, which
indeed looked to a vast privateering war against
Spain, in connection with the permanent plantation
of the New Netherlands. On the 3d of June, 1621,
accordingly, the States General, under their great
seal, granted a formal patent incorporating the West
India Company for the encouragement of that for-
eign trade and navigation upon which it was assumed
the welfare and happiness of the United Provinces
mainly depended. This charter gave to the West
India Company for the period of twenty-four years
the exclusive monopoly of trade and navigation to
the coasts of Africa, between the Cape of Good Hope
and the Tropic of Cancer, and to the coasts of America
and the West Indies, between the Straits of Magellan
and Newfoundland. The company was invested with
enormous powers. In the language of Brodhead, it
might make in the name of the States General
" contracts and alliances with the princes and natives
of the countries comprehended within the limits of
its charter, build forts, appoint and discharge gov-
SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
57
ernors, soldiers, and public officers, administer justice,
and promote trade. It was bound to advance the
peopling of these fruitful and unsettled parts, and do
all that the service of those countries and the profit
and increase of trade shall require." The States
General had a sort of general supervision, with the
privilege of confirming the appointment of superior
officers, but no other powers over it. The govern-
ment of the company was vested in five boards of
managers, — one at Amsterdam, managing four-ninths
of the whole ; one at Middleburg, in Zealand, man-
aging two-ninths ; one at Dordrecht, on the Maese,
managing one-ninth ; one in North Holland, one-
ninth ; and one in Friesland and Groningen, one-
ninth. The general executive power for all purposes,
the power to declare war only being reserved for the
approval of the States, was confided to a board of
nineteen delegates, of whom eight were to come from
the Amsterdam chamber, and the rest from the other
chambers in proportion to their shares, except that
the States General had one delegate. The States
were pledged to defend the company against all
comers, to advance to it a million guilders in money,
and give it for its assistance sixteen ships of war of
three hundred tons each, and four yachts of eighty
tons, fully equipped. This fleet was to be main-
tained, manned, and supported by the company,
which besides was to provide an equal number of
vessels on its own part, the whole to be under the
command of an admiral selected by the States Gen-
eral. Any inhabitant of the Netherlands or of other
countries might become a, stockholder during 1621,
but after that year the subscription books were to be
closed, and no new members admitted. Colonization
was one object of this great monopoly, but what its
chiefs looked to principally for profit was a vast
system of legalized piracy against the commerce of
Spain and Portugal in Africa and America. The
company was not finally organized under the charter
until June, 1623, when the subscription books were
closed.
In the interval between the lapse of the old United
Company and the completion of the charter of the
new monopoly, several ships were sent on trading
ventures of a more or less private character to the
North and South Eivers in the New Netherlands,
among them vessels which had visited those regions
before. King James I. having granted the charter
of the Plymouth Company, complaints began to be
heard about Dutch intrusions. Sir Samuel Argall,
who is represented in the curious Plantagenet pam-
phlet as having forced a Dutch governor in Manhat-
tan to yield allegiance to the British king in 1613, is
found in 1621 as complaining, in a memorial signed
by him, Sir Ferdinando Georges, the Earl of Arun-
del, and Capt. John Mason, against the " Dutch in-
truders," who are represented as having only settled
on the Hudson in 1620. This was claimed by the
Plymouth Company as proof of the British king's
title to the whole country, jure primal occupationis.
This led to a protest, in December, 1621, by the Brit-
ish government, through Sir Dudley Carleton, ambas-
sador at the Hague. The States professed ignorance,
and promised to make inquiry, and with that answer,
after some fretfulness, the British minister was forced
to content himself. In fact, the States General, en-
grossed in preparations for the war with Spain, sim-
ply delayed matters until the West India Company
was organized, when all such questions were referred
to it for-settlement. It thus became an issue between
British Plymouth Company and Dutch West India
Company, and the latter was the stronger of the two,
both in men and argument.
The ships of that company, even before the final
ratification of the amended charter, were trading in
all the Atlantic waters between Buzzard's Bay (within
twenty miles of Plymouth) and the Delaware River,
and a plan of colonization was already matured. A
number of Walloons (Belgian Protestants of supposed
Waelsche or Celtic origin), refugees in Holland from
Spanish persecution, had applied to the British min-
ister Carleton for leave to emigrate to Virginia. The
terms offered them do not seem to have been satisfac-
tory. The Holland Provincials heard of the negotia-
tions, and suggested to the Amsterdam chamber of
the West India Company that these would be good
immigrants with whom to begin the permanent set-
tlement of the New Netherlands. The suggestion
was seized upon, and provision made to carry the
Walloons over in the company's ship then about to
sail, the " New Netherlands,'' Capt. Cornelis Jacob-
sen Mey, he who had first sailed into South River,
and who was going out now as first resident director
or governor of the colonies. Some thirty families,
chiefly Walloons, were accordingly taken on board,
and in the beginning of March, 1623, the "New Neth-
erlands" sailed from the Texel, Capt. Mey in com-
mand, the next highest officer being Adriaen Joris, of
Thienpoint. The course of the ship (and of nearly
all vessels making the American voyage at that day)
was southward from the British Channel to the Cana-
ries, thence across the Atlantic with the trade-winds
to Guiana and the Caribbees, then northwest between
the Bermudas and Bahamas until the coast of Virginia
came in sight. Mey's vessel reached the North River
safely and in time to drive off a French vessel which
sought to set up the arms of France on Manhattan
Island. The Frenchman was foiled in the same way
on the Zuydt River. Mey distributed his colonists as
far as he could. The greater part of the Walloons were
sent up to Albany, several families went to the Dutch
factory on the Connecticut ; four couples, who had
married during the voyage out, several sailors, and
some other men were sent to the South River, now
also called Prince Hendrick's River. Mey appears
either to have accompanied them here or visited
them soon after their arrival. He selected a site for
their settlement, planting the Walloons on Verhulsten
58
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Island, near the present city of Trenton, N. J., and
hastened the construction of a log fort or stockade
for his sailors and soldiers at the mouth of the Tim-
mer Kill, on the New Jersey bank of the Delaware,
not far from where Gloucester now stands. This fort
was called "Nassau." Its exact site is not deter-
mined, nor can we decide the original Indian name
of the spot, having such a variety to choose from.1
This South River colony was soon given up. The
men and women of the Walloons grew homesick and
returned to New York, certainly within a year or so,
the garrison also abandoning the fort to the Indians,
who occasionally lodged there during several years,
probably while waiting for trading vessels. Such a
vessel was sent round to the South River at least once
a year from Manhattan Island. Thus, it is supposed
in 1625, the first settlement on the Delaware came
to naught.2 Fort Nassau, to conclude its history,
seems to have been alternately occupied and aban-
doned by the Dutch until 1650 or 1651, when it was
destroyed by the Dutch themselves, as being too high
up the river and too much out of the way. The post
was then transferred to the new Fort Casimir. In
1633, De Vries found none but Indians there, but it
seems to have been restored some time during the
same year by Governor Van Twiller, who was ac-
cused of incurring extravagant expense in connec-
tion with its construction. Arent Corssen was then
commissary ; he had a clerk, and the governor or-
dered him to select the site for another structure of
the same sort on the river. In 1635 an English party
attempted but failed to capture this fort. They were
thought to be Lord Baltimore's people, but were more
likely New Englanders or Virginians.- The Swedes
repeatedly denied that there was any fort of the
Dutch on the Delaware in 1638; but the Dutch ac-
counts of expenditure for the maintenance of Fort
Nassau charged against that year in the West India
Company's books disprove this. There was certainly
enough of a garrison in the fort to report at once and
protest against the Swedish settlement at Christiana
in April, 1638. In 1642 the garrison comprised twenty
men, and the fort was continually occupied from this
time forth until the Dutch destroyed it.
1 Hermaomessing, Tachaacho, Arniewamix, Arwames, Tekoke, Ar-
meuvereus, etc. The year in which the fort was built is also disputed,
but the circumstances mentioned iu the text make it probable that its
construction was undertaken very shortly after Capt. Mey's arrival out.
2 It is not possible to state satisfactorily in what year the settlement
was given up nor why. The deposition of Peter Lawrenson before Gov-
ernor Dongan, of New York, in March, 1GS5, says that he came into this
colony in 1028, and in 1630 (actually 1631), by order of the West India
Company, he, with some others, was sent in a sloop to the Delaware,
where the company had a trading-house, witli ten or twelve servants
belonging to it, which the deponent himself did see settled there. . . .
" And the deponent further saith that upon an islaud near the falls of
that river and near the west side thereof, the said company some three or
four years before had a trading house, where there were three orfour fami-
lies of Walloons. The place of their settlement he saw; and that they
had been seated there he was informed by some of the said Walloons
themselves when they were returned from thence. '' It is in thisindefl-
nite way that the beginnings of all history are written.
In 1624, Peter Minuet (the name is also spelled
Minuit, Minnewit, or Minnewe) came out and suc-
ceeded Mey as director of the New Netherlands colo-
nies. He held this position until 1632, when he was
recalled, and Van Twiller became governor in his
stead. Minuet, as will be seen farther on, was a
sagacious and enterprising man, but he had to pur-
sue a conservative policy as director of the New
Netherlands, for the welfare of the colony was neg-
lected sadly by the West India Company. But few
immigrants and colonists came out, the garrisons were
not strengthened, nor was much effort made to ex-
tend either the boundaries or the trade of the colony.
Some negro slaves indeed were landed on Manhattan
Island at least as early as 1628, but their labor was
not esteemed. The chief business done was in trading
with the Indians for peltries and furs. In fact the
West India Company was so puffed up with the arro-
gance that proceeds from great successes and sudden
wealth, that the directors despised the small and plod-
ding colonial ways and the slow and meagre profits
derived from such sources. It had won brilliant vic-
tories at sea. It had taken in two years one hundred
and four Spanish prizes. It had paid dividends of
fifty per cent. It had captured the Panama plate
fleet. It frequently sent to sea single squadrons of
seventy armed vessels. It had captured Bahia in
1624, and Pernambuco in 1630, and it aspired to the
conquest of Brazil. These brilliant performances cast
the puny interests of the New Netherlands traders
into the shade, and the company did not care to be
bothered with the discharge of duties which were
nevertheless particularly assigned to it in the charter.
So obvious was this departure from the original pur-
poses of the company that so early even as 1624 we find
that William Usselincx, the founder of the company,
had abandoned it in disgust, and was seeking to per-
suade King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to estab-
lish a Swedish West India Company, such as would
be operated more in accordance with his original
plan.
There were still some very shrewd heads among the
members of the Amsterdam chamber, men who while
quite willing to take all the gold and silver and pre-
cious stones they could get, yet were fully acquainted
with the more abiding virtues of land. Of these were
John De Laet, the historian, Killiaan Van Rensselaer,
the diamond-cutter, Michael Pauw, Peter Evertsen
Hulft, Jonas Witsen, Hendrick Hamel, Samuel Go-
dyn, and Samuel Blommaert, all rich, all well in-
formed, all interested in the support and develop-
ment of the colonies on the North and South Rivers,
especially if these could be effected in a way further
to enrich themselves. The secretary of Minuet and
the colony, Isaac De Rasieres, a keen observer aud
skillful diplomatist, was devoted to the interests of Go-
dyn, Van Rensselaer, and Blommaert, and he proba-
bly kept them apprised of all that was going on in the
New Netherlands. While Minuet, with reduced
SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
59
forces, was compelled through fear of Indians to con-
centrate his people at Manhattan, abandoning all ex-
posed places, the Amsterdam directors, after consulting
with De Rasieres, whom Minuet had sent home, pro-
cured a meeting of the Executive "College" of nine-
teen, and secured from it a Charter of Freedoms and
Exemptions, which the States General confirmed on
June 7, 1629. This was a complete feudal constitution,
adopted years before Lord Baltimore's charter. It
created a landed aristocracy, and handed the State
over pretty much to their control. The plan for the
colonization of the territory was its subdivision into
separate and independent settlements or estates,
each to be under the control of a patroon, or feudal
lord, who was to settle it at his own expense in ex-
change for many peculiar privileges. The charter
provided that any member of the West India Com-
pany (to none others were these privileges open) who
should within four years plant a colony of fifty
adults in any part of New Netherland (except the
island of Manhattan, which the company, having
bought it from the Indians, reserved to itself) should
be acknowledged as a ''patroon'' or feudal chief of
the territory he might thus colonize. The land se-
lected for each colony might extend sixteen miles in
length if confined to one side of a navigable river, or
eight miles on each side if both banks were occupied;
but they might run as far into the country as the sit-
uation of the occupiers should permit. More immi-
grants entitled the patroon to proportionately more
land. The colonists under the patroons were ex-
empted from all taxes for ten years ; they acquired
their estates in fee simple with power of disposing by
will ; they were magistrates within their own bounds,
and each patroon had the exclusive privilege of fish-
ing, fowling, and grinding corn within his own do-
main; they could also trade anywhere along the
American coast, and to Holland by paying five per
cent, duty to the company at its reservation of Man-
hattan. The company reserved the fur trade to itself,
and none of the colonists were to engage in any man-
ufactures.
Before the details of the Charter of Exemptions and
Privileges were completed some of the Amsterdam
directors, probably upon the advice of De Rasieres,
united with one another, or, as we should now say in
newspaper parlance, formed a " pool" for an enormous
"land-grab." The first to act were Blommaert, De
Rasieres' friend, and Godyn. They sent two persons
in 1629 to the Zuydt River to examine and buy land,
and these agents purchased from the Indians, on the
south side of Delaware Bay, a tract thirty-two miles
long and two miles deep from Cape Hinlopen to the
mouth of a river, the patent being registered and con-
firmed June 1, 1630. Sebastian Jansen Krol, Van
Rensselaer's agent, bought from the Indians for him
on the west side of the Hudson, near Albany, a tract
sixteen miles front and extending back two days'
journey into the wilderness. This patroon made
other purchases a few days later, and became propri-
etor of nearly all of what are the present counties of
Albany and Rensselaer. Michael Pauw secured in
the same way the patroonship of Pavonia and Staten
Island, Paulus Hook and Jersey City. The land-
grabbers now began to quarrel among themselves, and
to avoid scandal and exposure Van Rensselaer di-
vided his tract into five shares, two of which he
retained with the title of patroon ; one fell to John
De Laet, one to Samuel Godyn, and one to Samuel
Blommaert. In the same way Godyn and Blommaert
shared with their partners the tract on South River.
In the mean time Godyn and Blommaert had to
improve their tract. Opportunely for them there
arrived at this time at Amsterdam, fresh from a three
years' cruise to the East Indies, one David Pietersen
de Vries, of Hoorn, a skipper who in 1624 had
attempted unsuccessfully to invade the West India
Company's monopoly. De Vries, a rough but kindly
man, keen, observant, and well versed in affairs as
well as seamanship, was well known to Godyn. As
soon as his arrival was known the latter approached
him and asked if he would like to go to New Nether-
land as commander and " under-patroon." But De
Vries would not go in any capacity except upon an
equality with the rest. He was accordingly taken
into the partnership with Godyn and Blommaert,
Van Rensselaer and De Laet, to whom were soon
added four other directors of the West India Com-
pany, Van Ceulen, Hamel, Van Haringhoeck, and
Van Sittorigh.
De Vries became a patroon Oct. 16, 1630, and at
once set to work to promote the designs of his asso-
ciates. The ship " Walrus," or " Whale," of eighteen
guns, and a yacht were immediately equipped. They
carried out emigrants, cattle, food, and whaling im-
plements, De Vries having heard that whales abounded
in the Bay of South River (Godyn's Bay, or New Port
May Bay, as it now also began to be called), and ex-
pecting to establish profitable fisheries there. The
expedition sailed from the Texel in December under
the command of Pieter Heyes, or Heyser. De Vries
did not go out at this time, and the voyage was not
profitable. De Vries accuses Heyes of incapacity
and cowardice, saying he would not sail through the
West Indies in an eighteen-gun ship. Still, Heyes
did a large business for his employers. He reached
South River in the spring of 1631, and established
his colony on the Horekill, " a fine navigable stream,
filled with islands, abounding in good oysters," and
surrounded by fertile soil. The place was near the
present site of Lewes, Del. Here a palisaded brick
house was erected, and the colony of more than thirty
souls was called Swaannendael, the Valley of Swans.
The Dutch title was inscribed upon a pillar, on a
plate of tin, surmounted by the arms of Holland.
The fort, named "Oplandt," was given in the com-
mand of Gilliss Hossett, Van Rensselaer's agent in
buying lands around Albany. Heyes, after he had
60
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
settled matters at Swaannendael, crossed to the Jer-
sey shore and bought from ten chiefs there, on behalf
of Godyn, Blommaert, and their associates, a tract of
land extending from Cape May twelve miles north-
ward along the bay and twelve miles inland. This
purchase was registered at Manhattan June 3, 1631.
The whale fishery having come to naught, in Sep-
tember Heyes sailed for home to report to his em-
ployers.
De Vries now determined to go out to the South
River himself, and preparations were made for him to
take charge of another ship and yacht. Just as he
was about to sail from the Texel, May 24, 1632, Gov-
ernor Minuet arrived from New Amsterdam with
intelligence of the massacre of the colony at Swaan-
nendael. This was cold news for De Vries and his
associates. The patroon sailed, however, and after a
long and checkered voyage arrived off Swaannendael
early in December. The site of the little settlement
told a fearful tale ; the house itself nearly ruined,
the stockade burnt, and the adjacent land strewed
with the skulls and bones of the colonists, the remains
of cattle, etc. The valley was silent and desolate.
De Vries returned
on board his yacht
and fired a gun to
attract attention of
the savages. After
some mutual mis-
trust, communica-
tion was opened
with them, and
De Vries was told
a cock-and-bull
story of a chief
having ignorantly
removed the coat
of arms from the
pillar and been murdered by the Indians for doing it,
whereupon his tribe, in revenge, massacred the colo-
nists. De Vries knew too much about the Dutch
cruelty and harshness to the Indians to believe any
such story. He had before him all the evidences of
the white man's cruelty and the savage's wild revenge.
The fatal deed was irreparable, and De Vries, keep-
ing his own counsel, did what he could to restore con-
fidence and peace by making presents to the Indians
of" duffles, bullets, hatchets, and Nuremberg toys," so
as to get them to hunt beaver for him, instead of lying
in ambush to murder more colonists. The result was a
treaty of peace, the first ever made in Delaware waters.
On Jan. 1, 1633, the navigation being open, De
Vries proceeded up the bay and river in his yacht.
At Fort Nassau he heard of the murder of the crew
of an English sloop, and met some Indians wearing
the Englishmen's jackets. These Indians also made a
DAVID PIKTF.RSEN DE YRIKK.
show of offering peace, but De Vries dealt with them
very cautiously, as they greatly outnumbered his men.
On January 10th, De Vries cast anchor at the bar
of Jacques Eylandt, precisely opposite the present
city of Philadelphia, over against Willow Street,
being in fact now part of the fast land of New
Jersey.1 Thence he went down river again, an-
choring half a mile above Minquas Kill, on the look-
out for whales. He was finally twice frozen up, and
in some danger from Indians, numerous war parties
of whom he saw, there being some intestine feud
among the adjacent tribes. Eeleased from the ice,
he reached Swaannendael on February 20th, and on
March 6th sailed for Virginia, returning to South
River only to break up the colony at Swaannendael
and go home. Once more the Delaware River and
Bay were abandoned to the Indians, and once more
the attempt at settlement by white men had failed.
There were no further efforts made to settle on South
River until the Swedes came in 1638, but, as has been
stated, there must have been a more or less intermit-
tent occupancy at Fort Nassau, and possibly there
may have been a permanent garrison from the begin-
ning of Van Twiller's director-generalship.2
1 The bar of Jacques Eylandt embraces the spot where the city of
Camden is now built.
2 The 21st of June, 1G34, is the alleged date of the probably spurious
Sir Edward Plowden or Ployden's charter for impossible territory some-
where between the Potomac and Newark Bay.
Rev. Edward D. Neill, president of Macalester College, Minn., who has
given considerable attention to Maryland history, though from a rather
sectarian stand-point, contributed two papers on Plowden to the fifth vol-
ume of the Pennsylvania Magazine, conducted by the Historical Society of
that State. He assumes Plowden's existence, and that he was the lineal
descendant of Edmund Plowden, the commentator on English law, who
earned Coke's encomiums and who died in 1584. Plowden, according to
Neill, did obtain a grant in 1632, through King Charles I.'s request to
the viceroy of Ireland for a certain "Isle Plowden'' and forty leagues of
the mainland, called " New Albion." The island lay between 39° and
40° latitude. Capt. Young, commissioned by the king in September,
1633, sent out an exploring expedition in 1634, which ascended the Del-
aware as far as the Falls. If this expedition ever sailed, it must have
been the one mentioned by De Vries as having been massacred by the
Indians. There is no proof that Plowden sent out this party or had aught
to do with it. Evelyn, who commanded it, was in the service of Clay-
borne's London partners. Plowden, says Mr. Neill, was living at his seat
at Wanstead in Hampshire in 1635, unhappy, heating his wife, quarrel-
ing with his neighbors, and changing his religion. His wife and his
clergyman's wife both had him arrested for assault and battery, and his
wife procured a divorce from him. In 1641, Evelyn wrote a pamphlet
descriptive of New Albion, dedicated to Plowden's wife. The next year
Plowden was on the Chesapeake. This was ten years after he is said to
have procured this rich grant. No one can explain why he did not look
after such an estate sooner. Plowden lived most of his time in Virginia,
but was in Maryland ou Delaware Bay, at New York, and in New Eng-
land. He was abroad just seven years, say his chroniclers, and then
went home to return no more to ll Now Albion." It is conjectured that
his seven years' residence was on account of being transported, and that
his New Albion claim was trumped up after the time of his sentence
was served out. Plowden is reputed to have died in 1665. Mr. Neill
further says that in 1635-40, Plowden was a prisoner in the Fleet Prison,
London, for refusing to pay his wife's alimony. Mr. Neill must see that
the dates of Plowden's adventures are irreconcilable with his adven-
tures.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
61
CHAPTER V.
THE SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
Fort Nassau, on the Delaware, whether occupied
permanently or not as a Dutch trading-post in 1633,
must have had runners near by to bring news from it
to Manhattan. John Romeyn Brodhead, the accurate
historian of New York State, thinks it was not garri-
soned then, nor in 1635, when the English party oc-
cupied it. This party of thirteen men, under George
Holmes, was sent, he says, from Virginia by Governor
Harvey, in consequence of the talk of the latter with
De Vries in 1632. Other writers have thought they
came from Maryland or Connecticut. They seized
the fort, but Hall, Holmes' servant, deserted and went
to Manhattan, carrying the news of the occupancy of
Fort Nassau by the English. An armed force was at
once sent in a sloop to dislodge them. Holmes and
his men were made prisoners and sent back to Vir-
ginia, just as another party was starting to reinforce
them. De Vries, on his return to Amsterdam from
the deserted post of Swaannendael, found the partners
quarreling among themselves and with the other direc-
tors. Not willing to mix in these disputes, he with-
drew from the patroon partnership, and after the death
of Godyn, in 1634, the West India Company settled
the disputes by buying Swaannendael from Godyn's
heirs and associates for fifteen thousand six hundred
guilders, thus becoming again the legal proprietary of
all the territory on both sides of the Delaware. A
deed, recorded at Manhattan in 1648 and attested by
Augustine Hermans, Govert Loockerman, and others,
is adduced to show that the land on the Schuylkill
called Armenverius, where this year (1648) Hudde
had begun to build a fort called " Beversrede," was
acquired by purchase from sundry Indian chiefs,
by the company's agent on the South River, Arendt
Corssen, in 1633. Nor is this improbable. Of this
purchase Augustine Hermans was a witness,, as he
was at- this time clerk to Corssen. The Dutch not
only knew of the pretensions and promised coming
of the Swedes, but they knew also that Lord Balti-
more was about to sail from England, and that his
charter called for a frontier line touching the Dela-
ware westward of the mouth of the Schuylkill. They
would naturally seek to secure Indian titles in ad-
vance for every acre of territory likely to be brought
in dispute.
It is impossible to state the causes of the alienation
of William Usselincx from the Dutch West India
Company. He had labored strenuously for over
thirty years1 to secure that company's charter, yet
1 His first attempts were made in 1590. Usselincx probably left the
Dutch West India Company because he had not money enough to se-
cure an influential share in its stock by paying up his subscription.
He appears to have been a bankrupt about that time. In the charter
given to the Swedish Company be was recognized aB director, and his
services in that capacity and as organizer and founder of the company
were to be compensated by a fee or royalty of one-tenth of one per cent.
he deserted it less than a year after the company was
fully organized. He went to Stockholm, visited the
valiant king, Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, and
full, probably, of enthusiasm as well as special knowl-
edge of his subject, pleaded so eloquently the advan-
tages of colonization in general and the particular
beauties and attractions of the territory along the
South River which he proposed should be planted,
that on Dec. 21, 1624, the king granted him a com-
mission to form a Swedish West India Company
somewhat upon the plan of that of the Netherlands,
of which Usselincx was the founder and originator.
Usselincx's plan was one which would naturally
awaken the sympathy and excite the imagination
of an ambitious monarch. He proposed to organize
a trading company, to extend its operations into Asia,
Africa, America, and Terra Magellanica. This com-
pany would plant Christianity among the heathen,
extend his Majesty's dominions, enrich the treasury,
reduce the burden of domestic taxation, and put lu-
crative trade at the command of Sweden's hardy sea-
men and enterprising merchants. The prosecution
of the scheme would finally "tend greatly to the
honor of God, to man's eternal welfare, to his Majes-
ty's service, and the good of the kingdom."
The plans of Gustavus were both deep and patri-
otic. "The year 1624," says the historian Geijer,
"was one of the few years that the king was able
to devote to the internal development of the realm."
He looked at the subject of colonization in America,
says Rev. Dr. W. M. Reynolds in the introduction to
his translation of Acrelius, " with the eye of a states-
man who understood the wants not only of his own
country but of the world, and was able with pro-
phetic glance to penetrate into the distant ages of
the future." He proposed there to found a free state,
where the laborer should reap the fruit of his toil,
where the rights of conscience should be inviolate,
and which should be open to the whole Protestant
world then engaged in a struggle for existence with
all the papal powers of Europe. All should be se-
cure in their persons, their property, and their rights
of conscience. It should be an asylum for the perse-
cuted of all nations, a place of security for the honor
of the wives and daughters of those who were flying
from bloody battle-fields and from homes made deso-
late by the fire and sword of the persecutor. No
slaves should burden the soil ; " for," said Gustavus,
—and we realize the profound truth of his political
upon all the exports and imports of the company. Usselincx seems U»
have been a sort of " projector" or " prospector,1' planning comprehen ■
sive commercial schemes which he had not the capital nor the credit to
set afloat himself. He was a man, however, evidently of great experi
ence, wide views, and the ability to express himself cogently and elo-
I quently. He is supposed to be the author of the greater part of the doc-
uments in the Argtmaulica Gustaviana, printed under the auspices of the
Swedish government at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1033, which did so
much to promote the objects of the Swedish Company. He also wrote
many pamphlets and circulars addressed to the leading towns of Sweden
the Ilanseatic cities, France, the States General, etc., "all of them," says
Prof. C. T. Odhner, "abounding in clear thoughts and brilliant fancies.'
62
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
economy after an experience of two centuries, at the
end of which slavery expired amid the death-throes
of our civil war — '' slaves cost a great deal, lahor with
reluctance, and soon perish from hard usage. But
the Swedish nation is industrious and intelligent,
and herehy we shall gain more by a free people
with wives and children." 1
The plan and contract were translated into the
Swedish language by Schrader, the royal interpreter,
and published to the nation, with an address and sup-
ported by the king's recommendation. People of all
ranks were invited by royal edict to subscribe, and
Gustavus pledge'd the royal treasury for its support to
the amount of four hundred thousand dollars. The
edict was ratified in 1627 in a general meeting of the
States, and the people welcomed the new enterprise
with enthusiasm. It was proposed to execute the
plan at once, and every one subscribed from the
queen-mother and Prince Casimir down through all
ranks of nobility, clergy, military, burghers, and
peasantry. Ships and all necessaries are said to have
been provided and the work was ripe for execution,
when a revival of the Polish and German wars called
the king away to the field. Campanius and others
would have us believe that the fleet sailed and was
captured by the Spaniards. It is more likely, how-
ever, that the exigencies of war called for the post-
ponement of the comprehensive scheme. Gustavus
needed all his meagre resources to aid him in the
field.
In 1632 the brave king fell gloriously on the battle-
field of Lutzen, and his little daughter, Christina,
was bequeathed to the astute guardianship of Chan-
cellor Oxenstierna. One of the last acts of Gustavus
had been to urge his people not to forget nor neglect
the colonization scheme, and Oxenstierna took an
early opportunity to have the patent renewed, with
Usselincx still director, and to publish the merits of
the proposed new venture throughout Europe. In
the mean time, in part probably through the inter-
mediary of Usselincx, the services of Peter Minuet,
latel}' recalled from the director-generalship of New
Netherland, were secured to superintend and direct
the new plantation. The delays in preparation, how-
ever, prevented the expedition from sailing until late
in the year 1637. Minuet was a native of Wessel, in
Cleves, the nearest borderland of Holland on the side
of Germany. It is supposed that he left the city of
his forefathers when it fell into Spanish hands on
occasion of the Jiilich-Cleves war of succession. He
entered the service of the Dutch West India Com-
pany, and, as has been seen, became director or gov-
ernor over the colony of New Netherland, residing
at New Amsterdam from 1626 to 1632, and proving
himself an efficient officer. The intrigues consequent
upon the quarrels of the patroons caused his dismissal
in 1632. In 1635, Axel Oxenstierna was on a visit to
1 Arguuautica Gugtaviana.
Holland to secure more support for Sweden in the
prosecution of the Thirty Years' war. He was at the
Hague and Amsterdam in May of that year, and in
the latter city met Samuel Blommaert, the Dutch
patroon, who, in conjunction with Godyn, had located
tracts of land at Cape May and from Cape Henlopen
up the Delaware Bay on the west side. Blommaert
was also a friend and patron of Usselincx. He im-
mediately opened a correspondence with the Swedish
Prime Minister on the subject of the Swedish West
India Company and the colonization of the South
River country.2 Blommaert's first letters were di-
rected to the plan of an expedition to the coast of
Guinea or Brazil, a favorite idea of Usselincx's, who
wanted to spoil the Spaniards and Portuguese and
get gold. Oxenstierna's thoughts, however, had a
more pacific turn. In the spring of 1636 the chan-
cellor was visited in Wismar by his friend Peter
Spiring, a Dutchman, who had just come from look-
ing after the regulation of the Prussian excise system,
and was now on his way back to Holland. He had
been and was at that time more or less in Oxenstierna's
employment, and he was now commissioned to try to
raise money in Holland for Sweden, and also "to ob-
serve whether it might not be possible in this con-
junction to obtain some service in affairs of commerce
or manufacture." Spiring, on reaching Amsterdam,
had several conversations with Blommaert, and was
by him put in communication with Peter Minuet.
When Spiring returned to Sweden he brought with
him for Oxenstierna a memorial written by Minuet,
specifying the preparations requisite to planting a
Swedish colony (to be called Nova Suedia) in some
foreign part of the world.
The estimate called for a vessel of sixty to one hun-
dred laster (one hundred and twenty to two hundred
tons), a cargo of ten thousand or twelve thousand
gulden in goods, a company of twenty to twenty-five
men, provisions for a year, a dozen soldiers to serve as
a garrison for the post, and a small vessel to remain at
the settlement. At this time the idea in view was a
factory apparently on the Gold Coast. Spiring was sent
back to Holland in the fall of 1636 in the capacity of
Swedish resident and "counselor of the finances''
[finansrad) with a title of nobility thrown in, so that
he now signed himself Pieter Spieringk Sttvercroen op
Norsholm.3 When Spiring arrived in Holland in Oc-
2 The discovery of this correspondence, lately made by Prof. Odhner,
in the Royal Archives of Sweden, has thrown an entirely new light
upon the history of the Swedish expeditions to the Delaware prior to that
of Printz, and enables us to correct the errors into which previous writers
have fallen from following too closely the accounts of Campanius and
Acrelius. The latter is very accurate so far as his knowledge goes, but
he did not search the records of Sweden as closely as he did those of the
SwediBh Churches in America. Blommaert's letters to the Swedish chan-
cellor are written in Dutch.
3 This was in Dutch; the SwediBh was Sil/ercron till Noreholm. All
these interesting details are from the translation of Prof. Odhner's paper,
''The Founding of New Sweden" (Kolonien Ni/a Sv/iriges GrundltLggning,
1037-1642. Op C. T. Odhner, nisi. Bibliotek. Nyfoljd I. ««. 197-235. Stock,
holm, 1876), published in vol. iii. of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
03
tober he handed to Bloramaert his appointment as
Swedish commissary at Amsterdam, with a salary of
one thousand riksdaler. There were immediate con-
sultations between Spiring, Blommaert, and Minuet;
the idea of a Guinea factory was abandoned, and prepa-
rations made, secretly and privately, so as not to alarm
the Dutch West India Company, for planting a colony
in North America on soil not occupied by either Dutch
or English. The cost of this expedition was estimated
at twenty-four thousand Dutch florins (worth about
forty cents) ; Minuet was to be commander, and Blom-
maert commissioner for it at Amsterdam. The money
was contributed, half by Minuet, Blommaert, and their
friends in Amsterdam, half subscribed in Sweden by
Spiring, the three Oxenstiernas, Clas Fleming, prac-
tical chief of the Swedish Admiralty and secretary
of the Swedish Company.1 Minuet went to Sweden
in February, 1637, and began his preparations, Blom-
maert secured crews and cargo, and all were sent to
Gottenburg, the expedition intending to start in the
spring. Delay came.from a prolonged illness of Minuet
and other causes. However, the passports for the ves-
sels were issued by the Swedish Admiralty on Aug. 9,
1637, when the two ships, the "Kalmar Nyckel"
and the " Gripen," left Stockholm. They did not,
however, sail from Gottenburg until late in the fall,
and then encountered such severe weather that they
were forced to put into the Dutch harbor of Medem-
blik in December to refit and take in provisions,
finally sailing for their destination just about the close
of the year. They sailed as the ships of the Swedish
West India Company, and as if dispatched to enjoy
the benefit of its privileges.2
The charter of the Swedish West India Company
gave to the associated subscribers the exclusive right
for twelve years to trade beyond the Straits of Gibral-
tar southward in Africa, and in America and Austra-
lia, reaching the coast of America at the same latitude
as said straits, viz., 36°, also with all lands and islands
between Africa and America in the same latitude, the
vessels and goods of others than the same company
who infringe those rights to be confiscated. Accounts
1 Spiring gave four thousand five hundred florins, Axel find Gabriel
Gust.'ifian Oxenstierna three thousand each, and the rest smaller sums.
2 The passes granted were to Capt. Anders Nilsson Krober, of the
" Kalmar Nyckcl" (in Butch De Kalmers leutel), and " Vogel Grip"
(Dulch, Dr. Fogelgryp), commanded by Lieut. Jacob Borben. The " Key
of Kalmar1' (named after a city of Sweden, on the Baltic coast of Goth-
land, off the island of Oland, and famous aB being the place where the
uoyou of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway was consummated in 1397,
under the imperious Queen Blargaretof Denmark, called the "Semir-
amis of the North") was a regubir man-of-war of quite good capacity.
The "Griffin" (or " Bird Griffin") was a sloop or yacht for shallow water.
The cost of the expedition, through delays, ran up above thirty-Bix thou-
sand florins, causing the Dutch subscribers to grumble. The only
person, so far as known, who came t.j New Sweden on the "Gripen"
and remained with the colony was ein morian oder angoler, "a Moor or
Angola man," a negro named Anthony, a bought slave (the first on the
Delaware), who served Governor Printz at Tinnecum in 1644 (" making
hay for the cattle and accompanying the Governor in his pleasure-
yacht"), and was still living in 1G48. (Note of G. B. Keen in his transla-
tion of Odliner.)
were to be settled every year, and every person inter-
ested to the amount of one thousand thalers could be
present. Final settlements every six years, when the
company might be dissolved if its profit or influence
be not obvious. Directors or regents to be elected , one
for each one hundred thousand thalers of stock, these
directors to be all equal in authority, and to be paid
one thousand thalers each per annum. The company
was put under the royal protection, and given the
same extensive trade and foreign privileges as those
enumerated in connection with the Dutch Company,
but was forbidden aggressive acts against either sav-
age or civilized people. Its object was not war, but
peaceful trade and settlement. The founder and di-
rector of the company, William Usselincx, was to be
paid the tenth of one per cent, royalty on all the
traffic of the company in recognition of his services.
There is nothing satisfactory known concerning
Minuet's voyage across the Atlantic. Since Professor
Odhner wrote, however, a further search among the
Swedish archives has been made, and a contract
signed by Governor Printz has been discovered, in
which it is mentioned that Minuet bought land on
the Delaware from an Indian chief on March 29,
1638, so that he must have arrived inside the Capes
of the Delaware at least three or four days before
that date. This corroborates some of the inferences
of Odhner, and enables us to correct other less accu-
rate accounts of this expedition. For example, it
has generally been supposed that Minuet arrived
later than this date, from a letter written from
Jamestown, Va., May 8, 1638, by Jerome Hawley,
treasurer of the Virginia colony, to Secretary Winde-
banke, of the London Company. Hawley says,
" Since which time have arrived a Dutch ship, with
commission from the Queen of Sweden, and signed
by eight of the chief Lords of Sweden. . . . The
ship remained here about ten days, to refresh with
wood and water, during which time the master of
said ship made known that both himself and another
ship of his company were bound for Delaware Bay."
The vessel asked the privilege of laying in a cargo
of tobacco for Sweden free of duty, but this was re-
fused. Professor Odhner shows, however, that this
vessel could not have been the "Key of Kalmar,"
with Minuet on board, but the yacht " Griffin,"
which, after his arrival in the Delaware, the com-
mander sent to Jamestown with the idea of bartering
her cargo in Virginia. Minuet appears not to have
confided to the Holland directors his exact destina-
tion. Blommaert in his letters speaking continually
of the " voyagen till Florida." In the same way it is
suspected that Minuet concealed the Dutch protests
made after his arrival, and declared that he found
the country totally unoccupied by Christians after an
exploration some distance inland. It was necessary
to deceive Blommaert, for it was less than two years
since he and Godyn had sold this very country which
the Swedes were occupying back to the Dutch West
64
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
India Company for a good round sum of money.
Minuet's vessels first sighted the coast at Cape Hen-
lopen, and from thence they steered into the Dela-
ware Bay, landing first at Mispillion, the landscape
of which so charmed them in its April bloom that
they called it " Paradise Point." They then passed
up the Delaware to Minquas Creek (the Christina,
or Christiana, as now called), and finally anchored
at " the Rocks," a natural landing-place at the foot
of what is now Sixth Street, Wilmington, Del. Here
the freight and passengers were landed, and Minuet
set all hands to work at once to erect shelter on
shore and build a fort. The latter was named Fort
Christina, after the queen of Sweden, daughter of
Gustavus, still in her minority, and the settlement,
the first permanent settlement on the Delaware, was
called Christinaham, or Christina Harbor. Minuet
called the colony New Sweden, and the river Elbe, but
the settlers called it Kristinas Kill, and the local name
is still Oristeen. The fort, of which a plan is extant,
PLAN OF THE TOWN AND FORT OF CHRISTINA, HESIHGED
BY THE DUTCH IN 1055.
[From Canipanius1 New Sweden.]
A, Fort Christina. B, Christina Creek. C, Town of Christina Hainn.
I), Tennekong Land. E, Fish Kill. F, Slaugenborg. G, Myggenhorg.
H, Rottnborg. I, Flingenborg. K, Timber Island. L, Kitchen.
M, Position of the besiegers. N, Harbor. 0, Mine. P, Swamp.
drawn by the Swedish engineer Lindstrom in 1655,
was built close to the point of rocks, its southern
rampart bordering on the creek. Two log houses
were built inside the inclosure for the garrison arid
settlers. A cove under the eastern wall of the fort
was called the basin, or harbor, and it afforded a safe
dock for such vessels as came there. The land for
the fort and Christinaham was bought from five near-
by Indian sachems, one of whom bore the name of
Mattahorn or Mattahoon, the price paid being a cop-
per kettle and some small articles. The sachem
whose name is given later said that they only bought
of him so much land as lay " within six trees," the
trees being blazed as surveyor's marks, probably, and
promised to pay him half the tobacco grown upon it,
a promise never kept. A deed was drawn up in Low
Dutch, and signed by both parties. The Dutch his-
torians say that this deed was the only conveyance
under which the Swedes claimed the whole south
side of the Delaware Bay and River from Cape Hen-
lopen to Trenton (Sankitan), but the better opinion
is that this large territory was a later and independ-
ent purchase.1 A part of this territory, including
Swaannendael, had belonged to the original territory
bought of the Indians by Godyn, Blommaert & Co.,
and by them sold to the Dutch West India Company.
Minuet and his colonists at Minquas Creek were only
a few miles below Fort Nassau, and the Dutch were in-
stantly apprised of their arrival. William Kieft, the
successor of Van Twiller, and the new director-
general at Manhattan, had arrived out March 28th,
or near the same time as Minuet. Among his staff
were Andreas Hudde, first commissary, Jan Jansen
Van Ilpendam, and Peter Mey, all of whom became
conspicuous in the affairs of the Dutch and Swedes
on the Delaware. Ilpendam was made commissary
of Fort Nassau, now in a decayed state, in spite of
Van Twiller's expenditures for its restoration, and
Mey was his assistant. On April 28th Kieft wrote to
the directors of the company in Amsterdam that Mey
had reported Minuet's presence on the Delaware, and
that he sent Jan Jansen to him to protest against
anything being done by the intruders to the com-
pany's disadvantage. Minuet at first temporized,
and finally avowed his purpose to build a fort, saying
that his queen had as much right there as the com-
pany. Early in May Kieft sent a formal protest to
Minuet over his own signature as director-general of
New Netherland, notifying him of the fact (of which
none could be more entirely aware than the man
calling himself " commissioner in the service of her
royal majesty of Sweden") "that the whole South
River in New Netherland has been many years in
our possession, and has been secured by us with forts
above and below, and sealed with our blood." He
further informs Minuet that if he proceeded with the
building of forts, cultivating land, and trading in
furs and other things, to the prejudice and damage of
the company, he must be answerable for the conse-
quences to himself and his employers, as the Dutch
meant to defend their rights.
Those rights, as against the pretensions of Minuet
and the Swedes, were undoubted in every view of tile
law and custom of new settlements. Minuet made
no reply to Kieft but continued to build his fort, and
by means of a shrewd liberality to the Indians in-
duced them to bring to him instead of to Fort Nassau
all the furs and peltries they were taking on the
1 Compare Brodhead, Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, Vincent's
History of Delaware, Ferris' Original Settlements, etc., and Clay's
Annals of the Swedes. Brodhead is always full and accurate, but he
never forgets that he is a New Yorker.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
05
South River. Kieft in another dispatch dated July
31, 1638, reports that " Minuet has built a fort near
the Delaware, five miles below our fort, and draws
all the skins towards him by his liberal gifts ; he has
departed with the two vessels he had with him,' leav-
ing twenty- four men in the fort provided with all
sorts of merchandise and provisions, and has put
down posts, on which are the letters C. R. S.,1 Chris-
tina Regina Suesciae. Jan Jansen has, according to
my orders, protested against this, in which he gave
an answer, a copy of which goes herewith. We
afterwards sent him a formal clause of protest, which
was read to him, but he did not feel inclined to an-
swer it, and his proceeding is a great disadvantage to
the company." Kieft's statement in regard to the
departure of Minuet at this time has been contra-
dicted by all the older writers on the subject, in-
cluding the usually very accurate Acrelius, who even
goes so far as to state that Minuet died and was
buried at Christina, after serving faithfully at his
post until 1641. Minuet's biographer, Kapp, does
not controvert this. It remained for Professor
Odhner to give the facts, confirming the statement
of Kieft, and explaining why we hear no more of
Minuet. Having made all the necessary arrange-
ments for the safety of his colony, provisioned the
fort and supplied it with articles for trading with the
Indians, Minuet prepared to return home. He left
the fort under the command of Lieut. Mans (Moens)
Kling, the only Swede expressly named as taking
part in the first expedition (though Acrelius men-
tions the Swedish priest, Reorus Torkillus, who, it is
likely, came with a later expedition), and Hendrick
Huyghen, who is said to have been Minuet's kins-
man, his cousin or brother-in-law. Kling had charge
of the military, and Huyghen of the civil government
of the post. Minuet appears to have sailed for home
in July, 1638, as Kieft's letter of the 28th of that month
speaks of him as having already departed. He sent
the yacht " Griffin" on in advance to the West Indies
to barter the cargo brought out from Gottenburg, sail-
ing in the same direction himself with the " Key of
Kalmar." Blommaert condemns him for this in his
letter to the Swedish chancellor, as he might have
come home at once in his vessel, transferring the res-
idue of his cargo to the yacht. At the island of St.
Christopher he traded his goods for a cargo of to-
bacco. He was ready to sail for home when he and
his captain were invited aboard a Dutch ship in the
harbor called " Het vliegende hert" (the •' Flying
Deer"). While aboard this vessel a cyclone came up,
driving all the ships in the harbor out to sea. Many
were dismasted or otherwise injured by the hurricane.
The "Flying Deer" and Minuet were never heard of
again, and the vessel is supposed to have foundered.
The " Kalmar Nyckel" escaped the storm, returned
to port, and cruised around for some time in hopes to
1 ChriBtilla, Queen of Sweden.
get news of Minuet. Failing in this she at last
sailed away and pursued her voyage to Sweden. In
the North Sea she encountered another storm in No-
vember, which drove her into a Dutch port to refit.
The " Griffin," after a cruise in the vicinity of Ha-
vana, returned to New Sweden, took on a cargo of
furs which had been gathered from the Indians for
her, and then departed for Sweden, arriving in Got-
tenburg at the close of May, 1639, having made the
voyage from Christina in five weeks. It is likely that
Kieft would have expelled the company left by
Minuet from the South River without ceremony and
at once had they not borne the commission of tin-
daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, the champion of
Protestantism in Europe. Tne Dutch West India
Company knew how distasteful it would be to the
whole Dutch people should they venture to embroil
themselves with a great, powerful, warlike nation,
with which they had made common cause in so many
stirring events. The evidence of this feeling was
manifest soon after the reception of Kieft's first dis-
patches in Holland. A Swedish vessel was seized at
Medemblik by order of the West India Company's
chamber at Eckhuysen, upon the charge of illegal
trading with America, but as soon as the Swedish
minister at the Hague made his protest the ship
was released and permitted to complete her voyage.
As to Kieft's willingness to act, he proved that shortly
after, when he promptly expelled the English in-
truders from the Delaware, and by his energetic pro-
cedures at Cow Bay, L. I., against the Massachusetts
people.
The first year of the Cristinaham colony was prosper-
ous. They shipped thirty thousand skins to Sweden,
and injured the Dutch trade so much that the West
India Company adopted police regulations for the
navigation of South River, and talked of abandoning
the fur trade altogether. The next year, however,
the people of the colony were depressed by climatic dis-
eases, and Reorus Torkillus, the colony's first clergy-
man, had his hands full of work, as probably also had
Jan Petersen, of Alfendolft, barber and surgeon at
Fort Nassau.2 Torkillus had come over, in the
"Kalmar Nyckel," with Peter Hollandaer, who was
sent to act as Minuet's successor, in the second Swed-
ish expedition. This expedition Acrelius seems to
have known nothing about. We are again indebted
to the researches of Professor Odhner for the particu-
lars of this voyage. Minuet's loss was a severe blow,
and the Dutch partners seemed disposed to abandon
the enterprise, or anyhow throw the weight of it on
Sweden. They were in trouble also with the Dutch
West India directors, who repented their share in
promoting the Swedish plantation on the South River.
These desagrements finally led the Swedish govern-
ment to buy out the Holland partners, who were
2 In this year there is unmistakable evidence of negro slavery among
the Dutch on South River, a convict from Manhattan being sentenced to
serve with the blacks on that river.
66
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
found to be "a hindrance," and an appropriation for
that purpose was made on Feb. 20, 1641, the sum paid
in settlement of all claims being eighteen thousand
guilders. The new Swedish Company was given a
monopoly of the Baltic tobacco trade. In the mean
time, however, Clas Fleming, president of the Swed-
ish College of Commerce, and his secretary, Jan
Beyer, were resolved not to neglect New Sweden. A
Dutch captain, Cornelis Van Vliet, was commissioned
to take out another party in the " Kalmar Nyckel,"
and colonists were secured. Spiring and Blommaert
once more advanced money, the ship was sent from
Holland to Gottenburg in June, 1639, and a body of
emigrants, with cattle, farming tools, etc., put on
board. Lieut. Peter Hollandaer, a Dutchman, like
Minuet, was assigned to command in Fort Christina,
and the vessel sailed in early autumn. She leaked
badly, however, proved unmanageable, and put into
Medemblik, where Spiring removed Van Vliet from
command, substituting Pouwel Jansen. These delays
detained the expedition so long that it was not until
February 7th that the "Kalmar Nyckel" finally
sailed from the Texel. The date of his arrival was
April 17, 1640. Hollandaer was in command at Chris-
tina and many of his garrison were down with fever
before November, when the third expedition came
out. A letter of Governor Kieft's to the directors,
under date of May 1st, states they were resolved to
break up and come to Manhattan, but the day before
their intended departure a vessel arrived to succor
and strengthen them.1 This and a subsequent letter
of Kieft's shows that relations of courtesy were main-
tained between the Dutch and Swedes, the former
probably hoping and expecting to absorb the latter's
settlement. The third expedition arrived in Novem-
ber, in the ship " Fredenburg," Capt. Powelson, sent
out from Holland under a Swedish commission of
" Octroi and Privilegium," and bringing emigrants,
cattle, etc., to " New Sweden." The charterers were
Gothart de Rehden, De Horst, Fenland, and others,
and they had a grant from the Swedish Company in
return for these shipments. The grant was after-
wards transferred to Henry Hockhammer & Co., who
were to send out two or three vessels and found a new
colony in New Sweden. They were to take up land
on the north side of South River, at least four or five
German miles below Fort Christina, and bring it
in actual cultivation within ten years, and the land
thus selected was to become allodial and hereditary
property to them and their heirs and descendants.
They were to prefer the Augsburg Confession of Faith
in religion, but might profess the " pretended reformed
religion," and the patroons of the colony were at all
times bound to support " as many ministers and
schoolmasters as the number of the inhabitants shall
seem to require," choosing by preference for these
1 Profeflsor Odhner, however, denies that there is any evidence of such
distress as is alleged.
offices men willing and capable of converting the
savages. They were allowed to engage in every sort
of industry, trade, and commerce with friendly powers,
and were exempt from taxation for ten years. Jost
van Bogardt, who came over in the " Fredenburg,"
appears to have been governor or executive of this
colony, which some writers think was established
on Elk River, in Maryland. This, however, is not
probable. The grant under which the Hockhammer
Company established their colony, and which bears
the same date as the commissions of Capt. Powelson,
expressly stipulated that they were to " limit their
possessions to four or five German miles from Fort
Christina." In the commission issued by the Swed-
ish government to Capt. Printz as Governor of New
Sweden, it is ordered that " those Hollanders who
have emigrated to New Sweden and settled there
under the protection of her Royal Majesty and the
Swedish Crown, over whom Jost von dem Boyandh2
has command, the Governor shall treat according to
the contents of the charter and privileges conferred by
her Royal Majesty, of the principles whereof the
Governor has been advised ; but in other respects he
shall show them all good will and kindness, yet so
that he shall hold them also to the same, that they
also upon their side comply with the requisitions of
their charter, which they have received. And, inas-
much as notice has already been given them that they have
settled too near to Fort Christina, and as houses are said
to be built at the distance of almost three miles from that
place, they should leave that place and betake them-
selves to a somewhat greater distance from that fort."
This entirely excludes the idea of a settlement on Elk
River, and encourages the supposition that the neigh-
borhood of the present city of New Castle, where
Stuyvesant afterwards established Fort Casimir, was
the place of this Dutch colony. It is certain that
New Amstel, as the town near this fort came to be
called, was the chief settlement of the Dutch on the
Delaware after the overthrow of the Swedish power,
and it seems natural that this circumstance should be
due to the Hockhammer plantation. It has been
conjectured that this Dutch settlement in New Swe-
den under the patronage of the Swedish West India
Company was undertaken on account of jealousies
and ill feeling in Holland towards the Dutch West
India Company, which was a very close monopoly.
The grant given by the Swedish Company to the
Hockhammer Company was much more liberal in its
terms than could have been obtained from the Dutch
West India Company. Bogardt was not only recog-
nized as the commandant and governor of the new
colony, but he also had a special commission from
the Swedish government to act as its "general agent"
on the Delaware River, and particularly to let no
opportunity escape him " of sending to Sweden all
2 This is the spelling of Acrelius. Dr. O'Callaghan, in his " History of
New Netherlands," i. 366-67, says that the proper spelling of this man's
name should be JooBt de Bogaerl.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
67
information which may be useful to her Majesty and
the Crown of Sweden." To encourage him in the
performance of these duties he was paid a salary of
five hundred florins per annum, with a promise of one
hundred florins additional annual pay in case he
should give sufficient proof of his attachment to the
new service, and his zeal to promote the welfare of
the Swedish crown.
In this same year, 1640, the English began to make
inroads upon the Delaware. They bought Indian
lands on both sides of the river and bay, and in 1641
commenced building trading-houses at Varkin's Kill,
near the present Salem, N. J., settling sixty persons
there from Connecticut, and the next year had the
audacity to settle at the mouth of the Schuylkill.
This was too much for the peppery Kieft, and even
for his less excitable Council. Jan Jansen Ilpen-
dam, commissary at Fort Nassau, was directed to
expel the intruders, which he did without any cere-
mony, seizing their goods and burning their trading-
house. After this the Dutch fell upon the Salem
settlement also and broke that up.
Oxenstierna determined now to appoint a regular
governor for New Sweden, and accordingly, in Au-
gust, 1642, John Printz, a lieutenant-colonel of cav-
alry, was selected to fill that office. His commission
and instructions were carefully prepared, and armed
with these he arrived in the Delaware early in 1643.
Printz engaged to keep the new settlements safe from
foreign and domestic enemies, to preserve amity, good
neighborhood, and reciprocity with foreigners, with
his own people, and the savages, and " to render jus-
tice without distinction, so that there may be no in-
jury to any man." He engaged to promote industry
in every way ; and " as to himself, he will so conduct
in his government as to be willing and able faithfully
to answer for it before God, before us, and every brave
Swede, regulating himself by the instructions given
to him." These instructions bind him to take care
of the frontiers of the country (which are minutely
described) ; to maintain good relations with the Eng-
lish at Varkin's Kill, and respect their title, unless
they can be politely dispossessed without any disturb-
ance; to keep on good terms with the Dutch, unless
they show hostile intentions, but always to be on his
guard with them, in view of their claims to the terri-
tory occupied by the Swedes. He must deal with the
savages with humanity and mildness, bringing them
to believe that the Swedes have not, come there to do
them injustice. He is to encourage agriculture and
the fur trade, establish manufactures, and utilize the
natural products of the country. Printz was ap-
pointed to serve three years under these instructions,
his salary being twelve hundred silver dollars a year.
He was given two ships, soldiers and officers to assist
him in executing his duties, and the people were
ordered to obey and support him.
Printz's chaplain, Rev. John Campanius Holm, the
earliest chronicler of New Sweden, kept a journal of
the voyage out, which consumed one hundred and fifty
days, Fort Christina being reached on Feb. 5, 1643.
From this journal the "History of New Sweden" was
written afterwards by his grandson, Thomas Cam-
panius Holm. The new governor, in the midst of so
many rival claims and claimants, needed to exercise
at least all the circumspection enjoined upon him
by his instructions. He certainly showed energy, but
whether prudence or not is another matter. His first
step was to choose his official residence. This he
planted upon Tinnecum Island, nearly opposite Fort
Nassau, where he built Fort New Gottenburg, com-
manding the approaches to the Dutch fort, and be-
hind it erected a mansion for himself, called " Printz's
Hall," with orchards, pleasure-house, etc., "all very
handsome." We have spoken of the Dutch expelling
the English from Varkin's Kill. But Printz aided
them very materially in pulling their chestnuts out
of the fire, nor did he do it in the courteous " under-
hand" manner, while preserving the semblance of
friendship, which his instructions enjoined upon him.
Printz's ideas of tact and diplomacy resembled an
elephant dancing. He was a bluff, coarse soldier,
well described by the shrewd, observant, caustic Pie-
tersen De Vries as " Captain Printz, who weighed
four hundred pounds, and took three drinks at every
meal." To deal with the English, Printz crossed the
Delaware and planted a fort right alongside them on
the opposite bank of Salem Creek. This fort, called
"Elfsborg," " Elsingborg," or " Wootwessung," com-
manded the channel of the Delaware, and enabled
Printz to bring to all Dutch vessels or vessels of any
other nationality passing up or down the river.
This fort, which had a small garrison and mounted
several guns, made De Vries halt before it and give
an account of himself when, in 1643, he attempted to
pass up South River in his sloop. The sturdy navi-
gator, who had planted the first settlement on the Del-
aware, must have felt a grim sense of the change in
the times on being thus, as it were, barred from access
to his own ancient threshold. Meantime the New
Haven English sent down another expedition to the
Delaware under the same Lamberton whom the Dutch
had expelled from Varkin's Kill. His purpose was
probably to revive that settlement, as the lands there
had been bought from the Indians. While Lamber-
ton's sloop was in the river near the mouth of the
Schuylkill, Printz enticed him to Fort Gottenburg
with two of his sailors, and cast them into prison,
keeping them for three days, while he attempted to
suboru the inferiors to testify that Lamberton was in-
citing the Indians to rise against the Swedes. He re-
sorted to the same device with John Wootlen, Lamber-
ton's servant, making them all drunk and offering
them heavy bribes of land and money.1 The Eng-
lishmen were firm, however, in their master's interest,
1 This is the substance of depositions made by these men on their re-
turn to New Haven.
68
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
and could not be got to perjure themselves, though
Printz put them in irons with his own hands. Lam-
berton, however, was driven off, after paying a fine of
beaver-skins and being roundly sworn at by the burly
Swedish governor.
Printz, however, was in some respects a good admin-
istrator. He sustained his people in their determined
resistance to the immigration of convicts and malefac-
tors, who, when sent over by the home government,
were not suffered to land, but compelled to return in
the same ships that brought them. He. built the first
water-mill on South River, at a place called Karakung,
otherwise Water-Mill Stream (Amesland or Carkoen's
Hook), on what is now Cobb's Creek, near the bridge
on the Darby road at the old Blue Bell tavern. This
was put up instead of the old wind-mill, which,
Printz says, never would work and was " good for
nothing." This mill ground both meal and flour, and
found constant work. Printz had a military eye, and,
as soon as his forts gave him command of the Dela-
ware, he proceeded to close the Schuylkill entirely to
the Dutch by a fortification at the mouth of that river
(called Manayunk), one at Kingsessing, and another at
Passayunk, called " Korsholm." He also put a stock-
ade trading-house exactly alongside the Dutch fort of
Beversrede, within a biscuit-toss of it, and between it
and the water, so as to entirely destroy that fort's effi-
ciency. The Dutch confessed that these works cut
them off from the Minquas country and destroyed
the fur trade. The Swedes, on the other hand, in
1644 sent home two thousand one hundred and
twenty-seven packages of beaver and seventy thou-
sand four hundred and twenty-one pounds of tobacco.
The " insolence of office" was fully developed in
Printz. In 1645 the Dutch removed Jan Jansen Van
Ilpendam, commissary at Fort Nassau, appointing
Andreas Hudde in his place. Hudde was active and
energetic, and he and Printz were soon in contro-
versy, Hudde protesting against every act of the
Swedes adverse to Dutch interests, and Printz either
taking no notice of the protests or else responding
to them by still ruder and more hostile actions. He
ordered a Dutch trading-sloop away from the Schuyl-
kill on pain of confiscation, and when Hudde came
in person to protest, he was ordered off likewise.
Kieft peremptorily instructed Hudde in 1646 to ac-
quire some land from the Indians on the west shore,
four miles north of Fort Nassau (on the ground now
occupied by a part of Philadelphia). Hudde did as
bidden, and the purchase being made he planted the
company's arms on the premises. Printz at once
sent Commissary Huygens to throw down the Dutch
arms, whereupon Hudde arrested Huygens and put
him in the guard-house, sending word to Printz that
he must punish the commissary. Some correspond-
ence ensued, when Printz answered Hudde's final
protest and declaration of his company's rights by
tossing the paper to an attendant, and seizing a
musket as if to shoot the messenger, who, an honest
Dutch sergeant, totally oblivious of the immunities
of heralds, quickly made his escape. Printz now de-
cided on non-intercourse with the Dutch, closed the
Schuylkill to them entirely, sold the Indians arms
and ammunition, and persecuted or expelled every
Dutchman in New Sweden who would not take the
oath of allegiance to Queen Christina. He stopped
and searched Dutch vessels, and made Swedish ves-
sels' go by Fort Nassau without showing their colors.
In the winter of 1647-48 he even invaded Hudde's
own private premises, and cut down his fruit- and
shade-trees. Two members of the High Council of
the New Netherlands came to the South River to
investigate these outrages and find out the status of
the Dutch and Swedish titles to the lands about the
mouth of the Schuylkill. When they came to Fort
Gottenburg, Printz's subordinates kept them waiting
outside for half an hour in the rain. They were
finally admitted, and delivered their protest. These
councilors authorized private persons among the
Dutch to make settlements on the Schuylkill. Ir»
every case where the attempt was made to profit by
this license Printz or some of his officers descended
upon the settler and destroyed his property, besides
often expelling the person himself with blows. The
more Hudde protested the more violent Printz became.
In 1647 the Dutch Director-General Kieft was suc-
ceeded by Peter Stuyvesant, who began his adminis-
I tration on May 27th. Printz found him a very different
GOVERNOR PETER STUYVESANT.
man from Kieft. When the two governors finally met
in 1651, the Dutch director-general, while quite as
soldierly, bluff, and irascible as Printz, showed him-
self to be head and shoulders above the latter in
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
69
•diplomacy. During all these disputes and high-
handed dealings in the period of Printz's adminis-
tration, the Dutch had sedulously pursued the policy
of acquiring, by public and private purchase, Indian
titles to all the lands on both sides the Delaware from
Salem and Christinaham up. The Swedes had lat-
terly adopted the same policy, but with less success.
Stuyvesant came to the South River in person in
1651, "to preserve and protect the company's rights
and jurisdiction." He sent proofs to Printz of the
company's rights in the premises, and demanded in
return that the Swedish governor should produce
proof of what lands he had purchased and his
authority to hold them. Printz could merely define
the limits of his territory, and say that his papers
were on file in the chancellory of Sweden. Then
Stuyvesant is said to have detected Printz in an at-
tempt to secretly buy title from an Indian sachem
called Waspang Zewan, whereupon the Dutch gov-
ernor forthwith dealt with the Indians himself, and
was by them presented with a title to both sides of
the Delaware from Christiana Creek to Bombay
Hook, they at the same time denying that they had
«ver sold any lands to the Swedes. Finally, Stuy-
vesant determined that he would build another fort,
Fort Nassau being too much out of the way, and in
spite of Printz's protests he built Fort Casimir on
the Delaware side of the river, about one Dutch mile
from Fort Christina and near the present city of
New Castle. Printz and Stuyvesant had several in-
terviews with each other, and the final result was
that " they mutually promised to cause no difficulties
or hostility to each other, but to keep neighborly
friendship and correspondence together, and act as
friends and allies.''
It will be observed that all through these contro-
versies, while there were many high words and some
kicks and cuffs, the Dutch and Swedes never came
to actual hostilities, and always maintained a modus
vivendi with one another. This was not because they
hated each other less, but because they dreaded a
third rival more. Both Dutch and Swedes were ter-
ribly apprehensive of English designs upon the Del-
ware. As was laid down in the instructions to Gov-
ernor Risingh, who succeeded Printz in New Sweden,
speaking of the new Fort Casimir, if Risingh could
not induce the Dutch to abandon the post by argu-
ment and remonstrance and without resorting to hos-
tilities, " it is better that our subjects avoid resorting
to hostilities, confining themselves solely to protesta-
tions, and suffer the Dutch to occupy the said fortress,
than that it should fall into the hands of the English,
who are the most powerful and of course the most danger-
ous in that country." In the same way, after Stuyve-
sant had met the English at Hartford, Conn., treated
with them, and settled a mutual boundary line, so
that all was apparently peace and friendship between
the Dutch and the New Englanders, the New Haven
•Company thought they would be permitted without
i dispute to resume the occupancy of their purchased
\ Indian lands on the New Jersey side of the Delaware
! Bay at Salem, whence they had been twice expelled.
: Accordingly, Jasper Graine, William Tuthill, and
i other inhabitants of New Haven and Sotocket, to the
number of about fifty, hired a vessel and sailed for that
destination. On the way they considerately put into
Manhattan to notify Stuyvesant of their errand, and
consult with him as to the best way of accomplishing
it. Stuyvesant took their commission away from
them, clapped the master of the vessel and four
others into prison, and refused to release them until
" they pledged themselves under their hands" not to
go to Delaware, informing them likewise that if any
of them should afterwards be found there he would
confiscate their goods and send them prisoners to
Holland. At the same time he wrote to the gover-
nor of New Haven that the Dutch rights on the Del-
aware were absolute, and that he meant to prevent
any English settlement there " with force of arms
and martial opposition, even unto bloodshed." The
Swedes were so much impressed with this firm attitude
and with their own unprotected condition (this was
probably during the interregnum between Printz's
departure and the arrival of Risingh, when Pappe-
goya, Printz's son-in-law, was acting governor, and
there was no news from the mother-country) that they
asked Stuyvesant to take them under his protection.
The director-general declined to do so without in-
struction from home, and the directors of the company
when he consulted them left the matter to his owu
discretion, simply suggesting that while population
and settlement should be encouraged by all means as
the bulwark of the State, it would be advisable that
all settlers should yield allegiance to the parent
State, and be willing to obey its laws and statutes in
order to obtain protection.
Printz sailed for home in October, 1653, and Ri-
singh arrived out in May, 1654, their ships having
probably passed each other on the ocean. Risingh
was governor and commissary, and he was accom-
panied by John Amundsen Besk, a captain of the
navy, who seems to have been given command of the
military of New Swedeu. The general management
of Swedish affairs on the Delaware had now passed to
the charge of the " General College of Commerce" of
Stockholm. Risingh (his Christian name was John
Claudii) had also Peter Lindstrom, a military engi-
neer, on his staff, with a clergyman, and they brought
out two or three hundred settlers. Risingh's instruc-
tions were all for peace, not war ; but even before he
arrived at Christiana, or Gottenburg, he struck a bold
stroke for war. The ship in which he sailed ou its
way up the Delaware came in sight of Fort Casimir
on the 31st of May. Tienhoven and others in the
fort, being sent out to speak the stranger, reported
that the new Swedish governor was on board and
demanded the surrender of the fort as standing upon
Swedish territory. Gerrit Bikker, the commander,
70
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
made no preparations for defense ; he could not un-
derstand nor believe the Swedish intention to be hos-
tile. Soon Capt. Swensko, of the ship, with twenty
armed men, landed, advanced upon the fort, and while
FORT CASIMIR OR TRINITY FORT.
[From Campanius' " New Sweden."]
the Dutch ran to meet them as friends, entered
through the open sally-port, and being in possession
demanded the fort's surrender at the point of the bayo-
net. Bikker and Tienhoven sent two commissioners
aboard the ship to demand an explanation, but
Amundsen fired two guns over the fort, and the
Swedish soldiers at once seized the Dutch, disarmed
and ejected them with the least possible ceremony.
The Swedes were thus for the moment, and in the
most surprising way, supreme on the South River.
Risingh named his new conquest Fort Trinity, be-
cause the capture was made on Trinity Sunday ;
strengthened the fort, and immediately called the
neighboring Indians together with a view to make
them his allies. The j oint council was held at Tinne-
cum on June 17th, and Risingh offered many pres-
ents, distributed wine and spirits, and spread a great
feast of suppaun ; the old treaties were read, mutual
vows of friendship exchanged, and the Indians be-
came allies of the Swedes, whom they strongly coun-
seled to settle at once at Passayunk.
The Dutch and Swedish population on the Dela-
ware at this time, according to a census taken by
Risingh, was three hundred and sixty-eight persons.
This is probably exclusive of many Swedes who had
gone into the interior and crossed the ridge towards
Maryland. But little agriculture was attended to
besides tobacco planting, and the chief industry was
the trade in peltries, which was very profitable. In
this trade the Indians had acquired as great skill as
in trapping the beaver and drying his pelt. The price
of a beaver-skin was two fathoms of "seawant," and
each fathom was taken to be three ells long. An ell
was measured (as the yard still is in country places)
from one corner of the mouth to the thumb of the
opposite arm extended. The Indians, tall and long-
limbed, always sent their longest-armed people to dis-
pose of beaver-skins, and the Dutch complained at
Fort Nassau that the savages outmeasured them con-
tinually.
It was not to be expected that a man of Stuy-
vesant's heady temperament would permit an outrage
such as the capture of Fort Casimir to go unrevenged,
even if the directors of the West India Company had
passed it by. But they were quite as eager as Stuy-
vesant himself for prompt and decisive action on the
Delaware. The time was auspicious for them. Axel
Oxenstierna, the great Swedish chancellor, was just
dead, Queen Christina had abdicated the throne in
favor of her cousin Charles Gustavus, and England and
Holland had just signed a treaty of peace. The direc-
tors insisted upon the Swedes being effectually pun-
ished, and ordered Stuyvesant not only to exert every
nerve to revenge the injury, not only to recover the fort
and restore affairs to their former situation, but to
drive the Swedes from every side of the river, and
allow no settlers except under the Dutch flag. He was
promised liberal aid from home, and was ordered to
press any vessel into his service that might be in the
New Netherlands. Stuyvesant meanwhile was not idle
on his own side. He had captured and made prize
of a Swedish vessel that came into the North River
almost as soon as he heard the news from Fort Casimir.
He received five armed vessels from Amsterdam. He
ordered a general fasting and prayer, and then hast-
ened to set his armaments in order. On the 12th of
September his forces were off the late Fort Casimir,
now Fort Trinity, — seven ships and six hundred men.
The fort was summoned to surrender. The garrison,
under Capt. Sven Schute, was small, not over thirty
or forty men, and their commander surrendered them,
on honorable terms before a gun was fired. Stuyve-
sant marched at once to Fort Christina, where
Risingh was in command, and invested it on every
side. Risingh pretended great surprise, resorted to
every little diplomatic contrivance he could think of,
and then surrendered also, before the Dutch batteries
opened. In truth his fort was a weak and defenseless
one, and he had scarcely two rounds of ammunition.
The Dutch went up the river to Tinnecum, where
they burnt Fort Gottenburg and wrung the necks of
Mrs. Pappagoya's ducks and turkeys. A great many
Swedes came in and took the oath of allegiance to
the Dutch. All such were suffered to remain undis-
turbed in their possessions. A few who refused to
take the oath were transported to Manhattan, while
others crossed into Maryland and permanently settled
in Cecil and Kent Counties, where their family names-
are still preserved ; but the Dutch yoke undoubtedly
sat very lightly upon Swedish shoulders.
This was the end of Swedish rule on the Delaware.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
71
Stuy vesant, obeying instructions from the West India
Company, made a formal tender of redelivery of Fort
Christina to Risingh, but that hero was in the sulks,
refused to receive it, and went home by way of New
Amsterdam, swearing at the Dutch " in frantic mood."
Then Stuyvesant appointed Capt. Derrick Schmidt
as commissary, who was quickly succeeded by John
Paul Jacquet, in the capacity of " Vice-Director of
the South River," with a Council consisting of An-
dreas Hudde, vice-director, Elmerhuysen Klein, and
two sergeants. Fort Christina became Altona, Fort
Casimir resumed its old name, and a settlement grew
up around it which was named New Amstel, the first
actual town upon the river. It must be confessed that
if the Swedes on the Delaware were not a happy
people it was their own fault. But they were happy.
Come of a primitive race not yet spoiled by fashions,
luxury, and the vices of civilization, and preferring
agriculture and the simplest arts of husbandry to
trade, they found themselves in a new, beautiful, and
fertile region, with the mildest of climates and the
kindliest of soils. Government, the pressure of laws,
the weight of taxation they scarcely knew, and their
relations were always pleasant, friendly, and intimate
with those savage tribes the terror of whose neighbor-
hood drove the English into sudden atrocities and
barbarities. Very few Swedes ever lost a night's rest
because of the Indian's war-whoop. They were a
people of simple ways, industrious, loyal, steadfast.
In 1693 some of these Delaware Swedes wrote home
for ministers, books, and teachers. This letter says,
" As to what concerns our situation in this country,
we are for the most part husbandmen. We plow
and sow and till the ground ; and as to our meat and
drink, we live according to the old Swedish custom.
This country is very rich and fruitful, and here grow
all sorts of grain in great plenty, so that we are richly
supplied with meat and drink ; and we send out yearly
to our neighbors on this continent and the neighbor-
ing islands bread, grain, flour, and oil. We have
here also all sorts of beasts, fowls, and fishes. Our
wives and daughters employ themselves in spinning
wool and flax and many of them in weaving ; so that
we have great reason to thank the Almighty for his
manifold mercies and benefits. God grant that we
may also have good shepherds to feed us with his holy
word and sacraments. We live also in peace and
friendship with one another, and the Indians have not
molested us for many years. Further, since this
country has ceased to be under the government of
Sweden, we are bound to acknowledge and declare
for the sake of truth that we have been well and
kindly treated, as well by the Dutch as by his Ma-
jesty the King of England, our gracious sovereign;
on the other hand, we, the Swedes, have been and
still are true to him in words and in deeds. We have
always had over us good and gracious magistrates;
and we live with one another in peace and quiet-
ness." x
One of the missionaries sent over in response to the
touching demand of which the above quoted passage
is part, writing back to Sweden after his arrival, says
that his congregation are rich, adding, " The country
here is delightful, as it has always been described,
and overflows with every blessing, so that the people
live very well without being compelled to too much
or too severe labor. The taxes are very light ; the
farmers, after their work is over, live as they do in
Sweden, but are clothed as well as the respectable
inhabitants of the towns. They have fresh meat and
fish in abundance, and want nothing of what other
countries produce ; they have plenty of grain to make
bread, and plenty of drink. There are no poor in
this country, but they all provide for themselves, for
the land is rich and fruitful, and no man who will
labor can suffer want." All this reads like an idyl
of Jean Paul, or one of the naive, charming poems
of Bishop Tegner. It is a picture, some parts of
which have been delightfully reproduced by the poet
John G. Whittier in his " Pennsylvania Pilgrim."
* Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware. By Rev. J. C. Clay, D.D.
72
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
CHAPTEE VI.
THE PLANTING OP PHILADELPHIA.
The Swedes have no further right to a distinc-
tive place in this work, except so far as individuals
of that nation took up land within the boundaries or
contributed to form the heterogeneous population of
Philadelphia ; nor is there need to say anything more
about the Dutch of New Netherland, beyond the few
meagre particulars in which their ordinances or regu-
lations are found to bear upon that part of the
country bordering on the Delaware River within the
limits of which Philadelphia is now seated. Shortly
after the surrender of Forts Casimir and Christina, a
Swedish ship, the "Mercury," arrived in the Dela-
ware with a large number of immigrants aboard. The
Dutch refused permission for this vessel to pass the
(ort, but while the principals were conducting a long
diplomatic correspondence on the subject, John
Papegoya, Printz's son-in-law, with a party of In-
dians, boarded the vessel, piloted her up to Christina
and Tinnecum, and before Stuyvesant and his agents
had reached their final unalterable determination to
send all the immigrants incontinently back to Sweden,
they had got ashore, bag and baggage, and were ab-
sorbed in the rest of the population. This was the
last body of immigrants from Sweden to the Delaware.
It was a favorite project of the director-general of
New Netherland and his satellites, tried over and
over again, to compel the Swedes and Finns to con-
gregate together in one or two settlements or "reser-
vations," and the order went forth several times to
effect this, but it could not be enforced, nor, indeed,
was there any serious attempt made to enforce it.
A favorite place for this compulsory settlement with
the Dutch executive was the Indian seat of Passa-
yunk, and had the Swedes been congregated there
from all parts of the colony some distinctive impress
of their character would perhaps even to-day be de-
tected in that part of Philadelphia, just as the Mora-
vian traits are still discoverable in and around Beth-
lehem. The Swedes and Finns, however, preferred to
settle where they chose, and a good many of them,
fearing they would be excluded from this privilege
in the South River colony, crossed the border into
Maryland, where many traces of them are still to be
found in Cecil and Kent Counties.
This policy of the Dutch, however, and the nat-
ural aversion of races speaking different languages
to coalesce, did have the effect to separate the Dutch
and Swedes so far that while the former collected
about Fort Casimir, now called New Amstel, and
points lower down the river, the Swedes gravitated
towards points farther up the Delaware River than
their original settlement at Christiana. " Upland,"
now Chester, became one of their favorite foci ; they
took land on the creek in the rear of Printz's domain
at Tinnecum ; they followed up Cobb's Creek beyond
the mill, and had farms on all the streams flowing
from the west into the Schuylkill ; they crossed that
river and, with their church at Wicaco, established
their domiciles in several parts of the peninsula em-
braced between the Schuylkill and the Delaware.
Thus it happened that nearly all the original settlers
upon the present site of Philadelphia, nearly all the
original lund-holders, — in distinction to land-Burners,
— were Swedes, and William Penn found this to be
still the case when he came to lay off his city.
It is now time to say something about these first
planters upon the ground which is now traversed by
so many long streets and bears the weight of so many
stately buildings. A great many Indian names have
been preserved in and around Philadelphia. The
form and spelling have changed or vary, but the orig-
inal sound is essentially preserved. In Roggeveen's
map of New Netherland, published in 1676, the site
of Penn's Philadelphia is marked "Sauno," and this
is believed to have been a Dutch name for the Sanki-
kans Indians. All the other sites on the South River
part of this map bear Dutch or Swedish names. In
Lindstrom's map of " Nya Swerige," drawn 1654-55,
and republished to accompany Campanius' history,
1702, the Indian or Swedish names are the only
ones given. There is Stillen's land (the Stille prop-
erty), Tenna Kongz Kjlen (Tennakonk Creek), Fri-
men's Kjlen (or Darby Creek), Boke Kjlen (Bow
Creek), Apoquenenia, Ornebo Kjlen, Skiar elle linde
Kjlen (Schuylkill), Nitlaba Konck, Passajong (Pas-
sayunk), Wichqua Going (Wicaco), Chingihamong,
Fackenland, Asoepek, Alaskius Kjlen (or Frankford
Creek), Penichpaska Kjlen, Drake Kjlen, Poanqiis-
sing (Poquessing), etc. In Ferris' conjectural map
of early settlements we have Darby Creek, Tenac-
konk's Kil, Karakung Creek, Nittaba Kenck, Pas-
saiung, Wicaco, Sculkil, Coaquanock (which was the
Philadelphia laid out by Penn), Fackenland, Franck-
ford Creek, Penichpaska Kil, Poatquissing, Nesham-
iny, etc. The original name for nearly every one of
these is extant in the old deeds and records. The
Indian names for streams which are still partially or
wholly retained are Minquas Creek (Darby, Cobb's
Creek), Poquessin, Pennypack, Sissinokisink, Tacony,
Wingohocking, Cohocksink, Wissahiccon,Manayunk,
etc. Now the Swedes were the original settlers on
nearly all the lands between Bow Creek and Poques-
sing.
The first claim of purchase of Indian title to lands
within the fork of the Schuylkill and the Delaware
is that of the Dutch, who insist that Arendt Corssen
bought for them from the Indians the site of Fort
Beversrede in 1633. The deed for this land, however,
was not recorded until 1648. Between those dates,
under the guidance of Andreas Hudde, several Dutch-
men attempted to plant themselves on the east side
of the Schuylkill, but they were not allowed to do so
by the Swedes as long as Printz and Risingh were in
power. The Swedes claim to have bought all the
THE PLANTING OF PHILADELPHIA.
73
land on the west bank of the Dela-
ware, from Cape Henlopen to the
falls of the river at Trenton, in 1638.
This the Dutch and some of their
Indian allies denied, yet the pur-
chase was more than likely made as
stated. Printz said the deeds and
records were in the archives at
Stockholm, wherej according to
Rudman, Israel Helm, an original
Swede settler, who came over with
Minuet or Hollandaer, and was
afterwards a leading man in the
country and a magistrate under the
Dutch rule, claims to have seen them
himself. The fact of the purchase
is also plainly set forth in the of-
ficial instructions and credentials of
Printz, given to him by the Swedish
"West India Company, by Christina,
Oxenstierna, and nine other lead-
ing men of the nobility of the
kingdom. Peter Stuyvesant also
claimed an Indian title to the lands
east of the Schuylkill, by deed of
gift, after his quarrels with Gover-
nor Printz had ripened.
But the first patents to particu-
lar tracts of land within the metes
and bounds set forth were given to
Swedes, who also made the first ac-
tual settlements. There can be no
better evidence of this than the sim-
ple names of the persons whose
property was secured to them when
they could renew their patents in
the days when Lovelace and An-
dross confirmed the English do-
minion on the Delaware after the
conquest of New Netherland. A
few of these patents, purchases, and
settlements deserve to be referred
to in a particular manner. In 1645,
Andreas Hudde, the Dutch com-
missary on the Delaware, a, careful
and conscientious observer, reports'
plantations of the Swedes from
Christiana along the Delaware for
two Dutch miles up the river to a
point near to Tinnecum. Then
there is not a single plantation " till
you come to Schuylkill." This is
perfectly intelligible if we remem-
ber that the Swedes chose for their
plantations firm ground only, and
always near the water-front if pos-
sible. The above would then read:
"The Swedish plantations extend
nine and a half English miles
74
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
along the Delaware above Christiana ; then there is
an unoccupied tract of swamp for about ten miles,
until the Swedish plantations on the western and
eastern banks of the Schuylkill are reached." And
Hudde himself furnishes the proof of the existence
of such plantations in his account (1648) of the trans-
actions attending the raising of his house on the fort
grounds at Beversrede, at the same time that he shows
that up to that time the Dutch had not put up a
single building above the mouth of the Schuylkill.
Three years before that date the Swedes had built
a water-mill on the Karakung, or Cobb's Creek, and
a fort or trading block-house on Manayunk Island,
in the mouth of the Schuylkill, as well as another
apparently at Kingsessing. The alleged first pur-
chase of the Dutch east of the Schuylkill was made
from Indian sachems on the New Jersey side of the
Delaware. The second, by Hudde, in 1646, which
Printz resisted, was from an Indian living on the
spot ; the third, also by Hudde, in 1648, was ratified
by Maarte Hoock and Wissementes, sachems of the
Passayunk Indians. In Hudde's own account of this
he says he called in the sachems, and they gave the
Swedes, " who lived there already," notice to leave
their settlements on the Schuylkill. In the contro-
versy, or rather squabble, which ensued, and which
Hudde seems to report with the utmost fidelity, the
sachems are represented as demanding by whose orders
the Swedes did erect buildings there; "if it was
not enough that they were already in possession of
Mateunakonk, the Schuylkill, Kingsessing, Kakauken,
Upland," etc. " They [the Swedes] arrived only lately
on the river, and had already taken so much land
from them, which they had actually settled, while they
[the Dutch], pointing to them, had never taken from
them any land, although they had dwelt here and con-
versed with them more than thirty years." This is
very strong affirmative evidence to the fact that up
to 1648 the Swedes had, and the Dutch had not, set-
tled on land east of the Schuylkill. In that year the
latter built Fort Beversrede, and the Swedes planted
a block-house directly in front of it, closing its gates.
Under the circumstances the Swedes would seem to
be justified in this action and in that of the previous
year, when they threw down Symon Root's house at
Wigquakoing (or Wicaco), or in 1648 prevented the
Dutch freemen from building at "Mast-makers' Cor-
ner," on the east side of the Schuylkill.
Campanius, the Swedish pastor, returned home in
May, 1648. At that time, he says, the Swedes had
settlements at Mecoponacka ("Upland," or "Ches-
ter"), at Passayunk, on the Schuylkill, where was a fort
named Korsholm, and a plantation given under Queen
Christina's own hand to Lieut. Sven Schute.1 At
i This conveyance, however, was not made until Aug. 20, 1653. The
tract was called " Mockorhulteykil," "as far -is the river, with the small
island belonging thereto viz., the island of Karinge, and Kiusessing,
.comprehending also Passuming" (Passayunk). This land, the title to
Kingsessing, reports Campanius, already dwell five
freemen, " who cultivate the ground and lived well."
This plantation was east of Cobb's Creek, near the
Swedes' mill. Techoherassi was Olof Stille's place,
on the Delaware near the mouth of Ridley's Creek,
and below Tinnecum and Fort Gottenburg. Stille,
an original Swedish colonist, sold to the clergyman,
Laurentius Carolus, and then settled in Moyamensing,
where he took up swamp lands in 1678. In 1651 the
Dutch made repeated efforts to settle on the island of
Harommuny, or Aharommuny (which Dr. Smith, in his
History of Delaware County, places on the Delaware,
between Bow Creek and the Schuylkill), but were
driven off, and in 1669 this land was patented with
other tracts to Peter Cock, a prominent Swede under
the Dutch rule, magistrate, commissioner, collector
of customs, etc. On the same day in 1653 that Queen
Christiana gave the deed of Wicaco to Sven Shute, she
also gave to naval commander John Amundsen Besk
a deed for "a tract of land extending to Upland Kill."
In 1658 we find the Dutch Director Alrichs coveting
and very anxious to get control both of Cock's land
and Schute's also. In a letter to the Commissioner
of Amsterdam he speaks of " two parcels of the best
land on the river on the west bank, the first of which
is above Marietie's Hook, about two leagues along
the river and four leagues into the interior; the
second, on a guess, about three leagues along the
same, including Schuylkil, Passajonck, Quinsessingh,
right excellent land, the grants or deeds whereof,
signed in original by Queen Christina, I have seen."
He thinks this land could be bought cheaply. In
fact, these two tracts, if of the dimensions which
Alrichs accorded them, were larger than the whole of
Philadelphia County. Passayunk, as confirmed in
1667 by Governor Nicholls and granted to the Ash-
mans, Carman, Williams, etc., was surveyed to con-
tain one thousand acres, and the quit-rent was fixed
at ten bushels of wheat every year. That was cer-
tainly cheap enough. In 1664, Governor D'Hinoyossa
repatented the Sven Schute tract to his heirs, Sven
Swensen, Sven Gondersen, Oele Swensen, and An-
dries Swensen, as eight hundred acres, beginning at
Moyamensing Kill and so stretching upwards. In
1676, Governor Andross patented to Jurian Hartsfelder
three hundred and fifty acres on Cohocksink's Creek
for three and a half bushels of wheat quit-rent. This
was sold ten years afterwards to Daniel Pegg, who
gave the name of Pegg's Creek or Bun to the stream,
and this tract formed the Northern Liberties of Phila-
delphia. Some of it was marsh, and often flooded.
In 1675 the block-house at Wicaco, built in 1669 as a
defense against the Indians, was turned into a Swedish
Church, Gloria Dei, and Fabricius, the pastor, preached
his first sermon there on Trinity Sunday.
In 1677 the patents for land within the present
which was several times confirmed to the Swenaons, Shnte's heirB, in-
cluded Wicaco, and Penn,\vhen he laid out his city in 1682, had to give
the Swensons other lands in exchange for this valuable tract.
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or
THE PLANTING OF PHILADELPHIA.
75
limits of Philadelphia were very numerous, nearly
all to Swedes, and for settlement and cultivation:
Jan Schouten, 100 acres, west side of Schuylkill;
Richard Duckett, west side, 100 acres ; John Mattson,
Swen Lorn, and Lacey Dalbo, 300 acres on Schuylkill,
at Wiessakitkonk, on the west side opposite Wissa-
hickon ; Thomas Jacobse, Neshaminies, next above,
300 acres ; Lacey Cock and James Sanderling, each
100 acres on Poequissing Creek ; Capt. Hans Moens,
on Penipake Creek, on side of the same, 300 acres;
Benjamin Goodsen, 100 acres, adjoining Duckett on
Schuylkill ; Ephraim Herman and Peter Rambo, 300
acres, between Pennepacker Creek and Poequessing
Creek, promising to seat the same.1 The same year
Peter Rambo takes up 250 acres between Wicaco and
Hartfelder's land, but two years later is compelled to
surrender it to the Swensens, whose patent covers it.
This tract was Kuequenaku (Coaquanock), the centre
and navel of Penn's original Philadelphia ; Lars Col-
man, Pell Laerson, and Peter Erickson also get 300 acres
near Falls of Schuylkill, and Israel Helm 200 acres
"up the river.'' In 1678 there are grants on Schuylkill
made, as follows : Peter Rambo and Pelle Rambo, 200
acres, east side ; Andreis Banksen, 200 acres ; John
and Andreis Wheeler, 300 acres ; Andreis Johnson,
200 acres ; Lasse Dalbo, 100 acres, east side ; Lasse
Andreis, Oele Stille, and John Mattsen, of Moya-
mensing, each take up 25 acres of marsh or meadow
between Hollandaer's and Rosamond's Kills, east side
of Schuylkill ; Peter Dalbo and Oele Swansen getting
like quantities in the same vicinity; 200 acres are
granted to Thomas Nossicker, and 100 to William
Warner, who settled, it is said, on east side of Schuyl-
kill as early as 1658. There were grants also of 250
acres on Neshaminy Creek to Dunck Williams and
Edmund Draufton and son ; 300 acres at Sachamax-
ing from Lawrence Cock to Elizabeth Kinsey, and
Sir R. Carr shows a deed, dated 1673, for a church-
house and garden in Kingsessing.2
Penn's original plans were for a city of 10,000 acres.
There are 82,603 acres in the limits of Philadelphia.
In the list above given, defective as it is, and cutting
all grants down to their minimum, it is shown that
5400 acres of this land was patented and the most of
it occupied between 1640 and 1680. The greater part
of this rapid development, which began with grants
of league-wide tracts and ended with petitions for
twenty-five-acre lots of submerged marsh and swamp,
occurred after the Dutch power had ceased upon the
Delaware River. Security came in with English rule,
and it was fostered by capital and enterprise.
The circumstances which led to the overthrow of the
Dutch in the New Netherlands do not demand any
long recital. The facts are few, and there is no stir-
1 The accounts of these deeds may he found in various places in Haz-
ard's Annals, Smith's History of Delaware County, Ferris' " Early
Settlements," etc.
2 The irregular spelling of names in the text is a reflection of the old
records, where every deed almost shows variations.
ring episode in connection with them. No revolution
could have been more tame, no transfer of an empire
more apathetic. The Dutch had always had the sa-
gacity to know that the English were their worst
enemies in this continent. New Netherland lay like
a wedge between Virginia and New England, sepa-
rating and weakening those colonies, while at the
same time it kept both from access to the best soils,
the most desirable and salubrious climates, and the
boldest navigable waters in America. From the time
of Lord Baltimore's settlement on the Chesapeake
(1634), the pressure which the Dutch felt so much
upon their eastern frontier was repeated with an
added strain on the southern. Baltimore's charter
called for all the land north of the Potomac and
south of the fortieth parallel. This line would have
included the present site of Philadelphia, and Balti-
more was urgent in asserting his claim. He sent Col.
Nathaniel Utie to New Amstel (now New Castle) to
give notice of his rights and how he meant to enforce
them, and his ambassador went among the simple-
hearted, timid Dutch and Swedes like a hectoring
constable armed with a distraint warrant. Utie and
others assisted the Indians who were at war with
those tribes who were clients and allies of the Dutch,
and Fendall and Calvert repeatedly made it appear
that they meant to invade the South River colony
and overthrow the Dutch power, either by sailing in
at the mouth of the Delaware or by an invasion over-
land by way of Elk River. So great was the pressure
put upon them that the Dutch abandoned their set-
tlements about the Horekills and withdrew farther
up the bay. As a further precaution and to erect " a
wall between them and the English of Maryland,"
the Dutch West India Company ceded to the city
of Amsterdam, to which it owed heavy debts, its
entire jurisdiction over the South River colony.
But the English to be dreaded did not live in the
colonies but at home. The Stuarts were in power
again, and so greedy were they and their followers
after their long fast during the period of the Com-
monwealth and the Protectorate, that England,
though clean stripped, did not furnish spoils enough
to "go round." Charles II., moreover, had no liking
for the Dutch, and it had already become the policy
of Great Britain to obtain control of the North
American continent. On March 12, 1664 (O. S.),
the king granted to his brother James, Duke of York
and Albany (afterwards King James II.), a patent
for all the land embraced between the St. Croix
River on the north and the Delaware Bay on the
south. This covered all of New England, New York,
and New Jersey, but it did not include the west side
of the Delaware River and Bay, showing clearly that
the king respected his father's charter conveying
this territory to Calvert. All of the land granted by
this patent, from the St. Croix River to the Passaic,
had been previously conceded to the Plymouth or
North Virginia Company in 1589 by King James I.
76
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The duke, in July, sold or granted the territory be-
tween the Hudson and Delaware Eivers — the whole
of New Jersey, in fact— to Lord Berkeley and Sir
George Carteret. War between the English and
Dutch broke out two months after the Duke of York
received his patent, and the latter, who was lord high
admiral of the British navy, at once (May 25th, O. S.)
fitted out an expedition to capture the New Nether-
lands,— in other words, to take possession of the
country patented to him by his brother. The expe-
dition, consisting of four vessels, with one hundred
and twelve guns and three hundred soldiers, besides
the ships' crews, was under command of Col. Richard
Nichols, who was accompanied by Sir Kobert Carr,
Kt., George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, com-
missioners to the several English colonies to hear
complaints, redress grievances, and settle the "peace
and security of the country." Their instructions
bound them first to reduce the Dutch colonies, as
the fountain of sedition and sanctuary of discontent
and mutiny, to " an entire obedience." The mas-
sacres of Amboyna were cited in proof that the
Dutch were not fit to be intrusted with great power,
and it was declared to be "high time to put them
■without a capacity of doing the same mischief in
America, by reducing them to the same rule and
obedience with the English subjects there." Sub-
mission to English authority was all that was to be
required of them, and no man who submitted was to
be "disturbed or removed from what he possessed."
The Dutch, both at home and in New Netherland,
were acquainted with the expedition and its objects,
but took no real measures of defense. The first ves-
sel of the expedition arrived at the outer bay of New
Amsterdam August 25th, and a proclamation was at
once issued, offering protection to all who submitted.
Stuyvesant repaired the walls of his fort, but he could
not rally the people to reinforce the garrison. They
would not leave their villages and boueries, their wives
and children, upon any such venture. On the 30th,
Col. Nichols demanded the surrender of the fort and
island, replying to Stuyvesant's commissioners that
he was not there to argue questions of title, but to
obey orders, and the place must surrender to him
without debate, or he would find means to compel it
to do so. Stuyvesant was still disposed to argue, to
temporize, to fight if he could, but the frigate ran up
alongside the fort, broadside on, and demanded an
immediate surrender. The people assembled in town-
meeting and declared their helplessness, the dominies
and the old women laid siege to Stuyvesant, and on
the 9th of September, 1664, New Amsterdam surren-
dered, the Dutch marching out of their fort with all
their arms, drums beating, and colors flying. The
terms of the capitulation were very liberal, consider-
ing that no defense was possible. In fact, the English
did not want any war. They sought territory, and
they knew that that takes half its value from being
in a pacific state.
After arranging affairs at New Amsterdam, the
name of which was now changed to New York, Sir
Eobert Carr, with two frigates and some soldiers, was
sent to the Delaware to receive the submission of the
Dutch there. They reached New Amstel on Septem-
ber 30th. The inhabitants at once yielded, but the
truculent D'Hinoyossa, with Alricks and Van Swer-
ingen, threw himself into the fort and declined to come
to terms. Carr landed some troops, made his frigates
pour two broadsides into the fortress, and then incon-
tirently took it by storm, the Dutch losing three men
killed and ten wounded, the English none. The re-
sult of D'Hinoyossa's foolhardiness was the sack of
the fort, the plunder of the town, the confiscation of
the governor's property, as well as that of several of
his supporters, and the selling of the Dutch soldiers
into Virginia as slaves. A good many negro slaves
also were confiscated and sold, a cargo of nearly three
hundred of these unhappy beings having just landed
at South Amboy and been run across the Delaware
with the idea of escaping the English in New York.
The name of New Amstel was changed to New Castle,
and D'Hinoyossa retired to Maryland, where he was
naturalized and lived for several years in Talbot
County, but finally finding he could not recover his
property, which had been taken by Carr and others,
he returned to Holland, entered the Dutch army, and
fought in the wars against Louis XIV.
In May, 1667, Nichols was superseded by Sir Fran-
cis Lovelace as governor of the Dutch settlements on
the North and South Bivers, and in July of that year
peace was made between the Dutch and English on
the basis of the uti possedetis. In August, 1669, some
disturbance arose on the Delaware in consequence of
the conduct of a Swede called "the long Finn," who
gave himself out as the son of General Count Konigs-
mark, made seditious speeches, and tried to incite some
sort of a rebellion. He is thought to have had the
countenance, if not the active support, of Printz's
daughter, Armgart Pappegoya. He was arrested, put
in irons, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be publicly
whipped, branded on the face and breast, and sent to
the Barbadoes to be sold, all of which was done as set
forth.
In 1673 war again broke out between the Dutch
and English in consequence of the malign influence
of Louis XIV. upon Charles II. The French king
invaded the Netherlands with two hundred thousand
men, and there was a series of desperate naval bat-
tles between the combined French and English fleets,
with one hundred and fifty ships, and the Dutch fleet
of seventy-five vessels, under De Buyter and the
younger Tromp. The last of these battles, fought off
the Helder, resulted in the defeat of the allied squad-
rons, and the Prince of Orange at once dispatched sev-
eral vessels under Binckes and the gallant Evertsen to
recover possession of New Netherlands. The British
made but little resistance, while the Dutch welcomed
their old friends. Lovelace fled, and in a few days the
atyl&tfflL
' ■ ■ /■/,'■ :M /.//■' V :,;/
WILLIAM PENN.
77
Dutch had resumed control of all their old provinces
in North America. Capt. Anthony Colve was made
governor. There were a few administrative changes.
A confiscation act was passed against the English
king and his officers. In 1674, February 10th (0. S.)>
the treaty of Westminster was signed, and peace again
made between the Dutch and English, with a proviso
enforcing the restitution of all countries taken during
the late war. Under this treaty the English resumed
their conquests of 1664. The Duke of York's patents
were renewed, and the duke appointed Sir Edmund
Andross governor over the whole country from the
west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of
the Delaware. Andross arrived out November 10th,
and at once proceeded to restore the statu quo ante hel-
ium as far as hecould. He was an astute, well-informed
man, of good habits, with the tact of a practiced
courtier, and many of the rare accomplishments of a
statesman. Under his administration and that of
his deputies on the Delaware, Capt. Cantwell, Capt.
Collier, and Christopher Billop, the settlements on
the South River prospered, and grew rapidly in pop-
ulation, resources, and in sympathy and fellow-feel-
ing with the other colonies.
CHAPTER VII.
WILLIAM PENN.
The excellent Friend, Samuel M. Janney, of Lou-
doun County, Va., in the preface to his " Life of Wil-
liam Penn," published in November, 1851, concludes
by saying, "While engaged in the preparation of this
volume, I have derived both instruction and enjoy-
ment from studying the character and writings of
Penn ; and when, in its progress, I came to the period
of his death, my mind was overspread with sadness,
as though I had lost a personal friend." Every in-
telligent and thoughtful person, we should think, must
rise from the attentive study of Penn's life and works
and the contemplation of his character with similar
feelings and reflections. The founder of Pennsylva-
nia and the man whose influence did so much to mould
the rough, uncouth Quakerism of George Fox into
comely shape, and give it some sort of standing in
and with the outside world by teaching it moderation
and decorum, has left such a large and indelible per-
sonal impress upon his work that we can understand
and fully appreciate that in no other way than by ex-
amining it in the light of his genius. Happily the
task is not difficult. William Penn was above all
things else a man, with like passions unto ourselves.
He was a great man in an age remarkable for men of
towering genius and conspicuous individuality; he
lived in strange times of turmoil, confusion, and un-
certainty, in which the current of events flowed along
with a double stream, resembling that of the Missis-
sippi at St. Louis, upon the left bank a tawny, turbid
volume of corruption, riot, filth, debauchery, and
vacillating irresponsible tyranny such as was never
recorded in the chronicles of England before nor
since, and flowing side by side with it on the right a
deep, clear, yet mysterious blue tide of religious con-
templation and pietistic ecstasy and exercise, — a new-
born, non-militant Puritanism, which sought to found
a democratic church without head and without ritual,
such as the State could not control because unable to
reach it, and such as persecution would assail in vain
because encountering no resistance. Penn's relations
to these times and events and the men active in them
were numerous, far-reaching, various, and intricate,
but over and above these his character shines forth
almost invariably bright and pure, simple and serene.
He was in these things, but not of them, and whether
he was walking the lobby among the courtiers or in-
terceding for some victim of hardship or tyranny in
the king's closet at Whitehall, or locked up in New-
gate or the Tower, his thoughts rose above and reached
beyond his immediate surroundings, taking him to
his pretty and peaceful home in Hertfordshire or Sus-
sex, or to some " brave" and " improving" and " prec-
ious" meeting in company with Fox, Barclay, Keith,
Turner, and others, or leading him into deep and
fruitful meditations upon the " Holy Experiment,"
as he was wont to call his American colonies, the
germs of which were already planted in his heart.
There were some exceptions to this lofty elevation of
life, thought, and purpose, but only so many as were
needed to prove that Penn was human, fallible, and
lived in an age steeped in corruption.
It will serve the objects of this history to pause here
to inquire how Penn came to be led to entertain seri-
ously the project of founding upon the banks of the
Delaware a self-governing commonwealth, the roots
of which should draw sap from the fundamental prin-
ciples of universal religion, while its branches should
be free as air to spread abroad wheresoever they listed.
The process was necessarily a gradual one, and the
influences which finally settled his determination were
numerous and diverse.
At once a scholar and a courtier, a man of the
world and a man of books, Peun was neither an as-
cetic nor a fanatic. The least bit of formalism
flavored his character, but it was altogether outward,
and he wore it easily as he wore his cloak. The
broad and deep channels through which his specula-
tion and thought made their way were much less
under the guidance of the severe and logical processes
which directed the minds of men like Fox and Bar-
clay, Baxter and Stillingfleet, than they were obe-
dient to the quick suggestions of his warm and fruc-
tifying imagination. He was an enthusiast, but his
enthusiasm was colored by his large, genial heart and
his benevolent disposition, as it was tempered and
modulated also by his native shrewdness, his reading,
and his carefully acquired knowledge of men, which
78
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
constant intercourse with the world had confirmed to
him. It seems probable that the stories of his father,
the admiral, about the conquest of Jamaica and of the
tropical splendors of that beautiful island first turned
the attention of Penn to our continent. He was twelve
or thirteen years old when he would have heard these
things, and while growing in beauty and manliness, he
was already seeing the visions and dreaming the
dreams which visit none but children of great imagi-
nation and extreme sensitiveness. When Penn went
to Oxford, at the age of sixteen, he seems to have
studied the English literature of the two preceding
generations more closely than his text-books. He
knew the Puritan idea as expounded by Vane and
Hollis, and the Utopian schemes for ideal common-
wealths as set forth by Sir Thomas More, Bacon,
Harington, and others. He felt then, with a sense of
personal injustice, the pressure of an established
hierarchy upon the individual, as illustrated in his
own expulsion from Christ Church College for non-
conformity, and it is certain that he studied theology,
theoretical and dogmatic, very assiduously while at
Saumur under the tutelage of that learned expounder
of Genevan doctrine, Moses Amyrault.1 It was while
on the continent, contemporaneously with these stu-
dies, that Penn made the acquaintance of Algernon
Sidney, that honest old English republican, tired of
exile, yet unwilling to purchase a return home at the
cost of sacrificing his ideas, and eager to expound
those ideas to any English hearer who might chance
to come his way.
When Penn had lived a few years longer in courts
and among men he realized the fact that the Friends
could not escape persecution nor enjoy without taint
their peculiar religious seclusion, nor could his ideal
commonwealth be planted in such a society as that
of Europe. It must seek new and virgin soil, where
it could form its own manners and ripen its own code.
Then, in 1672, came home George Fox, fresh from his
journey through the wilderness and his visits to the
Quaker settlements in New Jersey and Maryland, in
which latter province the ancient meetings of Anne
l Penn's curious acquaintance with theology not only served him many
a good turn in the polemical controversies, in which lie touk a not too
pacific delight for a Quaker, but it often aided him to turn the tables
upon his adverBarieB in business of a more practical character. Thus when
the early Quakers in Maryland were disturbed in their minds about the
question of oaths, which had already prevented John Edniondston, of
Talbot County, from taking his seat in the Assembly, though often
elected, Penn wrote to them (Anno 1673) a letter of advice as to how to
deal with the officials of a Catholic colony. He referred them to Po-
lybius, Grotius, BiBhop Gaudens, etc. ; alluded to the fact that Christ had
forbidden " vain swearing," and added : " Thirdly. That it is not only
our sense: Polycarpus, Ponticus, Blandina, BasilideB, primitive martyrs,
were of this mind, and Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Origeu, Lactantius,
Clemens Alexandrinus, Busilius, Magnus Chrysostom Theophylact,
CEcumeniuB, Chromatius, Euthymiua (Fathers) so read the text, not to
mention any of the Protestant martyrs. Therefore should they be ten-
der." He thus in effect arrayed against the slaves of authority the whole
panel of patriotic writers whom the Catholic Church revere as only a
little below the apostles in inspiration, and it was this subtlety and
skillful adjustment of means to end in argument which, more than any-
thing else, led to the epithet of "Jesuit" being attached to Penn.
Arundel and Talbot were already important gather-
ings of a happy people entirely free from persecutions.
We may imagine how eagerly and closely Penn read
Fox's journals and the letters of Edmondston, Wen-
lock Christison, and others about their settlements.
In 1675, when his disgust with European society
and his consciousness of the impossibility to effect
radical reform there had been confirmed and deep-
ened, Penn became permanently identified with
American colonial affairs, and was put in the best
possible position for acquiring a full and accurate
knowledge of the resources and possibilities of the
country between the Susquehanna and the Hudson.
This, which Mr. Janney calls "an instance in which
Divine Providence seemed to open for him a field of
labors to which he was eminently adapted," arose out
of the fact of his being chosen as arbitrator in the
disputes growing out of the partition of the West
Jersey lands. As has already been stated, on March
12, 1664, King Charles II. granted to his brother
James, Duke of York and Albany, a, patent for all
the lands in New England from the St. Croix River
to the Delaware. This patent, meant to lead directly
up to the overthrow of the Dutch power in New
Netherland, was probably also intended no less as a
hostile demonstration against the New England Puri-
tan colonies, which both the brothers hated cordially,
and which latterly had grown so independent and
had so nearly established their own autonomy as to
provoke more than one charge that they sought
presently to abandon all allegiance due from them to
the mother-country. At any rate, the New England
colonies at once attempted to organize themselves
into a confederacy for purposes of mutual defense
against the Indians and Canadian French, as was
alleged, but for divers other and weighty reasons, as
many colonists did not hesitate to proclaim.2 The
Duke of York secured New York, Pennsylvania,
and Delaware to himself as his own private posses-
sions. That part of New Netherland lying between
the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers was forth-
with (in 1664, before Nicolls sailed from Portsmouth
to take New York) conveyed by the duke, by deeds
of lease and release, to John Lord Berkeley and Sir
George Carteret. The latter being governor of the
Channel Islands at the time, the new colony was
called New Jersey, or rather Nova Cxsarea, in the
original grant. In 1675, Lord Berkeley sold for one
thousand pounds his undivided half-share in New
Jersey to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Billinge
and his assigns. Fenwick and Billinge were both
Quakers, and Billinge was bankrupt. Not long after
this conveyance Fenwick and Billinge fell out about
2 This was a revival of the old New England confederacy of 1643, of
late crippled and made ineffective by inter-colonial dissensions. It
finally fell to pieces through the destruction of local self-government
and the substitution of royal governors in the New England colonies
between 1664 and 1684. See Richard Frothingham's " Rise of the Re-
public," chap. ii.
WILLIAM PENN.
79
the property, and, after the custom of the Friends,
the dispute was submitted to arbitration. The dis-
putants fixed upon William Penn as arbitrator.
When he made his award, Fenwick was not satisfied
and refused to abide by Penn's decision, which, in-
deed, gave Fenwick only a tenth of Lord Berkeley's
share in the joint tenancy, reserving the remaining
nirie-tenths to Billinge, but giving Fenwick a money
payment besides. Penn was offended at Fenwick's
recalcitrancy, and wrote him some sharp letters.
" Thy days spend on," he said, " and make the best
of what thou hast. Thy grandchildren may be in
the other world before the land thou hast allotted
will be employed." Penn stuck to his decision, and,
for that matter, Fenwick likewise maintained his
grievance. He sailed for the Delaware at the head
of a colony, landed at Salem, N. J., and commenced
a settlement. Here he carried matters with such a
high hand, patenting land, distributing office, etc.,
that he made great trouble for himself and others
also. His authority was not recognized, and for sev-
eral years the name of Maj. John Fenwick fills a
large place in the court records of Upland and New
York, where he was frequently imprisoned and sued
for damages by many injured persons.
Billinge's business embarrassments increasing, he
made over his interest in the territory to his creditors,
appointing Penn, with Gawen Lawrie, of London, and
Nicholas Lucas, of Hertford, two of the creditors, as
trustees in the matter. The plan was not to sell, but
improve the property for the benefit of the creditors.
To this end a partition of the province was made, a line
being drawn through Little Egg Harborto a point near
where Port Jervis now is. The part of the province
on the right of this line, called East New Jersey, the
most settled portion of the territory, was assigned to
Carteret. That on the left, West New Jersey, was
deeded to Billinge's trustees. A form of government
was at once established for West Jersey, in which
Penn's hand is distinctly seen. The basis was
liberty of person and conscience, "the power in the
people," local self-government, and amelioration of
the criminal code. The territory was next divided
into one hundred parts, ten being assigned to Fen-
wick and ninety to Billinge's trustees, and the land
was opened for sale and occupancy, being extensively
advertised, and particularly recommended to Friends.
In 1677 and 1678 five vessels sailed for West New
Jersey, with eight hundred emigrants, nearly all
Quakers. Two companies of these, one from York-
shire, the other from London, bought large tracts of
land, and sent out commissioners to quiet Indian
titles and lay off the properties. At Chygoes Island
they located a town, first called Beverly, then Brid-
lington, then Burlington.1 There was a regular treaty
1 The value of Indian lands at that time to the savages may be gath-
ered from the price paid in 1677 for twenty miles square on the Dela-
ware between Timber and Oldman's Creeks, to wit: 30 match-coats (made
of hairy wool with the rough Bide out), 20 guns, 30 kettles, 1 great kettle,
with the Indians, and the Friends not only secured
peace for themselves, but paved the way for the
pacific relations so firmly sealed by Penn's subsequent
negotiations with the savages. The Burlington colony
prospered, and was reinforced by new colonists con-
tinually arriving in considerable numbers. In 1680,
Penn, as counsel for the trustees of West New Jersey,
succeeded, by means of a vigorous and able remon-
strance, in getting the Duke of York, then proprietary
of New York, to remove an onerous tax on imports
and exports imposed by the Governor of New York
and collected at the Horekill. The next year Penn
became part proprietor of East New Jersey, which
was sold under the will of Sir George Carteret, then
deceased, to pay his debts. A board of twenty-four
proprietaries was organized, Penn being one, and to
them the Duke of York made a fresh grant of East
New Jersey, dated March 14, 1682, Robert Barclay
becoming Governor, while Penn's friend Billinge was
made Governor of West New Jersey. Both these
governments were surrendered to the crown in Queen
Anne's reign, April 15, 1702.
While Penn was thus acquiring knowledge of and
strong property interests in America, two other cir-
cumstances occurred to intensify his impatience with
the state of affairs in England. One was the insen-
sate so-called "Popish plot" of Titus Oates, the other
the defeat of his friend, Algernon Sidney, for Parlia-
ment. From the date of these events Penn began to
look westward, and prepared himself for the accom-
plishment of his " Holy Experiment." And now,
before detailing the history of this great experiment,
and describing one of its results in this fair city of
30 pair of hose, 20 fathoms of duffels (Duffield blanket cloth, of which
match-coats were made), 30 petticoats, 30 narrow hoes, 30 bars of lead,
15 small barrels of powder, 70 knives, 30 Indian axes, 70 combs, 60 pair
of tobacco tongs, GO pair of Bcissors, 60 tinshaw looking-glasses, 120
awl-blades, 120 fish-hooks, 2 grasps of red paint, 120 needles, 60 tobacco-
boxes, 120 pipeB, 200 bells, 100 jews-harps, and 6 anchors of rum." The
value of these articles probably did not exceed three hundred pounds
sterling. But, on the other hand, the Indian titles were really worth
nothing, except so far as they served as a security againBt Indian hos-
tility. It has been said that there is not an acre of land in the eastern
part of Pennsylvania the deeds of which cannot be traced up to an
Indian title, but that in effect would be no title at all. Mr. Lawrence
Lewis, in his learned and luminous ' Essay ou Original Land Titles in
Philadelphia," denies this absolutely, and says that it is " impossible to
trace with any accuracy" the titles to land in Philadelphia derived from
the Indians. Nor is it necessary to trace a title which is of no value.
The Indians could not sell laud to individuals and give valid title for it
in any of the colonies ; they could sell, if they chose, but only to the
government. Upon this subject the lawyers are explicit. All good
titles in the thirteen original colonies are derived from land-grants
made or accepted not by the Indians, but by the British crown. Thus
Chalmers (Political Annals, 677) says, "The law of nations sternly
disregarded the possession of the aborigines, because they had not been
admitted into the society of nations." At the Declaration of Independ-
ence (see Dallas' Reports, ii. 470) evory acre of land in this country was
held, mediately or immediately, by grants from the crown. All our
institutions (Wheaton, viii. 588) recognize the absolute tide of the
crown, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy, and recognize
the absolute title of the crown to extinguish that right. An Indian
conveyance alone could give no title to au individual. (The references
here given are quoted from the accurate Frothingham's " Rise of the
Republic")
80
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
which we write, it is proper to say a few words con-
cerning the life of the great founder.
William Penn was born in London, in St. Catha-
rine's Parish, hard by the Tower, Oct. 14, 1644. His
father was Vice-Admiral Sir William Penn, his
mother Margaret Jasper, daughter of a well-to-do
Rotterdam merchant. They were united Jan. 6, 1643,
when the elder Penn, though only twenty years old,
had already received his commission as post-captain
in the royal navy, and William was their first child.
Admiral Penn was a kind-hearted, genial, but shrewd
AMIS OF PENN.
and observant man of the world. He was a skillful
sailor and navigator, very brave and prompt, a man
of action, a man also who was determined to get on
in the world which he saw about him. He had set
his hopes on a fortune and the peerage. The fortune
he got; the peerage he would have secured but for
his son William's adhesion to the doctrine of the
Friends. At court he steered himself as adroitly as
he had steered his fleet amid the reefs and cays of
the Antilles on his way to Jamaica and Hispaniola.
He owed his early promotion and appointment to
Cromwell, but when he thought the times were ripe
he deliberately betrayed the Protector and offered
his fleet to Charles II. He was a great favorite with
Charles and the Duke of York, and the latter became
his son's chief protector for the father's sake. He
was impetuous, irascible, yet strongly attached to his
family and their interests as he interpreted them. It
is almost pathetic to notice the many efforts he made
to reclaim his son from what he regarded as his way-
ward departure from common sense in joining the
Society of Friends. He at first beat the boy and
turned him out-doors, then sent him abroad in the
best company, and with a pocket full of money, to
make the grand tour of Europe, and learn gayety and
frivolity enough to enable him to shine at court.
He dispatched him to become a member of the bril-
liant family of the Duke of Ormond, viceroy of Ire-
land. But the young man proved, as his father
thought, incorrigible, and he was again beaten,
kicked out of the, house, and left to shift for himself.
Finally, when, broken in health and spirits, and dis-
appointed in his fondest anticipations, the admiral
found himself on his death-bed, he had learned to
admire his son's skill and quickness in polemical
fence, and the calm, unbending, uncomplaining for-
titude with which he bore persecution, insult, and
imprisonment. " Son William," he whispered, just
before he died, "if you and your friends keep to your
plain way of preaching and to your plain way of
living, you will make an end of the priests to the
end of the world."
Lady Penn seems to have been as quiet and domes-
tic as Sir William was gay and worldly. Pepys said,
twenty years after her marriage, that she had been
very handsome and "is now very discreet." It is not
improbable that John Jasper, the merchant of Rot-
terdam, may have been of Puritan stock or affinities;
it is nearly certain that from his mother Penn derived
the strength of his early religious impressions, his
tendency to sobriety of thought and conversation, and
his quiet but deep enthusiasm, just as he inherited
from his father the quick mother-wit, the shrewdness
in bargaining, and the political and courtier-like skill
in dealing with men of all ranks and judging all sorts
of characters which so often stood him in good stead
in the experiences of his checkered life. Those early
religious impressions, whatever their source, grew with
the boy's growth and strengthened with his strength.
While he was yet at Chigwell grammar school he had
visions of the "Inner Light," though he as yet had
never heard Fox's name mentioned. He was not a
puny child, though he must have been a studious one.
He delighted and excelled in field sports, boating,
running, hunting, and athletic exercises. He was
sent from the grammar school to Oxford, and entered
as a fellow-commoner in Christ Church College at the
early age of fifteen. The dean of Christ Church was
the famous polemical writer, Dr. John Owen; South
was orator of the university, Locke was a fellow of
Christ Church, and the profligate but witty Wilmot
was a fellow-commoner. Penn studied assiduously,
he joined the " serious set," he went to hear Thomas
Loe preach the new gospel of the Society of Friends,
he resented the discipline which the college attempted
to put upon him and his intimates in consequence,
and he was expelled the university for rejecting the
surplice and rioting in the quadraugle. His father
beat him, relented, and sent him to France, where he
came home with the manners and dress of a courtier,
but saturated with Genevan theology. Pepys says he
looked quite "modish," and Pepys was a judge of
dress. He had shown in Paris that he could use his
rapier gallantly, and his father took him to sea with
him, to prove to the court, when he returned as bearer
of dispatches, that he was capable of beginning the
career of office. The plague of London set him again,
WILLIAM PENN.
81
upon a train of serious thinking, and his father to
counteract this sent him to the Duke of Ormond, at
the same time giving him charge of his Irish estates.
Penn danced in Dublin and fought at Oarrickfergus
equally well, and he even applied for a troop of horse.
He was a very handsome young fellow, and armor and
lace became him mightily, as his portrait of this date
shows. But at Cork he met Thomas Loe again, and
heard a sermon upon the text " There is a faith which
overcomes the world, and there is a faith which is
overcome by the world." Penn came out of this
meeting a confirmed Quaker. His father recalled
him, but could not break his convictions, and then
again he was driven from home, but his mother still
found means to supply his needs. He now joined the
Quakers regularly, and became the most prominent of
the followers of that singularly eccentric but singu-
larly gifted leader of men, George Fox. Penn's affec-
tion for Fox was deep and strong. He repeatedly got
"the man in the leather breeches'' released from jail,
and he gave him a thousand acres of land out of the
first surveys made in Pennsylvania. Fox had great
influence over him, and it is likely that Penn recipro-
cally wrought upon Fox's character for his benefit.
We must not lightly regard the sacrifices of this
handsome young enthusiast. He was a favorite ;
he had the manners to push him at court ; he had
certain and powerful influences upon his side; yet,
instead of taking the step that would make him Lord
Weymouth, he became a preacher for a despised sect,
universally treated as zealots or lunatics, whose stead-
fast disregard of a statute made them continually in-
mates of the loathsome gaols of England. Penn did
this for conscience' sake ; and he was neither a zealot
nor a lunatic, but an English gentleman, fond of dress,
comfort,, ease, and something like luxury, an accom-
plished courtier, a thorough business man, and one
of the shrewdest students and judges of character.
Penn preached in public as Fox was doing, and so
well that he soon found himself a prisoner in the
Tower of London, where, when brought up for trial, he
defended himself so ably as to prove that he could
have become a great lawyer had he so chosen. He
profited by his imprisonments to issue a series of
works, chiefly controversial, which revealed a writer
of great force and perspicuity and acuteness. He
could not perhaps cope with Baxter, but he vanquished
nearly every opponent who came against him. Penn
married in 1672, his wife being Gulielma Springett,
daughter of Sir William Springett, a lady of lovely
person and sweet temper. It was a love-match ; " re-
member," he says in his beautiful letter to wife and
children on his departure for America, "remember
thou wast the love of my youth and much the joy of
my life ; the most beloved, as well as the most worthy
of all my earthly comforts ; and the reason of that
love was more thy inward than thy outward excel-
lences, which yet were many.'' But Penn did not
give many weeks to his honeymoon. He was soon
6
at his work again, wrestling for the truth, and, it must
be said, wrestling still more lustily, as one who wres-
tles for victory, with the oppressors of the faithful.
In this cause he went to court again, resumed his re-
lations with the Duke of York, and secured that
prince's influence in behalf of his persecuted sect.
This semi-alliance of Penn with the duke led up di-
rectly to the settlement of Pennsylvania. When, after
Penn's return from his first visit to America, he re-
sumed his place at court upon the accession of James
•II., he became one of the most considerable men in
the kingdom. He had the monarch's private ear, and
his influence was all the time exerted on the side of
justice and humanity, while he expended the best
efforts of his natural courtier's tact and shrewd
mother-wit in the vain endeavor to save a predes-
tined despot and fanatic from the consequences of
his fatal errors and blind follies.
After James' abdication came persecution, debts,
semi-exile, affliction of every sort to the Quaker
courtier. His wife died, his son went to the tad, his
steward robbed and betrayed him, his province and
people were ungrateful, he was accused of treason,
hunted by the royal pursuivants, and reduced to pov-
erty. , There came an Indian summer of prosperity
after this, when, acquitted of debt, and accusations
dismissed, married to another wife, and glad to see
how his work thrived, he returned to his province
and enjoyed a brief reign of luxurious indolence and
importance at his. manor and mansion of Pennsbury.
Then his government was again threatened by the
royal power, and he reluctantly went back to Eng-
land, to find his affairs all disordered. " I never was
so low and so reduced," he writes to James Logan.
"O Pennsylvania," he says later on, in the bitterness
of his spirit, " what hast thou not cost me? Above
£30,000 more than I ever got by it, two hazardous
and most fatiguing voyages, my straits and slavery
here, and my son's soul almost!" He was forced
into prison for debt, and when finally released, re-
sumed his labors as a minister at the age of sixty-five.
Soon after this he was paralyzed, his vigorous intel-
lect dwindled away to second-childishness, but his
sweetness of temper and disposition were still retained
to the last, and in a way which evidently made a strong
impression on all who saw him. " No insanity, no
lunacy," says his old friend, Thomas Story, after a
visit to him, " at all appeared in his actions, and his
mind was in an innocent state, as appeared by his
loving deportment to all that came near him; and
that he had still a good sense of truth is plain by
some very clear sentences he spoke in the life and
power of truth in an evening meeting we had to-
gether there, wherein we were greatly comforted, so
that I was ready to think this was a sort of seques-
tration of him from all the concerns of this life,
which so much oppressed him, not in judgment but
in mercy, that he might have rest and not be op-
pressed thereby to the end." That end was now not
82
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
far off, and William Peun " forsook the decayed
tabernacle" of his body on the 30th day of the Fifth
Month (July, 1718, O. S.), in the seventy-fourth year
of his age. The funeral took place August 5th, in
the burying-ground at Jordan's Quaker meeting-
house, in Buckinghamshire, where his first wife and
several of his family were already interred. His
WILLIAM PENN'S BUKIAL-PLAOK.
own Monthly Meeting at Heading has left the best
summary of his character in the touching little
memorial entitled " A Testimony concerning William
Penn," the last paragraph of which is as follows :
"In fine he was learned without vanity, apt without
forwardness, facetious in conversation, yet weighty
and serious ; of an extraordinary greatness of mind,
yet void of the strain of ambition ; as free from rigid
gravity as he was clear of unseemly levity ; a man, a
scholar, a friend ; a minister surpassing in specula-
tive endowments, whose memorial will be valued by
the wise and blessed with the just." "This," says
Bancroft, " is the praise of William Penn," that in
an age of debauchery and ennui, skepticism and
pessimism, when all around him, even the wisest, shook
their heads, " Penn did not despair of humanity, and,
though all history and experience denied the sov-
ereignty of the people, cared to cherish the noble
idea of man's capacity for self-government."
It certainly was a " noble idea" which lay at the
bottom of Penn's " Holy Experiment," and its history
should be unfolded with scrupulous exactness as well
as with reverent hands.
We have seen how, after the Restoration, the atten-
tion of the court as well as the people of England was
directed in a much larger measure than formerly to
the American colonies. Many who were weary of
perils of Indian warfare, the depressing diseases of a
new climate and unbroken soil were as nothing to
those in comparison with the blessings of political
and religious liberty secured by emigration. As far
as the court was concerned, Charles wanted provinces
to give away to his favorites, while his cabinets, both
under Clarendon, the Cabal, and Danby, had strong
political reasons for putting the colonies
more immediately under control of the
crown in order to check their manifest
yearning for self-government and com-
parative independence. Thus the repre-
sentatives of prerogative were compelled
likewise to give an enlarged attention to
colonial affairs. The Council for Foreign
Plantations was given new powers and
a greater and more exalted membership
in 1671, and in 1674 this separate commis-
sion was dissolved, and the conduct of
colonial affairs intrusted to a committee
of the Privy Council itself, which was
directed to sit once a week and report its
proceedings to the Council. This com-
mittee comprised some of the ablest of the
king's councilors, and among the mem-
bers were the Duke of York and the
Marquis of Halifax. William Penn's re-
lations with the duke gave him great fa-
cilities in dealing with this committee.
Admiral Penn at his death had left his son a prop-
erty of £1500 a year in English and Irish estates.
There was in addition a claim against King Charles'
government for money lent, which with interest
amounted to £15,000. The king had no money and
no credit. What he got from Louis XIV. through
the compliant Barillon hardly sufficed for his own
menus plaisirs.1 Penn being now resolved to establish
a colony in America alongside his New Jersey planta-
tions, and to remove there himself with his family so
as to be at the head of a new Quaker community and
commonwealth, petitioned the king to granthim, in lieu
of the claim of £15,000, a tract of country in America
north of Maryland, with the Delaware on its east, its
western limits the same as those of Maryland, and
its northern as far as plantable country extended. Be-
fore the Privy Council Committee Penn explained
that he wanted five degrees of latitude measured from
Lord Baltimore's line, and that line, at his sugges-
tion, was drawn from the circumference of a circle,
the radius of which was twelve miles from New Cas-
tle as its centre. The petition of Penn's was received
June 14, 1680. The object sought by the petitioner,
it was stated, was not only to provide a peaceful
1 Not to be wondered at when we find in Charles' book of Becret ser-
vice money such entries as the following : " March 28th. Paid to Duchess
strife, discontented with the present aspect of affairs j of Portsmouth [king's mistress] £13,341 10.. iy2d. in various sums.
, . /..irf.j. i j. t c ^ ; June 14th. Paid to Richard Yates, son of Francis Yates, who conducted
or apprehensive of the future, sought relief and peace Prince charle8 from fhe flc](1 of Worcester (o whyt(j Lat]]>s after (||e
in emigration. The hardships of the wilderness, the j battle, and suffered death for It under Cromwell, £I01U«."
WILLIAM PENN.
83
home for the persecuted members of the Society of
Friends, but to afford an asylum for the good and
oppressed of every nation on the basis of a practical
application of the pure and peaceable principles of
Christianity. The petition encountered much and
various opposition. Sir John Werden, agent of the
Duke of York, opposed it because the territory sought
was an appendage to the government of New York,
and as such belonged to the duke. Mr. Burke, the
active and untiring agent of Lord Baltimore, opposed
it because the grant asked by Penn would infringe
upon the territory covered by Baltimore's charter.
At any rate, said, Mr. Burke, in a letter to the Privy
Council Committee, if the grant be made to Perm,
let the deed expressly state lands to the north of
Susquehanna Fort, "which is the boundary of Mary-
land to the northward." There was also strong op-
position in the Privy Council to the idea of a man
such as Penn being permitted to establish plantations
after his own peculiar model. His theories of gov-
ernment were held to be Utopian and dangerous alike
to Church and State. He was looked upon as » Re-
publican like Sidney. However, he had strong friends
in the Earl of Sunderland, Lord Hyde, Chief Justice
North, and the Earl of Halifax. He had an inter-
view with the Duke of York, and contrived to win
him over to look upon his project with favor, and Sir
J. Werden wrote to the secretary, saying, " His royal
Highness commands me to let you know, in order
to your informing their lordships of it, that he is
very willing Mr. Penn's request may meet with sucJ
cess." The attorney-general, Sir William Jones,
examined the petition in view of proposed bound-
aries, and reported that with some alterations it did
not appear to touch upon any territory of previous
grants, " except the imaginary lines of New England
patents, which are bounded westwardly by the main
ocean, should give them a real though impracticable
right to all those vast territories." The draught of the
patent, when finally it had reached that stage of de-
velopment, was submitted to the Lords of Trade to
see if English commercial interests were subserved,
and to the Bishop of London to look after the rights of
the church. The king signed the patent on March
4, 1681. A certified copy of the venerable document
may now be seen framed and hung up in the office
of the Secretary of State at Harrisburg. The name
to be given to the new territory was left blank for the
king to filhup, and Charles called it Pennsylvania.
Penn, who seems to have been needlessly squeamish
on the subject, wrote to his friends to say that the
name was in honor of his father, and that he wanted
the territory called New Wales, and offered the Under
Secretary twenty guineas to change the name, " for I
feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me."
However, he consoled himself with the reflection
that "it is a just and clear thing, and my God, that
has given it me through many difficulties, will, I be-
lieve, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I
shall have a tender care to the government that it
be well laid at first."
The charter, which is given complete in Haz-
ard's Annals, consists of twenty-three articles, with
a preamble reciting the king's desire to extend his
dominions and trade, convert the savages, etc., and
his sense of obligation to Sir William Penn :
I. The grant comprises all that part of America, islands included,
which is bounded on the east by the Delaware River from a point on a
circle twelve miles northward of New Castle town to the 43° north lat-
itude if the Delaware extends so far; if not, as far as it does extend, and
thence to the 43° by a meridian line. From this point westward five de-
grees of longitude on the 43° parallel ; the western boundary to the 40tli
parallel, and thence by a straight line to the place of beginning.
II. Grants Penn rights to and use of rivers, harbors, fisheries, etc.
III. Creates and constitutes him Lord Proprietary of the Provinc,
saving only his allegiance to the King, Penn to hold directly of the
kings of England, " as of our castle of Windsor i n the county of Berks,
in free and common socage, by fealty only, for all services, and not
in capile, or by Knight's service, yielding and paying therefore to ns,
our heirs and successors, two beaver-skins, to be delivered at our castle
of Windsor on the 1st day of January every year," also one-fifth of
precious metals taken out. On these terms Pennsylvania was erected
into " a province and seigniory."
IV. Grants Penn and his successors, his deputies and lieutenants
"free, full, and absolute power" to make laws for raising money for the
public uses of the Province and for other public purposes at their discre-
tion, by and with the advice and consent of the people or their represen-
tatives in assembly.
V. Grants power to appoint officers, judges, magistrates, etc., to pardon
offenders, before judgment or after, except in cases of treason, and to
have charge of the entire establishment of justice, with the single pro-
viso that the laws adopted shall be consonant to reason and not contrary
nor repugnant to the laws and statutes of England, and that all persons
should have the right of appeal to the King.
VI. Prescribes that the laws of England are to be in force in the
Province until others have been substituted for them.
YII. Laws adopted for the government of the Province to be sent to
England for royal approval within five years after their adoption, under
penalty of becoming void.
VIII. Licenses emigration to the new colony.
IX. Licenses trade between the colony and England, subject to the
restrictions of the Navigation Acts.
X. Grants permission to Penn to divide the colony into the various
minor political divisions, to constitute fairs, grant immunities and ex-
emptions, etc.
XI. Similar to IX., but applies to exports from colony.
XII. Grants leave to create seaportB and harbors, etc., in aid of trade
and commerce, subject to English customs regulations.
XIII. Penn and the Province to have liberty to levy cuBtoms duties.
XIV. The Proprietary to have a resident agent in London, to answer
in case of charges, etc., and continued misfeasance to void the charter
and restore the government of the Province to the King.
XV. Proprietary forbidden intercourse or correspondence with the
enemies of England.
XVI. Grants leave to Proprietary to pursue and make war on the
savages or robbers, pirates, etc., and to levy forces for that end, and to
kill and slay according to the laws of war.
XVII. Grants full power to Penn to sell or otherwise convey lands in
the Province.
XVIII. Gives title to persons holding under Penn.
XIX. Penn may erect manors, and each manor to have privilege of
court-baron and frank-pledge, holders under manor-title to be protected
in their tenure.
XX. The King not to lay taxes in the Province "unless the same be
with the consent of the Proprietary, or chief Governor, or Assembly, or
by act of Parliament of England."
XXI. The charter to be valid in English courts against all assumptions
or presumptions of ministers or royal officers.
XXII. Bishop of London may send out clergymen if asked to do so
by twenty inhabitants of the Province.
XXIII. In cases of doubt the charter is to be i uterpreted and con-
strued liberally in Penn's favor, provided such construction do not inter
fere with or lessen the royal prerogative.
84
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
On the 2d of April, after the signing of the charter,
King Charles made a public proclamation of the fact
of the patent, addressed chiefly to the inhabitants of
the territory, enjoining upon them to yield ready
obedience to Penn and his deputies and lieutenants.
At the same time Penn also addressed a letter to the
inhabitants of the province, declaring that he wished
them all happiness here and hereafter, that the Prov-
idence of God had cast them within his lot and care,
and, though it was a new business to him, he under-
stood his duty and meant to do it uprightly. He told
the people that they were not now at the mercy of a
Governor who came to make his fortune out of them,
but " you shall be governed by laws of your own
making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober and
industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of
any or oppress his person. God has furnished me
with a better resolution and has given me his grace
to keep it." He hoped to see them in a few months,
and any reasonable provision they wanted made for
their security and happiness would receive his appro-
bation. Until he came he hoped they would obey
and pay their customary dues to his deputy.
That deputy was Penn's cousin, William Markham,
a captain in the British army, who was on April 20,
1681, commissioned to go out to Pennsylvania, and
act in that capacity until Penn's arrival. He was
given power to call a Council of nine, of which he was
to be president; to secure a recognition of Penn's
authority on the part of the people; to settle bounds
between Penn and his neighbors ; to survey, lay out,
rent, or lease lands according to instructions ; to erect
courts, make sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other
inferior requisite officers, so as to keep the peace and
enforce the laws ; to suppress disturbance or riot by
the posse comitatus, and to make or ordain any ordi-
nances or do whatever he lawfully might for the peace
and security of the province. Markham was partic-
ularly instructed to settle, if he could, boundaries with
Lord Baltimore, and Penn gave him a letter to that
neighbor of his. The deputy soon after sailed foi
Pennsylvania, on what day is not definitely known,
but he was in New York on June 21st, when he ob-
tained from the Governor, Anthony Brockholls, a
proclamation enjoining upon the inhabitants of Penn-
sylvania that they should obey the king's charter and
yield a ready obedience to the new proprietary and
his deputy. When Markham met Lord Baltimore the
interview was unsatisfactory. The boundary question
at once came up, and was as quickly let drop when
Markham found that the lines could not be run ac-
cording to the two charters respectively without
giving to Baltimore some lands which Penn was re-
solved to keep as his own.
It is not supposed that Markham took out any em-
igrants with him. His business was to get possession
of the province as speedily as possible, so as to insure
the allegiance of the people, secure the revenue, and
prepare the way for Penn. It is probable, therefore,
that he sailed in the first ship offering for New York
or Boston, without waiting for company. Meanwhile,
even before Markham's departure, Penn began to
advertise his new province and popularize what
information he had concerning it. This was the
business part of the " Holy Experiment," and Penn
was very competent to discharge it. He published a
pamphlet (through Benjamin Clark, bookseller, in
George Yard, Lombard Street) entitled "Some ac-
count of the Province of Pennsylvania in America,
lately granted under the Great Seal of England to
William Penn, etc. Together with privileges and
powers necessary to the well-governing thereof.
Made publick for the information of such as are
or may be disposed to transport themselves or ser-
vants into those parts." This prospectus shows the
extent of the knowledge Penn had already gleaned
concerning his province, and how closely he had
studied the methods by which he proposed to secure
its prompt and effective planting and settlement. It is
not necessary to incorporate the whole of such a pam-
phlet in this narrative, but some of its salient points
must be noted. It was written, we must remember,
in April, 1681, a month after the signing of the pat-
ent. Penn begins with an excursus upon the benefit
of plantations or colonies in general, " to obviate a
common objection." "Colonies," he says, "are the
seeds of nations, begun and nourished by the care of
wise and populous countries, as conceiving them best
for the increase of human stock and beneficial for com-
merce." Antiquity is then searched through for ex-
amples needless to repeat, but all brought in to prove
that colonies do not weaken or impoverish the mother-
country. Indeed, this part of his argument reads as if
it were Penn's brief while his petition was before the
Privy Council, and as if he drew it up in reply to ob-
jections there urged against concedinghim the patent.
He shows how colonies and foreign plantations have
contributed to the benefit of England's commerce
and industry, and might be expected to continue to
do so. He denies that emigration has depopulated
the country, but says that the increase of luxury has
drawn an undue proportion of the rural communities
into cities and towns, and that the increased cost of
living thus brought about tends to prevent marriage
and so promotes the decay of population. For this
and the many attendant evils emigration, he sug-
gests, is the only effective remedy. He then proceeds
to speak of his province, the inducements it offers to
colonists, and the terms on which he is prepared to
receive them.
" The place," he says, " lies six hundred miles nearer
the sun than England," so far as difference of latitude
goes, adding, " I shall say little in its praise to excite
desires in any, whatever I could truly write as to the
soil, air, and water; this shall satisfy me, that by the
blessing of God and the honesty and industry of man
it may be a good and fruitful land." He then enu-
merates the facilities for navigation by way of the
WILLIAM PENN.
85
Delaware Bay and River, and by way of Chesapeake
Bay also; the variety and abundance of timber; the
quantity of game, wild fowl, and fish ; the variety of
products and commodities, native or introduced, in-
cluding "silk, flax, hemp, wine, sider, wood, madder,
liquorish, tobacco, pot-ashes, and iron, . . . hides, tal-
low, pipe-staves, beef, pork, sheep, wool, corn or
wheat, barley, rye, and also furs, as your peltree,
mincks, racoons, martins, and such like store of furs
which is to be found among the Indians that are
profitable commodities in England." Next, after ex-
plaining the channels of trade, — country produce to
Virginia, tobacco to England, English commodities
to the colonies, — he gives assurance that under his
liberal charter, paying due allegiance to the mother-
country, the people will be able to enjoy the very
largest proportion of liberty and make their own laws
to suit themselves, and that he intends to prepare a
satisfactory constitution.
Penn states explicitly in this pamphlet the con-
ditions of immigration into his province. He looks
to see three sorts of people come, — those who will
buy, those who will rent, and servants. " To the first,
the shares I sell shall be certain as to number of acres ;
that is to say, every one shall contain five thousand
acres, free from any incumbrance, the price a hundred
pounds, and for the quit-rent but one English shilling,
or the value of it, yearly, for a hundred acres ; and
the said quit-rent not to begin to be paid till 1684.
To the second sort, that take up land upon rent, they
shall have liberty so to do, paying yearly one penny
per acre, not exceeding two hundred acres. To the
third sort, to wit, servants that are carried over,1 fifty
acres shall be allowed to the master for every head,
and fifty acres to every servant when their time is
expired. And because some engage with me that may
not be disposed to go, it were very advisable for every
three adventurers to send over an overseer with their
servants, which would well pay the cost."2
Penn next speaks of his plan for allotments or divi-
dends, but as his scheme was not then, as he confesses,
fully developed, and as he later furnished all the de-
tails of this scheme as he finally matured it, we will
pass that by for the present. It is enough to say that
the plan is very closely followed to-day in Eastern
Europe to promote the sale of government bonds.
1 The practice of carrying servants "over" was not long continued.
In a few years many came to try their fortunes and entered into service.
2 On this basis, if we suppose the servant allotments to pay the same
quit-rent as other tenants, Peon's colonists would be assessed about thus :
Manors. — 5000 acres @ £100, int. 5 per cent £5
50 servants to a manor, giving it 2500 acres more,
total quit-rent @ Is. per 100 A 3 10
(Equal to 27£ pence per 100 A. per annum) £8 10s.
Tenants.— 200 A. @ Id. per A
5000 A., 25 tenants, 25 servants, 1250 A., 6250 A. ® Id. 26
Srrmnts.— 76 servants @ 50 A., equal to 3750 A. @ Id 15 12%
Thus Penn, in placing 17,500 acres, proposed to get £100 cash and
yearly rents amounting to £45 2s., or 5s. 2d. nearly per 100 acres, the
greater part of the burden falling upon the smaller tenants of course.
The purchaser of 5000 acres had, moreover, a further advantage in sharing
in the allotments, or " dividends," as Penn calls them.
The persons, Penn says, that " Providence seems to
have most fitted for plantations" are " 1st, industri-
ous husbandmen and day laborers that are hardly
able (with extreme labor) to maintain their families
and portion their children; 2d, laborious handicrafts,
especially carpenters, masons, smiths, weavers, taylors,
tanners, shoemakers, shipwrights, etc., where they may
be spared or low in the world, and as they shall want
no encouragement, so their labor is worth more there
than here, and there provisions cheaper." 3d, Penn
invites ingenious spirits who are low in the world,
younger brothers with small inheritances and (often)
large families; "lastly," he says, "there are another
sort of persons, not only fit for but necessary in planta-
tions, and that is men of universal spirits, that have an
eye to the good of posterity, and that both understand
and delight to promote good discipline and just govern-
ment among a plain and well-intending people; such
persons may find room in colonies for their good coun-
sel and contrivance, who are shut out from being of
much use or service to great nations under settled
customs ; these men deserve much esteem and would
be hearken'd to."
Very considerately Penn next tells all he knows
about the cost and equipments for the journey and
subsistence during the first few months, "that such as
incline to go may not be to seek here, or brought un-
der any disappointments there." He mentions among
goods fit to take for use or for sale at a profit "all
sorts of apparel and utensils for husbandry and build-
ing and household stuff." People must not delude
themselves, he says, with the idea of instant profits.
They will have a winter to encounter before the sum-
mer comes, "and they must be willing to be two or
three years without some of the conveniences they
enjoy at home, and yet I must needs say that America
is another thing than it was at the first plantation of
Virginia and New England, for there is better accom-
modation and English provisions are to be had at
easier rates." The passage across the ocean will be
at the outside six pounds per head for masters and
mistresses, and five pounds for servants, children un-
der seven years old fifty shillings, "except they suck,
then nothing." Arriving out in September or Octo-
ber, "two men may clear as much ground by spring
(when they set the corn of that country) as will brino-
in that time, twelve months, forty barrels, which makes
twenty-five quarters of corn. So that the first year they
must buy corn, which is usually very plentiful. They
must, so soon as they come, buy cows, more or less, as
they want or are able, which are to be had at easy
rates. For swine, they are plentiful and cheap, these
will quickly increase to a stock. So that after the
first year, what with the poorer sort sometimes labor-
ing to others, and the more able fishing, fowling, and
sometimes buying, they may do very well till their
own stocks are sufficient to supply them and their
families, which will quickly be, and to spare, if they
follow the English husbandry, as they do in New Eng-
86
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
land and New York, and get winter fodder for their
stock." Finally, the candid Penn recommends that
none should make up their minds hastily, all get the
consent of their friends or relatives, and all pray God
for his blessing on their honest endeavors.
During all the rest of this year and of 1682 and up
to the moment of his embarkation from Europe, Wil-
liam Penn was most busily and absorbingly engaged
in the multifarious preparations for his new planta-
tions. He drew up a great variety of papers, conces-
sions, conditions, charters, statutes, constitutions, etc.,
equal to the average work of half a dozen congres-
sional committees. As much of this matter is unique
and highly characteristic, we think it best to group it
all together in a separate chapter (next succeeding
this), so as to present as full and accurate a picture as
can he made of Penn as a law-giver and a statesman.
In addition to work of this sort, requiring concentrated
and abstracted thought and study, his correspond-
ence was of the most voluminous character, and he
was further most actively employed in disposing of
lands and superintending the sailing of ship-loads of
his colonists. The first of these papers on concessions
and conditions was prepared indeed on the eve of the
sailing of the first vessels containing his " adven-
turers." This was in July, and the vessels arrived
out in October. Every paper he published called
forth numerous letters from his friends, who wanted
him to explain this or that obscure point to them, and
he always seems to have responded cheerfully to these
exhaustive taxes upon his time. His work seems to
have attracted great attention and commanded admi-
ration. James Claypoole writes (July 22d), " I have
begun my letter on too little a piece of paper to give
thee my judgment of Pennsylvania, but, in short, I,
and many others wiser than I am, do very much ap-
prove of it, and do judge William Penn as fit a man
as any one in Europe to plant a country." Penn had
also been busily negotiating with the Duke of York
for the lands now constituting the State of Delaware,
which were the duke's property, and which Penn
wanted to possess in order to insure to his own prov-
ince the free navigation of the Delaware, and perhaps
also to keep this adjacent territory from falling into
the hands of his neighbor, Lord Baltimore, who
claimed it under his charter. But Sir John Werden,
the duke's agent, still held off and gave Penn much
trouble and uneasiness. The latter had received a
tempting offer from a company of Marylanders of
.£6000 cash and two and'a half per cent, royalty for the
monopoly of the Indian (fur) trade between the Dela-
ware and Susquehanna Rivers, but he refused it upon
noble grounds. The Lord had given him his prov-
ince, he said, over all and great opposition, and " I
would not abuse His love, nor act unworthy of His
providence, and so defile what came to me clean. No !
let the Lord guide me by His wisdom and preserve
me to honor His name and serve His truth and
people, that an example and standard may be set up to
the nations ; there may be room there, though none here."
So also he refused to abate the quit-rents, even to his
most intimate friends, "intending," as Claypoole wrote,
"to do equal by all," but he did reduce them from a
penny to a half-penny in favor of servants settling on
their fifty-acre lots after having served their time.
Subsequently, as we shall see, Penn was less rigidly
moral in his land contracts. In lieu of the proposed
monopoly, Penn made very liberal concessions of land
and privileges to another company, "The Free Society
of Traders," whose plans he favored and whose con-
stitution and charter he helped to draw. This work
will be described farther on.
Notwithstanding all these and many other neavy
and pressing engagements, Penn seems to have found
time to attend to his work as a preacher and a writer
of religious tracts and pamphlets. He went on a
mission tour into the West of England, he wrote on
"Spiritual Commission," he mediated between dis-
senting Friends, and healed a breach in his church ;
his benevolent endeavors were given to aid and en-
courage the Bristol Quakers, then severely persecuted,
and he barely escaped being sent to jail himself for
preaching in London at the Grace Church Street
meeting.
Penn had expected to go out to Pennsylvania him-
self late in the fall of 1681, but the pressure of all
these concerns and the rush of emigrants and colo-
nists delayed him. He found he would have settlers
from France, Holland, and Scotland, as well as from
England, and few besides servants would be ready to
go before the spring of 1682. " When they go, I go,"
he wrote to his friend, James Harrison, " but my
going with servants will not settle a government, the
great end of my going." He also said in this letter
that in selling or renting land he cleared the king's
and the Indian title, the purchaser or lessee paid the
scrivener and surveyor. In October Penn sent out
three commissioners, William Crispin, John Bezar,
and Nathaniel Allen, to co-operate with Markham in
selecting a site for Penn's proposed great city, and to
lay it out. They also were given very full, careful,
and explicit instructions by Penn, particularly as to
dealing with the Indians, some Indian titles needing
to be extinguished by them. He wrote a letter to
the Indians themselves by these commissioners, which
shows he had studied the savage character very care-
fully. It touched the Indian's faith in the one uni-
versal Great Spirit, and finely appealed to his strong
innate sense of justice. He did not wish to enjoy the
great province his king had given him, he said, with-
out the Indians' consent. The red man had suffered
much injustice from his countrymen, but this was the
work of self-seekers ; " but I am not such a man, as is
well known in my own country , I have a great love
and regard for you, and I desire to win and gain your
love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable
life, and the people I send are all of the same mind,
and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly,
WILLIAM PENN AS A STATESMAN.
87
and if in anything any shall offend you or your peo-
ple, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for
the same by an equal number of just men on both
sides, that by no means you may have just occasion
of being offended against them." This was the in-
itiatory step in that "traditional policy" of Penn and
the Quakers towards the Indians which has been so
consistently maintained ever since, to the imperish-
able honor of that sect.
As the year 1682 entered we find Penn reported to
be " extraordinarily busy" about his province and its
affairs. He is selling or leasing a great deal of land,
and sending out many servants. A thousand persons
are going to emigrate along with him. He gets Clay-
poole to write to his correspondent in Bordeaux for
grape-vines, fifteen hundred or two thousand plants,
to carry out with him, desiring vines that bear the
best grapes, not the most. Claypoole has himself
bought five thousand acres, wants to go out and settle,
but doubts and fears. He don't feel sure about the
climate, the savages, the water, the vermin, reptiles,
etc. April 4th Penn finally ratified the charter of his
Free Society of Traders, and erected their land into
•a manor. They had taken twenty thousand acres
in a single block. Their constitution was now at
once promulgated and subscriptions solicited. April
18th Penn sends out Capt. Thomas Holme, duly com-
missioned to act as surveyor-general of Pennsylvania,
with detailed instructions how to act. Holme sails
in the ship " Amity," along with Claypoole's son
John, April 23d. On May 5th Penn publishes his
■"Frame of Government," following it with his precis
of new statutes for the Pennsylvania Assembly to act
upon. By June 1st Penn had made the extraordi-
nary sale of five hundred and sixty-five thousand five
hundred acres of land in the new province, in parcels
of from two hundred and fifty to twenty thousand
acres. Penn's mother died about this time, causing
him much affliction. The Free Society of Traders is
organized, Claypoole makes up his mind at last to
emigrate, the site for Philadelphia is determined, and
Markham buys up Indian titles and settlers' land upon
it, so as to have all clear for the coming great city.
August 31st the Duke of York gives Penn a protec-
tive deed for Pennsylvania, and on the 24th the Duke
finally concedes New Castle and Horekill (Delaware)
to him by deed of feoffment. This concludes the
major part of Penn's business in England, and he is
ready to sail Sept. 1, 1682, in the ship " Welcome,''
three hundred tons, Capt. Robert Greenway, master.
It is then that he writes the touching letter to his
wife and children, from which we have already quoted.
He embarked at Deal with a large company of
Quakers, and from the Downs sent a letter of "salu-
tation to all faithful friends in England."
CHAPTER VIII.
WILLIAM PENN AS A LAW-GIVER AND STATES-
MAN.
Here, while the "Welcome" is on the ocean strug-
gling with the waves, and her passengers are mostly
down with the smallpox, faithfully ministered to by
Penn and his friend Robert Pearson, seems to be the
proper place to discuss the great founder's legislative
principles, measures, statutes, ordinances, and regu-
lations, with a view not only to illustrate the main
subject of these volumes, but also to ascertain Penn's
real merits as a statesman and a framer of laws. He
has been greatly and perhaps indiscriminately praised
for his performances in this sphere, but it is not over-
praise in view of the fact that what he did was rather
upon theory than after a full experience. Penn had
had no real legislative practice, and the knowledge
of law which he acquired during his brief and inter-
rupted studies at Lincoln's Inn could not have been
either thorough or extensive. He never was in Par-
liament; his acquaintance with affairs both at West-
minster and Whitehall was chiefly through the lobby
and not in the halls. But he had read much, thought
deeply, and the candor and genuineness of purpose
which characterized him afforded him material as-
sistance in arriving promptly at just conclusions
from sound premises. He was rather practical than
logical in his mental processes, but his strong good
sense never deserted him, and this gives a directness,
a consistency, and an apparent simplicity to his sys-
tem which make it look even more admirable than it
actually is. It has been positively asserted and as
positively denied that he owed the best part of his
system to Algernon Sidney. It is known that he
often consulted Sidney and Sir William Petty, as
well as many other of his friends, and that he was
eager for advice from every quarter. Probably he
was counseled also by Halifax, Hyde, and Suther-
land from the abundance of their parliamentary and
cabinet political experiences. But the constitution,
laws, instructions, circulars, concessions, commissions,
letters, etc., which emanated from Penn during those
two most busy years all have the same general ear-
mark. . They are William Penn's work, and William
Penn was a Quaker of an oppressed and persecuted
sect, at the same time that he was a courtier deeply
indebted to the bigoted Duke of York. If we do
not remember these things we will not be able to put
a fair and intelligible interpretation upon Penn's
legislative work.
But first let us, avoiding repetitions, present a con-
densed summary of what that work was. Abstracts
of the charter or patent for Pennsylvania and of
Penn's first prospectus of the province and the con-
ditions of emigration have already been given, and
we have seen how shrewdly Penn, as attorney for him-
self and his province, managed affairs before the cum-
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
mittee of the Privy Council and with the Duke of
York and his agent in the matter of the Delaware
Hundreds. His clever handicraft has also been illus-
trated in the conduct of the complicated affairs of
Berkeley and Carteret, Billinge and Fenwick, and the
East and West New Jersey Plantations. The leading
documents relating to Pennsylvania, in which Penn's
hand directed matter and text, from the execution of
the patent down to the moment of the " Welcome's"
sailing, naturally group themselves into two classes :
first, practical executive work ; second, fundamental
law-making, with theoretical declarations of prin-
ciples and rules of interpretation. It is necessary,
therefore, to look at Penn in this place in the double
light of the business manager of a great incorpor-
ated speculation, the Holy Experiment, as he himself
called it in a letter, and as a speculative philosopher,
like Hobbes, Locke, or Bentham, seeking to evolve
constitutions out of the blended action of his own
consciousness, his reading, and his knowledge of men
and the world.
In the general conduct of his experiment, while
attributing everything to Providence, Penn did not
neglect worldly devices of a very shrewd sort. He
advertised his province with great pains, very exten-
sively and very attractively. By the time he was ready
to sail it had attracted a general and lively interest
throughout Europe, and especially among those per-
secuted sects among whom Penn's ministry had fallen
in the course of his visits to the Continent. The
Walloons, the Mennonites or Mennists, the Laba-
dists, the various Reformed German sects and heresies
from Protestantism and Romanism, watched the ex-
periment as closely as the Quakers did. Penn made
the terms on which settlers would be received very
plain, and he stated perspicaciously in advance the
probable cost of living and the probable average of
hardships for which immigrants into the new province
must prepare themselves. This was not only charac-
teristically candid, it was eminently politic. It fore-
stalled disappointment, it prevented the access of un-
desirable adventurers, and it tended to increase the
number of substantial "bone and sinew" planters,
who might have recoiled before imaginary perils, but
who laughed at the little catalogue of petty incon-
veniences and hardships which he displayed before
them. In the regulations for colonists set forth in
his statement of " certain conditions or concessions
agreed upon by William Penn, proprietary and Gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania, and those who are the adven-
turers and purchasers in that province, the 11th of
July, 1681," the system of plantation is plainly de-
scribed. First, a large city is to be laid off on navi-
gable water, divided into lots, and purchasers of large
tracts of lands (five thousand acres) are to have one
of these city lots assigned them, the location deter-
mined by chance. It was Penn's original plan to
have his great city consist of ten thousand acres, di-
vided into one hundred lots of one hundred acres
each, one of these lots to be awarded (by lot) to each
purchaser of a tract of manorial proportions, who
was to build in the centre of his lot and surround his
house with gardens and orchards, " that it may be a
green country town," he said, " which will never be
burnt and always be wholesome." 1 Of course no great
city could be built on any such plan, and Penn him-
self abandoned it or greatly modified it even before
he sailed, the commissioners and surveyor finding it
impossible to observe the conditions, especially when
vessels began to be numerous along the water-front
and business sprang up. This system of great farms,
with a central township divided into minor lots,
Penn proposed to extend all over the province. His
road system was excellent. Roads were to be built
not less than forty feet wide from city to city, on air-
lines as nearly as possible; all streets were to be laid
off at right angles, and of liberal width, and no build-
ings were to be allowed to encroach on these, nor was
any irregular building to be permitted. This rule of
symmetry, amounting to formality, could not be car-
ried out any more than the great city plan. It was
not Penn's notion probably, for he was not a pre-
cisian in anything, and it looks much more like a
contrivance borrowed by him for the nonce from Sir
William Petty, Sir Thomas Browne, or some other
hare-brain among his contemporaries. Penn's system
of quit-rents and of manors also, the foundations of a
great fortune, resembled closely that of Lord Balti-
more in Maryland. It is likely that Penn got the
idea where Baltimore derived his, from Ireland, that
form of irredeemable ground-rent being an old and
familiar Irish tenure.2 The quit-rent system caused
almost immediate discontent in Pennsylvania, and
undoubtedly injured the proprietary's popularity and
interfered with his income. His large reservations of
choice lots in every section that was laid out contrib-
uted to this also.
Every person was to enjoy access to and use of
water-courses, mines, quarries, etc., and any one could
dig for metals anywhere, bound only to pay for dam-
ages done. Settlers were required to plant land sur-
veyed for them within three years. Goods for export
could only be bought or sold, in any case, in public
market, and fraud and deception were to be punished
by forfeiture of the goods. All trading with Indians
was to be done in open market, and fraud upon them
prevented by inspection of goods. Offenses against
Indians were to be punished just as those against the
whites, and disputes between the two races to be
settled by a mixed jury. Indians to have the same
privileges as the whites in improving their lands and
1 Instructions to commissioners for settling the colony, Oct. 10, 16S1.
2 This lias been conclusively shown in some opinions (published in
the Maryland Reports) of the judges of the Maryland Court of Appeals.
These opinions were given in interpretation of leases " for ninety-nine
years, renewable forever.1' It was decided that those leaBes were per-
petual, and their historical relation to the Irish leases was demonstrated
in order to establish the fact of their irredeemable character.
WILLIAM PENN AS A STATESMAN.
89
raising crops. Stock not marked within three months
after coming into the possession of planters to be for-
feited to the Governor. In clearing land, one-fifth to
be left in wood, and oak and mulberry trees to be
preserved for ship-building. To prevent debtors from
furtively absconding, no one was to leave the province
until after three weeks' publication of the fact.
In his instructions to the commissioners for laying
out the province, Penn enlarges upon the plan for
the great town, which is to be located on his side the
Delaware, where "it is most navigable, high, dry,
and healthy ; that is, where most ships may best
ride, of deepest draught of water, if possible to load
or unload at the bank or key side, without boating
or lightering of it." Other things are to be postponed
until this site is chosen and laid out. If the place
selected has settlers on it, they are to be removed,
either by buying their lands or giving them other
tracts in exchange.1 In dealing with Indians the
commissioners are bidden to be tender of offending
them, but to make sure, " by honest spies," that no
one is instructing them to stand off for higher prices.
Give them plenty of love, says Penn in effect, but
do not pay too much for their land, and do not let
them sell you what does not belong to them. " Be
grave; they love not to be smiled on." The com-
missioners are forbidden to sell any islands ; they are
to lay off the streets in a rectangular way, to preserve
a broad water-front, to reserve a central lot of three
hundred acres for the Governor's house, and in other
matters to be guided by circumstances and their own
discretion.3
The charter to the Pennsylvania Company, the Free
Society of Traders, bears date March 24, 1682. The
incorporators named in Penn's deed to them were
"Nicholas Moore, of London, medical doctor; James
Claypoole, merchant; Philip Ford (Penn's unworthy
steward); William Sherloe, of London, merchant;
Edward Pierce, of London, leather-seller ; John Sym-
cock and Thomas Brassey, of Cheshire, yeoman ;
Thomas Baker, of London, wine-cooper ; and Ed-
ward Brookes, of London, grocer." The deed recites
Penn's authority under his patent, mentions the con-
veyance to the company of twenty thousand acres,
erects this tract into the manor of Frank, " in free
and common socage, by such rents, customs, and
services as to them and their successors shall seem
meet, so as to be consistent with said tenure," allows
them two justices' courts a year, privilege of court-
baron and court-leet and view of frank-pledge, with
1 Penn balances this direction very closely between thrift and con-
science. He says, " Herein [in buying or exchanging these lands] be as
sparing as ever you can, and urge the weak bottom of their grant, the Duke
of York never having had a grant from the King, etc. Be impartially
just and courteous to all, that is pleasing to the Lord and wise in itself.'1''
Yet Penn, like Svenson and the other SwedeB, had bought his title, just
as they did, of the Indians and the Duke of York.
2 This interesting paper was signed in London, Sept. 30, 1681, with
Richard Vickery, Charles Jones, Jr., Ealph Withers, Thomas Callow-
hill, and Philip Th. Lehnmann as witnesses.
all the authority requisite in the premises. The so-
ciety is authorized to appoint and remove its officers
and servants, is given privilege of free transportation
of its goods and products, and exempted from any but
necessary State and local taxes, while at the same
time it can levy all needful taxes for its own support
within its own limits. Its chief officers are commis-
sioned as magistrates and charged to keep the peace,
with jurisdiction in case of felony, riot, or disorder
of any kind. It is given three representatives in the
Provincial Council, title to three-fifths of the products
of all mines and minerals found, free privilege to fish
in all the waters of the province, and to establish
fairs, markets, etc., and the books of the society are
exempted from all inspection. The society imme-
diately prepared and published an address, with its
constitution and by-laws, in which a very extensive
field of operation is mapped out. The address, which
is ingenious, points to the fact that while it proposes
to employ the principle of association in order to
conduct a large business, it is no monopoly, but an
absolutely free society in a free country. "It is,"
says this prospectus, " an enduring estate, and a last-
ing as well as certain credit ; a portion and inherit-
ance that is clear and growing, free from the mischief
of frauds and false securities, supported by the con-
current strength and care of a great and prudent
body, a kind of perpetual trustees, the friend of the
widow and orphan, for it takes no advantage of
minority or simplicity." s
Penn's commission to Capt. Thomas Holme as
surveyor-general is dated April 18th. It contains
nothing salient beyond the ordinary terms of such
instruments. All this executive department work
recorded above shows Penn in the light of a skillful,
thrifty administrator, well instructed even in the
minutest details of his business, and always looking
out shrewdly for his own interests. On April 25th
he published his " frame of government," or, as
James Claypoole called it in one of his letters, "the
fundamentals for government," — in effect, the first
3 In this society votes were to be on basis of amount of stock held,
up to three votes, which was the limit. No one in England was allowed
more than one vote, and proxies could be voted. The officers were presi-
dent, deputy, treasurer, secretary, and twelve committee-men. Five,
with president or deputy, a quorum. Committee-men to have but one
vote each in meetings, with the casting vote to the president. Officers
to hold during seven years on good behavior ; general election and re-
opening of subscriptiou books every seventh year ; general statement at
the end of each business year. The officers to live on society's prop-
erty. All the society's servants were bound to secrecy, and the books
•were kept in society's house, under three locks, the keys in charge of
president, treasurer, and oldest committee-man, and not to be intrusted
to any person longer than to transcribe any part in daytime and iu the
house, before Beven persons appointed by committee. The society was
to send two hundred servants to Pennsylvania the fir6t year, to build
two or more general factories in Pennsylvania, one on Chesapeake Bay,
one on Delaware or elsewhere; to aid Indians in building houses, etc.
and to hold negroes for fourteen years' service, when they were to go
free, "on giving to the Bociety two-thirds of what they can produce on
land allotted to them by the society, with a stock and tools ; if they agree
not to this, to be servants till they do." Theleadingolijectuf thesoclety
at the outset Beems to have been an extensive free trade wi Hi the Indians.
90
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Constitution of Pennsylvania. Hepworth Dixon
claims that in the composition of this instrument
Penn received so much aid from Algernon Sidney
"that it is quite impossible to separate the exact
share of one legislator from that of the other." On
the contrary, others of Penn's biographers see nothing
in it but Penn's work under the inspiration of George
Pox's " inner light." A careful examination of the
document itself, however, and the preamble will, it
is believed, establish it as a genuine production of
the author of the " concessions and conditions of
settlement" and the "instructions to the commission-
ers," which have been analyzed above. It is the
work of William Penn, and reflects precisely some of
the brightest and some of the much less bright traits
of his genius and character.
The document is entitled "The frame of the gov-
ernment of the province of Pennsylvania, in America,
together with certain laws agreed upon in England
by the governor and divers freemen of the aforesaid
province, to be further explained and continued
there by the first provincial council that shall be
held, if they see meet."
The " preface" or preamble to this Constitution is
curious, for it is written as if Penn felt that the eyes
of the court were upon him. The first two para-
graphs form a simple excursus upon the doctrine of
the law and the transgressor as expounded in St.
Paul's Epistle to the Romans : " For we know that
the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin,"
etc. From this Penn derives, not very perspicu-
ously, however, "the divine right of government,"
the object of government being twofold, to terrify
evil-doers and to cherish those that do well, "which
gives government a life beyond corruption [i.e., divine
right], and makes it as durable in the world as good
men shall be." Hence Penn thinks that govern-
ment seems like a part of religion itself, a thing
sacred in its institution and end.1 "They weakly
1 Compare this with Penn's pamphlet of 1679, called "An Address to
all Protestants,1' where he says, " The fourth great ecclesiastical evil is
preferring human authority above reason and truth," and at the same
time abuses the accredited State administrators of religion as the greatest
obstacles to faith. " Is not prophecy, once the church's, now engrossed
by them and wholly in their bands ? Who dare publicly preach or pray
that is not of their order? Have they not only the keys in keeping?
May anybody else pretend to the power of absolution or excommunica-
tion, much less to constitute ministers? Are not all church rites and
privileges in their hands? Do not they make it their proper inherit-
ance? Nay, so much larger is their empire than Cajsar'B that only they
begin with births and end with burials- men must pay them for coming
in and going out of the world. ThnB their profits run from the womb
to the grave, and that which is the loss of others IB their gain and part
of their revenue. . . . The minister is chooser and taster and everything
for them (the people). . . . They seem to have delivered up their spirit-
ual selves, and made over the business of religion— the rights of their
aouls — to their pastor, and that scarcely with any limitation of truth,
too. And as if he were, or could be, their guarantee in the other world,
they become very unsolicitous of any further search here. So that if we
would examine the respective parishes of Protestant as well as Papish
countries, we shall find it come to that sad pasB that very few have any
other religion than the tradition of their priestB. They have given up
their judgment to him, and seem greatly at their ease that they have
err," continues Penn, in an admirable sentence, the
clearest possible anticipation of modern convictions
in regard to penatory institutions, " they weakly err
that think there is no other use of government than
correction, which is the coarsest part of it." He de-
clines saying much of "particular frames and modes,''
for the reason that men are so hard to please. " It is
true they seem to agree in the end, to wit, happi-
ness, but in the means they differ. . . Men side
with their passions against their reason, and their
sinister interests have so strong a bias upon their
minds that they lean to them against the good of the
things they know."
The form, he concludes, does not matter much after
all. " Any government is free to the people under it
(whatever be the frame) where the laws rule and the
people are a party to these laws." Good men are to be
preferred even above good laws, and that which makes
a good constitution must keep it, he says, to wit, men
of wisdom and virtue. The frame of laws now pub-
lished, Penn adds, has been carefully contrived " to
support power in reverence with the people, and to
secure the people from the abuse of power." This
is very nicely balanced, but it scarcely harmonizes
with the letter referred to previously which Penn sent
out to the people of his province by Markham,
promising them freedom to make their own laws and
govern themselves.
In the Constitution, which follows the preamble,
Penn begins by confirming to the freemen of the
province all the liberties, franchises, and properties
secured to them by the patent of King Charles II.
The government of the province is to consist of " the
Governor and freemen of the said province, in form
of a Provincial Council and General Assembly, by
whom all laws shall be made, officers chosen, and
public affairs transacted." The Council, of seventy-
two members, is to be elected at once, one-third of
the members to go out, and their successors elected
each year, and after the first seven years those going
out each year shall not be returned within a year.
Two-thirds of the Council are required to constitute
a quorum, except in minor matters, when twenty-
four will suffice. The Governor is always to preside
over the sessions of Council, and is to have three votes.
"The Governor and Provincial Council shall prepare
and propose to the General Assembly hereafter men-
tioned all bills which they shall at any time think fit
to be passed into laws within the said province, . . .
and on the ninth day from their so meeting, the said
General Assembly, after reading over the proposed
bills by the clerk of the Provincial Council, and the
occasion and motives for them being opened by the
Governor or his deputy, shall give their affirmative or
negative, which to them seemeth best, . . . and the
discharged themselveB of the trouble of ' working out their own salva-
tion, and proving all things, that they might hold fast that which is
good,1 and in the room of that care bequeathed the charge of these
affairs to a standing pensioner for that purpose.11
WILLIAM PENN AS A STATESMAN.
91
laws so prepared and proposed as aforesaid that are
assented to by the General Assembly shall be enrolled
as laws of the province, with this style : ' By the
Governor, with the assent and approbation of the
freemen in the Provincial Council and General As-
sembly.' " Here is the fatal defect of Penn's Consti-
tution, a defect which robs it of even any pretence of
being republican or democratic in form or substance.
The Assembly, the popular body, the representatives
of the people, are restricted simply to a veto power.
They cannot originate bills ; they cannot even debate
them ; they are not allowed to think or act for them-
selves or those they represent, but have nothing to do
except vote "yes" or " no." To be sure, the Council
is an elective body too. But it is meant to consist of
the Governor's friends. It is the aristocratic body.
It does not come fresh from the people. The tenure
of its members is three years. Besides, for ordinary
business, twenty-four of the Council make a quorum,
of whom twelve, with the Governor's casting vote,
comprise a majority. The Governor has three votes ;
the Free Society of Traders six; if the Governor
have three or four friends in Council, with the
support of this society he can control all legisla-
tion. It seems incredible that William Penn should
have of his own free will permitted this blemish upon
his Constitution, which he claimed gave all the power
of government and law-making into the hands of the
people.
It is impossible for Penn to have acted ignorantly
or unadvisedly in this matter. He was born amid the
thunder of the great struggle, in the very hour of the
triumph of the English Parliament over the executive
upon this very issue of the power of the Commons to
originate bills, a contest that had been going on for
three hundred years, and had been incessantly waged
since the beginning of the reign of King Edward III.
He could not help knowing that this question had
been fought out, or was still cause for battle between
Governor and Council and the popular Assembly in
every American colony. He was too familiar with
our colonial history to have forgotten the inaugura-
tion of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619, and
how, successively in each colony as it was formed, in
the language of Bancroft, " popular assemblies burst
everywhere into life with a consciousness of their im-
portance and an immediate capacity for efficient legis-
lation." * Why was it, then, that Penn, who certainly
1 The Virginia Burgesses were first summoned July 30, 1619, two each
from three cities, three hundreds, three plantations, Argall's Gift, and
Kiccowtan. They met together with Governor and Council until 1680,
when, under Lord Colepepper's government, the two houses separated.
— (Beverly.) In Massachusetts, May 19, 1634, twenty-five delegates,
chosen hy the freemen of the towns of their own motion, appeared and
claimed a share in mailing the laws. The claim was allowed and they
became members of the General Court. In Connecticut the popular
body was first provided for Jan. 14, 1639. In Maryland the first House
of Burgesses dates from February, 1G39, and they soon voided the au-
thority of the Governor and Council, under the charter, to originate
bills. In Rhode Island the power of popular assemblies dates from May,
1647. In North Carolina, in spite of Locke's aristocratic constitution,
desired popular freedom, and sought anything else
rather than the investment of arbitrary power in his
own office and that of the Governor's advisers, fol-
lowed in the footsteps of Lord Baltimore and John
Locke, and attempted to deprive his popular assem-
bly of every actual legislative function? We think
the reason is plain that it was only by promising to
construct his proprietary government after this model
he was able to secure his patent at all. His relations
with the Duke of York have been set forth. When, in
1675, the committee of the Privy Council was given
charge of colonial affairs, the Duke of Albemarle
(Monk) was chairman, but the Duke of York was the
most active and controlling spirit of the committee.
When Halifax opposed the attempt to subvert the
autonomy of the colonies, and bring them directly
under the sovereign power of the throne, he was dis-
missed from office, and the Privy Council voted that
Governors and Councils of colonies " should not be
obliged to call assemblies from the country to make
taxes and to regulate other important matters, but that
they should do what they should judge proper, render-
ing an account only to his Britannic majesty." This
action was not finally taken till 1684, but it represented
the well-matured views of the Duke of York, who had
long held that colonies did not need General Assem-
blies, and ought not to have them. Penn was fully
acquainted with these views and bowed in deference to
them. He stooped to conquer. He waived his prin-
ciples in order to secure his province, feeling that
good must come from that establishment in innumer-
able ways.
Aside from this fatal piece of subservience there is
much to praise in Penn's Constitution and something
to wonder at, as being so far in advance of his age.
The executive functions of Governor and Council are
carefully defined and limited. A wholesome and lib-
eral provision is made for education, public schools,
inventions, and useful scientific discoveries.2
The Provincial Council, for the more prompt dis-
patch of business, was to be divided into four com-
mittees,— one to have charge of plantations, "to sit-
uate and settle cities, posts, and market-towns and
highways, and to have and decide all suits and con-
troversies relating to plantations," one to be a com-
mittee of justice and safety, one of trade and treasury,
and the fourth of manners, education, and arts, "that
this power has existed since 1667. In New Jersey the Assembly of rep-
resentatives, "with law-making power, is as old as 1668. In South Caro-
lina the freemen took part in law-making, through their delegates, from
1674. In New Hampshire the law-makiug power resided in the Assem-
bly from March 16, 1680.
2 In the preamble Penn layB down a doctrine now universally recog-
nized, and the general acceptance of which, it is believed, affords the
surest guarantee for the perpetuity of American institutions: that vir-
tue and wisdom, " because they descend not with worldly inheritances,
must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth, for which
after-ages will owe more to the care and prudence of founders and the
successive magistracy than to their parents for their private patrimo-
nies." No great truth could be more fully and nobly expressed than
this.
92
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
all wicked and scandalous living may be prevented,
and that youth may be successively trained up in vir-
tue and useful knowledge and arts."
The General Assembly was to be elected yearly,
not to exceed two hundred members, representing all
the freemen of the province. They were to meet in
the capital on "the 20th day of the second month,"
and during eight days were expected to freely confer
with one another and the Council, and, if they chose,
to make suggestions to the Council committees about
the amendment or alteration of bills (all such as the
Council proposed to offer for adoption being pub-
lished three weeks beforehand), and on the ninth
day were to vote, " not less than two-thirds making a
quorum in the passing of laws and choice of such
officers as are by them to be chosen." The General
Assembly was to nominate a list of judges, treasurers,
sheriffs, justices, coroners, etc., two for each office,
from which list the Governor and Council were to
select the officers to serve. The body was to adjourn
upon being served with notice that the Governor and
Council had no further business to lay before them,
and to assemble again upon the summons of the Gov-
ernor and Council. Elections were to be by ballot,
and so were questions of impeachment in the Assem-
bly and judgment of criminals in the Council. In
case the proprietary be a minor, and no guardian has
been appointed in writing by his father, the Council
was to appoint a commission of three guardians to
act as Governor during such minority. No business
was to be done by the Governor, Council, or Assem-
bly on Sunday, except in cases of emergency. The
Constitution could not be altered without the consent
of the Governor and six-sevenths of the Council and
the General Assembly. (Such a rule, if enforced,
would have perpetuated any Constitution, however
bad.) Finally Penn solemnly declared "that neither
I, my heirs nor assigns, shall procure or do anything
or things whereby the liberties in this charter con-
tained and expressed shall be infringed or broken ;
and if anything be procured by any person or per-
sons contrary to these premises it shall be held of
no force or effect."
On May 15th Penn's code of laws, passed in Eng-
land, to be altered or amended in Pennsylvania, was
promulgated. It consists of forty statutes, the first
of which declares the charter or Constitution which
has just been analyzed to be " fundamental in the
government itself." The second establishes the qual-
ifications of a freeman (or voter or elector). These
include every purchaser of one hundred acres of land,
every tenant of one hundred acres, at a penny an acre
quit-rent, who has paid his own passage across the
ocean and cultivated ten acres of his holding, every
freeman who has taken up fifty acres and cul-
tivated twenty, "and every inhabitant, artificer, or
other resident in the said province that pays scot and
lot to the government." All these electors are also
eligible to election both to Council and Assembly.
Elections must be free and voluntary, and electors
who take bribes shall forfeit their votes, while those
offering bribes forfeit their election, the Council
and Assembly to be sole judges of the regularity of
the election of their members.
" No money or goods shall be raised upon or paid
by any of the people of this province, by way of pub-
lic tax, custom, or contribution, but by a law for that
purpose made." Those violating this statute are to
be treated as public enemies and betrayers of the
liberties of the province.
All courts shall be open, and justice shall neither
be sold, denied, or delayed. In all courts all persons
of all (religious) persuasions may freely appear in
their own way and according to their own manner,
pleading personally or by friend ; complaint to bo
exhibited fourteen days before trial, and summons
issued hot less than ten days before trial, a copy of
complaint to be delivered to the party complained of
at his dwelling. No complaint to be received but
upon the oath or affirmation of complainant that he
believes in his conscience that his cause to be just.
Pleadings, processes, and records in court are required
to be brief, in English, and written plainly so as to
be understood by all.
All trials shall be by twelve men, peers, of good
character, and of the neighborhood. When the
penalty for the offense to be tried is death the sheriff
is to summon a grand inquest of twenty-four men,
twelve at least of whom shall pronounce the com-
plaint to be true, and then twelve men or peers are
to be further returned by the sheriff to try the issue
and have the final judgment. This trial jury shall
always be subject to reasonable challenge.
Fees are required to be moderate, their amounts set-
tled by the Legislature, and a table of them hung up
in every court- room. Any person convicted of charging
more than the lawful fee shall pay twofold, one-half to
go to the wronged party, while the offender shall be dis-
missed. All persons wrongfully imprisoned or prose-
cuted at law shall have double damages against the
informer or prosecutor.
All prisons, of which each county is to have one,
shall be work-houses for felons, vagrants, and loose
and idle persons. All persons shall be bailable by
sufficient security, save in capital offenses " where
the proof is evident or the presumption great."
Prisons are to be free as to fees, food, and lodging.
All lands and goods shall be liable to pay debts,
except where there is legal issue, and then all goods
and one-third of the land only. (This is meant in
case a man should die insolvent.) All wills in writing,
attested by two witnessess, shall be of the same force
as to lands or other conveyances, being legally
proved within forty days within or without the prov-
ince.
Seven years' quiet possession gives title, except in
cases of infants, lunatics, married women, or persons
beyond the seas.
WILLIAM PENN AS A STATESMAN.
93
Bribery and extortion are to be severely punished,
but fines should be moderate and not exhaustive of
men's property.1
Marriage (not forbidden by the degrees of consan-
guinity or affinity) shall be encouraged, but parents
or guardians must first be consulted, and publication
made before solemnization ; the ceremony to be by
taking one another as husband and wife in the
presence of witnesses, to be followed by a certificate
signed by parties and witnesses, and recorded in the
office of the county register. All deeds, charters,
grants, conveyances, long notes, bonds, etc., are re-
quired to be registered also in the county enrollment
office within two months after they are executed,
otherwise to be void. Similar deeds made out of the
province were allowed six months in which to be
registered before becoming invalid.
All defacers or corrupters of legal instruments or
registries shall make double satisfaction, half to the
party wronged, be dismissed from place, and disgraced
as false men.
A separate registry of births, marriages, deaths,
burials, wills, and letters of administration is required
to be kept.
All property of felons is liable for double satisfac-
tion, half to the party wronged ; when there is no
land the satisfaction must be worked out in prison ;
while estates of capital offenders are escheated, one-
third to go to the next of kin of the sufferer and the
remainder to next of kin of criminal.
Witnesses must promise to speak the truth, the
whole truth, etc., and if convicted of willful falsehood
shall suffer the penalty which would have been inflicted
upon the person accused, shall make satisfaction to
the party wronged, and be publicly exposed as false
witnesses, never to be credited in any court or before
any magistrate in the province.
Public officers shall hold but one office at a time;
all children more than twelve years old shall be taught
some useful trade; servants shall not be kept longer
than their time, must be well treated if deserving, and
at the end of their term be '' put in fitting equipage,
according to custom."
Scandal-mongers, back-biters, defamers, and spread-
ers of false news, whether against public or private
persons, are to be severely punished as enemies to
peace and concord. Factors and others guilty of
breach of trust must make satisfaction, and one-third
over, to their employers, and in case of the factor's
death the Council Committee of Trade is to see that
satisfaction is made out of his estates.
All public officers, legislators, etc., must be profes-
sors of faith in Jesus Christ, of good fame, sober and
honest convictions, and twenty-one years old. " All
persons living in this province who confess and ac-
knowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God to be
1 " Contenements, merchandise, and wainage," Bays the text, — the
land by which a man keeps his house, his goods, and his means of trans-
portation.
the Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the world, and
that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live
peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in noways
be molested or prejudiced for their religious persua-
sion or practice in matters of faith and worship ; nor
shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or
maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry
whatever." The people are required to respect Sun-
day by abstaining from daily labor. All "offenses
against God," swearing, cursing, lying, profane talk-
ing, drunkenness, drinking of healths, obscenity,
whoredom and other uncleanness, treasons, mispris-
ions, murders, duels, felony, sedition, maimings, for-
cible entries and other violence, all prizes, stage-
plays, cards, dice, May-games, gamesters, masks,
revels, bull-baitings, cock-fightings, and the like,
" which excite the people to rudeness, cruelty, loose-
ness, and irreligion, shall be respectively discouraged
and severely punished, according to the appointment
of the Governor and freemen in Council and General
Assembly."
All other matters not provided for in this code are
referred to " the order, prudence, and determination"
of the Governor and Legislature.
The most admirable parts of this code, putting it
far ahead of the contemporary jurisprudence of Eng-
land or any other civilized country at the time,2 are
the regulations for liberty of worship and the admin-
istration of justice. Penn's code on this latter point
is more than a hundred years in advance of England.
In the matter of fees, charges, plain and simple forms,
processes, records, and pleadings, it still remains in
advance of court proceedings and regulations nearly
everywhere. The clauses about workrhouses and
2 But we must except the Catholic colony in Maryland, founded by Sir
George Calvert, whose charter of 1632 and the act of toleration passed
by the Assembly of Maryland in 1649, under the inspiration of Sir
George's son, Cascilius, must be placed alongside of Penn's work. Two
brighter lights in an age of darkness never shone. Calvert's charter was
written during the heat of the Thirty Tears' religious war, Penn's Con-
stitution at the moment when all Dissenters wore persecuted in England
and when Louis XIV. was about to revoke the Edict of Nantes. The
VirginianB were expelling the Quakers and other sectaries. In New
England the Puritan Separatists, themselves refugees for opinion's sake,
martyrs to the cause of religious freedom, were making laws which were
the embodiment of doubly distilled intolerance and persecution. Roger
Williams was banished in 1635, in 1650 the Baptists were sent to the
whipping-post, in 1634 there was a law passed for the expulsion of Ana-
baptists, in 1647 for the exclusion of Jesuits, and if they returned they
were to be put to death. In 1656 it was decreed against " the cursed sect
of heretics lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called
Quakers," that captains of ships briuging them in were to be fined or im-
prisoned, Quaker books, or " writings containing their devilish opinions,"
were not to be imported, Quakers themselves were to be 6ent to the house
of correction, kept at work, made to remain silent, and severely whipped.
This was what the contemporaries of Calvert and Penn did. We have
seen Penn's law of liberty of conscience. Calvert's was equally liberal.
The charter of Calvert was not to be interpreted so as to work any dim-
inution of God's sacred Christian religion, open to all Beets, Protestant
and Catholic, and the act of toleration and all preceding legislation, offi-
cial oaths, etc., breathed the same spirit of toleration and determination,
in the wordB of the oath of 1637, that none in the colony, by himself or
other, directly or indirectly, will "trouble, molest, or discountenance
any person professing to believe in Jeeus Christ for or on account of his
religion."
94
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
about bailable offenses are also far in advance of even
the best modern jurisprudence, and the provisions for
a complete registration of births, etc., have yet to be
enforced in some of the States closely adjoining Penn-
sylvania, despite the fact that accurate registries of
this sort are essential preliminaries to any collection
of vital statistics. This systematic recording of all
transactions, public or domestic, has been character-
istic of the Society of Friends from its earliest begin-
nings, and their registry and minute-books are now
filled with historical materials of the most precious
sort.
CHAPTER IX.
FOUNDING THE GREAT CITY— PENN IN PHILADEL-
PHIA—HIS ADMINISTRATION.
Penn was very well represented in the new prov-
ince and his interests intelligently cared for from the
time that Lieutenant-Governor Brockholls, of New
York, surrendered the colony until he himself arrived
and took formal possession. His cousin, Capt. Wil-
liam Markham, Deputy Governor, as has been seen,
arrived out in October, 1681, his commissioners, ap-
pointed for laying out the proposed great city, came
over towards the end of the year, and his surveyor-
general, Capt. Thomas Holme, reached Philadelphia
in the early summer of 1682. The commissioners, as
originally appointed Sept. 30, 1681, were William Cris-
pin, Nathaniel Allen, and John Bezar. They sailed
either in the ship " John and Sarah" or the " Bris-
tol Factor," taking the southern passage and stopping
at Barbadoes, where Crispin died. Crispin, the head
of the commission, was a man of mature years and
Penn's own kinsman, like Markham. It appears by
a letter from Penn to Markham, dated London, Oct.
18, 1681, that Penn intended Crispin to hold high
office in the new province. He says, "I have sent
my cosen, William Crispin, to be thy assistant, as by
Commission will appear. His Skill, experience, In-
dustry, and Integrity are well known to me, and par-
ticularly in Court keeping, &c, so yt is my will and
pleasure that he be as Chief Justice to Keep ye Seal,
ye Courts and Sessions, & he shall be accountable to
me for it. The profits redounding are to his proper
behoof. He will show thee my Instructions wch
guide you in all ye business, & ye cost is left to your
discretion ; y' is, to thee, thy two Assistants and ye
Councel." After telling Markham that if he prefers
the sea to the deputyship he will procure him the
profitable command of a passenger-ship to run between
England and Pennsylvania, he adds : " Pray be very
respectful to my Cosen Crispin. He is a man my
father had great confidence in and value for. Also
strive to give content to the Planters, and with meek-
ness and sweetness, mixed with authority, carry it so
as thou mayst honour me as well as thyselfe, and I do
hereby promess thee I will effectually answer it to
thee and thyn." In this letter, as Penn states, was
inclosed another, in the Norse language, addressed to
the Swedes of trie new province by Liembergh, the
ambassador of Sweden in London. Markham is to
give this to the Swedish pastor and bid him read it to
his countrymen.
Before Crispin's death was known to Penn he had
appointed William Heage as additional commissioner.
There does not appear on the record evidence of any
great amount of work done by them, though they
I probably afforded assistance to both Markham and
j Holme in executing, as well as they could, the in-
j structions of Penn. Being on the spot it was soon
discovered that these instructions would require to be
sensibly modified. For example, in selecting the site
for the city and locating it in the fork of the Schuyl-
kill and Delaware, which was done early in the spring
of 1682,1 it was found that scarcely more than an
eighth of the acres called for could be laid off.
Markham was in New York on June 21, 1681, where
he procured the proclamation already spoken of from
Governor Brockholls. The first record we have of his
appearance on the Delaware is the following "Obli-
gation of Councilmen :" " Whereas, wee whose hands
and Seals are hereunto Sett are Chosen by Wm. Mark-
ham (agent to Wm. Penn, Esq., Proprietor of ye
Province of Pennsylvania) to be of the Councill for
ye sd province, doe hereby bind ourselves by our hands
& Seals, that wee will neither act nor advise, nor Con-
sent unto anything that shall not be according to our
own Consciences the best for ye true and well Govern-
ment of the sd Province, and Likewise to Keep Secret
all ye votes and acts of us, The sd Councell, unless
Such as by the General Consent of us are to be pub-
lished. Dated at Vpland ye third day of August,
1681.
" Robert Wade, Morgan Drewet, Wm Woodmanse,
(W. W. The mark of) William Warner, Thomas
Ffairman, James Sandlenes, Will Clayton, Otto Er-
nest Koch, and ye mark (L) of Lacy (or Lasse)
Cock." Wade, Drewet, Woodmanson, Fairman,
Sandeland, Clayton, and the two Cocks were old
residents upon the Delaware; Fairman, Clayton, and
both the Cocks owning land within the present limits
of Philadelphia. Fairman appears to have had one
of the best or most convenient houses on the site of
the nascent city at and before the time of Penn's
arrival. There is on file a bill and receipt for £426
10s. 6<£, which he rendered Penn for services in sur-
veying, doing errands, furnishing horses, hands, etc.,
between 1681 and later years. He boarded and lodged
1 Claypoole writes, in England, July 24, 1682, " I have taken up reso-
lutions to go next spring with my whole family to Pennsylvania, so
have not sent my orders for a house for planting, hut intend to do it
when I do come. I have one hundred acres where our capital city is to be,
upon the river near Schuylkill and Peter Cock. There I intend to plant
and huild my firBt house." This land of Peter Cock's appears to have
adjoined the Swenson estate, and Penn gave him twice as many acreB foe
it on the west side of the Schuylkill.
Facsimile, of the Oath and signatures of the members of Deputy GavomDT Maikham's Council -1681 .
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FOUNDING THE GREAT CITY.
95
Markham, Haige, and Holme and family at different
times, and gave up his house to Penn the winter after
the Governor's arrival. It appears also by this bill
that Markham, aided by Fairman, made the survey
of the river-front which determined the site of Phila-
delphia. They were seven weeks " taking the courses
and soundings of the Delaware," and Fairman's
charge for his services was £10. For "taking the
courses of the Schuylkill, etc., for sounding and
placing Philadelphia on Delaware River, etc.," his
charge was £6.'
In September Upland Court appears to have been
reorganized under Markham's instructions and jury
trials instituted. The justices present at the meet-
ing of this newly organized court were William
Clayton, William Warner, Robert Wade, William
Byles, Otto Ernest Cock, Robert Lucas, Lasse
Cock, Swen Swenson, and Andreas Bankson, five
of them being members of Markham's Council.
The clerk of the court was Thomas Revell, and the
sheriffs name was John Test. The first jury drawn
in this court — the first drawn in Pennsylvania — was
in a case of assault and battery (Peter Earicksen vs.
Harman Johnson and wife), and their names were
Morgan Drewet, William Woodmanson, William
Hewes, James Browne, Henry Reynolds, Robert
Schooley, Richard Pittman, Lasse Dalboe, John
Akraman, Peter Rambo, Jr., Henry Hastings, and
William Oxley ; two more of the Deputy Governor's
Council being on this jury. At the next meeting of
Upland Court, in November, Markham was present,
and he attended all the subsequent sessions up to the
time of Penn's arrival.
A petition to Markham, dated from " Pesienk
(Passyunk), in Pennsylvania, 8th October, 1681,"
would tend to show that the Indians of that day
could not see the merits of " Local Option." It is
signed by Nanne Seka, Keka Kappan, Jong Goras,
and Espon Ape, and shows that " Whereas, the sell-
1 Robert Wade was the first Quaker in Upland ; he came over with
Fenwick in 1675. His house, called "Essex House," was a Quaker
stopping-place; William Edmundston preached there in 1675, and this
was the first house at which Penn lodged on landing in 1682. Sande-
land was a Scotchman, came with Governor Carr, and settled in Upland
in 1669. He married a daughter of Joran Kyn, the Swede who founded
Upland, and the Teates family are among his descendants. Thomas
Fairman, the survoyor (he appears to have been officially bo in 1696),
was a forehanded Quaker, who came in probably from New Jersey in
1 679. He married Elizabeth Kinsey, daughter and heir of John Kinsey,
of Herefordshire, England, and by her got three hundred acres of
ground, with house and outbuildings, at Shackamaxon. This land she
had bought from Lasse Cock, Nov. 12, 1678. It was his share of a
" town" of eighteen hundred acres only a Bhort time previously laid off
at that point. Fairman's bouse was the Quaker meeting-house and
Penu's residence. Lasse Cock's building it may have been the cause
of the Indians frequenting the spot. Fairman took up two hundred
and sixty acres on March 12, 1679, at Bensalem, Neshaminy Creek, and
June 8, 1680, he got a grant for two hundred acres more. John Kinsey,
Elizabeth Faii-man's father, was one of the commissioners sent over in
1677 by the Quaker Company of Yorkshire to settle Indian claims in
West Jersey. They came in the ship " Kont," and houghtall the land ou
the east side of the Delaware from Oldman's Creek to Assanpink Creek.
This purchase was the beginning of Burlington.
ing of strong liquors [to Indians] was prohibited in
Pennsylvania, and not at New Castle ; we find it a
greater ill-convenience than before, our Indians go-
ing down to New Castle, and there buying rum and
making them more debauched than before (in
spite of the prohibition). Therefore we, whose
names are hereunder written, do desire that the
prohibition may be taken off, and rum and strong
liquors may be sold (in the foresaid province) as
formerly, until it is prohibited in New Castle, and in
that government of Delaware." This petition ap-
pears to have been renewed after Penn's arrival, for
we find in the minutes of the Provincial Council, un-
der date of 10th of Third month (May 20, 1683), that
"The Gov'r [Penn] Informs the Councill that he
had Called the Indians together, and proposed to
Let them have rum if they would be contented to be
punished as ye English were ; which they agreed to,
provided that ye Law of not Selling them Rum be
abolished." The law was in fact declared to be a
dead letter, but in 1684 Penn besought the Council to
legislate anew on the subject so at least as to arrest
indiscriminate sales of spirits to the savages. This
subject of selling rum to the Indians is continually
coming up in the Colonial Records.
On the 15th of July, 1682, as one result of his
careful surveys of the Delaware, Deputy Governor
Markham bought of certain Indian sachems, or
" sachamakers" (named Idquahon, Icanottowe, Idquo-
quequon, Sahoppe, for himself and Ockmickon, Mer-
kehowan, Oreckton, for Nannacassey, Shaurwaughton,
Swanpisse, Nahoosey, Tomackhickon, Weskekitt, and
Towharis), on Penn's account, a large tract of coun-
try on the Delaware above Philadelphia, including
the major part of what is now Bucks County (a
name given by Penn himself in recollection of his
long family connection with Buckinghamshire in
England), and including also the site of the manors
of Pennsbury and Highlands. It seems likely Penn
himself knew something about the qualities of this
tract, and had directed Markham's attention to it as
well as to Burlington Island. The Quakers of the
West New Jersey settlement were well acquainted
with it, George Fox had ridden through it in 1672
on his way to Maryland, and the preliminary paths
of the high-road from New York to the Delaware
i passed through it, crossing the Delaware either at
Bristol or at Trenton. Pennsbury was beautifully
located in the bend of the river at the falls, where
the Delaware makes an elbow at right angles. This
whole tract now bought by Markham — the consider-
ation to the Indians being the usual assortment of
match-coats, blankets, arms, trinkets, wampum, rum,
and in this case with a little money added — had al-
ready a history of its own. The Walloon families
sent by the Dutch to the South River are supposed
to have dwelt during their brief stay in that section
on Verhulsten Island, just below the falls. Hudde,
the Dutch commissary on the Delaware, erected the
96
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
We.st India Company's coat of arms on the tract in
1646, and both Campanius and Adrian Van der Donck,
in their books about the South River country, have
spoken of this section.1
In 1654, Lindstrom, the Swedish engineer, who came
over with Risingh, mapped this part of the Delaware
and adjacent lands, beginning at the falls, which he
designated as LaCataract d' Asinpink. WelcomeCreek,
on which Penn built his manor-house, was called by
Lindstrom La Rivifire de Sipaessingz-Kjil, and Bur-
lington Island, opposite Bristol, is styled Mechansio.
Peter Alrichs, who held many offices under both
Dutch and English on the Delaware from his arrival
at Henlopen in 1659 until the accession of Penn, had
titles to Burlington Island and part of the mainland
near Bristol under grants from the West India Com-
pany and from Governor Nichols in 1667. In 1682
he sold to Samuel Borden, and in 1688 to Samuel Car-
penter. Alrichs' Island was occupied in 1679 by a
Dutchman named Barentz. In 1675, Governor Andros
bought of four Indian chiefs, — Mamarckickam, An-
rickton, Sackoquewano, and Nanneckos, — some of the
same party apparently who sold to Markham, a tract
on the river from the present Bristol to Taylorsville,
embracing fine lands in three townships, and includ-
ing what was afterwards Penn's Manor. This purchase
was made for the Duke of York, but Mr. Davis, the
historian of Bucks County, thinks the purchase was
never consummated, or at least the land never occu-
pied. The Swedes petitioned Andros in November,
1677, for leave "to settle together in a town on the
west side of the river near the falls," in this same
tract.2 It seems quite probable, in view of all the
circumstances, that there is foundation for the legend
that the commissioners, with Markham and Holme,
had looked curiously at Pennsbury, with a view to
locating the great city there. The difficulty with
regard to Upland was that so many Swedish titles
would have to be extinguished, and, besides, the
division line between Maryland and Pennsylvania
1 Davis' History of Bucks County, Pa., p. 21, el seq.
2 The names of these petitioners were Lawrence (or Lasse, Lacy) Cock,
Israel Helm, Moens Cock, AndreaB Beucksou, Ephraim Herman, Caspar
Herman, S wen Loon, John Dalbo, Jasper Fisk,Hans Moouson, Frederick
Roomy, Erick Muelk, Gunner Rambo, Thomas Harwood, Eric Cock,
Peter Jockum, Peter Cock, Jr., Jan Stille, Jonas Nielson, Oele Swenson,
James Sanderling, Matthias Matthias, J. Devos, and William Oriam.
Ephraim and Caspar Herman were both sons of Augustin Herman, a.
Bohemian adventurer of great accomplishments, a soldier, scholar, sur-
veyor, Bailor, and diplomatist, who, after serving in Stuyvesant's Council
in New Amsterdam, and conducting an embassy from him to Lord Bal-
timore, incurred the haughty director's displeasure and was cast into
prison. He escaped, went into Maryland, surveyed and made a map of
the Chesapeake Bay and the province, and was paid with the gift of a
territory in Kent and Cecil Counties, which he called Bohemia Manor.
It was intersected by a river of the same name. A part of this tract
■nob Bold by Herman to a congregation of Labadists, who settl ed upon it,
Ephraim Herman, who was born in 1654, lived chiefly among the Swedes
in New Amsteland Upland. He was clerk of the court here in 1676.
In 1679 he married Elizabeth von Rodenburg, a daughter of the Gov-
ernor of Curacoa, and took her to Uplands, where he shortly afterwards
deserted her to join the Labadists. He returned to her, however, after
a while, and was in Upland on the day of Penn's arrival.
was still unsettled. Pennsbury was rejected after
survey, probably because the depth of water was
insufficient. At Coquannock, on the contrary, every
condition required by Penn was fulfilled, except that
the neck of the peninsula first occupied was too nar-
row to permit a town site of ten thousand acres to be
laid out upon it, and the original city, as mapped
by Thomas Holme, only contained between twelve
hundred and thirteen hundred acres.
When the site was determined, Holme and his as-
sistants went to work with the greatest industry to
lay the ground off into lots, as well as to survey the
farm and manor tracts which had already been sold.
There was need to do this promptly, for now a stream
of immigration began to pour in upon the city and
the adjacent towns and plantations. It started before
Penn had sailed from Deal, and it continued through
the year, twenty-three ships, one every sixteen days,
having arrived in the Delaware in 1682. Over one
thousand immigrants came over that year, and Penn
wrote to Lord North, in September, 1683, that "since
last summer we have had about sixty sail of great and
small shipping, which is a good beginning." At the
end of this same year he said, in a letter to the Mar-
quis of Halifax, " I must, without vanity, say that I
have led the greatest colony into America that ever
any man did upon private credit, and the most pros-
perous beginnings that ever were in it are to be found
among us."
All these new settlers wanted their lands laid off,
so that they might begin to build upon them; many
were living in tents, or in caves cut in the high banks
of the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Holme and the
commissioners accordingly laid off the town and be-
gan to apportion the lots with as much dispatch as
possible. One of the earliest surveys on record is as
follows : " No. 142, David Hammon ; return for a lot.
Warrant, 1681, 5th mo. 5th.* I have caused to be sur-
veyed and set out unto David Hamon, in right of
Amos Nythols, purchaser of 250 acres, his City Lot,
between the 5th and 6th sts. from Delaware, and on
the south side of the lot called as yet Pool street [after-
wards Walnut Street], in the city of Philadelphia,
containing in length 220 foot, bounded on the west
with Robert Hart's lot, on the east with John Kirk's
lot, on the north with ye said Pool Street, and on the
south with vacant lots ; and containing a breadth of
50 foot, and was surveyed on the 6th instant, and
accordingly entered and recorded in my office and
hereby returned into the Governor's Secretary's office,
Philadelphia, this 10"1 of ye 5th month, 1682.
"Thomas Holme, Surveyor- General."
This is proof that the city was named, surveyed,
platted, and lots had begun to be occupied by settlers
in July, 1682. Exactly how, or when, or why Penn
named the city Philadelphia does not now seem easy
3 "1681," if meant for the year, is an error. The plat of the oity had
not been marked out as early as the 5th of July, 1681. "1682, 5th mo.
6th" must have been meant.
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The following list of first purchasers of lots is copied from the printed letter and account published by
of the misspelling of many names which are known to be wrong. In this list, wherever possible, the
the appendix of the city digest of 1854.
order of the Committee of the Free Society of Traders, in London, 1683. That list is imp
ancient spelling and errors have been corrected and the names spelled properly. The 1:
DELAWARE FRONT LOTS.
* *
The purchasers of 1000
acres and upwards are
placed in the Front and
High Streets, and begin
on Delaware front at the
South end with No. I, and
proceed to the North end
with No. 43.
No.
William Peun, Jn' 1
Wm. Lowther 2
Lawrence Growden.... 3
Philip Ford 4
The Society . 5
Nich. More, Press**.....' G
John Marsh 7
James Harrison 8
Thomas Farm borrow*. 9
JamesBoyden 10
N.N . '.. 10
Francis Borrough...^.. 11
Robert Knight 11
John Reynolds 11*
Nathaniel Bromley.... 12
Euoch Flower .;.. 12
John Moore L, 12
Humphrey South 13,
Sabian Cule 13
Thomas Baker 13
James Claypole 14
N. N 15
Alexander Parker 15
Robert Green way 15
Samuel Carpenter 16
Charles Taylor 17
W*. Shardlow 18
John Love 19
Nathaniel Allen 19
Edward Jeffersoq 19
John Sweet-apple'. 19
Thomas Bond ... 19
Richard Croslett 19
Robert Taylor 20 ,
Thomas Rowline 20 r
Thomas He hist (prob- *
ably Herriot) 21
Charles Pickering 22
Thomas Bearne, or
Bonnie 22
John Willard 22
Edward Blardham 23
Richard Webb 23
John Bay, or Boy...... 23
Daniel Smith 23
Letitia Penn 24
Wm. Bowman 25
Griffith Jones 26
Thomas Callowh ill 27
.•••••
;.... 28
\Vm. Stanley * 29
Joseph Fisher ; 30
Robert Turner. ,..". 31
John Holme (probably
Thomas) 32
Clonjent Willward 33
Richard Davis 33
Abraham Parke.. .1 34
Wm. Smith 34
John Blakelin 35
Kllou (probably Allen)
Foster 35
W™. Wade 36
Benjamin Chambers... 30
Samuel Fox 36
Francis Borrough 36
John Barber 37
George Palmer 37
John Sharpless 37
Henry Maddock 38
Thomas Rowland 38
No.
John Bezer 38
Richard Crosby 38,
Josiah Ellis... 39
Thomas Woodbridge., 39
John Alsop 39
John Day * 39
Francis Pluinsted 40
Wm. Taylor \W..
Thomas Barklay (Bar- _
clay) * r 41-
John Sim cock .. 42
Wm.Criscrin (Crispin) 43
The High St. lots begin
at No. 44, aud so proceed
ou both sides of High St.
to the Center Square.
No.
N. N v. -14
N. N.. 45
Thomas Bond 46
John Sweetapple........
John Love
Margaret Marti ndale..
James Claypole 47
John Barber I... 48
W». Wade
Thomas Bowrnay
(probably Benrne, or
Bourne. See No. 22.)
Griffith Jones 49
Johu Day 60
Francis IMumsted
Abraham Paake
James Harrison .... 51
Josiah Ellis 62
Samuel Jobson
Samuel Lawson... ......
John Moore
John Sharpless
Christopher Taylor.... 63
George Palmer 64
Clement Willward 65
Samuel Carpenter...... 56
Thomas Herriot 57
Nathaniel Allen
Thomas Wool ridge.....
Alexander Parker 58
John Sincock.. .......... 59'
John Beazer ( Bezer.).. GO
John Reynolds
Daniel Smith
Francis Borrough......
Richard Davis 61.-.
Enoch Flower. 62 —
Nathaniel Bromley....
James Bowden
MoseB Caress 63
Wm. Bowman I;... 64
Robert Turner 65
Thomas Holme 66
..... 07
Wm. Stanley 68
Wm. Shardlow 69
Thomas Fran borough
(Farmborough) 70
Edward Blardman 71
Richard Webb
Edward Jefferson
Henry Matlock (prob-
ably Maddock)
Robert Knight
Thomas Rowland
John Bay, or Boy 73
Humphrey Smith
John Blakelin
Richard Crosby
Thomas Barker
Wm. Crispin 74
Thomas Callowhill 75
Richard Croslet 76
No.
John Alsop
Subriau Cole
Charles Pickering
Wto Smith..... It
John Willard
Thomas Brassley (per-
IlllObl... •■*...... .■••«••.« i o
Thomas Harley (per-
haps) 79
Richard Thomas 80
Benjamin Fnrley(Fur-
lo) '. 81
John Siuicock 82
DELAWARE BACK LOTS.
Here follow the Lots ■
of the Purchasers under
1000 acres & placed in the
back streets of the Front
of Delaware & begins with
the N 5 at the South Side
and so proceed numbered
as in the. Draught.
No.
TW. Powell.: 6
George Simcock 6
Barth0. Coppock (Cop-
puck) 7
Wm. Yardley.. 8
9
W». Frampton. ....**... 10
Francis Dowe (prob-
ably Dove) 12
— 13
r H
Jolin Parsons 15
John Goodson 16
John Moore 17
Andr. Grlscom 18
John Fisher 19
Isaac Martin 20
W". Carter 21
John South worth 22
Riclid. Ingliou (prob-
ably Inglia) 23
John Barns 24
Philip Lehman 25
Philip Tlieo. Lehman. 26
Richard Noble 27
28
29
John Hitchcock 30
31
32
33
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
...*.«..«•
i. • . .
N. N
W">. Gibson
Richard Lodge
John Bnnurd (Bar-
I I ll 1 Uli • ••■•»«•• a. ...... I
James Park
Leonard Fell
Thomas Harding...
John Kinsman
Israol Hobbs
Edwd. Land way....
W™. Wi>gan
Rich*. Worrell
Tho». Zachary...
John Chambers.
Randle Vernon
Rob*. Vernou
Tho«. Minshall
Wm. Moore >..
Johu Stringfellow:...
Tho8. Scott... ....
Henry Ward
Thomas Vurgo (VI r-
goe )....;
Tho'.Buth\re11
James Batchlo (per-
haps)
Tho\ Callowhill. J.L.
Tho8. Pagel (Paget)...
James Peter ...
John Dickson
Tho8. Pnschall.,..
■ ....•••«•
Priscilla Sheppard....
Walter Marti u
Sarah Fox
Eliz. Simmons
Wm. Man
Israel Barnel
Edwd. Erbery
Roger Drew ....
John Jennet '...•
Mary Wood worth
John Russel
Tho8. Barry
George Randall
Tho". Harris
Wm. Harnier
Tho8. Rouse
Nehemiah Mitchell..
David Briut... .....
Sarah Wool man
John Tibby
• "lui". 1j60
J. I) .(probably Jona-
than Dickinson)...
w«n.East; .....
Tho", Cross
Arch Mitchell....:....
Israel Self .'....
Edwd. Luff.
John Clark
John Brothers../.!....
liMwd. Benztir
-Anth Elton .'.
John Gibson
Dau>. Smith ;...,
No.
57
5S
59
GO
61
62
G3
64
65
00
G7
08
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
7G
77
78
79
80
SI
82
83
84
S5.
80
S7
S8
89
00
91
92
93
94
95
90
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
1(4
105
106
107
108
109
BACK STREETS OF TUB
FRONT OF DELAWARE.
Edwfl. Brown
John Fish
Rob'. Holgate
John Pusey
Caleb Pusey
Sam'. Noyes
Tbo8. Sugar (Suger)..
W™, Withers
John Collet
W«». Coats
IT u m ph rey M u rroy ...
Eli/,. Shorter
Joseph Knight
John Guest
John Songhurst
John Baang (prob
ably Burns)
Sarah Fuller
Tho". Vernon
Will Isaac
Edwd. Jeffries
Ann Crowley
Bob1. Sominor (Sum-
ner)
No.
110
111
112
113
114
116
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
122
123
124
1'25
12G
127
George Gerrish
Wm. Chiwos (Cloud)..
Wm. Bailey'..'.
James Hill:
Tho». Hatt
Wm. Hitchcock
W,n. Bryant
William Downton....
John Buckley
Wm. Ashby
Edwd. Tonikins
Henry Paxston
Edwd. Crew
John Martin
Henry Ceeiy
John Geery
Rob1. Jones'.-...
John Kerton
Tho8. Sandres (Saun-
ders).....
Army Child.
Rich*. Woolor
Gilbert Mace
|
Tho8. Jones
Tho8. Lyvesly
John Austin
Robert Hodgkin
W">. Tanner
Dan*. Jones!.
Jos. Tanilpj"
RichardJDowusend...
Sam1. Miles
Jos. Buckley
Sam1. Quaro
David Kiusey
Ed\vd. Blake...
David Jones
Henry SleiglitOflV.....
Thos. Junes...
John Hicks
Tho8. Barberry
John Gleane (Glenn).
, .Amos Nicholas
Itichd. Jordon
Sam1. Burnet
Tho". Cobb:
John Barber:....'...:...
John Botyor
George Andrews
•llobV Stephens
Wm. Beu/.er
Tho". Huyward
Oliver Cope; •..-..
John BunscC...
Gilbert Mace
John Ncilii
Nath>. Pasko
Barth0. Coppock
\V">. Neak
Joseph Milner
William Bailey
Peter Leicester *..
Henry Hemming
John Evans
Handel Malin
Allen Bobinet
No.
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
13G
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
140
147
148
149'
150
151
152
153
154
155
150
157
158
159
100
101
102
1 03
104
105
100
107
108
109
170
171
172
173
174
175
170
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
1*89
190
191
192
193
Hitherto the Lots of
Delaware Front to the
Centre of the City.
SCHUYLKILL FRONT.
Here follmvoth the Lots
of Skuylkill Front to the
Centre of the City, tho
P n rchasers from 1 000
neves and upwards .are
placed in the Front and
High Streets, aud begins
on Skuylkill Front at the
South end with N 1, and
so proceeds with the
Front to the northward
to'N43.
• No/
W». Penn, Jnr 1,
W» Lowther 2
Lawrence Growden.... 3
Philip Ford 4
The Society 6
Nich. Moore, Presd1... 6 -
John Marsh...; 7
Tho9. Itudyard 8
Andrew Jowlo (Sowle)
Herbert Springet 9
George White
Henry Child
Cha». Bahurst (Bath- ';
hurst) 10
W"\ Kent f ;
Johu Tovey.... i
Wm. Phillips i .
Rob*. Dinsdal (Dinis-
dal) 11
\V». Bacou 12
James Wallis 13
Philip Lehnman ;
Margaret Marti ndale.
Nich. Wain
Cha". Marshall U
George Green. 15
Wm. Jenkins.-.*./. r
John Bevan ; •
Richard Pritchard 16
Wr«. Pardo (Pardoo)... .
W,u. Powell
Cha". Loyd 17
John Hart. IS
Joshua Hastings
Edwd. Beatrice (Pet- ,
tris) , *
Tho. Minchin (Min-
shall) ;
John ap John 19
\Vm. Smith , ,
Riclid. Collins
Richd. Snead 20
Dugal Gam el* (Dan1.
* l ill 11 * 1 I •..*«•.•••*■••.• a •
Wm. Kussell '•
John Cede..
Ulch*. Ciunton 21
Ba/.elion Foster •
John Mar^h. ...;...
Rich'1, nans T
James Hunt ...
John Blunstdn 22
Henry Bailey
John, Williams, Ed\vdM
and Mary Pening-
ton 1 23
Vacant 24
Fro. Rogers 25
Ram1. Chiridge.... 26
James Craven 27
Richd. Pierce
Tho8.. Phillips
Sam1. Tuvernor...
Tho. Poarce
Solomon Richards 28
Arthur Perryu
John Napper
Beuj. Eiist
John West 29
* • * *- ......... *...*■••..•••..•• • '\'
Francis Fincher... 31
Tho*. Roberts
Rob1. Turner
John Gee
Jacob & Joseph Ful-
ler ,...., 32
No.
George Shore 33
Edw«»". Hubbard 34
John Thomas 35
Hugh Lamb 30' *
Sarah Fuller <>
Sam1. Allen
Edwd.Bennet. 37
W«. Lloyd
Rich*'. Fletcher....'
John Mason
Tho». Elwood 38 ^
John King
Henry Pawling
George Powell.....
Rich'1. Baker
John CI awes (Clause). 39
John Brock"..' ,\ f., .
James Di I worth....'
Edw<*. Welsh [
H. Killingbeck (KiU
lingburt)
Rich*1. Vickris 40
Cha*. Harford ..*...
W». Brown...;
W». Beaks
Cha". Jonns, Sen... 41
Thov Crosedell....^
Walter King '
John Jones
Francis Smith '. 42
Rich41. Penn 43 -
Sam1. Rouies
Isaac Gellings....,
John Masou
W". Markham....
Edmund Warner
SCHUYLKILL HIGH STREET
LOTS.
The High Slreet L«»ts.
begins at 41, and so pro-
ceeds nn both sides of
that Street to the Centre
Square. [Mnn —This
goes from Schuylkill east-
ward.]
No.
44 1
Beuj*. East 45 2
John West 40 3
Will. Phillips '.
Will Smith '
lTio1 Minchin.. 47 4
John Bevan
Sum1. Allen
John Thomas 4S 6
Andrew Sowle 49 6
James Dill worth...
John Jones
John King
John Meason (Ma-
son)
Sam1. Chiridge 50 7
John Gee „ 51 8
Jacob & Joseph
Fuller 51 8
W*. Markham 52 9
John Blumstone... 53 10
George Wood
Edwd. Prichard
John Brock 54 11
Itobt Tannor .
John Ambry - - -
Nich. Wain
Henry Killingbeck.
Sam>. Kowles 55 12
Solomon Richard... 56 13
Arthur Perrin
John Nanper
No.
John DennisoD
John. Edwd., VV<n.f
& Mary Pening-
ton 57 14
Rich^. Penn 58 15
Sam1. Fox...'. 59 16 .
Johu Cole
Will Russell ;
Henry Bayly
Lewis David 60 1.7
Josh. Hastings
Philip Lehnman...
John Mason 61 18
Tho8. Elwood
James Wallis.. p
Bazelion Foster
Chu\ Marshall..^... 6 2 19*
Wm. Lloyd.'. 63 20
ThoB. Crosedale....
Geo. Pownell
Wm. Beaks
Cha8. Jon os. 64 22
Ilertry Child .
Geo. Green ; '
Cha*. Lloyd..;....... 65 23
(Edwd. Shubbard
(Shewbart) ♦ 66 24
Geo. Shore.'. 07 25
Rich*. Vickris 08 26
Sam1. Barker
John Hart. ;...
James Hunt
Richd. Collins 69 27
John Rowland
John Tovey '
W». Pardo; ,'
Rob*. Dimsdal 70 28
John itp.John....... 71 29
H'Tbert Springet..
Wm. Brown
Francis Smith 72 30
John Marsh 73 31
Cha\ Harford
John Clowes
E<lwd. West
Edm,T. Ben net, ^...
Will Kont..t, 74..
E»lwJ. Beatrice -„ •
Cha9. Bethwist \t
W'«. Powell
John North 75 32
Rich'1. Haines « •
lli-nry Pawling..... ;
John Sblre^.."....f.V."
Kicbard Thatcher..
Hugh Lamb 7G 33
Geo. White 77
Isaac Gcllis
Wm. Bauer 78 35
Tho". Rudyard 79 36
Tho9. Roberts
Rich*. Baker 80 37
Will. Jenkins
Rich*3. Gunton -
Edwd. Martindale..
William -King 81 38
Dugall Gamel
(Dan1. Gamel)....
Allen Foster
Francis Fincher....
Edmd. Warner
James Craven
Rich*. Pearco
Tho". Phillips 82
Sam. Tavernor
Tho9. Poarce.. ..w...
Rich*. Snead 83 40
Francis Rogers 84 41
Geo. Rogers
84 42
Rob
Mat
Jam
Riil]
Ralj
Phil
Sam
Here follows the Pur-
chasers under 1000 acres, The
placed in the back of the Joe
Front of Skuylkill and Ric
begins at the Southern *T1k
Side with N 1, and so pro- Fro
ceeds by Nos as in the Job
Draught. ^ . The
No. Jos.
Shadrach Welsh 1 Ric
John Nixon 2 Ric
Peter Blaud 3 Tlei
Henry Green 4 Hei
Morris Lenhoirae 5 Fra
John Bevan. ...i~. 0 Rop
John Clare .'.... 7 Job
W«. Morden..„ 8 Mai
John Foyer (Bqyer)l*. 9 Mai
John Price 10 Josl
Aloxtt. Beardsley 11 Job
Tho". Simmons 12 '
Francis Cowburn (Co- Tho
burn) 13 Joh
Tho". Dell (Dill) 14 Jos<
Rich. Few 15 Pav
John Swift.. 16 Tho
W«. Lawrence..... 17 Edv
Henry Coombe 18
Ann Cliff , 19
Vur 9()
John Huynea 21
Kob*. Adams.. 22
John Hnghea?.. ......../ 23
Sarah Ceres. ...J; 24
Richd Noble 25
John Longwortby 20
James Clayton....' 27
Ilenry Lewis.. .lM 28
Lewis David -.. ..... 29
\Vm. Howell...."..".......; 30
John Bargo 31
Keese Rod rah .'.' 32-
Will Cardly..... 33
Will Bu-stick. 34
Jos. Hall 35 |
James Lancaster I5G
Tho". Biigg 37
Petor Worj-al 38
Sum1. Buckley.. 39
Cntliboit Hyhnrst 40
John Burchel 41 ,
Tho8. Morris 42
Dadiel Middecot (Hid-
dlescott) 43 ,-'
John Jon^s...... .,,. 44
Roger Beck : 45 . '
Itichd. Hunt 46
Rob1. Sanderlande 47
Ged. Keith 48
JohnSnoshold 49 '
W» Bingley 60 ,J
Tho". Parsons 51 <: Betl
Peter Dalho 52 Ricl
W». East 53 Hen
W». Clark 54 Dem
Geo. Strode (Stroud)... 55 Phil
John Summers 56
Jos. Richards 67 J. D.
John Bristow 58 Will
Peter Young 59 Join
Geo. Powell CO Robi
John Sausoui 61 Knn
John Pearson (prob- Edw
ably Parsons) 62 Rob1
Christ. Tophold 63 Phil
James Hill ; 64 Hen
W'". Sal way 65 Tlio«
Francis Hurford 66 Rich
John Walne 67 Rich
Will Cecil 68 Johr
John Spencer 69 Mar
Arthur Bewus 70 Tho1
Edw
Tho
Jos.
Slmi
E.lw
li(
Johi
Jam
Job)
Join
Eliz
Join
ha
FOUNDING THE GREAT CITY.
97
to ascertain. Of course he selected the name him-
self; and, as we know from one of his letters, did so
before the site was chosen, and he had in full view
its meaning of brotherly love. Doubtless, likewise,
Penn had in view that one of the " seven churches
of Asia" to which the angel in Revelation was com-
manded to write.1
On the 19th of September, 1682, Holme and the
commissioners had a drawing of lots in Philadelphia
in compliance with the instructions given by the Pro-
prietary Governor. The lots drawn were on Second,
Broad, and Fourth Streets, but as these drawings were
never ratified, and as a great many radical changes
were made in Penn's land distribution system after
he came into the province, it is needless to dwell
more at length upon the subject in this place.2
Penn's ship, the "Welcome," sailed from "the
Downs" (the roadstead off Deal and Ramsgate, where
the Goodwin Sands furnish a natural breakwater) on
or about Aug. 31, 1682. Claypoole writes on Sep-
tember 3d that " we hope the ' Welcome,' with Wil-
liam Penn, is gotten clear." The ship made a toler-
ably brisk voyage, reaching the capes of the Delaware
on October 24th, and New Castle on the 27th, being
thus fifty-three days from shore to shore. The voy-
age, however, was a sad one, almost to the point of dis-
aster. The smallpox had been taken aboard at Deal,
and so severe were its ravages that of the one hundred
passengers the ship carried thirty, or nearly one-third,
died during the passage. The terrible nature of this
pestilence may be gathered from one striking fact,
and that is this : antiquarians, searching for the
names of these first adventurers who came over with
1 Rev., chap. i. 2; iii. 7-11. There were two Philadelphias before
Penn's city, — one, this city referred to, in Asia Minor, now called Ala-
Shehr (" the exalted city"), which still has a considerable population,
maintains a Greek Church archbishopric, and has numerous remains of
nntiquity, including five Christian Churches ; and the Philadelphia in
Syria, anciently called " Rabbak," and now "Amman" or "Ammon,"
site of the Ammonites. It lies on an affluent of the Jordan, fifty-five
miles from Jerusalem, in the pashalik of Damascus Ala-Shehr is a
sacred city even among the Turks, who carry their dead long distances
in order to bury them there.
But there may have been another reason for Penn's giving the name
of Philadelphia to his new city. Jane Leadley was the founder of a
religious 6ect in England during the seventeenth century which was
very near in its observances to those of the Quakers. It was said to have
originated from the society founded by Madame Bourignon. Jane Lead-
lev's society made many proselytes in England and on the Continent of
Europe, in Holland, Belgium, and Germany. Its members were closely
allied to tile Quakers and the Mennonists. the Quakers sometimes
preaching to the Leadleyites and vice versa. Both Fox and Penn were
acquainted with Jane, who called her sect the " Philadelphian Society."
Her secretary, Heinrich Johann Deichmann, was a German, and the
friend and correspondent of John Kelpius, the " Hermit of the Wissa-
hickon." The Continental agent of the Philadelphoi was Hermann von
Saltzungen, and there was little to distinguish the amici of the Phila-
delphia from the disciples of Pchwenkfeld, Menno, and Labadie; all
claimed a common descent from Jacob Boehme, Johann Arnd, Johann
Tauler, and Thomas ii Kempis.
2 Much confusion is found in the names and dates and order of trans-
actions at this period in respect to land apportionmen t. Records appear
to have been revised without any account kept of the changes, and con-
sequently authorities differ materially concerning what was done. See
Lewis' Land Titles, G4-174, and John Blnir Linn, Puke of York's Laws.
7
Penn, — a list of names more worthy to be put on
record than the rolls of Battell Abbey, which pre-
serves the names of the subjugators of England, who
came over with William the Conqueror, — have been
able to find the most of them attached as witnesses or
otherwise to the wills of the well-to-do burghers and
sturdy yeomen who embarked with Penn on the
" Welcome" and died during the voyage. During
this period of trial and affliction, when the natural
instincts of man are turned to terror and selfish se-
clusion, Penn showed himself at his best. His whole
time and that of his friends was given to the sup-
port of the sick, the consolation of the dying, the
burial of the dead. Richard Townshehd, a fellow-
passenger, said, " His good conversation was very
advantageous to all the company. His singular care
was manifested in contributing to the necessities of
many who were sick with the smallpox. . . . We had
many good meetings on board." In these pious ser-
vices Penn. had the cordial help of Robert Pearson,
to whom, in return, he gratefully gave the privilege
of rebaptizing the town on the Delaware at which
some of the survivors landed, and thus the significant
and appropriate name of Upland, applied by the
Swedes to their second colony, was lost in the eupho-
nious but meaningless and inappropriate cognomen
of Chester.
The record of Penn's arrival at New Castle is as fol- '
lows: "October 28. On the 27th day of October, ar-
rived before the town of New Castle, in Delaware,
from England, William Penn, Esq., proprietary of
Pennsylvania, who produced two certain deeds of
feoffment from the illustrious prince, James, Duke of
York, Albany, etc., for this town of New Castle, and
twelve miles about it, and also for the two lower
counties, the Whorekill's and St. Jones's, which said
deeds bear date the 24th August, 1682; and pursuant
to the true intent, purpose, and meaning of his royal
highness in the same deeds, he the said William
Penn received possession of the town of New Castle,
the 28th of October, 1682." 3 This delivery was made,
as the records show, by John Moll, Esq., and Ephraim
Herman, gentlemen, attorneys, constituted by his
royal highness, of the town of Delaware, otherwise
called New Castle; the witnesses to the formal cere-
mony, in which the key of the fort was delivered to
Penn by one of the commissioners, "in order that
he might lock upon himself alone the door," and
which was accompanied with presents of "turf and
twig, and water and soyle of the river Delaware,"
were Thomas Holme, William Markham, Arnoldus
de la Grange, George Forman, James Graham, Sam-
uel Land, Richard Tugels, Joseph Curies, and John
Smith. Penn at once commissioned magistrates for
the newly-annexed counties, and made Markham his
attorney to receive possession of the lower counties
from Moll and Herman. He also summoned a court
3 Hazard's Annals.
98
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
to meet at New Castle on November 2d. On that
day Penn was present with the justices, and Mark-
ham, Holme, Haige, Symcock, and Brassey, of the
Provincial Council. The lower counties gave in
their allegiance to Markham for Penn on November
7th. In the interval between his arrival and the
meeting of court, October 29th, Penn went to Upland
to pay a short visit. There is no positive information
that shows at what time Penn arrived in Philadel-
phia. The record of the Society of friends says, " At
a Monthly Meeting the 8th, 9th month, 1682 : At this
time Governor William Penn and a multitude of
Friends arrived here and erected a city called Phila-
delphia, about half a mile from Shackamaxon, where
meetings, etc., were established, etc. Thomas Fair-
man, at the request of the Governor, removed himself
and family to Tacony, where there was also a meeting
appointed to be kept, and the ancient meeting of
Shackamaxon removed to Philadelphia, from which,
also, other meetings were appointed in the Province
of Pennsylvania." This has been construed to say
that Penn arrived at Philadelphia on the 8th. If
that was correct, then he must have gone to Fairman's
house on the same day, and the place of Friends'
Meeting was changed on the same day. It is clear,
from letters of Penn from Upland and other places,
that he did not go to Fairman's house until February
or March. 1683.
Traditions, upon which imaginative writers have
been eager to expatiate, speak of Penn coming to his
new city from Upland or New Castle in a handsome
barge, and describe how and where he landed. But
we need not place as great confidence in tradition as
John F. Watson seems to have done. This inde-
fatigable antiquarian and most graphic and agreeable
writer, — the very Boswell of old Philadelphia, its men
and manners, — after tossing aside bundle after bundle
and chest after chest full of precious early documents,
the materia prima of history, with the characteristic
comment that " they furnish but little in my way,"
rubs his hands with exquisite complacency and listens
with the most perfect faith to the rambling and con-
fused recitals of old men and old women, the older
the better, to whom dates are as dreams of the night,
and who make up in detail and obstinacy what they
lack in precision and authenticity. " A handsome
barge" on the Delaware would have been a strange
craft. Why should not Penn come to Philadelphia on
the " Welcome" with the other passengers, and land
with them somewhere between Wicaco and Shacka-
maxon, on the site of the city which had been laid
off under his instructions ?
Penn was at that time thirty-eight years old, still
young, graceful, athletic, enthusiastic, still fond of
boating and riding. Tradition even says (though we
must be permitted to doubt this, in view of his concep-
tion of the gravity of the Indian character, as laid
down in his instructions to Crispin and his fellow-
Commissioners, and in his later letter to the Company
of Free Traders) that he competed with and eclipsed
the young Indian braves in their jumping matches.
But at least he bore no resemblance to the Penn painted
by old Mr. Benjamin West in his wretched misrepre-
sentation upon the so-called Shackamaxon treaty.
Even the sedate Mr. Janney cannot help entering a
protest against West's having depicted Penn as " a cor-
pulent old man." He says nothing about the plain
broadbrim hat and the snuff-colored, shad-bellied
coat in which West has clothed Penn, both of them
sixty years out of the way. West painted Penn's
figure from his recollection of the figures and dress of
the elders he used to see when a lad in the meeting-
house at Springfield, just as, according to his pupil
Dunlap's " History of the Arts of Design," he painted
the hands in every portrait he made from his own or
those of one of his students. Mr. J. F. Fisher, in his
discourse before the Pennsylvania Historical Society
on "the private life and domestic habits of William
Penn," says that West has misconceived Penn's dress
as unpardonably as he has his age and figure. "The
true costume of the figure," he remarks, " would have
been that in vogue towards the end of the reign of
Charles II. This (as nearly as I can ascertain) was
a collarless coat, perfectly straight in front, with many
buttons, showing no waist nor cut into skirts, having
only a short, buttoned slit behind, the sleeves hardly
descending below the elbow, and having large cuffs,
showing the full shirt sleeves. The vest was as long
as the coat, and, except as to the sleeves, made ap-
parently in the same way. The breeches were very
full, open at the sides, and tied with strings." Mr.
Fisher is uncertain about the hat, but we know from
Penn's account-books that he was nice and particular
in regard both to his hats and wigs, and that he paid
quite a price for a pair of leather spatterdashes to use
when riding on horseback. He also had a gig, a state
coach and four, and a barge, manned by a coxswain
and six oarsmen, and carrying sail besides. No such
person seems to have any place in honest old West's
preposterous picture.
The antiquarians and chroniclers of Philadelphia
have sought, with indefatigable zeal, the names of
the persons who embarked with Penn in the " Wel-
come" to aid him in promoting his '' Holy Experi-
ment," and they have pursued the work so success-
fully that it is not believed that more than four or fi\v
of the one hundred who sailed in that ship have been
overlooked. Apparently most of them were people
of standing and some estate, the servants seeming to
have been sent over in other vessels for the most part.
Judging from the account of stores of one of these
emigration larders, as given by Dixon, they were well
equipped for even a longer voyage.1 The list of pas-
1 Dixon Bays, quoting from Thomas Story's MS. paperB, " It is not to-
be supposed that the traveling Friends denied themselveB the little con-
solations of the larder by the wayside. In a list of creature comfortB
put on board a vessel leaving the Delaware for London, on behalf a
Quaker preacher, are enumerated 32 fowls, 7 turkeys, 11 ducks, 2
FOUNDING THE GREAT CITY.
i*9
sengers, derived chiefly from Mr. Edward Armstrong's
address before the Pennsylvania Historical Society
at Chester in 1851 (his authorities being there given
in full), begins with
John Barber and Elizabeth, hia wife. He was a "first purchaser,"
and made hia will on board the "Welcome."
William Bradford, first printer of Philadelphia and earlieat govern-
ment printer of New York.1
hamB, a barrel of China oranges, a large keg of s weetmeata, ditto of ram ,
a pot of tamarinds, a box of spicea, ditto of dried herbs, 18 cocoa-nuts,
a box of eggs, six balla of chocolate, six dried codfish and five shaddocks,
six bottles of citron water, four bottles of Madeira, five dozen of ale, one
large keg of wine, and nine pints of brandy. There was also more solid
food in the shape of flour, sheep, and hogs." In one of the firat cases
tried by Ponn and his Council at Philadelphia, that of sundry paBsengera
against James Kilner, master of the Bhip " Levee," of Liverpool, it was
shown that the passengers had ao much beer on board that the sailors
drank it surreptitiously by the gallon during the voyage.
1 We have examined with care the evidence both for and against the
asaumption that Bradford came over in the Bhip with Penn, and our
judgment is that it is by no means proven, but, on the contrary, that the
preponderance is against the assumption. The evidence is conflicting.
Mr. John William Wallace, of Philadelphia, in hia able address before
the New York Historical Society on the occasion of the celebration of the
two hundredth birthday of Bradford (of whom he ia a deacendant), has
summed up both sides of the case : (1) Bradford, in his American Al-
manac for 1739, stated he was born May 20, 1663 ; (2) that Watson, Dixon,
Armstrong, and all tradition concur in believing that Bradford came over
in the "Welcome" with Penn; (3) Bradford's obituary, J/eic York Ga-
zette, May 25, 1752, BayB,' *' He came to America seventy years ago"
(which would be 1682), " and landed at a place whero now stands Phila-
delphia, before that city was laid out or a single house built there" ; (4)
!( But, stronger than all, hia name iB given among the names of persons
belonging either to Philadelphia or the adjoining lower counties under
the date of the ' 12th of ye 7th mo., 1683' (minutes of Provincial Council,
i. 27)." " My supposition ia," aaya Mr. Wallace, "that Bradford came,
took a survey of the country, returned to England, got married, and
came finally in 1685, with his press."
Here we have one piece of documentary evidence, the rest ia hearsay,
tradition. Per contra: (1) Bradford's tombatone in Trinity churchyard,
New York, says he was born in 1660 ; if he was born in 1663, his wife,
who died in 1731, aged sixty-eight, would have been a year older than
he, and he only nineteen when Penn brought him over tn make him
printer for the province ; (2) The minutes of Council, quoted above, sim-
ply show that the 12th of October, 1683, almost a year after Penn landed,
a certain William Bradford owed the province for "28 S»a porke." This
is not evidence that the aaid Bradford came over with Penn, or that he
was Bradford the printer. Forty ahips had come over in that interval of
a year, — why not some one of the name of Bradford in one of them?
(3) We do know that William Bradford the printer did come over in 1685,
tnat he broughtbooksfor sale as well aa printing materials, and that he
came armed with a letter of introduction from George Fox. This letter we
think affords indubitable evidence that Bradford did not come on with
Penn, and had never been in the colony before. It is dated " London,
6th month, 1685," and is addressed to leading members of the Society of
Frienda in Rhode Island, West and Eaat New Jeraey, Pennsylvania, and
Maryland. Fox saye, " This is to let you know that a sober young man,
whose name is William Bradford, cornea to Pennsylvania to set up the
trade of printing Friends' books. And let Frienda know of it in Vir-
ginia, Carolina, Long Island, and Friends in Plymouth Pateut and Boa-
ton. And what books you want he may supply you with ; or Answera
against Apostates or wicked Professors Books. He may furniah you with
our Answers ; for he intends to keep up a correspondence with FriendB
that are Stationers or Printers here in England. . . And bo you may do
well to encourage him. He is a civil young man and convinced of truth.
He was apprentice with our friend, Andrew Sowle ; since married his
daughter," etc. Now, does any one suppose that a man who had
come out with Penn and stayed at least a year in the province would
have needed to be introduced in this way, and had all these particulars
told about him by Fox three years later? It is contrary to reason. (4)
Bradford was a man of extraordinary enterprise and activity. He knew
how to advertise himself by novel undertakings. His energy waBso great
that he could not keep still. He came over in 1685, reaching Philadel-
phia not sooner than October. In January, 1686 (9th of 11th mo., 1685),
William Buckman and Mary, his wife, with Sarah and Mary, their
children, of BillinghurBt, Sussex.
John Carver and Mary, his wife, of Hertfordshire, a first purchaser.
Benjamin Chambers, of Rochester, Kent. Afterwards sheriff (in
1683) and otherwise prominent in public affairs.
Thomas Chroasdale (Croaadale) and Agnes, hia wife, with six chil-
dren, of Yorkshire.
Ellen Cowoill and family.
John Fisher, Margaret, his wife, and son John.
Thomas Fitzwalter and eons, ThomaB and George, of Hamwortb,
Middleaex. (He loat hia wife, Mary, and Josiah and Mary, his children,
on the voyage.) Member of Assembly from Bucks In 1683, active citi-
zen, and eminent Friend.
Thomas Gillett.
Robert Greenawat, master of the " Welcome."
Cuthbert Hathdrst, his wife and family, of Easiugton, Bollan ',
Yorkshire ; a first purchaser.
Thomas Heriott, of Hurst-Pier-Point, Sussex. First purchaser.
John Het.
Richard Ingelo. Clerk to Provincial Council in 1685.
Isaac Ingram, of Gattou, Surrey.
Giles Knight, Mary, his wife, and boii Joseph, of Gloucestershire.
William Loshington,
Hannah Mogdridqe.
Joshua Morris.
David Ogden, "Probably from London."
Evan Oliver, with Jean, hia wife, and children, — David, Elizabeth,
John, Hannah, Mary, Evan, and Seaborn, of Radnor, Wales. (The lim,
a daughter, born at sea, within sight of the Delaware Capes, Oct. 'J+,
1682.)
RoBEitT Pearson, emigrant from Chester, Penu's friend, who renamed
Upland after his native place.
John Rowland and Priscilla, his wife, of Billinghurst, Sussex. Fnvt
purchaser.
Thomas Rowland, Billinghurst, Sussex. First purchaser.
John Songhtjrst, of Chillington, Sussex. First purchaser. (Some
say from Conyhurst, or Hitchingfield, Sussex.) Devoted to Penn.
Member of first and subsequent Assemblies. A writer and preaclmr
of distinction among the Friend's.
John Stackhodse and Margery, hia wife, of Yorkshire. '
George Thompson.
Richard TowNSHEND.or Townsend, wife Anna, son James (born on
"Welcome" in Delaware River), of London. Firat Purchaser. A fcarl-
ing Friend and eminant minister. Miller at Upland and on Schuylkill.
William Wade, of Hankton parish, SusBex.
Thomas Walmesly, Elizabeth, his wife, and bix children, of York-
shire.
Nicholas Waln, of Yorkshire. First purchaser. Member from Buci;.s
of first Assembly. Prominent in early hiBtory of province.
Joseph Woodroofe.
Thomas Wrightsworth and wife, of Yorkshire.
Thomas Wynne, chirurgeon, of Caerwya, Flintshire, North Wales,
Speaker of first two Assemblies. Magistrate for Sussex County. ".V
person of note and character." (Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia, w.is
originally named after him.)
Dennis Rochforb and Mary, hia wife, John Heriott's daughter. From
Ernstorfey, Wexford, Ireland. Also their two daughters, who died ;it
sea. Rochford was member of Assembly in 1683.
John Dutton and wife.
Philip Theodore Lehnman (afterwarda Lehman), Penn's privme
secretary.
Bartholomew Green.
was already hauled up before Council for an offense. As the record
says, "The Secretary [Markham] Reporting to ye Council that in y°
Chronologie of y« almanack Bett forth by Sam'U Atkins of Philadelphia &
Printed by Wm. Bradford, of ye same place, there was these words (' tin-
beginning of Governm't here by ye Lord PennS) the Councill Sent f-.i
Sam'll Atkina and ordered him to blott out y* words ' Lord Penn' ; &,
likewise for Wm. Bradford, ye Printer, and gave him Charge not to print
anything but what shall have Lycence from y®Council." Does any un ■
suppose that an active person of this stamp, who could getoutanalmaiuic
within two montliB after landing, would have remained utterly witlu.ur
record for a year in 1682-83! (5) Bradford did not know Pennt or h>j
never would have thought of styling him Lord Penn. On this evidence
we Buhmit the case.
100
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Nathaniel Habtuson.
Thomas Jones.
Jeane Matthews.
William Smith.
Hannah Townshend, daughter of Richard.
Dr. George Smith, in the " History of Delaware
County/' specifies the following as having probably
come about the time of William Penn, some before
and others immediately afterwards, and before the
end of 1682 :
KiCHAitD Barnard, of Sheffield, settled in Middletown.
John Beales, or Bales, who married Mary, daughter of William Clay-
ton, Sr., in 1682.
John Blunston, of Derbyshire, his wife Sarah, and two children. A
preacher of the Society, member of Assembly and of Council, and
Speaker of the former body.
Michael Blunston, Little Hallam, Derbyshire.
Thomas Bbassey (or Biacy), of Wilaston, Cheshire. Representative
of the Free Society of Traders, member of first Assembly.
Samuel Br\drhaw, of Oxton, Nottinghamshire.
Edward Carter, of Brampton, Oxfordshire, member of the first Eng-
lish jury impanneled at Chester.
Robert Carter, son of the foregoing.
John Churchman, of Waldron, Essex.
William Cobb, who gave his name to Cobb's Creek. He took the old
Swede's mill on the Karakung.
Thomas Coburn, his wife Elizabeth, and their suns William and
Joseph, frum Cashel, Ireland.
Richard Crosby, of London.
Elizabeth Fearxk, widow, with son Joshuaand daughters Elizabeth,
Sarah, and Rebecca, of Derbyshire.
Richard Few, of Levington, Wiltshire.
Henry Gibbons, with wife Helen and family, of Parvidge, Derby-
shire.
John Goodson, chirurgeon, of Society of Free Traders. Came in the
ship " John and Sarah1' or " Bristol Factor."
John Hastings and Elizabeth, his wife.
Joshua Hastings and Elizabeth, his wife. He was on the first grand
jury.
Thomas Hood, of Breason, Derbyshire.
Valentine Hollingsworth, of Cheshire. Ancestor of the Hollings-
worth family of Philadelphia (and Maryland).
William Howell and Margaret, his wife, of Castlebight, Pembroke-
shire, Wales.
Elizabeth Humphrey, with son Benjamin, and daughters Anne and
Gobitha, of Llanegrin, Merioneth, Wales.
Daniel Humphrey, of same place as foregoing.
David James, his wife Margaret and daughter Mary, of Llangeley
and Glascum, Radnoi'Bhire, Wales.
James Kenerley, of Cheshire.
Henry Lewis, his wife Margaret and their family, of Nai-betb, Pem-
brokeshire.
Mordecai Maddock, of Loem Hall, Cheshire.
Thomas Minshall and wife Margaret, of Stoke, Cheshire.
Thomas Powell, of Rudheith, Cheshire.
Caleb Pusey and wife Ann, and daughter Ann.
Samuel Sellers, of Belper, Derbyshire.
John Sharpless, Jane his wife, and children,— Phcbe, Jobn, Thomas,
James, Caleb, Jane, and Joseph, of Huddeston, Cheshire.
John Simcock, of Society of Free Traders, from Ridley, Cheshire. A
leading man in the province.
John Simcock, Jr., son of the foregoing. Jacob Simcock, ditto.
Christopher Taylor, of Skipton, Yorkshire.
Peter Taylor and William Taylor, of Suttin, Cheshire.
Thomas Usher.
Thomas Vernon, of Stouthorne, Cheshire.
Robert Vernon, of Stoaks, Cheshire.
Randall Vernon, of Sandy way, Cheshire.
Ralph Withers, of Bishop's Canning, Wiltshire.
George Wood, hia wife Hannah, his sou George, and other children,
of Bonsall, Derbyshire.
Richard Worrell (or Worrall), of Oare, Berkshire.
John Worrell, probably brother of foregoing.
Thomas Worth, of Oxton, Nottinghamshire.
The passengers by the " John and Sarah" and
ci Bristol Factor," so far as known, include William
Crispin, who died on the way out, John Bezar and
family, William Haige and family, Nathaniel Allen
and family, John Otter, Edmund Lovett, Joseph
Kirkbridge, and Gabriel Thomas.
W. W. H. Davis, whose interesting history of Bucks
County was published in 1876, says that one-half of
the "Welcome's" passengers who arrived with Penn
settled in that county. He names the Rowlands,
Fitzwalter, Buckmans, Hayhurst, Ingelo, Walmsly,
Walne, Wrigglesworth (Wrights worth?), Croasdale,
and Kirkbridge. He also says there was a John
Gilbert among the " Welcome" passengers. Of
the immigrants who arrived in 1682, but did not
come over with Penn, Mr. Davis presents quite a
list: Richard Amor, of Buckelbury, Berkshire;
Henry Paxson, of Bycot House, Slow parish, Ox-
fordshire. (He embarked with his family, but lost his
wife, son, and brother at sea.) Luke Brinsley, of
Leek, Staffordshire, stone-mason and servant of Penn ;
John Clows, Jr., his brother Joseph, sister Sarah,
and servant Henry Lengart ; (there was another
Clows contemporary with these, who had three chil-
dren, Margery, Rebecca, and William, and three
servants, Joseph Cherley, Daniel Hough, and
John Richardson). There was also John Brock
(or Brockman), of Stockport, Cheshire, with his ser-
vants; he had two grants of land, one of one thou-
sand acres ; William Venables, of Chathill, Staf-
fordshire, with Elizabeth, his wife, and two children,
Joyce and Francis; George Pownall, with Eleanor,
his wife, five children (and three servants, John
Breasley, Robert Saylor, and Martha Wor-
ral), of Laycock, Cheshire ; William Yardley,
with Jane, his wife, of Bausclough, Staffordshire,
with children, Enoch, Thomas, and William, and
servant, Andrew Heath.1
In his speech to the magistrates in his first court
at Upland, November 2d, Penn, after giving them
full assurances and explanations in regard to his in-
tended course, recommended them to take inspection,
view, and look over their town plots, to see what
vacant room may be found therein for the accommo-
dating and seating of newcomers, traders, aud handi-
craftsmen therein. The proprietary was evidently
1 Yardley was born i n 1C32, and had been a minister among the Friends
for twenty-five years. He was a member of the first Assembly, and
Isaac Pemberton was his nephew. This Pemberton, conspicuous in the
affairs of the province, was the son-in-law of James Harrison, Penn's
friend and correspondent and afterwards his steward at Pennsbury.
After Penn sailed for Pennsylvania, in 1682, Harrison and Pemberton,
with their families, servants, and others, embarked on the ship "Sub-
mission" to join Yardley, part of whose land purchases (at the Falls of
the Delaware, where he had already begun to build a house) having been
on accountof Harrison and Isaac and Phineas Pemberton. The captain
of the " Submission," instead of keeping his contract, landed the party
at the mouth nf thePatuxent Rivor, Maryland. Their goods were landed
on the othpr side of the bay, at Choptanlr meeting-house, aud it was not
until M»y, 1683, that they, their families, and luggage finally reached
their destination. — (See Davis, Hist. Buclcs County, and Hazard, Annuls,
p. 600.)
FOUNDING THE GREAT CITY.
101
afraid of being crowded at Philadelphia, where as yet
but very little building had been done. Granting that
half the thousand persons who came over with Penn
or before or after him in 1682 were able to find some
sort of lodgings, either on the spot or at the various
settlements and houses along the Delaware from the
Horekills to the Falls, and on the east side of the Dela-
ware again from the Falls to New Salem, there would
still remain five hundred houseless people on the site
of the new city or about to arrive there in the next
two months. It was the second week in November
when the " Welcome's" passengers landed, and the
winds must have already become bleak and cutting,
with now and then a film of ice or a flurry of snow,
to prevent them from forgetting that winter was about
to come. The " first purchasers" and others who came
over at this time were nearly all Quakers, well-to-do
people at home, who had sold their property in Eng-
land and sought refuge in America to escape the
prosecutions that had been visited upon them so often
and so severely. They had servants, and were well
supplied with clothing and provisions. Some of them
were delicately nurtured women and children, unused
to hardships of any kind. To such persons there
would have been nothing romantic and nothing in-
viting in the prospect of a winter camp-meeting on
the banks of the Delaware. The woods and swamps
were so deep and thick between the two rivers that a
span of hoppled horses lost there were not recovered
for several months. There were no roads, scarcely
any paths, and the low houses of the Swedes and the
lodges of the Indians were few and far apart. But
the Quakers were a patient, long-suffering people, and
the lofty woods of Coaquanock afforded at least a far
better lodging-place than the loathsome jails of Eng-
land, in which so many of them had languished.
The air was pure, the water was clear and good, and
the hearts of the adventurers beat high with hope.
Their arms were strong, and they had good teachers
in the Swedes, and the wood was plenty, both for fuel
and other purposes, and every one had his axe and
his spade. Some dug holes and caves in the dry banks
of the two rivers, propped the superincumbent earth
up with timbers, and, hanging their pots and kettles
on improvised stakes and hooks at the entrance,
speedily had warm and comparatively comfortable
lodgings in the style of what hunters used to call
" half-faced camps." 1
l The "caves," of which 80 much has been said in connection with the
early history of Philadelphia, were not all made by the passengers who
came over at the same time as Penn. The Indians dug Borne, the Swedes
may have dug others. Dr. Mease, in his "Picture of Philadelphia"
(1811), conjectures that the name "Schuylkill" (" hidden river") came
from the circumstance that a good many Maryland settlers used to lurk
on its banks, concealing themselves from the Dutch and probably the
Indians. This is fanciful and far- fetched; the Indian names were sig-
nificant, but the Dutch seldom were. Acrelius, in a nute upon the In-
dian word Wicaco, or Wicacoa, derives it from Wielding, dwelling, and
Ohiio, fir-tree. He adds that "Upon the shore by Wicaco was a place
which was formerly called Puttalasutli, or ( Robbers' Hole.' The reason
of that was that Borne Indians, who had engaged in robbery, had dug a
Others rolled together forty or fifty logs, notched
them at each end, and, aided by their neighbors,
could in a day or two erect " log cabins," and these,
roofed over with poles, upon which a thatch of bark
from dead and fallen trees was laid, and the inter-
stices between the logs "chinked" with stones, mud,
and clay, made residences which, in some sections of
the country, are still thought to be good enough for
anybody. Others made more primitive huts still of
stakes, bark, and brushwood, such as the savages
sometimes toss together for their summer lodgings.
The settlers had blankets and warm clothes in abund-
ance, and we may suppose that the furs which the
Indians brought in were in ready demand. With all
these rude resources, we may safely believe that the
early adventurers on the Delaware got through their
first winter without much suffering or many deaths,
except among the old people, with whom there seems
to have been a considerable mortality. At any rate,
no such cry of distress went up from Penn's first set-
tlement as was heard from Plymouth and Jamestown
after their first winters. If there were deaths, there
were births also, and in one of the caves on the Dela-
ware, long afterwards known as the " Pennypot," was
born John Key, the first child of English parents who
saw light within the precincts of Philadelphia. Penn
signalized the event by presenting the child with a
lot of ground in the city, and John Key survived to
be eighty-five years old, bearing the cognomen of
" first-born" as long as he lived.
Penu was not idle while his people were getting
ready for the winter. He sent off two messengers to
Lord Baltimore to ask to know when he could re-
ceive him ; he appointed sheriffs for the three coun-
ties into which he had laid off his new province, —
Chester, Philadelphia, and Buckingham, — and for the
three annexed counties of Delaware (or New Castle),
Jones, and New Deal, or Horekill ; and then he took
horse and rode to New York to see the Governor
there, and look into the affairs of his friend the Duke
of York's province. When he returned he went to
Chester, and there issued writs to all the sheriffs to
summon the freeholders to meet on November 20th,
to elect representatives to serve as their deputies in the
Provincial Council and delegates in General Assem-
bly, which were to meet on December 4th, at Up-
land. Chester County chose three councilors and nine
assemblymen. Nicholas More was president of the
cave in a hill by the river and there concealed themselves. When other
Indians went along there upon the strand to fish or hunt, these robbers
attacked, seized, and murderedthem. The Indians around there missed
their people from time to time, and did not know what had become ot
them. Finally they discovered the robbers' nest. The entranco was
well fortified, so they dug ahole through the roof on the hill and smoked
them. Those who were besieged resolved to die in their stronghold;
but, although they could not save themselves, they would not give up
their booty toothers; they broke up their Secnoani or Wampumhy pound-
ing it between stones, which was heard by those outside." This is proof
that there were caves in the bank before the whites came, and the above
is probably an Indian legend to explain their existence.
102
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Assembly, which met as summoned. The first day was
devoted to organization and the selection of commit-
tees ; on the second day the credentials of members
and contested election cases were disposed of, and the
house proceeded to adopt a series of rules and regula-
tions for its government. These have no special in-
terest, except that they show the lower house had set
out to become a deliberative body, and was prepared
to originate bills as well as vote upon them. The
three lower counties sent in a petition for annexation
and union, and the Swedes another, asking that they
might be made as free as the other members of the
province, and have their lands entailed upon them
and their heirs forever. The same day a bill for an-
nexation and naturalization came down from the
Governor and was passed, and on the next day the
Legislature passed Penn's " Great Law," so called,
and adjourned or was prorogued by the Governor for
twenty-one days. It never met again.
SUPPOSED MEETING-PLACE OV THE FIRST ASSEMBLY AT UPLAND.
[From Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania.]
The act of union and naturalization, after reciting
Penn's different titles to Pennsylvania and the three
lower counties or Delaware Hundreds, and the rea-
sons there were in favor of a closer union and one
government for the whole, enacts that the counties
mentioned "are hereby annexed to the province of
Pennsylvania, as of the proper territory thereof, and
the people therein shall be governed by the same
laws and enjoy the same privileges in all respects as
the inhabitants of Pennsylvania do or shall enjoy."
To further the purpose of this act of union it is also
enacted that " all persons who are strangers and for-
eigners that do now inhabit this province and coun-
ties aforesaid," and who promise allegiance to the
king of England, and obedience to the proprietary
and his government, " shall be held and reputed
freemen of the province and counties aforesaid, in
as ample and full manner as any person residing
therein;" other foreigners in the future, upon making
application and paying twenty shillings sterling, to
be naturalized in like manner. This act, says Penn
in a letter written shortly afterwards, "much pleased
the people. . . . The Swedes, for themselves, deputed
Lacy Cock to acquaint him that they would love,
serve, and obey him with all they had, declaring it
was the best day they ever saw." An " act of settle-
ment" appears to have been passed at the same time,
in which, owing to " the fewness of the people," the
number of representatives was reduced to three in
the Council and nine in the Assembly from each
county, the meetings of the Legislature to be annu-
ally only, unless an emergency should occur in the
opinion of Governor and Council.
Penn's " Great Law," passed as above recited, con-
tains sixty-nine sections.1 It represents the final shape
in which the proprietary's "frame of government"
and code of " laws agreed upon in England" con-
jointly were laid before the Legislature.
The variations from the original forms
wire numerous, some of them important.
The language of the revised code is much
improved over the first forms, both in dig-
nity and sustained force. The preamble
and first section are always quoted with
admiration, and they should have their
place here :
" THE GREAT LAW ; OR, the body of Laws op the
Province of Pennsylvania and territories there-
vnto belonging, passed at an assembly at chester,
alias Upland, the 7th day of the 10th month, De-
cember, 1682.
" Whereas, the glory of Almighty God and the good
of mankind is the reason and end of government, and
therefore government, in itself, is a venerable ordinance
of God ; and forasmuch as it is principally desired and
intended by the proprietary and Governor, and the free-
men of the Province of Pennsylvania, and territories
thereunto belonging, to make and establish Buch laws
as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty,
in opposition to all unchristian, licentious, and unjust
practices, whereby God may have his due, Cffisar his
due, and the people their due from tyranny and oppres-
sion of the one side and insoleucy and licentiousness of the other, so
that the best and firmest foundation may be laid for the present and
future happiness of both the governor and people of this province and
territories aforesaid, and their posterity. Be it therefore enacted by Wil-
liam Penn, proprietary and governor, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the deputies of the freemen of this province and countieB afore-
said in assembly met, and by the authority of the same, that these fol-
lowing chapters and paragraphs shall he the laws of Pennsylvania and
the territories thereof:
" I. Almighty God being only Lord of conscience, father of lights and
spirits, and the author as well as object of all divine knowledge, faith,
aud worship, who only can enlighten the mind and persuade and con-
1 There is a discrepancy here which it is difficult to make clear. The
text follows Hazard ; hut Mr. Linn, in his work giving the " Duke of
York's lawB," shows that the " Great Law" as adopted contained only
sixty-one sections, and Mr. Hazard's classification is pronounced to be
" evidently erroneous." In fact it is said in Council Proceedings of
1689 that a serious lack of agreement was discovered between the Coun-
cil copy of laws and the enrolled parchment copies in the hands of the
Master of the Rolls. Mr. Linn also claims that Mr. Hazard is in error in
regard to the date of the passage of the " Act of Settlement," which
was adopted not in 1682, but March 19, 1683.
FOUNDING THE GKEAT CITY.
103
vincethe understanding of people in due reverence to his sovereignty
over the souls of mankind; it is enacted by the authority aforesaid that
no person now or ataoy time hereafter living in this province, who Bhall
confess and acknowledge one Almighty God to be the creator, up-
holder, and ruler of the world, and that professeth him or herself obliged
in conscience to live peaceably aud justly under the civil government,
shall in anywise be molested or prejudiced for his or her conscientious
persuasion or practice, nor shall he or she at any time be compelled to
frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry what-
ever contrary to his or her mind, but shall freely and fully enjoy his or
her Christian liberty in that respect without any interruption or re-
flection ; and if any person shall abuse or deride any other for his or
her different persuasion and practice in matter of religion Buch shall
he looked upon as a disturber of the peace, and he punished accord-
ingly. But to the end that looseness, irreligion, and atheism may not
creep in under pretense of conscience in this province, be it further
enacted by the authority aforesaid, that according to the good example
of the primitive Christians, and for the ease of the creation every first
day of the week, called the Lord's Day, people shall abstain from their
common toil and labor that, whether masters, parents, children, or ser-
vants, they may the better dispose themselves to read the scriptures
of truth at home, or to frequent such meetings of religious worship
-abroad as may best suit their respective persuasions." l
The second article of the code requires that all
officers and persons i{ cdmmissionated" and in the
■service of the Commonwealth, and members and dep-
uties in Assembly, and ll all that have the right to elect
such deputies shall be such as profess and declare they
believe in Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and
.Saviour of the world," etc. This was not perhaps
1 To these primitive Quakers, ae to the Puritans likewise, Almighty
■God Beems to have been constantly a visible, audible presence, in whose
awful court everything, eveu the ordinary business of every-day life,
was transacted. This is strikingly manifest in the two paragraphs juBt
■quoted. They show, moreover, the strong influence of his peculiar doc-
trines upon Penn's mind in framing this Constitution and laws. Gov-
ernment was a divine ordinance, and the suppressed minor premise that
kings were entitled to administer government by divine right, and that
Penn's tenure under King Charles imparted some of that supernal
authority tu himself, at once disposes of the notion that Penn had any
just conception of a republican, much less a democratic form of govern-
ment. He did not seek, did not desire the outward semblances of power
for himself or his successors, but his notion of government was strictly
paternal, and that the people needed to be fenced in against themselves
and their own misguided passions quite as much as against external
tyranny and oppression. This spirit seems to pervade the entire instru-
ment, and effectively disposes of the notion, so fondly nursed by Hep-
worth Dixon, that Penn's constitutional views were "inspired" by Al-
gernon Sidney. Dixon would have gone much nearer the truth if he
had sought their germs in the moral and political system of the atheist
philosopher, Thomas HobheB, who had great influence in Penn's day.
Many of the expressions in Penn's Constitutions curiously resemble the
cast of thought in Hobbes' "Leviathan" and his earlier treatises, De
Give and De Corpore Politico. Compare, for example, Penn's preamble
with the following from the treatise De Cive; "Societates autem civil es
□on sunt meri congressus, sed fcedera, quibus faciendis fides et pacta
necessariasunt. . . . Alia res est appetere, alia esse capacem. Appetunt
enim illi qui tamen conditiones sequas, sine quibus societas esse non
potest, accipere per superbiam non dignantur." Hobbes held that the
state of man in natural liberty is a state of war, a war of every man
against every man, wherein the notions of right and wrong, justice and
injustice, have no place. " For," he says, " if we could suppose a great
multitude of men to consent in the observation of justice and other
laws of nature without a common power to keep them all in awe, we
might as well suppose all mankind to do the same, aud then there
neither would be nor need to be any civil government or commonwealth
at all, because there would be peace without subjection." (LeviatJian,
c. 17.) This is Penn's government, "an ordinance of God, . . whereby
the people may have their due . . . from insolency and licentiousness."
The difference is that Hobbes node the need for strong government in
the laws of nature, Penn in the fact of man's weakness and Almighty
•God's supervision of human affairs.
illiberal for Penn's day, but under it not only atheists
and infidels but Arians and Socinians were denied
the right of suffrage. Swearing " by the name of God
or Christ or Jesus" was punishable, upon legal con-
viction, by a fine of five shillings, or five days' hard
labor in the House of Correction on bread and water
diet. Every other sort of swearing was punishable
also with fine or imprisonment, and blasphemy and
cursing incurred similar penalties. Obscene words
one shilling fine or two hours in the stocks.
Murder was made punishable with death and con-
fiscation of property, to be divided between the suf-
ferer's and the criminal's next of kin. The punish-
ment for manslaughter was to be graduated according
to the nature of the offense. For adultery the penalty
was public whipping and a year's imprisonment at
hard labor ; second offense was imprisonment for life,
an action for divorce also lying at the option of the
aggrieved husband or wife ; incest, forfeiture of half
one's estate and a year's imprisonment; second
offense, the life term ; sodomy, whipping, forfeiture
of one-third of estate, and six months in prison ; life
term for second offense ; rape, forfeiture of one-third
to injured party or next friend, whipping, year's im-
prisonment, and life term for second offense; forni-
cation, three months' labor in House of Correction,
and, if parties are single, to marry one another after
serving their term ; if the man be married he forfeits
one-third his estate in addition to lying in prison ;
polygamy, hard labor for life in House of Correction.
XIV. Drunkenness, on legal conviction, fine of five shillings, or five
days in work-house on bread and water; second aud each subsequent
offense, double penalty. "And be it enacted further, by the authority
aforesaid, that they who do Buffer such excess of drinking at their houses
shall be liable to the same punishment with the drunkard." Drinking
healths, as conducive to hard drinking, is subject tu fine of five shillings.
The penalty for selling rum to Indians is a fine of five pounds. Arson
is punished wiih amercement of double the values destroyed, corporal
punishment at discretion of the bench, and a year's imprisonment.
House-breaking and larceny demand fourfold satisfaction and three
mouths in work-house; if offender be not able to make restitution, then
Beven years' imprisonment. All thieves required to make fourfold satis-
faction ; forcible entry to be treated as a breach of the peace, and
satisfaction to be made for it. Rioting is an offense ■which can he com-
mitted by three persons, and is punished according to common law and
the bench's discretion. Violence to parents, by imprisonment in work-
house at parent's pleasure; to magistrates, fine at discretion of court
and a month in work-houBe ; assaults by servants on masters, penalty
at discretion of the court, so also with assault and battery.
XXVII. Challenges to duels and acceptance of challenge demand a
penalty of five pounds fino and three months in work-house. Rude and
riotous sports, " prizes, stage-plays, masks, revels, bull-baits, cock-fight-
ing, with such like," are treated as breaches of the peace ; penalty, ten
days in work-house, or fine of twenty shillings. Gambling, etc., fine of
five shillings, or five days in work-house. Spoken or written sedition
incurred a fine of not less- than twenty shillings; slighting language
of or towards the magistracy, penalty not less than twenty shillings,
five or ten days in the work-house.
XXXII. Slanderers, scandal-mongers, and spreaders of false news are
to be treated as peace- break era ; persons clamorous, scolding, or railing
with their tongue, when convicted " on full proof," are to go to the
House of Correction for three days.
XXXIV. The statute for the encouragement of marriage is as it was
quoted above in the laws adopted in England, "but" (xxxv.)" no person,
be it either widower or widow, shall contract marriage, much less marry,
under one year after the decease of his wife or her husband."
XXXVI. " If any person shall fall into decay and poverty, and be un-
104
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
able to maintain themselves and children with their honest endeavor, or
who shall die and leave poor orphans, upon complaint to the next jus-
tice of the peace of the said county, the said justice finding the com-
plaint to be true, shall make provision for them in such way as they
shall see convenient till the next county court, and then care shall he
taken for their comfortable subsistence."
XXXVII., etc. "To prevent exaction in public-houses," strong beer
and ale of barley-malt shall be sold for not above two pennies per Win-
chester quart; molasses beer one penny; a bushel must contain eight
gallons, "Winchester measure, all weights to be avoirdupois of sixteen
ounces to the pound; all ordinaries must be licensed by the Governor,
and, to insure reasonable accommodation, travelers must not be charged
more than sixpence per head for each meal, including meats and small-
beer; footmen to pay not over two pence per night for bedB, horsemen
nothing, but the charge for a horse's hay to be sixpence per night.
XL. "The daysof the week and the months of the year shall be called
as in Scripture, and not by heathen names (as are vulgarly used), as the
first, second, and third days of the week, and first, second, and third
months of the year, etc., beginning with the day called Sunday, and the
month called March."
Sections XLI. to LXIX. and the end of this code are substantially re-
peated from the code of laws adopted in England, which have already
been analyzed ou a preceding page. They relate to the administration
of justice, the courts, testamentary law, registration, and the purity of
elections. Only a few additions and changes have been made, and these
simply for the sake of more pei'Bpicuity and clearer interpretation.
gave him; Penn holding firm upon his purchase, the
king's letter, and the phrase in the Calvert charter
confining its operations to lands hitherto unoccupied,
a position in which Penn and the Virginian Clai-
borne took common ground. The issue of fact as to
whether the Delaware Hundreds were settled or un-
settled in 1634 could not be determined then and
there, even if the contending parties should agree to
rest their case upon that point, as neither would do.
The proprietaries finally parted, agreeing to meet
again in March, and each went home to write out his
own views and his own account of the interview to
the Lords of the Committee of Plantations. On his
way to Chester Penn stopped to visit the flourishing
settlement of Friends in Anne Arundel and Talbot
Counties, Maryland, reaching his destination on the
29th.
We are at a loss when we attempt to assign a par-
ticular date to Penn's treaty with the Indians under
the great elm-tree at Shackamaxon, if such a treaty
PEKN'S TREATY TREE AND HARBOR OF PHILADELPHIA IN 18U0, FROM KENSINGTON.
[From Birch's Views.]
After the meeting of the Assembly, Penn set out
on December 11th to go to visit Lord Baltimore, with
whom he had an appointment for the 19th. The
meeting took place at West River, where Penn was
courteously and hospitably entertained. Nothing was
accomplished, however, in the way of settling the
boundary dispute, beyond a general discussion of the
subject. Baltimore contended for what his charter
was ever made. Those who are most familiar with
the subject, and have most laboriously studied it in all
its bearings, are convinced that the council must have
taken place before the meeting of the Legislature at
Upland, December 4th. This seems to have been
assumed because no such interview could have oc-
curred after that date in 1682; every day of Penn's
time can be shown to have been otherwise occupied.
FOUNDING THE GREAT GITY.
105
There is nothing on the record to show that there
was such a meeting or such a treaty. Penn, always
frank and rather exultant in the recital of his affairs,
public and private, seems to have kept an absolute
silence in regard to this treaty, both in his corre-
spondence with the Lords of the Committee of Plan-
tations and in his letters to his friends at home. In
one of the latter, written on December 29th, the day of
his return to Upland from Maryland, he says, " I bless
the Lord I am very well, and much satisfied with my
place and portion, yet busy enough, having much to
do to please all and yet to have an eye to those that are
not here to please themselves. I have been at New
York, Long Island, East Jersey, and Maryland, in
which I have had good and eminent service for the
Lord. I am now casting the country into townships
for large lots of land. I have had an Assembly, in
which many good laws were passed. We could not
stay safely till the spring for a government. I have
annexed the territories lately obtained to the province
and passed a general naturalization for strangers,
which hath much pleased the people. As to outward
things, we are satisfied ; the land good, the air clear
and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good
and easy to come at; an innumerable quantity of
wild fowl and fish ; in fine, here is what an Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob would be well contented with, and
service enough for God, for the fields here are white
for harvest. Oh, how sweet is the quiet of these parts,
freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations,
hurries, and perplexities of woful Europe." A full
chronicle of his deeds, yet not a syllable about the
Shackamaxon treaty, esteemed generally to be the
greatest of all his achievements.
We must not, however, do injustice to the universal
tradition on the subject of this supposititious treaty,
fortified as it is by everything except that document-
ary evidence, the singular absence of a line of which
casts suspicion on the whole affair. This defect is in-
curable, of course, unless it can be shown how it oc-
curred, or, per contra, how the traditions arose which
unite in pointing to the fact of such a treaty and de-
scribing how and where it was negotiated. A brief
inquiry into this difficult subject will not be inappro-
priate in this place, and we may begin it by stating
the arguments in favor of the supposed negotiations.
First. It is quite reasonable to suppose that Penn
would have desired such a treaty and that the Indians
would be willing to negotiate one with him. They
expected many good things of the Friends, and were
taught to look for the arrival of Penn, their leader
and chief, with the lively anticipation of benefits. As
early as 1677, in negotiations in West New Jersey
between the Indians and Quakers (according to a
pamphlet of Thomas Budd's, written nine or ten
years later), the latter had endeavored to prevent
the sale of liquors to the Indians, who seemed to
recognize the humanity of the intention. Budd de-
scribes a chief as saying, " Now there is come to live
a people among us who have eyes ; they see it [rum]
to be for our hurt, they are willing to deny themselves
the profit of it for our good. These people have eyes ;
we are glad such a people are come among us ; we
must put it down by mutual consent, the cask must
be sealed up, it must be made fast, it must not leak
by day or by night, in light or in the dark, and we
give you these four belts of wampum, which we
would have you lay up safe and keep by you, to be
witnesses of this agreement ; and we would have you
tell your children that these four belts of wampum
are given you to be witnesses, betwixt us and you, of
this agreement." These Indians had already heard
of Penn and his character and influence ; they would
naturally have news of his arrival and come to see
him at Shackamaxon and Pennsbury. As soon as
Penn secured possession of his province he began
writing letters and sending messages to the Indians,
while his deputy, Markham, conducted successfully a
series of land treaties with them. His letter of in-
structions to the commissioners to lay out Philadel-
phia bids them " Be tender of offending the Indians,
... to soften them to me and the people ; let them
know you are come to sit down lovingly beside them.
Let my letter and conditions with my purchasers
about just dealing with them, be read in their tongue,
that they may see we have their good in our eye, equal
with our own interest, and after reading my letter and
the said conditions, then present their kings with what
I send them, and make a friendship and league with them,
according to these conditions, which carefully observe,
and get them to comply with. . . . From time to
time, in my name, and for my use, buy land of them,
where any justly pretend," etc. The 11th, 12th, 13th,
14th, and 15th articles of the " conditions and conces-
sions" are here referred to, in which trading with
Indians except in market is forbidden, goods sold to
" the poor natives" are ordered to he tested, offenses
against them punished just as offenses against whites,
differences to be settled by mixed juries, and the In-
dians given liberty, the same as the planters, to im-
prove their grounds, etc. In September, 1681, we
find George Fox sending around a circular letter
"to all planters," especially in West Jersey, direct-
ing them to pay attention to the spiritual welfare of
the Indians. In Penn's letter to the Indians, sent
them through the hands of his commissioners, he ex-
pounds to them his principles of universal justice
and of the common brotherhood of mankind, adding
that " I have sent my commissioners to treat with you
about land and a firm league of peace," and that " I
shall shortly come to you myself, at what time we
may more largely and freely confer and discourse of
these matters." Penn sent by Holme, his surveyor-
general, another letter of the same tenor to the In-
dians, which Holme indorsed as having been read to
them by an interpreter the sixth month (August),
1682. The place of the reading is not mentioned,
but Holme was at that time living with Fairman in
106
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
lis house at Shackamaxon, where the Quaker meet-
ings were held.
Second. In 1835 the Historical Society of Penn-
sylvania appointed a committee, consisting of Peter
S. Duponceau, Joshua F. Fisher, and Roberts Vaux,
to report upon a communication of John F. Watson
in reference to " the Indian treaty for the lands now
the site of Philadelphia and the adjacent country."
Mr. Vaux having died hefore the work was finished,
Messrs. Duponceau and Fisher made an exhaustive re-
port on the subject, considering all the questions con-
nected with the treaty or supposed treaty at Shacka-
maxon. Their conclusion was that while no treaty was
ever negotiated at Shackamaxon for the purchase of
lands, with which were joined stipulations for peace
and amity and a league of friendship (since if such a
treaty had been made it would necessarily have been
recorded), yet there was a solemn council held there
for the purpose of sealing friendship between the
Indians and the proprietary. They found their
opinion upon certain expressions in speeches of
MONUMENT ERECTED TO MARK THE SITE
OF THE TREATY TREE.
Lieutenant-Governor Keith to the Susquehanna In-
dians in 1717 and 1722, and by Lieutenant-Governor
Gordon in 1728-29. They are firm in their belief
that such a treaty or conference did take place, prob-
ably in November, 1682, at Shackamaxon, under
the great elm-tree which was blown down in 1810.
" The treaty was probably made," according to the
committee, " with the Lenni Lenape or Delaware
tribes and some of the Susquehanna Indians; that
it was ' a treaty of amity and friendship,' and per-
haps confirmatory of one made previously by Mark-
ham [or the commissioners and Holme]. In the con-
cluding language of the report, therefore, 'we hope
that the memory of the Great Treaty, and of our
illustrious founder, will remain engraved on the
memory of our children and children's children to
the end of time.' "1
1 Hazard, Annals, i. 03 >.
Third. Tradition has found the place of the treaty,
named those present, tells us that Penn came there
in a barge, and wore a blue sash. A belt of wampum
has come from the Penn family, which, it is claimed,
was presented to the proprietary on that occasion.
The great Tamanend or Tamany was chief spokes-
man on this day, and his dress and the emblems worn
by him of kingly power are accurately described ; in
short, the whole scene has been set with a view to
bring out the illusion effectively.
On the other hand, those who do not believe that
any such treaty was ever negotiated reply :
First. That the treaty referred to by Keith and
Gordon was not one made by Penn with the Lenni
Lenapes in 1682, but one which he negotiated in
April, 1701, on occasion of his second visit, with
the representatives of several tribes, including the
Susquehannocks, alias Minquas or Conestogas, the
Shawanese, the Onondagoes, etc., which treaty is duly
recorded in the Colonial Records. The fact that the
Indians possessed a parchment copy of the treaty,
which they produced in their council with Keith in
1722, is evidence of this, there being no attempt to
prove a written treaty in 1682. At any rate, the actual
treaty of 1701 fits all the circumstances of the case,
and all the allusions of the Indians and the Governors,
far better than the assumed treaty of 1682.
Second. It is easy for tradition to have confused the
two occasions, and even to have set the familiar scene
at a very early day. In his letter of Aug. 16, 1683,
to the Society of Free Traders, Penn, writing from
Philadelphia about the Indians, whose habits and
language he had been studying closely in the course
of a tour among them, describes very minutely the
conduct of an Indian council, for he says, " I have
had occasion to be in council with them upon treaties
for land and to adjust the terms of trade." Then he
gives a picture of the ordering of an Indian council,
which might very well be taken for the original of the
traditional accounts of the treaty under the Shacka-
maxon elm. "Every king," he says, "hath his coun-
cil, and that consists of all the old and wise men of
his nation, which perhaps is two hundred people.
Nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace,
selling of land, or traffic, without advising with them,
and, which is more, with the young men too. . . .
Their order is thus : The king sits in the middle of
a half-moon, and has his council, the old and wise, on
each hand. Behind them, or at a little distance, sit
the younger fry in the same figure." This is the
Shackamaxon scene exactly. One almost sees West's
picture, or Watson's descriptions, gleaned from the
recollections of the oldest inhabitants. But Penn
goes on, and from depicting the general scene comes
to delineate what was apparently an actual incident
in his recollection. "Having consulted and resolved
their business, the king ordered one of them to speak
to me. . . . He took me by the hand and told me he
was ordered by his king to speak to me, and that now
FOUNDING THE GREAT CITY.
107
it was not he but the king who spoke. . . . He first
prayed me to excuse them that they had not complied with
me the last time. He feared there might be some fault
in the interpreter, being neither Indian nor English.
Besides, it was the Indian custom to deliberate and
take up much time in council before they resolved,
and that if the young people and owners of the land
had been as ready as he, / had not met with so much
delay." Now this exactly meets the case of Penn's
undoubted and recorded treaties with the Indians for
land in the spring and summer of 1683. In his letter
about the Maryland boundary to the Lords of the Com-
mittee on Plantations Penn writes: "In the month
called May, Lord Baltimore sent three gentlemen to
let me know he would meet me at the head of the
Bay of Chesapeake ; I was then in treaty with the kings
of the nations for land, but three days after we met ten
miles from New Castle, which is thirty from the Bay."
This was in May or June 23d, and 14th of July fol-
lowing the treaties were negotiated with the Kings
Tamanend and Metamequam. Here are the land
treaties, the kings and their council, the non-compli-
ance the first time, the delay, all the circumstances.
" When the purchase was agreed on," adds Penn (when
the actual business of the conference was discharged,
in other words), "great promises passed between us of
Mndness and good neighborhood and that the English
and Indians must live in love as long as the sun gave
light." Then another Indian spoke, charging the
natives to love the Christians and so on, "at every
sentence of which they shouted and said amen in
their way." Finally, Penn says in this letter, written
only a month after the transaction, "We have agreed
that in all differences between us six of a side shall
end the matter. Do not abuse them, but let them
have justice and you win them." In these sentences
we have all the data of the supposititious treaty of
Shackamaxon, — a written bargain for land, sealed and
paid for, and an unwritten treaty of friendship on the
basis of justice and equity. If Penn could describe
this event so vividly would he not have dwelt still
more upon an earlier and more formal treaty of alli-
ance, made when he had not been in the province a
month, and when the Indians and everything else
were such novelties to him ?
Third. This described treaty covers all that Penn
told the historian Oldmixon, to wit, that he "stayed
in Pennsylvania two years, and having made a league
of amity with nineteen Indian nations, established good
laws," etc., he returned to England. Now it happens
that there are exactly nineteen " sachamakers" who
sign the various land deeds given by the Indians to
Markham in 1682 and to Penn in 1683, to wit: July
15, 1682, Kowyockhickon, Attoireham ; Aug. 1, 1682,
Nomne Soham, June 24, 1683, Tammanen; same date,
Essepenaike, Swanpees, Ohettarichon, Wessapoat, Keke-
lappan; same date, Metamequan; June 25th, Winge-
bone; July 14th, Secane and Icquoquehan; same date,
Neneshiekan, Malebore, Neshanocke, and Osereneon;
October 10th, Keherappan ; October 18th, Machaloha.
And these are all the Indian deeds on record between
the date of Markham's arrival and Penn's return to
England.
Is it then necessary to despoil tradition entirely ?
We do not think so. We are loath to give up the
great elm at Shackamaxon, with Tamanend and his
council squatted in a double semicircle beneath its
wide, bare branches (though there must have been a
good deal of frost in the ground so late in November),
and Penn with his blue sash, Markham with his scar-
let coat, and Lasse Cock, the interpreter, in leather
breeches and fur coat, speaking an indescribable mix-
ture of Swedish, Dutch, English, and Indian. We
will have to give up the barge, we suppose, for, if
such a conference ever occurred, it must have been
while Penn was occupying Fairman's house on the
spot at Shackamaxon. But there is no inherent im-
probability in the idea of such a conference. The
Indians would be as eager to see Penn, of whom they
had heard so much, as he would be curious to meet
them. Suppose that, while the " Welcome" was still
at New Castle or Upland, or after she had gone up
the river and anchored off the mouth of Dock Creek,
hard by the house, then just built, which soon came
to be known as the Blue Anchor tavern, Penn's
counselors had suggested to him, or he to them, that
it would be a politic thing to call the Indians to-
gether in council, so that he might ratify to them in
person the lavish promises made in his name and on
his behalf by his agents. The Indians would be
notified, a day set, runners sent out, and when the
time came there would be no difficulty in securing a
very respectable collection of sachems and braves of
the contiguous bands. Old Tammany might have
been present himself if the weather was good, and
if the "Welcome" had not yet gone down the river,
and Penn still occupied his cabin, the ship's jolly-
boat might very well have served him for barge in
which to make a stately entry upon the scene. Then
upon his arrival, after the peace pipe had been
smoked, there might have ensued such a succession
of speech-making and such another love-feast as Penn
describes as having taken place after the signing of
the land treaties in 1683, and upon newcomers like
the passengers of the " Welcome," ignorant equally
of the language, the circumstances, and the surround-
ings, what they then and there witnessed might have
made an indelible impression as the first great treaty
with the Indians. At the same time Penn, used to
state business, and knowing nothing had been accom-
plished, may not have charged his memory particu-
larly with the occurrence. The presence and acts of
Penn and the just dealings of his followers made a
strong and lasting impression upon the Indians, not
only of Eastern Pennsylvania, but of the whole State
and of New York also. They gave him a name of
their own, "Onas" (signifying quill, or "pen"), and
this patronymic was extended to all his successors
108
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
in the executive of Pennsylvania down to quite a
late period. His familiar name among the Delawares
was " Miquon," and for his sake, while the savages
in every section east of the Mississippi and north of
the Tennessee, smarting under a thousand wrongs,
were waging undying war against every other person
of English descent, the peaceful garb of members of
the Society of Friends continued to be a passport
and a palladium. Penn's traditional policy is still
kept up with proud consistency by the Quakers, and
there is not a tribe, nor the vestige of a band of sav-
ages, within all the broad extent of the United States
. but has experienced some material benefit from this
amiable determination of the quiet sect to right,
wherever they can, the injuries inflicted by the white
man upon the original owners of the soil.
The year 1683 was a very busy one for William
Penn. A great number of colonists arrived, building
was very actively going on, the division of land among
purchasers was a source of much care and perplexity,
the lines and bounds and streets of the new city re-
quired to be readjusted, the Council and Assembly had
to be newly elected and organized, with much impor-
tant legislative business before them, and there were
besides the boundary question and interviews with
Lord Baltimore, Indian land treaties with their te-
dious preliminary councils and pow-wows, and in
addition to all this an extensive and exacting corre-
spondence. Penn, however, was equal to it all, and
maintained his health, spirits, and energy remarkably
well. He even found time to make an extensive tour
through his territories, visited the Indian tribes in
friendship with them, curiously studied their manners
and customs, and even picked up a smattering of their
tongue. Penn was more and more pleased with his
province the more he saw of it, and was elated with
the great work he had set in motion, even while he
could not conceal from himself that his new province
was going to prove difficult for him to govern, and
that his liberal expenditures in behalf of its settle-
ment would eventually plunge him deep in pecuniary
embarrassments.
The Governor's first care, after appointing sheriffs
for the several counties and ordering them to issue
writs for a new election of members of the Provincial
Council and General Assembly, was to replat the city
and rename the streets, which had been provisionally
named by the commissioners and Holme. In a spirit
of avoidance of "man-worship," Penn designated the
streets between and parallel to the Delaware and the
Schuylkill by numbers ; the intersecting streets con-
necting the two rivers he named after the different
varieties of trees and fruits indigenous to the soil.
There were a few exceptions to this rule, concessions
to some local peculiarity, as, for example, Front,
High, Broad, etc. But the main body of streets bore
names from Delaware 2d to Delaware 10th, and from
Schuylkill 10th to Schuylkill Front Street, and from
Cedar, going north, Pine, Spruce, Walnut, Chestnut,
High, Mulberry, Sassafras, and Vine Streets. Lom-
bard Street was not laid out until many years after-
wards. This deprives Philadelphia streets of that
historical flavor which hangs about the names of
thoroughfares in other large cities. As Philadel-
phia, as originally laid out, contained only about
twelve hundred acres, it was found impossible to
accommodate the " first purchasers" of large tracts
of land with the city lots promised them in the
prospectus inviting colonists. To remedy this a
portion of territory outside the original survey was
laid off and annexed under the name of "the Liber-
ties," and in these the apportioned lots still undrawn
were located. These apportionments, as finally ar-
ranged by Penn, gave to each purchaser of land about
two per cent, of his purchase in town lots. If he took
one thousand acres he received twenty acres of lots
and nine hundred and eighty acres of farm land.
But if the lots were in the Liberties east of the Schuyl-
kill there was a reduction of twenty per cent, in the
size of the lots in consequence of their much greater
value. While arranging this difficult business as re-
spected Philadelphia, Penn also prepared for the
distribution of rural population through the counties
which he had opened, and particularly Chester and
Buckingham (or Bucks as it soon began to be called),
by laying out townships there, and "squares" around
which the farmsteads were grouped and in which
each landholder had his lot, just as was the case
in Philadelphia County, and its township, Philadel-
phia City. This system is illustrated very graphically
on Holme's " map of the improved part of Pennsyl-
vania."
Penn had begun to build, likewise, on his own ac-
count. The construction of the mansion-house at
Pennsbury is said, rather vaguely, however, to have
been commenced by Markham previous to the pro-
prietary's arrival in the province, and it was now
pushed vigorously, though Penn does not appear to
have occupied the house permanently until his second
visit. He also built a house in Philadelphia for his
own use. This structure, called the Letitia house,
and assumed to have been the first brick house erected
in the city, is commonly said to have been put up for
Penn's daughter, whose name it bears. Her father
did not grant the lot to her by patent until the 29th
of first month (March), 1701. Penn lived there when
it was first built, and when he returned to England
it became the official residence of Markham. The
Pennsbury mansion, so situated as to give the Lord
Proprietary convenient access both to his own capi-
tal and to Burlington, the chief town in the West
Jersey plantation, was quite an elaborate building,
costing, with expenditures upon the grounds and
out-buildings, from five thousand to seven thousand _
pounds. It was placed on a gentle eminence fifteen
feet above high water and one hundred and fifty feet
from the river, with a winding creek or cove flowing
around one side of it to the rear. Not a vestige of the
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PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA,
With Names of Original Purchasers from
WILLIAM PENN.
l68l.
POUNDING THE GREAT CITY.
109
house or plantation now remains, except some gnarled
trunks of old cherry-trees, supposed to have been
planted by the founder. This mansion-house was,
however, not completed until some years after Penn's
return to England. The supervision of its construc-
THE LETITIA HOUSE.
tion was given to James Harrison, and Penn's letters
to him on the subject are numerous and interesting.
The proprietary in the first few months of his visit
seems to have had no other thought than that of a
permanent residence in the province, surrounded by
his family, and in the midst of sylvan solitude and
rural comforts. He had not then learned that new
colonies may be harassing and intractable, and that
the European with large home interests who goes to
dwell in the wilderness cannot escape illustrating the
proverb, " Out of sight out of mind." " I am much
satisfied with my plan and portion," he wrote to one
friend from Chester; to Lord Colepepper, just come
out as Governor and proprietor of Virginia, he wrote,
5th February, 1683 : " I am mightily taken with this
part of the world ; here is a great deal of nature, which
is to be preferred to base art, and methinks that sim-
plicity, with enough, is gold to lacker, compared with
European cunning. I like it so well that a plentiful
estate and a great acquaintance on the other side have
no charms to remove ; my family being once fixed
with me, and if no other thing occur, I am likely to
be an adopted American. Our province thrives with
people ; our next increase will be the fruit of their
labor. Time, the maturer of things below, will give
the best account of this country."
The new sheriffs summoned the freemen electors,
and a new election was held under the Constitution
and laws for members of the Council and Provincial
Assembly. The " act of settlement," or frame of gov-
ernment provisionally adopted by the first Legisla-
ture in its brief session at Upland, or Chester, had ar-
ranged for the election of a Council of twelve persons
from each county, and a General Assembly to consist
of not more than two hundred freemen. The people
of the counties, however, thought that this would be
too heavy a drain upon a scattered and as yet scanty
population, especially at times when labor seemed to
be of more value than law-making, and accordingly
they simply went outside the charter and elected
twelve members from each county, three of whom
were designated to serve in the Provincial Council,
the rest to act as members of the General Assembly.
The Legislature met for the first time
\ ;i:_.:=*| in Philadelphia, the Council and Gov-
";%_:" €l ernor coining together on the 10th of
March, 1683, the General Assembly two
J days later. The members of the Council
J3 were
William Markliam, Thomas Holme, Lasse Cock, Chris-
topher Taylor, .Limes narrison, William Biles, John
Simcock, William Clayton, Ralph Withers, William
Haige, John Moll, Edmund Cantwell, Francis Whit-
well, John Richardson, John Hilliard. William Clark,
Edward Southern, and John Roads. The members of
the Assembly were: Philadelphia Comity. — John Song-
hurst, John Hart, Walter King, Andros Bengstson,.
John Moon, Griffith Jones, William Warner, Swan
Swanson (Sven Svenson, one of (he Sven Sever or sons
of Sven Shuts), and Thomas Wynne (Speaker). Bucks.
— William Yardloy, Samuel Darke, Robert Lucas, Nich-
olas Wain, John Wood, John Clowes, Thom;is Fitzwalter, Robert Hall,
James Boyden. Chester. — John Hoskins, Robert Wade, George Wood,
John Blnnston, Dennis Rochford, Thomas Bracy, John Bezar, John
Harding, Joseph Phipps. New CastU. — John Cann, John Darby, Valen-
tine Hollingsworth, Gasparus Herman, John Dehraef, James Williams,
William Guest, Peter Alrichs, Henrick Williams. Kent. — John Biggs,
Simon Irons, Thomas Hassold, John Curtis, Robert Bedwell, William
Windsmore, John Brinkloe, Daniel Brown, Benoni Bishop. Sussex. —
Luke Watson, Alexander Draper, William Fletcher, Henry Bowman,
Alexander Moleston, John Hill, Robert Bracey, John Kipshaven, Cor-
nelius Verhoof.
Biographies of these pioneers in law-making as
well as plantation may be found in the works of
Thompson Westcott (particularly his exhaustive
"History of Philadelphia"), in the work of Proud,
and in the nice and critical investigations now being
pursued in the Historical Magazine of the Pennsyl-
vania Historical Society. Markham, Holme, Simcock
are already known to the reader. The latter was the
founder of Eidley, in Chester County. James Harri-
son was Penn's friend, agent, and property commis-
sioner. William Biles came from Dorchester, in Dor-
setshire, arriving in the Delaware June 12, 1679, with
wife, seven children, and two servants, having a grant
from Andross of three hundred and nine acres on the
west bank of the river below Trenton Falls. He was
a man of talent and influence and a leader. Governor
Evans sued him for slander, for saying, " He is but a
boy ; he is not fit to be our Governor; we'll kick him
out, we'll kick him out." Whitwell was an early set-
tler on the Lower Delaware. Thomas Wynne, first
Speaker of the first Assembly, was a Welsh Quaker
preacher, one of the Welsh colony afterwards at
Merion. He was an ancestor of John Dickinson.
John Songhurst came over with Penn. William
110
HISTORY" OF PHILADELPHIA.
Yardley, of Bucks, came over in September, 1682;
a yeoman of Sussex, the founder of Yardleyville, and
connected with the Harrisons and Peinbertons. He
had been twenty-five years a preacher when he im-
migrated. Haige was a London merchant. Lasse
(Lorenz, Laurence, Larrson, or Laers) Cock, or Kock,
was the son of Peter Larrson Kock, who came over in
1641, servant to the Swedish West India Company.
Lasse, his son, was Penn's interpreter and Markham's
right-hand man. He and his family were original
members of the old Swedes' Church at Wicaco. An-
dros (Andreas) Binkson (Bengtsson, now Bankson
and Benson) was one of the old Swedes. Peter Al-
richs was son of the Dutch director on South River,
owner of Alrichs' or Burlington Island. Gasparus
Herman, son or grandson of Augustine Herman, of
Bohemia Manor. Thomas Fitzwalter came over with
Penn, and was prominent in many public affairs.
Blunston was an immigrant of 1682, from Little
Hallam, Derbyshire, having a certificate from the
Quaker Meeting-house there. He was a member of
the Society of Free Traders, and a man of consequence.
John Bezar, or Bezear, of Bishops Canning, in Wilt-
shire, was one of Penn's land commissioners. His
business in England was that of maltster, and he was a
regular preacher of the Quakers ; had been imprisoned
and put in the stocks for attempting to preach in the
" steeple-house'' at Marlborough. He settled at Mar-
cus Hook. Thomas Bracey was also one of the So-
ciety of Free Traders and an active Friend. Robert
Wade came over with John Fenwick. He was a resi-
dent of Upland as early as 1675. He owned Essex
House, at Upland, built by Armgardt Pappegoya,
which is supposed to have been the first Quaker
meeting-house in Pennsylvania. He also was an
active Quaker. Christopher Taylor was the best
scholar among the Quaker immigrants, native of
Skipton, Yorkshire, convert of George Fox, eminent
preacher, often incarcerated, once for two years;
taught classical schools on both sides the Atlantic,
held important public offices, was well acquainted
with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and published a Com-
pendium Trium Linguarum of those languages. Wil-
liam Clayton came out in 1678, bought Hans Oelsson's
share of Marcus Hook ; an active Quaker, and had a
large part in public affairs. John Clows came over
in 1682, previous to Penn, and John Richardson ap-
pears to have been his servant.1
At the first meeting of the Council in Philadelphia,
March 10, 1683, Penn took the chair and sixteen of
the eighteen councilors were present. The sheriffs
of the different counties (John Test, for Philadel-
phia) were called in and made their returns respect-
ing the election. The rules were of the simplest: the
Governor ordered those speaking to do so standing,
one at a time, and facing the chair, and the members
1 His diary contains notes of many minor eventB in the history of the
province.
agreed upon a viva voce vote in all except personal
matters. When these arose the vote was to be by
ballot. The question of the power of electors to
change the number of representatives without modi-
fying the charter at once arose, when Penn answered
that they might ■" amend, alter, or add for the Pub-
lick good, and that he was ready to settle such
Foundations as might be for their happiness and
the good of their Posterities, according to ye powers
vested in him." Then the Assembly chose a Speaker,
and there was an adjournment of Council till the 12th.
On the session of Council of that day nothing seems
to have been done beyond compelling Dr. Nicholas
More, president of the Free Society of Traders, to
appear and apologize for having abused Governor,
Council, and General Assembly "in company in a
publick house, ... as that they have this day broken
the charter, and therefore all that you do will come
to nothing & that hundreds in England will curse
you for what you have done & their children after
them, and that you may hereafter be impeacht for
Treason for what you do." Dr. More's apologies
were ample, as became such a determined conserva-
tive. The next day's session was occupied with im-
provement of the rules and suggestions as to amend-
ing the charter. It was obvious that the freemen of
the province were determined this should be done,
in spite of Dr. More's suggestions about impeach-
ment. On the 15th, John Richardson was fined for
being "disordered in Drink," and reproved. The
question of giving Governor and Council authority
to prepare all bills was finally settled affirmatively,
but apparently only after considerable debate. On
the 16th, Dr. More, of the Free Society of Traders,
wrote to ask such an interpretation of the law against
fornication as applicable to servants as would be
" more consistent wth the Mr. & Mrs. Interest." This
was the first utterance of a corporation in Pennsyl-
vania, and it was not on the side of humanity or
morality, but of the " master and mistress interest," —
the society did not care how severely servants were
punished for their vices, so that the punishment was
not such as to deprive the corporation of their ser-
vices.
Among the earliest bills prepared for submitting
to the General Assembly were the following : A bill
for planting flax and hemp, for building a twenty-four
by sixteen feet House of Correction in each county,
to hinder the selling of servants into other provinces
and to prevent runaways, a bill about passes, about
burning woods and marshes, to have cattle marked
and erect bounds, about fencing, showing that ser-
vants and stock gave the settlers more concern than
anything else. The country was so large and free
that it was difficult to retain people in any sort of
bondage, and, where nineteen-twentieths of the land
was uninclosed and free to all sorts of stock, it was
necessary to fence in improved and cultivated tracts
to save the crops from destruction. These bills and
FOUNDING THE GKEAT CITY.
Ill
other matters were given in charge of the various
committees into which the Council now began to di-
vide itself. On the 19th the Speaker and a commit-
tee of the Assembly reported the bill of settlement
(charter or Constitution) with " divers amendments,"
and cattle-brands. Also bills requiring hogs to be
ringed, coroners to be appointed in each county,
regulating wages of servants without indenture, bail-
bonds, and summoning grand juries. There was offered
likewise a law of weights, and a bill fixing the punish-
^fam^^^rg^
7^*°/W?r
PAC-SIMILE OF WILLIAM PENN'S AUTOGRAPH AND SEAL AND THE AUTOGRAPHS OF ATTESTING WITNESSES
TO THE CHARTER OF 1682.
which were yielded to by the Governor and Council,
and other amendments suggested. The Duke of
York's laws and the fees charged in New York and
" Delaware" were also considered in this connection ;
finally, on the 20th, there was a conference between
the Governor and the two houses, " and then the
question being asked by the Gov' whether they would
have the old charter or
a new one, they unani-
mously desired there
might be a new one,
with the amendm48 putt
into a Law, wh is past."
Other bills introduced
at this time looted
to regulating county
courts,protested bills of
exchange, possessions,
"sailor's wracks," acts
of oblivion, "Scoulds,"
seizure of goods, limits of courts in criminal cases,
marriage by magistrates, executors and administra-
tors, limiting the credit public-houses may give to
twenty shillings, protecting landmarks, ear-marks,
SEAL OF PHILADELPHIA IN 1683.
ment for manslaughter, and it was ordered that the
seal of Philadelphia County be the anchor, of Bucks
a tree and vine, of Chester a plow, of New Castle a
castle, of Kent three ears of Indian corn, and of Sus-
sex a sheaf of wheat. The pay of Councilors was-
fixed at three shillings, and Assemblymen two shil-
lings sixpence per diem, the expenses of government
to be met by a land-tax. On April 2, 1683, "the
Great Charter of this province was this night read,
signed, sealed and delivered by ye Govr to y8 inhab-
itants, and received by ye hands of James Harrison
and y" Speaker, who were ordered to return ye old one
wth ve i]earty thanks of ye whole house, which accord-
ingly they did." Then on the 3d, after passing some
minor laws, the chief of which was to prohibit the
importation of felons, the Assembly adjourned " till
such time as the Governor and Provincial Council
shall have occasion for them."
The new charter, Constitution, bill of settlement,
or frame of government was modeled upon the plan
originally proposed by Penn. It retained in the
hands of Governor and Council the authority to
originate bills, but in other respects it deviated ma-
terially from the conditions of the old charter. The
112
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Council was to consist of three, and the General As-
sembly of six members from each county. The mem-
bers of Council served one, two, and three years
respectively. A provision was introduced looking to
increase of representation in proportion to the growth
of population. The whole legislative body was to
be called the General Assembly, and all bills becom-
ing acts were to be called acts of such Assembly, and
the lower house was not to adjourn until it had acted
upon the business before it. It was, moreover, dis-
tinctly implied in the language of the charter that
some of the rights and prerogatives enjoyed by Penn
under it were to cease with his life ; they were con-
cessions to his character and his labors for the prov-
ince, and not a final surrender of freemen's rights.
In return Penn confirmed all in all their liberties, and
pledged himself to insure to all the inhabitants of the
province the quiet possession and peaceable enjoy-
ment of their lands and estates.
The Governor and Council were in what may be
called continuous session, since the charter required
that the Governor or his deputy shall always preside
in the Provincial Council, "and that he shall at no
time therein perform any act of State whatsoever
that shall or may relate unto the justice, trade, treas-
ury, or safety of the province and territories aforesaid
but by and with the advice and consent of the Pro-
vincial Council thereof." The Assembly, however,
did not meet again until October 24th, when, after a
two days' session, devoted to business legislation and
providing that country produce could be taken in lieu
of currency, it adjourned. The business before the
Council during 1683 was mainly of a routine char-
acter. The people and officials were too busily occu-
pied in outdoor work— building, planting, surveying,
laying off manors and townships and treating with
Indians — to have time to spare for records and debates.
Governor William Penn exercised his authority and
sat as president of Council. The great number of
ships coming and going, with their gangs of sailors,
caused a good deal of rioting and disorder in the
public-houses that had sprung up at several points on
the water-front of the young city ; complaints were
frequent, and the Governor and Council were much
put to it for means to arrest such demoralizing pro-
ceedings. Constables were appointed, hours set for
early closing, and finally the Governor had to issue his
proclamation against the offending taverns and ordi-
naries. Servants also gave trouble in various ways,
so that finally masters were authorized to flog them
for slight offenses, and in case they ran away five days
were ordered to be added to their term of service for
every day's absence without leave. Some of the
sailors in port also combined with other ill-conditioned
persons to coin counterfeit money and put it in circu-
lation. Small change was so scarce and so much
sought after that these scamps were shortly enabled
to dispose of a large quantity of their spurious coin
before being apprehended. This coin was rather de-
based than counterfeit. R. Felton testified that he
received of the chief offender "24 lbs. of Bar'd Silver
to.Quine for him;" this was '' alloyed" as heavily as
it would bear with copper and " quiiied" into "Spanish
bitts and Boston money" (Massachusetts "pine-tree
shillings," first coined in 1652, and the old Spanish
piece or "levy," eleven-penny bit, the coin which
is the basis of the " piece-of-eight" or dollar, and
which perhaps has had a wider circulation than any
other coin ever known). These spurious coins, which
the counterfeiters stoutly maintained were as good as
the Spanish debased coin then in circulation, were
passed upon some leading business men. Griffith
Jones took eight pounds in the new "bits," and sev-
eral other persons were victimized, so that Penn had
to issue another proclamation. The parties were tried
before a jury and convicted. Penn sentenced the
ringleader to redeem all his false money, pay a fine of
£40, and give security for good conduct. Another
was fined £10, and a third, who turned State's evi-
dence, got off with an hour in the stocks. There was
also a trial of two poor wretches, both Swedes, for
witchcraft. The jury, however, rendered a verdict of
guilty of the " common fame of witches, but not
guilty as indicted;" the women's husbands went se-
curity for them, and we hear no more of witchcraft in
Philadelphia, nor do the names of Margaret Mattson
and Gethro Hendrickson appear again in the police
annals. While on this subject we might as well refer
to a singular record in the Council minutes for May
13, 1684, as illustrative of the character and methods
of Penn, and what he meant by creating the office of
peacemaker or arbitrator, who might stand between
the people and the courts and save them the expenses
and heart-burnings of litigation. " Andrew Johnson,
PL, Hance (Hans) Peterson, Deft. There being a
Difference depending between them, the Gov/ & Coun-
cill advised them to shake hands, and to forgive One
another ; and Ordered that they should Enter in
bonds for fifty pounds apiece for their good abear-
ance; w1* accordingly they did. It was also Ordered
that the Records of Court concerning that Business should
be burnt." This simple, naked record of how the dif-
ferences between Jan Jansen and Hans Petersen were
settled is one of the most impressive examples of
practical ethics applied to jurisprudence that was ever
known.
The founders of Philadelphia would not let the
first year of its existence slip away before they had
made some provision for education, in accordance
with the terms of the charter and the spirit and desire
of the people. Accordingly we read that at a meeting
of the Council held in Philadelphia ye 26th of 10lh
month, — the day after Christmas, — 1683, " the Govr
and Prov'll Councill having taken into their Serious
Consideration the great Necessity there is of a School
Master for ye Instruction & Sober Education of Youth
in the towne of Philadelphia, Sent for Enock flower,
an Inhabitant of said Toune, who for twenty Year
KAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
113
past hath been exercised in that care and Imploymt
in England, to whom having Communicated their
Minds, he Embraced it upon these following Termes:
to Learn to read English 4s by the Quarter, to Learn
to read and write 6s by y" Quarter, to learn to read,
Write and Cast accM 8s by y° Quarter ; for Boarding
a Schollar, that is to say, dyet, Washing, Lodging &
Scooling, Tenn pounds for one whole year." This
was not a high scale of charges, but it is to be hoped
that the spelling of the above record was not copied
from Enock Flower's own prospectus.
CHAPTER X.
RAPID GROWTH OF THE PROVINCE AND CITY —
"ASYLUM FOR THE OPPRESSED OF ALL NA-
TIONS"—MOVEMENTS OF WILLIAM PENN, 1684-
1699.
When Isaac Norris the second, then Speaker of
the Pennsylvania Assembly, sent an order to Eng-
land, in 1751, for a bell for the State-House of Penn-
sylvania, he directed the following words to be in-
scribed around it, "well shaped, in large letters":
"By order of the Assembly of the Province of Penn-
sylvania, for the State House in the City of Phila-
delphia, 1752," and underneath : " Proclaim Liberty
throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."
(Levit. xxv. 10.) This was that old "Independence
Bell," which, recast to remedy a flaw, did proclaim
liberty throughout the land in announcing, on July
4, 1776, that the Declaration of Independence was
signed. Mr. Norris was not prophesying, however,
when he ordered the inscription and text. He was
simply announcing what he and his fellow-citizens
understood to be Penn's policy and that of his suc-
cessors in the government of the province from the
hour of its foundation, — entire freedom of conscience
and liberty of worship to all (Christian) sects, and an
asylum for the oppressed of all nations. The general
knowledge throughout Europe that Penn had adopted
such a policy as the groundwork of his Constitution,
and the general confidence that he had both the abil-
ity and the will to maintain it in his province, was one
chief cause of the rapid influx of persons and families
of al 1 nationalities to the shores of the Delaware. They
came for ease from many cares, for relief from great
and petty tyrannies; they came to settle and make
themselves homes, rather than to trade and get money.
Thus the province had from the first a heterogeneous
population, and was saved from falling into the
grooves of a dead and dull uniformity such as would
have been its fate if it had been settled exclusively
by English Quakers. Upon an indisputably strong
and established warp of simple and ingenuous Swedish
peasants and farmers, who constituted the body of
the original settlers, and who have left a decided and
durable impress upon the character of the people of
8
Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, was woven a
parti-colored woof of many nationalities, sects, opin-
ions, and habits, toned down, yet not reduced to abso-
lute sameness, by the predominant drab of the English
Society of Friends. Welsh, Irish, Scotch-Irish, Ger-
mans, Switzers, French, Dutch and Belgians, Quakers,
Pietists, Mennonites, Tunkers, Presbyterians, Hugue-
nots, Calvinists, with runaways of no religion what-
ever, and Englishmen of the Established Church, were
all to be found among the permanent settlers of the
province prior to or just after the end of the seven-
teenth century, and though it took these races and
faiths full fifty years to coalesce, and though in some
parts of Pennsylvania society still lies, as it were, in
distinct strata, there can be no doubt that the prov-
ince owed much of its immediate prosperity and its
energetic early growth to the variety of the people of
different habits and opinions who composed its first
settlers. Among the earliest political measures taken
by Penn, the first law in fact of his first Legislature
at Upland, was one establishing a general plan of
naturalization for all "foreigners," among whom he
curiously classed the Swedes and Dutch, who were on
the spot so long before him.
This act was understood and appreciated in con-
nection with the ordinance establishing freedom of
conscience. As early as Sept. 10, 1683, we find Penn
naturalizing eight persons of French names, — Capt.
Gabriel Eappe, Mr. Andrew Learrin, Andrew Inbert,
Peter Meinardeau Uslee, Lees Cosard, Nich. Ribou-
leau, Jacob Raquier, and Louis Boumat, — who were
either Walloons or French Huguenots. But the pro-
prietary had opened the way for a still larger immi-
gration, taking advantage of the disturbed condition
of Europe and the horrible persecutions to which
"reformers" in every sect, Catholic and Protestant,
were then subjected. Louis XIV. was even then
preparing for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
which was consummated two years later (1685), cost-
ing his kingdom half a million of its most peaceable,
industrious, and skillful inhabitants. The Catholics
and Protestants equally persecuted the non-resisting
sects of the Anabaptists, and in England and Wales
the Quakers knew no rest from the pursuit of the
sheriff and the constable. But while the English
and Welsh Quakers had to dread the costs of the
praemunire, and were fined, whipped, cropped,
branded, and imprisoned for the crime of worship-
ing God in their own way, the still more innocent
sects of the Continent, the descendants of the Wal-
denses, the pacific Quietists of Switzerland, Holland,
and the German Episcopal sees, who had seceded
from the ranks and protested against the terrible
madness of the Anabaptists of Munster, were dealt
with in a much more summary fashion. They were
hung, they were broken on the wheel, they were dis-
emboweled, they were burnt at the stake, men,
women, and children, with their tongues riveted to
their jaws to prevent them from testifying aloud in
114
HIST011Y OF PHILADELPHIA.
the crisis and agony of their martyrdom. The great
book of the Mennonites after the Bible, their "golden
legend,'' gives the names of the persons and reports
minutely the deaths of over a thousand of these in-
nocent sufferers for opinion's sake, these victims of
man's inhumanity to man.1
Penn and his co-religionists knew of these distresses
of the defenseless brethren, both by hearsay and ex-
perience. The Quakers had made some converts in
Holland and the Palatinate, and they maintained a
correspondence with many of the fugitive and hidden
congregations of Tunkers and Mennonites in those
sections. In 1677, after Penn had secured an interest
in the Jersey plantations, and when he was probably
already looking to the colonization of Pennsylvania,
he crossed the Channel, in company with George Fox,
Robert Barclay, George Keith, and others, to Brill, in
Holland, and made an extensive proselyting tour in
Holland and Germany. There were Quaker congre-
gations in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leyden, and else-
where; their preachers were protected by the reigning
prince of the Palatine Electorate, and at Kreisheim
(Cresheim), near Worms, a good many Mennonites
had become Quakers. The "new brood of fanatical
spirits," as they were called, were hunted and per-
secuted as much as those less recent in their origin.
Indeed, there was but little difference between the
Quakers and the Tunkers and the disciples of Simon
Menno, so that Barclay said that he was compelled to
regard Fox " as the unconscious exponent of the doc-
trine, practice, and disciplineof the ancient and stricter
party of the Dutch Mennonites." The two sects agreed
respecting all the salient traits of Christian life and
duty. " Both laid the greatest stress on inward piety
and a godly, humble life, considered all strife and
warfare as unchristian, scrupulously abstained from
* " De.r Blutige Schau-platz oder Marlyrer Spiegel" (*' The Bloody Spec-
tacle, or Marty re' Mirror"), an immense folio of fifteen hundred pagea,
in which the sufferings? of the Mennonites and Tunkers are chronicled, is
one of the scarcest and greatest hooks ever printed in this country. It
was originally published in Europe in Dutch, passing through many
editions, each larger than the preceding one, from the earliest, Bet offer
dee Heeren, in 1562, to the handsome folios of 1685, with over one hun-
dred copper-plateB by Jan Luyken. In 1745, when the French and
Indian war troubles began to agitate the people of Pennsylvania, the
elders among the Tunker and Meunonite Beets feared leat their young
folks should be led astray. To fortify them in their principles as " the
defenseless people," it was resolved to have a German translation made
and printed of the Martyr's Mirror. The work was intrusted to the
celibate community of Tunker mystics, who had their monastery at
Ephrata, in Lancaster County, under the management of their founder
and Vorsteher, Conrad Beissel, or Valer Friedsam, as he was called in his
retreat. The translation was made, and the work supervised by the ac-
complished Peter MUller, the prior of the convent and its leading Bpirit.
The paper was made at Rittenhouse's mill, and the book was printed on
a hand-press belonging to the convent, where also the binding was done.
The work required the labor of fifteen brothers for three years, and it Is
by long odds the most remarkable book among early American publica-
tions. At the time of the battle of Germantown, cartridge-paper huving
given out, two wagon-loads of the unbound sheets of the Martyrs' Mirror
were seized and made into cartridges for the use of Washington's army.
— Cf article by S. "W, Pennypacker in Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. v. No.
3,276; "Pennsylvania Dutch and other Essays," Philadelphia, 1872;
Bupp's " Christian Denominations," etc.
making oath, declared against a paid ministry, exer-
cised through their meetings a strict discipline over
their members, favored silent prayer, were opposed to
infant baptism, and looked upon the established
churches as unhallowed vessels of the divine wrath."2
It was to these people that Penn and his fellow-
apostles directed their mission. They had found some
sort of toleration at places in the Netherlands, where
they were treated much more liberally than in Switzer-
land and Germany. True, there were severe laws
against them on the statute books, but these were not
rigidly enforced, and though the mob pelted and abused
them sometimes, it was done rather in sport than anger,
and perhaps because the Quakers brought it on them-
selves, for in spite of their non-resistance they had a
pertinacious fashion of going into ,( steeple-houses"
2 See article on Penn's TravelB, by Prof. Seidenstic.ker, in Pennsylvania
Magazine, vol. ii. No. 3. The Mennonites bear the Bame relation to the
wild John of Leyden and the Anabaptists of Munster, his followers,
that the disciples of George Fox bear to the English Puritans. But
while the mild asceticism of the Quakers led them to formalism and a
quiet sort of practical self-denial and economy, the tendencies of the
German sectaries, under the influence of a deeper sensibility, look the
direction of mysticism. The testimony of the "inner spirit" bore a
different fruit according to the race in whose bosom it shone. Fox was
the natural predecessor of the shrewd and worldly wise "plain" farmer
and merchant who built up Philadelphia; but the followers of Menno,
the believers in the inspiration of Tauler, drifted in an equally natural
way to the communities of the Tunkers and the monasteries of Beissel
and others. The difference is still strongly marked, as any one may see
who compares the proceedings of a Tunker, Mennonite, or Amish con-
gregation in Pennsylvania or Ohio with the conduct of a Quaker meet-
ing in Philadelphia The Mennonites claim, through their own histo-
rians, to be lineally and theologically descended from the Waldenses;
their enemies have reproached them with being an outgrowth of the
Anabaptists of Munster, who carried Luther's doctrines to the extreme
of excess and tried to promulgate them with fire and sword, outrage and
debtiuchery. Doubtless both sides are true ; the Mennonites are in some
measure descended from the Waldenses through the Walloons; they are
also in a great measure an offshoot from the Anabaptists. The Judical
difference between them was in their understanding of what is meant
by " Christ's kingdom on earth," and how to bring it about. The fol-
lowers of John of Leyden, Thomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, and
Jean Mat thys preached the sword and torch doctrine to the down-trodden
peasantry of Europe, whose sufferings made them only too willing to
listen and believe. On the other hand, Menno Simon preached nothiug
hut prayer, humility, and no n- resistance. John of Leyden was torn to
pieces with red-hut pincers, hid hones set aloft in an iron cage, and his
sect died with him; but the Mennonites, next to the Jews, are the most
widely distributed religious deuomination. Menno Simon, founder of
this sect, wasa native of Witniarsum, in Friesland, boruin 1492, educated
for the priesthood, ami in 1536 abandoned the Catholic Church and began
to preach to a congregation of liirf own, calling themselves the Dnopxge-
zinde, or Rehaptizers. Ho taught the inefficacy of infant baptism or
any other baptism without repentance, contended for the complete sev-
erance of Church and State, aud absolute religious liberty. His follow-
ers were enjoined nut to take the sword and not to resiBt; they swore not
at all ; practiced feet-washing and love-feasts; assumed plain dress and
simple manners; aud punished derelict brethren by putting them under
the ban of avoidance and non-intercuurse. No one could deny the purity
of their lives, their thrift, frugality, and homely virtues. It is strange
that so ha- mlesB a people should have been bo bitterly persecuted;
Menno Simon was hunted like, a, wild beast. One of their historians
says of the sect that "Ah the true pilgrims upon earth, going from place
to place in the hope to find quiet and rest, appear the Meunonites."
Within the last ten years wo have witnessed the migration of many con-
gregations of these peuple all the way from the banks of the Volga to
Kansas and Minnesota rattier than violate their tenet against bearing
arms. — Cf. papers in the Pennsylvania Magazine by Dr. De Hoop Scheffer,
of the College at Amsterdam, Prof. Oswald Seideusticker, Mr. S. W,
Pennypacker, etc.
RAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
115
with their hats on and " testifying'' where they had no
business to open their lips. Still the separatists did
not have an easy time of it, and they looked towards
America long before Penn came here. The Labadists
under Sluyter and Denkers came to Maryland and
founded a community on the Bohemia Manor about
1680. A colony of twenty-five Mennonites had still
earlier (in 1662) settled at Horekills, on the lower
Delaware, under the leadership of Pieter Cornells
Plockhoy, of Zierik Zee, but they were plundered and
driven out two years later by Sir Robert Carr, who took
all their property, " even to a naile." 1 These Mennon-
ites and other, separatist sects were therefore as well
acquainted with the promises held out by America as
Penn could be. There were, moreover, other affinities
and attractions which brought the German and Dutch
Reformers into close connection with the Quakers.
They were not only both of them in the ranks of a
revolt against theology and orthodoxy and scholasti-
cism, but they had also a common meeting-ground
in the concordance of their faith in the supernat-
ural and their doctrine of the inner life. The first
Quakers had learned from Jacob Bohme and Tauler
a great deal of what they preached to English plow-
boys and tradesmen, while the Philadelphia associa-
tions of Pordage and Jane Leadley found accept-
ance with the German mystics. German Quakers,
indeed, defended themselves in the courts upon the
ground that they discovered in the sermons of Fox
and the apologies of Barclay the very doctrines
they had been taught to reverence in the writings
of Johann Tauler and Thomas a Kempis. The
Quakers found much to admire and to imitate in
the teachings of the Pietist Jacob Spener, of Jean de
Labadie, and the learned Anna Maria Schurman.
Indeed, part of Penn's mission in Germany was to
see Elizabeth, granddaughter of King James I. of
England, who was then Abbess of Herford, in West-
phalia, a convert of Spener's, and the protector of
him, Schurman, and the Labadists. She had corre-
sponded with Penn and Fox, and they were eager to
obtain her protection for the Quakers, and to convert
her to their faith.
Fox and his associates held a great meeting of
Dutch Quakers in Amsterdam, and then Penn went
forward to visit his Stuart princess in her abbey of
Herwerden. She was a singular character, daughter
of Frederick V., Palatine of the Rhine, who is known
in Bohemian annals as the " Winter King," because
after reigning a part of the year as elected king of Bo-
hemia, he was defeated in the battle of Prague, and lost
not only his new kingdom, but his ancient principal-
ity and castle of Heidelberg. Elizabeth had a serious,
not to say masculine turn of mind. She took to
mathematics, and established a correspondence with
Descartes, the philosopher. She was offered the hand
1 Pennypacker, Settlement of Geruiantown, in Penna. Magazine, vol.
iv. No. 1.
of the king of Poland if she would become a Cath-
olic, but spurned the offer,.and finally, while misfor-
tune darkened around her house and family, she gave
herself up to pious contemplation in Herwerden.
Penn and his sermons made a powerful impression on
the princess, but she still did not join his society.
He and Barclay then went on to Frankfort, where
they were well received by various sectaries. Their
teachings and plans must have strongly prepossessed
the leading men in these societies, for in the very
year in which Penn sailed for his new province a
German company, known as the Frankfort Company,
and from which Frankford Village takes its name,
was formed. Of the eight original stockholders of
this company in 1682 nearly all were mystics or
Mennonites, or Quaker converts made by Penn during
his visit in 1677. Jacob Van de Walle was the gen-
tleman at whose house Penn met the Pietist Johanna
Eleonora von Merlau, his first convert, both of them
being attendants of Spener's collegia pietatis ; Dr.
J. J. Schiitz, another stockholder, was also one of the
Pietists, and a friend of Fraulein von Merlau ; J. W.
Weberfeldt was a disciple of Bohme ; Dr. Von Maes-
ticht was Penn's Duisburg friend ; Dr. Von Wylich,
one of Spener's college, and the two members from
Lubeck seem to have been Quakers.2 Pastorius, a
member of the reorganized Frankfort Company in
1686, says in his autographic memoir (which is still
in manuscript), "Upon my return to Frankfort in
1682 I was glad to enjoy the company of my former
acquaintances and Christian friends, assembled to-
gether in a house called the Saalhof, . . . who some-
times made mention of William Penn, of Pennsyl-
vania, and showed me letters from Benjamin Furly,
also a printed relation concerning said province;
finally, the whole secret could not be withholden from
me that they had purchased twenty-five thousand
acres of land in this remote part of the world. Some
of them entirely resolved to transport themselves,
families and all. This begat such a desire in my soul
to continue in their society, and with them to lead a
quiet, godly, and honest life in a howling wilderness,
that by several letters I requested of my father his
consent,'' etc. We have gone into these particulars
with something like detail because justice to the
memory of William Penn requires it to be shown con-
clusively that he himself gave the first impulse to the
large and important immigration into Pennsylvania
from Germany. Pastorius founded the first settle-
ment at Germantown, and Pastorius would not have
turned his eyes towards America but for Penn's pow-
erful influence upon his converts and sympathizers
in Germany. From this source has Pennsylvania
derived many of her best citizens, not simply that
honest rural population who build big barns, fatten
large pigs, and sell incomparable butter, while eating
four meals a day with great regularity, but the men
2 Seidensticker, Penn's Travels, Pernio. Magazine, voL ii. No. 3.
116
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of force and intelligence likewise, the people who
rule the State by the combined weight of intellect
and integrity of purpose. Pastorius was one of the
best scholars of his day ; Eittenhuysen built the first
paper-mill in the colonies, and his son was one of the
greatest astronomers who ever lived; Saur's Bible
was printed in German thirty-nine years before any
English edition of the sacred volume had been issued
on this continent, and of the merits of the great
"Martyrs' Mirror" of Ephrata we have already
spoken. The Speaker of the first House of Repre-
sentatives under the Federal Constitution (Frederick
A. Muhlenberg) was of German descent, and so have
been seven of the Governors of Pennsylvania. Indeed,
there are few Pennsylvanians whose families have lived
in the State for three generations who cannot trace
back some of their ancestors to immigrants from the
borders of the Rhine. William Penn brought these
settlers here almost as directly as he brought over his
own English Quakers.
The first impulse to the wave of German immigra-
tion was received at Crefeld, a town on the Rhine,
close to the Netherland country. Crefeld had an
humble population of weavers and craftsmen, among
them Quakers and Mennonites who had endured
many persecutions. Penn visited and comforted these
lowly people in 1677 during his visit to Germany, and
they never forgot his ministrations. When the news
of his scheme for settling the newly acquired prov-
ince reached them, they at once prepared to send
some of their number to recruit his forces. On March
10, 1682,1 Penn conveyed to Jacob Telner and Jan
Streypers, merchants, the first of Crefeld, the second
of a near-by village, and to Dirck Sipman, also of
Crefeld, deeds for five thousand acres of land to each,
to be laid out in Pennsylvania. They were thus in
the class of " first purchasers," entitled to city lots,
which indeed they received. Telner knew what he
was buying, because he had already been in America.
In November, 1682, Pastorius heard of the Frank-
fort Company; he took an active part in its concerns,
went to London as its agent, and there, in May and
June, 1683, bought a tract of fifteen thousand acres
for it, afterwards increasing the quantity of land to
twenty-five thousand acres. The eight original pur-
chasers were Van de Walle, Dr. J. J. Schiitz, J. W.
Ueberfeldt, Daniel Bahagel, Caspar Merian, George
Strauss, Abraham Hosevoet, and Jan Laurens, the
latter an intimate friend of Telner's. When the com-
pany was reorganized in November, 1686, the stock-
holders were Pastorius, Johanna von Merlau, now the
wife of Dr. J. W. Peterson, Dr. Garhard von Maest-
richt, Dr. Thomas von Wylich, Johannes Lebrun,
Balthasar Jawert, and Dr. Johannes Kemler, nearly
all of them Pietists and followers of Spener. Pas-
torius was the only one of these members who came
1 The date lias been challenged, but Mr. Pennypncker, in his paper on
the settlement of Germantown, renna. Mag., vol. iv. No. 1, furnishes
conclusive evidence to establish it.
to America; nor, indeed, does the Frankfort Com-
pany seem to have contributed any of the first immi-
grants to Pennsylvania from Germany. Pastorius,
however, went out before the Crefeld colony, on their
behalf, in part, as much as for the Frankfort Com-
pany, and he is entitled to the credit of being the
founder of Germantown, or, as he preferred to call it,
Germanopolis.
This remarkable man, Francis Daniel Pastorius,
was born in Somerhausen, Germany, Sept. 26, 1651,
and died Sept. 27, 1719. He came of a good family,
of official standing, and he himself was well educated
at the University of Strasburg, the hjgh school of
Basle, and the law-school of Jena. He was well ac-
quainted with the classical languages, and such mod-
ern tongues as French, Dutch, English, and Italian.
He began the practice of law in Frankfort, then trav-
eled for two years in Holland, England, France,
Switzerland, and his own country, returning to
Frankfort just in time to hear of Penn's new-born
province, and put himself at the head of the German
movement towards it. He sailed from London for
Pennsylvania on June 10, 1683, and reached Phila-
delphia August 20th. In 1688 he married, becoming
the father of two sons. His learning, social position,
and administrative ability easily made him conspicu-
ous in Germantown. He wrote much, and had much
to do in promoting the cause of education, being him-
self a school-teacher as well as poet, historian, and
humorist.
On June 11, 1683, Penn sold one thousand acres of
land each to Govert Remke, Lenart Arets, and Jacob
Isaacs van Bebber, a baker, all of Crefeld. These
joined forces with Telner, Streypers, and Sipman,
and arranged to settle a colony in Pennsylvania, the
condition of their purchase from Penn being, indeed,
that they should settle a certain number of families
on their land within a specified time. A colony of
thirteen families, thirty-three persons in all, was got
together, including Van Bebber, Streypers, Arets, three
Op den Graafs, with Thomas Kunders, Reynier Tyson,
Jan Seimans, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes.
Bleikers, Jan Lucken, and Abraham Tunes, nearly
all connected with one another or with the pur-
chasers of the tract. They went to Rotterdam, and
after some delays sailed from London in the ship
" Concord" on July 24, 1683, in company with Penn's
friend, James Claypoole, his family, and the settlers
he was taking out. The greater part of the pur-
chasers as well as of the settlers were Mennonites,
" religious good people," as Richard Townshend, the
Quaker preacher, who came over in the " Welcome,"
denominates them. Several of them were weavers
by trade.
The pioneers had a pleasant voyage. " The bless-
ing of the Lord did attend us," says Claypoole; and
Johannes Bleikers had one more in his family when
they reached Philadelphia on October 6th than there
were when the ship sailed. October 12th Pastorius
RAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
117
secured a warrant for six thousand acres of land, of
which five thousand three hundred and twenty acres
were laid off by Thomas Fairman into fourteen lots.
These lots were drawn for by the adventurers on
October 25th, the scene of the division being the
cave occupied by Pastorius. The settlers were rein-
forced by Jurian Hartsfelder, who had been sheriff
under Andross and received from him a patent for
land. They at once began to dig cellars and erect
their huts for the winter, naturally having to endure
many hardships and privations. In the words of
Pastorius, "it could not be described, nor would it
be believed by coming generations in what want and
need and with what Christian contentment and per-
sistent industry this German township started." Some
other immigrants arrived, including Telner, who re-
mained on the spot for thirteen years, the central
figure of the emigration. He was a merchant in
extensive business in Amsterdam, and his widespread
mercantile connections gave him great facilities in
promoting the work of colonization. Mennonite as
he was, we find him going on a proselyting tour in
New England with a Quaker preacher. His chief
estate in Pennsylvania was on the Skippack, and
was long called "Telner's township." Peter Schu-
macher, of Kriesheim, founder of a leading family,
came over and settled in Germantown in 1685; the
Kassels in 1686, in which year also a Quaker meeting-
house was built, used both by the Friends and the
Mennonites. Pastorius had before this constructed a
house for himself on the city lot drawn by him, but
he could not afford anything but oiled paper for his
windows, and over his door he placed the inscription:
" Parva domus, arnica bonis, procul este prqfani," — the
reading of which tickled Penn's sense of humor.
Streypers seems to have boasted of the fact that he
had two pair of leather breeches, two leather doub-
lets, stockings, and a, new hat. In 1684, Cornelis
Bom, one of Telner's first party, kept a notion-shop,
and increased his gains by peddling among the In-
dians. He paid neither rent, taxes, nor excise, and
owned a negro whom he had bought. His pigs and
poultry multiplied rapidly; he owned horse and cow,
and reported himself and wife to be "in good spirits."
Bom's daughter married Anthony Morris, and from
her are descended the distinguished Pennsylvania
family bearing that name. William Rittinghuysen,
who came over in 1687, was a Mennonite preacher,
but his family had long followed paper-making, and
in 1690 William erected on the Wissahickon that
paper-mill which supplied paper to William Brad-
ford, the earliest printer in the Middle Colonies.
Dirck Keyser came over and settled in Germantown
in 1688, a descendant of that Leonard Keyser, said to
be one of the Waldenses, who was burned to death
as a Mennonite at Scharding in 1527. In 1688 also
we find Pastorius, the Op den Graaffs (now Upde-
graffs), and Gerhardt Hendricks sending to the
Friends' meeting-house the first public protest ever
made on this continent against the holding of slaves,
or, as they uncompromisingly styled it, " the traffick
of men's body." They compare negro slavery to
slavery under Turkish pirates, and cannot see that
one is better than the other. " There is a saying that
we shall doe to all men licke as we will be done our-
selves ; making no difference of what generation,
descent, or Colour they are. And those who steal or
robb men, and those who buy or purchase them, are
they not all alicke 1 Here is liberty of Conscience, well '
is right and reasonable ; here ought to be likewise liberty of
y' body, except of evil doers, wchch is another case. . . .
In Europe there are many oppressed for Conscience
sake ; and here there are those oppressed wob are of a
black Colour." This memorial is said to be in the
handwriting of Pastorius. At the date when it was
written New England was doing a handsome business
in the Guinea trade, the slave depots being located
chiefly at Newport, where the gangs and "coffies"
for the Southern market were made up, and Dr.
Samuel Hopkins, the earliest New Englander to pro-
test formally and earnestly against this "traffick of
men's body," was not born until thirty-nine years
later. All honor therefore to these honest first set-
tlers of Germantown, who asked categorically " Have
these negers not as much right to fight for their free-
dom as you have to keep them slaves?" and asked
further to be informed what right Christians have to
maintain slavery, "to the end we shall be satisfied in
this point, and satisfie likewise our good friends and
acquaintances in our natif country, to whom it is a
terrour or fairfull thing that men should be handeld
so in Pensilvania." The Quakers were embarrassed
by the memorial and its blunt style of interrogatory.
It was submitted to the Monthly Meeting at Dublin
township, "inspected," and found so "weighty" that
it was passed on to the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting,
which " recommended" it to the Yearly Meeting at
i Burlington, which adjudged it "not to be so proper
for this meeting to give a Positive Judgment in the
case, It having so General a Relation to many other
Parts, and, therefore, at present they forbore it." So
the matter slept.
The German town grew, sent out offshoots, had its
representatives in the Assembly, — Pastorius and Abra-
ham Opden Graeff, — was incorporated as a borough in
1691, with Pastorius for bailiff, Telner and others bur-
gesses, etc., and had power to hold a court and mar-
ket, lay fines, and enact ordinances. The people were
called together once a year and had the laws read to
them, but the little town had great trouble in find-
ing officers willing to serve. As Loher said, " they
would do nothing but work and pray, and their mild
conscience made them opposed to the swearing of
oaths and courts, and would not suffer them to use
harsh weapons against thieves and trespassers."
Work, however, they would, and did with great in-
dustry and great success. Their fine linen was highly
esteemed, and so many of them were spinners and
118
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
weavers that Pastorius, in devising a town seal, se-
lected a trefoil of clover, one leaf bearing a vine, one a
stalk of flax, the third a weaver's spool, with the
motto, "Vinum, Linum, et Textrimtm." Was ever a
happier community known in the world's history?
Names of new settlers are noticeable every year, —
Jan Jansen, next printer after Bradford, whose im-
print is now worth its weight in gold, Kuster, But-
ter, De la Plaine, Pettinger, etc. In 1694 there came
to Germantown an old man and his wife. He was
blind and poor, and his name was Cornelis Plockhoy,
the founder and last survivor of the Mennonite colony
broken up thirty years before at the Horekills by Sir
Robert Carr. The good people of Germantown took
pity on him. They gave him a few rods of ground
for habitation and garden, built him a house, planted
a tree before it, and collected a free-will offering for
the support of the aged wanderers, who had found a
home at last. What a sweet peace seems to pervade
these simple annals of the earliest German settle-
ments in Pennsylvania. No wonder the pastoral pipe
of John G. Whittier gave forth music of its own
accord in the presence of such a natural'idyl. Alas,
however, for the little span of time during which
such dreams retain their brightness. In 1701, before
even the school-house took its place in the quiet com-
munity, Germantown was building a prison, and re-
pairing the stocks with a new and stronger frame-
work.
The Welsh, some of whom came over in the class
of first purchasers, began before Penn's return to
England to come more collectively, and to establish
separate plantations of their own. They lauded
chiefly at Chester in the beginning, and established
themselves at Merion and Eadnor and Haverford.
Their names still abound, not only in the sections
west of Schuylkill but also in many parts of Phila-
delphia and Bucks Counties. John ap Bevan, a pil-
lar of Haverford Meeting in 1683, Davies, David,
Edwards, Ellis (also a settler in Haverford in 1683),
Evan, Evans, Harry, Hayes, Hent, Howell (of Cas-
tlebigt, Pembrokeshire, came over in 1682), Hugh,
Humphrey, all early settlers at Eadnor, Haverford,
or Merion. So with the Jameses, Jarmans, Mere-
diths, Jenkinses, Lewises, Lloyds (of whom Thomas,
the first comer, was Penn's Deputy Governor, keeper
of the seals, and chief justice), Miles, Morgan, Morris,
Powell, Price, Pugh, Rutherick, Rees, Richard, Shar-
pus, etc. The Welsh were among the earliest pur-
chasers of large tracts of land from Penn, and they
have given permanent names to many localities. They
settled all the high ground between Darby Creek
and the Schuylkill, and their natural clannishness
made them desire to seat themselves close to one an-
other. This was the origin of the " barony" called
the " Welsh tract," containing forty thousand acres,
surveyed by Holme, under instructions from Penn
dated at Pennsbury, 13th of March, 1684. Not far
behind the Welsh came the Scotch-Irish, whose chief
immigration, however, does not fall within the period
now being described.
Penn, as has been seen, was transacting business at
Pennsbury in March, 1684. He had been long parted
from his family, and his affairs in England were not
in a good condition. He had done much for his prov-
ince and its chief city on the spot — the site along the
Delaware which was barely inhabited in 1682 — now
contained three hundred houses, and the province had
a population of seven thousand. He now thought it
good for him to return for a season to England, espe-
cially as there was the place in which he might more
safely hope to effect a settlement of the vexatious
boundary disputes with Lord Baltimore, whose agents
had invaded the lower counties, built a fort within
five miles of New Castle, and were collecting taxes
and rents and dispossessing tenants in that section.
Calvert himself had gone to England in March, and
Penn wrote to the Duke of York that he meant to fol-
low him as fast as he could. Accordingly he prepared
to leave the province, reorganizing the church disci-
pline of his co-religionaries, and looking after the
fiscal system of his civil government in a practical
and able way. To the Friends in the province he
said, in a circular letter addressed to them, that God
had a work for them to do, and he wished them to be
faithful to the measure of grace received. " Have a
care of cumber," he entreated them, "and the love
and care of the world. It is the temptation that lieth
nearest to those who are redeemed from looseness, or
not addicted to it." He wanted them to be watchful
over themselves, helpful to one another, circumspect
and zealous. The eye of the Lord was upon them,
the eye of the world also, to see " how we live, how we
rule, and how we obey ; and joy would it be to some
to see us halt, hear evil tidings of our proceedings, as
it would be a heavy and an unspeakable grief to
those that wish well to our Zion." The Lord had
brought them there, he said, had tried them with
liberty and with power ; precious opportunities were
in their hands, and they should not lose these through
perversity, but sanctify God in their heart, so that no
enchantment might prevail against Jacob nor divina-
tion against Israel ; " but your tents shall be goodly
and your dwellings glorious, which is the daily hum-
ble supplication of my soul to God and your God, and
to my Father and your Father, who are, with unfeigned
love in that lasting relation, your tender, faithful
friend and brother."
The ketch " Endeavor," just arrived from England
with letters and dispatches, was got ready to carry
the Governor back again. He commissioned the
Provincial Council to act in his stead while he was
away, intrusting the great seal to Thomas Lloyd, the
president. Nicholas More, William Welch, Wil-
liam Wood, Robert Turner, and John Eckly were
made provincial judges for two years; Markham was
secretary of Council, and James Harrison was stew-
ard of the house and manor of Pennsbury. He em-
RAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
119
barked at and sailed from Philadelphia Aug. 12,
1684, sending from on board the vessel ere she
sailed a final letter of parting to Lloyd, Claypoole,
Simcock, Christopher Taylor, and James Harri-
son, in which he expresses the deepest affection
for those faithful friends, and sends them his prayers
and blessings. They had many responsibilities
upon their shoulders, and he hoped they would
do their duty. The letter concluded with a fer-
vent prayer for Philadelphia, "the virgin settle-
ment of the province, named before thou wert born."
Penn arrived in England on the 3d of October, and
did not again see his virgin city and his beloved
province until 1699. The causes that detained him,
the cares that consumed him during that long divorce,
have been elsewhere detailed.
Penn had given a great deal of attention and time
to the proper and symmetrical division of his terri-
tories. His sense of the value of real estate was
strong, and his grasp of property was firm, as the
great number of manors and lots reserved for himself
and family proves. The manor of Springettsbury lay
between Vine Street and Pegg's Run, from Delaware
to Schuylkill, widening at Ridge road, and contained,
eighteen hundred and thirty acres. It was clipped
and cut down by grants and sales, however, until, in
the final partition of Penn's estates in 1787, only one-
tenth part of the original tract remained. Nicholas
More, president of the Free Society of Traders, and
one of Penn's judges, was the first purchaser who
had a manor granted to him. This was a tract of
9815 acres on a branch of the Poquessing Creek,
granted in November, 1682. It was called the manor
and township of Moreland, and lay partly in Bucks
County. Mountjoy, another manor, was laid out in
1683 for Penn's daughter Letitia. It contained 7800
acres, and extended from the Welsh tract to the
Schuylkill. It was afterwards included in Upper
Merion township. Opposite Mountjoy, on the east
side of the Schuylkill, was the manor of Williamstadt,
granted to William Penn, Jr., who sold it, during his
brief and debauched sojourn in the province, to Isaac
Norris. It became the township of Norriton. Spring-
field Manor, laid out for Gulielma Maria Penn, was
northeast of Germantown ; Gilbert's Manor, one of
Penn's reservations, was on east side of Schuylkill,
over against the present town of Phcenixville ; above
Mountjoy was William Lowther's manor of Billion,
while Penn had, besides, Highlands and Pennsbury
Manors, in Bucks, and Rockland Manor, in New
Castle County, between Naaman's and Brandywine
Creeks.1
The township of Byberry was in the northeast of
Philadelphia County, bounded by Poquessing Creek.
This was settled by the Wal tons before Penncameover,
some of the " Welcome's" passengers locating in it like-
wise. West and northwest of Byberry was Moreland ;
1 "Westcott's History of Philadelphia, chap, xxvii.
below it, fronting on the Delaware and cut in two by
Pennepack Creek, was Dublin township, the lands in
which were taken up by Fairman, Waddy, Lehman
(Penn's private secretary), and in general by a body
of English Quakers, who also occupied Oxford town-
ship, justbelow it on the Delaware. The Northern Lib-
erties lay north of Springettsbury Manor, including
Hartsfelder's tract, north of the Cohoquinoque, and
Shackamaxon, extending clear across the peninsula
from Schuylkill to Delaware. Bristol township ad-
joined Bucks County,having Tacony Creek on theeast
and Germantown south and west of it. The lands in
this township were taken up by such men as Samuel
Carpenter, Richard Townshend, William Frampton,
John Ashman, Thomas Rutter, John Day, John Song-
hurst, Samuel Benezet, Griffith Jones, etc. The West-
ern Liberties, afterwards part of Blockley township,
lay south of Merion, extending from Schuylkill to
the county line. Kingsessing was a township lying in
the parallelogram formed by Bow Creek, Karakung
Creek, the Delaware, and Schuylkill. West of Ger-
mantown, east of Schuylkill, was Roxborough town-
ship, settled by Claypoole, Turner, Lane, etc. Some
of the intervening tracts lying in and between these
manors and townships were taken up by Capt. Mark-
ham, Jasper Farmer, Philip Ford, Benjamin Cham-
bers, Jacob Pelles, Samuel Buckley, Sir Matthias
Vincent, Adrian Vrouzen, Benjamin Furlong, etc.
Purchasers of river-front lots had the idea that
they would acquire with them riparian rights, or else
that Penn meant to reserve all the river-front and the
levee between Front Street and the Delaware for the
common use of the inhabitants of the city. Penn,
however, had simply reserved them for himself, and,
as the city began to grow up, he leased these lots, for
wharf and warehouse purposes, at very good figures.
Samuel Carpenter paid twenty shillings rent for two
hundred and fifty feet on the river, a quay to be
built there, and the lease not to fall in until the ex-
piration of fifty-one years, the tenant to pave a thirty-
foot roadway for all passengers, keep the wharf and
bank in repair, and build two stairways from the top
of the bank to the river's brink. Robert Turner got
a similar patent for a wharf between High and Mul-
berry Streets, while the Free Society of Traders
secured the river front south of Dock Creek. Many
more bank and wharf grants were made, some of
them leading to a great deal of complaint, fault-find-
ing, petitioning, and litigation.
Philip Ford, in May, 1682, made up for Holme's use
a list of first purchasers and the acres they had taken,
the total sales amounting to 565,500 acres. This list
Holme was to use in apportioning the city lots, a task
of no little difficulty. Holme, however, numbered
the lots on his plat and divided them among the
purchasers, the choice of localities being bestowed in
proportion to the size of tracts bought. The pur-
chasers of 1000 acres or more were given lots on
Front and High Streets. Of these there were 81
120
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
lots apportioned, some of them, however, to five, six,
seven, and eight parties, who had " pooled" their
purses so as to get a body of land of 1000 acres and
the advantage in choice of town lots. The Delaware
back lots, numbering 193, were apportioned to pur-
chasers of less than 1000 acres ; the front lots on
Schuylkill, which were apportioned in the same way,
numbered 84, and the back lots 150.1
The proceedings of Council and Assembly between
1684 and 1699, while they might fill several pages in
a volume of annals, may be summed up in a few
paragraphs in a history such as this. The transac-
tions were, as a. rule, not very important, and the
major part of the record, outside of the regular
routine of appointments, etc., is taken up with the
quarrels of public officers among themselves and the
complaints of the people against Penn and the gov-
ernment generally. A French ship with irregular
papers was seized, condemned, and sold by order of
Council under the English navigation laws. There
must have been a great many vessels on the coast and
in the bays at this time which could not give a good
account of themselves, and complaints of piracy are
loud and frequent, the colonial governments being
sometimes accused of undue leniency in their deal-
ings with the freebooters. Governor Fletcher, of New
York, who was also Governor of Pennsylvania during
the suspension of Penn's authority in May, 1693, was
on friendly terms with Kidd and others, and Nichols,
one of his Council, was commonly charged with being
agent of the sea-rovers. Governor Markham's alleged
son-in-law, James Brown, was denied his seat in the
Assembly, and put in prison for sailing in a pirate's
vessel. The people of Lewes openly dealt with Kidd,
exchanging their provisions for his fine goods. Teach,
called Blackbeard, was often about the Delaware, and
it was charged that he and the Governor of North
Carolina and other officials of that State were alto-
gether too intimate.
The Council provided in 1685 for a ferry-boat, large
enough for horses and cattle, across the Schuylkill at
High Street, proof enough of the town's rapid growth.
Another evidence is to be found in the provisions for
a night-watch, and in a letter from Penn, written in
July, 1685, showing that he was very observant of
affairs in the city he had founded, and was well in-
formed of matters there. He had heard much com-
plaint, he said, about the number of drinking-houses
and of loose conduct in the "caves." He required
that ordinaries should be reduced in numbers without
respect of persons and no matter what objections
1 We give on the fac-simile of "Holme's Portraiture of the City of
Philrtdelpliia1* a complete list of the lots and the names and original
residences of the purchasers to whom they were apportioned. Such
lists are full of material for the antiquarian atid the genealogist. The
llucertainties and contradictory opinions and views in regard to the time
and manner of these apportionments are fully and ably discussed by
Mr. Lawrence Lewis in his "Original Land Titles in Philadelphia."
Some of the obscurities of the matter, however, seem to defy research and
baffle conjecture.
arose, and that only respectable landlords, and such
as are most tender of God's glory and the reputation
of the province, should be allowed to continue in
business. As for the caves, they should be purged.
They were his property ; he had let persons occupy
them for limited times (three years) while building,
that they might not be houseless, but their time was
up, they should be cleared, and the caves held for the
use of other deserving persons immigrating under
similar circumstances. "Whatever ye do," adds
Penn, " let vertue be cherisht." The tavern-keepers
were summoned before the Council and compelled to
give security to keep good order. There were seven
of these at this time, one of whom was ordered to
"seek some other way for a livelihood." The cave-
dwellers also received notice to get themselves house-
room and vacate these cheap premises. These caves
are matters of curious interest to the antiquarian. It
is not unlikely, as has been shown on a previous page,
that some of these excavations, if not the most of
them, had been made by Indians for their winter-
quarters. The falling in of any part of a river-bank,
in consequence of freshets or changes in the current
of the stream, would expose the extensive burrowings
of muskrats and other animals, and suggest their en-
largement to the savages for their own use. For de-
fense or concealment in case of raids by hostile tribes
nothing more serviceable could be devised. The
Swedes dwelt in such caves in some instances at least,
and in 1682 probably one-third the new settlers on
the site of Philadelphia wintered in them, of course
enlarging them and making them more comfortable.
In 1685 these caves seem to have become low resorts,
taverns, and the like. One of them at least was
occupied by Joseph Knight, the publican whom the
Council had refused to allow to continue his traffic.
The grand jury presented him and the whole cave
system, and the excavations were gradually filled up
by throwing down upon them the superincumbent
bank.
Penn's noticeable tact and skill as a peace-maker
and composer of personal difficulties were sadly
missed after his departure for England. The As-
sembly and Council got into a serious squabble in
consequence of a difference about the prerogatives
and dignity of the two bodies. Chief Justice Nich-
olas More, though an able and probably upright
man, was dictatorial and arbitrary as well as quarrel-
some. He was not a Quaker, but he used very plain
language sometimes, and was free-spoken. Him the
Assembly formally impeached before Council on June
15, 1685, upon the ground of various malpractices
and misdemeanors, chiefly technical, or growing out
of his blunt manners. More was himself a member
of the Assembly from Philadelphia City and County,2
and that body invited him by vote to retire from the
2 The delegation consisted of Nicholas More, Joseph Growden, Bar-
naby Wilcox, Lawrence Cock, Gunner Rambo, and Thomas Paschall.
RAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
121
sessions while his case was under consideration. His
court clerk, Patrick Robinson, was ordered to fetch
the records ot the court and refused, so the sheriff
took him in charge. More was also sent for to come
to the Assembly, but he replied that the House had
voted him out and it would have to vote him in again.
He was forthwith expelled, and Clerk Robinson de-
clared a public enemy of the province and the privi-
leges of the General Assembly. He was finally com-
pelled to go to the bar of the House, where he de-
clared that there were no records of the court save
such as he kept in Latin abbreviations, a short-hand
of his own, which no one but himself, not even au
" angel from heaven," could read. Further pressed,
he threw himself full length on the floor, and be-
came utterly obstreperous and unmanageable, where-
upon it was resolved to ask the Provincial Council
to make him ineligible to hold office thereafter. This
sort of thing was hardly decorous in any
sort of legislature, and must have been
particularly offensive in view of the fact
that the Assembly held its sessions in the
" Bank" meeting-house. A Quaker meet-
ing-house is ever the abode of silence,
only broken by inspiration, and such
scenes as these with Robinson must have
been very offensive to the strict Friends.
But the Council was slow to follow the
lead of the House. More was twice sum-
moned to appear before the Council, but
would not, and was suspended from his
judicial functions until he made answer to
the articles of impeachment. Robinson's
language was declared to be indecent and
unallowable, but the Council declined to
remove him from office until convicted
of what was alleged against him. This
was proper enough, but did not suit the
Assembly, which appointed a committee
to wait on Council and prosecute the impeachment.
These gentlemen, Abraham Man and John Blunston,
demanded to know if the Council had not forgotten
themselves in not bringing Judge More to trial,
whereupon the Council suggested that the committee
had forgotten themselves in coming before it without
a petition, and they were dismissed after a sharp rep-
rimand. Penn was much vexed at these petty brawls.
" For the love of God, me, and the poor country," he
wrote to Lloyd, " be not so governmentish, so noisy and
open in your dissatisfaction."
Penn at this time, besides his grave concerns at
court, was busy looking after the home interests of
his province on one side and its external interests on
the other, now shipping wine, beer, seeds, and trees
to Pennsylvania, anon publishing in London accounts
and descriptions of the province and excerpts of letters
received from its happy settlers. The proprietary was
never fatigued even by the most minute details in any
matter in which he desired to succeed, and his letters
show that he anticipated and thought about every-
thing. His supervision was needed, for Council, As-
sembly, and Governor seem to have been equally in-
competent to do anything besides quarrel and disagree
in regard to privilege. In fact, underneath these
trivial bickerings a great struggle was going on be-
tween the representatives of the freemen of the prov-
ince and the sponsors for Penn's personal interests and
his proprietary prerogative. This contest lasted long,
and Penn's friends in the end, without serving his po-
litical interests materially, contrived to deal his per-
sonal interests a cruel blow, by exciting the people of
the province to hostile feelings against him, and pro-
voking them to withhold rents and purchases, and re-
duce his income in every possible way. Penn himself
wrote to Lloyd, in 1686, that the ill fame the province
had gained on account of its bickerings had lost it
fifteen thousand immigrants, who would have gone
THE BANK MEETING-HOUSE.
thither had its affairs appeared more settled, but as it
was they went to North Carolina instead.
In 1687, James Claypoole became a member of
Council for Philadelphia County, and its representa-
tives in Assembly were Humphrey Murray, William
Salway, John Bevan, Lacy Cock, Francis Daniel
Pastorius, and Joseph Paul ; John Eckley, Thomas
Ellis, John Goodson, William Southerby, Barnabas
Wilcox, Joshua Cart, and John Shelten receiving com-
missions as justices of the peace. The growth of the
city is illustrated by the greater pains taken to buoy
out the harbor and ship-channel and by the increased
desire of the public to have improved roads. The road
from Moyamensing to Philadelphia had already been
complained of; now, in Council, a cart-road was or-
dered to be laid out between Philadelphia and Ply-
mouth township, and the Radnor people wanted the
fences from their township to the Schuylkill to be re-
moved where they obstructed the road commonly used.
A board of road-viewers was appointed at once to lay
122
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
out public roads from the Ferry to Radnor, and
another to Darby township. The Assembly, which
met in May, also passed a, resolution to the effect that
" the President and Council be requested to take care
that necessary public roads be everywhere set forth
and duly maintained, but more especially in the
county of Philadelphia, that travelling for man and
beast be made easie, safe, and certain." Already
Penn had found it necessary to protect, by the ap-
pointment of a woodsman, the woodland and timber
on his reservations from the wholesale depredations
of timber-getters and squatters, and he now instructed
Markham to have the offenders prosecuted, in order
to prevent the town from being surrounded with
thickets of brush and undergrowth that would afford
GKEAT SEAL OF THE PROVINCE OP PENNSYLVANIA IN 1712, OBVERSE AND REVERSE,
[Reduced one-half. J
a, harbor to vermin and tramps. The first regular jail
seems to have been built this year, though, in 1683,
William Clayton had constructed a " cage" for offen-
ders. Lacy Cock built a log jail on Second Street,
near Market. After it was built, however, it did not
suit, and a house belonging to the recalcitrant clerk,
Patrick Robinson, was rented instead. The new
prison was built in the middle of Market Street, near
Second. In 1702 this and the yard attached to it were
presented by the grand jury as nuisances. This part
of the wide area of Market Street was a grassy com-
mon, used by the town butcher for pasturing his sheep
before they were slaughtered. Their carcasses, after
the animals were slaughtered, were displayed for sale
in the same place on a movable stall.
In February. 1687, Penn took the executive power
away from the Council and intrusted it to a commis-
sion of five persons, — Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas More,
James Claypoole, Robert Turner, and John Eckly,
any three to have power to act. He sent over many in-
structions to this board, among others to compel the
Council to their charter attendance or dissolve them
without further ado and choose others, " for I will no
more endure their most slothful and dishonorable at-
tendance." The commissioners were enjoined to keep
up the dignity of their station, in Council and out, and
not to permit any disorders either in Council or Assem-
bly, and not to allow any parleys or conferences be-
tween the two Houses, but curiously inspect the pro-
ceedings of both. They were further in Penn's name
to disavow all laws passed since his absence, and to call
a new Assembly to repass, modify, and alter the laws.
When this commission was received, in February, 1688,
both More and Claypoole were dead. Their places
were supplied by Arthur Cook and John Simcock,
and the new elections ordered gave Samuel Richard-
son the appointment of member of Council for three
years, while Thomas Hooten, Thomas Fitzwalter, Lasse
Cock, James Fox, Griffith Owen, and William South-
ersby were chosen membersof Assembly. The contests
for privilege between Council and Assembly were at
once renewed ; the Assembly swore its members to di-
vulge no proceedings, and practically made its sessions
secret; the Council asserted
its ancient prerogatives; in
short, the quarrel was inter-
minable except by what would
be practically revolution, for
on one side was a written char-
ter and a system of iron-bound
laws, on the other the popu-
lar determination, growing
stronger every day, to secure
for the freemen of the prov-
ince and their representatives
a larger share in the major
concerns of government and
legislation. The commission,
in fact, would not work upon
trial, and before the year was out Penn sent over a
Governor for the province, an old officer under the
Commonwealth and Cromwell, and son-in-law of that
Gen. Lambert who at onetime was Monk's rival, — by
name John Blackwell.
Governor Blackwell had a troublesome career in
office. For a peaceable, non-resistant people, the
Pennsylvania settlers had as many domestic difficul-
ties on their hands as ever any happy family had.
As soon as Blackwell was inducted he was brought in
collision with Thomas Lloyd, who would not give up
the great seal of the province, and declined to affix it
to any commissions or documents of which he did not
approve. As the misunderstanding grew deeper, the
old issue of prerogative came up again, and it was
declared that Blackwell was not Governor, for the
reason that, under the charter, Penn could not create
a Governor, but only appointa Deputy Governor. An
effort was made to expel from the Council a mem-
ber who had insisted upon this view of the case; it
failed, the Governor dissolved the Council, and at the
next session the people re-elected John Richardson,
the offending member, whom, however, Blackwell re-
fused to permit to take his seat. From this the
quarrel went on until we find Lloyd and Blackwell
removing and reappointing officers, and the public
officers declining to submit their records to the Coun-
cil and the courts. Lloyd was elected member of
EAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
123
Council from Bucks County, and Blackwell refused
to let him take his seat, which brought on a violent
controversy. The general discussion of privilege and
prerogative in connection with these differences led
Bradford, the printer, to print for general use an edi-
tion of the " Form of Government and the Great
Law," so that everybody might see for himself the
right and the wrong of the matters in dispute. The
expense of the publication, it is said, was borne by
Joseph Growdon, a member of Council. It was con-
sidered a dangerous and incendiary act, and Bradford
was summoned before the Council and closely interro-
gated, but he would not admit that he had printed
the document, though he was the only person in the
province who could have done it. There was a
Council quarrel over this thing too, some men quoting
Penn as favoring publicity for the acts of Assembly,
anotherproclaiming his dread of the press, because the
charter, in fact, made him a sort of independent prince.
The result was the Council broke up in confusion, and
for some time could not get a quorum together. The
Assembly, meeting May 10th, was suddenly adjourned
for the same reason, the popular party having dis-
covered that by a negative, non-resistance policy of
this sort the Governor's plans and purposes were par-
alyzed. There were no meetings of either Council or
Assembly from the latter part of May till the last of
August. Then Blackwell sprung upon the Council a
great rumor of terrible things in store for the prov-
ince: the Indians and Papists had leagued together;
the Northern Indians were coming down the Susque-
hanna, and the lower counties were already muster-
ing to resist the invasion of an army of nine thousand
men on their way from Maryland to destroy Phila-
delphia. Blackwell wanted instant authority to levy
a force for defense, but the Quakers took things
rather more quietly. They did not want an army, and
they did not believe the rumors. Clark said if any
such scheme of invasion had ever been entertained it
was now dead. Peter Alrichs said there was nothing
to be scared about. John Simcock did not see " but
what we are as safe, keeping peaceable, as those who
have made all this strife." Griffith Jones said there
was no cause of danger if they kept quiet. In fact,
the Council not only objected to a levy, but they
laughed at Blackwell's apprehensions. Markham
said that all such talk had no effect but to scare the
women and children. The Governor found he could
do nothing, and adjourned the Council.
Next came news that James II. was dethroned and
William of Orange king of England. The Council
was called together, and the honest Quakers, not feel-
ing sure which king they were under, determined
neither to celebrate nor wear mourning, but to wait
events, the Council amusing themselves in the mean
time by keeping up their old feuds. Shrewsbury's letter
announcing the new king's intention to make imme-
diate war on the French king was laid before Council
Oct. 1,1689, and was accompanied with the usual warn-
ing about defensive measures and the need for com-
mercial vessels to sail in company and under the pro-
tection of convoys. William and Mary were at once
formally proclaimed in the province, and a fresh dis-
cussion arose in regard to the proper defensive meas-
ures and the necessity for an armed militia. The
Quakers were utterly opposed to any sort of military
preparations. If they armed themselves, it was urged,
the Indians would at once rise. "As we are," said
sensible Simcock, " we are in no danger but from
bears and wolves. We are well and in peace and
quiet. Let us keep ourselves so. I know naught but
a peaceable spirit and that will do well." Griffith
Jones, moreover, showed how much the thing would
cost and how it would increase taxation. Finally,
after long discussions, the Quakers withdrew from
active opposition, and the preparations for defense
were left to the discretion of the Governor. William
Penn himself was now in deep difficulties and partly
a fugitive in hiding. He was afraid to act openly any
longer as the Governor of the province. Accordingly
he made another change, and when Governor Black-
well called the Council together on Jan. 1, 1690, it
was to inform them that he had been relieved of his
office. He seemed glad to be free. " 'Tis a good day,"
he said ; " I have given and doe unfeignedly give God
thanks for it (woh are not only words), for, to say no
worse, I was very unequally yoked." Penn, in re-
lieving Blackwell, sent his commission to the Coun-
cil, authorizing them to select three persons from
whom he would choose a Governor; until his choice
was made the one having the highest number of votes
was to act, for which end another commission was
sent over, signed and sealed in blank. In sending
his instructions to the Council along with these com-
missions, Penn wrote : " Whatever you do, I desire,
beseech, and charge you all to avoyd fractions and
parties, Whisperings and reportings, and all animosi-
ties, that, putting your Common Shoulder to y" Pub-
lick Work, you may have the Peward of Good Men
and Patriots, and so I bid you heartily ffarewell."
No better work was done at this period than the
establishment of the first public school in Pennsyl-
vania and Philadelphia, founded in 1689 under Penn's
directions to Thomas Lloyd. This grammar school
was put in charge of George Keith, a well-known
Quaker preacher of Scotch descent, who had accom-
panied Penn and Fox to Germany in 1677, and was
later to cause a great religious controversy in the
province by becoming the leader of a society of
Friends who dissented from some of the tenets and
practices of the Orthodox. His assistant was Benja-
min Makin, who became principal when Keith abaa-
doned pedagogy for polemics. Keith's salary was
£50 per annum, with dwelling-house and school-
house provided, and the profits of the school besides
for one year. If he thought fit to stay longer and
teach the children of the poor without charge, his
salary was to be doubled for two years. The school was
124
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
afterwards chartered by enterprising citizens such as
Samuel Carpenter, Anthony Morris, Edward Shippen,
James Fox, David Lloyd, William Southby, and John
Jones, and adopted a characteristic seal, with an open
book containing the Greek motto " $tAe tc aA/bjAouf " and
the inscription, "Good Instruction is better than
Riches." The building stood on Fourth Street, below
Chestnut, and this old Philadelphia High School had
a high reputation fur a great many years, numbering
among its teachers, besides Keith and Makin, such
men as D. J. Dove, Robert Proud, the historian, Wil-
liam Wanney, Jeremiah Todd, and Charles Thom-
son, the secretary of the Continental Congress.
The Council, acting upon Penn's instructions and
commission, on Jan. 2, 3 690, elected Thomas Lloyd
president and de facto Deputy Governor. Lloyd was
also chosen justice of the peace for Philadelphia,
along with John Eckly, Robert Turner, William Sal-
way, Barnaby Wilcox, Francis Rawle, John Holme,
and Lasse Cock. The Provincial Councilors elected
for Philadelphia, May 31st, were Griffith Owen and
Thomas Duckett, for the remaining term of John
Eckly ; Assemblymen, William Salway, Humphrey
Murray, Thomas Fitzwalter, Charles Pickering, Paul
Sanders, and Abraham Op de GraafF. The old French
war, accompanied as it was with many atrocities by
Indians near the border, gave the Philadelphians
great concern about this time, but the Friends still
continued to maintain their pacific and non-resisting
attitude. In internal administration they were not
so successful. To personal feuds were now added
local jealousies. The lower Delaware counties were
envious of the growth of Philadelphia, Bucks, and
Chester. The traditions and manners of the different
sections had little similarity. Finally the bad feeling
grew so strong as to lead to secession. The Delaware
counties (or "territories," as they were called) held a
separate Council, elected their own judges, and finally
compelled Penn, in 1691, much against his will, to
divide the government, which he did by continuing
Lloyd as Deputy Governor of the province, and ap-
pointing Markham Deputy Governor of the terri-
tories. George Keith also had at this time begun to
agitate in behalf of his schism. He was a man of
learning, but fierce, contentious, turbulent, and vin-
dictive. A good preacher, his language was rude,
coarse, aud malignant, and he had every trait of the
agitator in his character. Keith was an extremist.
He held that Quakers could not consistently or law-
fully take any part in the administration of civil gov-
ernment, therefore, in other words, that a Quaker
community was impossible, and that Penn's "holy
experiment" would not be conducted without depart-
ing from Penn's religious faith, and that it was con-
trary to Quaker principles to be concerned in the
apprehension of criminals. He took advantage of a
hue aud cry raised for the capture of a certain Bab-
bitt and his associates, who had stolen a boat and
gone down the river upon a plundering and piratical
expedition, to lecture the magistracy severely for their
reprehensible and un-Friendlike conduct. Keith set
up a separate meeting in Philadelphia, whereupon he
was dismissed by his society and finally presented by
the grand jury, together with Thomas Budd, for de-
famation and trying to blacken the character of Sam-
uel Jennings, a provincial judge. They were tried,
convicted, and fined £5 each. Keith went to England,
joined the Established Church, was ordained minister
by the Bishop of London, and presently returned to
Philadelphia a full-fledged Episcopalian divine, in
surplice and cassock. His simple-minded followers
could not recognize him in such a disguise, and the
community ceased to be disturbed on his account.
Finding his influence gone, he went to England
again and secured a church living in Surrey, from
which he wrote with much bitterness against the so-
ciety to which he had formerly belonged. Keith's
apostasy had the effect to drive a better man than he
was out of the province. William Bradford had been
arraigned before the Council for printing one of
Keith's virulent tracts, and was treated with so much
severity that he left Philadelphia and set up his forms
and presses in New York.
The French and Indian hostilities on the frontier,
the apathy and non-resistance of the Quakers, and the
ambiguous position of Penn, lurking in concealment
with an indictment hanging over his head, were made
the pretexts for taking the government of Penn's
province away from him. His intimate relations with
the dethroned king, and the fact that his province, as
well as the Delaware Hundreds, had been James'
private property, and were still governed to some
extent by " the Duke of York's laws," probably had
much to do with prompting this extreme measure.
Governor Benjamin Fletcher, of New York, was made
"Captain-General" of Pennsylvania on Oct. 24, 1692,
by royal patent. He came to Philadelphia April 26,
1693, had his letters patent read in the market-place,
and offered the test oaths to the members of the Coun-
cil. Thomas Lloyd refused to take them, but Mark-
ham, Andrew Robeson, William Turner, William
Salway, and Lasse Cock all subscribed. Fletcher
made Markham his Lieutenant-Governor, to preside
over Council in the captain-general's absence in New
York. He reunited the Delaware Hundreds to the
province, but did not succeed in harmonizing affairs
in his new government. The Council and he fell out
about the election of representatives to the Assembly.
When the Legislature met, Fletcher demanded men
and money to aid New York in carrying on the war
with the French and Indians. The Assembly refused
to comply unless the vote of supplies was preceded
by a redress of grievances. Fletcher tried to reason
with them. " I would have you consider," he said
in his speech to the Assembly, "the walls about
your gardens and orchards, your doors and locks
of your houses, mastiff dogs, and such other things as
you make use of to defend your goods and property
KAPID GKOWTH OF THE CITY.
125
against thieves and robbers, are the same courses
that their majesties take for their forts, garrisons, and
soldiers, etc., to secure their kingdom and provinces,
and you as well as the rest of their subjects." But
the Quakers were not to be convinced by any such
arguments. Fletcher had reduced the number of As-
semblymen, and when the Legislature met on May
16th, Philadelphia was represented by four persons, —
Samuel Carpenter, Samuel Richardson, John White,
and James Fox. The first thing before the General
Assembly was a proposition to raise money by taxa-
tion,— the first tax levied in Pennsylvania, — and an
act was passed levying a penny a pound on property
for the support of government. The sum thus raised
amounted to seven hundred and sixty pounds sixteen
shillings, of which Philadelphia contributed three
hundred and fourteen pounds eleven shillings, or forty-
one per cent, of the whole. Thus far Fletcher suc-
ceeded, only to fail, however, when he attempted to
secure the passage of a law providing for organizing
the militia. The Assembly did pass an act providing
for the education of children, and also one for the es-
tablishment of a post-office. A good deal of practical
local improvement was made by the Council under
Markham's influence, for he was an active, energetic
man, and knew the town, the people, and their wants
better than any other person could do. Among these
regulations, without consultation with the Assembly,
were several orders in regard to the Schuylkill ferry,
where one man had attempted to set up a monopoly;
and one for the establishment and conduct of the
market, which was now removed from Delaware Front
Street, corner of High, to Second Street where it
crosses High. A place was to be staked out, bell-house
erected, etc. There were to be two markets a week,
on Wednesdays and Saturdays ; all sorts of provisions
brought to Philadelphia for sale — " flesh, fish, tame
foull, butter, eggs, cheese, herbs, fruitts, and roots, etc.''
— were to be sold in this market-place, under penalty of
forfeiture if offered elsewhere. The market was to open
at the sound of the bell, which was to be rung in sum-
mer between six and seven o'clock a.m., in winter be-
tween eight o'clock and nine ; sales made before hours
(except to Governor and Lieutenant-Governor) to be
forfeited. All were forbidden to buy or price these pro-
visions on their way to market, and hucksters could not
buy until the market had been open two hours. The
clerk of the market received half of all forfeitures, to-
gether with sixpence per head on allslaughtered cattle,
two pence for each sheep, calf, and lamb, three pence
for each pig, but no charge made on what the country
people bring to market ready killed. He was also to
be paid a penny each for " sealing" weights and
measures.
In the winter of 1693, Penn was acquitted by the
king of all charges against him and restored to favor,
his government being confirmed to him anew by let-
ters patent granted in August, 1694. Penn would
probably have returned to his province immediately
after his exoneration, but his wife was ill, and died
in February, 1694. This great affliction and the dis-
ordered state of his finances detained him in England
several years longer. After his government was re-
stored to him, his old friend and deputy, Thomas
Lloyd, having died, Penn once more appointed his
cousin, William Markham, to be Deputy Governor,
with John Goodson and Samuel Carpenter for assist-
ants. These commissions reached Markham on March
25, 1695.
In the mean time Governor Fletcher, with his dep-
uty (this same Markham), had been encountering the
old difficulties with Council and Assembly during
1694-95. The dread of French and Indians still
prevailed, but it was not sufficient to induce the
Quakers of the province to favor a military regime.
Indeed, Tammany and his bands of Delawares had
given the best proof of their pacific intentions by
coming into Philadelphia and entreating the Gov-
ernor and Council to interfere to prevent the Five
Nations from forcing them into the fight with the
French and Hurons. They did not want to have
anything to do with the war, but to live, as they had
been living, in concord and quiet with their neigh-
bors the Friends. There is no evidence that the
league of amity, implied or written, had ever been
seriously broken. The Indians would sometimes be
drunk and disorderly, and sometimes would steal a
pig or a calf, but that was all. As Tammany said
in this conference with Fletcher and Markham, " We
and the Christians of this river have always had a free
roadway to one another, and though sometimes a tree
has fallen across the road, yet we have still removed
it again and kept the path clear, and we design to
continue the old friendship that has been between
us and you." Fletcher promised to protect the Del-
awares from the Senecas and Onondagas, and told
them it was to their interest to remain quiet and at
peace. When the Legislature met (May 22, 1694),
Fletcher, who had just returned from Albany, tried
his best to get a vote of men and money, or either,
for defensive purposes. He even suggested that they
could quiet their scruples by raising money simply to
feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but this round-
about way did not commend itself to Quaker sim-
plicity and straightforwardness. A tax of a penny
per pound was laid to compensate Thomas Lloyd
and William Markham for their past services, the
surplus to constitute a fund to be disbursed by Gov-
ernor and Council, but an account of the way it
went was to be submitted to the next General As-
sembly. Further than this the Assembly would not
go. Fletcher wanted the money to be presented to the
king, to be appropriated as he chose for the aid of
New York and the defense of Albany. He objected
likewise to the Assembly naming tax-collectors in
the act, but the Assembly asserted its undoubted
right to control the disposition of money raised by
taxation, and thereupon the Governor dissolved it.
126
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
In June, 1695, after Markham was well settled in
his place as Penn's Deputy Governor, there were again
wild rumors of French designs upon the colonies and
of squadrons already at sea to assail them, and this
was so far credited thata watch and lookout station was
maintained for several months at Cape Henlopen.
In the latter part of this same month Markham in-
formed the Council that Governor Fletcher had made a
requisition upon him for ninety-one men and officers, or
the funds for maintaining that number for the defense
of New York. This matter was pressed by Fletcher,
but the Council decided that it was too weighty a
business to be transacted without consulting the Gen-
eral Assembly, which would not meet before the second
week of September. Markham suggested an earlier
day for meeting, but the Council thought the secur-
ing of the crops a more important business than any
proposition that the ex-captain-general had to lay
before them. When the Assembly did meet in Sep-
tember, it at once revealed the cause of the continual
discontents which had vexed the province, and gave
Deputy Governor Markham the opportunity to prove
that he was an honest man. It voted a tax of a
penny per pound and six shillings per capita (from
which probably £]500 would have been realized),
proposing out of the receipts from the levy to pay
Markham £300, contribute £250 towards the main-
tenance of government, and assign the surplusage
to the payment of debts of the government. But the
members accompanied this bill with another, a new
act of settlement, in which the Assembly secured to
itself the privileges which they had sought to obtain
from Penn in vain. It was, as has justly been re-
marked,1 a species of " log-rolling." It had long been
practiced with success by Parliament upon the impe-
cunious monarchs of England, and in these modern
times has been reduced to a science by nearly all legis-
lative bodies. Markham, however, refused the bait.
He declined to give his assent to both bills ; the Assem-
bly refused to divorce them, and the Deputy Governor,
in imitation of Fletcher's summary method, at once
dissolved them in the very teeth of the charter he was
refusing to supersede. Had they not been dissolved
it is possible the General Assembly might have acted
upon a petition in Markham's hands, which set forth
some of the chief grievances of the citizens of Phila-
delphia in thatday. They entreated that the persons
put in office should be men " of good repute and
Christian conversation, without respect to any pro-
fession or persuasion in religion ;" that officers' fees
be made public, and put up in every office for general
inspection ; " that theyr is now many ordinaries and
tipling houses in this town of Philidelfia Kept by
several as are not well qualified for such undertak-
ings, tending to debauchery and corrupting of youth."
Wherefore it is begged that none but sober, honest,
conscientious persons be allowed to keep such houses;
i Westcott'a History of Philadelphia, chapter xl.
that all the laws of the province be diligently enforced
as the charter meant them to be ; that some place,
as stocks, or cage, be provided for the incarceration of
" drunkards or other violators of the good laws of Eng-
land and this province," when taken up by the watch
or constables, so as to escape the need of sending them
to prison for such misdemeanors, thus adding to the
public expenses; "also that sum cours may bee
taken that these Indians may bee brought to more
sobriety, and not to go reeling and bauling on the
streets, especially by night, to the disturbance of the
peace of this town ;" that the town crier be required to
publish sales by auction of every sort of produce to
the extent of each street, so as every inhabitant may
have the benefit of such sales or the knowledge that
they are to come off; " and also that theyr may bee
a check put to hors raceing, which begets swearing,
blaspheming God's holy name, drawing youth to
vanaty, makeing such noises and public hooting and
uncivil riding on the streets; also that dancing, fid-
ling, gameing, and what else may tend to debauch
the inhabitanc and to blemish Christianity and dis-
honour the holy name of God, may be curbed and
restrained, both at fairs and all other times." This
memorial was signed by many leading citizens, such
as Edward Shippen, Robert Ewer, R. Ward, Howell
Griffith, Humphrey Murray, Casper Hoodt, William
Carter, Isaac Norris, Thomas Ffitzwalter, Evan Grif-
fith, Joseph White, Thomas Wharton, James Fox, etc.
After Markham's first failure to walk in Fletcher's
footsteps, he appears to have dispensed with both
Council and Assembly for an entire year, governing
the province as suited himself, with the aid of some
few letters from Penn, made more infrequent by the
war with France. On the 25th of September, 1696,
however, he summoned a new Council, Philadelphia
being represented in it by Edward Shippen, Anthony
Morris, David Lloyd, and Patrick Robinson, the latter
being secretary. The home government, through a
letter from Queen Mary (the king being on the conti-
nent), it appeared, complained of the province for
violating the laws regulating trade and plantations
(probably in dealing with the West Indies). The
Council advised the Governor to send out writs of
election and convene a new Assembly oh the 26th
of October. He complied, and Philadelphia elected
Samuel Carpenter, Samuel Richardson, James Fox,
and Nicholas Wain to be her representatives. As soon
as the Assembly met a contest began with the Governor.
Markham urged that the queen's letter should be at-
tended to, asking for supplies for defense, and also called
their attention to William Penn's pledge that, when
he regained his government, the interests of England
should not be neglected. The Assembly replied with
a remonstrance against the Governor's speech, and a
petition for the restoration of the provincial charter
as it was before the government was committed to
Governor Fletcher's trust. That Governor was still
asking for money and relief, and Markham entreated
RAPID GROWTH OF THE CITY.
127
that a tax might be levied, and, if consciences needed
to be quieted in the matter, the money could be ap-
propriated for the purchase of food and raiment for
those nations of Indians that had lately suffered so
much by the French. This proposition became the
basis of a compromise, the Assembly agreeing to vote
a tax of one penny per pound, provided the Governor
convened a new Assembly, with a full number of
representatives according to the old charter, to meet
March 10, 1697, to serve in Provincial Council and
Assembly, according to charter, until the lord pro-
prietary's pleasure could be known about the matter;
if he disapproved, the act was to be void. Markham
yielded, his Council drew up the supply bill and a
new charter or frame of government, and both bills
became laws'.
Markham's new Constitution, adopted Nov. 7, 1696,
was couched upon the proposition that " the former
frame of government, modeled by act of settlement
and charter of liberties, is not deemed in all respects
suitably accommodated to our present circumstances.''
The Council was to consist of two representatives from
each county, the Assembly of four; elections to take
place on the 10th of March each year, and the Gen-
eral Assembly to meet on the 10th of May each year.
The Markham charter goes into details in regard to
the oaths or affirmations of officials of all classes,
jurors, witnesses, etc. ; it sets the pay of Councilmen
and members of Assembly, and is on the whole a
clearer and more satisfactory frame of government
than the one which it superseded, while not varying
in many substantive features from that instrument.
The Assembly secured at least one-half what the
framers of the province had so long been fighting for,
to wit: "That the representatives of the freemen,
when met in Assembly, shall have power to prepare and
propose to the Governor and Council all such bills as they
or the major part of them shall at any time see needful to
be passed into law vnthin the said province and territo-
ries'' This was a great victory for the popular cause.
Another equally important point gained was a clause
declaring the General Assembly indissoluble for the
time for which its members were elected, and giving
it power to sit upon its own adjournments and com-
mittees, and to continue its sessions in order to pro-
pose and prepare bills, redress grievances, and impeach
criminals.
The imperial business on which Markham had
called the Council together in 1696 was charges made
to the Lords of Trade that the Philadelphians had
not only harbored Avery, the pirate, but had syste-
matically encouraged the extensive smuggling opera-
tions conducted by the Scotch and the Dutch. After
waiting in vain to hear from Markham, the Lords
summoned Penn and laid the charges before him.
The proprietary immediately (Sept. 5, 1697) wrote a
sharp letter to Markham and the Council in regard to
these charges, and also in regard to an anonymous
letter he had received from Philadelphia, in which
that town is set forth as a modern Sodom, "overrun
with wickedness;'' "sins so very scandalous, openly
committed in defiance of law and virtue, facts so foul
that I am forbid by common modesty to relate them."
A committee of Council was appointed to investigate
the charges, by whom the piracy matter was explained,
the contraband trade denied, and as for looseness and
vice, they were admitted to have increased with the
city's growth, but the magistracy ought not to be im-
peached for that, since they did their duty. However,
it was admitted that public-houses were too numerous,
and that vicious habits were increased on that account.
A proclamation was issued covering the substance of
the report and enjoining greater diligence upon mag-
istrates in the suppression of vice. The lookout at
Cape Henlopen was again stationed, and Markham,
hearing of a French privateer on the coast, equipped
and sent an armed vessel to take her. The British
government took an effectual way to prevent the
Philadelphians from renewing their connection with
either pirates or smugglers by strengthening the power
of the Admiralty Court. The judge of this court,
Quarry, with Attorney-General Randolph, and an
informer named Snead, gave Markham and his gov-
ernment no end of trouble and annoyance. Quarry
and Randolph were particularly hostile to the Society
of Friends, and wished to induce the English govern-
ment to take Penn's charter away from him. They
believed, or affected to do so, that Markham was ac-
tually in league with the pirates. Their accusations
were the more serious from the fact that Capt. Kidd's
crew had just been disbanded in New York and many
of them had come to the Delaware. The judges of
the Provincial Court came in collision with Quarry
and were forced to resign. Randolph aggravated
Markham to such a degree that finally the Deputy
Governor seized the crown's attorney, sent him to
prison and had him locked up.
We reproduce on the following page, from John Blair
Linn's learned and satisfactory treatise on "The Duke
of York's Laws," fac-similes of the autographs of Gov-
ernors, Deputy Governors, presidents of Council, as-
sistants in the government, and Speakers of Assembly
from 1682 to the time of Penn's return and resumption
of authority in his province. These signatures have a
force and character of their own such as would seem
to become the autographs of leading men. They in-
clude William Penn, proprietary and Governor, 1681-
93, 1695-1718. William Markham, Deputy Governor
of the province, 1681-82, 1695-99; of lower counties,
1691-93 ; Lieutenant-Governor of province, 1693-95.
Thomas Lloyd, president of Council, 1684-88, 1690-
91 ; president of governmental commission, 1688 (Feb-
ruary to December) ; Deputy Governor of province,
1691-93. John Blackwell, Deputy Governor, 1688-
90. John Goodson, Samuel Carpenter, assistants in
government, 1695-96. Speakers of Assembly : Thomas
Wynne, 1683 ; Nicholas More, 1684 (it is not certain
that More was Speaker of the first Assembly of 1682) ;
128
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Arthur Cooke, 1689; Joseph Growdon, 1690-93; Wil- 1697, 1699, 1700; Phinehas Pemberton, 1698. All
Ham Clarke, 1692 ; David Lloyd, 1694 ; Edward Ship- these are reproduced from authentic documents in the
pen, 1695 ; John Simcocke, 1696 ; John Blunston, | archives of the State.
M&
<s^v
L7«#W
LOfr-y
<9r^
-^/:^fe^r/
There is not much more to say about the history
of this period. The Colonial Records furnish a
barren tale of new roads petitioned for and laid out ;
fires, and precautions taken against them and prep-
arations to meet them; tax-bills, etc. William Penn
sailed from Cowes on Sept. 9, 1699, for his province.
He had arranged his English affairs; he brought his
second wife and his daughter and infants with him ;
probably he expected this time at least to remain in
the province for good and all. He reached Phila-
delphia December 3d, and took lodgings wilh Edward
Shippen. The city of his love was quiet, sad, gloomy.
It was just beginning to react after having been
frightfully ravaged by an epidemic of yellow fever,
attended with great mortality, and the people who
survived were sober and quiet enough to suit the
tastes of the most exacting Quaker.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
129
CHAPTER XL
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PRIMITIVE
SETTLERS.
" So twice five miles of fertile ground
With wnlls and towers were girdled round;
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomM many an incense-hearing tree ;
And here were forests, ancient as the hillB,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."
Coleridge.
It was the boast of the Emperor Augustus, in re-
gard to Rome, that " Marmoream se relinquere, quam
lateritiam accepisset." When Perm came to Philadel-
phia with his colony of first purchasers he found a
forest, with thickets and swamps, lying between two
rivers, the sole population some scanty bands of sav-
ages, with here and there a hut or cabin, with a few
acres about it of cleared land, marking the habitation
of some pioneer of the white race. When the Lord
Proprietary returned to Philadelphia on his second
visit, in 1699, he found a province of ten thousand
people and a city of seven hundred houses,1 well
laid off with streets, squares, wharves, market,
churches, prison, etc., well governed, having an es-
tablished foreign and domestic trade, and some sub-
stantial foundations laid for manufactures. No won-
der Penn looked at his work with hearty enjoyment,
as he wrote, in one of his last letters to the colony,
" It was no small satisfaction to me that I have not
been disappointed in seeing them prosper and grow-
ing up to a flourishing country, blessed with liberty,
ease, and plenty, beyond what many of themselves
could expect, and wanting nothing to make them-
selves happy but what, with a right temper of mind
and prudent conduct, they might give themselves." 2
The political history of this country, prospering
and growing up in a flourishing way, blessed with
liberty, ease, and plenty, would not be complete if
we did not pause here, at the beginning of a new
century, and when the banks of the Delaware had
been more or less occupied by Europeans for nearly
two generations, to give something like a picture of
the social and domestic life of the early settlers, the
pioneers among those hardy pale-faces before whose
advance the natives of the soil melted away and dis-
appeared.
Gabriel Thomas, "A Historical Description of Pennsylvania," etc.,
1697-98, says "two thousand houses, all inhabited," an obvious ex-
aggeration. There were less than three thousand houses in 1749. The
authority for the number of houses is Dr. James Mease's "Picture of
Philadelphia," 1S11. He gives tho returns as follows: 1G83, houses, 80;
17U0, houses, 700; 1749, houses, 207G; 1769, houses, 4474, etc. The esti-
mates of 1700 and 1749, however, were simply for Philadelphia proper.
If we suppose that Thomas estimated, as later calculators did, so as to
include Northern Liberties, Wicaco (Southwark), Passayunk, and Moy-
amensing, the seven hundred would (on the basis of later proportions)
be only thirty -nine per cent, of the whole, and adding Kensington
(Shacltamaxon) we should easily have from eighteen hundred to two
thousand houses.
2 Penn's expostulatory letter to Edward Shippen and "Old Friends,"
29th June, 1710.
9
There is no distinct, positive evidence of permanent
Indian villages anywhere upon the ground within the
present limits ofPhiladelphia since the first white man
explored the Delaware. The presence of the com-
monly found Indian relics at several places, as, for
instance, at or near the mouth of the Pennepacka
Creek, would indicate that villages had stood there
at some period or other, but perhaps not within the
time since white settlers began to come thither. The
Minquas and the Delaware Indians, hunters and fish-
ers, had still their permanent homes, with corn-fields
and patches for beans, squashes, and melons. Their
stockades were always hard by more or less of cleared
land, as was the case with the Nanticoke villages in
the Delaware peninsula, the Susquehannas at the
mouth of Octorara Creek, and the Senecas and
associated tribes dwelling between the Mohawk and
the Allegheny Rivers. But the Delawares who occu-
pied the site of Philadelphia, and the other tribes who
visited them there must have been, from the necessity
of the case, forest Indians, fishers, hunters, and trap-
pers of the beaver, the otter, and the muskrat. No
fact is better established than that the ground on
which Philadelphia now stands was closely occupied
when the white men first saw it, and until Penn's
colonists came in, with a continuous growth of the
primeval forests, except where swamp and marsh and
the daily flow of the tide prevented the trees from
growing. Capt. Cornells Hendrickson, of Munnickhuy-
sen, in his report of August, 1616, to the States Gen-
eral of Holland, says of the country explored by him
along the Delaware, " He hath found the said coun-
try full of trees, to wit, oak, hickories, and pines,
which trees were in some places covered with vines.
He hath seen in said country bucks and does, turkeys
and partridges," inhabitants of the great woods. The
Swedes and the Dutch both of them found it easier
work to plant on the sandy plains and clear up the
scrub pine thickets of the lower Delaware counties,
or to dyke and reclaim the rich alluvial flats (valleys
they called them) on the Brandywine and other kin-
dred streams, than to attempt to cut down the enor-
mous forest- trees that towered above the firm lands of
Coaquannock. Capt. Markham, when he first reached
Pennsylvania and the site of Philadelphia, reported
back to his employer that "it is a very fine country,
if it were not so overgrown with woods." But these
woods had one advantage which the settlers ought to
have appreciated. As is the case with the forest parts
of Kentucky to-day, the deep, rich soil encouraged
such an enormous girth and altitude of trees that
there was little or no undergrowth, except where the
swamps prevailed or the beavers had constructed their
dams and felled a part of the trees. Hence the woods
afforded the best sort of pasturage of good, sweet herb-
age, on which all sorts of stock throve wonderfully.
Traveling was not difficult in this sort of forest, and
Capt. Markham notes that " We have very good
horses and the men ride madly on them. Thev think
130
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
nothing of riding eighty miles a day, and when they j
get to their journey's end, turn their horses into the
field. They never shoe them." Penn, also, in a let-
ter already quoted from, speaks with alarm of the ■
indiscriminate destruction of the forests around Phila- {
delphia as tending to choke the country with under-
growth and thickets, destroy pasturage, and encourage
all sorts of vermin to multiply. And Acrelius1 says
that " when the Christians first came to the country
the grass was up to the flanks of animals, and was
good for pasture and hay-making ; but as soon as the
country had been settled the grass has died out from
the roots, so that scarcely anything but black earth is
left in the forests. Back in the country, where the
people have not yet settled, the same grass is found,
and is called wild-rye."
In these deep but not impenetrable, forests, these
broad park-like expanses, with their profound shade
from lofty trees and clambering vines, a few, but not
many, Indians had their lodges or huts. The hunting
and fishing were good; the deer came to the borders of
all the small streams, and the surface of the waters
was populous with dense flocks of wild-fowl, while
their depths teemed with fishes of every size, from the
sturgeon to the smallest pan-fish. The great oak-
groves were favorite resorts of the wild pigeons, and
there seems to have been a regular "pigeon-roost," or
breeding-place for the gregarious bird (if we may
accept the ordinary interpretation of such Indian
names) at Moyamensing.2 In the spring and early
summer months, just after the Indians of the interior
had planted their corn and beans, the Delaware and
Schuylkill were filled with incalculably large shoals of
the migratory fish, pressing towards fresh water in order
to deposit their spawn, and pursued by schools of the
predatory sea-fish. At these seasons the shores of the
rivers were thronged with Indians and their lodges,
while their canoes darted gayly over the surface, men,
women, and children spearing or netting fish, and
cleaning and drying them. The sturgeon, the por-
poise, now and then the salmon, were all caught,
with innumerable shad, herring, alewives and bream,
pike and perch. In the autumn again the. Indians
were drawn to the river-shore by the wild fowl which
flew low near the waters. This was in the inter-
val after the corn harvesting and the beginning of
the winter hunting. Besides this, the site of Phila-
delphia seems to have grown to be a familiar spot for
councils and general conferences of the tribes. The
Delawares, whether Heckewelder and the earlier stu-
dents of Indian customs and traditions be right or
not in conceiving this tribe to have been conquered
and made " women" of by the fierce Iroquois, were
on friendly terms with nearly all the other tribes.
l History of New Sweden, chap. viii.
2"Moyamensing signifies in unclean place, a dung-heap. At one
time great flocks of pigeons had their roostin the forest and made the
place unclean for the Indians, from whom it received its name"—
Acrelivs.
They, and perhaps the land which it was conceded
they owned, were in some sort of fashion under a
" taboo." Probably the fact of their controlling the
fish and oyster grounds of the Hudson and the Dela-
ware, and the Susquehanna also in part, had a good
deal to do with this. At any rate, at the time the
whites came to the Delaware, and for many years
afterwards, Shackamaxon, Wicaco, and other places
within the area of the present city of Philadelphia
were " neutral ground," where representatives of all
the tribes on fresh water and east of the Alleghanies,
between the Potomac, the Hudson, and the lakes, — the
Iroquois, the Nanticokes, the Susquehannocks, and the
Shawanees, — were accustomed to kindle their council
fires, smoke the pipe of deliberation, exchange the
wampum belts of explanation and treaty, and drive
hard bargains with one another for peltries, provision,
and supplies of various kinds. The trails made by
the savages in going to and from this point of union
were deep and broad at the time of the Dutch and
Swedes, and were as far as convenient made available
by the Europeans. But the Indian trails lay in di-
rections best suited for their own convenience in
going from their lodges to the rivers; whereas the
white men's roads were between their own settle-
ments. The Senecas and Oneida Indians used the
waterways, descending the Susquehanna and Dela-
ware in their light birches, and then, excepting a few-
portages, traversing the whole distance from their
castles to Shackamaxon along the network of streams
which make their way down from the great water-
shed of Western New York.
The first white settlers upon the site of Philadel-
phia, as has already been shown in the preceding
chapters, and the only white settlers previous to the
coming of Penn who made any distinct and durable
impress upon the country, were the Swedes. Their
first, second, and third colonies, which arrived out in
1638 and 1640, and the fifth colony also, which came
between those of Printz and Bisingh, contained a
good many Dutch, and were indeed partly recruited
and fitted out in the Netherlands, with Dutch capital
and under Dutch management. The first expedition
was commanded by Minuet, a Dutchman, and Sparl-
ing and Blommaert, the leading spirits in its manage-
ment, were Dutchmen. So with the expedition of
Hollandaer.3
It is also the fact that the Dutch sent parties fre-
quently to the Zuydt River to settle and plant, as well
as to trade with the Indians, and that Stuy vesant, after
the recapture of Fort Casimir, the overthrow of Ki-
singh's government and the subjugation of New
Sweden, sent many of his people to the south side
of Delaware to settle the country. For all that the
Swedes were the first permanent colonists. The
a See Prof. Odhner's Founding of Now Sweden, Pennsylvania Magazine,
yol. ii., where much new light is thrown on the ohscure annals of these
early settlements.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
13J
Dutch were adventurers, fond of trading and naviga-
tion. As a rule they did not bring their families to
the Delaware with them, and they could easily reach
their own countrymen in New York after English
rule had been established by Lovelace, and the trade
in furs and peltries was no longer profitable so low
down on the Delaware. The Swedes and Finns, on
the other hand, had no such migratory propensity.
They were like trees, and grew in the soil to which
they had been transplanted, as if they had never
known any other. As a rule they had not emigrated
from their native country from choice, but were
transplanted by force. One reason, indeed, why the
Dutch partners had been invited to co-operate with
the Swedish West India Company was that emigrants
and volunteers to the new country were so hard to
procure. When the project of the Swedish colony was
first thrown out by TJsselincx, and adroitly fostered by
his able and ingenious pen in the various contribu-
tions to the Argonautiea Gustaviana, the leading
people in Scandinavia were full of the scheme and
subscribed eagerly. The colony was to be a refuge
for liberty and Protestantism ; no slavery, no tyranny
were to be tolerated there, and the widows and or-
phans made desolate by the Thirty Years' war were
to find there new homes and cheap and certain means
of livelihood. But this fever died out long before
1637.
The Swedish and Finnish peasants had very strong
local attachments. They did not wish to abandon
their native soil, in spite of the scanty livelihood
it insured them. The "Kalmar Nyckel" and the
" Gripen" were delayed a long time in getting their
passengers for the first voyage under Minuet. It is
not certainly known that of this party with Minuet,
more than one person — Lieut. Moens Kling — was a
Swede. Anders Svensson Bonde, Peter Gunnarsson
Rambo, Per Andersson, Anders Larsson Daalbo, Sven
Larsson, Sven Gunnarsson, his son, Sven Svenson,
Lars Svensson Kackin, Moens Andersson, Iven Thors-
son, and Marten Gottersson were all of them certainly
in New Sweden in 1640,1 but it cannot be shown
whether they came over with Minuet or with his
successor, Hollandaer. As Prof. Odhner shows by the
record, "the people entertained a repugnance to the
long sea-voyage to the remote and heathen land. It
is affirmed in the letters of the administration to the
Governors of the provinces of Elfsborg and Varm-
land, that no one spontaneously offered to accompany
Capt. Van Vliet (who was originally appointed to
command the ship that bore Hollandaer's party, but
was superseded before sailing by Capt. Powel Jansen).
The government ordered these officers, therefore, to
lay hands on such married soldiers as had either
evaded service or committed some other offense, and
transport them, with their wives and children, to
1 Rulle der Volckert\n Royal Archives of Sweden, quoted by translator
of Prof. Odhner's article in Penna. Magazine.
New Sweden, with the promise to bring them home
again within two years, — to do this, however, 'justly
and discreetly,' that no riot might ensue.'' In 1640
again the Governor of the province of Orebro was
ordered to prevail upon the unsettled Finns to betake
themselves, with their wives and children, to New
Sweden. Lieut. Moens Kling, who was now back in
Sweden, was sent to recruit for emigrants in the
mining regions of Westmanland and Dalarne. He
was also particularly instructed to enlist the "roam-
ing Finns," who were tramps, or squatters living rent
free in the forests. Next year, when Printz had re-
ceived his commission, he was sent to hunt up the
same class of persons, the Governors of Dal and
Varmland receiving orders to capture and imprison,
provided they could not give security or would not
go to America, the "forest-destroying Finns," who,
as described in a. royal mandate, " against our edict
and proclamation, destroy the forests by setting tracts
of wood on fire, in order to sow in the ashes, and who
maliciously fell trees." A trooper in the Province of
Skaraborg, who had broken into the cloister garden
of the royal monastery at Varnhem, in Westergoth-
land, and committed the "heinous crime of cutting
down six apple-trees and two cherry-trees, was given
the option of emigrating or being hung. The " Char-
itas," which sailed in 1641 for New Sweden, had four
criminals in a total of thirty-two passengers, the
greater number of the remainder being indentured
servants and low persons. In fact, Lieut.-Col.
Printz was himself a disgraced man, having been
court-martialed and dismissed from the army for the
dishonorable and cowardly capitulation of Chemnitz,
of which he was commandant, so that his appoint-
ment to the colony of New Sweden was in some sort
a punishment and a banishment.
But this very reluctance of the Swedes to emigrate
made them the best of immigrants. They stayed in
the place to which they had been removed, and be-
came permanent fixtures in the new soil just as they
had wished to be left in the old. They were quiet,
orderly, decent, with no injurious vices, and in that
kindly soil and climate the natural fruitfulness of
their families was greatly increased. Acrelius, no-
ticing this prolificness, says quaintly, " Joseph Cob-
son, in Chester, twenty years ago, had the bless-
ing to have his wife have twins, his cow two calves,
and his ewe two lambs, all on one night in the month
of March, All continued to live." And he gives
several other instances of the sort. Be this as it may,
the Swedes remained on the spot through all the
changes of administration as if adscript! glebce, and
they multiplied so rapidly that when Carl Christo-
pherson Springer wrote his letter (already quoted
from) to Postmaster Thelin at Stockholm, in 16y3,
only forty-five years after the first immigration, he
was able to furnish " a roll of all the (Swedish) men,
women and children which are found and still live in
New Sweden, now called Pennsylvania, on the Dela-
132
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ware River/' to the number of one hundred and
eighty-eight families, nine hundred and forty-two
persons. This does not include the Swedes on the
other side of the Delaware, many families residing
on the east bank being included in the list of " Tyd-
able'' (taxable) persons returned to the Duke of
York's Court at Upland, in November, 1677.1
1 It is perhaps expedient to give these lists, commencing with the one
forwarded by Springer to Thelin. The names which are italicized in
this list are such as likewise occur in the Upland list:
Names. Number in family,
Hindrick Anderson 5
Johan Anderssen 9
Johan Andersson 7
Joran Andersen 5
John Arum 6
Joran Bagman 3
Anders liengston 9
Bengt Bengston 2
Anders Boiide 11
Julian Boiide 1
Sven Bonds 5
Lars Bure 8
"William Cobb G
Clirist wn Classen 7
Jacob Classen 6
Jacob Clemson 1
Eric Cock 0
Gabriel Cock 7
Johan Cock 7
Capl. Las&z Cock 11
Moens Cock 8
Otto Ernst Cock 5'
Hindrick Collman 1
Conrad Constantine 6
Jolian von Culen 5
Otto Dahlbo 7
Peter Dalilbo 9
Hindrick Danielsson 5
Thomas Dennis 6
Anders Diedricksson 1
Olle Diedricksson 7
Stephan Ekliorn 5
Eric Ericsson 1
Goran Ericsson 1
Matte Ericsson 3
Hindrick Faske 5
Casper Fifth 10
•Matthias do Foff. G
Anders Frende 4
Nils Frendes (widow) 7
Olle Franssnn 7
Eric Gii^teiibors 7
Nils Giistenberg 3
Eric Gbransson 2
Brita. Gostafsson G
Gostaf Giistaffison 8
Hans GiJstafsson 7
Jons Gostafsson
Hans(Mocnp) Gostafsson 2
Johan Grant rum 3
Lara Hailing 1
Moens Hall ton 9
Israel Helm 5
Johan Hindersson, Jr 3
Anders Hindricksson 4
David Hindricsson 7
Jacob Hindrickson 5
Johan Hindricksson 6
Johan Hindricsson '. 5
Matts Hollstcn 7
Anders Homman 9
Anders lloppmann 7
Frederick lloppmann 7
Johan Hoppmann 7
Nicolas lloppmann 5
Hindrick Iwaisson 9
Hindrick Jacob 1
Matts Jacob 1
Hindrick Jacnbson 4
Peter Joccom 9
Diedrick Johansson 5
Lars Johansson 6
Simon Johansson 10
Anders Jonson 4
Jon Jonson 2
Moens Jonson 3
Nils JoiiBon 6
Thomas JonBon 1
Chrisiiern Joransson 1
Hans Joransson H
Joran Joransson 1
Stephen Joransson &
Lasse Kempe 6
Frederick Kiinig 6
Names, Number in family.
Marten Knutsson 6
Olle Kuckow 6
Hans KyvCs (widow) 5
Jonas Kyn 8
Matts Kyn 3
Nils Laican 5
And. Persson Longaker 7
Hindrick Larsson 6
Lars Larsson 7
Lars Larsson 1
Anders Lock 1
Moens Lock 1
Antonij Long 3
Robert Longhorn 4
Hans Lucasson 1
Lucas Lucasson 1
Peter Lucasson 1
Johan Mdnsson 5
Peter Miinsson 3
Marten M'drtensson, Jr 10'
Marten Miirtensson, Sr 3
Mats Martenson 4
Johan Matron 11
Nils Malison 3
Christopher Meyer 7
Paul Mink 5
Eric Molica 8
Anders Nilsson 3
Jonas Nilsson 4
Michael Nilsson H
Hans Olsson 5
Johan Ommersson 5
LorentzOstersson 2
Hindrick Pare hen 4
Bengst Paulsson 5
Gostaf Paulsson G
Olle Paulsson 9
Peter Palson 5
Lars Pehrsson 1
Olle Pehrsson 6
Brita Petersson 8
Carl Petersson 5
Hans Petersson 7
Lars Petersson 1
Paul Petersson 3
Peter Petersson 3
Peter Stake (alius Petersson).... 3
Reivier Peterson 2
Anders Jtambo 9
Gunnar Rambo G
Jolian liambo G
Peter Rambo, Sr 2
Peter Rambo, Jr 6
Mats Repott 3
Nils Repott 3
Olle Resse 5
Anders Robertson 3
Paul Sahlunge 3
Isaac Savoy 7
Johan Schrage 6
Johan Scnte 4
Anders Seneca 5
Broor Seneca 7
Jonas Scagge'n (widow) G
Jolian Skrika 1
Matts Skrika 3
Hindrick Slobey 2
Carl Springer 5
Moens Staake 1
Christian Stalcop 3
Johan Sialcop 6
Peter Stalcop 6
Israel Stark G
Matts Stark 1
Adam Stedliam 3
ABUiuiid Stedham 8
Benjamin Stedliam 5
Lucas Stedham 7
Lyoff Stedham 9
Johann Stilt e 8
Johatin Stillmau 5
Jonas Stillniiin 4
Peter Stillmau 4
OlleStobey 3
The Swedes on the Delaware have sometimes been
reproached as a lazy people because they did not clear
the forests at a rapid rate, nor build themselves fine
houses. But this is not the character which Penn
gives them, nor that to which their performances en-
title them. Penn says, "They are a plain, strong,
industrious people, yet have made no great progress
Names. Number in family.
Gunnar Svenson 5
Johan Svenson 9
William Talley. 7
Elias Tay 4
Christiern Thomas'1 (widow) G
Olle Thomasxon 9
Olle Thomson 4
Hindrick 'fossa 5
Jolian Tossa 4
Lars Tossa 1
Matt* Tos«a 1
Cornelius Van der Weer 7
Jacob Van der Weer 7
Jacob Van der Weer 3
William Van der Weer 1
Jesper Wallraven 7
Jonas Wall raven 1
Anders Weinom 4
Anders Wihler 4
II.
Listof those still living who were
horn in Sweden:
Petrr Rambo, | Fifty-four years in
Anders Bonds, J New Sweden,
Awlem Beugtsson.
Sven Svenson.
Michael Nihson.
Moens Staake.
Marten Martensson, Sr.
Carl Xtopher Springer.
Hindrick Jacobson.
Jacob Clemsson.
Olof Rosse.
Hindrick Andersson.
Hindrick Iwarsson.
Simon Johansseu.
Paul Mink.
Olof Paulsson.
Olof Pi-tersson.
Marten Martenson, Jr.
Eric Mullica.
Nils Mattson.
Antony Long.
Israel Helm.
Anders Heman.
Olle Dedricksson.
Hans Petersson.
Hindrick Collman.
Jons Gostafsson.
Moens Hallton.
Hans Olofsson.
Anders Seneca.
Brcor Seneca.
Eskil Anderson.
Matts de Voss.
Johan Hindricksson.
Anders Weinom.
Stephan .Joransson.
Olof Kinkovo.
Anders Didricksson.
Anders Mink.
Names of Taxdbles not included in above List.
Oele Neelson and 2 sons
Hans MoenB
Eric Poulsen
Hans Jurja.ii
Michill Fredericks
Justa Daniels and serv*
Hendrick Jacobs (upon ye
Island)
Andreas Swen and father
Oele Swansen and Bert
Swen Lorn
OeleStille
Dunck Williams
The*. Jacob*
Matthias Clausen
Jan Claasen and 2 sons
Frank Walcker
Peter Matnon
Jan Boelson
Jiiii Schoeten
Jau Justa and 2 sous
Peter Andreas and son
Lace Dalho
Rich* Duckett
Mr. Jones y° hatter
Harmen Ennis
Pelle Ericssen
Benck Saling
Andries Saling
Harmen Jansen
Hendrick Hoi man
Bertell Laersen
Hendrick Tade
Andrifs Bertelsen
Jan Bertelsen
Jan Cornelissen and son
Lace Mortens
Antony Matson
Claes Schram
Robert Waede
Neele Laersen and sons
Will Orian
Knoet Mortensen
Oele Coeckoe
Carell Jansen
Rich. Fredericx
Jurian Hertsveder
Juns Justasse
Hans Ho f man and 2 sons 3
Pou 11 Corvorn 1
" Hereditary surnames," says Mr. Edward Armstrong (quoting M. A.
Lower, on English Surnames), "are said to have been unknown in Sweden
before tho fourteenth century. A much later date must be assigned
as the period when they became permanent, for surnames were not in
every case established among the Swedes in Pennsylvania until some
time after the arrival of Penn, when intermarriage, and the more rigid
usage of the English, compelled them to adhere to the last combination;
as for example with respect to the name of Olla Paul-son, the 'son1 be-
came permanently affixed to tho name, and ceased to distinguish the de-
gree of relationship." This, however, is not singular with the Scandi-
navian peuple, Mr. Armstrong should have observed. It has prevailed in
all countries down to a late period, and especially among the English
races, where the corruption of surnames is still going on. No bad spell-
ing can do more harm than bad pronouncing, nor ii it worse to turn
Lorenz, Lacrs, Larse into Lasse (just as common people nowadays pro-
nounce arsenal as if it were spelt asscnal) than to corrupt Esterling into
Stradling, Majoribanks into Marchbanks, Pierce into Purse, Taliaferro
into Toliver, En rough ty into Doughty, etc. The Swedish system, how-
ever, is a little complicated, and made much more so by the loose spell-
ing of contemporary chroniclers and clerks. Some instances of tho trans-
mutations of names may help the reader to enlighten himself about these
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
133
in the culture or propagation of fruit-trees, as if they
desired to have enough, not a superfluity." He speaks
also of their respect to authority, adding, "As they
are a people proper and strong of body, so they have
fine children, and almost every house full ; rare to find
one of them without three or four boys and as many
girls; some six, seven, and eight sons. And I must
do them that right, I see few men more sober and in-
dustrious." In speaking of their lack of diversified
husbandry, Penn forgot that their leading crop was
tobacco, which, being without slaves almost entirely,
they had to cultivate with their own hands. Their
intelligence must have been at least equal to their
loyalty, for they were more than fully represented, on
the basis of comparative population, in all the early
assemblies, councils, and magistrates' courts, under
Lovelace and Penn, and they were the only interpre-
ters Penn could get in his intercourse with the In-
dians. They were not devoid, moreover, of what
would nowadays be esteemed remarkable industrial
enterprise. There can be no doubt that the Swedes
— probably those "wandering Finns" from the Swe-
dish iron ore regions — discovered and worked the ore
banks of Cecil and Harford Counties, Md., long before
George Talbot's manor of Susquehanna was patented
or Principio Furnace thought of. The mill afterwards
used by Talbot and to which all his tenants were com-
pelled to bring their corn to be ground was originally
started by the Swedes to .drive a rude bellows blast
of their own.
The Swedes, as emigrants from an exceedingly well
lists. Eric Goranson is Eric, son of Goran (Jiirau), and Goran (Jiirau)
Ericsson is Goran, eon of Eric, a grandson of Goran. Peter Petersen is
Peter, son of Peter; Swensen was originally Swen. Nilson, or Keelson,
may be found transposed to Jones, as in the case of the sou of Jonas Nil-
son, styled Mouns (Moeus, Mans), Andrew, and Neils Jones. Sometinit'S
the pnzzle is made worse by an alias, — e.g., Jans Justasse (alias Illack),
and Pelle Laerson (alias Put Pelle). Changes in orthography have
helped materially to cuufound names. Bengstsen becomes Baukson and
Benson; Bocn, Bonde, becomes Bond and Boon; Swensen becomes
Swanson and Swann ; Cock becotn es Cook and Cox ; Juccum, or Jookurn,
becomes Yocum; Ivyn, or Kieu, becomes Keen; Mortense, Martens.
The descendants of Lasse Cuck, son of Oele Cock, may be called either
Allison or Willson. Many older Scandinavian names have been still
more violently changed in their orthography in the course of the tritu-
ration of centuries, or in their passage to another language more or less
affiliated. Thus it is hard to detect, reading as we run, that Ulfstein is
simply the Danish form of the Norwegian Vulfstan ; that in English,
Haralld hinn Ilaifagra is Harold Fairfax: Rollo, Rolf, and Italph are
the same. In the lists given above, Huling, or Hulling, becomes Full-
ing; Giistafsson becomes Justis, Justice, or Justison; Kyn, Kean; Coin,
Colen; Van Colen, Colli ns; Hnsselius, Issilis; Coleberg,Coleslinry; Deid-
rickson, Derrickson ; Cock, Kock, etc. ; Hendrickson, Henderson; Mar-
ten, Morton ; Iwsirson, Iverson and Ivison; Jonasson, Jones; Hopp-
man, Hoffman; Wihler, Wheeler; Nilson, or Neelson, Neilson, or
Nelson; Fisk is sometimes Fish; Bure, Buren or Burns; Collman,
Coleman; Broor, Brewer : Anders, Andrews; Matt, Matthews; Do Voss,
Vosc; Marte, Martin ; Slaake, Stark and Stack ; Iiosse, Rosser; Vaudcr
Weer, Vaudiver; Pehrsson, Pierson and Pearson; Paulsson, Poulson ;
Paul, Puwl-11; Olio, Will, William; Sahlung, Saling; Easse, Eaose,
Raisin; Brita, Bridget; Gostaf, Gustavus; Knute, Knott; Lucasson,
Lucas; Incoren, Inkhurn ; Onirnerson, Emerson ; Graiitruin, Grantham;
Claasen, Clawsou ; Cabb, Cubb ; Oelssen, Wilson, etc. Lais and Laers
become Lear; Laerson, Lawson ; Goron, Jb'ran, Jurien, and Julian;
Bengst is Benedict, or Benjamin, or Bennett; Hailing is Hewling ;
Senecka is Sinnickson ; Voorhees, Ferris.
watered country, cut up in every direction by bays,
sounds, rivers, lakes, and fiords, naturally followed
the water-courses in the new country. They found a
homelike something in the network of streams back
of Tinnecum Island and thence to the Schuylkill, and
in the rivers and meadows about Christiana Creek
and the Brandywine. They clung to these localities
tenaciously, and the only thing in Penn's government
which roused their resentment and threatened to
shake their loyalty was the attempted interference
with their titles to these lands and the actual reduc-
tion of their holdings by the proprietary and his
agents. It is a fact that some of their tenures were
very uncertain and precarious in the eyes of plain
and definite English law, and probably the Quakers
took advantage of this to acquire escheat titles to
many very desirable pieces of land which the Swedes
fancied to be indisputably their own. The purchasers
of New Sweden from the Indians had vested the title
to the entire tract bought in the Swedish crown, and
this right of property was recognized and exercised
by the crown; Two land grants from Queen Christina
are on record in Upland Court, one to Lieut. Swen
Schute, and Printz several' times solicited a grant to
himself, which finally he obtained, giving the prop-
erty to his daughter Armgart, Pappagoya's wife.
The other land-holders secured their tracts in accord-
ance with the fifth article of the queen's instructions
to "the noble and well-born John Printz." In this
article, after describing the bounds of the territory of
New Sweden, and the terms of the contract under
which it was acquired from "the wild inhabitants of
the country, its rightful lords," it is laid down that
this tract or district of country extends in length
about thirty German miles, but in breadth and into
the interior it is, in and by the contract, conditioned
that " her Royal Majesty's subjects and the participants
in this Company of navigators may hereafter occupy
as much land as they may desire." The land thus
bought in a single block and attached to the crown
was originally managed by the Swedish West India
Company. The revenue and public expenses were
paid out of an excise on tobacco, and it was the in-
terest of the company to have tobacco planted largely.
In part this was accomplished by servants indentured
to the company, who were sent over and paid regular
wages by the month.1
1 Mans Kling, lieutenant and surveyor, received forty riksdaler per
month ; lie commanded on the Schuylkill. Sundry adventurers, seeking
experience, received free passuge out and maintenance, but no pay.
Olof Persson Stille, millwright, received at start fifty daler, and to bo
paid for whatever work he did for the company. Matts Hausson, gun-
ner at the fort and tobacco-grower, on wages; Anders Ilansson, ser-
vant of the company, to cultivate tobacco, received twenty riksdaler per
year and a coat ; he served four years. Carl Jansson, book-keeper, seur
with the expedition "for punishment," was afterwards favored by
Printz, who gave him charge of the store-house at Tinnecum, paid him
ten riksdaler a month wages, and recommended the home govern-
ment to pardon him. Peter Larsson Cock, father of Lasse Cock, came
out originally for punishment (ein gefangeiirr Jcnecht, a bond servant), re-
ceiving his food and clothing and two dollars at the btart. He was free
134
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
In part the land was regularly conveyed to settlers
who sought to better their fortunes; finally, criminals
and malefactors were sent out to some extent at first
to labor in chain-gangs upon the roads and public
works. The land secured by settlers and servants
who had worked out their term of years was granted
in fee under power which came directly or indirectly
from the crown. The difficulties about title which
vexed the Swedes grew out of the changes in the
tenure under the Swedish, Dutch, English, and later
under Penn's grants, all of them having peculiar fea-
tures of their own. It is important to understand
these differences, which have not been clearly ex-
plained by writers on the subject, some of whom
have hastily concluded that the land tenure system in
Pennsylvania originated with Penn's laws. So far as
land is concerned, Penn's "great law" and the subse-
quent enactments were all founded upon the "Duke
of York's laws," the titles under which Penn was
particular to quiet and secure.1
in four years, and became afterwards a judge of Upland Court. These
indentured servants were not badly treated either by the Swedes or the
Friends. Their usual term of service was four years, and they received
a grant ofland, generally' fifty acres, at the expiration of the term. The
system was originally contrived in Maryland in order to increase the
labor of the province, and many of the bound servants were persons
of good character but without means, who sold their services for four
or five years in order to secure a passage across the ocean to the new
laud of promise. A groat many of them went to Pennsylvania during
Penn's n'nime and afterwards, both from Great Britain and the conti-
nent of Europe. The terms upon which they were hired to the differ-
ent colonies were nearly the same in every case. The following is about
the form commonly used. It may be found in John Gilmary Shea'B in-
troduction to Gowan's reprint of Alsop's "Character of the Province of
Maryland,'' London, 1GGC: " The Forme of Binding a Servant. ' This in-
denture, made the day of , in the yeare of our Soveraigne
Lord King Charles &c*betweene • of the one party and of
the other party, Witnesseth that the said doth hereby covenant,
promise and grant to and with the said his Executors and As-
signs, to serve him from the day of the date hereof, vntill his first and
next arrivall in and after for and during the tearme of yeares,
in such service and employment as the said or his assignes shall
there employ him, according to the custome of the countrey in the
like kind. In consideration whereof, the said doth promise and
grant, to and with the said to pay for his passage and to find him
with Meat, Drinke, Apparell and Lodging, with other necessaries during
Ihe 6aid terinc; and at the end of the said terme, to give him one whole
yeares provision of Come and fifty acres of Land, according to the order
of the countrey. In witnesse whereof, the said hath hereunto put
his hand and seale the day and yeere above written.
"Sealed and delivered \
in the presence of J
1 Penn, in fact, borrowed many other things from the duke's laws,
particularly the much admired provision for "peacemakers," or arbitra-
tors, to prevent litigation, which provision, by the way, became a dead
letter within ten years after its enactment, and was dropped in Lieuten-
ant-Governor Markham's Act of Settlement in 1696. This was much
more actively enforced in the duke's IawB, which provide that "all
actions of Debt or Trespasse under the value of five pounds between
Neighbours shall be put to Arbitration of two indifferent persons of the
Neighbourhood, to be nominated by the Constable of the place; And if
either or both parties shall refuse (upon any pretence) their Arbitration,
Then the next JuBtice of the peace, upon notice thereof by the Con-
stable, shall choose three other indifferent persons, who are to meet at
the Dissenter's charge from the first Arbitration, and both Plaintiff and
Defendant are to be concluded by the award of the persons so chosen
by the justice."
The Swedes, both under Minuet's and later instruc-
tions, were allowed to take up as much land as they
could cultivate, avoiding land already improved and
that reserved for the purposes of the Swedish West
India Company. This land, so taken up, was to re-
main to the possessors and their descendants "as
allodial and hereditary property," including all ap-
purtenances and privileges, as "fruit of the surface,
minerals, springs, rivers, woods, forests, fish, chase,
even of birds, the establishments upon water, wind-
mills, and every advantage which they shall find es-
tablished or may establish." The only conditions
were allegiance to the Swedish crown and a payment
of three florins per annum per family,2 This form of
quit-rent per family gave something of a communal
aspect to the Swedish tenures, and it was probably
the case that but few tracts were definitely bounded
and surveyed in the earlier days of the settlement.
Governor Printz received no special instructions in
regard to land grants further than to encourage agri-
culture and to use his discretion in all matters,
guided by the laws, customs, and usages of Sweden.
We may suppose he followed the colonial system
which was already in operation. Governor Risingh's
instructions from the Swedish General College of
Commerce required him to give the same title and
possession to those who purchased land from the
savages as to those who bought from the company,
with all allodial privileges and franchises, "but no
one to enter into possession but by consent of the
government, so that no one be deprived improperly
of what he already possesses." The Swedish tenure,
therefore, was by grant from the crown, through the
Governor, the quit-rent being commuted into a capi-
tation tax, payable annually by heads of families, the
only limits to tracts granted being that they do not
trespass on other holdings and are cultivated. After
the conquest of New Sweden by the Dutch the
Swedes were ordered to come in, take the oath of al-
legiance, and have their land titles renewed. The
Dutch were very liberal in their grants, especially
under D'Hinoyossa, but the tenure of lands was en-
tirely changed, and a quit-rent was now required to
be paid of 12 stivers per morgen, equal to 3.6 cents
per acre.3 This was a high rent, in comparison with
that which the Swedes had been paying, and with the
rents charged by the English. Besides, the land had
to be surveyed, and the cost of survey, record, and
deeds for a tract of 200 or 300 acres was 500 or 600
pounds of tobacco. Many Swedes were unwilling,
some perhaps unable, to pay these fees and rents ;
some abandoned their lands entirely, some sold, and
2 See grant to Henry Hockhammer, etc., Hazard's Annals, i. 53.
' 3 Writers have caused confusion in this matter by computing the
■ stiver at 2 cents, and the guilder at 40 cents. The actual value of the
; stiver, as settled by the Upland court at this time, was ^ths of a penny,
I the guilder thus being worth 6 pence. In sterling values, therefore, the
rent of an acre would have been 3.6 cents. In Pennsylvania currency,
! which perhaps was the standard used in the Upland calculations, the
rent would be 2 t\ cents per acre.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
135
many paid no heed to the mandate, thus in fact eon-
verting themselves into squatters.
After the English took possession new oaths of
allegiance and new confirmations of title were re-
quired. Andross and Lovelace made patents very
freely, doing all they could to promote and extend
the settlements, but the Duke of York's laws exacted
a quit-rent of one bushel of wheat per one hundred
acres. Wheat, as we find by the Upland record, was
taken for taxes (and of course for rent likewise) at
the rate of "five guilders per scipple," — five guilders
per scheepel or bushel, thirty pence sterling, or sixty
cents, or thirty pence Pennsylvania currency, equal
to forty-four and one-fifth cents, — a rent, therefore, of
three-fifths or two-fifths of a cent per acre. Under
Penn the regular quit-rents were a penny per acre,
the conveyancing costing fourteen to eighteen shillings
per plat, and the surveying and registering as much
more, say thirty shillings, or seven dollars and fifty
cents, initial payment, and two dollars annual pay-
ment per one hundred acres. This was in addi-
tion to the local tax for county and court expenses,
amounting to thirty-five or forty guilders per tyd-
able, — four dollars and fifty cents per family or
per freeman, — and an occasional " war tax" of a
penny in the pound on a valuation which, in 1694,
reached £182,000 currency. There is no wonder that
the Swedes, who had under their own rules paid only
a. nominal rent, should have shrunk in fright at these
heavy charges, and either gave up their land or
neglected to take out deeds for it, and thus lost pos-
session of it entirely under Peun's severe law of 1707.
As Acrelius says, in his general statement of these
changes of tenure, "Under the Swedish government
no deeds were given for the land ; at least there are
no signs of any, excepting those which were given as
briefs by Queen Christina.1 The Hollanders, indeed,
made out quite a mass of deeds in 1656, but most of
them were upon building lots at Sandhook. Mean-
while, no rents were imposed. The land was un-
cleared, the inhabitants lazy, so that the income was
scarcely more than was necessary for their sustenance.
But when the English administration came, all were
-summoned to take out new deeds for their land in
New York. ... A part took the deeds ; but others
did not trouble themselves about them, but only
agreed with the Indians for a piece of land for which
they gave a gun, a kettle, a fur coat, or the like, and
they sold them again to others for the same, for the
land was superabundant, the inhabitants few, and
the government not strict. . . . Many who took deeds
upon large tracts of land were in great distress about
their rents, which, however, were very light if peo-
ple cultivated the lands, but heavy enough when
they made no use of them ; and they therefore trans-
l No deeds are found because the Dutch destroyed the Swedish local
records, and they and the English required all deeds in the hands of
Swedes to be surrendered in exchange for new deeds under the new
government's seal.
ferred the greater part of them to others, which their
descendants now lament." 2
Acrelius is not just to his fellow-countrymen in
calling them idle. They were timid, and they lacked
enterprise to enable them to grapple with the possi-
bilities of the situation. They were simple peasants
of a primitive race and a secluded country, thrown in
among people of the two most energetic commercial
and mercantile nations the world has ever seen. They
were among strangers, who spoke strange tongues
and had ways such as the Swedes could not under-
stand. It is no wonder that they should have shrunk
back, bewildered, and contented themselves with
small farms in retired neighborhoods. But these
small farms, after the Swedes settled down upon
them, were well and laboriously tilled, and, small
though they were, we have the acknowledgment of
the Swedes themselves that they yielded a comfort-
able support, with a goodly surplus each year besides
to those large and rapidly increasing families which
attracted William Penn's attention and commanded
his admiration.
The husbandry of the Swedes was homely, but it
was thorough. The soil which they chiefly tilled
was light and kindly. In the bottoms, swamps, and
marshes along the streams, which the Swedes knew
quite as well as the Dutch how to dyke and convert
into meadows, — the Brandywine meadows are to this
day famous as examples of reclaimed lands, — the soil
was deep, rich, and very productive. The earlier
Swedes did not sow the cultivated grasses on these
meadows, they simply dyked them and mowed the
natural grass, planting corn and tobacco, and sowing
wheat wherever it was dry enough. , Acrelius speaks
of the high price which these lands brought in his
time — " six hundred dollars copper coin [sixty dol-
lars] per acre" — when thoroughly ditched and re-
claimed, though constantly liable to inundations from
the tunneling of the muskrat and the crayfish. The
Upland soils were excellently adapted to corn, wheat,
and tobacco when they had been cleared. The forest
growth on these soils comprised the several varieties
of American oak familiar in the Middle States, the
black-walnut, chestnut, hickory, poplar (tulip-tree),
sassafras, cedar, maple, the gums, locust, dogwood,
wild cherry, persimmon, button-wood, spice-wood,
pine, alder, hazel, etc. The forests gave the Swedes
much trouble, and undoubtedly had an influence
upon the modes of cultivation employed. The cost
of labor made it difficult to clear the thick woods.9
2 Acrelius, Hist. New Sweden, pp. 106-7. Penna. Hist. Society's edition,
1874.
3 Wages are always interesting to study, for their averages are evi-
dences which cannot be contradicted of the condition of a people. The
earlier servants in the employment of the Swedish company received, as
a rule, twenty copper dollars (two dollars of our money) for outfit and
twenty riksdtder wages per annum (equal to twelve dollars). The wages
of freemen, however, were more than double this, and these wages more-
over included board and lodgings. With wheat, at an average, fifty cents
per bushel, a freeman's wages were equal to about sixty dollars a year at
136
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Hence the common expedient was resorted to of
removing bushes and undergrowth only and girdling
the larger trees, which were left to stand leafless and
dead till they rotted and fell, when the logs were after
a time " niggered up," or cut into lengths, rolled into
piles, and burnt. It was difficult to plow between
and among so many trunks and stumps, and this led
the Swedes, in order further to economize labor, to
resort to a system of husbandry which still, in a great
measure, regulates the pitching and rotation of crops
in the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia peninsula.
The ground was cleared in the winter, and then, un-
less tobacco was grown, the " new ground," as it
was called, was planted in corn in the spring. The
process, which is known as "listing," was to throw
two furrows or four furrows together, by plowing
up and down the field instead of around it, leaving
a series of ridges with an unplowed space between.
The soil of the ridges was pulverized with the harrow
and then stepped off into hills about four feet apart,
the corn-planter dropping his five grains in each hill,
scooping the hill out, dropping and covering with a
heavy hoe, — a simple operation which experts dis-
patched with two motions of the implement. At the
last working of the corn, when it had grown stout
and waist or breast high, the " middle" of the lists
were plowed out and the fresh earth thrown about
the roots of the vigorous plant. This " listing" pro-
cess was found excellently well suited to the low, flat
lands of the peninsula, as, besides saving labor, it
afforded a sort of easy drainage, the bottom of every
furrow being a small ditch, and this enabled the
present values, besides keep. The Upland records show that just prior
to Perm's occupancy •wages had sensibly bettered. In March, 17S0,
Thomas Kerhy and Robberd Drawton, servants, sued Gilbert Wheeler
for wages. Kerby wanted pay for seventy days, between October 7th
and January 7th, "so much as is usuall to be given pr day, wcl) is fower
(4) guilders pr diem wth costs.11 The court allowed Kerby and Drawton
eacli fifty stivers (two and a half guilders) per day, the latter to be paid
"in Corneor other good pay in y° River." The four guilders was probably
the "usuall" rate of summer wages, the award of the court represented
fall and winter wages. "Come in ye river'* — that is, delivered where it
could be shipped — was valued at three guilders per scipple (or bushel).
The winter wages therefore were equivalent to thirty cents a day in mod-
ern money, but in purchasing power rating corn at the average present
price of fifty cents per bushel, amounted to forty-one and sixty-six hun-
dredths cents per day, summer rates being actual for ty-eiglit cents, with
a purchasing power of sixty-two cents. March 12, 1678, Israel Flelm
bough J of Robberd Hutchinson, attorney for Ralph Hutchinson, "assignee
of Daniel Juniper, of Accomac," "a Certayne man Servant named Wil-
liam Bromfield,for y° ternie & space of four Jears [years] servitude now
uext Ensuing. . . . The above named Servant, William Bromncld, being
in Cort, did promisse to serve the sd mr Israel helm faithfully & truly the
abovesJ terme of four Jears. The worpp11 Cort (upon ye Request of bjth
partees concerned) Did order that wuh is above.said to bee so recorded."
The price paid by Helm was "twelve huiidored Guilders.1' This was
equal to three hundred guilders per annum, and it show s how valuable
labor was and how prosperous agriculture must have been at that day
on the Delaware. Helm paid (and other court entries show he simply
paid the average price for such labor) one hundred and fotty-four dollars
in money (the present exchangeable value of which in corn is one hun-
dred and ninety -two dollars) for four years1 services of a man whom he
had to board, lodge, clothe, care for when sick, and provide with an out-
fit when free. At twenty years' purchase this would be nearly one
thousand dollars for a servant for life. Farming must have been very
profitable to enable such prices to be paid.
farmers to plant their corn much earlier than they
otherwise could have done. When the corn had gone
through the " tasseling'' and " silking" processes and
the ear was fully developed, the "blades" were pulled
and the "tops" cut for fodder. In September the
ground was lightly plowed with small shovel-plows
(as yet the " cultivator" was not) and sowed in wheat,
the stalks being broken down after frost with the hoe
or by running rollers over them. Wheat thus sowed
on ridges was so well protected by the drainage from
frost and " winter-killing" that many farmers in the
peninsula still throw their wheat-ground into corn-
rows even where they use drills to sow it. Where
wheat was not sowed on the corn-ground, and oats was
not sowed in the spring, the stalk-field was summer-
fallowed, being plowed in May, July, and again
before seeding. The wheat was cut with sickles,
bound in sheaves, and thrown into " dozens," each
shock being expected to yield a bushel. Rye, wheat,
and oats were thrashed with flails, and the former,
sowed in November, was a favorite crop with the
Swedes, the straw being sometimes shipped to Europe.
Buckwheat was often sowed on the rye, wheat, or oats
stubble, the grain being used to feed stock. Flax and
oats were sowed in the spring, either on the corn-
ground or stubble-fields. Potatoes were planted on
the bare ground and covered with the listing-plow.
Sweet potatoes, however, were planted in hills after
the ground had been deeply furrowed. Turnips were
not much sown, except on new ground, and tobacco,
in Acrelius' time, was only planted on such tracts or
in the gardens.
The implements were few and rude, as were also
the apparatus of the farm animals. The plows often
had wooden mould-boards, and were not capable of
working deeply ; the harrows were of the primitive
triangular shape, and the oxen or horses working them
were attached by means of double links to the apex
of the V. The ox-yokes had bows made of bent
hickory-wood, the horses' traces were of twisted deer-
hide, and the collars of plaited corn-husks. The rest
of the harness was home-made, of the same serviceable
deer-skins, and the farmers and their lads, all fond of
riding on horseback, were content with a bear- or a
deer-skin girt about the horse, with a rawhide sur-
cingle in lieu of a saddle, imitating the Indians in
dispensing with stirrups. Beans, pumpkins, squashes,
and melons were commonly planted in the hills with
the corn. Much cabbage was produced, but the
variety of other vegetables was limited to onions,
peas, beets, parsnips, turnips, radishes, peppers, let-
tuce, pepper-grass and scurvy-grass, with a few herbs,
such as chamomile, sage, thyme, rue, sweet marjoram,
lavender, savory, etc., to supply the domestic phar-
macy, or afford seasoning for the sausages, liver-pud-
dings, head-cheese, etc., which were made at " hog-
killing."
Penn, in his letter to the Free Society of Traders,
speaks rather disparagingly of the orchards of the
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS-
137
Swedes, as if they declined to profit by the peculiar
adaptedness of their soils to fruit culture. Yet they
must have been the first to naturalize the apple,
the cherry, and the peach on the Delaware, and
we must give them the credit of having anticipated
the cherry and apple orchards of Eastern Pennsyl-
vania and Cumberland Valley, aud the grand peach-
tree rows for which the streets of Germantown be-
came famous. It was a Dutchman, settled among
the earlier Swedes,1 who produced the best cooking
apple, and one of the best sort for eating — the Van-
devere — that is grown in the Middle States, and it was
descendants of Delaware Swedes2 who earliest culti-
vated the peach by wholesale, and made it an article
of commerce. The peach-tree probably came to
Delaware from Maryland, having traveled along the
coast from the early Spanish settlements in Florida,
but it has nowhere become so completely naturalized,
so healthy, so productive of large, succulent, delicious
fruit as in the country which the Swedes first re-
claimed from the wilderness. In the time of Acre-
lius the peach was supposed to be indigenous, and
was cultivated so extensively as to be relied upon as
a standard food for swine.
Domestic animals increased very rapidly among
the Swedes. They imported their own milch kine
and oxen in the first instance, but they found horses
and swine running at large and wild, many having
escaped into the " backwoods" from the Maryland
planters.3 These horses had a good touch of the true
Barb blood in them, as descendants of Virginia thor-
oughbred sires, and they were probably crossed with
pony stock from Sweden. It seems likely that it is to
this cross and the wild, half-starved existence they
have led for two hundred years, living on salt grass
and asparagus and fish, bedding in the sand and de-
fying storm and mosquitoes, that, we owe the incom-
parable breed of "beach'' or Chingoteague ponies, fast,
wiry, true as steel, untiring, sound, with hoofs as hard
as iron and spirits that never flag. Acrelius noticed
them acutely. He would not have been a parson if
he had not had a keen eye for a horse. He says,
"The horses are real ponies, and are seldom found
over sixteen hands high. He who has a good riding
horse never employs him for draught, which is also
the less necessary, as journeys are for the most part
made on horseback. It must be the result of this,
more than of any particular breed in the horse, that
the country excels in fast horses, so that horse-races are
often made for very high stakes. A good horse will go
more than a Swedish mile (six and three-quarter Eng-
lish miles) in an hour, and is not to be bought for less
than six hundred dollars copper coinage" (sixty dol-
1 Philip Van der Weer's brick houHe at Traders' Hook, on the Brandy-
wine, was built before 1655.
2 The B-eybolds.
3 Bacon's Laws of Maryland (1635-1751) are full of statutes relating
to wild horses and their depredationB, and to ear-marks and incloaures
for all kinds of stock.
lars). The cattle, says Acrelius, are middling, yield-
ing, when fresh and when on good pasture, a gallon
of milk a day. The upland meadows abounded
in red and white clover, says this close observer, but
only the first Swedish settlers had stabling for their
stocks, except in cases of exceptionally good hus-
bandry. Horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs ran out all
the time, being inclosed at night, and sometimes
sheltered in severe weather. They were, however,
fed with grain, such as oats, corn, and buckwheat, in
addition to fodder, in winter, the food of milch cows
being bran or other ground mill-stuff. Acrelius says,
in his dry, humorous way, "the man-servant takes
care of the foddering of the cattle, whilst the house-
wife and women-folks roast themselves by the kitchen
fire, doubting whether any one can do that better than
themselves."
The excellent Swedish pastor was a connoisseur in
drinks as well as horse-flesh, and he has catalogued
the beverages used by the Swedes'with the accuracy
and minuteness of detail of a manager of a rustic fair.
After enumerating the imported wines, of which Ma-
deira was the favorite of course, he describes, like an
expert, the composition of sangaree, mulled wine,
cherry and currant wine, and how cider, cider royal,
cider-wine, and mulled cider are prepared. Our rev-
erend observer makes the following commentary upon
the text of rum : " This is made at the sugar-planta-
tions in the West India Islands. It is in quality like
French brandy, but has no unpleasant odor. It makes
up a large part of the English and French commerce
with the West India Islands. The strongest comes
from Jamaica, is called Jamaica spirits, and is the
favorite article for punch. Next in quality to this
is the rum from Barbadoes, then that from Anti-
guas, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher's, etc. The
heaviest consumption is in harvest-time, when the
laborers most frequently take a sup, and then imme-
diately a drink of water, from which the body per-
forms its work more easily and perspires better than
when rye whiskey or malt liquors are used." Rum,
he tells us, was drunk raw, or as egg-nog (" egg-dram"),
or in the form of cherry bounce or billberry bounce;
" punch," our learned author says, "is made of fresh
spring-water, sugar, lemon-juice, and Jamaica spirits.
Instead of lemons, a West India fruit called limes, or
its juice, which is imported in flasks, is used. Punch
is always drunk cold ; but sometimes a slice of bread
is toasted and placed in it warm to moderate the cold
in winter-time, or it is heated with a red-hot iron.
Punch is mostly used just before dinner, and is called
' a meridian.' " * The other preparations in which rum
was an ingredient included Miimm (mum), made of
water, sugar, and rum (" is the most common drink
in the interior of the country, and has set up many a
tavern-keeper") ; " Manatham," small beer, rum, and
* Not because it aided " navigation,"
twelve o'clock
but because our Swedes dined at
138
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
sugar; "tiff" or " flipp,'' same as foregoing, with the
addition of a slice of toasted and buttered bread ; hot
rum punch, rum and water warmed up, with sugar
and allspice, — "customary at funerals;" mulled rum,
hot, with eggs and allspice ; Mitt-Pat, warmed beer
with rum added; "Sampson," warmed cider with
rum added; grog; "sling" or " long sup," half-aud-
half sweetened rum and water ; milk punch ; mint-
water; egg-punch, etc. "Sillibub" is made like the
Swedish " Oelost," of milk-warm milk, wine, and
water, — a cooling beverage in summer-time ; " still-
liquor" was the country name for peach or apple
brandy ; whiskey, our author says, " is used far up in
the interior of the country, where rum is very dear on
account of the transportation." The people in the
town drink beer and small beer ; in the country,
spruce, persimmon-beer, and mead. Besides this
there are numerous liquors. Tea was commonly used,
but often brandy was put in it; coffee was coming
into use as a breakfast beverage, the berries imported
from Martinique, San Domingo, and Surinam, and
chocolate also was not neglected.
In spite of all these liquids the early Swedes did
not neglect solids. Their meals were four a day, —
breakfast, dinner, "four o'clock piece," and supper,
the latter sometimes dispensed with. There was no
great variety of dishes, but such as were served were
substantial ; ham, beef tongue, roast beef, fowls, "with
cabbage set round about," was one bill of fare; roast
mutton or veal, with potatoes or turnips, another; a
third might be a pasty of deer, turkey, chickens, part-
ridges, or lamb ; a fourth, beef-steak, veal cutlets,
mutton-chops, or turkey, goose or fowls, with pota-
toes set around, "stewed green peas, Turkish beans,
or some other beans ;" apple, peach, cherry, or cran-
berry pie " form another course. When cheese and
butter are added, one has an ordinary meal." For
breakfast, tea or coffee, with chipped beef in summer,
milk-toast and buckwheat-cakes in winter, the "four
o'clock piece" being like the breakfast. Chocolate
was commonly taken with supper. The Swedes used
very little soup and very little fish, either fresh or
cured. " The arrangement of meals among country
people is usually this : for breakfast, in summer, cold
milk and bread, riee, milk-pudding, cheese, butter,
and cold meat. In winter, mush and milk, milk-
porridge, hominy, and milk ; supper the same. For
noon, in summer, ' sappa' (the French bouillon, meat-
broth, with bread-crumbs added, either drunk or
eaten with spoons out of common tin cups), fresh
meat, dried beef, and bacon, with cabbage, apples,
potatoes, Turkish beans, large beans, all kinds of
roots, mashed turnips, pumpkins, cashaws, and
squashes. One or more of these are distributed
around the dish; also boiled or baked pudding,
dumplings, bacon and eggs, pies of apples, cherries,
peaches, etc."1
1 The pudding, says Acrelhis in a nute, was boiled in a bag; it was
called a fine pudding when fruit was added; baked pudding was the
The land was so settled in the time of Acrelius
that each had his separate ground, and mostly fenced
in. "So far as possible the people took up their
abodes on navigable streams, so that the farms
stretched from the water in small strips up into the
land." The Swedes used boats a great deal. They
always went to church in boats if the ice permitted,
and they had a great quarrel with Chambers, to whom
Penn had given the monopoly of the Schuylkill Ferry,
because he would not let their boats cross without
paying toll. The houses were solid; in Acrelius'
time mostly built of brick or stone, but earlier of logs,
often squared oak logs, not often more than a story
and a half high. The roofs were covered with oak
or cedar shingles ; the walls plastered and white-
washed once a year. The windows were large, often
with hinged frames, but very small panes of glass
when any at all was used, and all the chimneys
smoked. In some houses straw carpets were to be
found, but the furniture, was always simple and
primitive, made of country woods, with now and
then a mahogany piece. The clothing was plain,
domestic linen being worn in summer, and domestic
woolens, kerseys, and linseys in winter, with some
calicoes and cottons of imported stocks. The domes-
tic cloth was good in quality, but badly dyed. For
finer occasions plush and satin were sometimes worn.
Our good parson, by whose observations we have
been profiting, notes the progress luxury had been
making among the Swedes. He says, " The times
within fifty years are as changed as night is from
day. . . . Formerly the church people could come
some Swedish miles on foot to church ; now the
young, as well as the old, must be upon horseback.
Then many a good and honest man rode upon a piece
of bear-skin; now scarcely any saddle is valued unless
it has a saddle-cloth with galloon and fringe. Then
servants and girls were seen in church barefooted;
now young people will be like persons of quality in
their dress ; servants are seen with perruques du crains
and the like, girls with hooped skirts, fine stuff-shoes,
and other finery. Then respectable families lived in
low log houses, where the chimney was made of sticks
covered with clay ; now they erect painted houses of
stone and brick in the country. Then they used ale
and brandy, now wine and punch. Then they lived
upon grits and mush, now upon tea, coffee, and choc-
olate."
Stray hints of the simple manners of these prim-
itive times, and of the honesty, ingenuousness, and
quaint religious faith of the people crop out now and
then in the accounts which Acrelius gives of the
churches and his predecessors in their pulpits. When
the "upper settlers" and "lower settlers" quarreled
young people's pancake; dumplings and puddings were called " Quakers'
food." Apple-pie was used all the year, — "the evening meal of children.
Uouse-pie, in country places, is made of apples neither peeled nor freed
from their cores, and Us crust is not brokm if a wagon-whect goes over
ill"
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OP THE SETTLERS.
139
about the place for their new church, and Wicaco
carried the day, the lower settlers were placated with
a flat-boat, maintained at the expense of the con-
gregation, to ferry them over the Schuylkill. The
church wardens kept the keys of the boat. This was
the beginning of the church "Gloria Dei," so ven-
erable in the eyes of Philadelphians. The pastor's
pay was sixty pounds, the sexton's eight pounds.
If a man came drunk to church he was fined forty
shillings and made to do public penance. The pen-
alty for " making sport of God's word or sacraments"
was five pounds fine, and penance. For " untimely
singing,'- five shillings fine. If one refused to sub-
mit to this sort of discipline he was excluded from
the society and his body could not be buried in the
churchyard. The pastor and wardens looked care-
fully after betrothals and marriages. The whole
congregation were catechized and also examined
upon the contents of the sermon. There were also
"spiritual examinations" made once a year in fami-
lies. Each church had its glebe, the income from
which was the pastor's, who also received a consider-
able sum from funerals, marriages, etc. The church
bell was swung in a tree. Among the fixtures of the
parsonage was a negro woman belonging to the con-
gregation and included in the inventory of glebe
property. When she grew old, "contrary," and " use-
less," she was sold for seven shillings. When the
Christina Church was restored there was a great feast
and a general revival of interest in the ancient
Swedish ways. Matins were held at Christmas,
Easter, and Pentecost; garlanded lights and side
lights of pine wood for Christmas service, and bridal
pairs came to the services in the church with crowns
and garlands, their hair dressed after the old-time
Swedish custom. Among the new regulations of
Pastor Hesselius was one to prevent people from
driving across the churchyard, another forbidding
them to sing as if they were calling their cows.
People with harsh voices were ordered to stand mute
or "sing softly." The Christina Church owned town-
lots in Wilmington, and used to hire out its "pall-
cloth" for five shillings each funeral. The charge
for burying a grown person was twelve shillings,
children half-price.
The Swedish pastors were generally learned and
accomplished men, who exerted themselves success-
fully in directing the minds of their congregations to
the necessity of education. The original settlers were
ignorant people, few of whom could write their names.
Even Lasse Cock, agent for Penn and Markham for
twenty years, could not at first do better than sign his
" mark" to writings. The pastors, however, always
made a brave stand for education, and were the means
of preventing the Swedish tongue in America from
sinking into oblivion. They also maintained as many
of the old observances and religious ceremonies as
possible, such as baptism soon after birth, an actual
instead of formal sponsorship on the part of the god-
parents, the old service of the churching of women,
a general attendance upon the service and sacrament
of the altar, and a return to the ancient forms of be-
trothal and marriage. " The old speak of the joy,"
says Acrelius, " with which their bridal parties for-
merly came to church and sat during the whole ser-
vice before the altar." Burials were solemn occasions,
but had their feasts as well. The. corpse was borne
to the grave on a bier, the pall-bearers, chosen from
those of the same sex and age of the deceased, walk-
ing close alongside and holding up the corners of the
pall.
A few of the log cabins occupied by the primitive
Swedes were standing within a few years. Watson, in
his Annals, describes one of the better class in Swan-
son's house, near Wicaco. John Hill Martin, in his
History of Chester, recalls two or three of these an-
cient houses. They were very rude affairs, with seldom
more than a living-room with a loft over it, doors so
low that one had to enter stooping, windows small
square holes cut in the logs, protected by isinglass or
oiled paper, or thin stretched bladders, often with
nothing but a sliding board shutter. The chimney
was in the corner, of sticks and clay, or sandstone
blocks, generally built outside the house. The first
Swede settlers imitated the Indians by dressing in
skins and wearing moccasins. The women's jackets
and petticoats and the bedclothes were of the same
materials. The furs were by and by superseded by
leather breeches and jerkins, while the women spun,
wove, or knit their own woolen wear, as well as the
linen forsummer. The women, old and married, wore
hoods in winter, linen caps in summer, but the un-
married girls went uncovered except in the hot sun,
dressing their abundant yellow hair in long, broad
plaits.
The proof of the industry of the early Swedes is to
be sought in their works. They were a scattered,
ignorant race, with no capital, few tools, and no occu-
pations but those of husbandry and hunting. They
were only a thousand strong when Penn came over,
yet they had extended their settlements over a tract
nearly two hundred miles long and seven or eight
miles deep, building three churches and five or six
block-houses and forts, clearingup forests and draining
swamps to convert them into meadow land. They
had discovered and worked the iron deposits of Mary-
land in two or three places. They had built about a
hundred houses, fenced in much of their land, and
made all their own clothes, importing nothing but the
merest trifles, besides arms and ammunition, hymn-
books, and catechisms. They had built grist-mills
and saw-mills, having at least four of the latter in
operation before Penn's arrival.1 According to Ferris,
however, the frame of the house in which Governor
Lovelace entertained George Fox in 1672 was made
entirely of hewn timbers, none of the stuff being
1 Bishop, History of Manufactures, i. 110.
140
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
sawed, the mortar and cement being made of oyster-
shell lime; the house itself was built of brick. Gov-
ernor Printz found a wind-mill at Christiana in 1643,
but he says it never would work. On the other side
of the river there were horse-mills. One at South
Amboy in 1685, it was estimated, would clear the
owner £100 a year, the toll for grinding a " Scotch
bell" (six bushels) of Indian corn being two shillings
sterling, equal to one bushel in every four and a half.
But probably more than half the early settlers had to
do as a primitive denizen in Burlington reports him-
self as doing, pounding Indian corn one day for the
next. In 1680, two years before Penn, Thomas Olive
had finished his water-mill at Rancocas Creek, and
Robert Stacey his at Trenton. Printz's mill on Cobb's
Creek was built in 1643, and Campanius reports it as
doing admirable work. Joost Andriansen & Co. built
a grist-mill at New Castle in 1662. In 1671 there was
a proposition made by New Castle to erect a distillery
for grain, but the court negatived it, except the grain
be " unfit to grind and boult," because the process of
distilling consumed such " an immense amount of
grain."
Hallam is right in saying that " No chapter in the
history of national manners would illustrate so well,
if duly executed, the progress of social life as that
dedicated to domestic architecture." After the saw-
mill the brick-kiln follows naturally and rapidly.
Hazard produces a petition to New Amstel court, in
1656, from Jacobus Crabbe, referring to a plantation
" near the corner where bricks and stones are made
and baked." The Dutch introduced brick-making on
the Delaware, the Swedes being used to wooden houses
in their own country. The court-house at Upland,
in which Penn's first Assembly was held, was of
brick.
The Swedes not only made tea of the sassafras, but
they made both beer and brandy from the persimmon,
and small beer from Indian corn. Kalm says that the
brewing and distilling were conducted by the women.
The Dutch had several breweries in the settlement
about 1662. Coffee was too high to be much used in
the seventeenth century. Penn's books show that it
cost eighteen shillings and sixpence per pound in New
York, and that .would buy nearly a barrel of rum.
Tea fetched from twenty-two to fifty shillings, cur-
rency, a pound.
Governor Printz was expressly instructed to encour-
age all sorts of domestic manufactures and the propa-
gation of sheep. There were eighty of these animals
in New Sweden in 1663, and the people made enough
woolen and linen cloth to supplement their furs and
give them bed and table linen. They also tanned
their own leather, and made their own boots and
shoes, when they wore any. Hemp was as much
spun and wove almost as flax. The Swedes who had
the land owned large herds of cattle, forty and sixty
head in a herd. The Dutch commissaries enjoined to
search closely for all sorts of mineral wealth on the
South Biver, and those who discovered valuable metal
of any kind were allowed the sole use of it for ten
years. The Dutch discovered and worked iron in the
Kittatinny Mountains, and, as has already been shown,
the Swedes opened iron ore pits in Cecil County, Md.
Charles Pickering found the copper with which he
debased the Spanish reals and the Massachusetts pine-
tree shillings on land of his own in Chester County.
When William Penn arrived in the Delaware in
1682, on October 27th, there were probably 3500 white
people in the province and territories and on the east-
ern bank of the Delaware from Trenton to Salem. A
few wigwams and not over twenty houses were to be
found within the entire limits of what is now Phila-
delphia County. There were small towns at Hore-
kills, New Castle, Christiana, Upland, Burlington, and
Trenton, and a Swedish hamlet or two at Tinicum
and near Wicaco. Before the end of his first year in
the province eighty houses had been built in the new
city of Philadelphia, various industrial jjursuits had
been inaugurated, and a fair and paying trade was
opened with the Indians. When Penn left the prov-
ince in 1684 his government was fully established,
his chief town laid out, his province divided into
six counties, and twenty-two townships. He had
sold 600,000 acres of land for £20,000 cash and
annual quit-rents of £500. The population exceeded
7000 souls, of whom 2500 resided in Philadelphia,
which had already 300 houses built, and had estab-
lished a considerable trade with the West Indies,
South America, England, and the Mediterranean.
When Penn returned again in 1699, the population
of the province exceeded 20,000, and Philadelphia
and its liberties had nigh 5000 people. It was a very
strange population moreover. Not gathered together
by the force of material and temporary inducements,
not drawn on by community of interests nor the de-
sire of betterments instinctive in the human heart,
with no homogenousness of race, religion, custom,
and habit, one common principle attracted them to
the spot, and that was the desire of religious liberty,
the intense longing to escape from under the baneful,
withering shadow of politico-religious persecution to
which the chief tenet of their faith, non-resistance
and submission to the civil authority, prevented them
from offering any opposition. They desired to flee
because their religious opinions bound them not to
fight. They were not of the church militant, like the
Puritans and Huguenots and Anabaptists, and so it
became them to join the church migratory and seek
in uninhabited wilds the freedom of conscience de-
nied them among the communities of men. They
were radicals and revolutionists in the highest degree,
for they upheld, and died on the scaffold and at the
stake sooner than cease to maintain, the right of the
people to think for themselves, and think their own
thoughts instead of what their self-constituted rulers
and teachers commanded them to think. But they did
not resist authority : when the statute and their con-
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
141
sciences were at variance they calmly obeyed the lat-
ter and took the consequences. They knew them-
selves to be abused and shamefully misused, but they
believed in the final supremacy of moral and intel-
lectual forces over despotic forces. They believed
with Wiclif that " Dominion belongs to grace,'' and
they waited hopefully for the coming of the period of
intellectual freedom which should justify their action
before men and prove the correctness of their faith in
human progress. But all this trust in themselves and
the future did not contribute materially to lighten the
burden of persecution in the present, and they sought
with anxiety for a place which would give them rest
from the weariness of man's injustice. They became
pilgrims, and gathered their little congregation to-
gether wherever a faint lifting in the black cloud of
persecution could be discerned. Thus it was that
they drifted into Holland and the lower Rhine prov-
inces of Germany, and became wanderers everywhere,
seeking an asylum for conscience' sake, — a lodge in
some wilderness, where "rumor of oppression and
deceit might never reach," and where they might
await in comparative peace the better time that was
coming. The great King Gustavus Adolphus perhaps
meant to offer them such an asylum in America, but
his message was sent in the hurry of war and it was
not audible in the din of battles. When, however,
this offer was renewed and repeated in the plain lan-
guage of the Quakers by William Penn, it was both
heard and understood, and the persecuted peoples
made haste to accept the generous asylum and avail
themselves of the liberal offer. They did so in a
spirit of perfect faith that is creditable both to their
own ingenuousness and to the character which Penn
had established among his contemporaries for upright-
ness and fair and square dealing. It is pathetic to
read, in the records of the Swiss Mennonites, how,
after they had decided to emigrate, " they returned to
the Palatinate to seek their wives and children, who
are scattered everywhere in Switzerland, in Alsace,
and in the Palatinate, and they know not where they
are to be found."
Thus the movement into Pennsylvania began, a
strange gathering of a strange people, much suffer-
ing, capable of much enduring. Of the Germans
themselves one of their own preachers1 wrote : "They
were naturally very rugged people, who could endure
much hardships; they wore long and unshaven
beards, disordered clothing, great shoes, which were
heavily hammered with iron and large nails; they
had Jived in the mountains of Switzerland, far from
cities and towns, with little intercourse with other
men; their speech is rude and uncouth, and they
have difficulty in understanding any one who does
not speak just their way ; they are very zealous to
serve God with prayer and reading and in other ways,
and very innocent in all their doings as lambs and
i Laurens Hendricks, of Nimeguen.
doves." The Quakers, too, bore proof in their looks
of the double annealing of fanaticism and persecu-
tion. They wore strange garbs, had unworldly man-
ners and customs, and many of them had cropped
ears and slit noses, and were gaunt and hollow-eyed
from long confinement in jails and prison-houses.
The influence of George Fox's suit of leather clothes
was still felt among them. They were chiefly of the
plebeian classes, the true English democracy, yeo-
men, tinkers, tradesmen, mechanics, retail shopmen
of the cities and towns; scarcely one of the gentry
and very few of the university people and educated
classes. From Wales, however, the Thomases, Rees,
and Griffiths came, with red, freckled faces, shaggy
beards, and pedigrees dating back to Adam. Persecu-
tion had destroyed their hitherto unconquerable devo-
tion to their own mountains, but they took their pedi-
grees with them in emigrating, and settling on a tract
of hills and quaking mosses, where the soil recom-
mended itself much less to them than the face of the
country, they sought to feel at home by giving to the
new localities names which recalled the places from
which they had banished themselves.
Such were the emigrants who sailed — mostly from
London and Bristol — to help build up Penn's asylum
in the wilderness. The voyage was tedious, and could
seldom be made in less than two months. The ves-
sels in which they sailed were ill appointed and
crowded. Yet at least fifteen thousand persons, men,
women, and children, took this voyage between 1681
and 1700. The average passage-money was, allowing
for children, about seventy shillings per head, so the
emigrants expended £50,000 in this one way. Their
purchases of land cost them £25,000 more ; the aver-
age purchases were about £6 for each head of family ;
quit-rents one shilling sixpence. The general cost
of emigration is set forth in a pamphlet of 1682, re-
published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society,
and attributed to Penn, and he must have directed
the publication, though it is anonymous. In this
pamphlet it is suggested that a man with £100 in
pieces-of-eight may pay his own way and his family's
by judicious speculation. The " advance in money" —
i.e., the difference between specie value in London and
on the Delaware — is thirty per cent., on goods the
advance is fifty per cent., and this pamphlet supposes
that these advances will pay the cost of emigration.
The figures are too liberal ; however, they give us
an idea of what the expenses were which a family
had to incur. They are as follows :
i. ,. d.
Tor five persons'— man and wife, two servants, and a child of
ten— passage-money 22 10 0
For a ton of goods— freight (each taking out a chest wilhout
charge for freight) 2 0 0
Ship's surgeon, "1*. tid. per head 12 6
Four gallons of Uiandy, 24 lhs. sugar 10 0
Clothes for servants (U shirts, 2 waistcoats, a summer and win-
ter suit, hat, 2 pair shoeB, underclothing, etc.) 12 0 0
Cost of hnilding a house 15 0 0
Stock for farm 24 10 0
Year's provisions for family ','.'.'.'.'.'. 16 17 6
Total £06 00 00
142
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
This, it will be observed, on a favorable, one-sided
showing, is £20 per capita for man, woman, child, and
servant, outside of the cost of land. If we allow £10
additional for cost of land, transportation, and other
extras, leaving out clothes for the family, we shall
have £30 a head as the cost of immigration and one
year's keep until the land begins to produce crops.
It thus appears that the early immigrants into Penn-
sylvania must have expended at least £450,000 in
getting there in the cheapest way. The actual cost
was probably more than double that amount. In a
letter written by Edward Jones, "Chirurgeon," from
" Skoolkill River," Aug. 26, 1682, to John ap Thomas,
founder of the first Welsh settlement, we have some
particulars of a voyage across the ocean at that time.
Thomas and sixteen others had bought a five-thousand-
acre tract of Penn. The rest sailed from Liverpool,
but Thomas was ill, and not able to come. Hence
the letter, which is published in a memoir of " John
ap Thomas and his friends," in the Pennsylvania
Magazine, vol. iv. The voyage took eleven weeks.
"And in all this time we wanted neither meat, drink,
or water, though several hogsheads of water ran out.
Our ordinary allowance of beer was three pints a day
for each whole head and a quart of water, 3 biskedd
(biscuits) a day & sometimes more. We laid in about
half hundred of biskedd, one barrell of beere, one
hogshed of water, the quantity for each whole head,
& 3 barrells of beefe for the whole number — 40 — and
we had one to come ashore. A great many could eat
little or no beefe, though it was good. Butter and
cheese eats well upon ye sea. Ye remainder of our
cheese & butter is little or no worster ; butter & cheese
is at 6d. per pound here, if not more. We have oat-
meale to spare, but it is well yl we have it, for here is
little or no corn till they begin to sow their corn, they
have plenty of it. . . . Ye name of town lots is called
now Wicoco; here is a Crowd of people striving for
ye Country land, for ye town lot is not divided, & there-
fore we are forced to take up ye Country lots. We had
much adoe to get a grant of it, but it Cost us 4 or 5
days attendance, besides some score of miles we trav-
elled before we brought it to pass. I hope it will
please thee and the rest y' are concerned, for it hath
most rare timber. I have not seen the like in all
these parts." Mr. Jones also states that the rate for
surveying one hundred acres was twenty shillings —
half as much as the price of the land. At this rate,
Jones, Thomas and company had to pay £50 for sur-
veying their tract of five thousand acres.
It will be noticed that the face of the country
pleased Dr. Jones, and he is satisfied with the land
selected by him. All the early immigrants and col-
onists were pleased with the new land, and enthusi-
astic in regard to its beauty and its promise of pro-
ductiveness. Penn is not more so than the least
prosperous of his followers. Indeed it is a lovely
country to-day, and in its wild, virgin beauty must
have had a rare charm and attraction for the ocean-
weary first settlers. They all write about it in the
same warm strain. Thus, for instance, let us quote
from the letter written in 1680 to his brother by
Mahlon Stacey, who built the first mill on the site
of the city of Trenton. Stacey was a man of good
education and family. He had traveled much in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where he made a
great fortune and became a leading citizen, his chil-
dren intermarrying with the best people in the two
colonies. The letter, which we quote from Gen.
Davis' " History of Bucks County," says that " it is a
country that produces all things for the sustenance
of man in u, plentiful manner. . . I have traveled
through most of the settled places, and some that are
not, and find the country very apt to answer the ex-
pectations of the diligent. I have seen orchards
laden with fruit to admiration, planted by the Swedes,
their very limbs torn to pieces with the weight, and
most delicious to the taste and lovely to behold. I
have seen an apple-tree from a pippin kernel yield a
barrel of curious cider, and peaches in such plenty
that some people took their carts a peach gathering.
I could not but smile at the sight of it. They are a
very delicate fruit, and hang almost like our onions
that are tied on ropes. I have seen and known this
summer forty bushels of bolted wheat harvested from
one sown. We have from the time called May to
Michaelmas great stores of very good wild fruits, as
strawberries, cranberries, and huckleberries, which
are much like bilberries in England, but far sweeter;
the cranberries much like cherries for color and big-
ness, which may be kept till fruit comes in again.
An excellent sauce is made of them for venison, tur-
key, and great fowl ; they are better to make tarts
than either cherries or gooseberries ; the Indians
bring them to our houses in great plenty. My brother
Robert had as many cherries this year as would have
loaded several carts. From what I have observed it
is my judgment that fruit-trees in this country destroy
themselves by the very weight of their fruit. As for
venison and fowls, we have great plenty; we have
brought home to our houses by the Indians seven or
eight fat bucks of a day, and sometimes put by as
many, having no occasion for them. My cousin
Revels and I, with some of my men, went last Third
month into the river to catch herrings, for at that
time they came in great shoals into the shallows.
We had no net, but, after the Indian fashion, made a
round pinfold about two yards over and a foot high,
but left a gap for the fish to go in at, and made a
bush to lay in the gap to keep the fish in. AVhen
that was done we took two long birches and tied their
tops together, and went about a stone's cast above
our said pinfold; then hauling these birch boughs
down the stream, we drove thousands before us, and
as many got into our trap as it would hold. Then
we began to throw them on shore as fast as three or
four of us could bag two or three at a time. After
this manner in half an hour we could have filled a
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
143
three-bushel sack with as fine herring as ever I saw.
... As to beef and pork, there is a great plenty of
it and cheap ; also good sheep. The common grass
of the country feeds beef very fat. . . . We have
great plenty of most sorts of fishes that ever I saw in
England, besides several sorts that are not known
there, as rock, catfish, shad, sheepshead, and stur-
geon ; and fowls are as plenty — ducks, geese, turkeys,
pheasants, partridges, and many other sorts. Indeed
the country, take it as a wilderness, is a brave coun-
try, though no place will please all. There is some
barren land, and more wood than some would have
upon their land ; neither will the country produce
corn without labor, nor is cattle got without some-
thing to buy them, nor bread with idleness, else it
would be a brave country indeed. I question not but
all would then give it a good word. For my part I
like it so well I never had the least thought of re-
turning to England except on account of trade."
"I wonder at our Yorkshire people," says Stacey, in
another letter of the same date, "that they had rather
live in servitude, work hard all the year, and not be
threepence better at the year's end, than to stir out
of the chimney-corner and transport themselves to a
place where, with the like pains, in two or three
years they might know better things. I live as well
to my content and in as great plenty as ever I did,
and in a far more likely way to get an estate."
Judge John Holme, in his so-called poem on "the
flourishing State of Pennsylvania," written in 1696,
seems to have tried to set the views of Stacey to
music. True there is not much tune nor rhythm in
the verse, but the Pennsylvania writer of Georgics has
a shrewd eye for a catalogue, and he would have
shone as an auctioneer. He sings the goodness of
the soil, the cheapness of the land, the trees so
abundant in variety that scarcely any man can name
them all, the fruits and nuts, mulberries, hazelnuts,
strawberries, and "plumbs," "which pleaseth those
well who to eat them comes," the orchards, cherries
so plentiful that the planters bring them to town in
boats (these are the Swedes, of course), peaches so
plenty the people cannot eat half of them, apples,
pears, and quinces,
" And fruit-trees do grow so fast in this ground
That we begin with cider to abound."
The fields and gardens rejoice in the variety as well
as the abundance of their products ; in the woods are
found " wax-berries, elkermis, turmerick, and sarsi-
frax;" the maple trunks trickle with sugar, and our
author tells how to boil it; he gives the names of
fish, flesh, and fowls, including whales and sturgeons,
and describes the industries of Philadelphia, of which
he says, "Strangers do wonder, and some say, —
" What mean these Quakers thus to raise
TheBe Btately fabrics to their praise?
Since we well know and understand
When they were in their native land
They were in prison trodden down,
And can they now build such a town ?"
The royalists of that day, however, saw the growth
of the new city and province with quite another eye,
and they were filled with foreboding as they saw, in
the language of one of their rhymesters, —
■' How Pennsylvania's air agrees with Quakers,
And Carolina's with Assouiators,
Both e'en too good for madmen and for traitors.
Truth is, the land with saints is so run o'er.
And every age producessuch a store,
That now there's need of two New Englands more."
Richard Frame was author of another poem on
Pennsylvania, "printed and sold by William Brad-
ford, 1692." It is like that of Holme's, mainly de-
scriptive, and prophetic likewise of the coming wealth
and greatness of the province. " No doubt," he says, —
" No doubt but you will like this country well.
We that did leave our country thought it strange
That ever we should make so good a change."
This poem was written and printed only seven or
eight years after the settlement of Germantown, yet
Frame says, —
" The German Town of which I spoke before,
Wlrich is at least in length one Mile and More,
Where lives Iligh German People and Low Dutch,
Wliose trade in weaving Linnen cloth is much,
There grows the Flax, as also you may know,
That from the same they do divide the Tow," etc.
Traders, he says, are brotherly ; one brings in em-
ployment for another, and the linen rags of Ger-
mantown have led naturally to the paper-mill near
the Wissahickon. Of the Welsh he makes a passing
reference, as well as of the many townships laid out
and the " multitudes of new plantations."
The Englishman of that day was still untamed.
He had a passion, inherited from his Anglo-Saxon
forbears, for the woods and streams, for outdoor life
and the adventures which attend it. He had not
forgotten that he was only a generation or two
younger than Robin Hood and Will Scarlet, and he
could not be persuaded that the poacher was a crimi-
nal. All the emigration advertisements, circulars, and
prospectuses sought to profit by this passion in pre-
senting the natural charms of America in the most
seductive style. While the Spanish enlisting officers
worked by the spell of the magic word " gold !" and
the canny Amsterdam merchants talked " beaver"
and " barter" and " cent, per cent.," the English so-
licitors for colonists andlaborers never ceased to dwell
upon the normal attractions of the bright new land,
the adventures it offered, and the easy freedom to be
enjoyed there. Thus in advocating his West Jersey
settlements John Fenwick wrote in this way : " If
there be any terrestrial happiness to be had by any
People, especially of any inferior rank, it must cer-
tainly be here. Here any one may furnish himself
with Land, and live Rent free, yea, with such a quan-
tity of Land, that he may weary himself with walk-
ing over his Fields of Corn, and all sorts of Grain,
and let his Stock amount to some hundreds ; he needs
not fear their want of Pasture in the Summer or
144
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Fodder in the Winter, the Woods affording sufficient
supply, where you have Grass as high as a Man's
Knees, nay, as his Waste, interlaced with Pea- Vines
and other Weeds that Cattell much delight in, as
much as a Man can pass through ; and these Woods
also every Mile and half mile are furnished with
fresh Ponds, Brooks, or Rivers, where all sorts of cat-
tell, during the heat of the Day, do quench their thirst
and Cool themselves. These Brooks and Rivers being
invironed of each side with several sorts of Trees and
Grape-Vines, Arbor-like interchanging places, and
crossing these Rivers, do shade and shelter them from
the scorching beams of the Sun. Such as by their
utmost labors can scarcely get a Living may here
procure Inheritance of Lands and Possessions, stock
themselves with all sorts of Cattle, enjoy the benefit
of them while they live and leave them to their Chil-
dren when they die. Here you need not trouble the
Shambles for Meat, nor Bakers and Brewers for Beer
and Bread, nor run to a Linen-Draper for a supply,
every one making their own Linen and a great part
of their Woollen Cloth for their ordinary wearing.
And how prodigal (if I may say) hath Nature been to
furnish this Country with all sorts of Wild Beast and
Fowl, which every one hath an interest in and may
Hunt at his pleasure, where, besides the pleasure in
Hunting, he may furnish his House with excellent fat
Venison, Turkies, Geese, Heath-hens, Cranes, Swans,
Ducks, Pigeons, and the like; and, wearied with that,
he may go a Fishing, where the Rivers are so fur-
nished that he may supply himself with Fish before
he can leave off the Recreation. Here one may Travel
by Land upon the same Continent hundreds of Miles,
and pass through Towns and Villages, and never hear
the least complaint for want nor hear any ask him
for a farthing. Here one may lodge in the Fields
and Woods, travel from one end of the Country to
another, with as much security as if he were lock'd
within his own Chamber ; and if one chance to meet
with an Indian Town, they shall give him the best
Entertainment they have, and upon his desire direct
him on his Way. But that which adds happiness to
all the rest is the healthfulness of the Place, where
many People in twenty years' time never know what
Sickness is; where they look upon it as a great Mor-
tality if two or three die out of a Town in a year's
time. Besides the sweetness of the Air, the Country
itself sends forth such a fragrant smell that it may be
perceived at Sea before they can make the Land ; No
evil Fog or Vapor doth any sooner appear but a
North-West or Westerly Wind immediately dissolves
it and drives it away. Moreover, you shall scarce see
a House but the South side is begirt with Hives of
Bees, which increase after an incredible manner; so
that if there be any terrestrial Canaan, 'tis surely here,
where the land floweth with Milk and Honey."
This is the tenor of all the Maryland invitations to
immigration likewise, and Penn follows the model
closely. His letter to the Society of Free Traders
in 1683 has already been mentioned, and also his
proposals for colonists. In December, 1685, he issued
a "Further Account of Pennsylvania," a supplement
to the letter of 1683. He says that ninety vessels had
sailed with passengers, not one of them meeting with
any miscarriage. They had taken out seven thousand
two hundred persons. He describes the growth of
the city, the laying out of townships, etc. There are
at least fifty of these, and he had visited many, find-
ing improvements much advanced. " Houses over
their heads and Garden-plots, coverts for their cattle,
an increase of stock, and several inclosures in Corn,
especially the first comers, and I may say of some
poor men was the beginning of an Estate, the differ-
ence of laboring for themselves and for others, of an
Inheritance and a Rack Lease being never better un-
derstood." The soil had produced beyond expecta-
tion, yielding corn from thirty to sixty fold; three
pecks of wheat sowed an acre; all English root crops
thrive ; low lands were excellent for rope, hemp, and
flax ; cattle find abundant food in the woods ; Eng-
lish grass seed takes well and yields fatting hay; all
sorts of English fruits have taken " mighty well ;"
good wine may be made from native grapes ; the
coast and bay abound in whales, the rivers in deli-
cate fish ; and provisions were abundant and cheap,
in proof of which he gives a price current. Penn
concludes by quoting an encouraging letter he had
received from Robert Turner.
In 1687, Penn published another pamphlet, con-
taining a letter from Dr. More, " with passages out
of several letters from Persons of Good Credit, re-
lating to the State and Improvement of the Province
of Pennsylvania." In 1691 again he printed a third
pamphlet, containing "Some Letters and an Abstract
of Letters from Pennsylvania." Dr. More takes
pains to show the plenty and prosperity which sur-
round the people of the province. " Our lands have
been grateful to us," he says, " and have begun to
reward our Labors by abounding Crops of Corn."
There was plenty of good fresh pork in market at
two and a half pence per pound, currency ; beef,
the same; butter, sixpence; wheat, three shillings
per bushel ; rye at eight groats ; corn, two shillings
in country money, and some for export. Dr. More
had got a fine crop of wheat on his corn ground by
simply harrowing it in ; his hop garden was very
promising. Arnoldus de la Grange had raised one
thousand bushels of English grain this year, and
Dr. More says, "Every one here is now persuaded
of the fertility of the ground and goodness of
climate, here being nothing wanting, with industry,
that grows in England, and many delicious things not
attainable there ; and we have this common advan-
tage above England, that all things grow better and
with less labour." Penn's steward and gardener are
represented as writing to him that the peach-trees are
broken down with fruit ; all the plants sent out from
England are growing ; barn, porch, and shed full of
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OP THE SETTLERS.
145
corn ; seeds sprout in half the time they require in
England ; bulbs and flowers grow apace. David
Lloyd writes that " Wheat (as good, I think, as any
in England) is sold at three shillings and sixpence
per Bushel, Country money, and for three shillings
ready money (which makes two shillings five pence
English sterling), and if God continues his bless-
ing to us, this province will certainly be the gran-
ary of America."1 James Claypoole writes that
he has never seen brighter and better corn than in
these parts. The whale fishery was considerable ; one
company would take several hundred barrels of oil,
useful, with tobacco, skins, and furs, for commerce
and to bring in small money (of which there is a
scarcity) for exchange. John Goodson writes to Penn
of the country that " it is in a prosperous condition
beyond what many of our Friends can imagine ;" if
Penn and his family were there " surely your Hearts
would be greatly comforted to behold this Wilderness
Land how it is becoming a fruitful Field and pleasant
Garden." Robert James writes to Nathaniel Wilmer :
" God prospers his People and their honest Endeavors
in the Wilderness, and many have cause to Bless and
Praise his holy Arm, who in his Love hath spread a
Table large unto us, even beyond the expectation or
belief of many, yea, to the admiration of our Neigh-
boring Colonies. . . . God is amongst his People and
the wilderness is his, and he waters and refreshes it
with his moistening Dew, whereby the Barren are be-
come pleasant Fields and Gardens of his delight;
blessed be his Name, saith my Soul, and Peace and
Happiness to all God's People everywhere."
In 1685 a pamphlet called "Good Order Estab-
lished," and giving an account of Pennsylvania, was
published by Thomas Budd, a Quaker, who had held
office in West Jersey. Budd was a visionary, mixed up
with Keith's heresy, and wanted to get a bank estab-
lished in Philadelphia. He built largely in that city,
and was a close observer. He pays particular atten-
tion to the natural advantages of the country in its
soil, climate, products, and geographical relations.
The days in winter are two hours longer, and in sum-
mer two hours shorter than in England, he says, and
hence grain and fruits mature more swiftly. He enu-
merates the wild fowl and fish, the fruits and garden
stuff, and thinks that the Delaware marshes, once
drained, would be equal to the meadows of the Thames
for wheat, peas, barley, hemp, flax, rape, and hops.
The French settlers were already growing grapes for
wine, and Budd thought that attempts should be made
to produce rice, anise seed, licorice, madder, and
woad. He has much to say about the development of
1 " Country money'' was produce iu barter, such as furB, tobacco,
grain, stock, etc., at rates established by the courts in collecting fees,
etc. ; " ready money " was Spanish or New England coin, which was at
25 per cent, discount in Old England. See Sumner, " History of Amer-
ican Currency." The differences ure set out in "Madame Knight's
Journal." According to the above the discount on country money was
31 per cent, and on ready money 20 per cent.
10
manufactures, and he proposes to have a granary
built on the Delaware in a fashion which is a curious
anticipation of the modern elevator, and he projects a.
very sensible scheme for cooperative farm-work, on
the community plan, the land to be eventually divided
after it has been fully cleared and improved, and the
families of the commune have grown up.
In 1698 was published Gabriel Thomas' " Histori-
cal and Geographical Account of the Province and
Country of Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, in
America." This well-known brochure descants in
florid and loose terms upon " The richness of the Soil,
the sweetness of the Situation, the Wholesomene-s
of the Air, the Navigable Rivers and others, the pro-
digious increase of Corn, the flourishing condition of
the City of Philadelphia, etc. The strange creatures,
as Birds, Beasts, Fishes, and Fowls, with the Several
Sorts of Minerals, Purging Waters, and Stones lately
discovered. The Natives, Aborigines, and their Lan-
guage, Religion, Laws, and Customs. The first Plan-
ters, Dutch, Swedes, and English, with the number of
its Inhabitants ; as also a Touch upon George Keith's
New Religion, in his second change since he left the
Quakers ; with a Map of both Counties." The title-
page leaves the book but little to say. Gabriel is en-
thusiastic about pretty much everything. He makes
some shrewd remarks, however, as when he says that
he has reason to believe Pennsylvania contains coal,
"fori have observed the runs of water have the same
color as that which proceeds from the coal mines in
Wales." He shows the abundance of game by tell-
ing how he had bought of the Indians a whole buck
(both skin and carcass) for two gills of gunpowder.
Land had advanced in twelve years from fifteen or
eighteen shillings to eighty pounds per one hundred
acres, over a thousand per cent, (in the city), and was
fetching round prices in the adjacent country.
Thomas represents Philadelphia as containing two
thousand houses in 1697. Mr. Westcott declares this
to be a great exaggeration. " In 1700 there were only
seven hundred houses, and in 1749 but two thousand
and seventy-six."2 Mr. Westcott's figures are, of
course, the right ones, yet it must be observed that
Richard Norris, a sea captain, just come from Phila-
delphia, writing to .Penn under date of Dec. 12, 1690,
a letter which Penn himself published in pamphlet
form in London,3 states that " The Bank and River-
Street is so filled with Houses that it makes an in-
closed Street with the Front in many places, which
before lay open to the River Delaware. There is
within the bounds of the City at least fourteen Hundred
Houses, a considerable part of which are very large
and fair buildings of Brick ; we have likewise wharfs
Built out into the River, that a Ship of a Hundred
Tun may lay her side to." All the writers quoled
above have much to say of the rapid growth and de-
s History of Philadelphia, chapter xlii.
3 See Penmybiania Magazine, vol. iv. p. 200; see also a note on this
Bubject at the foot of a preceding page.
146
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA..
velopment of Philadelphia, which seems to strike
every one as if it were a sort of miracle. Mr. Thomas,
in the letter just mentioned, says that they have a
plentiful market two days in the week, with all man-
ner of provisions and fruit in great plenty. " Many
Houses were Built the last Summer, and I heard
many more are agreed for to be built." The city had
a good trade with the West Indies in biscuit, flour,
beef, and pork. Capt. Morris said he noticed the
city's rapid growth each time he returned to it. His
cargo to England consisted of " Skins, Beavers, Otters,
Minks, iJear, Bear, Fox, and Cats, with other sorts,
with Oyle and Whalebone." A great flock of sheep
was kept in the town liberties, and a woolen-factory
at work, employing several carders and spinners, and
turning out " very good Stuff and Serges." " Phila-
delphia is mightily improved," writes William Rod-
ney the same year, " (for its famous Buildings, Stone,
Brick and Timber Houses of very great Value, and
good Wharfs for our Shipping) the most of any new
settlement in the World for its time." R. Hill (same
year) writes to Penn of the pleasure he has received
in beholding the improvements in "that Famous
City (in our parts) and situation of Philadelphia, from
which we in Maryland have lately received great
benefit and supply for our Fleet, by being furnished
with Bread, Beer, Flower, and other provisions, to
great quantities at reasonable Rates and short warn-
ing." C. Pickering writes: " Philadelphia will flour-
ish ; here are more good Houses Built this Summer
(1690) than ever was in one Year yet; things, that is
Provision and Corn, are vary plentiful ; ... an oil-
mill is erecting to make Coal (colza) and Rape-seed
oyle," etc. William Bradford tells the Governor that
Samuel Carpenter and he are building a paper-mill
about a mile from Penn's mills at Schuylkill, and hope
to have paper within four months ; " the Woollen Man-
ufactories have made a beginning here, and we have
got a Publick Flock of Sheep in this Town, and a
Sheepheard or two to attend them." Alexander
Beardsley writes that the city has received an access
of population from New York, among them Jacob
Telner (the original patentee of Germantown) :
" Mine friends and others are already come, so that if we do not pre-
vent it ourselves by misliving, this is likely to be a good place. Mc-
thinks it seems to me as if the Lord had a blessing in store for this placol
here is a good government, and the magistrates are careful to keep good
order, to suppress Vice and encourage Virtuous Living; and a watch U
kept every Night by the Housekeepers, to see that no Looseness nor
DrunkenneSB take place. The People go on with Building very much ,
since thou went from here many good Houses are Built on the Front
at the least twenty this Year ; the Bank (by the River) is tnken up, all
from the Blue Anchor beyond the penny Pot-House. . . . People seem
eager io Building, and House Rent towards the River is high." " Phil-
adelphia thrives to admiration," says another writer quoted in this ab-
stract of letters, " both in way of Trade aud also in Building, and is
much altered since thou wert here." In John Goodson's letter we are
told that" We now begin to have a Trade abroad as well as at home;
here bo several merchants that Transport several Ship-loads of Bread,
Flower, Beef and Pork to Barbadoes and Jamaica; a fine Trade here
in the Town, consisting of many Trades-Men, which are eight Mer-
chants, Responsible Men, House-Keepers, twenty-nine Shop-Keepers,
great and small, three Brewers that send off many a Ton of good Malt-
Beer, -three Maltsters in this Town also, besides many that are in the
Country, seven Master Bakers, some of them bake and send away many
Thousand Bushels in a Tear of Bread and Flour, this is Truth; four
Master Butchers, nine Master Carpenters, seven Master Bricklayers, four
Brick-Makers with Brick-Kills, nine Master Shoemakers, nine Master
Taylors, two Pewterers, one Brasier, one Saddler, one Clock and Watch-
Maker, one Potter, three Tallow-Chandlers, two Sope-Makers, three
Woolen-Weavers that are entering upon the Woolen Manufactory in
the Town, besides several in the country ; and five miles off is a Town
of Dutch and German People that have set up the Linnen Manufactory,
which weave and make many Hundred Yards of pure fine Linnen Cloath
in a Year, that in a short time I doubt not but the country will live
happily ; five SmitliB, one Comb-Maker, one Tobacco-Pipe Maker, three
Dyers, one Joyner, one Cabinet-Maker, one Rope-Maker that makes
Ropes for Shipping, three Master Ship-Carpenters, three Barbers, two
Chirurgeons, three Plasterers, several Victualing Houses or Ordinaries.
All the fore-mentioned Trades are sufficieut House-Keepers, and live
gallantly ; four Master Coopers that make abundance of cask for the sea,
besides many families of labouring People and Sawyers that live happily,
six Carters that have Teams daily employed to carry and fetch Timber
and Bricks, Stones and Lime for Building, which goeth on to Admira-
tion. They Build all with Brick aud Stone now, except the very
meanest sort of people, which Build framed Houses with Timber and
Fetheredg-Buards without side, and lathM and plaster'd within, two
stories high, very pretty houses; they are like the Buildings at the
Park in Southwark. We have Rocks of Lime-Stones, whore many
Hundreds, yea Thousands of Bushel* of Lime is made in a year for this
Town." " My Friends," concludes this pious John Goodson, " have all
about twenty-one Meeting-Places established in Pennsylvania, and
six meetings fixed around the city, all within six miles."
These contemporary letters seem to disarm the
published accounts of Philadelphia's progress of any
suspicion of exaggeration. They make it plain that
the city was growing very rapidly under the stimu-
lus of an accelerated immigration and a commerce
and internal trade which was very profitable and in-
creased every day. The shipping was comparatively
large, and the frequent arrivals, and departures gave
the place a busy, bustling aspect, which even ex-
tended itself to Chester, New Castle, Christina, Hore-
kills, Salem, Burlington, and other parts on the river.
The number of sailors of every nationality, of for-
eign merchants and traders come to buy and sell, had
already led to the introduction of no little of the
sorts of vice and debauchery which naturally attach
to active . seaport towns, greatly scandalizing the
quiet Quakers. The letters of Penn and the orders
and remonstrances and explanations of Council on
this subject bear ample testimony to this debauch-
ery.1
It was not difficult for merchants who were largely
engaged in trade with the New England colonies, the
West Indies, and with Europe, and making a profit
of nigh upon one hundred per cent, on each venture
and its return (English goods, that is to say, ex-
changed either directly for furs, etc., or indirectly for
Pennsylvania flour and bread sent to the West Indies
and there bartered for tropical products for the English
market) to rebuild their original frame cabins with
1 See Council proceedings aud Penn correspondence, 1G89-99. It
may be said here, to avoid the necessity of a refoi'ence for each sentence
of this chapter, that every fact stated in it rests upon contemporary
authority, Buch as those just named and the body of original letters
which have been already quoted in connection with this subject. The
Pennsylvania Historical Society has done a great work in republishing
these originals.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
147
stately piles of brick. Fortunes were swiftly made,
and, invested in improvements in and around the city,
went a great way. Labor was comparatively high,
but materials were cheap. Budd estimates that the
alleys and lanes, several fine squares and courts within
this magnificent city. As for the particular names of
the several streets contained therein, the principal
are as follows, viz. : Walnut Street, Vine Street,
THE OLD SLATE-ROOF HOUSE.
six hundred thousand bricks for his proposed granary
could be bought for eight shillings per thousand.
"Madam Farmer," who was the first person to burn
stone lime in Philadelphia (Budd, in 1685, says no
stone lime had then been discovered) offered, in 1686-
87, to sell ten thousand bushels of Schuylkill lime at
sixpence per bushel at the kiln. The frames of
houses, all of hewn timber, cost little beyond the
charges for hewing and handling, and sawed lumber
was cheap and plentiful. Hence there must have been
as much building going on as was required by the
increase of population, in addition to the new and
larger structures which took the place of more primi-
tive ones as wealth increased. Penn, in his " Fur-
ther Account of Pennsylvania" (1685), mentions nine
streets running from river to river and twenty-one
streets crossing them at right angles. Of these he
names sixteen streets, " the names," he says, " being
mostly taken from the things that grew spontaneously
in the county."1 Gabriel Thomas, describing the city
as he saw it in 1697, says, " There are many lanes and
alleys, as, first, Hutton's Lane, Morris Lane, Jones'
Lane, wherein are very good buildings; Shuter's
Alley, Yower's Lane, Walter's Alley, Turner's Lane,
Sikes' Alley, and Flowers' Alley. All these alleys
and lanes extend from the Front Street to the Second
Street. There is another alley in the Second Street
called Carter's Alley. There are also, besides these
1 Of the streets named, "the situation of Cranberry, Plumb, Hickory,
Oak, Beech, Ash, and Poplar Streets is not now to be ascertained."—
Weetcolt, chap. xxxi.
Chestnut Street, Sassafras Street, taking their names
from the abundance of those trees that formerly grew
there ; 2 High Street, Broad Street, Delaware Street,
Front Street, with several of less note, too tedious to
insert here." 3
" Rather named to accommodate Penn's whim. " Chestnut Street was
at first called Wynne, after Dr. Thomas Wynne, of Wales, who came here
in the good ship ' Welcome' with William Perm. The founder had de-
sired his province to be called Sylvania, but, yielding obedience to his
monarch's pleasure, he submitted to its being called Pennsylvania. It
was indeedasylvan Bcene, — earth neversawafairer, — and so, as amatter
of course, the streets of the city, that he doubted not was to be one of
the mighty ones of the world, were to be named after the trees of the
beautiful forest that then covered almost all of the land." — Townsend
Ward in Penna. Marj., vol. iv. p. 409: "Second Street and the Second
Street Road and their Associations."
s In a note to the forty-second chapter of his" History of Philadelphia"
Mr. Thompson Westcott Bays that none of these names of lanes and alleys,
except Carter's Alley, is now borne by streets or alleys. " Jones' Lane
was the first above High Street, running from Front to Second, adjoin-
ing a lot of Griffith Jones. It was afterwards called Jones' Alley, then
Pewter Platter Alley, from the sign of a tavern once in it, then Jones'
Alley again, and now Church Alley. Carter'B Lane, now called Carter's
Street, is the first below Chestnut Street. ... It was named from Wil-
liam Carter, owner of an adjoining lot on Second Street." . . . Hutton's
Lane, afterwards Gray's Alley, the second above Walnut Street, now
called Gatzmer Street. Thomas Hooton owned an adjoining lot. Tur-
ner's Lane, from Robert Turner, the firBt below Mulberry Street, now
Coombs' Alley. Yower's (Ewer's) Lane, above Chestnut Street, now
Black Horse Alley. MorriB' Alley is supposed to be what is now called
Gothic Street. Sikes' Lane is now Ingles' Street, and Shelter's, Flower's,
and Waller's Alleys cannot be assigned definite positions. According to
Townsend Ward, Col. Clement Biddle lived corner of Gray's Alley and
Front Street ; on the southeast corner of Second Street and Morris' Alley,
where the buildingof the Chamber of Commerce now is, Samuel Carpenter
built, in 16S7, the slate-roof house, which Btood till 1867. It was much the
finest house in the city. William Penn lived there in 1699, James Logan
entertained Lord Cornbury there in 1702, and Governor James Hamilton,
148
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
There were three fairs a year and two markets every
week in Philadelphia in Thomas' time. " They kill
above twenty fat bullocks every week in the hottest
time of summer, besides many sheep, calves, and hogs.
. . . Here is lately built a noble town-house, or guild-
hall, also a handsome market-house and a convenient
prison."1 The large and commodious wharves are
also mentioned, and timber-yards, and Robert Tur-
ner's ship-yard. The stairs to the water's edge at
Carpenter's and Tresse's wharves, Carpenter's derrick,
granaries, and store-houses, Wilcox's rope-walk, and
the large breweries and bake-houses are all spoken of;
also the schools, the cook-shops, the paper-mill, the
wool-weavers, and the prosperous tradesmen. To cap
the climax, Thomas declares that men in Philadelphia
are not jealous and old maids do not exist, "for all do'
commonly marry before they are twenty years of age."
Some mansions and warehouses of that day must have
been really handsome buildings, judging from the
attention they attracted. Of such were the seats of
Joseph Growden, in the suburbs, who had a thousand
Mrs. Howell, and Mrs. Graydon weresuccessively its occupauts, the ladies
using it for a boarding-house. Mr. Ward adds that " From the frequent
chunges in the names of streets in Philadelphia one might suppose we
here were afflicted with a perpetual French Revolution, the main features
of which, since the disuse of the guillotine, being an entire change in
the nameB of streets. But if it be not owing to French influence.it may
be that the movement in favor of womeu's rights has disturbed us, since,
fur all the world, our streets are like a parcel of school-girls, who so .'re-
quently and so entirely change their names that their own mothers no
longer know them. Gothic Street was first Morris' Lane, then Norris'
Alley. Gatzmer Street was Button's Lane, then Gray's Alley. Inglie
Street was Syke's Lane, then Abraham Taylor's Alley. Gold Street
was first New Bank Alley, then Bank Alley. Lodge Alley is lost,
or it is now considered a continuation of and is called Gothic Street.
Carter, as a name, is preserved, notwithstanding a desperate attempt to
change it. The alley part is lost, but the fact that Carter had made a
bequest to the poor of the city saved the name."
1 "At the time when Gabriel ThomaB wrote, in 1697, there was no
town-house, or guild-hall, in Philadelphia, and no market-houBe, and
the prison was a rented house. These buildings were erected in later
years." — Weslcolt, chap. xlii. There was, however, a marjcet-place as
early as 1683, where butchers, etc., erected movable stalls ; these may
have become fixtures in the time of Thomas. In 1693 there was a bell
for market, which argues a belfry, and the clerk was an important officer,
being wood-corder as well as examiner of weights and measures. (Col-
onial Eecords, vols. i. and ii.) As to prisons, the Council proceedings
contain the following:
(1) 16th of 11 th Month ,1683, " Ordered, That Wm. Clayton build a Cage,
AgainBt the next Council dny, 7 foot high, 7 foot long & 5 foot broad."
(2) July 26, 1701. " Willni. Clayton, of Chichester, producing an acct.
of Eleven pounds eleven Shills. due to his ffather, Wm. CI., deceased,
for building a Cage for Malefactors in the Town of Philadelphia, at the
first settling of this Province, Onlr., that the Prov1. Treasurer discharge
the Said acct."
(3) 3l8t of March, 1684. "The Petition uf Samll Hersent was read,
Concerning y° finishing of y Prison. He i« referred to ye Justices of y
County Court."
(4) In 1694 the county jail was a hired building and the rent was over-
due. (Council proceedings, June 4, 1694.)
(5) In July, 1700, Penn in the chair, the subject of enforcing the law
about work-houses and prisonB was considered in Council. A lot had
been already bought on Third Street, and a committee (Edw. Shippen
and William Clark) was appointed to " go to y» inhabitants adjacent to
y" prison, & to see what they & others will advance beforehand (to be
deducted outt of the next County tax to be loid for building a Court
house) towards removing y° sil gaol & Brick wall."
(6) In 1708 it was matter of complaint that the courts of Philadelphia
had to Bit in "an ale-house."
apple-trees about his place, and Edward Shippen, on
Second Street, with its handsome grounds, gardens,
and orchards.
The streets have been spoken of already. They
were not paved until quite a late period. In 1700,
August 15th, during Penn's second visit, it was or-
dered in Council "yl the King's Highway or publick
Road & the bridges yri° from y° town of Philadel-
phia to the falls of Delaware y' now are, be w* all
expedion sufficientlie cut & cleared from all timber,
trees & stumps of trees, Loggs, & from all other nu-
sances whatsoever y* Ly cross y° sd way, & y* y° same,
with all passages in & outt of all creeks & Branches,
may be made passable, Comodious, safe, and easie for
man, horse, cart, waggon, or team, be y° rescive (re-
spective) overseers of the highways and Bridges wthil1
the rescive precincts, townships, and Counties of
Philadelphia & Bucks, according to Law. And y'
ye respective Courts of Justice & Justices of y" peace
in y" sd Counties, Cause y° same be dulie pforloed, & the
Laws in those Cases made & provided to be strictlie
put in execu™, undryerexive penalties y11" contained,
& y' ye Secrie take care to send a Copie of this ordr to
y8 Counties of Philadelphia & Bucks respectivelie."
This means that the streets were all roads, and poor
ones at that. It took Isaac Norris' team all day to
carry a load from Fair Hill to Philadelphia and back,
yet the Germantown road was one of the earliest laid
out. The Swedes had no roads. They followed
bridle-paths on foot or on horseback, and carried
their freight by water. It was in 1686 that the
people of Philadelphia began to move for better high-
ways. The Schuylkill ferry monopoly was then excit-
ing public attention, and the Council took the whole
matter of thoroughfares into consideration. There
was a petition calling attention to the badness of the
way from Moyamensing to Philadelphia. It was re-
ferred to " y" County Court, who it's presumed has
power to appoynt Roads to Landing Places, to Court
and to Markett." In 1686, 19th of Ninth month, the
Council appointed R. Turner, J. Barnes, A. Cook, and
T. Janney, with the Surveyors of Bucks and Philadel-
phia Counties, to meet and lay out a more commo-
dious road from Broad Street to the falls of Delaware.
This was the Bristol road. The Germantown road
was at first an Indian trail to the Swedes' ford on the
Schuylkill and to the Susquehanna River at Octorara.
On 5th of Second month, 1687, the inhabitants of
Plymouth township petitioned for a cart-road to their
town. The road from Radnor to the ferry of Schuyl-
kill was adjusted by Council in 1687 ; a part of it had
been closed by fences, showing that it was not pre-
viously a public highway. The same had been the
case with the road to Bristol, the farmers fencing
across it and changing the bed, so that complaint
was made to Council that the people in Bucks County
were taking their grain to sell or be ground to Bur-
lington instead of Philadelphia. In 1689 we find
Robert Turner, Benjamin Chambers, and other peti-
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
149
tioners for a road from Philadelphia to Bucks County.
This was the beginning of the Oxford or Middle road.
The York road, from Cheltenham to Philadelphia,
was ordered in August, 1693.1
The Old York road and the County-line road,
running to Moreland, were laid out in 1697, from
surveys made by Nicholas Scull, Susquehanna Street
being laid out at the same time. The Germans at
Germantown might be trusted to have good roads
and proper fences. The supervision of these seems
to have been the chief business of the courts there
from the day of its organization in 1691.2
Besides the main road to Philadelphia the colonists
at Germantown built for themselves a church road, a
school-house road, a lime-kiln road, a paper-mill
road, and several smaller lanes connecting with places
in the vicinity. Richard Townshend, one of the "Wel-
come's" passengers, built a grist-mill on the church
road as early as 1683. This supplied Germantown
and a large circle of farmers with the best of flour.
In 1700 Germantown had a mile of main street, lined
on each side with peach-trees in full bearing, and
each house had a fine garden. Towns such as this
are what have contributed so much to earn for Phila-
1 The fir6t control of roads was by the courts, which appointed over-
seerB and fence-viewers, the grand jury laying out the roads; in 1692
the control of roads was given to the townships, and this lasted until
the adoption of a general road law.
2 The apportionment of lots in Germantown was made in the cave of
Pastorals, October, 1683. Pastorius then built himself a small cabin in
Philadelphia, thirty by fifteen feet This was the hou6e that had the
oiled-paper windows, and the Latin motto that made Penn laugh. In
1685 Germantown was finally laid off, the settlement then comprising
twelve families, forty -one persons in all. Then the Germantown was bo-
gun with a main street sixty feet wide. This street was marked along the
Indian trail spoken of, and it must have run through very thick woods,
for It is recorded that as late as 1717 a bear climbed over the fence into
-Tames Logan's garden at Stenton, between Philadelphia and German-
town. In 1691, when the Germantown Germans were naturalized, there
■were sixty-four males and heads of families in the town. Theirdescend-
ants are many of them still in the neighborhood, but the names have
changed materially in spelling: Op de Graeff is Updegraff; Conderts,
Conrad ; Schumacher, Shoemaker ; Rittinghuysen, Kitten house ; Strepers,
Streeper; Souplis, Supplee ; Scherker, Yerkes ; Tissen, Tyson; Lucken,
Lu kens ; Klever, Cleaver ; Knrlis, Corlies ; Cassels, Castle ; Kestner,
Castner; Backer, Baker, etc. In the same way the names of the origi-
nal Welsh settlers at Merion and elsewhere have broken down and
become modern English surnames. " Ap" for son of has either disap-
peared or been blended with the succeeding word, so that Ap Humphrey
becomes Pumphrey ; Ap Howell, Powell ; Ap Rees, Price, and Ap Hugh,
Pugh. Ap John is converted into John's, Johns, or Jones; Ap Edward,
Edwards; Ap William, Williams ; Ap Robert, Roberts. Ap Owen be-
comes Bowen, and ApEvan,Bevan. The words designating a man by
his physical peculiarities, however, have not much changed, — Wynn,
Winn, Gwynn still means fair, and is still in use ; so also are Lloyd,
brown, or gray, Gough (goch), red, and Vaughan (vychan), the younger,
or little one. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company has carefully pre-
served the old Welsh names in Borne of its stations, as Wynnewood,
Bryn Mawr, etc., but the owners of those original names have suffered
them to be corrupted. Thus Ciom has turned into Combe, Glynde is
Lind,and Caer-bryn .sinks into Coburn. But More (great), Gregg (hoarse),
Balloch (speckle-face), Doe (black), Grimm (strong) remain unchanged.
Cradock is an ancient corruption of Caradoc, Chowne is from Chun,
Meyrick and Merrick from Mairric, the source also of Meredith.
Madoc is turned into Maddox. Pocock and Bocock are from the Welsh
Bochog (puffy-cheeked); Davy, Daffy, Dawes, Dawkins, Taffy, Davison,
are all WelBh forms of David, or Davids (Ap David). The name Pye is
a corruption of Ap Hugh.
delphia the reputation of having more beautiful sub-
urbs than any other large city in America.
Precisely what sort of houses were built by the first
settlers in Philadelphia may be known with satisfac-
tory exactness from the contemporary records. In
Penn's tract of " Information and Direction to such
Persons as are inclined to America" we have a de-
scription of such houses, and we may assume that the
" Welcome's" passengers erected exactly such struc-
tures during their probationary period of cave life or
hut life in the wilderness. The dimensions given are
almost those of the house of Pastorius: "To build
them an House of thirty foot long and eighteen foot
broad with a partition near the middle, and another
to divide one end of the House into two small Rooms,
there must be eight Trees of about sixteen inches
square, and cut off to Posts of about fifteen foot long,
which the House must stand upon, and four pieces,
two of thirty foot long and two of eighteen foot long,
for Plates, which must lie upon the top of these Posts,
the whole length and breadth of the House, for the
Gists (joists) to rest upon. There must be ten Gists
of twenty foot long to bear the Loft, and two false
Plates of thirty foot long to lie upon the ends of the
Gists for the Rafters to be fixed upon, twelve pare of
Rafters of about twenty foot to bear the Roof of the
House, with several other small pieces, as Wind-
beams, Braces, Studs, &c, which are made out of the
Waste Timber. For covering the House, Ends and
Sides, and for the Loft we use Clabboard, which is
Rived feather-edged, of five foot and a half long,3
that, well Drawn, lyes close and smooth : The Lodg-
ing Room may be lined with the same, and filled up
between, which is very Warm. These houses usually
endure ten years without repair." The cost of such
a house is given as follows : Carpenter's work (the
owner and his servants assisting), £7 ; a barn of the
same dimensions, £5 ; nails and other things to finish
both, £3 10s. ; total for house and barn, £15 10s. These
houses had dirt floors, clapboard floors for garret.
Oldmixon copies these directions verbatim in his
description of the houses of the first settlers. The
directions, however, are very incomplete ; no provis-
ions are made for doors, windows, or chimneys. Of
the latter these houses had but one, built outside the
gable of the sitting-room, sometimes of stone, some-
times of clay and sticks, sometimes of wood only.
The doors could be made of riven stuff, of course,
with deer-skin hinges and wooden latch and bar, and
the windows could be closed with clapboard shutters.
A large fireplace was needed, with a stone hearth ;
the table could be made of hewn stuff, resting on
puncheons driven into the ground, and blocks, stools,
and benches would answer for seats. Rude wooden
bedsteads or berths could be contrived along the walls,
and a few bear-skins, with the bedclothes brought over
3 " Feather-edged," with one side thinner than the other, as shingles
are made.
150
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
by every emigrant, would make them warm. The
other furniture would comprise chiefly kitchen uten-
sils; pork fat, whale or sturgeon oil, and pine knots
or " light wood" would give all the artificial light
needed.
Iron articles were most costly and hardest to get.
Edward Jones, at Merion, writes in August, 1682, for
nails, sixpennies and eightpennies ; for mill-iron, an
iron kettle for his wife, and shoes, all of which he
says are dear ; " iron is about two and thirty or forty
shillings a hundred; steel about Is. 5d. per pound."
In Penn's " Directions" he recommends colonists to
bring out with them, in the way of utensils and goods,
" English Woollen and German Linen, or ordinary
Broad-Clothes, Kereseys, Searges, Norwich-Stuns,
some Duffels, Cottons and Stroud-waters for the Na-
tives, and White and Blew Ozenburgs [Osnaburgs] ,
Shoes and Stockings, Buttons, Silk, Thread, Iron
Ware, especially Felling Axes, Hows, Indian Hows,
Saws, Frows [frowers, for splitting shingles], Drawing
Knives, Nails, but of 6d. and Sd. a treble quantity,
because they use them in shingling or covering of
Houses." For the first year's stock for a farm he
advises " three milch cows, with young calves by
their sides, £10 ; yoke of oxen, £8 ; Brood mare, £5 ;
two young Sows and a Boar, £1 10s., — in all £24."
For first year's provisions: Eight bushels of Indian
corn per capita, and five bushels of English wheat, for
five persons, £8 7s. 6d. ; two barrels of molasses (for
beer), £3 ; beef and pork, 120 pounds per head, at Id.
per pound, £5 ; five gallons spirits at 2s. per gallon,
10s. Three hands, with a little help from the woman
and boy, can plant and tend 20,000 hills of corn
(planted four feet each way, there are 2717 hills to an
acre, or seven and one-third acres to the whole num-
ber of hills), and they may sow eight acres of spring
wheat and oats, besides raising peas, potatoes, and
garden stuff. The expected yield will be 400 bushels
of corn, 120 bushels of oats and wheat, etc. These
calculations were moderate for a virgin soil, free from
vermin. Dr. More, in his letter to Penn in Septem-
ber, 1686, says, " I have had seventy ears of Rye
upon one single root, proceeding from one single corn ;
forty-five of Wheat ; eighty of Oats; ten, twelve, and
fourteen of Barley out of one Corn. I took the curi-
osity to tell one of the twelve Ears from one Grain,
and there was in it forty-five grains on that ear ; above
three thousand of oats from one single corn, and
some I had that had much more, but it would seem
a, Romance rather than a Truth if I should speak
what I have seen in these things."
A better class of houses than these clapboard ones
with dirt floors were soon built. Indeed, the old
log houses of the Swedes were more comfortable,
especially when built like that of Sven Seners' at
Wicaco, with a first story of stone and the super-
structure of logs. A well-built log house, on a stone
foundation, well filled in with bricks or stone and
mortar, and ceiled inside with planking like a ship,
makes the dryest, warmest, and most durable country-
house that can be built. But in Philadelphia the set-
tlers immediately began to burn bricks, and construct
houses of them, often with a timber framework, in
the old Tudor cottage style. This sort of building
went on rapidly as soon as limestone began to be
quarried and burnt. In Penn's " Farther Account,"
etc. (1685), he mentions the fact that he had built his
brick house (probably the one in Letitia Court) in a
good style and fashion " to incourage others, and that
from building with wood," and he adds that "many
have Brick Houses are now going up, with good cel-
lars." He enumerates houses built by Arthur Cook,
William Frampton, John Wheeler, the two brick-
makers, Samuel Carpenter, John Test, N. Allen, and
John Day, on Front Street chiefly. All these houses
have balconies, he says. Pastorius is burning bricks
at Germantown ; Carpenter has a kiln for shell-lime
on his wharf; a large plain brick house, in the cen-
tre, 60 feet by 40, is erecting for a meeting-house ;
another of the same dimensions on the river front or
bank is also building for an evening meeting.
This better class of houses was of course, more
elaborately furnished. It may be noticed that in
John Goodson's directory cabinet-makers and other
workmen in furniture and interior movables are men-
tioned, but all the first settlers must have brought or
imported their furniture from Europe. It was stiff
and heavy, scarcely anticipating that slim and spind-
ling style which came in with the next English sov-
ereign, and has recently been revived with an ex-
travagance of pursuit seldom exhibited except in
bric-a-brac hunters and opera-boufle artistes. As yet
not much mahogany and rosewood were used by the
Northern nations (except the Dutch), but good solid
oak, well-carved, and walnut were the favorite woods.
There were great chests of drawers, massive buffets,
solid tables, with flaps and wings, straight-back oak
chairs, well-carved, leathern-seated chairs, studded
with brass nails, and tall Dutch clocks. Much of the
table furniture was pewter or common delf ware ;
brass and copper served in the kitchen, where now
tin is used. Wood was the only fuel, and the fire-
places, enormously capacious, had great iron dogs in
them, to which, in winter-time, the back-log was often
dragged by a yoke of oxen with the log-chain. Cranes
and hooks, suspended in these fireplaces, held pots
for the boiling, and the roasting was done on spits or
upon "jacks," which dogs had to turn. The bread
was baked in a brick oven usually outside the house,
and the minor baking in "Dutch ovens," set upon
and covered over with beds of red-hot coals. In the
family part of the house the brass andirons and tongs
and fender made the fire-glow upon the deep hearth
look doubly cheerful. The Quakers did not use
stoves until Benjamin Franklin inveigled them into
it with that simulacrum of an open fireplace called
the Franklin stove. The Swedes scarcely had chim-
neys, much less stoves, but the Germans early im-
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OP THE SETTLERS.
151
ported the great porcelain stoves, which they were
familiar with at home, and which they used until
Christopher Saur, the Germantown printer, invented
the ten-plate stove, for which lovers of the beautiful
will scarcely know how to forgive him. All well-to-
do families had good store of linen for bed clothes,
blankets, etc. ; the washing was not done often, and
the chests of drawers were filled with homespun.
Especially was this the case among the German set-
tlers, who scarcely washed up the soiled house and
person wear more than once in a quarter. It was the
pride and test of a good housewife to have more linen
made up than she knew what to do with, and this
continues to be the case even to-day in Berks, York,
and Lancaster Counties.1 It is noteworthy that the
Germans built their houses with one chimney, in the
centre of the building, the English with » chimney
at each end, and this distinction was so commonly
marked as to attract the attention of travelers.2 In
their bedroom furniture the Germans substituted the
" feather deck" for the blanket, — more majorum, — and
this uncomfortable covering is still retained.
In the houses the floors down-stairs were sanded.
There were no carpets as yet, not even home-made ones,
and the Germans have not been using these for a
hundred j'ears. William Penn had no carpets in his
Pennsbury Manor house. The large, heavy tables in
the dining and living rooms of the early homes
groaned with plenty, and the great pewter dishes
were piled high. The people worked hard, and they
did not stint themselves. The Swedes, Germans, and
Quakers were all of them hearty feeders, and they
liked gross food. No dread of dyspepsia limited their
dishes ; they had abundance and enjoyed it. Only
a few men of English habits and fond of port, brandy,
and madeira, like Capt. Markham, ever had the gout.3
The rivers teemed with fish, and the Quakers early
learned the virtues and delicious flavor of the shad,
broiled on a plank at one side the fireplace, while a
johnny-cake browned on another plank at the other
side of the fire. Penn grew so fond of these that in
1686 he wrote to Harrison to send him some "smoakt
haunches of venison and pork. Gett them of the
Sweeds. Some smoakt shadd and beef. The oldpriest
at Philadelphia (Fabricius) had rare shadd. Also
some peas and beans of that country." Richard
Townshend, in 1682, says that the first year colonists
almost lived on fish, of which great quantities were
1 In a clever little volume, published in 1873, called " Pennsylvania
Butch and other Essays," we read of one extremely provident and fore-
handed damsel, who had a bureau full of linen shirts and other clothes
ready made up for her future husband, whom she was yet to meet, and
whose measure she could, of course, only guess at, by assuming that the
right man, when he did come, would be of the size and figure she had
in her mind's eye in cutting out the garments.
2 Schoepfs " Reise Durch Pennsylvanien," 1783, quoted by I. D. Rupp,
notes vto Dr. Rush's pamphlet on "Manners of the Germans in Pennsyl-
vania."
3 In Governor Fletcher's time the Council adjourned to meet again in
Markham 's house because the gout prevented him from going out, and
Fletcher wanted a full attendance of his advisers.
caught, the winter being an open one, and venison, —
" We could buy a deer for about two shillings, and a
large turkey for about one shilling, and Indian corn
for about two shillings and sixpence per bushel."
Sixrockfish or six shad could be bought for a shilling;
oysters two shillings a bushel, herrings one shilling
and sixpence per hundred. Sturgeon were caught
for food, and also for the oil they supplied. The
Delaware and the Schuylkill and adjacent pools and
marshes were the resort of myriads of wild-fowl,
from swan and geese down to rail and reed birds.
As soon as the settlers became established, the flesh
of all domesticated animals was cheap in the mar-
kets. Every family kept its own cows, made its own
butter and cheese, salted, cured, and smoked its own
bacon, beef, herring, shad, venison, and mutton.
The smoke-house, dairy, and poultry-house were ap-
pendages to all town houses, and most of them had
their own vegetable gardens likewise. It was the
custom then, and remained so until long after the be-
ginning of the present century, for every house to be
provisioned as if to stand a siege. The cellars had
great bins for potatoes and other roots and apples ;
there were tiers of barrels of fresh cider and casks
for vinegar to ripen in, and in a locked recess were
usually some casks of madeira, sherry, port, rum,
brandy, gin, etc., for the master and his guests, with
marsala and malaga for the women and children.
There was an astonishing amount of drinking going
on all the time; all drank something, if it was only
ale or small beer. The pantry and store-house of
the mistress was for use, not ornament. Her barrels
of saur-kraut were in the cellar, her firkins of apple-
butter occupied the ample garret, along with strings
of onions, hampers of dried peaches and apples, and
great bundles of dried herbs; but in the store-room
the deep-bottomed shelf was ranged around with gray
stone jars of large capacity, filled with pickles, the
shelf above it marshaled a battalion of glass jars of
preserves of every sort, and the upper shelves bent under
the weight of bottles filled with balsam apples for
cuts and bruises in case of need, cordials, lavender,
aromatic vinegars, and a hundred deft contrivances
to tickle the palate, and deprave all stomachs but
such as those of these hardy toilers in the open air.
The gardens yielded all the common vegetables,
and people who ate so largely of salted meats and fish
required much vegetable food and many sweets anil
acids to protect them from scorbutic affections.
Onions, turnips, cabbage, potatoes were supplemented
with the more delicate vegetables known in Germany,
The Indians supplied the colonists with their first
peas, beans, and squashes, taught them how to boil
mush, to pound hominy, to roast the tender ears of
corn, and prepare the delightful succotash. Much
pastry was used, many sweetmeats and pickles, but
not very high seasoning. At table, until tea and
coffee became regular articles of diet with all classes,
cider and the small beers of domestic brewing were
152
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
served without stint at every meal. In winter the
beers were sweetened, spiced, warmed, and drunk for
possets. Wines did not appear except upon the tables
of the well-to-do, but rum and spirits were in every
house, and all took their morning and noon drams in
some shape or other. The effects of alcohol were
neutralized by the active outdoor life all led, and by
the quantities of coarse food taken at every meal.
In the journal of William Black, who was in Phila-
delphia in 1744,1 it is made to appear among the
duties of hospitality to be treating to something or
other every hour in the day. This young fellow
either had a very strong head, or alcohol did not
make the same impression upon the strong, healthy
frame of the youth of that day which it does upon
modern effeminate men. There was bread, cider,
and punch for lunch, rum and brandy before dinner,
punch, madeira, port, and sherry at dinner, bounce
and liqueurs with the ladies, and wine and spirits ad
libitum till bedtime. The party are welcomed too
with a bowl of fine lemon punch big enough to have
"swimm'd half a dozen young geese." After five or
six glasses of this " poured down our throats," they
rode to the Governor's house, were introduced and
taken into another room, "where we was presented
with a glass of wine," and it was punch, spirits, or
" a few glasses of wine" wherever they went during
their stay, his friends being, as he says, as liberal with
their good wine "as an apple-tree of its fruit on a
windy day in the month of July."
The dress of the people of Philadelphia in the early
days of which we write was simple, plain, but not
formal as that of the Quakers subsequently became.
The country people, for their ordinary wear, made
much use of serviceable leather doublets and breeches,
woolen waistcoats, felt hats, heavy shoes with leather
leggings, or else boots. They wore stout flannel next
to the skin in winter, rough coats, and many woolen
wraps about the throat; in summer, coarse Osnaburgs
and home-made linens. All wore wigs, and the dress
suits of cloth or camlet were brave with buttons,
braid, and buckles, silk stockings and embroidered
waistcoats, gold-laced hats and fine lace ruffles and
cravats. Gentlemen wore their small swords; work-
men and laborers either dressed in leather, druggets,
serge, fustian, or lockram, or else in Osnaburgs.
Common women and servants wore linen and do-
mestics, linseys and calicoes ; on their heads a hood
or quilted bonnet, heavy shoes, home-knit stockings
of thread or yarn, petticoats and short gowns, with a
handkerchief pinned about the shoulders. The ladies
had of course more brilliant and varied wardrobes;
the hat was high-crowned, the hair much dressed;
stomachers and corsage long and stiff; much cambric
about the neck and bosom, much gimp, ribbon, and
1 Black was a young Virginian, secretary of the commissioners ap-
pointed by Governor Gooch, of Virginia, to unite with those of Penn-
sylvania and Maryland to treat with the Six Nations in 1744. His diary
has been published in the Peimri. Moguzine, vol. i.
galloon; silk or satin petticoats, and dainty shoes
and stockings. A friend in 1697 sent Phineas Pem-
berton's wife " an alamode hood," and the ladies
would contrive always to have something "a la
mode." In the inventory of Christopher Taylor's
estate are enumerated " a baratine body, stomacher,
and petticoat, cambric kerchiefs, and forehead cloths."
In that of John Moon were a "fine Brussels camlet
petticoat, a yellow silk mantle, silk band and sash,
silk and satin caps, hoods, lute-strings, white silk
hoods." William Stanley's store had for sale " frieze,
serge, broadcloth, Holland linen, yellow, green, and
black calicoes, satins, lute-strings, tabby, silk plush,
ribbon, striped petticoats, phillimot, ferret, flowered
silks, thread laces, gimps, whalebones, galloons." Le-
titia Penn did not disdain to buy finery in Philadel-
phia,— caps, buckles, a watch, and other goldsmith's
articles. There was not a great amount of luxury,
however, nor much plate nor display of fine articles.
The people's habits were simple. They were all in-
dustrious, ploddingly so, and the laws and sentiment
and temper of the influential classes frowned equally
upon display and extravagance. The wild youth, the
sailors and laborers sometimes broke bounds, but the
curb was in their mouths and they were soon reined
up.
The population seemed to realize that they had
their fortunes to make, and that good pay and great
industrial opportunities made idleness and loose, ex-
travagant living inexcusable. Wages were compar-
atively high, labor was respectable and respected,
and no community has ever exceeded, in rapidity
and symmetry of industrial development, the prog-
ress made by Philadelphia and its environs during
the first twenty years of the town's existence. In
1689 there were ten vessels sent to the West Indies
freighted with produce of the province, and the same
year fourteen cargoes of tobacco were exported. In
1698 the river-front abounded with the conveniences
and facilities requisite for an extensive commerce,
and for building and repairing vessels, as well as
loading and unloading them. Ship carpenters earned
five and six shillings a day in wages, and on that pay
would soon save money. The trade to the West Indies
and Brazil consisted of horses and other live-stock,
provisions, staves, etc. The vessels themselves were
sold with their cargoes, and every one might have
his little venture in a traffic which paid double
the investment on each risk. Thus the ship carpen-
ter, who laid by one day's wages a week, could, in a
month or two, be trading to the Indies so as to give
him £50 or £60 clear money at the end of a year,
and that would buy him a farm, build him a house,
or give him a share in some vessel on the stocks. In
ten years he could become a capitalist, as many of
his trade did so become. The timber of the Susque-
hanna and Delaware was sometimes sent across the
ocean in huge raft ships, rigged with sails and manned
by regular crews. We read of one of these, the
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
153
"Baron Renfrew," measuring five thousand tons,
which arrived safely in the Downs.
Mills were established rapidly under the proprie-
tary government. Penn had two on the Schuylkill.
Richard Townshend had one at Chester, and one on
Church Creek in 1683. The Society of Free Traders
had a saw-mill and a glass-house in Philadelphia the
same year. The saw-mills still could not meet the
demand for lumber, and in 1698 hand-sawyers were
paid six and seven shillings per hundred for sawing
province imported four hundred thousand gallons of
rum and sixty thousand gallons of wine a year,
costing over fifty thousand pounds annually.
Penn's leading object in establishing fairs in Phil-
adelphia and the province was to promote industrial
enterprises. At the first fair in 1686 only ten dollars
worth of goods was sold. There was no money in
Philadelphia, and exchanges could not be made.
The fairs were held twice a year, three days each in
May and November. These gatherings became very
pine boards ; in 1705, ten shillings. Shingles in 1698 I popular, and led to license and riot, races, gambling,
sold for ten shillings per thousand ; hemlock " cul-
lings," ten shillings per hundred ; timber, six shil-
lings per ton. Printz's grist-mill on the Karakung
was soon duplicated after the proprietary government
took possession. Pastorius says the colony had mills
enough ; the Frankford Company had established
several as early as 1686. In 1698, Thomas Parsons
had a mill at Frankford, and Richard
Dungworth one in Oxford township. In
that same year the Darby Creek was
lined with corn- and fulling-mills, doing
superior work.1 Garrett Rittenhouse had
a grist-mill on Cresheim Creek in 1697,
and the Robesons at the same time had
one at Roxborough, on the Wissahickon.
There were mills on the Pennypack be-
fore this, and some of these large mills
added to their profits by having bakeries
connected, where ship-bread was baked in
quantities for sea-going vessels.
We have already spoken of the early
manufacture of bricks. The Swedes'
Church at Wicaco, still standing, was
built of brick in 1700. The first Proprie-
tary Assembly at Upland was held in a
brick house, but these bricks were prob-
ably imported. The Centre Quaker
meeting-house in Philadelphia was of
brick, built in 1684. Robert Turner's brick house,
Front and Arch Streets, was built in 1685, and Daniel
Pegg's, above the creek, the same year. Penn tried
to get this house for an executive mansion. An-
thony Morris had a large brew-house at Dock Creek
in 1697. Penn's brew-house atPennsbury, still stand-
ing, was built before his mansion. Penn, Dr. More,
and several others of the first settlers made strong
efforts to improve native grapes, introduce the exotic
grape and manufacture wine. They had wine made
of fox-grape juice, and fancied it was as good as claret.
Penn set out a vineyard at Springettsbury, and had a
French vigneron to tend it. The experiment failed)
however, and was abandoned before Penn's second
visit. Pastorius was deceived also, and wrote to Ger-
many for a supply of wine-barrels, which, however, he
never filled, unless with cider or peach-brandy. No
wonder Penn wanted to make wine at home, — his
and drunkenness, such as made the strict Quakers
groan. Numerous complaints were recorded against
them in the courts and proceedings of Council and
Assembly, and they were finally suppressed, as sup-
porters of vice and immorality, in 1783. Another
plan of Penn's was to offer prizes for superior work
in manufactures. In 1686, Abraham Op den Graaffe,
1 Gabriel Thomas.
PENN'S OLD BREW-HOUSE, NEAR BRISTOL, BUOKS COUNTY.
of Germantown, petitioned Council to grant him the
Governor's premium for " the first and finest piece
of linen cloth." About the same time Wigart Lev-
ering, one of the Germantown colonists, began weav-
ing in Roxborough. Matthew Houlgate, in 1698,
bought property in the same township, and began
a fulling-mill on the Wissahickon. The price in
1688 for spinning worsted and linen was two shil-
lings per pound; knitting heavy yarn stockings, half
a crown per pair. Wool-combers received twelve
pence per pound ; linen-weavers twelve pence per
yard of stuff half a yard wide; journeyman tailors
were paid twelve shillings a week and "their diet."
There were several tailors early set up in Philadel-
phia, one of whom, Charles Blackman, did work for
Governor Penn. The domestic manufactures of the
day in linen and woolen wear supplied a large part
of family wants. Fabrics were coarse but serviceable ;
and the women of the household, after the men had
broke and hackled the flax and sheared the sheep,
154
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
did all the subsequent work of carding, spinning,
weaving, bleaching, and dyeing. While wages were
good, the clothes of apprentices and laborers were not
expensive. Leather shoes with brass buckles and
wooden heels lasted as long almost as leather breeches
and aprons. Hemp and flax Osnaburgs, dyed blue,
cost only a shilling or one and sixpence per yard,
and a felt or wool hat and two or three pairs of
coarse yarn stockings were good for two seasons.
Wealthy people, who wore imported velvets, satins,
silks, and nankeens, however, had to pay extrava-
gant prices for them, and the cost of a fashionable
outfit often exceeded the money value of an eligible
farm. The rapid increase of their "bestial" not only
gave the Pennsylvania planters a valuable line of
exports, but also early encouraged the manufacture
of leather. Penn and the Free Society of Traders
established a tannery in Philadelphia in 1683, and
it was well supplied both with bark and hides.
Leather was in general use for articles of clothing,
such as are now made of other goods. Penn him-
self wore leather stockings, for which he paid twenty-
two shillings a pair. In 1695 the exportation of
dressed and undressed deer-skins was prohibited, in
order to promote their utilization at home. Paw
hides cost one and a half pennies per pound, while
leather sold for twelve pence. A fat cow went to the
butcher for three pounds, while beef sold for from
three to four and a half pence per pound, a profit of
over one hundred per cent, to butcher and tanner.
But land was cheap, the Barbadoes market was
always ready to pay well for cattle on the hoof, and
these things secured good wages for labor in the
mechanic arts. Curriers, who paid twenty pence a.
gallon for their oil, received three shillings and four
pence a hide for dressing leather. Journeymen
shoemakers were paid two shillings a pair for men's
and women's shoes, and last-makers got ten shillings
a dozen for lasts ; heel-makers two shillings a dozen
for wooden heels. Men's shoes sold for six shillings
sixpence, and women's for five shillings per pair.
In 1699 there were two tanneries, Hudson's and
Lambert's, in Philadelphia, in "the swamp," on
Dock Creek. Great skill and taste were displayed
in the various makes of " white leather," soft leather,
and buckskin for domestic wear, a branch of manu-
factures taken up by the Swedes in imitation of the
Indians.
The mineral wealth of Pennsylvania, suspected by
the Swedes, began to be revealed very early to the
primitive settlers under the proprietary government.
A Dutch colony is claimed to have worked iron in
the Minnesink long before Penn came over, but there
is nothing but tradition in regard to these pioneers.
Penn wrote to Lord Keeper North, in 1683, that
copper and iron had been found in divers places in
the province. Gabriel Thomas speaks of the exist-
ence of iron-stone richer and less drossy than that of
England; the copper, he says, "far exceeding ours,
being richer, finer, and of a more glorious color."
These "finds" were in Chester County, the seat of
the earliest iron-works in the province. Thomas also
mentions limestone, lodestone, isinglass, asbestos, and
amianthus. Blacksmiths earned high wages ; one is
mentioned who, with his negroes, by working up old
iron at sixpence per pound, earned fifty shillings a
day. All the contemporary writers speak of the
heavy charges for smith-work, though there was no
horseshoeing to be done. Silversmiths got half a
crown or three shillings per ounce for working up
silver, " and for gold, equivalent." There was a fur-
nace and forges at Durham, in Bucks, before tho
eighteenth century set in.
Where there was so much hand-work done, and so
many things to be accomplished by mere manual
labor, there was naturally not much call nor room
for brain-work. The habits of the Swedes, the system
and culture of the Society of Friends were not par-
ticularly favorable to intellectual growth nor to edu-
cation. Many more scholars, wits, and learned men
came to Pennsylvania in the first two generations
than went out of it. The learned Swedish pastors
were exotics, and their successors, from Campanius
to Collins, had to be imported from the mother-
country. They did not grow up in the Delaware
country. Nor did Penn's "wooden country" (as
Samuel Keimer, Franklin's odd companion at the
case, calls it) produce any parallels or equals to the
university scholars who, like Penn, the Lloyds, Logan,
Growden, Shippen, Nicholas and John More, Pas-
torius, Wynne, White, Guest, Mompesson, and others,
devoted their talents and learning to the service of
the infant commonwealth. There is some truth in
the satire of Bufus Choate when he toasted Pennsyl-
vania's two greatest men, " One born in New Eng-
land, and the other in Old England." Penn himself,
it was alleged in Council, on the trial of Bradford for
the unlicensed printing of the charter and laws (a
work which he was instigated to by Judge Growden),
had taken the Virginia Governor Berkeley's rule for
his pattern, and wished to discourage publications of
all sorts. The learned and elegant professions indeed
were not well nurtured in Pennsylvania's early days.
In Goodson's inventory of occupations the " chirur-
gion" was put down between the barbers and the
staymakers. Gabriel Thomas shows that the pro-
fessions were contemned. "Of Lawyers and Phy-
sicians," he observes, "I shall say nothing, because
this Country is very Peaceable and Healthy; long
may it so continue and never have occasion for the
Tongue of the one or the Pen of the other, both
equally destructive to men's Estates and Lives."
Where the sole source of Divinity was "the Inner
Light," cultivated persons were not to be looked for
in the ministry ; education was rather esteemed a
hindrance than a help to the free and perfect ex-
pression of inspiration. It was a "snare" and a
" device," like the steeple on the church's tower, the
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE SETTLERS.
155
stained glass in its windows, like the organ in the
choir, and the gowns and also the salaries and bene-
fices of the clergymen.
Bradford was driven out of Philadelphia more by
the indifference of its people to the sort of work he j
chose to make his living by than on account of pros-
ecution and intolerance. He did not care how active
hostilities were against him, being a belligerent him-
self, but apathy was something which baffled him.
He printed all that offered ; he made work for him-
self, yet could not get enough to do to support him.
The little printing he did outside of official matters,
forms, briefs,- and almanacs, was chiefly polemical,
acrid as the exudations of the toad, and dry enough
to reduce a proof-reader's brains to pumice-stone. No
man of Bradford's energetic and volatile tempera-
ment could oscillate between John Burnyeat's " Epis-
tles" and George Keith's "Serious Appeal" and
live. Bradford stood it for eight years and then fled.
He did some good work while in the province. His
Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense shows that a man's in-
dividuality may impress itself even upon an almanac.
This, the earliest book printed in the province, came
out late in 1685 as the calendar of the coming year.
It has all the features of such works, with a touch of
Bradford throughout. His chronology begins with
the Noachian deluge, " 3979 years before the almanac''
and the building of London, "2793 years before the
almanac," and concludes with " the beginning of
government here by the Lord Penn five years before
the almanac." And Council forced him to blot over
his "Lord" Penn with a full-inked "three M quad."
Bradford published the poem of Richard Frame,
which has been quoted from on a preceding page.
He published one Burlington and two Philadelphia
almanacs, a good many broadsides and tracts, " The
Temple of Wisdom for the Little World," which con-
tains (a proof of the printer's taste) Bacon's Easnys
and Thomas Quarles' Emblems, proposals for print-
ing the Bible, large copy, by subscription, a number
of Keith's offensive diatribes, several papers by Gers-
hom Bulkeley on the Connecticut Charter, several
tracts in answer to Keith, and an anti-slavery poem
attacking Samuel Jennings. Bradford went to New
York in 169$, to be succeeded after some years by
Reynier Jansen, who is thought to have been the
first printer's apprentice.
There is really as little to say about the doctors and
lawyers of the province as Thomas allows. The
Dutch Annals mention a surgeon of the name of Jan
Oosting, another, William Van Rasenberg, who was
called indifferently barber and surgeon, and Everts
and Arent Pietersen. These three in three years
received government pay to the amount of two thou-
sand seven hundred and eighty-eight florins as phy-
sicians and "comforters of the sick."1 In the jour-
nal of Sluyter and Dankers, Otto Ernest Cock is
1 WeBtcott'B History of Philadelphia, chap, lii.
called a physician, or rather " a late medicus." In
addition to Drs. Thomas Wynne, Griffith Owen,
and Nicholas More, John Goodson was also a phy-
sician under Penn's government, and so was Edward
Jones, founder of Merion, and son-in-law of Dr.
Wynne. Dr. John Le Pierre, who was reputed to be
an alchemist, came over about the same time as Penn.
Dr. More did not practice his profession in the col-
ony, but Griffith Owen was a regular physician from
the date of his arrival. There were several other
" chirurgions" among the " first purchasers," but it
is not ascertained that any of them immigrated to the
province. Doctors could not be well dispensed with,
since, in addition to colds, consumptions, and constant
malarial disorders, the province was visited by three
or four severe epidemics, including a fatal influenza
which attacked all the settlements and colonies on the
Atlantic, an outbreak of pleurisy which was notice-
ably destructive at Upland and New Castle, and u.
plague of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1699. The
smallpox likewise was a regular and terrible visitor
of the coast, though its most fearful ravages were
among the Indians.
In addition to the leading lawyers already named,
Charles Pickering appears to have been a member of
the bar, as well as a planter on a large scale, a miner,
and copper- and iron-worker, a manufacturer of adul-
terated coins, and a sort of warden of the territory in
dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore. Patrick
Robinson, the recalcitrant clerk of Judge More's
court, was an attorney, and Samuel Hersent was
prosecuting attorney for the province in 1685, after-
wards securing his election to the sheriffalty of Phila-
delphia. David Lloyd succeeded him as attorney-
general, and distinguished himself in the controversies
with Admiralty Judge Quarry. John Moore was the
royal attorney in Quarry's court. John White and
William Assheton were also lawyers in Philadelphia
before the end of the sixteenth century.
These gentlemen of the bar found plenty of work
to do. There were many disputed titles of land, there
was a great deal of collecting to do in the triangular
trade between the province, the West Indies, and the
mother-country, and there were numbers of personal
issues and suits for assaults, libels, etc. Besides,
while Penn himself did all he could to prevent litiga-
tions, the character of his laws necessarily called for
the constant interference of the courts in affairs not
properly their concern. There were some sumptuary
laws, many restrictive ones, and the whole system was
unpleasantly inquisitive and meddlesome. It kept up
the same sort of obnoxious interference with private
business and personal habits which made the Puritan
system so intolerable, but its penalties had none of
the Puritan's atrocious severity and bloodthirst. It
must be confessed that the unorthodox person of gay
temperament who sought to amuse himself in primi-
tive Philadelphia was likely to have a hard time of it.
The sailor who landed there on liberty after a tedious
156
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
three months' cruise soon found that he was not at
Wapping. The Quakers had learned to despise riot
and debauchery, less perhaps because it was vicious
and demoralizing than for the reason that it was offen-
sive to their ingrained love of quiet and order and to
their passion for thrift and economy. Wildness, sport,
all the livelier amusements were abhorrent to them
because they signified extravagance and waste. The
skirts of their Christian charity, admirable, thoughtful,
and deep as that was, seemed never broad enough to
embrace or condone prodigality. When the prodigal
son came home to them the fatted calf was not killed,
but the question was wonderingly and seriously asked
(saving the oath), " Mais, que diable allait-il /aire dans
cette galere?" That was the way precisely in which
they treated William Penn, Jr., when he was arrested
for rioting and beating the watch in a tavern. Instead
of excusing him for his youth and for his worthy
father's sake, they accused him on that account, and
the father's great character actually became a part of
the body of the indictment against the profligate son.
No wonder that the father should have cried in the
bitterness of his heart, "See how much more easily
the bad Friends' treatment of him stumbled him from
the blessed truths than those he acknowledged to be
good ones could prevail to keep him in possession of
it."
In fact, all that was not exactly according to
Quaker ways was narrowly looked upon as vice and
to be suppressed. Christmas mumming was accused
as flagrant licentiousness. Horse-racing was pre-
vented by the grand jury. It offended the sobriety
of the community for ships to fire salutes on arriving
and departing. The laws against the small vices were
so promiscuous and indiscriminate and the penalties
so ill balanced that when the Pennsylvania code was
finally presented to Queen Anne for approval, her
ministers drew their perls through half the list of mis-
demeanors and penalties, for the reason that they " re-
strain her Majesty's subjects from innocent sports and
diversions. However, if the Assembly of Pennsyl-
vania shall pass an act for preventing of riotous
sports, and for restraining such as are contrary to
the laws of this kingdom, there will be no objection
thereto, so it contains nothing else."1 The character
of these unnatural restraints is fully illustrated in
certain " extracts from the records of Germantown
Court" (1691 to 1707) and " presentments, petitions,
etc., between 1702 and 1774." 2 For example, Peter
Keurlis, charged with not coming when the justices
sent for him, with refusing to lodge travelers, with
selling barley-malt at four pence per quart, and with
violating Germantown law by selling more than a gill
of rum and a quart of beer 'every half-day to each
individual. Peter's answers cover the whole case of
1 Privy Council to Governor on repealing cerium laws, Pennsylvania
Archives, 1709, vol. i. p. 1S5, First Series.
2 Published in Volume First of Collections of the Pennsylvania His-
torical Society, pp. 243-58 el teq.
the absurdity of such apron-string government. He
did not come because he had much work to do ; he
did not entertain travelers, because he only sold
drink and did not keep an ordinary ; he knew noth-
ing about the four pence a quart law of the province,
and as for the Germantown statute, the people he sold
to being able to bear more, he could not or would not
obey the law. The court, however, took his license
away from him and forbade him to sell any drink,
under penalty of £5. Oaths and charges of lying,
when brought to the court's notice, if the offender ac-
knowledged his fault and begged pardon, were " for-
given and laid by," the law making them finable
offenses. Reinert Peters fined twenty shillings for
calling the sheriff a liar and a rascal in open street.
A case of Smith vs. Falkner was continued because
the day when it was called " was the day wherein
Herod slew the Innocents." George Muller, for his
drunkenness, was condemned to five days' imprison-
ment; "torn, to pay the Constable two shillings for
serving the warrant in the case of his laying a wager to
smoke above one hundred pipes in one day." Herman
Dors, being drunk, called Trinke op den Graeff a
naughty name, accused Peters of being too kind to
Trinke, called his own sister a witch and another vile
name, and said his children were thieves ; brought
before the court, " and there did particularly clear all
and every one of the said injured persons, who, upon
his acknowledgments of the wrongs done them by
him, freely forgave him;" the court fined him five
shillings. Peter Shoemaker, Jr., accuses the horses of
John van der Willderness of being "unlawful," be-
cause they "go over the fence where it had its full
height." The jury, however, found Shoemaker's
fences to be "unlawful." The court orders that
" none who hath no lot nor land in this corporation
shall tye his horse or mare or any other cattle upon
the fences or lands thereof, either by day or night,
under the penalty of five shillings." Abraham op
den Graeff is before court for slandering David
Sherker, saying no honest man would be in his com-
pany. Verdict for defendant. "Nov. 28th, 1704,
Daniel Falkner, coming into this Court, behaved him-
self very ill, like one that was last night drunk, and not
yet having recovered his tcitts." Falkner seemed so
aggressive that the sheriff and constable were ordered
to " bring him out," which was done, he crying, "You
are all fools !" which indeed was not the remark of a
drunken but a sober man. No court could continue
to waste time in preposterous trivial proceedings of
such sort without exhausting the patience of a com-
munity and making it impossible for people to avoid
such outbursts as those of Falkner.
Among the Philadelphia grand jury presentments,
etc., quoted in these papers, we find one against George
Robinson, butcher, " for being a person of evell fame
as a common swearer and a common drinker, and
particularly upon the 23d day of this inst., for swear-
ing three oaths in the market-place, and also for utter-
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
157
ing two very bad curses the 26th day of this inst."
Philip Gilbeck utters three curses also ; presented
and fined for terrifying " the Queen's liege people."
John Smith, living in Strawberry Alley, presented
" for being maskt or disguised in womens' aparell ;
walking openly through the streets of this citty from
house to house on or about the 26th of the 10th month
[day after Christmas], it being against the Law of God,
the Law of this province and the Law of nature, to the
staining of holy profession and Incoridging of wicked-
ness in this place." All this against an innocent
Christmas masquerade ! Children and servants rob-
bing orchards is presented as a "great abuse" and
"liciencious liberty," a "common nuisance" and
" agreeviance." Such ridiculous exaggeration de-
stroys the respect for law which alone secures obe-
dience to it. John Joyce, Jr., is presented "for
having to wifes at once, which is boath against ye Law
of God and Man." Dorothy, wife of Eichard Cant-
erill, presented for masking in men's clothes the day
after Christmas, "walking and dancing in the house
of John Simes at 9 or 10 o'clock at night,"— not even
charged with being in the street I Sarah Stiner, same
offense, but on the streets, " dressed in man's Cloathes,
contrary to y° nature of her sects . . . to y" grate Dis-
turbance of well minded persons, and incorridging of
vice in this place.'' John Simes, who gave the mas-
querade party, is presented for keeping a disorderly
house, " a nursery to Debotch y* inhabitants and
youth of this city . . . to y" Greef of and disturbance
of peaceable minds and propigating ye Throne of wick-
edness amongst us." Peter Evans, gentleman, pre-
sented for sending a challenge to Francis Phillips to
fight with swords.1 The grand jury report that their
predecessors having frequently before presented the
necessity of a ducking-stool and house of correction
"for the just punishment of scolding, Drunken Wo-
men, as well as Divers other profligate and Unruly
persons in this place, who are become a Publick
Nuisance and disturbance to this Town in Generall,
Therefore we, the Present Grand Jury, do Earnestly
again present the same to this Court of Quarter Ses-
sions for the City, desiring their immediate Care, That
those public Conveniences may not be any longer De-
lay'd." Certainly it is a novel idea to class ducking-
stools and houses of correction among "public con-
l Evans' challenge was as follows : " Sir : You have basely slandered a
Gentlewoman that I have a profound respect for, And for my part shall
give you a fair opportunity to defend yourself to-morrow morning, on
the west side of Jos. Carpenter's Garden, betwixt seven and 8, where I
shall expect to meet you, Gladio cinctua, in failure whereof depend upon
the usage you deserve from yr, etc.
" Peter Evans.
" I am at y8 Pewter Platter."
Phillips appears to have been arrested, for the grandjury present
him for contriving to " deprive, annihilate, and contemn" the authority
of mayor and recorder by saying, " Tell the mayor, Robert Hill, and the
recorder, Robert Assheton, that I Bay they are no better than Rogues,
Villains, and Scoundrells, for they have not done me justice, and might
as well have Bent a man to pick my pockett or rob my house as to have
taken away my servant," etc.
veniences." There are three successive presentments
to this effect.2 The grand-jury also present negroes
for noisy assemblages in the streets on Sunday, and
think that they ought to be forbidden to walk the
streets in company after dark without their masters'
leave. Mary, wife of John Austin, the cordwainer, is
presented because she was and yet is a common scold>
" a Comon and public disturber, And Strife and De-
bate amongst her Neighbours, a Comon Sower and
Mover, To the great Disturbance of the Liege Sub-
jects," etc. In spite of all these presentments and
indictments, however,, and especially those against
drunkenness and tippling-houses, we find in a pre-
sentment drawn by Benjamin Franklin in 1744 that
these houses, tha " Nurseries of Vice and Debauch-
ery," are on the increase. The bill says there were
upwards of one hundred licensed retail liquor-houses
in the city, which, with the small groceries, "make
by our computation near a tenth part of the city, a
Proportion that appears to us much too great." One
place, where these houses are thickest, has "obtained
among the common People the shocking name of
Hell-town."
CHAPTER XII.
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701 — PENNSBURY
MANOR— THE PROPRIETARY RETURNS TO ENG-
LAND.
The ship — the " Canterbury," Capt. Fryers — in
which William Penn crossed the ocean to his prov-
ince in 1699, came up to Chester on December 1st.
The next day, on landing, the Governor's arrival was
heralded with a, military salute, in the course of
which a young man had his arm blown off by the
premature discharge of the cannon. On Sunday,
December 3d, Penn reached Philadelphia, and made
a formal call upon his deputy, Governor Markham,
the other dignitaries of the town and province, in-
cluding Judge Quarry, of the Admiralty Court, and
John Moore, crown prosecutor, having met and re-
ceived him at the water's edge. From Markham's
house Penn proceeded to the Friends' meeting-house
at Second and High Streets, and took part in the after-
noon meeting, offering a prayer, and delivering one
of those short, incisive addresses in which he was so
happy. Penn was very well received by all classes in
the community, says James Logan, who had come out
with the Governor, and was in constant attendance
upon him. It was rumored by the quidnuncs of the
day, and the party hostile to Penn's administration
and to the proprietary government, that there would
be some difficulty in regard to Penn's resumption of
his active functions as Governor, on account of his
2 It would be curious to inquire how the great moral idea of the
ducking-Btool, as a public convenience and a cure for scolding women,
originated.
158
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
inability to take the oaths prescribed by Parliament.
Judge Quarry, who had been in bitter controversy
with Markbam, Attorney-General Lloyd, and the
Council for some time,
had, as it was known, de-
nounced the testimony
on affirmation in the
piracy cases as being
unworthy of credit, and,
in fact, not testimony at
all. It was, perhaps,
hoped and believed by
die faction which sought
lo upset Penn's govern-
ment and convert his
province into a fief of
the crown that Judge
Quarry would apply his
rule to the case of the
Governor's return to of-
fice, and thus provoke
an open issue forth-
with. Quarry and Moore,
however, did nothing of
the kind, but, by being
present to receive Penn,
practically admitted that
his authority was unim-
peachable. On the other
hand, Penn's supporters,
the Quakers and Ger-
mans, and all who were
really anxious for a
stable government and
the settlement of feuds and disorders, welcomed the
proprietary's arrival as an auspicious event and the
harbinger of peace. In Logan's words, they " con-
cluded that, after all their sufferings, this province
now scarcely wanted anything to render it com-
pletely happy." Penn, indeed, soon had a long in-
terview with Judge Quarry, in which there was an
abundance of courtesy on both sides, and by mutual
consent it was agreed that a little concession on the
EDWARD SHIPPEN, FIllaT MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA.
[Drawn from original painting in possession of Edw. Shippen,
by P. V. Goist.]
part of the high contending parties would not be
difficult when both confessed they had made mis-
takes, and that nothing else was needed to estab-
lish a. modus vivendi be-
tween the representa-
tives of the imperial and
the proprietary govern-
ments. No such com-
plete understanding was
indeed arrived at until
after Penn's diplomacy
had secured the removal
of Judge Quarry and the
appointment of Judge
Mompesson in his stead.
Penn and Quarry came
to quarrel with each
other more violently,
and with more bitter
language than had been
used between Mark-
ham and the Admiralty
Court, but meantime it
was important to have
the community know
that they were at least
temporarily on good
terms, and that Penn
did not feel himself
obliged to take up Mark-
ham's controversies, or
follow precisely in his
footsteps. The propri-
etary's position would
be greatly strengthened if people should look up to
him as the Governor of the whole province, the friend
of all parties, the arbiter in all difficulties and mis-
understandings, and one who was so far above factions
as to be out of reach of i m proper influences and prej u-
dices.
After the meeting was over and Friends had dis-
persed to their homes, Penn and his suite went to
the house of Edward Shippen,1 residing there for a
1 West side of Second Street, north of Spruce Street, called the " Great
House," and also the "Governor's House." It was inclosed on two sides
by a garden, extending to Laurel or Levant Street; in this garden stood
two tall pine-trees of the primeval forest, a well-known landmark, visi-
ble fur a great distance in every direction. The house was built in 1693 ;
Shippen had only occupied it from 1695 to 1696. After Penn left the
house, Lord Cornbury lodged aud dined there when he came over to pro-
claim Queen Anne's accession. Lords were not frequent visitors at that
day in any of the colonies, except Virginia, and Cornbury's presence
made a great to do. James Logan wrote to Penn of how he hastily got j
up a splendid dinner fur him at the slate-roof house, followed by another at
the Shippen house, with covers for thirty persons, and supplemented by
an entertainment at Pennsbury, which place his lordship found much to
admire in. An old lady'B disappointment is chronicled who, hearing
that " my lord" was passing by, ran out in great haste to have a look at
the well-horn man of titles, and found him not different from other
people, except that he wore " leather stockings." Shippen and his family
resided in the house after Penn left it, and his son was hero arrested for
assault and battery on Thomas Clark, Esq. Governor Sir William Keith
lived here while in the executive chair of the province, 1717 to 1726, and
William Denny also, Deputy Governor from 1756 to 1759. Ellis Lewis
made it his residence, and it was in his widow's possession during the
British occupation of Philadelphia, Maj. Baurmeister, a Hessian officer,
being quartered on her. Cornwallis is likewise thought to have lived
here for a time. The house was built by Edward Shippen, born in Eng-
land in 1G39, son of a Yorkshire gentletnau named William Shippen.
The family was one of consequence, Edward's nephew, Rev. Dr. Robert
Shippen, being principal of Brazeu Nose College and vice-chancellor of
Oxford University, and another nephew, William, was the " downright
Shippen" of Pope's verses, leader of the Jacobites, whom Walpole con-
fessed to be proof against corruption, and whose courage and integrity in
Parliament procured him a commitment to the Tower in 1717. Edward
Shippen came to America in 1668, settled in Boston, and got rich as a
merchant. He was a member of the Established Church, and belonged
to the artillery company, but in 1671 he married Elizabeth Lybrand, a
Quakeress, and joined the Society of Friends. He became atonce a mark
for New England intolerance aud fanaticism, and was forced to take his
share of the "jailments" and scourgings which were visited upon his
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
159
month, when he took up his residence in the "Slate-
Roof House," his city home during the remainder of
his sojourn in the province.1
■ect. In 1C93 a meteor appeared in the Massachusetts atmosphere and
was made the signal for afresh persecution of Quakers and Baptists, in
which Shippen was banished. He probably knew Penn and was invited
to Philadelphia. At any rate he went there, bought his lot, built his
house, and by the end of 1094 had closed up his business and removed
hiB famfly to the new city, haviug first erected a memorial "on a green"
near u " pair of gallows, where several of our friends had suffered death
for the truth and were thrown into a hole." Shippen was a man of
wealth, handsome face and figure, talents and high character, and his
mansion was a " princely place." He soon stepped to the front in the
new community, and Tenn lavished honors and positions on him. He
was Speaker of the Assembly in 1G95, first mayor of Philadelphia (1701),
and in 1702-4 president of Council, after Andrew Hamiltou's death, and
ex-ojficio Deputy Governor of the province until Penn sent over William
Penn, Jr., and John Evans to supersede him. In 1704, Shippen married
his third wife, Elizabeth James, and, as she was not a Quaker, he him-
self withdrew from the society, but continued on good terms with them
and prominent in public affairs until his death in 1712.
1 This old mansion, when first built the largest house in Philadelphia,
better known even than the " Letitia House," or any other of the his-
toric places connected with Penn and the city he founded (except the
Shackamaxon treaty elm j, was only recently removed (in 1S07), to make
way for the imposing structure erected by the Chamber of Commerce.
It was a quaint-looking house, with a sort of individuality of its own
that quite became it, and in its original state, with extensive gardens sur-
rounding it, inclosed withiu a high wall, must have had a commanding
aspect. Graydon, who lived there (his mother, the ''Desdy" or Desde-
mona of the pert British officers of the day, kept the place as a board! ng-
houaejust before the Revolution), describes the old house: — It stood on the
corner of Second Street and Norris Alley, afterwards Gothic Street, — as
a " singular, old-fashioned structure, laid out in the style of a fortifica-
tion, with abundance of angles, both salient and re-entering. Its two
wings projected to the street in the manner of bastions, to which the
main buildlug, retreating from sixteen to eighteen feet, served for a
curtain. Within it was cutupinto a number of apartments, and on that
account was exceedingly well adapted to the purpose of a lodging-house,
to which use ithad long been appropriated." The yard or garden was
graced with a row of venerable pine-trees, and the association of the
place gave it a substantial historic interest. It bore much less the look
of afortrcs3 than Gray don's military eye conceived. The back building
was aB peaceful-looking ad the culinary offices should be, and the neat
little chambers in the so-called bastions were cosy nooks, with chimney-
places in the corners. The kitchen had a giant pile of chimney, with
a great fireplace, and the garrets were high and roomy. The house was
roofed with slate said to have been brought from England, but plenty
of the material was to be had near Philadelphia, and Pennsbury was
roofed with this, according to Gabriel ThomaB. This house was built for
Samuel Carpenter by James Porteus. It was erected about 1698, and Penn
was probably its earliest occupant. Carpenter had built in 1684-85 a
house on Front Street, near his wharf and warehouses, and it is likely
he lived there after the slate-roof house was completed. Carpenter was
a man of great ability and enterprise, accumulating wealth rapidly and
doing much to build up the city of his adoption. He married Hannah
Hardiman, a Welsh CJuakeressand preacher, in 1684, and held many im-
portant positions, — member of the Assembly, treasurer of the province,
etc. He bought large tracts of laud, owned numerous vessels, mines,
quarries, and mill-seats, so much property in fact that it impoverished
him and threw him into seiious pecuniary embarrassment, though he
was tanked as the richest man in the province. He died in his house
in King Street (now Water Street), between Chestnut and Walnut
Streets, April 10, 1714, and the Friends' Meeting, after his death, said of
him that "he was a pattern of humility, patience, and self-denial; a
man fearing God and hating covetousness, much given to hospitality and
good works. He was a loving, affectionate husband, tender father, and
a faithful friend and brother." Carpenter's brother Joshua, a brewer
was nominated for alderman of Philadelphia in Perm's charier for the
city, 1701, but declined the place, having made a " vow or oath" never
to serve under the proprietary. (Penn and Logan Correspondence.) The
Carpenters were English, arriving out soon after Penn's first visit. Sam-
uel himself was opposed to Peon's conduct of affairs in the province,
and signed a memorial and protest to Queen Anno in 1709. Carpenter'^
house, which was let to Penn furnished, was occupied during Penn's
Penn and his family moved into the slate-roof
house in January, 1700, and there, on the 29th of
that month, was born John Penn, called " the Ameri-
can," the proprietary's only child not of English
birth, son of William Penn by his second wife, Han-
nah Callowhill.
This confinement of Mrs. Penn, the need to look
about him and ascertain the real condition of public
affairs, so greatly entangled, and the sickness and de-
pression prevailing in Philadelphia, prevented Penn
from dispatching much business until some time
after his arrival. He was in Philadelphia three
weeks before calling a meeting of the Council. The
sickness in the city must have been distressing,
though it could not have been a return of the yellow
fever, since it occurred long after the season of frost.
In the Logan papers a letter from Isaac Norris to his
English correspondent in 1699 speaks of illness and
daily deaths for quite a number of weeks, and he
gives the names of many prominent Friends who had
succumbed or were supposed to be dying. In an-
other of these letters, written in March, 1701, the
same writer speaks of the infant John Penn in this-
fashion : " Their little son is a comely, lovely babe,
and has much of his father's grace and air, and hope
he will not want a good portion of his mother's sweet-
ness, who is a woman extremely well beloved here,
exemplary in her station and of an excellent spirit,
which adds lustre to her character, and has a great
place in the hearts of good people." When spring
opened Penn and his family removed to the manor
house at Pennsbury, and probably resided there all
summer as well as during the spring and summer of
unexpired term and afterwards by James Logan ; when Governor Evans,
William Penn, Jr., and Judge Mompcsson came over in 1704, the four kept
bachelor's hall at the Clark mansion (later Pemberton's), southwest
corner of Third and Chestnut Streets. The slate-roof house had been
sold in the latter part of 1703 to William Trent, the Inverness miller,
who founded and gave his name to Trenton, N. J. Trent paid £850 for
it. In 1709 he sold it for £000 Pennsylvania currency to Isaac Norris,
who occupied it until his removal to Fairhill in 1717. The Norris fam-
ily owned the house until 1867, when it was bought by the Chamber of
Commerce and torn down. From 1717 onwards it appears to have been
used as a boarding and lodging-house, being in several liandd besides
thoso of Mrs. Graydon. Gen. Forbes, Braddock's successor, died there
in 1759, at which time the house was kept by Mrs. Howell. Baron de
Knlb lodged there in 1768-69, when he was the secret agent of France.
Sir William Draper, the target of Junius' sarcasm, lodged there with
Mrs. Graydon during his visit to the colonies. James Rivington, the
Tory printer and publisher, ate and slept there, and the houso is re-
ported also to have lodged John Hancock and George Washington dur-
ing the first sessions of the Continental Congress. Baron Steuben,
Peter S. Dnponceau, and others lodged here for a while after the British
evacuated Philadelphia. Later it was the seat of a boarding school,
kept by Madame Berdeau, reputed to bo the widow of "Dr. Johnson's Dr.
Dodd, hung in London for forgery in 1777; then it became a workshop,
a place of business, and a tenement- house, with shops on the ground
floor, which were occupied by tailors, engravers, watch-makers, silver-
smiths, etc. Under one of the "bastions" a notable oyster cellar was
opened, the resort of the merchants and bankers doing businoss in that
vicinity. Logan was very desirous that Penn should buy the house when
Trent offered it for sale, and said that it was hard that the Governor did
not have the money to spare. " I would give twenty to thirty pounds
out of my own pocket that it were thine, nobody's but thine," said honest
James.
160
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
1701, until they returned to England. Mrs. Deborah
Logan has preserved a pretty tradition of the mother
and child, told her in youth by an aged woman of
Bucks County, who remembered that when she was a
girl she went to the manor house at Pennsbury with
a basket containing some rustic tribute or other, and
saw the proprietary's wife, '' a delicate and pretty
woman, sitting beside the cradle of her infant." A
vivid photograph this of the life at Pennsbury, of
that domestic serenity and quiet which Penn yearned
for, and yet from which his wife and daughter Letitia
were incessantly eager to hurry him away. They
were weary of the solitude of Pennsbury, broken
only by the soft tread of the Indian, or by the petty
squabbles and small concerns of the Philadelphia
politicians. They were used to country life, but it
was the country life of old England, with mansions
that looked out on smooth green lawns inclosed with
hedges of privet and hawthorn, not a life in the
frayed selvage of the measureless backwoods, with a
deep river in front, and behind nothing but insolent
bears and wolves and painted savages with scalps
'hanging at their belts !
In the slate-roof house and at Pennsbury the pro-
prietary maintained a good deal of state. He enter-
tained much and liberally, and had a large retinue of
attaches and servants. When he went from his manor
to his capital city, to attend the meetings of Council
or look after other business, he proceeded in his eight-
oared barge, and must have looked well passing cere-
moniously along the river-front to the landing-place.
There may have been something of policy in this
stately parade and in the insignia of office with which
Penn chose to surround himself as the lord para-
mount of a great and prosperous territory, rapidly
growing in population and consequence. But Penn
was rather fond of display for its own sake. He
cherished power, both because it gave him influence
for good and because he liked to know that he had
influence. In the same way he enjoyed the sense of
his proprietorship of such a great domain, the work
of his own hand, and he liked to show himself as the
" monarch of all he surveyed." This was so openly
and ingenuously done that it provoked comment and
satire. The people, who thought that a Governor
who kept such state and entertained so liberally
must be very rich, complained that he should be de-
manding subsidies and extorting quit-rents from
them. The English party, headed by Judge Quarry
and others, who wanted the crown to take possession
of the government, looked upon this lofty post of the
Governor's as the assumption of too independent an
attitude towards the mother-country. The vulgar
and envious were disposed to carp and sneer at a dig-
nity which they proclaimed to be altogether unsuited
to the humility and plainness of one holding the self-
subduing faith of the Society of Friends. In 1703
one Francis Bugg, an apostate Quaker, who had
bloomed into a full-grown churchman, published a
tract in London called "News from Pennsylvania,"
in which ample expression is given to this mean
spirit of detraction. " Our present Governor, Wil-
liam Penn," writes Bugg, " wants the sacred unction,
tho' he seems not to want majesty, for the grandeur
and magnificence of his mien (tho' his clothes be
sordid in respect to his mind, being not arrayed in
royal robes) is equivalent to that of the Great Mogul,
and his word in many cases as absolute and binding.
The gate of his house (or palace) is always guarded
with a janissary armed with a varnished club of nearly
ten foot long, crowned with a large silver head, em-
bossed and chased as an hieroglyphic of its master's
pride. There are certain days in the week appointed
for audience, and as for the rest you must keep your
distance. His corps du gard generally consists of
seven or eight of his chief magistrates, both ecclesi-
astical and civil, which always attend him, and some-
times there are more. When he perambulates the
city, one, bareheaded, with a long white wand on his
shoulder, in imitation of the Lord Marshal of Eng-
land, marches grandly before him and his train, and
sometimes proclamation is made to clear the way. At
their meeting-houses," continues Bugg, whose pen is
rather more clever than truthful or generous, "first
William leads the van like a mighty champion of war,
rattling as fast as the wheels of his leathern conven-
iency.1 After him follow the mighty Dons according
to their several movings, and then for the chorus the
Feminine Prophets tune their Quail pipes for the
space of three or four hours, and having ended as
they began with howlings and yawlings, hems and
haws, gripings and graspings, they spend the re-
mainder of the day in feasting each other, and to-
morrow they go into the country, and so on from
meeting-house to meeting-house, till, like the Eastern
armies in former times, they have devoured all the
provisions both for men and beasts about the country,
and then the spirit ceasing they return to their own
outward homes."
While Penn sojourned at Pennsbury, James Logan
remained at the slate-roof house, with patient fidelity
and comprehensive grasp of mind seeking to acquaint
himself with all the details of the proprietary's com-
plicated business and all the multiplied affairs of the
province and city. Never was man or State better
served than Penn and Pennsylvania by James Logan
a character so admirable that one comes to have an
affectionate regard for him as for all who merit the
epitaph : " Well done, good and faithful servant."
Self-poised, sedate, retiring, and even reserved, a
scholar with some of the tendencies of the recluse,
he seemed to know nothing but his loyalty and duty
to the friend who trusted him and to the community
whose most intimate interests were in his keeping.
He was everything to Penn and Penn's family from
1 Penn did have a state coach for four horBea, and it miiBt have rnttled
a good deal in travelling the stumpy, root- roughened road from Penns-
bury to Philadelphia.
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
161
the day when he entered the proprietary's service,
and his zeal and industry were made doubly effective
by tact, shrewdness, diplomatic skill, and a composed
intelligence always steadily concentrated upon the
one object of his life. Penn was not always fortunate
in his judgment of character and in selecting his
agents, but he was not deceived in the implicit faith
M
f' f
im
JAMES LOGAN.
with which Logan inspired him. " I have left thee,''
wrote Penn, after going on shipboard to return to
England in 1701, "in an uncommon trust, with a
singular dependence on thy justice and care, which I
expect thou will faithfully employ in advancing my
honest interests." Nobly did Logan discharge that
trust, and nobly did this virtuous and accomplished
gentleman bear himself in every relation of life. He
was not largely recompensed, for Penn allowed him
no more than £100 a year, and HanDah Penn, for the
heirs, only deeded to him apart of the Springettsbury
Manor. He became rich, but it was by his own in-
telligent operations in the Indian trade and in real
estate. Of course his position gave him many oppor-
tunities to pursue these adventures with success, but
he was never a mercenary nor a grasping man, and
when he was able to retire from the public service
without injury to it, he did not any longer seek to
make money but gave himself up with ardor to his
favorite pursuits of literature. William Black's diary
describes him as he was in the period of his retire-
ment and ill health, — a recluse almost, with an austere
and melancholy face, monosyllabic at table, but rous-
ing up and becoming animated and cheerful in the
act of showing to his visitors the library and literary
treasures he had gathered around him in the classic
retreat of Stenton. Most fittingly he made the gift
of that library to the city of his adoption and love,
11
the crowning act of a long life of benevolence and
exalted public spirit.1
i The liven of men like James Logan ennoble the pages of history and
make its study an elevating pursuit and a reinforcement to the resources
of public morality. This man was worthy the compliment which the
steadfast Shawanee warrior paid him when he put aside his own name
and took that of Logan simply ; worthy to have been the trusted friend
of William Penu, and to have had Benjamin Franklin for his printer.
How many men has the world produced who, after forty years spent in
the whirl and muddy currents of active business and intense political
strife, can, with clean hands and unsullied reputation, calmly step aside
out of the turmoil and retire to the company of books and author*, to en-
dow a library, and make a translation of Cicero's " De Senectule," print-
ing it, aB the writer himself pleasantly says, "in a large and fair char-
acter," so that old men may not be vexed by their defective eyesight in
reading what was so appropriate to their years ? When John Davis, the
English traveler in America, visited the Loganian Library, in 1798, he
wrote: "I contemplated with reverence the portrait of James Logan,
which graces the room, magnum el veiierabile nomen. I could not repress
my exclamations. Ab I am only a stranger, said I, in this country, I
afl'ect no enthusiasm on beholdingthe statueBof her generals and states-
men,—I have left a church filled with them on the shore of Albion that
have a prior claim to such feeling. But I here behold the portrait of a
man whom I consider bo great a benefactor to literature, that he is
scarcely less illustrious than its munificent patrons of Italy; his soul has
certainly been admitted to the company of the congenial spirits of a
Cp6mo and Lorenzo of Medici. The Greek and Roman authors, forgot-
ten on their native banks of Ilyssus and Tiber, delight, by the kindness
of a Logan, the votaries of learning on those of the Delaware." James
Logan, a man of old and reputable family and himself aristocratic in all
his tendencies, was born in Lurgan, Ireland, 28th October, 1G74. HiB
father, Patrick Logan, grandson of Sir Robert Logan, of Restairig,
Scotland, sprang from that stock of proud Scottish lairds, distinguished
for long pedigrees and barren acres, whoBe children have lent their
genius to the service of the world. The Logans went on crusades with
the Douglases ; they fought the English on sea and on land ; they lost
their estates by forfeitures in consequence of the Gowrie conspiracy.
Patrick Logan was an alumnus of Edinburgh University, educated for
the church, hut early connecting himself witli the followers of George
Fox. His wife was Isabel Hume, of the family of Dundas and Panmure.
James was a lad of precocious mind, — at sixteen he knew Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew, and bad made rapid progress in mathematics. He after-
wards mastered French, Italian, and Spanish, and probably Dutch and
German, spoke Latin with ease and grace, and was familiar with several
Indian dialects. He went into trade ; linen-draper's apprentice in Dub-
lin, then in the Bristol trade for himself. At Bristol he met Penn, and
became his private secretary and devoted follower ever after. This was
in 1G98. From the time of Peun's return to England in 1701 to Logan's
death, in 1751, be w:is always the power behind the proprietary throne,
wielding what was sometimes almost absolute authority with singular
propriety and judgment. He was secretary of the province, commis-
sioner of property and of Indian affairs, member and president of Coun-
cil, acting Governor and chief justice. His love of hooks was cons'ant
and sincere, and after a broken thigh compelled him to live retired at
Stenton the pursuit of literature became his passion. But even iu seclu-
sion and invalidism he never neglected his public duties for his private
tasteB, nor lapsed into indifference on account of personal infirmities.
Many important affairs of Btate were transacted at Stenton, which was
nearly always surrounded by deputations of Indians, who camped about
the house to seek advice and favors from their honored friend "hid in
the bushes." Logan's literary and scientific pursuits and associations
were very respectable, and he was widely known among his contempo-
raries. His own Latin tracts on botany, electricity, navigation, and
optics had a place in leading scientific journals. Thomas Godfrey's im-
provements in the quadraut were made at Stenton under Logan's eye,
and Franklin and he worked together with a thorough appreciation of
each other's good qualities. Logan was an unsuccessful suitor for the
hand of Ann, daughter of Edward Shippen, who married Thomas Story.
His wife was Sarah Read, daughter of a wealthy merchant of Philadel-
phia, to whom he was wedded eight years after his ill success witli Miss
Shippen. His children were not literary in their tastes, and it was on
this account that he left his library to Philadelphia, endowing it, for its
perpetual maintenance, witli the Springettsbury Manor property which
he had received from Teun's estate. Logan was a peraonable man, tall,
well proportioned, with graceful but grave demeanor. His complexion
162
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
At Pennsbury the proprietary led very much the
life of a lord of the manor. No picture of the an-
cient place is extant, but our regret at the neglect of
contemporary chroniclers is mitigated by the skill,
industry, and intelligent research with which the late
J. Francis Fisher has reconstructed the history of
Penn's private and domestic life during his residence
at this pleasant seat. Penn had the true-born Eng-
lishman's genuine fondness for country life. He was
as much a rural squire as a courtier, and he resembled
Sir Robert Walpole at once in his ambition, his pliant
facility and easy humor in dealing with men, and in
that pleasant satisfaction which he derived, "procul
negotiis," in driving his cattle afield across the mellow
mould of his own broad acres, —
" Quis non malarum, quas amor curas babet,
Hsec inter obliviscitur?"
It was the dream of Penn's life to settle permanently
upon this manor and become himself the patriarch of
his extensive plantations. Before he reached the prov-
ince this estate had been selected provisionally for him
by Markham in pursuance of his orders, and he had
had building commenced there in the hope to occupy
it forthwith after his arrival. There is no evidence,
however, that Penn spent any time at Pennsbury
during his first visit, and if he did bring over mate-
rials for erecting a house there it is probable that
these were rather employed in constructing the Letitia
house in the city, as his more immediate needs sug-
gested. No vestige of the old plantation now remains,
except some decayed cherry-trees, which tradition
points to as having been planted by Penn's own hand.
The old brew-house stood until 1864, when it was
pulled down, — a substantial building, twenty by
thirty-five feet, with solid brick chimney and founda-
had tbe -warm and florid tone of health even when he was far advanced
in years ; his eyes never failed him, nor did his brown hair turn gray,
though he wore a powdered wig on all state occasions. His manner was
dignified yet courteous, and his conversation quiet and reserved. He
was a diligent correspondent with learned persons all over Europe and
America, numbering among those to whom he wrote regularly Cadwal-
lader Colden, Governor Burnett, Franklin, Col. Hunter, Collinson, Fother-
gill, Mead, Flamsteed, the father of Sir William Jones, Sir Hans Sloane,
Fabricius, Gronovius, and Linnaius. The latter gave Logan's name to
one of his classes in botany. But the real labors and the great glory of
Logan are to be sought in his services to the Penn family and to the
commonwealth founded by Penn. He Bhaped and controlled the devel-
opment of the province with an intelligent purpose and an untiring
resolution no less remarkable because his tastes drew him all the other
way and his work was most disagreeable to him. "These duties," he
wrote " make my life so uncomfortable that it is not worth the living."
"I know not," he repeated, "what any of the comforts of life are." He
withstood the popular party and faced impeachment, imprisonment, and
persecution with unMcnching resolution, triumphing over his adver-
saries with the same calm composure with which he had encountered
their fierce opposition and bitter reproaches. He was always a daunt-
less man, because one who was just and feared not. The Indians revered
him as a saint while they loved him like a brother, and when he died
they pitifully besought the provincial government to 6end them another
righteous man like Logan. No second Logan was to be found, however.
As Gordon, in his " History of Pennsylvania," says, " Never was power
and trust more safely bestowed for the donor. The secretary faithfully
devoted his time and his thoughts to promote the interests of his master,
and bore with firmness, if not with cheerfulness, the odium which his
unlimited devotion drew upon himself."
tions, ten-inch sills and posts, and weather-boarded
with dressed cedar. The mansion at Pennsbury stood
on a gentle eminence facing the Delaware, Welcome
Creek winding two-thirds of the way around it. The
main structure was two stories high, with lofty gar-
ret, built of brick, and stately in appearance ; it was
sixty feet long by thirty feet deep ; the bricks were
probably burnt on the premises, Penn having sent
over workmen for that purpose in 1685. There was a
high porch front and rear, with steps, rails, and ban-
isters. On the first floor a wide hall traversed the
building, used for receptions and public occasions,
and on this floor were parlor, dining-room, smaller
hall, and closets. Above were four apartments on the
second floor, with offices, etc. The building was roofed
with tile or slate of native production, and there was
a reservoir on the roof which had a lining of lead.
The outbuildings comprised, as ordered by Penn in a
letter to James Harrison, August, 1684, "a kitchen,
two larders, a wash-house, a room to iron in, a brew-
house, a Milan-oven for baking in, and stabling for
twelve horses." These buildings were to be a story
and a half high, and to be arranged in straight lines,
" not asm." The proprietary had a horror of any di-
vergence from right lines and angles in town construc-
tion and in landscape architecture. 'Dean Prideaux
accused him of laying off Philadelphia according to
the Scriptural descriptions of. Babylon. He was
probably simply obeying his own instinctive taste
for right lines and rectangular forms. He did not
despise ornament, but, on the contrary, delighted in
decoration, and was particular in enjoining Harrison
not to let the front of the Pennsbury house be
"common," but he did not think departures from
straight lines to be ornamental. He carefully super-
vised the construction of the building even while the
broad ocean rolled between him and his steward,
Harrison; selected the hands and discharged them if
they did not please him.1 Penn spent over £5000 on
Pennsbury. The grounds were elaborately and hand-
somely laid off, with lawns, vistas, and park-like
appointments. There was a broad pebble walk, on
each side of it a row of tall poplars. Bridges were
thrown over Welcome Creek, and steps led down to
the landing and the boat-house sheltering Penn's
barge, which he thought much of, quarreling with
Harrison because he permitted it to be used for trans-
porting lime. The gardens and shrubberies were
cared for at great expense, gardeners being sent from
England for that purpose, as well as all sorts of rare
seeds and plants. Trees were transplanted from Mary-
land, and many wild-flowers from the forest were do-
mesticated in the gardens. The lawn was seeded with
English grasses, and a good deal of the land around
1 James was lo finish the work his men began ; J. Redman furnished
the bricks, John Parsons the plank. James was discharged by Logan
because the Governor thought him " too much of a gentleman," wanting
two servants to do the work proper for his own hands. The Governor's
carpenter was named Henry Gibbs.
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
163
it brought under cultivation. Penn was proud of his
stock, importingsome finehorses from England, among
others "Tamerlane," a thoroughbred stallion, by the
Godolphin Arabian, that famous barb, who, with the
Darley horse, established the stock of English race-
horses.
The manor house at Pennsbury was well furnished.
In the best bedroom was a state bedstead of great
proportions, a silk quilt, satin curtains and cushions,
mirrors, etc. The table appurtenances were in good
taste, damask cloths and napkins, Tunbridge ware,
white and blue china, with two or three services of
silver. The furniture down-stairs was of solid oak ;
there was a tall clock, which may be seen to-day in
the Philadelphia Library. The cellar and larder were
well supplied, and the retinue
of domestics was large. There
was cheer at the manor house
for all, and it never lacked
visitors. Generally there were
some Indian wigwams pitched
about among the trees in the
lawn and forest, and a de-
putation of savages almost
every morning waited in the
hall, seated upon the floor on
their haunches, with their
knees drawn up under their
chins, observant but silent.
Penn was a very liberal man
in his expenditures. He let
his friends and relatives dip
into his purse at all times.
William Penn, Jr., could al-
ways depend upon him to pay his debts, and his son-
in-law Aubrey actually compelled him, with ineffable
meanness, to pay him exorbitant interest on some de-
layed payments upon Letitia's portion given to her,
and he was greedy for money all the time. The
proprietary's charities were no small tax upon his
stinted resources. He gave to all who asked or all who
seemed needy. And this was the way he kept house
at Pennsbury, entertaining the leading people of the
province, distinguished visitors from abroad, his own
guests and a horde of dependants and Indians. He
received the Governors of Maryland and Virginia with
great state and profuse hospitality when they came to
visit him. His steward bought a ton of flour at the
time, molasses by the hogshead, cranberries by the
bushel, barrels of cider, and dozens of cases of select
wines. There was a barrel of olives in the pantry for
the dinner and lunch table ; butter was fetched from
Rhode Island, and for candles the steward sent to
Boston. The wine, — madeira, sherry, port, claret, —
the brandy and gin, and strong beer and ale were
shipped from London ; the rum came from Jamaica,
and, though this was meant chiefly for the Indians,
Penn ordered the best in sealed bottles, so as to be
sure it was not watered or otherwise tampered with.
PENN'S CLOCK.
Occasional runnels of ale were procured in Philadel-
phia, and the small beer was brewed at home. The
Swedes furnished fresh fish at the manor house ; the
bacon, flour, meal, chocolate, coffee, sugar, etc., came
from Philadelphia.
After James Harrison's death, in 1687, John Sotcher
became steward at Pennsbury ; Mary Lofty was house-
keeper. There .were several gardeners at different
times; one of them, for three years' service, receiving
his passage-money, thirty pounds in cash, and sixty
acres of land to settle on. This gardener was re-
quired to train two subordinates under him. Another
gardener was Hugh Sharp, whose pay was thirty
shillings a week, who was to have three men under
him. Five gardeners at one time was rather extrava-
gant. There was besides a vigneron and his attend-
ants at the grapery on Vineyard Hill, afterwards
Springettsbury farm, and when the grapes turned
out good for nothing Penn must still have the French-
man in charge provided for and given some kind of
work. There were three or four carpenters at Penns-
bury always at work. The coachman was a negro,
named John, one of Penn's slaves, and there were
some ten or twelve servants besides about the house.1
Penn traveled in state when he went abroad with
his family, either in his barge, his coach, or his calash.
In August, 1700, he wrote to Logan that if the justices
did not make the Pennepacka and Poquessing bridges
passable he could not come to town. For his own
traveling he preferred the barge or his horse. He
was probably a bold rider, and one time, at Penns-
bury, was laid up with a crippled leg, having hurt it
riding (and healed it with an oil made in Philadel-
phia by Ann Parsons). "We read of his picking up
barefoot girls by the roadside and taking them to ride
behind him. His wife and daughter had their side-
saddles, and may have ridden with him sometimes.
His long excursions to view his territories and visit
the Indians in their villages were necessarily made
on horseback. He certainly took his family with him
to fairs and to the Indian "canticoes." When he
returned to England a part at least of his equipment
for the voyage was his " hair-trunk, leather stockings,
and twelve bottles of Madeira wine." Conceive the
founder of Pennsylvania crossing the ocean with a
hair-trunk to contain his luggage and his stout calves
l " Among other employes of the manor house were Ann Nichols, the
cook; Robert Beekman, man-servant ; Dorothy Mullers, maid ; Dorcas,
negress ; Howman, a ranger (who, in 1G88, was cumplained of ' for kill-
ing y» said Luke WatBon's hogg') ; James Keed, servant ; Ellis JoneB and
his wife Jane, with children,— Barbara, Dorothy , Mary, and Jane,— who
came from Wales in 1682; Jack, a negro, probably cook, whose wife,
Parthena, was sold to Barbadoes because Hannah Penn doubted her
honesty. There was, besides, a Capt. Hans, with whom Penn had a
difficulty, which, however, was 'adjusted,' so that the captain stayed."
. . . Penn employed one new hand in 1701, of whom he wrote to Logan
that he could neither plow nor mow, but could swear. Peter, assist-
ant gardener, received thirty pounds per annum. There were also some
bought negroes, " Old Sam," his wire Sue, James, Chevalier, etc. There
were four indentured servants and Stephen Gould, Penn's clerk. See
Gen. Davis' " History of Bucks County," pp. 181-83, from which some
of these particulars are derived.
164
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
encased in a pair of leather galligaskins, for which
he had paid one pound two shillings !
Mr. Janney, in his " Life of Penn," is greatly dis-
tressed that the proprietary should have been a slave-
holder. In his eagerness to palliate the facts he is in
danger of doing Penn a gross injustice. He forgets
that slave-holding was not forbidden by the Quaker
discipline until many years after Penn's death. Penn
directed his slaves to be free at his death, but the will
was never executed, nor were its provisions respected.
His daughter took one of the slaves, the woman
"Sue." His executors sold three to pay his debts.
It is shown in the preceding note that Parthena was
sold by Penn to Barbadoes, thus separating her from
her husband, because she was thought dishonest. In
writing about his gardener and the assistants whom
he was to train, Penn says, " It were better they were
blacks, for then a man has them while he lives." In
fact, nobody at that time had any idea of the heinous-
ness, immorality, or crime of slavery, unless perhaps
the little German colony, who had Pastorius for their
leader. Fox was "exercised" about the slaves, but
it was not the fact of their being in bondage, but the
way in which they were treated which troubled him.
Penn was "exercised" on the same subject, and he
went so far as to persuade the Council and try to per-
suade the Assembly to pass a law regulating the mar-
riages of negroes. But it would be unjust to Penn to
require him to become an abolitionist a hundred years
before there were any such. Slavery was not thought
a crime in his times, nor was the slave considered un-
fortunate, unless he happened to have a severe master.
The slave trade with Africa was indeed repudiated, but
rather from its impolicy than its immorality. Some
sort of .servitude was almost universal, and one-
half the early settlers in Pennsylvania, in 1682-83,
were servants bought and sold by the Quakers for a
term of years. Even Indian slaves were often to be
met in Philadelphia, in spite of Penn's affection for
that race, and his own Deputy Governor, William
Markham, owned one, Ectus Frankson, born in 1700,
who by his will was to be free at the age of twenty-
four, all his other slaves and servants being devised
to his wife.
In the course of his residence at Pennsbury the
Governor paid a visit to New York, and also one to
Maryland. He was accompanied (says John Rich-
ardson's journal) to the Quaker meeting at Tred-
haven Creek (now Easton, Talbot Co.) by Lord Bal-
timore and his wife with a numerous retinue. They
did not get to the meeting until late, and, in fact, says
Richardson, "the strength and glory of the heavenly
power of the Lord was going off from the meeting.
So the lady was much disappointed, as I understand
by William Penn, for she told him ' she did not want
to hear him and such as he, for he was a scholar and
a wise man, and she did not question but he could
preach ; but she wanted to hear some of our mechanics
preach, as husbandmen, shoemakers, and such like
rustics, for she thought they could not preach to any
purpose.' William Penn told her ' some of these
were rather the best preachers we had among us,' or
near these words."
But we have only been describing the proprietary's
periods of refreshment and recreation. He had
plenty of hard work and many disagreeable tasks in
the time between these intervals of rest and ease.
His situation was peculiar. There were two parties
in the province, one of which sought to subvert his
proprietorship absolutely, the other to modify and
curtail his authority by procuring a new charter or
radical amendments to the existing one. .Col. Quarry
and John Moore, the British admiralty judge and
crown attorney, were in the lead of one party, David
Lloyd, attorney-general of the province and the pop-
ular leader in the Assembly, directed the movements
of the other party. Penn had the sympathies of
neither, for while his support of Markham in the
controversy with Quarry had procured him the en-
mity of the latter, he had since his arrival in the
province aroused the personal animosity of Lloyd, a
brilliant and versatile but vindictive man, by re-
buking his intemperate attitude towards Quarry,
which could not be maintained, he said, without
doing hurt to the interests of the province. Lloyd
resented this, and he was further incensed at Penn's
relations with Quarry, which seemed to assume that
Markham and Lloyd had not been altogether right
in their dispute with the crown officers. Logan de-
scribes this quarrel in a letter to William Penn, Jr.,
in which he characterizes the attorney-general as "a
man very stiff in all his undertakings, of a sound
judgment and a. good lawyer, but extremely perti-
nacious and somewhat revengeful." The question
of the seizure of the goods at New Castle and the
contempt of the king's authority coming up in Coun-
cil, " David resolutely defended all that had been
done, and too highly opposed the Governor's resolu-
tion of composing all by mildness and moderation,
and reconciling all animosities by his own interven-
tion, which he thought the only advisable expedient
to put an end to those differences that had cost him
so much trouble. This soon created some small mis-
understanding; several of the most noted Friends
were involved more or less in David's business, and,
thougli troubled at his stiffness, yet wished him in
the right, because the most active enemy and assidu-
ous counselor against the other party, who on all
occasions would be glad, they thought, of their utter
ruin." Penn would not tolerate David Lloyd's ob-
stinacy. Lloyd "knew not what it was to bend," and
so Penn made a life-long enemy of the most daring
and implacable, and in some respects the ablest man
in the province. David Lloyd's character and his
audacity are illustrated by Quarry's charge against
him that at a county court, when the marshal of the
Admiralty Court produced his commission under the
broad seal, with "his most sacred majesty's effigy"
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
165
stamped on it, Lloyd took the seal, held it up before
the people, and exclaimed, " What is this? Do you
think to scare us with a great box (meaning the seal
in a tin box) and a little baby? (the effigy.) 'Tis
true fine pictures please children, but we are not to
be frightened at such a rate."
The substantial charge against Lloyd, that he had
advised the magistrates to take goods by force out of
the king's warehouse at New Castle in contempt of
the Admiralty Court, was a serious business for Penn.
The Privy Council had received repeated charges
against Penn's government as having made light of
the royal authority, winked at piracy and smuggling,
and set the navigation laws at naught, and the Ad-
miralty Court had been established at Philadelphia
expressly to put a stop to such things. Penn, more-
over, in securing the restoration of the province to
his control, had given express pledges to see that the
irregularities complained of were rectified, and,
moreover, to secure from the province the subsidy
for the support of operations against the Indians,
which the Assembly had hitherto refused to vote. If
Lloyd should be permitted to have his own way
Penn could not hope to redeem either of these pledges,
and so was sure to find himself again embroiled with
the king and his cabinet.
The situation was further complicated by the fact
that Lloyd was the leader of the popular party, in-
cluding all the younger and more ardent Quakers, and
these, a vast majority in the Assembly, were seriously
bent upon securing from Penn a more liberal Consti-
tution and especially the concession to the Assembly
of the right to originate supply bills. Under such
circumstances there is no cause for wonder that Penn
should have delayed meeting his Council for some
time, while he was studying the situation and con-
sulting his friends.
The first Council attended by Penn met on Dec.
21, 1699, and the issue between the Admiralty Court
and the provincial government was given immediate
prominence. Col. Quarry was invited to attend
the next day's Council meeting, and it was resolved
that a proclamation should be forthwith published
discouraging piracy and illegal trade. Quarry's
charge against Penn's government was that the jus-
tices of Philadelphia Court had issued a writ of re-
plevin, and sent the sheriff (Claypoole) to seize goods
which were in the custody of the marshal of the Ad-
miralty Court, having been legally seized in the name
of the crown ; that the justices had been offensive and
insolent to Judge Quarry, challenging his commission
and claiming that their jurisdiction was coextensive
with his and their authority to unloose fully as great
as his to bind ; that the sheriff made a pretence of
keeping certain pirates in custody, while in fact they
were at large every day. Per contra, Markham, after
showing that he repudiated the act and the conduct
of the justices and had reproved the sheriff, claimed
that Judge Quarry was in contempt of the provincial
, government for having arrested certain alleged pirates
j within its jurisdiction and sent them to Barbadoes
| for trial, and for having pretended that the provincial
officers, because qualified on affirmation and not on
oath, were not duly qualified according to the statute.
At the next day's Council, December 22d, Anthony
Morris, the chief of the offending justices, and Judge
Quarry were both present. Morris surrendered his
commission as justice, and further said, after plead-
ing his sacrifices in the public service, that he had
issued the writ of replevin in the case complained of
in good faith, " in pursuance (as hee thought) of his
duty, believing hee was in the right & yt hee was in-
duced yrto by advice of those that hee thought were well
skilled in ye Law, who told him yt was the priviledge of
the subject; and further said yt hee had no interest in
the owner nor goods, nor no self nor sinister in so
doing." The Governor said " That his signing ye sd
replevin was a verie indeliberate, rash, & (in his opin-
ion) unwarrantable act," which neither the justice
could nor the Governor would justify. Morris evi-
dently wanted to make it plain that he had acted
upon David Lloyd's advice, and Penn to make it
equally plain that he condemned and repudiated all
such counsel. As Lloyd was present, he could not
fail to feel a strong resentment at the course matters
had taken. To Judge Quarry the Governor said that
it was the most sincere intention of his government,
by all lawful means, to discourage, discountenance,
and severely punish piracy and illegal trade, in which
he desired the advice, assistance, and co-operation
of the judge and all the other king's officers. At
the next Council meeting Penn spoke of the neces-
sity of calling a General Assembly to take further
measures for the suppression of piracy and illicit
trade. A day or two later Robert Turner, Griffith
Jones, Francis Rawle, and Joseph Wilcox appeared
as petitioning the Governor on the subject of a re-
vision of the charter and asked a hearing. This led to
along conference, and it had the result that the Assem-
bly to be called would come prepared to agitate the
question of constitutional amendment, as well as that
of piracy and illicit trade. It was decided to call the
old Assembly to meet on January 25th, a new elec-
tion being ordered in New Castle County, which had
neglected to choose representatives for the last Assem-
bly. On January 24th the Council again met, and
Judge Quarry and Justice Morris were confronted.
Quarry, after stating his case, said that "this his ac-
tion was no less than to Question whether his ma'io
or yc sa Anthonie has most power." The act of Par-
liament governed both courts, and the justice could
not pretend ignorance when he had been so long on
the bench. He therefore wished Penn and Council
to have Morris prosecuted for violence and compelled
to make good to the king the appraised value of the
goods replevined. Morris, in reply, urged that he
signed the writ of replevin through ignorance and
not from malice against the king or his officers, "y'
166
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
he was persuaded to do it by advice of ym y' knew ye
Laws,'' and therefore he hoped he would be excused ;
it would be very hard if any justice should be made
to suffer for an error in judgment. The security given
by the petitioner who had taken out the writ was, he
believed, ample to cover the value of the goods.
Penn said he would see that the appraised value of
the things taken was made good to the marshal, and
told Quarry further that " if he was not satisfied w'
Anthony Morris' being outt of Commission of the
peace & w* his psent submission, hee might propose in
writing what other satisfaction he expected, and it
should be considered of. To woh call. Quarry made
ansr, y' hee had no ps<mal animositie agl Mr. Morris
and yl for his p' he was well satisfied with ye Pror &
Govr'a promise, & Mr. Morris' submission." This dis-
agreeable business was thus for the time being ad-
justed, but only for the time being.
The next day after this meeting of the Council the
Assembly came together ; the records, now kept by
James Logan, assuming at once and henceforth a
more satisfactory and intelligent shape for those con-
sulting them, e.g., "Province of Pennsylvania
and Territories, ss. — Minutes of Council in the As-
sembly, Anno Hi. Rs. Guliemi terty Angliw, etc., decimo,
25th Jannary, 1699-70. Att a Council held at Phila-
delphia die Juris, 25th January, 1699-70."
ThesheriffofNew Castle County returned, in answer
to the Governor's writ, that Richard Halliwell and
Robert French were elected members of Council, and
John Healy, Adam Peterson, William Guest, and
William Houston members of Assembly. The writ
for this election is interesting from its unusual form:
" To R. Halliwell, Jn- Donaldson, and Rob' French,
of Newcastle : Inclosed I send you a writ for ye County
of Newcastle, to return their Representative for a
Council and Assembly, that I am forced to call with
all possible speed. Piracies and Illegal trade have
made such a noise in Engld, and y" jealousies of their
being so much encouraged in these Ainc°° parts, such
an Impression on the minds of sev" great ones, that I
think myself obliged to give them earlier Demonstra-
tions of our Zeal ag" all such Practices than an ex-
pectation of y" next Assembly (wcl1 comes not on till
the Spring), or a full consideration of the Constitu-
tion and present frame of Governm' will admit of.
The business of this I now call will be very short, and
soon over, & y° new Assembly meets soon after, in
which I hope to take such effectual measures for the
future & better settlem' of this Governm1 as will give
full satisfaction to all. Pv Dyer.
" PhiladB, 12 m°, 1699-1700."
Some of the New Castle people complained that
they did not have any sufficient notice of this election.
Penn said the sheriff should be punished for his ne-
glect, but in the mean time there would be no business
before the present session except what was named in
the writ, in which he hoped all would concur, with-
out making the New Castle case a precedent for the
future. Committees of Council and Assembly were
appointed to consider the subject of the two proposed
bills, which, after several conferences and some de-
bate, were passed. The Assembly did not like the
clause forbidding trade with Madagascar and Natal -r
these places, it was explained, had become retreats-
and retiring places of the pirates, and trade with them
was accordingly forbidden for three years. Penn
then dissolved the Assembly, after informing them
that he intended to call the next General Assembly
according to charter at the usual annual session. Penn
had not signified to the Assembly whether or not he
approved of the charter granted by Markham in 1694.
Nor did he ever formally approve it, for the charter
finally granted by Penn in 1701 appeared as if it were
an amendment to or substitute for the charter of
1683. Penn apparently was not on very good terms
with Markham at this time, or else the latter's ill
health (he died in 1704 after a long illness) no longer
suffered him to take an active part in government
affairs.1
Penn showed himself determined at this time to
1 Watson, in his "Annals of Philadelphia," says that Markham was
but twenty-one years of age when he came out to Pennsylvania, hut thifr
must he a mistake, as it would make him only forty-five when he died.
At that time he was spoken of as the "old gentleman,11 and he had two
grandchildren. Besides, he diedof retrocedent gout, seldom fatal at such
an early age. His knowledge of affairs and the confidential positions
given him would imply a much older man. He left a widow, a daughter,
a son-in-law, two grandchildren, and a "daughter-in-law" at his death. It
is probable that Markham T8 retirement was on account of suspicious cir-
cumstances connecting him with the pirates, who, since the French Ad-
miral Pointishad driven them away from the Caribhean Sea, were become-
active in Northern waters. Kidd harbored about New York, Avery and
Elackbeard about the Delaware; some of Avery's men were in prison
in Philadelphia, and Col. Quarry complained more than once that their
confinement was a farce, as they could go when and where they chose.
It is certain that Markham suffered some of these men (who had their
pocketsfull of gold) to he treatcefvery leniently. One of Avery's men,
Birmingham by name, had intrusted his money to Mark-hani's keeping,
and lie was allowed by Sheriff Claypoole to walk the streets in summer
in custody of a deputy, and in winter to have his own fire. Another per-
son suspected of connection with Avery was James Brown, member of
the Assembly from Kent in 1008, and then expelled on account of his
relations to the pirates. Penn had him arrested in 1699 for having come
over with Avery. He was sent to Boston to be tried by the Earl of Bella-
rnont, Governor of New York. This man is usually suspected of having
been Markham 's son-in-law, the husband of his daughter, " Mrs. Ann
Brown." Pcnn's letter to Markham, dated 27th January, 3609-1700, is
generally supposed to refer to him. It is as follows " Cosin Markham,
— When I was with thee to-day thou offered to be bound for thy son-in-
law should he bring thee into trouble, it is all the Portion I believe he
has with thy daughter. What thou hast I may venture to say thou hast
gott by this Govern"". I think it strange y'foro thou shouldst make a
Difficulty in binding thy Executi™ with thyself for his appearance.
Should another be bound, no man will take thy Bond for thy own Life,
only for a counter security. Thou knowest it is Contrary to the form of
all Obligations, & I cannot buttake it hard thou should be unwilling to
venture so much for thy own Credit as well as that of the Governm' and
for the Husband of thy only Child from those I am not concerned with.
I expect a more express answer than thou hast yet given and remain thy
affectinatl) Kinsman, — W. P." — (Penn. Archives, i. 126.)
Gordon says the pirates were largely reinforced after the peace ofRys-
wyk, aud they made harbor on the Delaware, because they could easily
impose on the unarmed, pacific Quakers. They sacked the town of
Lewes, and captured many vessels off the Delaware capes. Tiiere is noth-
ing improbable in the supposition that Markham was retired on account
of the ineffective means employed by him for the suppression of these
public plunderers.
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
167
break up the piracy in the Delaware. He even went
a little into the detective and private inquiry busi-
ness himself. He wrote to Luke Watson : " Thy
Son's Wife has made Affidavit to-day before me of
what she saw & knows of Geo. Thomson having East
India goods by him about ye time Kidd's Ship came
to yor Capes : Thy Son doubtless knows much more
of the business ; I desire therefore thee would cause
him to make affidavit before thee of what he knows
either of Georges Goods or any of y" rest." To the
magistrates at New Castle he wrote that he had in-
formation that Pirates or persons suspected of piracy
had "lately landed below, on this and t'other side
the River, & that some hover about New Castle, full
of Gold. These are to desire you to use your utmost
Endeavor and Diligence in discovering and app'hend-
ing all such p'sons as you may know or hear of that
may be so suspected, according to my Proclamation."
A similar letter was sent to Nehemiah Ffield and
Jonathan Bailey.
William Penn's capacity to rule men has never been
doubted, but we think it is revealed with unexpected
force in Lis administration of 1699-1701. We have
outlined the difficulties that were in his way, — stumb-
ling blocks so many and so serious that he himself
said in his striking letter to Lawton, " What.I have
mett with here is without Example, and what a Dia-
dem would not tempt to undergoe seven years, — faction in
Govern', and almost indissolvible knots in Property."
Let us see now how he did meet these difficulties.
It required a firm hand, and a firm hand he put to it.
The very existence of his government depended upon
his setting himself right with the crown in the matter
of piracy and illicit trade, to prevent the Lords of Trade
from proceeding against his charter with a writ of
quo warranto, which he knew to be the object that Col.
Quarry and Attorney-General Edmund Randolph had
in view. Accordingly, he resorted to severe measures
against all who were in any way suspected in connec-
tion with these matters, going further than Judge
Quarry went, and seeming to be guided and coun-
seled by that intemperate official in a. way which
at once flattered and deceived him. All the time,
however, he was quite aware of Quarry's hostility to
him, and was preparing a sure trap for his feet. When
Penn was satisfied that he had done all that the Lords
of Trade and commissioners of custom would demand
or expect of him, he turned next to the Assembly
and the Council. The proceedings of the Legisla-
ture in regard to the revision of the charter extended
over a period of eighteen months, and will be pres-
ently exhibited, as they can be most lucidly, as a
consecutive whole. Suffice now to say that with con-
summate adroitness he first purged his Council of the
disorganizing elements in it by reversing the proceed-
ings of 1690 which had resulted in the disqualification
of Robert Turner and some more of Penn's 'most de-
voted friends,— proceedings instigated by David Lloyd,
— and then procuring the disqualification of Lloyd
himself as member of Council by instigating Judge
Quarry to prefer in writing such charges against him
of contempt to the crown and its officers as compelled
Penn to suspend him. Lloyd wanted to be tried at
once, but Penn said, " Oh, no," that this was merely
an investigation, not an indictment, and the time for
trial had not come yet. Thus Lloyd was put out of.
the way, and incapacitated from doing injury to
Penn's more immediate projects. Next the Assembly
having failed to agree upon the amendments to the
charter, Penn required them categorically to decide
whether they would be governed by that instrument
any longer or no. They voted no, and surrendered
the charter to him, whereupon he put it coolly in his
pocket, dissolved and sent them home, quietly in-
forming him that he would for the time being at
least govern them himself under his patent from
Charles II., and the acts of settlement and union.
" Friends," said Penn, " since you were dissatisfied
w1 y" charter you had, and y' you could not agree
among yorselves about a new one, I shall be easie in
ruling you by the king's Letters patent and act of
Union, and shall in the ruling of you Consider my
grant from the king and you that I am to rule, and
shall from time to time endeavor to give you satisfac-
tion. I advise you to be not easily displeased one
with another, be slow to anger and swift to charity,
so I wish you all well to your homes." This was
short and to the point. It was a perfectly safe pro-
ceeding, for the Assembly had already passed all the
laws demanded by the proprietary, including the tax-
bill of a penny a pound and six shillings per head,
and the custom bill levying a duty on imported
liquors and other goods, and had also confirmed and
continued until after the next Legislature should
meet all the necessary laws then in existence and un-
repealed.
The next thing to do was to deal with Quarry and
his satellites, and it must be confessed that Penn
temporized with this obstacle, while preparing the
way for its removal, in a fashion that entitled him to
the epithet of "Jesuit;" at any rate there is no ex-
cess of the straightforward Quaker "yea and nay" in
Penn's part of the business.1 Birch, collector of cus-
toms at New Castle, wrote to Penn under date of May
28, 1700, complaining of vessels having gone down
from and come up to Philadelphia without reporting
to him. Penn answered he was sorry that masters
were so lacking in respect. There was a bill now
before the Assembly to make the offense penal. But
he thinks a customs collector ought to have a boat,
if he wanted to secure the enforcement of the laws,
which were all on his side. " Thou canst not expect
that any at Philadelphia, 40 miles distant from you,
can putt Laws in execution at N. Castle, without any
care or vigilance of officers there, if so there needed
1 The letters on this subject are tu be found in volume first of the
Pennsylvania Archives, p. 331 et seq.
168
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
none in the place, especially since no place in the
River or Bay yields ye prospect y' is at New Castle of
seeing 20 miles one way and a dozen the other, any
vessel coming either up or down." Penn confesses he
thinks the particular care he had taken of the inter-
ests of the king and his immediate officers deserved
a better return " than such testy expressions as thou
flings out in thy Letters both to myself and of one to
ye members of Council." Birch is reminded that he
has forgotten the respect due to the proprietary's sta-
tion and conduct, and that he should not make Penn
a sufferer on account of his pique against the col-
lector at Philadelphia, a matter with which he neither
had nor wanted anything to do. " Let your Masters at
home decide it; what comes fairly before me I shall ac-
guitt myself of, with Hon'' & Justice to y' best of my
understanding w'hout. regard to fear or favour, for those
sordid passions shall never move y" Proprief & Oovr of
Pensilvania." But Penn was not done with Mr.
Birch yet. In a postscript he says he hears that the
collector talks of writing home, and making he knows
not what complaints. " I hope thou wilt be cautious in
that point lest I should write too, which, when I doe, may
prove loud enough to make thee sensible of it at a dis-
tance. If thou understands not this, it shall be explained
to thee at our next meeting, when I am more at Leisure.''
This letter, full of conscious power, was palpably
meant for Quarry quite as much as Birch. Penn sent
the whole correspondence to the Lords of Trade, and
when Birch died shortly afterwards, Penn himself
appointed his successor pro tern., in order, as he said,
to protect his Majesty's interests, — in other words,
implying that those interests were not served by
either Birch or Quarry. He had already awakened a
fear in the minds of the Lords of Trade that Quarry
was overdoing his part in the business. The Episco-
palians had now built Christ Church in Philadelphia,
and the Bishop of London, Penn's adversary of old,
sent over Rev. Mr. Evans as incumbent. Penn pro-
ceeded at once to conciliate and disarm this new ally
of Quarry's party. " He appears a man sober & of
a mild Disposition,'' writes the proprietary to Robert
Assheton (his kinsman); "I must therefore desire
thee to use all early methods by thyself and such
others of yor Church as are for Peace and a ffriendly
understanding, to make impressions on his mind for
the best, and by all seasonable means endeavor to
dispose him to an easiness of mind and good inclina-
tions to the Publick, and the People in general he is
now to live amongst, assuring him that while he be-
haves himself with Candour and Ingenuity, he shall
want no Goodwill from me, nor kindness that I can
shew him, and that he may expect as much favour in
all reasonable things as he could from any Governor
of his own way."
Quarry and his officers had seized and condemned
a ship called the " Providence," Capt. Lumby, upon
a technicality, there being some defect in the regis-
try. The law allowed Penn one-third of the prize-
money, the other two-thirds going to the crown.
Penn at once sent his third to the owners, telling them
he could not think of such a thing as profiting by an
accidental oversight on their part, and advising them
to compromise for the other two-thirds on the best
terms they could get, he having prevailed on Quarry
to accept two hundred pounds in Pennsylvania money
(one hundred and thirty pounds sterling) in lieu of
the libel. This letter also Penn took care should be
shown before the Lords of Trade. A few days later
the Governor wrote a letter to Quarry, in reply to one
received from the judge. The latter had been com-
plaining of reports circulating among the Quakers
that he had been ordered home, and all the proceed-
ings of the Admiralty Court were to be quashed and
made void. If Quarry would give the names of those
who spread such reports, Penn promised to have them
proceeded agaiust with the utmost vigor as defamers
and spreaders of false news and lies. He regretted to
see that the judge let such things disturb him so much.
There were very injurious reports out against him
too, but he thought it his duty to " make allowance
for ye giddy and weak side of mankind." Then he
dismisses the matter as if not worthy to be further
discussed, and proceeds to explain to the judge some
action of the Philadelphia courts. At the very time
that Penn was writing this to Quarry he had not only
determined on his removal, but had fixed upon a man
to succeed him. This is evident from his letter to
Squire Lawton of about the same date. Lawton was
one of Penn's confidential agents in London, and to
him he discloses the game he had been playing since
his return to the province. After mentioning the
fact that he had not only fully advised the Commis-
sioners of Trade and Plantations of all his proceed-
ings, sending them copies of the entire correspondence
with Quarry and his officers, etc., but had also written
personal letters to Chief Justice Holt, Lords Somers,
Romney, and the lords of the admiralty, he promises
Lawton that his agency shall be worth more to him
than house rent, without giving him much trouble.
He rebukes Lawton for his impatience, one moment
kind, the next stormy, — " but I know thee so well and
in the main reasonable in thy Resentm^ that I will
say no more of it, only," — that his correspondent
seems to forget he has his difficulties and worries too.
Lawton is instructed to confer with "the Quaker's
lawyer" in Doctor's Commons, John Edge, and see
that the case of the "Providence" is properly pre-
sented. Then Penn opens his batteries on Quarry;
the admiralty was as uneasy about the rigor of the
judge's enforcement of the laws as it had previously
been about their laxness. " If it were worth while
at first to erect Courts of Admiralty in America,"
Penn says, " it would be for the king's service to have
experienced officers in it ; for as these manage, great
Discourage™' is given to trade, 4 ships having gone to
other ports y' were bound hither, by woh I have lost
50lte and y° county 100"" by each, and y" passengers
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
169
suffer greatly." He shows that Quarry and his offi-
cers were voracious, ruling to condemn vessels for
their fees and trying to tempt him with his " thirds."
Also they were not impartial in selling condemned
stuff, of which he gives some instances ; " but if a
churchman come in play he is favored — of this proof,
can be made by Depositions." " Salute me Lord
Haversham," Penn says, " and tell him the Admi-
ralty is no Inheritance to him, but the common Law
is, and hope he will not countenance their Ignorance :
ye Judge affirmed the Court had more power here than
that in England ; they pursue the letter of their Com-
missions ; the Advocate confessed there was not one
in America understood the Civil Law or Doctors Com-
mons ; at what a pass then are Proprietary Govern-
ments, who, unless they will run their heads against
the wall, are in danger of being quo warrantoed by the
late Act agBt Piracy, a weak thing, what done this As-
sembly about y° Act of Piracy. As for y e Commission,
if I can make a Mayor and not an officer under him,
'tis odd ; and to have 300 miles of water and yet no
power to serve a Writt on it, is to grant a country
without a way to it; ye Contrary has been prac-
ticed ever since a Govmt till these Gent"1611 had their
Com""15601"9, an(j now wnat jg granted by ye 7th aud 8lh
of Wm ye 3d is allowed them, but they will have all
the power even in Creeks not 20 feet over, without
considering what is infra Corpus C'omilatus, and will
have all actions tried by ye Admiralty, whatsoever it
is, without a Jury ; but I hope, if I live 7 years, to see
those y' give away men's estates without a Jury pun-
ish' though not so vigorously as Empson and Dudley,
— and of Lumby's business, too, where both Judge
and Advocate are parties for ye thirds. I am too far
off to make trips to Whitehall, otherwise Westminster, ye
Parliament, etc., should have rung of it as well as ye Ex-
change. 'Tis a great affront and Injustice that my
Waters should be under another Vice- Admiralty ; to
talk of a country and no waters, a proprietary, or
palatine & no vice-admiralty, nor to be Lord of ye
Waters, has a contradiction in it ; inculcate this to ye
Lords of Admiralty & Trade, for I have sent over a
J)ep'is name for approbation." '
1 That Penn was determined, if the worst came, to make a tight in
Privy Council on the rights conveyed to him by the Royal Charter and
Pateut is obvious from the fact that he begs Lawton to make particular
inquiry concerning "ye Nature & Custom of ye Castle of "Windsor."
This was in reference to the particular character of the tenure, the third
article of the Royal Charter to Penn, giving to him (saving allegiance
and loyal sovereignty), ' to have, hold, possess, and enjoy, the said tract
of land, country, isles, inlets, and other the premises . . . forever, to be
holden of ub. our heirs and successors kings of England, as of our castle
of Windsor, in the county of Berks, in free and common soccage, by fealty
only, for all services,'1 etc. "Custom" is a feudal law term, implying
established usage in contradistinction to written or statute law. Thus
the districts of Northern France were styled pays coulumier in contra
distinction to those of the South, which, governed by the civil law, were
styled pays du droit Latin. The ' custom of Paris" became finally, as
formulated by Louis IX., the common law of France. The law of cus-
toms was that when a gewral custom was concerned, any infraction oi it
was to be tried by Parliament or Privy Council, aided by the courts; but
a breach of a local custom was to be tried by jury. The "custom of
The spirit of this letter we cannot admire, but every
one must admit the skill and adroitness of it, espec-
ially in the suggestion of arguments appealing at
once to the experience and the prejudices of Lord
Haversham, the English judge of the Common Pleas.
Penn is making -a case in the Privy Council against
Judge Quarry, and every word he says is meant to
tell with men like Somers, Holt, and Haversham.
Even his bitterness, scarcely so reserved as is usual
with him, has a deliberate purpose in it, and is the
echo of feelings which he knows must still be strong
among lawyers fresh from the English state trials
which hastened the expulsion of King James from
the throne. Penn proceeds with his indictment of
his enemies in the following terms : " Hinder Randal
[Edmund Randolph] our Enemy, a knave, &c, from
returning [he] has played many pranks; was prerog-
ative's tool to Destroy N. England's character ; oc-
cassioned my disputes 5 years ; treated with y" pirates
for pardon. I send . an original Letf of his to W.
Clark, w"1 whom he dispensed without an oath, tho'
he made that a great charge against us ; Sir R. South-
wel was his protect', and wn I left Londo" his great
Enemy for baseness: R. Harley has great power w"1
him, who had a better man in his eye, one Brinton;
Sir R. S. has Interest. Coll. Bass and Coll. Bark-
stead are Alsatians, wooden colonels, litle will, &c,
ingrate to ye last, my great Enemies ; Bass & a Liar
ye same, lete him not come hither ; ye popish friar his
frd & his wife are dead, both cunning and his frds.
See R. West on this, Govr. Ham1 frd agBt Bass."2
Penn further advises his agent to " give R. West a
guinea now and then." " I fear him in y" surrender
of y8 Jerseys; he has always profest friendship, putt
him in mind of it." Also, his agent is to choose a
good lawyer, " not full of practice," to ascertain the
power of the Council Board and House of Lords to
take cognizance of cases of law before them ; after
the opinion is got it is to be shown to Mompesson
(who was afterwards appointed to succeed Quarry).
Penn says that West wanted him to stay in England
and fight out the difficulty with Quarry before the
Privy Council, but Quarry's letters, backed by the
Bishop of London and Gr. Nicolson, would not suffer
it. " Church is their cry and to disturb us their merit,
whose labors have made the place ; they misrepresent
all we doe, & would make us dissenters in our own coun-
try." The church party have had every concession
possible made to them, says Penn, and have three of
the five counties, but they want everything, although
" we are much Superior to them in Number & Estates ;
2 to 1 in Numbers, 4 to 1 in estates, 20 to 1 in first
Windsor" was the general feudal rule of the English monarchs regard-
ing tenure of lands, and as old as William the Conqueror ; but in respect
of being local to Windsor, in a specified county, Penn could demand a
jury if accused of violating theoharter.
2 It is anything but honest in Penn to quarrel with Randolph for being
'prerogative's tool;" he himself was precisely that sort of instrument
during the reigns of Charles and James.
170
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
adventurers.1 G. K.'s [George Keith's] Hypocrisy
first open'd ye way for this violent spirit." After re-
peating his injunction to Lawton to spare no pains to
get the Bishop of London's good will and advising
him that several things in this letter "are not to be
showed," Penn concludes this epistle, which is writ-
ten a great deal more in the style of Barillon, Gonde-
mar, Burleigh, or Godolphin than in that of the quiet
Quaker, humbly pursuing his own path and leaving
worldly things to the management of Providence.
The spirit of intrigue and cunning breathes through
every line, and the founder of Pennsylvania does not
scruple to bribe lobbyists at Whitehall, nor to prac-
tice upon the prejudices of the law lords in King
William's Privy Council. He shows that Mompes-
son, the man who came out in 1704 with Evans and
William Penn, Jr., to succeed Col. Quarry as judge
of the Court of Admiralty, was already in his confi-
dence so deeply as to be retained as counselor in the
most intimate affairs.
The records of Council at this period are not rich in
minor matters of interest respecting Philadelphia.
The price of wheat had gone up to five shillings six-
pence a bushel, whereupon the bakers reduced the
size of the loaf, and were complained against. The
result was that the standard weight of the loaf was
reduced in order to enable the bakers to live. There
were other market regulations of a similar character.
At the session of the Assembly and Council, in Octo-
ber, 1700, at New Castle, there was a general revision
of laws, and a tax bill was passed to raise two thou-
sand pounds, of which Philadelphia contributed a
little more than half. One hundred and four acts
were passed at this session of the General Assembly,
the most of them being modifications of existing laws,
or acts of local character and minor importance.
The purchase of land from Indians without consent
of the proprietary was forbidden ; better provision
was made for the poor; dueling and challenging to
combat visited with three months' imprisonment ;
bound servants forbidden to be sold without their
consent and that of two magistrates, and at the expi-
ration of their term of service were to have clothes
and implements given them. An act relating to roads
gave the regulation of county roads to county justices,
and the king's highway and public roads to the Gov-
ernor and Council ; inclosures were to be regulated,
corn-field fences to be made pig-tight and five feet high
of rails or logs; when such fences were not provided the
delinquent to be liable for all damages from stock.
The counties were to provide railed bridges over
streams at their own expense and to appoint overseers
1 This shows conclusively the wane of the Society of Friends in Penn-
sylvania after twenty years of settlement. They still retained the pre-
ponderance in property, but eince 1682 had declined in proportion of
numbers from twenty to one to two to one, and were in a minority in
the lower comities, the Delaware Hundreds. The motion for the seces-
sion of these counties in 1699 and 1702, and the reason why the Quakers
took this secession so easily, are thus fully explained.
of highways and viewers of fences. A health bill
was also passed, providing quarantine for vessels with
disease aboard. An ordinance was also made by
Council restricting the firing of salutes by vessels in
the river, some Seneca Indians in Philadelphia, on a
vjsit to Penn, having been frightened off by one of
these promiscuous cannonades. The Governor took
great pains to conciliate the terrified Indians, made
them a speech, and ended by sending them to inspect
the vessels in person and find out why and how salutes
were fired. The Council also followed the lead of the
Friends' Yearly Meeting in providing for the marriage
of negroes and the spiritual welfare of them and the
Indians, as well as trying to discourage the importa-
tion of African slaves ; but the Assembly declined
to carry out the proposed legislation. Negroes were
property, and the Legislature was slow to do anything
impairing their value. A negro slave named Jack,
in September, 1700, shot and killed a white youth,
but it does not seem as if he could be brought to
trial. His conviction and execution would have de-
stroyed that much property.2 In order to render the
enactment against piracy more effective a strict system
of passes for goers and comers was instituted, and the
old law revived requiring people intending to move
away to publish due notice thereof. Pastorius and
the people of Germantown attempted but did not
succeed in having their borough divorced from Phila-
delphia, as far as taxes were concerned. The sewer-
age system of Philadelphia was defective, the streets
being washed and flooded by every rain. A commis-
sion was accordingly appointed to regulate the streets
and water-courses, and they were authorized to levy
for five hundred pounds to enable them to perform
their work.3
There being complaint of the drain of coin from
the province to pay for neat cattle imported from
East Jersey, the Council agreed upon a series of reg-
ulations for the Assembly to act upon, requiring every
holder of forty acres of cleared land to keep ten
sheep ; prohibiting any one to sell or kill more than
half his neat cattle ; none to be killed or sold in
Philadelphia under any pretence between 10th of
June and 10th of September ; none but strictly mar-
2 The murdered man was buried in the Friends' burying-ground on
Fourth and Mulberry Streets, and here, in 1815, his tombstone was dug
up, bearing the following inscription :
" Here lies a Plant,
Too many have seen it,
FlouriBht and perisht
In half a minute ;
Joseph ItakeBtraw,
The son of William,
Shott by a negro
The 30th day of Sept.,
1700, in the 19th year
and 4th mo. of his age."
— Westcott quoting from Hazard's Register.
'J The members of this commission were Francis Cook, James Atkin-
son, Charles Read, Jonathan Dickinson, Thomas Masters, and John
Parsons.
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
171
ketable cattle to be killed at any time, nor less than
twenty-four hours after being driven ; slaughter-
houses to be forbidden in the city limits; but all
slaughtering to be done on the east side of Delaware,
where the tide might carry off the offal; finally, the
duty on rum of the West Indies imported in vessels
belonging to the province was taken off, on other
vessels one penny per gallon ; but if rum be retailed
in quantities less than ten gallons it was to pay duty.
No person to keep more than four horses without
fences; no stallion to go at large. The Assem-
bly was called together, Aug. 1, 1701, again to con-
sider a letter from the king asking £350 to repair
and build forts in New York. The application was,
however, refused, the Assembly, not without a. dig
at Penn, representing the province as being poor
through previous contributions, and having arrears
of quit-rent to pay up. The Assembly was very
loyal and humble, but gave unmistakable evidence
of its unwillingness to be taxed for the warlike pur-
poses of another colony.
The subject of the unsatisfactory condition of the
trade with the Indians was several times brought
before Council, there being reason to believe that
French emissaries had helped to debauch them with
rum and false rumors. The Council ordered the
arrest and imprisonment of the French traders, Louis
and P. Besalion, and took measures looking to let
out the trade to a company or a limited number of
persons, " who should take all measures to induce the
Indians to a true Value and Esteem for the Christian
Religion by setting before them good Examples of
Probity and Candour, both in Commerce and Be-
haviour, and that care should be taken to have them
duly instructed in the fundamentals of Christianity."
A sort of joint-stock company was proposed, the old
traders to be admitted, and all who should subscribe
to rules and regulations to be laid down by Council.
Many efforts were made to prevent or restrict the
traffic in rum with the Indians, but, though a bill to
this effect was passed by the Assembly before Peun's
departure, it was not stringent enough to accomplish
the end sought. In the mean time, however, Penn
had had many conferences with the tribes, and es-
tablished good relations with them. In 1696, through
Governor Dongan, of New York, he had bought from
the Five Nations the right to all the lands on the
Susquehanna. This purchase ivas not considered
satisfactory by the Indians on the spot, and conse-
quently the representatives of the Susquehannas, the
Indians at the head of the Potomac, the Shawanese,
and delegates from the Five Nations were summoned
to Philadelphia to meet Penn and his Council. A
formal treaty was negotiated between the contracting
parties, in which the Susquehanna land purchases
were fully ratified and a treaty of amity agreed upon,
by which a " firm and lasting peace" was forever es-
tablished, "and that they shall forever hereafter be a
one Head and One Heart, & live in true friendship
& Amity as one People." By this treaty common
measures were taken against all acts of violence,
and mutual guarantees of full immunities, free inter-
course, and safe conduct exchanged ; any hostile in-
tentions on the part of either party should be antici-
pated by due notice given to the other party, and evil
reports were not to be credited until investigated;
the Susquehannas were not to permit strange Indians
to settle on their lands, nor to trade with any but the
commissioned agents of the province. Before Penn
left the province he again met these Indians in a
grand council at Pennsbury, where he took leave of
them, gave them every assurance of his interest in
them and their well-being, and received from them
the most solemn assurances of continued fidelity.
They told him, as John Richardson reports in his
journal, that " they never broke covenant with any
I people, for" — and here they smote three times upon
their heads and their hearts with their hands — " they
did not make treaties in their heads but in their
hearts." Then they kindled their council fires in
the grounds about the mansion, and performed their
" canticoes" and dances, singing their songs and
sounding their long war-whoops until the forests on
the other side of the Delaware echoed with the wild
refrain.
A new Assembly was called to meet on the 15th of
September, 1701. The proprietary told them he would
have been glad to defer the session to the usual time,
but he was summoned away to England by news
seriously threatening his and their interests. A com-
bined effort was making in Parliament to obtain an
act for annexing the several proprietary governments
to the crown. A bill for that purpose had passed its
second reading in the House of Lords, and it was ab-
solutely necessary for Penn to be on the spot to pre-
vent the success of these schemes. When the Assem-
bly met (Philadelphia being represented by Anthony
Morris, Samuel Richardson, Nicholas Wain, and Isaac
Norris), Penn told them he contemplated the voyage
with great reluctance, " having promised myself the
Quietness of a wilderness,'.' but, finding he could best
serve them on the other side of the water, " neither
the rudeness of the season nor the tender circum-
stances of my family can overrule my intention to
undertake it." ' At the first regular session of the
Assembly since his return (April, 1700) Penn had
addressed them on the subject of reforming the char-
ter and laws. Some laws were obsolete, he said, some
1 Id strict honesty, while Penn was pleading the " tender circum-
stances" of his family, heshould have added that both his wife and daugh-
ter were urging his departure, and that he might perhaps have stayed in
tho wilderness if they had given him any hopes of enjoying quietude
there. In a letter to James Logan, dated Sept. 8,1701, he wrote: "I
cannot prevail on my wife to stay, aud still less with Tish. I know not
what to do. Samuel Carpenter seems to excuse her in it, but to all that
speak of it say I shall have no need to stay, and great i nterest to return."
Penn evidently wanted to leave his wife and daughter at Pennsbury, so
as to put himself under speedy hondB to ri-turn after a brief run over to
England.
172
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
hurtful, some imperfect and needing improvement,
new ones needed to be made also. " We cannot go
too slowly to make them, nor too fast to execute them
when made, and that with diligence and discretion."
If any law needed repair, alter it. If new laws are
demanded, propose them. But do not play at gov-
ernment. " I wish there were no need of any."
" Government is not an end but a means ; he who
thinks it is an end aims at profit, to make a trade of
it; but he who thinks it to be a means understands
the true end of government. Friends, away with all
parties, and look on yourselves and on what is good
for all as a body politic. . . . Study peace and be at
amity. Provide for the good of all, and I desire to
see mine no otherwise than in the public's pros-
perity." This was salutary and timely counsel ; but
the Assembly did not heed it. They demanded a
new charter, and were not rebuffed by Penn's retort,
"whether they thought the old charter was living,
dead, or asleep?'' Now, when the Assembly met
before his departure, the proprietary brought the
same subject plainly to their attention. "Think,
therefore," said he, "since all men are mortal, of
some suitable expedient and Provision for your
safety, as well in your Privileges as Property, and
you will find me ready to comply with whatsoever
may render us happy, by a nearer Union of our In-
terest." The Assembly expressed its sorrow at his
intended departure and gave him thanks, in a formal
address, for his interest in the province's behalf.
All this, however, was simply preliminary. The
Assembly made a remonstrance and petitions of the
people of Philadelphia which had been presented to
Governor Markham in April, 1697, and again brought
before Penn,1 the occasion for an address to the pro-
prietary. This address was in twenty-one articles,
and embraced the substance of what the Assembly
conceived should be entertained in any new charter.
It was made up of specific demands for political priv-
ileges and territorial concessions, and, as Gordon ob-
serves, was " the germ of a long and bitter contro-
versy." The political privileges demanded were that
in case the proprietary left the province, due care
should be taken to have him represented by persons
of integrity and considerable known estate, with full
power to deal with lands and titles, that an ample
protective charter should be granted, that all prop-
erty questions should be settled in the courts, and no
longer allowed to go before Governor and Council,
and that the justices should license and regulate or-
dinaries and drinking-houses. The rest of the arti-
cles were in reference to the land question, and the
freedom of the demands provoked the Governor, who
said, on hearing the articles read, that if he had freely
1 It was a protest aga.inst the right of tbe Assembly and Council, as
then constituted, to pass laws and raise taxes. It was signed by Arthur
Cook and one hundred and thirteen leading citizens of the place. Penn
referred it to Robert Turner, Griffith Jones, Francis Itawle, and Joseph
Wilcox.
expressed his inclination to indulge them, "they were
altogether as free in their cravings," and there were
several of the articles which could not concern them
" as a House of Representatives conven'd on affairs
of Gov'm't." In fact, the Assembly demanded (1)
that the proprietary should cease to exercise the right
of reviewing and altering the land contracts made in
his name by the Deputy Governor, and that the lat-
ter should have power to remedy all shortages and
over measures; (2) that the charter should secure all
titles and clear all Indian purchases; (3) that there
should be no more delay in confirming lands and
granting patents, and the ten in the hundred should
he allowed as agreed upon ; (4) no surveyor, secretary,
or other person to take any extra fees beyond the
law's allowance; (5) the ancient land records, made
before Penn's coming, should be "lodged in such
hands as ye Assembly shall judge to be most safe;"
(6) a patent office should be created, like that of Ja-
maica; (7) that the original terms for laying out Phil-
adelphia were clogged with rents and reservations con-
trary to the design of the first grant, and these should
be eased ; (8) "that the Land lying back of that part
of the town already built remain for common, and that
no leases be Granted, for the future, to make Inclo-
sures to the damage of the Publick, until such time
as the respective owners shall be ready to build or
Improve thereon, and that the Islands and fflats near
the Town be left to the Inhabitants of this town to
get their winter ffodder;" (9) that the streets of the
town should be regulated and bounded, the ends on
Delaware and Schuylkill to be unlimited and left
free, and free public landing-places be confirmed at
the Blue Anchor Tavern and the Penny Pot-House;
(10) the deeds of enfeoffment from the Duke of York
for the lower counties should be recorded in their
courts, and all lands not disposed of then be letted at
the old rate of a bushel of wheat the hundred acres ;
(11) New Castle should receive the one thousand acres
of common land promised to it, and bank-lots these
to be confirmed to owners of front lots at low-water
mark, at the rent of a bushel of wheat per lot; (12)
all the hay-marshes should be laid out for commons,
except such as were already granted; (13) that all
patents hereafter to be granted to the territories should
be on the same conditions as the warrants or grants
were obtained, and that people should have liberty to
buy up their quit-rents, as formerly promised.2
2 Some of these propositions were obviously untenable, and some
amounted to a charge of bad faith against the proprietary. Gordon says
(HiBtory of Pennsylvania, p. 118), —
"I. In tile surveys to the first emigrants an allowance had been made
by the proprietary of ten acres in the hundred for roads, uneven grounds,
and errors of survey. Subsequent purchasers chiimed this allowance
also as a right. The situation of every tract did not admit of such ad-
dition, and the surveyors sometimes omitted to embrace it when it might
have been obtained. . . . An attempt was made to satisfy tbe claimants
in the preceding year by tbe passage of an act giving to those whose sur-
veys included so much, or more, the full ten per cent., and two per cent,
to those who had the nett hundred. The inequality of this provision
was obvious, and the landholders were consequently dissatisfied. The
PENN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1699-1701.
173
Penn informed the Assembly that their address was
solely on property, and chiefly in relation to private
contracts between him and individuals, whereas he
had recommended them to consider their privileges,
the bulwark of property. He would never suffer any
Assembly to intermeddle with his property. The As-
sembly retorted that they were of opinion they had
privileges sufficient as Englishmen, and would leave
the rest to Providence. As to the king's letter de-
manding a subsidy, the country was too much strait-
ened of late by the necessary payment of their debts
and taxes ; other colonies did not seem to have done
anything, and they must therefore beg to be ex-
cused.
Penn now made answer to the address, article by
article ; he would appoint such deputies as he had
confidence in, and he hoped they would be of honest
character, unexceptionable, and capable of doing
what was right by proprietary and province; he was
willing to grant a new charter, and to dispense with
delays in granting patents ; fees he was willing should
be regulated by law, but hoped he would not be ex-
pected to pay them ; the custody of the records was
as much his business as the Assembly's; if the Jamaica
patent law would improve things he was willing to
have it adopted ; the claim for town lots was errone-
ous ; the reservations in the city were his own, not
the property of the inhabitants ; improvements of bed
of streets conceded ; license proposition conceded ; the
deeds for Delaware counties were recorded by Ephraim
Herman ; the other propositions, in substance, so far
as they were important, were negatived or referred
for revision.
In the course of the discussions the representatives
of the lower counties took offense and withdrew
from the Assembly ; they objected to having the As-
Assembly demanded the full ten per cent, on all lands then Bold, and five
per cent, un future sales." (This Penn refused, offering six per cent, all
round. This caused much trouble until 1712, when a settlement was
effected on the UaBisof six per cent.) "The examination of this question
of surplusage, though attended with much vexations, proved of pecu-
niary advantage to the proprietary. An act of Assembly was passed
directing a resurvey of all located lands, at the expense of William Penn,
within two years; and large quantities of land were found included in
former surveys not covered by the warrants, for which he justly de-
manded payment. But this exaction was most unreasonably considered
by some of the tenants as hard and oppressive.
"II. The pretension of the freeholders to a full participation of the
benefits especially granted to the first purchasers, were not confined to
ttio allowance for roads. The city lots, now rapidly increasing in value
were claimed as appendages to country purchases, and every holder
of a farm demanded a city lot of a size proportioned to the number of
acres he possessed.
"III. The inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia required that the
vacant towu lots should remain in common. . . . Whilst these extrava-
gant claims were advanced by the freemen of the province those of the
territories asked that the price of lands in their counties should not be
raised, and that future grants should be made at the original quit-rents.
"IV. Tn resurveying the quit-rents the proprietary intended not only
to secure to himself a permanent revenue, hut to preserve that connec-
tion between the grantor and grantee which had been the soul of the
feudal system and which was still considered necessary though all the
incidents of that system, save fealty, escheat, and rent, frequently nom-
inal, had ceased."
SKAL OF PHILADELPHIA IN 1701
sembly confirm and re-enact the laws passed at New
Castle, since they regarded these as already perma-
nent and established. This was only preliminary to
the final separation of the Delaware counties from
Pennsylvania. Finally the Assembly was dissolved
on Oct. 28, 1701, the Governor having signed an act
to establish courts of judicature for the punishment
of petty larceny; for minor attachments; for prevent-
ing clandestine
marriages ; for
preventing fires
in towns ; for pre-
venting swine
from running at
large ; for the
destruction of
blackbirds and
crows , and against
selling rum to the
Indians. Penn
also signed the
Charter of Privi-
leges, " with a
Warrant to Affix the Great Seal to it, w°h was de-
livered with it to Thomas Story, Keeper of the said
Seal, and master of the Rolls, to be Sealed and Re-
corded." At the same time he signed a charter in-
corporating the city of Philadelphia.
The Charter of Privileges, after a specific preamble,
begins by confirming freedom of conscience and lib-
erty of religious profession and worship in ample
terms, as had been done in the earlier form of govern-
ment ; it provided for an Assembly of four members
from each county, to be elected by the freemen each
year on October 1st, and meet in General Assembly
October 14th at Philadelphia. The Assembly to
choose its own Speaker and officers, judge the quali-
fication and election of its own members, sit upon
its own adjournments, appoint committees, prepare
bills in or to pass into laws, impeach criminals
and redress grievances, "and shall have all other
powers and privileges of an Assembly, according to
the rights of the freeborn subjects of England, and as
is usual in any of the King's Plantations in America."
The freemen of each county, on the election day for
assemblymen, were to select two persons for sheriff
and two for coroner, the Governor to commission a
sheriff and a coroner, each to serve for three years,
from the persons so chosen for him to select from. If
the voters neglected to nominate candidates for these
offices, the county justices should remedy the defect.
"Fourthly, that the Laws of this Govrm' shall be in
this stile, viz': [By the Governour with the Consent
and Approbation of the freemen in General Assem-
bly mett] and shall be, after Confirmation by the
Governour, forthwith Recorded in the Rolls office,
and kept at Philadia, unless the Govr. and Assembly
shall agree to appoint another place. Fifthly, all
criminals to have the same privilege of witness and
174
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA,
counsel as their accusers; complaints as to property
not to be heard anywhere but in courts of justice,
unless upon appeal lawfully provided for; no licenses
for ordinaries, &c, to be granted but upon recom-
mendation of the County Justices, who also can sup-
press such houses for disorder and misconduct ; suicide
was not to work escheat of property nor affect its
regular descent to legal heirs ; no forfeiture of estates
to proprietary in consequence of accidents. The
charter was not to be amended or altered in any way
but by consent of the Governor and six-sevenths of the
Assembly, and the first article, guaranteeing liberty
of conscience, "shall be kept and remain without
any alteration, Inviobly forever.'' The Assembly, by
this charter, at last secured what it had been con-
tending for ever since the first session at Upland, — the
parliamentary privilege of originating bills, which
must be inherent in every properly constituted legis-
lative body. Penn, in fact, conceded everything but
the margin of acres for shortage, the town lots, and
the quit-rents. To expedite the conveyance of
patents, titles, and land grants he created a commis-
sion of property, consisting of Edward Shippen, Grif-
fith Owen, Thomas Story, and James Logan, with
power to grant lots and lands and make titles. The
new charter did away with an elective Council, and
the legislative power was vested exclusively in the
Assembly. But Penn commissioned a Council under
his own seal to consult and assist him or his deputy
or lieutenant in all the public affairs of the province.
The Council thus commissioned were to hold their
places at the Governor's pleasure, the Deputy Gov-
ernor to have the power to appoint men where there
was a vacancy, to nominate a president of Council,
and even to increase the number of members. The
Council as nominated by Penn consisted of Edward
Shippen, John Guest, Samuel Carpenter, William
Clark, Thomas Story, Griffith Owen, Phineas Pem-
berton, Samuel Finney, Caleb Pusey, and John Blun-
ston, any four of them to be a quorum. In the charter
for Philadelphia, Edward Shippen was named mayor
and Thomas Story recorder.
On or about Nov. 1, 1701, William Penn, with his
wife Hannah, his daughter Letitia, and his infant son
John, embarked on board the ship " Dalmahoy" for
England. Mrs. Penn, who had promised to return
with the Governor, should he come back, appears to
have made a good impression in the province. Isaac
Norris writes that " she is beloved by all (I believe I
may say in its fullest extent), so is her leaving us
heavy and of real sorrow to her friends ; she has
carried under and through all with a wonderful
evenness, humility, and freedom ; her sweetness and
goodness have become her character, and are indeed
extraordinary. In short, we love her and she de-
serves it." Penn commissioned Andrew Hamilton,
formerly Governor of East and West New Jersey, to
be his Lieutenant-Governor ; and he made James
Logan provincial secretary and clerk of Council.
While the ship dropped down the river the proprie-
tary wrote his letter of instructions to Logan, from
which extracts have been given above. And so Penn
passed away from the province he had created, never
to return to it agajn.
CHAPTEE XIII.
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
The charter of the city of Philadelphia, which
William Penn granted Oct. 25, 1701, begins :
" William Penn, Proprietary and Governor of the province of Penn-
sylvania, etc., to all to whom these presents may come, Bends greeting:
" Know ye, that at the humble request of the inhabitants and settlers
of this town of Philadelphia, being some of the first adventurers and
purchasers within this province, for their encouragement, and for the
more immediate and entire government of the said town, and better
regulation of trade therein, I have, by virtue of the king's letters patent,
under the great seal of England, erected the said town into a borough,
and by these presents do erect the said town and borough of Philadel-
phia into a city, which said city shall extend the limits an*d bounds as
it is laid out between Delaware and Schuylkill."
The charter provides that the streets are to continue
forever as they are now laid out and regulated, the
Delaware end to be free, as now, for the use and ser-
vice of the city and people, with power to improve and
build wharves, etc., as the may or and Common Council
shall determine. Edward Shippen is named present
mayor, " who shall so continue until another be chosen,
as is hereinafter directed." Thomas Story to be re-
corder ; Thomas Farmer, sheriff; and Robert Ashton,
town clerk, clerk of the peace, and of the courts;
Joshua Carpenter, Griffith Jones, Anthony Morris,
Joseph Wilcox, Nathan Stanbury, Charles Read,
Thomas Masters, and William Carter, aldermen; and
John Parsons, William Hudson, William Lee, Nehe-
miah Allen, Thomas Paschall, John Budd, Jr., Edward
Smout, Samuel Buckley, James Atkinson, Pentecost
Teague, Francis Cook, and Henry Badcocke, common
councilmen.
The mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common coun-
cilmen and their successors are declared to be " one
body corporate and politic in deed," by the name of
"the mayor and commonalty of the city of Philadel-
phia, in the province of Pennsylvania;" and as such,
persons capable in law to "have, get, receive, and
possess" real and personal property, rents, franchises,
liberties, jurisdictions, etc., and to dispose of the same,
as well as to sue and be sued like any other persons,
and to have a seal.
The mayor is to be elected annually, by the mayor
and commonalty, on the first third day of the week
in the eighth month, and is to qualify within three
days before the Governor, making the test declara-
tions provided in 1 William, iii.; other officers to
qualify before the mayor. The aldermen and Com-
mon Council are to be chosen at the same time that
the mayor is elected, when such choice is necessary.
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
175
The mayor, recorder, and aldermen are made jus-
tices of the peace and of Oyer and Terminer, with
plenary jurisdiction within the liberties of the city,
and any four or more of them (the mayor and recorder
being two) are given power and authority to hear and
inquire into all crimes and felonies, larcenies, riots,
unlawful assemblies, and breaches of the peace, and
to try and punish all crimes and vices, etc. They are
to hold a court of record quarterly or oftener, and to
abate nuisances and arrest encroachments, and they
are constituted of the quorum of the justices of the
County Courts, Quarter Sessions, Oyer and Terminer,
and Gaol Delivery of Philadelphia County.
They may erect a jail and court-house, take cogni-
zance of debts according to the statute of merchants
and of action burnel, and appoint a clerk of the
market, who shall have assize of bread, wine, beer,
woodj etc.
The existing coroner of Philadelphia County is to
act for the city, but the freemen of the city may
choose their coroners and sheriffs as such officers are
chosen in the counties, the sheriff to act as water
bailiff on the Delaware.
The mayor may be removed for misconduct by the
recorder and five aldermen and nine common coun-
cilmen ; a successor in that case, or in case of death,
to be elected within four days, the senior alderman to
act as mayor during the latter's absence or disability.
The recorder may be removed for misconduct by
the mayor and two-thirds of the commonalty ; the
person chosen to succeed him must be skilled in the
law. Aldermen and other officers are made remova-
ble by kindred processes. Persons refusing to serve
in any of these offices to be punished by fine, not ex-
ceeding, in the mayor's case, forty pounds; in the
case of aldermen, thirty-five pounds ; and common
councilmen, twenty pounds.
A quorum of the Common Council shall consist of
the mayor and recorder, and not less than three al-
dermen and nine councilmen. They are given author-
ity to admit other freemen into their corporation ; to
make and execute constitutional laws and ordinances ;
to fine and amerce. No persons are to be admitted
freemen of the city, or capable of being elected to
office, unless free denizens and inhabitants of the
city, twenty-one years old, freeholders, or worth fifty
pounds in money or stock, " and have been resident
in the said city for the space of two years, or shall
purchase their freedom of the mayor and common-
alty aforesaid."
Two market-days a week are provided for, two
annual fairs, lasting three days each, and Philadel-
phia is made a port of entry, all under the charge of
the mayor and commonalty. Landing-places are pro-
vided for, — the Penny-pot house and the Blue Anchor
tavern, — and the swamp between Budd's buildings and
Society Hill is reserved for docks and harbors.
Vacant land within the liberties is to remain open
for pasture until taken up for improvement ; but Perm
reserves the right to fence the land between Centre
meeting-house and the Schuylkill without its being
deemed an encroachment.
The charter is to be construed liberally, and in
favor of the corporation.
The minutes of the proceedings of the mayor and
commonalty from 1701 to 1704 are not extant. Those
which commence October 3d, in the latter year, have
been preserved. We find in the first day's pro-
ceedings1 that Griffith Jones, at that meeting elected
mayor for the ensuing year, was just sueing to have
his fine of twenty pounds remitted, that having been
imposed on him for refusing to serve during the
previous year. In fact, it took some time for the
people to understand the need of a separate munici-
pal government. The first mayor, Edward Shippen,
was also president of Council, and the Council and
Assembly, especially since the defection of the Dela-
ware Hundreds, seemed little other than the legisla-
tive body of Philadelphia and its suburbs.
Independent of local affairs, the proceedings of
Governor, Council, and Assembly, from the date of
Penn's departure in 1701 to the time of the Stamp
Act, are monotonous and dreary. A constant strug-
gle was going on, but it had no variations. The
same issues were being all the time fought out, over
the same familiar ground and by the same parties.
The interests of the crown, the interests of the pro-
prietary, the interests of the people, did not harmon-
ize ; there was a continual and incessant clash, and
yet nothing was settled. The Governors were of in-
ferior metal, the people vexed and complaining, the
Penns wanted money, the crown wanted supplies and
money, was jealous and solicitous about prerogative,
everything seemed to be at odds and outs, yet the
colony grew and prospered amazingly. The various
and conflicting interests did not disturb a people who
were peacefully reaping the fruits of their labors on a
kindly soil in a gentle climate, almost untaxed and
almost ungoverned, and immigration flowed in like
a steadily mounting tide. The people were frugal,
industrious, forehanded ; and the Quakers, who had
control of affairs, had been unpersecuted land-owners
long enough to quite forget their early unnatural
fanaticism and settle down into a staid sobriety,
which was as impassive a substitute for conservatism
as could be desired. They objected, on principle, to
much government of any sort; their non-resistance
doctrine had the effect of steady resistance. They
were like a break upon the wheel of a vehicle, pre-
venting accidents and danger, but making the wagon
drag a little. From the time of Penn's second return
to England until the time of Braddock's defeat and
the riot of the Paxton boys, they had practically con-
trol of the domestic affairs of the province, and they
kept Philadelphia, as it was intended it should be,
the Quaker City.
1 Oct. 3, 17U4, Anthony Morris, mayor ; David Lloyil, recorder.
176
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
In all political and public matters, within the dates
named above, the history of the city is " a record of
quarrels between the Lieutenant-Governors and the
various Assemblies of the province. The latter were
usually composed in majority of members of the
Society of Friends, holding peculiar doctrines in re-
lation to the unlawfulness of war. The members of
the Penn family had returned to the religion of the
Church of England, and the Lieutenant-Governors
appointed by them held no conscientious scruples
against the right of using arms when necessary.
Great Britain was involved in several wars with
European nations, and her American colonies were
in danger of attack and capture. Whenever these
necessities arose, Lieutenant-Governors called upon
the Assemblies for appropriations of money to raise
troops, which requisitions were frequently denied or
evaded upon various pretexts, some of which were
founded upon the alleged dishonesty of the proprie-
taries in evading their own obligations on such
occasions, and endeavoring to throw them upon the
people." ' The case could not be more compactly yet
completely summed up. In fact, Penn and his suc-
cessors in the proprietaryship had a difficult course
to pursue, and they could not pursue it prosperously,
it seemed to them, without temporizing. That was a '
policy which was not disagreeable to Penn himself,
nor, it appears likely, to his heirs. But it gave the
province an inferior class of Governors, men without
convictions, without great honesty, hangers-on of the
court, proteges of the Lords in Council. Penn re-
turned to England in 1701 to prevent the consumma-
tion of a concerted assault upon his charter. When
Queen Anne succeeded to the throne he could hope, as
a courtier, to frustrate the schemes of other courtiers
against his principality. But he must have known
at the same time that it was the settled policy of the
thoughtful parliamentary leaders of England — the
government — to take the first occasion to break the
colonial charters, unite the colonies into three or four
separate governments, and make them viceroyalties,
entirely dependent upon the Lords and Commons at
home. This had been the plan of James II., defeated
by his misfortunes. The establishment of the church
in the colonies in 1694 looked to the same end. Wil-
liam went no farther, because he had no time to think
of the colonies; the Netherlands demanded all his
attention and absorbed all his thoughts. But James'
policy was revived under Queen Anne. It was es-
teemed by Halifax. Cornbury was sent to New Jersey
and Lovelace to New York in the hope to accom-
plish the consolidation of Pennsylvania, Delaware,
New Jersey, and New York into a single province,
New England to be a second province, and Maryland,
Virginia, and the Carolinas a third. Penn must have
known that Judge Quarry, his own enemy, member
of Council at the same time in five colonies, and one
of the most influential men of his day, was actively
and industriously urging this particular time as the
one most propitious for the consolidation which was
contemplated.2 Penn knew also that the Quakers
were more mistrusted in England than any other
colonists except the New England republicans. They
were, suspected of being what Ingoldsby, Deputy-
Governor of New Jersey under Cornbury, accused, —
" men notoriously known to be uneasy under all gov-
ernment; men never known to be consistent with
themselves; men to whom all the factions and con-
fusions in the government of New Jersey and Penn-
sylvania for many years are wholly owing," etc.
When Penn at last succumbed, borne down by
debt, imprisonment, disappointments, chagrins, and
the sturdy opposition of his provincials to all his de-
mands and all his plans, he himself proposed to settle
the whole vexed question by vacating his charter and
selling all his rights and privileges to the crown for
twelve thousand pounds, and only his own illness
and subsequent imbecility prevented the sale from
being ratified. After his death, when the estates
and franchises of the Penns began to become very
valuable, a formidable party sprang up in the prov-
ince itself, headed by Franklin, in favor of abrogating
the charter and vacating the proprietary government.
To prevent this the Penns bad to temporize again,
concede here and stoop there, and so it happened
that the Lieutenant-Governors of the province were
never strong men, nor ever representative of any par-
ticular, leading interest. They were the creatures of
compromise and non-policy, — what are called, in the
slang of modern politics, " dough-faces." The pro-
vincials did not respect them, and continually re-
sented their interference and despised their recom-
mendations.
Andrew Hamilton, the first of these Governors,
and the nearest to Penn's mind and purposes, had
been Governor of East and West New Jersey, and
was one of the proprietors of East New Jersey. He
died in office, having accomplished but little. His
appointment was opposed in England, and his acts
withheld from ratification ; at home the Assembly
refused to ratify Penn's charter, and the Delaware
Hundreds persisted in refusing to reunite with Penn-
1 Thompson Westcott.
- Quarry, who held office by appointment of the Lords of Trade (a
board created in 1G96 at the suggestion of Lord Somers), was in con-
stant correspondence with them. He had adopted the idea put fortli
by Robert Livingston, of New York, in a letter to the Lords of Trade
in 1701, recommending that "one form of government he established
in all the neighboring colonics on thiB continent,1' an idea partly carried
out by the commissioning of Lord Bellamont as captain-general over
Now Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. In a me-
morial to the lords dated June 16, 1703, Quarry wrote, after giving a
full account of the internal concerns of the colonies and the political
opinions prevalent there, that " I may now say, that now or never is
the. time to support the queen's prerogative, and put astop to these
wrong, pernicious notions, which are improving daily, not only iu Vir-
ginia, but in all her majesty's governments. I cannot recommend a
more effective means than what I formerly mentioned, — the reducing
all her majesty's governments on the main tinder one constitution and
government as near as possible."
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
177
sylvania. On his sudden death, April 20, 1703, Ed-
ward Shippen became acting Lieutenant-Governor.
He was succeeded, in February, 1704, by John
Evans, a Welsh youth, a friend of young William
Penn, appointed, it should seem, in deference to the
wishes of influential persons in the entourage of the
queen. Evans was not a Quaker, but hostile to them ;
he was, besides, a rattle-pate, without judgment or
GOVERNOR SIR WILLIAM KEITH.
discretion, and very capable of doing mischief by
rash acts. He was so unpopular that Logan, his in-
timate, was regarded with suspicion, and was com-
plained against. He failed to accomplish any object
which he set himself to achieve, became embroiled
with every one, and was at last superseded by Penn,
who, early in the year 1709, sent out Charles Gookin
to succeed him. Gookin was a soldier, a man of
years and experience, and Penn seemed to expect
much from him. He wrote to his intimates in Phila-
delphia that Gookin was " of an easy, quiet temper."
The queen approved of him ; so did Godolphin, who
wished him a good journey, and said he would be
ready to serve him. " He is sober," wrote Penn,
" understands to command and obey, moderate in his
temper, and of what you call a good family, his
grandfather, Sir Vincent Gookin, haviDg been an
early great planter in Ireland in King James I. and
the first Charles' days, and he intends, if not ill
treated, to lay his bones, as well as substance, among
you, having taken leave of the war and both England
and Ireland to live amongst you; and as he is not
voluptuous, so I hope he will be an example of thrift-
iness." But the Assembly met Gookin, on his very
12
arrival, with a complaining address, full of Evans
and other grievances, and he had no rest thereafter.
They told Gookin, as they had told Evans, when he
asked them for money both for Penn and for himself,
that under his grant and charter Penn was rich
enough in the proceeds of land sales and in quit-rents
to maintain him and his Lieutenant-Governor like-
wise " answerable to their station." This must have
been hard for even a quiet man to bear.
The Governor also asked for Pennsylvania's quota
of one hundred and fifty men for the war, or the cost
of equipping and supplying that number, promising
the men should be forthcoming if the money was
furnished. The reply of Assembly and Council was
that the raising of money to hire men to fight and
kill one another was a matter of conscience with them
and against their principles; however, they would
make the queen a present of five hundred pounds
in gratitude for many great favors she had done
them.1
The Governor asked for more money, but the As-
sembly steadily refused to grant it. They did, how-
ever, vote two hundred pounds for his support and
three hundred pounds to repair injuries done by
French privateers at Lewes, demanding, however, in
return, executive sanction to several important bills.
They also persisted in the impeachment of James
Logan.
Logan went.to England, Penn wrote a strong letter
to the province, a new Legislature of a more harmo-
nious spirit was chosen, and two thousand pounds
was voted for the queen's use on the eve of the ex-
pedition to Canada. In 1714, however, another As-
sembly renewed the quarrel, and there was no more
peace. In 1717 Gookin bade them farewell. He had
become erratic and violent towards the end of his
career, turned his back on the Assembly committees,
kicked a judge, and gave evidence of mental aberra-
tion. He was succeeded by Sir William^ Keith, a
Scotchman, who had been surveyor of customs in the
Carolinas, an adroit and perhaps unscrupulous poli-
tician, of easy, affable manners, accessible, avoiding
1 Tbe queen had befriended them. In 1705 the Legislature of Con-
necticut had passed an act to the effect, " that all who shall entertain
any Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, and other HeretickB, are made liable
to the penalty of five pounds, and five pounds per week for any town
that shall so entertain them ; that all Quakers shall be committed to
prison or sent out of the colony ; that whoever shall hold any unneces-
sary discourse with Quakers shall forfeit twenty shillings; that whoever
shall keep any Quakers' books, the Governor, magistrates, and elders
excepted, Bhall forfeit ten shillings; that all such books shall be sup-
pressed, and no master of any vessel to land any Quakers without car-
rying them away again, under the penalty of twenty pounds." This
hard law the queen strongly disapproved, as contrary to the liberty of
conscience granted to dissenters by the laws of England, and sho accord-
ingly repealed it and declared it void and of no effect. Consequently,
the London Quakers sent a memorial to the throne expressive of their
gratitude, and assuring her majesty of their "Christian and peaceable
subjection, and unfeigned joy for tbe queen's mild and gentle govern-
ment, aiming at the good of all her people." To this the queen replied ;
"Let the gentlemen know I thank them heartily for this address; and
that, while they continue so good subjects, they need not doubt of my
protection."
178
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
offense, willing and able to play the demagogue to
serve his private ends. Keith treated with the In-
dians, wheedled the Assemblies into passing bills
which advanced his interests, issued a paper-currency,
organized an equity court, himself chancellor, and
laid the foundation for a militia system. He at times
allied himself with the Assembly against the Council
and Secretary, who represented the proprietary in-
terests, and craftily courted the Quakers. He was
superseded in July, 1726, and was at once elected to
the Assembly, where he tried to play the firebrand,
but with little success. He published a history of
Virginia in 1738, and died poor and neglected in
London in 1749, leaving his widow to eke out her life
in poverty in Philadelphia. Keith probably invented
the paper-money scheme, of which he was so strenu-
ous an advocate, and which had the immediate effect
to drive all coin of every kind out of the province
and send up exchange on London to ruinous rates.
He formed a league with David Lloyd against the
Council and James Logan, and the latter finally pre-
vailed upon Hannah Penn to supersede him.
His successor was Maj. Patrick Gordon, a soldier,
who had served in the regular British army, and
rather prided himself on his blunt speech and his
ignorance of the ways and wiles of the politicians.
Gordon continued Lieutenant-Governor until 1736,
his career in office being signalized by frankness and
integrity. During his administration several disturb-
ances occurred among the Indians, chiefly incited by
strong drink, which were participated in by worthless
bands, who had strayed away from the tribes to which
they belonged. In these affrays several were killed and
wounded. Governor Gordon took prompt measures
to apprehend and punish the offenders, and succeeded
in preventing hostilities. He concluded a treaty with
the Five Nations, and at a council held at Philadel-
phia, on the 26th of May, 1728, for the purpose of
renewing treaties with the several Indian tribes there
represented, Captain Civility spoke in behalf of the
chieftains, and in referring to the Governor's address,
previously delivered to them at Conestoga, said that
"the Governor's words were all right and good ; that
they never had any such speech made to them since
William Penn was here." These conferences with
the Indians were frequent, and were attended with
much expense, being generally coupled with treaties
for the transfer of land. The Assembly, at its meet-
ing in 1729, drew a distinction between the expense
of treaties for the preservation of peace in the colony
and those for the acquisition of territory, claiming
that the latter should be borne by the proprietors,
thus dividing, says Mr. Armor, the burden of the
" frequent visits of the chiefs and their followers to
polish the chain of friendship with English blan-
kets, broadcloths, and metals." 1 Gordon was still in
office at the moment of his death, and James Logan,
as president of Council, became the locum tenens for
two years, until Gordon's successor arrived in Phila-
delphia, in 1738, in the person of Col. George Thomas,
formerly an Antigua planter. He was a man of abil-
ity and well disposed, but in 1740-41 the war with
France and Spain broke out, the government wanted
money, the Governor asked for it, and the usual dis-
putes began with the Assembly. Some money was
voted, but not all that the Governor asked, and he
became embroiled with the Legislature because he
sanctioned and encouraged the enlistment of indent-
ured apprentices, servants, and redemptioners. There
were serious election riots during this administration,
and some difficulties threatened with the Indians,
which, however, Governor Thomas adroitly managed
to smooth over. He resigned in the summer of 1747,
Anthony Palmer, president of Council, acting as Gov-
ernor until November, 1748, when James Hamilton,
a native of Pennsylvania, came over from England
with the commission of Lieutenant-Governor. He
was the son of Andrew Hamilton, the lawyer, wealthy,
and esteemed and popular. He set himself to work
to pacify the Indians on the Western border, and re-
signed on the eve of the Seven Years' war, foreseeing
a renewal of the old contest between the Assembly
and the Governor, as the representative of the crown
and the proprietary.
Robert Hunter Morris relieved Hamilton in Octo-
ber, 1754. He was the son of Lewis Morris, formerly
Governor of New Jersey, and his first act was to come
in collision with the Assembly on a money bill.
The war was beginning to rage furiously, and Penn-
sylvania was called upon for three thousand recruits,
1 Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania.
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
179
subsistence, camp equipage, and transportation.
While the haggling over the ways and means was at
its height, came the news of Braddock's defeat, the
border left defenseless, the savages raiding to Cum-
berland Valley. The Assembly at once voted fifty
thousand pounds for the public defense, but the Gov-
ernor returned the bill unapproved, because it pro-
vided for taxing the property of the proprietors the
same as other estates. Morris would not be moved
from this position, but the Assembly contrived to
borrow fifteen thousand pounds to aid in expeditions
against the French, and the proprietors contributed
five thousand pounds as a bonus. On this foundation
a money bill was at last passed and provision made
for the organization of a volunteer militia. A force
was raised and marched against the Indians, who were
driven back, and the Quakers finally persuaded the
most of them to bury the hatchet and retire. The
question of taxing the proprietary estates, however,
was lurking behind the next supply bill, when Gov-
ernor Morris was relieved, and William Denny be-
came Governor in his stead.
Denny acceded to the Lieutenant-Governorship
Aug. 20, 1756, and he was joyfully received until it
was found that his instructions bound him to refuse
assent to any bill voting money that did not place the
proceeds at the joint disposal of the Assembly and
Governor, to veto any emission of paper money in
excess of forty thousand pounds, and all taxes on
proprietary property which were made a lien on the
lands. So he and the Assembly quarreled, of course,
and pretty bitterly at that. He told them bluntly
that he was reconciled to the detraction and personal
abuse showered upon him, because it was obvious,
" from your conduct to those before me, you are not
so much displeased with the person governing as im-
patient of being governed at all." Probably there
was a good deal of truth in this.
The Pennsylvania troops took the field and behaved
well; but the treasury was frightfully embarrassed.
Money must be had. One hundred thousand pounds
was voted, to be levied impartially upon all estates,
real and personal, and Governor Denny rejected the
bill. The emergency was so great that another bill
was passed, in which the proprietary property was ex-
empt ; but Franklin and Isaac Norris were sent as com-
missioners to England to remonstrate before the throne
and ask Parliament to vacate the charter and unite
the province with the crown. In 1759 the able di-
plomatists carried their point. Parliament sanctioned
a money bill on the basis of an impartial levy, the
Governor, however, to co-operate with the Assembly
in disposing the revenue and the proprietary untilled
lands to be assessed at minimum rates. Thus the As-
sembly won in this long fight. Governor Denny had
received no pay since his arrival in the colony ; the
Assembly voted him one thousand pounds, he signed
the money bill taxing proprietary estates, and the
Penns immediately recalled him, James Hamilton
succeeding, and holding office until November, 1763,
when John Penn, son of Richard Penn, became Dep-
uty-Governor.
The secret of this steady resistance of the people of
the province, through the popular branch of the Legis-
lature, to the claims of the proprietary and the preten-
sions of royal authority is to be sought in part in the
sturdy determination of people of the English race to
vote no supplies which they do not expend, and to lay
no taxes which recognize privileges. But it must still
more be sought in the non-resistance policy of the
Quakers, and to understand that policy fully we must
understand this singular sect itself.1 Logan, writing
to Penn in 1701, in the first days of the administration
of Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, and animadvert-
ing upon the general policy of the Governor to sus-
tain the Court by meeting its war measures more than
half-way, comments upon the proclamation of the
new Queen Anne of Denmark, the war with France
and Spain, and Hamilton's notion that a militia force
should at once be equipped for the defense of the
colony. The " Hot Church party," who wanted to put
the Quakers in the wrong, opposed volunteer enlist-
ments. Logan wrote: " Lowther (the captain seek-
ing recruits) on beating up the town with drums
found only the meaner sort came forward to enlist;
others would not enlist because they believed it the
readiest way to secure the Quakers in the govern-
ment. He mustered them a second time, which was
the last, finding the opposition too great to struggle
with, persons being daily employed in private to
divert the inclinations of those who had shown a for-
wardness that way. Of this there might considerable
advantage have been made by the government against
that party who had shown themselves basely discour-
aging it; but that being in the hands of Friends,
whose profession is directly opposite, they were tied
up and could not appear."
Tied up by their professions. Yet the Quakers of
this and subsequent periods, while their professions
were the same and as binding, were a very different
class from the wild, fanatical enthusiasts of two gen-
erations back. In ceasing to be persecuted they had
lost the white glow of their fervor. They had settled
and become sedate and sober quietists, a certain
gleam and later radiance of mysticism in their prin-
ciples still, which did not prevent their ways and
views of life from being practical and matter-of-fact
in the last degree. They were not quite yet so merely
formal as they afterwards became, but their age of
self-immolation and martyrdom was past, and they
did not wrestle with the Spirit in public any more,
go naked in the streets, make raids upon Grand
Turks and "steeple-houses," and willingly bare their
backs at the cart's tail. The pillory and the whip-
ping-post ceased to have charms for shrewd and canny
1 The Quakers are treated more at length in this work under the head
of " Religious Denominations."
180
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
traders and planters with money and property. Peace
and prosperity had cured the enthusiasm which in-
spired them in the past.
Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Hamilton first met
the Council on Nov. 14, 1701, and nest day came up
a debate about the road leading out of the north end
of the town and the bridge across it, called Daye's
bridge, which was broken by a freshet. The subject
came up again on the 18th, and urgent demands were
made for the bridge's repair. The road was made on
a causeway over a swamp, and the bridge being now
broken and some of the embankment probably caved,
some persons wanted a new road laid out on safer
ground, and more convenient perhaps to them.
Others urged the original cost of the causeway as a
reason for continuing to use the old bed. A commis-
sion was appointed — Griffith Jones, John Goodson,
Samuel Richardson, Nicholas Wain, Robert Heath,
Daniel Pastorius, and Arnold Castell — of those de-
siring the new road, and seven other persons of those
that stood for the old road, — Peter Deal, Thomas
Parsons, Joseph Fisher, Benjamin Duffield, Robert
Adams, John Worral, and William Preston. They
met, examined, surveyed, consulted, could not agree,
and referred the matter to the Governor. What he
decided is not on record. The new road was not laid
off, however, and the old one, " crossing what was
afterwards called Pool's bridge, on Front Street, over
the Cohoquinoque (Pegg's Run), continued for many
years the most frequented crossing- place at the upper
part of the town." 1
Edward Shippen, Nathan Stanbury, Isaac Norris,
and William Carter, assessors of the proprietary tax
of two thousand pounds laid on the town and county
of Philadelphia, reported to Council, on Feb. 3, 1702,
that Thomas Farmer, Penn's sheriff and ex-officio tax
collector, was not doing his duty so far as their
charge was concerned. Evidently the people did not
like such a levy, and Farmer would not press it for
fear of making himself unpopular. On the recom-
mendation of the assessors, the Governor and Coun-
cil appointed William Tonge, the deputy sheriff, to
complete the collection, and do it promptly. Deputy
Tonge, however, had to levy by distraint, and then it
was objected that the municipal charter had made
questionable the jurisdiction and authority of the
magistrates, so that their warrants were invalid.
This, however, the Council overruled, and ordered
the warrants to issue and be executed forthwith.
Probably the people did not choose to contribute to
the proprietary's support more than they were forced
to do. The tax was heavy, the Council was an aris-
tocratic and unpopular body, and did not attempt to
identify itself with the popular interests. This was
showed at this time by the adoption of an order that
" all affairs of p'ticular Persons, Cognizable before
this Board (not being the Publick affairs of yc Gov-
1 Westcott.
ernment), shall be brought in by Petition to ye Gover.
& Council, Deliv'd to ye Secry or Clerk yreof, for wch
he shall receive six Shillings, & yB Door-Keeper or
Messenger for every Petition one Shill. & Eight
pence." Such a rule passed to-day by any governing
board would raise such a storm of indignation as
would demolish them forthwith. Men in the Assem-
bly like David Lloyd are always swift to profit by
such errors of judgment as this.
The Governor and Council ordered Anne of Den-
mark to be proclaimed Queen of Great Britain on
July 10th, in advance of official instructions, princi-
pally because war had been declared with France and
Spain, and the use of the sovereign's name was neces-
sary in calling out the militia for defense. This de-
termination to involve the colony in military meas-
ures at once provoked the passive resistance of the
Quakers and of their representatives, the Assembly,
with results already stated. When the time came for
the Assembly to meet, the lower counties were not
represented. An adjournment was had, elections
held, and new representatives chosen, but they
likewise refused to go to Philadelphia, and so the
Quakers of that county, Bucks and Chester, had
things all their own way. Hamilton's authority to
recommend distasteful measures was impaired by
the fact that he could show no evidence that he was
recognized as Governor by the Queen, — her govern-
ment had not communicated with him in any way, —
and he was put to the rather pitiful plea of suggest-
ing that no possible Governor who succeeded him
would object to measures taken to protect the prov-
ince from insult by foreign enemies. His situation
was indeed a painful and embarrassing one, for, as
Logan's correspondence shows, David Lloyd and
John Moore, leaders of the popular party in the As-
sembly, were intriguing, in co-operation with Quarry
and the " Hot Church party," to produce such con-
fusion and disorder as would lead to the overthrow of
the charter and the proprietary government. The
contrivance of these astute lawyers was to make
trouble about the interpretation of the municipal
charter so as to arrest the administration of justice.
They had already made this issue in connection with
the distraint warrants for taxes, and the question of
the conflicting jurisdiction of city and county justices
was simply extending their operations into other
fields.
The grand jury, in the latter part of 1702, made
some presentments which mirror the morals of the
town at that time. Men's sons and servants, they
said, were too fond of taking the " licenceus liberty"
of robbing orchards and " committing unruly actions,
especially on the first day of the week, commonly
called the Lord's Day." On that day also the com-
munity was plagued by " the great abuse and the ill
consequence" of negroes collecting in crowds on the
streets, with riot and disorder. " Multitudes of dogges
needlessly kepte in this citty" caused great damage
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
181
to the inhabitants " by the great loss of their sleepe
and other dammages." The safety of property was
imperiled by stacks of hay and reeds in private yards
close to dwellings and outbuildings. And butchers
killed their meat daily in the streets, " throwing the
blood, dung, and gargdish in the streets, which is
very hurtful to the health of the inhabitants." The
grand jury also asked to have negroes prevented
from working on Sunday. John Simes was pre-
sented by this grand jury, as has been shown in a
preceding chapter, for keeping a disorderly house,
" a nursery to debotch ye inhabitants and youth of
this city, and suffering masqueraded persons in the
house to dance and revoll." Next year a man was
presented for building his hay stack in the street and
throwing a fence around it, and four barbers for
" trimming people on first days of the week." The
growth of the city was noted by the observant Logan,
who calls Penn's attention to the fact that while in
1699 the collections for customs duties were only fif-
teen hundred pounds, in 1702 they had reached eight
thousand pounds, — " New York not the half of it."
Andrew Hamilton died April 20, 1703, while on a
visit to his family in South Amboy, N. J. Edward
Shippen's administration as his successor "pro tern.
was uneventful. Quarry objected to some of the
forms of oaths administered ; Lord Cornbury, Gov-
ernor of New Jersey, came to Philadelphia on a visit ;
Teague, coroner, got an order that his fees and charges
for inquest should come out of decedent's estate ; As-
sembly met in October and adjourned till May, 1704,
the Philadelphia delegates being Nicholas Wain,
Samuel Richardson, Isaac Norris, Anthony Morris,
Jr., Samuel Cart, Griffith Jones, Joseph Wilcox,
Charles Read, and David Lloyd, who was Speaker.
In November, 1703, the road from Goshen through
Haverford to Philadelphia was laid out.
John Evans, Penn's new Governor, arrived in
Philadelphia Feb. 2, 1704. He arrived at night.
Next day his commission and the queen's sanction
of it were published " at ye market place, in solemn
form & order : the sd Govern' being present, & at-
tended with the Council of State, the mayor, alder-
men, & Council of Philadelphia Citty, the Principal
officers, Gentlemen & Inhabitants of the place, from
whence returning to y° Council Chamber, The Gov-
ern1' took y" Chair & held a Council." Evans, after
acknowledging the members of the Council, as named
in Penn's commission to them, desired to qualify him-
self all around. Accordingly, Judge Guest adminis-
tered to him the oath of allegiance to the queen, the
oath of abjuration of papal supremacy, and the test
oath; having taken and subscribed all which, he
wished also to take the oath enjoined by the Acts
of Trade, and Col. Quarry, John Moore, and Jasper
Yeates, of the royal commissioners, under the king's
Dedimus Potestatem, were summoned to administer it
also. Penn wrote that Evans, though only six and
twenty, was "sober and sensible," and he must have
thought so or he would not have intrusted his son to
him as a companion ; he was, besides, " the son of an
old friend who loveth me no little." With William,
Jr., and Evans came also Eoger Mompesson, Quarry's
successor, and the proprietary's attorney-general.
Penn was totally mistaken in Evans, yet he began
his career prudently enough. He, young Penn, Mom-
pesson, and Logan, hired a house to live together.1
CLARKE'S HALL AND DOCK CHEEK.
[Vrom au old drawing in Philadelphia Library.]
He did not interfere with the Council, more than to
infuse into it new blood, adding to it Penn, Jr., Mom-
pesson, Logan, William Eodgers, William Trent,
Eichard Hill, and Jasper Yeates, to none of whom
any one could have the slightest objection. But, in
a very brief while, he began to reveal himself in his
true colors. He became involved in a quarrel with
the Assembly upon a mere personal question of punc-
tilio, in connection with a member of the Council.
He failed in procuring the return of the representa-
tion of the Lower Counties to the Assembly, alienat-
ing them more completely still, and irritating the
represented counties by his methods of procedure.
He kept the fever about prerogative, always alive;
was underhand and deceptive in his mode of dealing
with a people who prided themselves upon the direct-
ness of their yea and nay ; attempted to raise a militia
on his own responsibility without the means to pay
them, and capped the climax by engaging in a tavern
frolic and fracas with young Penn, whom he is said
to have aided to beat the watch.
The correspondence of Logan, the records of Pro-
vincial Council, and the minutes of Common Council,
with private letters still extant from leading Friends,
enable us to get some insight into the local affairs
of Philadelphia at this time. We discover the growth
and progress of the city, the demands and needs of
trade, and the first dawnings of the manufacturing
spirit, instinctively looking to government for " pro-
1 This house, known as " Clarke's Hall," stood on Chestnut Street
where the branch of Dock Creek crossed it. The lot had a front of
ninety-nine feet and a depth of two hundred and fifty-five feet, embel-
lished with a garden in the Dutch style. The property pasBed into the
Pemberton family, and the officers of the United States government
were in the house prior to the removal to Washington. — Wezteott.
182
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tection" in the shape of restrictions imposed upon
competitors. Thus, the building interest was impor-
tant enough to ask for legislation by the Assembly-
concerning party walls; the transportation and com-
mercial interests petitioned for a cart-way "under the
bank," and were very angry with the proprietary for
compelling those who wanted " bank-lots" to buy
them, and pay sound prices ; the municipal interests
demanded a new court-house, repairs of the prison
wall, and abatement of nuisances committed by pris-
oners, etc. The shoemakers and saddlers wanted a
law for preventing the importation of leather, and a
bill to that end was ordered to be prepared ; there
were petitions for a law to prohibit the exportation
of deer skins in the hair ; to encourage the killing of
wolves (the bonus for wolf scalps was set at fifteen shil-
lings for old ones, and seven shillings sixpence apiece
for young ones) ; the felt-makers asked for a law to
prohibit the exportation of all beavers, furs, and rac-
coon match-coats, such as could be made up in the
province, while the farmers asked for a duty on im-
ported hops.
Evans had promised, on his own responsibility, that
those who enlisted in the militia should be exempted
from watch duty, and it thus becomes apparent that
the constable and watchman service was by patrol of
citizens. This was not a slight duty, in the night-
time at least. The minutes of Council record (Sept.
3, 1704) that '• several complaints have been publicly
made of great disorders lately committed within y8
citty in y* night season, to ye great disturbance of ye
sober inhabitants, and ye encouragement of vice by
evil examples." Anthony Morris, mayor, on behalf
of the corporation, complained of the exemptions,
as discouraging people from taking their turns in
watching the city ; to which the Governor and Council
absurdly answered that " the safety of the people by
the maintenance of a militia was greater than safety
by a watch and ward." They also decided that
county justices possessed concurrent jurisdiction in
the city with the city magistrate. This was irritating,
for the Governor, while he would not license inn-
keepers recommended by the mayor's court unless
the County Court indorsed the recommendation, had
by proclamation set aside a verdict of the mayor's
court and forbidden officers to execute it.1
There were currency troubles at this time already ;
coin was very scarce, and not to be had out of Phila-
delphia, so that, as Logan says, " many good farmers
scarce see a piece of eight [a dollar] of their own
throughout the year ;" rent and other charges had to
be paid in kind, and this affected the price of pro-
duce, so that wheat for two years was " worth very
little." The Council, on Dec. 8, 1704, received from
the Lords of Trade a queen's proclamation " for settle-
1 The county justices appointed at this time were John Guest, Samuel
Finney, George Roche, Samuel Richardson, Nathan Stanbury, John
Jones, Joseph Pidgeon, Edward Farmer, Rowland Ellis, and Andrew
Bankson, Jr.
ing and ascertaining the curraent rates of forieng
coins in Her Majesty's colonies and plantations in
America, together with a computation made by Mr.
Newton, master worker of the mint, according to
which all forieng coins may pass in the said planta-
tions, in proportion to the rates limited by the said
proclamation." These rates were the next day pro-
claimed accordingly, but we are not told whether the
revision of the standard by Sir Isaac Newton helped
to relieve the stringency in the currency. This change,
however, established by act of Parliament, was thought
sufficient to forestall any action of the sort by Assem-
bly, and accordingly, in 1709, the Queen's Council
repealed an act of the province regulating the value
of foreign coins.
Evans wanted to regulate tavern licenses. Prob-
ably he had a reason for it. At any rate, he, young
Penn, Sheriff Finney, Thomas Gray, and Joseph
Ralph, roysterers all, were concerned in a night broil
and affray at Enoch Story's tavern, in Coombs Alley.
The constable, James Wood, and night-watchman,
James Dough, entered the place; there was a quarrel
about Evans' militia, the argument ended in blows ;
Penn called for a pistol, Wood and Dough and Story
were beaten; outsiders came in, including Alderman
Wilcox, who beat Penn, under excuse he did not
know him. The party were fetched before the mayor;
Penn was defiant, played gentleman, and was rated
sharply. The Council took the matter up, making it
appear as if " some gentleman" had been greatly
abused by the watch, backed by the mayor, recorder,
and Alderman Wilcox ; a trial in another place than
the mayor's court was asked, but the Council would
not interfere. Penn and his companions were in-
dicted, but the Governor forbade the trial by proc-
lamation. After this indictment young Penn re-
nounced the Quaker principles and faith, and his
personal friends were indignant. But the commu-
nity was indignant likewise at such behavior, and
with good reason. " I wish things had been better
or that he had never come," wrote Isaac Norris ; and
not many were sorry when he took short occasion to
depart.
The minutes of the Common Council begin in Oc-
tober of this year thus: "City of Philada. Att a
Meeting of the Mayor, Aldermen, & Comon Council
at the House of Barbert Carry [Herbert Carey] of
this City, Inn holder, the Third day of October, 1704,
Pr^nt."1 Griffith Jones was elected mayor for the
ensuing year, and his fine remitted for declining a
previous election. As " Csonabl (considerable) mis-
chief" had lately been done by cartmen in the city
1 The mayor was Anthony Morris; David Lloyd, recorder ; Aldermen,
Edward Shippen, Griffith Jones, Joseph Willcox, Nathan Stanbury,
Charles Read, Thomas Masters, William Carter, John Jones ; Common
Council, John Parsons, William Hudson, William Lee, John Budd, Jr.,
Edward Smout, James Atkinson, Penticost Teague, Francis Cook, Henry
Badcock, Robert TieldhaU, Joseph Yard, Thomas Griffith, John Red-
I man, Sr.
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
183
through reckless driving, an ordinance was ordered
to be drawn up for their regulation, and the cartmen
summoned and admonished to take care. We thus
get the names of all the persons in the local trans-
portation service of Philadelphia at this time.1 The
people of the town, by ordinance, were divided into
ten patrols, and " each Constable bring in a Number
to have an Equall Number assign'd to serve upon the
Watch, and that nine persons besides the Constable
Attend the Watch each night." Thus the patrol was
a squad of ten, each division of citizens contributing
a patrolman each night. John Budd and Henry
Badcock were allowed four pounds apiece for win-
tering the two town bulls, from December 1st to
June 15th. John Knowles, Nath. Webb, James
Wood, George Painter, Nathaniel Tylee, Edward
Evan, Abram Carlisle, John Test, Thomas England,
"this day took out their ffredoms;" that is to say,
they became members of the corporation, and ac-
quired the rights of citizens, either by becoming free
as apprentices or indentured servants, or in other
ways. It was ordered that a watch-house should be
built in the market-place, sixteen feet long by four-
teen feet wide, and that John Redman, Joseph Yard,
and John Parsons calculate the cost and report to
next meeting. (The sum was sixty-five pounds.)
The expediency was considered of an ordinance to
prevent the boiling of tar into pitch and heating
pitch on the wharf or within twenty feet of any
building, and of forbidding haystacks " in the back-
sides." The town-crier was ordered to give public
notice that the act for preventing fires would be vig-
orously put in execution, and the mayor was ordered
to inspect the bakeries once a month, to see if bread
was of proper weight. On December loth fifteen
more freemen were admitted. The city was ordered
to be divided into ten wards. One hundred and fifty
pounds were asked for repairing the wharves, accord-
ing to a survey made by Shippen, Willcox, Carter,
and John Parsons, to wit : £50 to repair and make
good the " Arch wharf," £20 for High Street wharf,
£30 for Chestnut Street wharf, and £50 for Walnut
Street wharf.
In 1705 the Common Council transacted a good
amount of municipal business. The poor were taken
care of, the Council agreeing to indemnify the mayor
in any engagement he should make with the over-
seers in their behalf. His first payment to the over-
seers was £3 16s. 8d. out of his own pocket, " which
he is to be repaid out of the first money raised."
The committee to divide the city into wards (Alder-
men Willcox and Carter and Councilmen John Par-
sons, Francis Cook, John Budd, John Redman, and
Thomas Pascall) reported their work done, as fol-
lows: Dock Ward, inhabitants between Delaware
1 They were: Richard Pruse, John Till, Widow Bristow, Mylos God-
forth, Christopher Hobb, Philip Wollis, William Bywater, Isaac Bland,
Nicholas Pearce, Samuel Parker, James Jacobs, Henry Garter, Thomas
Shall, John Mitchenor, John MiffliD, Nathan Poule, sixteen in all.
River and Seventh Street, south of Walnut Street, the
south side of that street included ; Walnut Ward,
between Walnut and Chestnut Streets, from the west
side of Front to the east side of Second Street (in-
clusive) ; Chestnut Ward, between Chestnut and High
Streets, from Front to Second Street ; Lower Dela-
ware Ward, between Front Street and Delaware
River, from the end of Walnut Street to the end of
High Street, " both vpon & vnder y6 Bank ;" Upper
Delaware Ward, between Front Street and Delaware
River, from High Street to the north end of the
city ;- High Street Ward, between High Street and
Mulberry Street, from Front to Second Street'; Mul-
berry Ward, north side of Mulberry Street to the ex-
tent of the city, from Front to Seventh Street; North
Ward, between Mulberry Street and High Street,
from Second to Seventh Street ; Middle Ward, be-
tween High Street and Chestnut Street, from Sec-
ond to Seventh Street; South Ward, between Chest-
nut and Walnut Streets, from Second to Seventh
Street.3 Alderman Willcox and Recorder Story
were ordered to draw up an ordinance for the reg-
ulation of the city watch. This was done and the
new ordinance adopted and published, whereupon
Governor Evans construed it as a defiance of his
militia proclamation, and summoned the mayor and
municipal officers before him. It was easy to purge
themselves of the charge of contempt by disclaiming
any such intention, and they were excused. Never-
theless, the Governor published his proclamation
anew. None of the wards of the city extended be-
yond Seventh Street, because, as appears by ordi-
nances adopted at this time, the outlying parts were
reserved for meadow and pasture, were grubbed,
cleared, and sowed in "English grass." The crier
took an account of all cows, and for every cow of
two years old and upwards an annual tax of twelve
pence was levied for the purchase and maintenance
of the town bulls. The aldermen and members of
Council divided among themselves the duty of su-
perintending the wharves and bridges of the city.
A source of revenue at this time was found in a tax
for admission to the privileges of a freeman of the
city. It was needed, for as yet there was no regular
municipal tax, and only a few licenses and fines, as,
for example, the fine of three shillings imposed on
2 This point was in dispute. The same day that toe-wards were divided
the following order was passed: "This Council being Informed that the
bounds of this City is Incrocht vpon, & that tis Suggested that it Ter-
minates Northward on the River Delaware at the Penny Pott house,
Whereas it is made appear to this Councill that it Extends to the Runn
on this Side Daniel Peggs Land & so was first laid out. It is therefore
ordered that the Recorder consider on some pp. [proper] & legal Method
to Assertain the True bounds thereof & report the same at the Next
Meeting." The commissioners of property, however, refused to join
with the corporation in ascertaining these bounds, and the recorderwas
directed to consider the matter further. There is no evidence that
anything was done, however, and this same matter came up again in
the Council in 1720 without apparent action.
8 Redlvisions of the wards at subsequent periods are fully discussed
in the chapter on the topography of Philadelphia.
184
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
aldermen and councilmen absent from regular meet-
ings or diliatory in attendance upon them. The duty
on freemen, therefore, was popular with the members
of Council, and they took steps to increase the re-
turns from it by methods of " gentle suasion.'' The
charge for admission ranged from two shillings six-
pence to three pounds and upwards,1 and women as
well as men were admitted. The privileges were not
trifling ; none but freemen were eligible to corpora-
tion offices, and this rule was strictly enforced, so
that after election the persons elected were con-
strained to take out their freedoms before qualifying,
and none but freemen could vote for members of As-
sembly. The precise terms of the immunities and
privileges could not be determined at once, and the
form of the freedom paper was several times changed.
To add to the city's revenues it was planned to force
persons to become freemen of the corporations, and
accordingly it was ordered that none but freemen
could keep shop or become master workmen. Num-
bers of persons became freemen under these rules,
and to secure these immunities and privileges. At
the same time, while the city was looking after its
freemen and taking care of its poor, it was particular
not to be burthened with the poor of other places,
and an ordinance was adopted requiring all strangers
coming into the town to give security that they would
not become a burthen to it for seven years. This
must have borne hardly upon poor German and Irish
immigrants, and probably forced a good many to
become indentured servants who would not otherwise
have done so.
At this time also measures were taken to secure
a piece of ground for a public cemetery and burial-
place for strangers, each religious denomination, as a
rule, already having its own churchyard. Penn's
commissioners of property, upon petition of the
mayor and Common Council, granted the city a
square, one of those originally marked out by Penn
for public uses, — five hundred feet long and the same
in breadth, bounded north by Walnut Street, east by
Sixth Street, south by a street forty feet wide, " for a
common burying-place for the service of the city of
Philadelphia, for interring the bodies of all manner
of deceased persons whatsoever whom there shall be
occasion to lay therein.'' It was to be held as of the
manor of Springettsbury, in free and common socage,
at the annual rent of an ear of corn. This was a
public general cemetery, but used at first also as the
Potter's Field. Other ordinances of an ephemeral
and routine character relating to the jail, the market-
house, the regulation of weights, preventing butchers
from committing nuisances in connection with their
slaughter-houses, appointing a wood-corder (his fee
was five pence per cord), forbidding persons from
riding through town at a galop, etc., need only be
mentioned as illustrative of the town's growth.
1 James Bingham was admitted 9th of April, 1705, and paid £3 2s. <id.
The public revenue, as distinguished from the mu-
nicipal, was not large. The Assembly was almost
resolute not to vote anything for Penn, contending
that the proprietary's quit-rents of twelve pence per
one hundred acres of purchased lands were tax
enough for his support and for that of the govern-
ment as well. However, £1200 was voted, and the tax
put at 2%d. per pound and 10s. per head, with a regu-
lar tariff, but the Governor giving the Assembly
fresh cause of offense, the whole matter was let drop.
Evans at this time was trying to punish William Biles,
one of the members of Assembly, for calling him a
boy, unfit to be Governor, and saying " We'll kick
him out,'' and the Assembly was resisting what it
claimed would be a breach of privilege. It was
nothing but a squabble on both sides, but it caused
bad blood.
The Assembly had been meeting at this time (1705-
6) in a school-house, and Thomas Makin complained
it had cost him the loss of several scholars, and three
pounds was ordered to be paid him by the county of
Philadelphia. At the same time an address was pre-
sented to the Governor asking permission for the As-
sembly to sit in Chester and Bucks Counties, until
Philadelphia County provided a State house or other
convenient place for the Assembly to sit in. This
Assembly revised and re-enacted many old laws, and
passed some new ones ; among others the Sunday
law, by which all labor and worldly business on the
first day of the week was forbidden, penalty twenty
shillings, certain necessary labors excepted. Sunday
tippling in taverns and ale-houses was forbidden also,
with exception in favor of ordinaries and the travel-
ing community. An election law was also passed, di-
recting elections to be held annually on October 1st,
or the first Monday in that month when it began on
Sunday. The counties each had eight members, and
Philadelphia City two. In Philadelphia the polling-
place was at or near the market-house, and voters in
Philadelphia must be natural born or naturalized sub-
jects of the crown, two years resident in the State, and
freeholders or possessed of fifty pounds clear personal
property upon the spot. Voting was by ballot, the
voter writing his own ticket. The Assembly must
meet on October 14th. The pay of members was six
shillings per day, three pence mileage. The Speaker
was paid ten shillings. Many other acts of a general
legislative character were passed, but none particularly
relating to Philadelphia excepting one forbidding pigs
to run at large within its limits, and another giving
the corporation and county justices authority to regu-
late, license, or suppress vintners and ordinary keep-
ers, the license for ordinaries and taverns in the city
being £3 6s., paid to Governor and secretary.
Under date of May 15, 1706, there is the following
in the minutes of the Common Council : " Whereas,
the Govr having recd an Express from the Govr of
Maryland of sevall vessels lately seen some few leagues
off the Capes of Virginia, & two of them chasing &
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
185
Airing sevall Shotts at an English vessell bound to Vir-
ginia or Maryland, which are Suspected to be ffrench
vessels, & pbably may have a design upon some of
the Queen's Colonies. It is therefore ordered that the
watch of this City be carefully and duly kept, and
that the Constables at their pill [peril] take Care of
the same, & in Case their appear any show or danger
of the Enemy, that they give the Alarum by ringing
the Market Bell & that every night one of the Alder-
men see the Watch sett & see that two Constables be
sett thereupon till further order." There was no such
express, no such news, but Evans had a " plan" to
trick the people into giving him a militia by getting
up a panic about invasion and pirates. Next day
a messenger came post-haste from New Castle, saying
the enemy's ships were in the river and making their
way to the city. The alarm spread, the bell rang, the
terrified people prepared for flight, vessels cast loose
from the wharves, they and every vehicle loaded with
goods hastily gathered, valuables were buried, women
shrieked and children screamed, and in the midst of
the confusion Evans rode on horseback into the ex-
cited streets, a drawn sword in his hand, calling upon
the people to rise en masse to repel the invaders and
defend the city. The Quakers may have been as
much disturbed as any by this excitement, but they
kept their outward composure and only four of them
mustered in arms at Evans' call.1 To make things
worse, it was the day for Quaker meeting and for the
half-yearly fair. However, there was not much harm
done ; the trick was soon discovered, and Evans' folly
and knavery recoiled severely upon bis own head, all
his friends also being visited with the popular con-
tempt, and some of them threatened so that they
found it prudent to go into hiding. Logan suffered
much from his intimacy with Evans at this time.
The whole performance was, as Logan characterized
it, " a most mischievous, boyish trick, and the next
Assembly, when it met, treated Evans as a person not
entitled to any consideration, nor to be heard on any
subject without suspicion. The militia that was under
arms melted away, and the next Assembly which was
elected was composed for the most part of the Gover-
nor's enemies. Philadelphia County was represented
by the Speaker, Daniel Lloyd, Joshua Carpenter,
Robert Jones, John Roberts, Griffith Jones, Samuel
Richardson, Joseph Willcox, and Francis Rawle; the
city's members being Francis Cook and William
Hudson.
This body gave the Governor no peace. They as-
sailed Logan as Evans' pernicious counselor and an
enemy to the province, and demanded his removal.
He was charged with attempting to subvert and be-
tray the rights and liberties of the people, was arrested,
imprisoned, and would have been impeached but for
the pressure of other concerns. But Evans had not
1 Logan names Edward Shippen, Jr., John Hunt, Benjamin Wright,
and two or three more.
yet exhausted his powers of mischief. The Quakers
could neither be driven nor frightened into catering
to his itch for military measures. He turned to the
seceding Delaware counties, and obtained their con-
sent to build a fort at New Castle for the defense
of the Delaware River. This was late in the autumn
of 1706. The Friends in Philadelphia had no objec-
tion to the fort as a defensive outpost ; as an obstruc-
tion to navigation and a hinderance to commerce,
however, it became very offensive to them. The regu-
lations in connection with it were such that every ves-
sel passing up or down the river had to bring to and
the captain was obliged to land, report, and get leave
to continue his voyage. The penalty for refusing to
come to anchor was a fine of five pounds, twenty
shillings added for one gun, thirty shillings for the
second shot, and forty shillings for the third and each
succeeding shot fired in compelling obedience. Each
inward bound ship, not owned by residents, had to
pay a duty of half a pound of gunpowder for each
ton of the ship's measurement. The merchants of
Philadelphia remonstrated, but without effect. Then
Richard Hill, a member of the Provincial Council,
of the board of aldermen, and afterwards mayor, a
man of energy and courage, determined to try if this
obstruction could not be removed. He associated
with him two leading Quakers, William Fishbourne
and Samuel Preston, and the three went down the
river in Hill's vessel, a sloop just cleared for a voyage
across the ocean. This was May 1, 1707. When the
fort was reached the vessel anchored, Hill's friends
went ashore, produced the clearance papers and Gov-
ernor's permit, and demanded to be allowed to go on.
The captain of the fort refused, when Hill heaved up
his anchor, hoisted sail, took the helm himself, and
"ran the blockade" without other hurt than a shot
through the mainsail. French, captain of the fort,
pursued in a boat, was suffered to come abroad, then
made a prisoner, when Hill took him to Salem, N. J.,
and delivered him to Lord Cornbury, who severely
reprimanded the captain. Governor Evans pursued
in another boat to Salem, but could get no satisfaction
in spite his rage.
Hill next brought the subject before the Representa-
tives with a petition to the Assembly signed by two
hundred and twenty citizens of Philadelphia. The
Assembly pursued the matter in an address to the
Governor so strongly couched that Evans was alarmed,
suspended the proceedings, and gave no more trouble
to navigation. When the Assembly met again, in
February, 1707, it was very angry, and would keep
no terms with Evans. Lloyd and he flagrantly quar-
reled, and the House sustained the Speaker; the im-
peachment bill against Logan was perfected and pre-
sented ; the House refused to give the Governor an
acceptable court bill ; the Governor declined to try
Logan's impeachment, and the Assembly petitioned
Penn for his removal, declaring that he had, "by his
excesses and misdemeanors, dishonored both God and
186
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the Queen, and has brought this government under
very great and public scandals."1
In spite, however, of these disagreements and of
unquestionably bad government the province grew
and throve lustily. Isaac Norris, writing to Penn
(then in the Fleet prison), computed imports at
£14,000 to £15,000, paid for in return merchandise
and produce, tobacco, furs, and skins. He thought
the customs receipts for 1707 would exceed those of
any previous year.
In 1708 the Assembly met without consent of or
notice from Evans, who was either at Newcastle or in
seclusion at his private house among the Swedes at
Shakamaxon. French privateers, Capts. Crupant and
Castrau, with others from Martinique, were off the
Capes, and captured at least three vessels from or to
Philadelphia. Evans again asked for supplies for
defense and was again refused, and treated severely,
even castigated for his encouragement to vice and de-
bauchery. He knew that his removal was determined
upon, and indeed the appointment of Col. Charles
Gookin was approved by Queen and Privy Council as
early as June 28, 1708, though he did not arrive in
Philadelphia until Jan. 31, 1709. At Shakamaxon
Evans lived in the stately house built by Thomas
Fairman, a property Penn had several times, even as
late as 1709, tried to buy for himself. This, never-
theless, was Penn's darkest hour, and he had only
been able to get out of the debtors' prison at the end
of December, 1708, by mortgaging his entire prov-
ince.2
Slavery was not very different in Philadelphia at
this time from what it was in the South at a later
period. The white mechanics and laborers com-
plained to the authorities that their wages were re-
duced by the competition of negroes hired out by
their owners, and the owners objected to the capital
punishment of slaves for crime, as thereby their prop-
erty would be destroyed. In 1708 two slaves, Tony
and Quashy, were sentenced to death for burglary,
but their owners were allowed to sell them out of the
province after a severe flogging had been given them
upon the streets on three successive market-days.
Governor Gookin, upon his accession, added some
members to the Council, and courteously declined to
listen to the Assembly's complaints against his pre-
decessor and against Logan. That body also tried
to regulate the currency and the coinage anew, but
was prevented by the Royal Council. They were in
a querulous and petitioning mood, and called the at-
i More than one debauchery was alleged against Evans in connection
with both Indian women and whites ; he is charged with misappropria-
tion of funds, with granting improper and unwarrantable tavern li-
censes, etc.
2 The sum was £6800, the mortgagees were Henry Gouldney, Joshua
Gee, Sylvanus Grove, John Woods, and John Field, of London ; Thomas
Callow hill, Thomas Dade, and Jeffrey Peunel, of Bristol; and Thomas
Cnppage, of Ireland. They did not take possession, but appointed Ed-
ward Shippen, Samuel Carpenter, Richard Hill, and James Logan their
agents to collect rents and sell lands to settle the debt.
tention of the new Governor to several grievances.
He, not to be outdone, asked for men and money for
the expedition to Newfoundland. Thus the old quar-
rel was renewed, and in a short time there was a
deadlock. In May, 1709, a privateer entered Dela-
ware Bay and plundered the town of Lewes. An-
other, in July, being beaten off in an attempt to land
at Lewes, stood up the bay. The Governor called
upon the people to stand to their arms, and the
whole militia to prepare to be called out, and sum-
moned the Legislature in special session. They met
and voted some small sums for presents to Indians
and other minor matters, and then renewed the old
disputes about the courts and James Logan, whom
they denounced as an evil minister. They adjourned
sine die in September, but the new Assembly elected
to succeed them was still more unfriendly to all the
proprietary interests. But little legislation could be
perfected under such circumstances. Logan and
Robert Asheton were particularly pursued by the
Assembly as being hostile to the popular side of the
matters in dispute, and the former, proposing to go
to England, could only escape arrest on the writ of
Speaker Lloyd by the direct interposition of Governor
and Council. The Swedes were represented in this
new Legislature, and their petitions and complaints
began to be heard in regard to the changes made in
the grants held by them under the Duke of York's
laws.
At this time all the Germantown Germans were
naturalized, in consequence of an attempt of John
Henry Sprogle to get possession of their lands as the
successor of the Frankford Company. Sprogle ap-
pears to have been the prototype of the now familiar
" land-shark" of the West. He began his course of
chicane by retaining all the lawyers of the province,
paying them contingent shares of the property he
counted upon seizing. David Lloyd appears in a very
unenviable light in connection with these transac-
tions, of which it is enough to say that Sprogle's
designs were baffled.'' The Municipal Council does
3 Lloyd's pay was to have been one thousand acres of land, the prop-
erty of Benjamin Furley. Sprogle himself was naturalized by special
act of the Council. Under that passed for the relief of the Germans
the following persons were naturalized : Francis Daniel Pastorius, John
Jawert, Casper Hoodt, Dennis Kunders, and his three sons, viz., Conrad,
Matthias, and John Conrads, Dirk and Peter Keyser, John Lurhen, Wil-
helm Strepers, Abraham Teunis, Lenhard Arrets, Reinier Tysen, Isaac
and Jacobus Dilbeck, John Deeden, Cornelius Siverts, Henry Sellen,
Walter Simons, Dirk Jansen, Jr., Richard and John Rocloss Vanderwerf,
John Strepers, Sr., Jacob, Peter, George, and Isaac Shoemaker, MatthiaB
Vau Bobber, John Conrads, Sr., Lenwes and Henry Bartells, Conrad,
Claus, John, and Wilhelm Jansen, Johannes and Peter Scholl, Matthias
Lysen, Cornelius Vandergat, Peter Clever, George Gottschik, Paul and
Jacob Engell, Hans Nous, Rainer and Adrian Vander SluyB, Jacob Gotts-
chalk, Gottschalf and Vander Heggen, Caspar Kleinhoof, Henry
Buchholtz, Herman Tymen, Paul and John Klumpges, John Neus, Mat-
thias Neus, Cornelius Neus, Clans Ruttinghuysen, Caspar Stolls, Henry
Tubben, William, Hendrick, and Laurence Hendricks, Henry Kessle-
barry, Johannes Rebenstock, Peter Verbymen, John Henry Kersten,
John Radwitzer, John Gorgaes, John and William Krey, Peter and
Evert in Hoffee, Peter Jansen, John Smith, Thomas Echehvich, Gabriel
Senter, Wilhelm Puts, John Lensen.
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
187
not seem to have been busy. The members feasted
the new Governor, carried forward a new project for
a court-house, and began to consider proposals for a
new and enlarged market-house. Additional steps
were also taken to prevent fires, and secure their sup-
pression in case they did break out. The Assembly
did nothing at all, the Governor refusing to meet
them.
A reaction appears to have set in October, 1710,
possibly in consequence of the dead-lock obstructing
all business, and in consequence also, perhaps, of the
entreaties and pleadings of Penn with the Quakers
and the exposure of David Lloyd's transactions with
Sprogle. Whatever the cause, the Legislature elected
in October, 1710, did not contain a single member of
the Legislature of 1709. The people had swept every
■ one of them out of the way, from David Lloyd down,
and chosen entirely new men. Edward Farmar, Wil-
liam Trent, Edward Jones, Thomas Masters (ex-
mayor), Thomas Jones, Samuel Cart, Jonathan Dick-
inson, and David Giffing were the members from Phila-
delphia County; and from the city, Richard Hill (ex-
mayor, Speaker), and Isaac Norris. But, though this
new House assumed more cordial relations with the
Governor, no immediate business was done. The Mu-
nicipal Council determined to build a new market-
house at once, the aldermen being called upon to sub-
scribe £5 each and the common councilmen £2 10s.
each. Stalls in this new building were rented at nine
shillings per annum, and the lessees could not sublet
them to any but those having the freedom of the city.
The initial steps towards building a court-house had
been taken in 1707, when the Assembly proposed to
hold its sessions in some other place than Philadel-
phia. The cost of such a building as was needed was
estimated at six hundred and twenty pounds, requiring
a shrewd tax. The county magistrates would not levy
for it unless the city people permitted the cost of two
new county bridges, which were needed, to be levied
for also, and to this the citizens objected very de-
cidedly, claiming that they would take no good from
the bridges. The county people retorted that the city
would not help to build the bridges even at the town
end and Frankford, and that the county courts, in the
capital city of the province, had no better place to
hold their sessions than an ale-house. Finally there
was a compromise, upon the city agreeing to build the
court-house at its own charge if the county would
provide for building the bridges, the county courts,
however, to have free use of the new building.
This, which was completed towards the close of the
year 1710, was built at the eastern end of the old
market-house, on High Street, between Second and
Third Streets. It stood upon arches, with brick pil-
lars for them to rest upon, the basement being open
for market stalls. It was a quaint, old-fashioned
structure, with a little cupola and a bell, and having
a balcony in front, over the door, and flights of steps
leading up to it. This balcony covered an inclosure
beneath it which was rented for a shop, and from the
balcony nearly all the out-door speech-making in
Philadelphia was heard. The Governors used to de-
liver their inaugural addresses here, and here it was
that George Whitefield spoke to six thousand people.
This court-house was the town hall and seat of the
Legislature and the Municipal Council also, state-
house, and town-house, until the State-House was
erected in 1735.
OLD COURT-HOUSE, TOWN HALL, AND MARKET, IN 1710.
[From an old drawing in Philadelphia Library.]
The "Mayor, Eecorder, Aldermen, Commonality,
and other Inhabitance" petitioned [the General As-
sembly in 1710, before the court-house was finished, for
a grant of more liberal powers to the corporation, in
order to enable it to check the growth of vice and im-
morality, prevent the decay of the public credit, " and
also to inable them to build a watch-house and cage,
erect a work-house to imploy the poor and vagrant,
mend the streets, make and Repair Warfs and Bridges,
etc., and by Levying money on the Inhabitance and
Estates of all Persons within the limits of the same
for defraying the Public necessary charges thereof,"
etc., etc.1
1 The signers of this petition were Will. Allen, Leeson Loftus, John
Warder, Caleb Jacob, Hugh Lowden, Jno. Beetson, William Kelly, Ralph
Jackson, Owen "Roberta, Matthew Robinson, Lionel Buters, George
Blumley, Thomas Coldman, Richard Willis, TboB. M. Carey, Arthur
Holton, Richard Armitt, Geo. Gray, Thomas Bradford, Tbos. Gritfit, Tho.
Murray, Francis Richardson, Clem. Plumsted, Stephen Jackson, Wm.
All, Jno. Budd, Sam'i Wamrise, Ed. Noble, Chas. Sober, Henry Flower,
Jno. Redmau, Thos. Wharton, Edw. Hadden, Francis Knowles, Daniel
Radley, Joseph Claypoole, Thomas Eldridge, Jacob Warren, Wm. Law-
rence, John Widdifield, Justinian Fox, Wm. Bartling, Wn. Oxley, Jos.
Harrison, Jno. Harrison, Joseph Yard, Jr., William Hill, Anth. Morris,
Jr., Nathaniel Tybe, John Bass, James MorriB, Edw. Sbippen, Jr., Wm.
Fishbourn, Anthony Burton, James Wood, George Painter, James Es-
taugh, George Claypoole, T. Mason, Robert Burrougb, Johannis Nys,
Caleb Ransted, Jo'n Warder, Sam'l Holt, Richard Robinson, Tbos. Pryor,
Thos. Peters, Elisba Gatchell, Wm. Robinson, Cesar Ghiseling, John
188
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
There were numerous disputes in this period of
Philadelphia's history about ferry rights, which those
who held them regarded as valuable franchises, and
the general community treated as invasions of public
convenience. Some of these rights were granted by
Penn, some by Council and Assembly, but usually
when they came up they were subjects of protest and
remonstrance by the corporation or by individuals.
Conferences with Indians were common, and they
became more and more expensive as the nation re-
ceded farther into the interior. In previous times
the presence of Indians in the streets of the town had
been an every-day occurrence. They came as indi-
viduals unheralded, had no particular reception save
on solemn occasions, as of a treaty or the like, and
went as they came. But latterly, as many white set-
tlements interposed between their villages and the
city, the character of their visits changed. They
came as tribes, or delegations from tribes. They sent
messengers in advance, needed guides, an escort and
carriers for their luggage ; brought presents to em-
phasize their complaints and grievances, and in re-
turn looked for presents, entertainment, and lodging.
This was costly in comparison to the older way of
these visits, and, while it might tickle the fancy and
gratify the pride of the Governors, was not very
pleasant to the matter-of-fact people. There were
numbers of these visits en grande tenue during the
terms of Governors Gookin and Keith, and the
latter indeed negotiated treaties of importance with
them, both at Philadelphia and at other places.
But one of these visits was like all the rest. There
was the grave assemblage, the squatted circle,
the metaphorical council fire, the passing round of
the calumet (it is so called even in these colonial
records), the speeches in turn, each point empha-
sized by the belt of wampum, the presents, the feasts,
and the drunken Indians about town for some days
afterwards. The presents from the Indians were of
furs and skins ; those in return were of clothes, arms,
utensils, ammunition, etc. The chief interest these
councils can have to us nowadays, so far as the
personal and particular history of Philadelphia is
concerned, is that they enable us to get a measure of
the contemporary value of sundry services and com-
Jones, John Ffog, Tlios. Miller, W™. Say, John Haywood.jrhqs^Okley,
Thos. Andrews, W. Powell, Anthony Ducliee, Caleb Cash, W». Endd,
John Knowles, James Barrett, Francis Cook, Nehemiah Allen, Vfm.
Lee, Henry Badcock, Abm.Bickley, Peter Stretch, Joseph Peugh, James
Bingham, Samuel Kenison Thos. Potts, W". Coxer, f". Powell, Thos.
Beacham, Thos. Cheatham, W™. Carter, Bob. Ashton, Edw. Shippen,
Griffith Jones, Nathan Stanbury, Sam'l Preston, Antho. Morris, Thos.
Tresso, John Cadwallader, John Price, Sam'l Chandler, Nicholas Ash-
mead, Joseph Yard, Daniel Wilcox, David Breintnall, John Browne, W».
Fforrest, Solomon Cresson, Hugh Duxborrow, Jno. Maull, Andw. Sim,
Arch4 Starr, Hugh Corder, Saml. Powell, Edw. Evans, Thos. Stapelford,
Israel Pemberton, Chas. Keade, Thos. King, Abel Cottry, Will. Brown-
son, Benj. Chandler, Kichi. Parker, Stephen Stapler, Isaac Ashton.Ealph
Ward, Alex. Badcock, Thos. Peart, Tim. StephenBon, James Cooper, Jno.
Fnrnis, Eich. Warder, Bob'. Teap, Jacob Usher. A list containing
nearly all the leading citizens of Philadelphia at that day.
modifies. Gookin, in June, 1710, sent two messen-
gers to Conestogo to confer with the Shawanese and
other Indians there. The bill of expenses was as fol-
lows : 4 shillings 6 pence for bread, 12 shillings for
meat, £1 10s. for rum, 15s. for sugar, £4 for time of
two men for baggage, and " John" (interpreter and
guide) £1 4s. The chief expense, therefore, was for
transportation ; pack-horses had to be used, and all
supplies for a journey carried on them. We find Col.
French's bill for divers journeys to Conestogo, from
1707 to 1711, to have been £147 Gs. 10d., all incurred
in looking after the Indians, the remnants of the Sus-
quehannas, and the fragments of tribes gathered
around them. In June, 1711, Governor Gookin went
to Conestogo and had a talk with the tribes through
Indian Harry, the interpreter. The conference
opened with the present of 50 pounds of powder,
100 pounds of shot, 1 piece of stroudwater, and an-
other of duffels from the Governor. In May, 1712,
there was a conference at Whitemarsh, in Philadel-
phia County, at which thirteen Delawares met the
Governor and Council. They presented thirty-two
belts of wampum, and the peace-pipe.1 They also
presented two packs of dressed deer-skins, and re-
ceived presents in return, including laced stroud-
water coats, and " white shirts," for the chiefs of the
Five Nations. In July another delegation came to
Philadelphia. They brought skins and furs worth
seven pounds, and received six match-coats, six duf-
fels, six white shirts, fifty pounds of powder, one hun-
dred weight of lead, etc.2
In October, 1714, another Indian visit is alluded
to, the presents being £3 15s. in furs ; the return was
£10 in goods, a present to Indian Harry, and the cost
of entertaining them. In June, 1715, Opessah and
Sassoonan, chiefs of the Delawares and Schuylkills,
came on a visit to Philadelphia, and brought presents
again.3 The presents given in return were valued at
£34 4s. 6d. The list shows that a stroud match-coat
1(tA long Indian pipe called the Calamet, with a stone head, a
wooden or cane shaft and feathers fixt to it like wings, with other or-
naments." This pipe, they said, had been given to them by the Five
Nations in token of allegiance and protection." — Minutes of Council, ii.
646.
2 The presents from the Indians included 30 deer-skins, valued at 30
shillings 6 pence each ; 2 half bears, 7 shillings; 3 foxes, 18 pence each;
6 raccoons,l shilling each ; Shears, at 5 shillings each ; onedreBSeddoe,
at3 shillings 6pence. Another presentfrom the Five Nations and the
Delawares on their return was valued in all at £31 7s. 6d., and included :
5 bears, iy2 pounds, at 3 shillings 6 pence per pound ; 25 bucks and does,
at 3 shillings each; 2 bears, at 4 shillings 5 pence each. The Delawares
gave: 49 bucks, at 5 shillings each ; 71 does, at 2 shillings 6 pence. The
Senecas: 15 beavers, 23% pounds, at 3 shillings 6 pence ; and 5 does, at
2 shillings 6 pence. In return, there was spent on these Indians by Mr.
Farmer, £18 3s. lOd. ; £50 6s. 6d. was given them in presents, and the
bill for mending their guns was £2 6s. 5d. Besides, the treasurer showed
disbursements on their account of £96 13s. lOJ-^d.
£ s. d.
a 46 Raw fall deer-skins, weight 138 lbs., at 9d 5 3 6
8 Summer ditto, 16 lbs.,atl3J^d: 0 18 0
53Drcst " 67 lbs., at 2s. 6d 7 2 6
84 whole foxes, at Is. 6d. each 6 6 0
12 raccoons, at Is. each 0 12 0
3 ordinary fflshers, at 3s. each 0 9 0
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
189
was valued at nineteen shillings ; a duffel match-coat,
at twelve shillings ; a blanket, thirteen shillings four
pence; a shirt, eight shillings six pence; powder, at
one shilling ten pence per pound ; lead and tobacco,
three pence each per pound ; pipes, four shillings six
pence per gross. These Indians appear to have be-
come very drunk during their visit ; they complained
much of the sale of rum within their territory, and
the Governor gave them a written permit to stave the
casks, and destroy whatever liquor should be brought
among them.
The regular annual disbursements on Indian ac-
counts were about one hundred pounds, in addition to
the incidental expenses such as have been enumerated,
and the presents and entertainments by the corpora-
tion and the Friends, so that it must have cost the
province between three and four hundred pounds a
year to maintain pacific relations with the savages.
Governor Keith's bills in 1717, when he went to visit
them in Conestogo, were £41 Is. 4J<£ In June, 1718,
on the return visit, the Indians brought skins worth
£8 6s., and received presents valued at £10 12s. 2d.,
besides cost of entertaining them and traveling ex-
penses. In 1720, Logan had a conference with them,
and some came to him at Philadelphia and Stenton.
The bills were £16 18s. Id. ; presents from Indians,
£10 5s., as a drawback. The negotiations at Cones-
togo in 1721 by Keith and Logan cost £156 12s. 9d.
Several hundred pounds were spent for presents and
entertainments during the remainder of Sir William
Keith's stay in office, while under Governor Gordon
the presents were much larger and more costly, and
the expenses of some negotiations were quite heavy.1
In regard to negroes, as has been seen, the Assem-
bly of Pennsylvania seemed to view with concern,
and perhaps apprehension, the introduction of so
many slaves into the province, and the depression of
labor consequent upon slave competition with wage-
earning white labor. The House would not consider
any proposition to free negroes, deciding that to at-
tempt to do so would be "neither just nor conveni-
ent," but it did resolve to discourage the importation
of negroes from Africa and the West Indies. It laid
a tax of twenty pounds a head upon all such impor-
tations. This and other similar per capita taxes at
different rates were made inoperative by the refusal
of the queen and Royal Council to approve them.
1 We present a single account of Aug. 9, 1729.
£ o. d.
To Robert Miller, price of a cow killed and eaten by Indian
visitors 4 0 0
Robert. Miller, provisions to Indians 0 16 0
Martin Jervis, horse-bire, etc., to Conestogo 4 0 0
Anthony Morris, beer for Indians 17 0
£ s. d.
Sam'l Preston, Treas., presents 63 2 10
Less presents rec'd 48 18 1
14 4 9
Nicolas Scull, messenger, etc 15 0 0
John Scull, " " 18 0 0
Anthony ZadouBky, messenger, etc 7 0 0
John Jones, S. Cosens, John Philips, Wm. Davies, "mes-
sengers" 10 0 0
Total 74 7 9
The face of the British government was set like a
flint against any provincial attempt to arrest the
African slave trade or tax it out of existence — that
trade was a royal perquisite. It was looked upon also
as an imperial necessity, in order to enable the Amer-
ican colonies to produce largely for the benefit of
British trade. The consequence was that every act of
the Legislature of Pennsylvania which looked to the
imposition of any sort of restriction upon slavery or
the intercolonial traffic in negroes was promptly re-
pealed by the sovereign and the Royal Council.
There were many of these acts, but they all met the
same fate.2
This matter of the Provincial Legislature's power
to tax negroes and mulattoes,and its right to regulate
their importation and that of white apprentices and
servants was continually coming up. The Assembly
persisted in its capacity and right to tax and regulate,
2 The policy was an established one. The BritiBh Board of Trade, in
April, 1708, in writing to Evans for details in regard to the slave trade,
prices, number of vessels, etc., said explicitly, with respect to the Afri-
can trade, that it wsb absolutely necessary " that a Trade so beneficial
to the Kingdom should be carried on to the greatest advantage, and
the well-supplying of the Plantations and Colonies with sufficient num-
bers of Negroes at reasonable Prices is, in our opinion, the Chief point
to be considered in regard to that Trade.1' The English attorney-
general, in the same way, when acts of the Pennsylvania Assembly and
Governor and Council came before him to be examined for the benefit
of the Royal Council, always objected to any attempt to put a duty on
the importation of negroes. In 1713, for instance, he says, "I submitt
to your Lo'pp" (Lordships') Considerations how far it may be proper for
tbem at Pensilvania to lay a Duty on Negros, Wine, Rum, and Ship-
ping, etc., and how far it may affect her Majestie's Subjects here, of
which your L'pps are most proper judges." Again, of the act " To pre-
vent the Importation of Negros and Indians into this Province," he
says, "How far this Act may interfere with the Brittish Interest as to
their Trading in Negros, your Lo'pps' are most proper Judges ; But I
observe this Act gives a power to break open houses to search upon sus-
pition of Negros being there Generally, which Extends to Night as well as
day, which power is rarely admitted by our Law in offences of an inferior
nature." It must be added that the queen and Council were justified
in repealing much Pennsylvania legislation, because, like the above, it
was loosely drawn, and offensive either to prerogative or individual
right. Thus the act againBt riotous sports, plays, and games (of 1709)
was liable to the objection that it restrained her majesty's subjects from
innocent sports and diversions ; an act for acknowledging and record-
ing deedB prevented women from recovering their dower, or thirds, in
property aliened without her consent during coverture ; another act at-
tempted to alter the value of coins as set by Parliament; an act about
courts, it was clearly shown, would multiply suits and the law's vex-
atious delays ; of " An Act for Priority of Paym* of DebtB to y° Inhabit8
of this Prov.," the attorney-general sayB, sharply and well, that " I
apprehend among Traders, in point of Reason, all persons who give
Credit to & make Contracts with others should stand on ye Bame foot as
to the Recovery of their debts, and I conceive that such a preference of
Creditors as is given by thiB Act may prejudice all the subjects of Great
Brittain who deal with the Inhabitants of Pensilvania, & therefore that
this ought to be repealed." The act regulating party walls and build-
ings, again, is condemned, because it authorizes suit in court for recov-
ery by suit of damages awarded by mayor and board of aldermen, thus
multiplying Bitits and yet allowing no chance for a final appeal. The
act for the better government of Philadelphia is found objectionable.
" This act inflicts five shillings penalty on persons riding a gallop and
ten shillings for parsons trotting with Drays or their Teams in the Streets,
and five shillings for allowing a Dog or a Bitch going at large, or fireing
a Gun without Lycence, or if a Negro be found in any disorderly prac-
tices or other Misbehaviours may be whipt 21 lashes for any one offence
or comitted to prison, which words ' other misbehaviours' are very un-
certain, and give very arbitrary powers where the punishm* is great."
It must be confessed such lawB are repealed on sufficient grounds.
190
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and the imperial government as regularly repealed
all acts claiming such powers. In other respects also
the relations of negroes to the community were
anomalous; they were property and human beings
at the same time, and the unsolved problem was how
to punish the human part without robbing the master
of the services of the slave part. The problem was
not solved, but negroes were required to be tried by
special commissions of the magistracy ; they were
sometimes ordered to be sold beyond his majesty's
dominions, but were seldom executed, save for capital
crimes, such as murder, rape, and arson. The status
of indentured servants and apprentices became un-
satisfactory likewise after population grew more dense
and the drum and fife of the recruiting sergeant were
familiarly heard. The apprentices and rederaption-
ers belonged to their masters for a term of years,
yet they would run away and enlist, and the recruit-
ing officers would place them in the service, no matter
what masters said. In the time of the old French
war, and in that of Governor Hamilton, it was esti-
mated that there were sixty thousand imported white
servants of the several grades in the province, and
sometimes as many as three or four thousand of these
would be enlisted in the quotas of Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and New Jersey. There was much dis-
satisfaction at this, considerable loss and disturbance
of labor; the Assembly petitioned, protested, remon-
strated ; sometimes relief was given in the shape of
bounty and drawback, sometimes the military leaders
promised that the offense would be prohibited, but
the grievance was not finally abated until 1776, after
the outbreak of the Revolutionary war.
Towards the end of Governor Gookin's tenure of
office, and in the beginning of Sir William Keith's,
the province began to be uneasy at the large number
of foreigners seeking refuge there. They came by ship-
loads, they could not speak a word of English, and
they were averse to getting themselves naturalized.
It was represented in Council that they were strangers
to the Constitution and laws. They dispersed into
the interior immediately after landing, without show-
ing any credentials or evidence of who they were or
where they came from. Captains were accordingly
required to produce lists of the number and character
of those imported by them, and the immigrants were
notified to come forward and subscribe the proper
oaths or affirmations. Logan, in one of his letters,
speaks of the number of these incoming Palatines.
They may be honest men, he said ; but Swedes could
come in in the same way, in like numbers, and Swe-
den has lately made pretensions of regaining her an-
cient possessions on the Delaware. In short, the
province was in something of a panic in regard to
what was becoming a leading source of its growth in
wealth and other resources, and what furnished the
sturdiest and most pacific part of its population.1
1 The extent or this immigration was indeed surprising, almost in-
credible when we consider the defective means of transportation and
To facilitate the granting of lands, Penn left with
his agents in the province a stamp of his signature,
which was attached to a large number of patents for
land instead of his written autograph. There is in
the Ridgway Library a deed from William Penn to
Samuel Barker, dated Nov. 22, 1682, signed with the
stamped signature of William Penn.
Douglas, the historian, who wrote (or published) in
1755, in speaking of Pennsylvania, says, " This colony,
by importation of foreigners and other strangers in
very great numbers, grows prodigiously ; by their la-
borious and penurious manner of living, in conse-
quence they grow rich where others starve, and by
their superior industry and frugality may in time drive
out the British people from the colony. The greatest
the hardships of the long voyage. The pressure, however, of persecu-
tion for the faith, felt by generation after generation, the hopes of
peace and every sort of betterments in a new land, were strong induce-
ments, and it must not be forgotten that Penn himself and his family
and representatives invited these people over, solicited them to come,
and gave them every encouragement, for the sake of the added income
in quit-rents derived from them. This they themselves understood,and
claimed in specific terms when the Assembly sought to deal harshly
with them in the matter of naturalization. Penn had made " particu-
lar agreements" with them, and they went to London to get their per-
mits for occupying land and to find the vessels in which to embark.
This land was sold to them in large tracts, apportioned and surveyed by
Penn's commissioners of property. Thus, in 1710, a Swiss colony, headed
by the Maylins, Kindigs, Oberholtzes, and others, took a body of ten
thousand acres near Conestogo, for which they paid five hundred pounds
sterling, in instalments running through six years, with twelve per cent,
interest, and a quit-rent of a shilling sterling for each one hundred
acres. The new settlerB were Mennonites, Omishes, Dunkers, German
Lutherans, etc., in companies. In one single volume of the colonial
records we find the arrival of thirty companies of these immigrants.
The average of heads of families was about one hundred to a vessel, —
three hundred, including women and children, — so that in the four or
five years covered by these entries there was an immigration of not less
than ten thousand, or two thousand a year. In the naturalization pa-
pers of Martin Maylin it is distinctly expressed that these immigrants
had " transported themselves and their estates" into the province " by
encouragement given by the Honorable William Penn, Esq.," and by
permission of the king. They were generally quiet and well-behaved,
peaceable to a degree, hut in some instances were unruly. They had so
many collisions with the Irish that the latter were persuaded to go
westward and move into Cumberland County; and they were charged
with rioting and seizing the ballot-box on election day in Lancaster.
In 1753, Franklin Beems to have become very apprehensive on account
of these large accessions of aliens to the population. In a letter to
Peter Collin6on that year, he said that he feared "measures of great
temper are necessary with the Germans;" they were indiscreet, dull,
credulous, ignorant, and their prejudices were inaccessible. " Not being
used to liberty, they know not how to make a modest use of it. They
behave, however, submissively enough at present to the civil govern-
ment, which I wish they may continue to do, for I remember when they
modestly declined intermeddling in our elections, but now they come
in droves and carry all before them, except in one or two counties. . . .
In short, unless the stream of their importation could be turned from
this to other colonies, they will soon so outnumber us that all the ad-
vantages we have will, in my opinion, be not able to preserve our lan-
guage, and even our government will become precarious. . . . Yet I am
not for refusing to admit them entirely into our colonies. All that seems
to me necessary ib to distribute them more equally, mix them with the
English, establish EngliBh schools where they are now too thick Bet-
tied, and take some care to prevent the practice, lately falleu into by
some of the ship-owners, of sweeping the German gaols to make up the
number of their passengers. I say I am not against the admission of
the Germans in general, for they have their virtues. Their industry and
frugality are exemplary. They are excellent husbandmen, and con-
tribute greatly to the improvement of a country."
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
191
year of importation of Germans, Irish, a few Welsh
and Scots, was from -Dec. 25, 1728,~to_Pec. 25, 1729,
being about 6200 peopTe. In the year 1750, Germans
imported into this province and territories were 4317;
British and Irish passengers and servants, above 1000."
Lieut.-Governor Gookin, before the expiration of
his term of office, became captious and unreasonable ;
quarreled with the Assembly about trifles, obstructed
business, and came to be little regarded. It had been
said from the first, in fact, that he owed his appoint-
ment to the fact that he was a "cheap" Governor.
He was treated as such by the people, apparently,
and when he threatened to demand his recall, if his
requisitions were not complied with, the leaders in the
province insisted that he should be recalled. He
dined with the influential citizens at a banquet in
honor of the new king's accession, and then spoke
of some of them as traitors and hostile to a Whig
government. He declared Richard
Hill to be disaffected, and would not
let him qualify by affirmation when
elected mayor. He called Logan a
Jacobite and a friend of the Pretender,
and forced the House to declare that ^^%Spwl|
his strictures were unjustifiable. How-
ever, when his recall was assured, be
became pacified and was glad to accept
from the Assembly a vote of money.
Gookin's administration was not
very eventful, except that the prov-
ince and Philadelphia advanced very
rapidly in the course of it. John Fon-
taine, an English traveler who visited
the city in 1716, said that it seemed to
be built very regularly, " the houses -jj-
mostly of brick, of the English fashion. '' i.
The streets are very wide and regular. _/ ^
There are many convenient docks for
the building ships and sloops here.
There is a great trade to all the islands
belonging to the English, as also to Lisbon and the
Madeira Islands. The produce of the country is
chiefly wheat, barley, and all English grain, beef,
butter, cheese, flax, and hemp. There are all sorts of
trades established in this town. Money that is not
milled passes for six shillings and fourpence the
ounce."1 In 1716 an iron furnace was set up near
Germautown, by a smith named Thomas Eutter, and
he is said to have produced a very good quality of
metal. This Eutter was a member of the Assembly
from Philadelphia County in 1715.
In 1713 the first almshouse was established. It was
1 The imports of wines and liquors between March 25, 1711, and Feb.
6, 1713, not quite twenty-three months, were 459 pipes, 15 hogsheads,
25 quarter casks of wine, equal to 59,579 gallons; and 574 hogsheads,
360 tierces, 185 barrels, 1 kilderkin, 200 gallons, 1 pipe, 19 casks, 2 pun-
cheons, and 4 gross bottles of rum, equal to 60,345 gallons. Later, the
imports of rum ran up to 400,000 gallons a year, Philadelphia being the
centre of supply for the Indian trade.
determined by the City Council in July, 1712, that,
as the poor of the city were daily increasing, a work-
house should be founded for employing the poor ; the
overseers to hire the house, and the Council to deter-
mine the rent and the pay of superintendence. The
mayor, Aldermen Hill and Carter, and Councilmen
Carpenter, Hudson, and Teague, were appointed to
take the matter in charge. In the mean time, how-
ever, before the Councils acted finally, the Friends
had founded their own almshouse. It was established
in a small house on the south side of Walnut Street,
between Third and Fourth Streets, where in 1729 the
ancient, well-known building, called the Friends'
Almshouse, was built, to stand until 1841. The lot
belonged to John Martin and contained a small tene-
ment. Martin was poor, and gave his property to the
Society of Friends upon condition they would take
care of him for the remainder of his days. A cluster
JW
JPP
FRIENDS' OLD ALMSHOUSE.
of small houses was built to John Martin's tenement,
and this was the Friends' Almshouse. In 1729 a front
range of buildings was put up, connecting with the
previous structures. It was a quaint pile, with an
arched entrance, and all about the buildings looked
antique and primitive. The Friends' Almshouse,
at first in general public use, soon became a mere
private retreat for indigent persons of the Quaker
faith. Each family was separately lodged, and if any
one had any trade or calling, he was expected to do
what he could at it and so lessen the burthen of his
expense to the Society.
In 1715 a ferry to Gloucester was established. " For
convenience of exchange," and to prevent it from
disappearing, English copper coin was ordered to be
taken at the rate of three farthings for a penny, or
three half-pence for two-pence ; the system of record-
ing deeds was improved; justices' courts were given
power to give judgment in cases involving not over
192
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
forty shillings ; and the first challenge to fight a duel
was passed. This case, which has already been referred
to, was the cartel sent by Sheriff Peter Evans to Rev.
Francis Phillips, Episcopal minister. There were
indictments found both against Evans for the chal-
lenge, and Phillips for the libel, the latter being a
message to the mayor, Richard Hill, and Robert
Asheton, to the effect that they were " no better than
rogues, villains, and scoundrels." Phillips was a pre-
tender and a scamp, and the people of Philadelphia
had a right to be angry with Governor Gookin for
enabling him to protect himself behind an executive
nol. pros. Later, when Phillips boasted of conquests
among respectable ladies, he was sued, and Sheriff
Evans would not let him to bail, whereupon there
was a mob, the house where the witnesses lodged was
pulled down and the jail would have followed it, had
not Phillips been set free. He was soon found out,
however, was dismissed from his curacy, and lost all
his friends. Governor Gookin interposed a nol. pros.
very offensively also for the protection of Hugh Low-
den, who had tried to murder two of the Philadelphia
justices, waylaying and threatening them with his
pistols.
The corporation government attended to a number
of small matters, in addition to those already enu-
merated, during the administration of Governor
Gookin. Charges were imposed for wharfage, and
the inhabitants were required to keep the streets
swept clean in front of their houses. The mayor's
court bad jurisdiction in minor criminal offenses, and
we find Caspar I. Lleinhoff praying to be relieved of
a fine of nine pounds apiece "set upon him & his
Now wife for ffornication before their Intermarriage,"
and five pounds was abated from each fine. The
mayor acquainted the board that " he has frequently
had in his Consideration the many Providences this
City has Mett with in that ffires that have so often
happened have done So little Damage, And thinks it
is our Duty to Use all possible means to prevent and
Extinguish ffires for the ffuture by providing of
Bucketts, Hooks, Engines, &c, which being Con-
sidered, it is the opinion of this Board that Such In-
struments Should be provided, And the Manner of
Doing it is Refer'd to the Next Council." This was
the beginning of the Philadelphia fire department,
though the Governor and Council had done something
towards providing ladders and buckets a long time
before this, and chimney-sweeping had been regulated
by a previous city ordinance, all chimneys being re-
quired to be burnt out at regular intervals, under
supervision, for which a fee was charged. The col-
lector of stall rents in the market-house was also
collector of " the money for chimney firing."
On Aug. 14, 1713, the following ordinance was
adopted : " It being very Difficult to Convict such as
Suffer theire chimneys to take ffire, contrary to a law
of this province, It is therefore ordered that if the
Offender will Pay the forfeiture without further
Trouble, he Shall have Ten Shillings abated him."
July 16, 1716, we find Alderman Carter presenting
the following names of persons who had their chim-
neys fired : Anthony Morris, John Billing, John
Croswhite, Abraham Bickley, William Dixy, William
Belleridge, John Jones Boulder, Enoch Story, Isaac
Norris, James Logan, Sarah Ratcliff, Richard Robe-
son, Joseph Redman, Walter Griffith, Samuel Preston,
Robert Assheton, Peter Stretch, William Lingard,
William Philpot, John Price, — who paid their fines
apparently in money ; " Caleb Ranstead, p'd by a
Ladder, And Lock p'd Aid. Carter & Aid. Richardson,
Wm. ffishbourn p'd by Bucketts, Jon. Vanlear p'd
Aid. Carter & Aid. Richardson, Hen. Badcock p'd
Aid. Carter & Aid. Richardson, Jacob Usher, p'd by
a Ladder, Emanuel Walker p'd by a Ladder, Caleb
Cash p'd by Bucketts, Theodorus Lord p'd Aid. Car-
ter." In December, 1718, the treasurer of the city
was ordered to prosecute several persons who had
given their notes for chimney firing, but refused to
pay.
And now we enter on a new era in the business of
protection from fires. Dec. 8, 1718, " this Councill
having Agreed with Abraham Bickley for his ffire
Engine At y° sum of £50. ... It is Order'd that the
Treasurer pay ye Sd sum out of ye Money Raised or
to be Raised for chimney ffiring, with all Expedition
possible." Mr. Bickley, however, had to wait for his
money, for it was not paid on Dec. 19, 1719, when an
engine-house was ordered to be provided. In Janu-
ary, 1721, a public chimney-sweeper was appointed,
James Henderson by name. In December, 1726, the
fire-engine is reported much out of repair, and a
committee of aldermen are to view it and " think
of a proper place to preserve it from the weather."
Aug. 4, 1729, James Barrett was paid six pounds
for satisfaction for twelve new leather buckets taken
from him and used at the last fire on Chestnut Street.
At the same time Richard Armitt was ordered to col-
lect the chimney firing money, and was also appointed
engineer in place of George Claypool, who had hith-
erto " played the ffire-Engine of this city." In April,
1730, after an ineffective discussion of a subscription,
etc., the Common Council, having conferred with
the assessors, " agreed that three Engines be pur-
chased, one of the Value of about ffifty pounds, one
at thirty-flive pounds, and the other at about twenty
pounds, and Two Hundred Leather Bucketts, and sent
for to England ; and that two hundred Bucketts,
Twenty Ladders, and Twenty-five Hooks, with axes,
be purchased here, and that a Tax of Two-pence per
pound and Eight Shillings per head be Imediately
assessed on the Inhabitants of this City for purchas-
ing the said Engines, Bucketts, Ladders, &c." In
August, 1730, an ordinance was ordered to prevent
joiners and carpenters from laying shavings or rub-
bish in any street or alley, or setting fire to the same
within one hundred yards of any house. October,
same year, a bargain was made with Thomas Oldman
THE QUAKEK CITY— 1701-1750.
193
for one hundred leather buckets at nine shillings
apiece, as per sample, to be well painted in oil-colors.
The engines and fire-buckets arrived from England in
January, 1731, and it was decided to lodge one engine
in a corner of the great meeting-house yard, another
on Francis Jones' lot, Front and Walnut Streets, the
old engine in the Baptist meeting-house yard, the
buckets to be hung up in the court-house. Keepers
for the new apparatus were appointed, and sheds di-
rected to be thrown up over it. There are no further
Town Council minutes relating to this subject of any
consequence prior to 1750, save a few memoranda
showing failures to collect money for purchase of en-
gines, charges for repairing fire-buckets, etc. In 1735,
Anthony Nichols built an engine in Philadelphia,
which he wanted the mayor and Council to buy, the
charge being £89 lis. 8d. But, when " viewed," the
engine was found to be heavy, unwieldy, hard to work,
and not likely to wear well, so Mr. Nichols was dis-
missed with a gratuity for his good intentions.
Returning to 1712, we find that " fire and candle"
for the watch the previous winter only cost eight
pounds. All were obliged to work at repairing the
streets and highways, but a day's labor could be com-
muted by the payment of one shilling sixpence to the
overseers.1 An ordinance was directed to be drawn
to oblige owners to pave the fronts of their tenements.
It was a common practice with the Council at this
time and later to abate or reduce the amount of fines
for fornication, selling liquor, and keeping public-
house without license, etc. The common jail was
voted a nuisance, and ordered to be pulled down and
another built in its stead on a lot already purchased.
In June, 1713, an ordinance was passed for regulating
the city water-courses, nearly all the small streams
being directed so as to flow into "y° Dock." Sept.
30, 1713, " William Hill, the Beadle of this City,
having lately in a heat broke his Bell, & given out
that he would Continue no longer at the Place, but
now Expresses a great Deal of Sorrow for his so doing,
& humbly Desires to be Continued therein During his
Good Behaviour, And the Premises being Considered,
And the Vote put Whether he should Continue the
Place any Longer, It past in ye affirmative."
In 1714 we find the Common Council remitting
fines of sailors for assaults, pushing forward the work
on the Bridge Causeway to Society Hill, and offering
encouragement for the erection of pumps. The pump
was to belong to the person putting it in, who should
keep it in repair at his own expense, and charge
water-rent to his neighbors. Afterwards he paid a
shilling a year to the corporation for the privilege,
and had to get leave to plant his pump in the spot
chosen before breaking ground. An entry in the
minutes of the date March 17, 1713-14, shows a cer-
1 This was about twenty-six cents in our money, and shows the rate
of wages. A laborer on the highway Beldom received much lesB than
regular rates for unskilled day labor — not over one-fourth less, that is to
say.
13
tain thrift in Councils. Mary Perkins' husband had
been arrested for coining or counterfeiting Spanish
money and thrown in jail, his goods being seized also.
His wife petitioned to have these restored, as she had
three children to support and no stock to trade on.
The appeal was granted on the ground that the peti-
tioner was in great want, she and her children likely
to become a charge upon the inhabitants, and the
goods being generally lumber and of small value.
Sellers of meal and grain in market were ordered
to keep the mouths of their sacks open, that the in-
habitants may see what they buy; masters of vessels
loading or unloading at the free wharves of the city
were to pay a shilling per ton, the time allowed for
unloading being five days, and for loading ten days ;
if they exceeded fifteen days, to pay two shillings a
day. Staves lying on wharves more than twenty-four
hours to pay a penny a cord per hour, and a wharfin-
ger was appointed to see to the enforcement of this
ordinance. William Fishbourne, appointed treasurer,
was to receive ten per cent, for collecting and dis-
bursing the corporation's money. A committee was
appointed to adjust the salary of the recorder (Robert
Asheton). They found the corporation one hundred
and forty pounds in arrears to him, but as he left the
settlement entirely to them, and did not press his
claims, the committee consented, if he would abate
all past demands, to pay him twenty-four pounds per
annum thereafter promptly, and give him all arrears
of fines and forfeitures; and he was requested to keep
the accounts of those entered as freemen of the city,
receiving two shillings sixpence for each freedom, out
of which he is to furnish the freedom papers. The
crier's fee was sixpence for each freedom proclaimed.2
2 Beginning with April 22,1717, and ending May 27, in the same year,
we have a list of the freemen admitted in a little over one month. We
omit the sums paid. The usual amounts were five shillings sixpence and
fifteen shillings sixpence. The list is : Edwd Roberts, Henry Jones, Hugh
Parsons, Thomas Venn, Joseph Waite, John Knight, John Davis, Evan
Owen, John Jones, "Tobacconess:" Abram Cox, boot-maker; William
Philips, shipwright; John Harcomb, taylor; Isaac Lenoir, ThumaB Todd,
ffrancis Knowles, Thomas Peters, jun., R. Peters, Henry ffaulk, Thomas
Lucas, Ishmeal Rowland, Rob1 Bomel, Jacob Warren, John Blake, Nich-
olas Gallean, Benj. Pascall, Isaac L'Grou, weaver ; William Pawlet, cryer;
Wm Carter, jr., Thomas Bullock, Paul Preston, Thomas Armit, Joseph
Calvart, George Hopper, John Lee, taylor; Edwd Wooley, W™ Bowell
Rob* Owen, John Cambell, Daniel Harrison, \Vm Taylor, saddler; John
Brown, George Calvart, George Champion, George Shiers, Barnabas
Talbot, Samuel Kirk, Theophilus Spurrier, Edward Warner, John Wil-
liams, W» Harry, John Cumming, Edw« Scull, sr., Lyonal Brittain, John
Smith, wheelwright; David Evans, Christopher Thompson, Giles Green,
Daniel Ridge, Nicholas Crone, Samuel Massey, Henry Rothwell, cord-
wainer; Thomas Nevel, Thomas Oakley, Richard Willis, W» Vallicot,
Henry Paul, John Butler, Nicholas Ashmead, John Knowles, John
Mason, Anthony Hartley, Phineas Bonlt, Thomas Denton, Geo. Savage,
Peter Allen, Thomas Stapleford, joiner; Rob' Hubbard, joiner ; Sam'
Shourds, cooper; James Tuthil, Bhop-keeper; Wm fflBher, inn-holder-
W» Thomas, weaver; Joseph KingBtone, joiner; Robert Mullard, carver;
W™ Pascoll, saddler; Thomas Cannon, tallow-chandler ; John Dilling,
saddler; Joseph Elfred, maltster; John Lewis, glazier; Oliver Galtrey
barber ; Roger Thorn, Geo. Allen, cooper; Peter Wishart, tallow-chand-
ler; Samuel Ring, inn-holder; Hugh Hughes, carpenter; George Plumly,
cutler ; Geo. Sheed, barber ; Evan Thomas, stable-keeper ; Rob' Hub-
bard, baker; Joseph Noble, cutler; John Widdifleld, joiner; Rich"!
CrookBhanks, cordwainer [Nicholas Dowdney, wool-comber ; W» Dobbs
194
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The cost of an indenture of apprenticeship at this
time was fixed at three shillings to the town clerk for
the indentures, and one shilling sixpence for the
record. This was high, as was the cost of freedom
soap-boiler ; Bob1 Hinds, carter ; Nicholas Hitchcock, carpenter; Samuel
Bennit, plasterer ; Daniel Standish, bricklayer ; Leeson Loftus, bolter;
Charles Read, Bhop-keeper; Wm Powell, jr., John Bead, carpeDter; John
Huddon, baker; Wm fiBsher, carpenter; Walter Griffith, cordwainer;
Joseph Davie, barber ; Peter Taylor, shipwright ; John Laroach, mei'ch* ;
Weinty, Collet, shop-keeper ; Richd Koer, sail-maker ; Anth° Duche,
glover; John Maason, sail-maker; John Evans, ffelt-maker; Nathel
Allen, cooper; Stephen Symone, Dan1 England, sail-maker; ChaB Pas-
Iear, barber; John Parsons, saddler; Matt Birchfield, cordwainer; Ber-
nard Taylor, mariner; Geo. Yard, bricklayer; Isaac Leader, mariner;
Margaret Alyin, shop-keeper; John Henmarsh, carpenter; John Drago,
shipwright; Hugh Tress, jr., slaughterer; Jacob Shoemaker, tanner;
Joseph Taylor, brewer; Christian Crosthwaite, inn-holder; James
Everet, pewterer; Gabriel Cox, saddler; Edmd Jones, cabinet-maker;
John Koster, carpenter; Matthew Ward, shipwright; John Clawson,
taylor; Andrew Bradford, printer; Paul Morris, sail-maker; John Rake-
straw, carter ; Wm Rakestraw, carter; Tho. Robins, shipwright; Edwd
Bradley, glazier ; Wm Wan lesB, taylor ; Thomas Rutter, jr., blacksmith ;
Edwd Keadwell, shop-keeper; ffranciB Richardson, goldsmith; Joseph
Trotter, cutler ; John Brooks, baker; Thomas Pearse, plasterer; John
Heagne, shipwright; Wm Pearl, merch1; Geo. Coatea, sadler; John
Beer, cooper; Joseph Kent, blacksmith; Wm LiDgard, smith; Martin
Jarvis, shop-keep; Daniel Lewis, tailor; John Colly, ffelt-maker; Daniel
Durborow, ffelt-maker; Wm Harmer, trader; Jos. Townshend, carpen-
er ; JameB Moyes, rope-maker; Jacob Levering, joiner; Geo. Muller,
cooper; Sam Robins, ffarmer; John George, paver; Stephen Jackson,
shop-keeper; Mary Lock, shop-keeper; Thos. Carvel, slaughterer; Wm
Class, cordwainer; John Dilworth, brewer; Jonathan Palmer, brick-
layer; Wm Wilkins, taylor; Benj. Wait, taylor; James Bingham, saddler;
Tho. Wood, cooper; John Hudson, chair-maker; Dennis Ratchford.
potter; John Potts, shipwright; Aaron Goforth, joiner; Aaron Goforth,
jr., joiner; Edwd Jones, cooper; Rich* Gosling, cutler; Wm fforlnne,
rope-maker; Tho. Coates, brick-maker; Mark Dalmast, baker; James
Brendley, ffelt-maker; Timothy Stevenson, smith; Isaac Ryall, black-
smith ; Henry Livering, cooper; Tho. Broom, ffelt-maker; Wm Preston,
shop-keeper; Hannah Pratt, shop-keeper; Tho. Pears, blacksmith ; Sam1
Richardson, cooper; Anthony Stevens, cordwainer; Samuel Hudson,
tanner; John Boyd, shipwright ; Peter Worrell, glover; Thomas Owen,
baker; Sarah Ratcliff, shop-keeper; Tho. ffisher, cordwainer; Austin
Paris, flounder; Benj. Peart, cooper; Rob* Davis, inn-holder; Edwd
Hugbes, potter; Rich4 Dansey, cooper; Hugh Lowden, shop-keep;
Owen Oneal, saddler; Richd Jueson, sawyer; Joseph Jueson, turner;
Thomas Lindley, smith ; John Mil ton, joiner; John Townshend, laborer;
Nehemiah Allen, jr., cooper ; Alex. Lindsey, sawyer ; Tho. Chase, merch*;
Solomon Cook, smith; Tho. Denham, tallow-chandler; Philip Kearaty,
shop-keep; Richd Allen, shipwright; John Williams, jr., taylor; Su-
sannah Crapp, shop-keep; Wm Boil, inn-holder; Thomas Ridge, ffelt-
maker; Eliz. Carman, taylor; Samuel Johnson, painter; Thomas
Mitchell, Daniel ffiower, carpenter; W" Moore, joiner; Philip Ken-
yon, carpenter; Benj. Peters, shoemaker; Jeremiah Gatchel, wheel-
wright; John Harrison, carpenter; Sarah Murray, shop-keep: Wm
Herbert, shoemaker; Edmd Davis, cooper; John Leech, shop-keep;
Henry Elfreth, shipwright; Wm Rigby, cooper; John Richardson,
cordwainer ; Wm Rudd, baker; James Tucker, slaughterer ; W™
Bissel, blacksmith; Simon Edgell, pewterer; W* Branson, joiner;
John Lancaster, taylor; David Shearing, taylor; Benj. Oram, collar-
maker; George Budd, saddler; Edwd Bilkington, white smith; Jere-
miah Snow, rigger; Alex. Hall, sail-maker; Wm Jones, innholder;
Joseph Paide, barber; John Annie, taylor; Thomas Bibb, tanner;
Tho. Rakestraw, carter; Tho. Lacy, glazier; Geo. Shoemaker, carter;
Michael Coil, shipwright; Samuel Hastings, shipwright; Andrew You-
sham, cordwainerpDaniel Meggs, weaver; Herman Casdrop, ship-
wright; JameB Wood, shipwright; Samuel Mickle, merch1; Geo. Miff-
lin, bolter ; Matt*. Hubbard, baker; Alex, fforeman, turner; Joseph
Smith, brewer; Jacob May, innholder; Robert Thompson, mariner;
John Snowden, tanner ; Philip HMyard, cooper; Daniel Hood, cooper;
John Price, shipwright; John Lloyd, blacksmith; Jeremiah Elfreth,
blacksmith; Benj. Mather, cordwainer; Anthony Ward, clockmaker ;
Isabella Clubb, shopkeeper ; Evan Thomas, joiner; John Harper, tailor ;
Thomas Shoemaker, carter; Anthony Peel, shopkeeper; Wm Jeeson,
papers, but high charges for records, papers, and all
sorts of conveyancing and fees was a leading trait of
proprietary provincial governments, which sought to
make the support of their friends, kinsfolk, and re-
tainers a regular and permanent tax upon their prov-
inces. The Municipal Council was liberal to the poor
of the city, but was careful in avoiding the burthen
of maintaining the poor of other places. Neither
did it tolerate begging. David Williams, of Abing-
leather-dresser; Wm. Coates, hrickmaker; Ricbd Chiner, blockmaker;
Peter Renear, shipwright ; Thos. Mountford, Bhopkeeper ; Samuel
Stretch, watchmaker; Wm Chancellar, Bailmaker; Wm Hawkins, car-
penter; Tho. Ashton, shipwright; John Howard, blacksmith; Thed-
lock Riners, shopkeep ; Aaron Huliot, painter; Sam1 Davies, ship-
wright ; Andrew Dahl, mariner; Joseph Richards, merch4; John Samms,
cordwainer; Joseph Humfrits, joiner ; Wm Mason, turner; John Tom-
linson, currier; Ralph Harper, carpenter; Ebenezer Large, currier;
Thomas ffiower, cooper ; Richard Walker, cordwainer ; Tho. ElkiDgton,
sawyer; Wm. ffarmer, slaughterer; John Breintnall, cordwainer;
Wm Philpot, currier; Thomas Wells, shipwright; Stephen Atkinson,
clothier; Henry Munday, saddler; Joseph Wood, carpenter; Eliz.
Carter, baker; James Bayles, mariner; Anthony Moore, blacksmith;
John Basset, mason; John Newbury, carpenter; John Mifflin, merch*;
Tho. Smallwood, shipwright ; George Stannous, carter ; Daniel Jones,
taylor; John Bird, carpenter; Henry Kingston, slaughterer; Steph.
Bayslie, blockmaker; George Wilson, shopkeep; Tho. Brown, ship-
wright; Abram Pride, hrickmaker; Tho. Pascall, jr., John Coates,
bricltmaker; Joseph Lynn, shipwright; Maimalion Lalous, Henry
Stevens, mariner ; Edwd Hunt, goldsmith ; Timothy Green, hrickmaker ;
John Griffith, brickmaker ; Griffith Marling, hrickmaker; John Bird,
carpenter; Henry ffrogly, joiner; James Wilkins, joiner; Daniel Wil-
cox, ropemaker; Wm Brown, cooper; John Ashmead, blacksmith; John
Hastings, shipwright; John Hart, bricklayer; Isaac Merriatt, carpen-
ter ; Joseph Harper, carpenter; Jane Bing, shopkeeper ; Isaac Holling-
ham, carter; Armstrong Smith, shipwright; Peter Steel, brazier;
Adam Lewis, carpenter; Wm Hudson, jr., tanner; Wm Harris, ship-
wright; Geo Emlen, innholder; James Winstauley, brazier; Alex.
Gordon, shopkeep; Richd Robinson, shopkeep; Hester Syeuter, shop-
keep; Thos. Tress, merch'; Tho. Willard, shipwright; Moses Du-
rell, shipwright; Sam1 Monchton, pharmacopoeia; Edwd Scull, jr.,
joiner; Wm Tidmarsh, innholder; W™ Drason, mariner; Silvanus
Smout, blacksmith; Tho. Taylor, mariner; Jno. Carter, brickmaker;
Wm Dawardihause, mariner; Wm Little, blacksmith; Edwd Smout,
barber; Bentley Cook, Wm Hill, porter; Grace Townsend, Mark Har-
rison, laborer; John Parsons, carter; Tho. Coates, shopkeep; Rob*
Parker, Tho. Barger, Sam1 Jacobs, mariner ; Sam1 Robinson, plasterer;
Mary Broadway, Hannah Scott, Thomas Case, Evan Williams, taylor ;
Lawrence Sadler, porter; Rob1 Midwinter, shoemaker; Toby Such,
Peter Cooper, painter; John Lock, porter; Tho. Ellwood, laborer;
Everhalt Ream, baker; Peter Luolie, painter; Thomas Paglan, flounder;
Dan1 Jones, taylor; Tho. Walker, innholder; Tho. Cook, taylor; Oliver
Whitehead, John Betinson, innholder; Benj. Duffield, Wm Thomas,
cooper; John Winn, doctor; Israel Cox, Richd Tomlin, laborer; John
Rile, cordwainer; Henry Hill, merch*; Tho. Lloyd, merch*; Tho.
Martin, shopkeep; John HarriB, cordwainer; Wm England, goldsmith ;
William Cox.
Total Dumber of freemen 424
Occupations not given 82
Carpenters and joiners 32
Tailors 18
Cordwainers, etc 19
Shipwrights 27
Sailmakers, ropemakers, etc 11
Innholders 10
Shopkeepers and merchants 35
Saddlers 10
Of all the tradeB and industries represented among the freemen of
Philadelphia at this time, at least thirty per cent, were connected, more
or less, directly with the commerce and navigation of the city, and
about fifteen per cent, with the business of building.
There was not a middle name in all the four hundred and twenty-four.
These entries are from minuteB of Common Council. After May 27,
1717, such names were not put on record. Probably they were placed
in separate record books There must have been thousands of freemen
admitted to the rights of citizens between 1717 and 1776.
THE QUAKEK CITY— 1701-1750.
195
ton, having had his stable, barn, and house burnt,
prayed for leave to ask the charity of the people of
Philadelphia, but his petition was " rejected as being of
111 Consequence" (i.e., establishing a bad precedent).
At a meeting of the City Council in August, 1717,
various matters of municipal interest were transacted.
The floor under the court-house was directed to be
raised eight inches, and paved with brick, secured
with posts to keep carts and horses out. Two alder-
men were directed to continue their care of the bridge
and causeway at the south end of the town. Over-
seers were appointed to superintend the work in re-
pairing the two brick bridges, — one on Second Street,
and the other on Walnut Street, — these crossed Dock
Creek. And the grand jury in January made a pre-
sentment in relation to the nuisance of scolding
women. A law was also passed directing that elections
for coroners and assessors should be held at the same
time as elections for members of Assembly, and by
written ticket.
Sir William Keith landed at Philadelphia, May
31, 1717, and was at once proclaimed Governor in
due form and with a good deal of ceremony. He
had been' received in great state and with much
courtesy by Gookin, the Provincial Council, and
the officers of the corporation. This was what Sir
William liked. He was not young any longer, yet
not so old as to be past the age of vanity. He was
an adroit time-server, yet a shallow, flippant, in-
sincere man in every regard. Franklin has given
us the best description and the best character of
him in his double capacity as quidnunc and busy-
body, and also as the misleader of the popular party.
That is a rare picture, in the philosopher's autobiog-
raphy, of the Governor, in his flowing wig and fine
clothes, invading Keimer's dingy printing-office, ef-
fusively courting the young man's acquaintance, tak-
ing him off to taste some excellent Madeira at a tavern,
vowing he should have a printing-office of his own
and all the public business, and sending Franklin to
Boston and to London on two separate fool's errands.
His manner, said Ben, was " most affable, friendly,
and familiar." It was his " known character to be
liberal of promises which he never meant to keep."
" I believed him one of the best men in the world."
"No one who knew him had the smallest depend-
ence on him." " Giving a letter of credit, when he
had no credit to give." " It was a habit he had ac-
quired. He wished to please everybody ; and, hav-
ing little to give, he gave expectations. He was
otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty good
writer, and a good Governor for the people, though
not for his constituents, the proprietaries, whose in-
structions he sometimes disregarded. Several of our
best laws were of his planning, and passed during
his administration." It may be doubted, however,
if Keith was really a "good Governor for the people."
Popuhis milt decipi. decipiatur seems to have been his
motto. But, do the people profit really by being
deceived? He courted the Assembly and cajoled
them also, profiting by the pitiful pretence to civil
treatment they had thrown out at his predecessor,
Evans. "Though we are mean men and represent a
poor colony, yet as we are the immediate grantees
of one branch of the legislative authority of this
province (which we would leave to our posterity as
free as it was granted) we ought to have been, and do
expect to be, more civilly treated by him that claims
the other branch of the same authority and under
the same royal grant, and has his support from us
and the people we represent." Keith never forgot
that while he represented and owed his position to
the proprietary, it was the Assembly that provided
his salary and voted the supplies for his administra-
tion. He was poor and he was .mercenary. As
Franklin said in the Historical Sketch of Pennsyl-
vania, he had a particular eye to his own particular
emolument. Logan opposed him and countermined
his intrigues; and Logan was deprived of office by
him and sent home in disgrace, only, however, to
overwhelm him in the end. When it was too late
Keith attempted to regain favor with the proprie-
taries by betraying his allies, the Assembly. It did
not save him, but it resulted in a mutual mistrust,
coldness and disgust at parting, after a nine years'
administration, during which, singular to say, there
had not been a single flagrant breach between the
Assembly and the Governor.
Keith had a happy address, his suave and courteous
manners were all in his favor, and as soon as he met
the Assembly they voted him a supply of five hun-
dred pounds, with fifty pounds added for house-rent,
taxing the public a penny in the pound and four
shillings per head. The new Governor had secured
all this by talking of economy and relieving the bur-
thens of the people, and by refusing to listen to the
complaints of ex-Governor Gookin. He spoke of the
difficulties connected with an excessive influx of for-
eigners, appreciated the embarrassments of the public
on the subject, and had written home for instructions.
He went half way with the people in the troubles
about oaths and affirmations, and was disposed to re-
move all the difficulties which were such a stumbling-
block to the Quaker conscience, by restoring the laws
as they were first framed under the original charter.
He approved the amendments in the act relating to
work-houses, which was essential both to the peace
and the pauper system of the province. This act pro-
vided that a work-house and prison should be erected
within three years in Philadelphia, at the charge of
the city and county, to be controlled by the poor
overseers and the city and county justices. He also
favored the new and more comprehensive arrange-
ments perfected for the management of the several
ferries, and for enforcing reciprocity with contermi-
nous provinces in the premises. At the first Assem-
bly under Keith there was passed also an important
act extending the liberties of women in business, and
196
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
another promoting the administration of justice. The
adroit manner in which he obtained from the Assem-
bly the creation of that Court of Chancery which had
been denied to his predecessors has already been
spoken of. He also promoted a general reconstruc-
tion of the courts, with a Quarter Sessions of four
annual terms, a biennial Supreme Court sitting in
Philadelphia, and a Court of Common Pleas under
the Governor's commission. He fostered the estab-
lishment at Horsham, in Philadelphia County, of a
settlement for the manufacture of the surplus grain
received in the city, and the place was made easily
accessible by laying out convenient roads to it.
It was Governor Keith who first introduced the
people of Pennsylvania to the pleasures and benefits
of an irredeemable paper currency. There had been
great and long-standing complaint about the de-
ficiency of a circulating medium, for the use of wam-
pum had ceased, and foreign coin had never become
plenty. The course of exchange ran heavily against
the province, and those who possessed money made
enormous profits by the purchase and sale of bills.
The merchants of England did not ship bank-notes
or coin to the province. They paid for the produce
which they bought there with English goods, and
settled the balances by shipments of sugar, rum, etc.,
from Barbadoes and other places in the West Indies,
and by negroes and indentured servants. Yet there
must have been more hard money in Philadelphia
than in New England, for Franklin, a paper-money
man, notes in his autobiography how his fellow work-
men in Boston were surprised when he returned to
his brother's place in 1724 from Philadelphia. " One
of them asking what kind of money we had there,"
he says, " I produced a handful of silver, and spread
it before them, which was a kind of raree-show they
had not been used to, paper being the money of
Boston." The peltries, grain, flour, ships, cooper-
stuff, and lumber of Philadelphia were always good
for hard money with a good mercantile system. But
the people were not satisfied. It is likely that wages
and small debts were paid almost entirely in the way
of barter instead of money, and this, by the losses it
occasioned, produced discontent. At any rate, the
drift of facts is to show that while capitalists and
men of wealth opposed a change in the currency, the
farmers, laborers, and small tradespeople favored it.
They contended that a deficiency of currency made
trade decay and increased the rate of interest, and
that the remedy was to keep money in the province
by having a money of their own. In the language of
petitions sent to the Assembly at this time, the friends
of paper money contended that they were sensibly
"aggrieved in their estates and dealings, to the great
loss and growing ruin of themselves, and the evident
decay of this province in general, for want of a
medium to buy and sell with,'' and they therefore
prayed a paper currency. The people of Chester
County, on the other hand, asked to have the value
of the current money of the province raised, the ex-
portation of money prohibited, and produce made a
legal tender, so as to obviate the necessity for paper
money. They did not want a regular State issue, but
nevertheless they wanted an inconvertible paper
money, as if that were a blessing.1
Keith, in consenting to and promoting an experi-
mental loan in 1722, had been encouraged by the
popularity of a similar measure matured by Governor
Burnett, of New Jersey. Pennsylvania was the last
of the middle colonies to embark in the paper-money
manufacture ; but once embarked, she plunged rapidly
and deeply in. A small loan of only fifteen thousand
pounds was issued in 1722, to be redeemed within eight
years. In 1723 thirty thousand pounds was issued. In
1740 the issue had reached the amount of eighty
thousand pounds. Benjamin Franklin, who had en-
couraged and, indeed, almost brought to pass this
utterance of irredeemable currency, by his writings
and his personal influence,2 became alarmed and
wrote, " I now think there are limits beyond which
the quantity may be hurtful." He was right. In
1775 Pennsylvania had one hundred and sixty thou-
sand pounds currency out, or four hundred and
twenty thousand dollars. In 1783 the State's irre-
deemable currency had been increased by various
issues until it reached four million three hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars, a sum simply ruinous
to all values.
The general plan of these loans was good and
simple. It was as safe and as logical as any system
without bottom could be. The theory was tersely
stated by David Hume in a letter to the Abb6 Morel-
let: "In our colony of Pennsylvania the land itself,
which is the chief commodity, is coined and passed
into circulation." The phrase had been borrowed
by Hume from Franklin.3 The modus operandi of the
1 Not only Pennsylvania of that day believed that limited circulation
and non-exportability are good attributes of money ; the fallacy has
come down to our own day, and beeD entertained by two leading Phila-
delphians. Hon. W. D. Kelley said in the House of Representatives in
1870, "Beyond the sea, in foreign lands, the greenback is fortunately
not money; but when have we had such a long and uubroken career of
prosperity in business as since we adopted this non-exportable currency ?"
And Henry C. Carey wrote, in 1875, to Hon. M. W. Fields, saying, " Does
or does not our duty to ourselves and the world at large demand that we
maintain permanently anon-exportable currency? . . . The affirmative
of this question i6 in harmony with the practice and experience of lead-
ing nations, and in harmony with the teachings of sound economic
science."
2 See the next chapter.
3 His tract, ''A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a
Paper Currency," contained the following: "For as bills issued upon
money security are money, so bills issued upon land are in effect coined
land." Professor Walker has noted that this was the theory also of law
in his Louisiana bubble, and of the French aBBigoats, quoting in regard
to the latter the mijt of Gouverneur Morris, who, when Short wrote to
him, " There is a plan for paper money now before the Assembly. Some
insist on calling itpapier terre, and the idea was near passing," replied,
"Apropos of this currency, this papier lerre, I could tell them of a coun-
try where there is a papier terre, now mart et enlerrg." The land-hank-
ing systems of the WeBt in more recent times have all been identical in
principle with this system of colonial Pennsylvania. The fallacy is ob-
viou8 : land is the best of securities, but it is a statical, not dynamical
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
197
Pennsylvania loan system — " the loan-office," it came
to be called — was excellent. There was nothing
fictitious about it. No bills were loaned but upon
good security ; interest was required, and the interest
and principal were required to be paid back in yearly
instalments. As the principal came in it was lent
out again ; but finally as the term of a loan expired,
*D 3 &7y
Tin Shilling^
current Jduney of Atwjtka, afsoot&iog
to ibe Aft of Pdrliamew, macie in
tueSKtrtYcirof therate Qsem Anne,
for AfceroKitK'ng the Rates of forciga
Corns in theTlanrarioHS, one from the
Province of Pemj)t<i8arM, to the Pol-
Jfeffor thereof,' frail be ia Yalne equal
toMaUey, aridfMl be accepted accordingly "by the Provin-
cill Treafurer, County Tirca-
fnrers ind theTtufieejior the
General Loan-Office o£ tfie
Province of Pamylvania, ia
all Publick, Payments, and far
' any FondacanyTimeiflany
of the laid Treatncies and
' Loan- Office.
Dared ia /ffifaAftJM* *e
Second Day oiApjil^ ift the
Yearof OutLord, OneT7ion»
find feven Hiuidred and
Twenty' Three, \>y Order
of the Governor andGeae-
ril'Membfv.
PBOVINCIAL CUBEENCY.
the notes as they came in were canceled and burnt,
and all accounts squared up. The friends of the
system were many. " I will venture to say that there
never was a better or a wiser measure," wrote Gov-
ernor Pownall, " never one better calculated to serve
security; and the prime quality demanded in a currency ia its capacity
to circulate, a dynamical, not Btatical force. A redeemable bank-note can
be put into land, gold, or any other commodities, and these again can
be exchanged for it; it has therefore the value of all, besides its value
as a medium of exchange, a tool, a convenience. A note which can
only be put in land and must stay there, inert, for convertible purposes
as the land itself, has but one value.
the uses of an increasing country; that there never
was a measure more steadily or more faithfully pur-
sued for forty years together than the loan-office in
Pennsylvania." In 1763 the whole paper-money sys-
tem of the colonies, including that of Pennsylvania,
was outlawed by act of Parliament, when Franklin
wrote a pamphlet, protesting against the act.1
*■■ The issues were £15,000 in 1722, £30,000 in
L723, £30,000 in 1729, and in 1739 enough to
make a total currency of £80,000 to remain in
circulation for sixteen years. This last act per-
fected the loan-office system, and is the one by
which its operations can best be judged. The
money was called " proclamation-money." It
was emitted to borrowers directly from the loan-
office, there being a branch in every county. The
notes or bills, in denominations of from one to
twenty shillings, were printed and emitted under
direction of five persons, who were " trustees of
the loan-office," and who gavetond. They were
only to lend on real security or plate, of double
the value. The interest was put at five per cent.,
and one-sixteenth of the principal was to be
repaid each year. This principal, during the
first ten years, was lent out again (the interest
being applied to the public service), but new
borrowers could only get the money for the rest
of the time the loan had to run, and their annual
payments of principal were proportionately in-
creased.
In the "Historical Eeview of Pennsylvania,"
by Franklin and Ralph, published in 1759 to
influence Parliament in the contest between the
majority of the Provincials and the proprietary
government,2 it is clearly shown, and the letters
of Logan corroborate the fact, that the proprie-
tary government was at first bitterly hostile to
any and every emission of paper money, only
assenting to it finally when made participants of
some of the peculiar favors the system could
bestow. In the language of the tract referred
to, " Discovered a repugnance to this measure,
till they found themselves considered in it. Like
the snail with his horns, they had no sensations
for the province but what reached them through
the nerves of power and profit." The considera-
tion, in fact, was the continued payment of quit-
rents in sterling money, no matter what the deprecia-
tion of provincial currency ; a consideration which
the proprietary had a right to demand, and could in
equity also do so, since they had nothing to do either
with the emission of the currency or its depreciation.3
1 See next chapter. This outlawing of colonial money had much to
do with prejudicing the people of the colonies against the rule of Par-
liament.
2 Franklin's Works, iii. 107, " An Historical Eeview, etc." See next
chapter.
8 This depreciation got to be so great that it reached the ratio of
190.1, the value of a Pennsylvania pound currency being only $2.71^.
To conclude this matter, so far as it relates to the Philadelphia of the
198
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Keith, besides giving the province a paper cur-
rency, secured the confident establishment of Benja-
min Franklin at the heart of the growing town, and
it is around Franklin as a centre that the greater part
of the public affairs of Philadelphia will be found to
revolve. This will be demonstrated in a chapter to
succeed the present one.
In 1717, and for many years periodically thereafter,
pirates or else privateers on the coast were sources of
alarm in Philadelphia. Logan, in the year named,
said the pirates were fifteen hundred strong, and
made many captures of vessels and seamen. In Feb-
ruary, 1718, John Collison, Hance Dollar, John Ren-
nolds, Benjamin Hutchins, and John Bell appeared
before Governor and Council and made voluntary
surrender as pirates, claiming to come in, however,
under the late royal amnesty. In July, of the same
year, Richard Appleton and a crew ran away with a
pirate vessel and brought it as a prize into Philadel-
phia with much applause.1
period concerning which we write, Logan notes that as early as 1724
the premium on specie was fifteen per cent. The Gazette of 1726 (Wat-
son) notes the arrival of counterfeit colonial hills from Ireland. In 1729
Logan says, " I dare not speak one word against it. The popular phrensy
will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they are in New Eng-
land, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings of their paper.
They already talk of making more, and no man dares appear to stem
the fury of the popular rage." Logan thinks the king should arrest
the delusion by proclamation. Watson had seen an account current of
the years 1730-31, by Andrew Hamilton, one of the trustees of the Gen-
eral Loan Office, " showing the operation in those days, when no banks
exi&ted, of borrowing money upon mortgages, deeds, and other securi-
ties. The account begins with a detail of securities received from the
previous trustees, to wit :
"61 mortgages on the £15,000 account, yet due £930
228 " " £30,' 00 " " 8,438
335 " " several " " 19,212
264 " " 2d £30,000 " " 26,000
"In 1730-31 the new trustees lent out —
"On 39 mortgages £2546
" 77 " 5481
" a pledge of plate 24"
Hazard, in the additions to Watson, says that paper money was also
issued by individuals. In May, 1746, Joseph Gray gave notice that
Franklin had printed for him £27 lOe. in notes of hand of 2d., 3d., and
6&, "out of sheer necessity for want of pence for running change.
Whoever takes them shall have them exchanged on demand with the
best money I have." In 1749 the Assembly was petitioned for an issue
of twenty thousand pounds in Bniall bills, and a committee appointed to
bring in a bill, but there was no further action. In connection with
this currency matter we produce, from Hazard's Register, a price cur-
rent taken from the Philadelphia Gazette of Nov. 27, 1735, tbe provincial
currency reduced to dollars and cents: Corn-meal, Si .40 per hundred ;
white biscuit flour, $2.40 ($4.75 per barrel); middling do., 81.73 per hun-
dred; brown, $1.47; ship do., 31-60; muscovado sugar, $4.27 per hun-
dred; gunpowder, $26.67; tobacco, 31.87 ; loaf sugar (wholesale), 22 cents
per pound ; cotton, 13 cents per pound ; indigo, §1.33 do. ; rum, 29 cents
per gallon ; molasseB, 20 cents; pork, $4.67 per barrel ; beef, $4 per bar-
rel; wheat, 49 cents per bushel; corn, 20; flaxseed, 53, etc. ; Madeira
wine, ©58.67 per pipe. Either these prices were sterling, or the depre-
ciation of currency still did not keep pace with the plethora of products.
1 The vessel carried ten mounted great guns, two swivels, three pate-
reroes, four chambers, thirty muskets, five blunderbusses, five pistols,
six old patereroes, four old chambers, ten organ-barrels, seven cutlasses,
fifty-three hand-grenades, two hundred great shot, two barrels powder,
four kegs " patridge," " one Mack fflag, one red mag, two ensignes, two
pendants, one Jack, and eight Bloppers." To conclude this pirate bus-
iness, Logan writes to the Governor of New York in October to notify
Small and remote provincial cities, in remote and
provincial times, do not make much history. Their
annals trickle along through lowly, hidden ways, like
the brook that still flows but cannot be discovered,
for that the grass through which it percolates hides
it from sight and makes it inaudible. Take this year,
1718, for an example. William Penn is still proprie-
tary, though it has been long since he and conscious-
ness of human interests have parted company, and
now he is on the eve of receiving the last summons,
which will give him rest in the quiet burial-place at
Jordans'. But his affairs do not suffer, for Hannah
Penn, brave heart, clear eye, firm hand, controls all.
The Lieutenant-Governor, Sir William Keith, is just
coming in; Jonathan Dickinson, Esq., is mayor;
Robert Assheton, Esq., recorder. The aldermen are
Richard Hill, William Carter, Abraham Bickley,
William Hudson, Joseph Redman, Thomas Masters;
the common councilmen are Richard Moore, Samuel
Carpenter, Charles Read, Joseph Carpenter, Thomas
Griffith, Owen Roberts, Nehemiah Allen, Thomas
Bradford, Peter Stretch, Henry Badcock, John Jones,
Daniel Radley, Thomas Wharton, George Claypool,
James Parrock, William Ffishbourne, John Warder.
Each of these men had a history; it could be un-
earthed, and it would be far more interesting than
that of the city represented by them, but still it would
not be the city's history.
The Common Council of the city met Jan. 29,
1718, after a recess of three months and a half. " Ed-
ward Roberts, George ffitzwalter, and Evan Owen
were now Qualified Comon Councilmen and took
their place at ye Board. Ordered that William Hud-
son & William ffishbourn, Adjust the Accounts with
the Clerk of ye market ag* ye next Council. Upon
Reading ye Peticon for Granting fferrys in this city,
him that a vessel had been sent out against them, because " we are in
manifest dauger here, unless the king's ships take some notice of us.
They probably think a proprietary government no part of their charge."
The pirates appear to have been under command at this time of the
famous Teach, or Blackbeard, an outlaw who infested tbe commerce
of the coast from Cape May to Cape Henry. Keith issued a warrant
and a proclamation against him, neither being effective. There was
great local interest in pirates at this time. Kyd was a sort of hero, and
Bradford, the Quaker printer, in New York, in 1724, published a " His-
tory of tho Pirates," which is said to be the original of the "Pirates' Own
Book" of more recent times. Franklin claims to have made and pub-
lished a song on the capture of Blackbeard. The latter freebooter used
to he very familiar with the taverns on the water-front at Philadelphia,
and he and his crew kept many a revel at Marcus Hook, at the house of
a Swede woman. Teach was killed within the North Carolina sounds,
and other pirates seem to have been captured about the same time.
They had friendB, and support also, on shore. Isaac Norn's' son-in-law,
Harrison, moving from Maryland, was captured between Apoquiminy
and Newcastle and carried off. The grand jury in Philadelphia, in 1718,
presented a lot of pirates, but no bill could be found. These men, John
Williams, Joseph Cooper, Michael Grace, William Asheton, George Gard-
ner, Francis Royer, and Henry Burton, are supposed to have captured
and carried off from the Delaware a sloop of twenty-two guns. One of
the party, Cooper, was afterwards captain of a pirate vessel, and blew
himself up in the Bay of Honduras. After 1720, in which year Captain
Low took a rich prize off the capes of the Delaware, the pirates seem to
have been mostly driven to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea,
where, however, the commerce of Philadelphia still paid them toll.
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
199
The Mayor, Recorder, & Alderman Hill are Desired
to Wait on y° Assembly with a Peticon that a Bill
may be brought in for Vesting the power of Granting
the s'd fferrys in y° Corperacon of this City.1
" Whereas, William Davis, of the County of Chester,
& one Peter Devene, have Obtained the Gov" Lycence
to ask the Charity of y" Inhabitants of this City by
occasion of Some Misfortunes they have ffaln under,
And the Charge of this city occasioned by the Repairs
of the Wharfs, Maintenance of the Poor, & other In-
cidents Laying Hard on the Inhabitants, It is Or-
dered that the Mayor, Recorder, & Alderman Hill,
Do wait on the Governour and request him that he
would be pleased to give the Magistrates of this City
a Hearing in flavor of y6 Inhabitants before he Grants
any pson Such a lycence for ye ffuture." Upon the
Peticon of Simon Edgill, that there is a vacancy in
the office of sealing weights and measures and asking
to be appointed to it himself, Master Edgill is referred
to the next Council. Sarah Smith's fine of £10 for
having a bastard child, and ffrancis Cole's fine of £5
for keeping a public-house without a license, are both
abated one-half.
The next meeting of Common Council was on Feb-
ruary 26th, when a fine of fifty pounds, laid on Nich-
olas Williams for beating his father, is remitted, and
Peter Stretch is paid £8 18s. for work done by him on
the town clock. On March 6th, Aldermen Masters
Bickley and Redman are ordered to expedite matters
at the market wharf, of which they are overseers, and to
get more money, if needed, besides that thirty pounds
1 Not granted, but some of the puljlic ferries were put nuder new ar-
rangements. Armstrong Smith prayed that he might he granted the
right of keeping two ferries in the Delaware, one to Cooper's, in West
Jersey, the other to Gloucester ; and John Walker wanted to establish
a ferry from the middle of the city to West Jersey. These ferries to
Cooper's and Gloucester were erected by the Assembly for a term of
years, and because West Jersey put a duty on shallops, boats, and canoes
coming from Pennsylvania, the Assembly proposed to retaliate. What
else was done in this body? They met, and addressed the Governor on
the alarm caused by the importation of so many foreigners ; they agreed
that their pay should be six shillings apiece per diem, and the Speaker's
ten shillings ; two bridgeB were ordered over the Poquessing and Cobb's
Creeks; persons about to marry were ordered to put up a publication
notice at some meeting-house thirty days beforehand, "and produce
three evidences, at least, that they see it up three days of worship, with
the fair publication side outwards, and the marriage to be performed by
some justice in the same county;" the butchers petitioned against open-
ing the market to meat from West Jersey ; the Quakers petitioned for
the right of affirmation, as they are still doing to-day in England; An-
drew Bradford wanted a monopoly of the lamp-black manufacture for
twenty years, he having " at considerable expense" found out for him-
self the right method of its manufacture; the several counties were
ordered to erect suitable work-houses and yards, that in Philadelphia to
be completed within three years; a law was passed to regulate the relief
of the poor, requiring paupers to be lettered and wear a red P on their
sleeves, indicating what town they lived in; other acts defiuing the
rights of feme-sole and married women as traders, regulating the pun-
ishment of crimes and misdemeanors, putting in force in the province
the statute of James I., chap, xii., against witchcraft were passed, and
then the old Assembly adjourned, the new one met, and there was no
more legislative business during the year 171S. The members of the
Assembly who were elected and met Oct. 14, 1718, were, for Philadelphia
City: Israel Pemberton, Isaac Norris; for the county, Speaker, Matthias
Holston, Robert Jones, Edward Farmar, Richard Hill, William Fish-
bourn, Clement Plumsted, Morris Morris, and Jonathan Dickinson.
they have ; Masters Redman, Bradford, and Clay-
pool to inspect and appraise William Branson's work
under the court-house. William Pawlet has had no
pay for several years for summoning and attending
the Common Council, and petitions to have his salary
fixed, and his salary is fixed at eight pounds per an-
num " for his Sumoning of the Comon Council, Open-
ing & Shutting of the Gates of the Court House, &
keeping the same clean & the pavement clear of
Horses." It is further " Ordered that no vendue or
publick Sale of Goods be made under the Court
House by any pson, Unless a Consideracon be paid
to the Corporacon for the Same."
At the next meeting, May 13, 1718, Branson's
quantum meruit is set at £32 10s. Thomas Redman
is appointed inspector of water-courses, his pay being
one penny per foot from the persons bordered by the
stream ; Pawlet is allowed five pounds for his past
services; and, the tailors and cordwainers having pe-
titioned for some regulations in regard to their trade-
rights, the recorder was requested to inspect the
books, and report a proper method of incorporating
particular bodies within this corporation.2 Three-
fourths of Richard Keys' fine for keeping an unli-
censed tavern is remitted, and the recorder ordered
to draw a new ordinance for better regulating carters,
cartmen, and draymen, and settling their wages.3
At Common Council's meeting July 14th, Benja-
min Morgan and Edward Church's pump in the
middle of Front Street, opposite Ewer's Alley, which
they pray may be allowed to stand, is sternly con-
demned as being now, as it always has been, a public
and common nuisance, but they can continue it until
February, and no longer, to give them time to sink a
new well. The vendue-master, John Leech, is re-
quired to pay ten pounds a year, in quarterly pay-
ments, for use of the court-house in selling goods,
and Alderman Carter is ordered to collect three
pounds per annum rent for each of the stalls under
the court-house stairs, the payment of such rent
securing the refusal of the stall to the lessee, but no
arrears. Thomas Carvell is nine shillings behind-
hand, and is bidden pay up on demand, or the beadle
is ordered to " Pluck up his stall, he being only
Tenant at Will." A paving ordinance was read on
September 20th. October 7th was election day, and
2 The complaint was that notwithstanding tradesmen took out their
freedom, strangers came in, settled and practiced their trades without
being freemen. The tradeB were therefore authorized to get themselves
incorporated after the manner of the English guilds, and have an ordi-
nance prepared by an expert "Consonal Agreeable to y> laws of Eng-
land and this Government and for a Publick Good."
3 Transportation of goods, persons, and news is, perhaps, the measure
of civilization, modified by local circumstances in some degree. Jona-
than Dickinson this year writes : " We have a settled post from Vir-
ginia and Maryland unto us, which goes through all our northern colo-
nies, whereby all advices from Boston, in New England, to Williams-
burg, in Virginia, is completed in four weeks from the latter end of
March to the beginning of December, and in the winter season the
double of that time." William Penn died July 30th, and Keith gave
the news to Council November 30th.
200
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Jonathan Dickinson re-elected mayor, and Thomas
Griffith and William ffishbourn, aldermen ; Israel
Pemberton, John Carpenter, John Cadwalader, Jo-
seph Buckley, Thomas Griffith, and Thomas Tresse,
common councilmen. " Alderman Hudson, Alderman
Redman, Benjamin Vinning, Edward Roberts, and
Samuel Carpenter were Sent on a Message to ye Gov-
ern' to Acquaint him of their Choice of the Mayor
and to Know when the Corporacon Should Wait on
him to present the Mayor to be Qualified, and the Gov'
Appointed to Morrow morning at Tenn o Clock."
The new Common Council met Nov. 24, 1718, but
there is no minute of Penn's death. Griffith and Pem-
berton qualify, and carters are forbid to cut up the
streets, paved or graveled by individual enterprise,
by carrying too heavy loads. Alderman Car-
ter complains that tenants do not pay their
stall-rents; the old fine of three shillings for
neglect to attend by aldermen and council-
men is revived, and Bickley is ordered to be
paid £50 for his fire-engine. At the meeting
on Christmas-day the Common Council de-
cline to permit Robert Wood to beg, though
he has the Governor's brief for it ; and on
December 29th, Thomas Redman's plan for ^\^ 'fdhnCopfoto
new market-stalls (contrived to punish tenants
who sublet their stalls for more rent than they
pay) is accepted.
Keith announced the death of Penn to Prov-
incial Council on November 3d, and to Assem-
bly on December 17th, in not unfitting phrase.
Watson and the Logan papers both mention
that he solemnized, with a military procession,
the death of the great man of peace. William
Penn, Jr., who claimed but never secured the
succession, appears to have thanked Keith for
this absurd and inappropriate display, but
the most grateful testimonial came from the
Indians in Pennsylvania, who, when they learned of
the death of Onas, sent his widow a letter of condo-
lence, with a present, a garment for their deceased
friend, in which to journey safely through the wilder-
ness to which they conceived him to have departed.1
We have given in full, as a specimen, the annals of
one year, not an exceptionally dull one. Such details
must be subjected to condensation by hydraulic press-
ure and the residuum very lightly skimmed, if we
would get from them the texture of history, so far as
narrative of chronological progress and public event
is concerned. Yet it is out of these faint, almost
imponderable and impalpable fragments that the
true history and mirror of any time must be com-
posed. The pavements, the carters, the pumps, the
market people, the ferries, — all these come up with
regular frequency ; there is little change, yet that is
of growth; the present body of municipal ordinances
in Philadelphia have been one hundred and eighty
years in forming. The mere fact of this perpetual
motion of little change and amendment, however, is
evidence of life and growth, and that is nearly all we
can get from it.2 We do find, however, in April,
1719, that an ordinance has been passed for paving
the streets, and that the business of saddlers, cord-
wainers, and curriers was so important, or the price
of leather so high, that an attempt was made to pre-
vent tanners from exporting their products.3
This year, also, Dec. 22, 1719, the first newspaper
came out in Philadelphia, — The American Weekly
Mercury, " Printed by Andrew Bradford, and sold
by him and John Copson." The first advertisement
in this paper — in the second number — was of a run-
away negro, a bright mulatto, Johnny, who ran away
TBis Day Run away from Jdhn-UCCami, Junier, an
Indian. Woman, about 1 7 Years of Age, Pitted in
the face, of a middle Stature and Indifferent fatt having
an heraDrugat, "Waflcoat . and Kerfey Petticoat, of a
Light Collour. If anyPerfon or Tterfons,:fhall bring
rheftJdGirle.toherfaidMafler, ihall be Rewardedfor
their Trouble to their. Content
American weekly -mercury May 24 1728
y\ Servant Maids Titne for pour Years to be fold by
Ditto Jan.2'17Zl.
AVery likely Negro Woman to be fold, aged about
2.8 Years, fit for Country or City Bufinefs Shecan
Card'Spin, Knit and Milk.-, and any other Country ."Work.
Whoever has a Mind for the faidNetfro may iwairte
.Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia. r
A Young Negro Woman to be fold by Samuel Kirk in
tha Second Street, Philadelphia,
T~i <r , •. ,.1 , , Ditto Oct .6 1791
O be Sold, a very likely "Nfegro Woman fit for all
Manner of Houfe Work, as Wafhing, SEarcTving,
' g, &Cs Enquire of Andrew Bradford,
Ironing,
Ditto.Dec.24. 1723
l Janney, Life of Penn, pp. 533-34.
from his master, Philip Ludwell, of Green Spring,
Va. ; coachman ; five pounds reward. The second
advertisement was that of John Copson, one of the
proprietors of the paper, who had a negro boy for
sale in High Street. By the price current it appears
that flour is 28s. in Boston, 14s. to 15s. in New York,
2 Except wageB — evidence of man's condition and hie betterment
—they are always interesting. We find Pawlet, the headle, getting
better pay than he had been at first allowed, and June, 1719, the
carters, draymen, and porters complaining, are allowed increased rates
of compensation : 7 ]^d. for each half-cord of wood hanled ; pipe of wine,
1 shilling; hhd. of rum, sugar, or molasses, lOd. (lesser casks in propor-
tion) ; to porters, for each pipe of wine, 8d. ; each hhd. of mm, Bugar, or
molasses, fid. ; each 100 bushels of salt, 6s. 3d., etc., but carters were
forbid to engross fire-wood.
8 Jonathan Dickinson wrote of manufactures this year that iron
promised well ; labor was well paid ; " many who have come over under
covenants for four years are now masters of great estates;" Philadel-
phia was furnishing the best bricks on the continent, with plenty of
limestone, leading to solid building; "we have been upon regulating
the pavements of our streets, — the footway with bricks, and the cart-
way with stone, — and this, with buildings, have made bricks so scarce
that the inhabitants would go to the kilns and there strive for them at
28 per mill. ; that is and will be the price here."
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
201
9s. 6d in Philadelphia, showing a truly congested
state of transportation.
With a newspaper local news becomes possible.
We hear about the river front, — state of the harbor,
and whether free from ice or not ; about arrivals and
departures of vessels, the cargoes they fetch and carry
away; about thieves, highwaymen, and sales of prop-
erty ; the newspaper brings us right down to modern
times, at once enables the past to talk to us in the
language of to-day.1
The Second Street road was this year joined to the
Moyamensing road, and extended to the Delaware op-
posite Gloucester, and the first attempt was made at
quarantine, the Provincial Council being notified by
the Governor that Patrick Baird, chirurgeon, of Phil-
adelphia, was appointed health officer, and required
to board all incoming vessels and ascertain the condi-
tion of their bills of health ; this being in consequence
of the great increase of immigration. The trouble-
some matter of the market-stalls and of the Second
Street bridge over the dock were also settled upon a
satisfactory basis, and the wharves letted out by the
year.2
1 Feb. 23, 1720, river free of ice. Arr " Sea Flower," sloop, Lewes,
Del., 700 bush, corn, — bbls beef and pork. Arrest. — Thursday, Mr.
Bradford's two servants, who some time ago robbed him of £20 or £30
in cash, a watch and two spoons, were taken by him near Salem, and
committed to jail in that place by Squire Rolf. Highway Robbery. — Ten
days ago one Bradshaw, of Duck Creek, Kent Co., was riding on the
road between Philadelphia and Darby, and was met by four highway-
men, two mounted, two on foot. One of them rid up to him and clapt
a pistol to his brest and bid him to deliver his money or he was a dead
man. The other three having surrounded him, and he seeing no way
to escape, told them he had but two pistoles, and he hoped they would
spare him something to bear hiB expense on his journey. They bade
him not to prate, but to deliver his money, or, damn him, they would
shoot him immediately. The poor fellow was forced to comply. For
sale.— Good long tobacco pipes sold at 4s per gross per single gross, and
3s for a large quantity, by Richard Warder, tobacco pipeinaker, living
under the Bame roof with Philip Sing, goldsmith, near the market-place,
where also all who have auy occasion may have their foul pipes burnt
for 8d per groBS. Lottery. — New brick house, east side Third St., cor.
Arch St., 15 ft. front, 26 ft deep, large sash windows, and 6tories 9 ft. in
the clear, lot 100 feet ; also 80 ft. of Rachel Whitsoncraft's lot, divided
into 16 foot lots ; 350 tickets at 20B each ; John Read and Henry Frogley
have given £500 bonds to the mayor to see a fair drawing. Convicted,
in October, Edward and Martha Hunt, of Counterfeiting Spanish Biiver
coins; Edward sentenced to be hung, Martha fined £500. (Hunt was
hung. He had been a Preston transported rebel, and made an entirely
modern speech on the gallows, declaring his innocence and protesting
he was a victim, — " May God forgive them that has a hand in taking
away my life any manner of way, and that my blood be not required at
their hands, for they know not what they do.") Any reporter in Phil-
adelphia would feel himself at home in the presence of such a thor-
oughly modern sheet. He would inquire for it as soon as he entered
the coffee-house (on Front St.), but he would have been much more
likely to find it, and to go hunt for it, at Robert Mills' Star and Garter
Inn, or the Fountain Tavern, in Front St., or the White Horse, in
Market St. This old journal giveB us an inkling of the severity of the
admiralty courts of the day, urged on, it is likely, by the prevalence of
piracy. A case of mutiny tried before Judge Aeheton resulting in con-
viction, the four culprits were ordered to stand in the pillory, with their
earB nailed to it, in the market-place, for two hours each on two succes-
sive market days, on each day to have twenty-one lashes well laid on
their bare backs, at eight several places in the city.
2 The mayor, William Fishbourne, took Walnut and Chestnut Streets
at six pounds per annum, Masters and Redman took High Street at six
pounds, the leases being for seven years. With regard to the market-
The Assembly, in February, 1721, passed the law
regulating party walls in Philadelphia, which is in
force at the present day. The first regulators under
the law were George Claypoole, Thomas Redman,
Samuel Powell, and James Poole. The arch at Front
and Mulberry Streets was pulled down and the rub-
bish carted away in April, 1721, and the same month
the City Council leased to Ralph Asheton, for
twenty-one years, at forty shillings per annum, the
square between Sassafras and Vine and Sixth and
Seventh Streets, — a test by which to measure the en-
hancement of values. Keith, wearying of the Assem-
bly, perhaps, tried to make the City Council feel the
weight of his authority, but the quiet burghers let
him know they knew what they were at better than
he did, and suggested to him to
mind his own business. The
rebuff was the more effective
from being so mildly delivered.
Roger Mompesson, judge of the
admiralty, on the other hand,
when two persons were con-
victed before him of " denying
the King," put them in the
pillory under the court-house
for one hour on two market
days.each bearing the label " I
stand here for speaking con-
temptuously' against my sover-
eign Lord, King George," one
of them moreover paying a fine
of twenty marks, the other being
whipped, with forty lashes, at the cart-tail. Copson,
the publisher, at this time opened an insurance office
in High Street, " to prevent the necessity of sending
to London," and he guaranteed his patrons the most
responsible underwriters in the province.3
Beer appears to have been liable to adulteration
even at this early day, for we find the Assembly,
while providing that every cask should be gauged
before sale, anxious also to forbid the use of any for-
eign substance for sophisticating the good malt liquor.
It appears by this act that among the things so used
were molasses, coarse sugar, melada, honey, foreign
grains, Guinea pepper, etc.
The City Council was anxious to get entire control
of the public ferries, and the Assembly, without con-
stalls, Alderman Redman agreed to build thirty stalls for four hundred
pounds, heightening the arches and pillars. The bridge, as wide as the
street, was to cost one hundred and fifty-five pounds.
3 The "solid men" of Philadelphia of this day included John Cad-
walader, Henry Hodge, Edward RobertB, Andrew Bradford, John Cop-
son, Robert Ellis, Charles Reid, David Breintnall, Richard Olymar,
John Hyatt, Thomas Tresse, Oliver Gal terry, William Bowell, George
Calvert, John Brooks, Benjamin Paschal], ThomnB Nickson, William
Branson, Anthony Morris, and William Bantofee. The names of these
are all signed to an agreement to take Lyons dollars at 5s., English
crowns at 7«. 64, half-crowns at 3s. 9&, English shillings at 18cZ., English
sixpence at 9d. in proclamation money, showing a premium of fifty per
cent, on sterling at this time. The value of the Pennsylvania pound
currency must therefore at this time have been $3.33.
202
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
ceding this at once, did yield the Schuylkill ferry to
the corporation, and set a new scale of ferry toll-rates,
the key to which was :
1 person 1 penny.
1 horse 1 "
1 coach 1 shilling.
1 loaded cart 1 "
1 unloaded cart 6 pence.
1 head of cattle 3 halfpence.
The corporation contracted with Aquila Rose to
keep the new Schuylkill ferry, giving him a twenty-
one years' lease, provided he improved the approaches
to the ferry with a causeway, a house, and a boat and
ferry house.1
Butchers were forbidden to kill animals in their
stalls or in the streets, and it was made a finable
offense for butchers or other persons to smoke in the
market-house and stalls. It was already against the
law, by act of Assembly, to smoke in the streets.
Palatines at this time were imported in lots, and their
services, for five years, were advertised at ten pounds
per head. The manner of the advertisement makes
it certain that the condition of these servants, until
sold, was very similar to that of slaves or convicts.
The negroes were perhaps worse off, but their be-
nighted condition appears to have awakened compas-
sion, for a person at this time offers in the Mercury
his gratuitous services " to teach his poor brethren,
the Male Negroes, to read the Holy Scriptures, &c, in
a very uncommon, expeditious, and delightful man-
ner." 2
STONE PRISON, CORNER OF HIGH AND THIRD STS.
[From an old drawing in the Philadelphia Library.]
The Free Society of Traders, from which so much
had been looked for and which yielded so little fruit,
1 Aquila Rose was an early literary celebrity of Philadelphia, the
friend of the Muses and of James Logan. Franklin relates in his auto-
biography that when he went to pay his first visit to Keimer he found
that worthy just setting up an elegy on Aquila Rose. He was a poet
himself, nalive of England, came to Philadelphia, and died in August,
1723, aged twenty-eight years. His son, Joseph Rose, Franklin's ap-
prentice, collected his verses and published them in 1740.
2 This person, undoubtedly a Quaker, urged that his services should be
adopted by falling into verse:
,( Thegreat Jehovah from above,
Whose Christian name is Light and Love,
In all HiB works will take delight,
And wash poor Hagar's Blackmoors white.
Let none condemn this undertaking
By silent thought or noisy speaking;
They're fools whose bolts soon shot upon
The mark they've looked but little on."
came to an end in March, 1723, an act of Assembly
then having put its property into the hands of trus-
tees for sale to pay its debts. The trustees were
Charles Read, Job Goodson, Evan Owen, George
Fitzwalter, and Joseph Pigeon. These soon disposed
of the property. The municipal corporation also sold
the old city prison for seventy-five pounds, the new
stone jail and work-house, southwest corner High and
Third Streets, being completed. Two prisoners at-
tempted to break this jail soon after it was occupied,
but failed.
The financial situation of Philadelphia at this time
was not wholesome. Perhaps to some of the men in
affairs to-day the following exhibit may appear trivial;
it is still the fact that it gave the Common Council
great concern, the more so that it appears to have
been difficult to get at the figures, and only by repeated
endeavors was the committee appointed to settle the
public accounts of the city induced to report.
Corporation op Philadelphia.
Dr. 1723. £ s. d.
8 mo. 1, To Robert Assheton so much due him 71 7 4
i2 n50., To William Nichols for Carting Gravel, Earth, &c,
for paving ah4 ye Court House 7 8 0
" To Samuel Johnson for painting the Market House... 7 2 0
1 m°, 1724, To Wm Wray's Acc° for paving 408 y*6 about the
Market Stalls & for 6 Loads of Stones & hailing
for y° same 11 6 6
" To Wm. Fishhourn Ball" of hiB Acc» 76 14 8
ToW»PawIet 25 2 8%
" To Thomas Hill 10 0 0
£209 1 %
Corporation of Philadelphia.
Cr. 1723. £ s. d.
8 mo. 1, By William Carter for Ball" of his Acc° 49 18 0%
" More for outstanding Debts due on the Stalls to be
Accounted for when rec'd £37 4s. 10%d.
" By John Leach for Rent to 1 8 mo., 1723 20 0 0
" By Sarah Rodman for Rent to 24 4 ™, 1723 9 0 0
By estate of Thomas Masters, Do 9 0 0
By Owen Roberts for Ball' of his Acc« to the 5 mo., 1723.... 78 9 9
£166 7 9%
Ballft which is the present Debt of the Corp 42 13 6
£209 1 Z%
As is apt to be the case, this deficit led to heroic
financiering, and the floating debt became a real one.
The city treasurer was ordered to pay over to the
treasurer of the city and county the avails from the
sale of the old city prison ; the mayor was ordered to
pay off and take up the bonds given by ex-Mayor
Fishbourn for the money lent for building the market-
stalls; and the mayor was ordered to complete a loan
of £300 granted by the Assembly to the city from the
money in the hands of the loan-office, and another of
the same amount, money granted for building roads
and bridges. A committee was appointed to see to the
erection of the new structures, and they were author-
ized to draw at once for one-third of the £300. Debts
were then paid to the amount of £282 8s. Qd. perma-
nent obligations, and £60 19s. 2d. floating debt, and
so a bonded interest-bearing debt of £600 was cre-
ated.
In the Assembly of 1725-26 some acts were passed
showing the growth of Philadelphia in munici-
pal quality; as, for example, one providing for in-
specting and branding flour to prevent the export
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
203
of that which was not merchantable; one to provide
for a powder-house on Pegg's property, north of the
city, and entailing the office of keeper upon William
Chancellor, and his heirs and assigns, upon condition
of his erecting a proper structure. For keeping pow-
der he was to collect 12 pence per barrel for the first
six months, and 6 pence for each month thereafter.
It was in this year also that we have the first intima-
tion of a public conveyance for hire for the use of the
citizens and strangers. It was advertised in the
Mercury that " the four-wheeled chaise belonging to
David Evans is now intended to be continually kept
in order by Thomas Skelton, near the Three Tons, in
Chestnut Street." From Philadelphia to German-
town, four persons, 12s. 6d. ; Frankford, 10s. ; Gray's
Ferry, in the morning, 10s. ; in the afternoon, 7s. 6<i
Keith left his place reluctantly, and his successor,
Maj. Patrick Gordon, was qualified as Lieutenant-
Governor June 22, 1726. Keith probably had some
followers, but it is likely the greater part of the com-
munity beheld his withdrawal with a sense of relief.
Beyond reinstating James Logan, Gordon made no
changes, and announced a conservative and concilia-
tory policy. He stated that the home government
were not content with the currency issues, but that
gold and silver were not now at such a premium as
had ruled a few months before. At the same time he
thought that the inflation of the currency had stimu-
lated industry to new enterprises, such as hemp- and
silk-growing. Of the latter he seems to have had the
most unbounded hopes, the cause of which probably
is that Benjamin Franklin had begun to think much
of silk-culture at this time. The province and city
certainly were prosperous. The Assembly, in an ad-
dress to the Governor, said, "There has been more
goods imported and more ships built in this place on
British account than was ever known of at any time
before."1
Gordon, frank, bluff soldier, kept the loyal anni-
versaries, and the people celebrated them with him ;
as, for instance, when the birthday of the Prince of
Wales was made a festival at the Governor's house,
with drinking of health, salutes of cannon from the
decorated shipping, the Governor's house illuminated,
and even a ball given, said to have been the first on
record in Philadelphia. But there were riots, too, at a
later date, in one of which the pillory and stocks in
1 Vessels built in Philadelphia.
Tear. Vessels.
1722 10
1723 13
1724 19
Commerce of the Port.
_ EntrieB and
■uate- Clearances.
1719, November 1st 128
1720, " HO
1721, " Ill
1722, " 96
1723, " 99
1724, " 119
1725, " 140
Tons.
458
507
959
Tons.
4514
3982
3711
3531
3942
5450
6655
the market-place were burned down by the mob,
compelling the Governor to issue a proclamation.
New Castle and Kent Counties (Delaware) now had
a currency of their own, uncurrent in Philadelphia
unless by consent, and the following merchants are
found advertising in the Mercury that they will take
bills of these counties : James Logan, William Allen,
William Atwood, White & Taylor, Israel Pember-
ton, James Baily, John Derper, Catherine Smith,
Anthony Morris, Michael Downes, Joseph Barger,
Philip Doz, William Masters, George Mifflin, Theo-
dore Chase, Job Goodson, Thomas Peters, Matthew
Birchfield, Evan Owen, Richard Preston, William
Branson, Andrew Robeson, John Cadwallader, Francis
Harding, Richard Parker, John Leech, Henry Hodge,
Benjamin Paschall, Simon Edgell, Thomas Masters,
Clement Plumsted, Thomas Lawrence, Samuel Pres-
ton, Isaac Norris, Jr., Sarah Redman, Nathaniel
Owen, Alexander Woodrop, Samson Cary, Robert
Ellis, Joseph Turner, Samuel Hasell, George Clay-
poole, Charles Read, Joseph England, Rice Peters,
William Moss, Mary Calvers, John Reeve, Casper
Wister, Richard Robinson, Nathaniel Edgecomb,
Edward Roberts, Boulah Coates, Ralph Sandiford,
William Corker, James Tuthill, Martha Aspdin,
William Till, Thomas Griffiths, Edward Farmer.
In March, 1727, occurred a great storm and flood,
and the country was swept by such a raging sickness
that the Assembly could not meet until the regular
time for session had gone by. There was a conference,
however, to enable the Governor to explain that the
bills of the province would need to be called in, in
consequence of the " horrid attempt of some of the
wickedest of men to adulterate the bills of credit" of
the province.2 The bills were called in and counter-
feiting made a capital crime. At the same time a
memorial was prepared with a view to conciliate
the hostility of the Lords Commissioners of Trade
and Plantations to the paper-money scheme. This
memorial represented everything as couleur de rose in
connection with the Pennsylvania scheme of finance.
The lords probably were not convinced, but experi-
ence had taught them the futility of opposing paper-
money issues in the colonies.
Stringent measures were adopted for the effective
inspection of beef and pork for exportation ; and the
Governor and Assembly showed themselves in a com-
plete panic in regard to the influx of Palatines and
other foreigners, the redemptioners now including
Swiss, Scotch, English, and Irish, as well as Germans.
If the fear of the authorities had prevailed at this
time, the bone and marrow of the population of Cen-
tral Pennsylvania to-day would have been kept out
of the province. The Common Council appears to
2 This attempt was apparently successful, so far at least as the spurious
notes gaining circulation, for we find in the proceedings of Common
Council, 6th Feb. 1727-28, a petition of John Hawkins, asking to be re-
leased of a fine of one hundred pounds "set upon him by a Court of
Record of this City for Counterfeiting a Bill of Credit of this Province."
204
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
have been angry with Samuel Keimer, the printer,
for attempting to get up a lottery ; but it was more
busy about the flagstaff on Society Hill, the Governor
having, presented the corporation with a new flag,
made by William Chancellor, sail-maker, at a cost of
£13 10s., and the celebrating the birthday of the son
of the Prince of Wales. This — the prince was George
III. — occurred on May 31st. It was Sunday, but the
event was not neglected. There was a reunion at
Governor Gordon's house, where the health of the
king was drunk amid salvos of artillery. Next day
the festival was renewed. The Governor kept open
house to the gentry, and there was an entertainment
and ball at night.
Old George I. died June 11th, and George II. was
proclaimed in the market-place in Philadelphia, Au-
gust 31st. The new king's birthday was celebrated
in October, when Chancellor's (the sail-maker) house
was availed of for a ship-owners' entertainment, with
twenty-one pieces of cannon firing salutes in the
garden ; a hall at the Governor's following, and next
day a feast by Mayor Charles Read, and a dinner by
the grand jury on Wednesday. What the members
of the Society of Friends said about these things is
not put upon record.
At this time the Assembly sat in the house of John
Eyer, paying him ten pounds per annum rent. We
discover that the members already knew how to
practice the device now known as a "' dead-lock,"
absenting themselves so as to prevent a quorum when
distasteful business was forced upon them. The con-
troversy was as trivial as its cause, — -the vagaries of
Sir William Keith, — and no room need be made for it
here, though it led to a war of pamphlets, and there
were some constitutional questions involved. Keith,
a member elect of the Assembly, absented himself
and went to England. He did not return.
The first session of Assembly in 1729 was held at
the house of Capt. Anthony, and was given chiefly
to a consideration of the paper-money question. In
April there was excitement in the city in consequence
of the arrival in the Delaware of a vessel containing
emigrants down with a malignant disease, probably
ship-fever. It was the ship " Dorothy," John Bed-
ford master ; she was boarded by Health Officers Dr.
Thomas Graeme and Lloyd Zachary, under direction
of Governor and Council and of Mayor Thomas Law-
rence and Recorder Andrew Hamilton ; forbidden to
come within a mile of the city or to land goods or
passengers until the sheriff selected some safe place on
shore for the sick. The spot fixed on was the Blue
House Tavern, corner of Tenth and South Streets,
and here quarantine was duly and safely performed,
while the ship was effectually disinfected.
Governor Gordon, on returning from his successful
visit to and. conference with the Indians at Conestoga,
was accorded a really flattering and handsome recep-
tion by the citizens of Philadelphia. " He was met
by Richard Hill and numerous citizens at a distance
from the city and welcomed by a handsome collation
served up in the woods. He was received at the
boundary of the city by Thomas Lawrence, the mayor,
and a number of ladies and gentlemen in coaches,
and escorted to his mansion by a cavalcade of two
hundred, ' the largest ever met in this province.' " It
is quite possible this demonstration may have had
some political significance. The Assembly was in
session at the time; the Governor known to be op-
posed to a new issue of paper money ; the majority
of the Assembly, on the other hand, in favor of a
very large issue, fifty thousand pounds. A compro-
mise was effected by the Governor consenting to thirty
thousand pounds, but not before much disorder, many
" delegations" coming in from the country to compel
the Assembly to grant the increased currency de-
manded. The riot act had to be proclaimed, and
some of the bolder " lobbyists" were arraigned for
contempt of the Assembly and trying to intimidate
it. Samuel Mickle, George Claypoole, George Coates,
and Jonathan Kempster were taken into custody and
brought before the bar of the house, and the two
latter were reprimanded by the Speaker and compelled
to ask pardon on their knees. The Governor, in sign-
ing the bill, said that " so great and so indecent a
noise has been made in some parts of this province
that, to prevent the insults intended by some misled
people spirited up to mischief, we were obliged to put
a late act of Parliament in force amongst us."1
The passage of the paper-money bill, however, put
the Assembly in a liberal mood. It contained a grant
of two thousand pounds for the building of a State-
House, and the dolorous petition of the overseers of
the poor of Philadelphia for relief on account of the
destitutes thrown upon their charge through the great
immigration opened the way to a loan of one thou-
sand pounds to the mayor and commonalty for the
building of an almshouse. The Common Council took
possession of this money Oct. 12, 1730, and ordered a
plan to be prepared. The Assembly also passed an
act, the object of which was to prevent the immigra-
tion or importation of poor and impotent persons,
with regulations very similar to those which are in
force at the present time. Other acts were passed,
requiring hawkers to give bond that the goods they
sold were as represented ; forbidding lotteries under
a penalty of one hundred pounds ; forbidding the
holding of vendues at night, or in the streets of Phil-
adelphia at any time, and giving the Governor power
to appoint a vendue-master for Philadelphia. Patrick
Baird was the first appointee. Edward Carter was
allowed ten pounds for hoisting the flag on Society
1 " The affaii'B of that year (1728) and the next, when the whole country
was maddening ahout paper money, gave us a vast deal of trouble, and it
was then thought that nothing but putting the English Act against
riots in force here would have prevented the utmoBt disorders. This
was most happily and seasonably done by Andrew Hamilton's means;
hut two days before two hundred men were, by an agreement, to come
down out of the country and attack the opponents of a new emission of
paper money, in which those of the town were to join."
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
205
Hill on Sundays and holidays, and the treasurer of
the province was directed to get a new flag. At this
time the Common Council ordered that the heirs of
Joshua Carpenter should give up Potter's field, — its
site is the inclosure now known as Washington Square.
Jacob Shoemaker got the new lease. A number of
new stalls were ordered to be erected in the market.
Punishments at this time were very severe, but the
law was not equally administered. Glasgow, an Iu-
dian, convicted of larceny, was made to stand an
hour in the pillory and then take twenty lashes at the
cart's tail in six places in the city. A ship's captain,
proven to have killed a passenger by barbarous torture
and keel-hauling, is tried in Admiralty Court and ac-
quitted. James Prouse and James Mitchell, con-
victed of burglary, are sentenced to be hung. Wednes-
day, Jan. 14, 1730, they are led out for execution. One
is but nineteen; the judges have recommended to
mercy, but the Governor's heart is steeled by remem-
brance of the frequency of crime and the increase of
vagrants from Europe. An example is necessary.
At one o'clock p.m. the bell tolls, a great crowd
gathers at the prison ; the irons are taken off the un-
happy lads. Prouse cries hysterically ; Mitchell, al-
ways calm, tries to comfort him in a tender, soothing
way. "Do not cry, Jemmy ; 'twill soon be over, and then
we shall both be easy." Seated on their coffins in a cart,
they lead the procession to the gallows, Mitchell, al-
ways sustaining his weaker companion, bearing him-
self like a man. The tree is reached ; they are asked
to confess and speak to the people. Prouse mutters
some remarks, but Mitchell only says, with serene
face, " What would you have me say? I am innocent of
the fact." Told that his remark reflected on the jury,
he repeats, — " Jam innocent, and it will appear so before
God," and sits down. They are ordered to their feet
again ; the ropes are thrown over the beam, the sheriff
begins to read. It is their death-warrant — but, why
those words, recommended to me for pity and mercy ?
It is the reprieve ! Mitchell's nervous tension yields
to sudden collapse; he falls in a dead faint and
scarcely may be recovered ; but after a while reviving,
falls to crying, — "I have been a great sinner; guilty of
almost every crime, but never of theft. God bless the
Governor J" And so they return again to prison, the
weak man quite revived, the strong man still all a
shiver with the nearness of the touch of death.
Something dramatic in that scene, given, much
abridged, from the Pennsylvania Gazette of Jan. 20,
1730, supposed to be from Franklin's pen. In the
same number of the paper is an account of a duel.
Two young Hibernians, Saturday last, on Society
Hill, met at 9 A.M. and fought a duel before an array
of spectators. Cause of quarrel not known, nor was
it difficult to part them, so the whole scene is looked
upon to be only a piece of theatrical representation.
The same day one Sturgis, upon some difficulty with
his wife, determined to drown himself in the river,
she going with him, kind soul, to see it faithfully per-
formed, and indeed stood by silent and unconcerned
during the whole transaction. He jumped in near
Carpenter's wharf, but was timely taken out again,
and so both went home disappointed.
In April this year the most serious fire since its
foundation visited the city, breaking out in a store
near Fishbourne's wharf, below Chestnut Street. It
consumed all the stores on the wharf and some houses
up King Street, during which it burnt the fine houses
of Jonathan Dickinson and two others. Loss, five
thousand pounds, heavy for the period. The engines
were inadequate, and there was much thieving com-
plained of in connection with this fire, a new proof
of the immorality which was spreading. In fact,
Philadelphia was now growing to be a city ; 171 ves-
sels cleared, 161 entered during the year, 622 votes
cast, 227 deaths.1
Another evidence that Philadelphia had become a
city was the fact that William Fishbourne, ex-mayor, a
man of many great trusts, and now trustee of the Loan
Office, was this year declared a defaulter, some two
thousand pounds of the public funds in his hands dis-
appearing. He alleged robbery, but the Assembly did
not believe, or, at least, would not relieve him. It re-
quired him to give security for the lost money, and
made him ineligible to any office of trust or profit.
The City Council, March 3, 1731, decided to buy
for the almshouse site the lot of Aldran Allen, near
Society Hill, price two hundred pounds. This was a
green meadow, the square now bounded by Third,
Fourth, Spruce, and Pine Streets. The building
seems to have been commenced without delay, and to
have been completed by next year. We have no
account of its appearance. The front was towards
the east, entered by a stile from Third Street, the
great gate being on Spruce Street. It was used for
1 The merchants and others agreeing to take New Castle money at
par this year were Andrew Hamilton, Clem. Plumsted, Sam. Hasell,
Pat. Graeme, Arent Hassert, George McCall, Henry Hodge, Thomas
Bourne, Mark Joyce, John Hyatt, Benj. Shoemaker, John Buley, Nathan
Pryor, Blakston Ingedee, William Williams, Samuel Baker, Jonathan
Palmer, Thomas Marriott, John Watson, Sam. PreBton, I. Norris, Jr.,
Thomas Sober, John Richmond, George Claypoole, John Bringhurst,
Geo. Emleu, Thos. Holloway, John Heathcoat, Zach. Hutchins, John
Kay, Dan. Hybert, Matt. Hewghes, Ab'm Chapman, Isaac Pennington,
Isaac Norris, Thos. Lawrence, Peter Lloyd, Geo; Growden, Jr., Ben.
Godefroy, Ant. Morris, Charles Read, Ralph Asheton, Wm. Rawle,
Cassel & Maugridge, Michael Hulings, Richard Allen, Samuel Cooper,
Francis Knowles, Joseph Hinchman, John Rensliaw, Matthias Aspden,
Jacob Shute, William Tidmarsh, Christian Van Horn, Jno. A. De Nor-
mandie, John Baker, George Clough, James Logan, Thomas Griffith,
White & Taylor, James Hume, Alexander Woodrop, Thomas Willing,
William Masters, James Parrock, John Bowyer, Josh. Maddox, Thomas
Leech, Wm. Corker, Wm. Chancellor, William Carter, Edward Roberts,
Lees & Parsons, Thomas Sharp, Arnold Cassel, Thos. Asheton, Charles
West, Robert Worthington, John Mason, John Warder, Simon Edgell,
Paul Preston, John Stamper, Jere Langhorn, Wm. BileB, Thos. Canby,
Thos. Watson, John Hall, Joseph Kirkbride, Jr., Paul Blaker, Robert
Edwards, Richard Sands, John Claves, William Fishbourne, Wm. Allen,
Joseph Turner, Thos. Hutton, Wm. Atwood, Wm. Rabley, John Hop-
kins, John Cadwallader, Joseph Lynn, Thomas Chase, John Roberts,
Joseph Pennock, John Wright, Samuel Gilpin, Geo. Rice Jones, Nath.
Watson, Benj. Jones, Thos. Tardley, Wm. Paxson, Thos. Biles, Simon
Butler, Tim. Smith, Niel Grand, John Bell.
206
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
sick and insane, as well as paupers. There was a
piazza all around the building.
The trustees of the State-House fund were Andrew
Hamilton, the Speaker of the Assembly, Thomas
Lawrence, and Dr. John Kearsley. Oct. 15, 1730,
they bought, through William Allen, a lot on the
south side of Chestnut Street, between Fifth and
Sixth Streets, and some other adjoining lots. In
February and June, 1732, more lots were bought
and the building of the State-House was begun
apparently in the summer of 1732. It seems that
Kearsley and Hamilton were at cross-purposes in
regard to the building. The matter was brought
before the Assembly, and, after a full discussion,
Hamilton's plans were fully approved and the ex-
ecution of the work put in his charge. This build-
ing must thus be looked upon as entirely Hamilton's
work, as old Christ Church is almost entirely Dr.
John Kearsley's.
Andrew Bradford was at this time postmaster. In
the Weekly Mercury of July 20, 1732, he explains
that since Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, had
become Postmaster-General he had actively sought
to extend postal connections southward. Williams-
burg was already connected, Edenton shortly would
be, and next Charleston. To help this arrangement
a distributing-office had been established at New-
port, six miles below the falls of Rappahannock,
Va. "Hues and cries (for runaways) may be dis-
perst at the stage-offices at the price of one penny-
weight silver at each stage or office where dispersed.''
Bradford's mail arrangements were as follows : mail
from New England, New York, etc., is received in
Philadelphia each Wednesday; on Thursday morn-
ing it is forwarded to New Castle, arriving at eleven ;
departs at once to Susquehanna, reaching there at
night and laying over until midnight Sunday, when
it is forwarded to Joppa, getting there at 6 A.M. ; Pa-
tapsco Ferry at noon ; Annapolis, Monday night at
6 p.m. ; lays over six hours, and at midnight starts
for Marlborough, arriving at 5 a.m. Tuesday. It is
expected in Williamsburg, Thursday, 6 p.m., and to
be back in Philadelphia by three o'clock Wednesday.
Travelers did not proceed as fast as the mail, but
they had greater excuse to rest leisurely in their inns,
for the justices of Quarter Sessions regulated ordinary
rates, and did not scale them high. Wine, per quart,
was 2 shillings; rum, 2 pence per gill; rum punch,
with double refined sugar, 1 shilling 4 pence per
quart; flip, 8 pence per quart; rum punch, single
refined sugar, 1 shilling per quart; arrack, one quart,
made into punch, 3 shillings ; beer, per quart, 3
pence ; best beer, 5 pence ; oats, per bushel, 3 shil-
lings 4 pence; cider, per quart, 3 pence; English
hay for a horse, for a night, 8 pence ; common hay,
5 pence.
In this year, 1732, the smallpox was so severe in
Philadelphia that it was difficult to keep the Assem-
bly in session. A deputation of Shawanese Indians
visiting the city, one of the tribe, Quassenungh, was
taken down with the pestilence. He was well nursed,
and recovered, but the speaker of the delegation,
Opakethewa, who stayed with him, took the disease
and died. He was given a ceremonious funeral by
the authorities, and after he was buried Quassenungh
had a relapse, died, and was buried with pomp and
solemnity, the ships firing salutes, and two yards of
black cloth being sent to the youth's father. A
bridge was built by the Assembly this year over
Cobb's Creek. The Common Council decided that
none but freemen of the city should be eligible to
election as common councilmen, and the Board also
ordered an ordinance to be drawn to prevent the
great nuisance of negro slave gatherings on Sunday,
" Gaming, Cursing, Swearing, and Committing many
other Disorders," and also to prevent children and
white servants from forming crowds on that day,
playing games, and making noise in the streets.
Palatine immigrants, when they landed, were marched
in line to the court-house, where they laid down their
guns, met the Governor, subscribed the oaths, saluted
the Governor with three volleys, the same to the
mayor and sheriff, and so back to the ship.
In August, this year, Hon. Thomas Penn, one of
the sons of the proprietary, came out to Philadelphia,
receiving much honor and a procession of seven hun-
dred horsemen, speech of welcome by Speaker Ham-
ilton, addresses, reception, and a collation by Com-
mon Council. Keimer, in his Barbadoes paper, The
Caribbean, laughs at the youth, and says he was
frightened at the stalwart reception accorded him.
The Assembly also gave him a banquet, the chiefs of
the Five Nations a pow-wow, the fire-engines played
for him, the freeholders feasted him, and the church-
wardens and vestry gave him a notable dinner at
David Evans' Crown Tavern. On the king's birth-
day Mr. Penn gave a return banquet, with many
toasts, salvos from fifty cannon, and a ball at the
Governor's house in the evening.
In 1733-34 a regular stage-line was established to
New York, two stage- wagons, conducted by Solomon
Smith and James Moore, running back and forth be-
tween Burlington and Amboy once a week. The
poor-rates seemed to press heavily upon the corpora-
tion, leading to complaint of mismanagement at the
almshouses and some changes in the system of over-
seeing, a superintendent being provided for. Public
wood-corders were also appointed, — Richard Plum-
mer and Peter Calahoon for High Street wharf,
John Joyner for Mulberry Street, and Jeremiah
Willis for Chestnut Street and Walnut Street wharves
and Blue Anchor landing.
One cause of the high poor-rates was the severe
winter of 1732-33. There was fifteen inches of ice in
the Schuylkill, and when it broke up in February it
caused great damage. Gray's Ferry was injured to
the amount of one hundred pounds, two men were
drowned at Andrew Robinson's, on Wissahickon, and
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
207
all the ferries were blocked. Men sleighed down the
Delaware on the ice from Burlington, and it was com-
mon to cross to New Jersey in that way. This severe
winter was succeeded by a hot, oppressive summer, in
which many died from sunstroke.
John Penn, William Penn's oldest living son, with
his brother-in-law, Thomas Frame, and the latter's
wife, formerly Margaret Penn, together with their
family, came to Philadelphia in September. They
did not see Wait, the counterfeiter, standing patient
in the pillory, nor the whale-cow and calf sporting in
the Delaware, yet they saw a goodly sight. Men and
women turned out to meet and welcome them, the
mayor, recorder, corporation, and all. There was a
cavalcade and coach parade, flags flying, and guns
firing on Society Hill and from the ships in the river.
There were addresses from all the official bodies, and
the Common Council gave a banquet which cost £40
12s. 2d Capt. Norris, with the English frigate " Tar-
tar Pink," was in the harbor at the time, the captain's
wife being with him, and the merchants gave the city's
distinguished guests a banquet, in addition to the nu-
merous private entertainments. The royal healths
were drunk amid salutes of one hundred and forty
guns. Possibly it may have been this redundance of
feasting which brought down Michael Welfare, one of
the hermits of Conestoga, upon the city, in his linen
pilgrim's garb, with his tall staff and long venerable
beard, to stand in the market-place and announce the
judgments of an offended Deity against the iniqui-
tous place. He railed for a quarter of an hour vehe-
mently, surrounded by a gaping crowd, then returned
to his Patmos above the Wissahickon, probably ex-
pecting the earthquake to follow at his heels.
At this period population had begun to cross
the city's restricted boundaries in more than one
direction. There were many settlements in the
Northern Liberties. Petitions were numerous to
the Provincial Council for the regulation of the
high roads to Germantown and Frankford. The
lands of Daniel Pegg and William Coates were in
part divided into town-lots and built upon, and
farther improvements were made on the highway
from Society Hill towards Gloucester.
In 1735-36 we find farther legislation intended to
lighten the increasing burthen of keeping the poor
and preventing abuses growing out of misconduct
or neglect on the part of managers and overseers. In
this latter year Anthony Benezet was naturalized, to-
gether with Abraham Zimmerman, Christian Weber,
Nicholas Keyser, Martin Bitting, Conrad Keer, Con-
rad Kuster, Jacob Duke, Anthony Zadouski, Hans
Pingeman, Andreas Keaver, and Lodowick Pitting.
In January the west end of the State-House was or-
dered to "be wainscotted of a convenient height on
three sides, and that the end be neatly wainscotted
and finished the whole height for the use of the As-
sembly." The room thus designated as the chamber
of the Legislature is Independence Hall.
John Penn made but a brief stay in the province.
He looked after his property and some special indus-
tries, such as the manufacture of potash. In Septem-
ber he entertained the General Assembly at Shewbert's
London Coffee-House, feasting the city corporation
next day, and a short while afterwards set out for
New Castle, where he took passage in the London
packet, Capt. Budden, wafted eastward by light verses
from local bards. His brother, Thomas Penn, re-
mained in the province.
The Schuylkill fisheries had already required to be
protected against the reckless and destructive methods
of fishermen, their weirs and racks, and a judicious
law on this subject had such a salutary effect that the
Governor declined to consent to its repeal or modifi-
cation. Under the old unchecked system the shad
were actually hunted, by men on horseback and on
foot, into the weirs, and the destruction was inex-
cusably great. In 1738 the enforcement of this law
led to riots in Philadelphia County and on Mingo and
Pickering Creeks.
Governor Gordon died Aug. 5, 1736, and was suc-
ceeded by James Logan in his capacity as president
of Council. Maj. Gordon was exceptionally fortu-
nate in being able to get along fairly well with the
Assembly and people. He and his wife were buried
in Christ Church, but there is nothing to mark the
tomb.
When the new Assembly met, after Logan's acces-
sion, it was found necessary to petition the king to
interpose to prevent unpleasant consequences pending
the settlement of the disputed boundary with Mary-
land. The legislative body first occupied the State-
House in October, 1735. In January, 1736, Province
THE STATE-HOUSE IN 1744.
Hall, the adjoining building, was completed, and the
public officers were compelled to move in, with their
papers and records, some of them taking it a great
hardship, as hitherto people had gone to them and
left documents with them at their own domiciles.
The property on which the State-House stood had
been held in the names of Harrison and Allen, and
they were now required to convey it to John Kinsey,
Joseph Kirkbride, Caleb Copeland, and Thomas Ed-
wards, in trust for the representatives of the people
and the public uses. This trusteeship continued until
the Revolution. The lots on the southwest corner of
208
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Chestnut and Fifth Streets and the southeast corner
of Chestnut and Sixth Streets, were appropriated for
two public buildings, — one for the use of the county,
the other of the city of Philadelphia, for courts and
other public purposes. The accounts of the commis-
sioners for building the State-House were audited in
1738. Hamilton had expended £4043 16s. lid on
account of the State-House, and was allowed for com-
missions, services, etc., £402 3s. 9£d There were
still owing small bills amounting to £220 17s. 6d,
making the whole of Hamilton's outlay £4666 17s.
lid Among the credits was £17 " for an old house
sold Caleb Ransted." Lawrence and Kearsley had
each received their share of the first instalment of
£2000 voted by the State for the conducting of the
building, being £666 13s. 4d each of that money.
Lawrence had paid £399 19s. 3d, and Kearsley £550.
Both of these gentlemen had money in their hands
and were allowed a small commission.
There was a great treaty made this year with the
chiefs of the Six Nations. The council was held in the
Quaker meeting-house, corner of Second and Market
Streets, in September and October, under the appropri-
ate auspices of James Logan. One hundred of the
chiefs were present, and Logan entertained them for
three days at Stenton before the council. At the meet-
ing-house the chiefs sat in the body of the house, the.
galleries crowded with spectators. The Seneca chief,
Kanickhungo, was the principal speaker, and the ob-
ject of the conference was the continuance of peace
and friendship. Many presents were exchanged, and
the conference gathered solemnity from the certainty
in the minds of all that an Indian war was not far
distant.
The commerce of Philadelphia at this time contin-
ued to increase. The arrivals between March, 1735,
and March, 1736, were two hundred and twelve ves-
sels, clearances two hundred and fifteen vessels, and
the ports traded to included London, Antigua, Bar-
badoes, Bristol, Bermuda, Cadiz, Jamaica, Ireland,
Lisbon, Fayal, Newfoundland, St. Kitt's, Turk's Is-
land, Cape Faro, Curacoa, Cowes, Dover, Falmouth,
Genoa, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Monserrat, St. Eustatia,
Tortugas, and Yrica.
The Common Council endeavored to derive a greater
income from its stalls outside the court-house and to
regulate the conduct of its markets better. It sought
again to get control of the ferries, and the proprietary
consented to vest in the corporation the ferry-right
across the Delaware, foot of High Street, but required
the land at Schuylkill ferry to be paid for.
An instance of rude and ungallant justice is afforded
at this time in the punishment of Frances Hamilton,
a woman caught picking pockets in the market. She
was exposed at the top of the court-house steps, her
hands bound to the rails and her face turned towards
the whipping-post and pillory; after being kept thus
for two hours, so that all might know her, she was
taken down and publicly whipped.
On Dec. 7, 1736, the Union Fire Company of Phil-
adelphia was established, the organization of which
will be found fully treated elsewhere. It originated
partly in a suggestion of Benjamin Franklin, and
was in undoubted response to the popular need. The
winter of 1736-37 was very severe, making the danger
greater from fires. The newspapers contain accounts
of many persons frozen to death and great injury
done by floods when the ice broke in the Schuylkill.
One fire during this weather occurred in the house
where a strange guest was lodging, an alleged Eastern
prince and Christian, Sheik Sidi or Shedid Alhagar,
who came with his suite from Europe, taking Barba-
does on his route. James Logan conversed with him,
furbishing up his Arabic and Syriac. The sheik was
begging, and counted most upon the Friends. He
was rather an adventurer, but not an impostor, as
there is contemporary Eastern mention of him by
travelers not likely to be deceived. His visit was
contemporary with rather an alarming comet, but no
attempt was made to connect the two.
In 1738 we find the grand jury presenting streets
as impassable, as a preliminary to compel them to be
paved. This was the case with parts of Front Street,
Sassafras, and High Streets, etc., and in connection
with this paving was begun the system of under-
ground drainage by arched culverts which makes all
the subsoil of Philadelphia so dry to-day.
James Logan's presidency terminated June 1, 1738,
when he was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor
George Thomas. The latter came in upon the edge
of troublesome times, nor did he find the Assembly
complaisant. He had an early collision with them
upon the subject of increasing the paper-money issue,
but yielded his judgment to theirs in time. In
the summer of 1739 came news of difficulty with
Spain about Campeachy logwood and Tortugas salt,
and in August Governor Thomas issued his letters of
marque to the first privateer which ever fitted out at
and sailed from Philadelphia, the sloop " George,"
ten guns and ten swivels, William Axon, commander.
Volunteers were invited to rendezvous at the Crooked
Billet and sign articles. The " George" sailed in No-
vember, returning the next July with some cocoa
and goods. The Governor was eager to put the prov-
ince in a state of defense, but the Quaker influence
frustrated him. He abounded in other suggestions,
to which the House listened attentively, but no more.
The House settled with Andrew Hamilton, then
Speaker, for the completion of the State-House, and
at the end of that session the old worthy withdrew
from public life in a patriotic and stirring address.
Sanitary measures occupied the immediate public
attention of Philadelphia at this time, and an unsuc-
cessful attempt was made to compel the removal of
the slaughter-houses, tan-yards, lime-pits, and skin-
ner's yards, the offal of which polluted the dock, on
the margin of which they were placed. The trades
triumphed for a while, and made no little jubilee over
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
209
their success in frustrating "such a daring attempt
on the liberties of the tradesmen of Philadelphia."
It is amusing to encounter the same class of argu-
ments precisely which are to-day heard under similar
circumstances. The screen of abuses has been in use
long enough to be well-nigh worn out now, one should
think.1
In 1740 the controversy between the Governor and
Assembly on the public defenses grew angry. They
fell out also about the proper plan of raising money
in Philadelphia, the mode of levying taxes having
caused discontent. There was an issue between the
Assembly and the corporation upon the question of
giving the levy-power to assessors and commissioners ;
the mayor and Council appealed to the Governor,
and he sided with them. In fact, the new bill did
impair some of the powers of the corporation under
the charter, as it was meant to do, and the Governor
stated the case. A constitutional question was raised
on his authority to assign reasons for opposing a bill,
and so a new ground of controversy arose. The As-
sembly, in fact, suspected the Governor of deliberate,
preconceived intention to overturn the charter and
subvert the liberties of the province. As Israel Pem-
berton said, "they knew what the Governor was be-
fore he came over," and were prepared for him.
April 14, 1740, war with Spain was proclaimed at
the court-house; the Governor and corporation were
present; salute of cannon upon Society Hill; liquor
free to all, loud health-drinking to the royal family,
and bonfires at night. The Governor at once issued
proclamation authorizing a levy of troops for the ex-
pedition against Cuba, the following being the re-
cruiting officers named for Philadelphia City and
County: Capt. Palmer, Thomas Lawrence, Samuel
Love, at Perkiomen; Marcus Huling, Manatawny ;
Owen Evan, Limerick ; Alexander Woodrop, and
James Hamilton. It was expected to find plenty of
recruits among the continental foreigners in the prov-
ince, but they did not respond. Many flattering in-
ducements were thrown out, and when these failed
the Governor countenanced the enlistment of for-
eigners, a practice very injurious and leading to seri-
ous trouble and vehement remonstrance. When the
1 Franklin had his fling at them, of course; but, as his way was,
anonymously. Speaking of the tanners' advocate at the bar of the
Assembly, he said, —
"The youth that appeared for them said much about the sweetness
and cleanliness of their trade, and said that he could smell no stink.
" That their trade was sweet, and affirmed that it waB untrue to say
otherwise.
"That what some people called a stink from the pits was a sweet
smell.
"That the tanners were as healthy as other men ; adding, Are we not
healthy men 1
" The weight of these and other reasons, and the behavior and manner
of their speaker, was very extraordinary and amazing, and drew the
eyes of all that were present. He assumed a military air and strut,
placed himself at the front of the tanners, putting one leg foremost;
he drew his handkerchief, rolled it up in his hand, gave it a few elegant
flirts and tosses, and, having gained a proper posture, he looked on the
spectators with an air of grandeur, Belf-sufficiency, and contempt."
14
Governor called for supplies the Assembly retaliated
upon him, and thus the endless irritation was kept up.
1741 was an unhappy year for Philadelphia, — dis-
content, wars, rumors of wars, pestilence, famine and
distress among the poor, dissensions among those in
power and place. The currency was disordered, the
home government and the city people differing about
the rates to be paid for foreign coins.2 There were
large fires, the Governor's mills, on the Cohocksink,
and " Hamilton's buildings," on the riverfront, being
burnt. The severe weather of the winter caused so
much distress among the poor that the regular re-
sources were exhausted, and the Common Council
had to make an additional appropriation and appoint
a committee to solicit subscriptions for relief.8 There
were riots (growing out of the scarcity of small
change), so that the Common Council had to estab-
lish a rallying signal for the citizens to rendezvous at
central points for the suppression of outbreaks, and
order a sort of curfew to compel negroes to go home
early and cease their riotous assemblages. There was
a serious epidemic outbreak of yellow fever, the cause
of which was either West Indies importation or the
bad condition of the dock. The Governor and As-
sembly had a bitter quarrel about it, and the result
was a heavy increase of mortality. There were seven
hundred and eighty-five burials during the year, an
increase of five hundred and five over the preceding
year. The disease was called the Palatine fever, and
2 Many merchants advertised their willingness to take English guineas
at 34s. ; French guineas, 33s. 6d\ ; moidores, 43s. Gd . ; Arabian chequins,
13s. M.
3 Upper Delaware Ward, William Till, Thomas Bourne ; Lower Dela-
ware, John White, Richard Sowell; High Street, Nathaniel Allen and
William Cooper; CheBtnut, Joshua Maddox, Robert Strettle; Walnut,
Samuel Mick I e, Daniel Radley ; Dock, Samuel Powell, Jr., Joseph Ship-
pen ; North, Benjamin Shoemaker, Richard Parker; South, George
House, James Bainbridge; Middle, John Warder, Hugh Roberts ; Mul-
berry, Septimus RobinBon, William Parsons. They raised in three days
£204 14s. Id. But there was a good deal of money in the community
There is extant an enumeration of taxahles made this year, and for
the city we have :
Dock Ward 183
Lower Delaware 115
Walnut 98
South 105
Middle 236
Upper Delaware 99
High Street 151
Mulberry 309
North 182
Total 1621
The Whole County, — forty-seven townships, — 3442.
Amity 70
Abington 92
Allamingle 37
Byberry 52
Bristol 64
Blockley 72
Ciesham 60
Cheltenham 67
Culebrooke Dale 85
Douglass 58
Dublin, Lower 125
Dublin, Upper 77
Exeter 76
Francouia 59
Frankford 87
Frederick 76
Germantown 168
Gwynedd 93
Hanover, Upper 97
Horsham 80
Eingsesse 59
Limerick 59
Montgomery 54
Moreland Manor 125
Maiden Creek 75
Merion, Upper 52
Merion, Lower 101
Manatawny Ill
Northern Liberties 151
Norringtou 25
Oxford 78
Olney 58
Providence 146
Perkiomen and Skippaker.... 73
PtissayuukandMoyameiiBing 78
Plymouth 46
Ruxuorough 38
Sallbrd 174
Springfield 29
Towamensin 65
Whippan (Whitpaine) 56
White MaiBh 89
Worcester 70
Wayameusing 25
Total 3422
210
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
two hundred and six of these immigrants fell victims
to it. The quarantine arrangements appear to have
been defective. Dr. Graeme's bill for twenty years'
services was rejected, and he neglected his duties in
boarding entering vessels. He was superseded, and
the Assembly elected Dr. Zachary in his stead, — an-
other cause for quarreling.
The military and naval spirit rose high, however.
Seven companies were recruited for Cuban service, a
part raised in Philadelphia, and the little privateer
" George" covered herself with glory. Her com-
mander, Lieut. John Sibbald, beat off a superior
force of Spaniards, and on his return was presented
with a sword. The success of the " George'' led to
the dispatch of another privateer, the ship " Dursley
Galley," Capt. Neate, twenty-two six-pounders and
eight swivels, which had a severe contest off Jamaica
with Spanish privateers, winning the battle after
severe loss.
The pestilence and quarantine troubles of 1741 led
to the establishment of a pest-house and quarantine
station, the first motion for which came from the
Governor, on petition of the German immigrants.
The House appointed a committee to select a site,
and this committee — Joseph Harvey, Thomas Tatnall,
Joseph Trotter, James Morris, and Oswald Peel —
chose a low island on the southwest side of the
Schuylkill, near its mouth, — a double island, bounded
west by Minqua's Kill, and at this time called Fisher's
Island, from the owner. It was named Province
Island, and contained three hundred and forty-two
acres, with some buildings. It cost, with the negroes
belonging to it, £1700, and was held by the committee
named, in trust for the purposes designated, some of
the buildings being used for hospital purposes, the
others leased to a tenant. Six acres next to the Del-
aware were reserved for the new hospital to be erected.
The Governor or any two justices of the peace could
cause the removal to the island of any one imported
into the province who was ill of an infectious disease,
to be nursed and attended there at the expense of the
owners of the vessel on which he was passenger. He
could not leave without a permit, and there was a fine
for harboring him if he escaped.
There was now a sharp drawing of party lines in
the province and in Philadelphia. On the one side
the Quakers, the country party, the majority in the
Assembly, on the other the Governor's, or gentle-
men's party. Both sides courted the Germans, grown
strong and influential enough to hold the balance of
power. The elections in Philadelphia for city and
county were held at the court-house on High Street,
and in October, 1742, both sides were excited and
eager for the contest. Inspectors were usually chosen
on election morning by a majority of citizens present.
On this occasion the Governor's friends, expecting
trouble, proposed overnight to choose equal numbers
from each party. This was rejected by the country
party, with whom the Germans sided.
In voting, the citizens went up the narrow outside
steps of the court-house to the balcony, where their
votes were taken in at the window. It was alleged
that the country party had been in the habit of hold-
ing control of these steps, and thus, in some measure,
regulating those who passed up and down. On this
election day, early in the morning, a party of about
seventy sailors, mostly strangers, from the vessels in
the stream, and especially the ships " Hanover'' and
"Bath," marched noisily through the streets. The
mayor and recorder spoke to them. They said they
only meant a harmless lark, but that they had as
much right to be at the polls as the alien Germans.
When the polls were opened Recorder William Allen
was defeated for inspector by Isaac Norris, and the
sheriff announced the fact from the balcony, speak-
ing, as was the custom, through his speaking-trumpet.
The sailors at once began a sally with their clubs, but
retired when the mayor read a proclamation against
disorder. As soon as the voting began, however,
they returned and took possession of the stairs. The
country party at once fell on the sailors, and a general
battle ensued with fists, sticks, stones, clubs, and
whatever missile or weapon came to hand. There
were the usual casualties of such a " free fight," the
result of which was the sailors were driven to their
vessels, fifty of them being captured, including Capts.
Mitchell and Redmond, and committed to prison.
After that the candidates of the country party were
re-elected. Among those beaten badly were Anthony
Morris, Sr., George Shed, Thomas Lloyd, William
Fishbourn, Joseph Wharton, William Hudson, and
Israel Pemberton, Sr. The members elected from
Philadelphia County were Thomas Leech, Robert
Jones, Isaac Norris, Edward Warner, Owen Evans,
James Morris, Joseph Trotter, and John Kinsey,
Speaker ; for the city, Israel Pemberton and Oswald
Peale, burgesses. A good deal of " investigating" was
done, but nothing came of it.
There was a remarkable conference with the In-
dians this year at the Quaker meeting-house, but
this has already been described in a preceding chap-
ter. The privateer " George," Capt. Sibbald, with
a consort, the "Joseph and Mary," continued her
notable career on the sea, making profitable captures
and performing daring deeds, but not preventing the
Spanish from capturing seventeen vessels, bound to
or from Philadelphia, close to the capes. On a second
cruise the " George" and consort made many valuable
prizes, their plunder being worth nearly one hundred
thousand pounds. This success led to imitation. In
1743 the " George'' and her tender were sold and the
" Wilmington," a ship of three hundred tons, fitted
out with a strong battery and a crew of one hundred
and fifty men under Sibbald. Capt. Dowell com-
manded a schooner consort, and the two cruised on
the Spanish Main, taking many prizes. Besides these
other privateers were fitted out, " Le Trembleur" (the
Quaker), Capt. Sears, fourteen guns, and the ship
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
211
" Tartar," thirty-six guns, Capt. Mackey. The latter
capsized and sunk in the Delaware while going out,
with her crew and many leading citizens on board,
filling many houses with mourning.
At this time, during 1742-44, the municipality was
active in paving and improving the streets, the sys-
tem of taxing for such objects having become general.
The Gazette describes a scene in the streets, during
Quaker meeting, when Benjamin Lay attempted to
bear a testimony against the vanity of tea-drinking
by publicly smashing his late wife's china service.
He had no sooner begun the work of destruction,
however, than the crowd set upon him, overturned
him, and broke or carried off the china he had re-
fused to sell. In February, 1743, Tom Bell, a noto-
rious swindler, known throughout the colonies, was
arrested for representing himself to be Governor Liv-
ingston's son. He escaped, however, and indeed it
was said of him that neither could bars or bolts hold
him, nor was there a disguise which he would not
successfully assume, — Bell, Livingston, Burnet, Row-
land, Fairfax, Wentworth, parson, rustic, lawyer,
merchant, doctor, sailor; everywhere he lived by his
wits, and all the community were his gulls.
The Governor, in 1743, confessed himself starved
out. There was no legislative work done, but the
Governor had received no pay, and he sued for peace.
A bargain was struck, — Thomas signed six bills, and
he received fifteen hundred pounds " back pay." A
war with France was daily looked for now, and all
understood the need for harmony and wakefulness.
Further progress was made in completing the State-
House and court-houses, and the plan was now pretty
well worked out, the building being finished in 1744.
Some wharves of importance, such as Powell's and
Nixon's, were built about this time, the corporation
encouraging such work by giving a lease of twenty-
five years to every one building an approved pier.
On 11th June, 1744, war against France was for-
mally proclaimed at the court-house by the Governor,
mayor, and corporation. The Governor, by procla-
mation, ordered every one capable of bearing arms
to provide himself with firelock, bayonet, cartouche-
box, and powder and ball enough to defend the prov-
ince and annoy the enemy. When the Assembly met
all talk took a material guise, and the Governor put
many puzzling questions to a legislative body in
which the Quakers were a majority. He recounted
the insolence of a French privateer, the captain of
which sent a message from the capes to the effect that
he knew Philadelphia too well to be afraid they would
send to pursue him, and announcing that he meant to
stay there two weeks longer. The Assembly, however,
said nothing, and the Corporation Council petitioned1
the king to consider and relieve the defenseless con-
1 From this petition we learn that, in 1744, Philadelphia was sup-
posed to have at least fifteen hundred houses and thirteen thousand
people.
dition of the city, exposed to attack from its position
on the seaboard, and undefended in consequence of
the religious scruples of the inhabitants. The people,
however, were not so peaceful as the Assembly. The
streets were picturesque with war scenes. Troops
were recruiting for several expeditions, and the pri-
vateersmen beat up the town for volunteers. Before
the end of 1744 four vessels were added to the fleet
of letters of marque. Futile attempts had been made
to raise the " Tartar," but Capt. Christopher Clymer
took command of the " Marlborough," 230 tons, 18
guns, 24 swivels; Capt. William Clymer, the barque
(snow) "Cruiser," 200 tons, 14 guns, 14 swivels; Capt.
Alexander Kattur, the snow " Warren," 220 tons, 16
guns, 18 swivels ; and Capt. John Dougall reinstated
the old sloop " George" among war vessels. The
" Wilmington" took five vessels in September ; the
"Trembleur" secured four thousand pounds sterling
aboard one French schooner. But Philadelphia com-
merce suffered in an equivalent degree. The American
privateers sought for prizes in the West Indies; the
French and Spanish privateers cruised off the Capes
of the Delaware and Chesapeake ; neither, pursuing
fat merchantmen, had any particular desire to en-
counter the other.
Mordecai Lloyd was this year candidate for sheriff;
openly soliciting votes, for the first time in the history
of the city, his opponent, Nicholas Scull, the surveyor,
addressed the freeholders in a card, saying, " Though
it has not till this time been customary to request
your votes in print, yet, that method being now intro-
duced, I think myself obliged in this public manner
to return to you my hearty thanks for the favors I
have already received, and to acquaint you that I
intend again to stand a candidate for the sheriff's
office, and request your interest at the next election
to favor your real friend." Being elected, Scull re-
turned thanks in print also. The state of civic morals
was not pleasant to think on, if a presentment made
by the grand jury this year, and said to be in Frank-
lin's handwriting, conveys a truthful picture. Unlaw-
ful bake-shops, cooper-shops, etc., are presented. Com-
plaint is made of the vast number of tippling houses
in the city, " many of which they think are little
better than nurseries of vice and debauchery and tend
very much to increase the number of our poor. They
are likewise of opinion that the profane language,
horrid oaths, and imprecations, grown of late so com-
mon in our streets, so shocking to the ears of the
sober inhabitants, and tending to destroy in the minds
of our youth all sense of fear of God and the religion
of an oath, owes its increase in a great measure to
those disorderly houses." The report claims that there
are more than one hundred houses licensed, which
with the retailers, make the houses that sell strong
drink near a tenth part of the city, and adds : " The
jury observed with concern in the course of the evi-
dence that a neighborhood in which some of these
disorderly houses are is so generally thought to be
212
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
vitiated as to obtain among the common people the
shocking name of Helltown." Among the present-
ments made is "Samuel Hasell as magistrate, who
not only refused to take notice of a complaint made
to him against a person guilty of prophane swearing,
but (at another time) set an evil example by swearing
himself."
In 1745 came news of the capture of Louisbourg ;
source of much rejoicing, many bonfires, drinkings
of the health of Governor Shirley, " immortal Gen.
Pepperell" and Admiral Warren, with illuminations.
The equanimity of the Assembly, however, was not
much disturbed ; they had been asked, and refused,
to take part in the expedition ; they declined to vote
supplies. Vote, however, they did four thousand
pounds to John Pole and John Mifflin, trustees, to
be laid out for the purchase of bread, meat, wheat,
flour, and other grain, for the king's service, as the
Governor shall think best. Franklin says the Gov-
ernor construed "' other grain" liberally, as the casu-
istic Assembly intended, and bought " black grain"
• — gunpowder. The people took a closer, interest in
the affairs of the privateers, — those of the city, and
those of the enemy, off the capes. The latter were
troublesome, and tried to keep the former from coming
out. Capt. Dowell, in the " New George," encoun-
tered the "Louis Joseph," of St. Maloes, Capt. Fran-
cois Piednoir, eighteen guns, frigate rigged. It was
an obstinate fight, an hour long, Capt. Dowell losing
two officers and fifteen men killed and fifteen wounded,
and glad to draw the fight. A fortnight later the
" Louis Joseph" met Capt. Kattur's " Warren" and
his tender, the " Old George," fought them five hours,
and, refusing to surrender, was taken by boarding,
Capt. Piednoir falling, sword in hand, in a cutlass com-
bat with Capt. Dougall, of the " Old George." The
prize was valuable.
Capt. Bourne now commanded " Le Trembleur,"
Capt. Lister the " Wilmington," and Capt. Evans the
" New George." " Le Trembleur," east of Bermuda,
in June, cruising for the " Pandour" and " New
George," her consorts, comes within pistol-shot of a
ship and brigantine, when they hoist Spanish colors,
showing themselves to be a thirty-eight gun frigate
and a twelve-gun brig. " Le Trembleur" cripples the
brig with a broadside, then gives the frigate a running
fight, until the captain can manreuvre her out of dan-
ger. In November the "Warren" and " Old George"
fall in with and engage a twenty-eight-gun French-
man, but the battle is marred by the explosion of a
gun aboard the " Warren," compelling her to escape.
The " Cruiser," Capt. W. Clymer, in May captured
two ships, one of them worth thirty thousand pounds.
It was in 1745 that the second market-house in
Philadelphia was established, to accommodate the al-
ready populous southern part of the city, the inhab-
itants of which found it a hardship to go beyond
Dock Creek all the way to High Street to procure
their marketing. They accordingly petitioned for a
new market-house on Second Street, south of Pine,
where the market was established and the street
widened to accommodate it. The stalls, sixteen in
number, were built by Edward Shippen and Joseph
Wharton, at their own cost, they to receive the rents
until they were repaid the principal and interest of
the advanced money. Mr. Shippen was at this time
mayor. On retiring from office he gave a dinner at
the Golden Fleece Tavern. Alderman Abraham
Taylor, elected his successor, refused to serve, and
was fined thirty pounds. Alderman Joseph Turner,
elected vice Taylor, also declined and was similarly
fined, whereupon Alderman James Hamilton was
chosen and qualified.
There was an echo in the new hall of Assembly at
this time which prevented members' speeches from
being heard. The superintendent was ordered to
break it. As an evidence of the growth of the
Northern Liberties, we find the inhabitants protest-
ing against Miss Elizabeth Chancellor's petition to
have renewed to her the lease granted to her father,
now deceased, for keeping the powder-house. The
remonstrants said that many good tenements would
soon be begun, with wharves and stores, contributing
much to the additional beauty and advantage of the
city and neighborhood, and the employment of la-
borers and artificers, if that obstacle were removed,
and this would also expedite the erecting of a new
market-house in the place laid out for that purpose,
" to the great conveniency of the neighboring inhab-
itants, now grown numerous, and of the country peo-
ple, who would supply it with provisions."
The Assembly now secured a new issue of five
thousand pounds paper money by offering to con-
tribute so much to the use of government if it would
be received in that medium. The Governor pro-
tested, but yielded. Four companies of volunteers
were raised for the army, under Capts. John Shan-
non, <John Deimer, William Trent, and Samuel
Perry. Recruiting was also done in Philadelphia
for Gen. Dalziel's regiment of foot for West Indies
service and for Governor Shirley's Massachusetts
regiment of foot. Thus about five hundred men
were enlisted at one and the same time in Philadel-
phia for the military service in addition to the naval
recruits. Each enlisted man had to be a Protestant,
able and willing to take the oaths. He received a
dollar on enlisting, and three pistoles for his family
before marching. Tavern-keepers demanded twelve-
pence per diem for a soldier's keep and board.
A new election law was passed in 1746, with the
end of preventing riot and disorder. It provided for
a primary election for inspectors. Another act was
passed for suppressing cursing and swearing, with
penalties of fine and imprisonment. Mayor Hamil-
ton, at the end of his official term, remembering per-
haps the difficulty of getting a successor to Mayor
Shippen, after his costly entertainment, determined
to establish a new and better precedent. Instead of
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
213
giving a banquet, he gave, in lieu thereof, " a sum of
money equal at least to the sum usually expended on
such occasions, to be laid out in something perma-
nently useful to the city," to which use he proposed
" the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds towards
erecting an Exchange or some other public building."
The money was put out at interest, and the example
thus set was followed by many successive mayors.
In the spring and summer of 1746 an epidemic dis-
ease of great malignity raged through New England,
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Dr. John
Kearsley called it the angina maligna, or putrid sore
throat, and the traits of the disease as described are
similar to those of diphtheria. The doctors could do
prize in the French ship " Judith," which did not
yield without a sharp fight. Capt. Clymer also retook
a French prize and drove a Spanish privateer ashore
at Porto Rico. On his return the " Marlborough"
was sold, and Capt. Clymer raised a company of foot
soldiers and marched them to take part in the con-
quest of Canada. In April, off the Havana, the
" Cruiser," Capt. William Clymer, was attacked by
two xebeques of twelve guns each, a complement
three to one of his guns and men fit for service. The
fight lasted four hours, and when Clymer was carried
captive in triumph into Havana the enemy had thirty
killed and sixty wounded. The men were confined
aboard a prison-ship, and Clymer cast into a dungeon
OLD MAKKET-H0USE, SECOND AND PINE STREETS.
nothing with it, the more especially as they essayed
to treat it with phlebotomy and the mercurials, and
it almost depopulated some villages. Its epidemic
character was due in the first instance to atmospheric
causes.
The harvest of the privateers had grown light as
the French and Spanish commercial marine withdrew
from the ocean, and it was found thatthe larger let-
ters of marque did not earn their expenses. The
'' Wilmington" returned to trade without surrender-
ing her commission, and while making a voyage with a
cargo to London captured a well-loaded barque, which
she sent as a prize into Philadelphia. The "Marl-
borough," Capt. Clymer, in March, captured a rich
and afterwards sent to Spain. This was the only
Philadelphia privateer captured during the war.
Capt. Kattur, in the " Warren," captured a French
sloop of twelve guns off San Antonio in February,
and cut out a schooner with a cargo of sugar in Basse-
Terre in June. " Le Trembleur" took a Spanish
schooner with a ballast of pieces of eight and silver
bullion. Some other captures were made by the above
vessels and by the "Pandour" and "New George."
In 1747 the French and Spaniards took their turn
at retaliating. Two French frigates on the coast,
after capturing many merchantmen, chased the " Pan-
dour" and " New George" so hotly that they could
only get away by throwing overboard their swivels.
214
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
By the end of May twelve Philadelphia merchant ves-
sels had been captured. The " Warren'' was fitted
out by subscription to cruise between the Navesink
and the Virginia capes as a guard a costa. She found
no enemy, but " Le Trembleur" barely escaped capture
off Hispanipla, and more Philadelphia merchantmen
were taken. In the mean time French pilots, bring-
ing in prisoners for exchange, had learned the navi-
gation of the Delaware, and on July 12th a sloop,
bearing English colors, appeared off Cape May. The
pilot who went off to her found himself prisoner to a
French sloop of ten guns, manned chiefly by Span-
iards. The pilot-boat, with a privateersman crew,
ascended the river four miles above Bombay Hook,
landed at Listen's plantation in New Castle County,
rifled the house and carried off four negroes. Thence
they went to Hart's plantation, plundering the house,
captured a pilot-boat, and next took the ship " Mary,"
of London, bound up, with a valuable cargo. The
sloop and her prize then departed, taking another
prize before reaching St. Augustine.
When the express bringing the news of these dep-
redations reached Philadelphia a painful excitement
was caused. Neither the Council nor the Assembly
were in session, nor did consultation with the mem-
bers make it probable they would sanction the money
cost of extraordinary measures, even in such an emer-
gency. When the Assembly did meet, in August,
the plea for defensive measures was answered by, the
danger is past, the Delaware is long, our principles
will not let us consent to fortifications and ships-of-
war. Before the month was out another French pri-
vateer entered the Delaware, and ten days later two
more stood inside the capes and made three cap-
tures. It was not until these vessels left that any of
the Philadelphia privateers could be got ready for
sea.
Meantime, Governor Thomas, having fallen into
bad health, resigned his office and went back to Eng-
land, Anthony Palmer, president of Council, acting
in his stead. President Palmer could get no hearing
either from the old Assembly or from that elected in
October, 1747, in regard to the defenses. The latter
body, indeed, when it adjourned October 15th, did so
to meet May 16, 1748, as if determined to avoid the
annoyance of frequent appeals for military aid. The
president called an extra session in January, but was
able to accomplish nothing. The Quaker majority
was resolved to contribute no aid to war. Their prin-
ciple of non-resistance was like the books of the Sibyl,
— they saw their tenure of it must be broken in a very
few years, and it was proportionately precious to them.
But, in fact, this headstrongness in the mort of peril
to the city, when temporizing was the best policy,
simply precipitated the- overthrow of the Quaker
policy and the Quaker regime. In the next chapter
will be shown how much Franklin was able to accom-
plish by his able pamphlet of " Plain Truth." It is
enough to say here that this opportune publication
had the effect to crystallize public opinion in the deter-
mination to adopt a policy of public defense. Those
of Franklin's way of thinking struck promptly while
the iron was hot. On Saturday, Nov. 21, 1747, a
number of inhabitants met in Walton's school-room,
and resolved to form an association for military pur-
poses. A committee was appointed to draft a plan of
an association, which was submitted to a subsequent
assemblage, which met at Roberts' Coffee-House, in
Front Street. The next day the articles were ready
for signing " at the new building." In three days
five hundred signatures were obtained, and the work
of volunteering still went on, not only in the city,
but throughout the province. On November 26th the
Common Council took up the matter with a memorial
and petition to the proprietary government to send
over cannon, arms, and ammunition for the equipment
of a battery. The Provincial Council met the same
day, approving the action of the citizens and encour-
aging the purposes of the association, and the mer-
chants of the city applied to the English Board of
Trade to have a ship-of-war appointed on the New
York station which might be ordered to come some-
times within the hay of Delaware.
All this marks the definitive and final break-up of
the Quaker non-resistance policy in Philadelphia.
Several times afterwards its friends rallied, but their
prestige was gone, and they were never able to re-
sume their ancient control of affairs. The epoch of
William Penn's empire ceases with Nov. 21, 1747.
Franklin and the party of defense were determined
to give their defeated opponents no time to recover.
They at once projected a lottery to raise the three
thousand pounds necessary for the erection of a bat-
tery. The price of tickets was forty shillings each.
There were two thousand eight hundred and forty-two
prizes and seven thousand one hundred and fifty-eight
blanks. William Allen, Joshua Maddox, William Mas-
ters, Samuel McCall, Sr., Edward Shippen, Thomas
Leech, Charles Willing, John Kearsley, William
Clymer, Sr., Thomas Lawrence, Jr., William Cole-
man, and Thomas Hopkinson were managers. They,
together with William Wallace, John Stamper, Sam-
uel Hazzard, Philip Syng, John Mifflin, James Coul-
tas, William Branson, Rees Meredith, Thomas Lloyd,
and Benjamin Franklin, or a majority of them, were
to have authority to appropriate the proceeds for the
benefit and advantage of the province. The Common
Council, to encourage this lottery, took two thousand
tickets, and the note of the treasurer of the corporation
was given for them, on promise that he should be in-
demnified by the corporation in case of loss. The city
drew some prizes in the lottery, which were handed
over to swell the sum of the association's fund. The
co-operation of the fire companies was also asked and
secured. " Plain Truth" led to a good many other
pamphlets, pro and con ; the bench took up the mat-
ter in their charges, and in the pulpit Rev. Gilbert
Tennent preached three long sermons on the text
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
215
" The Lord is a man of war," which were afterwards
published, and led to a new crop of pamphlets.
On December 6th six hundred of the associators
met at the State-House, marching thence to the
court-house, where they agreed to the division of the
city into companies, according to wards and town-
ships, President Palmer assuring them of the counte-
nance and support of the government. In the begin-
ning of January the associators met again, and elected
the following officers :
Captains. — Charles Willing, Thomas Bond, John
Inglis, James Polegreen, Peacock Bigger, Thomas
Bourne, William Ouzzins, Septimus Robinson, James
Coultas, John Ross, Richard Nixon.
Lieutenants. — Atwood Shute, Richard Farmer, Lyn-
ford Lardner, William Bradford, Joseph Redman,
Robert Owen, George Spafford, William Clemm,
George Gray, Jr., Richard Swan, Richard Renshaw.
Ensigns. — James Claypoole, Plunkett Pleeson,
T. Lawrence, Jr., William Bingham, Joseph Wood,
Peter Etter, Abraham Mason, William Rush,
Abraham Jones, Philip Benezet, Francis Garri-
gues.
The officers being chosen, the companies marched
to the State-House, where the president and Coun-
cil were sitting. The officers then elected Abra-
ham Taylor as colonel, Thomas Lawrence lieu-
tenant-colonel, and Samuel McCall major. Then
they marched through the town, and returned to
the State-House, where they were drawn up in
three divisions, and fired three volleys. Each
company then marched off under the lead of its cap-
tain, some of them exceeding one hundred men in
number. The companies of Philadelphia County
chose the following officers :
Captains. — John Hughes, Samuel Shaw, Henry
Pawling, Thomas York, Jacob Hall, Edward Jones,
Abraham Dehaven, Christopher Robbins, John Hall.
Lieutenants. — Matthias Holstein, Isaac Ashton, Rob-
ert Dunn, Jacob Leech, Joseph Levis, Griffith Grif-
fiths, William Coats, Roger North, Peter Knight,
Joshua Thomas.
Ensigns. — Frederick Holstein, John Roberts, Hugh
Hamilton, John Barge, William Finney, James
Richey, John Pauling, Benjamin Davis, Philip Wyn-
coop.
Edward Jones was chosen colonel ; Thomas York,
lieutenant-colonel; and Samuel Shaw, major; Jacob
Leech became captain of York's company; John
Barge, lieutenant; and Jacob Naglee, ensign.
In April nearly one thousand associators were under
arms. They were reviewed by the president and
Council in the field. Col. Taylor made them a speech
before dismissal, telling them that several country
companies had offered to come to their assistance
when needed; as there was no provision for such case
or for their subsistence, he proposed that every house-
holder of the city associators should entertain freely
three or four of his country brethren until the threat-
ened danger passed, and that their horses be provided
for gratis. The proposition was accepted with enthu-
siasm.
The first care of the associators, after organization,
was the construction of proper batteries. The sites
of these were selected by the lottery managers. There
was a distressing scarcity of cannon. The old pieces
lying about the wharves were overhauled, and seventy
of different sizes pronounced fit for service in an emer-
gency. Application was made to Governors Shirley,
of Massachusetts, and Clinton, of New York, for the
loan of some pieces. The latter lent eighteen pieces,
eighteen-pounders, with carriages, which were brought
overland from New York. The first battery was
erected on Anthony Atwood's wharf, under Society
Hill, between Pine and Cedar Streets, near the pres-
ent Lombard Street. There was a timber and plank
breastwork, eight or ten feet thick, filled in with earth
THE ASSOCIATION BATTERY.
and rammed down. The joining work was done
gratuitously by the city carpenters, and the battery,
begun Monday morning, was completed by Tuesday
evening, with its armament of thirteen guns mounted.
The grand battery was situated below the city and
beyond the Swedes' Church, on ground afterwards
occupied by the United States Navy Yard. In June
the associators mounted guard there every night, and
no boat or vessel was suffered to pass between 8
o'clock p.m. and 4 a.m. In case of any alarm at
night, well-disposed persons were desired to " place
candles in the lower windows and doors for the more
convenient marching of the militia and well-affected
persons who may join them." The managers of the
lottery sent to England for the cannon for this battery.
The pieces were received and mounted at the end of
August. The battery was named "the Association,"
and the associators were saluted by it. There were
twenty-seven cannon in it, and a gunner was hired at
ten pounds a year.
The proprietaries responded to the request of the
corporation for cannon from them, sending over thir-
teen pieces in November, 1750, which were mounted
on the association battery. The Gazette said, "That
battery now has upwards of fifty cannon, 18, 24, and
32-pounders. One of them, a new 32-pounder, was
presented by the Schuylkill Fishing Company." The
interest shown in the association was naturally shared
216
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
by the women, who prepared some beautiful flags and
devices, with mottoes, for the volunteers. They also
prepared the colors for the officers, half-pikes, spon-
toons, halberds, drums, etc.1
The foreign privateers in Delaware Bay had reaped
such a harvest in 1747 that it was natural to expect
they would return next year. The captured " Clinton,"
anyhow, was bound to come back, and return she did,
in May, capturing the " Phosnix," a small schooner,
bound to Bermudas, not far south of Cape Henlopen.
The " Clinton" was now a French privateer, with
fourteen guns and sixteen swivels, and a crew of one
hundred and seventy-five men. The " Phosnix" was
sent back to Delaware Bay and captured the brigan-
tine "Tinker," but her captain got away with the
" Phoenix" and sent the alarm to Philadelphia. The
president of Council called the Assembly together,
and demanded measures to restore the commerce of
the port. The Assembly, however, had no measures
to propose, but hoped that a ship-of-war might soon
be found on the station. In fact, the " Otter"
sloop- of-war, Capt. Ballet, arrived the next day,
having been sent by the admiralty with orders to
protect the trade of Philadelphia. The news was
very gratifying; the Provincial Council gave Capt.
Ballet and his officers a handsome entertainment at
Roberts' Coffee-House, and the Corporation Council
added a pipe of wine, eight loaves of sugar, and twenty
1 Devices and Mottoes for the Assouiatoh Regiments.
I. A lion erect, a naked scimitar in one paw, the other holding the
Pennsylvania escutcheon. Motto, Pro Patria.
II. Three arms wearing linen, ruffled, plain, and checqued. The hands
joined by grasping each other's wrist, denoting the union of all ranks.
Motto, Unita virtue habet.
III. An eagle, emblem of victory, descending from the skies. Motto,
A Deo Victoria.
IV. Liberty seated on a cube, holding a spear, the cap of freedom on
its point. Motto, IncstimabiLis.
V. Armed arm, the hand grasping a naked falchion. Motto, Deus ad-
juvat forte.
VI. An elephant, emblem of the warrior always on his guard, as that
creature is said never to lie down, and hath his arms always ready.
Motto, Semper paratus.
VII. A city walled about. Motto, Salus patriae, summa lex.
VIII. A soldier with hiB piece recovered, ready to present. Motto,
Sic pacem querimus.
IX. A coronet and plume of feathers. Motto, In God we trust.
X. A man with a drawn sword. Motto, Pro aria etfocis.
XI. Three of the associatorB marching with their muskets shouldered
and dressed in different clothes, intimating unanimity of the different
sorts of people in the association. Motto, Vis unila fortior.
XII. A musket and sword crossing each other. Motto, Pro rege and
grege.
XIII. Representation of a glory, in the midst of which is written Je-
hovah Nissi; in English, " The Lord our Banner."
XIV. A castle, at the gate of which a soldier stands sentinel. Motto,
Cavendo tutus.
XV. David, as he advanced against Goliath and slung the stone.
Motto, In nomine domine.
XVI. A lion rampant, one paw holding up a scimitar, another on a
sheaf of wheat. Motto, Domine protege alimentum.
XVII. A sleeping lion. Motto, Bouse me if you dare.
XVIII. Hope represented by a woman standing clothod in blue, hold-
ing one hand on an anchor. Motto, Spero per deum vincere.
XIX. The Duke of Cumberland, General. Motto, Pro Deo et Georgia
Rege.
XX. A soldier on horseback. Motto, Pro libertate patria.
gallons of rum to his sea stores. The " Otter," how-
ever, came not for a cruise, but to heave down and
careen ; Capt. Ballet had been killed in a sea-fight.
During this process several Philadelphia vessels were
taken by the active enemy, and a Spanish brigantine,
the "St. Michael," Don Vincent De Lopez, com-
mander, ascended the Delaware as high as Elsen-
burgh. A large Jamaicaman was lying at New Castle,
and Capt. Lopez determined to try to capture her.
He was under English colors ; no suspicion had arisen,
but George Proctor, an American prisoner on board,
escaped, swam ashore to Salem and gave the alarm.
The New Castle battery and the Jamaica ship opened
fire, and the Spaniard, hoisting his true colors, cheer-
ing and firing a gun, sailed down the river again.
This was a piece of genuine bravado, the effects of
which upon the unwarlike community were increased
by the privateer captain's declaration that he meant
to rob, burn, and destroy wherever he could, and that,
with his consorts, he would soon visit Philadelphia.
As Capt. Ballet could not get the " Otter" ready to
drive off the enemy, the association batteries were
manned and put in a state of defense. A company
of artillery was formed, under command of the old
privateersman, Capt. John Sibbald, to work the guns
of the batteries, and a guard was set for the protection
of the powder-house. A day was set for the meeting
of the Assembly, and two " intelligence boats" were
commissioned to cruise in the bay and report every
suspicious circumstance.
The Assembly met and adjourned forthwith with-
out any attempt at defensive measures, but, on the
contrary, with such an answer to the Governor as
could not fail to cause exasperation. On June 17th
the captain of a small sloop, captured in the bay by a
Spanish privateer, reported in the city that, besides
his captor, there were in sight when his vessel was
taken a fleet of two ships, three brigantines, and a
sloop, one of the ships, very large, mounting thirty
guns. Capt. Ballet, of the " Otter," consulted the
Council as to whether it would be prudent for him
and the convoy of merchantmen, waiting for his
escort, to go to sea under such circumstances. In
fact, he did not go for some weeks, and then it was
discovered that the supposed hostile fleet was an Eng-
lish frigate and consorts.
The preliminary peace at Aix-la-Chapelle was
signed on April 19, 1748, and the news arrived in
Philadelphia August 24th. The cessation of arms
was immediate, the privateers were sold to take on
commercial cargoes, and officers and crews returned
to peaceful occupations. The bold rover, Capt.
Obadiah Bourne, established himself at the corner
of Market and Water Streets, thence called Bourne's
corner, and dispensed punch and ale beneath his
memorial sign, Le Trembleur. The war was over.
In September, 1747, the Corporation Council for
the first time voted a salary to the mayor, — one hun-
dred pounds per annum, — but even then it was diffi-
THE QUAKER CITY— 1701-1750.
217
cult to get the right man to serve. When Alderman
Anthony Morris was elected he could not be found
so that notice might be served upon him, and it be-
came so evident at last that his absence was inten-
tional that a new election was had, and William
Atwood chosen in his stead.
This year was attended with another outbreak of
the yellow fever, and the inhabitants seem to have
traced it to the condition of the swamps of Dock
Creek, between Budd's buildings and Society Hill.
The Common Council, in October, long after the out-
break of the fever, appointed Samuel Powell, John
Stamper, Samuel Rhoades, Edward Warner, Ben-
jamin Franklin, and William Logan to consider a
plan for the removal of the nuisance.1 Secretary
Peters, writing to the proprietaries, September 4th,
stated that the fever was not so bad as in 1741, but
sufficiently dangerous still. " Mrs. Kearsley, Young
Joseph Turner, Mr. Jesse McCall, Mr. Andrew Ham-
ilton, and Mr. Curry were all attacked Sunday or
Monday, and they all died and were buried within
the week except Mr. Curry, who is since dead. Mr.
Allen was seized with the fever on Monday morning,
and is in a fair way of recovery." Secretary Peters
is clearly of opinion that the distemper was due to
the filthy condition of Dock Creek. The Penns did
not accept this view of the case, but the Provincial
Council was driven by the public danger to act boldly.
A captain from Barbadoes attempted to defy the city's
quarantine regulations, when he was promptly ar-
rested and cast into jail, and all intercourse forbidden
with his ship and crew. In December the Provincial
Council called for a solemn fast on Jan. 7, 1748, " on
account of the mortal sickness in the summer past,"
and because "there is just reason to fear that, unless
we humble ourselves before the Lord and amend our
ways, we may be chastised with yet heavier judg-
ments."
The lottery for the use of the association was so
successful, that in 1748, after the news of peace, an-
other was had to raise nine thousand three hundred
and seventy-five " pieces of eight" for the public use.
A systematic arrangement about wood-corders was
made this year, Owen Roberts and John Pickle, for a
rent of fifty pounds per annum, securing a four years'
lease of the public wharves at the end of Vine Street,
Penny-Pot Landing, the wharves at foot of Sassafras,
Mulberry, High, Chestnut, and Walnut Streets, and
the public wharves at the end of Dock Street, and the
public wharf at the end of Spruce Street, adjoining
Samuel Powell's, they to have the fees, profits, fines,
and penalties imposed by the ordinances for cording
wood, etc., and to keep the wharves in good repair.
A private subscription provided for clearing out Dock
Creek, walling it, and extending some of the sewers
leading to it further inland, but want of co-operation,
1 Such a plan was reported in February, 1748, but thought too costly
to be then undertaken.
especially on the part of the proprietary, prevented
this voluntary plan from being fully carried out.
On Nov. 23, 1748, James Hamilton, son of Andrew
Hamilton, having been appointed Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, was proclaimed; the City Council congratu-
lated him, and his accession was welcomed with a
public dinner. His administration began auspiciously.
There was a complaint from the county of the too free
licensing of public-houses, and a suggestion that it
would be better for the county justices to have the
power to grant such licenses than that it should re-
side in the Governor. The trustees of Province Island
were ordered to expend one thousand pounds in the
erection of pest-houses on that island, for the recep-
tion of strangers coming into the province. The super-
intendents of the State-House were ordered to build a
structure on the south side of the building for the stair-
case and bell ; and also, in August, to find a place for en-
tertaining visiting Indians. A petition was received and
a law passed against the entailing of lands. Another
petition, received at the October meeting of the As-
sembly, protested against the overcrowding of immi-
grant vessels, and the consequent mortality and suf-
fering, the introduction of epidemic diseases, etc. In
fact, the ships " Francis" and " Elizabeth" had arrived
in September from Rotterdam with Palatines, many
of whom were down with eruptive fever. The sick
had to be accommodated in tents and temporary shel-
ter on Province Island, and there can be no doubt
that the evil complained of was a very serious
one.
Much trivial municipal business was transacted in
the course of this year by the Municipal and Pro-
vincial Councils, but little of which is of a nature to
need repeating here. The mayor's salary was repealed,
upon the ground that " the business of the mayoralty
had grown more profitable ;" a census of the city was
taken, the details of which have already been given,
and an attempt was made to repair the inefficiency of
the city watch. The Common Council was of opinion
that the only effectual remedy for the evil was to
obtain an act of Assembly for raising money by tax
for supporting a regular and stated watch, as was
done in Europe. Meantime some temporary improve-
ments were made, and citizens agreed to put lamps at
their doors and windows to aid the watch and relieve
the unlighted streets. These seem to have been really
unsafe at this time, in consequence, perhaps, of the
number of disbanded soldiers and sailors, and the
large and miscellaneous immigration. Highway rob-
beries appear to have been very common in the neigh-
borhood of the city in the fall and winter of 1749.
Two highwaymen, Fielding and Johnson, arrested
for some of these offenses, made some daring attempts
at escape. They sawed off their irons, and planned
to seize the jailer and force their way out. They were
frustrated, when they turned back, unlocked the cell-
doors, and held the gaol against all comers during the
night, but were next day overpowered, taken to court,
218
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and sentenced to death. They were hung on the
Commons.
The grand jury presented, in 1750, not only the
night-watch and their had regulations, but " the ex-
treme dirtyness of the streets, not only for want of
pavement in some places, but through the disorderly
practice of throwing out all manner of dirt and filth
without any care taken to remove the same, whereby
the streets that have been regulated at a public ex-
pense are rendered exceedingly deep and miry in wet
weather." The mayor issued his proclamation against
these practices, which must have been very filthy—
water-courses filled up two or three feet with dirt,
hatters casting felts, tails, and offals into the kennels,
shoemakers their ends and scraps, etc. The procla-
mation, however, did not cure the evil, and it was
resolved to petition the Assembly.
That body passed an act to regulate the importation
of immigrants, allowing each passenger six feet in
length and one foot six inches in breadth of space,
in the vessel in which he came, and compelling suffi-
cient food and drink to be carried for all.
In 1749 Parliament passed the notable act to sup-
press iron manufactories in the colonies. This act
required a return of existing mills to be made, and
we learn from it that on June 24, 1750, Stephen Pas-
chall was operating a steel-furnace at the northwest
corner of Walnut and Eighth Streets, built in 1747,
at which blistered steel was made ; William Branson
had a steel-furnace in the city (site not returned) ; and
John Hall a plating, tilt-hammer forge at Byberry, in
Philadelphia County.
On Dec. 21, 1750, there was a meeting at Widow
Pratt's tavern of those who had or intended to put
lamps in their doors, and the result was an agreement
among the subscribers to pay a man three shillings
nine pence per month for lighting these lamps regu-
larly every night.
At the election in October this year the vote was
as follows :
Assembly.
Isaac Norris 1799
Edward Warner 1790
Owen Evans 1700
Joseph Trotter 1474
Israel Pemberton, Jr 1445
Evan Morgan 1236
John Smith 1230
Thomas Leech 562
John Naglee 284
Slieriff.
Isaac Griffith 1169
Edw. Collins 1033
William Trotter 1072
George Heap 1070
William Biddle 901
Edw. Scull 845
Thomas James 947
William Gray 793
CHAPTER XIV.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
Fkom 1723 to 1776, Benjamin Franklin, printer, was
the largest man in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
He was not the best man by long odds ; he was only
the greatest man when we eliminate some moral traits
of the first importance to the perfect man, but in which
he was deficient to a degree approaching littleness ;
he was not a great genius, for his leading excellence
was a certain calm and luminous mediocrity, in the
centre of which sat Common Sense, enthroned as the
Supreme Being — we cannot apply the term divinity
to such clay images — of the entire equable structure,
and of that common sense " Poor Eichard" was himself
the incarnation. But he was the largest man in the
province and the city, — the man who originated the
most measures, wielded the greatest influence, and,
as even those who do not like Franklin cannot help
admitting, accomplished the most good. Franklin
was really a much greater man than his indiscrimi-
nate admirers can make him out, or than the casual
student of his career may be able to discover ; for it
was his foible to conceal his connection with the
springs of action, as he was apparently indifferent to
the authorship of his best writings, and equally was
it his foible, by sedulous seizing of the opportunity,
to seem to accomplish great ends by small means.
Great ends, however, he did accomplish, often after
long waiting, and he possessed, in a, remarkably per-
fect degree, that sublime quality of patience which
is itself, if not genius, at least its nearest of kin and
best substitute.
Franklin's autobiography and the leading facts of
his long and useful life are so commonly known that
there is no need to dwell upon them here; yet it is
not so generally known how completely and at all
points he touched the public and private life of Phila-
delphia, and was the political, literary, scientific, and
industrial mainspring of the city and the province
during upwards of fifty years. After the outbreak of
the Revolution, and until the formation of the Fed-
eral Constitution, his intelligent and devoted service
was given to the cause of the Republic of the States,
an arena to which we will not follow him, but where
better, more needed, and more opportune service was
never rendered. It is the Franklin of Philadelphia,
however, whom we are called upon to portray in this
place.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Mass., on
the 6th of January, old style (the 11th of January>
new style), 1706, in a house on Milk Street, nearly
opposite to the Old South Church, and on the site
now (1884) occupied by the Boston Post newspaper.
The house in which Franklin was born remained
standing until December, 1810, when it was destroyed
by fire.1
1 Its appearauce at the period of the philosopher's birth is thus mi-
nutely described in " Shurtleff 's Description of Boston" :
"Its front upon the street was rudely clapboarded, and the sides and
rear were protected from the inclemencies of a New England climate by
large rough shingles. In height the house was about three stories ; in
front the second story and attic projected somewhat into the street, over
the principal story on the ground-floor. On the lower floor of the main
house there was one room only. This, which probably served the Frank-
lins as a parlor and sitting-room, and also for the family eating-room,
BENJAMIN FKANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
219
Notwithstanding Franklin was born in New Eng-
land, he was only half a Yankee. His mother, his
father's second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of
Peter Folger, " one of the first settlers of New Eng-
land, of whom honorable mention is made by Cotton
FRANKLIN'S BIRTHPLACE.
Mather in his ecclesiastical history of that country,
entitled ' Magnalia Christi Americana,' as 'a godly
and learned Englishman,' if I remember the words
rightly." ' This was the New England strain in
Franklin's blood. His father was a true-born Eng-
lishman, of the old Northamptonshire yeomanry
stock who had lived in the same village, Ecton, on a
freehold of thirty acres, for at least three hundred
was about twenty feet square, and had two windows on the street, and
it had also one on the passage-way, so as to give the inmateB a good view
of Washington Street. In the centre of the southerly side of the room
was one of those noted large fireplaces, situated in a most capacious
chimney. On the left of this was a spacious closet. On the ground-
floor, connected with the sitting-room through the entry, was the
kitchen. The second story originally contained but one chamber, and
in this the windows, door, fireplace, and closet were similar in number
and position to those in the parlor beneath it. The attic was also origi-
nally one unplastered room, and had a window in front on the street
and two common attic windows, one on each side of the roof, near the
back part of it."
1 Folger came from Norwich, England, with his father, in 1635, at the
age of eighteen, and they settled at Martha's Vineyard, where John, the
father, died, leaving Meribell, his widow, who survived him three years.
In 1644, Peter married Mary Morrell, one of the family of the celebrated
Hugh Peters, and in 1663 he went to Nantucket, one of the first settlers
of that island. Peter Folger was a man of integrity and reading, a land
surveyor, whose word was accepted as final in all cases of disputed
boundary and title; a student of the Indian tongues, much valued as an
interpreter; a catechist of the savages also, greatly esteemed by the
missionary, Rev. Thomas Mayhew. Peter Folger died in 1600, father of
two sons and seven daughters. He published a volume of devout poetry,
" A Looking-glass for the Times, or the Former Spirit of New England
revived in this generation," a plea for liberty of conscience and against
persecution, which he lookB upon as the cause of war and all the other
calamities distressing the people.
years, the eldest son always pursuing the trade of the
smith.
Benjamin, who made some search into parish regis-
ters while visiting England in 1758, learned that he
himself was the youngest son of the youngest son
for five generations back. His grandfather had
four sons, — Thomas, John, Benjamin, and Josiah.
Thomas, bred a smith, passed the bar and became a
man of consequence in the county; John was a wool-
dyer; Benjamin, a dyer of silk, and, in his way, some-
thing of a poet. Josiah Franklin married young, and
came to New England with wife and three children
in 1685, a non-conformist seeking freedom of worship,
a dyer by trade like his brothers. He changed his
business when he came to Boston to that of tallow-
chandler and soap-boiler, and he was the father of
seventeen children, nine by his second wife, to whom
he was married in 1690. Benjamin was the fifteenth
child and youngest son. The boy was meant for the
church, or, rather, the non-conformist pulpit; showed
himself precocious, was sent to a grammar school, and
in a year got head of his class. But his father had
too many children to think of sending one of them to
college. Benjamin was put at a writing and cipher-
ing school, and at ten years old was taken to learn
soap-boiling, — that is to say, to help make the soap-
kettle and the family pot boil by cutting wicks, filling
moulds, minding shop, and running errands.
The trade suited the youth so ill he proposed going
to sea, but the father forbade. He was a stout, strong
man, this father, of sound, solid sense, could draw
well, and knew a little music ; had a good, resonant
voice, played and sung to the violin, and was skilled
with tools. He was a good adviser to friends, man-
aged his own affairs discreetly, was noteworthy for
his solid, sturdy understanding and his prudential
tact. Such a man, while not apt to yield to a boy's
whims, — and he knew that Benjamin was notional, —
would still find out if he were really unfitted for a
trade. Accordingly, he took the boy around with him
to see different sorts of work done, in order to detect
if he had any especial aptitude, ending, when he
found out the boy's taste for reading, by binding him
apprentice to his eldest son, James Franklin, the
I printer. James had learned his trade in England,
and came out to Boston in March, 1717, with a press
and new fonts of type. At first he did only job work,
but in 1719 a new postmaster was appointed, who
established a second newspaper, The Boston Gazette,
and James Franklin was employed to print it. In
August, 1721, the Gazette having passed to another
printer, Franklin began to publish The New England
Courant at his own risk, which was the fourth news-
paper printed in America. It was a weekly, a fools-
cap half-sheet, sometimes enlarged to a whole sheet;
the contributors forming a sort of club, furnished the
articles, essays or letters, there being little news and
few advertisements.
The story of Benjamin's verses and how he hawked
220
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
them about the streets ; of his brother's harshness ; of
the youth's anonymous contributions to the paper;
of the paper's suppression and its reissue in Benja-
min's name ; of the latter's escape to Philadelphia, of
the voyage, the three rolls, the interview with Brad-
ford, Keimer, and Keith, are too familiar to need to
be retold here. The printer was but seventeen and
a half years old when he came to Philadelphia. He
was but twenty when he returned from London, an
accomplished printer and a man of the world. This
was in 1726. Franklin had already printed a deistic
work ; he confesses to have practiced some libertinage ;
mentalist, — he had said, long years before, that he
would rather find a recipe for Parmesan cheese in his
readings of Italian travels than the most venerable of
inscriptions of the antique world, — and he nursed no
illusions now. He resolutely allied himself with the
party of action. He became chairman of the Penn-
sylvania Committee of Safety. Congress appointed
him postmaster-general, with a salary of one thousand
dollars, and practically unlimited power and discre-
tion. He was at the head of the commission for In-
dian Affairs in the Middle Department. He was a
commissioner to the army of Boston, chief of the
important Committee of Secret Corre-
spondence, and commissioner to Canada.
He was one of the five to draw up the
Declaration of Independence, and was
president of the Pennsylvania Constitu-
tional Convention. Finally, Oct. 26,
1776, he sailed for France aboard the
sloop-of-war " Reprisal," with almost
unlimited discretionary power, as agent
for the colonies, reaching Paris Decem-
ber 21st. He did not return again to
Philadelphia until Sept. 14, 1785, when
he was seventy-nine years old. He
lived to be eighty-four, dying April 17,
1790.
Jared Sparks describes him as " well
formed and strongly built, in his latter
years inclining to corpulency. His stat-
ure was five feet nine or ten inches ; his
eyes were gray, and his complexion
light. Affable in his deportment, un-
obtrusive, easy, and winning in his
manners, he rendered himself agreeable
to persons of every rank in life. With
his intimate friends he conversed freely,
but with strangers and in mixed com-
pany he was reserved and sometimes
taciturn. His great fund of knowledge
and experience in human affairs con-
tributed to give a peculiar charm to
his conversation, enriched as it was by
original reflections and enlivened by
a vein of pleasantry, and by anec-
dotes and ingenious apologues, in the
he was as unlikely a man to get advancement in a | happy recollection and use of which he was unsur-
staid Quaker community as could be imagined. In I passed."
FKANKLIN AT THE AGE OF TWENTY.
1730 he had a printing establishment and newspaper
and stationer's shop of his own, was married, and was
already pressing upon public opinion with a powerful
leverage.
We will return to this part of his career again.
When Franklin returned to Philadelphia on May 5,
1775, after his fruitless negotiations in England, the
die of revolution was already cast. The day after
his arrival the Assembly of Pennsylvania elected him
delegate to the second Continental Congress, and so
he began his national career. He was never a senti-
Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia in Oc-
tober, 1723, and forthwith applied to Andrew Brad-
ford, the printer, son of William Bradford, for em-
ployment. There was a sort of propriety in this
step, both of coming to Philadelphia and applying
to Bradford, of which Franklin was probably not
aware. For he was the ostensible proprietor of his
brother's New England Courant, which was then
under the ban of official censure, and it was Brad-
ford's paper, the American Weekly Mercury, which
had raised its voice in manly defense of the per-
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
221
secuted printer and in rebuke of his persecu-
tors.1
It is proper now to inquire, before setting forth
what Franklin did, what sort of a field to work in he
found in Philadelphia, what was the state of printing,
science, letters, and the liberal arts at that time. The
Quakers were not learned, as a sect, — the social rank
from which their earliest members were chiefly re-
cruited would have made this impossible, — nor were
they inclined, by their tenets and the precepts and
practices of their faith, to the cultivation of literature
and the liberal arts. They were naturally almost en-
tirely excluded from the professions. A Quaker would
hardly take a degree in medicine without doing vio-
lence to his conscience. He could not pass the bar nor
practice in the courts of England. But the Quakers
were not illiterate, nor were letters neglected in the
colony of Friends on the banks of the Delaware.
Penn himself, as has been sufficiently shown, was a
man of as much reading as penetration. Barclay
was both scholar and logician. Story was a scholar.
Logan was profoundly read, a man who would have
excelled at Oxford and Cambridge and shone in a
German university. George Keith was a scholar. It
is probable that in the Philadelphia of 1723 there was
a larger proportion of persons with some knowledge
of Latin, and a much larger proportion of good Lat-
inists, than there are in the Philadelphia of 1883. In
the decorative part of polite learning the early inhab-
itants of the city perhaps did not shine, but in its
solid endowments they were not remiss. It is certain
they did not undervalue learning and knowledge, nor
neglect the means to secure them. They endowed
schools at the outset, and in the very beginning took
their stand for the liberty of the press as a thing as
important as liberty of conscience. Enoch Flower
was teaching school in 1683, Bradford's press was at
work in 1686.
Bradford's was the first printing-press in the middle
colonies, and the second in the British colonies. It
is a subject of pride to Pennsylvanians and Philadel-
phians that, while the printing-press was not set up
in Massachusetts until eighteen years after its first
settlement, in New York seventy-three years, in
Virginia more than a hundred years, and that the
Governor of Virginia, fifty years after the planting
of the colony, hoped that the press would not be set
up for a hundred years more, because it favored sedi-
1 Mercury, Feb. 26, 1723 : " My Lord Coke observes, that to punish first,
and then inquire, the law abhors; but here Mr. Franklin has a severe sen-
tence passed upon him, even to the taking away part of bis livelihood,
without being called to make an answer. An indifferent person would
judge by thiB vote against Couranls, that the Assembly of Massachusetts
Bay are made up of oppressors and bigots, who make religion the only
engine of destruction to the people, and the rather because the first let-
ter in the Courant, of the 14th of January, which the Assembly censures,
so naturally represents and exposes the hypocritical pretenders to reli-
gion. . .. Thus much we could not forbear saying, out of compassion to
the distressed people of the province, who muBt now resign all pretences
to sense and reason, and submit to the tyranny of priestcraft and hypoc-
risy."
tion and libels upon the church and the king, in
Philadelphia Bradford's press was at work within
four years after the foundation. We have already, in
a preceding chapter, spoken of Bradford and the rea-
sonable doubts for including him among the " Wel-
come's" passengers, or the first colonists. To this it
may be added that while there is little probability .of
his having, as conjectured, dwelt or practiced his art
between 1682 and 1685, either in Kensington or New
Castle, there is a possibility of his having done so in
Burlington, N. J., in that interval. That town was
an older settlement and more considerable place than
Philadelphia, and it shared with Salem and Amboy
the honor and the importance of being the residence
and seat of a royal Governor. Anyhow, Bradford was
in London " 6th month, 1685," as we know from
Fox's letter, just about to sail for Philadelphia. He
must have arrived in the latter town early in the
autumn of that year, for he printed his almanac for
1686, — Kalendarium Pennsyhaniense or America's Mes-
senger, an Almanac, edited by Samuel Atkins, the first
work ever printed in Philadelphia.2 In April, 1692,
filled with a sense of unjust treatment at the hands
of Philadelphia Friends, Bradford secured a release
from his obligation to do their printing for them, in-
tending to return to England. In March, 1693, the
Council of New York passed a resolution to the effect
that if a printer would come to that province to print
the acts of Assembly and other public documents, he
should be paid a salary of forty pounds a year, " and
have the benefit of his printing besides what serves
the public.'' Eighteen days later Bradford's presses
were set up in New York.3
2 One copy of this very rare work is in the possession of the Pennsyl-
vania Historical Society.
3 Some of the work done by him in Philadelphia, according to Mr.
Westcott, consists of the following (in addition to a tract, title not given,
said by H. Stevens, of London, to be in the library of the Friends, London,
dated 1686) : (1) The Kalendarium, etc., 1685; (2) An epistle from John
Burnyeat to Friends in Philadelphia, etc , 16S6 ; (3) An Almanac, calcu-
lated for the meridian of Burlington, by Daniel Leeds, student of agricul-
ture, etc., 1687 ; (4) Almanac for 1688, by Daniel Leeds, 1688 ; (5) Almanac
for 1688, by Edward Eakin, 1688; (6) Broadside in relation to keeping
Fairs at the Centre; (7) The Temple of Wisdom, for the Little World,
in two parts, etc. (a book, the first ever printed in Philadelphia, a com-
pilation, apparently by Leeds, the almanac-maker, containing, among
other things, extracts from Burton's Anatoniie, George Withers, Francis
Quarlls, and Lord Bacon), 1688 ; (8) Broadside proposals for printing a
large Bible. (" Proposals for the Printing of a Large Bible, by William Brad-
ford. These are to give notice, that it is proposed for a large house Bible
to be printed by way of subscriptions (a method usual in England for the
printing of large volumes, because printing is very chargeable) ; there-
fore, to all that are willing to forward so good (and great) a work as the
printing of the Holy Bible, are offered these proposals, viz. ; 1. That it
shall be printed in a fair character, on good paper, and well bound. 2.
That it shall contain the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocraphy,
and all to have useful marginal notes. 3. That it shall be allowed (to
them that subscribe) for twenty shillings per Bible (a price which one of
the same volume in England would cost). 4. That the pay shall be half
silver money, and half country produce at money price, one-half down
now, and the other half on the delivery of the Bibles. 6. That those
who do subscribe for six shall have the seventh gratis, and have them
delivered one month before any above that number shall be sold to
others. 6. To those which do not subscribe, the said Bibles will not be
allowed under 26s. apiece. 7. Those who are minded to have the Com-
222
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
From 1693 to 1699 there is no evidence of a printer
being in Philadelphia, but on the contrary evidence
that there was none, since Daniel Leeds, the almanac-
maker, a strong Keithian, had to go to New York to
get a brace of pamphlets printed that he himself had
written upon the points of the controversy.1 Mean-
time, in spite of Gabriel Thomas, learning and the
learned professions were not unrepresented in Phila-
delphia. We have already, in a preceding chapter, said
something of the earliest doctors and lawyers. With
Penn came over Dr. Thomas Wynne, of Flintshire,
Wales; Dr. Griffith Owen, of Wales; Dr. Nicholas
More and Dr. John Goodson, both of London. Dr. Ed-
ward Jones, of Bala, Merionethshire, Dr. Wynne's son-
mon Prayer, shall have the whole bound up for 22s., and thoBe that do
not subscribe, 28s. and od. per Book, 8. That encouragement is given by
Peoples subscribing and paying down one-half, the said work will be put
forward with what expedition may be. 9. That tbe subscribers may
enter their subscriptions and time of Payment at Pheneas Pemberton's
and Robert Hall's, in the County of Bucks; at Malen Stacy's Mill, at the
Falls; at Tliomas Budd's House, in Burlington; at John Hastings', in the
County of Chester ; at Edward Blake's, in New Castle; at Thomas V. Wood-
roof's, in Salem ; and at William Bradford's, in Philadelphia, printer and
undertaker of the said work, at which places the subscribers shall have
a receipt for so much of their subscriptions as paid, and an obligation
for the delivery of the number of Bibles (so printed and bound as afore-
said) as the respective subscribers shall deposit one-half for. Also, this
may further give notice that Samuel Richardson and Samuel Carpenter, of
Philadelphia, are appointed to take care and be assistant in the laying
out of the subscription money, and to see that it be employed to tbe
use intended, and consequently that the whole work be expedited.
Which is promised by "William Bradford. Philadelphia, the 14th
of the 1st month, 1688." This offer was seven years before Cotton
Mather's Bible.) (9) Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, 1689;
(10) A Tract by Gershom Bulkley, 1689 ; (11) Presbyterian and In-
dependent Visible Churches in New England. By George Keith;
(12) The People's Right to Election; or, Alteration of Government in
Connecticut. Arranged in a Letter by Gershom Bulkley, Esq., of his
Majesty's Justices of the Peace of the County of Hartford, 1689; (13)
Blood Will Out, or an Example of Truth by Plain Evidence of the Holy
Scriptures, viz. : Pardon Tillinghast, B. Keech, and Cotton Mather, and
a few words of a letter to Cotton Mather. By George Keith, 1690; (14)
A Confession of Faith, by George Keith, etc.; (15) A General Epistle
to Friends, by George Whitehead, 1691 ; (16) Reasons and Causes of the
Late Separation, by George Keith, 1691 ; (17) Anti-Christ and Sadducee,
1691 ; (18) PreBbyterian and Independent Churches in North America
brought to the Text, by George Keith, 1692; (19) A Refutation of the
Three Opposers of Justice, etc., etc., together with thirteen or fourteen
more pamphlets for and against Keith's heresies; (20) A Short Descrip-
tion of Pennsylvania ; or, A Relation of What Things are Known, En-
joyed, and like to be Discovered in the said Province, etc., by Richard
Frame 1692; (21) The Christian Faith of the People called Quakers in
Rhode Island vindicated from the Calumnies of C. Ludowickand Cotton
Mather, 1692 ; (22) A Confession of Faith in the most Necessary Things
of Christian Doctrine, 'Faith, and Practice, according to the Testimony of
Holy Scriptures. Given Forth from the Yearly Meeting at Burlington,
the 7th of 7th mo., 1692, by the despised Christian People called Quakers.
Published by William Bradford, Philadelphia, 1693 ; (23) Spirit of the Hat,
by James Claypoole, 1693 ; (24) A Parapbrastical Exposition in a Letter
from a Gentleman in Philadelphia to his Friend in Boston, concerning
a certain person who compared himself to Mordecai, 1693 (a poetical
attack on Samuel Jennings against the practice of slaveholding given
forth by the appointment of the meeting held at Philip James' house,
in Philadelphia, says Wharton). Morgan Edwards, in his " Materials
for a History of the Baptists," enumerates nine or ten other tracts or
pamphlets which were published at this time in relation to the Keithian
controversy, the mOBt of which it is fair to presume were published by
Bradford.
l One of these tracts was called " News of a Trumpet Sounding in the
Wilderness," etc., 1697 ; the other " A Trumpet Sounded Out of the Wil-
derness in America," etc., 1699.
in-law, was a first purchaser, and came over about the
same time ; Dr. John Le Pierre, who died in 1729, is
also thought to have come with Penn. He bore the
character of an alchemist. Dr. Wynne settled in the
lower counties, and died in 1691 ; Dr. Nicholas More,
president of the Society of Free Traders and founder
of the Manor of Moreland, does not seem to have
been in practice, nor was Dr. Goodson, who was one of
Penn's commissioners of property and held other po-
litical places of trust ; but Dr. Edward Jones was an
active physician. There were four other physicians
or '"' chirurgeons" among the first purchasers, — Drs.
Charles Marshall, of Bristol ; William Kussell, of
London; Eobert Dimsdale, of Middlesex; and Hugh
Chamberlain, of London ; but there is no evidence of
their having emigrated.
Of the early lawyers of Philadelphia, apart from their
political associations, little is known. Charles Pick-
ering, prosecuted in 1683 for coining or counterfeiting
Spanish money, was one ; he died in 1695. Patrick
Robinson, clerk of the Provincial Court, and register
of wills, was an attorney ; he died in 1701. In 1685,
by order of Council, Samuel Hersant was appointed
prosecuting attorney, and held his office fifteen
months, until elected sheriff of Philadelphia. David
Lloyd became attorney-general of the province in
1686. John Moore was king's attorney in 1700. Of
other attorneys we know little more than the names
of John White (1685), and that Penn's cousin, Wil-
liam Assheton, clerk of Councils and City Council,
and subsequently judge, was in Philadelphia as early
as 1700.
In his inaugural address of 1872, John Wil-
liam Wallace discourses eloquently of the early and
substantial efforts made in Philadelphia to found
schools and provide the means of education to all.
The encomium is not undeserved. The school was
provided for when there was scarcely a single house
built along the river front. We have already spoken
of Enoch Flowers' and George Keith's schools, the
former set in motion by Council regulation, Dec. 10,
1683, the latter provided for soon after. Flowers'
terms, as has already been noted, were four shillings
to eight shillings the quarter, according to grade, and
both in his school and the grammar school (" a school
of arts and sciences," say the Council minutes) they
whose parents were too poor to pay the fees were not
deprived of the means of getting knowledge. In
1698, when Gabriel Thomas wrote, Flowers' and
Keith's schools were not the only ones in the province,
for he expressly says that in Philadelphia "are several
good schools of learning for youth, in order to the at-
tainment of arts and sciences, as also reading, writing,
etc." Says Thomas I. Wharton,2 " Hardly had the em-
igrants sheltered themselves in their huts — the forest
trees were still standing at their doors — when they
2 " Notes on the Provincial Literature of Pennsylvania," by Thomas I.
Wharton.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
223
established schools and a printing-press, to teach and
to be enlightened, literally inter silvas qumrera verum.''
The grammar school was founded in 1689, and for-
mally and liberally chartered in 1701. Keith's salary
was fifty pounds per annum, with dwelling-house,
school-house, and all the profits of the school besides,
a guarantee up to one hundred and twenty pounds
per annum for two years. At the end of that time
he was succeeded by Thomas Makin, also clerk of
Assembly, some of whose uncouth hexameters have
been quoted already, and more may be found, if the
reader wishes to see them, in the appendix to the
second volumeof Proud's " History of Pennsylvania,"
where also a translation in Proud's manner may be
seen.1
Makin was not the earliest Philadelphia poet. In
the list of publications by Bradford, in a foot-note
just above, it will be seen that there was a satire pub-
lished in 1693, of which Joshua Francis Fisher, in
his admirable paper on " Early Poets and Poetry in
Pennsylvania," says that it was the earliest rythmical
production of our province which was committed to
print ; at least of which we have any notice, ... a
small quarto of eight pages. It is to be regretted
that neither the name of the author nor of the printer
is attached. The piece is of extreme rarity, and all
the criticism I am able to furnish is ' that it was a
bitter attack upon Samuel Jennings, and that the
lines are destitute of the spirit, and almost without
the form, of poetry.' "
Two poems were published by Bradford in 1692
and (as is conjectured) in 1696, which establish the
fact of the existence of Rittenhouse's paper-mill on
the Wissahickon, in Roxborough township, as early
at least as 1690.2 In this mill Bradford had a con-
siderable interest, and probably instigated its estab-
lishment. When it was carried away by the floods
in 1700, William Penn interested himself greatly in
promoting its reconstruction. The first of the poems
referred to was that of Richard Frame, " A Short
Description of Pennsilvania; or, A Relation What
things are known, enjoyed and like to be discovered
in the said Province."3 The other poem was that
of the Hon. (or Judge) John Holmes, a city magis-
trate, who was on the bench when Bradford was
tried for publishing Keith's pamphlet. It was en-
titled "A True Relation of the Flourishing State
of Pennsylvania." 4 Mr. Westcott has quoted several
passages from this poem. All that is necessary to
1 Makia's Latin poems, his "Descriptio Pennsylvania?," and his
"Encomium Pennsylvania?," were found among other MSS. in the
papers of James Logan .
2 This was forty years in advance of the first mill of the kind in New
England, at Milton, Mass. (See Horatio Gates Jones' paper on the JE5.it-
tenhouse paper-mill.)
3 The only copy of this poem known to be in existence is in the
Ridgway Library of Philadelphia.
* Holmes came from England in 1686, and was a constituent member
of the Philadelphia Baptist congregation. He married the widow of Dr.
(and Chief Justice) Nicholas More, and afterwards settled in Salem, N. J.,
dying about 1701.
give here is his reference to the Rittenhouse paper-
mill :
" Here dwelt a Printer, and I find
That he can both print books and bind;
He wants not paper, ink, Dor skill,
He's owner of a paper-mill ;
The paper-mill is here, hard-by,
And makes good paper frequently."
This was indeed the fact; the paper was far better
than Holmes' poetry.
lA Short '',:0{
Relation What thifigpCre kno
nd like to be difcowredlh ; " -
T
feg;l m the faid Province^
ftvt-. c::: _j
wmt '
FAC-SIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE OF FRAME'S POEM.
[In Ridgway Library, Philadelphia.]
Of the other publications by Bradford which have
been named, his " Burnyeat's Epistle" was the circu-
lar of a traveling Quaker minister after the order of
George Fox, an Englishman, of whom Fox himself
wrote that " he traveled and preached the Gospel in
Ireland, Scotland, Barbadoes, Virginia, Maryland,
New Jersey, and up and down New England, and had
many disputes with priests and professors that op-
posed the truth. But the Lord gave him dominion
over all, and to stop the mouths of gainsayers, and
he turned many to the Lord and was a peacemaker.''
He appears to have been Fox's companion in his
journey to America from Barbadoes, through Vir-
ginia and Maryland, into New Jersey. The epistle
printed by Bradford, one of twenty-three uttered by
this very Quaker St. Paul, was brief, four pages in
small quarto. Bradford's almanacs, edited by Leeds,
rude as they were, were the forerunners of " Poor
Richard." They mingled in their miscellany the
times of holding courts and fairs with moral maxims,
224
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
religious homilies, and practical, pithy rules of hus-
bandry. The calendar was by no means a Quaker
one, but gave all the fasts and festivals of the estab-
lished church and even of the Catholic Church ; but
this was perhaps needful, for men were very much
used in these times to make bargains and set engage-
ments by " Lady day," " Michaelmas," " Innocents,"
etc. The printer's first real volume, the " Temple of
Wisdom," was a duodecimo of some size, and a work
most creditable to Bradford. The printer, indeed, was
a man of estimable character. Franklin describes
him as being cunning and not very nice in his self-
seeking ; but he was perhaps less so than Franklin.
In his letter to the Burlington Half- Yearly Meeting,
February, 1688, in which he first opens up his Bible
scheme, he speaks of having laid out nearly all his
capital in the purchase of the materials for his art,
and as being content to get a livelihood for himself
and family while printing anything " serviceable
to truth." Such was the character of this book, the
" Temple of Wisdom," for which no great sale could
be expected, for Bacon's " Essays" and Quarles' " Em-
blems" arenot of the books that sell well. "Poor Rich-
ard" was a much more profitable venture, and it is
doubtful if Franklin ever read Bacon's " Essays," much
less thought of printing them. He had, however,
much shrewd mother-wit which was highly charac-
teristic, as he showed in his examination before
the Governor and Council when interrogated about
printing the charter, and he had perhaps a spice of
malice in his disposition. It seems highly probable
that he either wrote himself, or procured the writing
of the above-mentioned satire on Samuel Jennings,
who was one of the justices of the peace that deliv-
ered him and his printing-office into the custody of
the sheriff for printing George Keith's first pamphlet.
The next printer in Philadelphia was Reyner or
Eeynier Jansen, who succeeded Bradford, but, as has
been said, after an interval of some years. Not much
is known of Jansen. It has been conjectured he was
Bradford's apprentice, and succeeded to some of his
old type, but we should rather look to the German-
town colony for his starting-point, and, if there were
any original connection between him and Bradford,
expect to trace it through the latter's relations with
Rittenhouse. At any rate, the earliest publication of
which anything is known bearing Jansen's imprint is
in 1699, and he may have come over to the province
with Penn and Logan in that year. He seems to have
been a Dutchman. Dying in 1706, he left a will
which refers to a son of his, Liberius, in Amsterdam,
and to two married daughters. The first book pub-
lished by him was called " God's Protecting Provi-
dence Man's Surest Help and Defence," etc., a long
title. The book, by Jonathan Dickinson, was a nar-
rative of the sufferings of some shipwrecked people,
Friends and others, cast away upon the coast of
Florida in 1696, and exposed to many dangers and
hardships, but finally rescued by the Governor of St.
Augustine and sent to Philadelphia. Dickinson, his
wife, and six months' old infant were among the suf-
ferers. Jansen also printed a number of tracts, as
" Truth Rescued from Forgery and Falsehood" (an
answer to "The Case Decided"), 1699; "A Seasonable
Account of the Christian and Dying Words of Some
Young Men, by Thomas Trafford," 1700; "Satan's
Harbinger Encountered," etc., by C. P. (Caleb Pusey),
1700 ; " Jesus the Crucified Man the Eternal Son of
God, by William Davis," 1700; "Jacob Taylor's
Almanac," 1702 ; " A Letter from a Clergyman in
the Country," etc., 1702; "Proteus Ecclesiasticus,"
" George Keith Once More," " The Bomb Searched,"
and several more controversial pamphlets by Keith,
Pusey, and others, between 1702 and 1706.
Jansen's printing-office, after his death, seems to
have been taken by Jacob Taylor, the almanac-maker,
but his work is of no consequence, and there is no
proof of his having been even a practical printer.
In May, 1712, the Assembly determined to print the
laws, and sent for Taylor and "the other printers in
town," to confer with them on the subject. The price
set was one hundred pounds for five hundred copies,
and the printers could not be induced to underbid one
another. In 1713 the project, abandoned for a time,
was resumed, and in November of that year we find
Andrew Bradford, son of William, a competitor with
Taylor for the job. This was his first appearance, and
his type was vastly superior to that of Jansen and
Taylor, so that the latter disappears from the scene
as a printer, though " Taylor's Almanac" continued
to be published. In July, 1714, we find Andrew
Bradford asking the Assembly for relief. He had
printed the laws, but the English Council of State,
board of trade, and king had repealed them and pre-
vented his sales. The House paid him thirty pounds
for fifty bound copies of the work, and he also printed
sixty copies of the laws of that year for £34 7s. Gd., a
similar contract being made with him in 1718. Brad-
ford also printed the usual number of tracts and pam-
phlets to be expected from a printer in his position,
including an essay on hemp culture, a tract in Welsh,
by Elias Pugh (" Ammerch in Cymri"), Lord Moles-
worth's "Independent Whig," Taylor's, Jacob Leeds',
John Hughes', and John Jerman's Almanacs, etc.
Franklin calls him illiterate, and says his office was
badly equipped, but we must not forget that Franklin
and he were rival printers.
In 1722, Samuel Keimer came to Philadelphia and
established himself, either bringing type of his own
or succeeding to those used by Taylor and Jansen.
Franklin makes him the subject of as many jokes in
his autobiography as he appears to have of pranks
during their intercourse, and Keimer was no doubt
half an oddity and half an adventurer. Yet it is not
unlikely, after all, that Keimer, with his living to
make, and scant means for it, thought far less of the
" main chance" and far more of the way to work him-
self up than Franklin did. He was a braggart and a
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
225
pretender. Joseph, successor to Jacob Taylor, in a
severe attack upon him in the Mercury, in 1726, ridi-
cules his charlatanism and boasting, saying, " Thy con-
stant care and labor is to be thought a finished philos-
opher and universal scholar, never forgetting to talk
of the Greek and Hebrew and other oriental tongues,
as if they were as natural to thee as hooting to an
owl." He was a bad business man, and not over-
scrupulous about either debts or business relations,
but he was at least genuine in his enthusiasms, and
Franklin had none. He was a London printer, and
he used to promise his readers " to present to the
world, for its entertainment, an account of his suffer-
ings under the character of ' the white negro.' " He
left his wife; he had probably suffered some of the
slavery of a debtors' prison ; he was an early dis-
senter, a preacher among the " French prophets," and
had always two or three plans of his own for bettering
the world, Franklin's plans of the sort being generally
for the simple bettering himself. When he arrived
in Philadelphia, in February, 1722, he at once in-
serted an advertisement in the Mercury, a part of
which has already been quoted, to the effect that there
had lately arrived in the city a person who tendered
his free services to " teach his poor brethren, the male
negroes,'' to read the Scriptures, in "a very uncom-
mon, expeditious, and delightful manner," without
any cost to their masters. All serious persons, of no
matter what denomination, were asked to call and ad-
vise with him at his lodgings, " at the dwelling-house
of John Read, carpenter, in High St., Philadelphia,
every morning till eight of the clock, except on the
Seventh Day." This shows that Keimer worked at
his trade during the day. The advertisement ends in
a canto of Keimer's poetry:
" The Great Jehovah from above,
Whose Christian name is Light and Love,
In all [lis works will take delight,
And wash pour llagar'ti Blackmoors white.
Let none condemn this undertaking
By silent thoughts or noisy speaking;
They're fools whose holts soon shot upon
The mark they've looked but little on."
And we know, from Taylor's satire, that Keimer did
not give up this plan of his for several years, whether
he was ever able to put it into execution or not. He
was always poor, always the subject of ridicule, as a
man must be who thinks of other concerns before his
own. As he himself said, he had been the butt of
slander for twenty years, three times ruined as a
master- printer, nine times in prison, once for six
years at a time, "and often reduced to the most
wretched circumstances, hunted as a partridge upon
the mountains, and persecuted with the most devilish
lies the devil himself could invent or malice utter."1
Perhaps, after all, this man's chief crimes were that
he was unpractical and did not succeed, — did not "get
1 M. Laboulaye conjectures Keimer to have been a Camisard, or Pro-
testant of the Cevennes.
15
on" in life. It is characteristic of him that, when
Franklin first called to see him, he was composing
and " setting up" at the same time an " Elegy upon
Aquila Hose." Among the things printed by Keimer
were a tract by Thomas Woolston, a. treatise, "The
Curiosities of Common Water, or the Advantages
thereof in Preventing and Curing many Distempers.
Written by John Smith, CM. To which are added
some rules on Preserving," " A Parable, etc.," 1723
(a tract of Keimer's, which induced the Friends to
give notice that he was not of their sect), and " The
Craftsman. A Sermon, etc., by the late Samuel Bur-
gess." In 1725 he published "Taylor's Almanac,"
interpolating some irrelevancies of his own, which led
to Taylor's satire upon him, and to an advertisement
by Adam Goforth, in the Mercury, to the effect that it
was a lying and libelous almanac, and its publisher
a man whose " religion consisteth only in the beard,
and his sham keeping of the seventh day Sabbath,
following Christ only for loaves and fishes." Sooth
to say, he did not get sufficient of these to compensate
him for any sort of sacrifice, much less that of con-
science and principle.
What Joshua Francis Fisher says of the early poets
of Philadelphia will apply to early authors of all
kinds. There were none in the first twenty years of
the colony, the struggle with nature being too imperi-
ous and exacting for any to have leisure for any sort
of elegant recreation whatsoever. " But the second
generation, relieved from the toils of settlement in
the forest, reposing under liberal establishments and
laws framed by the enlightened wisdom of the founder
and his companions, and reaping plenty from rich and
beautiful fields, cleared by the labor of their fathers,
first turned their eyes to Heaven in thankfulness,
and then to Parnassus for inspiration to celebrate
the beauty and delights of their happy country. Al-
though it cannot be denied that the tuneful inhab-
itants of that sacred hill rarely descended into the
green valleys of our province, or that ' erubuit sylvas
habitare Thalia,' still their smiles were not alto-
gether withheld from their mystic votaries, and this
was quite encouragement enough." The early poet3
of the eighteenth century in Philadelphia, Mr. Fisher
notes, did not print much, and he fancies that what
they printed was not their best. James Logan, for
instance, wrote Latin verses and Greek odes, while
the only poetry of his in print is an English version
of the Distiches of Cato, made for his daughter.
Mr. Fisher adds that we must look for the works of
these earliest writers "in the almanacs, a strange
place to seek for poetry. But at that early day they
were the only publications to which rhymes could
obtain admittance, and certainly never since have
almanacs been embellished with better verses. They
are for the most part greatly deficient in poetic graces,
but some of them may certainly with justice be com-
mended for sprightliness and grace. The want of a
periodical sheet was felt by those modest geniuses,
22t>
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
who, not confident of the intrinsic merit of their
pieces, would have been happy to trust to the gen-
erosity of the public an unfathered offspring which
might not obtain favor for an acknowledged author.
The invitations of the editors of our two earliest
newspapers were eagerly accepted by a score of
nameless sons of Apollo. Scarcely a week passed
that some new attempt at rhyming was not made,
or, to speak more appropriately, that our ancestors
did not hear some young Orpheus beginning to take
lessons on the lyre. These first strains certainly were
not always melodious. The first poetry of Pennsyl-
vania may generally be characterized as inelegant,
unharmonious, and spiritless ; yet there were several
brilliant exceptions, which surprise us by their sweet-
ness and vivacity, and were beyond a doubt the pro-
ductions of cultivated and refined minds. There are
many verses which would not discredit any English
author of the last century, and still may be read
with pleasure; and although, perhaps, they have not
enough of originality or brilliancy to deserve a repro-
duction in an age overstocked with all the lighter
kinds of literature, may certainly be noticed with
satisfaction and referred to with pride."
Of the satire upon Samuel Jennings mention has
been made already. In 1707 there was another
satirist, William Rakestraw, who assailed the pro-
prietary both in prose and verse, and who was judi-
cially punished for what Logan styled his " scurril-
lous libels and rhymes." Aquila Rose was the first
poet of Philadelphia who gained anything like repu-
tation. He came from England young and very poor,
found employment in Bradford's office, took a wife,
got a lease of the High Street ferry, became clerk of
Assembly, and died June 24, 1723, aged only twenty-
eight years. Franklin speaks of the high esteem in
which he was held, and three elegies that have come
down to us were occasioned by his death. One of
these, as has been said, was by Keimer, one by Elias
Bockate, of London, and the third is anonymous, an
"Elegy on the sight of Myris' tomb," not a bad at-
tempt, by the way, at a strain in which even Milton
was stilted and artificial, and only Shelley and Ten-
nyson, among moderns, have excelled. Mr. Fisher
does not seem to have been aware that Joseph Rose,
Aquila's son and Franklin's apprentice, collected his
father's verses and printed them in a slim pamphlet
of fifty-six pages, in 1740, with the following preface :
" The good reception the poetical manuscript writings
of my deceased father, Aquila Rose, have met with in
this province, from men of wit and taste, with a desire
of some of these to see them printed, induced me to
collect what I could." Mr. Rose adds that many of
the best poems had been " lent out" and could not be
recovered. In an introductory poem we learn of Rose
that, —
" Albion his birth, his learning Albion gave ;
To manhood grown, he crossed the stormy wave;
More arts, and Nature's wondrous ways to find,
Illuminate and fortify his mind," etc.
" And now a greater task he takes in hand,
Which none but true proprietors understand.
What pity 'tis they seldom live to taste
The fruits of those pure spirits that they wastel
For works so hard and tedious, was it known
A poet e'en did poetry disown?
Or for a distant livelihood give o'er
Those instant pleasures that he felt before ?
Yet so Aqnila did,— the rustic toil,
To make firm landings on a muddy soil,
Erect a ferry over Schuylkill's stream,
A benefit to thousands — death to him !
*****
He saw his causeways firm above the waves,
And nigh the deeps unless a storm outbraves ;
When gusts unusual, strong with wind and rain,
Swell'd Schuylkill's waterB o'er the humble plain,
Sent hurrying all the moveables afloat,
And drove afar the needfull'st thing, the boat,
'Twas then that wading thro' the chilling flood,
A cold ill humor mingled with his blood.
*****
Physicians try their skill, his head relieved,
And his lost appetite to strength retrieved ;
But all was flatt'ry — so the lamp decays,
And near its exit gives an ardent blaze."
Which reads as if it might have been composed by
the attending physician. Rose's poems, says Duyc-
kinck, " display skill and ease in versification." A
specimen, quoted. in" Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia," "To
his Companion at Sea," is a graceful reminiscence of
Horace. A copy of verses written by him in 1720,
in the shape of a carrier's address for New Year's
day, shows the antiquity of that now obsolete cus-
tom.1
1 These verseB seem worth preserving here for the local references :
" Full fifty timeB have roul'd their changes on,
And all the year's transactions now are done;
Full fifty times I've trod, with eager hnste,
To bring you weekly news of all things paBt.
Some grateful thing is due for such a ta6k,
Tho' modesty itself forbids to ask;
A silver tliought, expressed in ill-shaped ore,
Is all I wish; nor would I ask for more.
To grace our work, swift Merc'ry stands in view ;
I've been a Living Merc'rv still to you.
Tho' ships and tiresome posts advices bring,
Till we impress it, 'tis no current thing.
Copson may write, but Biadford's art alone
Distributes news to all th' expecting town.
How far remov'd is this our western shore
From those dear lands our fathers knew before ;
Tet our bold ships the raging ocean dare,
And bring us constant news of actions there.
Quick to your hands tho fresh advices come,
From England, Sweden, France, and ancieDt Rome.
What Spain intends against the barbarous Moors,
Or Russian armies on the Swedish shores.
What awful hand pestiferous judgments bears,
And lays the sad Marseillas in death and tears.
From George alone what peace and plenty spring,
The greatest statesman aud the greatest king.
Long may he live, to us a blessing giv'n,
Till he shall change his crown for that of heav'n.
The happy day, Dear Sir, appears ag'in,
When human nature lodg'd a God within.
The angel now was heard among the swains;
A God resounds from all the distant plains;
O'erjoyed they haste, and left their fleecy care,
Found the blest Child, and knew the God was there.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
227
The elegy to Rose, under the name of Myris, has
a certain pleasing warmth :
" With pleasure we behold, 0 Delaware 1
Thy woody banks become the Muses' care ;
Thy docile youth were with her beauty fired,
And folly, vice, and ignorance retired ;
And had but Myris lived, we hoped to see
A new Arcadia to arise in thee."
Keimer's elegy was coarse and extravagant, like
the man, but it contains some really valuable illus-
trations of manners and customs, to which reference
may be made hereafter. Of Rose's character, says
Keimer, —
" He loved plain Truth, but hated formal Cant,
In those who Truth and Honesty did want.
A curious Artist at his Business, he
Could Think, and Speak, Compose, Correct so free,
To make a Dead Man Speak or Blind to see."
Keimer wrote other verses, but they are not worth
quoting.1
Tet whilst, with gen'rous breath, you hail the day,
And, like the shepherds, sacred homage pay,
Let gen'rous thought some kindly grace infuse,
To him that brings, with careful speed, your News."
It is evident from the above that Copson, the publisher, was also the
man who gathered the news, edited, and " made up" the Mercury ; Brad-
ford was only the printer.
1 Excepting the parts in his " Sorrowful Lamentations of Samuel Keimer,
Printer of tlie Barbadoes Gazette (May 4, 1734), which refer to Philadel-
phia. This lamentation begins:
""What a pity it iB that some modern braviidoes,
Who dub themselves gentlemen here in Barbadoes,
Should time after time run in debt to their printer,
And care not to pay him in Summer or Winter."
He adds, as a contrast, that, —
" In Penn's wooden country, type feels no disaster,
Their printor is rich and is made their Post Master ;
His father, a printer, is paid for his work,
And wallows in plenty just now in New York,
Tho' quite past his labor, and old as my grannum,
The Government pays him pounds sixty per annum.
Keimer's elegy shows that all the literary charac-
ters of Philadelphia of the day were gathered around
Rose's grave at his funeral, including Governor
Keith, James Logan, Thomas Chalkley, the Quaker
minister and writer, and all the circle of wits, scholars,
and writers shortly afterwards united by Franklin in
the club of the Junto.
Andrew Bradford's American Weekly Mercury began
to be printed Dec. 22, 1719. It was on a pot half-
sheet (fifteen by twelve and a half inches), about a
page of ordinary letter-paper, in other words, and
bore the imprint : " Philadelphia : Printed by Andrew
Bradford, and sold by him and John Copson." In
1721 Copson's name was dropped, and the imprint
altered to " Philadelphia : Printed and sold by An-
drew Bradford, at the Bible in Second Street, and also
by William Bradford, in New York, where advertise-
ments are taken in." William Bradford's New York
Gazette was not begun until 1725. In Mr. Westcott's
words, " The Mercury sometimes appeared on a whole
sheet of pot, in type of various sizes, as small pica,
pica, and English. It appeared weekly, generally on
Tuesday ; but the day of publication was varied.
Price ten shillings per annum. Editorial matter
seldom appeared, and so little notice was taken of
passing events in the city, with which at that time
everybody was supposed to be acquainted, that little
information with regard to local affairs is to be found
in the paper. It was principally made up of ex-
tracts from foreign journals several months old,
with a few badly-printed advertisements. Two cuts,
E'en type at Jamaica, our island's reproach,
Is able to ride in her chariot or coach ;
But alas your poor typo prints no figures like Nullo,
Curs'd, cheated, abused by each pitiful fellow,
Tho' Working like slave, with zeal and true courage,
He can Bcarce get as yet ev'n salt to his porridge."
"Decemher 22 j t 7 i 9.
'From the NOR/IH.
A/UBVRGJf Ausaft, ap. All. Cor tetters
BomSwedeOf are full of 'tlx* 'Difmall. Ravages
committed by the Mufcovites there, Thofe Semi
Cliriltiaiu have burnt the fipjS Towns, of Nj/~
■&U>fn£„ rVardfopphg,. Keith Telle, South Telle,
,„ ,.,. ^ Q&hmmeri Oregrmd, Firftenar, OrteU, &c. with all
tte Catties andGentlerneris'Scats near them & ruined all the
■•■'".-, »ceibgthey'*"-
Gamers by tpa parricalatfSubfcriptionj .no lefs dwa'acfaP
hundred and, nitv MillionsjftiWfc'Blovv' in ready 'Money *
and 'tis now faid rhcjftffill ftiil have" .Leave Wvaiice
and enlarge tl:w Sabfcnption for' fifty .Mill ions* more -"-vid
fo on to fifty more, if cheyt>!eafe, in which Cafe rnW-ntty
eafily pay nvejve tnmdred Millions; and it is fa;d •steady'
from Paa^ that they have eighteen hundred Millions inCafri
228
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
coarsely engraved and intended as ornaments, were
placed at the head, one on each side of the title ; that
on the left was a small figure of Mercury, represented
on foot, with extended wings and bearing his eadu-
ceus. The other was the representation of a postman
riding at full speed. These cuts were sometimes
shifted, and, for the sake of variety, Mercury and the
postman exchanged places." 1
The Mercury did publish an occasional bill of mor-
tality, says Mr. Wharton, and some of its advertise-
ments were characteristic of the times and manners.
This was the only newspaper in Philadelphia until
Keimer began his rival sheet, The Universal Instructor
in All Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette,
which Franklin utilized as the germ of his Gazette.
If we could determine exactly when Aquila Rose
died we would know when Franklin came to Phila-
delphia, for Keiraer's elegy was palpably put in type
immediately after the funeral. But one authority
says June, another August, and we cannot decide
between them, though June is the preferred date. He
himself, in his autobiography, says he reached New
York in October on his way to Philadelphia ; but he
was not accurate as to dates. He was recommended
by William Bradford to seek work with his son
Andrew, in place of his principal hand, Aquila Rose,
then just dead, — so recently dead that the place, Wil-
liam Bradford thought, was not yet filled. Frank-
lin indeed found the place filled when he reached
Philadelphia, but this did not prevent him from get-
ting work and good wages from both Bradford and
Keimer, so that when he returned to Boston in April,
1724, besides his traveling expenses, he had good
new clothes, a watch, and five pounds sterling silver
in his pocket.
Franklin began at once his career of influence in
Philadelphia. He relates how gracious Governor
Keith was to him, though not yet eighteen years old,
making him take wine with him aud often inviting
him to dinner. As he himself says, as soon as he got
lodgings at Mr. Read's, " I began now to have some
acquaintance among tlie young people of the town,
that were lovers of reading, with whom I spent my
evenings very pleasantly, and gained money by my
industry and frugality." The young men of his ac-
quaintance whose names he gives were Charles Os-
borne, Joseph Watson, and James Ralph, " all lovers
of reading." The first two were clerks to Charles
Brockden, a leading conveyancer; Ralph was a mer-
chant's clerk. Osborne he sincerely admired and
loved ; he admired Ralph's talent. " I think I never
knew a prettier talker," yet contrives to belittle his
character. Ralph probably was somewhat of a Bohe-
mian, and borrowed Franklin's money; but Franklin
was his debtor, for all that, for Ralph wrote for him
that "Historical Sketch of Pennsylvania" which did
so much to give him prominence with the British gov-
1 Westcott's History of Philadelphia, chap, lxxvii.
ernment, and eventually led to his becoming Ameri-
can agent in France for the United States. Ralph
went to England with Franklin in 1724, and became
a professional litterateur of London in the very darkest
days of Grub Street, when Samuel Johnson had often
to write himself impransus, and Goldsmith was more
than once in pawn to his landlady. Yet Ralph con-
trived to make his way, after a fashion, though Pope
put him in the " Dunciad," along with many better
and many worse men, and now he is chiefly known
through the waspish little poet's couplet:
" Silence, ye wolveB, while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
Making night hideous, — answer him, ye owlsP1
But Ralph had some energy and did some creditable
work. Between 1730 and 1745 he printed several
plays, some of which were acted at Drury Lane, —
" The Fashionable Lady," " Fall of the Earl of Essex,"
" The Lawyer's Feast," and " The Astrologer." These
yielding no profit, he turned to satire, to pamphlets,
to political libel; he was one of Bub Doddington's
scribblers; he was one of Frederick, Prince of Wales',
"literary bureau," and he forced Pelham at last to
purchase his silence or hire him to support the New
Castle administration. Then he turned to epic verse
and satire, and finally to history, which he wrote, as
Fox said, with "acuteness and diligence," while Hal-
lam, not given to excessive praise, says his history of
William, Anne, and George I. was the best that had
been produced. Ralph died at Chiswick in 1762, his
attainments in the latter part of his life being of no
mean order, and this is no small compliment to a
man who rose from the counter of a Philadelphia
country store, and made his way through all the slat-
ternly miseries of the hack-writer's life in London.
Franklin and Ralph sailed together for London in
1724 to seek their fortunes, the former relying upon
the false and illusory credentials given him by Gov-
ernor Keith, and which he found to be utterly worth-
less on reaching London. This was a good sort of
discipline for Franklin, who could live anywhere and
anyhow. It made a good printer of him, and cleansed
off all his New England rusticity. When he came
back, in 1726, to Philadelphia he was quite competent
to fill the part set for him in the province. That part
was a great and distinguished one. Penn had founded
a Quaker commonwealth. Franklin undertook to
divest it of its sectarian garments, to modernize it, to
give it a place in contemporary politics, — history,
science, and art. He made war on the proprietary
government and pulled it down ; he laughed and
ridiculed the Quakers into a minority; he united
Quakers, churchmen, and German and Irish settlers
in opposition to British pretensions and in sympathy
with American ideas and principles. And, without
enthusiasm, without ideality, without morality, or
great command over or respect from men, he made
Pennsylvania the foremost American colony at the
outbreak of the Revolution by being himself the
best public business man who ever lived.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
229
Franklin's autobiography always fascinates; it is
one of the most charming narratives ever written, but
it is the worst possible book in which to study him in
his relations to public affairs. In the first place, he
prefers to give his interior, individual history, rather
than his exterior, public history, for which we owe
him unending thanks; in the second place, it was
always his idiosyncrasy to conceal the amount of
pressure he himself exerted personally upon the
springs of action, and to let such things seem to come
about by chance — he feared to let his influence be
known, lest he should so impair it; and, in the third
place, he is not entirely frank at any time, and when
he seems to be most ingenuous is the time to suspect
him of being most rati. The end was what he con-
cerned himself about, and he did not care to betray
his means, for he might want to employ them again
to secure a similar end. So he often made it seem as
if things came about by simple means or by pure
accident, when he himself had worked up to them
through long stages of preparation and by setting a
hundred snares and gins. This was the philosopher's
nature to act thus, and people suspected his sincerity
very often. In the latter part of his life they used to
call him " old lightning rod," and probably respected
his talents much more than his character. In the
earlier part of his life the Quakers, especially, both
hated and feared him, and showed it by attacking
him politically whenever he gave them a chance,
which was not often, for he did not care much for
popular favors, and had so little of the demagogue in
his composition that he was suspected and accused
of being both an aristocrat and a Tory. He was far
from being either, for his patriotism was sound to the
core, if not very exalted in kind, and a purer demo-
crat in thought and mode of action never lived.
Franklin returned to Philadelphia from London,
Oct. 11, 1726. In the spring of 1727 he was again at
work for Keimer. Before the year was out he had
printed currency notes for New Jersey, and became
acquainted with the leading men of that province in
so doing, and had agreed with Meredith, Keimer's
apprentice, to set up a rival job office. In the winter
of 1726-27, also, he had founded the " Junto," became
a Freemason, and learned how to act upon the little
community in which he lived for the accomplishment
of his purposes, personal and political. The difficul-
ties in his way in doing this were enhanced by the
fact that he was a tradesman, a mechanic, and the
lines were much more distinctly drawn then than
now between " gentlemen" and artisans, even in Phil-
adelphia and New England, especially in all matters
of social intercourse and correspondence. But Frank-
lin, never ceasing to be a tradesman and mechanic, but
rather glorying in it, in fact, still made all classes own
his superiority and bend to his influence. His mind
was as active and busy as his hands, he had an insati-
ate curiosity, and he loved influence because he had
a natural benevolence of character over and above his
self-seeking. These traits betrayed themselves very
early, but are much more noticeable in his corre-
spondence than in his autobiography. His letters
illustrate fully his kindly disposition, especially to
his family and friends, his whimsical, semi-humorous
benevolence as fully as his memoirs do, and they bring
us much closer to the philosopher in other regards.
J-.- — ■■ ■ 'nTH
h|! ."-ii.ir,'.-1],- :" j;. '•[',,'■ %
\ Hi
iliisllfess
FRANK UK'S PRESS.
He wrote to his father, mother, sisters, nieces, nephews,
cousins, to antiquaries, philosophers, and public men
the civilized world over. He was a born reporter,
because, a news-gatherer upon instinct, he not only
heard everything which was passing, but was bound
to investigate it. He had, besides, something of the
quidnunc and the " old granny" about him, although
frequently disclaiming such qualities.
A glance at his correspondence is full of sugges-
tions of character. The first letter in Sparks' collec-
tion is one written in London offering Sir Hans Sloane
a purse made of asbestos, which, as he notes, is pro-
vincially denominated "salamander cotton." The
next is to his favorite sister, Jane, telling her that,
hearing she was grown a beauty, he was minded to
send her a tea-table for a present; but knowing her
purpose to become a notable housewife, he would
substitute a spinning-wheel for the ornamental piece.
He writes to her again, when Mrs. Mecom, giving an
account of the great mortality from smallpox in the
family of George Claypoole, his neighbor, who, he
notes, was a descendant of Cromwell. Eight had
died, the cause being, he thinks, the imprudent use
of mercury to extirpate the itch, the smallpox attack-
ing them while their systems were debilitated by the
mercurial poison. He regrets to hear that sister
Holmes has a cancer of the heart, a disease thought
to be incurable, but there is here in town a kind of
shell, " made of some wood cut at a proper time by
some man of great skill (as they say), which has done
wonders in that disease among us, being worn for some
230
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
time on the breast. I am not apt to be superstitiously
fond of believing such things, but the instances are
so well attested as sufficiently to convince the most
incredulous." This he will procure for her if he can,
and it will do no harm to try it. His father (says
another letter, anno 1738) has been writing to him
about his religious belief, or rather his want of it, his
mother grieving that one of her sons is an Arminian,
another an Arian, and that he has become a Free-
mason. He would like to please his father by
changing his opinions if he could, but a man cannot
help his thoughts any more than his looks, and it is
his idea that opinions should be judged by their in-
fluences and effects. He thinks that vital religion
has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded
than virtue, and he really does not know very well
what an Arminian or Arian really is! " As to the
Freemasons, I know no way of giving my mother a
better account of them than she seems to have at
present, since it is not allowed that women should be
admitted into that secret society." If she will sus-
pend her judgment, however, until she is better in-
formed, she will probably learn that they are a very
harmless sort of people. Another letter to Mrs.
Mecom about apprentices, showing that Franklin
knew the gauge of boys exactly, and had taken their
measure. " I have frequently observed," he says,
" that if their shoes were bad, they would say noth-
ing of a new pair till Sunday morning, just as the
bell rung, when, if you asked them why they did not
get ready, the answer was prepared, — ' I have no
shoes;' and so of other things, hats and the like; or,
if they knew of anything that wanted mending, it
was a secret till Sunday morning, and sometimes I
believe they would rather tear a little than be with-
out the excuse. As to going on petty errands, no
boys love it, but all must do it." He writes to his
father of remedies for stone and gravel, and of his
friend Bartram's discovery of "the famous Chinese
ginseng ;" to his brother John about the expedition
to Cape Breton, in which he anticipates Professor
TyndalPs prayer-gauge. Taking strong places, he
says, is a particular trade, but some seem to think
forts are as easy taken as snuff. " Father Moody's
prayers look tolerably modest. You have a fast and
prayer day for that purpose, in which I compute five
hundred thousand petitions were offered to the same
effect in New England, which, added to the petitions
of every family morning and evening, multiplied by
the number of days since January 25th, make forty-
five millions of prayers, which, set against the pray-
ers of a few priests in the garrison to the Virgin
Mary, give a vast balance in your favor. If you do
not succeed, I fear I shall have but an indifferent
opinion of Presbyterian prayers in such cases as long
as I live. Indeed, in attacking strong places, I should
have more dependence on works than on faith, for,
like the kingdom of heaven, they are to be taken by
force and violence."
In another letter we find him advising a cousin in
some matrimonial trouble, humorously, but wisely ;
he writes to Cadwallader Colden about defenses
against the French and Indians, about a book of Os-
borne's, about Kalm the botanist, his own desires for
greater ease and leisure, about colleges and schools,
and classical culture, about electricity, the Abb6 Nol-
let, Dalibard, Beccaria, trade with the Indians, union
of the colonies, etc. ; with James Logan he corre-
sponds about the fortifications on the Delaware, about
the Swedes and Kalm, etc. ; with his mother, about
domestic affairs and Philadelphia incidents, such as
the yellow fever in 1749. He sends her a moidore,
"which please accept towards chaise hire, that you
may ride warm to meetings this winter. Pray tell us
what kind of a sickness you have had in Boston this
summer. Besides the measles and flux, which have
carried off many children, we have lost some grown
persons by what we call the yellow fever." 1 He corre-
sponded with Revs. Samuel Johnson and William
Smith on education in general, and on particular
schemes for Philadelphia ; with Jared Eliot, on me-
teorology and agriculture as well as general ethics ;
with George Whitefield, on religious and theological
subjects ; with Peter Collinson, on scientific and
American subjects; he notes the fact, as observable
to-day as it was then, that English laborers show less
industry in new countries in proportion as labor is
better paid, but German laborers " retain the habitual
industry and frugality they bring with them, and, re-
ceiving higher wages, an accumulation arises which
makes them rich." This difference he attributes to
the effect of the British poor laws, but says man is
naturally lazy. This he thinks is the cause of the
failure to civilize the American Indians, who do not
value the products of civilization enough to toil for
them. Franklin, however, did not like the German
immigrants, because they were not readily natural-
ized and did not care to acquire English speech and
manners. " They import many books from Germany,
and of the six printing-houses in the province, two
are entirely German, two half German half English,
and but two entirely English." Franklin himself
owned one of the half German half English offices.
Franklin corresponded with Governors Shirley and
Thomas Pownall on public and political questions ;
he was writing to George Washington as early as
1756. When he undertook his first mission to Eng-
land, in 1757, his circle of correspondents naturally
widened in every direction. He wrote to family and
friends and authorities at home about the greatest
variety of topics ; his European friends and corre-
1 The correspondence with Logan, and the notes of the latter to Peter
Collinson and others, will illustrate what was said above about the dif-
ferences in social rank which stood in the way of Franklin iu extending
his influence. He always addresses Logan " Sir," in the most respectful
and distant way. Logan, writing to Collinson, speaks of " our most in-
genious printer and postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, who has the clearest
understanding, with as extreme modesty, as any man I know here."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
231
spondents included such men as William Strahan,
Lord Kame9, David Hume (to whom he wrote about
history, philosophy, and literature), Baskerville, the
printer (on typography), Galloway, Bartram, Dubourg,
Benezet, etc. His letter to Joseph Priestly after the
outbreak of the war is very significant: " Britain, at
the expense of three millions, has killed one hundred
and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is twenty
thousand pounds a head ; during the same time sixty
thousand children have been born in America." In
another letter, probably to David Hartley, he gives
the key-note of the separation : " But you will goad
and provoke us. You despise us too much ; and you
are insensible of the Italian adage, that there is no
little enemy."
Such is the character of Franklin's correspondence
throughout. Intensely practical, each letter has some
point of its own, conveys some piece of valuable in-
formation, condenses some result of careful observa-
tion, makes some pregnant inquiry, and is enlivened
by an epigram, a sarcasm, a bit of humor, or a touch
of kindly affection. Sentiment the philosopher had
none; he seemed to be incapable of getting very
angry ; his sole complaint against Arthur Lee was
that Lee was captious, suspicious, and quarrelsome ;
but he was a dangerous man to assail, because he was
armed at all points, and welcomed the attack like the
skillful chess-player, who is confident, as soon as his
pieces are deployed, that his opponent will be annihi-
lated. In many of his little schemes of morality and
utility his ideas did not seem to rise above a very low
scale, and they had a sort of wooden dullness which
is vastly unpleasant. " Honesty is the best policy"
was his favorite maxim, as if there were nothing of
decorum and beauty for its own sake. So he got no-
thing out of his electrical experiments and discoveries
but the lightning-rod ; he drew up his rules for " moral
perfection" as one might set types in a composing-
stick ; his inventions were a stove, an artificial arm
and hand, an easy-chair, a swimming-pad, etc. ; in
war matters he was so absurd as to propose going
back to bows and arrows, and he wished to have the
copper coins of the country stamped with maxims out
of " Poor Eichard's Almanac," with the view to pro-
mote public frugality and honesty. If he had been
a poet he would have anticipated Tupper's " Pro-
verbial Philosophy."
But this was one of the reasons why he was so in-
fluential and useful to Philadelphia from the time he
became a citizen there. His mind was intensely
active, he seldom thought much above the level of
the crowd, he thought and expressed himself with
wondrous clearness and plainness, and he was always
planning some new thing which would advance
Philadelphia's interests, and Franklin's along with
them. Such, for example, was his " Junto," or " club
for mutual improvement," into which, as he said, he
" formed most of his ingenious acquaintance." The
club met on Friday evenings. The rules, drawn up
by Franklin, required "that every member in his
turn should produce one or more queries on any
point of morals, politics, or natural philosophy, to be
discussed by the company," with an essay from each
once in three weeks. But the rules of the club really
had a practical end in view, as the following, selected
from among the " previous questions, to be answered
at every meeting," show plainly enough :
" (1) Have you met with anything in the author you last read re-
markable or suitable to be communicated to the Junto, particularly in
history, morality, poetry, physic, travels, mechauic arts, or other parts
of knowledge?
" (2) What new story have you lately heard agreeable for telling in
conversation ?
" (3) Hath any citizen in your knowledge failed in his business lately,
and what have you heard of the cause?
" (4) Have you lately heard of any citizen's thriving well, and by
what means?
" (5) Have you lately beard how any present rich man, here or else-
where, got his estate ?
" (10) Whom do you know that are Bhortly going voyages or journeys,
if one should have occasion to send by them?
"(12) Hath any deeerving stranger arrived in town since last meet-
ing that you have heard of? and wliat have you heard or observed of
his character or merits? And whether, think you, it lies in the power
of the Junto to oblige him or encourage him as he deserves?
" (13) Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately set up
whom it lies in the power of the Junto any way to encourage?
" (14) Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of your country
of which it would be proper to move the Legislature for an amendment,
or do you know of any beneficial law that is wanting?
" (15) Have you lately observed any encroachmenton the just liberties
of the people?
" (16) Hath anybody attacked your reputation lately, and what can
the Junto do towards securing it?
"(17) Is there any man whose friendship you want, and which the
Junto, or any of them, can procure for you ?
" (18) Have you lately heard any member's character attacked, and
how have you defended it?
"(19) Hath any man injured you from whom it is in the power of the
Junto to procure redress ?" etc.
Here was a secret association, of people from the
several ranks of society, which was at once an intel-
ligence office and a star chamber, a business protec-
tive union and an inquisition, a gossip club and a
propagator of political opinion, a whispering gallery
and a vehmegericht. It is easy to conceive how
many advantages a skillful and plausible man like
Franklin could secure to his business through such
an association, in addition to the stores of useful
knowledge about men and things he would be able to
accumulate through it.
The Junto, founded in 1727, became forty years
later the basis of the American Philosophical Society,
of which Franklin was the first president, an associa-
tion which has probably contributed more than any
other to the advancement of science and the diffusion
of knowledge in the United States. The Junto was
not a very solemn club at first. It had a song or two
of its own, it celebrated itself in an anniversary ban-
quet, and it used to have a good many picnic meetings
in rural places, " for bodily exercise." The member-
ship was never very large. Franklin mentions only
eleven persons, and Roberts Vaux has added about
a dozen more names to the list, — all persons of great
232
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
respectability, few of any special prominence.1 From
the literary standpoint, besides Franklin, George
Webb and Breintnal have come down to us most
pleasantly. The latter, besides his verses, wrote Rood
prose, and continued the series of essays styled "The
Busy Body," begun by Franklin in the Mercury, and
Webb says of him, —
"For clioice of diction I should Breintnal choose,
For just conceptions and a ready muse — "
Webb himself described his companions and their
characters and pursuits in a pleasing poem called
"Bachelor's Hall." Webb was an Oxford scholar, a
redemptioner, bought by Keimer for a four-years'
term, his exile the fruit of a boy's London frolic. It
is not known what became of him, but his " Bachelor's
Hall" shows the wit and the man of culture. Frank-
lin makes no mention of Henry Brooke, a young
gentleman of much talent and good education, abaro-
net's younger son, and the author of a squib called
"A Discourse on Jests," addressed to Franklin's
friend, Bobert Grace. But Webb refers to Brooke in
tones of exalted panegyric:
"In Brooke's capacious breast the muses sit,
Enrobed with sense polite and poignant wit;
His lines run smoothly through the currents strong ;
lie forms with ease, with judgment sings the song.
Oh, would he oft'uer write ; so should 1 1 1 •- town,
Or mend their tastes, or lay the muses down;
For, after manna, who would garbage eat,
That hath a spark of sense or grain of wit?"
The Junto was influential from the start, prosper-
ous, popular, and profitable to Franklin and his as-
sociates. The philosopher had just gone into business
for himself, with Meredith for partner, and their ob-
ject was to break up Keimer, and divide the job work
of the town with Bradford. All was fish, therefore,
which came to his net, and, as he says of his Junto
friends, "every one exerted themselves in recom-
mending business to us. Breintnal, particularly,
1 The names given by Franklin are Thomas Godfrey, Nicholas Scull,
William Parsons, William Maugridge, Hujili Meredith, Stephen Putts,
George Webb, Uobert Grace, and William Coleman. Mr Yaiix's list of
additional names includes Hugh Robert*, Philip Syng, Enoch Flower,
Joseph Whai ton, William Griffith, Luko Morris, Joseph Turner, Joseph
Shippen, Joseph Trotter, Samuel Jervis, and Samuel Rhoads. It will
be noticed that neither Osborue nor Watson, Franklin's early compan-
ions, with Ralph, in literature, are named. It is not known what were
the fortunes of Watson. Osborne went to the West Indies and became
a rich lawyer. It is noteworthy also that no professional men of conse-
quence were members. Breintnal was a conveyancer's clerk, a sort of a
poet; Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, who, encouraged by James
Logan, invented the well-known nautical instrument called lladley's
quadrant; Nicholas Scull was a leading surveyor and map-maker, after-
wards surveyor-general ; William Parsons was a liteiary shoemaker,
who advanced from a mathematical smattering and studies in astrology
to become surveyor-general; "William Maugridge, joiner, but a most
exquisite mechanic, and a sol id, sensible mau;" Hugh Meredith, Stephen
Potts, and George Webb wero printers, associated with Franklin ; " Rob-
ert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune, generous, lively, and
witty, a lover of punning and of his friends;" William Coleman, a
merchant's clerk, afterwards provincial judge, a man whom Franklin
sincerely loved, and to whom he gave a very high character for •' the
coolest, clearest head, the best heart, and theexactest morals of aluioBt
any man I ever met with."
procured us from the Quakers the printing of forty
sheets of their history, the rest being to be done by
Keimer." Next year, remembering how well the
paper-money printing job at Burlington had paid
Keimer, and having got rid of his partner, Meredith,
Franklin started the paper-money subject in the
Junto. There was only fifteen thousand pounds of
that sort of currency in the province; thinking peo-
ple and men of property opposed its increase, but the
popular cry was for more, and Franklin started a dis-
cussion of the subject in the Junto. Having gathered
all the views and opinions he could in regard to the
matter, he embodied them in his anonymous pam-
phlet on " The Nature and Necessity of a Paper
Currency.'' It was a piece of special pleading, full
of fallacies, but it accomplished its purpose; the ad-
dition to the currency was voted, and as Franklin
says, " My friends there, who considered I had been
of some service, thought fit to reward me by employ-
ing me in printing the money; a very profitable job,
and a great help to me." He also got the printing of
the paper money issued at this time by the New Castle
Legislature, and the laws and votes also of the Dela-
ware Legislature."2
The Junto seems to have been the first society of a
literary or philosophical character in Philadelphia,
but it was so instantly successful, prosperous, and in-
fluential that it had imitators forthwith, besides the five
or six subjuntos formed by its members at different
times, and known as " the Vine," " the Union," " the
Band," etc. The Carpenters' Company, founded in
1724, was indeed older, but that was, at first at any rate,
strictly in the nature of a trade-guild, and the social
feature was accidental. Its trade-union character was
very strongly marked. The "Bachelors' Club," occu-
pying " Bachelors' Hall," on the Delaware, north of
Gunner's Run, was extant in 1728, but we have no
evidence of its earlier existence. Watson mentions
Robert Charles, William Masters, John Sober, Pat-
rick Graeme, and Isaac Norris as members of the
club. They lived well and feasted much. The club
existed until 1745, when the building was bought by
Isaac Norris, and served for picnics and tea-parties
until it was burned, in 1776.
In 1729 some of the Welsh citizens of Philadelphia
formed themselves into the " Society of Ancient Brit-
ons," meeting on St. David's day, March 1st, at the
Queen's Head Tavern, kept by Robert Davis, in King
Street. From thence they walked in procession, with
leeks in their hats, to Christ Church, where a sermon
was preached to them in the original Cymric by Dr.
2 Franklin's profit was greater from this uote printing, because he
had taught hinnelf to do the ornamental and copper-work part, the
vignette--, press-plates, etc. In fact, he did all his owu work and made
his own tools. It was about this time, also, Bays Watson, that Franklin
introduced the cultivation of the osier, or basket willow, in the Delaware
lowlands; but it must have beeu years later when he first encouraged
the use of gypsum as a fertilizer of grass-lands and broad-leaved plants.
This he did in a characteristic way by writing the piaster's credentials
in a clover-field.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
233
Weyman. After the sermon the society returned to
the tavern and dined with ceremonious form, the
chief notables of the province being present. This
society celebrated St. David's day in this way for many
years. The English this same year formed a St.
George's Society in Philadelphia, holding their first
meeting at the Tun Tavern, Water Street, April 23d.
They met annually afterwards, and had a dinner on
either the king's birthday, or St. George's day, or some
equivalent occasion.
There are some burlesque allusions in the Pennsyl-
vania Gazette in December, 1730, which point to the
existence of the Masonic order at that time in Phila-
delphia, but the first public notice of a Grand Lodge
is found in 1732 in the same journal, when the elec-
tion of William Allen as Grand Master was announced.
The meeting-place then was at the Tun Tavern, on
King (now Water) Street, at the corner of Tun Alley,
the landlord being Ralph Basnet. The lodge of 1730
received its authority under Col. Daniel Coxe, of
New Jersey, who, by the Duke of Norfolk, Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of England, was consti-
tuted Provincial Grand Master of the Provinces of
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by depu-
tation June 5, 1730. The lodge which met at the
Tun is believed to have been called " the Hoop." The
Masons were not in very good odor in these early
days, an unfortunate burlesque initiation having re-
sulted in a tragedy. Some young men not Masons at
all attempted to play their pranks upon a foolish
apprentice, they representing that they were Masons
and this a regular initiation, in the course of which
he was burned to death. No Masons had anything to
do with this, but the odium of the homicide still at-
tached to them, and it was probably the talk about
this affair which caused Franklin's mother to be so
solicitous in regard to his connection with the order.
In 1732 a club was formed calling itself the " Colony
in Schuylkill," a fishing club. This ancient and ven-
erable society, which still exists, assumed to itself
from the first, and in the most lordly way, the power
of eminent domain and uncontrolled legislation over
the fields and waters within its own jurisdiction. It
was imperium in imperio, a republic of Andorra in the
heart of Penn's kingdom. It had its governor, assem-
bly, council, sheriff, coroner, and its citizens, and
there were all the forms of a real government in this
well-contrived sportsman's club. In 1732, Thomas
Stretch was governor; Enoch Flower, Charles Jones,
Isaac Snowden, John Howard, Joseph Stiles, mem-
bers of assembly; James Coultas, sheriff; Joseph
Stiles, secretary and treasurer; William Hopkins,
coroner; William Warner, baron. The baron was
the owner of the estate on which the club was per-
mitted to erect their fish-house, his rent being the
first perch caught at the opening of the season. This
was taken to the baron's mansion (which was upon
the Egglesfield estate, now part of Fairmount Park).
In 1732 the members of the Colony in Schuylkill
were John Leacock, Thomas Tilbury, Caleb Cash,
Philip Syng, William Plumstead, Peter Reave, Wil-
liam Ball, Daniel Williams, Isaac Garrigues, Isaac
Stretch, Hugh Roberts, Samuel Neave, Joseph Whar-
ton, Joseph Stretch, Cadwalader Evans, James Logan,
William Parr, Samuel Garrigues, Samuel Barge.1
Franklin, like Horace Greeley, had no time to go-
fishing, but he did not belong to the same social
stratum as the members of the Colony in Schuylkill.
EMBLEM OP THE SCHUYLKILL CLUB.
The society was frolicsome, but not extravagant,
and its expenses were regulated by moderation, the
most formal ceremony being the election dinner,
where substantial joints and rounds were flanked and
supported by dishes of game and fish in profusion,
and washed down with libations of punch, Madeira,
etc., followed by pipes and tobacco. In 1747 the col-
ony erected a courthouse on Baron Warner's estate,
at a cost of £16 7s. 6d
The Society of Fort St. David's was a rival fishing
company, founded about the same time as that of the
Colony in Schuylkill, its members being Welshmen,
of the order of Ancient Britons. Their " fort" was on
a broad, high rock at the Falls of the Schuylkill, on
the east bank, a rude timber shanty, but roomy and
convenient. The Schuylkill was famous for its blue
catfish, upon which the St. Davidians made war.
In 1743, when the Junto members had grown to be
solid men, and Franklin began to turn from money-
getting to science, he drew up and issued from the
club the circular which led immediately to the birth
of the American Philosophical Society. The title of
this circular was " A Proposal for Promoting Useful
Knowledge among the British Plantations in Amer-
ica." He suggested the existing title and proposed
an association of virtuosi in the several colonies who-
should maintain regular intercourse with one another
by correspondence, Philadelphia to be the home and
centre of the society, with seven resident members,
1 In 1748 the following new members were added: Luke Morris,
James Wharton, Robert Greemvay, John Jones, Jacob Lewis, Isaac
Walter, William Fisher, Samuel Mifflin, George Gray, Joshua Howell,
Joseph Redman, Edward Pennington, James Saunders, Samuel Shoe-
maker, Thomas Wharton, Jr., TliomaB Wharton, Jacob Cooper, Henry
Harrison, Samuel Wharton, Henry Elwes, Joseph Shoemaker, aud John*
Lawrence.
234
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
besides officers, meeting once a month or oftener, for
the interchange of observations and communications.
The society, which went into full operation in 1744,
had the following original members: Dr. Thomas
Bond, as physician ; John Bartram, botanist ; Thomas
Godfrey, mathematician ; Samuel Rhoads, mechan-
ician ; William Parsons, geographer ; Dr. Phineas
Bond, general natural philosopher ; Thomas Hop-
kinson, president; William Coleman, treasurer; and
Benjamin Franklin, secretary. The out-of-town
members were Alexander, of New York ; Chief
Justice Morris, of New Jersey ; Secretary Home, of
the same colony ; John Cox, of Trenton ; and Mr.
Martyn, of the same place.
It will be noticed that the doctors were prominent
in this organization. The profession had grown
greatly in dignity and importance with the growth of
the city. For twenty years or so after the beginning
of the century there do not seem to have been many
recruits added to the list, already given, of the old
practitioners. Dr. Griffith Owen survived till 1717,
his son succeeding him. Dr. John La Pierre died in
1720. About 1717, Drs. John Kearsley and Thomas
Graeme arrived, the latter coming with Governor
Keith. In 1720, Dr. Patrick Baird was health officer
at quarantine. In 1722, Dr. Charles Sober had his
house and office in Chestnut Street, and Dr. Nicholas
Gandouet his on Third Street. There was a Dr.
John Winn in the city in 1717. In 1726, Dr. Lloyd
Zachary, a native of Boston, returned from England
to practice in Philadelphia, where he had studied
physic under Dr. Kearsley. Dr. Thomas Bond was
a native of Maryland, who came to Philadelphia in
1734, acquiring a great reputation. Dr. Thomas
Cadwalader, a grandson of Dr. Thomas Wynne, was
in practice before 1740, in Philadelphia, contem-
porary with Dr. William Shippen. These gentlemen
and their successors will form the subject of a subse-
quent chapter in these volumes, and we will not fur-
ther encroach upon it here. The history of the bar
and that of the medical profession in Philadelphia
are so full, so replete with interest, incident, and
anecdote, that they must be treated separately and in
their entirety if we would do justice to them.
The sober turn of mind of the Friends, the influ-
ence of scholars like Pastorius and Logan, and the
■eager curiosity of their learned correspondents in
Europe for information in regard to every sort of
natural object in America would have the effect to
direct the thoughts of Philadelphians very early to
scientific subjects, and it is very obvious that Frank-
lin first learned to ponder upon such things in con-
sequence of the atmosphere which environed him
and the tone of discussion he heard about him. Lo-
gan was a careful and skillful observer, and his pa-
pers were always welcomed by European academies.
He probably first directed the mind of John Bartram
seriously to botany as the pursuit of a lifetime.
Webb, in his " Bachelor's Hall" poem, claims that
there was a botanic garden attached to the grounds of
that retreat :
" Close to the dome a garden shall be joined,
A fit employment for a studious mind ;
In our vast woods whatever simples grow,
Whose virtues none, or none but Indians, know,
Within the confines of this garden brought,
To rise with added lustre shall be taught;
Then culled with judgment, each shall yield its juice,
Saliferous balsam to the sick mac's use ;
A longer date of life mankind shall boast,
And Death Bhall mourn her ancient sceptre lost."
If this garden really existed outside the poet's
fancy, it was the earliest botanic garden in America.
Logan, in 1729, wrote to England for a copy of
"Parkinson's Herbal." He wanted to present it to
John Bartram, who, he said, was a person worthier
of a heavier purse than fortune had yet allowed him,
and had " a genius perfectly well turned for botany."
Bartram bought his piece of ground at Gray's Ferry
in 1728, and his house, built by his own hands, was
completed in 1731. A subscription was started in
1742 to enable Bartram to travel in search of botani-
JOHN BAllTRAM'S HOUSE.
cal specimens. It was proposed to raise enough for
him to continue his travels for three years, he being
described as a person who " has had a propensity to
Botanicks from his infancy," and "an accurate ob-
servator," "of great industry and temperance, and of
unquestionable veracity." The result of these travels
was two very delightful books by the earliest of
American botanists, — for Bartram was born in Phila-
delphia in 1699, — while the specimens he collected
and sent to Europe attracted Kalm and many other
naturalists to this country. He was a close and accu-
rate observer, and his mind was a storehouse of
knowledge of nature. " I believe," wrote Franklin,
introducing Bartram to Jared Eliot in 1775, " you
will find him to be at least twenty folio pages, large
paper, well filled, on the subjects of botany, fossils,
husbandry, and the first creation." His character
was strong and simple; he was a natural Quaker,
not orthodox in the nicety of tenets. On the outside
of his house, over the front window of his study, was
a stone with the inscription, carved by his own hand:
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
235
" 'Tis God alone, Almighty God,
The Holy Oue, by me adored.
Iohn Bartbam, 1770;"
and Hester St. John quotes, as an inscription over
the door of his greenhouse, —
" Slave to no Beet, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to nature's God."
Bartram was the genuine man of science, simple
and single-hearted in the absorption of his one pur-
suit,— supplying materials to science rather than work-
ing out results for his own profit or glory. Franklin
was a man of science of quite another school, and
who never forgot himself in his experiments, which,
after all, were rather occasional and amateurish.
The formation of the Junto naturally led him and
his associates to cultivate a taste for experiment and
natural science. In 1740 a course of philosophical
lectures and experiments was given by a Mr. Green-
wood in the chamber adjoining the library in the
State-House. In 1744, Dr. Spence, a Scotchman, de-
livered a course of lectures and experiments in the
library. These included an exhibition of the com-
mon electrical phenomena known at the period. In
1746, Peter Collinson, of London, presented the Phila-
delphia Library with some electrical apparatus, and
Franklin now began experimenting on his own
account, occasionally noting some of his observations
in letters to Collinson and other European corre-
spondents. Thomas Hopkinson, Ebenezer Kinner-
sley, and Philip Syng were his associates in these ex-
periments, and in 1748 they gave a public exhibition —
ad captandum vulgus — of the powers of the new force,
in Franklin's own words, setting spirits afire on the
other side the river. " A turkey is to be killed for our
dinner by the electrical shock, and roasted by the
electrical jack before a fire kindled by the electrified
bottle, when the health of all the famous electricians
in England, Holland, France, and Germany is to be
drank in electrified bumpers, under the discharge of
guns from the electrical battery." This is rather
puerile, as was Franklin's kite, but it led to the dis-
covery of positive and negative electricity, and to the
identity of terrestrial with induced or excited elec-
tricity.
It will be noticed that bumpers and health-drinking
constituted a large part of Franklin's open-air exhi-
bition. Men like John Bartram were free from the
drinking habits of the day, but Franklin, temperate
as he was himself, did not set himself against the uni-
versal health-drinking of that time. A contemporary
record, the " Journal of William Black (1744), Sec-
retary of the Commissioners appointed by Governor
Gooch, of Virginia, to unite with those from the col-
onies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, to treat with
the Iroquois or Six Nations of Indians, in reference
to the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains" (pub-
lished in the Pennsylvania Magazine, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5),
illustrates how large a part " the social glass" played
in all affairs at that time. Drinking was a part of
the necessary hospitality of the period. Mr. Black
was secretary to Col. Thomas Lee and William Bev-
erley, of the commission, and went with them to Phil-
adelphia. They reached Chester on Sunday, May
26th, went to church and Quaker meeting, and in
the afternoon rode to Philadelphia on horseback, ac-
companied by the sheriff, coroner, and some gentle-
men of the town. They were met at the Schuylkill
by Secretary Peters, Robert Strettell, Andrew Hamil-
ton, and several other gentlemen of Philadelphia,
"who Eeceiv'd us very kindly and Welcom'd us into
their Province with a Bowl of fine Lemon Punch big
enough to have swimm'd half a dozen of young
Geese ; after pouring four or five Glasses of this down
our throats we cross'd the River." They took a glass
of wine with the Governor before going to their lodg-
ings and another glass with their host before retiring.
Next morning they saw the ill-starred "Tartar" frig-
ate launched, and then had a few glasses of wine at
Andrew Hamilton's and other houses. After dining
at Strettell's, Mr. Black went to the " Governor's
Clubb, which is a Select Number of Gentlemen that
meet every Night at a certain Tavern, where they
pass away a few Hours in the Pleasures of Conversa-
tion and a Cheerful Glass ; about 9 Of the clock, we
had a very Genteel Supper, and afterwards several
sorts of Wine and fine Lemon Punch set out on the
Table, of which every one might take of what he
best lik'd and what Quantity he Pleased." Next day
the party dined at the Governor's. " After Dinner the
Table was immediately furnish'd with as great a plenty
of the Choicest Wines as it was before with the best
of Victuals ; the Glass went briskly round, sometimes
with sparkling Champaign, and sometimes Rich Ma-
deira, Claret, or whatever the Drinker pleas'd." After
this they went to a lecture by Spence, referred to above,
in which the lecturer " proceeded to show that Fire is
Diffus'd through all space, and may be produced from
all Bodies, Sparks of Fire Emitted from the Face and
Hands of a Boy Suspended Horizontally, by only rub-
bing a Glass Tube at his feet." Next day, after in-
specting the privateers, Black went to spend the even-
ing with a Richmond man whom he had not seen for
some time, and who kept bachelor's hall. The secre-
tary admits having some difficulty in finding his way to
his lodgings that night. Thursday was given to riding
about and sight-seeing. There was a, billiard-table
and bowling-green at the Centre House ( Penn Square) ;
thence they went to the coffee-house and the club.
The commissioners left early, but the frank journalist
confesses, " for my part, I staid as long as any of my
company did, and on the first motion to be gone I was
ready ; but I do assure you it was the Pleasures of
Conversation, more than that of the Glass, that In-
due'd me." On Friday, Black visited the market.
" The days of Market are Tuesday and Friday, when
you may be Supply'd with every Necessary for the
Support of Life thro'ut the whole y«ar, both Extra-
ordinary Good and reasonably cheap; it is allow'd
236
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
by Foreigners to be the best of its bigness in the
known World, and undoubtedly the largest in Amer-
ica. I got to this place by 7, and had no small satis-
faction in seeing the pretty Creatures, the young
ladies, traversing the place from stall to stall, where
they cou'd make the*best market, some with their
maid behind them with a Basket to carry home the
Purchase. Others, that were designed to buy but
trifles, as a little fresh Butter, a Dish of Green Peas,
or the like, had Good Nature and Humility enough
to be their own Porters."
Black dined at the Three Tun Tavern, in Water
Street, with Secretary Peters, and, after a few glasses
of good Maderia, rode out to Stenton to call on James
Logan, with whom they took tea, or, as he called it,
" the Fashionable Warm Water." Thence they went
■with Mr. Strettell to his country house at German-
town. Strettell, he says, was " one of the Friends,
but seem'd not much Affected to their underhand
way of Dealing and Cloak of Religion." He did not
drink much, being "of a Crazy Constitution," but
attached the Virginian to him by keeping "Good
horses, tho' I believe that was rather Natural than
forc'd for his Health." On Saturday, after attending
to business, Black dined at the club with the Beef-
steak Club, " a certain number of Gentlemen that
Meet at this House every Saturday to Eat Beef-
Steaks." He went that night by appointment to
join a private party, some young men. "I found
them all there, and in humour to be very merry.
Some of the Company Drunk Punch, others wine,
According as their Inclinations led them. ... To
conclude, we parted about 12 O'clock at Night. Two
of the company was so Civil that they would see me
to my Lodgings, where they wisht me Good-Night."
Sunday Mr. Black went to Christ Church, " a very
Stately Building, but is not yet Finished. The Paint-
ing of the Altar Piece will, when done, be very Grand ;
two Bows of Corinthian Pillars and Arches turn'd
from the one to the other Supports the Roof and the
Galleries ; the Peughs and Boxes were not all done, so
that everything seem'd half finished. I was not a
little surpris'd to see such a number of Fine Women
in one Church, as I never heard Philadelphia noted
Extraordinary that way ; but I must say, since I have
been in America, I have not seen so fine a collection
at one time and Place." They dined, commissioners
and secretary, at Andrew Hamilton's (Bush Hill), at
a quarter past one o'clock ; eighteen dishes and a nice
collection. In the afternoon Black went to hear Gil-
bert Tennent preach at the New Light Presbyterian
Church. " We found him delivering his Doctrine
with a very Good Grace ; Split his Text as Judiciously,
turn'd up the Whites of his Eyes as Theologically,
Cuff'd his Cushion as Orthodoxly, and twist'd his
Band as Primitively as his Master Whitefield cou'd
have done, had he been there himself." Without
hearing Tennent out the party withdrew to Quaker
meeting, " where we found one of the Traveling
Friends, Labouring under the Spirit very Powerfully ;
had he been a little more Culm, and not hurried him-
self so on, as if he had not half time to say what he
had in his mind, We, as well as the Rest of his Breth-
ren, wou'd have received more Instruction, but one
sentence came so fast treading on the heels of an-
other, that I was in great Pains of his Choaking;
however, we had Patience to hear him out, and after
a little pause he gave us a Short Prayer, and then
Struck hands with two Elderly Friends on his Right
and Left, and we broke up."
Honest Black was very much shocked at meeting
one night a drunken woman on the street; he made
many acquaintances; heard some good singing by
ladies; half fell in love with a charming Jewess;
drank tea (" warm water") with many agreeable
ladies; entirely fell in love with Miss Molly Stamper
(afterwards wife of William Bingham. She was just
fifteen when she made her conquest of Black), whom
he escorted to her home, and who promised to meet
him again at her Hebrew friend's. Next morning he
found himself making music on his fiddle and on his
flute, and comparing the beautiful morning to Miss
Molly Stamper, "fresh dews hanging on her pouting
lips," and he passed what seems to have been a deli-
cious evening in her society. On Saturday, June 9th,
the commissioners engaged a tavern and gave a dinner
to their hosts. " A very Grand Table, having upwards
of Fifteen Dishes on it at once, which was succeeded
by a very fine collation ; among the many Dishes that
made our Dinner was a large Turtle, sent as a present
to Governor Thomas, from a Gentleman of his ac-
quaintance living in Providence; after taking away
the Cloath, we had the Table Replenished with all
the sorts of Wine the Tavern cou'd afford, and that
in great Abundance." They sat down at two and
rose between three and four p.m.
News of the English king's declaration of war
against France was received, and on Monday Black
and the commissioners and their levee, at four in the
afternoon, "waited on his Honour the Governor, in
order to attend to the Declaration of Warr, a few
minutes after we got to the Governor's came the
Mayor, Council, and the Corporation, and then began
the Procession, First the Constables with their Staffs,
and the Sheriffs and the Coroner with their white
Wands ushered the Way, then his Honour the Gov-
ernor, with the Mayor on his Right, and the Recorder
of the City on his Left hand, following them were
Colonels Lee and Beverley, and the Gentlemen of
their Levee, next was the Council, and after them
the City Corporation, and then the Rear Composed of
Town Gentlemen &c, in this Order two and two, we
went with Solemn Pace to the Market Place, where
Secretary Peters Proclaimed War against the French
King and all his subjects, under a Discharge of the
Privateers Guns, who had haul'd out in the Stream
for the Purpose, then two Drums belonging to Dal-
ziel's Regiment in Antigua (then in Philadelphia
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
237
with a Captain Recruiting) Beat the Point of Warr,
and then the Ceremony Concluded with God Save
the King, and three loud Huzzas !" It will be observed
how entirely apart the gentry and tradesmen were
during all these fine doings.
Franklin, of course, saw all of Spence's experi-
ments, but he was still a tradesman,
making his way, taking care not only J
to be industrious and frugal, as he
says, but to seem so. " I dressed
plainer, and was seen at no places of
idle diversion." In this way, while
his credit increased, poor old Keimer
was driven out of town. He had al-
ready got control of Keimer's news-
paper, and he and Meredith began
publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette
on Sept. 25, 1729. A year later he
married, and his wife helped to at-
tend Franklin's book-shop. In 1731,
Franklin set to work to establish the
Philadelphia Library, one of the best
and most durable of his works. The
members of the Junto felt the need
of books, and, as each had a few, they
brought them to their club-room for
convenience of exchange. Franklin,
on this basis, determined to start a
public subscription library. " I drew
a sketch of the plan and rules that
would be necessary, and got a skillful
conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden,
to put the whole in form of articles of
agreement to be subscribed, by which
each subscriber engaged to pay a cer-
tain sum down for the first purchase
of the books and an annual contribu-
tion for increasing them. So few were
the readers at that time in Philadel-
phia, and the majority of us so poor,
that I was not able with great industry
to find more than fifty persons, mostly
young tradesmen, willing to pay down
for this purpose forty shillings each,
and ten shillings per annum. With
this little fund we began. The books
were imported. The library was
opened one day in the week for lend-
ing them to the subscribers on their
promissory notes to pay double the
value if not duly returned. The in-
stitution soon manifested its utility,
was imitated in other towns, and in other prov-
inces."
In 1732, Franklin first published his "Poor Rich-
ard's Almanac." The advertisement of the first num-
ber appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Dec. 19,
1732, as follows: "Just published, for 1733, An Al-
manac, containing the Lunations, Eclipses, Planets'
Motions and Aspects, Weather, Sun and Moon's
Rising and Setting, High Water, etc. ; besides many
pleasant and witty verses, Jests, and Sayings; Au-
thor's Motive of Writing; Prediction of the Death
of his Friend, Mr. Titan Leeds; Moon no Cuckold
Bachelor's Folly ; Parson's Wine and Baker's Pud
Poor Richard, 173?*
A N
Almanack
FortheYearofChrift
733
Being the Firft after LEAP YEAR .
Years
7241
0932
5742
5682
5494
yfndnuries fiuce thi Creation
By the Account of the Eaflern Greeks
By the Latin Church, when G cut. T
By the Compulation of JP./fc
By the Homan Chronology
By the jfew/jb Habbies.
Wherein is contained'
The Lunations, Eclipfes, Judgment of
the Weather, Spring Tides, Planets Motions &
mutual A/pefls, Sun and Moon's Rifing and Set-
ting, Length of Days, Time of High Water,
lairs. Courts, and obfervable Days.
Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees,
and a. Meridian of Five Hours Weft from London,
but rnay without fenfible Error, ferve all the ad-
jacent Places, even from Netofounditud to Soutft-
Carolina-
By RICHARD SAUNDERS, Philom".
PHILADELPHIA)
Printed and fold by B. FR'AUKLIN, at the New-
Printing. Office near the Market
ding; Short Visits; Kings and Bears; New Fash
ions; Game for Kisses ; Katharine's Love; Different
Sentiments; Signs of a Tempest; Death of a Fish
erman; Conjugal Debate; Men and Melons; The
Prodigal; Breakfast in Bed; Oyster Lawsuit, etc.
By Richard Saunders, Philomat. Printed and sold
by B. Franklin." Almanacs were popular at this
238
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
time in Philadelphia. Franklin says the annual
sales of " Poor Richard" were ten thousand copies,
and Sparks tells us that three editions had to be
printed before the demand could be appeased. There
were published at this time in the city, besides Frank-
lin's, Jerman's Almanac, Birket's, Poor Will's, Felix
Leeds', and Titan Leeds' Almanacs. Titan Leeds'
was the rival concern. It printed some good verses,
was popular, and Franklin, in imitation of Swift's
and Arbuthnot's trick upon Partridge, made his,
Saunders, cast Leeds' horoscope and predict his
death during 1733. "Whether seriously or not, Leeds
pretended to resent this treatment bitterly in the
preface of his almanac for 1734 and 1735. Franklin
continued his almanac till 1758, was proud of it, and
looked upon it as a valid social force among the
poorer classes, as perhaps it was. " In Pennsylva-
nia," he says, " as it discouraged useless expense in
foreign superfluities, some thought it had its share of
influence in producing that growing plenty of money
which was observable for several years after its pub-
lication." This is, of course, absurd, since the fewer
the purchases by the people the more money would
be hoarded. The abundance of circulation was the
result of an inflated currency, which no one cared to
keep for fear it would depreciate in his hands.
Franklin's industry was amazing, aside from the
fact that exact method and system enabled him to
effect the greatest economies of time. In 1734, when
his private business was most engrossing, and his
office, his newspaper, his bookstore, his almanac, his
public and private contracts were all making demands
on his time, and when he was writing pamphlets and
sermons, feeling the public pulse and active in the
affairs of the library and the Junto and the lodge, we
yet find him studying and acquiring a reading knowl-
edge of French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin, study-
ing them together. He was then twenty-eight years
old, an age when the acquisition of new languages is
difficult, unless a habit has been formed already for
that class of studies.
In 1736, Franklin entered public life so far as to
become clerk of Assembly, a salaried office. He had
already made money; he represents his circum-
stances as being easy enough to permit him the recre-
ation of a holiday visit to his New England kinsman ;
and his new place added to his income besides, as he
does not hesitate to admit, giving him " a better op-
portunity of keeping up an interest among the mem-
bers, which secured me the business of printing the
votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional jobs
for the public, that, on the whole, were very profita-
ble." In 1737, Postmaster-General Spottswood, of
Virginia, removed the Philadelphia deputy, Andrew
Bradford, and appointed Franklin in his place. This
appointment gave many new opportunities to so sa-
gacious a man as Franklin. The salary, he says, was
small, but " it facilitated the correspondence that
improved my newspaper, increased the number de-
manded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted,
so that it came to afford me a considerable income."
He now, he says, began to turn his attention to pub-
lic affairs, " beginning, however, with small matters."
The first thing he sought to amend was the city watch,
which was managed by constables and the hired sub-
stitutes of householders. The amendment he pro-
posed, and which eventually was adopted, was a reg-
ular paid watch. This reform he agitated through
the Junto and its affiliated clubs. The next reform
was in favor of regular fire companies, and his agita-
tion of this subject through the club resulted in the
establishment of the Union Fire Company on a Bos-
ton model. In 1739 he began his intimacy with
Whitefield, and took an active part in promoting the
construction of the independent meeting-house for
Whitefield to preach in. He wished, he says, to have
a perfectly free pulpit, already conscious, perhaps,
that he needed to fortify himself in every way against
the hostility he was sure to encounter from the two
establishments in Philadelphia, the Quakers and the
Church of England. At the same time Franklin be-
came the only publisher of Whitefield's sermons,
which were very popular and had a great run.
Franklin's business was now, he says (1739-41),
very profitable, and he sought to extend it in every
direction by setting up such of his workmen as he
could trust in the various colonies, advancing them
stock, plant, and capital, and taking a share of the
profits. As labor bears a much larger proportion in
the printing business than capital, this sort of invest-
ment was very productive to Franklin; at the same
time not disadvantageous to the young printers, who
always had the option at the end of six years of buy-
ing out their partner and going in business for them-
selves. In 1741, Franklin began the publication of the
first literary periodical in America, the General Maga-
zine, which, however, was discontinued after six
monthly numbers had been issued. It was pretty much
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
23*
u pon the model of Cave's Gentleman's Magazine. In 1744
he wrote out his views about an academy for Philadel-
phia, which, when crystallized further, resulted in the
Philadelphia Academy, the nucleus of the present
university. Franklin had wished Rev. Richard
Peters, secretary of the province, to undertake the
school, but he having other views, Franklin kept his
plans in abeyance until 1749, when he published his
well-known " Proposals Relating to the Education of
Youth in Pennsylvania," and became a trustee of the
nascent institution, his associates being James Logan,
Francis Hopkinson, Richard Peters, Jacob Duch6,
Charles Willing, Philip Syng, and others. Franklin,
as Dr. Peters says, was " the life of the whole," and
he exercised all his adroitDess, successfully, too, to
secure house-room for the new academy in the build-
ing put up for Mr. Whitefield, Franklin tried to se-
cure Rev. Samuel Johnson, then in New York found-
ing King's College, for principal, but failing in this,
Rev. William Smith's services were obtained. Charles
Thomson, Secretary of Congress, was for six years
tutor in this academy.
In 1744, the war with Spain having begun, and
that with France impending, Franklin took advan-
tage of the great danger of Philadelphia from priva-
teers to make his fatal assault upon the peace policy
of the Quakers. This was in the shape of his pam-
phlet, " Plain Truth," which was so worded and so
timed as to have, as he says, " a sudden and surpris-
ing effect." It is to be noted that when Secretary
Black, whose journal has been quoted above, arrived
in Philadelphia, he found the city full of military
fervor, and all the talk was about the privateers, the
association, and the drill. "The Dutch," wrote
Franklin to Logan, "are in as hearty as the Eng-
lish." "Plain Truth" was translated into German, and
a German company was the first one fully recruited.
The Governor and Council took Franklin into their
confidence, and consulted with him about everything.
Good reason, for the association numbered eighty
companies, ten thousand subscribers, and Franklin,
while declining a commission, and the command of a
regiment, for which he did not think he was fitted,
controlled the whole body. He was not only the
leader of the revolt, but the engineer of the entire
machine. He even manceuvred to entangle the
leaders of the religious denominations with the move-
ment, and wrote for Secretary Peters the fast-day
proclamation which was issued. As to the Quakers,
he took high ground with them from the start, for he
knew they would never forgive him, and his only
effort was to detach from their influence as many
moderate men, like James Logan, as he could reach.
He was warned he would lose his place as clerk of
Assembly, but said he would not resign in anticipa-
tion of it, and when the Assembly met he was too
strong to be displaced. In fact, a good many young
Quakers had caught the war spirit, — enough, in the
end, to accomplish Franklin's leading object, the total
submission of the policy of non-resistance as the con-
trolling policy of the province of Pennsylvania, — thus
effecting in a short time what every Governor of the-
province since Fletcher's time had struggled for in
vain.
In 1750, Franklin, having taken a partner upon
whom he could devolve the active part of his print-
ing and publishing business, devoted himself more
closely to affairs and to his studies in philosophy. He
bought Spence's apparatus, but, as he says, "the pub-
lic, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold
of me for their purposes, every part of our civil gov-
ernment, and almost at the same time, imposing some
new duty upon me. The Governor put me into the
commission of the peace [he served two terms as judge
of Common Pleas], the corporation chose me one of
the Common Council, and soon after alderman, and
the citizens at large elected me a burgess to repre-
sent them in the Assembly.1 This latter station was
the more agreeable to me, as I grew at length tired
with sitting there to hear the debates, in which, as-
clerk, I could take no part, . . . and 1 conceived my
becoming a member would enlarge my power of doinf
good. I would not, however, insinuate that my am-
bition was not flattered by all these promotions ; it
certainly was, for, considering my low beginning, they
were great things to me."
Franklin was ten successive years member of As-
sembly, his son succeeding him as clerk, and he ulti-
mately becoming Speaker. He was sent, not long
after his election, as commissioner to Carlisle to treat
with the Indians, his associate on the commission
being the Speaker, Isaac Norris. In 1751, Dr. Thomas
Bond projected the plan of a general hospital in Phila-
delphia, and asked Franklin to support his benevo-
lent scheme. This support Franklin gave, — he says
the people would not have touched it otherwise, — and
secured further a large contribution from the Assem-
bly, but in what seems by his own account to have
been a rather tricky way. The first board of man-
agers of this hospital comprised Joshua Crosby, Ben-
jamin Franklin, Thomas Bond, Samuel Hazard,
Richard Peters, Israel Pemberton, Jr., Samuel Rhoads,
Hugh Roberts, Joseph Morris, John Smith, Evan
Morgan, and Charles Norris. Franklin continued a
manager and was also secretary of the board until he
went to England in 1757. About this time also he
did much in the direction of inducing the people to
submit to a tax for the purpose of having the streets
1 Franklin was elected to the Common Council on Oct. 4, 1 748 ; he qual-
ified November lijth ; was appointed on the committee to prepare an ad-
dress of welcome to Governor James Hamilton; at once brought the-
subject up of a reform in the night-watch, aud was made one of a com-
mittee to draw up a petition to the Assembly for a remedy ; secured
appropriations for the new academy building and for support of teach-
ers; on Oct. 1, 1751, was elected alderman, with John Mifflin, and
served on several committees. He was appointed justice of the peace
for Philadelphia County (under the name of Benjamin Franklyn) at a.
Council meeting held June 30, 1749 ; and agnin'commissioned in May,
1752.
240
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
generally paved, and also for getting them lighted at
night. In 1753 he, conjointly with William Hunter,
was made postmaster-general of America.
In 1754, Franklin attended the General Colonial
Convention at Albany and proposed his well-known
"Plan of Union,'' which was adopted. On his re-
turn, in 1755, finding Governor Morris all the time
embroiled with the Assembly, Franklin became
conspicuous in the lead of the controversy with the
proprietary government, which led to his being sent
government. At this time also he was a trustee and
one of the chief promoters of a sort of missionary
scheme for teaching and otherwise relieving poor
Germans in the province, his fellow-trustees being
James Hamilton, William Allen, Richard Peters,
Conrad Weiser, and William Smith. He was also
elected a member of the Royal Society and voted the
Copley gold medal.
With Franklin's agency in England this narrative
has nothing to do. His mission terminated success-
In ASSEMBLY ^^24 175^
THIS is to certify, that ^-^rylz^^n SWz*^*
has attended as a Member of Aflembly for the %sm»»
City of (M&JUfcr^* , __ f<78 Bays, at Six Shil-
lings per Diem, for which there is due to hipi the Sura of
Signed, by Order of the Houfe,
Treafurer of the County off
■SA* ^^-z^rt^y
4r*
aJfiC* (h-L^-p^-z?™^
c&n^
to England as agent for the province. That same
year Brarldock's expedition occurred, receiving im-
portant and indeed indispensable aid from Franklin,
who looked after the transportation and forage. In
the defensive measures undertaken after Braddock's
defeat Franklin was conspicuously active and ener-
getic. He took a commission, raised a force, and
marched to the frontier to construct a line of forts to
check Indian inroads; he procured the passage of a
militia law, and a general tax for the public defense,
and incurred the deepest enmity of the proprietary
fully, and he returned to Philadelphia Nov. 1, 1762,
an LL.D. of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh, and D.C.L.,
honoris causd, of Oxford. Honors had been showered
on him, and he was the most conspicuous man in
America. The Assembly awarded him a vote of
thanks; he made a tour through the Middle and
Eastern Colonies, and then returned to public busi-
ness in Philadelphia. In December, 1763, he took a
prominent part in a tragical affair which has tar-
nished the annals of Pennsylvania. This was the
Paxton massacre. The Indian outrages on the border
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND PHILADELPHIA.
241
and in the western counties had excited a feeling of
bitter hostility to the whole race, and there were
many lawless men among the settlers in those wilds,
people who were used to take the law in their own
hands, and were extremely restive under the Quaker
policy of non-resistance. They wanted the Indians
either destroyed or driven off, and one Indian was as
bad as another in their sight. The Moravian Indian
communities and the few Indian reservations under
charge of the provincial government irritated them
continually. These feelings were most intense among
the hot-blooded Irish settlers in Lancaster County
and near by, who had already feuds among them-
selves and with their German neighbors. The
" boys" (as they called themselves) of Paxton or
Paxtang township were of this fiery Limerick tem-
perament. Not far from them was the Conestoga
manor, whereon was gathered, under the protection
of the province, the feeble remnant of the once for-
midable Conestoga or Susquehannoek tribe of In-
dians. The Six Nations acknowledged them as of
their kindred; they were protected and the posses-
sion of their manor guaranteed to them by treaty.
They were peaceable, inoffensive, loving and trusting
the whites, though it is possible one or two of them
may have been thieves. There were but twenty left,
seven men, five women, eight boys and girls. The
senior, Shehaes, was very old ; he had been one
of the Conestogoes treating with Penn in 1701 ; he
was a good, kindly old man, very feeble, cared for
with filial devotion by his daughter Peggy; John
was another good old man, who was supported by
his son Harry ; George and Will Soc were youths,
brothers ; John Smith was a Cayuga, husband of
Peggy, and they had one child three years old. Be-
sides these, there was old Betty and her son Peter,
and Sally, or Wyanjoy, who was bringing up an
adopted child. On Wednesday, Dec. 14, 1763, the
Paxton boys, numbering fifty-seven men, mounted
and armed, came to Conestoga after riding all night.
They surrounded the Indian huts and attacked them
at daybreak. Only six persons were found, and
these, including the old chief, were murdered in cold
blood in their beds. The fourteen who were absent
were taken by the neighbors and lodged in Lancaster
jail for safety. The Governor issued a proclamation
ordering the offenders to be arrested. In defiance
the Paxton boys marched to Lancaster, broke into
the jail, and murdered every one of the fourteen, not
a hand being raised to defend them.
A great feeling of indignation sprung up, there
were new proclamations, and Franklin published a
strong and manly pamphlet, " A Narrative of the
Late Massacre in Lancaster County of a Number of
Indians," etc. But, on the other hand, the Western
counties not only defended the murderers, but re-
sented the feeling against them. A war of exter-
mination was threatened, and the friendly Indians
throughout the province, including the Moravians, to
16
the number of one hundred and forty, fled to Phila-
delphia for protection, and were sent for safety
on Province Island, in the Delaware. The Paxton
boys, largely recruited, and in great force, started to
march to Philadelphia, to slay these Indians too, and
the Governor and Assembly resolved to repel them.
The unhappy refugees were brought into the city
and lodged in the barracks. There was no regular
militia, but Franklin, at the Governor's request,
formed au association, on the plan of the old one, or-
ganized nine companies, and soon had one thousand
citizens under arms and the city in a very good state
of defense, cannon in the market-place, and old
artillerists ready to mow the rebels down if they
dared come on. Come they did, as far as German-
town, and there halted, a numerous, and, it might be,
formidable mob. When they paused the Governor
and Council sent Franklin and three others out to
meet them and turn them back. Their contemplated
assault was adroitly converted into a protest, a me-
morial of grievances and a petition for relief, which
had fifteen hundred signers. Two persons were dele-
gated to present their case before the Governor and
Assembly, and then the rioters returned to their
homes. Franklin, and those who acted with him,
had certainly saved Philadelphia from a serious mob,
and probably from the disgrace of another Indian
massacre within her gates, as it is likely the city mob
would have joined the Paxton boys, with whom they
sympathized.1
1 At this time Pontiac'e conspiracy was just ripening, the Indiana
were in a very unsettled state, they were overrunning all Pennsylvania
west of Carlisle and Shippensburg, Bouquet's and Armstrong's expedi-
tions were in the field, and the alarmed people were excusable in not
wishing to leave a kindred race to the ruthless enemy gathered in their
rear. The Paxton and Donegal people were not capable of making nice
distinctions any more than our frontiersmen of the present day. Still,
the massacreB were inexcusable, nor is there any excuse for the provin-
cial government in leaving the Conestoga remnant so defenseless. The
march of the Paxton boyB on Philadelphia was full of incidents, and
many traditions still hang around it. It was on Jan. 3, 1764, that news
came of a company being formed, two hundred men strong, in Lebanon,
Paxton, and Hanover, with encouragement from the farmers, to march
to Philadelphia and kill the Indians on Province Island. The Moravian
Indians, one hundred and twenty-seven in number, begged to be sent,
with their two ministers, to England. ThiB not being possible, they
asked to be sent to Sir William Johnson, in New York. A company of
Highlanders about to march thither offered them escort. Governor
Franklin gave them right of way through New Jersey, but Governor
Colden, of New York, refused to receive them. They had got as far as
Amboy and were marched back under charge of a company of regulars,
Capt. Scblosser, whom Gen. Gage ordered to defend them. To do this
more effectually they were brought to the Northern Liberty barracke.
Meantime, alarming news came from Lancaster, and it was said that
fifteen hundred men were coming down, and if they did not sufi&ce, five
thousand would come.
The Council ordered Capt. Schlosser to fire on any body of armed men
who approached the barracks, aDd the Assembly paBsed the EngliBh Riot
Act of George I., extending it to PennBylvnnia. February 4th the in-
surgents were reported approaching, some said seven hundred, some fif-
teen hundred. The Governor called a public meeting in the State-House
in the afternoon. In spite of the rain, three thouBand people were
present. But the Germans were absent, and it was murmured they
sympathized with the Paxton boys, and were ready to Btamp out the
Quakers and Moravians for their deceitful policy. The meeting, how-
ever, was energetic. The new riot act of Assembly was proclaimed, one
242
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
John Penn, one of the proprietaries, had come out
in November, 1763, to govern the province in person,
and he was soon in collision with the Assembly. The
Paxton troubles, the supply bill, the subject of taxa-
hundred and fifty gentlemen were enrolled to aid the soldiers in defend-
ing the barracks that night, and it was arranged for the people to rally
en masse and repair to the barracks or the court-house if the alarm-bells
should sound. Cannon were sent to the barracks, a stockade thrown up
there, and videttes Bent out on the roads of approach. Next day was
Sunday; defensive preparations were continued, a redoubt thrown up
in the centre of the barrackB parade-ground, and the gateways stock-
aded and loopholed. At eleven o'clock that night an express came in
with news of the mob's approach. Another arrived at two o'clock, and
the alarm-bells began to ring. The people rushed out to obey the sum-
mons, and by Bunrise on Monday the whole town was under arms. The
old association artillery company mustered again and took charge of
two cannon at the court-house. Business was suspended, shops did not
open, the ferries were dismantled, and couriers charging back and forth
along the streets kept up the excitement. Even the Quakers forgot
their principles. Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg, in his contemporary account,
Bays, " It seemed almost incredible that sundry young and old Quakers
formed companies and took up arms, particularly so to the boys on the
streets, fur a whole crowd of boys followed a distinguished Quaker and
in astonishment cried out, ' Look here ! a Quaker with a musket on his
shoulder!' " A mounted company of butchers marching to the rescue
were mistaken for the enemy, and only saved from being fired on by
the coolness of a man who put his hat over the touch-hole of the cannon
just as the excited gunner was about to apply the linstock.
The enemy meantime was halting at Germantown, about two hundred
backwoodsmen, in match-coats and moccasins, with rifles, pistols, and
tomahawks. They were civil, well-behaved, and claimed to be only the
advance-guard of their army. Capt. Torbet Francis proposed to march
at the head of his company and take them prisoners, but the more pacific
plan of a visiting delegation prevailed, and the citizens were dismissed,
excepting the companies of Capts. Francis, Wood, and Mifflin, which
remained under arms all night at the market and the Quaker meeting-
house. (This use of the meeting-house led the wits of the day to fire
off their squibs, one of which, styled the " Battle of the Squirt," adjures
the Quakers to
" Cock up your hats I look fierce and trim !
Nor wear the horizontal brim;
The house of prayer be made a den
Not of vile thieves, but armed men ;
Tho' 'tis indeed a profanation
Which we must expiate with lustration ;
But such the present time requires,
And such are all the Friends desires ;
Fill bumpers, then, of rum or arrack I
We'll drink success to the new barrack !")
Tuesday morning the negotiators went to Germantown and conferred
with the malcontents. They included, besides Franklin, Benjamin
Chew, Joseph Galloway, Thomas Willing, Gilbert Tennent, Rev. Dr.
Wrangel, Rev. Mr. Brycelius, Rev. Richard Peters, and Rev. William
Sturgeon, of Christ Church, with several others. They returned with
the rioters1 manifesto and their promise to disband. The troops were
dismissed, but next day there was a false alarm and everybody fled to
arms again with the utmost alacrity. Thirty of them did come to town,
and tried in vain to identify disturbers of the peace among the Indians.
There was no further trouble. _
The Quakers, however, found much ill-feeling had arisen n gainst them.
Israel Pemberton's life was in danger, it was thought, from the Irish,
and he crossed to New Jersey. He was very friendly with the Indians,
kept close intercourse with them, and the inhabitants dubbed him
"King Wampum." The Faxton memorial was signed by Matthew
Smith and James Gibson, and was thought to have been prepared for
them in the city. The Paxton expedition was the occasion of a number
of satires, squibs, and satirical prints, laughing at all concerned, and
especially at the muBLer of the Philadelphia forces. One of these cuts
had a hundred figures in it, and bristled with local allusions ; another
depicted Pemberton embracing an Indian squaw; a third hit at Frank-
lin representing the philosopher in his study, with these verses under-
neath :
tion, and the course of the Quakers were all causes of
grievance for the popular party, of which Franklin
was now the leader. In March, 1764, a committee of
the Assembly, consisting of Franklin, Galloway, Rod-
man, Pearson, Douglass, Montgomery, and Toole, re-
ported a series of resolutions concerning the proprie-
tary government, and declaring that the only remedy
for its defects was the substitution of a royal govern-
ment over the province. These resolutions set forth
the grievances of the province in elaborate detail,
and they were unanimously adopted. The Assembly
adjourned to the middle of May, and when it met
again petitions for the change were presented contain-
ing three thousand five hundred names, including
many Quakers. But the majority of the Friends,
while owning the meanness and obstructiveness of the
proprietary, enjoyed too many privileges under Penn's
charter to wish to have it entirely subverted. They
demanded a redress of grievances, but they wanted
the old charter and the proprietary protection. Frank-
lin did not. He was bent on the overthrow of the
whole system, and he came out with a pamphlet,
" Cool Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs."
Hugh Williamson replied with a pamphlet on the
proprietary side, and this was caustically handled in
a third pamphlet. In the Assembly John Dickinson
made a strong speech against the change of govern-
ment, and Galloway replied effectively. The latter's
speech was printed, with a preface by Franklin, which
was both masterly and conclusive. The Assembly re-
solved to transmit the petitions for a change of gov-
ernment to England with a memorial of its own in
favor of them. Isaac Norris, the Speaker, opposed
to this sort of procedure, resigned, and Franklin was
elected Speaker in his place, drew up the memorial,
and forwarded it to the king's government.
These controversies entered into the next canvass
for the election of members of the Assembly. The
whole force of the proprietary and conservative
Quaker influence was brought to bear against Frank-
lin and Galloway, leaders of the popular party, and
they were attacked with squib and caricature as well
as with more substantial weapons. Franklin and
Rhoads were defeated in Philadelphia City by Thomas
Willing and George Bryan. Galloway, Evans, and
Fleason were defeated in the county. The anti-pro-
prietary majority was much reduced in the Assembly,
but not obliterated. The petition for a change of
" Fight dog, fight bear, you're all my friends ;
By you I shall attain my ends;
For I can never be content
Till I have got the government;
But if from this attempt I fall,
Then let the devil take you all I"
Another print also caricatured Franklin and made light of his inten-
tions, while others viciously assailed Pemberton, as if he used his con-
science and his Indian friendship equally to promote his fur trade. The
poor Moravian Indians in the barracks were attacked by smallpox, and
fifty-six of them died, and the survivors were finally sent to the Mora-
vian brethren on the Wyalusing.
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
243
government was still prosecuted, though the proprie-
tary party brought in a counter-petition with fifteen
thousand names on it; large discretionary powers
were voted to the London agent of the province, and
Franklin was appointed to the agency, to assist Rich-
ard Jackson, in the face of a strong protest against
the appointment, signed by Dickinson, Bryan, and
others. Franklin replied to this protest in another
of his inimitable pamphlets, and then, Nov. 7, 1764,
left the city for England, escorted to Chester by a
cavalcade of three hundred of his friends. The city
corporation, Israel Pemberton, and other strong
Quakers, agreed with Dickinson in opposing the
bestowal of this agency upon Franklin. Pemberton
was afraid that Franklin would secure the immediate
overturn of the proprietary government by currying
favor with the ministry and getting himself appointed
Governor of the province.
It is evident that many people in Philadelphia were
mistrustful of Franklin ; but his friends and followers
were numerous, and in the election that October he
was only defeated by a majority of twenty-five votes
in four thousand. Franklin, in concluding his fare-
well pamphlet, said, " I am now about to take leave,
perhaps a last leave, of the country I love, and in
which I have spent the greater part of my life. Esto
perpetua ! I wish every kind of prosperity to my
friends, and I forgive my enemies." And, in fact,
Franklin did not come back to this country any
more, in one sense, for when he returned it was the
United States, the proprietary government was
broken, and the Declaration of Independence only
a matter of weeks. The rest of Franklin's history
belongs to the nation rather than to Philadelphia.1
1 His agency, of course, was constantly felt, in a hundred ways, in
Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, and his reports on the resources of the
province are most valuable and suggestive. The most direct instance
of his interposition, however, was when Lord Hillsborough made his
report against American paper currency, and Frauklin answered him
in a pamphlet. We have already outlined the history of the Pennsyl-
vania paper currency, and but few wordB more are needed to complete
it. The first move in favor of such a currency was made in 1721. The
trustees of the first loan office were Samuel Carpenter, Jeremiah Lang-
home, William Fishbourne, and Nathaniel Newlin, their salaries being
fifty pounds per annum each. The form of the note or bill issued was
as follows :
"This Indented Bill of , current money of America, according
to the act of Parliament, made in the sixth year of the late Queen
Anne, for ascertaining the rates of foreign coins in the Plantations, due from
the Province of Pennsylvania to the Possessor thereof, shall be in Value
equal to money, and be accepted accordingly by the Provincial Treas-
urer, County Treasurer, and the Trustees for the General Loan Office
for the Province of Pennsylvania, in all publick payments, and for any
fund at any time in any of the said Treasuries and Loan Office. Dated
at Philadelphia, the day of , in the year of our Lord one thou-
sand seven hundred and twenty-three, by order of the Governor and General
Assembly."
The arms of Pennsylvania were stamped upon the middle of the left
side.
In 1739 a committee of Assembly reported on the state of the cur-
rency that in 1723 there were emitted £45,000, of which in 1726 were
burnt £6110 5s. In 1729 there were emitted £30,000, and the amount
now in circulation was £68,889 15s. Enough notes were then issued to
bring the circulation up to eighty thousand pounds. The committee
1730.
1738.
1739.
£G 3s. 9d.
£6 3s. ad.
£6 9s. 3d.
8s. Id.
8s. 9d.
Ss. 6(2.
CHAPTER XV.
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750 TO 1775.
If we take out from the local history of Philadel-
phia between 1750 and 1775 all that relates to Frank-
lin and his interests and influences, and all that re-
lates to the Revolutionary war and the events which
led up to it, it might be conceived that not much re-
mains. Nor is there so much to tell, if we further
eliminate what more properly concerns the records of
sects, societies, and denominations, and the progress
of the arts, sciences, and professions during this
period. These matters, being treated in separate
groups, will naturally make but a fragmentary and
occasional appearance in the chronicle of progress.
Yet even the meagre skeleton of annals which remains
for the subject of the present chapter is full of interest
and events, and can by no means be dismissed in a
few brief paragraphs. Mr. Westcott, indeed, has de-
voted many separate chapters to it.
When Governor Hamilton asked Franklin how he
might avoid disagreement with the Assembly, the
reported a comparison of the prices of gold and silver per ounce in the
colony, as follows :
1700. 1710. 1720.
Gold £6 10fl. £5 10s. £5 10s.
Silver.... 9s. Gd, 6s. 10^d. 7s. 6d.
In 1744 a sum often thousand pounds was emitted to replace old, torn,
and ragged notes, without intending to augment the circulation. In
1746 five thousand pounds was emitted in bills of credit for the king's
use, and later in that year five thousand pounds to replace worn-out
bills.
From 1729 to 1767 all the bills and notes were printed by Franklin,
either alone or in partnership with Hall.
From 1753 onward the Assembly was struggling with the Governor
and the proprietary on the currency question, the former seeking to
augment the quantity of notes. Even in the excitement of the Brad-
dock campaign the assent of the Governor could only be obtained to an
issue of ten thousand pounds, to be exchanged for old and torn notes.
After Braddock's defeat, however, sixty thousand pounds were raised
for the king's use, fifty-five thousand pounds of it emitted in bills of
credit, dated Jan. 1, 1756, and redeemable by taxation ; and in August,
1756, an issue of thirty thousand pounds was made, redeemable in ten
yearB. In 1757 one hundred thousand pounds was issued in two install-
ments for the support of government; in 1758 another issue was made
to the same amount; in April, 1759, one hundred thousand pounds for
the support of government ; in June, same year, thirty-six thousand six
hundred and fifty pounds to reimburse the colonial military agent.
This act was canceled (but the noteB were emitted), and the larger one
would have been repealed by king and Council in 1760 but for the ac-
tivity of Franklin. The noteB out at this time were three hundred and
eighty-five thousand pounds in amount.
Between 1760 and 1769 one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds
in notes were issued, and two hundred thousand pounds canceled or re-
tired. In 1766 an association of merchants tried to issue twenty thou-
sand poundB in five-pound promissory private interest-bearing notes,
but they were prevented. In 1769 thirty thousand pounds were added
to the currency in two issues, the first of which was so extensively
counterfeited that, in 1773, Governor Richard Penn issued a proclama-
tion, offering five hundred pounds reward for the detection of the of-
fenders. The second issue was for the aid of the almshouse in Phila-
delphia. In March, 1771, fifteen thousand pounds were emitted for the
defense of Philadelphia, a French war being feared; this money was
used in paving the streets of the city. In 1772 an issue of twenty-five
thousand pounds was made "for the support of the government"; in
1773 an issue of twelve thousand pounds for the lighthouse at Henlopen
and buoys in the bay and river, and in October one hundred and fifty
thousand pounds for the use of the loan office.
244
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
philosopher told him by avoiding discussion. But
Hamilton replied that he delighted in disputation,
and Franklin assured him his appetite was likely to be
satisfied. So it happened, for Hamilton was embroiled
with the Assembly from the beginning. He opened
the year 1751 by reviving the old controversy about
prerogative and the right of the Assembly to sit out
of its set time without receiving permission from him,
a point in regard to which the Assembly was ready
to meet him more than half-way. In fact, they fired
off such a volley of precedents at him in their report
on the subject that he found it convenient to abandon
the dispute. Not much else was done besides quarrel
at this dull session. A petition from Philadelphia
County complaining of the reckless use of fire-arms,
in the way of salutes and jubilee on holidays and
festivals, by the Germans and by servants and ne-
groes, led to the passage of an act for the more effect-
ual preventing accidents which may happen by fire,
and for suppressing idleness, debauchery, etc. This
was a sweeping statute, aimed not only at the reckless
use of fire-arms, but at squibs, crackers, rockets, etc.,
at the firing of foul chimneys, at horse-races, shoot-
ing-matches, and other idle sports, and retailing liquor
at the same, and against races and matches for plate,
money, and the like. There was plenty of this sort
of sport in Philadelphia, nevertheless, and races were
had at the Centre regularly. It was at this Legisla-
ture that the first petition was presented for aid to
the hospital projected by Dr. Thomas Bond, as out-
lined in the preceding chapter. The original petition
was for a county insane asylum or hospital.1
The charter was granted in May, 1751, and the first
board of trustees elected in July following. The
proprietaries were petitioned for a lot for the building,
the one named being on Mulberry Street, south side,
between Delaware Ninth and Tenth. This lot was
refused, and another offered (what is now Franklin
Square), which the trustees iu turn declined, and
Judge Kinsey's house, south side of Market Street
above Fifth, was rented and fitted for the reception
of. patients. It was opened in February, 1752, with
a number of patients, who were regularly attended
and given their medicines free by Drs. Zachary,
the two Bonds, Graeme, Moore, Cadwallader, and
Eedman. An apothecary was also appointed at fif-
teen pounds a year, and a dispensary set up for out-
door patients. In 1754 the managers bought a piece
of ground on Pine Street from Eighth to Ninth, at a
price of five hundred pounds. The remainder of the
square, sixty feet deep on Spruce Street, belonged to
1 The petitioners were William Pluinsted, Luke Morris, Stephen Ar-
mitt, Samuel Rhoads, William Coleman, Edward Cathrall, Samuel
Smith, Samuel Shoemaker, Samuel Hazard, Samuel Sansom, Amos
Strettell, John Arniitt, John Reynall, Charles Norris, William Griffiths,
William Attwood, Anthony Morris, Thomas Graeme, William Branson,
Israel Pemberton, Joshua Crosby, "William Allen, Joshua Fisher, Na-
thaniel Allen, Reese Meredith, Joseph Richardson, Joseph Sims, An-
thony Morris, Jr., Jonathan Evans, Joseph Shippen, John Inglis, John
Mifflin, and George Spaflurd.
the proprietaries, who presented it to the institution,
and the contributors afterwards bought other ground
on the east and west, north and south of the hospital,
so as to insure it a free circulation of air. A plan
for the hospital was accepted, other contributions
solicited and came in so liberally that the building
was begun at once, nearly all the materials and labor
being gratuitous. The corner-stone was laid May
28, 1755, by Joshua Crosby. It bears an inscription
by Dr. Franklin.2
In December, 1756, the eastern wing was completed
and fitted up for the reception of patients, who were
then removed to it from the hired building in Market
Street.
In this same year, 1751, when the hospital was
begun, an attempt was made to get a bridge built over
the Schuylkill, and commissioners were appointed to
select a site. They, however (Benjamin Franklin was
one), found no site so eligible as that of High Street
ferry, leased to Capt. James Coultas. The latter got
his lease renewed for seven years, was allowed six
hundred and eighty pounds for his extraordinary ex-
penses and improvements, and so the bridge project
was postponed indefinitely.
Berks County was this year formed out of parts of
Chester, Philadelphia, and Lancaster Counties, and
the western line of Philadelphia County much re-
stricted. Benjamin Franklin was regularly elected
to the Assembly this year as the colleague of Hugh
Roberts. He had sat in the previous Assembly,
elected to fill a vacancy caused by the death of William
Clymer. The Assembly did not do much besides order
the superintendents to " provide a bell (for the State-
House) of such weight and dimensions as they shall
think suitable.'' The outcome of this order was the
Independence bell.8
2 " In the year of Christ
MDCCLV,
George the Second happily reigning,
(For he sought the happiness of his people,)
Philadelphia flourishing,
(For its inhabitants were public-spirited,)
This Building,
By the Bounty of the Government,
And of many private persons,
Was piously founded
For the Relief of the Sick and Miserable.
May the God of Mercies
Bless the Undertaking."
B Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech, and Edward Warner, the superintend-
ents, wrote, Nov. 1, 1751, to Robert Charles, of London, stating their
order and authority, and applying to him to get them " a good bell of
about two thousand pounds weight," the cost of which, they fancy, may
be two hundred pounds or more, including chargeB. "Let the bell be
cast by the best workmen, and examined carefully before it is shipped,
with the following words well shaped in large letters around it, viz.:
; By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State
House in the City of Philadelphia, 1752.' And underneath: ' Proclaim
LIDF.RTT THROUGH ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF.
— Levit. xxv. 10.'"
March 10, 1753, Norris wrote again : "In that letter I gave informa-
tion that our bell was generally liked and approved of, but in a few days
after my writing, I had the mortification to hear that it was cracked by
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
245
In April, 1751, the Pennsylvania Gazette (Franklin
& Hall) is found complaining of the treatment meted
out to the colonies by the home government. After
noticing the fact that Samuel Saunders, an English
convict transported to the colonies, had been tried
before the Supreme Court at Philadelphia, and, being
convicted of manslaughter, was burned in the hand,
INDEPENDENCE BELL.
the Gazette has a strong editorial, denouncing the
system of transporting convicts to the colonies, the
result of which was a great frequency of robberies,
murders, and other villanies. " These are some of
thy favors, Britain !" the article says. " Thou art
called the mother-country; but what good mother
ever sent thieves and villains to accompany her chil-
a stroke of the clapper without any other violence, as it was hung up
to try the sound ; though this was not very agreeable to us, we con-
cluded to send it back by Capt. Budden, but he could not take it back
on board, upon which two ingenious workmen undertook to cast it here,
and I am just now informed they have this day opened the mould and
have got a good bell, which, I confess, pleases me very much, that we
should venture upon and succeed in the greatest bell caBt, for aught I
know, in British America. The mould was finished in a very masterly
manner, and the letters, I am told, are better than the old ones. When
we broke up the old metal, our judges here generally agreed it was too
high and brittle, and cast several little hells out of it to try the sound
and strength, and fixed upon an ounce and a half of copper to one pouud
of the old bell, and in this proportion we now have it.
" April 14, 1753. A native of the Isle of Malta ( Pass) and a son
of Charles Stow were the persons who undertook to cast our bell ; they
made the mould in a masterly manner and run the metal well; hut
upon trial, it seems they have added too much copper in the present
bell, which is now hung up in its place ; but they were so teased with
the witticisms of the town that they had a new mould in great forward-
ness before Mesnard's arrival, and will very soon be ready to make a
second essay." The second bell was cast and hung ; it did not give great
satisfaction, but was suffered to stay. It waB hung the first week of
June, 1753. The bill for " sundries" served at the hell-hanging included
potatoes, beef, bacon, mustard and other condiments, cheese, punch,
bread, and beer.
dren, to corrupt some with infectious vices and mur-
der the rest? What father ever endeavored to spread
the plague in his own family ? We don't ask fish,
but thou givest us serpents/' etc. A correspondent of
the Gazette shortly after suggested retaliation in the
shape of a cargo of rattlesnakes distributed in the
London parks and places of diversion.
The academy and free school were opened during
this year, — Dr. Francis Allison, rector of the academy
and master of the Latin school ; David James Dove,
master of the English school;1 and Theophilus Grew,
master of the mathematical school. Charles Thom-
son was one of the ushers. Dr. Dove, in August,
issued proposals for opening a school for young ladies
at the academy at five o'clock in the evening, to con-
tinue every night three hours, " in which will be
carefully taught the English grammar, the true way
of spelling and pronouncing properly, distinctly, and
emphatically, together with fair writing, arithmetic,
and accounts." In October a night-school was opened
by William Milne, "in his room in Aldridge's Alley,
at the sign of St. Andrew, opposite the shop of Na-
than Trotter, blacksmith, in Second Street, between
Market and Chestnut.'' He taught writing, spelling,
arithmetic, navigation, mensuration, and geometry.
The town had need of these schools. It was growing
rapidly. The taxables this year numbered seven
thousand one hundred in city and county, an increase
of two thousand three hundred since 1740.
Northampton County was erected early in 1752,
and Philadelphia, growing so rapidly as it did, sought
an increased representation in the Legislature to
offset the preponderance given to country interests
by the increase of new counties. A variety of com-
plaints from the city went up to the Legislature at
this time, among others of the number of gambling-
houses in the city, vitiating the morals of young
people. The vendue-masters complained of unli-
censed auctions in the Northern Liberties, and the
bakers sought to be relieved from the assize of bread.
The people of Philadelphia also petitioned to be re-
lieved of the nuisance of dogs running at large,
ownerless curs running out at travelers and horses,
killing sheep, worrying cattle, and going mad; and
the Assembly prescribed the usual remedy, a dog-
tax. An act of Assembly was passed in March to
prevent bribery and corruption at elections of sheriffs
and coroners, the candidates, so the preamble states,
making it " too frequently their practice to engage
persons to vote for them by giving them strong drink
and using other means inconsistent with the design
of voting freely at elections, by means whereof many
unguarded persons are unwarily drawn in to engage
their votes, and rendered incapable of discharging
their duty in that sober and weighty manner the oc-
1 The satirists called Dr. Dove " Squire Liliput," from a piece of land
he owned near Gloucester Point. He wrote many squibs himself, taught
the Gerinautown Grammar School, and in politics was accused of being
somewhat of a Vicar of Bray.
246
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
casion requires." It was therefore enacted that if
any candidate for sheriff or coroner should give to
any voter, or allow others to do it for him, any gra-
tuity, wages, gift, bribe, strong drink of any kind,
treat entertainments, or any reward whatever, or
should promise that the same should be done by
themselves or others, the offender should be liable to
a fine of £10, and the voter who took the bribe to a
fine of £5." 1
In this year, 1752, the calendar was changed from
the Julian to the Gregorian system of computation
by act of Parliament, which ordained that after the
last day of December, 1751, the year should cease to
be counted as beginning on the 21st of March, but the
1st day of January should be taken to be the 1st day
of the year of our Lord 1752, and so on, " and that
all acts, deeds, writings, notes, and other instruments
of what nature or kind soever, which should be made,
executed, or signed upon or after the said 1st of Jan-
uary, 1752, should bear date according to the new
method of supputation." This change did away with
the double style of computation employed in the
dates of events happening in January, February, and
March. The rectification in the calendar was made
by taking eleven days from it, calling the 3d of Sep-
tember the 14th, so that month, in 1752, had only
nineteen days in it. The king's birthday was pushed
forward from October 30th to November 9th, and was
celebrated at Bush Hill, Governor Hamilton's seat,
with an entertainment, the royal healths drunk under
a discharge of cannon from the association battery
and the ships in the Delaware. In the evening there
was a great ball at the State-House, attended by a
hundred ladies and more than that number of gen-
tlemen. " Supper was served in the long gallery in
the second story, the whole affair being one of the
most brilliant that had yet occurred in the province."
1 If there be any comfort in the reflection that our ancestors were not
much better than our contemporaries in the matter of purity of elec-
tions, the evidence of the fact is abundant. Thus, in a note to Gregory
B. Keen's very valuable series of articles in the Pamsylvania Maga-
zine, called " The Descendants of Jbran Kyn" (vol. ii. p. 452), we find
that Matthias, son of Hans Keen, was signer to a petition to Governor
John Evans and Council, praying them to disallow a wrongful election
of sheriff for the couuty of Philadelphia effected by the " Towne
party," as it was called, over the "Country party." The document is
"the humble Petition of severall freeholders of the County of Phila-
delphia, on behalfe of themselves and divers others." It represents that
the election for representatives took the whole day. After it was over
that of sheriff came on ; there was a show of hands, and a candidate
certainly and fairly elected. Then the country people went home, and
the town party demanded a ballot, " knowing that then they were able
to carry on their Clandestine Design (the Sheriff having long before
withdrawn), and accordingly amongst themselves they hatch'd it, per-
mitting Serv*8 and all that went for their Cause to have their Vote, and
objecting against and denying others jrt had Competent Estates to have
any. Besides, their method of Electing wos contrary to the positive
Agreem1 had, and the Practices used in such cases before on that day
(viz*) of nominating only one at a time, wch in this particular however
was rejected, together wth severall more partiall and uufair Proceedings
wob can readily be made appear." This petition was presented at a
meeting of the Provincial Council, Oct. 4, 1705, by Peter Evans, the
candidate of the " Country party," but Governor Evans commissioned
his opponent, Benjamin Wright.
John Penn, the third son of Richard, arrived in
the province in December, 1752, just in time to wit-
ness the annual fight between the Governor and the
Assembly, which began in January, 1753, the subject
being a paper-money bill. In March, this year, a
schooner left the Delaware for Hudson's Bay, the
first Arctic expedition ever sent out from America,
the Northwest Passage being the object of search.
This was the " Argo," Capt. Swaine, which failed to
accomplish any discovery, but brought back some
curiosities for the Philadelphia Library. The sub-
scription for this expedition is said to have been
originated by Franklin. The " Argo" repeated her
voyage in 1754, but still did nothing.
Daniel Pellito was allowed ten pounds per annum
for his salary as public whipper, and Charles Stow
seven shillings sixpence per annum for supplying the
Mayor's Court with candles and firewood. Such
things are much more costly in our modern times.
In November, 1754, in the midst of the excitements,
controversies, recruitings, and musterings growing
out of the French war, the town was agitated by the
news of a pestilence which had broken out and was
spreading through the place. It was engendered
about the unhealthy, crowded vessels which brought
Palatines to the port, and was a sort of ship-fever, or
typhus. The port physicians were requested to visit
all the Palatine ships in the harbor and all the houses
where Palatines lodged; the City Council also giving
the matter their attention. Dr. Bond reported at the
next meeting of the Provincial Council that two
parties of Germans were sick and in a condition to
spread the plague ; one party being at Philip Burck-
hardt's, near the Dutch Reformed Church, the other
at Frederick Burk's, Spring Garden. At David
Sickel's, Race Street, three were sick ; at Jacob Cost's,
in Dirty Alley, twenty were down with the fever. At
Ludwick Cale's, in Fifth Street, many were sick out
of a company of twenty-four. The doctors traced
several cases of illness to persons of the city who had
been at work aboard the ships. One ship from Ham-
burg had made a healthy passage, but since reaching
port her sailors and passengers were nearly all taken
down with the fever. The disease could not be said
to have originated among the Palatines, but they sup-
plied it with victims. Two hundred and fifty-three of
these strangers were buried in 1754. The condition
of these poor immigrants was, indeed, wretched, and
their petitions show them to have been outrageously
treated and imposed on by the mercenary harpies who
imported them. The Assembly passed in December an
act for preventing the importation of Germans or other
passengers or servants in too great numbers, but the
Governor and Council objected to the stringency of
some of the regulations, and the bill failed to become
a law.
In the beginning of 1755 Philadelphia had many
Indian visitors. First came a band of Cherokees,
who had been taken prisoners by French Indians,
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
247
carried to Canada, escaped, and stopped in the city
on their way homeward. Before they left there came
a deputation of Mohawks, headed by King Hen-
drick. The latter had many conferences with the
provincial authorities at the State-House, where both
bands of Indians were lodged. The Indians were
treated very civilly and received numerous presents.
Hendrick was a lion for a while, and an enterprising
Boniface, opening a new tavern shortly after on Mul-
berry (Arch) Street, near Fifth, called it after the
popular chief, a name which it retained for many
years.
Braddock commenced his march from Fort Cum-
berland towards Fort DuQuesne on June 12th, and
Governor Morris appointed June 19th as a day of fast-
ing and prayer for the success of the expedition. It
was not long after the fatal July 9th when the news
reached the excited city of Braddock's defeat and
death and Dunbar's precipitous retreat. The Gov-
ernor called the Assembly together at once. Dun-
bar was on his way to Philadelphia, and on August
1st the Governor notified the mayor and Common
Council to make provision for the accommodation of
two regiments and a hospital for the sick. The mayor
and recorder responded that there was no law giving
any such authority to the corporation, and they could
not, therefore, do anything. The Assembly, when
addressed on the subject, simply adopted the English
statute for the billeting and maintenance of soldiers.
They declined to establish a militia.
In the latter part of August, Dunbar's troops ar-
rived and encamped between Pine and Cedar Streets,
west of Fourth. Jacob Duchy's house was taken as
a hospital, at a cost of fifteen pounds for six months.
Duncan Cameron's journal says, " The Philadel-
phians' hearts and houses were open to us in the most
affectionate and tender manner ; and I must not for-
get the tender compassion of their good housewives,
for they, being informed that our living had been
chiefly on flesh, the women of Market Street and
Church Alley, as I was told, formed an association
for regaling us with apple pies and rice puddings,
which they generously effected, and their example
was followed by a great many women in the city."
Dunbar's command did not tarry long in the city.
While they were in camp they took an active part in
kindling bonfires and making illuminations in honor
of Sir William Johnson's victory over the French at
Lake George, while the officers gave a ball at the
State-House in celebration of the same triumph.
These rejoicings, however, could not prevent the
people from being terribly alarmed at the devastation
and desolation of the border settlements by the French
and their Indian allies. Great Cove, in Cumberland
County, Gnadenhiitten, Mahanoy, and Tulpehocken,
each in its turn felt the weight of this savage warfare,
had its houses burned and its people slaughtered.
Fugitives from the border streamed in upon the east-
ern settlements, and brought their panic with them.
The Governor summoned the Assembly, and consulted
with the mayor and corporation about the defenseless
state of the province. A search was made for arms,
and suspicions were aroused in regard to some French-
men, lately in the city, who had disappeared. The
Assembly was willing to vote any amount of money,
and provide for its redemption by tax, but insisted
that the tax must include all property, that of the
proprietary as well as the citizen ; the Governor re-
fused, the old quarrel was renewed. There was a
deputation of Indians in town ; it was vitally impor-
tant to prevent further defection among them ; liberal
presents would, perhaps, win back the Delawares ; but,
no money, no presents. The proprietary in England,
however, advanced five thousand pounds ; this was
accepted in lieu of a tax contribution, and sixty thou-
sand pounds were voted. The Governor pressed
for a militia law ; the Assembly delayed and evaded,
until at last the discontent of the people threatened
to break forth in riot. Col. Moore, of Chester, wrote
to the Governor that two thousand inhabitants of that
county were making ready to march to Philadelphia
to compel the Assembly " to agree to pass laws to de-
fend the country and oppose the enemy." A similar
movement was reported in Berks County. The sheriff
and mayor of Philadelphia were notified to take
measures to protect the peace. The mayor and Com-
mon Council themselves undertook to remonstrate
with the Assembly in a solemn memorial. But, on
the other hand, the Quakers of the strict sect took a
positive stand against military organization. They
were willing to contribute their means for defense,
for cementing friendship with the Indians, and for
sustaining their fellow-citizens in distress, but not to
be taxed for purposes inconsistent with their peace-
able testimony and destructive of their religious lib-
erty. " They would be compelled to suffer rather
than consent to pay taxes for such purposes. They
therefore desired that no measures would be taken
which might coerce them in a manner inconsistent
with their peaceable principles." The address em-
bodying these sentiments was signed by Anthony
Morris, Jr., William Moode, Israel Pemberton,
Thomas Brown, Thomas Lightfoot, John Pemberton,
Mordecai Yarnall, Joshua Fisher, Samuel Samson,
Isaac Greenleaf, John Smith, Anthony Benezet, An-
thony Morris, Samuel Powell, John Churchman,
William Brown, Isaac Jeans, Daniel Stanton, Ed-
ward Cathrell, and John Reynell.
The Assembly found itself forced to yield, however,
to the clamor for a militia law ; but it did so very un-
graciously, and not until it had thrown out some of
the petitions which had been laid before it as being
" indecent, insolent, and improper to be presented to
this House." The preamble to the act, moreover, was
particular to assert and defend Quaker principles.
However, the war party had the substantial part of
the victory with them, a military organization was
provided for, and the law was at once put in opera-
248
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
tion. Companies were formed in wards and townships
before trie end of December, and the following officers
were chosen :
Locality. Captain. Lieutenant. Ensign.
Middle Ward John Sayres. P. FleeBon. A. Bankson.
Dock Ward D. Roberdeau. T. Willing. J. Claypoole.
Chestnut & Walnut Ward. W. Bradford. F. Mavmy. John Rhea.
High St. & U. Del. Ward.. George Okill. Thos. Smith. Alex. Moore.
East Mulberry Ward Thos. Bourne. Geo. Brooke. W. Clampfer.
West Mulberry Ward Jno. Deimer. M. ClarkBon. J.Davenport.
Lower Delaware Ward Wm. Grant. John Groves. J. Knowles.
NorthWard J.Laurence. H. Keppell. Dr. T. Lloyd.
Oxford Township (1) James Dysart. Robt. Cogran. D. Simpson.
" " (2) Wm. Hood. W. Morrison. J. Lockridge.
" lS (3) Jacob Hall. Joseph Leech. Geo. Barthol.
Northern Liberties (1) Jas. Taylor. J. Still wagon. Wm. Rice.
" " (2) Wm. Parr. Joseph Bush. L. Pass.
Lower Dublin IsaacAshton. S.Thomas. J. Duffleld.
Passyunk Thos. Wells. Wm. Allen. J.Whitman.
Moreland Samuel Swift. J. "Vanhorn. Wm. Tillyer.
Douglass (11 J.Hockley. Thos. Rutter. W. Implain.
" (2) Benj. Thomas. Jos. Griffiths. J.Drake.
The old association and the persons opposed to the
militia both determined to have no connection with
the new association, under which those new com-
panies were formed, and proceeded to form independ-
ent companies, the officers of which were commis-
sioned by Governor Morris. Those of the city were
as follows : Independent Volunteers, William Vander-
spragle, captain ; William Henry, Joseph Wood,
lieutenants; John Blackwood, ensign. Independent
Artillery, George Noarth, captain ; Benjamin Loxley,
John Goodwin, lieutenants. Independent Foot Com-
panies, John Kidd, Charles Batho, captains ; Walter
Shee, Buckridge Sims, lieutenants ; Joseph Stamper,
Peter Turner, ensigns. Association Battery, Samuel
Mifflin, captain ; Oswald Eve, lieutenant ; William
Moore, ensign. Troop of Horse, Edward Jones, cap-
tain ; Lynford Lardner, lieutenant ; John Taylor,
cornet ; George Adam Gaab, Leonard Melchar, quar-
termasters ; with a company of grenadiers, the officers
of which are not given.
While the excitement following the retreat of
Braddock and the Indian outrages was at its height,
Philadelphia received an accession to its population
of a class of people against whom suspicion and
hatred could not fail to arise in spite of their mis-
fortunes. These were the unhappy Acadians, or
" French neutrals," as they were called, forcibly
removed from their happy Nova Scotia homes and
distributed about among the different colonies. The
first detachment of them arrived in the Delaware,
about November 18th, in three vessels. They were
sent to Governor Morris by Governor Lawrence upon
the ground that their refusal to take the oath of alle-
giance to the British government made it impossible
to leave them any longer in their own country. They
came to Philadelphia at a very bad time. The feel-
ing in the province against the French and Canadi-
ans was very strong, and it was actually feared these
poor people would combine with the Irish Catholics
to betray the province to the French. Governor
Morris wrote to Gen. Shirley that he was positively
at a loss what to do with them ; he had put a guard
aboard each vessel and issued provisions to them,
but what else to do he knew not. The doctors re-
ported, he told the Assembly a day or two later, that
it was dangerous to keep the neutrals aboard ship any
longer, for fear of disease among them, so they were
landed on Province Island, under guard from the
sloop " Hannah," the sloop " Three Friends," and
the sloop "Swan," four hundred and fifty-four per-
sons in all, poor, miserable, suffering. Their wretched
state soon attracted the attention of the benevolent
Anthony Benezet, who visited them and reported to
the Assembly that he found them in great want of
blankets, shirts, stockings, and other necessaries. The
House agreed to meet any reasonable expense incurred
by Benezet in providing for the wants of the neutrals.
Hon. William B. Reed, in a paper published by
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has com-
pleted the history of the French neutrals in Phila-
delphia. In the notes to an English edition of Long-
fellow's " Evangeline," published in 1853, it was
said, " They landed in a most deplorable condition
at Philadelphia. The government of the colony,
to relieve itself of the charge such a company of
miserable wretches would require to maintain them,
proposed to sell them with their own consent; but
when this expedient for their support was offered for
their consideration, the neutrals refused it with in-
dignation, alleging that they were prisoners, and
expected to be maintained as such, and not forced
to labor." This paragraph excited Mr. Reed's in-
dignation, and he set to work to present the actual
facts in the case. Longfellow, it appears, discovered
the note, which was derived from Judge Haliburton's
(" Sam Slick") " History of Nova Scotia." The num-
ber of exiles who left that country in September, 1775,
was 1923, — 483 men, 337 women, and 1053 children.
The number who came to Philadelphia has already
been stated ; it was said at the time to have been much
greater. The feeling at the time of their arrival,
and for a while after, was very bitter not only against
the Indians and French, but also against all Catholics.
The Protestant faith in America was fancied to be in
danger, and all the people prayed, as a correspond-
ent in the Shippen papers is represented as doing,
" May God be pleased to give us success against all
our copper-coloured cannibals and French savages,
equally cruel and perfidious in their natures." The
French, however, were maligned. In Jumonville's
instructions, when he was attacked and slain by
Washington in 1756, were the following words : " Le
Sieur Donville employera tous ses Talents et tout son
credit a emp^cher les Sauvages d'user d'aucun Cru-
aute sur ceux qui tomberont entre leurs mains.
L'Honneur et l'Humanite doivent en cel'a nous
servir de guide." This, too, at the time when the
Governor and Provincial Council had publicly made
an offer to pay one hundred and thirty dollars apiece
for Indians' scalps ! The contrast is a vivid one, and
shows how little we know of the enemies on whom
we make war.
In September, 1755, a few days before these exiles
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
249
arrived from Halifax, three Frenchmen had been ar-
rested and imprisoned on suspicion of poisoning the
wells. When the neutrals arrived, they were at first
sent down the river again, and Governor Morris, be-
sides writing to Governor Shirley, wrote to Governor
Belcher, of New Jersey, on the subject, and the latter
replied that he was truly surprised how any one could
ever think of sending the French neutrals, " or rather
Traitors and Rebels to the Crown of Great Britain,"
to "these Provinces, when we have already too great
a number of foreigners for our own good and safety.''
The Governor thought they should have been trans-
ported directly to Old France, " and I entirely coin-
cide with your honor that these people would readily
join with the Irish Papists, etc., to the ruin and de-
struction of the King's Colonies." This shows the
tommon feeling towards these^'unfortunates. The
Assembly, however, in its Quaker instincts, was rather
above these feelings, and there were Huguenot Quak-
ers in Philadelphia whose hearts "leaped up" when
they heard of Frenchmen in misfortune. Besides
Benezet, there were the Lefevres and the De Nor-
mandies, who would not see the Acadians suffer.
So prompt and generous was the first named, the
almoner of every worthy charity and humanitarian
cause of which he heard, that the Acadians, in their
first memorial to the Assembly, said, " Blessed be God
that it was our lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, where
our wants have been relieved, and we have, in every
respect, been treated with Christian benevolence and
charity." Between November and March, in fact,
one thousand pounds, public money, had been ex-
pended for their relief, in addition to the aid private
charity afforded. In February the petition of Jean
Baptiste Galerm, a leading man of the refugees, was
laid before the Assembly. Galerm's memorial was
simply a narrative of the undeserved hardships to
which his people had been subjected. It was simple
and manly. " Let me add," he said, towards the end
of this address, " that notwithstanding the Suspicions
and Fears which many here are possessed of on our
Account, as tho' we were a dangerous People, who
make little Scruple of breaking our Oaths, Time will
manifest that we are not such a People. . . . De-
prived of our Substance, banished from our native
Country, and reduced to live by Charity in a Strange
Land, and this for refusing to take an Oath, which
we are firmly persuaded Christianity absolutely for-
bids us to violate, had we once taken it, and yet an
Oath which we could not comply with without being
exposed to plunge our Swords in the Breasts of our
Friends and Relations. . . . And may the Almighty
abundantly bless his Honour, the Governor, the hon-
orable Assembly of the Province, and the good Peo-
ple of Philadelphia, whose Sympathy, Benevolence,
and Christian Charity have been, and still are, greatly
manifested and extended towards us, a poor, distressed,
and afflicted People." It is greatly to be regretted
that the list of names accompanying Galerm's peti-
tion has been lost. It would be of great value to-day.
A bill was passed by the Assembly, and signed by the
Governor, for "dispersing" the Acadians into the
counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, and Lan-
caster. This was in March, 1756. The .exiles were
to be divided and distributed among the counties
named, in order to give them "an opportunity of ex-
ercising their own labor and industry." Families
were not to be disrupted, and they were to be sup-
ported at the public expense for twelve months, or
until they secured homes! Among the commissioners
named to execute this act were Jacob Duchfi, Thomas
Say, Abraham de Normandie, Samuel Lefevre, and
William Griffiths.
The neutrals certainly suffered both injustice and
privations. Governor Morris, in resigning his office
to his successor, gave them a parting shot in a letter
to Sir Charles Hardy, Governor of New York, and
Sir Charles answered by saying that he had heard
there was "an ingenious Jesuit" in Philadelphia.
Lord Loudoun, to whom Morris surrendered his com-
mission, had Charles Le Blanc, Jean Baptiste Galerm,
Philip Melancon, Paul Bujiauld, and Jean Landry
arrested by the sheriff as suspicious and evil-minded
persons, guilty of uttering menacing speeches against
his majesty and his liege subjects. Loudoun put
them aboard Capt. Talkingham's ship and sent them
to England, advising Pitt to have them pressed into
the navy.
The Acadians sent another petition to the Assem-
bly in August, 1756, begging to be sent, or given
leave to go to France, and protesting against the way
they were treated. This petition was signed by Al-
exis Thibaudeau, Pierre Babin, Pierre Aucoin, Benoni
Bourg, Paul Brigauld, Olivier Tibaudau, Jean Lan-
dry, Pierre Doucet, Jean Doucet, Baptist Babin, Ma-
turin Landry, Simon Babin, Philip Melancon, Simon
Le Blanc, and Stanilas Forrest. Another memorial
to the same effect was sent to Governor Denny, on
September 2d, with pretty much the same signers.
In October, William Griffiths, one of the commis-
sioners in charge of the neutrals, notified the Assem-
bly that about fifty of them had lately had the small-
pox, many dying. The overseers in several townships
had refused to receive them, in consequence of which
many who were willing to work "have neither bread
nor meat to eat for many weeks together, and were
necessitated, as your remonstrant is credibly informed,
to pilfer and steal for the support of life." Griffiths
himself had expended three hundred and fifty pounds
for their maintenance. Another bill was introduced
in the Assembly, and became a law, " for binding out
and settling such of the Inhabitants of Nova Scotia
as are under age, and for maintaining the aged, sick,
and maimed at the charge of the Province."
This act led to a very pathetic protest from the
neutrals, which, however, accomplished nothing.
" Alas I" they said, " oh, sorrowful change for us !
The very gentlemen who vouchsafed thus charitably
250
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
to relieve us and to preserve our lives will not now
let us live, for they have brought us into a condition
worse than death in depriving us of a part of our-
selves by the act printed the 27th of January, 1757.
Oh, merciful gentlemen I what crime have these in-
nocent creatures been guilty of that you should thus
separate them from those who, after God, are authors
of their lives? Being deprived of that substance
which God had granted us, permit us at least to live
or die with our children and those of our deceased
brethren. . . . Though we read that God has reduced
His people under the hardest captivity, as in Egypt
under Pharaoh, and in Babylon under Nebuchadnez-
zar, yet we do not read that those princes that thus
oppressed them ever separated the children from the
parents. If we are criminals, we are ready to submit
to the punishment due to our crimes ; but to separate
innocent children who have committed no crime from
their parents appears contrary to the precept of Jesus
Christ, who tells us that the son shall not bear the
iniquity of the father." This petition is signed by
the same persons whose names were attached to the
former memorials. It was futile. The Assembly,
however, did not cease to spend money for the sup-
port of the neutrals, the appropriations for their re-
lief up to 1761 aggregating upwards of seven thousand
pounds. A good many of them remained pensioners
till death, and then were buried at the public ex-
pense. John Hill, joiner, memorialized the Assembly,
in 1766, that he had been employed from time to time
"to make coffins for the French neutrals who have
died in and about this city ;" that he had made six-
teen coffins since the last settlement, but was told by
the commissioners that there were no funds to pay
him with, and he therefore prays, etc. The neutrals,
says Watson, for a long time occupied a row of frame
huts on the north side of Pine Street, between Fifth
and Sixth, on property owned either by Mr. Powel
or Mr. Emlen. The neutral huts, as these houses
were called, says Mr. Eeed, are still remembered, but
the neutrals have disappeared. Not even their names
can be found in the earliest directories. So devoted
was Benezet to them, and so tender his care, says his
biographer, Mr. Vaux, that the unsophisticated neu-
trals themselves began to mistrust him. "It is im-
possible,'' they said, " that all this kindness can be
disinterested ; Mr. Benezet must intend to recom-
pense himself by finally betraying us."
Meantime the troubles between the Assembly and
people in relation to the militia enrollment had re-
sulted in a war of pamphlets. The Quakers had
again a majority in the Assembly after the October
elections, but they were made the subject of severe
attack. William Smith, provost of the college, had
begun the assault by an article in the London Even-
ing Advertiser, afterwards printed as a pamphlet under
the title of " A Brief State of the Province of Penn-
sylvania," etc., in which, after an account of the
colony and its resources, the author arraigns severely
the conduct of the ruling sect. The population, he
said, was two hundred and twenty thousand, — one-
third Germans, two-fifths Quakers, more than a fifth
Presbyterians. The government, he said, was more
of a pure republic even than it had been when the
population was under ten thousand souls. Such a
state of things could not continue without subverting
the government. The Assembly had made itself in-
dependent of control by the proprietaries and Gov-
ernor. The Germans were ruled by Christopher
Saur, suspected of being a Popish emissary, and who
led his people to vote with the Quakers against mili-
tary organization. The author suggested the inter-
position of Parliament to compel all the inhabitants
to take a test oath of allegiance and of support to
military measures of defense, to prevent the Germans
from voting until they were acquainted with the lan-
guage, and to compel all documents and legal forms
to be printed exclusively in English.
This pamphlet elicited many replies and articles on
both sides of the controversy, so that all parties in
turn found themselves the subject of attack, and much
acrimonious feeling was engendered. Probably the
Quakers fared worst of any, at least they were the
most vigorously assailed. But the city was not suffer-
ing at this time, and its affairs were prosperous. The
corner-stone of the hospital was laid, the chimes of
Christ Church were put up and rang a merry peal of
welcome on the arrival of Governors DeLancey and
Shirley, in April, on their way to the conference with
Braddock, at Alexandria, and a lottery was set afoot
to raise nine thousand three hundred and seventy-five
pieces of eight for the use of the college and academy,
to purchase apparatus and endow a fund for the sup-
port of the charity schools, where " seventy poor boys
are, under a master and assistant, taught to read,
write, and cast accounts, and forty girls, under a mis-
tress and assistant, are taught to read, knit, and sew,
and also to write, under the charity master." The
corporation purchased five hundred tickets in this
lottery.
Nothing can more sharply and vividly mark the
contrast between the times of which we are now
writing and the early days of Pennsylvania than the
fact that the newspapers of this province in January,
1756, publicly proclaimed a reward of seven hundred
dollars (pieces of eight) " raised by subscription
among the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and now
offered with the approbation of his Honor the Gov-
ernor," to the person or persons who should bring in
" the heads of Shingas and Captain Jacobs, chiefs of
the Delaware Indians." The Indian troubles on the
frontier had increased ; the Delawares were divided,
some joining the French, some remaining lukewarm,
a few only espousing the cause of the English. The
Assembly took no part in these rewards; but the
Governor, at the head of the war party, was too
strong for them. The non-resistance policy was but
a sentiment, the old friendships of Indians and Quak-
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
251
ers a tradition, but the murder and arson upon the
border were terrible facts, of present and daily re-
currence, and distance and rumor aggravated them
and magnified them. In April a regular tariff for
scalps was arranged. The Provincial Council and
Provincial Commissioners recommended that war
should be declared against the Delawares and the fol-
lowing bounties offered : for every male Indian prisoner
over ten years old who may be brought into any of
the government forts, $150 ; for every female or male
under ten years, $130 ; for the scalp of every male
Indian above ten years old, $130 ; for the scalp of
every Indian woman, 50 cents ; soldiers in the pay of
the province to receive one-half these bounties. But
the rewards do not seem to have been productive of
much murder. Only six Indian scalps were paid for
during the troubles. The proprietaries discounte-
nanced such measures. The Quakers, alarmed and
grieved, saw their long-cherished policy overborne by
a programme of barbarous murder for hire. In April
Samuel Powell, Anthony Morris, John Reynell, Sam-
uel Preston Moore, Israel Pemberton, and John
Smith, for their society, presented an address to Gov-
ernor Morris on the subject, in which they dwell upon
the concern and pain of mind with which they have
observed " the late sorrowful alteration in the state
of this lately peaceful province;" they urge a further
attempt at pacification, and at least an endeavor to
separate the well-disposed Indians from those bent
upon rapine ; and they do not hesitate to insist that
the ancient Quaker methods of dealing with the In-
dians were best.
War was declared, however. The Quakers, un-
daunted, formed "the Friendly Association for re-
gaining and preserving peace with the Indians;''
they raised a large sum of money, but came in colli-
sion at once with the government, which resented
their private way of interference and their attempts
to make treaties independent of the authorities. They
were accordingly forbidden to send their presents and
to attend the negotiations. This prohibition was
partly in consequence of Israel Pemberton's indiscre-
tions, he conferring apart with the Delawares and
wielding an influence over them which they denied
to the other English. There was, however, a speedy
armistice with the Indians, continued from time to
time until the conclusion of peace. The inhabitants
who were not non-combatants meantime had been
actively at work to strengthen the military power of
the province, the city and county raising two regi-
ments. Of the city regiment, Benjamin Franklin was
colonel ; William Masters, lieutenant-colonel ; John
Ross, major; and Richard Swan, adjutant. Of the
county regiment, Jacob DuchS was colonel ; James
Coultas, lieutenant-colonel ; and Daniel Biles, major.
Col. Franklin reviewed his regiment, one thousand
strong, on Society Hill in March. The separate com-
panies marched to the ground from the houses of their
captains, performing different evolutions en route.
There was an artillery company in the regiment
comprising one hundred men, with four cannon,
drawn by large and stately horses. After the review
the regiment paraded past Franklin's house, giving
him a salute of cannon and musketry. The county
regiment was reviewed at Germantown in May by
Col. Duchfi, assisted by Col. Franklin. On a subse-
quent day, when the city regiment had drawn up at
the Coffee-House to drink success to the king's forces,
Governor Morris forbade the usual artillery demon-
stration. It was almost the last act of his official
life, and was near akin to spite. So at least the offi-
cers regarded it, for they retired to the Tun Tavern
and drank bumpers to the toast, " A speedy arrival
of a new Governor." When Governor Denny ar-
rived they and the entire city accorded him an en-
thusiastic welcome. Many citizens went all the way
to Trenton to meet him ; the county regiment and
grenadiers became his escort at the county line ; the
city regiment was drawn up to salute him on Second
Street, and all the rest of the city military was on
parade; there was an artillery salute in Market
Street, echoed by one from the distant association
battery and from a privateer in the stream, which
had been baptized "the Denny," while the musket-
eers fired a feu de joie, the bells rang merrily, and
there were bonfires all over town. Next day the
corporation gave his honor a dinner, and on the suc-
ceeding Monday he was entertained in another ban-
quet by the Assembly.
Governor Denny's popularity, however, departed
as soon as people became acquainted with him. He
was stubborn and captious, as well as ignorant, and
the Assembly lost patience with him at once, and
gave him to understand plainly that they would not
be schooled by him. It was no time for a man in his
delicate and difficult position to exhibit temper, for
the people themselves were out of temper and impa-
tient. Party feeling ran very high. Provost Wil-
liam Smith, of the college, lost favor everywhere
because he was identified with the proprietary party,
though striving to conceal or disguise it, and the
pamphleteers and newspaper wits pursued him re-
lentlessly.
The smallpox was so prevalent at this time as to
be dangerous to all but the inoculated. Benjamin
Franklin, in one of his letters, regrets that the neg-
lect of this precaution had cost him the life of a
favorite child, a boy of four years old. The visiting
Indians were particularly exposed to this disease,
and, in consequence of the change in their habits, to
many other fatal seizures. In April, 1756, several
Mohocks, in town to confer with the Governor, were
attacked, and one died of a "peripneumony." The
Governor and Council condoled with Scarroyady, the
head chief, and, to wipe away the tears of the sur-
vivors, presented them with ten strouds, ten shirts,
and a piece of handkerchiefs. Newcastle, a friendly
chief, had sent his daughter on to Philadelphia in
252
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
advance of hirn, and Governor Morris ordered that,
if she had not had the smallpox, she must be kept at
Springettsbury, " the Proprietor's seat, near this city,
and not let her come into y" city. If she has had ye
smallpox you may bring her to M™. Boyle's, in
Chestnut St." Newcastle himself arrived in July,
and was kept at Springettsbury, to avoid the small-
pox. He went on a visit to Conrad Weiser, the in-
terpreter, however, at Easton, there "contracted the
disease, and died. This required more presents of
strouds, handkerchiefs, and wampum.
Governor Denny was under very stringent " instruc-
tions" from the proprietary and the home government,
and he and the Assembly at once fell out about taxa-
tion and the supply bill, and about the construction
of barracks for soldiers,
which both Governor
Morris and Lord Lou-
doun had tried to secure.
Barracks were asked
large enough to accom-
modate a thousand men.
Previously soldiers in
the town had been bil-
leted at the different tav-
erns. Governor Denny
now claimed that there
was not sufficient accom-
modation in the public-
houses. The Assembly
retorted that there were
one hundred and seven-
teen inns in Philadel-
phia, certainly offering
room enough for a single
regiment, — forty - seven
officers and five hun-
dred men, — a hospital,
store-house, and guard-
house. But the tavern-
keepers did not like to
have troopers billeted on
them ; many gave up
their licenses sooner
than submit to it, and the mayor and Common Coun-
cil sent the Assembly a remonstrance in their behalf.
The Governor notified the Assembly that the troops —
Sixty-second Royal Americans, Col. Bouquet — were
badly off; nothing had been done to relieve them, the
weather was growing severe, and smallpox was in-
creasing among them at such a rate that the town
would soon be a hospital. Col. Bouquet, a foreigner by
birth, was reluctant to resort to harsh measures, but if
things remained as they were, the troops would have
to be billeted upon private houses. The sheriff, in-
deed, received instructions to that effect. The As-
sembly protested hotly ; the Governor retorted as
hotly, "The king's troops must be quartered." The
Assembly suggested that quartering troops in private
xw
houses might lead to trouble, " particularly if the
bought servants which have been so lately taken from
the king's good subjects, and no satisfaction made to
their owners, notwithstanding the Act of Parliament
so expressly requires it, are now to be thrust into their
houses and made their masters." The Governor sug-
gested that the Philadelphians were ungrateful to the
soldiers mustered in their defense; but he meant to
do his duty, and he wanted sixty-two beds for one
hundred and twenty-four men who were now lying
upon straw, besides other quarters for the new recruits
arriving in the city every day. This, however, was
only a threat. The quarters were secured without
invading private domiciles, but the Assembly was
heartily incensed against the Executive.
The Quakers were
placed between two fires
at this time. Some were
not willing to pay taxes
for war expenses; but
those who did not object
to this still did not es-
cape, for the ministry in
England condemned the
Assembly for passing any
militia bill which ex-
empted a class or sect
from military service ;
this should have been
made compulsory upon
all, it was declared, and
the English Secretary of
State further suggested
that in times of war non-
combatants should not
occupy seats in a legisla-
tive body. This caused
the resignation of "Wil-
liam Callender, James
Pemberton, and Joshua
Morris, representing
Philadelphia City and
County, besides seven
other members, but it
did not change the politics of the House. The war
feeling, however, met less resistance. In September,
Col. Armstrong captured Kittanning, killing Capt.
Jacobs and forty Indians, and the Common Council
voted him a piece of plate, a medal to each of his
officers, money to each of his men, and a relief fund
to the widows and orphans of those who had fallen,
— all officially designated as being "the gift of the
corporation of the city of Philadelphia."
Catholic residents of Philadelphia did not fare well
either at this time. By Lord Loudoun's order, Gov-
ernor Denny took a census of them. There were
seventy-two men and seventy-eight women, all Eng-
lish or Irish, under the charge of Rev. Robert Hard-
ing, in or about Philadelphia, and one hundred and
LOCAL HISTORY AND GKOWTH, 1750-1775.
253
seven men and one hundred and twenty-one women,
all Germans, under charge of Rev. Theodore Schnei-
der ; in Philadelphia County, fifteen men and ten
women. The whole number of Catholics in the prov-
ince was six hundred and ninety-two men and six
hundred and seventy-three women, cared for by four
priests. In spite of these small numbers, they were
mistrusted, and in Philadelphia some were arrested
upon the convenient charge of " disaffection." Among
these were Barnabas McGee, Joseph Rivers, Thomas
McCormick, Rowley Kane, and Jane Dorsius, as well
as Dr. Hugh Matthews.
Capt. Obadiah Bourne, well known for his career as
commander of the privateer " Le Trembleur," got to
sea in the latter part of December, 1756, in command
of the "Spry," a schooner he had fitted out with
twenty-two guns, twenty swivels, and one hundred
and seventy men. Other vessels could not go to sea,
however, for Lord Loudoun had laid an embargo on
exports, with the view to supply the king's fleet with
seamen and provisions. Trade was stagnated in con-
sequence ; in June, 1757, there were forty vessels with
full cargoes detained in the harbor, the mills had
stopped, and there was great loss on all perishable
THE BRITISH BARRACKS.
commodities. The Assembly remonstrated, but with
no effect, and the embargo was not raised until after
the fleet put to sea, in the end of June. The trouble
about billeting soldiers finally led to the construction
of barracks, which the Provincial Commissioners es-
tablished on a large lot bought by them in the North-
ern Liberties, between Second and Third, and south
of Green Street. The Governor objected to the
site, and the colonel to the style of buildings erected,
but the commissioners followed their own counsel,
and put up the one-story shedding they had deter-
mined to erect. The province also at this time bought
and fitted out a cruiser as an assistance in coastwise
defense, — -the frigate " Pennsylvania'' she was styled,
Capt. Sibbald, thirty-two guns. She went to sea in
August, but met no enemy. The " Spry," however,
took several prizes, but the other privateers fitted out
this year — the "Britannia," twenty guns, Capt. Mac-
pherson, and the schooner " Knowles," twelve guns,
Capt. Turner — met with no success. Other privateers
hailing from or fitting out at Philadelphia were the
sloop " Tyger," of New York, the " Blakeney," of Bar-
badoes, and the " Stanwix."
The year 1758 was one of organized victory under
Pitt, and there was frequent rejoicing in loyal Phila-
delphia. Fort Da Quesne was abandoned by the
French and taken possession of by Gen. Forbes.
Peace was made with the Indians in a grand council
at Easton. The victories were celebrated with fire-
works in the city. The capture of Cape Breton was
made the occasion for a grand display, from a " float-
ing castle" in the Delaware, representing the battle,
with allegorical tributes to Amherst, Boscawen, Hardy,
Wolfe, Lawrence, King George and the King of
Prussia, Pitt, and Whitmore. The blowing up of
Fort Du Quesne was commemorated by Governor
Denny by the appointment of a day of thanksgiving
and prayer. When Forbes' regiment, the Seventeenth
foot, arrived in Philadelphia the men were quartered
in the barracks ; the officers lodged at " the Three
Crowns" (Mrs. Jones), Second Street, above Walnut;
" Indian King" (John Biddle), Market Street, below
Third (south side) ; " St. George" (Mr. Lukens), south-
west corner of Second and Arch Streets; "Indian
Queen" (John Nicholson), Market Street, above
Fourth; "White Oak" (John Subler), Cherry
~ Alley ; " Hendrick, King of the Mohawks" (Mr.
Bartholomew), Arch Street, near Fifth; "King's
Arms" (William Whitbread), Second Street, above
Market; "Fountain" (Mary Biddle), Market
Street; " The Barracks" (John Pearson), Second
Street. The first paving of the middle of the
streets was begun at this time, with a fund of two
thousand two hundred and fifty pounds, the pro-
ceeds of a lottery authorized by the Assembly for
that purpose.
Philadelphians themselves had a share in the vic-
tories of the year, but of the disasters also. The
"Britannia," after a long and fruitless cruise, came
up with a well-manned French frigate of thirty-six
guns, and a desperate battle ensued in which the " Bri-
tannia" was worsted, losing all her officers and seventy
of her crew, her cannon, masts, and ammunition, and
left to drift, a helpless and shattered hulk, to Jamaica.
The officers of the " Stanwix" were arrested and the
vessel detained for piracy. Per contra, the " King of
Prussia," Capt. James Robeson, an armed merchant
ship, carrying fourteen guns and bound to Philadel-
phia, was overhauled outside the capes by a French
privateer of the same number of guns. The latter, sail-
ing under English colors, secured the advantage of a
surprise and the first broadside ; but Robeson fought
his ship most gallantly, and finally crippled the enemy,
drove him off, and probably sunk him.
The war, however, was injurious to Philadelphia in
many ways for which the " glory" did not compensate.
Gen. Abercrombie, Lord Loudoun's successor, laid
another embargo and enforced it with military se-
verity, Gen. Otway's Thirty-fifth Regiment being
stationed at the Wicaco battery and an armed sloop
254
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of war (the "Charming Polly," Capt. Atkins) sta-
tioned in the river below. There was trouble about
quartering the troops, the barracks not being able to
accommodate all and the tavern-keepers unwilling to
receive any. The City Council was forced to appro-
priate money to relieve the necessities of some of
these soldiers. Admiral Boscawen demanded three
hundred naval recruits, but the Assembly declined to
provide them. The province's frigate was a heavy
charge, and only supported by an impost on wine
and spirits, which the importing merchants had to
bear. Besides, when Gen. Forbes was in town, some-
thing like martial law was the rule. Christopher
Saur, the Gertnantown printer and publisher of the
German newspaper, was summoned before the gen-
eral merely for having printed a paragraph stating
that Tedyuscung and the Delaware Indians, who had
arrived in the city, were still " attached to the in-
terest of the English." Saur was mistrusted as a
friend of the Quakers, and the paragraph was looked
upon as a slur at the government, a species of " con-
structive treason.'' Saur maintained the innocence
of his intentions, offered to make any correction
required of him, and was dismissed with a " cau-
tion."
Brigadier Forbes only returned to Philadelphia
early in 1759 to die. He was not more than forty-
nine years old, but his health was worn out by many
and Bevere campaigns. He was an officer of distinc-
tion and ability, had been quartermaster-general un-
der Marlborough, and aide-de-camp to Gen. Camp-
bell, Lord Stair, the Duke of Bedford, and Lord
Ligonier. Sprung of the Forbes of Patincrief,
Fifeshire; bred to physic, but buying early in life
into the Scots Grays, in which he was promoted to
the lieutenant-colonelcy and the command of the
Seventeenth Infantry and the Southern army in
America. He was buried with much ceremony
March 14th, the procession starting from the slate-
roof house, then occupied by Mrs. Howell, and the
interment being made in the chancel of Christ
Church. The military and all the officials of the
province attended the funeral.
The Assembly resolved in March to raise two thou-
sand seven hundred recruits in addition to those al-
ready enrolled in the province, voted one hundred
thousand pounds in bills of credit (bribing Governor
Denny to assent), and promised a bounty of five
pounds for each recruit, with one pound to the re-
cruiting officer. For volunteers " at the drum-head,"
sought at this time by Capt. Hays, of Col. George
Williamson's Royal Regiment of Artillery, the pay
was: 9 shillings 6 pence per week to each matross
(sponger and rammer) ; 13s. 3d. for gunners; 16s. 6rf.
for bombardiers ; 19s. 8d. each sergeant. The " Spry"
sent in six prizes, two of which her owners had to
restore, besides paying heavy damages; the "Bri-
tannia" took eighteen prizes in a single cruise, some
of them of great value.
David Douglass, Hallam's partner, made an attempt
to build a theatre in Philadelphia this year, and suc-
ceeded in rousing a strong and energetic religious
opposition. The Friends, Presbyterians, Lutherans,
and Baptists united in protest and in memorializing
the Legislature. The Assembly passed a bill forbid-
ding both the theatre and the lotteries ; Governor
Denny objected, but signed the bill, which, however,
the king and Privy Council rejected in 1760. Doug-
lass, meantime, went on boldly with his enterprise,
and the Vernon Street, or Society Hill, Theatre was
opened June 25th. The city, meantime, was grow-
ing so rapidly that it became necessary to extend the
High Street market to Third Street, and Alderman
Stamper, Henry Harrison, William Bingham, and
William Rush were appointed a committee to see the
improvement properly carried out. It was in conse-
quence of this extension that High Street, from this
time forth, came to be called Market Street, generally
but not officially.
The year 1760 is not one of much importance in the
annals of Philadelphia. The war had narrowed its
area and was now chiefly confined to Canada, and
privateering was dull and unproductive. A move-
ment was inaugurated to improve the navigation of
the Schuylkill, but as yet little was done beyond the
preliminary surveys. A ferry at Arch Street was
licensed by the Common Council, Samuel Austin se-
curing the privilege, for which he paid an annual
rent of thirty pounds ; Francis Rawle's Jersey ferry
brought thirty pounds; Schuylkill ferry, two hundred
pounds. The rent of the market-stalls west of the
court-house was ninety-three pounds ; Potter's Field
(as a meadow), ten pounds; public wharf and ground
at the drawbridge, sixty pounds ; new wharf at draw-
bridge, thirty pounds. Fire-engines were ordered to
be put in good condition by the clerk of the market,
and under the inspection of William Rush and
Samuel Rhoads; William Sheed was made beadle,
" during the present incapacity of Charles Stow," and
the mayor was ordered to be paid a salary of one hun-
dred pounds. During this year the building of the
Germantown Academy was begun, and the corner-
stone laid with appropriate ceremonies, the building
being ready for use in September, 1761. This institu-
tion originated in a meeting held in December, 1759,
at the house of Daniel Mackinet, when it was resolved
to start a subscription for erecting a large and com-
modious building near the centre of the town for the
use of an English and High Dutch school, with suit-
able dwelling-houses for the teachers. Christopher
Meng, Christopher Saur, Baltus Reser, Daniel Mac-
kinet, John Jones, and Charles Bensil were appointed
to solicit and receive subscriptions. On Jan. 1, 1760,
Richard Johnson was appointed treasurer, and Chris-
topher Saur, Thomas Rosse, John Jones, Daniel
Mackinet, Jacob Rizer, John Bowman, Thomas Live-
zey, David Deshler, George Absentz, Joseph Gallo-
way, Charles Bensil, Jacob Naglee, and Benjamin
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
255
Engle were chosen trustees. They bought a lot from
John and George Bringhurst, in Bensil's Lane, sub-
sequently called School-House Lane, and the institu-
tion was named " Germantown Union School-House.''
The corner-stone was laid April 21, 1760. When the
school was opened next year Hilarius Becker was
made the German teacher, David James Dove the
English teacher, and Thomas Pratt English usher.
THE GERMANTOWN ACADEMY.
On October 16th the school had sixty-one English
and seventy German pupils. Greek, Latin, and the
higher mathematics were taught here. The school
was broken up after the occupation of Philadelphia
by the British, and studies in it were not resumed for
six or seven years. The school-house was eighty by
forty feet, two stories high, with six school-rooms,
and wings supplying two dwelling-houses for the use
of the masters. The rudiments of good manners were
taught along with those of learning, but it was ex-
pressly enjoined that youths of Quaker parentage
should not be required to take off their hats in
saluting the teachers.
In March, 1761, a lottery scheme was put forth to
raise £1125 Is. lid., for the use of this school. Lot-
teries were very frequent at this time in Philadelphia.
The whole community seems to have speculated in
them, and they could not fail to be injurious to the
public morals. Among the schemes was one for the
erection of public baths and pleasure-grounds, against
which the clergy and religious part of the community
protested strenuously, sayiug, in a memorial handed
to the Governor, that they had noted with concern
the growing disposition among their fellow-citizens
for "pleasure, luxury, gaming, and dissipation."
The present scheme, they say, " so far as yet avowed
by them, is a large subscription lottery for erect-
ing public gardens and baths, or bagnios, among
us. How destructive such places of rendezvous are
to the morals of a people, what they usually termi-
nate in, and how ill-suited they are to the circum-
stances of this young city, and the former character
of its inhabitants, we need not mention to your
honor." The scheme, it was charged, covered the
purpose to establish public gaming tables. This
memorial was signed by Robert Jenney, William
Smith, Jacob Duche, and William McClenachan,
ministers of the Church of England ; Robert Cross,
William Tennent, Francis Allison, and Robert Ew-
ing, Presbyterian ministers ; Morgan Edwards and
Ebenezer Kinnersley, Baptist ministers ; John Fred-
erick Handschuhe, Lutheran ; the leading members
of the Society of Friends, and many others. The
Governor discountenanced the scheme.
Another lottery proposed at this time was for dis-
posing of 46 acres of land on Petty'.s Island, the prop-
erty of Alexander Alexander. Other lottery projects
were : for 3000 pieces of eight to finish the new Epis-
copal Church of St. Paul's, Third Street, below Wal-
nut; to raise £1350 for the use of St. James' Church,
Lancaster ; to raise 3000 pieces of eight to finish the
steeple of the Second Presbyterian Church, Third and
Arch Streets; to raise £500 to enlarge Trinity Church,
Oxford ; to raise £2812 10s. for paving the streets of
Philadelphia; to raise 2250 pieces of eight for the
Presbyterian Church, Lancaster ; to raise £371 5s. for
building a bridge over Octorara Creek ; to raise £500
for the use of New Jersey ; to raise £1200 to rebuild
St. John's Church, Chester County ; to raise £562 10s.
for a company of rangers in Tulpehocken ; to raise
£450 for Presbyterian Church at Middletown ; to raise
£6000 for the New Jersey college ; £1500 for new Pres-
byterian Church on the Brandywine; £3000 for new
Presbyterian Church in Baltimore; to disposeof books,
plate, jewelry, and land, lately belonging to David
James Dove, — 1773 prizes, 3227 blanks, — tickets two
shillings each ; to raise £1760 to pave Second Street,
from Sassafras, or Race Street, to Samuel Noble's
house, on Callowhill Street; £1500 for a church on
Barren Hill, Whitemarsh township ; £3000 to build
a light-house at Cape Henlopen and improve the
navigation of the Delaware ; £800 for a bridge over
Conestoga Creek; £600 for Presbyterian Church in
Leacock township ; £600 for Kent County lottery,
etc. These lotteries and the presence. of so many
soldiers and sailors led to much immorality, dissipa-
tion, and ruffianism also. A Lieut. Brulaman, who
had been an officer in the Royal American Regiment,
took his gun, ran amuck on the public streets, and
finally shot and killed Robert Scull in the Centre
House Tavern, Market Street. He was convicted
and executed. A gang of miscreants, in imitation of
the London Mohocks of the period, caused much
alarm in the forepart of 1762 by assaults at night
made upon women on the streets, cutting their
clothes with sharp instruments and stabbing them.
The offenders were never caught, but a reward of
fifty pounds, offered by the Governor, made the prac-
tice too dangerous to be persisted in.
The Society of Friends took advantage of the occa-
sion to appeal to the Assembly, from their monthly
256
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
meeting, to do something to arrest the increase of im-
morality. Drunkenness, they said, had grown com-
mon, the Sabbath was profaned, gambling was prac-
ticed, while the performance of stage-plays was not
prevented, and full license was given to all kinds of
lotteries. The act in regard to lotteries which was
already on the statute-book was not enforced, and the
Assembly took up the matter earnestly, passing a law
for the suppression of lotteries, declaring all such
schemes, public or private, to be common nuisances
and against th e good of the province. The penalty for
erecting a lottery was set at five hundred pounds, with
twenty pounds fine for advertising or selling tickets.
Of course, all schemes in actual operation were per-
mitted to go on, nor was the attempt made to inter-
fere with State lotteries held under the authority of
Parliament, or to curtail the right of the province to
authorize special lotteries. The managers of the
lottery for paving the streets procured authority
to go on with their scheme and pay the money
received into the treasury. The amount was three
thousand pounds, and the first public paving was
done on Second Street, north from Market to Race.
This street, says Watson, used to be very muddy,
and one of the Whartons, getting mired there, be-
tween Chestnut and High Streets, was thrown from
his horse and broke his leg. " Charles Thomson
and others made a subscription forthwith and had that
street paved, it being the first regularly paved street in
the city."
In January, 1761, news reached Philadelphia of
the death of George II., and soon after the accession
of King George III. was proclaimed at the court-
house, " to a multitude of people, loyal, enthusiastic
and rejoicing, amid the ringing of bells, the report
of artillery, and three volleys of small arms fired by
the Royal Welsh Volunteers." The merchants had
a feast at " the new ferry-house," with seven brass
cannon to salute the toasts, and all the company sing-
ing " God save the king" in chorus. This king was
George III., who fifteen years later was denounced in
Philadelphia as the embodiment of all tyranny, and
was effectually dethroned, so far as his American
dominions were concerned,
"Sejiinus ducitur uuco,
SpectanduB; gaudent omnes."
The Governor, Council, mayor, recorder, and City
Councils dined at the Fountain Inn with solemn and
dignified rejoicings. Civil officers were recommis-
sioned, the proper alterations were made in the public
prayers, and Philadelphia left nothing undone that
would demonstrate her loyalty.
The Assembly took action in the matter of the
Schuylkill improvements by passing a law in March
to create a commission, consisting of Joseph Fox,
John Hughes, Samuel Rhoads, John Potts, William
Palmer, David Davis, Mordecai Moore, Henry Paw-
ling, James Coultas, Jonathan Coates, Joseph Mil-
lard, William Bird, Francis Parvin, Benjamin Light-
foot, and Isaac Levant, for " clearing, scouring, and
rendering the Schuylkill navigable." They were to
receive and collect money, clear, scour, open, deepen,
enlarge, and straighten the river, and remove all
sorts of obstructions and impediments, natural and
artificial. A law at the same time was passed to pro-
tect fish in the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Lehigh
Rivers, forbidding the planting of weirs, racks, etc.
Some attempt was made at the same time to protect
navigation on the Delaware from losses from the ice.
The House of Assembly having responded to a peti-
tion from Philadelphia against the importation of
slaves by laying a duty of ten pounds per head on
negroes and mulattoes brought from abroad, the
slave-dealers in Philadelphia filed a protest. They
represented that servants were a great need of the
province, at this time particularly, since so many
Jufl Imported in the fliip GRA-NBY* JOSEPH BLEWE&
Mafter,
Seventy Gold-Coaft SLAVES
ofvariousa&s,an<lbi.lll fixes,
TotefoUonboardfaidrtifpatMr PlumlUd's wharf, ljy
WILLING and MORRIS.
Andapartbf them areinleniJedto'beferitrnafewdaya'toDools
Creek, there to be fold.by Mr. Thomas Mudock forcaShoE
country produce, Perm? J0 ur. Aug 15 176 5-
white servants had been enlisted in the military ser-
vice, and the importation of Germans, English, and
Irish had been so greatly reduced. The introduction
of slaves, the petitioners said, would reduce the ex-
orbitant prices of labor and make commodities
cheaper. They had embarked in the trade to effect
these objects, and it would be a hardship to them if
the law should go into immediate effect. The signers
to this memorial were John Bell, Humphrey Robin-
son, Reed & Petit, William Coxe, Charles Batho,
Philip Kearney, Jr., James Chalmers, Joseph Wood,
Willing, Morris & Co., Thomas Riche, David Franks,
Hugh Donaldson, Benjamin Levy, Henry Harrison,
John and Joseph Swift, John Nixon, Daniel Rundle,
Francis & Relfe, Stocker & Fuller, Scott & McMi-
chael, John Inglis, David McMurtrie, Samuel and
Archibald McCall, and Joseph Marks. The law was
passed, however, and the tax laid.
In May, 1762, the Assembly erected the southern
suburbs of Philadelphia into a, municipality under
the name of the District of South wark. The bounds
commenced at the Delaware, Cedar Street; thence
west to the Passyunk Road ; along the latter to the
Moyamensing Road ; by Keeler's Lane to the Green-
wich Road ; from thence to the Delaware, and along
the river to the place of beginning. The freeholders,
on the third Saturday in April of each year, were to
elect three surveyors and regulators, as well as three
supervisors and three assessors. These officers, co-
operating, were given powers equivalent to those
of county commissioners ; an overseer of the poor,
an assessor, and inspector, with the same powers
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
257
as those of townships, were also to be chosen ; but
no tax was to be levied exceeding "three pence in
the pound of clear value of the real and personal es-
tates of freeholders and inhabitants." This act made
it a finable offense for South wark workers on the
highway to levy " drink money" on passengers, a
custom then prevailing, the workmen offering the
passer a drink from his jug, and expecting a gratuity
in return.
April 8, 1762, war was declared at the court-bouse
against Spain, and there was some revival of priva-
teering. Capt. James Taylor fitted out the brig
"New Grace" with twelve six-pounders, and sailed
early in May. Stephen Archibald manned the
schooner " Hawk" with fourteen carriage-guns and
sixteen swivels. Four days after the proclamation
of war Thomas and James Penrose, merchants, laid
the keel of a vessel to be built expressly for a war-
ship; the keel was but ninety-five feet long, the ves-
sel's beam thirty-two feet; she was launched in
seventy-two days, named the "Hero," and put in
command of John ap Owen, with a crew of two
hundred men, and an armament of twenty-four nine-
pounders. Peace was proclaimed too soon for these
vessels and the other privateers to do much. The
" Hawk" was capsized and lost twenty-five of her crew ;
the "New Grace" and the " Hero" took a few prizes;
the "Tyger," none; the "Britannia" had a severe
fight off Laguayra, in which she was worsted and
beaten off, but brought three prizes into Philadelphia
during the season.
The war led to another embargo, increased issues
of paper money, and a considerable levy of soldiers
for the provincial army. A battery to carry twenty
cannon was also begun on Mud Island, near the
mouth of the Schuylkill. The merchants of the city
petitioned the Assembly to preserve the province's
valuable Indian trade for them by removing some of
the difficulties of transportation, which were now so
great that the trade suffered materially. The sugges-
tion was made of a water passage up the west branch
of the Susquehanna, whence it was thought conven-
ient portage could be made to a navigable branch
of the Ohio. This petition was laid on the table, —
the times were not yet ripe for engaging in internal
improvement schemes.
In November, 1762, Dr. William Shippen, Jr., organ-
ized the first medical college in Philadelphia, opening
a course of lectures on anatomy " for the advantage
of the young gentlemen engaged in the study of
physic in this and neighboring provinces, whose cir-
cumstances will not permit their going abroad for
improvement to the anatomical schools of Europe."
The managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital gave Dr.
Sbippen the use of Dr. Fothergill's anatomical casts
and drawings. Tickets for the course were five pis-
toles ; and " to gentlemen inclined to see the subject
prepared for lectures, and learn the art of dissecting,
five pistoles more." After the lectures on osteology
17
were finished, tickets for any single lecture were sold
at five shillings each. The introductory lecture was
delivered by Dr. Shippen at the State-House, and
subsequently at his father's house, on Fourth Street.
The location of this first medical college was on
Fourth Street above Market. The premises had a
hack outlet upon an alley leading north from Market
Street, by the side of the Sorrel Horse Tavern. Dr.
Shippen's first class consisted of ten students.
In December the body of a negro, who had com-
mitted suicide by cutting his throat with a glass bot-
tle, was handed over to Dr. Shippen after the verdict
of the coroner's jury ; and after that time his anatom-
ical museum got the bodies of all suicides and crimi-
nals. There had been a clinical course in the hos-
pital before this, and Dr. Thomas Cadwallader had
attempted a course of medical lectures on Second
Street above Walnut. Dr. Shippen's was the first
regular course, however. He had been fully prepared
for lecturing by attendance on Hunter's lectures in
Loudon, Smellies' on midwifery, and Dr. Leese's
course in Rouen, besides being a student in Guy's
Hospital. In 1765, Dr. Shippen began a course on
midwifery to men and women both, establishing a
lying-in hospital at the same time. The same year
Dr. Thomas Morgan became professor of the Theory
and Practice of Medicine at the college, when soon
after Dr. Shippen was elected professor of Anatomy
and Surgery. The dissecting was too new a thing
not to excite prejudice in Philadelphia; in 1765, Dr.
Shippen was obliged publicly to declare that he had
never taken dead bodies, for purposes of dissection,
from churchyards. Three years later he was again
obliged to contradict public rumors of his having
robbed the cemeteries. All his dissections, he said,
were made upon suicides, and one or two bodies taken
from Potter's field, " that had died of particular dis-
eases." In 1770 there was much excitement in con-
sequence of the supposed removal of dead bodies
from the city burying-grounds for dissection in the
anatomical theatre of the college. This led to what
was called " the sailor's mob," in which Dr. Shippen's
house was mobbed, and all his valuable collections
came nigh being destroyed. He was forced to pub-
lish a card in Bradford's Journal, in which he declared
" that I never have had, and that I never will have,
directly or indirectly, any subject from the burying-
ground of any Christian denomination whatsoever."
It was very hard, however, for the doctor to free him-
self from these charges, which were made very spe-
cifically and circumstantially.
It had become fashionable in 1760-62 for the al-
dermen-elected mayor to refuse to serve, and some-
times two and three successive ones had to be elected.
In 1762, Alderman Coxe was elected and refused,
fined £40; Alderman Benezet elected and refused,
fined £40; Alderman Harrison elected and consented
to serve. Jonathan Humphreys was chosen tenant of
Schuylkill Middle Ferry, at £200 per annum ; Sam-
258
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
uel Garrigues allowed £25 per annum for taking care
of the fire apparatus, and ten pistoles were given to
Matthew Clarkson towards a ground-plot or map of
Philadelphia. An act was passed this year vesting the
State-House and other public buildings, with the lots
belonging to them, in the hands of trustees, for the
use of the freemen of the province and their repre-
sentatives. The trustees were Isaac Norris, Thomas
Leech, Joseph Fox, Samuel Rhoads, Joseph Gallo-
way, John Baynton, and Edward Penington. The
ground south of the State-House was to be a public
green forever, and not to be built upon.
The preliminary treaty of peace of Fontainebleau
was known of in Philadelphia Jan. 25, 1763, and
proclamation was made next day at the court-house,
the definitive treaty beiDg proclaimed July 25th. The
privateers at once returned to peaceful commerce,
and business settled down into more quiet ways.
The commissioners for paving streets had a budget of
complaints to lay before the Assembly. Their labors
had been greatly increased by having to dig away the
old accumulations of rubbish and dirt thrown in the
cart-way ; narrow-tread wagons had a tendency to
cut up even the best-paved thoroughfares ; " steps
and cellar-doors extended too far into the streets ;
windows and vaults were often left open, and were
dangerous ; casks, cases, grindstones, carriages, brick,
limestone, lime-houses, etc., encumbered the streets,
and were nuisances.'' Dock Creek, other petitions
showed, was another nuisance, a receptacle for dead
dogs and other carrion and filth, a source of putrefac-
tion and disease. It was recommended that the creek
be cleaned out, planked and walled, and made navi-
gable, in order to promote the conveyance of lumber,
firewood, etc. Distillers built their still-houses of
inflammable stuff, and emptied their refuse into wells,
to the injury of the public health; dead horses were
hauled to the commons, and left there to poison the
air. All these things led to the passage of general
acts for the removal of nuisances, for regulating
streets and alleys, wagoners, carters, and their ve-
hicles, etc. The latter act required all cart- and
wagon-wheels to have seven-inch felloes. There was
also a general law passed for regulating the paving of
streets. Owners of property where the cart-way had
been paved were to pave the sidewalk with bricks or
square flat stones ; the gutters were to be twenty-two
inches wide, and not exceeding four inches deep ;
pavements to have a rise of seven inches in ten feet
from the gutter towards the houses ; sound, dressed
red-cedar posts, seven feet long, six inches thick, were
to be set up at distances of ten or twelve feet along
the curb of the footways ; windows, cellar-doors, and
porches were not to invade the footway more than
four feet six inches, and the same to be the rule for
stairs, stalls, show-boards, etc.; spouts that incom-
moded passers-by should be removed at once.
The City Councils at this time began also the repair
and improvement of the public wharves and landings,
and the county commissioners built a bridge over
Dock Creek at Front Street at a cost of four hundred
pounds. The recorder's salary was raised to seventy-
five pounds, and the first movement was made for
erecting a market-house in High Street east of Second
Street, where were only wooden stalls. This was
given in charge to the mayor, Aldermen Mifflin and
Willing, and Alexander Houston and John Law-
rence; this end of the market being called "the
Jersey market." In this year there were forty-two
named townships in Philadelphia County, each one
having an overseer of the poor. The Philadelphia
Insurance Company (" Philadelphia Contributionship
for the Insurance of Houses from Fire") set up mile-
stones on the road from the court-house on Second
Street to Trenton.
John Penn, one of the proprietors, son of Richard,
and grandson of William Penn, arrived in Philadel-
phia Oct. 30, 1763, and assumed the duties of Gov-
ernor. He was received with great demonstrations
of respect, and many entertainments were given in
his honor, the civic feast costing £203 17s. 0$d. On
Nov. 15, 1763, there arrived in Philadelphia Charles
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two Englishmen, sur-
veyors, sent over by agreement between Lord Balti-
more and Thomas and Richard Penn, made Aug. 4,
1763. They came to survey, complete, and establish a
boundary between Maryland and Delaware and Penn-
sylvania (thence known as Mason and Dixon's line),
which would put an end forever to the disputes and
bloodshed which had stained the history of the border
from the time of the first founding of William Penn's
proprietary government. As J. H. B. Latrobe said,
in his interesting lecture on Mason and Dixon's Line
before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, " Ad-
jacent land-owners rarely take much interest in the
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
259
title, quality, or culture of their neighbor's fields ; but
they are generally sufficiently sensitive to the true
location and maintenance of the division fences."
Lord Baltimore was in dispute with Claiborne, Swedes,
Dutch, and Quakers, about his eastern boundaries
from 1634, when Leonard Calvert landed at St. Mary's,
until 1760, when the boundary quarrel was finally
settled with the Penns. The charter of Charles I. to
Caecilius, second Lord Baltimore, gave to the latter
all the part of the Delaware peninsula lying under
the fortieth degree of latitude, and west of that part
of the eastern shore claimed by Virginia, — provided
such lands were unoccupied. Claiborne was on Kent
Island, but he was ousted as a squatter. De Vries had
planted a colony at Swanendael, near Lewes, on the
Horekill, in 1631, but the place was abandoned in
April, 1633. When Calvert landed at St. Mary's, in
1634, the soil within the charter was held by no whites,
except Claiborne and his followers. But Calvert set-
tled on the western shore of the Chesapeake, and in
1638 the Swedes were on the Delaware, with an In-
dian title, forts, and guns. The Dutch conquered the
Swedes ; the English conquered the Dutch ; Charles
II. gave to the Duke of York whatever title belonged
to De Vries and Godyn by reason of the purchase
and settlement of Swanendael, and William Penn
again bought the Duke of York's title.
In 1659, Governor Fendall, of Maryland, sent Col.
Utie to the Dutch on the Delaware to inform them
that " they were seated within his lordship's province
without notice." In 1682, Governor Markham met
Lord Baltimore at Upland to settle the boundary.
Penn's agent refused to treat, however, as soon as the
latitude of Upland was discovered. From this time
until the final settlement the boundary question was
always open, sometimes taking the shape of border
warfare, sometimes in court, sometimes in Privy Coun-
cil, sometimes in Chancery, sometimes in treaty. It
exercised the lawyers, perplexed the statesmen, vexed
the Privy Council, and drove the borderers to mad-
ness. The Lords of Trade and Plantations had it
more than once before them ; it furnished Murray,
Lord Mansfield, with one of his most elaborate briefs,
and called from Lord Chancellor Hardwicke one of
his best-known decisions. The merits of the case are
not worth discussing here; the settlement was satis-
factory as well as final. It resulted from border
troubles so serious as to compel both proprietary gov-
ernments, May 10, 1732, to agree upon a dividing-
line and exchange deeds defining it. This parchment
boundary was legally defined by Lord Hardwicke in
1750, and finally explained and expressed in a deed
made under the same chancellor's directions in 1760,
July 4th. This deed, says Mr. Latrobe, " is a treat-
ise in itself, and, whether for technical accuracy as a
rare piece of conveyancing, legal learning, or histor-
ical interest, is not surpassed by any paper of its
kind.'' It was to make the surveys under this deed,
by agreement between Baltimore and the Penns in
August, 1763, that Mason and Dixon had come out.
The surveys had begun in 1761, under John Lukens,
John F. A. Priggs, Archibald McClean and five
brothers, Archibald Emory, Jonathan Hall, John
Watson, John Stapler, Thomas Garnett, and William
Shankland. David Rittenhouse had also been em-
ployed by the Penns to make some calculations.
The lines to be surveyed were the boundaries of
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the lower counties, or
Delaware. " The southern boundary of the present
State of Delaware was to commence at a promontory
on the Atlantic, then called Cape Henlopen, but
which is some distance south of the cape bearing
that name; thence it was to run due west to a point
precisely halfway between the Atlantic Ocean and
the Chesapeake Bay;" then northward till it struck
the arc of a circle described from the court-house at
New Castle as a centre, with a radius of twelve miles.
" Striking this arc of a circle at the tangent-point, the
straight line was to be continued north as a tangent-
line until it reached a point fifteen miles south of the
parallel of the most southern boundary of Philadel-
phia ;" thence due west till the five degrees of longi-
tude called for by Penn's charter were traversed.
Mason and Dixon, styled "two mathematicians or
surveyors," were sent over to complete the running of
these lines. They were good, sound astronomers, who
had been employed by the Royal Society to observe
the transit of Venus at the Cape of Good Hope.
They had excellent instruments, the best of the day.
Their first care was to ascertain precisely the most
southern part of Philadelphia. They had to get as
near to the Delaware as possible to be accurate. In
company with the commissioners in charge of the
survey (John Ridout, John Leeds, John Barclay,
George Stewart, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, James
Hamilton, Richard Peters, Benjamin Chew, William
Coleman, and John Ewing) the mayor, recorder, and
two " regulators" (Alderman Rhoads and Mr. Jacob
Lewis), the surveyors went to South or Cedar Street,
and by hearing testimony and comparing old deeds,
determined " that the north wall of a house, at this
time occupied by Thomas Plumsted and Joseph Hud-
dle, is the most southern part of the said city of Phil-
adelphia." To determine its latitude Mason and
Dixon had an observatory built for them by a car-
penter, the first structure of the kind for scientific
purposes ever built in America, five years older than
Rittenhouse's observatory at Norriton. This must
have been built near the house of Plumsted and
Huddle, which, says Mr. Westcott, there is good rea-
son to believe is the house still standing on the south
side of South Street, between Penn and Front Streets,
No. 30. The latitude of the north wall of this house
was ascertained to be 39° 43' 32".18. These surveys
have been revised within the last forty years, and found
very nearly accurate. The surveyors traced the line
between Maryland and Pennsylvania to a point two
hundred and forty-four miles west of the Delaware,
260
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
when they were stopped by the Indians under King
Hendrick. They returned to Philadelphia in August,
1768, were paid off, and went back to England. Ma-
son was elected member of the Philosophical Society
in March, 1767, and Dixon in April, 1768. Mason
returned to this country, and died near Philadelphia
in 1787. The unfinished boundary line was run out
by Alexander McClean and Joseph Neville in 1782.
In 1764 the guardians of the poor attempted to get
the Assembly to enlarge the almshouse, which had
not a capacity sufficient to accommodate the poor.
While action was still wanting in this matter an asso-
ciation of citizens was formed to buy hemp, flax, and
land for the sake of employing people needing work
in the manufacture of coarse linen. A property was
bought of William Brown on Penn Street near Pine,
suitable buildings were erected, and more than one
hundred persons were employed in spinning and
weaving. This company continued to flourish until
the revolutionary trouble culminated. The commis-
sioners were so successful in removing the obstruc-
tions in the Schuylkill that one of them, James
Coultas, took two flat-boats loaded with hay from
the lower part of the big falls to the ferry wharf,
adjoining Rev. William Smith's land, in twenty-one
minutes. Coultas was a man of great public spirit,
who took an active interest in roads, ferries, and
streams. Another man of value to Philadelphia was
Rev. William Smith, who arrived in England in
June, 1764, with thirteen thousand pounds he had
collected for the colleges in New York and Philadel-
phia. It was in this year (1764) that the first fish-
market was located in the city, fish having been pre-
viously sold at the shambles east and west of the
court-house, at Second and Market Streets. Not
many were sold, however, except in cool weather,
and, Watson says, sheepsheads were sold at Is. Qd.
apiece, first come first served, the same price for big
fish and little. In April, 1764, the square lot between
King and Front Streets, at the bridge, was fixed
upon for a fish-market and the necessary buildings
were erected accordingly.
With the year 1765 the question of taxation by
Great Britain and the Stamp Act became matters of
such controlling and absorbing interest in Philadel-
phia that they dwarfed everything else, and the local
news, independent of political questions, is decidedly
meagre. As the American Revolution properly be-
gan with the Stamp Act, and Philadelphia's part in
the Revolution can but be treated as a collected
whole, we have deferred all reference to these subjects
to the chapter which succeeds this.
In the Assembly in 1765 a useful and necessary act
was passed for the protection of immigrant passen-
gers, who were the victims of many impositions and
hardships. Dock Street, between Walnut and Third
Streets, was authorized to be arched, graded, and
converted into a market-place. Storm piers and
a sort of breakwater were erected inside of Reedy
Island, at a. cost of £3356 14s. OJd., and the light-
house at Cape Henlopen was finished, its mainte-
nance being derived from a tax of sixpence per ton
on vessels. Kaighn's Point, or Point Pleasant Ferry,
was opened by Arthur Donaldson. The ferry-house
on the west side was in Southwark, the Admiral
Kepple, kept by Margaret Donaldson. The house
on the Jersey side was advertised by Donaldson as a
place of rural recreation for gentlemen and ladies to
retire to and relax their minds from business. It was at
this time that Bathtown, or Bath, had its beginning
in the Northern Liberties, at a spring on a farm west
of Second Street northward of the Cohocksink. John
White, "living near the new Bath," advertised, in
1765, that he humbly proposed, with his wife's as-
sistance, " to accommodate the ladies and gentlemen
with breakfasting on the best tea, coffee, cream, etc.,
which articles may also be had in the afternoon."
He also advertised a sort of Turkish bath, and hoped
"to approve himself capable of conducting every-
thing so as to answer many public advantages and
the salutary purposes which the founder intended
and now hopes to see effected." The founder was
Dr. John Kearsley. White afterwards had a pump
in the spring to take the water from the bottom, and
one Johnson opened a coffee-house across the way
from the spring. On Sunday, August 18th, there
was such a flood of rain that all cellars in the lower
part of the city were filled and boys swam across
Market Street.
There is abundant incidental evidence about this
time of the city's rapid growth, and of the fact that
it was becoming more like a city. Thus, we find some
manufactures beginning to spring up ; the street com-
missioners are compelled to make arrangements for
the regular carrying off and disposal of garbage and
dirt; the wardens, in a petition for relief and per-
mission to levy greater taxes, mention that they had
put up three hundred and twenty street lamps; had
one hundred and twenty public pumps under their
care, besides fifty-four other pumps in the streets,
lanes, and alleys not under their care ; they employed
eighteen watchmen, and more pumps and lamps were
needed. The silversmiths apply for an assay office,
in consequence of the large quantities of the precious
metals which came into the province for manufacture
and export; slack-water navigation was debated for
the Schuylkill ; the street pavements were extended
in many directions on Market, Chestnut, Penn, Pine,
and Vine Streets, and many merchants were willing
to pay on their showy "jut''-windows two and three
pounds tax, the preposterous rate being.a shilling a
light; chains were provided at the market-house to
prevent vehicles from passing during market hours ;
the corporation began to improve its squares with
curbing and gutters; some of the public wharves
were extended, and the city's income from rents in-
creased,— the sixty-six market stalls west of the court-
house yielding one hundred and ninety-eight pounds,
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
261
and the forty-six east of it, one hundred and sixty-
four pounds.
The inhabitants of the Northern Liberties wanted
street regulators at this time and more of the forms
of a municipal government, and a bill to that end
passed the Assembly, but finally failed in consequence
of a disagreement with the Governor about the amend-
ments. The signers of the petition for this charter
were Frederick Kuhl,PeterThompson, Adam Strieker,
Samuel Noble, Richard Mason, Elias Lewis Trei-
chal, Bryan Wilkinson, John Williams, Samuel
Pryor, John Stillwagen, Charles Lawrence, W.
Masters, Thomas Boude, Levi Budd, John Living-
ston, Tabitha Meyer, Michael Hulings, Joseph
Cowperthvvait, Charles West, Jacob Shoemaker,
Thomas Shoemaker, W. Shippen, Jeremiah Warder,
William Fisher, John Coats, Peter Knight, Joshua
Emlen, Moses Bartram, Isaac Bartram, Jacob
Schreiner, Thomas Say, Martin Noll, James Tay-
lor, Thomas Williams, Samuel Williams, William
Woodrow, Henry Woodrow, John Browne, Samuel
Ewan, John Britton, John Scattergood, Benjamin
Spring, Thomas Saltar, Thomas Briton, John Saltar,
William Ball, Arthur Thomas, George Leib, Chris-
tian Dierck, Richard Barker, William Bettle, Henry
Naglee, citizens or land-holders in the district.
Commissioners were appointed to view a proposed
new route and bed for the road from the city to Chester,
the existing road being " very crooked and far abont,"
and leading over fifteen steep and stony hills. The
newer and more level way proposed was through Moya-
mensing, Passyunk, Kingsessing, Tinicum, and Rid-
ley, into the old road near Crum Creek. A proposition
was also entertained, but not perfected, for purchasing
and making free the Middle Ferry over Schuylkill.
Another proposition was made by Robert Smith,
master-builder, to construct a bridge over the Schuyl-
kill, in accordance with his plans and his improve-
ments in the method of wooden spans between stone
piers ; but the undertaking seemed too great for the
House to embark in it. There was a great dispute
about the right place for a dam on Hollander's Creek,
to prevent the waters of the Delaware from flooding
the meadows in the Neck, such an improvement being
considered necessary for the health of the inhabitants
of Wicaco, Greenwich Island, Schuylkill Point, Pas-
syunk, and Moyamensing. The decision was finally
in favor of the point of junction of Hay's and Hol-
lander's Creeks for the site of the dam.
A general act of Assembly, in fifty-one sections, re-
lating to the city of Philadelphia, renewed, codified,
arranged, and re-enacted many parts of old laws
lapsed or about to do so, with new provisions added.
The commission to pave and clean the streets, com-
posed of Thomas Say, Henry Lisle, Thomas Tilbury,
Henry Drinker, Samuel Bryan, and John Mifllin, was
so ordered that two commissioners, to serve three
years, should be annually elected. They were given
power, in conjunction with the mayor, recorder, and
four aldermen, to decide what streets should be paved,
what sewers built, and what direction should be given
to water-courses. They had authority to employ
scavengers and have the streets cleaned, and to assess
the necessary taxes to enable them to discharge their
duties. They were ordered to buy two lots on the
Delaware for landing-places for hay, lumber, etc.
This act also directed house-owners and tenants, sex-
tons, porters, church-keepers, etc., to sweep the streets
KITTENHOUSE'S OBSERVATORY AT N01UUTON.
and clean the pavements once a week (on Friday), un-
less ice or snow prevented. Carts and wagons were
regulated, and various penalties denounced against
several specified classes of nuisances.
The Assembly granted the Philosophical Society
one hundred pounds towards the cost of building an
observatory in the State-House yard, from which to
observe the transit of Venus, June 3, 1769. The phe-
nomenon was here successfully observed by Dr. John
Ewing, Joseph Shippen, Dr. Hugh Williamson,
Thomas Prior, Charles Thomson, and James Pearson ;
at Norriton by Dr. William Smith, David Ritten-
house, John Sellers, and John Lukens ; and at Henlo-
pen light-house by Owen Biddle. On December 7th,
Governor John Penn was proclaimed at the court-
house, under a new commission from Thomas and
Richard Penn, proprietaries, his office to last till Sept.
1, 1772. An enumeration of houses this year gave the
following results :
Mulberry Ward 920
North Ward 417
Middle Ward 358
South. Ward 147
Lower Delaware Ward 120
Upper Delaware Ward 234
High Ward 166
Chestnut Ward 112
Walnut Ward 105
Dock Ward 739
In all, 3318; Northern Liberties to Second Street
Bridge, at Stacey's Run, 553 ; Southwark to the north
side of Love Lane, 603. Grand total, 4474.
Rev. George Whitefield, who had been a regular
annual visitor to Philadelphia, came as usual in the
summer of 1770, and preached in the Presbyterian
and Episcopal Churches. This was his last coming
to the city, as he died in September at Newburyport.
Among other noted visitors to Philadelphia about
262
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
this period were John Hancock, of Boston, and Sir
William Draper, of the British administration, em-
paled in the celebrated letters of " Junius."
The volunteer fire companies began in 1770 to re-
ceive assistance from the corporation ; the draw-bridge
fell in and the corporation refused to repair it, as such
repairs had been provided for by the Assembly in the
shape of a special tax. The condition of poor debtors
detained in the city prisons for debt appears to have
been most wretched at this time. They were practi-
cally dependent upon charity, for there was no law
to compel the creditors who imprisoned to support
them, and the province only allowed prisoners two-
pence a day per capita. Without means of their own
they literally perished from cold and want. In this
year a jail-prisoner died of starvation, and in March,
1772, three more perished in the same way. The As-
sembly was appealed to in 1770, and a visiting com-
mittee, who inspected the jail, reported finding thirty-
two men in confinement and twelve women, some
criminally and some debtors. Many of the men were
naked, and without shirts; they had no bedding, no
covering but a single blanket (given through charity)
for two persons. After trial, no public allowance
was made to criminals. One man had been confined
four year for jail- fees; another three years in default
of surety for good behavior. The Assembly passed a
law allowing threepence per diem for the support of
criminals after conviction, and a law was also passed
for alleviating the condition of prisoners for debt.
To prevent outrages by gangs of robbers and plun-
derers, who went about with blackened faces, the pen-
alty of death was denounced against such offenses.
New regulations were adopted in regard to carters,
draymen, and wagoners, who were required to register
in the clerk's office of Quarter Sessions, have their
vehicles numbered, and, of course, to have a scale of
charges established for them. Commissioners were
appointed — Joseph Fox, Jacob Lewis, Daniel Wil-
liams, of Philadelphia County; John Hannum, John
Morton, and John Sellers, of Chester; and James
Webb, Moses Branton, and James Gibbons, of Lan-
caster County — to lay out a new road from Philadel-
phia to Lancaster, by way of the Schuylkill Middle
Ferry, the Ship Tavern in Chester County, and thence
by the Gap road to the village of Strasburg, in Lancas-
ter County, a public highway forever, sixty feet wide.
In consequence of the war-feeling and the stern
non-importation policy of the several colonies many
and various efforts were made to encourage and pro-
mote American manufactures. The American Philo-
sophical Society now came forward with a memorial
to the Assembly on silk culture, a subject in which
Franklin had been deeply interested for many years,
and about which he was at this time corresponding
not only with members of the society and persons in
other parts of the country, but gathering information
all over Europe to transmit to the society. The so-
ciety, after explaining the conditions under which
cocoons were spun, and the supposed facilities for
feeding the silk-worms, proposed that public filatures
should be established in Philadelphia and elsewhere,
where the cocoons might be received and the silk
reeled. They asked the Legislature to appropriate
five hundred pounds for premiums for mulberry-trees,
cocoons, etc., and produced samples of American silk,
some wove, some knit into gloves. The Assembly de-
clined to make the appropriation, and the society
then started a subscription, asking two hundred and
fifty pounds in forty-shillings subscriptions. There
were, they said, sixty-four families who had already
made a beginning in this industry, many of them
raising ten thousand to twenty thousand silk-worms,
and there were in the province one hundred thousand
cocoons spoiling for want of reeling. The money was
soon subscribed, and a " society for the cultivation of
silk" organized, with the following persons for man-
agers: Dr. Cadwalader Evans, Israel Pemberton,
Benjamin Morgan, Moses Bartram, Dr. Francis Alli-
son, Dr. William Smith, John Rhea, Samuel Rhoads,
Thomas Fisher, Owen Biddle, Henry Drinker, Bobert
Strettel Jones, with Edward Penington treasurer. A
filature was established on Seventh Street, between
High and Mulberry Streets, a superintendent was
procured from Georgia, and tuition and employment
were promised to girls wishing to learn to reel silk.
A premium of fifteen pounds was offered to the per-
son bringing the greatest number of cocoons to the
filature — -not less than thirty thousand — before Sep-
tember 1st, and ten pounds for the next' largest quan-
tity,— not less than twenty thousand.
Only the second prize was awarded next year, to
Joanna Entwain, of Bethlehem ; but new premiums
were offered, — twenty pounds for any number over
fifty thousand, fifteen pounds for forty thousand, ten
pounds for twenty thousand. Nicholas Garrison, of
Bace Street, advertised he would have mulberry-trees
to sell next spring at twopence each, and John Kaighn,
Second Street, near Christ Church, had silk-worm
eggs for sale. The society prepared one hundred and
fifty pounds of reeled silk, such as sold in England
for twenty and twenty-five shillings per pound, exclu-
sive of Parliamentary bounty ; but it still sought aid
from the Assembly, which the Assembly still did not
grant. It was found in 1772 that the society lost
money by paying too high a price for cocoons, many
of them being in bad condition. The reeled silk of
the filature sold in London for nineteen shillings two-
pence, when China silk brought £1 2s. 6d. The fila-
ture reeled silk for private owners at sixpence per
ounce, and some of these sent it to London to be
woven. The filature, however, made a popular suc-
cess by weaving a dress-pattern of Pennsylvania silk,
which was presented to the queen by Dr. Franklin
on behalf of the society, and her majesty promised to
wear it on the king's birthday. On this the Assem-
bly voted the society one thousand pounds. Frank-
lin's correspondence is full of this silk experiment,
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
263
and his wife sent her share of the reeled silk to him
in London.
The Assembly had to come to the relief of other
manufacturing adventures at this time besides the
silk-growers. Experiments undertaken in haste,
without experience and the aid of sufficient capital,
were almost certain to end in failure. Their object
being patriotic, of course they felt it to be the duty
of the Assembly to give the people's money for their
support. There were steel-works on Seventh Street,
conducted by Whitehead Humphreys, who made
good tools and received one hundred
pounds; but John Clayton did not
get aid for his thrashing-machine,
nor Thomas Moore for his machine
to raise water to any height. Messrs.
Gousse Bonnin and G. A. Morris
started, in 1770, to erect works for the
manufacture of china, their factory
being in Southwark, near Front and
Prime Streets. Benjamin Randolph,
at the sign of the Golden Eagle, Chest-
nut Street, manufactured wooden but-
tons, and proposed to buy hard woods,
apple, holly, and laurel. James Pop-
ham, in January, 1770, proposed to
manufacture wool, so as to make a
profit for capital invested of over forty
percent. " A Hibernian" offered to
organize a patriotic society for woolen
manufactures, on the basis of a lottery
privilege of one thousand pounds per
annum, the weavers to be imported
from Ireland. The Assembly did not
spend money on any of these ven-
tures, but it gave three hundred pounds
to David Rittenhouse, as a testimonial
of the high sense entertained " of his
mathematical and mechanical genius
in constructing his orrery,'' and also
bought one of the machines from him
at the price of four hundred pounds.
David Rittenhouse was born April 8,
1732, on the farm of his father, Mat-
thias Rittenhouse, in Montgomery
County, near Germantown. His father
was one of the original settlers of
" Germanopolis." The name of the
first paper-mill ever built in America stamps the
fact of the family's turn for mechanical invention.
Young Rittenhouse was not fitted for a farmer's
life, nor was his health robust enough, but his
mathematical turn already absorbed his faculties,
and the fences, the plow-beam, the barn-doors, were
soon covered with his figures. His father consented
to let him learn the trade of clock and mathematical
instrument-maker. There was already a trunk full
of tools appropriate for the trade in the garret, the
property once of some maternal relative. He built
and fitted himself a shop by the roadside, where he
worked by day and studied by night, like Pascal, in-
venting over again for himself the processes of math-
ematics which only master minds have discovered.
He conceived himself to have been the inventor of
fluxions, until he read Newton's " Principia." What
Newton and Leibnitz could only attain to in mature
years, after long consultations with great minds and
access to all the learning on the subject, this obscure
youth grasped at the age of twenty-four, without
books and without teachers. At the age of twenty-
'OA^ M^f^^^
three he made his famous orrery, for presenting the
motion of the heavenly bodies. This was bought and
is still in the possession of Princeton College. A du-
plicate was made for the Philadelphia Academy and
purchased by the Assembly. Rittenhouse observed
the transit of Venus in June, 1769, for the American
Philosophical Society, of which he was already a
member, and in November observed the transit of
Mercury, making reports on both phenomena. In
1770 he removed to Philadelphia. Later he was con-
nected with the boundary commissions of New York
264
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania, Penn-
sylvania and New York, and New York and Massa-
chusetts. He delivered the annual oration before the
Philosophical Society in 1775, and became its presi-
dent, succeeding Dr. Franklin, in 1791. He was a
member of the convention of July 15, 1776 ; member
of the Pennsylvania Board of War, March 14, 1777;
treasurer of the State from 1777 to 1789; director of
the United States Mint, 1792 to 1795, when he re-
signed on account of ill-health, dying in Philadel-
phia, June 27, 1796. His body was buried in a tomb,
prepared under his own orders, in the garden of his
house, northwest corner of Seventh and Arch Streets.
Many years afterward it was removed, and reinterred
in the ground of the First Presbyterian Church,
Pine Street west of Fourth. He was made mem-
ber of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Boston, in 1782, and of the Royal Society of London,
1795. He was a man of sincere and honest mind,
simple and plain in his ways, a profound and con-
stant student, and a deep and original thinker. He
had added to his knowledge of mathematics and as-
tronomy an acquaintance with theology and meta-
physics, and familiarity with French, Dutch, and
German. He was a musician, wrote verses, and had
read extensively in belles-lettres. His services to the
Revolution were many and important.
Other inventors came forward for recognition, —
Michael Washington, with cloth of his manufacture,
meant to compete for the gold medal offered by Lan-
caster County ; Christopher Colles, the engineer, with
offers to put up mills and hydraulic engines; Michael
Poree, surgeon dentist, maker and fitter of artificial
teeth, — the pioneer in that manufacture, — found so
much business in his line that he decided to settle in
the country, dividing his time between New York
and Philadelphia.
Still, the new manufacturers fared badly. Henry
William Steigel, the glass-maker at Lancaster, failed ;
was confined for debt in Philadelphia jail, and it
took an act of Assembly to release him ; that body
also voting him a relief of one hundred pounds. The
china-works in Southwark failed also, the proprietors
losing everything, and not being able to pay wages
to their workmen, for whom — strangers and needy —
they asked the charity of the public. Bonnin sold
the real estate and property of the concern and went
to England. Some attention was paid to potash
manufactures at this time, and Humphreys got leave
to set up a lottery of seven hundred pounds to aid him
in his manufacture of steel.
In the two or three years succeeding this period,
which were still to intervene before the outbreak of
hostilities with the mother-country, the people of
Philadelphia seem to have paid an increased attention
to local improvements, to which they gave all the
time they could spare from the excitements of politi-
cal movement. Several acts were passed in 1771 to
protect the fisheries on the Schuylkill, provide a close
time, and prevent the wanton destruction of the
smaller fry. As there were fears of a war with Spain,
attention was directed anew to finishing the fort on
Mud Island, authorized in 1762. The fifteen thousand
pounds then voted could not be recovered ; eight
thousand pounds had been spent for street paving, and
seven thousand pounds given to the king for war
purposes, and a new act was passed appropriating
fifteen thousand pounds more in bills of credit. The
commissioners in charge of the work were Joseph
Galloway, Benjamin Chew, Thomas Cadwallader,
Joseph Fox, Michael Hiliegas, John Morton, and
John Baynton. They bought a small island in the
Delaware, the property of Joseph Galloway, and ap-
plied to Gen. Gage for an engineer. He chose Capt.
Montresser. The people of the Northern Liberties
petitioned the Assembly at this time for regulators to
survey the streets, lay out gutters, sewers, etc., and
regulate party walls. The act which was passed for
this purpose restricted the operation to a tract north
of the city to Gunner's Run, across to Frankford
road, west to William Master's place on the German-
town road, and the Wissahickon road, thence south
to the city limits. The poor laws of the city were
amended so as to authorize the mayor or recorder of
the city, the aldermen, and the justices of the peace
of the county, to appoint overseers of the poor, —
twelve for the city, four for the Northern Liberties,
four for Southwark, and two for each other township.
These overseers had power, upon the requisition of
the managers of the almshouse, to levy taxes for the
amount of money required by that establishment, and
had plenary authority, besides, to procure subsistence
for paupers, etc.
The law for regulating the night-watch and the
lights of the city was re-enacted, Samuel Morton,
Thomas Mifflin, Edward Duffield, Jacob Winey,
Moore Furman, and Joshua Humphreys being ap-
pointed wardens (to be elected annually thereafter at
the general elections) with power, in conjunction with
the assessors, to levy taxes for city purposes, the as-
sessors appointing the tax collectors. The wardens
had direction of the maintenance and increase of the
city lamps, the employment of watchmen, digging
wells, fixing and repairing pumps, and purchasing
private pumps for public use. There was much com-
plaint at this time, and apparently it was just, of the
insufficient number of public pumps, and the inade-
quate allowance to owners for private pumps. In
fact, the city was outgrowing its water supplies.
Renewed efforts were made in 1771 to secure legis-
lative aid for improving the navigation of the Schuyl-
kill and Susquehanna, and the subject was referred to
committees, and led to reports, but nothing further,
except that additional surveys were ordered. The
conditions of the main public roads caused solicitude,
and in a broadside, published in December, 1771,
called " An Address to the Merchants and Inhabitants
of Pennsylvania," it was said that " Baltimore town.
LOCAL HISTORY AND GROWTH, 1750-1775.
265
in Maryland, has within a few years past carried off
from this city almost the whole trade of Frederick,
York, Bedford, and Cumberland Counties." This
was in consequence of the care of communication by
way of the Susquehanna, and the bad roads from this
river to Philadelphia. The writer said the only
remedy was a canal across the peninsula and a free
turnpike road to Lancaster.
In April, 1771, there was a fatal fire at the house
of Thomas Rogers, west side of Front Street, near
Market, in which Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Baxter, an
inmate of his house, were suffocated by the smoke;
two girls, daughters of Capt. Campbell, and grand-
daughters of Mr. Rogers, were rescued by an active
and daring sailor, after the roof had fallen in, but
their injuries were so great they died shortly after.
Several other houses were damaged by this fire,
which was played upon by six engines, the entire
force of the town.
In this year, John Penn having been suddenly
called to England, Richard Penn came out to succeed
him. Both these Penns married Americans, but
Richard was very popular, John the reverse, and
when John suddenly superseded Richard again in
1773, much feeling was shown. As Miss Sarah Eve
said at the time, she would rather be Richard than
John, for though the latter had the government, the
former had the people with him. A part of this un-
popularity grew out of the excise tax of 1771, of four-
pence per gallon on all wine and spirits, the enact-
ment of which led Philadelphians to petition the As-
sembly for more equitable representation. They had
only two members in that body, while paying one-
fourth the entire expenses of the province. The in-
spection and stamping of leather, and the costs of
the fort on Mud Island, were also subjects of com-
plaint.
The Tammany Society was started on May 1, 1772,
when the sons of King Tammany met at the house of
James Byrns to celebrate the memory of the noble
chieftain.
The city wardens, in their new regulations, insti-
tuted this year, made James Delaplaine constable
of the watch. There were seventeen "beats;" the
watchmen cried the hour and the weather; they car-
ried staves, and were on duty from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
in summer, and 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in winter. The As-
sembly this year resolved to provide the city a new
jail, the old one, corner of Third and Market Streets,
being confessedly and notoriously inefficient. The
commissioners of the county were authorized to bor-
row money, buy a lot, build a jail, work-house, and
house of correction, and sell the old jail, which was
advertised as being sixty-six feet broad by two hun-
dred and forty feet long. This old prison had been
held by trustees for the use of city and county, but
the new one was vested in the county commissioners,
whom the act made a corporation and body politic.
The "assize of bread" was renewed in March, the
size of loaf being adjusted to the price of flour, each
baker required to stamp his name and mark the qual-
ity of the flour on his loaves, and the clerk of the
market to seize all bread which did not comply with
these requisites. A dog-tax was this year laid in Phil-
adelphia County, a shilling on each cur owned by a
head of a family, two shillings for each additional
dog. Single persons owning dogs had to pay five
shillings each, and the avails of this dog-tax were to
be applied to compensate owners of sheep killed by
dogs. When a dog was caught killing sheep his
owner forfeited a fine of five pounds unless he de-
stroyed the animal at once. Chimney-sweeps in
Philadelphia, Northern Liberties, and Southwark
were put under strict regulations at this period, reg-
istered, licensed, numbered, and made to wear their
numbers on their caps. The sweepers' fee was nine-
pence per chimney of one flue, fifteenpence for two
flues.
When John Penn, as we have already noted above,
returned to Philadelphia to supersede his brother
Richard, on Aug. 30, 1773, the merchants presented
the latter an address and invited him to dine with
them. He had acted with prudence and manliness
in difficult times, and the people would not neglect
him. John Penn was present at the dinner, — Robert
Morris, who presided, placing one on his right hand,
the other on his left, — but the brothers did not speak.
Bichard had been " unexpectedly deprived" of his
office, and he resented it.
The silk society was still active at this time, Frank-
lin being its agent in London, and disposing of its
reeled silk. The premium for the greatest number
of cocoons (seventy-two thousand eight hundred) was
awarded to Widow Stoner, of Lancaster, James Mill-
house, of Chester, getting the second premium. One
prize was given to Rebecca Parks, of Lancaster, for
the best specimen of reeled silk. The net proceeds of
silk sold in London were £210 10s. b\d. In a letter
to his wife, July 15, 1773, Franklin says, " The Silk
Committee were so good as to make me a present of
four pounds of raw silk. I have had it worked up,
with some addition of the same kind of silk, into a
French gray ducape, which is a fashionable color,
either for old or young women. I, therefore, send it
as a present to you and Sally, understanding that
there is enough to make each of you a negligee. If
you should rather incline to sell it, it is valued here
at six shillings and sixpence a yard ; but I hope you
will wear it."
The American Philosophical Society, with a certain
prescience of the coming struggle, turned its attention
to the manufacture of paper, offering a premium of
five pounds to the person in any family who should
save the greatest quantity of rags and sell them before
the 1st of May, 1777, smaller premiums for the next
highest competitors. John Leacock, who owned a
vineyard in Lower Merion, Philadelphia Co., set up
a lottery for the encouragement of the vine, and the
266
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
glass-works at Kensington, and Manheim, Lancaster
Co., did likewise. The citizens of Philadelphia pe-
titioned the Assembly to instruct its provincial agents
to ask king and Parliament to adopt measures pre-
venting the importation of negroes into the colony.
At the same time the city protested against the un-
equal assessment by which its inhabitants were com-
pelled to bear undue burdens of taxation. The city
and county had nearly paid the assessment of 1760,
running through fifteen years, but other counties had
failed to raise their proportions. The House, after
having a committee to report on the subject, passed a
bill declaring that improved lands should be rated at
three-fifths of the annual value, and none at less than
five pounds per hundred acres. At the January ses-
sion of 1773, David Rittenhouse and Samuel Rboads
made a report on inland navigation and the divide
between the Delaware and Susquehanna; they foumi
a canal feasible, with water and fall enough in the
intermediate streams, but would not decide upon the
most expedient route.
The city front was extending so much, with so
many long wharves jutting into the stream, that
there were fears lest the port would become too small
and navigation be impeded. Some of these wharves
intruded on the channel so much that even small
vessels had difficulty in working between them and
Windmill Island. The city markets were found to
be not large enough for the volume of country pro-
duce brought to them, but the Common Council de-
clined to enlarge them. The Assembly, therefore, in
which the country interest predominated, determined
to look after the farmers' convenience. In March,
1772, a committee was appointed to consider the
expediency of building another market-house in the
city. This committee reported in favor of Market
Street, near Third, and continuing westward, as the
best site, and in 1773 a resolution was passed to the
effect that in the opinion of the House the want of
additional market-houses in Philadelphia " for the
accommodation of the inhabitants bringing their pro-
duce to market for the supply of the said city is a pub-
lic grievance," and a committee was ordered to confer
with the corporation on the subject and report to the
House.
The committee of the Assembly consisted of Henry
Pawling, William Rodman, John Brown, Thomas
Mifflin, Jonathan Roberts, and James Hockley. The
Common Council, January 26th, " Resolved, nem. con.,
That another market be built at the expense of the
Board," and at a later meeting it was decided to place
the new market in Market Street, between Third and
Fourth. The Council, finding they had not money
enough to pay the cost of the proposed improve-
ment, resolved to call in, at the end of three months,
seven hundred and fifty pounds which had been
loaned to the managers of the almshouse. The lat-
ter asked for more time, intimating they had not ex-
pected the loan to be demanded. The Council re-
fused to present the managers with the money, but
gave them a year to pay it in. The inhabitants in the
neighborhood of where the new market was to be
built remonstrated vigorously against the proposed
structure as an incumbrance to the street and incom-
moding them, asking that another place should be
fixed on. To this there were counter remonstrances,
and apparently serious controversy ; but the board
decided not to alter its plans, but to go ahead with
the work, without waiting for the question of munic-
ipal right to be determined by an amicable suit at
law, as was requested by some of the petitioners.
The erection of the market-house caused great ex-
citement, and the residents on High Street took the
law in their own hands " and accordingly they tore
down the market as fast as it was erected, demolish-
ing by night what was built by day." On June 22d
the Council decided to bring damage-suits against
those who had resorted to violence, but at the same
time to direct the committee to desist from prosecut-
ing the work until further directions had been given.
On the 24th the board resolved to go on again, but
on the 29th, in deference to an earnest address from
the Society of Friends, the work was suspended,
" and resolved to bring the actions for the trespasses
already brought, and that the work already done shall
be secured, as well as the materials, except such as
are perishable, etc. — those to be sold ; the rubbish in
the street to be removed, so as to make the street on
each side the piers passable."
A number of handbills and addresses on this sub-
ject and against the building of the market were is-
sued over various signatures, the chief promoter of
the opposition, apparently, being Owen Jones, provin-
cial treasurer. The opposition became popular, the
plea being that the corporation threatened to swallow
up the people's liberties ; but selfish and individual
interests seem to have been at the bottom of the con-
troversy. The Council, in place of building a new
market, made some changes in the meal market to ac-
commodate the country people, and determined to
put up hay-scales forthwith at the slip on Vine Street
and at the Blue Anchor. Twenty new stalls were
also added to the new market on the southern bounds
of the city.
Aside from their connection with the gathering
storm of revolution, there were practically no local
occurrences in Philadelphia in 1774 worth noting.
Great and small events equally sympathized with and
took their color from the one controlling excitement,
which occupied the thoughts and guided the actions
of every one. The Common Council were informed
by the recorder that complaints had been made in
Maryland against the sealed half-bushels made in
Philadelphia as being over legal measure, a circum-
stance likely to be detrimental to trade unless looked
into. A committee was appointed to confer with Na-
thaniel Allen, the officer appointed to size and seal the
measures, and consult with Mr. Rittenhouse, and call
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
267
any others they may think proper to their assistance.
The committee — Messrs. Rhoads, Clymer, Shippen,
and Powell — were ordered also to procure a new stan-
dard half-bushel, of cast brass. This was done, and
the measure left in charge of Mr. Allen. In August
it was reported that hay-scales had been erected at the
draw-bridge. Robert Lumsden was appointed keeper
of the scales, his fees being two shillings per load.
A lot of ground had been bought on Sixth Street,
extending from Walnut to Prune, and here, in 1774,
the Walnut Street prison was erected. "It consisted
eases from being brought into the province ; a keeper
was to be appointed to the hospital on Province
Island ; vessels from beyond seas with more than
forty passengers were not to be allowed to come
nearer Philadelphia than Little Mud Island, near the
mouth of the Schuylkill, until a sanitary inspection
had been made by a quarantine officer and a physi-
cian. The sick were to be removed and nursed in the
hospital, and the vessels cleansed, all at the expense
of the consignee. Another inspection and examina-
tion was to be made when the vessel reached port.
The Assembly repealed the act forbidding
the sale of books at auction, and in December
passed an act to suppress the disorderly prac-
tice of firing guns, pistols, squibs, fireworks,
etc., at Christmas times. Offenders were to
be mulcted ten shillings; twenty shillings
fine to the householder allowing such practice
upon his premises. Thus a law against squibs
preceded the great cannonade of the Revolu-
tion!
OLD WALNUT STREET PRISON.
of a stone building, with a front on Walnut Street of
one hundred and eighty-four feet, and thirty-two feet
deep, with wings on the east and west extending
ninety feet southward. In addition to this there was
a stone building on Prune Street at the south end of
the lot, which was originally designed for a work-
house, but was afterwards used for the confinement
of debtors. The lot was inclosed by a stone wall
twenty feet high, connected with the buildings."1
In January, Arthur Donaldson presented a petition
to the Assembly, declaring that he had invented a
machine for cleansing and deepening docks, but use-
ful for purposes of general dredging. The American
Philosophical Society had seen the machine at work,
and approved it, and the Assembly appointed a com-
mittee to examine it. In December, Ebenezer Rob-
inson sought to call attention to a pumping-machine
of his for leaky vessels, but the Assembly had no
time now to attend to such matters. David Ritten-
house was appointed to take charge of the State-
House clock after March, 1775, when David Duffield
would cease taking care of it, as he intended leaving
the country.
Money still continued to be appropriated for the
support of the French neutrals. In January, 1774,
the Assembly passed an act to prevent infectious dis-
1 Weatcott.
CHAPTER XVI.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
PART I.— FROM THE STAMP ACT TO THE DECLARA-
TION OP INDEPENDENCE.
To write a complete history of Philadelphia
during the war of American independence
would be, in 'effect, to write the history of that
revolution from its beginning until the adoption of the
Constitution. Such an undertaking is far beyond the
scope of the present work. The author will be content
to exhibit the things which were done in Philadelphia
during that contest, and which originated in Philadel-
phia, or with the people of the city. Even thus limited,
the task is by no mean3 slight. The events which
must be treated are many and momentous, and the
actors in them among the most considerable figures
in the great struggle. Watson, who, as Mr. Westcott
reminds us, had access to the papers of Charles Thom-
son, says, very forcibly, that " Philadelphia was the
fulcrum which turned a long lever." It was the
largest and most important city in the colonies ; it
was the central point of the colonies, moreover, and
it numbered among its citizens many men whose
opinions were controlling forces. Benjamin Frank-
lin, John Dickinson, Joseph Reed, Charles Thomson,
Thomas Mifflin, Joseph Galloway, and Robert Morris
were men of influence and control, — powers through-
out the colonies. Franklin and Dickinson had as
much to do as any other two men who can be named
in uniting the colonies and preparing them for re-
sistance; and, after Washington, Franklin and Mor-
ris did more than any other two to make that resist-
ance successful. Not to give such a history in its
important bearings, therefore, would be to belittle
the local annals which it is our duty to present faith-
268
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
fully and well ; to go beyond that would force us to
encroach upon the province of the general history of
the country. The task is difficult, and becomes only
more so in persisting, as we must do, to carry the
. local flavor along through every page, but it is per-
haps not impossible.
Occasional writers make a grave mistake in think-
ing that the principle upon which the colonies united
to resist the pretensions of Great Britain, resistance
to taxation without representation, was a mere barren
abstraction. The colonists were British subjects, and
the principle for which they contended was, in fact,
the very core of the British Constitution, the English-
man's birthright and his castle. The sagacious eye
of the elder Pitt saw this at once, and he rushed to
the support of the Americans, not as a leader of the
opposition, but as a British statesman who saw the
Constitution imperiled as it' had been in the days of
Strafford and in the days of James II. " No man,"
he said, " more than I respects the just authority of
the House of Commons, no man would go further to
defend it. But beyond the line of the Constitution,
like every exercise of arbitrary power, it becomes ille-
gal, threatening tyranny to the people, destruction to
the state. Power without right is the most detestable
object that can be offered to the human imagination ;
it is not only pernicious to those whom it subjects,
but works its own destruction. Res detestabilis et ca-
duca." And he said, pursuing the same train of
thought, "In a just cause of quarrel you may crush
America to atoms; but in this crying injustice, I am
one who will lift up my hands against it ; in such a
cause even your success would be hazardous." The
reason he gives is a plain one, — "It is my opinion
that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the
colonies ; at the same time I assert the authority of
this kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and
supreme, in every circumstance of government and
legislation whatever. . . . Taxation is no part of the
governing or legislative power. Taxes are a voluntary
gift and grant of the Commons alone."
This was the point, therefore, upon which every
one in the colonies, except the officials and the crea-
tures of the British Cabinet and Board of Trade,
could and did unite. It was the point where Gallo-
way and Dickinson met Franklin and Reed, where
Tories and patriots were equally firm and vehement
in protest, and where they had the earnest and undi-
vided support of the opposition in the British Parlia-
ment. This union for a valid principle of the Consti-
tution was the one thing which made possible the
Revolution which finally ensued. Without this union
in the initial collision, the colonists would never have
known their strength, nor would their purposes have
dared to ripen into action. Franklin, Adams, the
"Sons of Liberty," and many others, like Patrick
Henry, Bichard Henry Lee, and Samuel Chase, went
much further, looking to the inevitable end with
equal prescience and hope. But they did not carry
the majority with them, nor attempt to do so, until
many other acts of aggression and outrage had
taught the people to dream of liberty and hunger
for it. When it came to challenging that imperial
authority which Pitt declared to be "sovereign and
supreme," conservatism halted long, and neither
Dickinson nor Galloway would follow Franklin or
had any sympathy with Adams. They were not re-
publicans nor revolutionists, but British subjects in
constitutional opposition to the ministry of King
George.
It is not necessary to elaborate this point further.
The colonists were and had been steadfast and loyal
British subjects. As such, they had denied the right
of king and ministry to tax, and in this the Constitu-
tion had been shown to be on their side.1 But they
had given to the king liberally, profusely, in every
strait and war of the colony, money, provisions, men,
clothing, stores. They had resisted oppressions and
usurpations, for it was hatred of these things which
had driven their ancestors and them to America; but
they were not separatists ; they never dreamed of con-
tending for anything but the privileges of Britons.
The Albany plan of union was a plan for consolida-
ting and strengthening the.British empire in America,
not for dismembering it. The Americans had re-
sisted, but never revolted against their Governors.
They had not blenched in their loyalty to the mother-
country when she was depriving them of their char-
tered civil and religious liberties, monopolizing their
trade, destroying their industries, and threatening to
subject them to " Poyning's Law," the infamous
" Code of Drogheda," by which Irish Parliaments
were denied the right to sit until they had first ex-
hibited in detail to the king's viceroy all that they
meant to do, and obtained royal license. No act of a
Provincial Legislature could become a law until it
had obtained sanction of the Royal Council; the
English Church was the only one tolerated ; the acts
of trade forbade nearly all manufactures, nearly every
form of domestic commerce; the colonies, like Ire-
laud, resembled those larvfe of aphides which the
ants keep close prisoners and only permit to feed in
order that they may afford their masters nutritive
delicacies not otherwise to be procured. But for all
that the colonies were entirely loyal, and never con-
ceived the plan of setting up independent govern-
ments or casting themselves under the protection of
other powers unfriendly to the mother-country.2 As
William B. Reed says very cleverly in his life of
1 Bancroft, v. 81: " It was now settled that no tax could be imposed on
the inhabitants of ft British plautatiou but by their own Assembly, or
by an act of Parliament." (Opinion of Sir Philip Yorke and Sir- Clement
Wearg.)
2 Bancroft (v. 77) thinks that the first spirit of resistance to British
oppression originated in the Scotch-Irish immigration from Ulster, after
the peace of Paris. But during the war in the South this element of
the population supplied nearly all the Tories, and Galloway's name
would indicate that he was of the same descent, though a Marylander
by birth.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
269
Joseph Reed, " There is no more curious chapter
of our history than that which delineates the grad-
ual (for it was very gradual) extinction of loyalty
in the American colonies." There was no one cause
but a dozen, yet perhaps Bancroft is right in holding
that "American independence, like the great rivers
of the country, had many sources ; but the head-
spring which colored all the streams was the Naviga-
tion Act;" or as Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts,
put it, in more forcible because simpler language, —
" The publication of orders for the strict execution
of the Molasses Act has caused a greater alarm in this
country than the taking of Fort William Henry did
in 1757."
We have neither space nor need to show the fact
of the existence of this loyalty and the causes of its
decline through the acts of the British ministry. The
evidence is abundant, and it has been collected and
collated in many works of easy access. In none of
the provinces was this good temper towards the throne
and the mother-country exhibited more satisfactorily
than in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. In the times
of King William and Queen Anne, of Governor
Fletcher and Judge Quarry, the Quakers and the pro-
prietary government were treated with suspicion ;
their loyalty to the home government was questioned,
and all the influence of ministry and Parliament was
given to the Church of England party in the colony.
But the proprietary had become members of the
church ; the Society of Friends were loyal and con-
servative as well as non-resisting, and their affections
for the British government had seemed to grow with
their growth in business connections and wealth.
The Germans usually voted with the Friends and the
proprietary in all political contests, and the only op-
position in the province — that which was in antago-
nism to the proprietary government — favored a more
vigorous co-operation with ministerial measures, and
hoped to secure the overthrow or modification of the
proprietary government and charter by appealing di-
rectly to king and Parliament. Franklin, writing to
Peter Collinson in 1753 (when Halifax's harsh meas-
ures for disturbing colonial government by the exer-
cise of prerogative were already matured), expresses his
dread lest so many German immigrants in the prov-
ince should give the French an opportunity to make
trouble, and adds, "I pray God to preserve long to
Great Britain the English laws, manners, liberties,
and religion. Notwithstanding the complaints, so fre-
quent in your public papers, of the prevailing corrup-
tion and degeneracy of the people, I know you have
a great deal of virtue still subsisting among you, and
I hope the Constitution is not so near a dissolution as
some seem to apprehend." In 1760 he wrote to Lord
Karnes that no one could rejoice more sincerely than
he for the reduction of Canada, " and this not merely
as I am a colonist, but as I am a Briton. I have long
been of the opinion that the foundations of the future
grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in Amer-
ica; and though, like other foundations, they are low
and little now, they are, nevertheless, broad and strong
enough to support the greatest political structure that
human wisdom has ever erected." Joseph Galloway,
all for prerogative, wrote to Franklin in 1765 that,
" as you well know, the Assembly party are the only
loyal part of the people here." Thomas Wharton and
John Dickinson were also sincerely loyal. There was
not much sympathy in Philadelphia with Patrick
Henry or Samuel Adams.
After the conquest of Canada, as Frothingham, in
his "Rise of the Republic," has noted, all the colo-
nies rivaled one another in the fervor of their ex-
pressions of loyalty. " The liberty men vied 'with
the party of the prerogative in paeans to the British
constitution and flag. This enthusiasm sustains a re-
mark of Franklin's, that the colonists loved the na-
tion more than they loved each other." Lord Cam-
den, in a conversation with Franklin, had remarked,
" For all what you Americans say of your loyalty, I
know you will one clay throw off your dependence
upon this country, and, notwithstanding your boasted
affection for it, will set up for independence." The
other answered, " No such idea is entertained in the
minds of the Americans, and no such idea will ever
enter their heads, unless you grossly abuse them."
"Very true [replied Mr. Pratt, — my lord was then a
commoner], that is one of the main causes I see will
happen, and will produce the event."1
Another similar outburst of loyalty followed the
repeal of the Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty dis-
solved their association and ceased their operations.
Every clamor was hushed. As one of the newspapers
of the day expressed it, — " Never were a people more
in love with their king and the constitution by which
he has solemnly engaged to govern them."
But this was not peace. It was only an armistice.
The policy for taxing the colonies was part of an
elaborate programme, and was not to be abandoned.
It had been carefully worked out by the Board of
Trade and the Cabinet. It was part of an attempt to
mould the colonies into conformity to England. Ban-
croft has traced out and explained the system with
perspicuity and at great length. " It embraced," says
Frothingham, "an alteration of territorial boundaries,
a remodeling of the local constitutions, an abridg-
ment of popular power, and an introduction of the
aristocratic or hereditary element." An American
standing army was to be created, and an American
civil service and judiciary, all subservient to the
crown, but paid by taxation levied upon the colonies.
"It included an execution of the Navigation Act,
which had never been enforced, of laws of trade
which had remained dead letters on the statute-book,
the collection of a revenue, and the establishment of
a standing army. The ministry of the Earl of Bute,
1 Gordon's History of the American Revolution, i. M8. This conver-
sation took place, Gordon suys, "many months" before 1760, i.e. be-
tween that and August, 1767.
270
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
based on prerogative and power, decided in favor of
this policy, and successive administrations endeav-
ored to carry it out in part or in whole."1
Charles Townshend initiated this policy ; its details
were arranged by Jenkinson; George Granville put
it in execution. The idea of a stamp tax for the
colonies is said to have been promulgated first by
Governor Keith and Joshua Gee, of Philadelphia, in
1739 ; the proposition being to raise troops to go
against the Indians, and provide for their main-
tenance out of a stamp duty laid by act of Parlia-
ment. The proposition is like Keith, but the authen-
ticity of the papers embodying it is not completely
established. There seem to have been numerous
premonitions in .the colonies that a new system of
government and taxation was about to be instituted.
The feeling probably grew out of the more rigid en-
forcement of existing laws of trade and navigation,
the execution of the Sugar Act, the resistance made
by James Otis to the custom-house writs of assistance,
and by Patrick Henry to the tithe proceedings in
Virginia. Only one of the stories and reports in con-
nection with all this needs to be cited here. It is re-
lated by Gordon, in his " History of the Eevolution,"
that Whitefield, being at Portsmouth, N. H., April 2,
1764, sent for Dr. Langdon and Mr. Haven, the Con-
gregational ministers of the town, and, upon their
coming and being alone with him, said, " I can't in
conscience leave the town without acquainting you
with a secret. My heart bleeds for America. Oh,
poor New England! There is a deep-laid plot against
both your civil and religious liberties, and they will
be lost. Your golden days are at an end. You have
nothing but trouble before you. My information
comes from the best authority in Great Britain. I
was allowed to speak of the affair in general, but
enjoined not to mention particulars. Your liberties
will be lost." Doubtless Whitefield confided this
"secret" to others besides Langdon, and his Phila-
delphia friends probably heard it more than once
from his own lips.
The first authentic notice received in Philadelphia
of the design of the British ministry to tax the colo-
nies by means of a stamp duty came from Boston,
about May 8 or 9, 1764. Samuel Adams had brought
the subject up in town meeting in Boston. But the
remonstrance of Rhode Island against the Sugar Act
had been received before that, and the leading men
in the different colonies had begun to correspond on
the subject of the taxes proposed, so that it was fully
understood before the declaratory resolutions were
adopted. These were offered by Granville in the Com-
mons on March 9, 1764, and, although it was an-
nounced that no immediate action would be taken on
them, great excitement ensued in the colonies. The
proposed taxation was denounced as putting the colo-
nists on the footing of conquered slaves, and it was
1 Frotlucgtmm, 161-62 ; Bancroft, vol. v., chs. v., vii., and ix.
suggested that if they were taxed without their con-
sent they would " desire a change." This step, said
Richard Henry Lee, " though intended to secure our
dependence, may produce a fatal resentment and be
subversive of that end." Dunk Halifax wrote, Aug.
11, 1764, an official letter from St. James, notifying
Governor Penn that as Parliament, at its last session,
"had come to a Resolution, by which it is declared
that, towards defraying the necessary Expences of
defending, protecting, and securing the British Colo-
nies and Plantations in America, it may be proper to
charge certain Stamp Duties in the said Colonies and
Plantations, it is His Majesty's Pleasure, that You
should transmit to me, without Delay, a list of all
Instruments made use of in publick Transactions,
Law Proceedings, Grants, Conveyances, Securities of
Land or Money, within your Government, with proper
and sufficient Descriptions of the same, in order that
if Parliament should think proper to pursue the In-
tention of the aforesaid Resolution, they may thereby
be enabled to carry it into Execution in the most
effectual and least burthensome manner."
This was not action, but a prelude to action of the
severest sort. Meantime there was action in other
directions. Granville was determined to break up
smuggling with the strong hand, and all captains,
not only of revenue cutters, but of all armed vessels
sent to America, were made revenue officers and com-
pelled to take the usual custom-house oaths and re-
spect custom-house regulations. The naval officers
knew nothing of revenue laws, consequently many
illegal and annoying seizures were made, for which
no redress could be had but in England. " A trade
had for many years been carried on," says Samuel
Hazard,2 " between the British and Spanish colonies,
consisting of the manufactures of Great Britain,
imported by the British colonies for their own con-
sumption and bought with their own produce, for
which they were paid by the Spaniards in gold and
silver, sometimes in bullion and sometimes in coin,
and with cochineal, etc., occasionally. This trade
was not literally and strictly according to law, yet
the advantage of it being obviously on the side of
Great Britain and her colonies, it had been connived
at. But the armed ships, under the new regulations,
seized the vessels, and this beneficial traffic was sud-
denly almost destroyed." So with other countries.
This illicit trade had kept the colonies supplied with
specie, liquors, sugar, and tropical products gener-
ally, giving them a good market in return, and its
sudden destruction was as injurious to Philadelphia
as to Boston and Newport.
" On the 10th of March, 1764," continues Hazard,
" the House of Commons agreed to a number of
resolutions respecting the American trade. A bill
was brought in, and passed into a law, laying heavy
duties on the articles imported into the colonies from
2 Register of Pennsylvania, vol. il. p. 242, et seq.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
271
the French and other islands in the West Indies,
and ordering those duties to be paid in specie into
the exchequer of Great Britain. . . . The Americans
complained much of this new law and of the unex-
ampled hardship of being deprived first of obtaining
specie and next being ordered to pay the new duties
in specie into the treasury at London, which, they
said, must speedily drain them of all the specie they
had. But what seemed more particularly hard upon
them was a bill brought in at the same session and
passed into a law, ' To restrain the currency of paper
money in the colonies.' ... In the spring of 1765
the American agents in London were informed by
the administration that if the colonists would propose
any other mode of raising the sum pretended to be
raised by stamp duties their proposal would be ac-
cepted and the stamp duty laid aside. The agents
said they were not authorized to give any answer,
but that they were ordered to oppose the bill when it
should be brought into the
House by petitions ques-
tioning the right claimed
by Parliament of taxing
the colonies. The bill lay-
ing a stamp duty in Amer-
ica passed in March, 1765."
In regard to the law re-
stricting issues of paper
money, it was founded on
the report of the Board of
Trade, made to the Com-
mons by Lord Hillsbor-
ough, Feb. 6, 1764, to which Franklin wrote and pub-
lished a pamphlet in reply. In his examination in re-
gard to the Stamp Act, and in several pamphlets and
memoranda, he stated the entire American case in the
clearest and most forcible manner, leaving nothing to
be desired towards the completeness of the argument.
The Stamp Act was passed March 22, 1765. A
copy of it was printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette
on April 18th, but this must necessarily have been in
advance of news of its passage. The people of Phila-
delphia began at once to show their determination to
make it a nullity so far as revenue was concerned.
An enforced frugality was the first step, and of this
policy Franklin sounded the key-note. In his ex-
amination before the Commons the concluding ques-
tions and answers are these: "Q. What used to be
the pride of the Americans? A. To indulge in the
fashions and manufactures of Great Britain. Q. What
is now their pride? A. To wear their old clothes
over again, till they can make new ones." In the
Pennsylvania Gazette of April 18th there was an
article against expensive and ostentatious funerals,
the writer saying that often £70 or £100 were squan-
dered on such occasions. August 15th, when Alder-
man William Plumsted was buried at St. Peter's
Church, the funeral, by his own wish, was conducted
in the plainest way, no pall, no mourning worn by
BRITISH STAMP.
relatives. In March the Hibernia Fire Company
resolved " from motives of ecouomy, and to reduce
the present high price of mutton and encourage the
breweries of Pennsylvania, not to purchase any lamb
this season, nor to drink any foreign beer." Other
fire companies and many citizens copied this example,
and Edward Broadfield, of Kensington, who had a
patent way of his own of curing sturgeon, thought
this a good occasion to recommend sturgeon as a good
substitute for mutton.
On May 30th it was anounced that John Hughes,
a member of the Assembly and a partisan of Frank-
lin's, was appointed distributor of stamps. This oc-
casioned great ill feeling, extending also to Franklin,
some of his enemies saying that he had even asked
for the place himself. He did nominate Hughes.
But no action was taken at once. People were di-
vided in opinion as to what to do. They knew that
Parliament had only passed the bill by a ministerial
vote. They knew the strong opposition it had met,
even from friends of the administration, like Alder-
man Beckford, and from the London merchants ; the
speech of Richard Jackson, the fiery reply of Isaac
Barr6 to Charles Townshend, and the stalwart posi-
tion of Conway. They looked for a repeal. In Septem-
ber intelligence came of a change in the ministry, and
it was welcomed with frantic joy, as if it gave assur-
ance of immediate repeal. The news was received
on Sunday ; its reception showed how great had been
the tension of public feeling. On Monday the bells
rang all day; loyal healths were drunk, bonfires
kindled at night, and John Hughes, the stamp dis-
tributor, burnt in effigy. A mob surrounded his
house, threatening violence, and causing him to load
his gun for defense.1 He wrote to Governor Penn,
under date of September 17th, and to John Dickin-
son, October 3d, that he had not received either
stamps, commission, bond, or anything else inform-
ing him of his appointment. When they reached
New Castle he was afraid to take possession of them.
October 5th a crowd surrounded his house as he was
lying ill in bed, and obtained his written pledge not
to attempt to perform the functions of his new office.
In an explanatory letter he says the excitement was
stirrred up by the Presbyterians chiefly. The mob
waited on him with muffled drums, and muffled
church-bells ringing; the son of Chief Justice Allen
was the leader ; the committee who waited on Hughes
to demand his resignation comprised James Tilgh-
man, Robert Morris, Charles Thomson, Archibald
McCall, John Cox, William Richards, and William
Bradford. The Quakers, he writes, Baptists, and
Church of England people were decently behaved,
1 Hazard, without giving his anthority, says that on April 14th, when
it was known ths Stump Act would be passed, •' the guns at Philadelphia
were discovered to be all spiked up, and on looking at those of the bar-
racks, they were found to be served in the same manner, to the great
surprise and uneasiness of the inhabitants." (Kegister, ii. 243.) West-
cott has nothing of this story.
272
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
but the Presbyterians, " proprietary minions,'' and
" Dutch" were violent.
By the time the stamps arrived a course of action
had been decided upon by the colonies. Virginia took
the lead ; James Otis, in Massachusetts, hit upon the
plan of a general congress of the colonies, to meet in
New York the second Tuesday in November. The
Assembly met September 10th, and appointed Joseph
Fox, John Dickinson, George Bryan, and John Mor-
ton to represent the province in the congress. The
letter from the Speaker of the Massachusetts Assem-
bly was read, the House resolved that in duty to their
constituents they ought to remonstrate to the crown
against the Stamp Act and other late acts of Parlia-
ment, by which heavy burdens have been laid on the
colonies, and a committee of the Assembly — Amos
Strettel, of Philadelphia County; Thomas Willing,
of the city; Giles Knight, of Bucks; Isaac Pearson,
of Chester; James Wright, of Lancaster; William
Allen, of Cumberland; and John Ross, of Berks — •
were ordered to draw up a remonstrance. This was
reported and adopted September 21st. It claimed
that the Stamp Act deeply affected some of the most
essential and valuable rights of the people of Penn-
sylvania as British subjects, and the House thought
it a duty to themselves and their posterity to come to
the resolutions unanimously adopted, to the effect
that the Assemblies of the province had always con-
tributed their quota to the aid of the king upon requi-
sition, and would cheerfully do so in the future when
called upon in a constitutional way ; " that the in-
habitants of this province are entitled to all liberties,
rights, and privileges of His Majesty's subjects in
Great Britain or elsewhere, and that the constitu-
tional government in this province is founded on the
natural rights of mankind and the noble principles
of English liberty, and therefore is, or ought to be,
perfectly free ; that it is the inherent birthright and
indubitable privilege of every British subject to be
taxed only by his own consent or that of his legal
representatives, in conjunction with His Majesty or
his substitutes." The members of the Provincial As-
sembly are the only legal representatives of the in-
habitants of the province, and any other taxation
laid upon the people than by these representatives is
unconstitutional and subversive of right and public
liberty and destructive of public happiness. It was
further resolved that there was danger to liberty to
vest the1 final decision in suits growing out of the
stamp duty in Courts of Admiralty, "contrary to
Magna Charta, the great charter and fountain of Eng-
lish liberty, and destructive of one of their most dar-
ling and acknowledged rights," — trial by jury ; that
the restraints on trade imposed by the late acts of
Parliament would be attended with disaster to the
province and the trade of the mother-country; "that
this House think it their duty thus firmly to assert
with modesty and decency their inherent rights, that
their posterity may learn and know that it was not
with their consent and acquiescence that any taxes
should be levied on them by any persons but their
own representatives, and are desirous that these, their
resolves, should remain on their minutes as a testi-
mony of the zeal and ardent desire of the present
House of Assembly to preserve their inestimable
rights, which, as Englishmen, they have possessed
ever since this province was settled, and to transmit
them to their latest posterity."
On October 25th the merchants and traders of
Philadelphia subscribed to a non-importation agree-
ment, such as were then being signed all over the
country. In this article the subscribers agreed that,
in consequence of the late acts of Parliament and the
injurious regulations accompanying them, and of the
Stamp Act, etc., in justice to themselves and in hopes
of benefit from their example (1) to countermand all
orders for English goods until the Stamp Act should
be repealed ; (2) a few necessary articles, or shipped
under peculiar circumstances, are excepted ; (3) no
goods received for sale on commission to be disposed
of until the Stamp Act should be repealed, and this
agreement to be binding on each and all, as a pledge
of word of honor, " until May — st." A committee to
carry the agreement into effect was appointed, con-
sisting of Thomas Willing, Samuel Mifflin, Thomas
Montgomery, Samuel Howell, Samuel Wharton, John
Rhea, William Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Peter Chevalier,
Benjamin Fuller, and Abel James. The retailers
adopted similar resolutions, naming as their com-
mittee,— John Ord, Francis Wade, Joseph Deane,
David Deshler, George Bartram, Andrew Doz, George
Schlosser, James Hunter, Thomas Paschal], Thomas
West, and Valentine Charles. To carry out these
resolutions blanks were printed for the use of im-
porters, and to be sent to England, as follows :
" Philadelphia, Nov. 7, 1765.
" At a general meeting of the merchants and traders of this city it was
thus duly unanimously resolved hy them (and to strengthen their reso-
lutions they entered into the most solemn engagements with each other)
that they would not import any goods from Great Britain until the Stamp
Act was repealed. do, therefore, herehy countermand all order
have heretofore transmitted to you for the shipping of any goods,
and do expect and insist that you pay a strict and literal ohedience
to this injunction; for should they arrive, and the Stamp Act not be
repealed, shall not dare to dispose of any part of them without a
forfeiture of honor, nor indeed can engage for their or
own safety."
The following is a list of the signers, many of whom
afterwards sided with the Tories:
Thomas Willing, James Pemberton, Joseph Ffox, Joshua Fisher and
Son, Alexander C. Smith, B. Fuller, Samnel Burge, Buckridge Sims,
Thomas Bond, Jr., T. Morris, Jr., Amos Strettel, Joseph Swift, Thomas
Montgomery, John Chew, Stamper and Bingham, Abraham Mitchell,
John Bayard, John Gibson, Thomas Smith, Conyngham and Nesbitt, Car-
son, Barclay and Mitchell, Israel Morris, Jr., Benjamin Gibbs, FranciB
Jeyes, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Caldwell, John Ladd Howell, Samuel
Purviance,Jr.,Jobu Ross, Benjamin Wyncoop, John Wykoff, James Hard-
ing, Peter Reeve, Samuel Hudson, Daniel Benezet, Sampson Levy, John
and Peter Chevalier, David Deshler, David Sproat, William Hichards,
David Potts, Wills and Jackson, John and David Wray, Rupert Meredith,
Joseph Richardson, Joshua Howell, Richard Parker, Samuel Morton,
William Heysham, John Pierse, William Bradford, Thomas West, Ben-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
273
jamin Rawle, JameB Hiirvey, Zachariah Hatchings, Philip Benezet,
Tench Francis, Joseph Wood, Thomas Wharton, Jr., Benjamin Morgan,
Charlefi Thomson, William Sitgreaves, Caleb Jones, John Hart, Tench
Tilghman, William Henry, George and John Kidd, Peter Turner, Sr.,
Isaac and Joseph Paschall.Lydiaand Elizabeth Hyde, William Symonds,
John Test, Joseph Pen nock, Jr., Robert Taggart, William Falconer,
William Craig, Owen Biddle, Benjamin Hooton, Samuel Carrutliere,
Jacob Shoemaker, Jr., Burtram and Dundas, Robert Bass, Payton and
Adcock, Nathaniel Tweedy, Richard and Peter Footman, Adam Hoops,
Caleb Hewes, Sumnel Fisher, Joseph Baker, Coxe and Firman, Robert
Wain. George Robot 1mm, Andrew Bankson, Hugh and George Roberta,
Jeremiah Warder, Robert Tucknisa, John Cox, Theodore Gardner, Sam-
uel Sansom, Jr., Thomas Bond, James Eddy, Philip Kearney, Richard
Bache, Jonathan Evans, Anthony Stocker, Joseph Sims, Hugh MeCol-
lough, John Knowles, William Vanderspiegle, Philip Syng, Garret and
George Meade, J. Craig, William Morrill, John Bayly, John Peters,
Hubley and Graff, Thomas Dicas, Mease and Miller, John Reynell, Wil-
liam and Andrew Caldwell, William West, John Leacock, James White,
John Allen, George Glentworth, William Pnsey, Joeeph King, William
and Samuel Corry, Hercules Courtenay, John Moon, John By rn, Thomas
Robinson, Chris. Marshall and SonB, Benjamin Marshall, Benjamin
Chew, David Franks, John White, John Flannaghan, Benjamin Boothe,
Stephen Shewell, John and Thomas Phillips, Latham and Jackson,
Charles Wharton, Alexander Lunan, John Heaton, Charles Batho, Rich-
ard Biidden, John Dickinson, Philemon Dickinson, William Lo«;an,
John Boyle, Robert Harris, Joseph Trotter, George Morrison, E. Mihre,
Cornelia Bradford, Able James signs for Jonathan Zane by his desire,
Thomas Savadge, Plunkett Fleeson, Moses Mordecai, Barnard and Jugiez,
JameB Claypoole, Thomas Charlton, Isaac Morris, Jr., Peter Howard,
Marcy Gray, Israel Pemberton, Richard Humphries, Magdalen Deviue,
John Wallace, Caleb Fonlke, Richard Stevens, William MacMurtrie,
Francis Street, Andrew Allen, William Fisher, Ellis Lewis, Neave and
Harman, Lester Falkuer, Matthias Bush, Michael Gratz, Duniel Wil-
liams, John BringhurBt, Bartram and Lennox, Daniel Wist er, John Wis-
ter, Henry Keppelle, Sr, Philip Kinsey, James Hunter, Humphrey
Robeson, Barnard Gratz, Thomas Mifflin, Thomas Lightfoot, William
Turner, Vincent Loockerman and Son, Samuel Mifflin, for Phi neas Bond,
Joseph Redman, McNeill and Tolbert, Stewart, Duncau and Co., John
Relff, John Clayton, Charles Meredith, Hugh Bowes, James Fulton,
James Wallace, Hubert llardie, David MacMurtrie, Thomas Carpenter,
John Kidd, Joseph and Amos Hitlborn, James Alexander, Wishart and
Edwards, George Davis, Murray and Blair, John Keandey, Jr., Walter
Shea and Son, John Wood, George A. Morris, Joseph Morris, William
Nicholls, Orr, Clenholme and Co., John Priest, Juhn Wilcocks, P. Sou-
mans, Henry Harrison, Shaw and Sprogell, W. Jones, for Jones and Wall,
Andreas Zweisel!, A. Morris, Jr., William Clampffer, Isaac and Moses
Bartram, William Shippen, Jr., Samuel Cheesman, John Drinker, Jr.,
Jacob Winey, John Head, Stephen Collins, William Ibison, Woodliam
and Young, Benjamin Ilarbeson, William Wilson, William Bryan, James
Tilghman, Tln.ni.is Cadwalader, James McCubbin, Abraham Bickley,
James Searle, James Stuarr, John Fullerton, William Hodge, Benjamin
Kendall, John Baldwin, Ann Pearson, Isaac Wykoff, Samuel Ornies,
Robert Wilson, Benjamiu Armitage, Jr., Charles Stedman, for self and
brother, GodTn-y Leacock, Juhn Wharton, William Humphries, Jonathan
Brown, John and Lambert Cadwalader, P. Turner, Jr., Joseph Richard-
son, Jacob Duche, Clement Biddle, William Moore, William Ball, John
Cotringer, Oswald Eve, Thomas Paschal I, Jndah Fonlke, Thomas Law-
rence, Cadwalbider and Samuel C. Morris, Joseph Saunders, Baynton,
Wharton and Morgan, Kearney and Gilbert, Samuel Smith, William
Storrs Fry, John Cox, Jr., Abraham Usher, Peter Wykoff, Fias. Rich-
ardson, Jr., David Hall, Stephen Carmick, William Scott, James Uudden,
Samuel Mathey, John Sh<-e, Robert Munis, Thomas Wallace, Benjamin
Levy, Benjamiu Sweet, Jr., Thomas Wharton, Daniel Ruudle, John
Nixon, Joseph Wharton, Jr., Persifer Frazer. Euoih Story, Juhn Ord,
Francis Harris, Samuel Morris, Jr., Daniel Roberdean, Josi.ih Hewes,
Samuel Mifflin, Thomas Riche, Samuel Purviauce, Willing and Tud,
George Clymcr, D.A. Bev ridge, George Einlen, Jr., George Bryan, Town-
send White, Peter Knight, Alexander Huston, Samuel Sparhawk,
Thomas Turner, James and Drinker, Frances Wade, James Jantew, Sam-
uel Howell, William Bush, Hugh Donnaldson, Elijah Brown, John Mif-
flin, John Morton, Archibald McCall, John Mease, John Armit, Samuel
Meredith, Charles Cuxe, Thomas Penrose, James Penrose, Dowers and
Yorke, James Benezet, William L. Loyd,John Sleinnietz, Hugh Forbes,
B. T., for Handle Miicbelt, Joseph Claypoole, Richard Swan, Allen and
Turner, Joseph JacobH,John Inglis.Jacob Priugle, John Nelson, Samuel
Bnnting, Thomas Clifford, Isaac Cox, Samuel Smith, James Hartley,
William Allison, S. Shoemaker, Hymari Levy, Jr., James Wharton, John
18
Bell, Magee and Sanderson, John Hughes, Reuben Haines, Owen Jones,
Elizabeth Paschall, Benjamin Davis, Hudson Emlen, Richard Wain,
Peter Thomson, William Pullaril, Henry Keppele, Jr.
When the Stamp Act was about to go into effect
there was great uncertainty how people should act.
In this emergency John Dickinson, whom Bancroft
justly calls "the pure-minded and ingenuous pa-
triot," issued an anonymous address1 to his "Friends
and countrymen," warning them that their conduct
at this period would decide their future fortunes and
those of their posterity, and whether Pennsylvanians
were to be freemen or slaves. " May God grant," he
wrote, "that every one of you may consider your sit-
uation with a seriousness and sensibility becoming
the solemn occasion, and that you may receive this
address with the same candid and tender affection
for the public good by which it is dictated." He
counsels, he enjoins it upon his countrymen as of
the most imperative necessity to make the sternest
and most uncompromising resistance to the Stamp
Act, any compliance with which will " fix, will
rivet perpetual chains upon your unhappy country.
Think, oh! think," he adds, "of the endless mis-
eries you must entail upon yourselves and your
country by touching the pestilential cargoes that
have been sent to you. Destruction lurks within
them. To receive them is death. It is worse than
death ; it is Slavery."
These are not the words of a trimmer nor a waiter
upon Providence. Yet it is the fact that Dickinson,
whose bravery and patriotism none doubt, was not a
man of action. Others ran past him and clutched
the opportunity while he was still debating in his
mind if it had arrived. His nature was judicial, not
executive nor fitted for sharp and sudden emergen-
cies.
It will be most fitting, in this place, to say a few
words in regard to the most prominent leaders of the
people of Philadelphia in this time of approach to
the Revolutionary war; of their characters and cir-
cumstances we mean, their acts will not need com-
ment. Besides Franklin, there were Joseph Gallo-
way, John Dickinson, Charles Thomson, and Thomas
Willing, who were in the front of affairs in connec-
tion with the stamp duty; later, on the threshold of
battle, Joseph Reed, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris,
and, in a lesser degree, George Clymer, Thomas Mc-
Kean, Thomas Wharton, Jr., Francis Hopkinson,
Benjamin Chew, etc. These men, directly or by mar-
riage, were connected with the leading families of
Philadelphia of all the sects. They were all men of
ability and influence, differing greatly in character,
1 Commonly attributed to Dickinson at the time and since. The
proof that he was the author may he found in the letter of Charles
Thomson to William Henry Drayton, of South Carolina, quoted from
by William B. Ueed in his "Life of President Reed," but first pub-
lished (liom the Sparks MSS. in Harvard Library) in the Pennsylvania
itarjttsiue, ii. 412. Mr. Thomson says, "It is generally known what an
early part Mr. Dickinson took in the American disputes. His first piece
waa written in the year 17G5, during the Stamp Act"
274
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
temperaments, and political opinions, but all honest
and earnest men. We may not like Galloway ; we
may despise his principles and his acts, and we may
be impatient at the hesitancy and halting of Dickin-
son, as at the attempts of Reed at compromise and
reconciliation when independence was alone the ques-
tion and there could be no other, but we have no
right to impeach their motives, and we must accept
them as representative men.
Joseph Galloway, who, from leading the opposition
in the Assembly as Franklin's successor, became the
defender of prerogative and a bitter Tory and refugee,
a spy and a pensioner of George III., was a lawyer
by profession, born in West River, Anne Arundel Co.,
Md., about 1730. His father, Peter, was a man of good
fortune, Joseph himself well educated. He came to
Philadelphia young and was soon a prominent lawyer,
making money. The estate he left in Philadelphia
in 1778, and which was confiscated, he claimed was
worth forty thousand pounds. He married a daugh-
ter of Laurence Growden, long Speaker of Assembly
and leading Quaker, through her acquiring the fine
estate of Trevose. This was not confiscated and is
still held in the family, an original grant of 1681-82.
Galloway entered the Assembly in 1757 and became
at once a leader, continuing so until his defeat for the
Second Continental Congress, a punishment for his
lack of patriotism in the first. He was Speaker of
Assembly from 1765 to 1774, and led the popular
party, he and Franklin making common cause against
Dickinson and the proprietary in 1764. He joined
the British in 1776, was provost marshal of Philadel-
phia during Howe's command there, and when he
went to England was one of the most active of the
loyalists there, his knowledge of men and things in
Philadelphia making him very serviceable. His dan-
gerous activity made him well hated, but his abilities
were admitted. John Adams says he was "sensible
and learned, but a cold speaker," and Dr. Stiles says
he " fell from a great height." Some of his former
friends, when he escaped from Philadelphia, sent him
a trunk containing a halter; Trumbull, in " McFin-
gal," said he began by being "a flaming patriot,"
but that is unjust; he said he would sacrifice and
dare as much for liberty as any man, but his was a
Tory interpretation of liberty. Francis Hopkinson
couples his name with Cunningham, keeper of the
provost prison, in a common infamy ; but that was
not his sober judgment. Galloway printed many
pamphlets after he went to England, and in them
did not spare the ministry nor Howe and the army.
He never returned to his native city; after the peace
he studied and wrote books on the Revelations and
other prophecies, and died in England in 1803. He
was an associate of Thomas Wharton (the elder) and
William Goddard in founding the Philadelphia
Chronicle.
Charles Thomson (or Thompson) was in some re-
spects one of the most interesting characters of the
Revolution. His life has never been written, because
he deliberately destroyed the materials for it; he
knew more of the inside history of the great struggle
than any other man, but never opened his lips about
it, burning his papers before his death and calmly
insisting that his secrets should die with him. This
self-repression cost him no pangs ; it was natural to
him ; he habitually acted behind the scenes and by
indirect methods, and be did this not from any spirit
of intrigue or other unworthy motive, but because
his nature seemed to demand it. He was the soul of
truth and honor, frank, ingenuous, much beloved of
his friends, serene, companionable, quiet, yet evidently
capable of emotions of the very strongest sort, so that
he fainted from excitement in speaking upon the
Boston Port Bill, and John Adams spoke of him as
"the Sam Adams of Philadelphia." Perhaps it was
this excitability and his consciousness of it which
made Thomson always avoid the demonstrative part
of the great work to which he had laid his hand, and
which he did so thoroughly. This, and the untoward
circumstances of his childhood, may suffice to explain
the seeming anomaly in Charles Thomson's character.
He was born in Ireland, whence, in 1740, being then
eleven years old (born November, 1729, at Maghera,
Derry), he, an elder brother, three sisters, and a sick
father, crossed the ocean for the Delaware. His
mother had died when Charles was very young, and
the father died on the voyage and was buried at sea.
The captain of the vessel seized the children's effects
and put them ashore at New Castle, committing
Charles to the care of a blacksmith, who proposed
binding the boy to his trade. To defeat this Charles
at once ran away, found a friend on the road, a lady,
a stranger to him, was taken under her care and sent
to school to Dr. Francis Allison, at Thunder Hill,
Md. Then, and afterwards, the lad was a diligent
student, and was made usher under Allison when the
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
275
latter became vice-principal of the Philadelphia Col-
lege. Thomson lodged with David J. Dove, and may
have taught in the latter's private school, and in the
Germantown Academy also. To show the habitual
caution of the man, he got a certificate of good char-
acter from Dove and his wife both before leaving
their house. He taught in the Friends' School, in
Fourth Street, below Chestnut, becoming principal.
liBlSSfc-:
RESIDENCE OF CHARLES THOMSON.
His first public service was as short-hand reporter for
the Quakers in 1757, at the famous Indian Council
that year, when Tedyuscung gave him the name
which stuck to him, emeritus, through life, — Weagh-
conlau-mo-und,— the man who tells the truth. After
this Thomson went into business and made money.
Watson says he was interested in iron-works at Egg
Harbor.
As soon as the suspicions of ministerial intention
to tax America were awakened, Thomson began to
correspond with leading men in the other colonies.
He was intimate witli Franklin, trusted in business
circles, and must have revealed his qualities as a con-
fidential agent very early. Jefferson and he corre-
sponded as early as 1764 ; the New England patriots
all knew him, and he was secretary of the New York
(Stamp Act) Congress of 1765. He managed all the
political leaders in Philadelphia as easily as puppets
are moved by the hand pulling their wires. He was
secretary of the First Continental Congress, perpetual
secretary of Congress during and after the war (four-
teen years in all), and confidential friend of every
leader in the colonies throughout the struggle. The
delicacy of his responsible and confidential relations
to Congress were enhanced by the fact that he obvi-
ously had charge of the secret service of Congress,
and that body required to have spies everywhere,
domestic and foreign, and of every grade. Watson
learned from him, incidentally, perhaps accidentally,
that James Rivington, the Tory printer, in New
York, was one of these agents, and Mrs. Logan re-
ports that Patience Wright, the wax modeler, was
another. The latter had the means to be very useful.
She was intimate with Franklin, passed for a half-
mad woman, went where she pleased, even to Wind-
sor Castle, without leave, where she used to burst in
abruptly, calling the king " George" and the queen
" Charlotte," and withal she was astute, shrewd, and
full of resources. Thomson married, for his first
wife, a daughter of Charles Mather, of Chester
County. His two children by her died in infancy.
In 1774 he married Hannah Harrison, daughter of a
Maryland Quaker of fortune, and with her got the
estate of Harriton, in Montgomery County, a large
property for a man of Thomson's simple ways. His
wife was a kinswoman of John Dickinson's, and
a lineal descendant of Isaac Norris and Governor
Thomas Lloyd. The wedding had just taken place
when Thomson was called to act as secretary of Con-
gress. After he was relieved from this place he
steadily declined to take any other public position,
gave twelve years' hard labor to the preparation of a
translation of the Septuagint and Greek testaments,
and survived until Aug. 16, 1824, his mind much de-
cayed by age in his last quiet years.
John Dickinson's character is puzzling, because a
mixed one ; every character the elements of which
are rich and the tone deliberative will appear con-
tradictory to those who judge of men by the test of
action alone. Dickinson was born in Talbot County,
Md., Nov. 2, 1732. His father was Samuel Dickin-
son, of Dover, Del., where he was judge; his mother
(a second marriage) was Mary Cadwalader; his tutor
was Kilen, afterwards chancellor of Delaware; he
studied law under John Moland, Philadelphia, and
completed his studies by a three years' course in the
Temple. He went into the Assembly in 1762, wrote
his " Farmer's Letters" in 1767-68, was married in
1770 to Mary Norris, daughter of Isaac Norris, Jr.,
and Sarah, daughter of James Logan ; was chairman
of the Committee of Conference in 1774, member of
the Committee of Safety in 1775, member of Congress
1774-76, colonel of State troops in 1776, delegate to
Congress from Delaware in 1777, president of Dela-
ware in 1780, president of Pennsylvania, 1782-85,
member of the National Constitutional Convention,
1787, and of the Delaware Constitutional Convention
in 1792. He died in Wilmington, Feb. 14, 1808, aged
seventy-five years. "Truly he lives in my memory,"
said William T. Reed, " as a realization of my beau-
ideal of a gentleman." That was apparent to all,
and it may have been the reason why John Adams
did not like him, and wrote of him, "A certain great
fortune and piddling genius, whose fame has been
trumpetted loudly, has given a cast of folly to our
whole doings." Dickinson had the misfortune to be
un homme incompris; he was sensitive, proud, haughty,
disappointed, too, perhaps, that he could not persuade
the Revolution to move o'u as he would have had it do,
and perhaps thought his pen and voice could make it
do, like a gentleman's chaise and pair over a smooth
lawn. He was too precise, courtly, and formal, per-
haps, to suit his business-like colleagues, who could
not conceive so much grace and polish to be compat-
276
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ible with earnestness. He was in dead earnest for
all that, though he certainly did not want any fight-
ing, having a lawyer's dread of the truth of the
maxim, "Inter arma silent leges." He was ambitious,
too, sought popularity, and writhed under the impu-
tations of incivism which defeated him for Congress
in 1776. He shows this in a letter to Charles Thom-
son, Aug. 17, 1776, in which, according to Watson,
he speaks in raptures of his delight at having cast off
his popularity, and says his friend " may recollect cir-
cumstances that are convincing that my resignation
was voluntary, I might have said ardent." One does
not write thus unless one is hard hit. But he never
let any such things swerve
him from what he thought
the path of duty ; he
looked upon himself, he
said, " as a trustee for my
countrymen, to deliber-
ate on questions impor-
tant to their happiness,"
and, he added, " if the
presentday is too warm for
me to be calmly judged, I
can credit my country for
justice some years hence.''
To the great credit and
well-known patriotism of
the house of Willing &
Morris, the country owed
its extraction from those
trying pecuniary embar-
rassments so familiar to
the readers of our Revo-
lutionary history. The
character of Mr. Willing
was in many respects not
unlike that of Washing-
ton, and in the discretion
of his conduct, the fidelity
of his professions, and the
great influence, both pri-
vate and public, which
belonged to him, the des-
tined leader was certain
to find the elements of an affinity by which they
would be united in the closest manner. During
a part of the war the headquarters of the general
were in a house built on Mr. Willing's estate for his
son-in-law, Col. Byrd, of Westover, in Virginia, and
only separated from his own by the intervening
grounds of his garden, which extended from Third to
Fourth Street, and along Fourth several hundred feet
from Spruce Street. Not only the best society in
Philadelphia visited the Willing mansion, but all
worthy strangers from the North or South, represen-
tatives of noted families, were entertained there.
Thomas Willing, the mercantile partner of Robert
Morris, was descended from Joseph Willing, of
Gloucestershire, who married, about two hundred
years ago, Ava Lowle, of that county, the heiress of a
good estate, which had descended to her through sev-
eral generations of Saxon ancestors, and whose arms1
he seems to have assumed, on their marriage, in place
of his own. Their son Thomas married Anne Harri-
son, a granddaughter in the paternal line of Thomas
Harrison, a major-general in Cromwell's army, and in
the maternal of Simon Mayne.
In 1720 the elder Thomas Willing visited America,
and spent five years here. In 1728 he brought his
son Charles over, and established him in commercial
business in Philadelphia, himself returning home.
Charles Willing pursued
in Philadelphia for a
quarter of a century, with
great success and with
noble fidelity to its best
principles, the profession
of a merchant, in which
he obtained the high-
est consideration by the
scope, vigor, and forecast
of his understanding, his
great executive power,
his unspotted integrity,
and the amenity of his
disposition and manners.
Towards the close of his
life he discharged, in 1748
and again in 1754, with
vigilance, dignity, and
impartiality, the impor-
tant functions of the chiet
magistracy of the city in
which, during his last
term of office, he died
respected by the whole
community, in Novem-
ber, 1754, at the early
age of forty-four. His
wife was Anne, grand-
daughter of Edward Ship-
pen, a person, as will be
seen in this narrative, of
commanding influence in Pennsylvania. His son was
Thomas Willing, who was born Dec. 19, 1731 (O.S.).
Mr. Willing was an excellent man in all the relations
of private life, and in various stations of high public
trust deserved and acquired the devoted affection of
his family and friends and the universal respect of
his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Willing had been carefully educated at Bath,
in England, and although contemplating probably the
career of a merchant, had been liberally trained in
classical studies, and had pursued for some time a
1 " Salile a ban}, coupod at the wrist, grasping three darts, one in pale-
and two in sallure argent."
~v^.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
277
regular course of legal reading as a student in the
Temple. He returned to America, and on Feb. 28,
1761, was commissioned a justice of one of the courts
of Philadelphia, and on Oct. 4, 1763, was elected by
the Common Council mayor of the city. On Sept.
14, 1767, he was commissioned associate justice of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and continued on
the bench until the breaking out of the Revolutionary
struggle. As a judge he was pure and intelligent,
added to which, he possessed an amenity of manner
which rendered him popular with the bar and attrac-
tive in society. Being possessed of a fortune, he be-
came the head of the mercantile house
of Willing & Morris, one of the largest
in the country, and, after the breaking
out of the Revolutionary war, were the
agents of Congress in supplying naval
and military stores. He was a repre-
sentative to the General Assembly, a
leader in the movement against the
Stamp Act; chairman of a Revolution-
ary meeting in June, 1774 ; President
of the Provincial Congress, and a dele-
gate to the Continental Congress in
1775-76, in the place of Joseph Gallo-
way (but voted against the Declaration
of Independence, because, like John
Dickinson and many other distin-
guished men of the day, he considered
the act premature and unnecessary, and
the colonies were not yet ready for inde-
pendence).
At a critical period of the war, when
there was great danger of the dissolu-
tion of the American army, for want of
provisions to keep it together, a number
of patriotic gentlemen in Philadelphia
subscribed two hundred and sixty thou-
sand pounds to procure the necessary
supplies. Of this amount Thomas Wil-
ling subscribed five thousand pounds.
Robert Morris and Mr. Willing, after
the war, founded the Bank of North
America, the first chartered in this
country, and Mr. Willing was elected
its first president. He was also presi-
dent of the first " Bank of the United
States." With these public duties he united the busi-
ness of an active, enterprising, and 'successful mer-
chant, in which pursuit, for sixty years, his life was
rich in examples of the influence of probity, fidelity,
and perseverance upon the stability of commercial
establishments, and upon that which was his distin-
guished reward upon earth, — public consideration and
esteem. He died Jan. 19, 1821, aged seventy-nine
years and thirty days.
Robert Morris, the partner of Thomas Willing,
was born in Liverpool, England, on the 20th of
January, 1733-34 (O.S., or Jan. 31, 1734, N.S.). At
an early age he came to Philadelphia, and in 1748
was put in the counting-room of Charles Willing.
In 1754 he formed a partnership with Thomas Wil-
ling, business importing, — a partnership lasting
thirty-nine years, or until 1793. Morris was on the
committee to demand the resignation of Stamp-Dis-
tributor Hughes, and was prominent in the non-im-
portation movement. In 1766 he was made a port
warden ; in 1775 was vice-president of the Committee
of Safety and delegate to the Second Congress, where
he was made chairman of the Secret Committee. He
did not vote for the Declaration of Independence,
^{rf//?>hfrrt<t
and voted against Richard Henry Lee's preliminary
resolutions, thinking the time had not yet arrived.
He signed the instrument, however. The part he
played in the Revolution was an indispensable one,
and probably no other man in America had the
means, the ability, and the will to do it so well. He
was a delegate to the convention to form the Consti-
tution, and, aristocrat as he was, wanted senators
chosen for life. He was the first United States sen-
ator appointed from Pennsylvania, but declined the
Secretaryship of the Treasury in favor of Hamilton.
In 1797-98 he was ruined by commercial reverses and
278
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
unfortunate land speculations, and occupied a room in
a debtor's prison for three years and a half. He died
May 7, 1806, and was buried in Christ churchyard. He
married Mary, youngest child of Thomas and Esther
(Heulings) White, sister of Bishop White, of So-
phia's Dairy, Md., on March 2, 1769, and they
had seven children. Morris was a man who loved
wealth, which he had a natural talent for getting,
because he liked what it commanded, but he was
of a philosophic temperament. In his will he wrote,
a year or two before his death, " Here I have to
express my regret at having lost a very large fortune
acquired by honest industry, which I had long hoped
and expected to enjoy with my family during my
long life, and then to distribute it among those of
them that should outlive me. Fate has determined
otherwise, and we must submit to the decree, which
I have endeavored to do with patience and fortitude."
THE M.OKKIS HOUSE.
Joseph Reed was the son of Andrew Reed, an Irish
merchant doing business in Trenton, where Joseph
was born, Aug. 27, 1741. He studied law, after grad-
uating at Princeton, with Richard Stockton, and af-
terwards in London in the Middle Temple, returning
to practice his profession in Philadelphia, and in 1770
going to London again to get his wife, a Miss De
Berdt, daughter of a merchant there. In 1774 he
entered political life, on occasion of the Boston Port
Bill, and in 1775 was elected president of the Provin-
cial Convention of Pennsylvania, soon after becoming
Washington's military secretary, and in June, 1776,
adjutant-general of the Continental army. In May,
1777, he was appointed brigadier-general, and in Sep-
tember of that year elected to Congress.
In 1778 he was elected President of Pennsylvania,
was subsequently elected to Congress for another term,
and died in Philadelphia in March, 1785, in his forty-
third year. He was a man of great abilities and of
sterling patriotism. His character in the latter particu-
lar was assailed by Gen. John Cadwalader in a famous
contemporary pamphlet. The same charges were
afterwards reiterated by anonymous writers. Bancroft
adopted them, and William B. Reed in later years
defended his grandfather's patriotism. It has lately
been proved that the Reed of whose treasonable prac-
tices Bancroft found evidence was not Joseph Reed,
but a militia Col. Read.
Thomas McKean, afterwards chief justice and Gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania, was born in Chester, 1734, and
in 1765 was delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in
New York. He was on the bench in 1765, and or-
dered business to proceed as usual without the use of
stamped paper. He was a delegate to the Continen-
tal Congresses from 1774 to 1783, and signed the
Declaration of Independence. He was elected Gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania in 1779, serving nine years;
retired from public life in 1808, and died in 1817.
Benjamin Chew was a leading lawyer, attorney-
general, chief justice at the outbreak of the war, sus-
pected and attainted of treason, — a man of wealth,
ability, and great knowledge of the law.
Thomas Mifflin was of a prominent Phila-
delphia family, member of Assembly for many
years, major-general in the Continental army,
president of Council, and Governor of the State,
— a man of winning energy and forceful popu-
larity. George Clymer, a descendant of Samuel
Carpenter, who built the " slate-roof house," was
also son of a leading captain of privateers ; had
wealth and station, and was Commissioner of
Indian Affairs in 1780 and vice-president of the
Agricultural Society in 1793. Francis Hopkin-
son was the literary wit, the chief of the squib
and pasquinade artillery in Philadelphia during
i_ the war. He was a favorite with Franklin, and
his pen really did valuable service along the
skirmish-line. His ballad, the "Battle of the
Kegs," was as good a hit as Andrtj's " Cow
Chase" on the other side. He planned and designed
the great Federal Fourth of July procession in Phila-
delphia in 1788, and died May, 1790, being judge of
the United States District Court.
The contrivances for evading the Stamp Act, as the
day for its enforcement drew nigh, were numerous,
ingenious, and sometimes amusing. The almanacs
for 1766 came out in July, 1765. When the lethal
1st of November approached, the newspapers went
into mourning in token of their dissolution, for they
resolved to discontinue publication sooner than use
stamped paper. The Journal of October 24th, in
mentioning the execution of Henry Hurlburt for the
murder of John Woolman, said, " He will never pay
any taxes unjustly laid on this once happy land."
Bradford followed this sort of thing up. On Thursday,
October 31st, his Journal was black-lined from col-
umu to column, with skull, pickaxe, spade, and cross
in lieu of the ordinary head, and this motto, " Ex-
piring in hopes of a resurrection to life again." There
was also a card announcing the suspension of the
paper. In other parts of the sheet other mortuary
symbols were printed, and an obituary notice was
also given: "The last remains of the Pennsylvania
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
279
Journal, which departed this life the 31st October,
1765, of a stamp in her vitals, aged twenty-three
years." This was No. 1195 of the Journal; the next
appeared on November 14th, and was numbered 1197,
which would have been the regular number if the pub-
lication had been continuous. The Gazette resumed
regular publication November 21st. It only needed
the brief experience of two or three weeks to prove
that the Stamp Act was a dead letter, and could not
be carried into effect. Legal business was suspended
and the public offices were closed on November 1st,
not to open again until the ensuing May. There was
not much disorder, because the people made it plain
that it would be dangerous to use the stamped paper
or stamps under any circumstances. All that was
captured was burned publicly. John Hughes was
expelled from the fire com-
pany of which he was a
member, and Joseph Gallo-
way forced to deny, in a
handbill, that he had tried
to embarrass the anti-stamp
movement. In the elec-
tions for Assembly this
year much ill feeling was
engendered. Hughes was
defeated, but Galloway was
elected and the anti-pro-
prietary party beaten. Con-
troversy ran high, and the
usual crop of caricature
and broadside was soon
abroad.
As the winter advanced
into 1766 the public dis-
satisfaction augmented and
the determination deep-
ened to prevent, if possi-
ble, the enforcement of the
hated act. Stamps were
burned wherever found,
and captains of vessels ar-
riving learned that it was
not safe either to keep or carry them. In February the
people very generally signed an agreement not to eat
or suffer to be killed any lamb or sheep until Jan. 1,
1767, and not to deal with butchers violating the
compact. Economy and frugality were enforced by
examples in high and low, and steadfast efforts made
to promote the market for home-manufactured goods.
The stamp tax was repealed March 18, 1766, and the
news reached Philadelphia May 20th. The assertion
of the right of taxation, which was coupled with the
repeal, tempered somewhat the joy of the occasion,
but still there was much rejoicing. A copy of the act
was read at the Coffee-House1 in the presence of a
When mention is made of " the Coffee-Honse," the old place on the
southwest comer of Front and Market Streets is meant, where for
considerable crowd, and the cheering was lusty. A
deputation was sent forthwith to board the brig
'• Minerva," which had brought the news to the city,
and fetch Capt. Wise. A present was made to the
crew, and the captain was escorted to the shore
and Coffee-House, with colors flying, amid echoing
huzzas. A bowl of foaming punch was brewed, and
the captain and all drank bumpers to the sentiment,
"Prosperity to America," and then the bearer of glad
tidings was presented with a gold-laced cocked hat.
At night the city was illuminated, wood given out for
bonfires, and barrels of beer rolled out, that the fun
might flow freely. Next day the mayor, John Law-
rence, assisted by some aldermen, presided at a ban-
quet of three hundred covers, at the State-House,
where a great number of loyal toasts were drunk, not
forgetting one expressly to
"the Virginia Assembly,"
and another to " Daniel
Dulany, Esquier." A Pitt
medal, struck in England,
was distributed, the great
commoner's portrait was
seen everywhere, and it
was impossible for any man
to be more popular.
June 4th, the king's birth-
day, was made the occasion
of a great special fete, when
the people laid off their
homespun, wore clothes of
English goods, and met
in jubilee picnic on the
banks of the Schuylkill. A
smack and a barge, mount-
ed on trucks, decorated
and manned by musicians
and ship-carpenters, were
drawn through the streets
by horses to the place of
rendezvous, firing salutes
from swivels as they passed.
When the company united
at the grove a table was spread for four hundred and
thirty persons, and there were toasts and more salutes.
many years, until the City Tavern superseded it, the unofficial town busi-
ness waschiefly transacted. This was built on a lot patented by William
Pi'iin to liis daughter Letitia, and by her sold in 1701 to Charles Read,
who built on it a quaint two-story house, with two-story gables above.
Israel Pemberton bought the house and lot after Read's death, and John
Peiuberton inherited the property. On April 11, 1754, Bradford, in his
Journal, notifies the subscribers to a coffee-house to meet at the court-
house on Fi'idny, 19lh i'nst., to chooBe trustees. The trustees of the
London Coffee-House in 1755 were George Okill, William Grant, Wil-
liam Fisher,and Joseph Richardson. They had collected three hundred
and forty-eight pounds in subscriptions of twenty and thirty shillings
each, paid Bradford's account of £9 6s. for opening the house, and had
lent him in cash £259 Gfl. Bradford applied to Governor and Council
for a license, " having been advised to keep a coffee-bouse for the bene-
fit of merchnnts and traders, and as sume people may be desirous at
times to be furnished with other liquors besides coffee, your petitioner
apprehends that it is necessary to have the government license." This
280
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
At night the, fete was kept up with fireworks, and al-
together there was a pleasant, decorous, and success-
ful celebration of the restoration of harmony.
But harmony between court and province did not
prevent the heats of local faction from glowing. The
opponents of Franklin, Hughes, and Galloway pur-
sued them with every sort of weapon, and successfully,
if we may infer the impression which such obviously
poignant satire and home-thrusting jibes were likely
to make. Bradford, it is probable, directed a good
deal of this fire against Franklin and Galloway; it is
certain he defeated Hughes by publishing, in a sup-
plement to the Journal, that worthy's letters to the
Loudon commissioners of the stamp-office. These let-
ters, with those of Hughes
and Galloway to Frank-
lin about the Stamp Act,
were so galling that both
of them denied the let-
ters were genuine, and
Hughe3 brought suit
against Bradford for li-
bel. The latter, however,
showed that the letters
were verbatim copies.
In May, 1767, Charles
Townshend brought into
Parliament his tax bill
for the colonies, levying
duties on paper, glass,
painters' colors, lead, and
tea. The bill became a
law on June 29th, and all
the old excitement was
kindled anew, with still
greater intensity. The Se-
lectmen of Boston asked
the corporation of Phila-
delphia to co-operate with
them in the non-importa-
tion policy, determined
upon in a meeting held
October 28th, but the
answer was a guarded
and non-committal expression of sympathy, no more.
Meantime, however, John Dickinson had begun in
the Chronicle the publication of his "Letters of a
was Bradford, the printer of the Journal, grandson of the first William
Bradford, the printer, and nephew of Andrew Bradford, the printer.
In 1741 he began publishing the Journal, and also sold books at the sign
of the Bible, corner of Second Street and Black HorBe Alley. He was
captain in the Association Volunteers, and acled with the leading men
of the city in combating the stamp tax. "When the war broke out, in
1776, Bradford held the commission of major in the Philadelphia mili-
tia. He marched to Washington, and at Princeton was wounded and
got his grade as colonel. He rendered many other important military
and civil services during these times, and was in Fort Mifflin during its
bombardment. He died iu 17H1. His Hon, by his wife Rachel, (laughter
of Thomas Budd, was Hon. William Bradford, the lawyer, a graduate
of Princeton, attorney-general of Pennsylvania, justice of the Supreme
Bench of that State, and Attorney-General of the United States under
Farmer of Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the
British Colonies," and nothing could have been more
opportune and effective in instructing and consolida-
ting public opinion. This was shown when, in Feb-
ruary, 1768, the Assembly of Pennsylvania voted to
instruct the London agents of the province to co-
operate with the agents of other colonies "in any
decent and respectful application to Parliament" for
a repeal of the acts. On April 25th, moreover, the
merchants of Philadelphiaheld a meeting, and adopted
an address setting forth the grievances of the colo-
nists. This paper, supposed to have been written by
Dickinson, detailed succinctly the subjects of com-
plaint. 1. The law against making steel, while Eng-
land herself was impor-
ting nearly all she con-
sumed from Germany. 2.
Against plating- and slit-
ting-mills and iron manu-
factures, iron being the
product of the country
and its manufactured
forms articles of prime
necessity. 3. Against
hat-making. 4. Against
woolen manufactures. 5.
Against the exclusion of
American traders and
vessels from foreign mar-
kets. 6. Against all ex-
portations, except such
as are made through Eng-
land, instead of direct to
the consuming countries.
7. The duty on Madeira
wines. 8. The shipment
of convicts and paupers
to the colonies, etc., etc.
The address concluded
with the following words:
" Let us never forget
that our strength depends
upon our union, and our
liberty on our strength.
'United we conquer, divided we die.'"
There was another meeting at the State-House in
August, at which an address similar to the above was
Washington. When the British evacuated Philadelphia, in 1778, Col.
Bradford returned and reopened bis coflee-huuse, but he found that its
popularity was gone, and he withdrew from its charge in 1780, Up to
this time the London Coffee-House had been a central point for news
and intercourse among leading men. Bradford's respectability and
Btanding gave it the necessary prestige and insured its success. " Here,"
says Westcott (" Historic Mansions of Philadelphia"), " merchants did
greatly congregate ; captains repaired to the Coffee-House to make
their reports and to discuss with consignees or consignors, as the case
might be, the incidents of the last and the expectations of the coming
voyage. Strangers resorted to the Coffee-House for news. Provincial
dignitaries, officers under the crown and of the army and navy, fre-
quented the establishment in the colonial days and gave way in turn
to rebel militiamen, — Continental colonels and majors, and captains of
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE. REVOLUTION.
281
adopted, and resolutions were likewise passed in favor
of non-importation of the articles subject to duty.
Lord Hillsborough wrote to Governor Penn, asking
his influence to prevent the Assembly from indorsing
the address of the Massachusetts representatives
(which was already on the minutes of the Assembly).
Mr. Penn simply sent the letter to the Assembly.
The latter immediately acted on a circular received
from the Virginia Legislature, which affirmed the
grievances complained of by Massachusetts, and re-
commended a union of the colonies. The Pennsyl-
vania Assembly adopted resolutions in the spirit of
this circular, and a committee was appointed to pre-
pare petitions for transmission to king and Parlia-
ment. The Assembly further affirmed its right, under
The TITHES are
KXreaoful,
5)ifinal
iDoleful
jDolOTOllS, and
Doilab-less.
popular at this time. The people of Boston gave him
a vote of thanks in town-meeting. The Society of
Fort St. David's, Philadelphia, elected him honorary
member, and sent him the freedom of its guild in a
box made of heart of oak, lettered in gold.1 The
people seemed to feel they had a grave struggle before
them ; they were grateful to all who helped their
cause, and sympathized with all who struggled against
tyranny. In April, 1769, the birthday of Pasquali
Paoli, the Corsican patriot, was celebrated with a
notable dinner at Byrne's tavern ; there were numer-
ous toasts, and there was much patriotism. Liberty
and loyalty were generally coupled together, but the
dominant sentiment was "liberty any how, loyalty if
not incompatible with liberty."
Thurfdsy, Oatio-3i, 1765-, THE WOMB. 119S.
PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL,
A W D
WEEKLY ADVERTISER.
EXPIRING: In Hopes of a Refurrection to Life again
lAMfonytobe obliged I
to acquaint my ReaaV 1
-ers.thatas TheSTAMP- )
Act. isfear'd to beob-
ligatory upon u3 after I
_^™_™. _ -Cuing, Qhefi&lfo »»
mw) thePubhfherof this Paper unable to I
bear the Burthen, has thought it expedient
TO stop awhile, ui order todeliberate, whe-
ther any Methods can be found to elude the
Chains forged, for us, and efcape the iniiip-
1 portable Slavery , which it is hoped, Iron
the lafl: Representations now made ugainlL
that Act, may be effected. Mean while,
! I rnuft earnellly Retjueffc every Individual
of my Subfcribers many of whom have
been long behind Hand, that they would
immediately Dilcharge their refpetlive Ar- 1
rears that 1 may be able, not only to L
(import myfelf during the Interval, but!
be better prepared to proceed again with I
this Taper, whenever an opening tor that !
Purpoie appears, whioh 1 hope will be 1
foon. WILLIAM BRADFORD '
the charter, to sit or adjourn when it pleased, in de-
fiance of the Governor's power of prorogation, and its
right also to correspond with other colonies, and peti-
tion king and Parliament for a redress of grievances.
Dickinson's " Farmer's Letters" had made him very
the State aod Continental flotillaB and fleets. It was the headquarters
of life and action, the pulsating heart of excitement, enterprise, and
patriotism as the exigencies of the times might demand. In front of
the building public auctions were held. Many a slave stood up there
on bench or box, was exhibited to the bystanders, and, after strenuous
efforts on the part of the auctioneer to obtain an exorbitant price, was
knocked down to the higheBt bidder. Here frequently the sheriff was
seen exposing to sale the real estate of some unfortunate debtor or
putting up under proceedings in partition property, the proceeds of
which were to be divided among anxious and expectant heirs. All
Philadelphia ranged around this old building for a quarter of a cen-
tury, and it was the scene of many excitements."
Philadelphia's citizens were now prepared for the
practical enforcement of the non-importation policy,
and they soon had occasion to test the constancy of
their purposes. John Swift, collector of customs,
seized some pipes of wine and stored them upon the
charge that their consignee was trying to evade the
revenue laws. The storehouse was broken into at
night, the wine carried off and delivered to the owner,
while the collector's house was stoned. The next day
the owner, by advice of merchants, returned the wine
to the government store, and some of the mob were
afterwards tried and convicted in the mayor's court.
1 A full and interesting description of this episode, too long to be ex-
tracted, maybe found in Western's "History of Philadelphia," chap.
clx.
282
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
But the ice had been broken. This was in April. In
July a load of malt came to port from Yarmouth, con-
signed to Amos Strettel, who denied any knowledge
of the goods when confronted by the committee of
merchants. The latter, however, looked upon the
importation as an infringement of the non-importa-
tion agreement, and called a meeting of citizens at
the State-House, at which it was resolved to discour-
age every attempt to counteract or defeat the purpose
of the agreement. The brewers attended in a body,
and presented a pledge, signed by Haines & Twells,
Isaac Howell, Anthony Morris, Jr., Francis Coade,
Anthony C. Morris, Reinard Kreimer, Moore & Ches-
was understood his name should be published. Still,
some individuals did try to evade the regulations.
One man was caught trying to buy cheese of the mate
of the "Speedwell." The Committee of Merchauts
waited upon him at once, and remonstrated with him
so effectually that he felt constrained to give his
cheese to the poor debtors in the jail, adding two dol-
lars to enable them to buy bread to eat with it. Two
or three more, caught in the same way, added beer to
the bread and cheese, so that the prisoners had quite
a feast of it.
In October the brig " Friends' Good Will" arrived
in port from Hull. This vessel brought considerable
merchandise, shipped by English traders without or-
ders and at their own risk, upon speculation, con-
signed, however, to different persons in the city. The
Committee of Merchants ordered the goods to be sent
back again across the
ocean, and it was
done. It would have
been dangerous to
attempt to resist or
disobey such an or-
der. This very same
OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE, SOUTHWEST CORNER OF FRONT AND MARKET STREETS.
nutt, Valentine Stanley, and Woolman & Pusey, to
the effect that they would not purchase the malt or
brew it for any person whosoever. They also de-
clared that no one ought to deal in it or with it, in
any way, and any person who did do so was one " who
had not a just sense of liberty, and is an enemy to his
country." The result was, the cargo of malt had to
be sent back to England.
In August the brig " Speedwell" came up the river
from England, with dry-goods consigned to various
merchants. They were on small orders, forwarded
before the agreements were entered into, and the goods
were stored for safe-keeping, new pledges being ex-
acted not to withdraw them for sale until the obnox-
ious acts had been repealed. Any one violating the
agreements was denounced as a public enemy, and it
month occurred the first case of tarring and feathering
in Philadelphia, — an informer who lodged charges
of smuggling against individuals. He was caught,
ducked, placed in the public pillory, smeared with tar,
adorned with feathers, and then paraded through the
streets for two hours.
The general irritation was aggravated by the super-
cilious behavior of the king's representatives and offi-
cers, military, naval, and civil. They had always
expressed contempt for the provincials as an inferior
order of people ; now they looked upon them as al-
ready rebels. Numerous contemporary accounts may
be found, in Graydon and other journal-keepers of the
day, of the extremes to which this sort of thing was
carried. The captain of the royal armed schooner
" Gaspee" (the same burned a year or two later by
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
283
the New Englanders) was noted for his brutality.
He and his officers maltreated Davis Bevan, a citizen
of Chester County, put him in irons, and otherwise
abused him. Bevau, in return, sued them for ill
treatment. The people were no longer in a frame of
mind to submit to things which they would not have
noticed five or six years before. They quarreled with
the captain of a sloop-of-war for firing a salute on
arriving in port. They accused the customs collector
and naval officer of extorting illegal fees. The women
took part in the quarrel also, and it was every day
more and more noticeable that the spirit of union was
diffusing itself among the colonies, each part and
section espousing as its own the grievance of every
other part.
By the beginning of 1770 the question of price
threatened to disturb the non-importation agreement.
Goods became scarce, of course, under such a system,
but it was part of the agreement not to advance prices.
The forestallers, however, disregarded this for the
sake of profit. They combined and ran up tea from
three shillings threepence to five shillings per pound.
A writer threatened to give the names of such dealers,
and a controversy sprang up. One outcome was to
denounce the drinking of tea at all. The Journal
estimated that the consumption of tea in Philadel-
phia exceeded two hundred pounds per day, the first
cost of which, two shillings per pound, meant an an-
nual tribute of £7300 to the East India Company.
This, for all the colonies, with the three-penny duty
added, aggregated £147,615 a year, which might be
saved by abstention from the use of a pernicious herb.
It was rumored, now that this discussion had arisen,
that the dry -goods merchants meant to break through
the agreement if the tax laws were not repealed at
the current session of Parliament. This was denied ;
but it was not concealed that their case was hard,
since their whole business was destroyed, while the
West India traders still made profits. The dry-goods
importers, however, declared they were not Esaus, to
sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. Some of
the agreements were in themselves unequal and dis-
criminated, and this added to the irritations of a sys-
tem of business disordered to the core. Parliament,
with a view to disorganizing the opposition, and con-
ceiving it was not the principle but the amount ot
taxation which the colonies were opposing, reduced
the rates successively until there only remained the
bare rate of threepence upon tea, maintained to en-
force the principle of the imperial right to tax the
colonies. New complications now arose, and there
was a division of sentiment among the patriots, one
party holding for unqualified resistance to the princi-
ple, the other looking to the practical fact that no
prohibition by agreement lay against the importation
of any but taxed articles. A discussion arose of
which the newspapers of the day are full. There
was also a question as to whether a merchant was
bound to adhere to agreements which he had made at
option, or whether he could abandon them when it
suited him, and he thought he had accomplished his
objects. The selfish notion of some that by continu-
ing non-itnportation American manufactures could
be established was a factor in deciding men's positions
on these points. Besides, merchants in other places-
had abandoned the agreements, and thus sectional
rivalries and jealousies were at once awakened. The
merchants of Newport, Rhode Island, were the first
to yield. The Philadelphia merchants at once met
in the State-House, and passed denunciatory resolu-
tions and renewed their non-trading pledges, adding
a pledge never to deal in the future with those who
violated the existing agreement; it was still plain,
however, that an opposition was organizing to the
radically exclusive policy of the patriot.
A ship and a bark which brought malt from Ireland
about this time were allowed to dispose of their car-
goes, because Ireland was not England, and the brew-
ers were at the last extremity for want of malt, and
they had behaved so well in the case of the malt con-
signed to Mr. Strettel. On the other hand, five ves-
sels from Rhode Island with cargoes were sent back
whence they came, and the opponents of non-impor-
tation found the popular sentiment, that of those not
in trade, too strong to venture to array themselves
against it openly. Many, however, attempted to
get around the agreement in underhand ways. Two
shop-keepers on Second Street, William Wells and
Thomas Cummings, were found to have clandestinely
brought six hundred pounds of goods to the city from
Baltimore. They were forced to send them back, but
stubbornly refused to apologize or express regret to
the committee. A ship from Glasgow, and Virginia,
after lying in port two weeks under close watch of the.
committee, dropped down the river, it was supposed
to give up her adventure. But part of the cargo was
clandestinely put on barges and landed. The at-
tempted evasion was detected, and the offenders,
Messrs. Semple & Buchanan, were compelled to sign
a humiliating confession and apology, admitting their
deliberate fault " with shame and confusion," sur-
rendering the goods, and pledging themselves to re-
ship them to England by the first opportunity. This
apology was printed on a broadside for general circu-
lation, and another broadside was sent out with it,
suggesting that the firm should not have been let off
without coats of tar and feathers.
New York at this time receded from all non-import-
ing agreements but those relating to tea, and the news
of this led to another indignation meeting at the
State-House, on July 14th. The calls for this meet-
ing were filled with fierce expletives. Joseph Fox
presided, and resolutions were passed denouncing the
defection of New York as sordid and wanton, and
tending to weaken the union of the colonies and
strengthen the hands of the enemy. Non-intercourse
with New York was also resolved upon, and it was
determined to buy no goods there but " alkaline salt,
284
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
skins, furs, flax, and hemp'' until the agreement was re-
turned to. The newspapers took occasion to have their
fling at the rival city, one squib being as follows:
*' A Cakd.— The inhabitants of the city of Philadel-
phia present their compliments to the inhabitants of
New York, and beg they will send their old Liberty
Pole, as they imagine they can, by their late conduct,
have no further use for it." In August the brig " Dol-
phin," Capt. Stevens, arrived from England, bringing
no goods but such as were allowed by the agreement,
six thousand pounds in specie, and a number of
weavers as passengers. "Such," said the Pennsyl-
vania Journal, " are the fruits of the agreement, that,
instead of dry-goods, which drained the colonists of
their cash and kept them as poor as beggars, they are
now receiving from England what may well be termed
the nerves and sinews of any country." In Rhode
Island a modification of the agreements was obtained
and intercourse with the other colonies was resumed.
A severe struggle, however, was now impending
between patriotism and the instincts of trade. To
the propping of the latter was given all the weight
and advantages of government influence and favor,
the support of the Tories, and the spirit of rivalry
between competing communities. The example of
New York had been disastrous, and many Philadel-
phians were unsettled at the thought of New York
getting the mouopoly of the trade iu British goods.
In September these men began to organize and ad-
dress the merchants' committees, contending that the
agreements were a failure and that it was folly and
madness to deprive Pennsylvania of a trade enjoyed
by all the adjacent colonies. It was proposed that
the merchants should be asked to give their opinions
on that subject in writing, and a memorial to that ef-
fect was signed by John Reynell, James & Drinker,
Joseph Swift, Jeremiah Warder, Tench Francis,
Hugh Donaldson, Thomas Fisher, Richard Parker,
Walter and Bartles Shee, Philip Benezet, Randle
Mitchell, John Drinker, William West, and Owen and
Clement Biddle. The merchants' committee replied
that they had no power to take the sentiments of citi-
zens except at a general meeting. This answer was
signed by John Gibson, Daniel Benezet, John Cox,
Charles Thomson, Alexander Huston, J. M. Nesbitt,
William Fisher, Samuel Howell, John Mifflin, and
George Roberts. The discontented now held a meet-
ing, on September 20th, at Davenport's tavern (the
•" Bunch of Grapes"), Third Street, below Mulberry.
Here it was decided that the non-importation agree-
ment, as it existed, should be altered, so as to open
to importation all goods save tea and such as were
still taxed ; that this action should be taken without
consulting the other colonies ; that such action would
only alter, not break, the agreement; but it was not
decided when importations should be resumed. Some
of the committee of merchants attended this meeting,
hoping to defeat the plan, but their counter- proposi-
tions were lost by a vote of eighty-nine to forty-five.
When this result was known Messrs. William Fisher,
John Gibson, John Maxwell Nesbitt, George Roberts,
Thomas Mifflin, Daniel Benezet, John Cox, Jr., Sam-
uel Howell, Alexander Huston, James Mease, and
Charles Thomson left the committee, looking upon
the non-importation agreement as already broken.
These proceedings caused great excitement and
much resentment among the non-mercantile classes.
Injurious handbills were posted up, calling upon the
people to take the matter in hand themselves, and
not leave the " grand question" of the freedom of
America to be determined by a few men " whose sup-
port and importance must always be in proportion to
the distresses of the country." It was not a matter
to be decided by the vote of a few merchants. The
consent of the tradesmen, farmers, and other freemen
of the city and county ought first to be obtained.
Counter handbills were scattered about in defense of
the mercantile view of the matter. In these it was
claimed that the agreements were already violated
everywhere. In Maryland it was alleged that three
times as much goods had been imported as were needed
for home consumption ; Eastern colonies had perfid-
iously imported, in the face of their pledges and solemn
denials; "the Bostonians had reshipped trunks filled
with rubbish, after gutting them of their British con-
tents; and that the ports of Virginia, all southward
of Carolina, Georgia, and Canada, were open. " The
trade of the city and province is torn from it by
neighboring provinces and strangers selling goods
here at exorbitant prices. . . . What was done under
cloak of patriotism turned out a lucrative scheme."
There was an anti-importation meeting at the State-
House on September 27th, Joseph Fox chairman,
when resolutions were passed censuring the action of
the meeting at Davenport's tavern, declaring that
union was essential, that " it would have been for the
reputation of this city to have consulted the other
colonies before any breach had been made in the non-
importation agreement," and recommending some
sort of restoration of concord on the basis of a united
resistance to the pretensions of Parliament. Messrs.
Andrew Allen, Peter Chevalier, Benjamin Loxley,
John Cadwalader, Daniel Roberdeau, James Pearson,
William Masters, George Clymer, and. John Shee,
"with the members of the late committee who re-
signed," were appointed a committee to carry out the
objects of the meeting. The grand jury, of which
John Gibson was foreman, also formulated a creed of
united resistance to tyranny, enforced by abstention
from the importation of any but articles of necessity.
Smuggling, especially of the forbidden articles of
trade, was constantly increasing, and the customs
officers did not make many seizures, for informers
met with no mercy from the mob. In September, in
Southwark, John Keats, wrongly suspected of inform-
ing where smuggled goods had been landed, was
beaten, pursued, and nearly murdered. Those who
interfered to protect him, including Spence, the land-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
285
lord, and Judge Benjamin Chew, were threatened.
The customs officers depended for check upon smug-
gling more upon their revenue cutters down the bay
than anything else, and the officers of these vessels
did their work so rudely that many suits grew out of
their conduct.
In 1773 the East India Company, finding that the
colonies would take no tea on which the duty was
charged, tried a new plan, and kindled a new flame
from the smouldering embers of old excitements. An
act of Parliament was passed authorizing that com-
pany to export their teas to America free of the duty
enacted by the home gov-
ernment, and only charged
with the three-penny co-
lonial duty. It was in-
tended to tempt the colo-
nies by offering them tea
far cheaper than it could
be landed in London. The
news of the passage of this
act called for new meas-
ures of resistance in the
colonies; "public meet-
ings were held, associa-
tions were formed, and
combinations entered into
to prevent the landing and
sale of the tea, the arrival
of which was now looked
for." The more insidious
the attack, it was seen, the
greater need to meet it
with energy upon the very
threshold. News of the
initial shipments of tea
reached Philadelphia 27th
of September, was pub-
lished in the Chronicle,
and the publication was
followed by a handbill,
signed " Scaevolo," ad-
dressing the people on the
subject. The tea commis-
sioners, it was shown, were
in the same position as the stamp distributors, and,
like them, should be compelled to resign. Thomas
Wharton, the elder, was one of these commissioners,
a Quaker loyalist of wealth and influence, who had
made himself obnoxious to the citizens by his course
during the Stamp Act excitement. Goddard, in the
Chronicle, said, he might make atonement now by
promptly resigning.1 In another broadside, the pro-
1 William Goddard was the son of Giles Goddard, physician and post-
master at New London, Conn., and was born in 1740. Having; served his
apprenticeship wilh Jiuues Parker, a printer in New York, lie removed
to Providence, P.. I., and on Oct. 20, 1702, established the first printing-
press in that town, where lie commenced the Gazelle and Country Jour-
nal. Not meeting with sufficient encouragement, he went to New York
priety of burning the store-houses where the tea was
to be laid away was plainly hinted. Many similar
handbills belong to the ephemeral literature of the
period, all betraying a high state of feeling.
A largely-attended public meeting was held at the
State-House on October 18th, in which the stereo-
typed views on taxation were embodied in the reso-
lutions, and a committee was provided for to wait on
the tea commissioners and ask their resignation.
Another committee was appointed at a subsequent
meeting, and these two called upon the consignees,
who all, sooner or later, resigned. A Boston customs
oflicer, Ebenezer Rich-
ardson, who had come
to Philadelphia, was at
this time so strongly de-
nounced in handbills and
the press that he had to
fly the city to escape being
tarred and feathered.
The ship " Polly," with
"the detested tea," had
sailed from London on the
12th or 15th of September,
and her arrival was looked
for about the third week
in November. Another
long handbill was distrib-
uted, addressed more par-
ticularly to tradesmen,
mechanics, and artisans,
explaining the crisis to
them and warning them,
in self-defense, to meet the
East India Company on
the very threshold. " Be,
therefore, my dear fellow-
tradesmen," it said, "pru-
dent, be watchful, be de-
termined, to let no motive
induce you to favor the
accursed scheme. Reject
every proposal but a re-
pealing act; let not their
baneful commodity enter
your city ; treat every aider or abettor with ignominy,
contempt, etc., and let your deportment prove to the
and associated himself with John Holt in publishing the New York 67a-
swtle and Post-Bny. In 1700 ho removed to Philadelphia, where he issued,
on Jan. G, 17G7, the first number of The Pennmjloania Chronicle and Uni-
versal Advertiser. It was published at ten shillings per annum, and had
four columns to a page, instead of three, as had hitherto been the prac-
tice. For two out of three years it was printed in quarto form, and the
fourth year it returned to folio, which was the original form in which it
had been printed. Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wliai ton were secret
partners of Goddard in this enterprise. But the partnership did not
continue long. The partners quarreled and separated, and Goddard
turned his batteries in the Chronicle upon Galloway, who was denounced
through the columns of the paper which he had helped to establish. In
1770, Benjamin Tow-tie was admitted to the firm, and, becoming dissatis-
fied, the paper suspended publication in February, 1773.
[From an original painting in the possession of his descendants
at Providence, It. I.J
286
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
world that we will be free indeed." Another hand-
bill was addressed to the Delaware pilots, stating the
case in a way to meet their comprehension, showing
the close identity of their interests with that of the
While Goddard was publishing his paper in Philadelphia, some politi-
cal use was made by Joseph Galloway out of the circumstance that
an anonymous letter had been sent him demanding the hmn of fifty
pounds fur a year, with directions to leave it fur the writer at a certain
time under the five-mile stone on the road from Philadelphia to Chester.
Galloway offered fifty pounds reward for the discovery of the author, and
Governor Penn offered one hundred pounds for the same purpose. The
occasion was embraced to maliciously impute this trifling affair to Wil-
liam Goddard, Galloway's former partner in the publication of the Chron-
icle^ but who was now his open enemy. Goddard was arrested and gave
bail, but Galloway, ashamed of the business, and without any evidence
against Goddard, abandoned the prosecution, and no indictment was
found, Goddard specially devoted himself, previous to each election, to
the publication of articles against Galloway, butwithout avail. Indeed,
at the election in October, 177:2, Goddard, who was a candidate for the
Assembly in Philadelphia, was defeated, while Galloway was returned
for Bucks and placed in his old position as Speaker of the House. The
first diiect in formation that the East India Company intended to send
some cargoes of tea to America was received in a letter from London,
and published on the 27th September, 1772, in the Chronicle. Goddard
was a warm friend of the Colonies at this time, and denounced the " per-
nicious business" in unmeasured terms in his journal. While lie was
editing the Chronicle, Mr. Goddard's mother, Mrs. Sarah Goddard, died
in Philadelphia (Jan. f>, 1770), at an advanced age. On the following
day her lemains were interred in Christ Church burying-gronnd. Mrs.
Goddard was the daughter of Ludowjck Updike, whose ancestors were
among the first settlers of Rhode Island. Her brother was for some
years attorney -general of the colony. She received a good education,
and married Dr. Giles Goddard, of New London, who left -her a widow.
After her sou had been engaged a few years in the printing business, she
became his partner, and on removing from Providence to New York he
left her in charge of the newspaper and printing-house, which she man-
aged with much ability for two years, at the expiration of which she as-
sociated herself with John Carter, under the firm-name of Sarah God-
dard & Co, In 1769 she resigned the business to Carter and removed to
Philadelphia, where she died in the following year.
William Goddard went to Baltimore insolvent and helpless to begin
41 anew," as he relates, "on tho small capital of a single guinea." He
managed to secure the materials iu the printing establishment of a
widow named Hasselbocht, and added to it the small stock owned by
Enoch Stury. In May, 177H, he opened a printing-office at the corner
of South and Baltimore Streets, where the Sun iron building now stands,
" nearly opposite Mrs. Chilton's," whore "printing was done in all its
branches." He was encouraged to publish a newspaper, and on July 15,
1773, he issued his prospectus of The Maryland Journal and Baltimore
Advertiser, On Friday, Aug. 20, 1773, the first newspaper published in
Baltimore was distributed throughout tho town. The first number was
handsomely printed on stout paper, in good, clear type, and contained
twelve broad columns. It was a weekly, and the salutatory promised
much.
During the publication of his paper in Baltimore Goddard was twice
mobbed by the citizens of that town. The first time, in March, 1777,
for publishing an anonymous communication reflecting on the conduct
of the war by the Americans, and again on the 6th of July, 1779, for
publishing Gen. Charles Lee's "Queiies, Political and Military." God-
dard continued his connection with the Journal until Aug. 14, 1792,
when ho sold his interest to James Augell, a relative. He w»b elected
a member of the Rhode Island Legislature in 1795, and, having changed
hia residence to Providence, continued to live there until his death,
which occurred in December, 1817, at the age of seventy-seven years.
Gen. Charles Lee, whom he had endeavored to serve, as we have seeu,
at no ordinary personal HbU, remained his friend and bequeathed him a
portion of his landed estate in Virginia. Gen. Lee also made him one
of his executors, in which capacity Mr. Goddard came into possession
of Gen. Lee's papers. Ho issued proposals for publishing selected parts
of them into three volumes, but for some reason the design was never
executed. For many years the papers remained iu the possession of
the family of Mr. Goddard's only son, the late Professor William G.
Goddard, of Providence, R. I.
William Goddard was the founder of the present United StateB postal
city's commerce and its freedom, and suggesting that
if they chose they might make themselves masters of
the situation. " We need not point out to you," this
insidious and evil-purposing handbill said, "the steps
you ought to take if the tea-ship falls in your way.
You cannot be at a loss how to prevent, or, if that
cannot be done, how to give the merchants of the city
timely notice of her arrival. But this you may depend
on, that whatever pilot brings her into the river, such
pilot will be marked for his treason, and will never
afterwards meet with the least encouragement in his
business. Like Cain, he will be hung out as a spec-
tacle to all nations, and be forever recorded as the
damned traitorous pilot who brought up the tea-ship.
This, however, cannot be the case with you. You
have proved scourges to evil-doers, to infamous informers,
and tide-waiters, and we may venture to predict that
you will give us a faithful and satisfactory account of
the tea-ship if you should meet with her, and that
your zeal on this occasion will entitle you to every
favor it may be in the power of the merchants of
Philadelphia to confer upon you. (Signed) The Com-
mittee for Tarring and Feathering.
"N.B. — This ship with the tea on board is called
the 'Polly' (Capt. Ayres), and left Gravesend on the
27th of September, so that she may be hourly ex-
pected."
A later handbill mentions that the "Polly" is a
three-decker, and that the pilot bringing her in may
look for a coat of tar and feathers. Still another
broadside was for the pilots to present to Capt. Ayres,
notifying him that his ship and person were both in
danger if he persisted in coming to port. "You are
sent out on a diabolical service," he was told, "and
if you are so foolish aud obstinate as to complete your
service, and his sister, Mary K. Goddard, was the first postmistress of
Baltimore. This subject 1b more fully treated elsewhere iu this work.
MisB Mary Katherine Goddard did not accompany her brother to
Rhode Island, but remained in Baltimore, where she kept a small boolc-
Btore until 1802. Alter the sale of the paper to Mr. Angel I she continued
to retain a small share in the property. She died on the 12th of August,
18K5, aged eighty yeurs. Miss Goddard was a remarkable woman in
many respects. The Rimple fact that she conducted the Journal during
the most trying and criiical periods of the Revolution, and that she was
intrusted by her brother with the sole management of his business when
the exigencies of hiB occupation elsewhere, or the political hostility
which occasionally forced him to leave Baltimore, made it necessary for
him to intrust it to other hands proves that she possessed extraordinary
judgment, energy, nerve, and strong good sense. Miss Goddard had ahjo
responsible aud difficult duties to discharge as postmistress, but she seems
to have been fully equal to tlie tasks imposed upon her, and, indeed, ap-
pears to have had a full measure of her brother's courage, iudustry, and
indomitable will.
William Goddard, while in Philadelphia, fought Galloway bitterly
through two elections, aud pursued Wharton as vindictively. The latter
he dubbed "the Marquis of Barataria," probably in part allusion to the
fact that Wharton's father, Joseph Wharton, of Walnut Grove (where
the Mischianza fete came off ), was popularly called, from his haughty
ways, " The Duke." It was related of Joseph, the duke, that when he
called on Sir William Draper ("Junius1" victim) he held his hat in his
hand, and the knight, with great complaisance, told him that, as it was
contrary to the custom of his society to do so, he would dispense with
this mark of respect; whereupon the duke replied that ho had his hat
off not out of respect for Sir William Draper, but because it was a hot
day.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
287
voyage by bringing your Ship to Anchor in this Port,
you may run such a Gauntlet as will induce you in
your last moments most heartily to curse those who
have made you the dupe of their avarice and ambi-
tion. What think you, Captain, of a Halter round
your Neck, ten gallons of liquid Tar decanted on your
Pate, with the feathers of a dozen wild Geese laid
over that to enliven your appearance?" "A card"
made its appearance at this time, presenting the com-
pliments of the public to Messrs. James & Drinker,
and notifying them that they were expected to with-
draw from their appointment as consignees of the
teas. Still another handbill was circulated among
the pilots, giving them a minute description of the
" Polly," stating they had been misinformed ; she was
not a three-decker, but " an old black ship, without a
head or any ornaments. The captain is a short, fat
fellow, and a little obstinate withal. So much the
worse for him ; for, as sure as he rides rusty, we shall
heave him keel out and see that his bottom be well
fired, scrubbed, and paid. His upper-works, too, will
have an overhauling, and as it is said he has a good
deal of quick work about him, we will take care that
such part of him undergoes a thorough rummaging.
. . . We know him well, and have calculated to a gill
and a feather how much it will require to fit him for
an American exhibition." Another long and peppery
address of the day is by "Regulus." Indeed, the
anonymous authors of the patriotic broadsides of the
period drafted a legion of Romans into their service,
until there were as many of the gens logata as there
were Quakers on the banks of the Delaware. Withal,
the anti-tea committees had a practical way with them.
The stock of tea in town was very small, but they
compelled the dealers to fix 6s. 6d. as the maximum
price at which the article was to be sold, and they did
not tar and feather the " informers" who gave them
notice of these prices being exceeded. It is to be
noted that all this action was independent of the
" Boston tea-party," which did not take place until
December 16th.
On Christmas day an express came in bringing
word of the arrival of the " Polly," with her obnox-
ious cargo, at Chester. One of the consignees, Gil-
bert Barclay, came from London aboard the vessel.
He now came up to the city in advance, and was at
once waited upon by the committee. As soon as he
learned from them the state of affairs he resigned his
commission. Three committeemen were now sent to
Chester and three to Gloucester Point to intercept
Capt. Ayres. He had left Chester, but at Gloucester
Point the vessel was hailed and the captain asked to
come on shore. He went at once, landed, passed
through a lane in the crowd met to receive him, and
was taken before the committee and other gentlemen,
who explained the popular excitement to him, and
warned him of the difficulty and danger before him
if he should persist in trying to bring his vessel to
the harbor and discharge his cargo. He went to the
city with them, at their request, and soon found proof
of what he had been told ; indeed, the committee
and citizens had enough to do to protect him from
the boys, who did not want to be disappointed of
their tarring and feathering.
As soon as the arrival of the tea-ship was known,
a meeting was called at the State-House for Monday,
December 27th, at 10 a.m., " to consider what is best
to he done in this alarming crisis." This meeting
was the largest that had ever been assembled in Phil-
adelphia. The State-House would not hold the peo-
ple; they adjourned to the yard, and adoptecf with
enthusiasm the following resolves, brief, sharp, to the
point:
"Resolved. 1. That the teaonboardtheship'Polly,' Capt. Ayres,shall
not lie landed.
" 2. That Opt. Ayres shall neither enter nor report his vessel at the
Custom House.
" 3. That Capt. Ayres shall carry hack the tea immediately.
"4. That Capt. Ayres shall immediately send a pilot on board his ves-
sel, with orders to take charge of her and to proceed to Reedy Island
next highwater.
" 5. That the captain shall be allowed to stay in town till to-morrow,
to provide necessaries for his voyage.
" 6. That he shall then be obliged to leave town and proceed to his
vessel, and make the best of his way out of our river and hay.
"7. That a committee of four gentlemen be appointed to see these
resolves carried into execution." *
It was fnrlher
"Resolved, That this Assembly highly approve of the conduct and
spirit of the people of New York, Charlestown, and Boston ; and return
their hearty thanks to the people of Boston for their resolution in de-
stroying the tea rather than suffer it to be landed/'
There were eight thousand persons present at this
meeting, but the utmost order and decorum prevailed. .
Capt. Ayres attended in person, and pledged himself
to a literal compliance with the orders relating to him.
Two hours after the adjournment of the meeting the
tea-ship, having hastily procured supplies, weighed
anchor at Gloucester Point and proceeded down the
river on her return voyage. The cargo did not break
bulk, though there were other consignments to Phila-
delphia merchants in it besides tea. Capt. Ayres
went on board at Reedy Island, he and Mr. Barclay
going down the river in a pilot boat, after spending
less than two days in the city. Lord Dartmouth wrote
a sharp letter to Governor Penn concerning this
transaction, expressing his surprise and concern that
the provincial government should have made no at-
tempt to resist or oppose the violence done. It was
a rebellious act, he said, and might have serious con-
sequences. The Governor explained and apologized,
and the government excused him. They knew as
well as he that he was utterly powerless. Lord Dart-
mouth had succeeded Lord Hillsborough as Secretary
of State for the colony in 1772. He was a man of
ability, a friend to liberal measures, and esteemed to
be not ill-disposed towards the Americans. In the
midst of these troubles, seeming sincerely desirous to
do something to confuse them, and wishing to that
end to be well instructed concerning American affairs,
he sought an intelligent American correspondent
288
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
upon whom he could rely. He had some connection
with Mr. De Berdt, whose sister had become the wife
of Joseph Reed, and in this way a correspondence was
opened between Reed and Dartmouth, which is of the
greatest value in enabling us to measure the men and
events of these times perspicuously and correctly.
Reed was impulsive, frank, had his prejudices and
predilections, took his patriotism not at a gulp, but
discriminatively, and declining to ask any man's
leave in the premises; he was shrewd also, very ob-
servant, and wrote like a gentleman of things which
he had looked at with the eyes of a gentleman. This
correspondence was opened in January, 1772, when
Reed wrote to De Berdt that Lord Dartmouth might
make himself exceedingly popular by removing the
commercial restrictions imposed upon the colonies by
Charles Townshend. Reed's first letter direct to Dart-
mouth (the first at least included in William B. Reed's
biography of President Reed) was dated Dec. 22, 1773,
three days before the tea-ship arrived. He was on
the spot, a deeply-interested spectator, and it is diffi-
cult to understand why the ministry should have con-
tinued to act as they did, unless stricken with judicial
blindness. Speaking of the modified tax policy, Reed
wrote, —
"Tho partial repeal of this Act (7 George ITI.) instead of concili-
ating, has widened the breach ; it has been thought hard the Govern-
ment shmild give up the revenue and keep the tax. In this situa-
tion we have been gradually sliding into a clandestine trade, which has
increased to a very alarming height. It has been deemed a species of
patriotism to evade a law which we could not safely oppose, or submit
to, without giving up an essential principle ofliberty. II the merchants
had confined this illicit trade to the articleof tea only, the injury to the
Mother Country would not have been so great ; but a variety of other
articles, such as calicoes, spices, and other East India commodities, have
accompanied the tea to a very large amount. And upon a coast of such
extent, all the vigilance and care of the custom house can give no effec-
tual check. As a proof of this, yonr lordship may depend upon it that,
although no tea has been imported here from England since 1707, there
has been no Bcaroity, nor has the price been advanced otherwise than by
the oidiuary course of trade."
Reed goes on to sketch the agitation which arose in
consequence of the course of the East India Company,
and shows that the various acts and addresses which
are given above were all approved by the body of the
people, except only the attempt to deter the pilots
from taking charge of the ship in the river. That
inconsiderate performance, he said, the merchants
had endeavored to counteract. He describes in ad-
vance the course that would be taken with Capt.
Ayres, and said that if it were not submitted to "the
consequences may prove very fatal to himself and his
vessel." He adds that " the opposition to the Stamp
Act was not so general, and I cannot but think any
attempt at present to crush it would be attended
with dreadful effects. Many reasons have concurred
at this time, and upon this subject. Those who are
out of trade have been led to think it a point of con-
stitutional liberty deserving a struggle. Those who
are in trade have the additional motive of interest,
and dread » monopoly whose extent may destroy one-
third of their business. For India goods compose
one-third of our importations from England." Can
anything be more clear, cogent, and convincing than
this exact and temperate statement? Yet it had no
effect whatever. " Severities have been tried," wrote
Reed. New severities were now resorted to, and the
Boston Port Bill was the next act in the drama, — an
attempt to punish one place in the colonies for what
every settlement in all the colonies had been equally
guilty of. Of such a piece of folly and madness the
consequences were easy to foretell. Reed himself
foretold them. In his next letter to Dartmouth, giving
the noble earl an account of the proceedings of De-
cember 27th, and writing on that same evening, he
says, —
" Your Lordship will judge from these facta how general and unani-
mous the opinion is that no article subject to a duty for the purpose of
raising revenue ought to he received in America. Nor is it confined to
this city. . . . Any further attempt to enforce this act, I am humbly of
opinion, must end in blood. We are sensible of our inability to contend
with the Mother Country by force, but we are hastening fast to desperate
resolutions, and unless internal peace is speedily settled, our most wise
and sensible citizens dread the anarchy and confusion that must ensue.
This city has been distinguished for its peaceable and regular demeanor,
nor has it departed from it on the present occasion, as there have been
no mobs, no insults to individuals, no injury to private property; but
the frequent appeals to the people must in time occasion a change, and
we every day perceive it more and more difficult to repress the rising
spirit of the people."
Parliament, king, and Council, however, heeded
none of these warnings. They soon gave Philadel-
phia an additional cause of bitter feeling and irri-
tation by the coarse and brutal examination of
Benjamin Franklin before the Privy Council, when
Wedderburn gave the venerable philosopher precisely
the opportunity he desired to make himself the most
popular man in America. He had not been a par-
ticular favorite with the people of wealth and educa-
tion in his own province, for they suspected him of
being a good deal of a self-seeker and a bit of a dema-
gogue. With the masses, on the other hand, his popu-
larity had been shaken by the appointments, through
Benjamin Franklin's influence, of the stamp collec-
tors, John Hughes and William Franklin, and by the
persistent assaults of his enemies in connection with
those appointments, which had put him on the defen-
sive. But he was still the agent of the province, an
eminent citizen of Philadelphia, and the most distin-
guished man of science his country had yet produced.
He was venerable by his weight of years and of distin-
guished public service, and he was known and vener-
ated all over Europe. To insult and outrage such a
man, in such a manner, at such a time, was to outrage
and insult the entire colonies. Franklin, in his offi-
cial capacity, acting for Massachusetts, had delivered
to Lord Dartmouth the address of that government
asking for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver.
A false issue was raised, a duel and a succession of
newspaper altercations, all to divert attention from
the real merits of the case. On Jan. 11, 1774, Frank-
lin, who had assumed all the blame attaching to a
clandestine exposure of treasonable correspondence,
appeared before the Privy Council ; on the 29th he
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
289
had his hearing. Wedderburn was solicitor-general.
He turned the defense of Hutchinson into an assault
upon Franklin as the embodiment of American re-
calcitrancy. Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Lough-
borough and Earl of Eosslyn, was a Scotch advocate,
who had made his way at the bar and in Parliament
by mingling equal parts talent, sycophancy, industry,
and a fierce, coarse invective that at times rose to
eloquence. He knew enough constitutional law to
make his services valuable to the court at whose de-
mand his opinions always were unconditionally given.
The attack upon Franklin was severe ; it made a strong
impression, and, though the object of it affected to
despise, he still remembered it so vividly that when,
in 1783, he signed the treaty of peace at Versailles,
he was particular to dress himself in the same suit of
clothes which had been worn by him before the Privy
Council on Jan. 29, 1774.
Franklin bore himself bravely and with dignity,
however, and the sympathy of the people of Phila-
delphia in particular went out to him. Dr. Rush
wrote to Arthur Lee, when the news came, that " Dr.
Franklin is a very popular character in every part of
America. He will be received and carried in tri-
umph to his house when he arrives amongst us. It
is to be hoped he will not consent to hold any more
offices under government. No step but this can pre-
vent his being handed down to posterity among the
first and greatest characters in the world." (May 4,
1774.) Reed, same day, wrote to his brother-in-law,
DeBerdt, that " the scurrilous treatment of Dr. Frank-
lin is highly resented by all ranks of people . . .
nothing can exceed the veneration in which Dr.
Franklin is now held but the detestation we have of
his enemies." T6 Reed Lord Dartmouth himself
wrote that, while he could not approve Franklin's
conduct in regard to Hutchinson's letters, he was sorry
that what had been said and done " should have con-
tributed to the discontent of the minds of any people
in America."
Dartmouth probably would not have believed that
feeling could have risen to such a pitch. But in fact
the people were intensely irritated, and the least
thing made their passions blaze out. Wedderburn
and Hutchinson were burnt in effigy on May 3d, after
being drawn through the streets in a cart. On the
breast of the figure of the solicitor-general was a
label :
The Infamous Weddehburn.
A pert prime prater of a scabby race ;
Guilt in his heart and famine in bis face.
(Churchill allied.)
Bimilis Proteo, mulet utfaUacior, Catalina,
Suno vis Britanni cavate.
Appended to which is a diatribe which might have
been written by the schoolboy who looked out the
quotations. There were other labels also, and Hutch-
inson was given as many faces as the temple of Janus
had gateways. After being displayed to the mob,
19
these effigies were taken to the coffee-house plaza,
hung upon a gallows, and then burnt upon a pile of
faggots, upon which gunpowder was sprinkled, to be
kindled into flame with the aid of Franklin's own
electric battery. The newspapers also were filled
with epitaphs and epigrams, appeals and invectives,
and Wedderburn's name became a by-word of scorn
and reproach.
The bill closing the port of Boston and transferring
its custom-house to Salem, was passed in March, and
news of it received in the colonies in May. Paul
Revere was dispatched from Boston on May 13th to
secure the support of Philadelphia to the former city
in such a crisis. A meeting was called in Philadel-
phia at the City Tavern, on May 20th. Of this meet-
ing, as has already been suggested, Charles Thomson
and John Dickinson were the leading spirits, though
conspicuous parts were taken by Joseph Reed and
Thomas Mifflin. The object of Thomson and Dick-
inson was, by an appearance of great moderation,
to secure the sympathy and co-operation of the influ-
ential body of the Society of Friends. Dickinson's
plan was to petition the Governor for an extra session
of the Legislature, and that prevailed, and by means
of it, Thomson claimed iu his letter to Henry Dray-
ton, every practical point was carried. The Governor
indeed refused to convene the. Assembly for any such
purpose, but called them two or three days later
about Indian raids on the border, whereupon they
forthwith attended to the business on hand by elect-
ing delegates to Congress.
At the meeting at the City Tavern a committee
was also appointed to act as a general committee of
correspondence, and also particularly to write to the
people of Boston, assuring them of sympathy, com-
mending their firmness, declaring their cause that of
all the colonies, and promising to stand fast for the
right. This committee consisted of John Dickinson,
William Smith, Edward Penington, Joseph Fox,
John Nixon, John Maxwell Nesbitt, Samuel Howell,
Thomas Mifflin, Joseph Reed, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,
Benjamin Marshall, Joseph Moulder, Thomas Bar-
clay, George Clymer, Charles Thomson, Jeremiah
Warder, Jr., John Cox, John Gibson, and Thomas
Penrose. They had discretionary authority given
them to act for the people and to call public meet-
ings and correspond with the other colonies. They
met next day (Dickinson, Reed, Fox, Nesbitt, Benja-
min Marshall, and Penrose being absent) and adopted
the draught of a letter, which was delivered to Mr.
Revere to take back to the people of Boston. The
authorship of this letter is doubtful ; Provost Smith
claims it ; so do the friends of Dickinson. It is firm
upon the principle of opposition to taxation, but offers
no advice. The letter is rather cold, and its internal
evidence is against the idea of its having been written
by Dickinson.
The address of the meeting in favor of an extra
session of Assembly was fortified by a petition from
290
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
nine hundred freeholders ; the Governor, however,
denied that the peace and good order of the province
required any such meeting. Nor were the people of
Philadelphia unanimous iu opening their churches
and closing places of business on June 1st, the day
when the Boston port bill went into effect. The
Friends gave notice to their own members that to do
this would be manifesting an inattention to the prin-
ciples of their profession. Still, many stores were
closed and flags at half-mast. Some sermons were
preached in several churches. Christ Church was
not opened, but some unauthorized persons entered it
and rang a funeral peal upon its muffled bells.
CARPENTERS' HALL.
A general meeting of citizens was called for June
15th, and there was some preliminary caucusing, in
order to cut out the work for this mass-meeting; the
mechanics met and appointed a committee to co-op-
erate with the merchants' committee. The members
of the mechanics' committee were John Ross, William
Rush, Plunket Fleeson, Edward Duffield, Anthony
Morris, Jr., Robert Smith, Isaac Howell, Thomas
Pryor, David Rittenhouse, William Masters, and
Jacob Barge. On the 10th a preliminary meeting of
representative men of the different classes was held
at Philosophical Hall, Second Street, to consult about
business for the mass-meeting. Eight propositions
were agreed upon, favoring a general congress of all
the colonies and deciding that the representatives of
Pennsylvania must be chosen by the Assembly. The
Governor's refusal to call the Assembly was to be got
round by the members meeting of their own motion.
The general meeting was postponed to the 18th, in
order to give time to print the propositions in a hand-
bill, so that the citizens might consider them.
When the meeting was held on the 18th, Thomas
Willing and John Dickinson presided, and Rev. Wil-
liam Smith made the address. The propositions de-
termined in advance were substantially adopted ; it
was resolved that the act closing the port of
Boston was unconstitutional, and that it
was expedient to convoke a Continental
Congress. A committee of correspondence
for the city and county was appointed, with
instructions to take the sense of the people
in regard to the appointment of delegates
to a general congress, and also to raise a
subscription for the relief of the sufferers in
Boston. This committee numbered forty-
three ; the chairman was John Dickinson ;
the members were Edward Penington,
John Nixon, Thomas Willing, George
Clymer, Samuel Howell, Joseph Reed,
John Roberts, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,
Charles Thomson, Jacob Barge, Thomas
Barclay, William Rush, Robert Smith,
Thomas Fitzsimons, George Roberts, Sam-
uel Ewen, Thomas Mifflin, John Cox,
George Gray, Robert Morris, Samuel Miles,
John M. Nesbitt, Peter Chevalier, William
Moulder, Joseph Moulder, Anthony Morris,
John Allen, Jeremiah Warder, Jr., Rev.
Dr. William Smith, Paul Engle, Thomas
Penrose, James Mease, Benjamin Marshall,
Reuben Haines, John Bayard, Jonathan B.
Smith, Thomas Wharton, Isaac Howell,
Michael Hillegas, Adam Hubley, George
Schlosser, and Christopher Ludwick, — the
first really representative committee which
had been appointed. Under the call of this
committee a conference of delegates met in
Carpenters' Hall, July 15th, with Thomas
Willing in the chair and Charles Thomson
secretary. The actual weight and influence of the
province was here gathered, and the convention acted
as if conscious of its powers, asserting colonial rights,
condemning Parliament, favoring united action and
a Colonial Congress, pledging Pennsylvania to co-
operation with the other colonies, and requesting the
Provincial Assembly (which was already called) to
appoint deputies to the Congress.
John Dickinson drew the instructions ; the Assem-
bly, when it met on the 21st, assented to them, and
appointed Joseph Galloway Speaker, and Samuel
Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, Charles Humphreys, George
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
291
Ross, and Edward Biddle deputies of Pennsylvania
to Congress. The instructions of the Assembly to
these delegates affirmed the principles laid down in
the propositions of the Convention.
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenters'
Hall on Sept. 4, 1774, when the delegates were pres-
ent from eleven provinces. Some mystery has been
sought to be made about the selection of this place of
meeting, but it seems very simple. The Provincial
Assembly was in session, so that the State-House
could not be had. The Convention had had its
session in Carpenters' Hall. The Committee of
Correspondence probably met there, and there was
besides this a desire to conciliate and court the favor
of the trades-people and the mechanics, who, for the
first time, were given a place in the late Convention
and a representation on the Correspondence Com-
mittee. The carpenters were the most influential
and best organized of the industrial bodies; they
offered their hall, and it was accepted. John Adams,
in his diary, says, " At ten the delegates all met at
the City Tavern1 and walked to Carpenters' Hall,
where they took a view of the room and of the cham-
ber, where there is an excellent library. There is
also a long entry, where gentlemen may walk, and
also a convenient chamber opposite the library. The
general cry was that this was a good room, and the
question was put whether we were satisfied with this
room? And it passed in the affirmative. A very
few were in the negative, and they were chiefly from
Pennsylvania and New York."2
When the Congress met, Peyton Randolph, of Vir-
ginia, was chosen president, and Charles Thomson,
secretary. The work done by this Congress belongs
to the history, not of Philadelphia, not even of the
United States alone, but of the world ; its sessions
were secret, and but few of its proceedings can have
any legitimate place in this record. What a body of
men that was, — Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry,
George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Pendleton,
Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Jay, Gadsden,
Rutledge, Hopkins, Duane, Ward, Lynch, Sullivan,
Bland,— the blood leaps up in one's veins as we write
their very names ! " We are so taken up with the
1 This City Tavern, late called The Merchants' Coffee-House, was com-
pleted in 1773, in the style of the best Loudon taverns. It Btood on the
west side of Second Street, above Walnut, corner of Bank Alley or Gold
Street. When first opened it was looked upon as the fiucst house of its
kind in America, having several large club-rooms, two of which could
be thrown together to make a large dining-room, fifty feet long. There
was every convenience and accommodation for strangers. The house
was opened by Daniel Smith in 1774.
2 The beginnings of the Carpenters Guild have already been de-
scribed in another place. This company was established in 1724, incor-
porating itself with another guild of the same industry in 1752, the
original object of the society being instruction, benevolence, co-opera-
tion, and relief. The lot on the south side of Chestnut Street, botween
Third and Fourth, was bought in 1768, the building begun in January,
1770, and occupied in a year, though not finished entirely until 1702.
The library of which John Adams speaks was that of the Philadelphia
Library Company, which had moved here from its small room in the
State-House in 1773.
Congress," writes Reed to one of his correspondents,
"that we hardly think or talk of anything else.
About fifty have come to town, and more are expected.
There are some fine fellows come from Virginia, but
they are very high. The Bostonians are mere milk-
sops to them. We understand they are the capital
men of the colony, both in fortune and understand-
ing." After an organization had been effected, it was
proposed to open the sessions with prayer. The mo-
tion came from Thomas Cushing, Speaker of the
House of Representatives of Massachusetts, but it
was opposed by Jay and Rutledge, because of the
wide division in religious views, — Quakers, Anabap-
tists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregational -
ists, — and for fear of exciting prejudice or dissension.
Samuel Adams arose, however, said he was no bigot,
and could hear a prayer from any gentleman of piety
and virtue who was a friend to his country. He
moved that Rev. Mr. DuchS be desired to read prayers
REV. JACOB DUCHE.
to the Congress to-morrow. The motion was carried,
Mr. Randolph secured Mr. Duchy's services, and,
" accordingly, next morning" — we quote, or abridge,
John Adams' diary — " he appeared with his clerk and
in his pontificals, and read several prayers in the es-
tablished form ;" then, after reading a psalm, which
seemed exactly fitted to the rumors, just heard, of the
cannonade of Boston, Mr. Duch§ struck out into an
extemporary prayer, which has often been quoted,
and often praised.3
8 Mr. Ducbe was a pretty fair example of the typical sentimental
clergyman, full of " gush," without much principle behind it; indeed,
with no very clear notions of what principle really is. He was good in
his way, well disposed, not vicious, conscientious, but weak, ambitious,
vain, and so absurd that his vanity became Buicidal. His fathor, Jacob
Duche1, was a plain man, a useful citizen, of Huguenot stock, who made
mouey and did snme public service of importance in a quiet way. His
son, born in 1738, studied at the Philadelphia College, and then went to
Class Hall, Cambridge, to finish. He, William White, and Thomas
Coombe were all preparing for the ministry at the Bame time. Young
Duche was ordained and licensed in England in 1759, and became assist-
ant minister to Dr. Jennings and Dr. Peters. He became quite a fine
preacher and a tine writer, too. He was popular. Miss Sally Eve, in her
lively diary, BayB, "Tom" Coombe tried to be DuchS's echo, and she
292
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The Congress was not hurried about its business.
It acted slowly and prudently, and so calmly that the
people learned to repose upon it. The North Caro-
lina delegates came in on the 14th; on the 15th,
John Dickinson was added to the Pennsylvania
delegation, and the two months' session did not
close until provision had been made for another Con-
gress, to meet in Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. Gal-
loway and Duane attempted a variety of dilatory and
obstructive measures, but were baffled, and Congress
B.EV. JACOB DUCHE'S HOUSE.
did all its work well before adjourning. It made the
last appeal to Great Britain before resorting to arms.
It expressed sympathy and called for material aid
wonders why it is that Sir. Duche sits so long every day to have his
hair curled and powdered. Duche" tiad main charge of St. Peter's, the
offshoot of Christ Church. Lie taught elocution in the college, lived in
a big hou.se built for him by his father, printed some of his sermons at
Franklin & Hall's press, and when the "Letters of Junius" became
popular, Duche published his " Letters of Tamoc Caspipina," an acros-
tic on the title of his office, — a dull sort of book it \vas,'yet with some
easy, graceful touches. Some of Duche's hearers thought him an en-
thusiast and mystic, but he simply yielded to the passing emotion.
Duche became chaplain of Congress; he preached war sermons; his
vestry dropped the prayer for King George front the Liturgy ; his patri-
otic prayers were printed; then, as Howe drew near Philadelphia, the
parson resigned his chaplaincy; he declined to take the one hundred
and fifty dollars voted him by Congress; he revived King George's
prayer when the British eDtered the city; was imprisoned one night,
and came forth the next morning a loyal subject. Ten days later he
wrote a mean, pitiful, every way contemptible letter, to Washington,
urging him to desert his cause and betray hiscompauions-in-arms His
brother-itj-iaw, Francis Hopkinson, answered it, as Washington would
take no notice of the " ridiculous, illiberal performance." In Decem-
ber, 1777, Duche went to England, his familj followed some lime after,
and his property was confiscated. He published two volumes of sermous,
dedicated to Lady Juliana Peuu, studied Swedenhorg, and got an ap-
pointment as secretary and chaplain of an orphan asylum. After the
war Duchfi wrote another pitiful letter to Washington, asking Ins for-
giveness, and begging him not to interfere to prevent his (Duche's) re-
turn to his former home. Wrben he did return, in 171)2, Washington
permitted Duche to call on him. He died Jan. 3, 1798, not much re-
gretted. His weakness was of that degree which never fails to make
man miserable. Yet he ought to have had a tougher fibre in him. He
was taught in early youth by Francis Allison, at Thunder Hill School.
His father was a soldier, commauder of the Second Association Regi-
ment (Fianklin had the first), he was also a vestryman of Christ Church.
His grandfather, Anthony Puche, claimed to have come over, with his
wife, to Philadelphia in the same ship with William Penn ; he was, any-
how, a Quaker and a sturdy man. whether a " first purchaser" and a
" Welcome" passenger or not.
from all the colonies for the people of Massachusetts ;
it took a positive stand against importations, formed
an association to that end, adopted a solemn declara-
tion of rights, a memorial to the people of Great
Britain and another to the king, and then adjourned.
The gentlemen of the city gave the members of Con-
gress a banquet at the State-House, with five hundred
covers, during their session. The king's name headed
the list of toasts, Hancock's brought up the rear.
The entertainment was the finest ever given in the
eity up to that time. After the session
ended the members were again enter-
tained, at the City Tavern, by the Assem-
bly of Pennsylvania. John Adams re-
lates of this dinner that '" a sentiment
was given, — ' May the sword of the parent
never be stained with the blood of her
children.' Two or three broadbrims were
over against me at table. One of them
said, ' This is not a toast, but a prayer ;
come, let u.s join in it.' And they took
their glasses accordingly."
The Assembly unanimously approved
the proceedings of Congress, and appointed
the former delegates to Congress, except
John Martin in place of Samuel Rhoads,
who had been elected mayor, and Gallo-
way, permitted to withdraw. In Ma}-, 1775, when
Franklin returned from England, he was straightway
elected a delegate, and Thomas Willing and James
Wilson were also added to the delegation.
The Committee of Correspondence was still in au-
thority, but their power being questionable, they rec-
ommended, in November, that at the ensuing general
election a new committee should be regularly chosen
for the city, and one also for the county. These com-
mittees numbered sixty-seven members for the city
and Liberties, and forty-two for the county.
The city, Northern Liberties, and Southwark com-
mittee included John Dickinson, Thomas Mifflin,
Charles Thomson, John Cadwalader, Robert Morris,
Samuel Howell, George Clymer, Joseph Reed, Samuel
Meredith, John Allen, William Rush, James Mease,
John Nixon, John Cox, John Bayard, Charles Lud-
wig, Thomas Barclay, George Schlosser, Jonathan B.
Smith, Francis Wade, Benjamin Marshall, Lambert
Cadwalader, Reynold Keen, Richard Bache, John
Benezet, Henry Keppele, Jr., Jacob Winey, Jacob
Rush, Joseph Falconer, William Bradford, John
Shee, Owen Biddle, William Heysham, James Milli-
gan, John Wilcocks, Sharp Delaney, Francis Gurney,
John Purviance, Robert Knox, Francis Hassenclever,
Thomas Cuthbert, Sr., William Jackson, Isaac Mel-
chior, Samuel Penrose, Isaac Coates, Blaithwait Jones,
Thomas Pryor, Samuel Massey, Robert Towers, Henry
Jones, Joseph Wetherell, Joseph Copperthwaite,
Joseph Dean, Benjamin Harbeson, James Ash, Ben-
jamin Loxley, William Robinson, Jr., Ricloff Alber-
son, James Irvine, William Coates. For Southwark,
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
293
— Elias Boys, Joseph Turner, Abraham Jones, and
Thomas Robinson. For Kensington, — Emanuel Eyres
and Jacob Miller. For the county of Philadelphia,—
George Gray, Samuel Ashmead, Thomas Potts, John
Bull, Jonathan Roberts, Jesse George, Samuel Erwin,
John Roberts, Frederick Antis, Benjamin Eittenhouse,
Thomas Ashton, Melchior Wagoner, James Stroud,
Charles Bonsall, Daniel Keaster, Benjamin Jacobs,
Joseph Mathers, Jacob Rise, Isaac Hughes, Frederick
Weiss, James Deimer, Edward Milnor, John Bring-
hurst, Archibald Thompson, Isaac Knight, Jacob
Styger, Andrew Knox, Abraham Luckens, Henry
Derringer, James Potts, John Muck, Edward Bar-
tholomew, Samuel Leech, John Jenkins, Joseph
Lownes, Andrew Haney, John Pawling, Sr., John
Moore, George Shive, and Alexander Edwards.
These committees entered upon their duties at once.
Six sub-committees of inspection and observation
were formed, and one committee sat each day at the
Coffee-House to watch the arrival of vessels and in-
spect their cargoes according to the rules of the asso-
ciation formed by Congress. The goods had to be
sold in lots or parcels, none less than three pounds or
more than fifteen pounds in value. Salt or coal from
Great Britain was to be sold at public vendue by
cargo, or less, at option of consignee, under direction
of the committee. The committee gave importers their
election, under inspection, to send back their goods,
store them, or sell according to association terms.
Citizens were recommended not to buy or use mutton
or lamb between January 1st and May, 1775, and no
ewe lamb until October 1st. The butchers, sixty-one
in number, determined that they would not kill the
animals specified within the time mentioned, and
signed an agreement to that effect.1 The object was
to encourage home manufactures, by making the raw
material plenty and cheap. Other industrial and even
political and religious enterprises sprung up on the
edge of the war volcano's crater. John Elliott & Co.
opened glass-works in Kensington ; William Calverly
manufactured superior American carpets in Loxley's
Court; Richard Wells erected spermaceti works at
Arch and Sixth Streets ; Hare made American por-
ter; Edward Ryves, Pine Street near Third, made
American playing-cards ; formulas for making and
finding saltpetre were published with significant fre-
quency,— it could be extracted from the tobacco re-
fuse ; it could be scraped up in abundance under-
neath old barns and tobacco-houses, etc. Lumber
dealers, fearing a loss of market, sent their timber to
Europe in raft-ships, craft made of rough unhewn
logs, meant for the saw-mill when their port of des-
tination was reached. The New England Baptists
took advantage of the session of Congress and its op-
eration against grievances to bring forward their own,
— the discrimination of Massachusetts laws against
1 These sixty-one butcherB appear by their Dames, with very few ex-
ceptions, to have been Germaus; niDe-tentha of them were so, at least.
their sect. Of course Congress had nothing to do
with this, and could not; but the New England Bap-
tists appealed to their co-religionists in Philadelphia ;
the latter appointed a committee — Robert Strettel
Jones, Samuel Davis, Stephen Shewell, Thomas
Shields, George Westcott, Alexander Edwards, Ben-
jamin Bartholomew, Rev. William Rogers, A.M.,
John Evans, John Mahew, Edward Keasby, Rev.
Samuel Jones, A.M., Rev. Morgan Edwards, A.M.,
Rev. William Vanhorn, A.M., Abraham Bickley,
Abel Evans, Samuel Miles, James Morgan, and John
Jarman — to consider the grievance. This committee
consulted the leading Quakers and so fell into the
hands of mischief-making Galloway and Israel Pem-
berton, whom John Adams calls a " wily Jesuit,"
who tried to make trouble for Congress and perhaps
to get up a feud between that body and the Society of
Friends. However, the first interview was with the
Massachusetts delegation, who told them, sharply
enough, that they had no power to alter the Massa-
chusetts statutes, and moreover, that those statutes
were not likely to be altered. Then the committee
applied to Congress, which bluntly resolved that it
was a colony matter, and nobody's business at all in
Congress. The last of these schemes was that of Wil-
liam Goddard, the printer, for an independent and
American post-office establishment. But Goddard
found Congress had its hands too full just now to at-
tend to that matter, and when the mail-service was
taken up it was given to Franklin.
Strange time, this, of excitement, feverish anxiety,
feverish mental activity. There seemed to be no rest
anywhere; all was wakefulness, watchfulness, mis-
trust, suspicion, contrivance, and invention. The re-
cords from January 1st to May 1, 1775, as we gather
them from newspapers and the correspondence of the
time, are a marvel. Here, one day, a suspected in-
former or king's man is advertised, handbilled, waited
on by a committee, and sent suddenly tramping, with
threats — not idle ones, neither, he knows — of fence-
rails and tar and feathers ringing in his ears. Here,
in the next column, mayhap, the American Philoso-
phical Society pleading for the establishment of an
astronomical observatory in Philadelphia. Here, in
one place, is almost open war right on us in the Del-
aware. American schooner "Isabella," from Dun-
kirk, cargo of contraband wines, teas, gin, silks, etc..
seized as she comes up the bay by tide-waiter Francis
Welsh; pilot leaves vessel; captain steers her off;
Welsh can get no aid anywhere. The Chester justice
to whom he appeals refuses warrant ; the sheriff prom-
ises aid, but takes care not to give it ; finally, the ves-
sel sails clear off, putting Welsh ashore at Cape May,
and Governor and Council can give him no redress.
This is open resistance, and it is approved by the new
convention of Pennsylvania delegates in session at
the time — Joseph Reed, president; Jonathan B.
Smith, John Benezet, Francis Johnston, secretaries —
because all resistance is approved by them, and pledges
294
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
are given to maintain it. At the same moment, too,
the Society of Friends are giving their solemn "tes-
timony'' against resistance and violence, in an epistle
"to friends and brethren," issued by the meeting for
sufferings for New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Some
Friends have been carried away by the excitements
of the day, but they must be brought back and ad-
monished, " dealt with," in affection aud brotherly
love. They have joined associations, and given
pledges, and engaged in public affairs such as lead
them to deviate from our religious principles, which
teach us not to contend for anything at all, not even
liberty.
It is a part of the divine principles we profess to
avoid everything tending to disaffection to the king
and the legal authority of his government. We must
not approach him but with loyal and respectful ad-
dresses, wherefore the testimony is moved "publicly
to declare against every usurpation of power and au-
thority in opposition to the laws and government, and
against all combinations, insurrections, conspiracies,
and illegal assemblies," which includes even Congress.
This testimony one Quaker, at least, did not sign, but
laughed at, — Samuel Wetherill, the patriot and pio-
neer in manufactures, who spoke out against the gen-
eral epistle as an indictment against the whole people,
and said the Friends seemed to forget that they too
contended a great deal sometimes, — about property-
rights, for instance. For his own part, he said, he
had learned to make allowances for human infirmities,
and confessed that he discovered too many imperfec-
tions in himself not to be very tender to those of other
people. As to the present situation of public affairs,
he thought the Friends ought to be as watchmen on
the walls, for there was something due from them to
the public cause as well as to the king. He believed
in the right of petition for redress of grievance, but
he was not going to write a general epistle dictating
to all how they should act and think. He left that
to wiser men. Without taking open ground on the
subject, a great many Quakers thought as Samuel
Wetherill did, and quietly contributed all they could
to promote the good cause. In the face of impending
civil war, however, it would have been contrary to
human nature to expect the Quakers to abandon their
non-resistance principles and expose themselves to be
drafted alternately into the provincial or the royal
armies.
The activities and energies and restlessness of the
times found outlets in other directions. Preparations
were made for bridging the Schuylkill at the Middle
Ferry, and for erecting three piers in the Delaware at
Reedy Island, besides others at Chester and Marcus
Hook, and for this the Assembly voted an issue of six
thousand pounds, paper money. The Common Coun-
cil voted to memorialize the Assembly against the
continuance of the semi-annual fairs provided for
under the corporation charter. The city had out-
grown them, and they had become useless and annoy-
ing. The committee having the memorial in charge
— Samuel Ehoads, the mayor ; Andrew Allen, re-
corder; Aldermen, Samuel Shoemaker, John Gibson,
James Allen, Amos Strettell, Samuel Powell ; Com-
mon Councilmen, Edward Shippen, Alexander Wil-
cox, John Potts, and Peter Chevalier — reported so
strongly that they overshot the mark and passed a
bill doing away with the fairs for ever, whereas the
corporation desired power to revive them, " in case
the circumstances of the city and province should
appear to require the same." A protest was made,
but the action stood. The corporation moved at this
time also in favor of erecting a city hall and court-
house on the lot set apart for that purpose in the
State- House square. A committee was appointed to
look into the matter and inquire the expense. On it
were the mayor, recorder, and Messrs. Allen, Shippen,
Biddle, and Clymer, of the board.
The new provincial convention took steps to pro-
tect the city and get it relief from the counties in
case its trade was destroyed by some such measure as
the Boston port bill. This convention insisted earn-
estly upon the enforcement of the non-importation
agreements, and sought to build up the domestic re-
sources of the province. Among its recommendations
were those of killing no sheep under four years old,
the culture of flax, hemp, madder wood and other
dye-woods, the use of home manufactures and home
printing entirely, the organization of associations for
encouraging domestic productions, special attention
to the manufacture of gunpowder ("inasmuch as
there exists great necessity for it, particularly in the
Indian trade"), woolen goods, salt, saltpetre, iron,
nails, wire, steel, paper, glass, wool, combs, cards,
copper in sheets, kettles, malt liquors, and tin-plates.
These recommendations in favor of American man-
ufactures were eagerly seconded, and some of the re-
sults were permanent and important. A society was
formed in March to encourage woolen manufactures,
Joseph Stiles being the president, James Cannon sec-
retary, Christopher Marshall, Richard Humphreys,
Jacob Winey, Isaac Gray, Samuel Wetherill, Jr.,
Christopher Ludwick, Frederick Kuhl, Robert S.
Jones, Richard Wells, Thomas Tilbury, James Pop-
ham, aud Isaac Howell, managers. James Hazel ex-
hibited, or offered to exhibit, to this association an
apparatus to demonstrate the power of machinery, — -
a clock-work card- and spindle-machine, by w^ich a
girl of ten years old could tend forty-eight spindles
and card three hundred and sixty pairs of cards.
Other cotton- and woolen-machines were at the same
time produced by John Hague and Christopher Tully,
and the Assembly next year voted fifteen pounds to
each. The society fitted up a factory corner of Ninth
and Market Streets, invited farmers to bring forward
their wool, flax, and hemp, and asked women to come
forward and learn the trade of spinning. It would
be doing a service to themselves and to their country
at the same time, they were told, and the response
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
295
was so prompt that in a month there were four hun-
dred spinners employed. Among other contemporary-
enterprises was the linen-printing establishment of
Walters & Bed well, on the Germantown road, while
John Behrent, joiner, on Third Street, manufactured
a piano-forte in a mahogany case. The interdiction
against the use of tea throughout the colonies went
into effect on March 1st. The event was made the
occasion of many effusions in verse, the most of them
weaker than tea. It is probable, however, that every
one had laid in more or less of a stock of tea before
the dreaded day, and its loss was not much felt at
first.
The Committee of Correspondence gave notice
that the India Company would try to introduce tea
by means of Dutch mer-
chants and the West India
Islands, but they meant to
enforce the recommenda-
tions of Congress in the
premises. The commit-
tee, in fact, had become
the only effective and au-
thoritative government in
the city, couDty, and prov-
ince. The ancient forms
were kept up, but the
power and direction lay
with the committee exclu-
sively. They had power
to act in any emergency,
and the emergency soon
came.
April 24, 1775, at five
o'clock in the afternoon,
an express came galloping
in from Trenton with the
greatest haste, excitement
in his looks, on his lips,
and in his train. He rode
up to the City Tavern, the
people crowding thither
likewise, the members of
the committeehurryingto
meet him, and delivered
his dispatch. It was a brief and hurried message, but
it had come a long route, and it was big with the fate
of a, nation. It was a dispatch from Watertown, on
April 19th, announcing that Gage's men had marched
out of Boston the night before, crossed to Cambridge,
fir? on and killed the militia at Lexington, destroyed
the store at Concord, were now on the retreat and
hotly pursued. Many were killed on both sides, and
the country was rising. The message had come by
way of Worcester, where it was vis6d by the town
clerk. It had come to Brookline, Thursday 20th, at
11 A.M. ; it was forwarded from Norwich at 4 p.m. ; it
was expressed from New London at seven in the
evening. The committee at Lynn received, copied,
sfo^-yr^? gi^^<Jtz^!ctrePtyr-~
and started the rider with it at one o'clock Friday
morning ; it came to Saybrook before sun-up ; at
breakfast time another messenger took it up at Kill-
ingworth ; at eight o'clock it was in East Guilford ;
at ten in Guilford; at noon, Brandford. It was sent
from New Haven with further details on 21st ; it was
dispatched from the New York committee-rooms
four o'clock Sunday afternoon ; it came to New
Brunswick 2 a.m. Monday ; at Princeton at six
o'clock ; at Trenton 9 o'clock a.m., and indorsed
" rec'd the above p. express and forwarded the same
to the Committee of Phila." Two days later another
express came in, bringing fuller particulars of "the
battle of Lexington," as that memorable fight will
always be called.
The news of Lexington
came to Philadelphia too
late in the day to spread
at once over town. But
next morning every one
knew it, and, borne by in-
tense feeling, the people
assembled in public meet-
ing, as if by common con-
sent, at the State-House.
There were eight thousand
persons present, but a sin-
gle will seemed to actuate
them. The Committee
of Correspondence took
charge; their authority
was recognized and ac-
cepted. A single brief
resolution was passed, to
" associate together, to de-
fend with arms their prop-
erty, liberty, and lives
against all attempts to
deprive them of it," and
then, with impatience and
eagerness, to action. The
time for words was passed.
The time for organization,
arming, drill, march had
come. The enrollment
began at once. The committee besought all who had
arms to let them know, so that they might be pur-
chased and secured, and the associators availed them-
selves of their existing organization to turn themselves
forthwith into military companies. It was agreed that
two troops of light horse, two companies of riflemen,
and two companies of artillery, with brass and iron
field-pieces, should be formed right away. Drill be-
gan immediately, and the companies were ready to
parade by May 10th, when they turned out to receive
Congress and also to honor John Hancock.1
1 The foot company and riflemen turned out to meet the Southern del-
egates to Congress at Gray's Ferry. The officers of all the companies
mounted, went out to meet the Eastern delegates and Hancock.
296
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
So strong was the association and so eager the spirit
of the people that it was expected the city and
liberties would very soon have four thousand men
under arms and fully equipped. Drilling went on
night and day, some companies drilling twice a day.
In the associators' organization the officers were as
follows,— the list is not complete, however :
First Battalion, — John Dickinson, colonel; John
Chevalier, lieutenant-colonel ; Jacob Morgan and
William Coates, majors. Second Battalion, — Daniel
Roberdeau, colonel ; Joseph Reed, lieutenant-colonel ;
John Cox and John Bayard, majors. Third Battalion,
— John Cadwalader, colonel ; John Nixon, lieutenant-
colonel ; Thomas Mifflin and Samuel Meredith, ma-
jors. Among the captains were Peter Markoe, of the
light horse ; James Biddle, Benjamin Loxley, Thomas
Proctor, Joseph Moulder, artillery; Joseph Cowper-
thwait, the Quaker Blues; Richard Peters, Tench
Francis, William Bradford, Lambert Cadwalader, the
Greens ; with John Shee, John Wilcocks, Mor-
gan, Little, Willing, Humphreys,
Furman, and Francis Gurney.1
In June, according to the Packet of the 6th, the
three battalions, mustering fifteen hundred men,
with the artillery company of one hundred and fifty
men and six guns (two twelve-pounders and four
brass six-pounders), the troop of light horse, and sev-
eral companies of light infantry, rangers, and rifle-
men, " in the whole about two thousand men,"
marched to the commons and drilled, march, brigade
evolutions, manual exercisings, firing and manoeu-
vring ''with a dexterity scarcely to have been ex-
pected from such short practice, in the presence of the
honorable members of the Continental Congress and
several thousand spectators."
Silas Deane, in a letter to his wife dated June 3d,
gives a description of the Philadelphia troops and
their appearance at this time. He mentions that
there were about thirty companies of them uniformed,
out morning and evening at their military exercises,
well armed, and making rapid progress in knowledge
of their evolutions. " The uniform," he says, —
1 The Blues and the Greens were companies organized and under
drill before the Lexington conflict. Gray don, in his " Memoirs," says
of the Quakers that "notwithstanding their endeavors to keep aloof
from the contest, a good number of their young men swerved from
their tenets, and, affecting cockades and uniforms, openly avowed them-
selves fighting men. They went so far as to form a company of light
infantry, under the command of Mr. Copperthwaite, which was called
the Quaker Blues, and instituted in a spirit of competition with the Greens,
or, as they were sneeringly styled, the nilk stocking company, commanded
by Mr. John Cadwalader, and which, having early associated, had already
acquired celebrity." Joseph Cowperthwait (the correct name) was sheriff
at the time he raised this company ; John Cadwalader became afterwards
colonel of the Third Battalion, then brigadier and commander of Penn-
sylvania militia; commanded a division at Trenton, fought as a volun-
teer at Princeton, Monmouth, Brandy wine, and German town, and in
1778 was offered by Congress the command of general of cavalry. Gray-
don, in reference to the " Greens," says their feathers were so fine that
Mifflin called them aristocrats. They were seventy in number, drilled
twice a day,and usually in Cadwalader's yard, he having the kindness
to set out his Madeira for the men to refresh themselves on after drill.
"is worth describing to you. It is a dark-brown (like our homeBpun
coat), faced with red, white, yellow, or buff, according to their different
battalions, white vest and breeches, white stockings, half-boots, and
black knee-garters. The coat is made short, falling but little below the
waistband of the breeches, which shows the size of a man to great ad-
vantage. Their hats are small (as Jessie's little one, almost), with a red,
white, or black ribbon, according to their battalions, closing in a rose,
out of which rises a tuft of fur of deer (made to resemble the buck's tail
as much as possible) six or eight inches high. Their cartouch-boxes are
large, with the word Liberty and the number of their battalion written
on the outside in large white letters. Thus equipped they make a most
elegant appearance, as their carton ch-boxeB are hung with a broad white
horse-leather strap or belt, and their bayonets, etc., on the other side,
with the same, which two, crossing on the shoulders diamond-fashion,
gives an agreeable appearance viewed in the rear. The light infantry
are in green, faced with buff; vests, etc., as the others, except the cap,
which is a hunter's cap, or a jockey's. Theue are, without exception,
the genteelest companies I ever saw. They have, besides, a body of ir-
regulars, or riflemen, whose dress it is hard to describe. They take a
piece of Ticklenbergh, or tow-cloth, that is stout, and put it in a tan-vat
until it has the shade of a fallen or dry leaf. Then they make a kind of
frock of it, reaching down below the knee, open before, with a large
cape. They wrap it around them tight on a march, and tie it with their
belt, in which hangs their tomahawk. Their hats are the same as the
others. They exerciBe in the neighboring groves, firing at marks and
throwing their tomahawks, forming on a sudden into line, and then, at
the word, breaking their order and taking their parts to bit their mark.
West of this city is a large open square of nearly two miles each way,
with large groves each side, in which, each afternooon, they collect,
witli a vaBt number of spectators. They have a body of horse in train-
ing, but as yet I have not seen them out.'1 2
2 There is not much to add to Mr. Deane's clear and graphic descrip-
tion of the uniforms of the Philadelphia associators. The riflemen's
uniform he gives was the dress of the Pennsylvania wagoners; some-
times the frock waB made of duck, or Osnaburg, and dyed blue. Mor-
gan's riflemen wore homespun frocks, dyed with butternut. Cresap's
men appear to have worn the hunter's regular buckskin frock and leg-
gins with fringe. In the early part of the struggle some local compa-
nies, already uniformed, went to the front in their parade dress. Thus,
Gist's company from Baltimore wore scarlet coats, and so, perhaps, did
some of the Virginians. Thompson Westcott, in an article on Revo-
lutionary uniforms in the " Historical Magazine," vol. iv. p. 353, speaks
of the erroneous ideas existing in regard to the colors and materials of
the uniforms of the Continental troops during the Revolution. "The
popular notion is, that the regular colors were blue and buff. Such un-
doubtedly were the colors of the commander-in-chief and his staff, but
the rank and file rarely wore these colors. The prevailing uniforms were
brown, mixed up with red or white; and green, with like trimmings."
Mr. Westcott says, "I have compiled descriptions of the uniforms of
variouB regiments during the Revolutionary war, as they were adver-
tised in the notices of deserters published in Philadelphia newspapers."
The Pennsylvania uniforms, as collected by Mr. Westcott, are as follows:
1776. — Col. John Shee's Third Battalion, associators of Philadelphia:
brown regimental coats, white facings, pewter buttons, with " No. 3"
upon them; white laced hat, bound with white tape, buckskin breeches.
Pennsylvania musketmen, Col. Perry: blue coats, faced with red,
white jackets, buckskin breeches, white stockings, and shoes.
Capt. Josi»8 Harniar's company, First Pennsylvania Battalion: brown
coats, faced with buff, swanskin jackets.
Capt. Vernon's Chester County company (Fourth Battalion, Col. An-
thony Wayne) : dark blue coats faced with white.
Capt. Persifer Fruser's company, Fourth Battalion : brown coat, blue
Bilk facings.
Col. Green's Second Battalion of Rifles (Capt. Cowperthwaite's Lan-
caster company) : green frock and trowsers.
Capt. Jacob Humphrey's company, First Battalion, Pennsylvania
Flying Camp: dark hunting-shirt.
First Battalion, Cumberland County : hunting-shirt and leggings.
Capt. Thomas Holme, First Philadelphia County BattalioD, Flying
Camp, Col. John Moore: brown coat, faced with red, leather breeches,
yarn stockings.
Col. Penrose's battalion : short brown coat, of a reddish cast, turned up
with red.
Capt. Murray's company of rifles: light-colored hunting-shirt, with
fringes.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
297
The troops were reviewed by Gen. Washington on
June 20th, and next day he set out for Boston, es-
corted across New Jersey by the cavalry troop. On
June 23d the associators were preached to by Rev.
Dr. Smith. They sent in at the same time a petition
Col. Irwin's battalion : blue coats, turned up witb red.
Capt. Isaac Farnsworth'e company, Flyiug Gamp: blue hunting-shirt.
Capt. Robert's company of rifles, Second Battalion, Col. Hart: yellow-
ish hunting-shirt.
Capt. Hazlett's company, Col. John Moore's battalion, Flying Camp :
brown coat, faced with green, red woven breecheB, white jacket, Block-
ings, round hat.
Capt. Andrew's company, Col. Samuel Mill's rifle regiment: black
hunting-shirts.
1777, January. — First Pennsylvania Regiment, Col. De Haas : blue
coats, faced with white, "I P. B." on buttons.
March. — Pennsylvania armed boats : brown coats, faced with green,
letters " I P. B." on buttons, cocked hats.
Second Pennsylvania Battalion : brown coats, faced with green.
Second Regiment, Col. Irvine's: blue coat, scarlet facings, blue waist-
coat, regimental hat.
January. — Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, Lieut. -Col. Naject : brown
coats, turned up with red, buckskin breeches.
Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion : blue coat, faced with white, buckskin
breeches, blue yarn stockings.
March.- — Thirteenth Pennsylvania Regiment : brown coat, faced with
buff, light-colored cloth breeches, coarse, white woolen stockings, old
wool hat.
Capt. David Woelper's company, German regiment: white hunting-
frock aud breeches, striped leggiugs.
April. — Capt. James Wilson's company, First Pennsylvania Battalion :
liglit-colored coat, with red facings.
April.— Col. Humphrey's Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment: light in-
fantry caps, blue coats, with scarlet capes and cuffs, white woolen waist-
coats, new buckskin breeches.
July. — First Battalion Pennsylvania Regulars: brown coats, faced
with green.
August. — Col. Walter Stewart's regiment : blue coats, turned up with
red, white metal buttons, with " S. P. R." on them.
1778, May.— First Pennsylvania Regiment : black coats, turned up
with white.
Capt. James Wilson's company, same battalion : brown coats, turned
up with buff.
August. — Col. Hartley's Pennsylvania regiment : blue uniform coats,
faced with yellow, grenadier's light infantry caps.
August.— Col. Richard Butler's Ninth Pennsylvania: brown uniform
coat, faced with red, red cuffs and red cape, new cocked hats, white
looping.
October. — Col. Thomas Proctor's artillery: blue coat, buff and white
facings.
1779. — Col. Benjamin Flowers' First Company Artillery: black coat,
faced with red, brown jackets, white buttons, letters " U. S. A." on them,
buckskin breeches, white stockings and felt hat.
February. — Gen. Wayne's division : blue regimental coats, lined with
white, ruffled shirts, red flannel leggings, and " a sort of cap dressed up
with fur."
May.— Third Pennsylvania Regiment : blue coats, turned up with red,
white cloth jacket and breeches, old hat, and Continental shirt.
Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment: long blue uniform coats, faced with
buff, small round jackots.
Invalid Regiment, Philadelphia, Col. Lewis Nicola: brown coats,
faced with green.
1779,—" As black and red have been pitched upon for that of the
American Continental army, it is unreasonable for him (Col. Proctor) to
make objection to it."— Washington to President Reed, April 5, 1779, vii.
"Pa. Archives," 293.
1780.— Col. Hubley's Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment: blue regi-
mental coat, faced with red, and buff edging, round hat, and black
feathers.
Second Pennsylvania Regiment : blue coats, faced with scarlet, round
hat, black ferretting.
1782.— First Pennsylvania Regiment, Col. Daniel Brodhead : blue regi-
mental coat, faced with red.
to the Assembly, giving an account of their organiza-
tion into companies, etc., and asking that provision
for their regular pay and subsistence should be made,
as well as steps taken for the defense of the water-
front of the city. The Assembly was practically de-
funct at this time, however, and the Governor and
Council, though they continued to meet until Decem-
ber, to look over accounts, appoint civil officers, etc.,
had really been devoid of executive power during the
entire year. Philadelphia at this time was in an
anomalous condition. It was under a royal govern-
ment which did not dare attempt to discharge any of
its functions or enforce any of its laws. It was under
a municipal government which scarcely ever looked
after the routine of watch, lamp, and street-cleaning
supervision. It was under a Governor and Council
who did nothing except attend to some border affairs,
and not even these until the volunteer committees had
been consulted, and an Assembly which simply prom-
ised to vote to do what it was ordered. A Congress
was in session within its limits which had no direct
authority except by popular consent, and did not,
except by consent, represent either the colonies
or the people, and yet was supreme, levied taxes,
raised armies, made war, and organized armies. In
Philadelphia the only power of the State resided in
a large and unwieldy committee, which had been
nominated by acclamation at a town meeting, and
only represented the mob. Yet it exercised executive
and legislative functions at one and the same time,
and in the freest manner, and was obeyed cheerfully
and implicitly by all, though it made many mistakes
from unwieldiness and inexperience.
Order was, however, soon to be evoked out of all
this chaos. Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadel-
phia from England on the evening of May 5th. He
was heartily welcomed by the citizens. The poets
sounded his praises in fustian verse; the harassed
leaders took him immediately into their counsels.
The Assembly was in session, and next morning, as
soon as Franklin's arrival was known, the first thing
that body did was to elect him delegate to the Conti-
nental Congress which was to meet next week. The
choice was a wise one, — Franklin was the man for such
an emergency. He was practical, matter-of-fact, had
immense business capacity, with an intimate knowl-
edge of details and infinite patience to look after them,
and he had moreover, unlike many around him, the
courage of his opinions. He knew that the die was
cast, that reconciliation was impossible, that the only
choice was independence or conquest, and he knew
that it was every one's duty to set to work to make
the best fight he could. He wrote to Dr. Priestly
almost as soon as he landed : " The breach is growing
wider, and is in danger of growing irreparable." So,
while he did not oppose the plan of Jay and Dickin-
son for sending a second address to the king, he did
not look for any important consequences from that
address, and took upon himself the responsibility of
298
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
elaborating a careful and complete system of defense
and government for Pennsylvania, of which he
speedily became the head. Franklin's work in Con-
gress and on errands upon which Congress sent him
has no rightful place in this narrative, important as
it was. But his work in the Committee of Safety of
Pennsylvania is really the history of the defense of
Philadelphia during the first year of the war, from
the British without and the lords proprietary within.
He took the bull of government by the horns and
substituted a compact, energetic committee for the
unwieldy Committee of Correspondence. That com-
mittee was the creation of the associators, and the
associators derived all their functions from a public
meeting, called by no one in particular, not represent-
ing any power in the State, but only the. mob of the
city. Franklin, in .advance of the general adoption
of his scheme by Congress as a good system to recom-
mend to all the colonies, got the Assembly to super-
sede the Committee of Correspondence and appoint
in its stead a Committee of Safety, with discretionary
powers, which, in a case of emergency, became vir-
tually dictatorial. This new committee thus had an
authoritative and responsible existence. It was ap-
pointed by the proper legislative body in the regular
manner. The first thing the Committee of Safety
did was to resolve, " that this House approves the
Association entered into by the good People of this
colony for the Defence of their Lives, Liberties, and
Property.'' Thus the acts of the Committee of Cor-
respondence were duly legalized, and the Committee
of Safety could take up their work and go on with it.
That work had been not badly done so far. The
committee had grasped their unexpected civil func-
tions with firm hands. They had ordered exportations
to Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Georgia —
colonies not in the Congress — to be suspended, and
had rigidly excluded imports. Blair McClenachan,
the largest importer in the city, except Robert Morris,
had been summoned before them, to explain a con-
signment of linen goods. When he had explained he
was exonerated, but his captain was denounced as
guilty of infamous conduct, and published as an
enemy to his country. The committee followed up
every suspected or mistrusted person in the commu-
nity very closely. They were so curious about Jo-
seph Galloway's incomings and outgoings at his place
of retirement, his seat of Trevose, that he was con-
strained to come out with a card " to the public,'' to
deny the " false reports industriously propagated"
against him, declare that he was " incapable of enter-
taining a thought inimical to the country where all I
hold dear and valuable is fixed, and where I am de-
termined to spend the remainder of my life," and to
deny categorically that he had any correspondence,
direct or indirect, with the British authorities or min-
istry.
But the associators wanted money, the Committee
of Correspondence had none to give them, and this
was the lever with which Franklin worked. The
Assembly had already been petitioned by citizens and
associators to appropriate fifty thousand pounds to
put the province in a state of defense, and the Com-
mittee of Correspondence wanted two thousand
pounds for their immediate necessities. That was
granted when the associators, who had an organiza-
tion in each ward of the city and every township in
the counties, asked to have these companies put upon
a regular militia footing, mustered in and given a
pay-roll. They also demanded extensive defensive
arrangements and the appointment of a new commit-
tee with discretionary powers. Joseph Beed signed
these resolutions as chairman of a sub-committee of
the Committee of Correspondence. George Gray,
chairman of another sub-committee, presented them.
On the 30th of June the Assembly passed the series
of resolutions which lodged the power of the State
in the hands of a Committee of Safety. These sanc-
tioned the work done by the association ; authorized
the Committee of Safety in case of invasion, or dan-
ger of it, from ships or armies, to employ the associa-
tors in actual service, the House providing for the
pay and necessary expenses of such service, such pay
not to exceed that given by Congress to the Continen-
tal forces. The House called on the city and coun-
ties to provide arms and equipments in quantities
proportioned to their resources ; to organize, arm, and
equip minute-men, and it resolved that effective meas-
ures should be taken to provide Philadelphia with
defenses against a naval attack. It offered twenty
pounds per hundred weight for good merchantable
saltpetre made within the province within three
months. " Besolved, that John Dickinson, George
Gray, Henry Wynkoop, Anthony Wayne, Benjamin
Bartholomew, George Ross, Michael Swope, John
Montgomery, Edward Biddle, William Edmunds,
Bernard Dougherty, Samuel Hunter, William Thomp-
son, Thomas Willing, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel
Boberdeau, John Cadwalader, Andrew Allen, Owen
Biddle, Francis Johnston, Bichard Reilley, Samuel
Morris, Jr., Robert Morris, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,
and Robert White, be a Committee of Safety for
calling forth such and so many of the associators
into Actual Service when Necessity requires, as the
said Committee shall judge proper. For paying and
supplying them with Necessaries while in Actual
Service. For providing for the Defence of this
Province against insurrection and invasion ; and for
encouraging and promoting the manufacture of Salt
Petre; which said Committee are hereby authorized
and empowered to draw orders on the Treasurer,
herein appointed, for the several purposes above men-
tioned." Seven of the committee were to be a quorum ;
thirty-five thousand pounds in bills of credit were to
be issued under the direction of George Gray, Wil-
liam Rodman, Joseph Parker, and Isaac Pearson,
committee, with Sharpe Dulany, Lambert Cadwalader,
Isaac Howell, James Mease, Adam Hubley, John
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
299
Benezet, Samuel Cadwalader Morris, Thomas Prior,
Godfrey Twells, John Mease, John Purviance, and
William Allen, '" or any three of them'' for signers ;
said bills to be delivered to Michael Hillegas, made
treasurer, who is to give bond in ten thousand pounds,
and to pay the drafts of the Committee of Safety out
of them. These bills were to be liquidated by a tax
on all estates, real and personal, in the province.
The Committee of Safety met July 3d, and Frank-
lin was unanimously chosen president, William Gov-
ett, clerk. It proceeded to business with the utmost
energy, meeting every morning (except Sunday) at
six o'clock, so that its sessions might not interfere
with those of Congress. It looked after more arms
and ammunition, appointed inspectors for such as
were in hand, sent for the tax commissioners and as-
sessors, went down to Red Bank with a committee of
engineers to select a site for a fort, appointed a com-
mittee on boats and machines for river defense, bought
all sorts of military materials, from flint brushes up
to pine-logs for the chevaux-de-frise, looked after med-
icines, hospitals, military prisons, etc., and set up
manufactures, in several places, of fire-arms, cannon,
gunpowder, shot, cannon-balls, etc., — seeking out
every activity and energy in the province, to enlist
them in the service of the public defense. Franklin's
hand is apparent throughout all these various opera-
tions. He was a master of detailed work.
Such a controlling hand and cool, sagacious head
were needed, for there were a thousand things to do,
and very little time to do them in. The general com-
mittee had much aid from the local committees, which
remained in existence for local executive purposes,
and to which new members were elected August 16th,
but the business of completing an effective organiza-
tion made severe demands upon the time of all. The
Committee of Safety had two sessions every day, and
the local committee sat every day. There were so
many things to be looked after, and so many points
to guard. Two prisoners, John McAllister and An-
drew Stuart, were in jail, under sentence of death,
for counterfeiting. In June their friends and con-
federates, a gang of twenty-five persons, attempted to
break into the jail and rescue them. As the door
could not be broken down, the desperate ruffians
forced their way into the cellar, and, finally, baffled
there, set fire to the buildings. The magistrates and
citizens hastened to the rescue, the flames were
extinguished, and some of the conspirators taken.
But this riot warned the committee to have a guard
stationed at the jail, in spite of whom, however,
McAllister contrived to escape, while Stuart coolly
walked out of the prison in the daytime, profiting
by the presence of the clergyman who had come to
pray with and prepare him for execution. In the
latter part of the same month the committee detected
the ship " Albion," of Liverpool, in an attempt to
discharge a cargo of salt, for the account of Henry
Cour and Nicholas Ashton. These Liverpool mer-
chants were forthwith published as enemies of Amer-
ica, and their salt sent back to them. A few weeks
later, and it would have been confiscated, as a matter
of course.
The Committee of Safety made the utmost efforts
at once to procure arms, ammunition, muskets, bayo-
nets, gunpowder, and saltpetre. During the first year
of the war these articles, and particularly gunpow-
der, were perilously scarce, not only in every colony,
but at the front. Seven or eight times Washington's
army at Boston had not more than twenty rounds of
ball cartridges apiece, and no cannon-powder.
The defense of the river front was a subject of as
anxious concern as that of arms, and many expedi-
ents were practiced until more elaborate devices could
be contrived. Franklin, who, for all his shrewdness,
was not without his "old granny" notions, recom-
mended the manufacture of a pike to arm the militia
with in lieu of muskets and bayonets, just as, a year
later, he wrote a serious letter to Gen. Charles Lee
advocating the regular employment by the army of
bows and arrows.1 The pike was used to some extent
on board the improvised Delaware flotilla, and, as its
bearers never encountered any enemy, its merits were
never tested. Besides the pikes, and the fort on Mud
Island, a boom was prepared for the river, and John
Wharton built a sort of gun-boat, which he called a
" Calevat" ; Emanuel Eyre another gun-boat, which
was named the " Bulldog." It was determined, in-
stead of using a boom, to obstruct the river with a
chevaux-de-frise of logs. At the same time a fleet of
gun-boats was ordered and built with remarkable ex-
pedition by the shipwrights. Eyre had the " Bull-
dog" afloat and in service in sixteen days, and Whar-
ton's " Experiment" was launched soon after. By
the middle of September the committee had a fleet
of thirteen gun-boats — of the gondola or galley sort
— in service. This navy, which was under com-
mand of the Committee of Safety, had Dr. Benjamin
Rush for its fleet surgeon ; Dr. Duflield, assistant ;
John Ross, mustermaster ; John Maxwell Nesbitt,
paymaster; Capt. Peter Syng, ship's-husband. The
boats cost five hundred and fifty pounds each, or
seven thousand one hundred and fifty pounds for the
fleet. They were propelled by sweeps, or oars, like
regular galleys, and each was manned by fifty-three
men, besides officers, and carried two howitzers, be-
sides swivels, muskets, and pikes. The vessels were
named, officered, and built as follows :
Name of Boat, Builder.
Captain.
Lieutenant.
Bulldog.
Emanuel Eyre.
A. Henderson.
John Webb.
Franklin.
Emanuel Eyre.
Nich. Biddle.
Thos. Houston.
Congress.
Emanuel Eyre.
J. Hamilton.
H. Montgomery.
Experiment.
John Wharton.
Allen Moore.
Benj. Thompson.
Washington.
John Whiirton.
Dougherty.
Nathan Boys.
Effingham.
Carroup & Fullerton.
Allen Moore.
John Hennessey.
Ranger.
Samuel Robbing.
J. Montgomery.
Gibbs Jones.
Chatham.
C. Alexander.
Robert Pomeroy.
Dickinson.
John Rice.
John Rice.
James Allen.
1 Sparks, "Franklin's Life and Works," vol. viii. 167.
300
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Name of Boat. Builder. Captain. Lieutenant
Burke. Warnock Coatea. James Blair. John Chatham.
Camden. — — ■ Sherlock. Richard Eyres. George Garland.
Warren. Marsh. Saml. Davidson. Jer. Simmons.
Hancock. William Williams. John Moulder. David Ford.
The fleet, however, according to Silas Dearie, cost
the province at the rate of £100,000 per annum, and
this was scarcely recouped to the Committee of Safety,
either in prizes or in security against the enemy.
The Committee of Safety dealt still more severely
and sternly than the Committee of Correspondence
had done with cases of disaffected persons or those
suspected of heing dangerous to the patriot cause.
The popular side no longer tolerated discussion.
Those who were not for it were counted enemies and
were watched, and liable to be violently suppressed
upon the slightest provocation. Major Skene, of the
British army, ventured to show himself in Philadel-
phia not long after Bunker Hill. He had come out
to take command of Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
and raise a regiment of loyal Americans. He was a
veteran soldier of the old school, had served in Flan-
ders, at Carthagena and Porto Bello ; at Culloden and
Martinique and Havana ; under Cumberland, Went-
worth, and Amherst; was a loyal and jovial three-
bottle man. He heard, en route, of the capture of
Ticonderoga, tried to slip into Philadelphia unno-
ticed, and was arrested and put under guard.1 Skene
was exchanged as a prisoner of war, but Tories to the
manner born were compelled to recant their errors
and confess. Amos Wickersham, for instance, made
his written confession (which was published) that he
had acted extremely wrong, for which he begged
pardon, in making use of rash and impudent expres-
sions with respect to the conduct of his fellow-citizens
" who are now engaged in a noble and patriotic strug-
gle against the arbitrary measures of the British minis-
try" ; Mordecai Levy was forced to declare in the same
way that his disrespectful speeches about Congress
proceeded from " the most contracted notions of the
British constitution and the rights of human nature.''
Better instructed, he asked pardon in the presence
of a large crowd in the college yard. Christopher
Marshall calls him " the Dutch butcher." John Ber-
gum confessed himself very much to blame for having
made use of expressions derogatory to the liberties of
the country, and promised to do better in the future.
Jabez Maud Pisher was brought before the people at
the Coffee-House and made to tell the name of the
person who wrote him a letter containing Tory senti-
ments; and Thomas Loosley was "exalted as a spec-
tacle" at the same place, and made to beg pardon for
having vilified Congress. There is a certain grim
humor in these punishments which all must have en-
joyed except the victims.
1 Graydon met him, after heing captured himself with the garrison
of Fort Washington, and received some civilities from him. He was a
BOldier of fortune perhaps above the average of such gentry, — very loyal
himself, he yet did not seem to regard it as a crime in the Americans to
take up arms in defense of their liberties.
The Committee of Safety placed upon its minutes
the regulations adopted by the Continental Congress
on July 18th for the enrollment of the militia, all
able-bodied, effective men between sixteen and sixty
being recommended immediately to form themselves
into regular companies of militia, consisting of one
captain, two lieutenants, one ensign, four sergeants,
four corporals, one clerk, one drummer, one fifer, and
about sixty-eight privates (eighty-three rank and
file) ; each company to choose its officers ; each sol-
dier to be furnished with a musket carrying an ounce
ball, bayonet, steel ramrod, worm, priming-wire with
brush, cutting-sword or tomahawk, a cartridge-box
with a capacity of twenty-three cartridges, twelve
flints, and a knapsack. The companies to be formed
into regiments or battalions, and all officers above the
rank of captain to be appointed by the Provincial
Assembly or convention, or (in their recess) by the
Committees of Safety appointed by said Assemblies.
The militia to be well drilled and supplied, each
man, with a pound of powder and four pounds of
ball ; one-fourth the militia in each colony to serve
as minute-men, always ready for a special call to ser-
vice ; people whose religious scruples forbid them to
bear arms are recommended " to contribute liberally,
in this time of universal calamity, to the relief of
their distressed brethren;" Assemblies to collect
stores of ammunition and provide arms ; colonies to
appoint Committees of Safety and provide coastwise
defenses at their own cost. These regulations the
Committee of Safety undertook to carry into effect.
They " borrowed" three thousand five hundred
pounds from the treasurer of the port-wardens, Peter
Peeve. They appointed Franklin, Andrew Allen,
Cols. Cadwalader, Wayne, Boss, and Roberdeau, and
Maj. Johnston a committee to draw up new rules and
regulations for the associators, who had become rather
unmanageable. These rules, adopted August 19th,
were avowedly framed to promote "just regularity,
due subordination, and exact obedience to command."
Under them officers were fined five shillings, and
privates and non-commissioned officers one shil-
ling, for swearing when on duty, disobedience of
orders to be punished by regimental courts-martial.
And the same provision was made against officers or
soldiers creating any disturbance, drawing on or strik-
ing a superior officer, or any person on duty, or using
insolent and indecent language, and various injuries
entitled officers or soldiers to a court-martial. The
duty of regular parade was not to be neglected, on
penalty of court-martial, drunkenness on duty pun-
ished with fine or censure, at the discretion of a court-
martial, and various other penalties were denounced
against several offenses of different classes, the con-
viction to be by court-martial, either general (thirteen
members) or regimental (seven members), and a two-
thirds vote was necessary to inflict penalties. No
penalty could be inflicted at the discretion of a court-
martial other than degrading, cashiering, or fining,
PHILADELPHIA DURING- THE REVOLUTION.
301
the fines for officers not to exceed three pounds, and
privates twelve shillings, for a single fault, these fines
to be used for relief of sick and wounded.
The Committee of Safety was so successful in col-
lecting, and afterwards in manufacturing gunpowder,
that it was able to lend some to the Continental army,
to New York, and to New Jersey. Lead was very
scarce, so that the leaden weights in the standing
clocks of Germantown were finally appropriated. A
premium was offered for saltpetre, and instructions
published in regard to the methods of manufacturing
it from offal, manure, tobacco, etc. The Committee
of Correspondence appointed Owen Biddle, George
Clymer, John Allen, James Mease, Lambert Cadwal-
ader, and Benjamin Rush a committee to superintend
a public saltpetre factory set up in a house on Market
Street. Thomas Paine made many experiments to-
wards improving and facilitating the nitre manufac-
ture, and so did many other individuals in a, private
way, — William Brown, Front Street, Southwark ;
Capt. William Davis, Front Street ; Andrew Porter,
Union Street; Jonathan Gostelowe, Hugh Howell,
Market Street ; Charles Pry er, Union Street; James
Sutton, Strawberry Street; William Maris, Water
Street; and Master Samuel Bryan, aged thirteen
years, who made half a pound of saltpetre. Blair
McClenachan, the prominent merchant, was very suc-
cessful in his attempt to produce nitre.
The new jail, Walnut and Sixth Streets, was turned
into a powder magazine and kept under regular guard,
but a new powder-house was established and the
powder moved into it in August, under charge of
Robert Towers, general agent for military stores.
The Committee of Safety adopted a seal, " about the
size of a Dollar, with a Cap of Liberty, and a motto :
This is my right and I will defend it, inscribed with
Pennsylvania, Committee of Safety, 1775." The
pay of the crews of the armed boats was fixed at
thirty dollars a month for the commodore, twenty
dollars for captain, twenty dollars for lieutenant ; sur-
geon, twenty dollars; surgeon's-mate, twelve dollars ;
gunner, twelve dollars; boatswain, eight dollars;
cook, six dollars; privates, six dollars; boys, four
dollars. The weekly ration was as follows :
Seven pounds bread or six pounds flour ; ten pounds
beef, mutton, or pork; sixpence' worth of roots or
vegetables ; salt and vinegar ; three and a half pints
of rum, or beer in proportion. Clement Biddle was
awarded the contract for furnishing this ration, at ten
and a half pence per ration per diem.
A permanent lookout scout was stationed at Lewes,
and pilots were warned not to bring any British armed
vessels up the bay. By October 1st the Committee of
Safety had spent £87,237 8s. 3d, and so reported to
the Assembly. Of this £20,300 was in remittances to
Europe for arms, ammunition, and medicine ; £8200,
spent at home for same purposes ; galleys, £7150 ;
chevaux-de-frise, £1700 ; arms, etc., bought or ordered,
about £26,000; pay-roll, £8000; freights, £4000; con-
tingent credits for arms, £10,000. What had been
accomplished was summed up in one of Joseph Reed's
letters to Washington: "Our coast is yet clear; we
are casting cannon ; and there is more saltpetre made
here than in all the provinces put together. Six pow-
der-mills are erecting in different parts. The two
near this city deliver two thousand five hundred
pounds per week."
Congress now called on Pennsylvania for a battalion
of Continental troops, and passed an order directing
Committees of Safety to detain and prevent the de-
parture of all persons likely to do injury to the patriot
cause. The battalion, recruited mainly in Philadel-
phia and Chester Counties, was officered as follows :
John Bull, colonel; James Irvine, lieutenant-colonel;
Anthony James Morris, major; William Allen, Jr.,
Jonathan Jones, William Williams, Josiah Harmar,
Marion LaMar, Thomas Dorsey, William Jenkins,
Austin Willett, captains ; Benjamin Davis, Samuel
Watson, Jacob Ashmead, Peter Hughes, Adam Hub-
ley, John Reece, Frederick Blankenbury, Richard
Stanley, lieutenants; Philip Cluinberg, Roger Stein er,
Jacob Ziegler, George Jenkins, Christian Staddle,
Thomas Rogerson, William Moore, Amos Wilkinson,
ensigns.
The order of arrest of persons not recognizing the
authority of Congress put a stop to an anomalous
condition of affairs, such as that of besieging the
king's troops in Boston and petitioning the king by
order of Congress in Philadelphia ; capturing British
soldiers at Ticonderoga and provisioning the British
man-of-war " Nautilus" in the Delaware. A good
many British officers who came in by accident, like
Skene, Etherington, and others, were released on
parole, and there was a great deal of illicit intercourse
between the opposing forces. In August, George
Schlosser, a committeeman, had stopped William
Conn, an avowed Tory, and taken from him some for-
bidden goods. Conn replevied the goods by advice
of his counsel, Isaac Hunt, who was forthwith sum-
moned before the Committee of Inspection. He was
arrogant and impudent, refused to discontinue the suit
or apologize, and the associators, angry and impatient,
determined to make an example of him. He was
seized, put in a cart, and drawn through the streets,
a drum and fife playing the " Rogue's March" before
him. With tact and prudence Hunt made his apolo-
gies, asked pardon, and put himself under the protec-
tion of the associators. The procession stopped in
front of the house of Dr. John Kearsley, Jr., a good
citizen, but bad tempered and a furious loyalist.
Frantic with rage at the spectacle before him, he
hoisted a window, drew a pistol, and snapped it at
the crowd. He was at once seized, disarmed, and, re-
sisting, was wounded by a bayonet in the hand.
Hunt was sent safely home, and the mad doctor
mounted on the cart in his stead, and made part of
the spectacle. Graydon graphically describes his
arrival in front of the City Tavern, and how, having
302
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
refused to beg pardon, " foaming with rage and indig-
nation, without his hat, his hair disheveled and bloody
from his wounded hand, the doctor stood up in the
cart and called for a bowl of punch. It was quickly
handed to him, when, so vehement was his thirst, that
he drained it of its contents before he took it from his
lips." Kearsley would not yield; the associators
would not permit him to be tarred and feathered, and
he was finally let go, to return to his house, where the
mob had broken the windows and done other damage.
Hunt left the country a confirmed Tory, and was
the father of Leigh Hunt, the poet and critic. Kears-
ley wrote an account of his wrongs to England, but
the letters, carried by one Christopher Carter, were
intercepted with others, and the consequence was that
Dr. Kearsley, Leonard Snowden, and James Brooks
were arrested and confined in the State-House under
guard. They were tried by the Committee of Safety,
and condemned as enemies. Kearsley was sent to
York as a prisoner, and died there during the war ;
Brooks was confined in Lancaster, and Snowden and
Carter were discharged.
The river was obstructed after September 9th with
the chevaux-de-frise, about forty vessels being allowed
to pass out before the last day of grace. A narrow,
intricate channel only was left, the secret of which
lay with two trusty pilots, who were in the pay of the
State, and whose duty it was to bring up vessels with
stores and ammunition, privateers, and other author-
ized craft. The buoys had all been removed from the
Delaware, and pilots were ordered to lay up their
boats except when on special service. To prevent
the enemy from coming up, fire- rafts were built and
a floating battery was constructed. In spite of the
exemptions in their favor made by Congress, the
Quakers, Mennonists, and Dunkards or German Bap-
tists objected to the general order of the enrollment
of the militia, and the former society memorialized
the Assembly on the subject, taking ground upon the
charter, which secured to them, they claimed, a par-
ticular immunity. The Dunkards and Mennonists
also sent in their memorials declining both- to bear
arms and be taxed, at least until it was decided who
was the rightful Caesar to whom they should yield
tribute.
These petitions were the signal for active hostilities
on the part of the patriots. The Committee of Cor-
respondence directed Thomas McKean, George Cly-
mer, Jonathan B. Smith, Benjamin Jones, Sharpe
Delany, John Wilcox, and Timothy Matlack to pre-
pare them a remonstrance, armed with which the
committee, sixty-two in number, marched two by two
to the State-House. The remonstrance thus pre-
sented denounced the Quaker address as having an
aspect unfriendly to the liberties of America and de-
structive of all society and government. "These
gentlemen," the remonstrance said, " want to with-
draw their persons and their fortunes from the ser-
vice of the country at a time when their country
stands most in need of them. If the patrons and
friends of liberty succeed in the present glorious
struggle, they and their posterity will enjoy all the
benefits to be derived from it equally with those who
procured them, without contributing a single penny.
If the friends of liberty fail they will risk no forfeit-
ures, but be entitled by their behavior to protection
and countenance from the British ministry, and will
probably be promoted to office. This they seem to
desire and expect." The privates and officers of the
association supported the remonstrance with addresses
of their own, expressed in vigorous terms, and de-
nouncing leniency to the lukewarm as a fatal mis-
chief. The Assembly could not resist the pressure of
public opinion, and in November passed resolutions
converting the associators into a regular militia,
making defensive service compulsory, and taxing all
non-associators £2 10s. above the regular assessment.
Washington was at first the commander-in-chief of
the Continental army and navy too. At Boston one
or two small vessels, acting under his directions,
brought several valuable prizes into Plymouth. In
October, however, Congress, inspired, it is probable,
by the successful example of Pennsylvania, resolved
to take measures to establish a Continental marine.
Two vessels, one of ten guns, the other of fourteen,
were authorized to be equipped as cruisers, and next
month two more, of twenty and thirty-six guns re-
spectively, were ordered to be fitted out. The Com-
mittee of Safety of Pennsylvania, thinking a cruiser
needed for their service, bought the ship "Sally," but
she was immediately sold again to the naval commit-
tee of Congress. She became either the " Alfred" or
the " Columbus," one of the two cruisers first sent to
sea by Congress, when that body shortly afterwards
resolved to build thirteeen frigates. Four of them
were undertaken in Philadelphia, the " Washington,"
thirty-two guns; "Eandolph," thirty-two ; "Effing-
ham," twenty-eight; and " Delaware," twenty-four.
The " Alfred" was commanded by Dudley Salton-
stall ; the " Columbus," by Abraham Whipple ; the
brig "Andrew Doria," by Nicholas Biddle ; the brig
" Cabot," by John B. Hopkins ; and the brig " Lex-
ington," by Capt. John Barry. This fleet and all the
rest of the Continental navy was put under command
of Commodore Esek Hopkins. John Adams, a mem-
ber of the marine committee of Congress, said that
Capt. Hopkins was appointed from Providence, one
vessel in the fleet being named for his town, and he
was the brother of Governor Hopkins. " Alfred" was
in honor of the founder of the British navy, "Colum-
bus" for the discoverer of America, " Cabot" for the
discoverer of Newfoundland, and "Andrew Doria"
for the great Genoese admiral. Capt. John MacPher-
son, the old privateersman, who was now living in re-
tirement, and rich, at his seat of Mount Pleasant (first
called Clunie), opposite Belmont, besieged Congress
for the command given to Esek Hopkins, and de-
clared that it had been promised to him by Randolph,
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
303
Hopkins, and Rutledge. This is scarcely probable ;
though, as he was persistent in lobbying and in din-
ing and wining members, some may have said " Yes,"
to get rid of him. But he could hardly have had
such a promise in October, for in November we find
he has been pursuing Washington with the same ob-
ject in view. On the 8th of that month Washington
wrote to Reed from Cambridge, " I have been happy
enough to convince Captain MacPherson, as he says,
of the propriety of returning to the Congress, — he sets
out this day, — and I am happy in his having an op-
portunity of laying before them a scheme for the
destruction of the naval force of Great Britain."
MacPherson's " plan" was never accepted, though he
proposed to carry it out at his own expense.1
John Paul Jones was the first lieutenant aboard
the "Alfred," under Esek Hopkins, and it is said
that his hand was the first to hoist an American
flag aboard an American vessel, in Philadelphia, in
December, 1775. Capt. Schuyler Hamilton, in his
" History of the American Flag," says that this en-
sign was a rattlesnake coiled upon a yellow ground,
with the motto " Don't tread on me." Sherburne
("Life of Paul Jones") says the field consisted of
thirteen red and blue stripes, and the rattlesnake was
not coiled, but running. Cooper claims a pine-tree,
with the snake coiled about its roots. A letter pre-
served by Force, in the " American Archives," says
that the American flag was first hoisted at sea, De-
cember 3d, on the " Black Prince." The emblem of
the rattlesnake was a colonial thought, often em-
ployed before the Revolution, to warn the mother-
country that the colonies would resist if the attempt
were made to impose on them. It was figuratively
used in Franklin's Pennsylvania Oazette as early as
1 MacPherson was probably superannuated and tiresome. One of bis
sons, Capt. William, was adjutant in the Sixteenth British Infautry.
He offered to resign, and when his regiment came to this country, in
1779, Clinton permitted him to do so, but would not let him sell hie com-
mission. He was afterwards made major in the American army and
rose to be brigadier-general. Capt. John MacPherson, Jr., an associator,
was on the patriot side from the first, went to the front, was a volunteer
in the expedition to Canada, and fell by Montgomery's side in the attack
upon Quebec, — the first Philadelpliian of consequence killed during the
war. The night before hie death he wrote a letter to his father saying
that, should he fall, " I could wish my brother did continue in the service
of my country's enemiefl." MacPherson, Sr., tired of Mount Pleasant
during the war, and sold it in 1779 to Benedict Arnold, who deeded it, in
an ante-nuptial settlement, to Miss Peggy Shippen, soon afterwards his
wife. Capt MacPherson was an oddity. He invented curious machines,
lectured on astronomy, was a ship-broker, editor of a price current, and
publisher of the first directory of Philadelphia, probably the most literal
book .ever published, for whatever answer the captain's canvassers got
at the houses where they called, that answer the captain put down, and
thus recorded no end of members of the "I won't tell you" family among
his I's, and the "What you pleases" among his W'a, to say nothing of
"Cross Woman" under C, and empty houses where no answer could be
got. In 1785 the captain advertised himself as the inventor of " an ele-
gant cot, which bids defiance to everything but Omnipotence. No bed-
bug, mosquito, or fly can possibly molest persons who sleep in it." In
March, 1792, he notified Congress that he had discovered an infallible
method of ascertaining the longitude, and wished to be sent out as envoy
to the king of France, " our good ally," to announce the fact. He died
Sept. 6, 1792, and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard.
1751 ; in 1754 the figure of the severed snake and the
motto, " Unite or die," were used to insist upon the
necessity of colonial union against the French and
Indians, and in 1775 this snake was made the head of
the Pennsylvania Journal, and the idea of the resem-
blance between the colonies and the rattlesnake was
iiiiiijlllJlilimiiiimmmiiiiimiihllllilll
G m m
UNITE
OR DIE.
often brought up in the newspapers. Paul Jones'
flag may have been Franklin's own contrivance. It
was fierce enough to suit a half-pirate like Jones.
But Capt. John Barry, of Philadelphia, in the
" Lexington," first put to sea on, a regularly commis-
sioned national vessel for a regular cruise. This was
in December, 1775. The fleet all sailed, but the others
were caught and detained in the ice for six weeks,
leaving the capes on Feb. 17, 1776. When they sailed,
says a contemporary account, it was " under a display
of the union flag, — thirteen stripes in the field, em-
blematic of the thirteen colonies."2
The first prisoners of war confined in Philadelphia
were received in October. They had been wrecked
on Brigantine Beach, N. J., in the ship " Rebecca and
Frances," and were captured by the people of New
Jersey. The sailors were English, and besides them
there were Capt. Duncan Campbell, Lieut. Symms,
two servants, and twenty-one privates, on their way
to New York. They were sent to the old prison,
Third and Market Streets. Peyton Randolph, late
President of Congress, died on October 22d, at the
house of Benjamin Randolph, a carpenter, living on
Chestnut Street, with whom the Virginia members
had their headquarters, and Randolph and Jefferson
lodged. The body was taken to Christ Church, where
a funeral discourse was preached by Dr. Duch6, and
it was then carried to the burying-ground at Fifth
and Arch Streets, followed by a simple but impos-
ing procession, the associators and rifle and artillery
companies taking part, with members of Congress,
the Assembly, and the Committees of Safety and
Correspondence.
2 John Barry was born in Tacumshane, Wexford County, Ireland, in
1745, and went to sea very young. He came to Philadelphia at the age
of fifteen, and soon rose to the command of a ship, and accumulated
wealth. When the war commenced he offered his services to Congress,
" abandoning," to use his own language, " the finest ship and the first
employ in America." He soon acquired great distinction, and after the
foundation of the present United States navy, June 6, 1794, Barry wa8
named as the senior officer, and became the first commodore, in which
station he died at Philadelphia, Sept. 13, 1803.
304
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Charles Thomson, Samuel Ehoads, Henry Pawling,
and Israel Jacobs were not re-elected to the Assembly
this year; the first, because his duties to Congress
absorbed all his time; the others, because younger
and more active patriots were sought. The Assembly,
in re-electing the Committee of Safety, made but few
and inconsiderable changes.
In the latter part of November, " Lady Washing-
ton'' came to Philadelphia on her way to the camp
at Cambridge. The general-in-chief had sent an ex-
press for her, because the friends of the ministry said
%y<7^*^** /£?/!
-T-)
that she was loyal and had separated from him in con-
sequence of his treason. She was met at the Schuyl-
kill ferry by the troop of light horse and officers of
the other companies and escorted into the city. It
was proposed to give her a ball, but, as Congress had
recommended the people to abstain from " vain
amusements," the Assembly programme met with
opposition, and threats were even made to attack the
City Tavern if it came off. Samuel Adams was con-
spicuous in his efforts to prevent the entertainment,
he and Harrison, of Virginia, having high words on
the subject. The Committee of the City and Liberties
(local committee of correspondence) was urged to act
and prevent the expected disturbances. With but one
dissenting voice it was agreed, after due deliberation,
that no ball should be held in Mrs. Washington's
honor, nor any other in the future while the existing
troubles continued. A delegation was appointed to
notify the managers of the ball of this determination,
and to request Mrs. Washington not to attend, at the
same time expressing the great regard and affection
of the committee for her, and "' requesting her to ac-
cept of their grateful acknowledgment and respect
due to her upon account of her near con-
nection with our worthy and brave gen-
eral, now exposed on the field of battle
ill defense of our rights and liberties."
Mrs. Washington received the committee
with great politeness, thanked them for
their esteem and concern for her welfare,
and assured them that the desires of the
committee were agreeable to her own sen-
timents. Two days later she left for Cam-
bridge under an escort of associators.
In January, 1776, the Committee of
Inspection detected tea in Philadelphia
which had been brought from New York.
Notice was given that any more such tea
found would be sent back. The commit-
tee bad been invested with discretionary
powers in regard to the admission of such
articles for sale and their prices. There
was much complaint of engrossing and
forestalling, and the committee deter-
mined to arrest the efforts of monopolists
by establishing an arbitrary scale of prices,
— rum, 4s. 6d. per gallon, by the hogs-
head ; molasses, 2s. ; coffee, lltf. per pound,
by the bag; cocoa, £5 per thousand;
chocolate, Wd. per pound ; pepper, 5s. per
pound, by the quantity ; loaf-sugar, 14d
per pound; lump-sugar, lOd. per pound;
Muscovado, 65s. per hundredweight ; Lis-
bon salt, 4s. per bushel ; Liverpool salt,
5s. per bushel ; Jamaica spirits, 5s. 6d.
per gallon. Persons violating these prices
were to be " exposed by name to public
view as sordid vultures," preying on the
vitals of the country. Congress, it was
said, when these prices were set, ought to open trade
: with the countries from which the people had been
' getting their supplies, and Congress accepted the sug-
gestion by determining that goods might be exported
\ to any country except Great Britain, and imported
from every country except Great Britain and the East
! Indies. The importation of slaves was forbidden. The
effect of this was to vacate the powers of the Commit-
' tee of Inspection and make trade free, as far as regu-
lation of prices was concerned.
In other respects, however, their authority was ex-
ercised freely, and published recantations attested
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
305
the efficiency of their discipline. In March, Herr
Juncken was forced to ask pardon publicly and of his
own free-will ; in April, William Sitgreaves and Peter
Ozeas apologized for asking extortionate prices. All
these apologies were couched in the humblest lan-
guage. Capt. McCutcheon was sent to prison for
offering to bribe a pilot to bring the man-of-war
"Asia" from the Narrows to the Delaware; Arthur
Thomas was mobbed for cursing Congress; Thomas
Lightfoot and Mingo, of Germantown, were
compelled to answer before the people for their trans-
gressions; Thomas Rogers (of Elbow Lane), Joseph
Sermon (of Second Street), Benjamin Sharpless (tan-
ner), Townsend Speakman (druggist), John Drinker
(hatter), Thomas Fisher, and Samuel Pisher (of
Joshua Fisher & Sons) were " proclaimed enemies to
their country, and precluded from all trade or inter-
course with the inhabitants," for refusing to take
Continental currency.
These offenders were chiefly Quakers, their society
being in strong antagonism to the popular cause.
The Yearly Meeting issued its " Ancient Testimony"
on Jan. 20, 1776, signed by John Pemberton, clerk,
a very loyal address, counseling the members of the
society not to be shaken in their allegiance, but to
unite firmly against every design of independence.
Thomas Austin, a member of the Committee of In-
spection, became disaffected, was examined before
the Committee of Safety, and resigned his seat, while
protesting his fidelity to the cause. Joshua Fisher
& Son's goods, which had been seized, were sold at
auction, and bought by the Committee of Safety.
This firm had almost a monopoly of salt, which they
imported, and held so high that Congress was com-
pelled to require the Committee of Inspection to set
a maximum price.
In January one hundred and five prisoners were
transferred from the old prison to the new one, at
Walnut and Third Streets. They comprised felons,
debtors, prisoners-of-war, and Tories, and six of them
broke jail the night after their transfer. Among the
Tories was Henry Sylvester Price, locked up for
speaking profanely of Congress and wishing the Con-
tinental powder-wagons would blow up, Dr. John
Smith, the notorious Dr. Connolly (Lord Dunmore's
agent), Allen Cameron, Gen. Donald McDonald, chief
of the North Carolina Tories, Col. Allen McDonald,
and twenty-five more of their set, Col. Moses Kirk-
land, a South Carolina Tory, captured at sea by
Washington's privateersman Capt. Manley, and the
British Gen. Prescott, removed from the City Tavern
and kept close prisoner in jail on account of the ill
treatment bestowed on Ethen Allen and other Conti-
nental soldiers captives in Canada. The hardships
endured by these captives in the Philadelphia jail
were palliated by the assistance they received from
the " Society for the Relief of Distressed Prisoners,"
which systematized relief and gathered up contribu-
tions of food and other articles for their comfort.
20
In February, 1776, Congress directed a solemn
commemoration of the death of Gen. Montgomery
at the State-House and the German Calvinist Church,
where a discourse on the death of the brilliant young
soldier was pronounced by Rev. Dr. William Smith
before the members of Congress, the Assembly,
mayor and corporation, City Committees, associ-
ators, and military. The address was so unpopular
— John Adams styled it " an insolent performance"
— that Congress refused to publish it.
Governor Ward, a delegate in Congress from Caro-
lina, died at this time of smallpox, and was buried in
the Baptist churchyard.
May 17th was kept as a fast day by direction of
Congress. The Quakers did not close their stores,
but the committees issued handbills forbidding the
people to molest them. There was a petition pre-
sented to the Assembly in April in favor of liberat-
ing negro slaves. The Society for Promoting Amer-
ican Manufactures applied to the Assembly for aid,
having seven hundred spinners, weavers, and bleach-
ers in their employment. Their efforts were ob-
structed by the high price of flax, and they asked
the Assembly to introduce a system of bounties " on
the Dublin plan." A new labor-saving spinning-
wheel was also recommended to favor, and the As-
sembly made some provision for its introduction and
more extensive use. The House also granted small
bounties to John Marshall, a thread-maker, for a
twisting- and throwing-mill, and also to Christopher
Tally and Joseph Hague. A proposition to manu-
facture salt at the sea-shore was made by Thomas
Savage, if the Assembly would give him an advance
of twelve hundred pounds to set up his vats and
machinery, and a manufactory for paper-hangings
and playing-cards was at this time started by Ed-
ward Ryves, paper-stainer, in Pine Street.
The Committee of Safety was burdened with a throng
of multifarious and arduous duties at this period, and
their minutes, as they appear in the "Colonial Rec-
ords," are a curiosity. There were military, naval,
civil, and executive duties of the highest import-
ance all devolving on the committee at once. Am-
munition and arms were still deficient in supply and
far below the urgent demands for them. The Secret
Committee of Congress bargained in January to pay
Oswald Eve and George Loesch to manufacture gun-
powder for them at eight dollars per hundredweight,
Congress supplying the nitre. The committee not
only distributed directions for making saltpetre by
means of handbills, but also appointed Henry Der-
ringer and Marshall Edwards to instruct the citizens
of Philadelphia in the process, and offered to make
advances of one hundred and fifty pounds each to
persons establishing powder-mills within fifty miles
of the city, supplying the saltpetre likewise. The
mills proposed to be erected in consequence of this
bounty were two by George Loesch, one by Dr. Rob-
ert Harris, one by Henry Huber, one by John Flack,
306
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
one by Thomas Heinberger, one by William Thomp-
son, and one by Dr. Van Leer. The mills of Harris,
Huber, Loesch, and Heinberger went into operation.
The Assembly provided a public powder-mill besides,
and Congress erected a Continental powder-mill on
French Creek, in Chester County. Numerous at-
tempts were made at the same time to secure sup-
plies of sulphur from native sources. The Com-
mittee of Safety, acting on the suggestion of Louis
Nicola, had a new powder-magazine built in April,
with a capacity of one thousand barrels. The build-
ers were Isaac Coats and William Melcher, and the
site was west side of Fourth Street, opposite the bar-
racks. The furnaces of Morgan Busteed, Benjamin
Loxley, Samuel Potts, Thomas Rutter, that of James
Old, at Reading, and the Warwick and Hibernia fur-
naces in New Jersey were engaged to manufacture
cannon. It was a long while, however, before these
experiments in casting succeeded, and Congress lent
guns to Pennsylvania.
The province
had a gunlock-fac-
tory in Cherry St.,
near Third, superintended by Maj. Meredith; Capt.
Wilcocks, Capt. Peters, and Peter De Haven, and
Joshua Tomlinson were paid fifty pounds to set up
a mill for boring gun-barrels and making the process
public. In May people were requested to bring in all
the lead they had to Commissary Towers, who was
authorized to pay sixpence a pound for it.
The Committee of Safety had a survey made of the
Delaware, with a view to its more extensive fortifica-
tion. Leave was obtained from New Jersey to con-
struct works on that side of the river ; a permanent
fort was determined upon at Billingsport; the fort at
Fort Island was hurried to completion, and it was
decided to fortify Liberty Island, the work being
undertaken by Robert Allison and George Worrell-
A boom was stretched between two piers, and addi-
tions made to the chevaux-de-frise by Arthur Donald-
son, John Cobourn, and John Rice. To the naval
flotilla were added the floating-battery " Arnold," the
ship-of-war "Montgomery," the fire-ship " iEtna,"
and some guard-boats for Philadelphia harbor.
This force soon had a chance to show its mettle. On
May 6th, news came by express from Fort Penn that
two war-ships, a schooner, and three tenders were
coming up the river. The Committee of Safety
ordered the gun-boat flotilla, and the "Montgomery"
and " iEtna," under command of Commodore Andrew
Caldwell and Capt. James Reed, to attack the enemy.
His vessels were the frigate " Roebuck," forty-eight,
Capt. Hammond, the sloop-of-war "Liverpool,"
twenty-eight, Capt. Bellew, and their tenders. Capt.
Procter, in command of the fort at Fort Island,
volunteered for the fight with one hundred of his
men, and served on board the " Hornet." The
" Montgomery," the Continental ship " Reprisal,"
Capt. Wickes, and the battery "Arnold," Capt. Sam-
uel Davidson, remained near the chevaux-de-frise, in
a line with the forts ; the boats went down the river
to the mouth of Christiana Creek, coming up with
the enemy on the afternoon of May 8th. Fire was
opened on both sides at once and was maintained with
spirit until dark.
The "Roebuck"
ran ashore and
careened, the
" Liverpool"
came to anchor
to cover her, the
province boats
withdrew for
more ammuni-
tion. During
this engage-
ment the Conti-
nental schooner
"Wasp," Capt.
Alexander, which had been chased into Wilmington,
came out and captured an English brig belonging to
the squadron. The fire-ship was not brought into
use, and before morning the " Roebuck" was afloat.
The flotilla renewed the attack at five o'clock in the
morning, the ships retired, and the Philadelphia navy
pursued them as far as New Castle. The officers of the
flotilla complained grievously of the supplies furnished
them by the Committee of Safety ; they were defective
in quality aud deficient in quantity ; the powder was
bad, the men had to cut up their clothes and equip-
ments to make the cartridges serviceable, and there
were many other defects, so that the officers threw
the whole blame of their failure upon the committee.
The Assembly investigated the matter, however, and
exonerated the committee. The American loss was
one killed and two wounded ; the British lost one killed
and five wounded, and the engagement was palpably
not at close quarters. The flotilla people, however,
brought up some splinters from the enemy's ships to
exhibit at the Coffee-House, and the " Roebuck" and
"Liverpool" returned to their stations at Cape May,
depending upon New Jersey for poultry aud fresh
provisions.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE BE VOLUTION.
307
Congress and the province were admonished by
this skirmish to increase their navies; the Committee
of Safety added to the galleys and other vessels named
the sloops "Sally," Capt. Martin Wirt; "Salaman-
der," Charles Lawrence ; schooner " Lydia," James
Simpson ; the " Porcupine," Robert Tatnall ; " Brim-
stone," Capt. William Watkins ; and " Vulture,"
Capt. Greenaway, guard-boats ; the sloop " Hetty,"
Capt. Henry Hoover; "Eagle," Capt. Jacob Haull;
and " Terror," Capt. Robert Hardie. There were the
fire-rafts besides, commanded by Capt. John Hazle-
wood. The whole force was seven hundred and forty-
three men. Commodore Caldwell resigned command
of the flotilla soon after the fight with the frigates,
and Samuel Davidson was appointed ; hut this led to
such opposition from other officers that he never took
command, and was shortly afterwards dismissed the ser-
vice, not, it appears, from
any demerits of his own,
but because of the jealous-
ies of rival officers.
The Committee of Safety
organized a system of priva-
teers and letters of marque
at this time, with the sanc-
tion of Congress, crea-
ting a Court of Admiralty
(George Ross, judge; Mat-
thew Clarkson, marshal ;
Andrew Robinson, regis-
ter), and before July there
had been commissioned the
brig " Hancock," twelve
guns, Wingate Newman
commander; the "Con-
gress," six guns, Capt. John
Kaye, with a crew of
thirty men ; and the sloop
" Chance," six guns and
thirty-four men, Captain
James Robertson. These
two last-named vessels had
already gone out with letters of marque, and were now
formally commissioned. In May they took three valu-
able ships from Jamaica bound to London, with large
cargoes of mm, sugar, and molasses, 22,420 pieces of
eight, 187 ounces of plate, and a fine turtle, intended
to be presented to Lord North. The president of Con-
gress received this tortoise. The privateer "Con-
gress" captured the schooner " Thistle" ; the privateer
"Franklin," of Philadelphia, took a British storeship
with seventy-five tons of gunpowder and one thousand
stand of arms; the ship "Lexington," Capt. Barry,
captured the tender " Edward" ; the " Wasp," Capt.
Alexander, took the schooner "Betsy." Meantime,
the "Roebuck" and "Liverpool," with their tenders,
made many captures of vessels about the Delaware
Capes, chasing others ashore.
Two more battalions, the Fourth and Fifth, were
m .:
added to the forces of the associators. The latter was
a "shirt" or rifle battalion, commanded by Col.
Timothy Matlack ; Daniel Clymer, lieutenant-colonel ;
Lawrence Herbert, George Miller, majors. Thomas
McKean was colonel of the Fourth Battalion. Drafts
of men under marching orders were made from the
associators as soon as news came of Clinton's arrival
in New York, and the men showed great eagerness to
go to the front. The associators were at this time
petitioning the Assembly to protect their interests
more effectually, allow them compensation for expen-
ditures and lost time and cease discriminating in favor
of the non-associators, who really contributed nothing
to the cause. The Assembly was, however, tardy to
respond, beyond regulating rank and precedence, and
acquiring non-associators to surrender their arms.
The Assembly thought the opposition to the cause
ought to be conciliated, —
the result was that in a few
weeks they found the great
body of the associators ar-
rayed against them.
The four battalions raised
for Continental service were
organized and officered in
js I January : John Shee1 (of
Philadelphia), Anthony
Wayne (of Chester), Ar-
thur St. Clair (of West-
moreland), and Robert Ma-
gaw were elected colonels;
Lambert Cadwalader and
William Allen (of Phila-
delphia), Francis Johnston
and Joseph Penrose, lieu-
tenant-colonels ; and Jo-
seph Wood, Nicholas Hau-
seger, George Nagel, and
Henry Bicker, majors. The
First Battalion, Col. Bull,
six hundred and eighty
strong, was in January or-
dered to march to Canada. Col. Bull resigned on ac-
count of difficulties with his officers, and John Philip
De Haas was appointed colonel in his stead.
The Committee of Safety, in February, applied to
the Assembly to raise a force of two thousand men
for the defense of the province, but the House re-
solved on fifteen hundred men, comprising two bat-
talions of rifles and one of musketeers. Samuel Miles
was made colonel of both rifle battalions, the com-
mand of the musketmen being given to John Cad-
walader, who declined, desiring command of the First
1 Col. John Shee was a prominent merchant of Philadelphia at the
breaking out of the war, and rendered distinguished service during the
Revolution. He was treasurer of the city from 1790 to 1802, and briga-
dier-general commanding the Kepublican Legion. From 1802 to 1805 he
was flour inspector, and in 1807 was collector of the port, and probably
died while in office.
308
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Battalion. Samuel Miles was born at White Marsh,
Montgomery Co., Pa., in 1739. His grandfather was
a native of Wales. In his sixteenth year Samuel
Miles joined a company of militia and took part
in the defense of Northampton County against the
depredations of hostile Indians. For his gallantry
displayed upon this occasion the Governor com-
missioned him an ensign in the Pennsylvania forces.
He was three years in active service, during which
time he was advanced to the command of his com-
pany, and he was only once slightly wounded. At
the close of the war he married Catharine, daughter
of John Wistar, and entered into commercial pur-
suits in Philadelphia. When the Eevolutionary war
began he was among the first to show his patriotic
ardor, and, during that great struggle, performed dis-
tinguished service, and was promoted to brigadier-
general. Gen. Miles was
deputy quartermaster -gen-
eral for Pennsylvania, and
in 1783 was appointed one
of the judges of the High
Court of Errors and Ap-
peals. He was an alderman
of Philadelphia, a member
of the Colonial and State
Legislatures, and in 1790
mayor of the city. In Oc-
tober, 1805, he was elected
member of Assembly, took
sick at Lancaster, and died at
his seat, Cheltenham, Mont-
gomery Co., Dec. 29, 1805,
aged sixty-six years. Gen.
Miles was a zealous Baptist,
and took an active interest
in everything that tended to
advance that religious de-
nomination.
Samuel Atlee, of Lan-
caster, was appointed com-
mander of the musketmen ; Emmor Williams was
made lieutenant-colonel, and James Potts and John
Patton, majors of the rifle battalions; Caleb Parry,
]ieutenant-colonel of the musketmen ; Ludwick
Sprogel, mustermaster, and John Maxwell Nesbitt,
paymaster, of all the Pennsylvania forces. Among
the regulations was a fine of thirty to fifty dollars for
harboring deserters, imprisonment if not paid; and
an allowance to inn-keepers of sixpence per meal to
marching soldiers; each man to have a pint of cider.
The rifle battalions were marched in June to Sus-
sex, Del., to hold the Tories there in check; and four
companies of the musketmen were detailed for service
as city guards. The associators wanted Congress to
station a Continental general and a few Continental
battalions in the city, and named Gen. Mifflin as their
favorite. At this time Congress resolved to have
formed a flying camp of ten thousand men to serve
GEN. SAMUEL MILES.
until December 1st, six thousand being apportioned
to Pennsylvania, three thousand four hundred to
Maryland, and six hundred to Delaware. For the
command of this force Maryland was to appoint one
brigadier-general and Pennsylvania two. The pri-
vates of the associators asked Congress, when this
resolution was made public, to give them officers whom
they could trust. They had not had entire confidence
in the Committee of Safety since the " Eoebuck" affair,
and they wanted to elect their own officers, there
being many members of Assembly notoriously hostile
to military defense, and to measures necessary for the
defense of the people. Such a Legislature ought not
to be trusted with the appointment of general to com-
mand the associators. This position, boldly taken,
was resolutely maintained ; the delegates of the as-
sociators met in convention at Lancaster, fifty-three
battalions being represented,
and Daniel Koberdeau and
James Ewing were elected
brigadier-generals. "The as-
sociators kept up their dig-
nity with great resolution,
and would allow of no con-
tempt of their authority. In
April they compelled one
John Webb, who had been
guilty of trampling upon a
copy of their articles of asso-
ciation signed by the officers
of the Fourth Battalion, to
publicly beg pardon for his
transgression ; and Jacob
Reith, having endeavored to
prevent persons from signing
the articles of association or
payi ng their fines for neglect,
was compelled to humble
himself in a similar man-
ner. Thomas Lightfoot, of
Germantown, for speaking
disrespectfully of Congress, of the associators, and of
the Continental currency, was brought to a knowledge
of his error by like means."1
On May 27th the troops then in the city were re-
viewed on the commons by Gens. Washington, Lee,
and Mifflin. There were four associated battalions,
the light horse, and three companies of artillery, in
all nearly two thousand five hundred men, and two
Continental battalions besides. The review was wit-
nessed by the members of Congress and a large num-
ber of spectators, among whom were thirty Indians
belonging to the Six Nations.
There is a close connection between the events
leading to the Declaration of Independence and those
which led to the overthrow of the charter government
in Pennsylvania. The same men who strove for the
1 Westcott, "History of Philadelphia," chapter ccxxvii.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
309
overthrow of the proprietary government, struggled
also to hasten the Declaration ; the same class of men
who opposed the one were hostile to the other. A
few members, like Reed, favored the Declaration and
the modification of the powers of the Assembly with-
out favoring the entire overthrow of the charter. A
few, like Dickinson, were ardent Whigs and true pa-
triots, yet did not like changes, and were persuaded
that the people could get security for all their rights
without upsetting the existing forms.
All these things and many more concerns of the
future had been actively discussed in private for many
weeks, when Thomas Paine broke the ice with his
pamphlet of "Common Sense."1
1 The country has not dealt fairly by Thomas Paine. They have been
willing to bury even Benedict Arnold's leg, shot off at Saratoga, with the
honors of war; but they have never been able to divorce Thomas Paine,
author of "Common Sense" and "The Crisis," from Thomas Puiue, author
of the " Age of Eeason." History has nothing to do with the latter, but
it cannot neglect the former without lessening its own dignity. Paine
was an unpleasant fellow, to be sure, not particularly high in principle,
truthful, or decent; he was not well bred, nor had he either the instincts
or the feelings of a gentleman. At the same time, he was not near so
depraved and Bcandalous a reprobate as Wilkes, nor more of a drunkard
than Pitt, nor were his fanatical ravings worse than Burke's, or his man-
ners so coarse and indecent as Johnson's. Paine's parents were Quakers,
his father a staymaker, and he was born at Thetford, Norfolk, Jan. 29,
1736, received a scant grammar schooling, and then was given his father's
trade. At twenty he was a staymaker, who had been to sea in a priva-
teer; at twenty-five he had a wife and a place as gauger in the excise;
at thirty-two he had married his second wife, was grocer, tobacconist,
exciseman, member of and debater in a Whig club in Lewes, and an
occasional poet of the Gentleman's Magazine. He lost his place in the
revenue in consequence of complicity with smuggling practices, it is
said; at any rate, he was dismissed, and he and his wife separated at the
same time, by mutual consent. He went up to London, an adventurer,
met Franklin, and was by him advised to come to this country, where,
accordingly, he arrived in Philadelphia in the beginning of 1775, at once
finding employment as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine or American
Monthly Museum, at a Balary of £25 (currency) a year. The publisher
was Robert Aitken, a Scotch printer and bookseller, who had come to
Philadelphia in 1769. Aitken took the popular side during the Revolu-
tion, and came near going to the New York prison-ship. The Magazine
ran from January, 1775, till June, 1776; it had Francis Hopkiuson and
Dr. WitherBpoon among its contributors, and in Aitken 's shop Paine
met Dr. Rush and others of the literary quidnuncs of Philadelphia. On
Jan. 15, 1776, Paine's pamphlet of " Common Sense" was published, for
which he received very little direct pay. The Legislature, however,
voted him £500, the college gave him the degree of M.A., lie volun-
teered in the army, served Congress for two years, as secretary of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, being dismissed for disclo-ing the secret
of Beaiimarcliais1 relations to the government, and the spuriousness of
Silas Deane'B claims. In 1780 he became clerk to the Assembly of Penn-
sylvania; in 1781 he went out with Col. Laurens on his mission to
Europe to obtain a foreign loan, returning with two and a half millions;
in 1782 his "Letter to Abbe Raynal" was published, and in 1787 he re-
turned to England, with hiB model for an iron bridge. Here lie pub-
lished his "Rights, of Man," in reply to Burke's Reflections on the
French Revolution ; and in 1794, while a prisoner in the Luxembourg,
the first part of his "Age of Reason" appeared; the second in 1796. lie
died very wretchedly in 1819, at New Rochelle, where the Legislature
of New York had given him a farm of three hundred acres. Congress
had voted him three thousand dollars for hiB services. His pen was the
most vigorous and had the most practical force of any wielded during
the Revolution. He took in a situation at a glance, and wrote of it in a
common-sense way, ao that the people found or fancied themselves utter-
ing their own private thoughts. There never have been more_ effective
"tracts for the times" published than the nineteen numbers of "The
Crinis," the first appearing Dec. 19, 1776; the last, April 19, 1783. His
faults aB a writer were those of bis character, — vanity, intemperance, and
a degree of recklessness. His meritB were'1 very great. He had the art of
This pamphlet was published by Robert Bell, book-
seller in Third Street. Bell was a Scotchman, who
had been bookseller in Dublin for several years, hav-
ing George Alexander Stevens for his partner. He
came to Philadelphia in 1766, first setting out as book
auctioneer. In 1772 he reprinted Blackstone, five
volumes, octavo, and was so successful that he issued
a second edition in quarto, besides editions of Robert-
son's " Charles V.," and Ferguson's " Essay on Civil
Society.'' Paine, according to Wharton, was Bell's
clerk when ,( Common Sense" was published. The
war broke up his business, and he resumed his trade
of itinerant auctioneer of books, traveling from New
Hampshire. He died in Richmond in 1784, a good
THOMAS PAINE.
business man, fair and upright and companionable,
but eccentric and fond of big words, calling himself
"provedore to the sentimentalists," and addressing
his subscribers as " intentional encouragers, who wish
for a participation in this sentimental banquet" of
Blackstone! The sale of "Common Sense" was so
rapid, and it excited such a sensation throughout the
country, that new editions were called for. Bell ad-
vertised a second on the 29th of January, another
was offered by William and Thomas Bradford, to
which the author appended a note declaring that
Bell's second edition was unauthorized ; he had re-
ceived no profit from the first. Bell owed him four-
teen pounds, and there were thirty pounds profits to
his share, the half of which he meant to devote to the
purchase of mittens for the Pennsylvania troops
ordered to Canada. Bell replied in kind, disparaging
the pretensions of the "anonymous author" to be
considered father of the entire work, and denouncing
Paine, " the foster-father author," as not the real one,
yet as pretending so, and boasting of it in every ale-
house.
saying a familiar thing in a familiar way, and at the same time impart-
ing to it great spirit and freshness. He could Bometimes introduce an
apposite story almoBt as well as Franklin. His wit was ready and
apposite enough. ... It was this word and a blow, this powerful ex-
pression in ordinary symbols, which gained Paine the ear of the public
during the Revolutionary war. His phrases put American resistance
in an incontrovertible form."— Duyckinclc's Cycloptedia of American Lit-
erature, i. 200.
310
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The allusions of Bell grew out of the fact that
Paine's pamphlet was really a collation and conden-
sation of matters and opinions everywhere the subject
of conversation, and that Dr. Rush and some others
claimed to have had at least a share in the paternity
of " Common Sense." Rush, in a letter quoted in
Cheatham's ignoble life of Paine, says that he called
upon Paine at this time and suggested to him the
propriety of preparing our citizens for a perpetual
separation of our country from Great Britain by
means of a work of such length as would obviate all
objections to it. Paine read the sheets to Rush as he
composed them, and Franklin and Samuel Adams
also saw the manuscript. Franklin altered nothing
beyond striking out a sentence ; Rush suggested
"Common Sense" for the title, instead of "Plain
Truth," as Paine had proposed to call it. John
Adams, in his diary, says, "In the course of this win-
ter there appeared a phenomenon in Philadelphia, —
a disastrous meteor. I mean Thomas Paine. He
came from England, got into such company as would
converse with him, and ran about picking up what
information he could concerning our affairs ; and,
finding the great question was concerning independ-
ence, he gleaned from those he saw the commonplace
arguments, such as the necessity of independence at
some time or other; the peculiar fitness of it at this
time; the justice of it; the provocation to it; our
ability to maintain it, etc. Dr. Rush put him on
writing on the subject, furnished him with the argu-
ments that had been used in Congress a hundred
times, and gave him his title." But all this is after-
thought on the part of John Adams. A month after
the book was out he wrote to his wife, " I sent you
from New York a pamphlet entitled ' Common
Sense,' written in vindication of doctrines which
there is reason to expect that the further encroach-
ments of tyranny and depredations of oppression will
soon make the common faith ; unless the cunning
ministry, by proposing negotiations and terms of rec-
onciliation, should divert the present current from its
channel." The stale arguments, the retracting of
which Adams makes so light of, are here obviously
fresh and pointed enough.
There can be no doubt, in fact, that Paine wrote
" Common Sense," and wrote it without assistance
and without much prompting. His mind was strong,
original, he saw clearly, and he wrote as neither
Adams nor Rush could pretend to do. The author of
" The Crisis" was theauthor of" Common Sense," and
no one else could have written such papers, though
many would have liked to be able to do so.
There can be as little doubt of the strong and in-
stantaneous impression made upon the whole com-
munity of the United Colonies by this pamphlet, of
which one hundred thousand copies were shortly in
circulation. Rush says it was published " with an
effect which has been rarely produced by types and
paper in any age or country." " I think," said Dr.
Ashbel Green, in his autobiography, " that this pam-
phlet had a greater run than any other ever published
in our country. It was printed anonymously, and it
was a considerable time before its author was known
or suspected. In the mean time large editions were
frequently issued, and in newspapers, at taverns, and
at almost every place of public resort, it was adver-
tised, and very generally in these words : ' Common
Sense, for eighteenpence.' I lately looked into a
copy of this pamphlet, and was ready to wonder at
its popularity and the effect it produced when orig-
inally published. But the truth is, it struck a string
which required but a touch to make it vibrate. The
country was ripe for independence, and only needed
somebody to tell the people so with decision, bold-
ness, and plausibility." Paine did this, and the at-
tempts to detract from his merits in doing it will
recall to the sensible reader the fable of Columbus
and the egg. All such things look simple when they
are done. The merit and the art consist in having
set the example.
The excitement caused by this pamphlet in Phila-
delphia may be measured by the numbers of replies
and rejoinders it provoked, both for and against inde-
pendence. Among these pamphleteers was John
Adams himself, who did not approve Paine's views
about government. One of the first of these replies,
written by one of the Aliens, was called " Plain
Truth," " wherein is shown that the Scheme of Inde-
pendence is Ruinous, Delusive, and Impracticable;
that, were the Author's Associations respecting the
Power of America as Real as Nugatory, Reconcilia-
tion on Liberal Principles with Great Britain would
be Exalted Policy ; and that, circumstanced as we
are, Permanent Liberty and True Happiness can
only be obtained by Reconciliation with that King-
dom. Written by Candidus, etc." This was printed
by Bell, and was dedicated by the author to John
Dickinson. " Rationalis," another answer to "Com-
mon Sense," was bound up with "Plain Truth," and
the reply of " Cato" to "Common Sense" followed
next. Another pamphlet of the day was " The True
Interest of America," impartially stated in certain
strictures on a pamphlet entitled "Common Sense."
By an American. Printed and sold by James Hum-
phreys, Jr., corner of Black Horse Alley and Front
Street. The author of this calls Paine's work "one
of the most artful, insidious, and pernicious pam-
phlets I have ever met with. It is addressed to the
passions of the populace at a time when their pas-
sions are much inflamed."
The controversy to which Paine had given articu-
late speech soon began to be heard in the affairs of
Philadelphia and the province. An important elec-
tion was impending, the Whigs renewing their efforts
to get control of the Assembly. New committees of
inspection had been elected throughout the province
on February 16th. For Philadelphia, the number
elected was seventy-six; Northern Liberties and
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
311
Southwark, twelve each. The term of service was
six months, and these committees, renewed fresh from
the people at such short intervals, felt themselves truly
the people's representatives. The City Committee,
almost as soon as it met, recommended the holding
of a provincial conference on April 2d, to counteract
the lukewarmness and unfriendliness of the Assembly,
in which three interior counties — Bucks, Chester,
and Lancaster — had a controlling majority, while
Philadelphia, in spite of its large population, was
allowed only two burgesses to represent it. The par-
tial and unjust rules for the government of the asso-
ciators were loudly complained of also. To quiet
these complaints and counteract the alarming move-
ment for a conference the Assembly increased the rep-
resentation of Philadelphia to four, ordered the elec-
tion for May 1st, increased the State forces, and voted
an issue of eighty-five thousand pounds in bills of
credit. This arrested the movement for a convention
for the time being.
The friends and enemies of the Assembly, however,
the conservatives and liberals of the day, kept up the
war of pamphlets with vigor : " Cato" (Rev. Dr. Wil-
liam Smith) defended the legislative body, aided by
"Moderator," and both denounced the proposition of
independence; on the other side of the question,
"Cassandra'' (James Cannon), "Leather Apron'' (a
reminder of Franklin's Junto), and "Forester" (Tom
Paine) spared neither their opponents nor the cause up-
held by them. " Leather Apron" accused " Cato" of
seeking to keep the government in the hands of " gen-
tlemen," and asked, "Is not one-half of the property
in Philadelphia owned by men who wear leather
aprons? Does not the other half belong to men
whose fathers or grandfathers wore leather aprons?"
The people who were now hesitating, vacillating, and
procrastinating were neatly hit off in a squib called
"The Progress of an American's Creed for obtaining
a redress of grievances and bringing about a recon-
ciliation with Great Britain," in which the mental
confusion of men like Dickinson, who were always
proposing peace measures while acting war, is keenly
exhibited.
As election-day approached the excitement in-
creased and the canvass became eager. The Whigs
met, April 19th, at William Thomas' school-house,
Videll's Alley, with Christopher Marshall, the
Quaker patriot and diarist, in the chair, and James
Cannon, secretary. The " moderate men," and the
Tories also, had their meetings. The Whigs agreed
to support George Clymer, Col. Roberdeau, Owen
Biddle, and Frederick Kshl, while the Moderates and
Tories united upon Samuel Howell, Andrew Allen,
Alexander Wilcox, and Thomas Willing. The elec-
tion handbills were sharp and spiteful, and the ejec-
tion was hotly contested, but the Whigs were beaten,
George Clymer being the only one of their candidates
elected, and he, perhaps, because all the Tories would
not vote for Thomas Willing, who was half a Whig
himself and was Robert Morris' partner,
was :
The vote
Wliiqa.
George Clymer 923
Frederick Kuhl 904
Owen Biddle 903
Daniel Rouerdeau 890
Tories and Moderates.
Samuel Howell 941
Andrew Allen 923
Alexander Wilcox 921
ThoniKB Willing 911
In Christopher Marshall's invaluable diary the
election is thus described : " Stayed till past ten, the
sheriff having proclaimed 'to close the polls in half
an hour.' This has been one of the sharpest con-
tests, yet peaceable, that has been for a number of
years, except some small disturbances amongst the
Dutch, occasioned by some unwarrantable expres-
sions of Joseph Swift, viz., that ' except they were
naturalized they had no more right to vote than a
negro or an Indian ;' and also, past six, the sheriff,
without any notice to the public, closed the poll and
the doors and adjourned till nine to-morrow. This
alarmed the people, who immediately resented it,
flew to the sheriff and the doors and obliged him
to open them again and continue the poll till the
time above prefixed. I think it may be said with
propriety that the Quakers, papists, church, Allen
family, with all the proprietary party, were never so
happily united as at this election, notwithstanding
Friends' former protestation and declaration of never
joining with that party since the club or knock-down
election. Oh I ' tell it not in Gath, nor publish it in
the streets of Askalon, how the testimony is trampled
upon.' " Marshall himself was a " hickory Quaker,"
and full of fight.
This triumph of the unpopular party exposed them
to immediate, serious, and incessant attack from all
the elements of the opposition, and determined the
patriots to overthrow the proprietary government, the
Assembly, and the charter. The Committee of In-
spection led the assault, and they doubtless derived
much encouragement and many hints from Congress,
which was anxious to pull down all the old colonial
and proprietary governments. The committee began
by recommending "the Justices of his Majesty King
George the Third's Court of Quarter Sessions and
Common Pleas" to exercise no more authority until
a new government was framed. This would be in
compliance with the resolutions of Congress against
oaths of allegiance, and a judge could not qualify
a grand juror while he was in opposition to the
king and obedient to Congress. The committee
also reflected upon office-holders in general as pre-
ferring salary to the public good, and upon the Quak-
ers, no w the strenuous upholders of extreme authority,
who a little while ago made it a duty and merit of
conscience not to bow to any.
The objects and aims of the Whigs in Pennsylvania
were formulated precisely in John Adams' resolution
which Congress adopted on May 10th. " That it be
recommended to the respective Assemblies and Con-
ventions of the united colonies, where no government
sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs has been
312
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
hitherto established, to adopt such government as
shall, in the opinion of the majority of the people,
best conduce to the happiness and safety of their
constituents in particular, and of America in gen-
eral." The adoption of this resolution led to a strug-
gle between the Whigs and the Tories and Moderates
in Pennsylvania for the advantage in the formation
of the new government. The latter thought the As-
sembly ought to have charge of the matter ; the
former stood out for a convention of members to be
elected. They had their meetings, protested against
the pretensions of the Assembly, and resolved that a
provincial convention should be soon held. There
was a public meeting called to meet at the State-
House Monday morning, May 20th, at nine o'clock.
It was rainy weather, but four thousand people were
present. Maj. John Bayard, chairman of the Com-
mittee of Inspection, stated the object of the assem-
blage, Daniel Roberdeau was made chairman, and
Thomas McKean made the principal address, declar-
ing the Assembly to be unworthy of confidence. They
had never rescinded the instructions of Nov. 9, 1775,
to the delegates in Congress, to oppose or reject any
proposition for separation or change of government.
They had refused to do this when petitioned by the
people. No faith could be put in the Assembly, Mr.
McKean said, because the members were chiefly office-
holders under the crown; they certainly had no au-
thority to form a new government. This fact the
meeting emphasized by adopting a protest, and pass-
ing resolutions also denouncing the "instructions,''
declaring that the present House was not elected for
the purpose of forming a new government, and to at-
tempt to do so would be to assume arbitrary power ;
that the existing government is incompetent, and that
a provincial convention ought to be chosen by the
people.
This protest was presented in the Assembly on May
22d. The Moderates, a few days later, presented a
remonstrance against the protest, which, it was said
in the Gazette in June, had received six thousand sig-
natures. The Philadelphia County Committee of In-
spection sided with the Moderates and took ground
against the protest and against disunion. The As-
sembly acted cautiously. The protest and remon-
strance and resolution of Congress were referred to a
committee, who made no report, but the instructions
of November 9th were rescinded and the delegates in
Congress were authorized " to concur with other dele-
gates in such measures as may be for the liberties and
safety of America."
The city committees meanwhile were very active in
exerting all the influences they could bring to bear
to help the movement towards independence. They
canvassed among the people and the armed battalions,
inducing the latter to take votes on the general sub-
ject of new or old government. On June 18th there
was a conference at Carpenters' Hall of the Commit-
tees of Safety. The delegates to this conference were
elected by the Committees of Inspection and Observa-
tion in each county. For the city and liberties of
Philadelphia they were, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
McKean, Sharpe Dulany, John Cox, John Bayard,
George Schlosser, Christopher Ludwick, Jonathan B.
Smith, James Milligan, Benjamin Loxley, Timothy
Matlack, "Jacob Schreiner, Joseph Deane, Jacob
Barge, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Christopher Marshall,
Sr., Joseph Moulder, Francis Gurney, Samuel Cad-
walader Morris, William Coats, Samuel Brewster,
Joseph Blewer, William Robinson, George Goodwin,
and William Louman. For the county of Philadel-
phia, William Hamilton, Henry Hill, Robert Lewis,
Jr., Enoch Edwards, Joseph Mather, James Potts,
Matthew Brooks, Robert Loller, Edward Barthol-
omew, Frederick Antis, and John Bull. Col. Thomas
McKean was elected president of the conference, Jo-
seph Hart, vice-president, and Jonathan B. Smith
and Samuel Cadwalader Morris, secretaries. The
Patriotic Society presented their impeachment of the
conduct of the Committee of Safety, in the matter of
the encounter of the galleys with the "Roebuck,"
and because the loyalty of many members of the com-
mittee to the cause of the people was questionable.
The decision of the conference was, that it was neces-
sary to call a provincial convention to form a new
government, and that this convention should emanate
from the people ; that provision should be made, in
accordance with the will of Congress, to raise four
thousand five hundred militia for the flying camp,
and that no person elected as delegate to the conven-
tion should take his seat or vote until he had pro-
fessed his faith in the Christian religion, the Trinity,
and the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. This
test caused much dissatisfaction.
After the adjournment of the conference, on June
25th, a dinner was given to the members at the In-
dian Queen Tavern, on Fourth Street. Gen. Wooster
was among the guests. The toasts drunk were to
"The Congress," " The free and independent States of
America," "Washington," "The Army and Navy,"
" A wise and patriotic convention to Pennsylvania on
the 15th of July," "Lasting dependence to the ene-
mies of independence," etc. It is obvious that the
adoption of the Declaration of Independence was
assumed for a fixed fact, and much greater anxiety
was felt in regard to the complexion of the Constitu-
tional Convention of Pennsylvania, which was to
meet on the 15th proximo. The committees . next
day issued particular instructions to associators to
exercise great care in the election of delegates, select-
ing good men, and eschewin% all such as were in the
proprietary interest.
While Pennsylvania was on the brink of this crisis,
Congress had gradually brought itself face to face
with the question of independence and the expediency
of an immediate declaration of it, and the instant
severing of all ties and ligaments binding the united
colonies to the mother-country. It is not necessary
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE KEVOLUTION.
313
in these volumes to recite over again that thrilling
and brilliant page of American history. There are,
however, ambiguities in the connection of Pennsyl-
vania and Philadelphia with the events of that mo-
mentous period which ought to be cleared up, if it
can be done.
When Congress met on May 10, 1775, eleven colo-
nies were represented (there were no delegates from
Georgia and Rhode Island) by delegates having di-
verse and uncertain powers. All had been chosen
before the clash of arms occurred at Lexington. They
were compelled to meet all the time new and unex-
pected contingencies, and these were often not covered
at all by their credentials. As the year wore on the
members consulted with people at their homes, and
in many cases obtained new instructions, or had new
instructions forced upon them by the colonial Assem-
blies or Conventions. Rhode Island sent its first
delegates to Congress on May 15th ; Georgia's dele-
gates came in in September. In the first instance, in
every case, the credentials gave power to seek redress
of grievances and reconciliation on the basis of Eng-
lish liberty. It was not until January, 1776, that
the Council and Representatives of Massachusetts, in
electing and instructing new delegates, suggested
vaguely an idea of government independent and
secure against the powers and acts of the British ad-
ministration. The instructions of November 9th to
the Pennsylvania delegates explicitly commanded
them to " dissent from and utterly reject" any propo-
sition leading to or likely to end in separation. John
Morton was Speaker of the Assembly at this time;
he signed these instructions and forwarded them to
the delegates.
But with the beginning of 1776 a great change had
begun to work. It was with great difficulty, after
Lexington and Bunker Hill, that John Dickinson
and John Jay had procured the consent of Congress
to the second petition to the king. That paper, writ-
ten by Dickinson, had been forwarded to England by
Richard Penn, one of the proprietaries. He delivered
it to Lord Dartmouth on August 21st, and asked for
an audience on the subject on August 23d. On that
day the king issued a proclamation declaring the
colonies in rebellion, and invoking all the forces of
the empire to suppress the rebellion. The petition
was flung aside without notice. Howe was sent to
supersede Gage in Boston ; Dartmouth himself was
supplanted by Lord George Germaine, and the bar-
gain was consummated for sending tne soldiers of
Hanover, Darmstadt, and Hesse across the ocean to
help conquer the Americans. The news of these
things began to be received in Philadelphia about
November 1st. At the same time Washington for-
warded news of the burning of Falmouth. The
king's arms seemed to be checked in their progress
everywhere; the colonies were a unit; their levies
and musters prospered, and Congress assumed a
bolder tone, while the Moderates became propor-
tionately discouraged. The press and the people
simultaneously took up the cry of independence; the
only question was as to the expediency of particular
times and methods. The correspondence of the day
between the patriots teems with the one idea of per-
manent separation and independent government. As
George Mason said, speaking the sentiment of Vir-
ginia, " When the last dutiful and humble petition
from Congress received no other answer than declar-
ing us rebels and out of the king's protection, I from
that moment looked forward to a revolution and in-
dependence as the only means of salvation." From
"that moment" the revolution went forward with
irresistible impulse, and the spirit of union domi-
nated more and more over the spirit of disaffection,
doubt, and hesitancy.
In December armed Virginia resisted and broke
Dunmore's power. Then came Paine's pamphlet crys-
tallizing the thought of independence and shaping it
into a visible, tangible object. In April, 1776, Chief
Justice Drayton, of South Carolina, charged the Court
of General Sessions to the effect that " The Almighty
created America to be independent of Great Britain :
to refuse our labors in this divine work is to refuse to
be a great, a free, a pious, and a happy people." This
idea of a special Providence making use of British
tyranny to cement together a free people got abroad
and obtained general currency. Samuel Adams urged
independence and a confederation from day to day,
with the persistency of Cato demanding the destruc-
tion of Carthage. The camps around Boston took up
the idea so absolutely that prayers for the king be-
came distasteful. Adams was opposed by Dickinson,
Jay, Morris, and the Assemblies and conservative in-
fluences of all the middle colonies, but he had the
earnest support of the best and ablest leaders every-
where,— John Adams, Hawley, Gerry, Sullivan, War-
ren, Thornton, Greene, Ward, of New England ;
Franklin, Rush, McKean, Reed, of Pennsylvania;
Chase, Johnson, Carroll, Tilghman, of Maryland;
Lee, Wythe, Henry, Jefferson, Mason, Washington,
of Virginia ; Harnett, of North Carolina; and Gads-
den, of South Carolina. These all agree with Paine
that "the period of debate is closed; arms, as the
last .resource, decide the contest. The appeal was
the choice of the king, and the Continent has ac-
cepted the challenge. . . . Everything that is right
or reasonable pleads for separation . . . our strength
and happiness is Continental, not provincial. . . .
The time hath found us. The general concurrence,
the glorious union of all things, prove the fact."
The feeling spread rapidly, in Congress and out of
it. The refusal of Congress to print Dr. Smith's
eulogy of Montgomery was in consequence of his
representing that body to be in favor of continuing
in a state of dependence on Great Britain. Massa-
chusetts sent Gerry to supplant Cushing. The com-
mission sent by Congress to Canada was on the basis
of separation and independence. Congress next ad-
314
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
vised the local authorities to disarm the Tories, and
authorized the equipment of privateers, and Franklin
wanted a declaration of war to accompany the reso-
lutions in favor of letters of marque. Congress next
threw open the ports of the country to all nations,
and opened correspondence with foreign powers.
Silas Deane was sent out in March, and in his in-
structions the probability of independence making a
French alliance desirable was freely stated. The
proclamation for the general fast (March 16th) is
couched in the language of an independent power ;
in April, Franklin was able to say that nothing was
lacking but general consent to form Congress into a
supreme legislature. " The novelty of the thing,"
he said, " deters some; the doubt of success, others;
the vain hope of reconciliation, many. Every day
furnishes us with new causes of unceasing enmity
and new reasons for wishing an eternal separation ;
so that there is a rapid increase of the formerly small
party who were for an independent government."
Massachusetts had set up an independent constitu-
tion by the people in July, 1775, and it was perfected
in January, 1776. In the same month New Hamp-
shire adopted a republican constitution and did away
with the forms of royal authority. South Carolina,
in spite of the large loyalist population, adopted a
republican constitution in March upon the memora-
ble basis that " the consent of the people is the origin,
and their happiness is the end of government." On
May 15th Congress recommended that all the colonies
should follow the example of these three. This was
succeeded by members of Congress asking instructions
on the subject of independence. North Carolina's
Provincial Congress, pressed as it was by Clinton on
one side and Tories on the other, on April 13th in-
structed its delegates in Congress to concur with dele-
gates from the other colonies in declaring indepen-
dency and forming foreign alliances. Next Ehode
Island acted, instructing Stephen Hopkins and Wil-
liam Ellery to promote the strictest union and con-
federation between the united colonies. Massachu-
setts followed May 1st, and May 10th putting the
question of independence to a vote of the people.
The Virginia convention met at Williamsburg on
May 6th, a body of illustrious men, " rich in revolu-
tionary fame.'' The resolutions in favor of indepen-
dence, drawn by Edmund Pendleton, advocated by
Patrick Henry, were unanimously adopted May 14th,
and the declaration of rights was agreed to June 12th.
The resolutions, published in the Pennsylvania Even-
ing Post of May 28th, declared " that the delegates
appointed to represent the colony in the General
Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable
body to declare the united colonies free and inde-
pendent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or
dependence upon, the crown or parliament of Great
Britain." These resolutions were carried to Congress
by their mover in the convention, and formed the
basis of the final action of that body.
On Friday, 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, of the
Virginia delegation, offered the following resolution :
" Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance
to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
The resolution was seconded by John Adams, of
Massachusetts.
Tradition relates, says Lee's biographer, that he
prefaced his motion with a speech, setting forth the
resources of the colonies and their capacity for de-
fense. He dwelt on the advantage to be derived from
an independent position in dealing with foreign pow-
ers, and " urged the members so to act that the day
might give birth to an American Republic." The
motion, offered in the train of the resolution, included
the force of that, a proposition that it was expedient
forthwith to take effectual steps for forming foreign
alliances, and that a plan of confederation should be
prepared and submitted to the respective colonies for
their consideration and approbation. The considera-
tion of the motion and resolutions (described in the
journal as " certain resolutions respecting indepen-
dency") was postponed to the next day, June 8th
(Saturday). Members were " enjoined to attend punc-
tually at ten o'clock, in order to take the same into
their consideration." On that day John Hancock
presided. The resolves were at once referred to the
committee of the whole, Benjamin Harrison, chair-
man. They were debated with animation until seven
o'clock in the evening, when the committee rose, re-
ported progress, and asked leave to sit again on Mon-
day. At that day's session Edward Rutledge moved
to postpone the question for three weeks, and the de-
bate was again sustained until evening. James Wil-
son, Robert R. Livingston, Rutledge, John Dickinson,
and others, while they admitted the impossibility of
the colonies being ever again united with Great Brit-
ain, were opposed to adopting Lee's motion at that
time. They were fearful of the consequences of the
lack of unanimity in the colonies. John Adams, Lee,
Wythe, and R. H. Lee ably combated this position.
But, as Jefferson said, " It appearing in the course of
these debates that the colonies of New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South
Carolina were not yet matured for falling from the
parent stem, but that they were fast advancing to that
state, it was thought most prudent to wait awhile for
them." It was agreed in committee of the whole to
report to Congress a resolution, which was adopted by
a vote of seven colonies to five. This postponed the
vote on the resolution for independence to Monday,
July 1st, " and in the meanwhile, that no time be lost
in case the Congress agree thereto, that a committee
be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of
the first said resolution." This committee, chosen
the next day by ballot, consisted of Thomas Jefferson,
of Virginia; John Adams, of Massachusetts; Benja-
min Franklin, of Pennsylvania; Roger Sherman, of
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
315
Connecticut; and Robert R. Livingston, of New York.
At the same time it was resolved that a committee be
appointed "to prepare and digest the form of a con-
federation to be entered into between these colonies."
This committee, appointed June 12th, consisted of
Josiah Bartlett, of New Hampshire; Samuel Adams,
of Massachusetts ; Stephen Hopkins, of Rhode Island ;
Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; Robert R. Living-
ston, of New York; John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania;
Thomas McKean, of Delaware; Thomas Stone, of
Maryland ; Thomas Nelson, of Virginia ; Joseph
Hewes, of North Carolina; Edward Rutledge, of
South Carolina; and Button Gwinnet, of Georgia.
A committee to prepare a plan of treaties to be pro-
posed to foreign powers was composed of John Dick-
inson, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, and
Robert Morris.
The Virginia resolutions had a strong influence on
the action of other colonies. The Assembly of Con-
necticut, on June 14th, instructed its delegates in
favor of independence, confederation, and foreign
alliances ; New Hampshire, June 15th, voted in
favor of declaring the thirteen colonies free and
independent States, and pledged lives and fortunes to
the support of the measure. June 21st the Provin-
cial Congress of New Jersey superseded the Provin-
cial Convention, and directed the delegates in Con-
gress to join with the other delegates in the most
vigorous measures for supporting the just rights and
liberties of America, and, if necessary or expedient,
''we empower you to join with them in declaring the
United Colonies independent of Great Britain," con-
federating and making foreign alliances. On the
other hand, Delaware and Pennsylvania hesitated.
Maryland, influenced by Eden's popularity, the pro-
prietary control of affairs, and the large sway of a
wealthy land-holding interest, renewed in May (21st)
its previous instructions against independency, and
nullified the resolutions of Congress of May 15th.
The popular leaders determined not to abide by this
decision, but to take the sense of the people. County
meetings were held, resolutions passed in favor of
independence, and condemning the convention. An-
other convention met at Annapolis, and on June 28th
it recalled the instructions against independence, and
authorized the delegates to concur with the delegates
of the other colonies in declaring the united colonies
free and independent States, and in forming a con-
federation. In Georgia the instructions were ambigu-
ous ; they did not direct delegates to support a policy
of separation, but neither did they forbid it. In
New York action was delayed, uncertain, and balked
by imminent external danger and bitter internal
strife. The Provincial Congress, after repeated solici-
tation, finally notified the delegates in Congress that
they were not authorized to vote for independence,
that Congress declined to instruct them on that point,
and that " it would be imprudent to require the senti-
ments of the people relative to the question of inde-
pendence, lest it should create division and have an
unhappy influence."
Pennsylvania was the battle-ground of the conflict-
ing opinions. The discussions of the question of
independence had nowhere been so actively carried
on. The press of Philadelphia reproduced every-
thing on both sides ; here were Franklin, Paine, Con-
gress, Dickinson ; here were the proprietary govern-
ment and the Quakers. The independence cohorts
were active, well armed and equipped, and they had
the preponderance in numbers, at least in Philadel-
phia; but the opposition had many veterans in its
ranks, and it was strongly intrenched. There were
the Moderates, besides, — Morris and Dickinson, who
were in favor of independence, but not now ; Charles
Thomson, in favor of the Declaration, but wishing
to retain the old charter, the charter government,
and the Assembly. Here were the Germans, seek-
ing political privileges denied them on account of
their birth, but opposed to independence. It needed
a revolution to get order out of this chaos. The
Assembly, after much goading and urging, adopted,
on June 14th, a series of instructions rescinding
those of November, and authorizing the delegates,
in consequence of enumerated recent acts of king,
ministry, and Parliament, "to concur with the
other delegates in Congress in forming such further
compacts between the united colonies, concluding
such treaties with foreign kingdoms and States, and
in adopting such other measures as, upon a view
of all the circumstances, shall be judged necessary
for promoting the liberty, safety, and interests of
America." This, too, was signed by John Morton.
The word " independence" does not occur in the
paper of instruction; the word "reconciliation" oc-
cupies a prominent place. On June 24th the Con-
ference of Pennsylvania, after a strong preamble,
declared that " we, the deputies of the people, as-
sembled in full Provincial Conference, do, in this
public manner, in behalf of ourselves, and with the
approbation, authority, and consent of our constitu-
ents, unanimously declare our willingness to concur
in a vote of the Congress declaring the United Colo-
nies free and independent States."
Counsels so divided in a crisis so sharp could have
but one sequel. One party or the other must rule
Pennsylvania, and the patriot party "determined to
rule. A revolution was necessary, but it was effected
without bloodshed, and we may give the results here
in advance of the regular chronicle. The Assembly
had been in a state of confusion and uncertainty
ever since it rejected the 15th of May resolves of
Congress. Half the time the Whigs prevented a
quorum by absenting themselves. There were but
thirty-five members present when Speaker Morton
signed the instructions of June 14th. Joseph Reed
attended no more sessions after June 8th. He had
sought to save the charter, but he now saw that all
efforts to that end were useless. The people would
316
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
never forgive the charter on account of the Assem-
blies acting under it and the ambiguous position in
which the province was placed in regard to independ-
ence. As William B. Reed said, the effect of such in-
structions "might have been anticipated. Of the seven
Pennsylvania delegates in Congress on the vote of the
1st of July in committee of the whole, three voted for
independence, and four against it, and on the 4th two
of those who voted adversely to independence being
absent, the vote of Pennsylvania was accidentally, and
by a majority of one, given in its favor." This was the
doom of the charter and the proprietary government.
On the day of election of members of the Provincial
Conference, out of which the new government was
to spring, the Assembly adjourned till the 26th of
August. Then the Speaker and seventeen members
were present. The Conference had long since devel-
oped into the Convention. The Convention had ma-
tured, but had not yet published the new Constitu-
tion, and it had quietly, and as a matter of course,
assumed all the power of government. The rump
Assembly adjourned from August 28th to September
23d. On the 26th, twenty-three members being pres-
ent, a member whose name is not given in the jour-
nal, moved a series of resolutions denouncing the
proceedings of the Convention. They were carried
under the previous question. " The House then
rose" and passed out of existence. The charter
government of Pennsylvania was no more.
But this is anticipating. The people had decided
in favor of a declaration of independence, and that
it should be made promptly. The form and language
of the declaration had yet to be determined. The
committee appointed to prepare the declaration
brought in a draft of a form on June 28th. It was
read and laid upon the table. The committee had
requested Jefferson to prepare the form, and he did so.
His manuscript was submitted separately to Franklin
and to Adams, and each made a few verbal alterations.
Then the paper was read in a meeting of the committee
and accepted without further alterations. This is the
whole history of the production of the Declaration
of Independence, unless we choose to lose ourselves
in the quicksands of legend and tradition, where ma-
lignity and ignorance are the only guides and equally
untrustworthy.1
1 The day has gone by when the question of the authorship of the
Declaration of Independence can he raised as a question in which the
historical critic haB any interest. The similarities and identities so la-
boriously traced are all capable of rational explanation without making it
at the expense of Jefl'eiBon's character. That character is so much better
understood now than of old that there is no need to call up George
Mason's ghost to prove that Jefferson did not rob him. The ingenuity
is as impotent and futile as it is base and mean which will persist in
claiming for Hamilton the authorship of Washington's Farewell Ad-
dress, for Edward Everett the composition of Daniel Webster's letter to
the Chevalier HulsemannT and in distributing to the Mecklenburg
Declaration, to George Mason, to the Virginia's Bill of Rights and Con-
stitution, to Jay'B AddresB to the English People, to Drayton's Charge,
and to the Virginia Instructions the most material parts and most
pregnant phrases and sentences of Jefferson's Declaration of Independ-
ence.
On the same day that Jefferson reported to Con-
gress the committee's draft of the Declaration, Fran-
cis Hopkinson, one of the five new members from
New Jersey, presented the instructions he and his
fellow-delegates had received to support independ-
ence. The Congress, when it met in Independence
Hall on the 1st of July, consisted probably, accord-
ing to Bancroft, of fifty-one members. Some of them
met for the first time. Some were just entering pub-
lic life, while others were gray and bent under the
cares of protracted service to the State. It was a
body full of individuality and contrasting character.
It is but seldom we will find in a body of fifty mem-
bers three such merchants as John Hancock, Robert
Morris, and Thomas Willing, such divines as Wither-
spoon, such a genius as Franklin, such masters of
political science as Jefferson and John Adams, such
orators as Rutledge, Pendleton, Lee, such lawyers
as Dickinson, McKean, Paca, Adams, Chase, Stone,
Wythe, Nelson.
In accordance with the resolution of postponement
Congress went into committee of the whole House
to consider the resolution of independence offered by
R. H. Lee. After due deliberation the chairman of
the committee (Harrison) reported Lee's resolution,
which, at the request of South Carolina, was not acted
upon until the next day. July 2d the resolution
was adopted, and the Declaration was taken up in
Committee of the Whole. It was again discussed on
July 3d. On Thursday, July 4th, Mr. Harrison, from
the committee, reported the Declaration of Independ-
ence. It was adopted, and copies were ordered to be
sent out to the several Assemblies, Conventions,
Committees or Councils of Safety, etc., throughout
the country, and to the commanders of the Conti-
nental troops, so as to have it everywhere proclaimed.
As soon as the Declaration was adopted Franklin,
Jefferson, and John Adams were appointed a com-
mittee to prepare a device for a seal for the United
States. In the words of Judge Drayton at the time, —
" A decree is now gone forth not to be recalled, and
thus has suddenly risen in the world a new empire,
styled the United States of America."
The traditions concerning the debate on Lee's reso-
lution and on the Declaration of Independence are
not many nor startling. The proceedings were with
closed doors. The secretary's record is but a meagre
memorandum of business, dry as a docket-entry in
the court's minutes. Few speeches were made, and
none have been reported. Only John Dickinson
wrote down in outline a sketch of his own remarks
upon the first day. When the resolution came up
Lee himself was absent at Williamsburg. There was
silence for many minutes when the question was
called and until the new members from New Jersey,
Richard Stockton in particular, showed themselves
importunate for a discussion. Then all eyes were
turned upon John Adams, and, at the suggestion of
Rutledge and other members, he recapitulated the
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
317
arguments. He spoke, as he said, like one feeling
himself oppressed with the weight of the subject and
the momentousness of the occasion, and John Dick-
inson replied, with all the force, earnestness, and
grace in which he was so rich. He desired the As-
sembly to witness the integrity, if not the policy, of
his conduct, he said. The issue would be settled by
arms, not votes, and he did not believe the Declara-
tion would add a single soldier to the armies. Dick-
inson, in fact, believed that defeat was certain, and
that the country ought not to commit itself to a posi-
tion where defeat would be ruin also. The difference
between hjm and Adams was one of temperament
chiefly. Adams had hope and faith ; it was natural
and inevitable for Dickinson to look upon the dark
side. Adams rejoined to Dickinson, and now James
Wilson, Dickinson's own colleague, and who had
been co-operating with him throughout, rose and
said that he meant to -obey the instructions of the
conference of committees and would vote for inde-
pendence. Paca, McKean, Rutledge, perhaps others,
spoke, but the occasion was one for thought rather
than utterance, and far too solemn and weighty for
oratorical display, " a scene," said George Walter,
one of the delegates from Georgia, " which has been
ever present to my mind."
The trial vote of July 1st was iudecisive ; the com-
mittee rose and reported to the House, and, by agree-
ment, the final vote was postponed until next day, in
the vain hope of securing unanimity. New York
had been excused from voting; the votes of South
Carolina and Pennsylvania were given in the nega-
tive, and the two delegates from Delaware tied. Nine
colonies voted yea. During the night McKean sent
express for Caesar Rodney, of Delaware, to help him
outvote Read, and the next day Rutledge brought the
South Carolina delegates to vote yea, while Pennsyl-
vania's pro forma affirmative was secured by the ab-
sence of two members.
The fact of the adoption of the Declaration was
ordered to be published on July 5th. Next day it was
printed on broadsides, and sent to the Assemblies. It
was printed with great accuracy in the Pennsylvania
Evening Post, Saturday, June 6th, signed by order of
Congress, John Hancock, president, and Charles
Thomson, secretary. It appeared in the Maryland
Gazette. July 11th ; Continental Journal (Boston), July
18th ; and New Hampshire Gazette, July 20th.
July 2d, the day of the adoption of Richard Henry
Lee's resolution, is the real independence day. John
Adams wrote to his wife next day : " The 2d of July,
1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the his-
tory of America." But the 4th was the day of the
formal adoption of the formal public declaration of
reason for the act, and Congress resolved to celebrate
that day as the official birthday of American inde-
pendence. This was secured by a resolution adopted
July 19th, to the effect that "the Declaration passed
on the 4th be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the
title and style of 'The unanimous Declaration of the
thirteen United States of America,' and that the
same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of
Congress." The journal further says, August 2d,
that "the Declaration being engrossed and compared
at the table, was signed by the members."
PRESIDENT'S CHAIR, AND THE DESK UPON WHICH
THE DECLARATION WAS SIGNED.
The signers, however, are not identical with the
members who voted on July 2d and 4th. The act of
Congress was the substantial matter, not the official
assignment of reasons for it, prompted by (in Jeffer-
son's words) "a decent respect for the opinions of
mankind." The members of Congress on July 4,
1776, were as follows, the date given being that of
their last certificate :
New Hampshire. Feb. 29, 1776.— William H.
Whipple, John Langdon, Josiah Bartlett.
Massachusetts. Feb. 9, 1776. — John Hancock,
Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
Connecticut. Jan. 16, 1776. — Roger Sherman,
Oliver Wolcott, Samuel Huntingdon, Titus Hosmer,
William Williams.
New York. May 11, 1776.— Philip Livingston,
James Duane, John Alsop, William Floyd, Lewis
Morris, John Jay (who, with those whose names fol-
low, attended May 15th), Henry Wisner, Philip
Schuyler, George Clinton, Francis Lewis, Robert R.
Livingston, Jr.
New Jersey. June 28, 1776. — Richard Stockton,
Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson,
John Withers'poon.
Pennsylvania. Nov. 3, 1776.— John Morton,
John Dickinson, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin,
Charles Humphreys, Edward Biddle, Thomas Wil-
ling, Andrew Allen, James Wilson.
Lower Counties on the Delaware. May 1 1 1775.
— Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read.
Maryland. Sept. 13, 1775.— Matthew Tilghman,
Thomas Johnson, Jr., Robert Goldsborough, William
Paca, Thomas Stone, John Hall.
Virginia. Sept. 13, 1775.— Richard Henry Lee,
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nel-
son, George Wythe, Francis Lightfoot Lee. Feb. 23,
1776.— Carter Braxton. (The Legislature had elected
318
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
new delegates on June 30th, but the certificates were
not presented until the 28th of August.)
North Carolina. May 11, 1775. — William
Hooper, Joseph Hewes. October 13. — John Penn.
South Carolina. April 24, 1776. — Thomas Lynch,
John Eutledge, Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton,
Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Georgia. May 20, 1776.— Lyman Hall, Button
Gwinnett, Archibald Bullock, John Hbuston, George
Walton.
Rhode Island. May 14, 1776. — Stephen Hopkins,
William Ellery.
Of the above-named members the following did not
sign the Declaration : John Langdon, Titus Hosmer,
James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Henry Wisner,
George Clinton, Robert R. Livingston, Jr., Philip
Schuyler, John Dickinson, Charles Humphreys, Ed-
ward Biddle, Thomas Willing, Andrew Allen, Mat-
thew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, Jr., Robert Golds-
borough, John Hall, John Rutledge, Thomas Lynch,
Sr., Archibald Bullock, John Houston.
John Langdon, appointed agent of prizes for his
State, June 25th, was probably not present on July
4th ; Titus Hosmer and William Williams were alter-
nates for Sherman, Wolcott, and Huntingdon, in case
of their failure by sickness or other cause. Williams
signed on August 2d, nevertheless, though Connecti-
cut was only entitled to three delegates. Alsop was
probably not present ; he was an opponent of inde-
pendence, declaring, in a letter of July 16th, that the
instructions of the New York Provincial Congress
were against his judgment and inclination. He was
willing to serve the cause, but resigned his seat when
the door was closed to reconciliation. John Jay was
in the Provincial Legislature of New York on July
4th, and had no opportunity to sign. It is not certain
that he would have voted for the resolution of July
2d. James Duane was also in the Provincial Congress,
and Gen. Schuyler was absent in the field. Robert R.
Livingston was on the committee to draw up the Dec-
laration ; his presence, however, is not ascertained,
he also being a member of the Provincial Congress.
Henry Wisner was in Congress on July 4th, but ap-
pears to have been in New York on August 2d. Ed-
ward Biddle, of Philadelphia, died during the session
of a lingering disease, which probably disabled him
at the time of the Declaration. John Dickinson was
the victim of his own timidity and hair-splitting
irresolution. Charles Humphreys was, like Dickin-
son, opposed to the Declaration, and so was Thomas
Willing. Robert Morris was equally opposed, and
resolute and outspoken in his judgment of the inex-
pediency of the measure at that time, as his letters
witness ; but he signed, nevertheless, in a hand bold
and characteristic as Hancock's. He was the sort of a
man to bend to accomplished facts, and not, like Dick-
inson, let opportunity vanish in the fog of dubitation.
Andrew Allen, who had been a prominent Whig, a
member of the Committee of Safety, became fright-
ened and hung back. When he lost his re-election to
Congress in consequence, he deserted the American
cause, went off to Trenton to put himself under the pro-
tection of Gen. Howe, and withdrew to England, dying
there. His property was confiscated and sold. Robert
Goldsborough and John Hall, of Maryland, were
both superseded in the new appointment of delegates
from that colony made on July 4th. These delegates
took their seats July 18th ; hence neither Hall nor
Goldsborough signed on August 2d. Tilghman and
Johnson were members of the new delegation ; it is
not known whether they were present or absent. The
elder Lynch, of South Carolina, was in bad health,
and his son acted in part as his alternate. John Rut-
ledge was doing both civil and military duty in his
own State, — member of the Constitutional Convention
and commander-in-chief of the State militia. Archi-
bald Bullock was attending to his official duties as
president of the Council of Georgia. He convened
that body upon receipt of news of the Declaration,
and read the instrument before them.
Something further needs to be said about the vote
of Pennsylvania. That was carried for independence
on July 2d by a majority, not of the delegation, but
of members in their seats. According to a letter of
Thomas McKean's, in the Freeman's Journal of June
16, 1817, Dickinson and Morris were present, but did
not take their seats on that day. That left only five
members in their seats ; Franklin, Morton, and Wil-
son voted for Lee's resolution ; Humphreys and Wil-
ling voted against it. The tombstone of John Mor-
ton, in the graveyard of the Episcopal Church at
Chester, erected to him in 1845 by some of his rela-
tives, has an inscription to the effect that, " In voting
by States upon the question of the independence of
the American Colonies, there was a tie until the vote
of Pennsylvania was given, two members from which
voted in the affirmative and two in the negative.
The tie continued until the vote of the last member,
John Morton, decided the promulgation of the glori-
ous diploma of American freedom." This claim is
not well founded. There is no contemporary evi-
dence for it. There was no tie of States for the vote
of Pennsylvania to loose, the vote of the colonies
being nine to four. In the Pennsylvania delegation
Morton's vote did no more than Franklin's or Wil-
son's to give the majority to independence. The op-
portunity for Mr. Morton's vote to be of value and
critical consequence on July 4th grew out of the
withdrawal of John Dickinson and Robert Morris.
They were opposed to the Declaration. They were
present, but did not take their seats, because they
were willing to sacrifice their convictions to the ap-
pearance of unanimity. If Charles Thomson judged
Dickinson aright, in his letter to William Henry
Drayton, this sort of self-abstention and of securing
the accomplishment of an end while ostensibly op-
posing it, was characteristic of him. When Pennsyl-
vania and South Carolina had been secured, the con-
3
m
I
s
(HI
pa
IP
IP
(3
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
319
currence of New York was still wanting before the
Declaration could be described as the unanimous
measure of the thirteen colonies. The convention of
New York at White Plains furnished the needed and
convenient instructions to the New York delegates,
but, as we have seen, John Alsop resigned rather
than submit to that sort of dictation.
There are conflicting accounts of the signing of the
Declaration. Jefferson, in his memoirs, and in other of
his writings, declares that the instrument was signed
generally on the 4th, and again on August 2d. If so,
the manuscript must have been lost. John Adams
wrote, on July 9th, that, " As soon as an American
seal is prepared, I conjecture the Declaration will be
superscribed by all the members.'' Thomas McKean
says that " probably copies with the names then
signed to it were printed in August, 1776." " One
of the signers," says Frothingham, " Thornton, was
not a member until November 4th. But the list is
otherwise incorrect. The early lists, in law-books
and other works, omitted the name of McKean,
which is not in the list printed by Ramsay in 1789,
nor in the journals of Congress, published by author-
ity, by Folwell, in 1800."
McKean, in his letter to Dallas (1796), says no one
signed on the 4th of July. By the secret journals of
Congress it appears, he says, that Congress, on July
18th, directed the instrument to be engrossed on
parchment and signed by every member. This was
done on August 2d. McKean's name was left out of
the printed journals by accident, and he had trouble
to get it restored.
The names of signers and persons mentioned as
signers, who were not members of Congress on July
4, 1776, are Matthew Thornton, of New Hampshire,
admitted Nov. 4, 1776 ; Dr. Benjamin Rush, Col.
George Ross, George Clymer, Col. James Smith, and
George Taylor, all of Pennsylvania, and all admitted
July 20, 1776; Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and
Samuel Chase, both of Maryland, admitted July 18,
1776. Neither Robert Morris nor George Read, of
Delaware, voted for independence on the 1st, 2d, or 4th
of July, yet they both appear as signers. Morris, in
his well-known, manly letter to Joseph Reed, of July
20th, after giving the reasons for his votes, says, —
" I did expect my conduct on this great question would have procured
my dismission from the great council ; tut I find myself disappointed,
for the convention has thought fit to return me in the new delegation,
and although my interests and inclination prompt me to decline the ser-
vice, yet I cannot depart from one point which first induced me to enter
the public line. I mean an opinion that it is the duty of every individ-
ual to take his part in whatever station his country may call him to in
times of difficulty, danger, and distress. While I think this a duty, I
must submit, although the Councils of America have taken a different
course from my judgment and wishes. I think that the individual who
declines the service of his country because its counsels are not conform-
able to his ideas makes a bad subject. A good one will follow if he
cannot lead."
Mr. Read's objection to the Declaration was that it
was premature. His opposition to independence did
not cost him the confidence of his constituents, who
re-elected him to Congress and honored him with
many high appointments.
Jefferson himself explained many of the circum-
stances given above in connection with the signing of
the Declaration of Independence. It was his work ;
the original report submitted was in his handwriting,
with no material alterations. He was chairman of the
committee to prepare it ; young as he was, his admitted
mastery with the pen had secured to him the largest
number of ballots. An able State paper was de-
manded, and Jefferson was the fittest person for the
task, particularly so, as Bancroft has aptly said, "from
the sympathetic character of his nature, by which he
was able with instinctive perception to read the soul
of the nation, and having collected in himself'its best
thoughts and noblest feelings, to give them out in
clear and bold words, mixed with so little of himself,
that his country, as it went along with him, found
nothing but what it recognized as its own.'' He wrote
"from the fulness of his mind, without consulting
one book.'' "His genius for political science," says
Frothingham, " and his talent of compressing senti-
ment into maxims, enabled him to embody so faith-
fully the current thought of his countrymen as to
mirror the soul of the nation. This, and not origi-
nality, is the crowning merit of this immortal paper."
"To say that he performed his great work well," is
Daniel Webster's weighty judgment, " would be doing
him injustice ; to say that he did it excellently well,
admirably well, would be inadequate and halting
praise. Let us rather say, that he so discharged the
duty assigned him, that all Americans may well re-
joice that the work of drawing the title-deed of their
liberties devolved upon him."
The house in Philadelphia where the Declaration
was written has been the subject of inquiry ; its site
is part of the local history of these great events.
Nicholas Biddle, in his eulogy of Jefferson, delivered
before the American Philosophical Society, April 11,
1827, was the first person to make an investigation of
the subject. Jefferson, he said, when charged with
the task by Adams, repaired to his lodgings and set
to work. These lodgings he had selected, with his
characteristic love of retirement, " in a house recently
built on the outskirts of the city, and almost the last
dwelling-house to the westward, where, in a small fam-
ily, he was the sole boarder." That house, enlarged
by the addition of a fourth story, and changed for
business purposes, was until early in 1883 a ware-
house standing at the southwest corner of Market
and Seventh Streets, and on the second story were the
rooms of Jefferson, where the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was written. Dr. James Mease had written
to Jefferson on the subject, and the latter answered,
Sept. 16, 1825, that he "lodged in the house of a Mr.
Graaf, a new brick house, three stories high, of which
I rented the second floor, consisting of a parlor and
bedroom ready furnished. In that parlor I wrote
habitually, and in it wrote this paper particularly.
320
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The proprietor (Graaf ) was a young man, son of a
German, and then newly married. I think he was a
bricklayer, and that his house was on the south side"
of Market Street, probably between Seventh and
Eighth Streets, and, if not the only house on that
IPIisiBiiPiHiiBi
HOUSE WHERE JEFFERSON WROTE THE DECLARA-
TION OF INDEPENDENCE.
part of the street, I am sure there were few others
near it."
Graaf, as Jefferson spells it, was Jacob Graff, Jr.,
bricklayer, son of Jacob Graff, Sr., brickmaker. June
1, 1775, he bought of Edward Physick and wife a lot
south side of High Street, west side of Seventh Street,
fronting thirty-two feet on High Street, and running
back on Seventh Street one hundred and twenty-four
feet to a ten-feet alley. Here he built1 a three-story
brick house, the door of which was in the middle of
the building, on Seventh Street, the entry and stairs
dividing the building in the centre, and the stairs
going directly up opposite the door on Seventh Street
l On tbe corner. A writer in Power's American Monllily (May, 1876)
contends that the house was on the western half of the lot and next
door to the corner. But Mr. Westcott, in his " Historic Mansions of
Philadelphia," shows conclusively that Graff's house was the corner
one, and that the one next the corner was not built until twenty years
after the writing of the Declaration.
The fact is settled beyond dispute by the following entries in the pri-
vate diary (manuscript) of Jacob Obillzheimer, who bought the house at
the southwest corner of Seventh and Market Streets in 1777 :
" 1796, January 10. Cloudy forenoon. Edward Wells came to see me ;
conversed with each other concerning the house he is to build for me
next spring, in Market Street, adjoining the southwest corner of Seventh
and Market.
" 1796, April 11- Thursday. . . . Mr. Barge laid the foundation-stone
at the house I am going to build adjoiQing the southwest corner of Sev-
enth and Market Streets.
"1790 April 28. Mr. Lybrand, the carpenter, put the first floor of
joist, next to my house at Market Street.
" 1796, July 9. Saturday. . . . Had the raising supper on the second
floor of the house adjoining the house at the southwest corner of Mar-
ket and Seventh Streets, which was begun in April last, intended for a
store."
to the second floor. It was a retired situation, but still
near the State-House. When Jefferson came to Phila-
delphia he lodged first with Benjamin Randolph, on
Chestnut Street. On May 23d he took the rooms at
Graff's, paying thirty-five shillings sterling per week.
He had the whole second floor for his use, the front
room, facing on Market Street, for his parlor, and the
back one his bedroom. His meals he took chiefly at
Smith's City Tavern on Second Street. While in the
city Randolph, the joiner, made him a writing-desk
from Jefferson's own design. It was fourteen inches
long by ten inches broad, and three inches deep.
This desk, on which the Declaration was written,
Jefferson presented, in 1825, to Joseph Coolidge, Jr.,
husband of his granddaughter, and it is now in
Boston.
Christopher Marshall, in his diary, under date of
July 2d, has this line, —
"This day the Continental Congress declared the United States Free
and Independent States."
On the 6th he writes of attending a committee
meeting in Philosophical Hall :
" Agreed that the Declaration of Independence be declared at the
State-House uext Second Day. At the same time the King's Arms there
are to be taken down by nine Associators, here appointed, who are to
convey it to a pile of casks erected upon the commons, for the purpose
of a bonfire, and the arms placed on the top. This being Election Day,
I offered the motion. . . . July 8. — At eleven went and met Committee
of Inspection at Philosophical Hall; went from there in a body to the
lodge; joined the Committee of Safety (as called) ; went in a body to
State-House yard, where, in the presence of a great concourse of people,
the Declaration of Independence was read by John Nixon. The com-
pany declared their approbation by three repeated huzzas. The King's
Arms were taken down in the Court-Room, State-House, same time. . . .
I went and dined at Paul Fook's. . . . Then he and the FreDch En-
gineer went with me on the commons, where the same was proclaimed
at each of the five Battalions. . . . There were bonfires, ringing bells,
with other great demonstrations of joy upon the unanimity and agree-
ment of the declaration."
Such appears to have been all the celebration
which took place at the time in Philadelphia. Fable
has supplied much else, but it is no more than fable.
In Council of Safety, in the minutes for July 6th, we
find —
"The President of the Congress this day sent the following Besolve
of Congress, which is directed to be entered on the Minutes of this
Board :
" ' In Congress, 5tb July, 1776.
"'Resolved, That Copies of the Declaration be sent to the several As-
semblies, Conventions, aud Councils of Safety, and to the Several Com-
manding officers of the Continental Troops, that it be proclaimed in
each of the United States, and at the Head of the Army.
"'By order of Congress. (Signed) John Hancock, PresidV
"In Consequence of the above Besolve, Letters were wrote to the
Counties of Bucks, Chester, Northampton, Lancaster, and Berks, In-
closing Copy of the said Declaration, requesting the same to be published
on Monday next, at the places where the Election of Delegates are to
be held.
" Ordered, That the Sheriff of Philad'a read or CauBe to be read and
proclaimed at the State-House, in the City of Philadelphia, on Monday,
the Eighth dny of July, instant, at 12 o'clock at noon of the same day,
the Declaration of the Bepresentatives of the United Colonies of Amer-
ica, and that he cause all his officers, and the Constables of the said city,
to attend the reading thereof.
" Resolved) That every Member of this Committee in or near the City
be ordered to meet at the Committee Chamber before 12 o'clock on Mon-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
321
day, to proceed to the State-House, where the Declaration of Independ-
ence is to he proclaimed.
"The Committee of Inspection of the City and Liberties were re-
quested to attend the Proclamation of Independence, at the State-House,
on Monday next, at 12 o'clock."
The sheriff of Philadelphia at this time was Thomas
Dewees. The reader of the Declaration, as Marshall
witnesses, was John Nixon (not Capt. John Hopkins,
as Watson wrongly supposes), who was a member of
the Committee of Safety. Col. John Nixon was born
in West Chester, Pa., and was an ardent and most
efficient friend of America in the revolutionary strug-
gle. He was for some time an alderman of Phila-
delphia, and com-
manded a regiment
on Long Island and
at Valley Forge. He
was a director of the
Bank of Pennsyl-
vania, and upon the
establishment of the
Bank of North Amer-
ica was its president,
continuing in this of-
fice until his death
about Jan. 1, 1809.
The place of read-
ing the Declaration
of Independence was
the old "observa-
tory," erected by the
American Philosoph-
ical Society to ob-
serve the transit of
Venus from in 1769.
It was a rough frame
scaffolding or stage,
standing midway on
the line of the east-
ern walk, between
Fifth and Sixth Sts.,
— "that awful stage
in the State-House
yard," as John Ad-
ams calls it. Mrs.
Deborah Logan, who lived in the Norris mansion at
the time, says she distinctly heard the reading from the
garden of that house. "The bells rang all day and
almost all night," says John Adams, " and even the
chimers chimed away,"— alluding to the chimes of
Christ Church, the congregation of which were sus-
pected of lukewarmness to the Revolutionary cause,
even when they were not accused of open devotion to
Toryism.1
The welcome extended to the Declaration was en-
1 In the " Autobiography of Charles Biddle" he says, " On the memo-
rable Fourth of July, 1776, 1 was in the old State-House yard when the
Declaration of Independence was read. There were very few respecta-
ble people present. General * * * spoke against it, and many or the
21
thusiastic in nearly every part of the country. The
formal proclamation was made a holiday occasion at
every point of public assemblage. The newspapers
of the day teem with accounts of their celebrations,
yet in all the chief features each one was like all the
rest, — "the civil authorities were present. The mili-
tary paraded, bearing the standard of the United
States. The salutes were often by thirteen divisions.
The population gathered as on gala-days. The Dec-
laration was read amidst the acclamation of the
people, mingled with the roll of drums and the roar
of cannon. Then followed the feast and the toasts,
and in the evening bonfires and illuminations, with
the removing or de-
struction of the em-
blems of royalty."2
The Congress held
its sessions, during
all these memora-
ble proceedings, in a
room on the first floor
of the eastern end of
the central building
of the State-House,
thenceforth forever
known as Indepen-
dence Hall. The
building and grounds
were the property of
the State until 1818,
when they were sold
to the city for $70,000.
About 1800, persons
in authority in Phila-
delphia, the city com-
missioners it is sup-
posed, actuated by
the restless American
spirit of innovation
and blinded by bad
taste and utter im-
perviousness to the
force of venerable as-
sociation, undertook
to " modernize" and
remodel the interior of this sacred chamber. As
Mr. Westcott says ("Historic Mansions"), "They
tore out the ancient panelling, wainscotting, car-
citizens who were good Whigs were much opposed to it ; however, they
were soon reconciled to it."
Mr. Biddle confounds July 4th, the day of the Declaration, with July
Sth, the actual day of the reading. HiB statement that "very few re-
spectable people" were present, is presumed to refer to people of wealth,
family, and position. In this particular Mr. Biddle agrees with Mrs.
Deborah Logan, who also heard the reading. " The first audience of the
Declaration was neither very numerous or composed of the most re-
spectable class of citizens."
The name of "General * * * ," who spoke against the Declaration, is
stated to he " entirely obliterated and illegible in the manuscript." In
all probability Gen. John Dickinson was meant.
2 Frothingham, p. 648.
322
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ried off the carvings and old furniture, and modern-
ized the apartment so that it would be fit for use as
a court-room. About the same time the plain front
doorway in the centre of the building was torn out,
and something ' prettier' substituted, with pillars,
round arch, and mouldings. There was not even
originality in this change, the substitution being
merely a copy of the western doorway of St. James'
INDEPENDENCE HALL IN 1778.
Episcopal Church, Seventh Street, above Market
Street."
The reception to Lafayette in this room in 1824
opened the eyes of the community to the sacrifices of
association and propriety which had been made with
these alterations. The Pennsylvania Historical So-
ciety began its work about this time, and Watson's
Annals were published in 1830, all tending to promote
the taste for local history and revive the sympathy
for ancient associations. In the last-named year
petitions were sent to the Common Council asking
the restoration of Independence Hall to its original
condition, and that the apartment, in the future,
should be devoted to dignified purposes only. In
1833, twelve hundred dollars was appropriated to
carry this out, and John Haviland, architect, was
charged with the work. He used the old material as
far as it would go, and restored the original appear-
ance of the room with some few exceptions, portraits
and relics of the Eevolutionary period being added,
the old Liberty bell among other things, and since-
then Independence Hall has been a Mecca for the
sons of American liberty. As Edward Everett said
in his Fourth of July oration of 1858, "That old hall
should forever be kept sacred as the scene of such a
deed. Let the rains of heaven distill gently on its
roof and the storms of winter beat softly on its door.
As each successive generation of those who have
been benefited by the great Declaration made within
it shall make their pilgrimage to that shrine, may
they not think it unseemly to call its walls Salvation
and its gates Praise."
CHAPTER XVII.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
PART II.— PROM JULY 4, 1776, TO THE END OF THE BRITISH
OCCUPATION.
Ok the 8th of July, 1776, the day of reading the
Declaration of Independence, an election was held at
the State-House for members of the Con-
vention to form a Constitution for the State.
The delegates elected to this Convention
were, — from Philadelphia City, Benjamin
Franklin, Frederick Kuhl, Owen Biddle,
George Clymer, Timothy Matlack, James
Cannon, George Schlosser, and David Rit-
tenhouse. From Philadelphia County
there were Frederick Antis, Henry Hill,
Robert Loller, Joseph Blewer, John Bull,
Thomas Potts, Edward Bartholomew, and
William Coats.1 Benjamin Franklin
was elected president of this Convention ;
George Ross, vice-president; John Morris,
secretary ; Jacob Garrigues, assistant sec-
retary. As soon as it was organized, the
Convention assumed a degree of executive
and legislative power not contemplated
in the call for the election, and which
practically superseded the Assembly, deposed the
Governor, and ignored the existence of the propri-
1 Owen Biddle was a descendant of William Biddle, one of the pro-
prietors of West Jersey, and long time member of Council for that
colony. Owen wbb born in Philadelphia in 1737. He was brother to
Clement Biddle, and with him signed the non-importation agreement of
1765. He was member of Committee and Council of Safety, and dele-
gate to Provincial Conference in 1775 ; member of the board of war in
1777; of the Convention of 1776; and in 1777 deputy commissary of for-
age. The enemy burnt his residence during their occupation of Phila-
delphia. It was where Girard College grounds now are. Owen Biddle
was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and took a deep
intereBt in scientific Bubjects. He died 10th March, 1799. Joseph
Blewer was born in Pennsylvania, his parents English. At the out-
break of the war he was a captain in the merchant service, and was ap-
pointed on the navy board, besides holding many other responsible posts
in those critical times, among them a place on the committee to arrest
the Quakers and Tories suspected of disaffection, and membership of
Assembly in 1779-80. He became port-warden of Philadelphia, and
died Aug. 7, 1789. John Bull was born in Provideuce township, Phila-
delphia Co., 1730, and joined the provincial service as captain in 1758.
He had command at Fort Allen, was with Forbea at the capture of Du
Ques'ue, and did important service in negotiating with the IndianB.
After the French war he owned the Morris plantation and mill. He
was delegate to the Provincial Conferences of January and June, 1775;
member of Convention July, 1776, and Pennsylvania hoard of war, 1777.
In 1775 he was appointed colonel of the First Pennsylvania Battalion,
but resigned ; was commissioner to treat with Indians at Eaaton in 1777 ;
had command of the Billingsport fortifications, and became adjutant-
general of the State. His barnB were burnt and stock carried off by the
British, and he succeeded to the command of the Second Brigade of Penn-
sylvania militia when Gen. Irvine was captured, afterwards being en-
gaged in erecting the defenses of Philadelphia, acting as commisBary of
purchases; after the war served in the Assembly, and ran for Congress.
Col. Bull lived to be ninety-four years old. James Cannon was a native
of Edinburgh, Scotland, born 1740, educated at the High School, immi-
grated to Philadelphia, 1766; became tutor in the college. He was a
leader of WhigB and associators, secretary of the Manufacturing Society,
etc., wrote the " Cassandra" letters, and had great influence. He had
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
323
etary government. The suggestion of Congress to
organize a new government had been complied with
fully ; it was a time of revolution, and the Con-
vention revolutionized the provincial government by
much to do with the text of the State Constitution of 1776; was justice
of the peace, member of Council of Safety, and became Professor of
Mathematics in the University, dying in 1782. George Clymer was born
in Philadelphia, of English parents, March 16, 1739, was brought up by
William Coleman, his uncle; in 1767 was member of Common Council ;
active in the tea-meeting; chairman of committee; alderman in 1774;
delegate to Provincial Conference in 1775; member of Committee of
Safety, of Convention of 1776, and of Continental Congress in July that
year, thus signing the Declaration. Be was member of Congress also in
1777; commissioner to treat with Indians in 1778; in 1780 again mem-
ber of Congress, and one of the founders of the Bank of North America;
served in Assembly 1785-88; member of Convention to frame Federal
Constitution, and in 1788 elected to First Congress of United States. In
1791, Washington made him collector of excise for Philadelphia; in 1796
commissioner to treat with Cherokee and Creek Indians; retired from
public life; was president of Pennsylvania Bank and Academy of Fine
Arts ; died Jan. 23, 1813, William Coats, born in Philadelphia County in
1721; educated at Friends' school; served in provincial militia; mem-
ber of Provincial Conference of 1775 and Carpenters' Hall Conference;
of Committee of Inspection for Northern Liberties; and Convention of
July, 1776. He was major in First Battalion of Philadelphia associators,
and saw much active service; was in battle of Princeton; member of
Assembly in 1777; made prisoner by British in 1778, and confined in
Philadelphia jail; exchanged in 1779: justice of the peace in 1778; mem-
ber of Assembly in 1779, and died Jan. 24, 1780, a gallant and tireless
soldier. Henry Hill, son of Richard Hill, born in 1732 on his father's
Maryland plantation ; bred a merohant, and settled in Philadelphia, en-
gaging extensively in the Madeira wine trade, his father, a wealthy
Quaker, having removed to the island in 1750. "Hill's Madeira" was
one of the choicest brands in the Philadelphia market. He was justice
of the peace for Philadelphia in 1772; member of the Carpenters' Hall
Conference of 1775 and of the Convention of 1776 ; commanded a bat-
talion of associators during the Jersey campaign of 1776; in 1780 sub-
scribed five thousand pounds for relief of the Continental army ; member
of Assembly, 1780-84, and of Executive Council, 1785-88 ; died, Septem-
ber, 1798, of yellow fever. Frederick Kuhl, native of Philadelphia;
member of Committee of Inspections in 1775 ; manager of the American
Manufactory; member of Constitutional Convention and justice of the
peace ; in 1784 member of Assembly ; in 1791 trustee of the University.
Robert Loller, born in Philadelphia (now Montgomery) County, 1740;
farmer, but had classical education ; taught school at Chestnut Hill in
1772; member of Carpenters' Hall Conference and the July Conven-
tion ; major in battalion of associators; fought at Trenton, Princeton,
and Germantown, hurt in latter battle; military surveyor and commis-
sioner to arrest Tories in Delaware in 1777; member of Assembly, 1777
to 1789; register of wills, 1789; associate judge, 1791; died October,
1808, and buried in Abington Presbyterian churcbyard; surveyor and
conveyancer by occupation ; endowed Hatboro' Literary Institute with
eleven thousand dollars. Timothy Matlack, Quaker parents, born in Had-
donfield, N. J., 1730; Free Quaker; member of Carpenters' Hall Confer-
ence and of July Convention ; appoiuted Secretary of State from 1776 to
1783; active aesociator; member and secretary of Council of Safety;
after the war the committee presented him with a silver urn for his
patriotic services; member of Continental Congress, 1780-81; commis-
sioner of flying camp; in 1800 made master of the rolls till 1809; then
prothonotary in Philadelphia; died at Holmesburg, 1829, aged ninety-
nine years. Thomas Potts, born at Colebrookdale, Philadelphia Co.,
May 29, 17 55 ; engaged in iron business in Philadelphia with his uncle,
Thomas Yorke; member of Assembly, 1775; captain of Continental
riflemen 1776; colonel of battalion of associators; member of Conven-
tion of 1776; active in Jersey and Pennsylvania campaigns; memberof
Assembly, 1776-77; after war, pioneer in Pennsylvania iron miniug,
giving his name to Pottsville; died March 22, 1785. George Ross, vice-
president of the Convention, son of Rev. George Ross, minister of the
Established Church, born in New Castle, Del., May 10, 1730; classically
educated, studied law, began practice in Lancaster ; 17(58-75, member of
Assembly; active Whig and leader; memberof Provincial Conference,
1774 ; member of First Continental Congress ; raised company of associa-
tors in 1775 ; president of Lancaster Military Convention, July 4, 1776;
member of Provincial Convention, July 15, 1776, chosen vice-president ;
assuming that it derived all necessary powers from
the people to reconstruct the institutions of Pennsyl-
vania from the foundation. New delegates to Con-
gress were elected. Upon application from Congress
the common prison was removed to its former quar-
ters in the old building corner of Third and Market
Streets, and the use of the new one at Sixth and Wal-
nut Streets given to Congress for the custody of State
prisoners and prisoners of war. Thomas Dewees, the
sheriff, doubting the authority of the Convention to
make such changes, applied for an indemnity to pro-
tect him from the consequences of such act. He was
directed to comply and to apply to the commanding
officer of the City Guard for a guard for the old jail.
This patrol and guard had been instituted early in
July at the request of the officers of the associators.
There were three patrols, each having a separate dis-
trict assigned to it, each composed of a commissioned
officer and four privates, who traversed the streets
from eleven o'clock at night until daybreak, not su-
perseding, but assisting and supplementing, the city
watch. The chief guard-house was adjoining the
prison, Market Street above Third. A guard was sta-
tioned at the State-House, and the patrol service was
apportioned among the associator companies then in
the city.
On July 23d the Convention elected a Council of
Safety to discharge the executive duties of the State
government, thus dissolving the Committee of Safety.
The new Council was composed of David Ritten-
house, Samuel Mifflin, Jonathan B. Smith, Timothy
Matlack, Samuel Morris, Jr., Owen Biddle, James
Cannon, Samuel Howell, Nathaniel Falconer, Fred-
erick Kuhl, Thomas Wharton, Jr., Henry Keppele,
Jr., Joseph Blewer, George Gray, John Bull, Henry
Wynkoop, Benjamin Bartholomew, John Hubley,
Michael Swope, Daniel Hunter, William Lyon, Peter
Rboads, David Epsey, Joseph Witzell, and Samuel
Moore. David Rittenhouse was appointed chairman,
and Jacob S. Howell secretary.
On the 25th the Convention adopted a resolution
approving of the Declaration of Independence. It
prohibited tavern-keepers from taking out licenses
from officers of the old government, continued the
Committees of Inspection, offered bounties for volun-
teers for the "flying camp," and ordered four new
sent to Congress; signed Declaration; Indian commissioner at Pitts-
burg in 1776; judge of Admiralty Court, 1779, and died July that year.
George Schlosser, son of Rev. George and Sophia Joannetta (Ellwesten)
Schlosser, born at St. Arnnal, Saarbruck, Nassau, Germany, 1714; came
to Philadelphia in 1751; became successful merchant; deputy to Pro-
vincial Convention of 1774 ; January, 1775 ; Carpenters' Hall Conference,
1775, and Provincial Convention of July, 1776. Schlosser was one of the
Philadelphia Committee of Observation in 1775; lent the State two
thousand dollars in 1778 ; worked with Stephen Girard and Peter Helm
against the yellow fever of 1793, and died in 1802, aged eighty-eight
years. Col. Frederick Antis (or Antes), of Philadelphia County ; com-
manded one of the associators' battalions, in active service ; was member
of the Provincial Convention of 1776, of the Council of Safety, etc.;
justice of the peace, judge of Common Pleas and Orphans' Court; com-
missioner to survey the Upper Delaware, etc.lf
324
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
battalions to be raised, Philadelphia's quota to be six
hundred and twenty-eight men. Provision was made
for returning deserters to their ranks and for disarm-
ing non-associators. As there were no courts in ex-
istence, an order was passed discharging debtors from
confinement on the surrender of their property for
the benefit of their creditors, those in confinement on
mesne process upon giving proper security. All crimi-
nals were discharged also, except those guilty of capi-
tal offenses and " practices against the present virtu-
ous measures of the American States." Commission-
ers were appointed for the several counties, those for
Philadelphia being George Bryan, James Young,
Jacob Schreiner, John Bull, Henry Hill, and Peter
Knight, who had power to hear and determine the
cases of all persons in prison. An ordinance was
passed decreeing the penalty of death for counter-
feiting Continental money. Justices of the peace
were appointed by the "Convention, and the members
of the Council of Safety were declared to be vested
ex officio with the authority of magistrates. For the
city and county of Philadelphia the following justices
were commissioned: Benjamin Franklin, John Dick-
inson, George Bryan, James Young, James Biddle,
John Morris, Jr., Joseph Parker, John Bayard, Sharpe
Delaney, John Cadwalader, Joseph Cowperthwaite,
Christopher Marshall the elder, Francis Gurney,
Robert Knox, Matthew Clarkson, William Coats,
William Ball, Philip Boehm, Francis Caspar Hasen-
clever, Thomas Cuthbert the elder, Moses Bartram,
Jacob Schreiner, Joseph Moulder, Jonathan Paschal,
Benjamin Paschal, Benjamin Harbeson, Jacob Bright,
Henry Hill, Samuel Ashmead, Frederick Antis, Sam-
uel Erwin, Alexander Edwards, Seth Quee, Samuel
Potts, Rowland Evans, Charles Bensel, and Peter
Evans. Before assuming the functions of their office,
these justices were required to take an oath of allegi-
ance to the State of Pennsylvania and renouncing the
authority of George III.
An ordinance was passed against speaking, writing,
obstructing, or opposing " the measures of the United
States for the defense of the freedom thereof," any
one magistrate having power to hold to surety for
good behavior upon this charge, and two or more
to commit, without bail, for such time as they might
determine, or during the war. Another ordinance
condemned non-associators to pay a personal fine of
twenty shillings per month per capita, and a tax
of four shillings per pound on the annual value of
their estates. The Convention appointed under this
law to carry it into effect for Philadelphia City and
County the following officers: Commissioners for city,
Jacob Morgan, Joseph Moulder, and Jacob Bright ;
for county, Thomas Potts, Samuel Erwin, and John
Williams ; assessors for city, Michael Shubert, Benja-
min Harbeson, William Will, and William Hollings-
head; for county, John Brown, William Robinson,
Samuel Ingle, Andrew Knox, Henry Derringer, and
Isaac Hughes.
The last act of the old Provincial Assembly, besides
a protest against the usurpation of the Convention,
was to vote one thousand pounds to Governor Penn
and eleven thousand pounds in salaries to other of
the old provincial officers. The Convention took no
notice of the expiring Assembly, but adopted the
new Constitution and adjourned, having completed
its labors, on September 28th.
The new Constitution provided for an Assembly, to
be elected annually, and a supreme executive coun-
cil, composed of twelve members, chosen by districts,
to hold their offices for three years. The Assembly
was to appoint the delegates to Congress, the supreme
executive council exercising all the powers needed
for the public safety and the proper execution of the
laws. Members of the Assembly could not be re-
elected more than four times in seven years. The
official oath was to support the Constitution, to act
faithfully, to subscribe to a belief in one God, Crea-
tor, Governor, rewarder of the good and punisher of
the wicked, and in the divine inspiration of Scrip-
ture. The Constitution could not be altered for
seven years, but at the expiration of that time a
council of censors was to be elected, who were to
consider and balance all the benefits and defects of
the system. If they thought amendments were
needed, they had power, with the consent of two-
thirds the voters, to call a Convention to meet two
years afterwards.
The new Constitution encountered opposition as
soon as published. Franklin's plan (for it was his)
of a single legislative body was denounced, and so
also was the requirement of a profession of religious
belief. It was too explicit, and at the same time too
loose, as it would admit deists, Jews, Mohammedans,
and other enemies of Christianity. There were other
objections, and the newspapers teemed with commu-
nications for and against the instrument from the pens
of " A Friend of Christ," " Orator Puflf and Mr. Easy,"
" Casea," " Scipio," " Lucius," " A Real Friend of
Christ," " Cassius," "Andrew and Benjamin," "Mon-
tesquieu," etc. A town-meeting was even held at the
State-House on October 21st, Col. John Bayard pre-
siding. A series of resolutions analyzing and criti-
cising the Constitution, which had been agreed upon
previously at Philosophical Hall, were submitted,
and debated by Thomas McKean, John Dickinson,
and others, in opposition to the Constitution, and
James Cannon, Timothy Matlack, Dr. Young, and
Col. Smith, of York County, in favor of it. The
resolutions were adopted at an adjourned meeting,
but they accomplished nothing. The elections were
duly held under the Constitution at the time speci-
fied. The anti-constitutional ticket prevailed in
both city and county by a majority more than
double. The delegates elected to the Assembly on
November 5th were Joseph Parker, Robert Morris,
George Clymer, Michael Shubert, John Bayard, and
Samuel Morris, Jr. ; and at a meeting of the voters
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
325
electing them, and who were opposed to the Constitu-
tion, a series of " instructions" was adopted, command-
ing them, in effect, to make radical changes in the Con-
stitution, or make what was really a new and entirely
different instrument. This violent action was not ap-
proved, however. Other meetings were called, and
meantime public attention was directed to the critical
military situation. The members of the Assembly
organized under the new Constitution, without heeding
the instructions, and the Constitution continued to be
the supreme law.
In the mean time, independent of military crises
and political excitements, there were many other
things to disturb the equanimity of Philadelphians.
There was scarcity or an uncertain and fortuitous
supply only of many articles of necessity. Salt, in
particular, was very scarce, and yet must be had at
any price. It had become the most precious of com-
modities, more inquired for than either gunpowder or
saltpetre, and ,the government sought to remedy a
difficulty in regard to the supply, which was aggra-
vated by the efforts of the forestallers and engrossers.
The capitalists and leading business men were Quak-
ers. They were not well affected towards the patriot
cause ; they preferred hard money or goods to Conti-
nental and Pennsylvania currency, and they bought
and stored away salt in utter disregard of the needs
of the community. It would be premature here to
discuss the distresses growing out of a degraded and
depraved currency, since the crisis had not yet come ;
but it is evident that depreciation had already set in
with sufficient force to affect the prices of all articles
in daily use. We may judge from Christopher Mar-
shall's diary and other contemporary records that the
stringency in price and scarcity of some classes of
articles began about the time of the Declaration, and
that from that date onward it was impossible for the
committees to regulate prices by any fixed or arbi-
trary scale.
We find Marshall speaking of the committee's
having settled the prices of salt and tea " for the
present" on June 1st at a meeting at Philosophical
Hall. Marshall had the granting of permits to buy
such articles of prime necessity. His diary speaks of
his wife's anxious quest along the wharves for the
winter's supply of firewood— twenty-nine shillings for
hickory, twenty shillings for oak, etc. " August 31,
paid ten pounds for eleven and a half cords of oak
firewood. Paid for hauling, carrying, and piling,
forty-two shillings ten and a half pence. September
2d, Been fixing the quantity of salt to be sold to each
county, being what was Messrs. Shewell and Joshua
Fisher and Sons'. 7th, Yesterday arrived a Bermu-
dian vessel with two thousand five hundred bushels
of salt. 8th, it is said that two more vessels are
just come in with salt; quantity, it's said, two thou-
sand bushels. . . . October 7th, a vessel from Ber-
mudas with salt. . . . 12th, two vessels arrived with
salt within these two days past, and yet it's said some
are selling it at three dollars per bushel (so inhuman
are some of our citizens to poor people). ... a won-
derful Ordinance published in Evening Post, No. 270,
inviting all masters of vessels coming with salt to sell
it to them for fifteen shillings per bushel. 0 rare
Council of Safety !. . . . 14th, two more vessels, it's
said, with salt. . . . 17th, another vessel, it's said,
arrived yesterday with twenty-five bushels of salt
from Bermudas. ... On the twenty-first, arrived a
schooner with twelve hundred bushels of salt, it's
said," etc. etc. Bev. Henry M. Muhlenberg's diary,
under date of Friday, November 8th (written in
Reading), says,—" Bought a quarter of pork for the
family, cost thirteen shillings sixpence. There is
complaint upon complaint heard among the inhabit-
ants in town and country. The finest salt, which
before the war could be got for two shillings per
bushel, has risen already to twenty-five shillings,
and not easily gotten. A pair of shoes, which cost
seven shillings sixpence, now costs fifteen shillings.
A pound of butter, which at its highest prices was one
shilling, now costs two shillings and two shillings six-
pence. Wool three times as dear as before the war.
Linen, which could be purchased for three shillings
per yard, now costs nine shillings to twelve shillings.
A pound of meat, which cost fourpence to fivepence,
now costs eightpence to tenpence. A cord of wood,
which used to cost previously one pound, now costs two
pounds ; and flour is beginning to rise in price, be-
cause the last crop did not turn out well, and the rich
Quakers are purchasing large quantities, as they would
rather store up wheat than Continental paper. So
the Lord by degrees allows our bread to become dear
that we may not become independent." Sunday,
December 1st, Muhlenberg wrote that F. M. had been
to the city, and reported a frightful state of things
there. " There is a great scarcity of salt. The people
push and jostle one another wherever there is the
smallest quantity to be found about town. The coun-
try people complain and threaten because they sup-
pose there are hidden stores of salt in Philadelphia.
Next to bread salt is the greatest necessary of life,
and it seems as if the government had more care for
the articles of death than of life. There is great
pains taken to provide saltpetre and powder, but a
magazine of salt is forgotten."
It is apparent from these figures that the enhance-
ment in the price of salt was many times greater than
that of other articles of consumption. The Commit-
tees of Safety and Inspection took such measures as
occurred to them for preventing the storing away of
salt for higher prices. Stephen and Joseph Shewell
had hoarded four thousand and fifty-nine bushels, in
defiance of regulations, selling only at twelve shillings
per bushel for coarse salt instead of 7s. 6d., and two
shillings per half-peck for fine salt instead of twelve
pence. They were brought before the committee, re-
fused to apologize, were published as enemies of the
country, and all their stock was seized. Three thou-
326
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
sand bushels, belonging to Joshua Fisher & Sons, had
been seized under similar circumstances in 1775. The
committee made a general distribution of these seiz-
ures at the June prices, the quantity reserved for Phil-
adelphia being two hundred and seventy-nine bushels
of fine and ninety-eight and one-half bushels of coarse
salt, three thousand bushels of fine and one hundred
and six of coarse salt being reserved for Philadelphia
County. Congress also passed resolutions at this time
intended to prevent the monopoly of salt. There had
been salt-works set up at Tom's River, guarded by the
military, but these yielded nothing so far, and in De-
cember the Council of Safety withdrew all restrictions
on the price and traffic in this article of necessity.
The Tories and disaffected gave great trouble after
the Declaration of Independence, and when the Howes
had issued their proclamations of amnesty to individ-
uals, upon beginning their march into the Jerseys.
Congress was in part to blame for this, since they re-
ceived Gen. Sullivan us a quasi ambassador from Lord
Howe, and also sent John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
and Edward Rutledge as commissioners to ascertain
his powers to treat. The weakness of Congress at this
time, however, the broken and enfeebled condition of
the army, the apparently irresistible advance of Sir
William Howe's fierce forces, and above all, the ex-
ample set by the Quakers and many of the leading
families of the province and city, had a still greater
effect. This was the period when the Aliens, Gallo-
way, patriots whose courage failed them, and many
more of the most influential citizens went over to the
enemy. It was not until 1778, however, that there
was any general attempt to call these deserters from
this cause to account, either in their persons or es-
tates. In the meanwhile arrests were being made
every day. Arthur Thomas and his son, Arthur
Thomas, Jr., were imprisoned by order of Congress
for assisting the Tory leader, Col. Kirkland, of
South Carolina, to escape, and warrants were out
for the elder and younger John Hatton for the
same offense. Alexander Maurice, of New Castle,
William Sutton, of New York, and James McCon-
neaughty, of Chester, were imprisoned in the new
jail as suspects, and in October they were reinforced
by thirty-three Tories, brought on from New York.
John Biles, of Northern Liberties, was imprisoned
for treason. James Thompson, of Oxford, made to
apologize for imprudent language. John Baldwin,
cordwainer, Joseph Fox, late barrack-master, and
Jonathan Reynolds were published as enemies for re-
fusing to take Continental money. Capt. Hare, of
the Continental army, was brought before the United
States treasury board for buying specie at a premium
in Continental money. Twelve canisters of illicit
tea, on the sloop " Sally," Capt. Ball, from St. Croix,
were thrown into the Delaware by Capts. Heysham,
Simpson, and John Leamington, under orders from
the Committee of Inspection. These committees,
however, were dissolved in September.
The Tories were encouraged by the withdrawal of
the committees to new aggressions and insolence,
until finally a public 'meeting was called to consider
their conduct. Thomas McKean was chairman, and
John Chaloner clerk of this meeting, held at the In-
dian Queen, November 25th. It appeared that Tory
clubs were in the habit of meeting at taverns and
singing " God Save the King." The result was a
number of arrests and penalties, more or less severe.
Among those committed were James Prescott, Wil-
liam Smith, Richard Footman, Joseph Stansbury,
Samuel Jeffries, David Shoemaker, Joel Zane, Robert
Burton, Leatherbury Barker, William Barker, Wil-
liam Bagwell, Littleton Townsend, William Redding,
Daniel Bancroft (spy), and one Cunningham.
The Quakers, in the latter part of December, when
all believed that Howe would be in Philadelphia in a
very few days, issued their usual " testimony," urging
upon the faithful a patient spirit in order to enable
them with Christian firmness and fortitude "to with-
stand and refuse to submit to the arbitrary injunc-
tions and ordinances of men who assume to them-
selves the power of compelling others, either in person
or by assistance, to aid in carrying on war," etc.
The State navy built two new galleys, the " Dela-
ware," built at Kensington, by William Williams, and
commanded by Henry Dougherty, and the " Conven-
tion," captain, John Rice. Arthur Donaldson built
the new floating battery, the " Putnam," the captain
of which was William Brown. Twelve fire-raft boats
were ordered; Thomas Seymour was commissioned as
fleet commodore, Samuel Mifflin having declined to
serve. The Continental frigate " Washington" was
launched in August, and the fleet of privateers greatly
increased. Among those newly commissioned were
" General Mifflin," brigantine, John Cox, Chaloner,
aDd others owners,. 12 guns, 90 men, Capt. John
Hamilton ; " General Putnam," brigantine, Matthew
Irwin and Benjamin Harbeson owners, 12 guns, 90
men, Capt. Charles Ferguson; "Jupiter," sloop, N.
Low & Co. owners, 14 guns, 95 men, Capt. Francis
Illingsworth ; " Congress," sloop, John Bayard and
Joseph Dean & Co. owners, 6 guns, 40 men, Capt.
William Greenway; "General Thompson," Edmund
Beach & Co. owners, 6 guns, 12 men, Capt. Connell;
" General Lee," brig, John Bayard, Henderson & Co.
owners, 12 guns, 90 men, Capt. John Chatham ;
"Speedwell," ship, John Maxwell, Nesbitt & Co.
owners, 10 guns, 25 men, Capt. Thomas Bell; " Friend-
ship," sloop, John Wilcocks & Co. owners, 6 guns,
20 men, Capt. Robert Collings ; " Industry," brig,
Blair McClenachau owner, Capt. Michael Barstow ;
and "Rutledge," brig, Alexander Gilson owner, 12
guns, 60 men, Capt. James Smith.
These letters of marque and privateers and those
at sea before them were very successful. The " Han-
cock" sent into Portsmouth, Va., a large ship that
had once carried twenty guns, with a cargo of seven
hundred hogsheads of sugar, two hundred hogsheads
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
327
of rum, and other valuables ; a British transport with
two hundred and fifty Hessian soldiers aboard ; a Ja-
maica ship with five hundred hogsheads of sugar and
five hundred dollars; another sugar-ship; another
with logwood and mahogany ; with three brigs sent
into Philadelphia, — eleven prizes in all for one vessel.
The " Congress" took the ship " Richmond," with a
two thousand pounds cargo; the "Chance" brought
in the ship " William," cargo of rum and sugar ; the
" General Montgomery" took the large ship " Thetis,"
which went ashore in Delaware Bay ; another prize,
a large ship also, reaching port safely. The Conti-
nental ships were successful also: the "Reprisal,"
Capt. Wickes, the vessel which took Franklin out to
Nantes as minister to France, sent in a ship, a brig,
and a schooner ; the " Lexington," Capt. John Barry,
captured an armed sloop ; the " Providence" took the
"Sea Nymph"; the "Sachem" took the brigantine
"Three Friends" ; the "Andrew Doria," Capt. Nich-
olas Biddle, took a ship and five brigs ; the " Inde-
pendence" took the sloop "Sam," with twenty thou-
sand dollars and two and one-half tons of ivory ; and
the " Wasp" brought in a fine ship, which was burnt
in port.
The blockaders made many prizes, but did not suc-
ceed in closing the port. The "Nancy," Capt.
Montgomery, a ship of the province, with arms and
ammunition, was closely chased at Cape May, showed
fight, aided by Capts. Barry and Wickes, but finally
was run ashore and blown up, saving part of her
arms and gunpowder. The British sailors were
boarding the vessel at the moment of the explosion,
and many lives were lost. Other vessels were cap-
tured by the blockaders,— the " Roebuck," " King-
fisher," and "Orpheus," with six tenders,— but a
good many vessels came through with arms and other
military stores.
The campaign of 1776 in the field was not only ex-
tremely disastrous to the American arms, but it trans-
ferred the field of operations from Boston to the
vicinity of Philadelphia. The necessity for the evacu-
ation of Boston was no sooner perceived by the
British government than they determined to seize
upon New York. Their plan was, holding this city
as a naval and military rendezvous, to connect it by
a line of posts with Albany and Canada, from which
New England could be harassed in the rear. The
colonies severed at this point, New Jersey could be
overrun and a new cordon sanilaire established by
means of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, while
independent expeditions might easily overrun the
South. In advance of the evacuation of Boston
Clinton had looked into New York, but found Charles
Lee there to watch him, and Lee, with his flying corps,
followed Clinton down the coast to Charleston, where
Moultrie and Gadsden defeated him and Sir Peter
Parker.
Boston was evacuated March 17, 1776 ; Washing-
ton's army reached New York April 14th, and now
efforts were made to defend that city with new levies of
troops drawn in part from the Middle States. Penn-
sylvania had already been called on to contribute her
battalions to the expedition towards Canada under
Sullivan. She was now called upon again to send
troops to take part in the battle of Long Island and the
defense of Fort Washington, to form a flying camp in
New Jersey, and finally to muster all her levies of
minute-men, militia, and associators to prevent the
line of the Delaware from being broken.
The student of Washington's military operations
will have noticed that the American general, in the
course of this year (1776), established the " quadri-
lateral" upon which all his subsequent operations
rested. The line, with respect to the Hudson, ex-
tended from Newburg to Morristown, with West
Point for the final rally and last stand. For the
Delaware and Schuylkill peninsula it extended from
Trenton to the " safe place" or rendezvous at Ger-
mantown and Chestnut Hill round to the Perkiomen,
with a final retreat, if necessary, to the Cumberland
Valley and the valley of Virginia, where Washington
said he could carry on the war for twenty years. The
"safe place" above Germantown was really the cen-
tral point, the pivot of the greatest military opera-
tions of the war. Here the campaign of Trenton
and Princeton was planned ; here the army was
swung around to meet Howe at Brandywine; here
again it waited to decide between New York and
Yorktown for the closing campaign ; here was the
outpost of Valley Forge ; and the key that held
Howe prisoner in Philadelphia until the Monmouth
retreat ended almost in a fox-chase. The manoeuvres
and military movements from the Perkiomen to the
Brandywine, in the peninsula between the Delaware
and the Schuylkill, are part of the proper history of
Philadelphia. Of other movements we need particu-
larize nothing, except so far as concerns soldiers who
were themselves citizens of Philadelphia.
Henry P. Johnston's Centennial volume, describing
" the campaign of 1776 around New York and Brook-
lyn," a work published by the Long Island Historical
Society, gives an excellent summary of the part played
in that struggl e by the soldiers of Pennsylvania : " Her
troops," he says, " participated in nearly every engage-
ment, and had the opportunity in more than one in-
stance of acquitting themselves with honor. Besides
her large body of ' associators,' many of whom marched
into New Jersey, the State sent four Continental regi-
ments, under Cols. Wayne, St. Clair, Irvine, and De
Haas, to Canada, and eight other battalions, three of
them Continental, to the army at New York. Of these,
the oldest was commanded by Col. Edward Hand, of
Lancaster. It was the first of the Continental estab-
lishment, in which it was known as the rifle corps.
Enlisting in 1775, under Col. Thompson, it joined the
army at the siege of Boston, re-enlisted for the war
under Col. Hand in 1776, and fought all along the
continent from Massachusetts to South Carolina, not
328
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
disbanding until peace was signed in 1783. Hand,
himself a native of Ireland, and like many others in
the service, a physician by profession, had served in
the British army, was recognized as a superior officer,
and we find him closing his career as Washington's
adjutant-general and personal friend. The two other
regiments raised on the Continental basis were com-
manded by Col. Robert Magaw, formerly major of
Thompson's regiment, and John Shee, of Philadel-
phia. The remaining battalions were distinctively
State troops, and formed part of the State's quota for
the flying camp. Col. Samuel Miles, subsequently
mayor of Philadelphia, commanded what was known
as the First Regiment of Riflemen. Unlike any
other corps, it was divided into two battalions, which,
under their enlistment, in March, aggregated five
hundred men each. The lieutenant-colonel of the
first was Piper, of the second, John Brodhead. The
majors were Paten and Williams. Another corps
was known as the First Regiment of Pennsylvania
Musketry, under Col. Samuel John Atlee, of Lan-
caster County, originally five hundred strong, and
recruited in Chester and the Pequea Valleys. Atlee
had been a soldier in his youth in the frontier ser-
vice, afterwards studied law, and in 1775 was active
in drilling companies for the war. Mercer, who knew
a good soldier when he met him, wrote to Washing-
ton that Atlee was worthy his regard as an officer
of "experience and attention,'' and his fine conduct
on Long Island proved his title to this word of com-
mendation from his superior. How much of a man
and a soldier he had in his lieutenant-colonel, Caleb
Parry, the events of Aug. 27th will bear witness.
The three other battalions were incomplete.'' In
speaking of the death of Col. Parry in the descrip-
tion of the battle, Mr. Johnston says, " The men
shrunk and fell back, but Atlee rallied them, and
Parry cheered them on, and they gained the hill.
It was here, while engaged in an officer's highest
duty, turning men to the enemy by his own example,
that the fatal bullet pierced his brow. When some
future monument rises from Greenwood to com-
memorate the struggle of this day, it can bear no
more fitting line among its inscriptions than this
tribute of Brodhead's, — ' Parry died like a hero.' "
Shee's, Magaw's, and Lambert Cadwalader's com-
mands were the defenders of Fort Washington, and
the survivors became prisoners of war when that un-
tenable post surrendered. The story, as told by Alex-
ander Graydon, may still be read with interest, though
it is not told without prejudice. After this disaster,
Washington had but the poorest third of his army
left him, and that melting rapidly by desertions and
the expiration of terms of enlistment. One-third had
been lost on the field by disease, wounds, and capture;
one-third was inert and idle under Lee on the east side
of the Hudson, and Lee would not bring it up because
he wanted a separate command to himself, and ex-
pected that Howe would secure it for him by speedily
dispersing Washington's feeble remnants. The latter
was retreating towards the Delaware, with Howe
pressing upon him. His rear left New Brunswick as
the van of Cornwallis' entered the town. He made
a night march to Princeton, then, leaving a rear guard
there under Stirling, the general hurried to the Dela-
ware, and prepared to defend that line, scarcely hoping
to succeed. He sent Reed to the New Jersey authori-
ties to hurry up the levies, and Mifflin to Philadelphia
to rouse Congress and the provincial authorities to the
critical character of the emergency. Reed met with
but scant success. " The defenseless Legislature" of
New Jersey, says Sedgwick, " with their Governor,
William Livingston, at their head, wandered from
Princeton to Burlington, from Burlington to Pitts-
town, from Pittstown to Haddonfield, and there,
finally, at the utmost verge of the State, dissolved
themselves, on the 2d of December, leaving each
member to look to his own safety, at a moment when
the efforts of legislators would be of no avail, and
when there was no place where they could safely hold
their sessions." The Jersey yeomanry were not fully
roused to take the field until they had bitter experi-
ence of the impartial rapine of the Hessians visited
upon all, Whig and Tory, male and female, alike.
Mifflin prospered better. He was eloquent and could
speak plainly, and tell the truth bluntly. " His coun-
trymen," he wrote to Washington, "appeared to be
slumbering under the shade of peace, and in the full
enjoyment of the sweets of commerce." He gave them
a talk, several of them, and, as he said, these talks
were " well seasoned." Washington retreated across
the Delaware at Trenton, secured all the boats for
seventy miles up and down the river, and prevented
Cornwallis and Grant from crossing immediately.
The delay thus gained undoubtedly gave a year's
respite to Philadelphia and saved the cause from the
peril of immediate total wreck. But the situation
was still as desperate as it could well be. Apathy
was seen on one side, disaffection and treason on the
other. Men like Lee and Gates were selfishly con-
spiring; men like George Clinton were puzzled and
complaining ; almost every one looked upon the Revo-
lution as '"a ruined enterprise." The loyal Jersey-
men were supine. " Sorry am I to observe," wrote
Washington, "that the frequent calls upon the mili-
tia of this State, the want of exertion in the principal
gentlemen of the country, and a fatal supineness and
insensibility of danger, till it is too late to prevent an
evil that was not only foreseen, but foretold, have
been the causes of our late disgraces. If the militia
of this State had stepped forth in season (and timely
notice they had), we might have prevented the enemy's
crossing the Hackensack. We might, with equal pos-
sibility of success, have made a stand at Brunswick,
on the Raritan. But as both these rivers were ford-
able in a variety of places, it required many men to
guard the passes, and these we had not." As for the
disloyal Jerseymen, there were legions of them. Gov-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
329
ernor Livingston characterized the population of his
own village of Elizabethtown as being made up of
" unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking
Tories, and very knavish Whigs."
Howe's proclamation brought the people flocking
in and determined hundreds in adjacent colonies to
wait for the opportunity of submission. " On all
sides," says Gen. W. W. H. Davis,1 "this period was
considered the most critical. In Europe the cause of
the colonies was thought to be lost. In England
Franklin was said to be a fugitive, or had come to
offer terms. The English government believed that
Cornwallis would sweep the American army from the
field in the spring, and thus end the quarrel. At New
York all was gayety, and wine and dance and song
went round in exultant glory over the anticipated de-
feat of the patriots. The haughty Britons seemed to
forget that there was a Providence on this side of the
Atlantic, and that in a just cause He was not always
on the side of the strongest battalions.
"Circumstances conspired to make this the most
trying time of the Revolution. Several prominent
men, among the most ardent patriots at the beginning
of the struggle, were growing lukewarm, or had al-
ready made their peace with the king. Samuel
Tucker, president of the Convention which framed
the Constitution of New Jersey, had made his sub-
mission under Howe's proclamation. On this side the
Delaware, Joseph Galloway, the three Aliens, and
others had followed his example. John Dickinson,
so zealous and patriotic at the breaking out of the
war, feeling that the Declaration of Independence
was premature, refused a seat in Congress from Dela-
ware. . . . But Washington and a compact body of
patriots did not grow faint-hearted in the darkest
hour."
Washington reached Trenton on Dec. 3, 1776, and
on the 8th he was already across the river with his
rear-guard. He had sent Col. Hampton in advance
from New Brunswick to collect boats, and with the
request to Putnam to collect lumber and build rafts,
and to Congress to order all boats to be secured and
brought over to the west side. Washington's head-
quarters were in George Clymer's house, afterwards
Morrisville, a site in later years suggested for the cap-
ital of the United States. He had been on the west side
of the river before, examining the topography of the
country, the condition of the fords and ferries, and
seeking the means to repel an enemy attempting to
cross the river in force. Greene, Putnam, Maxwell,
and Ewing were instructed to collect all boats and
destroy such as could not be secured on the west side,
from New Hope down to Philadelphia. The fords
were all heavily guarded, a brigade at every one, and
Washington had already selected that " strong ground
1 "Washington on the West Bank of the Delaware, 1776 :" read be-
fore the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Jan. 12, 1880.— Pennsylvania
Magazine, vol. iv. No, 2.
near Germantown" where he expected to make his
final stand in case the enemy forced the passage of
the river. This point, Trenton, Red Bank, Valley
Forge, and the field of Brandywine, were all within
a radius of forty miles from the steeple of the State-
House in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of In-
dependence had been proclaimed. Historic ground .'
It is now proper to inquire, with more detail, what
troops Philadelphia was contributing for her defense.
Congress, on July 3d, by request of the Provincial
Convention of New Jersey, addressed the Committee
of Safety of Pennsylvania, asking for as many troops
as could be spared, to be sent to Monmouth Court-
House, to be placed under the commander-in-chief,
to hold in check the troublesome Tories of Amboy
and defend the approaches from Staten Island. One
battalion of five hundred riflemen, under Lieut.-Col.
Brodhead, was at once sent forward to Bordentown.
The resolutions for the flying camp were passed July
2d ; until it could be formed the Philadelphia asso-
ciators were asked to come forward. A conference
was held at the State-House of the officers of the five
city battalions,2 the members of Congress from New
2 The regular battalions wero State militia under pay, in contradis-
tinction to Continental regiments, which were officered and paid by
Congress, and the battalions and companies of associators, who were
volunteers, not paid unless mustered into actual field service. To neg-
lect these distinctions will cause confusion. The " Pennsylvania Ar-
chives" give two muster-rolls of " men in actual pay, officers included,
in the Bervice of the Province of Pennsylvania." These rolls are made
up to July 1, 1776, and Aug. 1, 1776, respectively, from the muster-rolls
as follows :
July 1st.
August 1st.
*
First Battalion Rifle Regiment,
First Battalion Rifle Regimen
(
Col. Samuel Miles.
S. Miles, Esq., colonel.
102
78
S6
Philip Albright's "
84
5L
Andrew Long's "
61
69
72
Richard Brown's "
65
ia
70
70
443
417
Second Baltalvm of Rifles.
Second Battalion of Rifles.
81
71
Peter Grubb's "
65
1)8
70
78
93
William Peeble's "
91
57
58
62
64
428
430
Battalion of Musketry, Samuel
Battalion of Musketry, Samuel
Atlee, Esq.
Atlee, Esq.
Patrick Anderson's company
56
Patrick AncIevson'B company
49
Peter Z. Lloyd's "
6L
Peter Z. Lloyd's "
as
Francis Muncy's "
52
Francis Muncy's "
49
Abraham Marshall's "
44
Joseph McClellan's "
SO
Abraham Dehuff's "
64
Abraham Dehuff's "
59
Thomas Herbert's "
57
Thomas Herbert's "
55
John Nice's "
65
John Nice'B "
50
Joseph Howell's *'
55
Joseph Howell's "
47
Total 1315
Capt. Thomas Proctor's com-
pany of artillery 117
Number carried forward 1432
The navy men and officers.... 743
Total number of land and
fleet forces 2175
397
Total 1*244
Capt. Proctor's artillery 121
Carried up 1365
Men and officers in navy 798
Fleet and land forces 2133
330
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and the Com-
mittees of Safety and Inspection, Thomas McKean
presiding. It was resolved to march by companies
to Trenton, the three regular Pennsylvania battalions
Proctor's company was the first Pennsylvania artillery during the
Revolution. Thomas Proctor was born in Ireland in 1739, came to
Philadelphia with his father, Francis Proctor; married to Mary Fox,
Dec. 31, 1766 ; was by trade a carpenter. Oct. 27, 1775, Proctor applied
to the Committee of Safety to be commissioned captain of an artillery
company to be raised for garrisoning Fort Island. He was commis-
sioned that day and given authority to raise his company. In Decem-
ber he had ninety men at Fort Island. Aug. 14, 1776, Proctor's com-
mand was raised to a battalion of two hundred men, two companies, one
commanded by John Martin Strobogh, the other by Thomas Forrest,
Proctor commanding battaliou as major. On July 31, 1776, Proctor's
muster-roll showed one hundred and fourteen men and twelve musi-
cians; three were sick in town, seven on furlough, three recently dis-
charged as apprentices. The roll that day was,— Captain, Thomas Proc-
tor; first lieutenant, Hercules Courtenay ; captain-lieutenant, Jeremiah
Simmons; second lieutenant, John Martin Strobogh; lieutenant fire
worker, Francis Proctor; quartermaster-sergeant, John Webster; cor-
poral and company clerk, Patrick Duffy ; sergeants, Charles Turnbull,
Jacob Parker, John Stephenson ; corporalB, William Ferguson, Thomas
Healy, George May ; botnbardians, David Sbadaker, Nicholas Coleman,
David Fisk, William Turner, Robert McDonnell, John Holden, George
Bourk, Nicholas Burr; gunners, Thomas Newbound, Jacob Climer,
Isaac Bunting, John Reynolds, Thomas Kennedy, Francis Bell, Michael
Amerlin, Henry Suiter, Jacob Harkishimer, Owen WilliamB, Daniel
Forbes, William Fitch, Henry Love, George Jeffries, David Wilson,
Thomas Wiggins, Samuel Newton, William Newbound, William Clay-
too, James Cookley, James Norris, Andrus CresBUian, George Whiteside,
Ephraim Reece; with sixty-nine matrosses, six musicians, one flfer, and
five drummers. At this time Proctor was energetically sending out re-
cruiting parties and increasing his force, with the view to detach one
company to the relief of Washington. On December 1st the second
company, under Capt. Forrest, with fifty privates and two brass six-
pounder gunB, marched to Trenton to join Washington, and by Christ-
mas-day the entire brigade was ready to obey the general's command.
Forrest and his section of guns took part in the battle of Trenton, and
captured Rahl's Hessian band of music that he loved so well. Knox
wanted to annex Proctor's command to the Continental artillery, but on
Feb. 6, 1777, he was commissioned colonel, with instructions to recruit
an entire regiment of artillery. Part of Proctor's command was cap-
tured at Bound Brook ; the regiment was under Wayne at Brandywine,
engaged in the artillery duel with Knyphhausen at Chadd's Ford, and
Proctor had hiB horse shot under him, and lost his guns and caissons
when Sullivan was routed. It was one of Proctor's guns, under Lieut.
Barker, that was brought up to batter Chew's house at Germantown
during that battle, aud the remnants of the regiment wintered at Val-
ley Forge. On Sept. 3, 1778, Proctor's regiment was drafted into the
Continental army as part of Pennsylvania's quota, and he received his
commission aB colonel of artillery, United States army, May 18, 1779, and
marched to Wyoming, shattering the British and Indians with shell,
round-shot, and grape at the battle of Newtown. Proctor was in Wayne's
Bergen Neck expedition, satirized by Andre1 as the "Cow Chase,"—
" And sons of distant Delaware,
And still remoter Shannon,
And Major Lee with horses rare,
And Proctor with his cannon."
Proctor and President Joseph Reed were always at dagger's point with
one another, Proctor's Irish blood making him independent and obsti-
nate, while Reed was querulous and irritable both from natural perver-
sity and disease. In 1793, Proctor was commissioned, by Governor Mif-
flin, brigadier-general of Pennsylvania State troops, and marched against
the whiskey insurgents at the head of the First Brigade, eighteen hun-
dred and forty-nine men. After this war he became mMjor-general of
Philadelphia militia. He was sheriff of Philadelphia County in 1783-85,
and city lieutenant of Philadelphia in 1700, commissioner to treat with
the Minmis in 1791, and died in 180G. A part of his regiment of artillery,
the compauy under Capta. Douglas and Ferguson, has maintained its
organization dowu to the present day as the Second United States Artil-
lery. (See Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. iv. No. 4, p. 454, el\seq.t "A
Sketch of General Thomas Proctor.")
forming part of the force, and all to remain in the
field until the flying camp should be formed.
The associators were not well prepared for field ser-
vice, only looking to be called on for operations near
home. They responded promptly, however, and the
Committee of Safety busied themselves to secure the
needed supplies. The good women of the town looked
after lint and bandages; awnings, sails, and canvas
were sought for tents; clock and window weights
were collected to be cast into bullets ; six cannon
were procured and brought on from New York, and
one hundred thousand stand of arms ordered to be
sent to New Jersey. Congress advanced one hundred
thousand dollars to the committee to expedite the
preparations, and persons competent to forge cannon,
make guns and locks, or assist in building chevaux-de-
frise, were restrained from going into the field. The
arms of non-associators were seized for the public use,
and public provision was made for the support of the
families of associators who were poor. The commit-
tees for this service were, for the First Battalion, Isaac
Coats, William Moulder, Jacob Schreiner ; for the
Second, Moses Bartram, Caspar Guyer, Ephraim Bon-
ham; for the Third, George Meade, Richard Dumois,
Robert Bailey ; for the Fourth, George Green, Fred-
erick Dushon, Peter Knight; for the Fifth, John Hart,
John Tittermary, William Drury. These committees
received their funds from the Committee of Safety,
and attended to their duties faithfully.
. The associator battalions marched into New Jersey
about the middle of July, and took the lines in and
near Amboy, to watch the British on Staten Island.
In this camp were the First Battalion, Col. John Dick-
inson ; the Second, Col. John Bayard ; l the Third, Col.
John Cadwalader; the Fourth, Col. Thomas McKean;
the Fifth, the rifle battalion, Col. Timothy Matlack.
There was still another associators' battalion in Phila-
delphia, the Sixth, John Bull, colonel ; Robert Corie,
lieutenant-colonel ; George Wright, Thomas Rees, Dr.
Abel Morgan, majors; John Becker, standard-bearer.
A county battalion had Jonathan Paschall for colonel.
1 John Bayard was born on Bohemia Manor, Cecil Co., Md., Aug. 11,
1738, a descendant of Peter Bayard and Augustine Herman. He was
an active merchant in Philadelphia at the outbreak of the Revolution,
and took a prominent part on the side of the colonies. He was a mem-
ber of the Provincial Cougress of July, 1774, and of the Committee of
Sixty of the associators, member of the Provincial Convention of Janu-
ary, 1775, and was elected major of the Second Battalion of City Associ-
ators ; in 1776 his firm, Hodge & Bayard, was engaged in privateering,
furnishing Congress with arms, etc., while he in person acted for the
Committee of Safety in superintending the building of powder-mills.
Mr. Bayard was member of the Carpenters' Hall Conference, and in Sep-
tember, 1776, of the Council of Safety ; in October he presided over the
meeting in opposition to the Constitution, and took his seat as member
of Assembly. In the winter of 177G-77 he made the Trenton-Princeton
campaign at the head of his battalion, and was very zealous and earnest
in procuring reinforcements for Washington. In March, 1777, Bayard
became a member of the Stale Board of War, and was one of the State
Committee to visit the Valley Forge camp. He was Speaker uf Assem-
bly in 1778, official auctioneer and revenue commissioner in 1780, mem-
ber of Supreme Executive Council in 1781, member of Congress in 1785.
He removed to Brunswick, N. J., became mayor and judge of Common
Pleas, and died in 1807.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
331
Col. Dickinson's battalion was stationed at Eliza-
bethtown, Bayard's at Amboy, with Samuel Mifflin's
artillery park, comprising the First Philadelphia Ar-
tillery, Capt. Benjamin Loxley ; Second, Capt. Joseph
Moulder; Third, Capt. Joseph Stiles; and two New
Jersey companies. The other battalions of associa-
tors were stationed at Woodbridge, Elizabethtown,
and intervening points ; the regiments of Cols. Miles
and Atlee and the battalion of Lieut.-Col. Brodhead
supporting them. Capt. Loxley's journal of the
events of this campaign is still in existence; it gives
little information, reciting simply .the routine of or-
dinary camp-life, with the enemy's fleet and army
in sight to compel discipline, vigilance, and so-
briety.
The flying camp formed but slowly ; only two hun-
dred and seventy-four men had mustered by August,
and the associators began to grow uneasy and impa-
tient, while desertions became frequent. The Penn-
sylvania State Convention issued a proclamation
against deserters, giving them eight days to return to
camp, after which a reward of three pounds each was
to be paid for their apprehension. At the same time
a bounty of three pounds was offered for every volun-
teer to the flying camp. Gen. Washington, and Gen.
Roberdeau, their more immediate commander, both
issued addresses to the associators, to urge the need
of their remaining in camp. Roberdeau's language
was pointed and effective. The men who wanted to
go, the men who had families, were the very men, he
told them, who ought above all to stay. " Here is
the spot to make your defense. If you have a mind
to keep the enemy from ravaging your country, fight
them on the seashore. . . . There is no difference
in effect between retreating and being defeated. Con-
sider it well, gentlemen. Think for your country's
good ; look but across the water ; and for your honor's
sake never let it be said that an army of sixpenny
soldiers, picked up from prisons and dungeons, freed
from transportation, the whipping-post, and the gal-
lows, fighting in the worst of causes and for the worst
of kings, bore the fatigues of war with stouter hearts
than you."
The associators were sent home by Gen. Boberdeau
about the end of August, the flying camp having
been organized and other troops concentrated on the
menaced lines.
The officers of the flying camp for Philadelphia
were : Robert Lewis, colonel ; Isaac Hughes, lieuten-
ant-colonel; John Moore, major; Enoch Edwards,
surgeon; Marshal Edwards, second major; Solomon
Bush, adjutant ; Archibald Thompson, George Smith,
Henry Derringer, Jacob Laughlin, Rudolph Neff,
Aaron Levering, Christian Snyder, Henry Pawling,
Joseph Jones, captains ; Marshal Edwards, Solomon
Bush, Samuel Swift, William Wilson, Caspar Doll,
Samuel Haines, Grandus Schlatter, Mordecai Mor-
gan, David Schrack, Stephen Porter, Thomas Rossi-
ter, first lieutenants; William Armstrong, Leonard
Doll, James Hazlet, George Bringhurst, Matthew
Holgate, Jesse Roberts, Alexander Hall, Peacock
Major, second lieutenants ; Andrew Bard, William
North, William Knox, Abraham Duffield, Nathaniel
Childs, Alexander Wright, James Potts, Rees Manna,
ensigns. In October the officers of the flying camp
from Pennsylvania at Amboy, Woodbridge, and Eliz-
abethtown were Moore, McAlister, Clotz, Read, Alli-
son, Lavitz, Henderson, and Slough, colonels ; and
Tea, Laurence, Cunningham, Montgomery, Watt, and
Swope, lieutenant-colonels.
The associators were required to furnish their quota '
of men towards the volunteers in this flying camp.
The various military movements filled the city with
stir and bustle at this time. Troops were daily
marching in from the interior, from Maryland, Vir-
ginia, and other States, and most of these soldiers
tarried a few days in the city to see the sights. They
were quartered in the barracks, where Maj. Lewis
Nicola was in charge as superintendent. Some sol-
diers were quartered in the college, and notice was
given in August that the churches would be occupied
if necessary.
The regulations for the barracks in the Northern
Liberties called for reveille to be beaten at day-
break, troop at 8 a.m., long roll at 9, retreat at 8 p.m.,
tattoo at 9 p.m. Each officer's room was furnished
with a pine table having a drawer, two chairs, an iron
pot, a bucket, pot-hooks and crane, andirons, shovel,
tongs, ash-box, and bedding. Each room for non-
commissioned officers and privates had a pine bed-
stead with wooden bottom for two men, canvas bed
filled with straw, bolster-case, pine table, two benches,
pots, etc., and a rack for firelocks.
The Committee of Safety placed the battalions of
Cols. Miles and Atlee at the service of Congress ;
they were marched to Long Island and fought in the
battle there with the Continental regiments of Shee,
Magraw, and Lambert Cadwalader. The death ot
Lieut.-Col. Parry was the severest loss the Pennsyl-
vania troops had yet sustained. Lieut. Charles Tay-
lor, Second Rifles, and Lieut. Joseph Moore, of the
Musketmen, also fell in this action. Cols. Atlee and
Miles and Lieut.-Col. Piper were captured. The
other casualties were as follows: First Battalion of
Rifle Regiment, First Lieut. William Gray, prisoner ;
John Spear, John Davis, George West, Second Lieut.
Joseph Freischbach, William Macpherson, Third
Lieut. Luke Broadhead, Dr. John Davis, nine ser-
geants, four drummers and privates, all prisoners ;
Joseph Jacquet, missing. Second Battalion of Rifles,
Third Lieut. Charles Taylor, killed ; prisoners, Capt.
Peebles, First Lieut. Matthew Scott, Daniel Topham,
Joseph Brownlee, six sergeants, one drummer, forty
privates; missing, Second Lieut. Charles Carnegan
and David Sloan. Battalion of Musketmen, Michael
App, missing; prisoners, Capt. Francis Murray,
Thomas Herbert, John Nice, Joseph Howell, Lieut.
Walter Finney, Ensign W. Henderson, Alexander
332
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Huston, Septimus Davis, with one sergeant, one
drummer, and seventy-five privates.
The Council of Safety gave particular attention at
this time to the defenses at Billingsport, seeking to
complete them before the enemy came up. The land
needed was bought for six hundred pounds in the name
of the United States ; M. Kermanvor, a French officer,
was asked to lay out the works. Capt. Blaithwait
Jones and Thomas Hanson were appointed engineers,
and Col. John Bull, superintendent of workmen, had
for his staff James Dundas, Robert Cather, clerk of
the works ; John Moyer, commissary of utensils and
provisions ; and Charles Souder and Edward McCag-
gen, bricklayers. Volunteers were called for from the
associators, and the plan of the works was drawn by
the celebrated Polish patriot, Thaddeus Kosciusko,
who had just arrived from France, and who was paid
fifty pounds for his services. New chevaux-de-frise
were made and sunk near this place by the Committee
of Safety's carpenter, Robert Smith. The heights on
the north side of the Wissahickon were selected as a
strong place for a magazine of military stores, and
the hill above Vandering's mill, on the same stream,
for a fortification.
On October 14th the Council of Safety received
from Congress a copy of a letter from Gen. Lee,
informing it that the Hessians had embarked from
Staten Island, and did not doubt but that they in-
tended a visit to this State, whereupon a letter was
written to the commodore, directing him to get the
fleet in a proper state of defense. Information was
at once sent to the lookout at Lewes to forward the
earliest intelligence of naval movements, and if any
was detected, to fire signal-guns and light the bea-
cons. A bounty of ten dollars was offered to every
able-bodied man joining the Philadelphia fleet, and
the State's cannon in Jersey were sent for. David
Rittenhouse, Cols. Matlack, Bayard, and Biddle were
appointed a committee to select sites for defensive
works, and they called to their aid the veteran Gen.
Adam Stephens, of Virginia, and Cols. Dickinson,
Cadwalader, and Hampton. The alarm was prema-
ture and the panic short-lived. A few days later
fifteen Hessian prisoners were brought in and lodged
in jail, while Gen. Thompson, Col. Irvvine, Capt. Wil-
son, Capt. Duncan, Lieuts. Curry, Hoge, and Bird,
Rev. Mr. Calla, and Dr. Mackenzie arrived from
Canada, having been paroled by Gen. Carleton.
On November 11th news of a definite character
was received of Gen. Howe's march towards Philadel-
phia, and there could be no doubt now of serious
danger to the city. On the 15th, according to Mar-
shall, " handbills were published last night by order
of Congress and Council of Safety, requesting the in-
habitants of this State to put themselves in a martial
array, and march by companies and parts of com-
panies, as they could be ready, and march with the
utmost expedition to this city." Twelve expresses
were organized for immediate service, stores and
equipments were overhauled and reviewed, cannon
mounted on carriages, and wagons hired to carry off
stores in case an evacuation was necessary. The
association officers were ordered to inarch their bat-
talions at once to the city ; owners of live-stock to
prepare to remove them into the interior; committees
traversed the city in search of blankets and stock-
ings, and the hospital accommodations and supplies
were enlarged. There was great need of this, as
trains of sick and disabled soldiers were coming in.
The Council of Safety cleared a wing of " the Bet-
tering House" for a hospital, and the Pennsylvania
Hospital was set apart for the use of Continental
troops, Christopher Marshall, Maj. Melchor, Thomas
Smith, Capt. Davis, and Thomas Casdrop being ap-
pointed to take possession of empty stores and dwell-
ings, and aid the surgeons in providing other accom-
modations for the sick and disabled. The senior and
junior Drs. Thomas Bond .rendered efficient aid in
organizing the hospital system upon a proper basis
and securing competent surgical and medical aid.
Many of the sick were down with smallpox, and it
was important to prevent the contagion from spread-
ing.
News came on the 19th confirming the capture of
Fort Washington, and making it certain that Howe
was marching towards Philadelphia. The casualties
to Pennsylvania troops in this disastrous battle, which
never should have been fought, were severe. The
prisoners taken were Cols. Robert Magaw, Lambert
Cadwalader, Swoop, Lieut.-Col. Thomas Bull, Majs.
Beatty and Galbreath, Capts. Miller, Decker, Vansant,
Richardson, Steward, West, Graydon, Lenox, Biles,
Tudor, Edwards, Dehuff, Smyser, Trett, McDonald,
Stake, McElhatten, McFarlahd, Camble, Snyder,
Wallace, McClure, Hetherling, and Culbertson, with
the usual proportion of lieutenants and ensigns. This
was severe news, for Fort Washington was deemed
impregnable, and if it could not be held, what use
was there to attempt the defense of Philadelphia?
Marshall's Remembrancer says : "Nov. 18th. Account
spread to-day of Gen. Howe's taking Fort Washing-
ton last Seventh Day, in the afternoon, but this is
not credited but by our enemies and the timorous and
faint-hearted among us. 20th. The reduction of Fort
Washington is confirmed by intelligence received by
Congress." Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, in his diary, notes
as follows : " Nov. 13th. Brought a letter from Henry
Muhlenberg, Jr., in which he states that Gen. Howe,
with ten thousand men, is on the march towards Phil-
adelphia, and that we shall engage a team and have
our stage-wagon ready to send down to town as soon
as he sends us notice that the time of need is come.
. . . Nov. 30th. ... a letter from Henry Muhlen-
berg, Jr., and a trunk and box of books for safe-keep-
ing, as it is reported that the British army is getting
nearer and nearer to Philadelphia, and a party there
is determined to defend the place. If this is at-
tempted, the consequence may be that the town will
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
333
be laid in ashes. Where the Lord does not watch,
the watchman watches in vain," etc.
On the 27th news of Howe's advance and Washing-
ton's retreat was received, with rumors of movements
in different directions. On the 28th a meeting was held
at the State-House, the Council of Safety and mem-
bers of Assembly being present, with David Ritten-
house in the chair. It was at this meeting that Gen.
Mifflin spoke so vigorously and induced the associ-
ators to resolve to march to meet the enemy. In
Marshall's words, "It's said Gen. Mifflin spoke ani-
matedly pleasing, which gave great satisfaction.''
November 30th the Council of Safety published a
notice to the effect that " it is no less necessary than
painful that the present movements of Gen. Howe's
army requires we should apprize the inhabitants of
this city who wish to avoid the insults and oppres-
sions of a licentious soldiery, that they prepare for
removing their wives and children and valuable ef-
fects, on a short warning, to some place of security."
On December 2d the news came of Howe's army be-
ing in Brunswick, on the march for Philadelphia.
And now a panic ensued. Marshall's entry for the
day is full of the bustle and confusion of the scene :
" Drums beat ; a martial appearance ; the shops shut ;
and all business except preparing to disappoint our
enemies laid aside. I went to the Coffee-House ; then
to the children's; then home; then back to the Cof-
fee-House and other parts of the city; then home;
dined there. Our people then began to pack up some
things, wearing and bedding, to send to the place.
After dinner I went to State-House ; conversed with
Jacobs, Speaker of Assembly, with Robert White
Hill, J. Dickinson, Gen. Mifflin, etc. To Coffee-
House ; then home ; drank tea ; then down town.
Accounts brought that Gen. Lee was near our army
with ten thousand men. Various but great appear-
ances of our people's zeal. Came home near nine ;
then went down again as far as the children's," etc.
Dr. Muhlenberg's diary shows the same hurry and
confusion, though he was away off at Reading. " Dec.
1st. Pred. Muhlenberg rode on horseback to the city,
as the road is impassable for the wagon, owing to
the late rains, and his parents-in-law are very anxious
to see him on account of the frightful state of things
in that city. . . . Dec. 2d. Last night between 11 and
12 o'clock, some person knocked violently at the door
and demanded admittance, saying he was an express
from Philadelphia. When I opened the door it was
a well-known member of our congregation in the city,
Mr. Specht, a butcher from Spring Garden. He had
printed orders to all the colonels of the respective
battalions of associators, stating that Gen. Howe
had taken possession of Brunswick, and as Gen. Wash-
ington had not sufficient force to oppose to him, he
was obliged to retire to Trenton. . . . Dec. 7th. To-
day many teams loaded with furniture and people
flying from Philadelphia have passed the house."
December 11th the good parson had to make room for
five families of friends and kinsfolk and their furni-
ture. " Dec. 13th. During the whole day wagons have
been passing with goods, and men, women, and chil-
dren, flying from Philadelphia."
Marshall's little details are still more graphic.
" Dec. 3d. Numbers of families loading wagons with
their furniture, etc., taking them out of town. . . .
Drank tea at home ; then went with a number of
deeds to son Christopher's; put them into his iron
chest. . . . 8th. Martial law declared. . . . 9th. All
shops ordered to be shut; the militia to march into
the Jerseys ; all is hurry and confusion ; news that
Gen. Howe is on his march, etc. . . . 10th. Our people
in confusion, of all ranks, sending all their goods out
of town into the country. . . . 11th. Further accounts
of the rapid progress of Gen. Howe. Our Congress
leaves this city for Baltimore. The militia going out
fast for Trenton ; streets full of wagons, going out
with goods. . . . 13th. The Friends here moved but
little of their goods, as they seem satisfied that if Gen.
Howe should take this city, as many here imagined
that he would, their goods and property would be
safe; other people still sending their goods. 14th.
Alarming and fresh accounts of Howe's near ap-
proach; people hurrying out of town, etc."
The Assembly, on December 2d, ordered all the
associators in Philadelphia City and county, and in
Bucks, Chester, and Northampton Counties, to be en-
rolled, and one-half of them drawn for four weeks'
service, every man with permission to provide a sub-
stitute. At the end of the four weeks the other half
were to take their places in camp. An attempt was
made to raise fifty thousand dollars in hard money
among the citizens. Gen. Mifflin was sent by the
Assembly to rouse the citizens, local committees being
appointed to aid him. The committee from Phila-
delphia was composed of Frederick Antis and Col.
Curry. Bounties were offered for volunteers, — ten
dollars to such as should join Washington on or before
December 20th ; seven dollars to those coming for-
ward before December 25th; and five dollars to all
enlisting between 25th and 30th for six weeks' ser-
vice. Money was provided for the families of poor
members in every battalion, to be disbursed by two
subalterns chosen by each battalion. The public
records of Assembly and Committee of Safety were
removed to Lancaster. Lewis Nicola, barrack-mas-
ter, was made town-major, with directions to incor-
porate all persons not fit to march with the asso-
ciators into a city guard, which was detailed for the
protection of magazines, etc., and for patrol duty in
the streets.1 Nicola distributed his forces around the
1 Col. Lewis Nicola was a surveyor and an officer of many accomplish-
ments, and of a peculiarly inveutive turn. He planned a " calaval" for
river defense; he devised plana for magazines, for enlistments, etc. ; he
made maps of the injuries done by tho British ; served as barrack-mas-
ter and town-major, and had command of the Veteran Invalid Corps.
He enjoyed the confidence both of the local authorities and the general
government; was major, colonel, and brevet brigadier-general in the
United States army, his commission as colouel dating June 20, 1777, and
334
HISTOEY OP PHILADELPHIA.
three districts into which he divided the city. Each
district was served by two companies, consisting of
one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four ser-
geants, four corporals, and eighty men, — a police
force, in fact, of four hundred and fifty men.
On the same day, December 2d, the Committee of
Safety ordered shops and schools to be closed, and
every citizen to aid in providing for the public de-
fense. All the associators of the city and liberties
were formed into a single brigade, under command
of Col. John Cadwalader. Those who were willing
to serve as horsemen were to be supplied with a broad-
sword and brace of pistols each. The " Real Whigs,"
assembling in Philosophical Hall, resolved that in
the absence of a militia law, every male between six-
teen and sixty should be ordered under arms for de-
fense of the State, and heavy fines levied on those
declining to serve.
The Council took measures to protect associators
absent on duty from attachment for debt and distress
by landlords. The schools were ordered open again
on December 8th, but the same day came news of
Howe's advance upon Princeton. The armed boats
under Commodore Seymour were sent up to Trenton
to aid in removing stores and public property, and
Gen. Roberdeau was sent to Lancaster to alarm the
people. To enable him to make dispatch he was
authorized to seize the carriage of either of the three
Pembertons or that of Samuel Emlen. The associ-
ators were greatly embarrassed by their helpless fam-
ilies, still they responded so willingly to the call to
arms that on December 9/10th, Cadwalader was on
the march to Trenton with a brigade of twelve hun-
dred men, which was daily reinforced by new com-
panies as it reached the front.
When Congress fled to Baltimore it left a com-
mittee in charge at Philadelphia, with Robert Morris
for chairman, and conferred discretionary or dicta-
torial powers upon Washington. These things helped
to bring order out of confusion; Washington and
the Committee of Congress co-operated with the
Committee of Safety, and chaos ceased to reign.
The Committee of Safety ordered shops to open on
the 14th, and goods to be sold as usual, those not
complying with this mandate being denounced as
public enemies. Parties of soldiers were sent to
drum up laggard associators, and able-bodied men
were forced into the ranks, except Quakers and
Dunkards. Washington appointed Gen. Putnam mili-
tary Governor of the city, with instructions to fortify
a line of defenses from Fairmount and the heights of
Springettsbury across to the Delaware.
The general took command on the 12th, and estab-
lished what was practically martial law. All soldiers
on furlough were ordered to their commands; the
as general Nov. 27, 1783. That he must have been amanof somescientiflc
attainments is evident from the fact that he published a paper in the
" Transactions of the American Philosophical Society," on methods of
preserving subjects for dissection.
provost-guard swept the streets, and none could pass
the patrol at night without permits. Putnam de-
nounced the report that the Continental forces meant
to burn Philadelphia, and declared that he would
hang all incendiaries without ceremony. He also
ordered all able-bodied persons to turn out and muster
under arms, for he would not tolerate any idle spec-
tators of the present contest ; and persons refusing to
take Continental currency were to forfeit their goods
and go to prison. Putnam further compelled citizens
and associators to furnish relays for completing the
fortifications and for cutting fire-wood to supply the
camps, — the " Governor's woods" of the Penn family
suffering much from these forays. With Kosciusko
for his engineer Putnam began new works at Red
Bank, opposite the mud fort and covering the chevaux-
de-frise.
To secure the quick crossing of the Delaware, in
case of an emergency, Putnam, having.no pontoons
and not being able to collect boats enough (even for
the Susquehanna), consulted with Capt. Richard
Peters and some Philadelphia shipwrights, and at
their suggestion built a floating bridge upon carpen-
ters' floating stages. The military stores and powder
were sent on to Lancaster for safe-keeping, and
Putnam employed Capt. Sharpe Delaney to make a
muster-roll of all male inhabitants between sixteen
and sixty. The British were now in Trenton, their
advance guard at Burlington and Mount Holly and
Moorestown, and it was important to dislodge these
last. The Council of Safety, under date of December
23d, issued a circular to " friends and countrymen"
which was really a stirring appeal to arms. " We
call upon you," it said, " we entreat and beseech you
to come forth to the assistance of our worthy Gen.
Washington, and our invaded brethren in the Jerseys.
If you wish to secure your property from being plun-
dered and to protect the innocence of your wives and
children, if you wish to live in freedom and are de-
termined to maintain that best boon of heaven, you
have no time to deliberate. A manly resistance will
secure every blessing ; inactivity and sloth will bring
horror and destruction." The Council also elected
John Cadwalader, brigadier-general of associators,
and Samuel Miles, brigadier of State troops. On
Christmas-day there was a reserve of three thousand
men in Philadelphia ready to march at Putnam's
orders and under his command.
The position of the American forces on the west
side of the Delaware was from Yardley's Ferry, oppo-
site Trenton, to Coryell's Ferry, below Bristol. This
was the centre and main body, the four brigades of
Stirling, Mercer, Stephen, and De Fermoy being here
stationed. Gen. Ewing, of the Pennsylvania flying
camp, with some few of the New Jersey troops under
Gen. Philemon Dickinson (brother of John Dickin-
son) was encamped between Yardley's Ferry and the
ferry opposite Bordentown. Cadwalader, with the
Pennsylvania associators, was posted above the Ne-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
335
shamiuy to Bristol and below it to Dunk's Ferry.
This crossing was guarded by Col. John Nixon, of
the Third Pennsylvania Battalion. Washington or-
dered redoubts to be thrown up at the Neshaminy
fords and at Dunk's Ferry, so that a stand could be
made in case the enemy attempted to cross. If a
passage was forced, the retreat was to be to the Ger-
mantown heights.1
The plan of Washington for the critical movement
of December 25th was comprehensive enough. With
a picked corps of his best men he was to cross at Mc-
Konkey's Ferry (Taylorsville) nine miles above Tren-
ton, descend upon that post and surprise Rahl's Hes-
sians centered there, a force of fifteen hundred men,
with a troop of light horse and some chasseurs. Gen.
Ewing, with the Pennsylvania State troops, was to
cross at a ferry below Trenton, secure the mouth of
the Assanpink, and cut off the retreat of the enemy
in that direction. Gen. Putnam, with his brigade,
and the forces under Cadwalader, were to cross below
Burlington and attack the lower posts under Count
Donop from Burlington to Mount Holly. The cross-
ings were to be made simultaneously, so that all the
American army was to be on the east bank of the
Delaware at 5 A.M. the morning after Christmas.
The plan was not carried out, except by the division
under Washington. Putnam made no attempt to
cross with his three thousand men. Cadwalader did
not get over until the 27th, when Washington had
already returned to the west bank. Ewing found the
ice an insuperable obstacle. Cadwalader might have
been cut off, but the surprise at Trenton had taught
the British caution, and Donop retreated before him.
Washington crossed again to Trenton on the 30th.
On the same day nine hundred Hessian prisoners
were brought in, and six of the Hessian colors, in
charge of Col. Wheaton. The Hessians were on
their way to Lancaster, and were paraded in the
streets for exhibition. " They made a poor, despica-
ble appearance," wrote Christopher Marshall. A
letter of the period says they " formed a line on Front
1 From Gen. Davis' paper in the Pennsylvania Magazine, before quoted
we get further particulars of these movements and troops. The Conti-
nental brigades were placed on the 9th. Stirling was at Beaumonts,
near BrownBburg, with three regiments ; his men were in houses and
shanties, and ground flour in Robert Thompson's mill for the soldiers.
The house where Stirling was quartered is still standing. Nixon had
two field-pieces at Dunk's Ferry. Washington's instructions to Cadwal-
ader were dated December 12th. They say, "You are to post your bri-
gade at and near Bristol. . . . You'll establish the necessary guards, and
throw up some little Redoubts at Duuk's Ferry and the different passes
in the Meshaname.
" Spare no pains or expense to get intelligence of the enemy's motious
and intentions. Any promises made, or sums advanced, shall be fully
complied with and discharged. Keep proper patrols going from guard
to guard. Every piece of intelligence you obtain worthy notice, send
it forward by express." He was alBO commanded to keep a particular
lookout for spies and boats. Capt. William Washington and James Mon-
roe were quartered at James Neely's, in Solebury. The firBt rifle regi-
ment was here alBO, barefoot and nearly naked. The depots were at
Newtown, in Bucks, and headquarters iu Upper Wakefield, Washington
being at William Keith's bouse, Greene at Robert Henick's, Sullivan at
John Hayhurst's, Knox and Hamilton at Dr. Chapman's.
Street, two deep, from Market to Walnut Street.
Most people seemed angry that we should think of
running away from such vagabonds."2
Howe's proclamation of November 30th was issued
2 The Germans in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania understood the Hes-
sians better, knew they were not vagabonds, that they were doing com-
pulsory military service, and would not require great persuasion to in-
duce them to desert. Dr. Muhlonberg, in his diary, mentions the fact
that several Hessian prisoners, brought to Philadelphia early in Novem-
ber, were challenged by settlers to know why they had come to Amer-
ica to injure their own flesh and blood. One said that " he was dragged
out of hiB bed from his wife and children and forced into the service.
Others were asked why tbey attacked the Americans on Long Island so
violently, and treated the wounded with such barbarity. Answer: The
English officers had made them believe that the Americans were sav-
ages and cannibals, in particular those with fringe on their dress (rifle-
men), who were especially to be put out of the way as fast as possible,
if they (the Hessians) were not desirous of being tortured and eaten
while still living." Christopher Ludwig (or Ludwick, as usually Angli-
cized), the "Baker General" of Washington's army, a Philadelphia Ger-
man, was in the flying camp at the time these Hessians to whom Dr.
Muhlenberg refers were brought in. There was a difference of opinion
about where they should be confined. " Let us take them to Philadel-
phia," said Ludwig, " and there show them our fine German churches.
Let them see how our tradesmen eat good beef, drink out of Bilver cups
every day, and ride out in chairs every afternoon ; and then let us send
them back to their countrymen, and they will soon all run away, and
come and settle in our city, and be as good Whigs as any of us." To
show that he believed what he preached, Ludwig went himself to the
Hessian camp, passed himself off as a deserter from the American side,
and is said by Dr. Rush, his biographer, to have presented the life of the
Pennsylvania Germans in such glowing colors to the HeBsians that his
exertions " were followed by the gradual desertion of many hundred
soldiers, who, now in comfortable freeholds or on valuable farms, with
numerous descendan ts, bless the name of Christopher Ludwig." Be this
as it may, Ludwig was a notable and estimable character and as remark-
able a figure almost as any contributed by Philadelphia to the Revolu-
tion. He was horn in the Upper Rhine circle, at Giessen, in Hesse-Darm-
stadt, in 1720, brought up to his father's trade, — a baker, — put in the
emperor's army at seventeen, and sent to fight the Turks, was besieged
in Prague, enlisted in the King of Prussia's army, and theu went to
England, where he turned baker aboard an Indiaman, and sailed under
Boscawen's flag. He waB sailor until 1763, when he came to Philadel-
phia, setting up as a gingerbread baker in Letitia Court in 1754. He
made money, married, Baved three thousand five hundred pounds, and
got influence. In 1774 hiB neighbors pleasantly styled him " the gover-
nor of Letitia Court." He espoused the American cause ardently, —
staked his nine houses, his farm, his three thousand five hundred
pounds all on it, was active member of all the committees and conven-
tions. When some one objected to Mifflin's proposition to raise fifty
thousand pounds, Ludwig spoke out; "lamnichte more as a Bhinger-
bread baker, but put down alt Ludwig fur two hundred pounds." He
joined the associators, went into the flying camp, and exerted himself
to keep the soldiers up to their work. May 3, 1777, Congress com-
missioned him as follows: " Resolved, That Christopher Ludwig be
and he is hereby appointed superintendent of Bakers and Director
of Baking in the army of the United States, and that he shall have
power to engage, and by permission of the Commander-in-Chief or
officer commanding at any principal post, all persons to be employed
in this business, and to regulate their pay, making proper reports of his
proceedings, and using his best endeavors to rectify all abuse in the arti-
cles of bread; that no person be permitted to exercise the trade of a
baker in the Biiid army without such license, and that he receive for his
services herein an allowance of seventy-five dollars a month and two
rations a day." Congress proposed to Ludwig to supply a pound of bread
for every pound of flour furnished. Ludwig said no ; he did not want
to get rich ; he bad money enough ; he would supply one hundred and
thirty-five pounds of bread for each hundredweight of flour. The bread
was always good after Ludwig got his commission ; he was capable and
honest, and all liked him in the army, high and low. Washington
called him his "honest friend," and the other officers enjoyed his blunt
ways. Ludwig lived till June, 1801, and iu his will left property to en-
dow an educational fund for poor children of all denominations in
Philadelphia, upon which was built a most useful institution.
336
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
at Trenton, and, as has been said, it brought over
Galloway, the Aliens, and others. Of Galloway's
departure a local satirist took occasion to say, in Jan-
uary, 1777, in Bradford's paper, that
"Galloway has fled and joined the venal Howe.
To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow,
A traitor to his country and its lawB,
A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause.
Unhappy wretch ! thy interest must be sold,
Fortunately, not for polished gold," etc.
A letter from Philadelphia, telling of the flight of
these Tories, says, " Among the worthies who have
joined or put themselves under the protection of
Howe and company at Trenton we find the names of
the following noted personages, viz. : Joseph Gallo-
way, Esq., late a member of Congress, Speaker of the
Pennsylvania Senate, and printer of a public news-
paper at Philadelphia; John Allen (son of the cele-
brated rhetorical, impartial, learned judge, whose
ESSr/
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FAC-SIMILE OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.
memory will outlast the 'five-mile stone'), late a mem-
ber of the Philadelphia Committee of Inspection and
Observation; Andrew Allen, Esq. (brother to Jack),
late a member of Congress, one of the Pennsylvania
Committee of Safety, and at the same time a sworn
advocate for George III. of Britain and his creatures;
William Allen, Esq. (brother to Andrew), late a lieu-
tenant-colonel in the Continental service, which sta-
tion he resigned, not because he was wholly unfit for
it, but because the Continental Congress presumed to
■declare the American States free and independent
without first asking the consent and obtaining the
approbation of himself and his wise family.1
1 Chief Justice Allen waB a very prominent man, and deservedly so, in
his day. He waB probably the leading merchant of Philadelphia, and
the richest man, certainly. His father was William Allen, and like him
a successful Philadelphia merchant, dying in 1725. William was horn
in 1703, and succeeded his father in business, taking a large part in
public affairs. In 1730 ho bought the ground for the State-House, and
paid for it with his own money. He was mayor in 1735, and inaugurated
On Jan. 1, 1777, the Council of Safety, acting on
the recommendation of Congress, took stringent meas-
ures to prevent the depreciation of Continental cur-
rency. This money was not the favorite even of un-
doubted patriots, nor should it have been, except as a
matter of sentiment. John Dickinson wrote to his
brother Philemon not to take any more Continental
money in liquidation of bonds and mortgages held by
him. The letter was intercepted and sent to Wash-
ington as well as to the Council of Safety. The Coun-
cil resolved that to refuse this money for debts, con-
tracts, or goods sold, and to demand higher prices in
currency than hard money was criminal. The offense
was to be tried before three field-officers of militia, or
three committeemen of the county where committed,
and the punishment, when convicted, was forfeiture
of goods and fine, and the informer got his share of
the proceeds of confiscation.
To raise money Congress established a
loan-office, paying six per cent, interest on
money lent the public. The office was in
the house of William Shippen, Jr., on
Fourth Street. A United States lottery
was also authorized. The office was in
Front Street, opposite the Coffee-House.
The first drawing took place at College
Hall on August 11th. This lottery was
authorized by act of Congress of Nov. 18
to 30, 1776. The managers were Sharpe
Delaney, John Purviance, Owen Biddle,
Francis Lewis, Jr., Jacob Barge, Jonathan
B. Smith, and James Searle. There were
one hundred thousand tickets, " each ticket
to be divided into four billets, and to be
drawn in four classes," with a complicated
scheme.
After the battle of Trenton, Gen. Putnam
joined Washington with his brigade, leav-
ing Gen. Irvine in authority in Philadel-
phia. Gen. Gates soon succeeded to the command,
holding his position until the retreat of the enemy
the State-House in 1736 with a splendid banquet. He did much to pro-
mote new enterprises, embarking in iron manufacture as well us com-
merce, and buying large tracts of land, in the present anthracite coal re-
gions. Allentown is named for him. Mr. Allen was member of Assembly
many years, in 1737 waB justice of a special Courtof Oyer and Terminer,
in 1741 became recorder, in 1751 chief justice, holding the office till 1774.
He did much to promote education and encourage science, fitting out the
first Arctic expedition ; he was an early patron of Benjamin West. He
married Andrew Hamilton's daughter; one ofkis daughters married Gov-
ernor John Penn, the other, James de Laucey, of New York. Chief Jus-
tice Allen was neither Whig nor Tory, he believed in the cause of the
colonists, hut not in rebellion nor independence. His sons agreed with
him in sentiment, — all were on both sides at some period during the con-
test. John was in the Provincial CongresB of New JerBey, William
marched to Quebec with Montgomery, Andrew was in the Pennsylvania
Council of Safety and the Continental CongresB, James took no part, but
remained quiet in the country. The Aliens wore put down on the liBt
of disaffected in December, 1776, and all but James went to Trenton.
William became lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of " Pennsylvania
Loyalists," hia motto being, Bays Graydon, nil desperandum Teucro rfuce
et auspice Teucro, arrogant enough, certainly, to suit the son of Chief
Justice Allen. Andrew Allen's estate was confiscated.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
337
through New Jersey made it no longer necessary to
have a military Governor. The Philadelphia asso-
ciators were with Washington at the battle of Prince-
ton and until late in January, when they were re-
lieved by fresh troops. The brave Virginian, Gen.
Hugh Mercer, Washington's old companion in arms,
fell on the field at Princeton, and was buried on Jan-
uary 16th, with the honors of war, in Christ church-
yard. His remains are now in Laurel Hill. On the
17th, Capt. William Shippen, of Philadelphia, killed
in same battle, was buried in St. Peter's churchyard.
Col. John Haslett, of the Delaware regiment, was
buried in the yard of the First Presbyterian Church,
White Horse Alley, below Market Street. On 24th,
Ensign Anthony Morris, Jr., killed at Princeton, was
buried in the Friends' burying-ground, Fourth and
Arch Streets.
There were a good many changes in the Philadel-
phia military after these battles. The First Battalion
of the associators was now commanded by Jacob
Morgan, Jr., colonel ; James Cowperthwaite, major.
Second Battalion : John Bayard, colonel ; William
Bradford, major. Third Battalion : John Nixon,
colonel; Samuel Meredith and Robert Knox, majors.
Fourth Battalion (rifles) : Timothy Matlack, colonel.
These officers, with Gen. Cadwalader, on January 15th,
addressed the Council of Safety, strongly urging that
associators who had not been in the field should be
called out. Gen. Reed said that the City Troop par-
ticularly distinguished itself at Princeton, capturing
double their number of British dragoons. When this
troop's term of service expired, January 23d, Wash-
ington gave them a discharge over his own signature,
saying that he took the opportunity of returning his
most sincere thanks to them for their essential ser-
vices to the country and to him personally during a
severe campaign. " Though composed of gentlemen
of fortune," he said, "they have shown a noble exam-
ple of discipline and subordination, and in several ac-
tions have shown a spirit and bravery which will ever
do honor to them and will ever be gratefully remem-
bered by me." The uniform of the troop, says Mr.
Westcott, adopted in 1774, was dark-brown short coat,
faced and lined with white, white vest and breeches,
high topped boots, round black hat, bound with silver
cord, a buck's tail ; housings brown, edged with white,
and the letters "L. H." (Light Horse) worked in
them. Arms, — a carbine, a pair of pistols, and hol-
sters with flounces of brown cloth trimmed with white,
a horseman's sword, and white belts for sword and
carbine. The following is the roster for the campaign
of 1776-77 : Samuel Morris,1 captain ; Joseph Bud-
1 In the Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. i. No. 2, p. 175, is an account of
tbe death of Maj. Morris, from a letter written on the field by Dr. Jona-
than Potts, who was a surgeon U.S.A. The letter was addressed to
Owen Biddle. Anthony Morris, Jr., was the fourth of tbe same name,
the descendant of three Anthony Morrises prominent in Philadelphia
history. His grandfather and great-grandfather bad both been mayors
of the city. His brother, Samuel Morris, was captain of the Philadelphia
City Troop. Princeton was Philadelphia's battle, it was the city militia
22
den, second lieutenant; John Dunlap, cornet; Thos.
Leiper, first sergeant ; William Hall, second sergeant ;
Samuel Penrose, third sergeant and quartermaster ;
Samuel Howell, Jr., first corporal ; James Hunter,
second corporal ; Levi Hollingsworth, George Camp-
bell, John Mease, Blair McClenachan, John Donald-
son, George Fullerton, Thomas Peters, William Pol-
lard, James Caldwell, William Tod, Samuel Caldwell,
Benjamin Randolph, John Lardner, Alexander Nes-
bitt, Thomas Learning, Jonathan Penrose, George
Graff, Francis Nichols. The names of Samuel Pen-
rose, George Fullerton, William Tod, Samuel Cald-
well, Benjamin Randolph, Alexander Nesbitt, Thomas
Learning, and Francis Nichols do not appear in the
discharge given by Washington.
The disagreements between the friends and oppo-
nents of the State Constitution continued in 1777, so
that many members of the committees, while willing
to take the oath of allegiance to the United States,
refused to subscribe to the State oath. The result
was, as the Supreme Executive Council declared in
May, that " weakness and languor prevailed in every
department of the government," and there was no reg-
ular administration of justice. A petition, strongly
signed, was sent up to the Assembly to ask that body
to recommend a new election for members of a con-
stitutional convention to revise the recently-adopted
who ran to Mercer's support, and Moulder's city battery that Washing-
ton brought up in person. Dr. Potts' letter to Biddle is as follows :
" My D'r Friend :
" Tho' the Ac'ct I send is a melancholy one (in one respect), yet I have
sent ao Express, to give you the best Information I can collect. Our
Mutual Friend, Anthony Morris, died here in three hours after he re-
ceived his wounds on Friday morning. They were three in number, —
one on his chin, one on the knee, and the third and fatal one on the
right temple, by a grape-shot. Bravo man ! he fought and died nobly,
deservioga much better fate. Gen. Mercer is dangerously ill, indeed.
I have scarcely any hopes of him, the Villains have stab'd him in five
different Places. The dead on our side of this Place amount to sixteen,
that of the Enemy to twenty-three. They have retreated to Brunswick
with the greatest Precipitation, and from Accounts just come, the Hero,
Washington, is not far from them; they have never been so shamefully
Drub'd and outgeneraled in every Respect. I hourly expect to hear of
their whole Army being cut to pieces, or made Prisoners.
" It pains me to inform you that on tbe morning of tbe Action I was
obliged to fly before the Rascals, or fall into their hands, and leave be-
hind me my wounded Brethren ; would you believe that the inhuman
Monsters rob'd the General as he lay tinable to resist on tbe Bed, even
to the taking of his Cravat from his Neck, insulting him all the Time.
" The number of Prisoners we have taken I cannot yet find out, but
they are numerous.
" Should be glad to hear from you by the bearer ; is the Reinforcement
march'd?
"I am, in haste, your most obedient
"humble Serv't,
"Jon'n Potts.
" Dated at the Field of Action, near
" Princeton, Sunday Evening, Jau'y 5th."
Maj. Morris was first buried in the graveyard of the Btone Quaker
meeting-house, near the battle-field, but his remains were subsequently,
at the request of his family, taken to Philadelphia, and buried without
military honors; but an escort was ordered for the funeral, — "one Capt.
2 Sub's, 2 Drummers, and 50 men from the garrison in the Barracks, to
parade at the City Tavern, at two o'clock this afternoon, . . . the rest
of the garrison off Duty, to attend with side arms only. Coll. Penrose
Coll. Irvine, Coll. McKey, to attend as bearers.'*
338
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
instrument. This measure was actively opposed by
the " Whig Society," upon the ground that an inva-
sion was threatened, a convention would take useful
men from the field, while soldiers in the field would
be deprived of their votes. The policy of the society
was to wait, in order that citizens might get a better
knowledge of the science of government. " The Whig
Society" had Charles Wilson Peale, the artist, for its
president, and its members were James Cannon (philo-
math), David Eittenhouse (astronomer), Dr. Thomas
Young, Maj. Thomas Paine (" Common Sense"), and
others. This society prepared an agreement, to be
taken around among the inhabitants for signatures,
pledging the signers to a cordial support to the au-
thority of Congress and the several States, for the
promotion of peace and good order. The agreement
proposed to overturn nothing, but support the execu-
tion of the laws until time and experience taught the
Philip Boehm; Middle, Plunket Fleeson, Samuel
Simpson; Walnut, George Henry, John McCalla;
Lower Delaware, Samuel Howell, John Ord ; Dock,
George Bryan, Benjamin Paschall ; Southwark, Wil-
liam McMullen, Richard Dennis. As there was no
longer any city corporation, municipal affairs were
managed by the street commissioners (Isaac Howell,
John McCalla), wardens (Benjamin Paschall, William
Colliday), and city commissioners (James Claypoole,
Philip Boehm, William Shute, Robert Curry, Jacob
Laughlin, and Isaac Coates). The county commis-
sioners were Isaac Snowden, Jacob Bright, and John
Williams.
The members of the Supreme Executive Council
met and organized March 4th. In joint meeting with
the Assembly, Thomas Wharton, Jr., was elected
president, and George Bryan vice-president. Hence-
forth the Council of Safety ceased to exercise minis-
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people how to make better ones. Newspapers took
up the theme. John Dickinson, it is supposed, wrote
the best of the essays, over the signature of " Pho-
cion," and this writer was bitterly attacked as a re-
tainer of the proprietaries, a procrastinating delegate;
John Adams' "piddling politician," a summer sol-
dier, a " detested jackal," with an " infernal ambi-
tion" to be at the head of everything. The pressure
of more urgent public events, however, prevented any-
thing from being done towards settling the constitu-
tional question.
On Feb. 14, 1777, an election was held at the State-
House under the Constitution. Thomas Wharton was
chosen member of the Supreme Executive Council,
and John Loller and Cols. Moore and Coates members
of Assembly for Philadelphia County. Justices were
elected for the city,— North Ward, Isaac Howell,
Joseph Redman, Sr. ; Mulberry Ward, James Young,
terial power, and the Supreme Council took control.
The new president was inaugurated with imposing
ceremony, and proclaimed, on March 5th, as not only
president of the Supreme Executive Council, but also
captain-general and commander-in-chief of Pennsyl-
vania. Thirteen Hessian cannon, captured at Prince-
ton, fired the salute, and then there was a banquet at
the City Tavern, given by the Assembly and attended
by members of Congress and the chief officers of army
and navy. A round of patriotic toasts was drunk, of
course. The Assembly reorganized the courts during
March to suit the new order of things, and a City
Court was established (James Young, John Ord,
Plunkett Fleeson, Isaac Howell, and Philip Boehm,
judges), which set about a general and much-needed
jail-delivery. The grand jury found twenty-one true
bills, and all the machinery of the new court worked
well. The Quarter Sessions were to meet again in
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
339
September, but "events over which they had no con-
trol" effectually prevented that session. The Assem-
bly bought a coach for " Lady Washington," and also
got to work in May upon arrangements for port-
wardens, health office, and custom house, Frederick
Phyle being appointed naval officer, Jedediah Snow-
den board measurer, and Philip Ryan stave inspector
for Philadelphia, the latter having some difficulty in
ousting the old inspector from his office.
In March, Brinton Debadee, twenty-four years old,
a deserter from the Tenth Pennsylvania, who had
gone over to the enemy, was shot on the common,
near the Centre House. Here also James Moles-
worth, a British spy, was hung on the 31st. He was
a Staffordshire Englishman, had been for several
years clerk to the mayor of Philadelphia, and was
detected in the attempt to bribe pilots to navigate
Lord Howe's vessels from New York to Philadelphia.
He offered three of the Delaware pilots (John EI-
dridge, Andrew Higgins, and John Snyder) five hun-
dred pounds and life service with king's pay for this
treachery, telling them that boats were ready and the
guns at Mud Fort would be spiked by the garrison.
Mrs. Abigail McCoy was Molesworth's go-between
with the pilots, who took effective measures to secure
his arrest by the board of war. It was proved that
Molesworth, who lodged at Mrs. YarnalFs on Chest-
nut Street, had several times passed between Phila-
delphia and New York as a spy, and that he held Sir
William Howe's commission as lieutenant in the
British army. Luke Carter, Thomas Collins, Joseph
Thomas, Hastings Stackhouse, and Jonathan H.
Smith were implicated in this business, but escaped.
Tories and suspected persons were dealt with
promptly and severely. Dr. Abrain Chovet was com-
pelled to pledge his " sacred faith" to neither do nor
say anything to the injury of the United States or
hold any correspondence with their enemies, and
William D. Smith, Charles Stedman, Jr., Robert
Dove, and George Harrison were similarly bound.
Maj. Richard W. Stockton, a Tory officer, — "the
famous land-pilot of the king's troops," he was called,
— was made prisoner in the forepart of the year with
sixty-six other Tories, all being brought to Philadel-
phia and confined in jail. John Weaver gave security
to answer at court ; Dr. Connolly was rel eased on parole
to go to a farm at York, Pa., and stay there, and Rob-
ert Burton, Leatherbury Barker, William Bagwell,
and William Milby, Delaware Tories, were released
on giving security. Some of the Tory partisans were
active and attempted to capture the Pennsylvania
salt-works at Tom's River, requiring a galley to be
stationed there to protect it.
The privateers of Philadelphia did not accomplish
much in 1777, the only captures being those made by
the " Oliver Cromwell" and the " Rattlesnake." The
" General Mifflin" was wrecked in Sinepuxent, losing
part of her crew and the vessel and cargo, while the
" Montgomery" was captured and sent into Gibraltar ;
the "Sally" was chased ashore and captured in Dela-
ware Bay, but another "Sally" ran in safely with a
large cargo of arms and ammunition. The Conti-
nental brig " Andrew Doria" captured two armed
vessels while coming from St. Eustatius with gun-
powder and cloth for Congress; the "Lexington"
was captured by a frigate off the capes ; her crew,
however, rose on the prize crew, retook the vessel, and
brought her safely into the Chesapeake.
The Supreme Executive Council, immediately after
its organization, proceeded to constitute a Board of
War and a Navy Board. The latter was appointed
March 13th, and consisted of eleven members, — An-
drew Caldwell, Joseph Blewer, Joseph Marsh, Eman-
uel Eyre, Robert Ritchie, Paul Cox, Samuel Massey,
William Bradford, Thomas Fitzsimons, Samuel Mor-
ris, Jr., and Thomas Barclay.' To the Board of War
was intrusted all that concerned the land service ; to
the Navy Board full authority with regard to the State
fleet, subject, however, to direction from the Supreme
Executive Council. Under ordinary circumstances,
the latter was engrossed with the cares of civil busi-
ness.
The Navy Board went to work at once, finding the
boats out of order and in need of repairs; badly
manned also, in consequence of the merchants and
privateer service paying better wages to sailors, and
the service disturbed by questions of rank. The
works at Billingsport were not completed. They
were planned on too magnificent a scale, and were
not in the right place anyhow. The attempts to cast
cannon had been only partly successful. The supply
was not equal to the demand, and all the old pieces
about the city had to be mounted because there were
not new ones to replace them. James Boyce, at the
suggestion of the Committee of Safety, attempted to
cast brass ordnance. There was a cannon-foundry at
Southwark, but it was not at work. The powder-
mill on French Creek blew up in March, killing a
1 Thomas Fitzsimous was an Irish Catholic, born in 1741; it is not
certain whether in Ireland or Philadelphia. He went into mercantile
business and married a daughter of Robert Meade, great-grandfather of
Gen. George G. Meade. George Meade, bis wife's brother, and Fitz-
simons went into partnership as merchants and ship-owners. Fitz-
simons warmly espoused the colonial cause after the Stamp Act, and went
into active service when hostilities began. He was with the associators
under Cadwalader, member of the Council of Safety and naval board,
constructed fire-ships, and gave five thousand pounds for the support of
the cause. In 1782 he was elected to the Continental Congress ; after-
wards sat several years in the Pennsylvania Assembly, and was member
of the Federal Constitutional Convention, after which he became a mem-
ber of the House of Representatives; trustee of the University, founder
and director of the Dank of North America, president of the Insurance
Company of North America, etc. He died in 1811. Emanuel Eyre was
son of George Eyre, an English ship-builder, who settled at Burlington,
N. J., in 1727. Emanuel was born about 1731, and with his brother,
Jehu Eyre, afterwards colonel in the Continental service, embarked in
ship-building at Kensington. Emiinuel's model for a gun-buat was the
first accepted by the Committee of Safety, and his boat, the "Bull Dog,"
was the first launched. The brothels put their workmen in the army
to aid Washington in the gloomy days before Trenton, John being cap-
tain. Einannel wont into the navy board in March, 1777 ; after the
British took Philadelphia the brothers went into the business of priva-
teering, and Emanuel was jnstice of the peace after tho British withdrew.
340
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
man, and foul play was suspected. When, in June,
the steeple of Christ Church was struck by lightning
and half the crown near the top of the spire was
melted, it was considered as ominous of the fate of
King George's British crown.
After the battles of Trenton and Princeton, Phil-
adelphia was filled with the new levies continually
pouring in, and such an access of strangers was a
serious inconvenience. The new-comers were nearly
all hasty levies of raw militia, without military train-
ing and discipline and without stores and supplies.
Quarters had to be found for them, provisions, cloth-
ing, hospital service, arms, drill, and transportation.
They would not go into camp or the field until sup-
plied, and, like Gen. Greene, they thought that the
larder of patriotism should be well filled. Some of
them started to go home when all their expectations
were not met, and were very indignant at being pre-
vented. It was as difficult to get quarters for them as
to get food and clothing. The college and academy
protested against their being quartered in the build-
ings and grounds of their institutions, and the Tories
were horrified when the order went forth to canton
them upon the non-associators. These remonstrances
were not greatly heeded. The deputies of the barrack-
master, Isaac Melcher, broke down doors that were
locked against them, and the town-major's main con-
cern was to keep the levies from deserting, to which
end the bridge, ferries, and roads were strongly
guarded, while guards were also placed at the
wharves, the hospitals, the State-House, and the
officers' quarters.
The Virginia troops were ordered to Germantovvn
by Gates to avoid the smallpox. This disease was
then raging in the city, and very fatal to soldiers,
numbers of whom were buried in pits and trenches
in Washington Square. John Adams, writing in
July, said there had been two thousand interments
in Potter's Field, and that disease destroyed ten sol-
diers where the enemy slew one. There were still
enough left, however, to cause a scarcity of provisions,
and Congress forbade the exportation of bacon, salt
beef, pork, soap, tallow, and candles from January
5th to November 1st. There were now twelve Penn-
sylvania regiments in the Continental service, besides
Proctor's artillery battalion, which in part the State
retained still in its service, in addition to the two
battalions of rifles and the musketmen. Experience
had taught that the association system was not to be
depended on in serious warfare. After Princeton
whole companies sometimes deserted ; Putnam men-
tioned one case where all who were left of a company
were "one lieutenant and a lame man." The Assem-
bly passed a militia bill to take the place of the as-
sociators. The counties and city were .divided into
districts, each to contain not less than six hundred
and forty nor more than six hundred and eighty men
fit for military duty. There were lieutenants for the
city and counties, and a sub-lieutenant for each dis-
trict; the latter being divided into eight parts or
companies. Each district elected its own lieuten-
ant-colonel, major, captains, and subalterns, the lieu-
tenants enlisting the people, collecting the fines, and
executing the details of the law. The companies
were divided into classes by lot, provision being made
for calling out the classes as they were wanted. En-
rolled men refusing to parade when ordered were
fined seven shillings sixpence per diem ; absent offi-
cers ten shillings per day ; non-commissioned officers
and privates, five shillings. On field-days the fine
for non-attendance was five pounds, and fifteen shil-
lings for non-commissioned officers and privates. For
exercises, two days were set in April, three in May,
two in August, two in September, and one in October,
each year. There were battalion drills in May and
October. In case of loss of limb by militiamen in
service, the State guaranteed half pay.
Under this law Jacob Morgan was appoiuted lieu-
tenant for the city, but declined to act, and James
Reed was appointed, soon succeeded by William
Henry. The sub-lieutenants were Richard Humph-
reys, George Henry, Frederick Hagner, Casper Geyer,
Ephraim Bonham, and William Simpson. In Phila-
delphia County, William Coats, lieutenant ; Jacob
Engle, Samuel Dewees, George Smith, Archibald
Thompson, and William Antis, sub-lieutenants.
The officers in command of the militia were Brig.-
Gens. John Armstrong, John Cadwalader, James
Potter, and Samuel Meredith. The city battalions
were officered in part as follows: Colonels, William
Bradford, Sliarpe Delaney, Jonathan Bayard Smith,
Francis Gurney, Clymer, William Will. For
Philadelphia County: First Battalion (townships of
Upper Salford, Lower Salford, Towamensing, Hat-
field, Perkiomen, and Skippack), Daniel Heister, Jr.,
colonel; Jacob Reid, lieutenant-colonel; Jacob Mark-
ley, major. Second Battalion (Germantown, Rox-
borough, Springfield, and Bristol), John Moore, colo-
nel ; Aaron Levering, lieutenant-colonel ; George
Miller, major. Third Battalion (Cheltenham, Abing-
ton, Lower Moreland, Lower Dublin, Byberry, and
Oxford), Benjamin McVeagh, colonel ; David Schnei-
der, lieutenant-colonel; John Holmes, major. Fourth
Battalion (Upper Moreland, Upper Gwynedd, and
Montgomery), William Dean, colonel; Robert Loller,
lieutenant-colonel ; George Right, major. Fifth Bat-
talion (White Marsh, Plymouth, Whitpain, Norring-
ton, Worcester, and New Providence), Robert Curry,
colonel; Archibald Thompson, lieutenant-colonel;
John Edwards, major. Sixth Battalion (Limerick,
Douglass, Marlboro', New Hanover, Upper Hanover,
and Frederick), Frederick Antis, colonel; Frederick
Wees, lieutenant-colonel; Jacob Bush, major. Seventh
Battalion (Upper Merion, Lower Merion, Blockley,
and Kingsessing), Jonathan Paschall, colonel; Isaac
Warner, lieutenant-colonel ; Matthew Jones, major.
The militia law required all white male inhabitants
of the State (except the extreme western counties)
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
341
above eighteen years old to take an oath of allegiance
before July 1st, subscribing in presence of a magis-
trate. The oath renounced George III. and gave alle-
giance to the free and independent State of Pennsyl-
vania. The subscriber besides swore not to do any-
thing to the prejudice of the independence declared
by Congress, and to expose all conspiracies and trea-
sons coming to his knowledge. Persons neglecting
or refusing to take this oath were declared to be in-
capable of holding office, serving on juries, suing for
debts, electing or being elected, buying, selling, or
transferring real estate, and were liable to be dis-
armed by the county lieutenants and deputies. Non-
jurors unprovided with passes were liable to arrest as
spies if traveling out of the city or county of their
immediate residence; and forgery of certificates was
punished with fifty pounds fine and a flogging.
The Board of War (David Rittenhouse, Owen Brd-
dle, William Moore, Joseph Dean, Samuel Morris,
Sr., Samuel Cadwalader Morris, John Bayard,
George Gray, John Bull, and Richard Bache) organ-
ized shortly after March 13th, and, failing a grant from
Congress, received a grant from the Assembly of
£100,000. In April already the energies of the new
board were put to the test, for Gen. Putnam wrote of
an unusual activity among the enemy at Amboy and
vicinity, betokening some sort of movement, of which
Philadelphia was suspected to be the object. Imme-
diate exertions were made to mobilize the city's mili-
tary resources again, the Supreme Executive Council
co-operating with a committee of Congress and the
Continental officers in town to that end. The Execu-
tive Council published an address, stating that the
city had once before been saved by the vigorous
manly efforts of a few associators, whose lives Provi-
dence had wonderfully spared ; " confiding, therefore,
in the continuance of his blessing who is indeed the
God of armies, let every man among us hold himself
ready to march into the field whenever he shall he
called upon so to do ; if the enemy really intend to
make an attack on this State, no time should be lost ;
every moment should be employed in putting our-
selves in perfect readiness to repel them." Patriotism
must make up for the defects of imperfect methods.
Congress would establish a camp near Philadelphia,
and the militia of the State were expected to repair
to it at once. The county lieutenants were urged to
enroll the people forthwith ; wagons were sent for to
move the stores, and Congress proposed to fix the
new camp on the west side of the Delaware, under
the command of Gen. Benedict Arnold.
It was found that the authority of the Supreme
Executive Council was not adequate, under the Con-
stitution, for such emergencies, and, by advice of Con-
gress, the Council and War and Navy Boards simply
assumed the necessary powers to provide' for the pub-
lic safety, looking to the people to indemnify them.
The Board of War appointed ward committees to take
stock of all the provisions in private hands in the city,
turning over the names of the persons refusing to per-
mit their houses to be examined. Another committee
of fifty was given charge of the removal of all goods
and provisions at Trenton and other places along the
Delaware, to safer magazines elsewhere. An embargo
was proclaimed, to prevent the sailing of shallops,
flats, or vessels of any kind, without special permis-
sion from the Navy Board.
Gen. Schuyler was at this time in command in
Philadelphia. He called on the Board of War for
blankets for the Continental troops, — four thousand
being the number required, — the city and county
being assessed for six hundred and sixty-seven,
which were collected by county lieutenants and
their deputies. On April 24th, by order of Con-
gress, three thousand militia were called out, exclu-
sive of the city troops, and two camps were ordered,
one at Bristol the other at Chester. The organiza-
tion of these camps not proceeding very rapidly, the
Council and Board of War in May authorized the en-
listment of apprentices and servants over sixteen years
of age, the Assembly being asked to indemnify mas-
ters. This step, however, was speedily reconsidered,
as it caused great discontent, without corresponding
benefits. In this matter Congress and the Assembly
were at variance, but the local interest and custom
prevailed.
On June 10th, Gen. Mifflin appeared before the
Assembly with a message from Gen. Washington, to
assure them that it was his firm opinion that "the
enemy's army meditated a sudden and immediate at-
tack upon some part of this State," and he therefore
asked that the militia be got ready at once to march
at a moment's notice. The Supreme Executive Coun-
cil were forthwith notified, and a meeting of citizens
was held next day at the State-House. Gen. Mifflin ad-
dressed them, giving them notice of the enemy's move-
ments, which threatened the plunder of the city. He
advised citizens to give efficiency to the new militia
law by turning out under its provisions instead of the
old association. The representatives of the citizens
opposed to the Constitution pledged their hearty con-
currence in defensive measures and a suspension of
all opposition during the emergency. On the 13th,
Mifflin spoke to a large body of militia on the com-
mons. They received him with enthusiasm, but
would not go into camp at once and unconditionally.
They had their affairs to set in order, and besides,
they wished the militia to be drawn in classes, accord-
ing to law.
The Assembly considered the question of removal
from Philadelphia in case the movements of the
enemy made it necessary. A series of resolutions was
adopted covering at once the obligations of obstinate
defense and such a removal of goods, stores, and per-
sons in the final extremity, as would deprive the
enemy of as many resources as possible. The Supreme
Executive Council was instructed to make proclama-
tion to the inhabitants to hold themselves ready to
342
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
move at shortest notice ; it was resolved that wagon-
masters should be appointed, and that it was the duty
of the authorities to transport the families and effects
of poor militiamen at the public expense, any dis-
tance within thirty miles ; that persons should not be
allowed to leave the city with the intention of aban-
doning the public defense; families remaining in
town not to be allowed more than two weeks' pro-
visions, and the lieutenants to make search and seize
all private stores in excess of this allowance. All
grain within twenty miles of the Delaware was to be
taken account of, and owners were not to allow its
removal except at their peril ; cattle and live stock
to be looked after in the same way, and persons ap-
pointed to drive it off if necessary. The president
and the Council were directed to remove the bells of
the several churches and public buildings, and all the
copper and brass in the city to places of safety. Hav-
ing passed these comprehensive resolutions and voted
to invest in the Supreme Executive Council sufficient
power for the prosecution of all necessary measures,
the Assembly, on June 19th, adjourned to meet again
on September 3d. An application to Congress for
one hundred thousand dollars was authorized, and
the Council asked fifty thousand dollars additional.
A systematic scheme of defense was now put in
operation. The completion of the fortifications on
the Delaware had been committed by Congress to
Gen. Mifflin and M. Du Coudray, a French engineer.
Their report condemned Billingsport as too large for
the garrison which could probably be spared, and
moreover it could not be furnished in less than six
weeks or two months. The fort on Fort Island was
badly constructed ; half the guns were placed so as
to be useless ; at Eed Bank, a well-built fort, the
river was too wide. Du Coudray recommended re-
ducing Billingsport fort to two redoubts, and support-
ing it by the floating-batteries and with a, battery at
the opposite extremity of the ehevaux-de-frhe. Bed
Bank should be defended, but not depended upon to
command the channel.
On June 24th the Council ordered out the Phila-
delphia and Bucks Counties militia of the first and
second classes, and the Berks and Northampton
first class ; other classes through the State to hold
themselves in readiness. Arnold stationed Stewart's
Continental regiment and one thousand militia at
Billingsport, Red Bank, and Fort Island, and two
thousand militia between Coryell's Ferry and Bris-
tol, to fortify and guard the passes. Howe advanced
from Brunswick, but his retreat to Amboy and em-
barkation aboard his transports was soon known.
What was his destination, — New England, the Hud-
son, the Delware, or the South? Washington was
sorely puzzled to tell, and until it was known no
definite movements could be made. The orders
calling out some of the militia were countermanded.
The North Carolina Brigade, under Gen. Nash, and
some Virginia troops, were ordered to Billingsport,
where Bradford's and Delaney's regiment of city mi-
litia and five hundred New Jersey militia were occu-
pied in completing the works. Col. Bull's regiment,
long time there, and Proctor's artillery, were assigned
by Congress to guard the powder-mill.
Every preparation was made to meet the enemy,
and to get prompt and certain intelligence of the line
on which he would advance. The committees for
driving off cattle were increased, with orders to act
upon the first appearance of the enemy. The shores
of the Delaware, and the chief roads from it westward,
were ordered to be surveyed, as far south as Christiana
Creek, and on the east bank to Salem, and all the
topographical peculiarities of the ground to be care-
fully noted, swamps, natural obstacles, cover for
marksmen, etc. Circulars were issued to wagon-
masters to hold themselves ready to remove stores
atfd provisions under the direction of the Committee
of Fifty. The outlook at the Delaware Capes was the
centre of a painful interest at this time, and the
feint of entering made by Howe's fleet, with the
subsequent steady course southward, made things
still more uncertain. Washington moved his army
to the Delaware; it lay at Coryell's Ferry, Howell's
Ferry, and Trenton, and there waited. The march
to Germantown one day was followed the next by a
march back to Coryell's. It was merely marching to
occupy time. The enemy's movements must be more
developed before any movements of Washington
could be made in one direction or the other.
We miss Christopher Marshall's record of these
times and the months of excitement which followed
them. The honest Quaker had a severe attack of
pleurisy in the spring, was invalided to Lancaster,
and his diary contains only hearsay at second-hand
about Philadelphia. On the other hand, however, we
have Robert Morton's diary, recently published by the
Pennsylvania Magazine, full of interesting particulars
of events after the British occupation, while there is
quite an abundance of bright contemporary record of
occurrences in and around Philadelphia in the latter
half of 1778, and during the continuance of Howe's
occupation of that city.
Soon after the beginning of the year there were
twenty-two hundred militia in the city awaiting arms,
and fourteen hundred sick in the hospitals. It be-
came necessary to classify the many sick and separate
them, and a convalescent hospital was established at
Peel Hall (now part of the Girard College estate).
Carpenter's mansion, Chestnut Street, between Sixth
and Seventh, where the old Arcade stood, was used as
a hospital, and there camp-fever carried off hundreds
of Virginia and Pennsylvania militia. The sufferers
were well cared for by the ladies, in the way of soups
and dainties. Washington sent them a cask of Ma-
deira wine. ' Mrs. Logan relates that the mother of a
Pennsylvania soldier had come from the country to
seek him at the hospital, and found him among the
dead, prepared for burial. As she bewailed her loss
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
343
and sobbed over the silent form she detected signs of
life, and with the usual remedies in such cases, her
son was soon restored to her, really from the grave.
The first anniversary of the Fourth of July was
celebrated in Philadelphia with a degree of effusive-
ness. The vessels in the harbor displayed all their
bunting, manned their yards, and fired salutes ; Con-
gress gave a dinner to civil and military notables at
the City Tavern, the ironical feature of which was
that Rahl's captured Hessian band furnished the
music, and a corps of deserters from the British army,
now in the service of Georgia, fired feux dejoie. After
the banquet the members of Congress reviewed an
artillery battalion, the Maryland light horse, and a
North Carolina brigade on Second Street, and at night
the bells rung, the houses were illuminated, and fire-
works displayed on the commons. Lights, however,
were ordered out at eleven o'clock, and unusual pre-
cautions taken to guard against fire and prevent riots.
Some windows were still broken by the mob in houses
tenanted by obnoxious persons, and there was disor-
der enough to give the Quakers a pretext for lodging
complaints. A bard, writing of this night after the
British were in possession of Philadelphia, says of
this war upon the windows, that the unarmed Quakers
and Tories " sustained the horrors of the night, —
"See General Gates and Dicky Peters,
With Jimmy Mense of noted worth,
Richard and Tom — the prince of eaters, —
Like ancient heroes sally forth I
"Our true Don Quixotes, by false guessings,
Direct their calls and lead the van, —
Mistook the Tories for the Hessians,
And Quakers for — pah — Englishmen."
The corps of invalids, of which Lewis Nicola was
made colonel, was organized on June 16th, to consist
of eight companies of one hundred men each, men
and officers to be taken from convalescents unfit for
field service, but capable of garrison duty. The plan
was Nicola's, and his object was further to make this
regiment the school of the recruits and young officers
in marching regiments, for which end there was to be
a library of military books and instruction in mathe-
matics for the cadets.
A movement was begun in July which might have
led to trouble if the city had not changed hands so
soon. It originated in a meeting at the Indian Queen
Tavern (kept by Francis Lee), and the object was to
insist on exemption from military duty for such as had
furnished substitutes. Lawrence Birnie presided, and
John Hall, Robert Bell, John Stille, John Graisbury,
John James, Peter January, and Hugh Henry were
appointed a committee to carry out the meeting's aim.
There was another meeting at John Cunningham's
Centre House on July 28th, Robert Bell, chairman;
James Fisher, secretary; and Bell, Clement Humph-
reys, Robert Fitzgerald, Thomas Tisdale, William
Woodhouse, and Nicholas Brooks, committee to ad-
dress the General Assembly. The point of equity
made was that if they were not exempt, the substi-
tutes ought to be discharged. Arrangements were
made to get the names of all persons who were in the
army in this vicarious way, with what ulterior object
is not known.
On July 31st Congress resolved that it was expe-
dient to arrest all late proprietary and crown office-
holders, and all other disaffected persons in and near
Philadelphia. Under this resolution the Supreme
Executive Council issued warrants for the apprehen-
sion of John Penn, Benjamin Chew, Jared Ingersoll
(late judge of admiralty), James Tilghman (late mem-
ber of Provincial Council), Capt. Gurney, Dr. Drum-
mond (custom-house officer), John Smith, Welsh,
Bartlett, Sullivan (small officials, the latter
a druggist and half-pay British officer), and James
Humphreys, Sr. (late clerk of the Orphans' Court).
Penn and Chew were paroled, not to go more than
six miles from their houses ; Ingersoll was to be sent
to Winchester, Va., on parole ; Tilghman and Humph-
reys to remain on west side of and within six miles
of the Delaware; Gurney, Smith, and Drummondto
keep their own houses ; the others to go to prison.
Towards the latter end of July it became known
that Howe intended to attack Philadelphia while
Burgoyne descended upon Albany to cut through the
Highlands, with Clinton's assistance. Howe's feints
and manoeuvres had never misled Washington on this
point, but his extreme caution led him, while calling
out the Pennsylvania militia, to call out those of
Connecticut at the same time, and send Sullivan's
division back to Morristown to support George Clin-
ton in case of a coup de main upon the fastnesses of
the Hudson. Four thousand of the Pennsylvania
militia were called out at once, and twelve fire-ships
fitted up in the Delaware by Congress. On the 30th
the enemy's fleet was seen at Cape Henlopen, and Con-
gress ordered the live-stock to be driven off from the
Delaware borders to the interior. Howe's plans were
fully developed by the middle of August, when his
war-ships and transports approached Elk River and
the debarkation began at the head of the Chesapeake
Bay. This movement rendered the river defenses of
Philadelphia useless as against Howe's army, though
they were still an obstruction to his fleet, — such an
obstruction that, if he had been defeated at German-
town, he would have been forced to make a disas-
trous retreat or submit to be absolutely cooped up
in Philadelphia as Gage was in Boston. Still, it
enabled him to force Washington to fight him in the
open field, or yield Philadelphia without a struggle,
and the result was the two battles of Brandywine and
German town.
On Sunday, August 24th, the main body of the Con-
tinental army, ten thousand strong, under Washing-
ton's personal command, marched into Philadelphia,
proceeded to the common, crossed the new floating
bridge over the Schuylkill at the Middle Ferry, and
took the road to Chester and Wilmington. Washington
344
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
desired to make this as imposing a spectacle as possible,
for the sake of the impression upon the Tories, the
Quakers, and other disaffected persons. He wrote the
evening before that, " I expect to encamp this evening
about five or six miles of Philadelphia. To-morrow
morning it will move again, and I think to march it
through the city without halting. I am induced to
do this from the opinion of some of my officers and
many friends in Philadelphia, that it may have some
influence on the minds of the disaffected there, and
those who are dupes to their artifices and opinions.
The march will be down Front and up Chestnut
Street, and, I presume, about seven o'clock." It
could not have been a very imposing sight, if con-
temporary accounts are to be credited. " I had been
extremely anxious to see our army," says Graydon ;
" here it was, but I could see nothing which deserved
the name. ... It had been humorously stated in the
English prints that upon a gentleman, who had been
in America and seen our troops, being asked what
was their uniform, he replied, 'In general it is blue
and buff, but by this time it must be all buff.' The
period for this unity of color, however, had not yet
arrived, though from the motley, shabby covering of
the meu it was to be inferred that it was rapidly ap-
proaching. Even in Gen. Wayne himself there was,
in this particular, a considerable falling off." Lafay-
ette's impressions were not more favorable. " Eleven
thousand men, but tolerably armed, and still worse
clad, presented," he said, " a singular spectacle. In
this parti-colored and often-naked state, the best
dresses were hunting-shirts of brown linen. Their
tactics were equally irregular. They were arranged
without regard to size, excepting that the smallest
men were the front rank. With all this, there were
good-looking soldiers conducted by zealous officers."
" Though indifferently dressed," said a spectator of
the march, "they held well-burnished arms, and car-
ried them like soldiers, and looked, in short, as if
they might have faced an equal number with a
reasonable prospect of success."
The order of the day issued by Washington shows
the pains he took to make a good, forcible impression.
Officers were "strongly and earnestly enjoined" to
make all their men capable of bearing arms march in
the ranks and prevent straggling. " The army is to
march in one column through the city of Philadel-
phia, going in and marching down Front Street to
Chestnut, and up Chestnut to the Commons. A
small halt is to be made about a mile this side of the
city till the rear closes up and the line is in proper
order. The divisions will march as follows: Greene's,
Stephens', Lincoln's, and Lord Stirling's; the horse
to be divided upon the two wings, Bland's and Bay-
lor's regiments upon the right, Sheldon's and Mail-
and's upon the left. The following order of march
is to be observed : First, one subaltern and twelve
light horse. Two hundred guards. In the rear a
complete troop. Two hundred yards in the rear of
the troop the residue of Bland's and Baylor's regi-
ments. One hundred yards in the rear of these a
company of pioneers, with their axes in proper order.
One hundred yards in the rear of the pioneers a regi-
ment from Muhlenberg's brigade. Close in the rear
of that regiment all Muhlenberg's artillery. Then
his brigade, followed by Weedon's, Woodford's, and
Scott's, in order, with all their field artillery in their
respective fronts. Parks of artillery and the artificers
belonging thereto in the centre. Lincoln's and Lord
Stirling's divisions following, with all their brigade
artillery in the rear of their respective brigades. A
regiment from Lord Stirling's division for a rear
guard, with Sheldon's and Mailand's light horse
one hundred and fifty yards in the rear of this regi-
ment, and one troop one hundred and fifty yards
in rear of the horse. The whole is to march by
subdivisions at half distance, the ranks six paces
asunder, which is to be exactly observed in passing
through the city ; and great attention to be given by
the officers to see that the men carry their arms well
and are made to appear as decent as circumstances
will admit. It is expected that each officer, without
exception, will keep his post in passing through the
city, and under no pretense to leave it. And if any
soldier shall dare quit his ranks, he shall receive
thirty-nine lashes at the next halting-place after-
wards. The field-officers of the day will prevent any
of the men who are allotted to attend the wagons
from slipping into the city. As the baggage will be
but a little while separated from the column, very few
men will be sufficient to guard it, and the general
wishes to have as many of them as are able to appear
in the ranks in the line of march. The drums and
fifes of each brigade are to be collected in the centre
of it, and a time for the quick step played, but with
such moderation that the men may step to it with
ease, without dancing along or totally disregarding
the music, which has been too often the case. The
men are to be excused from carrying 'their camp-
kettles to-morrow."
Washington rode at the head of the troops attended
by his numerous staff. Lafayette, who had received
Gates' command, rode by his side. The troops wore
sprigs of green in their hats, to give them something
of a uniform appearance. The sight was an unusual
and animating spectacle to the Whigs, the more so
as Nash's North Carolina brigade and Proctor's artil-
lery followed next day, and the new militia were
pouring in. "The disaffected," says Washington
Irving, '' who had been taught to believe the Amer-
ican forces much less than they were in reality, were
astonished as they gazed upon the lengthening pro-
cession of a host, which, to their unpracticed eyes,
appeared innumerable."
Lead pipe was seized all over town to make bul-
lets, and the houses of all citizens who had not showed
their attachment to the American cause, and taken
the oath of allegiance to the State, were searched for
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
345
arms. There was additional reason for this, as it was
alleged that the Quakers were in active communica-
tion with the enemy. The day after the march
through Philadelphia, Gen. Sullivan sent to Presi-
dent Hancock some papers and memoranda captured
by him during his recent raid on Staten Island.
These embodied a series of regular queries as to the
number and position of the different commands, with
answers to some of them, from the " Spanktown
Yearly Meeting," etc. These were entitled " intelli-
gence" from New Jersey and other places, and the
information they gave was important to the enemy
and injurious to Washington. The Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting, in September, 1780, denied that
they had furnished this intelligence. It was be-
lieved they were guilty at the time, however, and
Congress took up the matter at once. A committee
to whom it was referred showed by a series of cita-
tions that the " testimonies" of the several Quaker
meetings had been invariably hostile to the American
cause, and that they were quite capable of surrepti-
tious dealings with the enemy for the injury of " the
councils and arms of America," whether guilty in
that particular instance or not. On the strength of
this report Congress adopted the resolutions offered
by the committee, to the effect that—
"It be earnestly recommended to the Supreme Executive Council of
the State of Pennsylvania forthwith to apprehend and secure the per-
sona of .Toshna Fisher, Abel James, James Peniberton, Henry Drinker,
Israel Pemberton, John Pemberton, Johu James, Samuel Pleasants,
Kees Wharton, Sr., Thomas Fisher (son of Joshua), aud Samuel Fisher
(son of Joshua), together with all such Papers in their Possession as
may be of a Political nature.
"And Wheueas, There is a strong reason to apprehend that these
Persons maintain a Correspondence and Connection highly prejudicial
to the Public Safety, not only in this State, but in the respective States
of America:
" Resolved, That it be recommended to the Executive Powers of the
respective States forthwith to apprehend and secure all Persons as well
among the people called Quakers as others, who have in their general
conduct and Conversation evidenced a Disposition inimical to the Cause
of America; and that the Persons so seized be confined in such places
and treated in such manner as shall be consistent with their respective
Characters and the security of their Persons."
It was also resolved that the Board of War should
remove John Penn and Benjamin Chew to some place
of security out of Pennsylvania. These things were
published, together with extracts from the proceedings
of Quaker meetings of different dates, showing dis-
content, dissatisfaction, and a disposition to complain
of the way Friends had been and were being treated
by " the rabble" and the " licentious mob." The
list of charges, complaints, and recriminations, repub-
lished by Congress, was long and conclusive as to the
fact that the Friends neither acquiesced in nor recog-
nized the existing government, and would be glad of
its overthrow. The object of the publication was
doubtless to justify the harsh measures that had been
determined upon by Congress and the Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council, which in this matter went hand in
hand.
The Council called to their aid Cols. Bradford and
Delaney, Capt. Peel, and Mr. Rittenhouse, and a list
was made out of persons to be arrested as dangerous
to the State. It was determined, besides the persons
named by Congress, to arrest also Miers Fisher (son
of Joshua, a lawyer), Elijah Brown, Hugh Roberts,
George Roberts, Joseph Fox (late barrack-master),
John Hunt (a lawyer), Samuel Emlen, Jr., Adam
Kuhn, M.D., Phineas Bond, Rev. William Smith,
D.D. (provost of the college), Rev. Thomas Coombe
(rector of Christ Church), Samuel Shoemaker, Charles
BENJAMIN CHEW.
Jervis, William Drewitt Smith, Charles Eddy, Thomas
Pike (dancing-master), Owen Jones, Jr., Jeremiah
Warder, William Lennox, Edward Penington, Caleb
Emlen, William Smith (broker), Samuel Murdock,
Alexander Stedman, Charles Stedman, Jr., Thomas
Ashton (merchant), William Imlay, Thomas Gilpin,
Samuel Jackson, and Thomas Afflick. Some of these
were ordered to be arrested at once, but the Council
said that it desired to " treat men of reputation with
as much tenderness as the security of their persons
aud papers would admit." It was directed, therefore,
to spare some the mortification of arrest if they would
give a sort of parole to stay in their homes, subject to
order of Council, and do nothing in any way injurious
to " the united free States of North America." As the
jails were full, the Masonic lodge was secured as a
prison, and a committee was appointed to carry out the
decision of the Council. This committee consisted of
William Bradford, Sharpe Delaney, James Claypoole,
William Heysham, John Purviance, Joseph Blewer,
Paul Cox, Adam Kimmel, William Graham, William
Hardy, Charles W. Peale, Capt. McCulloch, Nathaniel
Donnell, Robert Smith, William Carson, Lazarus Pine,
Capt. Birney , John Downley, John Galloway, William
Thorpe, John Lisle, James Loughhead, James Can-
non, James Carr, and Thomas Bradford. The town-
major furnished a guard ; the Stedmans and Lennox
were arrested and confined on September 2d. Three-
fourths of the men named refused to give their parole,
and were arrested and confined. Some had taken the
oath ; two or three could not be found, and no return
346
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
was made in Joshua Fisher's case and that of Rev.
Dr. Smith.
Israel Pemberton, John Hunt, and Samuel Pleasants
sent for their lawyers, and demanded a hearing.
Council declined, as they were arrested by order of
Congress. They persisted, but Council was firm, and
the same day resolved to send the prisoners to Staun-
ton, Va., for safe-keeping. Jared Ingersoll was or-
dered to go to Connecticut forthwith, and Lennox
was released on bail.
Congress agreed to release all who would swear or
affirm fidelity and allegiance to Pennsylvania as an
independent State. Imlay gave his parole to return
to New York. The congregation of Christ Church
appealed on behalf of Coombe and Smith, and it was
agreed the former should be allowed to go to Vir-
ginia on parole, and thence to the island of St. Eusta-
tius. Howe's advance hastened the departure of the
others. They were told they might provide their own
vehicles and the Supreme Executive Council would
pay expenses, but very little satisfaction was given
them as to route or destination. They were sent off
on September 11th, under escort of the City Guard,
with carriages and wagons, to the music of a drum
and fife. The indomitable Quakers took out a writ
of habeas corpus, in Chief Justice McKean's court,
and stopped the procession at Pottsgrove. The As-
sembly at once passed a law commanding the escort
to take the prisoners on to Virginia. A second writ
was served at Reading ; but the Assembly passed an
act suspending the habeas corpus and the guards
ignored the writ. The journey was rough and fatigu-
ing, and the most of the prisoners were elderly men,
unused to such fatigues. Their spirits, however,
could not be tamed. They filed a protest at the
Maryland line; another when the Potomac was
reached ; but on the 29th they were brought into
Winchester, and there tarried. In December, Owen
Jones and the others were ordered to be sent to
Staunton, and confined as close prisoners unless they
gave their parole to do nothing injurious to the
United States.
Congress and the Supreme Executive Council were
afterwards anxious to retrace their steps, as the treat-
ment of the prisoners had awakened sympathy for
them. They denied the charges against them, and
Congress ordered their release upon giving an oath
or affirmation of allegiance and fidelity to Pennsyl-
vania. On April 18, 1778, they heard of the order
for their discharge. Two were dead, — Gilpin and
Hunt. Pike, the dancing-master, absconded from
Winchester and was never heard of again. On April
29th they passed the American picket lines at Valley
Forge, and reached their homes after an imprisonment
of nearly eight months.
It was on June 14, 1777, that Congress resolved,
" That the flags of the thirteen United States be thir-
teen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union
be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing
a new constellation."1 The flag was a modification
of the so-called " Great Union flag," used since Jan.
2, 1776, when it was raised in the camp on Prospect
Hill. Before that different flags had been used under
authority of the different provinces. Connecticut,
April 23, 1775, had her flag, — the colony arms, with
" Qui transtulit sustinet" for motto, in gilt letters
around the arms. July 18, 1775, Putnam unfurled a
flag with a red ground, on one side Connecticut's
motto ; on the other, the "An Appeal to Heaven" of
Massachusetts. Moultrie, on James Island, S. O,
Sept. 13, 1775, hoisted a blue flag, crescent in the
corner, for the union. In autumn, 1775, Philadel-
phia's floating-batteries used a white flag, tree in the
field, motto, " An Appeal to Heaven." The "Great
Union" flag had the thirteen alternate stripes of red
and white, with the union of the British Union Jack.
In February, 1776, Christopher Gadsden presented to
the South Carolina Congress the flag of the com-
mander-in-chief of the American navy, "being a
yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattle-
snake in the middle in the attitude of going to strike,
and the words underneath, ' Don't tread on me.' "
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress, April 29,
1776, voted that the flag of the cruisers of that colony
should be white, with a green pine-tree and an inscrip-
tion, " An Appeal to Heaven." The " Great Union"
flag was generally used ; the stars and stripes first in
Gates' army against Burgoyne. It may have been
used at Brandywine and Germantown ; and it was in
full use at Valley Forge."2
Howe's army began disembarking at Head of Elk,
August 25th, and the State government of Pennsyl-
vania was active in measures for the general defense.
The main body of the State militia was sent forward
to Gen. Armstrong, at Wilmington. Col. Jonathan
Bayard Smith's regiment was posted at the Robin
Hood Tavern, on the Ridge road. The third class of
militia was called out in Philadelphia City and County,
and in the counties of Chester, York, Cumberland,
and Northumberland. Commodore Seymour, en-
feebled by age, was superseded in the command of
1 This " new constellation," meaning no more than a new grouping of
stars different from any of those mentioned in astronomy, haB proved a
stumbling-block for the hyper-critics, eager to seek some hidden symbol-
ism in the most indifferent things, and they have supposed the constella-
tion to mean Lyra, because Lyra is a symbol for union. Lyra, however, is
an old constellation, and the resolution calls for a new one. It was a period
when European, and especially English, astronomy, such as Rittenhouse
studied, was fond of naming new things in the skies in compliment to
common or old things and dignities on the earth. Thus there were
Charles' Wain, "Rubus Caroli,'" "Scutum Sobieski," " Honores Fred-
erick!," " Cor Caroli," " Taurus Poniatouski," " Harpa Georgii," " Scep-
trum Brandenburgium," etc. Bode, Frederick the Great's astronomer,
had just named a new constellation in honor of 1'ranklin's printing-
press ; it was easy for Rittenhouse to think and speak of the starry union
of the flag as introducing another new constellation, more worthy of
honor than the "Georgium Sidus" discovered by Herschel four years
later, and the " Harpa Georgii" named by Bode fourteen years later.
2 The first stars and stripes is Baid to have been made by Mrs. Eliza-
beth Ross, in a houHe afterwards No. SO Arch Street. (See paper by "Wil-
liam J. Canhy, read before the Pennsylvania Historical Society in 1S70.)
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
347
the fleet by Commodore Hazlewood. The Navy Board
arranged to flood Hog Island and the Delaware
meadows; to make abridge of boats from Fort Island
to Province Island ; to throw a garrison into the fort
at Darby Creek and the lines of Bush Island; and to
get Col. Jehu Eyre's regiment of militia to garrison
Fort Island and other adjacent works. Boats were
collected and detained, but not so as to embarrass
families taking flight by water, and the Middle Ferry
bridge had a guard assigned to it, with orders to re-
move it when the word came. The Supreme Execu-
tive Council issued a stirring proclamation under date
of September 10th, announcing that the crisis had
come, that '' Gen. Howe, at the head of a British
army, the only hope and last resource of our enemies,
has invaded this State. Dismissing his ships and
disincumbering himself of his heavy artillery and
baggage, he appears to have risked all upon the event
of a movement which must either deliver up to plun-
der and devastation this capital of Pennsylvania, or
forever blast the cruel designs of our implacable foes."
Every one is adjured to turn out in this emergency to
enable Washington to " environ and demolish the
only British army that remains formidable in America
or the world."
Howe moved slowly and with caution at first. He
landed on the 26th, and advanced to Elkton with his
army in two divisions, at Elkton and Cecil Court-
House. His force comprised seventeen thousand
picked men, Washington's eleven thousand. The
latter, at Wilmington, was in danger of being driven
into the Delaware or down the peninsula by Howe's
movements, when he did begin to move, on Septem-
ber 3d, by his left flank, seeking to turn the Amer-
ican right and occupy the upper fords. It was only
by active motions that Washington was able to extri-
cate himself from this cul-de-sac. After a succession
of skirmishes the two armies found themselves, on
September 11th, on opposite sides of the Brandywine,
the British planning to force the passage of the
stream, the Americans seeking to hold the fords and
attack the enemy wherever he tried to cross. The
Brandywine is a historic river, yet not much more
than a mill-stream in its dimensions, after all. Its
source is a double stream, uniting in Chester County,
seeking the Delaware lowlands, and emptying into
Christiana Creek. There were numerous fords, espe-
cially on the upper stream, with hills on either side.
The main road from Delaware to Philadelphia crosses
the Brandywine at Chadd's Ford ; below it, at the
distance of a mile and a half, was Pyle's Ford ; above
it, two miles distant, was Brinton's ; above that, fords
to choose. The situation was not unlike that at the
first battle of Bull Run. Howe's army was massed
at Kennett Square, several miles south of the Brandy-
wine, on the road to Chadd's Ford. Washington's
army was divided : Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania
militia, held Pyle's Ford; Washington, with Wayne
and Greene, held the centre; Weeden's and Muhlen-
berg's brigades, Greene's division, held the heights
in the rear of Chadd's Ford, as a reserve. On a hill
at the ford was Proctor's artillery, sheltered by a rude
redoubt and supported by Wayne's brigade. Max-
well's light infantry were in the advance, holding the
south side of the ford and the approaches to it. On
the right, connecting with Wayne and Greene, and
with pickets, videttes, and light cavalry thrown out
up-stream to the forks, was Sullivan's division, and
those of Stephen and Stirling, holding Brinton's Ford.
Sullivan was charged to look to the security of that
flank ; but he had not the means to do it, and, besides,
was not competent to command the entire wing of
an army. He had only some light cavalry, under
Bland. Stirling was brave, but dull ; Stephen was a
superannuated veteran, and dull besides. The coun-
try was disaffected in the extreme, — full of Tories and
Quakers, — and while Howe, guided by Galloway, had
all the intelligence he needed, Washington not only
did not know of the enemy's movements, but seemed
to be only partly acquainted with the lay of the land.
He was very anxious for Howe to attack him at
Chadd's Ford, confident that he would be able to de-
feat him there, and that was precisely what Howe did
not intend to do.
Howe's right, under Knyphausen, advanced to
Chadd's Ford, as if to attack it, and made such a
successful demonstration as to cover the real attack.
The left, under Cornwallis, with Howe in person, and
the greater part of the army, made a detour of twelve
miles, crossing easily and unopposed at Trumbull's
and Jeffrey's Fords, and descending the river on the
crest of the north bank, took Sullivan in the flank
and routed him, doubling his divisions one upon the
other. Just as this movement was developing, Wash-
ington was preparing to attack Knyphausen in front,
while Armstrong crossed below and Sullivan above.
But Howe's flank movement took precedence. Sulli-
van's dispositions were bad, in addition to his being
surprised and flanked. Howe's columns pressed in
between the American divisions, drove all before
them, and were rapidly gaining the main road in the
rear of Washington, when the reserve, under Wash-
ington and Greene, came up and checked the enemy
long enough to prevent a rout and cover the with-
drawal of the army.
It was a badly fought battle and a bad defeat for
the Americans, though the British were too worn out
by their long march to pursue. The enemy, how-
ever, reaped all the fruits of victory. They took
Washington's cannon, they occupied the field of bat-
tle, and the road to Philadelphia was now opened be-
fore them. The losses, however, even in morale, were
not fatal, nor even heavy. The army was reformed
at Chester, and did not retreat precipitately as Howe
advanced. The officers, and soldiers too, were for re-
newing the combat.
Philadelphia, anxious, excited, uneasy, prepared
for a final defense even before the issue of the battle
348
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
was known. The militia still in town were ordered
to turn out with intrenching tools as well as arms.
During the progress of the hattle the Council was in
session, as the minutes show. "The two armies being
now engaged, and the event doubtful, Ordered, That
all shops and stores be immediately shut up, except
those only where workmen are employed in making
or repairing the public arms, and that every man ca-
pable of bearing arms or repairing arms repair to his
captain's quarters at two o'clock this afternoon. The
commissioned officers are hereby commanded to exert
themselves in the execution of this order, and order
that the drums beat to arms immediately." The
guards at Gray's Ferry, Robin Hood Ford, Upper
Ferry and bridge were strengthened, to protect the
cannon at those points. Boats were sent down the
river to bring up the wounded. The gunpowder and
stores were removed from French Creek, and, at
Washington's request, Maj. Casdorp removed the
Schuylkill bridge at High Street to the Delaware, all
other boats being put where the enemy could not
reach them. Col. Flower, aided by carpenters James
Worrell, Francis Allison, and Evans, took down the
bells of the churches and public buildings. They
were carried to Trenton and thence to Bethlehem.
The cattle were driven off by the committee charged
with that duty, and the money and papers of the
loan office and the records of the State removed to
Easton.
On September 3d there was no quorum of the As-
sembly, and none till the 13th. Meantime the As-
sembly minutes, papers, and a press were sent up the
Delaware, in the shallop " Sturdy Beggar," to Col.
Kirkbride. On the 18th the Assembly fled, to meet
at Lancaster on the 25th. If Howe had marched to
Darby the morning after the hattle of the Brandy-
wine, said Lafayette, Washington's army would have
been destroyed. This is rather too sweeping a state-
ment; but a prompt movement would have been un-
doubtedly injurious to Washington. But Howe de-
layed, to forage and to put the wounded out of the
way ; they were sent to Wilmington on the 14th. In
the meanwhile, Washington himself inarched to
Darby, crossed the Schuylkill quietly, and reorgan-
ized his forces at Germantown, ready for battle again
on the 18th.
Howe pushed some brigades out into Chester
County, and occupied Wilmington on the 12th and
13th. On the 17th, Lord Cornwallis held the Lan-
caster road and the column of Knyphausen united
with him at the White Horse Tavern, pushed on to
Tredyffrin, and destroyed the stores and magazines
at Valley Forge. Washington had recrossed the
Schuylkill on the 15th, and attempted to turn Howe's
left. Howe's object was to take Philadelphia, with a
battle, if he could get one on favorable terms. He
faced about and the two armies confronted one an-
other again, no river between them. The militia
held the fords and ferries of the Schuylkill. The
main body was encamped at the junction of the
Lancaster and Swedes' Ford roads, in the township
of East Whiteland, northeast of the Admiral Warren
Tavern, and between that and the White Horse. Howe
advanced by way of the Chester road, Rocky Hill
and Goshen meeting-house, West Chester and the
Boot Tavern. On the 16th the two armies took posi-
tions on high ground between the White Horse and
Goshen meeting-house and prepared for action. All
accounts agree that both sides expected a serious en-
gagement, and that neither antagonist despised the
other. The advance parties had already begun to
skirmish — Wayne having to lead the attack on the
American side — when a storm of great severity set in
and damaged Washington's ammunition seriously,
his cartridge-boxes, unlike those of the British, not
being water-proof. The storm equally prevented the
British from attacking. Washington withdrew to the
Yellow Springs, and then to Warwick furnace, on
French Creek, where fresh ammunition was obtained.
The British went into camp around the Boot Tavern.
Joseph Galloway insisted that Howe should have at-
tacked in spite of the rain. Tom Paine, who was on
the field, says, in a letter to Dr. Franklin, that the
storm was "most violent and incessant," — weather of
"almost irresistible fury," — the equinoctial storm, in
fact ; and the British did not move until the evening
of the 17th.
On the 18th the British columns united at the White
Horse, moved into Tredyffrin township, and encamped
on the south side of the road to Swedes' Ford, east
of where Howellville now is. Gen. Smallwood, with
the Maryland militia gathered on the Eastern Shore
prior to the battle of Brandywine, was in Howe's
rear, cutting off detachments and obstructing foragers.
Wayne was sent out by Washington from French
Creek on the 17th with his division, fifteen hundred
men and four guns, to co-operate and unite with
Smallwood, harass and annoy the enemy, cut off his
baggage, impede his march, and, if possible, by at-
tacking his rear, prevent him from crossing the Schuyl-
kill before Washington could cross the river higher
up and place himself in Howe's front.
Wayne, with his usual daring, closed up almost
immediately on the enemy's rear, and scarcely four
miles away. He was familiar with the country, and
he did not believe Howe was aware of his proximity.
He was sure Washington had only to join him to he
able to attack the British rear successfully, and, as he
phrased it, " complete Mr. Howe's business." On the
contrary, however, Howe was acquainted with all of
Wayne's motions, and was prepared to profit by them,
not only punishing Wayne's temerity, but securing
his leading object, the passage of the Schuylkill un-
disturbed. Wayne had word on which he trusted
that Howe would attempt to cross at two a.m. on the
21st, and prepared to attack him at that hour. Small-
wood would act with him, and Maxwell and Potter,
Wayne put out
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
349
his pickets and his men went to sleep, lying on their
arms. Meantime Howe, instructed by the Tories as
to Wayne's precise camp, ordered Gen. Grey to sur-
prise and cut him off.
Musgrave, with the Fortieth and Fifty-fifth Regi-
ments, moved up the Lancaster road to the Paoli
Tavern to cut off retreat by that route, while Grey,
marching from Howellville along the Swedes' Ford
road, massed his brigade almost within gunshot of
Wayne's force, and dashed upon the sleeping camp
with fixed bayonets and every musket unloaded.
PAOLI MONUMENT.
The surprise was complete, the force of the assailants
overwhelming. Grey had two regiments, a body of
light infantry, and the Second and Tenth Dragoons,
and when the enemy struck him at one o'clock in
the morning, it was practically sauve qui pent from the
first. The cannon, indeed, were hurried off the field
and saved, but the bayonets and sabres of Grey's
troops made such terrible havoc in Wayne's ranks
that the surprise has ever since been known as
"The Massacre of Paoli."1 Smallwood's men, just
about to join Wayne, ran away in consternation, and
the American loss was severe. The Americans re-
ported one hundred and fifty killed, and seventy or
eighty captured ; but Howe, in his official dispatch,
says, " Killed and wounded not less than three hun-
dred on the spot, taking between seventy and eighty
' A Quincy granite monument, twenty-two feet and a half in height,
was erected as a memorial to the Americans who fell a sacrifice to the
massacre, and was dedicated at the centennial anniversary on Sept. 20,
1S77.
prisoners, including several officers, the greater part
of their arms, and eight wagons loaded with baggage
and stores."
This surprise and defeat enabled Howe to cross the
Schuylkill undisturbed, as his rear was now secure
from any attack. In the morning he marched to-
wards Swedes' Ford ; breastworks were there, held by
Pennsylvania militia. He turned up the river north-
ward, and at Parker's Ford found Washington con-
fronting him, having crossed over from Warwick.
Howe turned northward again, as if to pass Wash-
ington's right, or seize the invaluable stores at Read-
ing by a coup de main, Washington, to prevent this,
once more crossed to the eastern bank and interposed
at Pottsgrove, whereupon Howe, wheeling suddenly,
marched swiftly back again, and, dividing his force
into two columns, crossed practically unopposed at
Gordon's Ford (now Phoenixville), and Fatland Ford,
below Valley Forge, proceeding by easy marches,
thence to Philadelphia. Washington's men were not
in condition to march and countermarch like Howe's,
and he gave up the attempt to keep Howe out of the
city, which he entered on the 26th. The honors and
the fruits of the campaign, it must be conceded, were
so far with Gen. Howe. He had outmanoeuvred
Washington ; his tactics were better, and his soldiers
had out-fought the Continentals. But these had
fought well enough to make Howe cautious, and he
did not venture again to take such risks as he had
taken at the passage of the Brandywine.
Howe's grenadiers were the first to cross the Schuyl-
kill, on the 22d, at Fatland Ford, supported by the
light infantry guard. They were part of Cornwallis'
column under Grey and Agnew. The chasseur bat-
talions crossed next at Gordon's Ford, and on the 23d
the whole army went over, Cornwallis in the van, and
Grant, with the baggage, bringing over the rear guard
before night. That night they encamped with the
left on the Schuylkill, the right on the Ridge road,
and Stony Run in front. A battalion dislodged the
militia at Swedes' Ford, where there was a, small re-
doubt with six pieces. On the 25th the British
moved towards Philadelphia in two grand divisions,
one taking the Germantown road, the other passing
down the Schuylkill towards the falls.
The city was at their mercy, and Washington's ill-
clad, ill-shod, ill-fed, scanty battalions no longer inter-
posed to defend it. General despondency prevailed ;
Congress was honeycombed with cliques ; the army
was full of conspirators; the city itself was overrun
with malcontents and traitors. " Now, Pennsyl-
vania," was Parson Muhlenberg's despairing cry,
" bend thy neck and prepare to meet thy God !"
" Oh, heaven*, grant us one great soul !" shrieked cap-
tious and impatient John Adams, " one leading mind
would extricate the best cause from that ruin which
seems to await it !"
In this crisis, the authorities behaved well. Con-
gress did not run away, but stayed in the city until
350
H1STOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the 18th, when it adjourned to meet in Lancaster.
Stores and magazines were removed, and blankets,
shoes, and clothing were impressed from the Phila-
delphians in spite of Tory protests. Washington, in-
deed, sent his aide-de-camp, Hamilton, into the city
on the 22d to secure these needed contributions. It
was impossible to do without them, and Washington
insisted upon the impressment, "painful as it is for
me to order and as it will be to you to execute the
message." The Supreme Executive Council re-
mained in the city until the end of the 23d. They
compelled the removal of all provisions except a
bare subsistence for families. There was a court-
martial at the jail, and all the military prisoners who
could be trusted were sent to the army as recruits.
All vessels in the Delaware were ordered to Burling-
ton and Fort Mifflin, on pain of being burnt if not
moved next tide, and small craft ordered to the New
^Jersey creeks. The Whigs all abandoned the city ;
the Whig press suspended; the last number of the
Pennsylvania Gazette was printed September 10th, and
Bradford's Journal September 9th, and the Tories
were left to welcome their masters.
They were willing and anxious to do this. Mar-
shall's Remembrancer notes as follows : " News of the
day to be depended upon was that the day before
Genl. Howe entered Philadelphia, being the 25th of
last month, a number of Tories, said to amount to
four or five hundred, went out in parade to German-
town, returned and triumphed through the streets all
the night, taking, securing, and sending to prison all
they could find that they looked upon or termed
friends to the Free States of America, amongst whom
was and is the parson, Jacob DuchS." Robert Mor-
ton's diary begins at this time. The first entry is
September 16th, when he went to Reading about the
Quakers detained at Winchester. On the 19th he
writes: "This morning about one o'clock an express
arrived to Congress giving an account of the British
army having got to the Swedes' Ford on the other side
of the Schuylkill, which so much alarmed the gentle-
men of the Congress, the military officers and other
friends to the general cause of American freedom and
independence, that they decamped with the utmost
precipitation and in the greatest confusion, insomuch
that one of the delegates, by name Fulsem, was
obliged in a very fulsome manner to ride off without
a saddle. Thus have we seen the men from whom
we have received, and from whom we still expected,
protection, leave us to fall into the hands of (by their
accounts) a barbarous, cruel, and unrelenting enemy.
. . . Oh, Philadelphia, my native city, thou that hast
heretofore been so remarkable for the preservation of
thy rights, now sufferestthese who were the guardians,
protectors, and defenders of thy youth (the Quakers),
and who contributed their share in raising thee to thy
present state of grandeur and magnificence with a
rapidity not to be paralleled in tlte world, to be
dragged by a licentious mob from their near and dear
connection, etc. Alas, the day must come when the
avenger's hand shall make thee suffer for thy guilt,
and thy rulers shall deplore thy fate. . . . 23d. In
the evening the inhabitants were exceedingly alarmed
by an apprehension of the city being set on fire. The
British troops being within eleven miles of the city
caused the disturbance, and gave rise to those woman-
ish fears which seize upon weak minds at those oc-
casions. Sat up till one o'clock, not to please myself
but other people."
As Morton's diary notes, next entry, an attempt was
even made by the galleys to obstruct the British entry,
they being anchored in the stream and their guns
trained to enfilade the streets. The next day (25th)
the British commander notified the people through a
communication sent to Thomas Willing that they did
not desire to molest any one in person and property,
and all were enjoined to remain peaceably and quietly
in their own dwellings. There was another panic
this day about burning the city. Patrols were formed
and arrests made. Morton notes that he " set up till
one o'clock patrolling the streets for fear of fire.
Two men were taken up who acknowledged their
intentions of doing it."
On the 26th a detachment of the royal army
marched into the city. It was about 11 a.m., says
Morton. The force was Cornwallis' division of Brit-
ish and auxiliaries, about three thousand men. The
foreigners comprised two battalions of Hessian gren-
adiers. They marched in by the Second Street road,
proceeded down Second Street, and, after placing
guards, encamped at the south end of town, on So-
ciety Hill. As they came in, says Morton's diary,
they were accompanied by Joseph Galloway, An-
drew and William Allen, "and others, inhabitants
of the city, to the great relief of the inhabitants, who
have too long suffered the yoke of arbitrary power,
and who testified their approbation of the arrival
of the troops by the loudest acclamations of joy."
The general report, however, is that there was not
much rejoicing, nor many demonstrations. Town's
Evening Post, a Whig paper that turned Tory as
swiftly as Bonnivard's hair turned white, said that
" the fine appearance of the soldiery, the strictness of
the discipline, the politeness of the officers, and the
orderly behavior of the whole body immediately dis-
pelled every apprehension of the inhabitants, kindled
a joy in the countenances of the well affected, and
gave a most convincing refutation of the scandalous
falsehoods which evil and designing men had long
been spreading to terrify the peaceable and inno-
cent." The head of the column was Col. Harcourt
(the same who took Gen. Charles Lee), with his
light dragoons, Cornwallis iu command, attended by
Sir William Erskine, Com. -Gen. Wier and staff, with
a band playing "God Save the King." The bright,
well-clad, imposing troops of the enemy made patriots'
hearts sink, the contrast was so great.
The artillery were quartered in Chestnut Street,
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
351
':": ' ■
between Third and Sixth ; the State-House yard was
made use of for a park ; the Forty -second Highland-
ers were on Chestnut Street below Third ; the Fif-
teenth Regiment were in quarters on Market Street,
about Fifth. Morton, on the day of entry, says they
were quartered at the Bettering House, State-House,
and other places, " and already begin to show the
great destruction of the fences and other things, the
dreadful consequences of .an army, however friendly.
The army have fortified below the
town to prevent the armed vessels
in our river coming to this city ;
likewise have erected a battery at
the Point. This day has put a
period to the existence of Conti-
nental money in this city. Esto
perpetua." The officers at once
quartered themselves upon the
wealthiest people. Mrs. Deborah
Logan says, " Early in the morn-
ing Lord Cornwallis' suit arrived
and took possession of my mother's
house. But my mother was ap-
palled by the numerous train which
took possession of her dwelling,
and shrank from having such in-
mates, for a guard was mounted at
the door and the yard was filled
with soldiers and baggage of every
description ; and I well remember
what we thought of the haughty
looks of Lord Rawdon and the other aid-de-camp
as they traversed the apartments. My mother desired
to speak with Lord Cornwallis, and he attended her
in the front parlor. She told him of her situation,
and how impossible it would be for her to stay in her
own house with such a numerous train as composed
his lordship's establishment. He behaved with great
politeness to her, said he should be sorry to give
trouble, and would have other quarters looked out
for him. They withdrew that very afternoon, and
he was accommodated at Peter Reeves', on Second
Street, near Spruce. We felt glad at the exemption ;
but it did not last long, for directly the quartermas-
ters were engaged in billeting the troops, and we had
to find room for two officers of artillery, and after-
wards, in addition, for two gentlemen, secretaries of
Lord Howe."1
i Westcott, with his untiring industry and research, has made out a
list of the qiinrlers of the British officers, so far as they can be ascer-
tained. Gen. Howe lived firstin Gen. Cadwalader's house, Second Street,
below Spruce; then in Market Street, between Fifth and Sixth, house
of Richard Pen n, afterwards the property of Robert Morris, and occu-
pied by Washington when President. Admiral Lord Howe lived -in
John Lawrence's house, Chestnut Street above Fourth, afterwards
the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank. Gen. Knyphausen, Cndwahider's
house. Cornwallis, Peter Reeves' house, Second Street; afterwards
in David Lewis' house, Second Street above Spruce. Gen. Mathew,
Front Street. Col. Abercrombie (afterwards killed in Egypt), White-
head's hotise, Vino Street, second door west of Second. Maj. Andre, Dr.
Franklin's house, court on Market Street, between Third and Fourth.
Watson describes the personal appearance of some
of the British officers, as follows: "Sir William
Howe was a fine figure, full six feet high and well
proportioned; in appearance not unlike his antago-
nist, Gen. Washington. His manners were graceful
and dignified, and he was much beloved by his offi-
cers for his generosity and affability. Sir Henry
Clinton, his successor in command, was in a good
degree a different man. He was short and fat, with
til "'-&"r
till™
St ■ ■mm
mM
pill -■
I
III
mru'iLiBjH
liE--"'^i
RESIDENCE OF LORD HOWE, AFTERWARDS OF WASHINGTON, MARKET
STREET BETWEEN FIFTH AND SIXTH STREETS.
[From an old drawing in Philadelphia Library.]
a full face and a prominent nose. In his intercourse
he was reserved, and he was not so popular as Howe!.
Lord Cornwallis was short and thick-set; his hair
somewhat gray ; his face well formed and agreeable ;
his manners remarkably easy and affable; much be-
loved by his men. Gen. Knyphausen has much of
the German in his appearance; always very polite
in bowing to respectable citizens on the streets ; not
tall, but slender and straight ; his features sharpened,
martial ; very honorable in his dealings. Col. Tarle-
ton was rather below the middle size, stout, strong,
heavily made; large, muscular legs, and an uncom-
monly active person ; his complexion dark, and his
eyes small, black, and piercing." Bancroft describes
Howe as saturnine and sluggish, a torpid, easy-tem-
Lord Rawdon, at Mrs. Swords', Lodge Alley. Sir Willinm Erskine,
quartermaster-general, William West'B, Front Street. Lieut.-Col. Sir
John Wrottesley, Poole's bridge, Front Street and Pegg's Run. Cul. Sir
Henry Johnston (who married a daughter of David Franks, of Philadel-
phia), at Edward Pennington's, northwest corner Race and Crown Streets.
Maj. David Ferguson, in Union Street. Capt. Gouldney, of the King's
Own (Fourth Regiment), at Mrs. May's, Walnut Street, between Second
and Third. William Cunningham, provost-marshal, coiner of Second
and Walnut Streets. Edward Madden, town major, Arch Street. Capt.
Ri chard Hovenden, Phil adelphiaLight Drngoons (Tory), Mrs. Dncatnre's,
Chestnut, between Front and Second Streets. Capt. Sandford, Bucks
County Light Dragoons (Tory), George Inn, Second and Arch Streets.
Surgeon Robert Boyes, Fifteenth Regiment, Mrs. Brink's, Fourth Str6et.
William Wood, commissary of the Royal Artillery, Widnut Street, be-
tween Second and Third Streets.
352
HISTOEY OP PHILADELPHIA.
pered sensualist, coarse in tastes and venal. Corn-
wallis was the ablest officer, and man too, of all the
command. He distinguished himself by his admin-
istrative abilities as governor-general of India.
The fortifications and batteries spoken of in Mor-
ton's diary were begun on the day of Howe's entry ;
there was a redoubt at where Reed and Swanson
Streets intersect; the old asssociation battery was
manned with three guns ; one was built near Swan-
son and Christian Streets ; one in the upper part of
town, on a wharf above Cohocksink Creek, all manned
with medium twelve-pounders and howitzers. On
the 27th, before these works were completed, Commo-
dore Hazlewood sent up the " Delaware" frigate, 20
guns, the frigate "Montgomery," sloop "Fly," and
many galleys, to engage them. The " Delaware"
anchored within five hundred yards of the lower
battery and opened fire, and the other vessels en-
gaged the other batteries. The fire was returned, but
no execution was done on either side. The " Dela-
ware," badly manoeuvred, was left by the tide and got
aground, whereupon Brig.-Gen. Samuel Cleveland, of
the British army, brought a battery to bear on her,
forced her to strike her flag, and she was taken posses-
sion of by Averne's marine company of grenadiers.
The other vessels were beaten off, one, a schooner,
being run ashore and lost ; and the fleet, thus crippled,
attempted to run past the batteries and up the river,
passing between the Jersey shore and Windmill Is-
land. The Cohocksink battery drove them back in
confusion, and in passing the lower batteries the
" Montgomery" had her masts shot away. A schooner,
crippled in the same way, was run ashore and cap-
tured, and the rest got safe under the guns of Mud
Fort. Town's paper declared they had come up
under the cruel orders to batter the city without
mercy. Light parties, meanwhile, of the Continen-
tals hovered about the city to harass the enemy, and
on the 27th there was a skirmish, with some casual-
ties, at Israel Pemberton's plantation, Gray's Ferry
road, between small parties.
Howe issued his proclamation on September 28th,
from his headquarters at Germantown, guaranteeing
protection and security to all who came in and be-
haved themselves under his proclamation of August
27th. This amnesty was further explained and ex-
tended under another issued four days later. These
promises were fair enough, but the British hardly
waited till they were settled in the city before making
the Philadelphians conscious they were a conquered
people. Plundering was punished, but not pre-
vented. Robert Morton, on September 28th and 29th,
mourns over his mother's house and his uncle Pem-
berton's, broken into and ransacked and robbed. He
complained, was given a guard, and told the men
would be severely dealt with if caught, but that did
not make amends for beds ripped open and wine and
silver stolen. He saw a man hung, heard of four
hundred lashes given to another. His mother and
he interceded for others arrested for robbing him,
but the plundering did not cease. Gen. Howe him-
self took and kept Mary Pemberton's coach and
horses for his own use, and Morton complains that
the quartermaster gave him receipts for hundreds of
pounds of hay where thousands had been taken. Sir
William Erskine, the quartermaster-general, issued
orders to all people who had stores or provisions be-
longing to the rebel army,to report the same, under
pain of being treated with the utmost rigor. Re-
wards were held out to informers revealing the
hiding-places of such stores. Removing goods from
the city without permit was to be severely punished,
and all persons having rum or spirits were required
to report the fact and quantity without delay. A
return was required of all wagons, and the army pro-
posed to hire them by the day at three shillings,
New York currency. Wagons not tendered volun-
tarily at that rate were to be seized. Forage-yards
were established next to Potter's Field and on the
Delaware, where hay and straw were to be brought.
Grain was to be delivered at Willing & Morris' store,
and paid for in gold and silver.
On September 29th the Tenth and Forty-ninth
Regiments were detached, under Lieut.-Col. Stirling,
in order to make a movement against the fort at Bil-
lingsport, which still protected the lower chevaux-de-
frise. The fleet now in the river found this an ob-
stacle to their further progress, and Capt. Hammond,
of the " Roebuck," asked help from the land forces.
The troops were sent to Chester and made prepara-
tions to cross the Delaware. The officers and men
of the galleys, thinking their situation desperate,
were deserting, whole crews at a time. Col. Brad-
ford, of the city militia, had thrown himself into the
Billingsport lines when the British entered Philadel-
phia ; but this garrison was inadequate for such a
work, consisting of only one hundred city militia,
Capt. Massey's company of artillery, one hundred
men, and one hundred and fifty Jersey militia. The
British troops landed, October 1st, near Raccoon
Creek. Gen. Newcome, with a party of Jersey mili-
tia, was sent to meet them, but failed to prevent their
march, and retreated. Thereupon Col. Bradford sent
the garrison to Fort Island, took off all the ammuni-
tion and some of the cannon, spiked the rest, and set
fire to the barracks and bakehouse. Bradford's men
got away safely, and Stirling took possession of Bil-
lingsport, enabling Capt. Hammond to remove the
lower chevaux-de-frise.
Meantime, Washington had been reinforced and
was in motion. After the royal army crossed the
Schuylkill he had taken post between the Perkio-
men and Skippack Creeks, twenty miles to the north
of Philadelphia, with his headquarters near Penni-
becker's (Pennypacker's) mill. He had proposed to
attack the enemy as early as September 28th, and
submitted his plans to a council of officers, but they
decided adversely to the attack, Brig.-Gens. Small-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
353
wood, Wayne, Scott, Potter, and James Irvine voting
in favor of the offensive movement, Maj.-Gens. Sul-
livan, Greene, Stirling, Stephens, Armstrong, and
Brig.-Gens. McDougall, Knox, Muhlenberg, Nash,
and Convay voting to defer the advance until the re-
inforcements from Peekskill came up. It was recom-
mended, however, to move closer to the enemy, so as to
be in a position to attack should opportunity offer.
About October 1st the troops
from the Hudson came up, and
fresh bodies of militia also, and
Washington learned, through
intercepted letters, of the de-
tachment sent against Billings-
port. The forts on the Dela-
ware were part of Washing-
ton's offensive against Howe,
and he thought a battle could
be risked by way of diversion
in their favor. The force sent
against Billingsport was prob-
ably overestimated ; anyhow,
Washington counted that and
the detachment under Corn-
wallis in Philadelphia as re-
ducing Howe's army to a nu-
merical equality with his own.
Upon that view of the case he
prepared to attack Howe at
Germantown, and, if possible,
to surprise him.
The village of Germantown
then consisted of a single street
of houses about two miles long,
built on both sides of a public
road, which ascended, over
rolling hills, from Second St.
to Chestnut Hill, there branch-
ing in one direction towards
Reading, in the other towards
Bethlehem. The street of the
town ran northwest and south-
east; the houses were chiefly
stone hamlets, low, substantial ,
with steep roofs and project-
ing eaves ; they stood detached
from one another, but close to
the highway, each with its in-
closure, gardens, fences, pa-
lings or walls around it, and
in the rear cultivated orchards
and fields. From Chestnut
Hill to Naglee's Hill, the northern and southern ex-
tremities of the German settlement and of the field of
action, the distance along the Skippack road (for so
the street was called) is between two and three miles.
Southeast of Naglee's Hill, and under it, is Stenton,
the house built by James Logan, where Howe had his
headquarters at this time. Between the Skippack
23
road and the Schuylkill, parallel to both in effect,
crossing the Wissahickon at its mouth, cutting the
Reading road at Barren Hill, and nearing the Ger-
mantown road as the two approached the city, was the
Manatawny, or Ridge road, traversing, a rough, wild
country, with mills near it along its whole length.
Nearly parallel to the Skippack road, but diverging
from it and from each other as they extended north-
ward, were the old York road and the Limekiln
road, the latter, at Lukens' mill, turning southwest and
cutting the Skippack road at right angles, and under
the name of the Church Lane, at the German Re-
formed Church in Germantown, the former passing to
the east of Naglee's Hill and Stenton. Fisher's Lane,
running east from the summit of Naglee's Hill, joined
354
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the Sikppack to the old York road. The Church
Lane, west of the Skippack, becomes the School-
House Lane, and extends to the Ridge road and the
Schuylkill. A quarter of a mile southeast of this
Church Lane, at the market-house, Shoemaker's Lane
cuts the Skippack road at right angles; the eastern
branch runs to the old York road, the western, In-
dian Queen Lane, to the Ridge road. A quarter of a
mile west of Church and School-House Lanes another
lane cuts the Skippack road once more at right an-
gles, the eastern section called the Bristol, or Meeting-
House road, the western the Rittenhouse, or Paper-
Mill road. Northwest of this road, on the right, or
east side of the Skippack road, stood the Mennonite
meeting-house; northward of it again, on the same
side of the main road, was Chew's house, a fine, large
stone mansion, with extensive outbuildings; beyond
it, the Lutheran Church, then Beggarstown, Mount
Pleasant, Mount Airy, Cresheim Creek, and so on to
Chestnut Hill.
Such, in brief, is the general topography of Ger-
mantown as it was in October, 1777. On the west of
the village the land rolled away to the high bluffs
of the Wissahickon at its confluence with the Schuyl-
kill, giving protection to Howe's left wing. The
ground on the east, cut up by the Wingohocken and
other streams running into the Delaware, defended
his right wing from attack. The British army, in
fact, lay encamped in order of battle on the general
line of the School-House and Church Lanes, at right
angles to the Skippack road, its centre resting on that
road at the market-house, its left at Robeson's house
and behind the Wissahickon where the Ridge road
crosses it, its right at Lukens' mill and behind Kel-
ley's hill. The position was a strong one, and it
covered all the approaches to Philadelphia by the
peninsula between the Delaware and the Schuylkill.
The left wing, uader Lieut.-Gen. Knyphausen, ex-
tended to the Schuylkill ; it comprised the Third
Brigade, Maj.-Gen. Grey, the Fourth, Brig. -Gen.
Agnew (seven British battalions in all), three Hes-
sian battalions under Maj.-Gen. Vou Stirn, and the
mounted and dismounted chasseurs, under Col. Von
Wurmb. The chasseurs were in front and on the
flank, and the extreme left was guarded by a small
redoubt on the bluff at the debouchure of the Wissa-
hickon, where School-House Lane touches the Ridge
road. Upon the right of Knyphausen, Brig.-Gen.
Mathew, with six British battalions and two squad-
rons of dragoons, held the line; upon his right, and
crossing the Skippack road, was Maj.-Gen. Grant
with the corps of guards, extending to the woods
near Lukens' mill. The flank of this wing was cov-
ered by the first battalion of light infantry encamped
upon the Limekiln road, the extreme right being held
by a provincial corps, the Queen's Rangers, afterwards
commanded by Lieut. Simcoe and famous for partisan
service. They were thrown out towards Branchtown,
on the York road. The front, along the Skippack
road, was held by the Fortieth Regiment, Col. Mus-
grave, encamped in the field opposite Chew's house,
on the west of the main road ; the advance was the
Second Battalion of light infantry, stationed, with a
battery of artillery, on the east of the main road, at
Mount Pleasant, while there was an outlying picket,
with two six-pounders, at Allen's house, Mount Airy.
Washington, on September 29th, marched from
Pennypacker's mills down to the Skippack, on the 2d,
to Worcester township. Thomas Paine, in his letter
to Franklin, says, "The army had moved about three
miles lower down that morning. The next day they
made a movement about the same distance to the
twenty-first milestone on the Skippack road. Head-
quarters at J. Wince's (John Wentz's). On the 3d
of October, in the morning, they began to fortify the
camp as a deception, and about nine at night marched
for Germantown.'' There was no attempt to keep the
movement secret, — it would have been impossible to
conceal the movement of ten thousand men, and it
was generally known. Parson Muhlenberg heard of
it on the 3d. On the 2d an officer of the light in-
fantry in the British advance wrote that " Mr. Wash-
ington, by the accounts of some who came in to-day,
is eighteen miles distant, with his main body. They
also say he intends to move near us to try the event
of another battle." But the part which was sought
to be concealed was the attack in force that morning
of the 4th ; and that concealment was successfully
accomplished. To bring it about, Washington had
sent scouting parties to beat up the enemy's pickets
three or four nights in succession; he had pretended
to fortify his camp at Worcester township, and he
marched fourteen miles after nine o'clock at night,
so that he was at daybreak on the 4th only four miles
away from the light infantry officer, instead of eigh-
teen miles. The object was to surprise Howe, and
that object was successfully secured. The strategy
was good, — the battle was lost by bad tactics on the
field.
Washington prepared his order of battle upon the
basis of his accurate information of the enemy's posi-
tion. The fault of it was, it was too elaborate. The
country was rough and broken ; the converging lines
were six or seven miles apart; the only communica-
tion was by couriers; yet all the divisions were ex-
pected to co-operate, to attack simultaneously, to be
within supporting distances of each other at critical
stages of the battle, and each division was to accom-
plish something which was to be necessary to the suc-
cess of each of the other divisions. " Each column
was to make its dispositions so as to get within two
miles of the enemy's pickets by two o'clock, there
halt till four, and attack the pickets precisely at five
o'clock, with charge-bayonets and without firing, and
the column to move to the'attack as soon as possible."
Battles are not fought by any such clock-work system
nowadays, even with the telegraph; the railroad, and
a perfected signal service.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
357
one marched his own pace. The enemy kept a civil
distance behind, sending every now and then a shot
after us and receiving the same from us. . . . The
men appeared to me to be only sensible of a disap-
pointment, not a defeat; and to be more displeased
at their retreating from Germantown than anxious to
get to their rendezvous."
Exactly when, or with whom, the retreat began, has
not been ascertained. There are conflicting state-
ments in the several accounts of the battle which
cannot be reconciled. Sullivan admits that his men
were nearly out of ammunition ; there is a report
(Graydon gives us authority for it) that Reed and
Cadwalader found Conway taking shelter in a barn ;
Sullivan avers that Wayne by withdrawing un-
covered and exposed his left to the enemy on the
Germantown road. Stephen was cashiered for his con-
duct in the fight, and it is said that Greene fell under
the commander-in-chief's displeasure; yet Greene's
steady retreat and stubborn resistance enabled the
rest of the army to withdraw safely. Sullivan must
have been pressed hard, since Nash and his brigade,
sent to that general's relief, were forced to the front.
The firing at Chew's house palpably did not begin
until Wayne and Sullivan had passed it; then a part
of Sullivan's men turned to engage it in front until
Maxwell's brigade relieved them, while Woodford's
brigade, of Stephen's division, attacked the house
without orders.
The retreat was slow ; it was made general by Wash-
ington's orders, who sent his couriers to call off every
division. And all the cannon were brought away,
though none of the guns from which the enemy had
been driven were carried off. The pursuit was not
eager ; the disordered ranks were restored in a great
measure in the presence of the enemy, who ceased to
follow at all when White Marsh Church was reached.
The army retired behind the Perkiomen, and Wash-
ington returned that night to Pennypacker's mill.1
i So much has been written about the battle of Germantown that it is
difficult to collate a distinct and intelligible account of the action, the
more so that many of the earlier narratives had some personal or par-
tisan object to serve, and by which they are more or less biased. The
authorities most consulted in the above description of the contest have
been Bancroft, Washington Irving, William B. Reed, Westcott (who is
as usual very full) and Dr. A. C. Lambdin's address on the one hun-
dredth anniversary of the battle (Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. i. No. 4),
which is very complete, aud on the whole very satisfactory. Errors Beem
to have crept into all accounts, however; "Westcott unaccountably rep-
resents the Tenth British Regiment aa being with the Fortieth, in sup-
porting the light infantry at Mount Pleasant, although he tells us, in
the same chapter, that this regiment had been sent to Billingsport with
the Forty-second to attack the fort there. Irving and Bancroft, and
all the earlier accounts, seem to be in error either >w to time or to distance,
and if these things are not carefully balanced, mistakes cannot be es-
caped from. Wayne and Sullivan are wrong about the distance the
eDemy were pursued, and Wayne says the battle lasted till ten o'clock,
whereas Armstrong, two miles away, mentions that he was recalled at
nine. Wayne and Sullivan both claim to have pursued the enemy from
one and a half to three miles. From Allen's house, the station of the
outside picket, to Fisher's Lane is only two miles and a half, and no
Americans went to Fisher's Lane or near it. The order of battle and
the accounts of the fight must be studied together, in order to separate
fact from fiction.
The losses in this battle were not excessive, when
we consider the extent and the time of the engage-
ment. The British lost Brevet Brig.-Gen. James
Agnew (said to have been shot by bushwhackers in
"The divisions of Sullivan and Wayne to form the right wing and
attack the enemy's left, they are to march above [i.e., eHst of] Monitony
[Manatawny] Road. The divisions of Greene and Stephen to form the
left wing and attack the enemy's right, they are to march down the Ship-
pack road. Gen. Conway to march in front of the troopB that compose
the right wing and file off to attack the enemy's left. Gen. McDougall
to march in front of the troops that compose the left wing, and file ofT
to attack the enemy's right flank." It is obvious that these directions
were not obeyed. From Chestnut Hill, at any rate, Sullivan marched
in the bed of the Skippack road, Greene far to the left of it. Sullivan
did not debouch to the right of the main road until the light infantry
were met, and then Wayne's brigade was ou the left of the road. It is
possible that Greene mistook the way and followed the White Marsh
into the Limekiln road, but hardly probable. The order continues:
"Gen. Nash and Gen. Maxwell's brigades to form the corps de reservet
and to be commanded by Maj.-Gen. Lord Stirling. The corpe de reserve
to pass above [i.e., east of] the Skippack road, Gen. Armstrong to pass down
the Ridge road and pass by Liverin's tavern and take guides to cross Wea-
sahochen Creek above the head of John Van Deering's mill-dam so as to fall
above Joseph Warner's neio house.
"Small wood and Forman to pass down the road by a mill into the
White Marsh road at the Sandy Run, thence to White Marsh Church;
where take the left hand road which leads to Jenkin's tavern in the Old
York Road below Armitage's beyond the seven mile stone, half a mU0
from which a road turns off short to the right hand, fenced on both sides, which
leads through the enemifs encampment to Germantown market-house.
" Gen. McDougall to attack the right wing of the enemy in fiauk and
rear. Gen. Conway to attack the enemy's left flank, and Gen. Arm-
strong to attack their left wing in flank and rear.
" The militia who are to act on the flanks not to have cannon. .
" Every officer and soldier to have a piece of white paper on his hat.
Thepiguets will be left at Van Deering's mill to be taken off by Gen. Arm-
strong, one at Allen's house on Mount Airy by Gen. Sullivan, one at Lukem*
mill by Gen. Greene."
The italicized directions were not obeyed. The reserve did not pass
above but west of the Skippack road ; it gave no support to Greene, but
left one brigade at the Chew house and with the other aided Sullivan.
Armstrong did not leave the Ridge road and crossed the WisBahickon
at the point indicated ; he kept on down to the mill, and did not cross
at all. Besides, instead of leaving his cannon behind, he took two with
him and left one, which Col. Jehu Eyre afterwards brought off.
Smallwood, obeying his orders, would have taken the church road
across to the old Tork road, descended that to Shoemaker's Lane, fol-
lowing which he would have found himself on the Germantown road,
at the market-house, in the rear of Grant, after having fought the
Queen's Own rangers. If the dispositions had been carried out {doubt-
less they were but the skeleton of abundant oral instructions) the order
of battle would have been as follows: Greene, opening on the right,
after driving in the picket at Lukens' mill (the work set to McDougall
to do) would have thrown his two divisions upon the front of Grant and
Mathews, McDougall on their flank, Smallwood working round to cut
off their retreat in the rear; Sullivan, after driving in the picket at
Mount Airy, was to throw himself upon the fronts of Grey and Agnew,
while Conway engaged the Hessians in front, and Armstrong, driving
the chaBseurs before him, struck the Hessians on their left flank and
rear. Such an attack, as we now know, made suddenly, would have de-
feated Howe.
But such an attack was not possible ; first, because the battalions of
light infantry were advanced both in the path of Greene and Sullivan,
and did not give at once; second, because the Fortieth Regiment stood
in the way of Sullivan and Wayne, and finally, by taking possession of
Chew's house, became an insuperable obstacle.
Sullivan's account, in his letter to Weare, Beems now to become in-
telligible. After speaking of the rout of the Second Battalion of light
infantry, he says, "They, however, made a stand at every fence, wall,
and ditch they passed, which were numerous. We were compelled to
remove every fence as we passed, which delayed ub much in pursuit.
We were soon after met by the left wing of the British army, when a
severe conflict ensued; but, our men being ordered to march up with
shouldered arms, they obeyed without hesitation, and the enemy retired.
358
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Germantown ; the claim was made for one Hans P.
Boyer), Lieut-Col. Bird, and Ensign Frederick,
grandson of ex-King Theodore, of Corsica. Agnew's
body was buried in the Germantown lower cemetery,
... At Chew's house, a mile find a half from where the attack began,
Wayne's division came abreast with mine, and passed Chew's house, while
mine were advancing on the other side the main road.
"Though the enemy were defeated, yet they took advantage of overy
yard, house, and hedge in their retreat, which caused an incessant fire
through the whole pursuit. At litis time, which was near an hour and a
quarter after the attack began. Gen. Stephen's division fell in with Wayne's
on our left, and soon after, the firing from Gen. Greene's was heard still
farther to the left. The left wing of our army was delayed much by Gen.
Greene being obliged to countermarch one of his divisions before he could
begin the attack, as he found Ote enemy were in a situation very different
from what we had been before told. [Ie., Greene was instructed he would
find the First Battalion light infantry at Lukens' mill ; they were in
fact on the Limekiln road in advance of Button's woods. It was neces-
sary to change the order of march to dislodge them, and hence, perhaps,
the disaster to Mathews, and the failure of Loth HcDougall and Stephen
to take part in Greene's attack.]
"The enemy (in Chew's house)," continues Sullivan," defended them-
selves with gi eat bravery, and annoyed our troops much by their fire.
This, unfortunately, caused many of our troops to halt, and brought back
Gen. Wayne's division, who had advanced far beyond the house, as they
were apprehensive lest the firing proceeded from the enemy's having
defeated my division on the right. This totally uncovered theleftflank
of my division, which was still advancing against t lie enemy's left. The
firiug of Gen. Greene's division was very heavy for more than a quarter
of an hour, but then decreased, and seemed to draw farther from
us. . . .
" My division, with a regiment of North Carolinians, commanded by
Col. Armstrong, and assisted by part of Conway's brigade, having driven
tbe enemy a mile and a half below Chew 'a house [not half a mile, in
fact], and finding themselves unsupported by any other troops, their
cartridges all expended, the force of the enemy on the right collecting
to the left to oppose them, being abirmed by the firing at Chew's home
bo far in the rear, and by the cry of a light-horseman on the right, that
the euemy had got round us, and at the same time discovering so mo
troops flying ou our right [Conway's?], retired with as much precipita-
tion as they had before advanced, against every effort of their officers to
rally them. "When the retreat took place, they had been engaged near
three hours. . . ."
Wayne's account is, in brief, " The fog, together with the smoke oc-
casioned by our cannon and musketry, made it almost dark as night.
Our people, mistaking one another for the enemy, frequently exchanged
shots before they discoveied iheir error. We had now pushed the enemy
near three miles, and were in possession of their ivhule encampment,
when a large body of troops were advancing on our left flank, which,
being taken for the enemy, our men fell hack, in defiance of every exer-
tion of the officers to the contrary: and, after retreating about two
miles, they were discovered to be our own people, who were originally
intended to attack the right wing." Wayne also wrote to Gen. Gates
that "the enemy were broke, dispersed, and flying in all quarters; we
were in possession of their whole encampment, together with their ar-
tillery park, etc. A wind-mill attack was made on a hou.se into which
six light companies had thrown themselves to nvoirl our bayonets ; this
gave time to the enemy to rally ; our troops were deceived by tliis at-
tack, faking it for something formidable, they fell back to as-u'm in what
they deemed a serious matter. The enemy finding themselves no fur-
ther pursued, and believing it to be a retreat, followed. Confusion en-
sued, and we ran away from the anus of victory ready to receive uf."
Gordon's history says, "Tbe battle, by Gen. Knox's watch, held two
hours and forty minutes." In other words, it was over before nine
o'clock, though Wayue said it lasted till ten. Wayne was equally mis-
taken in spying that Greene's command included " two-thirds at least"
of the army. Sullivan's column had about an many Continentals us
Greene's, and the Pennsylvania, militia under Armstrong outntimljered
those under Smallwood. Bancroft condemns Greene tor foiling to be up
in time, from some unexplained cause, — "Greene's letter to Marchant
gives no explanation," — and variously assigns Sullivan's explanation;
Lacy's, that the command mistook their way; Macdoilgall's, the great
distance; lleth's, mismanagement; Walter Stewart's, dark night and
bad roads, as the cause for Greene's having fallen under thecounnander-
but has no monument over it. His grandchildren
visited the spot some forty years ago, but it remains
unmarked. The total number of British casualties
were 70 killed, 450 wounded, 14 missing. By the
official dispatches, of British and Hessians, 2 lieu-
tenant-colonels, 2 ensigns, 7 sergeants, 1 drummer,
58 rank and file killed; 1 lieutenant-colonel, 6 cap-
tains, 13 lieutenants, 10 ensigns, 24 sergeants, 1 drum-
mer, 395 rank and file wounded ; 1 captain, 13 rank
and file missing.1
The Americans lost Brig. Francis Nash, of North
Carolina, Col. Boyd, Maj. Sherburne, Maj. White,
and Maj. Irvine. The total loss was: Continental
officers killed, 25; wounded, 102; missing, 102;
militia officers, 3 killed, 4 wounded; rank and file
killed, 152; wounded, 521; prisoners, 54 officers, 346
men. Nash (from whom Nashville gets its name)
was buried in the Mennonist graveyard at Culps-
town, twenty-six miles from Philadelphia, with Col.
Boyd and Maj. White. A monument was erected to
their memory in 1844, by citizens of Germantown
and Norristown.
The Americans were mortified at the result of the
battle of Germantown; yet it encouraged them. In
Europe it caused a sensation, since no one dreamed
of an American army of equal numbers taking the
offensive against British regulars. In his report to
Congress on the 7th, Washington said that our troops
retreated when victory was declaring itself in their
favor. "The tumult, disorder, and even despair,
in-chief *s frown. But it is denied that Washington was dissatisfied
with Greene at all, and this, too, on the authority of Joseph Reed, who
was not Greene's friend. The attack of Greene was not heard, says
Washington, until three-fourths of an hour after the battle commenced
at Mount Airy. This was probably Knox's timing. Walter Stewart,
who was with Greene, says fifteen minutes; Chief Justice Marshall, who
was in Woodford's brigade of Stephens', says half an hour; Pickering
says just as the reserve advanced on Chew's house.
There is evidence of fighting on the Limekiln road, in frout of Bat-
ton's woods; on Shoemaker's Lane, at the mill ou the Wlugohocking;
and that Sullivan's command advanced to within a short distance of
School-House Lane, and to the Widow Mackinett's Green Tree Tavern.
Mathews and Stewart got very near to the market-bouse, in the rear of
Grant.
Knox was the officer by whose advice the reserve was halted and
Chew's house summoned, and then besieged it. The loss of time here,
and the halting of men who should have been hurrying on to the front,
shows how deficient Washington's officers were in military training.
Two companies of riflemen with a field-piece would have sufficed to
mask the place and render its occupants harmless. Instead of that it
occupied two brigades and neutralized two or three more. Batteries
were brought up against it, councils of war held about it, and it was
summoned, ossaulted, attacked in front and rear with fire and ball,
openly and by strategy. Before any impression could be made on it the
battle was lust.
1 The following is the British tale of troops engaged : Second Light
Infantry and Fortieth Regiment, sustaining centre pickets; Forty-
fourth and Seventeenth, detached to assist Fortieth in Chew's house;
Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth, Thirty third, Forty-sixth, and Sixty-
fourth, engaged wiih Greene, Stephen, and Mathews; First Light In-
fantry, Fourth, Filth, Fifteenth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-ninth, and Fifty-
fifth pursued Wayne and Sullivan after the panic; Hessian Jagers held
Armstrong in check ; the Seventeenth, Thirty-third, Forty -fourth, Forty-
sixth and Sixty-fourth (Grey and Agnew) advanced towards Chestnut
Hill ; Du Corps, Donop, and battaliou of Hessian grenadiers, on the left,
I were not iu action, but held as a reserve.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
359
which it seems had taken place in the British army,
were scarcely to be paralleled ; and it is said so
strongly did the idea of a retreat prevail that Chester
was fixed as a place of rendezvous. I can discover
no other cause for not improving this happy oppor-
tunity than the extreme haziness of the weather."
There was a panic in the city. " The Tories were in
the utmost distress, and moving out of the city ; and
our friends confined in the new jail made it ring with
shouts of joy." This is what Capt. Heth wrote to
his friends in Virginia. Deborah Logan, who re-
mained in the city, says that the day was passed by
the Philadelphians in great anxiety. " We could
hear the firing, and knew of the engagement, but
were uninformed of the event. Towards evening
many wagons full of the wounded arrived in the city,
whose groans and sufferings were enough to move
the most inhuman heart to pity. The American
prisoners were carried to the State-House lobbies,
and had of course to wait until the British surgeons
had dressed their own men ; but in a very short time
the streets were filled with the women of the city
carrying up every kind of refreshments which they
might be supposed to want, with lint and linen and
lights in abundance for their accommodation. A
British officer stopped one of these women in my
hearing, and not ill-naturedly, but laughingly, re-
proved her for so amply supplying the rebels, whilst
nothing was carried to the English hospitals. ' Oh,
sir,' replied she, ' it is in your power fully to provide
for them; but we cannot see our poor countrymen
suffer, and not do something for them.' They were
not denied that poor consolation."
Every convenient place was occupied as a hospital ;
the Pennsylvania Hospital and Bettering House were
already in use; the First Presbyterian Church and
the Second, having lost their pastors, who had fled,
were taken for the wounded ; Cornman's sugar refinery,
and Zion and St. Michael's Lutheran Churches were
also taken, as well as the "play-house." Private
houses were also turned into hospitals, and Morton,
the diarist, who was fond of going about and seeing
the surgeons amputate limbs, confesses, Tory as he
was, that the American wounded prisoners were not
as well taken care of as they should be.
Three days after the battle of Germantown a depu-
tation of Quakers, consisting of Nicholas Wain,
Samuel Emlen, Joshua Morris, James Thornton,
William Brown, and Warner Mifflin, came out of
Philadelphia and went through the British to the
American camp. They had an errand to Washington
and to Howe, — to both a testimony on the ungodliness
of war; to Washington, besides, in defense of the
society in general and the Friends imprisoned in
Virginia in particular. Armstrong, in a letter to
President Wharton, dated October 8th, says, " We
lost a great part of yesterday with a deputation of
Quakers from their Yearly Meeting — Wall, Emlen,
Joshua Morris and two others, declaring their own
and the innocence of their Body, desiring prejudices
ag"' them might be removed as a society, seeking in
the world only peace, truth, and righteousness, with
equal love to all men, &c. And asking, in a dark
manner, his aid for their brethring in exile, &c. The
General was fir sending them to you and to Congress
who had banished their friends ; they then retracted
that part of their embassy respecting the banished
friends, said that rather lay with their Committee of
Sufferings. The General gave them their dinner and
ordered them only to do penance a few days at Pott's-
grove, until their beards are grown, for which they
seemed very thankful."
The Tories in Philadelphia were less humble.
James Humphreys revived the publication of the
Pennsylvania Ledger, with the royal arms for a head-
ing. Dr. Drewitt, whom the Whigs had imprisoned,
reopened his drug-store ; Joseph Stansbury opened
a china shop on Front Street, between Market and
Chestnut, and Nicholas Brooks, who had been for two
years confined in Lancaster, in a room comfortably
adjoining one powder magazine and under another,
for his complicity with Dr. Kearsley's plots, escaped
and showed himself in Philadelphia.
Howe set a strong night-watch to keep order in the
city, one hundred and twenty all told, eighty-three
in the city, ten to Southwark, and ten in the North-
ern Liberties, in addition to the seventeen ancient
watchmen. A sort of police commission, to select
the men and the superintendents to put over them,
was appointed by Howe. George Roberts, James
Reynolds, James Sparks, Joseph Stansbury for the
city ; John Hart, Southwark ; Francis Jeyes, North-
ern Liberties; the city wardens being added to the
commission. As money was scarce, loyal citizeos were
called on for subscriptions (not exceeding ten pounds
each) to a loan, and James Delaplaine was ap-
pointed constable of the watch, and Edward Mad-
den town-major. The attempt was made at once to
raise a corps of loyalist soldiers in the city. This
was one of Howe's vain illusions, which his brother,
Lord Howe, shared with him, that the strong loyal
sentiment in the country could be moulded into an
army strong enough to relieve the home government
of the great strain put upon it by foreign enlistments.
The unnatural rebellion would soon be suppressed,
he proclaimed, and to hasten that desirable event he
offered to the inhabitants an opportunity to "co-
operate in relieving themselves from the miseries at-
tendant on tyranny and anarchy, and in restoring
peace and good order with just and lawful authority."
Recruits in the provincial corps for two years or the
war were promised fifty acres of land, every non-com-
missioned officer two hundred acres. Deserters from
the royal army coming in before Dec. 1, 1777, were
offered a free pardon ; those continuing in arms were
assured they would receive no mercy. A liberal at-
tempt was made to get a crew also for the captured
frigate, " Delaware." In fact, Howe wanted men,
360
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
and he had just written home for five thousand re-
inforcements, "at the least."
The loyalists, however, did not respond cordially.
Joseph Galloway, who was with Howe at this time,
and afterwards criticized his methods bitterly and
malignantly, without suggesting better ones, testified
before Parliament that there were, within the lines in
Philadelphia, when Howe occupied it, four thousand
four hundred and eighty-one males capable of bear-
ing arms; one-fourth Quakers, — -leaving three thou-
sand, and of these Howe got only nine hundred and
seventy-four men in all, chiefly deserters, because,
as Galloway says, he selected the " most unpopular
men to recruit." Galloway also showed that during
Howe's occupancy two thousand three hundred de-
serters from the Continental army came in and were
registered and qualified, besides seven hundred or
eight hundred who never reported. Of this number,
he says that one-half were Irish, one-fourth Scotch or
English, one-fourth native Americans. The excep-
tionally unpopular persons of whom Galloway speaks
were people whom he did not like — William Allen,
James Chalmers, commander of the " Maryland Loy-
alists," Col. Clifton, commander of " the battalion of
faithful Catholics" — all respectable men and who had
had great influence. Galloway himself proposed to
raise a regiment, but only got warrant for one troop
of light-horse of eighty men, in a battalion of three
troops, who, all told, under Lieut. Hovender's com-
mand, did not outnumber one hundred and thirty-two
men. Galloway was very angry, and abused Sir Wil-
liam roundly about pretty much everything. Howe,
in return, did not give the renegade lawyer a very
good character. He said he had expected great things
of a man in Galloway's position and was therefore
very liberal to him, gave him two hundred pounds a
year at the start, made him police magistrate of Phila-
delphia with a salary of three hundred pounds a year,
and six shillings per diem for his clerk, and also made
him superintendent of the port, with twenty shillings
per diem, — in all seven hundred and seventy pounds
a year. " Had his popularity or personal influence
in Pennsylvania been as great as he pretended it was,
I should not have thought this money ill-bestowed,"
said Howe. "I at first paid attention to his opinions,
and relied upon him for procuring me secret intelli-
gence ; but I afterwards found that my confidence was
misplaced ... in future I considered Mr. Galloway
a nugatory informer." Allen never succeeded in
getting together a strong corps, and the best as well
as the most of the loyalist recruits went into the
Queen's Rangers, Simcoe's corps.
Howe's position in Philadelphia was one capable
of exciting the liveliest anxieties of a prudent com-
mander-in-chief. On the north was Washington's
main army, which had just shown itself bold enough
and strong enough to attack him in his camp ; south
were the forts, galleys, chevaux-de-frise, and other ob-
structions, shutting him out from the navigation of
the Delaware; the New Jersey militia patrolled all
the east bank of the Delaware; on the west of the
Schuylkill the country was held and guarded by the
Pennsylvania militia under Gen. Potter. The cap-
ture of Billingsport had by no means opened the
river. There were chevaux-de-frise and sunken ships
at Fort Mercer and Red Bank, and behind these were
fire-ships, galleys, and floating-batteries.
In consequence of these things the commissariat of
the army in Philadelphia was in a very poor condi-
tion, while the people of the city were greatly dis-
tressed for proper food. The militia prevented the
farmers, who were willing to barter their goods for
British gold, from taking in the products of their
farms and dairies. Flour, salt, coffee, and vegetables
were scarce and high, and butcher's meat also. Wat-
son notes that the drove of cows killed in the battle of
Germantown sold on the field for fifty cents a pound
for beef. Commerce was totally destroyed, and Howe
found himself in a state of siege. Paper money was
valueless, those without hard money could not buy
anything at all, there was privation and famine
among the poor, and the scarcity of food increased
every day as the weather grew colder. Rev. Dr.
Muhlenberg, under date of October 22d, hears that
there is no more fire-wood in the city; people are be-
ginning to tear down fences and old houses for fuel,
and flour was scarce at six pound per hundred.
It was necessary to resort to vigorous measures to
restore communications. Howe at once built a strong
chain of fortifications across the peninsula on the lines
marked out by Putnam for the American defenses
prior to the battle of Trenton, and then perhaps
begun, but never completed. A description of this
network of redoubts will be found in the chapter on
topography. They extended in an irregular line from
river to river, from the debouch of Cohocksink Creek
to the summit of Fairmount, with abatis, stockades,
and small batteries in between, and may be considered
a very strong line of defense for an army. To have
forced them successfully the assailing party must have
had fully double the number of the defendants. This
chain of works was supported by batteries at vulner-
able or important points within the line, and by other
engineering devices, such as ditches, dams, and abatis.
The floating bridge over the Schuylkill was replaced
by another, which was well defended by a tete dupont
and by flanking batteries.
As soon as these lines were defensible Gen. Howe
withdrew his army from Germantown, and took post
in the city, thus contracting his defenses and setting
free a large force with which to operate against
the American fortifications and obstructions. This
" change of base" was made on October 19th. The new
British camp was still on the north side of the city ;
the Hessian grenadiers were bivouacked between
Fifth and Seventh, Callowhill and Noble Streets, in
the present city nomenclature ; west of them was the
camp of the Fourth, Fortieth, and Fifty-seventh
A PLAN
OF THE
City and Environs of Philadelphia,
with THE
WORKS AND ENCAMPMENTS OF HIS MAJESTY'S FORCES,
Under the Command of Lieutenant- General Sir WILLIAM HOWE, KB.
REFERENCES TO THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
A Oourt-House and Market; here the Congress Is held.
B B Quakers* MeetingHous**.
C The Goal.
D The Workhouse.
E Christ Church.
7 Anabaptist Meeting.
O New Presbyterian Meeting.
H H Barracks.
I German Lutheran Church.
X College and Academy.
L State-House.
M Quakers' School- House.
JT Roman Catholic Church.
O Quakers* Almshouse.
P St. Paul's Church.
Q City's Almshouse.
B St. Peter's Church.
8 Swedes' Church,
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sffelirf; 8T7
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
361
British grenadiers, and the fusiliers ; eight regiments
were upon Bush Hill ; a body of Hessians were en-
camped where they could support the redoubt at the
Upper Ferry ; the jagers, infantry, and dragoons were
on a hill near Twenty-third Street, and the present
bed of the Reading Railroad ; infantry were stationed
where the Ridge road intersects Thirteenth Street,
and in Eighth Street near Green ; three regiments and
the dragoons were posted hard by a pond on Race and
Vine Streets, between Ninth and Twelfth ; the Seventy-
first guarded the redoubt at the Middle Ferry, and
the Queen's Rangers, now under Simcoe, held Re-
doubt No. 1, at Kensington, patrolling the roads
above.
The American commander-in-chief knew the im-
portance of holding the forts on the Delaware, and
preventing Admiral Howe from joining forces with
his brother. He withdrew the New Jersey militia
from the fort at Red Bank, which was now named
Fort Mercer, and gave the defense of it to two regi-
ments of Varnum's Rhode Island brigade, under the
command of Cols. Christopher Greene and Israel
Angell, who were instructed to hold the post to the
last extremity, as the key to the Delaware and the
Washington, anxious for the defense of Mud Fort,
as well as Fort Mercer, ordered Lieut.-Col. Simms,
with the Sixth Virginia Regiment, to reinforce it.
He crossed the Delaware below Bristol, and reaching
Mborestown at eight o'clock p.m., heard that a body
of the enemy was crossing at Cooper's Ferry. He
reconnoitered the ferry himself with some dragoons
and found no enemy, only a detachment of American
militia, who were asleep. They were aroused and
put on the qui vive. Simms then marched on to Red
Bank and offered to remain in the fort and aid Greene
in Donop's impending attack, now known ; but Col.
Greene, thinking it better for Simms to obey orders,
sent him across the river to Mud Fort at daybreak.
Meantime the Hessians were approaching by way of
Haddonfield. At Timber Creek the bridge had been
taken up, compelling them to make a ditow of four
miles. The advance was slow, but in the afternoon
of the 22d the Americans saw the front of the enemy's
columns emerging from the woods on the north and
on the east of the fort.
Greene determined to husband his resources. His
force was less than a sixth of the enemy's ; his fort
had but fourteen cannon mounted, and the outworks
"MUD ISLAND" IN 1777, BEFORE THE BRITISH ATTACK.
[From an old draTviDg made by Colonel Downroan, of the British Army.]
pivot on which the success of the campaign depended.
The French engineer, Mauduit Du Plessis, accom-
panied Greene. The lieutenant-colonels were Shaw
and Olney, the majors, Thayer and Ward, and the
surgeon, Dr. Peter Turner. Some of the privates
were negroes. The fort was constructed on too lib-
eral a scale for the garrison which could be spared for
it, which did not exceed three hundred and fifty men,
and Greene and Du Plessis set to work at once to con-
tract the area of the outworks by a rampart, ditch,
and strong abatis, which bisected them, reduced their
size one-half, and doubled their power of resistance.
It was necessary for the British to reduce Red Bank
before their vessels could get up the river to attack
Fort Island. A combined naval and military attack
upon the fort was therefore planned, and the admiral
sent up a squadron of flatboats from below, under
command of Capt. Clayton, which passed the forts,
chevaux-de-frise, and gun-boats undiscovered and un-
disturbed. In these boats, Gen. Howe sent Col. Count
Donop across the river to Cooper's Point, with the
regiment of Myrbach, the infantry, chasseurs, and
three battalions of Hessian grenadiers, — two thousand
five hundred men.
were unfinished ; but the galleys were anchored so as
to protect the flanks of the fort in part, both above
and below. Greene determined to resist at the out-
works, but to reserve his main stand for the interior
fort, in the southern angle of the works. The enemy
halted at half cannon range, and sent an officer, with
a flag, and a drummer to summon the garrison. The
officer called a parley ; Lieut.-Col. Olney went out to
meet him, and was told that the King of England
commanded his rebellious subjects to lay down their
arms ; if they resisted, they were to expect no quar-
ter. Olney replied, " We shall neither ask quarter
nor expect it, and we will defend the fort to the last
extremity.'' The Hessians then began to throw up a
battery at close range, and Greene, after making his
final dispositions, mounted the ramparts and in-
spected the enemy through his field-glass. " Fire
low, men," he said, "they have a broad belt just
above the hip. Aim at that." At four o'clock the
Hessian battery opened briskly. The fire was returned
with spirit, and the American galleys joined in, the
Hessians being within range of their guns. Under
cover of the fire Donop divided his force into two
columns for the assault, — the left, directed against
362
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA..
the south of the works, under his own command, the
right, under Lieut.-Col. Minnegerode, directed against
the northern outworks. The latter, marching first,
were received with severe volleys from the ramparts
and a galling enfilading fire from the galleys. They
reached the parapets and scaled them, only to find
them abandoned and to imagine the victory already
their own. Shouting " victoria" and waving their
hats they advanced with jubilant quickstep towards
the inner redoubt. A volley welcomed them, in
which the officer who had summoned the fort and
his drummer both fell, with many another brave man.
Those who were unhurt pressed forward to the abatis,
and while they strove to force their way through this
they were swept by a deadly fire from the ramparts
and from an enfilading masked battery held by Du
Plessis in an angle of the outworks and covered by
a trench and loop-holed bank. They fell back, but
rallied to the charge, only to be desolated by the
withering fire from the fort, volley after volley. They
wavered, fell back, rushed round to the river front
and essayed to enter there, but the galleys quickly
drove them thence with grape-shot, and they finally
retreated in disorder to the woods, pursued by the
effective cannonade of the galleys. Meantime, the
southern column, under Donop, had advanced to the
assault, while Greene's main body was still engaged
with the column under Minnegerode. They en-
countered a destructive fire, but not enough to check
them. They pressed onward, into and through the
abatis; some crossed the fosse; some mounted the
berme bank and were met by the palisades, smooth,
nine feet high, not to be surmounted except with
scaling-ladders, which Donop had not. The defen-
ders of the north front now rushed to the aid of their
comrades, and poured in such a fire that Donop's
column, shattered and broken, fled routed.
The assault was not renewed. The garrison, after
a pause, cautiously reconnoitering for fear of a sur-
prise, at last sent out a repairing party under Du
Plessis. Twenty Hessians, sheltered under the pali-
sade, surrendered at once ; beyond them, in the dark-
ness, there was nothing but a confused mass of dead
and wounded. The voice of Donop, calling to be
drawn forth out of the heap, caught the ear of Du
Plessis. The Hessian's hip was shattered, and some
of his captors reminded him that no quarter was to
be given. " I am in your hands ; you can avenge
yourselves," said Donop. But Du Plessis had him
borne to the redoubt, where, as his wounds were
being dressed, he noticed Du Plessis' accent, and
finding him to be a French officer, murmured, " Je
suis content; je maurs entre les mains de l'honneur
meme." This is Du Plessis' account. But Maj.
Thayer claimed to have received Donop's surrender,
and to have brought him in from the edge of the
woods in a blanket. He was next day removed to the
house of Whitall, a Quaker, southeast of the fort,
where he died at the end of three days, lamenting a
glorious career, cut short in his thirty-eighth year by
his own ambition and his sovereign's avarice. His
son, and others also, said that Donop and other Hes-
sians were sacrificed by Howe, who always assigned
them the part of danger to spare his own compatriots.
Lieut.-Col. Minnegerode, his second in command, was
also wounded in this assault, with fourteen other
officers. The Hessians left all their wounded upon
the field, retreating a distance of five miles, and the
next day returning to Philadelphia as they had come.
They had lost four hundred killed and wounded,
while the American loss was eight killed, twenty-nine
wounded, and one taken prisoner, — a captain, who
was surprised while reconnoitering.1
The naval co-operation in the assault upon Red
Bank was almost as dismal a failure as the military
attack. Lord Howe sent up the "Augusta," Capt.
Reynolds, afterwards " Lord Ducie,'' a 64-gnn frigate,
the "Roebuck," 44, Capt. A. S. Hammond; the
"Liverpool," 28, Capt. Quelest ; the "Pearl," 32,
Capt. O'Hara; the "Merlin," 18; and the "Corn-
wallis Galley," 32, all of which continued to get
through and above the chevaux-de-frise. The chan-
nel, however, had been altered by the obstructions;
the " Augusta" grounded near the mouth of Manto
Creek, and the " Merlin" just beyond her ; and before
morning the " Roebuck" also was aground. The other
vessels cannonaded the fort, without doing it hurt,
and the galleys coming down with the darkness, the
firing ceased. The tide had not floated the British
vessels when morning came and disclosed their peril-
ous predicament to the Americans. Commodore
Hazlewood at once advanced to the attack with twelve
galleys and two floating-batteries. Four fire-ships
were also sent against the "Augusta," but, being in
a good defensive position, this frigate plied her bat-
teries so lustily as to cripple the fire-ships, so that
they passed her by unharmed. The " Roebuck" got
afloat; the firing became hot and furious, the forts
joining in, and other British vessels warping up, when
the " Augusta" took fire, either from hot shot or from
her own guns, and her magazine exploded before all
the crew could be removed, involving a considerable
loss of men. The other ships were driven back, and
the " Merlin" was abandoned and burnt by her own
crew.
The signal failure of these attacks did not make it
less imperative for the British general and admiral to
open the Delaware to the fleet. That must be done,
or Gen. Howe must abandon Philadelphia, for he
could not supply his army. The main attack was
now directed against Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island,
and was pushed with great vigor. On the land side
the works on Fort Island were weakest, and batteries
1 A monument wns orected, in 1829, within the northern angle of the
old edonht lit Red Bunk, in cninineniumtion of its gulliint luid Hkillful
defense. Dunon \vji8 buried between the fort and Wtiitull'H house, where
Chustellux 6uw his tombstone in 1780. Tile grave wan long ago rifled,
however, aud the bravo Donop's bones distributed its relics.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
363
were erected against them on every available point
on the adjacent shores. These were begun before
Donop's assault had failed. One battery, two guns,
was in Schuylkill Neck, by Penrose Ferry ; on Prov-
ince Island were five batteries, twenty- six guns,
twenty-four- and thirty-two-pounders, borrowed from
the ships of the line in the Delaware. The garrison
of the fort was not idle. Lieut.-Col. Smith, in com-
mand since September 27th, had not only strength-
ened the place as much as possible, but had also taken
the offensive, in conjunction with the galleys and
gun-boats, against one of the batteries on Province
Island, which was captured by assault. Greene, Pot-
ter, Heed, and other American officers also planned
to relieve the fort by attacking the British batteries
in the rear, but the swampy nature of the ground
prevented, and Washington was unable to make any
strong demonstration against Philadelphia, owing to
the ambition of Gates, silly if it had not been crimi-
nal, to figure as commander-in-chief, which led him
to withhold reinforcements from Washington after
Burgoyne's surrender. Two brigades of new troops
would have prevented the Delaware from being
opened, and would have compelled Howe to evacuate
Philadelphia and retreat to New York or the Chesa-
peake.
When the first week in November arrived the Brit-
ish were ready for a combined attack upon Fort
Mifflin. In addition to the batteries mentioned, and
the mortars and howitzers in position, an East India-
man, the "Vigilant," had been cut down and formed
into a floating-battery, carrying sixteen twenty-four-
pounders, and
a hulk with
three more guns
of the same cali-
bre was brought
into the service
also. The fleet
ranged against
the fort com-
prised the "Som-
erset,'' seventy
guns, Capt. Cur-
sis," fifty, Capt.
is; the "Roe-
Pearl," "Liver-
Cornwallis Gal-
ley," and several smaller
craft, making over three
hundred guns, besides mortars, to be trained against
Mud Island. That post had not. ^een planned for
any other end than to command and sweep the chan-
1 Explanation.— a, (be inner redoubt ; I, b, b, a high, thick stone wall,
built by Montreseor, with indentations, whpre the soldiers boiled their
kettles (this wull w:is pierced with loop-holes for musketry); c, c, c, c,
block-bouses, built of wood, with loop-holes, and mounting four pieces
of cannon each, two on the lower pliitform; d, d, d, bariackx; e, e, c,
BtockndeB; /,/,/, trous de Loup; ff, g, ravines. On the southeast side
were two strong piers and a battery mounting three cannons.
PLAN OF FOET MIFFLIN.!
nel, and its defenses on the north and west were in-
different. On the southern front a strong and effec-
tive battery of eight guns commanded the channel
from Hog Island to the Jersey shore; but the other
sides and corners of the work were defended simply by
wooden block-houses, mounting four guns each, with
stone walls, embankments, and stockades for shelter-
ing the men, faced with wet ditches, but not defended
by artillery. There were not near guns enough, or
of the needed calibre, to hold their own against the
British batteries. The garrison consisted of three
hundred men,. under command of Lieut.-Col. Samuel
Smith, of Maryland, a host in himself. He was aided
by Maj. Fleury, a gallant and competent French en-
gineer, and Lieut. Treat, of Lamb's Regiment, com-
manded the artillery. The fort was not without other
support. Opposite, on Brush Island, was a two-gun
battery ; there were twelve galleys and two floating-
batteries under Red Bank, with twelve armed boats,
the sloop "Province," the brigs "Convention" and
" Andrew Doria," and some other craft, while Greene
still held Fort Mercer ; there was a three-gun battery
below, at the mouth of Manto Creek, and Varnum's
Rhode Island Brigade had been sent down to sustain
the fort against a land attack.
The batteries on Province Island opened fire on
Fort Mifflin on November 10th, killing Lieut. Treat,
wounding many, and damaging the defenses and bar-
racks. The garrison responded with spirit, but the
firing slacked at nightfall, to be renewed next day
with greater violence, doing great injury to the fort
on the north side. That night the garrison was kept
busy repairing their breaches, during which time the
British found a channel between Province Island
and the Pennsylvania shore (ordinarily very shallow,
but now scoured out by the jetty action of the c/ievaux-
de-frise), and three vessels passed up to prove, it. Col.
Smith, Maj. Fleury, and Capt. George had been
wounded in the previous day's cannonade, and the
command devolved upon Lieut.-Col. Russell, of the
Connecticut troops, and fresh troops from Varnum's
command were sent over from Red Bank, as well as
working-parties to repair the fortifications at night.
On the 12th the fire from the batteries dismounted
two eighteen-pounders, while the enemy, approaching
in boats, alarmed the garrison at night. Col. Russell
threw up the command, and it now devolved upon
Maj. Simeon Thayer, of Rhode Island, who volun-
teered. More British guns opened on the fourth day,
the sentry walk was ruined, the block-houses crum-
bled to dust and splinters, the garrison was exhausted
" with fatigue and ill-health.'7 The enemy continued
their fire all night, and under cover of it the British
floating-batteries were brought up the channel be-
tween Hog Island and the main, at the southwest
angle of the fort, overtopping it, and close enough to
make every shot tell. The ships of the royal navy
were also brought up within range, the " Somerset"
and " Isis" to engage the fort, the " Roebuck,"
304
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
"Pearl," and "Liverpool" to silence the three-gun
battery at Manto's Creek, and then a terrible cannon-
ade was opened, exposing the defenders of Fort Mif-
flin to a cross-fire of dreadful intensity. They stood
to their guns ; the galleys and ships came to the res-
cue, and the fort silenced the " Vigilant" floating-
battery before noon. On the 14th the "Vigilant"
battery got into a new position, commanding the
garrison at their guns, and near enough to use mus-
ketry and hand-grenades, and in twenty-four hours
Fort Mifflin, or Mud Fort, as it was then called, no
longer existed as a defensive work, — its guns were
dismounted, its parapets leveled, its block-houses
destroyed. On the morning of the 16th, Thayer,
disdaining to surrender, evacuated his no longer ten-
able post, carried off his wounded, stores, and garri-
son, set the ruins of the fort on fire, and retired in the
blaze to Red Bank. It was the most gallant defense
of the war; yet Congress, while voting a medal to
Smith, gave no token to Thayer of recognition of his
services. Fleury was promoted, but Thayer was not.
The British loss was small ; that of the Americans
was two hundred and fifty killed and wounded in the
fort, and a fourth as many in the fleet. Gen. Knox,
writing to Col. Lamb, said that the fire the last day
of the attack " exceeded by far anything ever seen in
America," and that the defense was " as gallant as is
to be found in history." The defenders were Lieut. -
Col. Samuel Smith, commander September 27th to
October 11th, wounded and removed to Fort Mercer;
Col. De Arandt, a Prussian, sent to supersede Smith,
but withdrew, slightly wounded ; Lieut.-Col. Russell,
commander October 11th and 12th, retired ; Maj.
Thayer, in command from November 12th till evacu-
ation ; Maj. Louis de Fleury, engineer till evacuation ;
Lieut.-Col. Green, of Virginia, with reinforcements,
in November; Maj. Ballard, went in with Smith, re-
mained till evacuation; Dr. Skinner, surgeon, of
Maryland, during siege;1 Lieut. Treat, killed ; Capt.
Hazzard, of Delaware, wounded; Capt. George,
wounded; Capt. Lee, went in with Smith, and re-
mained till evacuation ; and Sergt. Moses Porter (af-
terwards major-general in the war of 1812), in the
fort until the evacuation.
The Pennsylvania fleet in the Delaware found itself
in a cul-de-sac by the evacuation of Fort Mifflin. It
could not maintain its present position, nor could it
pass up the Delaware except under the guns of the
British batteries in Philadelphia. A council of war
was held aboard the "Chatham" galley on the 14th, and
another at Fort Mercer on the 18th. At the latter,
1 This is that Alexander Skinner, of Maryland, who figures so hu-
morously in Graydon's "Memoits" and in "Light-Horse" Harry Lee's
" Memoirs" as the duelist doctor who votild not go under fire, and who
Berved as the original for Cooper's portrait of Dr. Sitgraves in "The
Spy." He was evidently a man fall of oddities and eccentricities, and
Lee would not have perpetrated so many jokes about his .courage had
he not kDown the many proofs to which it had already been put. The
Skinner family are of old establishment upon the Eastern Shore of
Maryland.
Gens. St. Clair, De Kalb, and Knox were present.
The final result was that the fleet would be of no more
service in its present position, and Commodore Hazle-
wood was recommended to profit by the first favorable
wind to try to pass up the Delaware, above Philadel-
phia. On the night of the 19th the attempt was
made, and thirteen galleys and twelve armed boats
succeeded in getting past. The next night the " Prov-
ince," sloop, some ammunition craft, and others with
cannon made their way up, but the " Convention,"
schooner, " Delaware," sloop, and other vessels were
fired on and the " Delaware," schooner, and a shallop
were driven ashore. The Continental fleet, the" An-
drew Doria," the xebecs " Repulse" and " Champion."
sloops " Racehorse" and "Fly," ship "Montgomery,"
and floating-batteries " Putnam" and "Arnold," would
not follow. The wind baffled them ; they were exposed
to a heavy fire, and at Gloucester Point were set on
fire and abandoned. " I walked down to the wharf at
4 o'clock this morning'' (is Robert Morton's entry for
November 21st) and seen all the American navy on
fire coming up with the flood tide and burning with the
greatest fury. Some of them drifted within two miles
of the town, and were carried back by the ebb tide.
They burned nearly five hours. Four of them blew
up."
Meantime, Gen. Varnum evacuated Fort Mercer.
Cornwallis, with two thousand men — the Fifth, Fif-
teenth, Seventeenth, Thirty-third, and Fifty-sixth
Regiments, Hessians light infantry, twelve guns, and
some howitzers — was sent by Howe, as soon as Fort
Mifflin was captured, against Fort Mercer. He
marched on the night of the 18th, crossed the Schuyl-
kill at the Middle Ferry, and took the road to Ches-
ter. At the Blue Bell Tavern, near Darby, the Ameri-
can picket, of thirty-three men, was surprised. They
made resistance, killing an officer and two privates,
and losing several men wounded and captured.
Cornwallis marched all night, reaching Chester on
the morning of the 19th, crossed the Delaware and
united with a division of three thousand men, under
Sir Thomas Wilson, just sent by Sir Henry Clinton
from New York. Washington had sent Greene down
to the relief of Red Bank, but Varnum did not wait,
but evacuated the fort while Cornwallis was yet at
Billingsport, though he had eighteen hundred men
with him ; Huntingdon's brigade, Greene's advance,
twelve hundred men, was coming right up, having
crossed at Dunk's Ferry, and Greene and Lafayette,
crossing at Burlington, with a division of troops, were
not far in the rear.
Varnum went to Haddonfield. Cornwallis marched
up the river bank, demolished the works at Fort
Mercer, and took post at Gloucester, intrenching
himself. When Huntingdon and Greene had come
up with Varnum at Haddonfield, the propriety of at-
tacking Cornwallis was considered. There was no
battle but some skirmishes. Lafayette, with some of
Morgan's riflemen, a few militia and light-horse, ac-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
365
companied by Col. Armand, Col. Laumoy, and Du
Plessis and Gimat, attacked a picket and drove in
an outpost of Hessians on the King's road, on the
25th. After this Cornwallis returned to Philadelphia
and Greene rejoined Washington. The Delaware
was open.
None too soon, for inhabitants and troops in Phila-
delphia were both on short allowance and in great
distress. The leaguer had been very close. Simcoe's
rangers, patrolling the Frankford road, to enable the
Bucks County farmers to come in with their produce,
had found plenty of skirmishing to do, but a very
close and vigilant picketing within the sphere of
their operations. Once they marched as far as the
Red Lion ; another time they attempted, but failed,
to surprise the American picket in Frankford, a third
time they captured a militia outpost, — an officer and
twenty men. But the Americans still prevented the
market-people from coming down below Frankford,
and often Pulaski's light horse beat up Simcoe's
quarters in Kensington. On the south of the city
Greene, with Potter and McDougall, kept equally
close watch. At the time of the attack upon Red
Bank a detachment of the British, fifteen hundred
strong, with one hundred and thirteen wagons, crossed
at Gray's Ferry, on a floating bridge, and proceeded
to fortify on the other side of the Schuylkill. Greene
planned an attack upon them which forced them to
withdraw to the east bank and remove the bridge to
the Middle Ferry. Potter and his militia kept watch
so close that there was neither exit nor entrance to
the city on south or west side, and provisions became
very scarce and high. Salt brought four dollars per
bushel in hard money ; butter one dollar per pound ;
sugar one shilling sixpence sterling (equal to six
dollars in Continental money) ; beef, of milch cows,
one shilling sixpence to two shillings sixpence per
pound.
The attempt was made to conceal the extent of
these distresses, but it was clumsily done, and even
the subsidized local newspapers, like the Pennsyl-
vania Ledger, when describing the British army
rolling in plenty, could not abstain from reproving
the rebels for leaving their families to suffer and
cutting off provisions from them in the moment when
they were subsisting upon British charity. This
paper boasted that deserters were coming in so rap-
idly that Howe would soon be able to fight Washing-
ton with his own army. Surely, said the Ledger,
"they will not have less heart and courage upon
hard dollars, good clothes, good provisions, a good
cause, and good officers than they had with paper
stuff, ragged clothes, stinking provisions, and bad
officers." Still, the British had to call on the inhab-
itants for six hundred blankets for the use of the
troops, cut down the groves within the city for fire-
wood, forbid citizens from purchasing clothes from
soldiers, and permit the circulatiou of colonial cur-
rency. This was granted upon a petition of citizens,
the colonial currency of the old province being al-
lowed to be taken at the rate of two for one of
specie.
The names of the signers to this petition show who
were the Tories, Quakers, and non-combatants re-
maining in Philadelphia during the British occupa-
tion. The list is as follows :
Joseph Galloway, William Fisher, Jeremiah Warder, Joseph Fox,
John Head, James & Drinker, Abel James, John Reynell, Samuel Shoe-
maker, Abraham Mason, John Bringhnrst, James Stuart, James Briog-
hurst, Benjamin Titly, Peter Howard, Jos. Fisher & Sons, John Stamper,
James Craig, Matthews & Gibson, Thomas Canby, Jo'n Wainwright,
Nehemiah Allen, Charles Stedman, Roger Flavahan, Rob't Shewell, Jr.,
John & Chamless Hart, John Spence, John McIvers, Jon'n Evans, Jr.,
Thos. Thomson, Clement Plumsted, Alexander Trader, John Mullet,
Davenport Marot, John Lugan, Thomas Franklin, Luke Morris, Israel
Morris, J. Musgrave, Thomas Moore, Joseph Russell, Daniel Offley,
Robert Bayley, John Cameron, Henry Petei'BOn, Andrew McGlone, Rich-
ard Truman, Jas. DerKinderin, \Vm. Lawrence, Wm. Pritchett, David
Lapsley, John Howard, John Blyth, Morris Truman, Daniel Bowen,
William Eckart, Presly Blackiston, Jacob Bell, Coleman Fisher, Wm.
Fisher, Jr., John Field, Caleb Cre6son, John Evans, Selwood GrifSn,
John Fox, Moses Cox, Wm. Tnylor, Samuel Richards, Daniel Fisher,
Benj. Humphreys, James Hanley, John Onions, John David, Samuel
Read, Thomas Stapler, Daniel Smith, Oity Tavern, William Morrell, R.
Strettell Jones, Benj. Shoemaker, Samuel Kirk, James Sparks, Joseph
Page, Samuel Covell, John Hales, Hastings Stackhouse, William Price,
Pbiiipus Frick, John Beck, Jacob Cline, Bernard Soliinan, John Clark,
John Tittermary, W™. Pinchin, Wm. Hussey, J. Richardson, Jr., Nat'l
Richardson, Joseph Sanders, Jacob Mayer, John Aitken, Richard But-
ler, Thomas Betag, Richard Sewall, John Schreiber, Michael Schreiber,
Michael Bauer, John Graff, Jacob Hoffner, Sol. White, John Fries, Sam-
uel Davis, Daniel Suter, Thomas Rose, William Dawson, Just. Ebbert,
Jacob Winey, Peter Pritius, Tim. Barrett, Robert DawBon, Isaac Powell,
Shurtliff & Shoemaker, Thos. Clifford, Jr., Cornelius Barnes, L. Davis,
John Wistar, Samuel Emlen, Ridhd. Footman, George Knorr, Wm.
Clifton, Wm. Staudley, Isaac Greentree, Geo. Fred. Boyer, S. Garrigues,
Jr., W™. Shipley, Geo. Morrison, Jos. Cruikshanks, Caleb Carmalt,
T. Speakman, Matthew Piatt, Jos. Redman, Israel Hallowell, Fred.
Shenekall, Peter Schreiber, Laurence Vance, Henry Rutter, John
Jackson, J. Nancarrow, Jr., John Ackroyd, Josiah CoatB, Isaac Lort,
Matthias Stenles, George Heinrich, Joseph Allen, Isaac Oak-man,
Thomas Willing, Benjamin Chew, Jr., Thomas MiddletoD, John
Wall, James Mitchell, Sweetman, Shortall & Mulllns, Thomas Badge,
Richard Barrett, Patrick Byrne, Bryan O'Hara, J. Humphreys, Jr.,
Robert Loosel}', James Dickinson, George Harrison, Archibald McCall,
John Brown, Daniel Drinker, John James, Eneas Urquhart, Francis
Worley, Robert Tyre, John Paplay, Mark Freeman, Samuel Powell,
John Cummings, Joseph Paschall, H. Drinker, Jr., Joseph MaBter,
James Butland, Samuel Scotten, John Jervis, C. Stedman, Jr., Richard
Wistar, James West, Alex. Wilcocks, John Bates, Wm Compton, Jos.
Warner, Stephen Cronin, Josh. Humphreys, Thos. Ireland, Wm Tuckey,
John Guest, Michael Conner, Ezra Jones, Isaac Massey, John Duncan,
Robt. Bass, John Winner, Geo. Grotz, Jacob Ehrenzeller, James Watkins,
Wm B. Hockley, Christ1 Heiukell, Reub. HaineB, Owen Jones, Amos
Foulk, Benj. Poultney, Geo. Reinhold, Tobias Rudolph, Jacob Birge,
Benjamin Davis, Joh'n Robeson, Aaron Ashbridge, Lawrence Seckel,
Peter Evans, John Evans, John Lukens, JameB Byrne, Andrew Allen,
Tench Cox, Wm Van Phul, R. Roberts, John Bran, Andrew Allen,
Charles W. Nassau, D' Abr™ Chovett, T. Fisher, John Le Telier, Benj.
Town, Thos. Morgan, Wm Craig, John North, John Weaver, Job. Shew-
ell, Michael Farmer, John Chevalier, Matthias Hanley, Stephen Bardin,
W", Wells, W«. Miluc.r, Benj. Gibbs, Stephen Shewell, Lewis Grant,
Thos. Meredith, Samuel Bulge, Caleb Emlen, W». Smith, Bernard
Fearis, Sam1 Shaw, John Parrish, P. G. Breton, Leonard DorBey, Jno.
McCleish, Fred. Weckerly, Ludwig Karcher, Christn. Alberger, Fred*.
Meyer, David Uber, TIiob. Masterman, Thos. Norton, John Wagner, Job.
North, Christn. Bhiller, Jacob Frank, George Honey, Benj. Myers, Sig-
mund Copia, Michael Trumsoff, C. White, Martin Biske, Isaiah Bell,
John Dorsey, Jr., Ph. Marchinton, Rich. Topliff, Israel Jacobs, Robert
Wright, Jos. Davies, Matthias Burch, William Peltz, John Bailey, Jacob
Griner, Jacob Lehre, Jos. Sol. Kohn, Sol. Aaron, Sam1 P. Moore, Ab'm.
Mitchell, Jos. Potts, Adolph Gillman, JameB Greyson, John C. Kunze,
John Oldden, Thos. Bennett, Rob* Worrell, A. MuBgrave, Jr., Thos.
366
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Lake, Dominick Joyce, John Lynch, John Sibbnld, Jos. Stamper, Edu-a
Middleton, Isaac Garrigues, Wt>. Rigden, Geo. Connelly, Jno. B Bnrcltell,
Samuel Rhoads, Jon'n Evans, Peter Reeve, Henry Lisle, Benj. Towne
John Mifflin, David Lamb, John Elmslio, Thos. Dart, Tlios. Francis, John
Marshall, Joseph Fawcetr, Chas. Ostrom, Saml. Lewis, Joseph Marriott,
Thos. Eddy, Chas. Eddy, W». Redwood, Samuel Coats, Patrick Hogan,
John Houghton, Roht. Maffet, Benj. Scull, Jos. Bringhnrst, Enoch Story,
John Priest, Jasper Carpenter, Thos. Hopkins, Jus. Cresson, Jno. Fuller-
ton, Edw. Ilanlan, Jos. Price, Jno. Piokerton, Jno. Nicholson, Alex.
Tod, Chas. Wharton, Philip Mosoer, Sam. Garrignes, Rob1 Ervin, Jno.
Martin, Jnc. Thomson, Jno. Allen, Jacob Shoemaker, Jacob Cooper,Jobn
Reedle, Carpenter Wharton, Nich. Wain, Sam1 Murdoch, Rob4 Lewis,
Aaron Mnsgrave, John Palmer, A. Morris, Wm. Wharton, Jas. Taylor,
Thos. & Isaac Wharton, Abraham Jones, \Vm. Shu tc, Rob* Fnlton, Jas. Mc-
Cutcheon, Andrew IJayward, Francis Bell, Abraham Mason, Henry Osier,
Jas. Durant, Robt. Craft, Alex. Smith, Jas. Gottier, Geo. Butler, Isaac
Tanost, Geo. Guest, Jesse Williams, Richd Price, D1 Thos. Bond, Sam1
Howell, Henry Wyncoop, Jacob Ultel, Peter Kratz, Cuthbert Sanders,
Henry Funk, Henry Kurtz, Jacob Baker, Jacob Kehmle, Thos. Pryor,
Philip Marot, John Sullivan, Samuel Kerr, Wm. Jones, Robt. Aitken, Jos.
Turner, A. Humphreys, Sam1 Jeffreys, Benj. Evans, Geo. Mifflin, Jos.
Humphreys, Jos. Morris, W™. Carter, Job. Thomas, Jos. Hillborn, Jno.
Todd, Benedict Dorsey, Thos. Shoemaker, Frod'k Morris, Fred'k Morris,
Jr , Chri6'r Baker, Jr., Townscnd & Juo. White, Ludwig Prahl, Christian
Riffett, Jno. Williams, Adam Strieker, Jos. Peiffer, Conrad Hester, Jno.
Stell wagon, Robt. Tnnikins, Saml. Jones, Thos Saltar, Jas. ParBOns, W".
Brown, Philip Hey], Wm. Carter, Jo". Yerkes, Stephen Maxfield, Chris*
Pechin, Wm. Niles, Pat'n Hartshorn, ChaBl Mifflin, J. Ummenselter, Isaac
Heston, W™. Masters, Thos. Kinsey, JaB. Nevel, Henry Bruster, Wm Wil-
liams, Francis Grice, Jos. Volans, John Bament, John Patterson, Edw.
Stiles. Jas. Hartley, Thos.Roker, W». Savery, W"». Ball, Daniel Benezet,
Joseph Wirth, Solomon Marache, Jno. Glover, Jno. McFadden, Isaac Mor-
ris, Anuila Jones, Jno. Facey, Abr. Thomas, W». Funney, Tlios. Morris,
Lewis Weis, Wm Reibel, Adam Melcher, George Kehmle, Joshua Howell,
Rob* Wain, Johannes Fran lis, Wm.Burkhnrdt, Jas. Naglee, Isaac Cathrull,
Arch'd Gardiner, Aaron Musgrave, Geo. Napper, Daul. Trotter, Jno. Sulli-
van, Benj.Oldden, Jno. Gillinglmm, Wilhelin Herman, .las. Fisher, Peter
Gallagher, Geo. Filler, W*n. Austin, Geo. James, Wm. Wliitepaine, Dan-
iel Rees, Thos. Mullan, Joseph Richardson, Wm. Norton, Jr., Wm. Cow-
per, Sam1 Noble, Dean Timmons, Christ» Rudolph, Richd Palmer, Stephen
Blunt, Henry Jones, James Robinson, Heury Spering, John Jenkins,
David Franks, Jno. Wood, Timothy Carroll, E. McDonnell, Redmond
Byrne, Joseph King, M. Landenbergor, Jas. Ham, Alex. Kidd, Anthony
Teldall, Jno. Futz, Jno. Green, Joel Lane, Rich*1 Brooks, John Gardner,
Jno. Fisher, Jno. Hirst, Antony Steiiier, Henry Junckin, Chas. West,
Philip Weismart, Jacob Swab, Chris* Hausman, Alex. Greenwied, Luke
Keating, Curtis Clay, Jacob Renno, Moses Bartram, Jon'n Shoemaker,
Benj. Say, Wm. Norton, Jno. Hood, David Copeland, Jos. Palmer, Geo.
Marclay, Jno. Whiteall, Jno. Fiss, D. Richardson, Jacob Gtesheus, Geo.
Guffetts, Bowyer Brooke, Conrad Gerhard, Isaac Coats, James Cossac,.Tohn
Parrock, .Incob Schu man, Joseph Norn's, James Toll, James Wood, David
Shoemaker, W™. Wilson, Robt. Parrish, Caleb Atmore, Sam'1 Taylor, Thog.
Taylor, Thos. Cummings, Jas. Cochran, Geo. Heydell, Peter Henderson,
Geo. Appleby, Jus. Ingles, Sam. Starr, Thos. Harrison, Stephen Phipps,
Jos. Budd, Stephen Stapler, Jas. Gorman, Dennis McReady, P. Trucke-
miller, Job Butcher, Jno. Milner, Emanuel Josiah, Jas. Reynolds, Jas.
Stephens, Roger Bowmans, Natlinn Cook, Thomas Tuft, Wm. Grinding,
Moses Mordecai. Thomas Tillyer, Jos. Pritchard, Jon'n Beere, Andrew
Huck, Joseph Coleman, Isaac Paust, W™. Wishart, Rich''1 Blackham,
Thos. Paschali, Benj. Horner, Geo. Roberts, Benj. Davies, Henry Styles,
Rob1. Correy, Jr., Jon'n Dilworlh, Rob'. Tuckui.'-s, Jno. Biddle, Jas. Mar-
tin, Thomas Say, Francis Fenlcy, Michael Hailing, Andrew Brand, Jos.
Rakestraw, John Care, Jos. Moore, Jno. Soltcr, Rob1. Hart, Thos. Pen-
rose, Alex. Bartram, Benj. Hooton, R. Hitchmough, Joseph Cresson,
Seymour Hart, John Kirk.
An easier money arrangement could not relieve
actual scarcity of the necessaries of life, and it was
a great boon to the troops as well as the inhabitants,
when the fall of the forts and the opening of the che-
vaux-de-frise at last raised the blockade of Philadel-
phia. The meat-ration of the soldiers had been cut
dowD to a quarter of a pound per man. The prison-
ers suffered great privations. At the very beginning
of their captivity they had been limited to a fourth
of a pound of beef and four and a half pounds of bis-
cuit every three days, — that is to say, one and one-
third ounces of meat and one and one-half pounds
bread per diem. Soon they were reduced to four
ounces of salt pork and six pounds of biscuit every
eight days, — one-half ounce of meat and three-quar-
ters pound bread per diem. This was famine diet,
and many enlisted in the British army to escape star-
vation. In the markets beef was a dollar a pound,
and a chicken sold for ten shillings. Potatoes were
sixteen shillings hard money per bushel. But on
November 26th thirty sail of transports and supply-
ships came up, with horses, provisions, and fresh
troops, and some of the frigates came up also.
The storeships, however, were not allowed to break
bulk until some regulations for trade had been fixed.
Gen. Howe made John Henderson and Joseph Gal-
loway wardens of the port. The latter was further
named " superintendent-general" for the security of
the inhabitants, the suppression of vice, the preser-
vation of peace, support of the poor, maintenance of
the watch and lamps, and regulation of the markets
and ferries, with power to appoint a police, assisted
by the city magistrates. He at once issued an order
regulating terms of buying and selling. Common
rum and spirits could not be sold, except by the im-
porter, the limits being not more than a hogshead nor
less than ten gallons to a single person at one time.
To sell more than a hogshead of molasses required a
permit, and those who retailed these goods were pun-
ished. To sell more than a bushel of salt required a
permit, and so with medicines by the quantity. Tav-
erns had to have licenses from Galloway, who also
revived the old city corporation and appointed Sam-
uel Shoemaker mayor. Howe, the contemporary
journal said, kept himself secluded. A letter in Dun-
lap's Lancaster paper said that " the general is sel-
dom seen. His debaucheries and the immorality of
his character are disgusting to those who wish to
befriend him." Galloway, this letter (which was
dated December 10th) said, was already discontented
with the way Howe treated him, and the people of
the town looked upon the superintendent with dis-
trust, contempt, or hatred. The Aliens were reported
as "insolent and cowardly;" every little alarm threw
them into despair and every little success gives them
an opportunity of showing what tyrants they would
be had they power equal to their inclinations. Staus-
bury, who is called a criDging sycophant and the un-
principled Huck, with the Aliens and Galloway, made
up Howe's Tory entourage.
With the transports and the new r&gime arrived a
locust swarm of strangers eager to profit by trade
openings and plunder the people of the captive city.
They took possession of the stores and shops of the
absent Whigs, and opened them for the sale of their
own goods. James McDowell took Gilbert Barclay's
store on Second Street, Bird's London store supplanted
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
367
Mrs. Devine's, George Leyburn ensconced himself in
Francis Tilghman's store, William Robb sold mer-
chandise where William Redwood had served his
customers, Ninian Mangies took Thomas Gilpin's
place, John Brander, Isaac Cox's, Thomas Blane suc-
ceeded to Mease & Caldwell, and many deserted tav-
erns were reopened by the new Tory adventurers.
Christopher Marshall's diary has it that "news is
from Philadelphia that there are one hundred and
twenty-one new stores, amongst which is one kept by
an Englishman, one by an Irishman, the remainder
being one hundred and eighteen Scotchmen or Tories
from Virginia." These adventurers did not like to be
compelled to take paper money under the new regu-
lations. They wanted the solid cash, such as they
could carry off with them on any sudden occasion,
and the satirists of the town did not let their sordid-
ness escape unlashed. One bard sung in the " Chap-
man Billy" style, —
" Here you have salt for your broth,
Aud here you liavo sugar and cheese-a ;
Tea without taxes or oath,
But down with your gold, if you please-a.
Here we go up, up, np.
And here we go down, down, down-a ;
Here we go backwards and forth,
And here we go round, round, round-a.
*******
" Then spurn at the wise old Dons
Who make for their paper a route-a ;
Here's goods for your gold at once,
Come out with your gold, come out-a, etc.
* * * * * * *
" Come ! surely I've told you enough ;
"We have all that you want anil wish-o ;
But pray give us no paper Btuff, —
We come for the loaf and fish-e.
Here we go np, up, up, etc."
Joseph Stansbury, the witty and accomplished Tory
scribbler, got up a '''Petition of Philadelphia to Sir
William Howe," in verse, by which it appears that
the ground of the rejection of the currency by the
strangers was that the notes were issued against
landed security, and the rebels held all the lands and
mortgages too, —
*' And reasoning thence, have so mistook the case,
They hold the money's tottering in its baee"
The petition avers that not only did the govern-
ment sanction the paper money, but " many friends
of government in town
"Sold each half-joe for twelve pounds Congress trash,
Which purchased six pounds of tills legal cash ;
Whereby they have, if you will bar the bubble,
Instead of losing, made their money double 1"
The half-joe (Johannes) was worth about thirty-five
shillings sterling, so that they fetched two hundred
and forty shillings in Continental money, and these
again one hundred and twenty shillings in provincial
currency, — three and three-seventh for one.
Howe had a census of the population of the city
taken shortly after his entry. The return was as
follows :
Wauds.
Mulberry
North
Middle
South
Dock
Walnut
Chestnut
High Street
Lower Delaware
Upper Delaware
Northern Liberties,...
Southwark
Total
0S3
:>,m
358
15(1
875
1(15
107
178
107
2-/r>
1151
7G4
11?,
:)5
13
10
141
5
11
15
JO
24
135
72
SS4
388
320
1:12
108:1
(14
100
136
00
172
1254
070
o o
834
388
307
135
1104
S3
101
ICO
(11
150
1034
003
2,293
049
814
352
3,120
241
244
419
223
422
2,727
1,599
" The preponderance of women and children in this
census," says Mr. Westcott, " is remarkable. In times
of peace the ratio of population was different. It is
probable that nearly six thousand men — the most
active and patriotic of the citizens — were absent.
Galloway, in his ' History- of the War,' estimates that
of the able-bodied men who remained, one thousand
were Quakers. The rest, being about one-eleventh
part of the population, had fled. This estimate
would have made the absent patriots to have been
from 2500 to 3000, entirely too small a number." It
seems possible to get at the number of persons absent
and the actual population of Philadelphia, absentees
included, more nearly than this, from the data given
above. The preponderance of females in the nor-
mal population of a city like Philadelphia would
be about five per cent. The stores enumerated do not
include shops, nor stores and dwellings combined —
the total is too small for that — but only the buildings
used chiefly for business purposes. The empty houses,
again, were only those from which all the people were
absent, male and female. The average of the three
enumerations of 1753, 1760, and 1769, gives 6.3 in-
habitants to a dwelling-house. If we allow one-half
the stores to have been also dwellings in Howe's enu-
meration, the normal population of Philadelphia in
1777 would have been 35,000 ; the absentees would
be 11,260, of whom (deducting the females left in
town) 4600 would be females and 6600 males, the
natural militia quota being (\%) 2664. How far
Howe's estimates were vitiated by the presence of
camp followers and refugees cannot be determined.
The British were guilty of wanton destruction of
property after the evacuation of Fort Mifflin, burn-
ing the houses north of the line of fortifications.
The number of houses burned, as marked down on
Col. Nicola's map, was twenty-seven, two being in-
side the line. Morton says, in his diary, November
22d, "This day the British set fire to the Fairhill
mansion house, Jonathan Mifflin's and many others,
amounting to eleven, besides outhouses, barns, etc.
The reason they assign for this destruction of their
friends' property is on account of the Americans firing
from these houses and annoying their pickets. The
368
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
generality of mankind being governed by their inter-
ests, it is reasonable to conclude that men whose
property is thus wantonly destroyed, under a pre-
tence of depriving their enemy of annoying them on
their march, will soon be converted and become their
professed enemies. But what is most astonishing is
their burning the furniture in some of those houses
that belonged to friends of the government, when it
was in their power to burn them at their leisure.
Here is an instance that Gen. Washington's army
cannot be accused of." He instances Chew's house
in Germantown. The Tories who suffered were nu-
merous, only William Henry being spared. Mrs.
Deborah Logan wrote to Col. Garden, " From the
roof of my mother's house, on Chestnut Street, we
counted seventeen fires, one of which we knew to be
the beautiful seat of Fairhill, built by my grandfather
Norris and owned by his family, but in the occupation
of the excellent John Dickinson, who had married
my cousin. It was full of furniture and part of a val-
uable library, which the pressure of the times had
prevented the family from securing when they sought
their own safety in flight." Stenton was about to be
fired, but was saved by a quick-witted negro woman,
servant in the house, who caused the two men sent to
destroy it to be arrested as deserters. The British
were ashamed of this incendiarism.
On November 24th, Washington came near the city
to reconnoiter the British lines, with a view to see
whether they might be attacked during Cornwallis'
absence. They were found to be too strong, how-
ever, to warrant an attack, and the plan was aban-
doned. As soon as Cornwallis rejoined Howe, the
latter determined to attempt a surprise of Washing-
ton's quarters. The latter, after a council of war,
moved his camp, on November 29th, from the Skip-
pack to White Marsh, sixteen miles from Philadelphia,
where it was supposed the army would go into winter-
quarters. Howe was already preparing for his move-
ment, and Col. John Clark, Jr., chief of the spy ser-
vice, kept the American commander apprised of the
British movements. He wrote on December 1st, "On
Friday evening orders were given to the troops to
hold themselves in readiness to march. They either
mean to surprise your army or to prevent your making
an attack on them." . . . December 3d he wrote,
"The enemy are in motion," boats were got. ready
and the men furnished with two days' rations. The
movement, in fact, was known in Washington's camp
on November 29th, as a letter of Gen. Armstrong's
proves, and this destroys the credibleness of the ro-
mantic story of Lydia Darrach, the Quaker lady,
who is said to have overheard the British officers, who
lodged with her, discussing their intended surprise,
made an excuse to go to mill next morning, and so
rode to the American lines and put Washington on
his guard. But if Howe had contemplated a surprise
his pickets and sentinels would scarcely have let a
woman pass the lines, and enter the enemy's lines and
return, unquestioned. The entire story, in fact, is
unworthy of credence. So well assured were the
Americans of Howe's purpose to attack that Arm-
strong ordered Potter's militia to come up and join
them.
On December 3d the royal army marched out from
Philadelphia fifteen thousand strong, Howe in com-
mand. Next morning Armstrong wrote from the
camp at White Marsh, "My division is on the march
to meet the enemy, as, I presume, is the whole army.
I can only add that the advanced guard of the enemy
is said to be on this side of Germantown." Capt.
Allen McLane, of the Delaware light horse, a most
gallant and adventurous officer, and the ancestor of a
distinguished family, reconnoitered the enemy on the
3d, attacking their advance on the Germantown road
at Three-Mile Run, and causing the enemy some em-
barrassment and delay. At eight o'clock a.m. on the
4th the British troops arrived at Chestnut Hill, and
halted. This was but three miles below the American
camp, at which all the troops remained except de-
tachments sent out to skirmish. Potter, with a por-
tion of his brigade, manoeuvred at Barren Hill Church
against Howe's left ; Gen. James Irvine, with six hun-
dred men, skirmished in his front, having failed to
reach Chestnut Hill before the enemy. The general's
horse fell with him, he was wounded in the hand,
and captured, his militiamen running away. On
Howe's side there were a few casualties, but the skir-
mishing was cautious on both sides. Howe drew up
his army for battle with the right resting on the Skip-
pack road, at Chestnut Hill, the left on the Wissa-
hickon, — a strong defensive line. Here he manoeuvred
to draw Washington out of his Barren Hill and White
Marsh lines, but unsuccessfully. Next day Howe
moved nearer, but on the same line. Washington
held the same impassive front. On Saturday night,
December 6th, Howe moved towards the York road,
on the American left. Next morning Potter's brigade
with Webb's Continentals fell upon and skirmished
with the enemy's rear in a woods, but soon fell back.
Gen. Joseph Reed had a horse shot under him, and
barely escaped capture. Morgan's riflemen, with
Gist's Maryland militia, skirmished with Howe's
right as it was still being extended, and at Edgehill
there was a spirited brush with the enemy, in which
each side lost about twenty killed and wounded. On
the 8th the enemy manoeuvred about in an apparently
indefinite fashion until after night, when, kindling up
his camp-fires brightly, he marched silently back to
Philadelphia, thus declining the battle which Wash-
ington had offered him, except upon his own terms,
in spite of the duelist's axiom that the challenged
party has choice of weapons and ground. On their
rearward march the British burned the Rising Sun
Tavern, in Germantown, and all the farm-houses still
standing between that place and the city. Washing-
ton was surprised at Howe's prompt retrograde, for
his officers had boasted they were going to drive
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
369
Mr. Washington " over the Blu« Mountains.'' Howe
and his officers were mortified, and said very little of
the march to Chestnut Hill and back again.
Christopher Marshall says of this abortive perform-
ance that news was received "that Gen. Howe left
Philadelphia on the 4th inst. at eleven at night with
his army, consisting of ten thousand men, marched
towards Germantown, attacked and drove our picket
guard, which, being reinforced, returned, drove their
advance guard back, killed near twenty, among
which a brigadier-general, captain, etc., took six-
teen prisoners, and that we lost Gen. Irvin, who was
wounded and taken prisoner, one colonel, one cap-
tain, twelve or fourteen privates killed, and main-
tained our post that night; that next day a general
engagement, it was thought, was unavoidable, as the
two armies lay in sight of each other; and that the
enemy had burned Beggarstown in their front. . . .
llth. It is said that Gen. Howe, after giving out in
Philadelphia that he was going to drive
Gen. Washington and his army over the
Blue Mountains, after marching his whole
army up to Chestnut Hill and staying
there some days, last First day decamped
and returned to Philadelphia on the Sec-
ond day, leaving behind him about two
hundred of his men, in slain and taken
prisoners. It's said they have pillaged and
taken with them everything that came in
their way that was portable and of any
value, besides burning and destroying
many houses and effects ; also taking with
them, by force, all the boys they could
lay their hands on above the age of ten
years. Thus, this time, has the great
boaster succeeded in this vain-glorious ex-
pedition, to the eternal shame of him and =sfljl
all his boasting Tory friends." Morton's
diary, December 8th, says, "This ev'g, to
the great astonishment of the citizens,
the army returned. The causes assigned for their
speedy return are various and contradictory, but y"
true reason appears to be this, that the army . . .
thought it most prudent to decline making the at-
tack. The Hessians on their march committed great
outrages on the inhabitants, particularly at John
Shoemaker's, whom they very much abused. Bro't
off about 700 head of cattle, set fire to the house on
Germantown road, called the Rising Sun, and com-
mitted many other depredations, as if the sole purpose
of the expedition was to destroy and to spread desola-
tion and ruin, to dispose the inhabitants to rebellion
by despoiling their property, and to give their ene-
mies fresh cause to alarm the apprehensions of the
people by these too true melancholy facts.''
On the llth, Lord Cornwallis, with three thousand
men, crossed the Middle Ferry bridge to march into
the region northwest of the city on a foraging expe-
dition. Gen. Potter had a picket of militia at the
24
bridge, who fired on the enemy as they advanced.
Two regiments were stationed at Charles Thomson's
place in Lower Merion, and three a short distance
off. These offered the enemy a rather stubborn re-
sistance, the regiments of Chambers, Lacey, and
Murray behaving very well and retiring slowly.
Washington had broken camp at White Marsh to go
to winter-quarters at Valley Forge the day before,
and Sullivan's division, in the van, as they crossed
the Schuylkill, found themselves face to face with
Cornwallis. It was a mutual surprise. Sullivan re-
treated, partly destroying the bridge at Watson's
Ford, and Cornwallis withdrew with his plunder,
Sullivan's men indeed were in no condition either
to attack or to pursue. They were half naked, and
printed the blazon of their weary march in blood
upon the road. The army went into winter-quarters,
— the dreary vigils of Valley Forge, — and there
were no more operations of consequence by either
jS3&afi
i|M|
WASHINGTON'S HEADQTJAKTEBS AT VALLEY FOBGE.
army until the campaign of 1778 opened. Corn-
wallis reached the city on the 16th, his column em-
barrassed with the plunder of the upper country.
Every farmstead had been stripped and outraged.
As Col. Pickering said, " They have committed great
devastations, as usual ; but 'tis some consolation these
calamities have fallen upon their best friends.''
On December 19th, Capt. Andrew Cathcart, of the
Seventeenth Light Dragoons (he was a " right hon-
orable," a staff officer and favorite of Clinton's, promi-
nent in the Meschianza and wounded at Monmouth),
was out with a squadron of his men when they sur-
prised an American picket of eighteen men at an out-
post four miles from the city. Seven were cut down at
once ; the others, being in Wood's barn, Roxborough,
near Flat Rock (Manayunk), did not respond to the
first challenge to surrender, when, as Rivington said,
Cathcart was " constrained" to fire the barn and burn
it and the men to ashes. The men were troopers of
370
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Lee's legion, and a monument was erected to their
memory in 1860. During Christmas week a party
crossed the Delaware and made a raid into New
Jersey, carrying off stock, forage, and provisions.
Another detachment about the same time crossed at
Gray's Ferry and took the road to Chester and Darby,
with three hundred wagons. Howe and Erskine were
with them ; they made a demonstration towards Ches-
ter, but the hay on Tinicum Island was their real ob-
ject. Several pickets and detachments skirmished
on their front and flank, under Capt. Potterfield, and
Col. Bull with a brigade was sent down to force the
foragers to retire by demonstrating against the ene-
my's lines. His forces were distributed on the Frank-
ford, Germantown, and Ridge roads, and caused the
enemy to sound a general alarm. Bull planted his
cannon and fired several shots at the heart of the city,
then withdrew to Frankford, but did not cause the
foragers to return until they had secured all their
plunder. Morgan's Rifles, however, worried their
flanks in returning and took thirty-four prisoners. The
enemy took up the bridge and made no more raids.
During this period, though communications were
restricted, there were generally illicit means of cor-
respondence between town and country, and informa-
tion of importance could always find conveyance
through the lines. An employe1 of Robert Morris
came into the American camp in November, found
Morris, and told him he bore a message from Gen.
Howe, through Thomas Willing, to the effect that if
the Americans rescind the independence ordinance,
he and Lord Howe had authority to restore all things
to the status quo ante helium — the condition existing
in 1763, including the paper money. Morris commu-
nicated his news to Duer, a member of Congress ;
Brown was arrested as a spy ; he had no credentials
nor authority to show, and the Lancaster Committee
of Safety clapped him in jail " for aiding and assisting
the enemies of this commonwealth, and forming com-
binations with them for betraying the United States
into their hands." Thomas Wharton, Jr., president,
issued an address, ridiculing Mr. Brown's self-imposed
mission and showing how absurd it was. " Were we
a tribe of savages," it says, " this talk would be at
least accompanied with a belt of wampum ; but to us
not even the slightest token is vouchsafed." Brown
was kept in jail, though Robert Morris offered to be
his parole, and Washington considered him " a worthy,
well-disposed person." In fact, the distress of the
people was too great to permit any tampering with
the notion of a return of peace and plenty.
The Assembly of the State secured its first quorum
at Lancaster in the second week in October, and an
act was passed creating a Council of Safety, and in-
vesting it with extraordinary powers, in view of the
enemy's presence, especially to seize property, levy
troops, and punish traitors. This committee was made
up of the Supreme Executive Council, with the fol-
lowing gentlemen added: John Bayard, Jonathan
Sargeant, Jonathan B. Smith, David Rittenhouse,
Joseph Gardner, Robert Whitehill, Christopher Mar-
shall, James Smith, of York, Jacob Orndt, Curtis
Grubb, James Cannon, and William Henry, of Lan-
caster. This council was to sit during the whole of
the Assembly's recess ; to keep the army supplied
and reinforced, prevent the British from getting sup-
plies, and break up the forestalling and engrossing of
provisions. It sat from October 17th to December
6th, and was then dissolved. One of its first acts
was a confiscation ordinance, directed against the es-
tates of all who had joined or should join the British
army, or who supplied it with food. The commission-
ers to carry this act into effect for Philadelphia County
were William Will, Sharpe Delaney, Jacob Schriner,
Charles Wilson Peale, Robert Smith, and Samuel
Massey ; for the county, William Antis, Robert Loller,
James Stroud, Daniel Heister, and Archibald Thomp-
son. A general ordinance against the several forms
of forestalling was passed, and a regular price of eight
shillings sixpence per gallon, Pennsylvania currency,
was set for whiskey, other than that sold by sutlers in
camp. Committees were appointed to seize blankets
and clothing from all who aided the enemy or refused
the oaths, an offset price, however, being allowed.
There were no elections in Philadelphia this fall;
in the rest of the State they were held at the usual
dates, but the Assembly could get no quorum until
late in November. Congress called on Pennsylvania
to raise $620,000 by taxation, and the Assembly ac-
cordingly provided for a Continental loan office, where
interest-yielding certificates were exchanged for money
or produce. The loan commissioners for Philadel-
phia County were Matthew Clarkson, John Evans,
John Mitchell, Andrew Bunner, and Marshall Ed-
wards. By act of Congress all grain crops within
seventy miles of Philadelphia were required to be
threshed out as soon as matured or be subject to
seizure. The Assembly did not pass any act to give
this law effect, but Washington repaired the neglect
by a proclamation from Valley Forge.
Meantime, quiet Philadelphia began to accustom
herself to the riot and fever of a garrison town in
time of war and on the frontier of hostilities. The
soldier, a nomad and unsettled, has a life of dull rou-
tine, broken in upon by flashes of wild and exciting
adventure. His existence is almost purposeless from
day to day, and he pursues with peculiar zest the
passing promise of enjoyment. Glory may be his goal,
but to kill time is his present and immediate object,
and pleasure is elevated in his eyes as the only cure for
the dull and deadly ennui of the camp and barracks.
" Das ist eia Stlli-men,
Das ist eiu Leben !
Matischen und Biirgen
Mlissen sicli geben.
K ulin ist das M ii lion,
Herrlich der Lohn !
Und die Soldaten
Ziehen davon."
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
371
The town did not impress its conquerors favorably
at first. A British officer wrote of it in October : " I
cannot say much for the town of Philadelphia, which
has no view but the straightness and uniformity of
the streets. Till we arrived, I believe, it was a very
populous city, but at present it is very thinly inhab-
ited, and that only by the canaille and the Quakers,
whose peaceable disposition has prevented their
taking up arms, and consequently has engaged them
in our interests, by drawing upon them the displeas-
ure of their countrymen." The Hessian, Capt. John
Heinricks, whose correspondence was unearthed by
Professor Schlozer, of Gottingen, wrote that " if the
Hon. Count Penn should surrender to me the whole
country for my patent on condition that I should live
here during my life, I would scarcely accept it. . . .
Among one hundred persons, not merely in Philadel-
phia, but also throughout the whole neighborhood,
not one has a healthy color, the cause of which is the
unhealthy air and the bad water."
To amuse themselves, became the soldiers' duty as
soon as they had settled down in Philadelphia, and
the resources of the city were at once taxed to their
limit, and developed so abnormally in certain unde-
sirable directions that it was called a Capua by the
Americans who came in after Clinton's departure.
The officers formed themselves into clubs, with
dinner as their summum bonurn. " The Friendly
Brothers," acting upon their motto, " Quis Separabit
Nos f" dined one month at the Indian King, the next
at the Bunch of Grapes, a Montresor or a Brown the
lord of the feast. The " Loyal Association Club"
met at Clark's, over against the State-House ; there
was a Yorkshire Club, and a Society of Journeymen
Tailors also. Balls were given at the City Tavern,
and the Tory ladies soon learned the art of flirting
with a red coat. The first ball was given January
29th, Col. Howard, Lieut.-Col. Abercrombie, and Maj.
Gardiner, managers. These balls were held weekly
until April 30th. The officers set up cricket matches,
and established also a cock-pit in Moore's Alley,
Front Street, near Carr's store, Thomas Wildman,
of the Seventeenth Dragoons, caring for the cocks.
Mains were fought here for a hundred guineas, with
by-battles besides, on which doubtless a good deal
of betting was done. The old South Street Theatre
was reopened, and a theatrical season begun under
the distinguished auspices of the military. The per-
formances were part amateur, part professional, and
the theatrical library of " the martial Thespians" was
apparently scanty. The house opened on January
19th, with a comedy, " No One's Enemy but His
Own," and the farce, " The Deuce is in Him," " the
characters by the officers of the army and navy."
The charge for admittance was one dollar to boxes
and pit, fifty cents to gallery ; tickets sold at taverns
and coffee-houses. The performance was " for the
benefit of the widows and orphans of the army." A
prologue was " delivered by a gentleman of the army,"
the authorship ascribed to Maj. John Andr6. It is
brisk and stagy, with no local allusions, except this, —
" Old vaunting Sadlers Wells
Of her tight ropes and ladder-dancing telle;
But Cunningham in both excels."
On the 26th "The Minor" was acted and "The
Deuce is in Him" repeated, " for a public charity."
No money, it was announced, would be taken at the
doors, and gentlemen were requested earnestly not to
attempt to bribe the doorkeepers. The troupe, during
their season, acted plays of Shakespeare and Cibber,
Congreve, Rowe, etc. Their repertoire was not exten-
sive. Some of the performances were graced by a
professional actress, Miss Hyde; the "star" of the
troupe was Dr. Hammond Beaumont, surgeon-general
of the royal army in America; his Mock Doctor
(Moliere's " Medecin Malgre Lui," " adapted" by Cib-
ber) was looked upon as a fine performance. He also
played Scrub, lago, Hecate, and Lovegold. Dunlap
mentions the following officers, besides Beaumont, as
performing in New York in 1777. They were doubt-
less members of the Philadelphia troupe: managers
(besides Beaumont), Col. Guy Johnson, Capt. Oliver
Delancey; Col. French, Scrub; Maj. Edward Wil-
liams, Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III. ; Maj. MoncriefF,
Othello ; Capt. Stephen Payne Adye (judge-advocate),
Henry VI; Maj. O'Flaherty, Ranger, Douglass; Capt.
Thomas Shreeve (of the Provincials), Duke of Venice,
Lord Mayor, Freeman; Lieut. Butler, Stockwell ; Capt.
Hardenbrook, Belcour ; Maj. Lowther Pennington,
Othello; Lieut. Pennefeather, Estifania; Capt. Madden,
Papillon, Copper Captain; Capt. Loftus, Young Wil-
ding, Archer ; Capt. Delancey, Boniface. Maj. Andre
also sometimes took a part, but his chief connection
with the stage was as scenic artist, in which he was
assisted by Oliver Delancey. They are said to have
painted some capital drops and other scenes. One
scene painted by him is said by Charles Durang to
have been used on the stage in 1807, in a play the
subject of which was the capture and death of Andr6.
The proceeds of these performances were all given to
the widows and orphans of soldiers, and other funds
were made to contribute to the same object, Lieut.
Dunkin raising £290 8s. Id. by the publication of a
book called " Military Remarks," to which Smithers,
the engraver (who made plates for Continental bank-
notes and counterfeited them for the British), pre-
pared a frontispiece.
In the midst of these shows and festivities the
American prisoners were undergoing the severest pri-
vations. William Cunningham, a name infamous in
history, was an abandoned, hard-hearted wretch.
Joshua Loring, commissioner of prisoners, was fit to
be his mate. Cunningham had been the executioner
of Nathan Hale, and the torturer of Ethan Allen ; he
was half Carrier, half Marat ; a brutal tyrant and a
villainous dog. In New York he used to stride into
prison at tattoo, whip in hand, shouting, " Kennel I ye
s — s of b — s ! Kennel, d — n ye !" Of Loring, Ethan
372
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Allen said, in his vigorous way, " He is the most mean
spirited, cowardly, deceitful, and destructive animal
in God's creation below." These were the creatures
into whose hands the unhappy prisoners were con-
signed, to suffer insult and privation, equal measure.
Their food was stinted and foul, but not so foul as the
abuse daily heaped upon them without measure.
Four pounds of bread, mouldy and rotten, and a
pound and a half of meat was each man's allowance
once in nine days, when the officers and crew of the
" Delaware" frigate were first brought in. At the State-
House, where both soldiers and sailors were confined,
provisions were very scarce. Neither officers nor men
were allowed to see their friends, nor open a window
for fresh air. A negro was allowed to strike an officer
without rebuke. At the provost prison, where only
private soldiers were confined, Cunningham amused
himself by knocking over the vessels in which the
friends of the prisoners brought them food, to see the
starved wretches scramble for it. Prisoners fell dead
in trying to clutch the uncertain and meagre allow-
ance granted them. Cunningham's whip was busy
in his brutal and cowardly hand, and he starved the
prisoners as much from cruelty as for pelf. This vil-
lain, for so he was by nature, went home with the
army to England, and his vicious instincts brought
him at last to the gallows, where he made a dying
speech and confession before being swung off. This
was in London, Aug. 10, 1791. He said he was born
in Dublin barracks, his father being a bugler, was
bred an officer's servant, then riding-master and ser-
geant of dragoons. Afterwards he was pimp to a
gin-shop drab in a blind alley until the place was
broken up because a receptacle for stolen goods. Then
he married an exciseman's daughter and became
" scaw-banker," — decoy for kidnapping apprentices
and redemptioners to be shipped to America, with
one cargo of whom he came over himself in 1774,
settled in New York, and became horse-breaker. In
Boston, Gen. Gage made him provost-marshal. He
admitted selling the prisoners' rations, and having
been accessory to hundreds of private, illegal " exe-
cutions" of prisoners. The crime for which he was
hung finally was forging a draft for three hundred
pounds.1 It is not creditable to the British service
that such an abandoned wretch should so long have
been employed by it and kept in a responsible station.
During the severe winter of 1777-78, large numbers
of the prisoners under Loring and Cunningham died
of cold and hunger combined. The windows of the
jail had been broken and were not restored, nor were
fires permitted or covering given out. Every day the
victims of this infamous barbarity perished, and were
dragged to the trenches in the Potter's Field near by.
Howe would not permit the prisoners to receive
1 There have been writers who have questioned the authenticity of
this " confession," and pronounced it spurious ; but the details fit so well
what is known of Cunningham's life in other particulars that the reader
will say, " si non vero e ben travato."
clothing and blankets except directly from Washing-
ton; he forbade Thomas Willing from supplying
them. The Board of War of Pennsylvania called
President Wharton's attention to the prisoners' un-
happy state, denouncing the savage cruelty of the
treatment they met from the enemy. Congress was
forced to send in provisions for their support, and
Elias Boudinot was appointed commissary-general
of prisoners. In Philadelphia, while the prison-
ers' corpses were covered into the shallow trenches
with hasty spades, the body of Molesworth, the exe-
cuted spy, was ceremoniously exhumed and given a
pompous funeral in the Quaker burying-ground.
Galloway, as superintendent, made the citizens of
Philadelphia feel as if they themselves were prison-
ers. By proclamation he forbade any one to appear
on the streets between tattoo and reveille — 8£ p.m.
and sunrise. — without a lantern, and all who went out
after hours were liable to arrest and detention. A
pass was necessary to cross the Delaware, and then
only at two ferries ; a permit was needed to sell a
blanket ; wood could not be cut, except for the troops,
in the Neck below the city ; the citizens were ordered
to rake and clean the streets at their fronts every
Saturday afternoon ; a fine of twenty shillings was
laid for foul chimneys ; huckstering, peddling, and
forestalling of provisions were forbidden ; vendues
were severely restricted, and only three were author-
ized, the vendue masters, David Sproat for city and
Southwark, and Richard Foobman for Northern Lib-
erties, being appointed by Galloway.
A great number of miscellaneous minor operations
from Philadelphia, and against it and the enemy's army
and fleet there, belong to the forepart of 1778. Chiefly
affairs of posts, they yet sparkle with daring and ad-
venture. The shipping passing to and fro along the
river was often assailed, at different points, by the
Americans, sometimes from the shore, sometimes with
boats and small craft. The vessels in Philadelphia
harbor were a temptation to patriotic ingenuity to
invent means to destroy them. A collection of kegs
for infernal machines was made at Burlington. They
were to be charged with powder and fitted with spring
triggers, which would explode them upon contact with
a hard substance. One of these kegs got adrift and
floated to Philadelphia, and upon attempt to secure it
by boys in a boat the barrel exploded, killing or injur-
ing one or more of them. This put the British on the
qui vive, and upon the appearance of other kegs a few
days afterwards they were mercilessly bombarded until
every head of every keg was beaten in. This caused
a huge laugh, and became the theme of Francis Hop-
kinson's ballad, " The Battle of the Kegs," probably
the best satire of the war. The poem was a close para-
phrase of a spirited burlesque account of the affair,
which was published in the (Burlington) New Jersey
Gazette, January 11th, the incident having occurred
January 5th.
The invention of the kegs was ascribed to David
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
373
Bushnell, who contrived several torpedoes and sub-
marine engines which never were made effective. Mr.
Westcott thinks, however, that other inventive men,
probably, had to do with this contrivance of the
kegs, among whom he names Joseph Bel ton, of Rhode
Island, and Ezra Lee, of New York. These inventors
were naturally attracted to the latitude of Philadel-
phia by the presence of Congress there. Bushnell
was a Say brook man, and his "Turtle," a submarine
vessel, was invented by him at Yale College. He it
was who tried to blow up the " Cerberus" frigate at
New London, in 1778, according to Bishop's " History
of Manufactures." Belton offered his machine to
the Philadelphia Committee of Safety in 1775.
In December, 1777, Gen. Armstrong withdrew on
furlough from his command. He was old and en-
feebled by service. Washington, in leaving White
Marsh, was anxious to have the upper part of the
Delaware-Schuylkill peninsula well guarded. A
thousand Pennsylvania militia were nominally as-
signed to the service, and Col. John Lacey made their
brigadier, as the fittest man for the place. On tak-
ing command on January 9th he found but four hun-
dred and fifty men actually in his brigade. Of these
seventy were at Graeme Park, the headquarters,
eighty at Smithfield, and at Springhouse and Ply-
mouth meeting three hundred. There were but very
few of the most needed sort of troopers (light horse-
men), and he could not keep up patrols between his
posts. Lacey withdrew four or five miles farther in-
land, and, as his force was still more reduced by de-
sertion, consolidated his posts more in order to main-
tain himself. This opened the county to the Queen's
Rangers and James' and Hovenden's loyalists, who
foraged and ravaged where they pleased. They were
hated by the " rebels," and cordially hated them in
return, so that a dash through the American lines
was a sport they liked to indulge in. In this way
Col. William Coats, lieutenant of Philadelphia
County, was captured in February and thrown into
the provost prison, where a malignant fever raged.
Other expeditions of the sort were planned and
carried out, Lacey having no cavalry, and but sixty
men left him of all his brigade. Sir William Er-
skine, early in the month, marched up Frankford
road- way, with eight thousand men, for forage and
plunder. They were out three days, harrying Phila-
delphia County and the borders of Bucks, and bring-
ing in a great quantity of booty. Lacey was himself
of Bucks County, but could do nothing to save it
from plunder. On February 14th Capt. Hovenden,
with "the Philadelphia troop of light dragoons"
(loyalists), trotted up the Bristol road, Capt. Thomas
of "the Bucks County volunteers" (loyalists also)
taking the Bustleton road. Hovenden brought in,
on his return, pretty nearly all the representatives of
civil authority in the county : Gunning Bedford, once
commissary master; Maj. John Snyder, of the mili-
tia; Justice John Vandegrift, John Miller, and Benj.
Walton, collectors of militia fines; John Rodgers,
mate of the "Randolph" frigate; Lieuts. Thomas Mil-
ler and Joseph Allen and eight others; Lieuts. Wil-
liam Preston, John Ogburn, and John Blake, with
nine others, were brought in by Thomas. A day or
two after Thomas and Hovenden, with twenty-four
dragoons and fourteen foot, marched to Jenks' full-
ing-mill, in Bucks, and captured a guard of Continen-
tal soldiers and a quantity of cloth for Washington's
army. Then they went to take Maj. Murray at New-
town, took him and routed, killed, or captured his
force, and returned with thirty prisoners and the
cloth which the Valley Forge army needed so dread-
fully. The cloth had been meant to clothe Col. Wal-
ter Stewart's regiment. In the latter part of the
month, Hovenden, with a detachment of the regular
dragoons, captured a drove of one hundred and thirty
fat cattle en route from Jersey to the camp at Valley
Forge.
In the city the poor got no benefit from all these
captures, and their distress was so great that Howe
sanctioned the collection of contributions for the sup-
port of the almshouse. The collectors appointed were
Samuel Richards, Henry Lyle, Jos. Allen, Elias Daw-
son, Andrew Tybout, William Sykes, Mark Freeman,
Jon'n Brown, John Wood, Brian O'Hara, Jos. Stans-
bury, Alexander Tod, James Sparks, Benjamin Shoe-
maker, Reuben Haines, Thomas Moore, Caleb Att-
more, Benjamin Homer, John Jones, Benjamin Gibbs,
Nicholas Hicks, Benjamin Stillwagen, Jacob Graefe,
Leonard Kressler, Edward Cutburn, Isaac Coats,
William Brown, Abram Jones, William Thomas, Jos.
Turner, Benjamin Hemmings, and Joseph Lownes.
In April, Howe sanctioned (or ordered) a lottery
scheme, to draw £1012 10s. for the poor, the managers
being Stephen Shewell, James Craig, Reynold Keene,
William Morrell, James Sparks, Joseph Stansbury,
Robert Shewell, Benjamin Gibbs, Thomas Asheton,
Curtis Clay, William McMurtrie, Samuel Murdoch,
Richard Rundle, Michael Connor, John Hart, and
Thomas Murgatroyd.
About this time Lacey was reinforced with levies
from York. In the end of February Gen. Wayne
was returning from Southern New Jersey with a con-
voy of cattle he had been sent by Washington to
gather up and bring in for the supply of the camp at
Valley Forge. The British heard of his march, and
Howe sent Col. Abercrombie from Philadelphia down
the Delaware to attack him. Col. Markham held
Cooper's Ferry, to cover the rear and forage. The
Queen's Rangers and the Forty-second, under Lieut. -
Col. Stirling, crossed at Philadelphia, and marched to
Haddonfield to intercept Wayne. Simcoe captured
the boats, which had run into Timber Creek after the
fall of Fort Mercer, loaded them with tow, and sent
them to Philadelphia. Then the rangers ravaged the
country towards Egg Harbor, robbing farm-houses,
but not seeking Wayne. When the latter advanced
from Mount Holly, Stirling retreated, and Wayne's
374
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
troops followed them closely to Cooper's Creek, where
the enemy secured his retreat.
Capt. Thomas, with his dragoons, went down the
river in boats to plunder, but had a brush with some
volunteers, and came back with neither booty nor
glory. Some of his crews were attacked and lost
their vessels. There were American galleys and
armed boats in Christiana and several other creeks
emptying into the Delaware, and they made several
captures of transports on the river, retiring with their
prizes behind shore batteries ; and the British in
Philadelphia sent out several expeditions against
these annoying cruisers, and destroyed two or three
of them.
On March 12th, Col. Mawhood led a foraging-party
to New Jersey, comprising the Seventeenth and Forty-
sixth Regiment, Simcoe's rangers, and the New Jer-
sey volunteers, — about fifteen hundred men all told.
They went down the river, landed at Salem, captured
horses from the farmers in that neighborhood, and
then began to forage along Salem and Alloway s Creeks.
The New Jersey militia took up Hancock's and Quin-
ton's bridges, and mustered in considerable force on the
other side of the river. Simcoe and Mawhood, by an
ingenious ruse, induced the militia to cross at Han-
cock's bridge, when they were led into an ambuscade,
and lost between thirty and forty men. Two days
later Maj. Simcoe organized another expedition
against Cumberland County and Hancock's and
Quinton's bridges, in New Jersey. The major had
scouted to the vicinity with a patrol, climbed a tree,
and made a rough sketch of the country, basing his
plan of attack on it. He expected to encounter three
or four hundred militia, but found only a guard of
twenty, the rest having been withdrawn. The force
marched against Hancock's bridge and house was
large, the plan of the campaign was intricate, and the
men got themselves belated and mired in the swamps,
all to surprise a picket of twenty militia. Every
man encountered, whether soldier or not, was bayo-
neted on the spot, the greater part of them in their
beds, and thus about thirty persons were massacred.
Another raid was made to Thompson's bridge, and
then Mawhood and his warriors returned to Phila-
delphia, much plunder in their possession and many
new graves in their train.
Other raids of smaller proportions but like char-
acter belong to the chronicles of the day, but are
scarcely even of passing moment. When Lacey's
forces began to be recruited the British made fewer
incursions to the northward, and the farmers of Bucks
found that the road to the Philadelphia market and
British guineas was less absolutely open to them than
it had been. Lacey made many captures of these
delinquents, and a practical difficulty arose as to how
to deal with them. They were tried by court-martial
in camp, and some were condemned to be hung, but
this was a severity such as the nature of the offense
scarcely warranted. Washington recommended to
send the most dangerous to the Supreme Council for
imprisonment during short terms, those with good
character to be set free, with notice that they should
be hanged if caught offending again. Finally, the
law authorizing court-martials having expired, the
simple process was adopted of seizing the horses,
wagons, and produce of all farmers captured on their
way to provision the enemy, the soldiers usually con-
tributing a sound flogging besides. This still did not
arrest the traffic, and there were so many Tories
among the farmers in the sections adjacent to the
city that Lacey recommended that all residents near
the line should be compelled to move back into the
interior of the country. This plan, he thought,
would deprive the enemy at once of his supplies of
fresh provisions and of his means of intelligence of
American movements. "Every kind of villainy," he
said, " is carried on by the people near the enemy's
lines ; and, from their general conduct, I am induced
to believe that very few real friends of America are
left within ten miles of Philadelphia." Washington,
however, in his wise, calm way suggested that the
measure was " rather desirable than practicable."
Another suggestion put forth at this time, with a
view to check the depredations of the loyalist refugees
and rangers, was the employment of Indians. The
proposition originated in camp at Valley Forge, and
the Committee of Congress then wrote two letters to
the President of Congress about it, signed by Francis
Dana, but in the handwriting of Gov. Morris. In
these letters the stock argument for and against such
a, service are discussed, and the Oneidas of New York
spoken of as the tribe that could best be employed,
the commander to be Col. Mordecai Gist, of Mary-
land. Gist himself was the bearer of the second letter
to Congress, but the matter went no further.
In April there were slight affairs of post at Frank-
ford, at Smithfield, at Dr. Benneville's house, on the
York road, at Billingsport, and Haddonfield, mere
nameless, aimless skirmishes, such as must always be
taking place in the debatable ground between two
hostile armies. Both Washington and Howe took
some pains to make the country produce for them,
the latter reserving pasture grounds in the Neck for
his horses, and the former directing all farmers near
camp to fatten their cattle. . A witty British verse-
maker sent a squib to the Pennsylvania Ledger, thank-
ing Washington for the kind consideration evinced
by this order :
" Thy proclamation timely to command
The cattle to be fattened round the land
Bespeaks thy generosity, and shows
A chanty that reaches to thy foes.
And was this order issued for our sakes,
To treat us with roast beef and savory steakB?
Or was it for thy rebel train intended?
Give 'em the hides and let tlieir shoes be mended, —
Though shoes are what they seldom wear of lato, —
'Twould load their nimble feet with too much weight.
And as for beef, there needs no puffs about it ;
In short they must content themselves without it, —
PHILADELPHIA DUEING THE KEVOLUTION.
375
Not that we mean to have them starved ; why, marry,
The live-stock Id abundance which they carry
Upon their backs preventB all fear of that," etc.
Lacey's energy and enterprise, even with his small
forces, enabled him to reduce the supplies of Phila-
delphia so materially that the attempt was made to
destroy his command, and an expedition was sent
against him. His headquarters were the Crooked
Billet Tavern, in Bucks County, on the York road,
twenty-five miles north of the city, now called Hat-
borough. The party was under command of Lieut. -
Col. Abercrombie, comprising light infantry, cavalry,
and Simcoe's rangers, and started on May 1st. Simcoe
was to get in Lacey's rear, and a party was to be
placed in ambush, while the mounted infantry and
cavalry advanced along the
road. Lacey's officers and
patrols were negligent, and
his force was completely
surprised, and surrounded
on all sides-. They retreated
fighting, but without their
baggage, and finally got
away with a loss of twenty-
six killed, eight or ten
wounded, and fifty-eight
missing. Many prisoners
were bayoneted, and some
wounded burned to death
by Simcoe's, Hovenden's,
and James' refugee scoun-
drels. The British loss
was nominal. Among the
Americans slain was Capt.
Downey, who had been a
school-master in Philadel-
phia, and a gallant volun-
teer at Trenton and Prince-
ton. He had surveyed
the Delaware River for the
Committee of Safety, and
was acting as commissary
for Lacey. He was bay-
oneted and mutilated while
lying wounded and a pris-
oner at the Crooked Billet.
A monument was erected in December, 1861, to the
victims of Lacey's command in this fight, on the
battle-field at Hatborough. The Latin motto is
" Defensores libertalis per insidias abrupli," which
is vapid and meaningless. The surprise was a le-
gitimate act of war ; the massacre after surrender was
a barbarous act, and that the inscription should have
emphasized.
Besides Lacey's command on the north, Arm-
strong was in his old camp with militia on the north-
west at White Marsh ; Maj. Jameson and Capt. Allen
McLane, with cavalry and infantry, were on the west
side of Schuylkill ; Lee's cavalry, with Morgan's
riflemen, were at different points on the line, while
■Smallwood and his division were posted at Wilming-
ton, so that the Americans had Philadelphia pretty
effectually picketed. Sometimes the enemy broke
through the cordon with their own partisan riders,
now taking Col. Penrose, another colonel, a major,
nine officers, and thirty-two privates at Bristol ; now
killing three and taking fifty-one ; now killing twelve,
taking six, and scattering the rest, as DeLancey claims
he did, — but we must remember these are the reports
of Tory refugees, chronicled in Tory journals. When
an American officer, who was keeping back the coun-
try people, happened to be made a prisoner, he be-
came the hero of a procession ; his vegetables and
poultry were hung about him, to garnish his person
and his horse, and thus
equipped he was paraded
about the streets.
In one of these raids
Lord Cathcart made some
creditable dashes, but he
was far eclisped by the
gallant Allen McLane, who
was a partisan like Harry
Lee, Pulaski, Armand,
Sumter, and Marion, like
Tarleton, and Simcoe. He
was particularly identified
with the lines about Phila-
delphia at this time, — a
captain of cavalry and ex-
pected to do the most im-
portant scouting duty, es-
pecially in intercepting the
market people. He sent
many a spy into the city,
disguised as a farmer of
Bucks and Chester and
loaded down with vege-
tables and fowls taken
from a veritable non-com-
batant's poultry-yard and
garden. Sometimes his
men sold horse-meat in
Philadelphia for beef, —
meat that a British trooper
had straddled in the flesh until an American bullet
dismounted him, — and British gold thus earned must
have been doubly valuable to McLane's rough riders.
The gallant captain's feats of war were numerous,
and the legends concerning some of them are still
fresh and vivid. Once, in 1778, as he was on his way
at daybreak to join Capt. Craig in an attack on the
enemy, he fell into an ambuscade near Frankford.
His company were far in the rear, only four troopers
were with him, one of whom suddenly cried out,
" Captain, the British !" and he and his mate spurred
their horses and galloped away. McLane saw the
enemy drawn up on both sides of the road, and a file
376
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of them fired at him. He dashed away, pursued and
fired at, and stumbled upon another large body of-
dragoons, from whose very front he turned abruptly
off at a right angle pursued by a dozen, all of whom
but two he distanced. These chased him several
miles, all their horses giving out. A trooper now
rode up and seized McLane by the collar, whereupon
the latter drew a pistol and shot him dead. With the
second a fierce conflict ensued, McLane's hand being
badly slashed by a sabre-cut, but finally he shot the
second trooper also, and killed him, and then took
refuge, naked, in a mill-pond, until the cold water
stopped the flow of blood from his wound. Another
time he was surprised while seeking intelligence in
Germantown, by a dozen troopers, but he charged
through them and escaped. His most notable feat of
arms in other fields was the surprise of Paulus Hook.
McLane was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 8, 1746,
and at the beginning of the Revolution, it is said,
held an estate in Philadelphia worth fifteen thousand
dollars, the whole of which he sacrificed in the ser-
vice of his country. He removed to Kent County,
Del., in 1774, and, as a volunteer, witnessed the re-
pulse of the British at Great Bridge, Va. In 1775
he became lieutenant in Cassar Rodney's Delaware
regiment. In 1776 he joined the army of Washing-
ton ; distinguished himself at the battle of Long
Island; was at White Plains and Trenton, and by
his good conduct and gallantry at Princeton, won
from Washington the commission of captain in 1777.
As we have seen, he commanded the outposts around
Philadelphia, and was hotly engaged in the battle of
Monmouth. In July, 1779, he was made major of
the infantry of Lee's legion, taking a prominent part
in the brilliant affairs of Paulus Hook and Stony
Point, and was at the siege of Yorktown. He was
a member and Speaker of the Delaware Legisla-
ture; six years a privy councilor; many years judge
of the Court of Common Pleas; marshal of the
Delaware District from 1790 to 1798, and collector
of the port of Wilmington from 1808 until his death,
May 22, 1829. He was father of Louis McLane, the
statesman, and grandfather of Hon. Robert M.
McLane, the present (1884) Governor of Maryland.1
1 Louis McLane, the son of Col. Allen, was born at Smyrna, Kent Co.,
Del., May 28, 1786, and died in Baltimore Oct. 7, 1857. He entered the
navy as midshipman in 1798, and cruised one year in the " Philadel-
phia" under Commodore Stephen Decatur. He began the study of law
in 1804, with the distinguished James A. Bayard, of Delaware, and was
admitted to the bar in 1807. He was a member of Congress from Dela-
ware from 1817 to 1827, and on the Missouri question voted against per-
mitting slavery in that State, in opposition to bis constituents, but in
obedience to his own convictions. He was United States Senator from
1827 to 1829 ; minister to England, May, 1820 to 1831 ; Secretary of the
United States Treasury, 1831 to 1833 ; Secretary of State, 1833, and re-
tired from political life in 1834. He was president of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company from 1837 to 1847, and in June, 1845, was in-
trusted by President Polk with the mission to England during the
Oregon negotiations. His last public service was as a delegate to the
Reform Convention at Annapolis, in the winter of 1850-51.
Robert Milligan McLane, the distinguished son of LouiB McLane,
was horn in Delaware, Jane 23, 1816. He began bis education at a
By Washington's recommendation the State gal-
leys, which, with the Continental frigates, had been
stationed at Trenton and Borden's Ferry, since Red
Bank, were sunk in April. The other vessels, how-
ever, were kept afloat, and the enemy sent up a force
of seven hundred soldiers with armed boats and ves-
sels to destroy them. The troops were Maj. Mait-
land's Second Light Infantry, the galleys and boats
being commanded by Lieut. John Henry, of the navy.
They landed at White Hill (Borden's Ferry) in the
morning of May 8th, and burned the two Continental
frigates, " Washington" and " Effingham," the " Mont-
gomery," two privateers, and a number of other ves-
sels, great and small, killed seventeen militiamen,
burnt Joseph Borden's house and store, and did other
destruction at Bristol, where Gen. Dickinson, with
the New Jersey militia, attacked them. On their re-
turn they burned the buildings on Col. Kirkbride's
plantation, in Bucks County. Maitland's return of
the vessels destroyed in this raid were, one frigate
pierced for thirty-two guns, one for twenty-eight, nine
large ships, three privateer sloops sixteen guns each,
three privateer sloops ten guns each, twenty-three
brigs, and a number of small sloops and schooners.
Some of these vessels by more prudent management
might have been saved for the time when the British
Friends' sell 10I in Wilmington, and afterwards attended Washington
College, District of Columbia, and St. Mary's College, Baltimore In
1S29 he accompanied his father to England, and studied in Paris for two
years, at the end of which time he returned home, and was appointed a
cadet in West Point Military Academy by Gen. Andrew Jackson. He
graduated in 1837, and was appointed second lieutenant in the First
Artillery. He served with Gen. Jessup in the Everglades, Florida, in
1837, and there first formed the acquaintance of Gen. Joseph E. John-
ston, who married his sister.
Lieut. McLane served in the Cherokee country of Georgia under Gen.
Scott, and was afterwards transferred to the corps of topographical en-
gineers. In 1841 he was sent to Europe to examine the system of dikes
and drainage in Holland. While on that trip he married, in Paris, Miss
Georgine Urquhart, daughter of a Louisiana merchant. Previous to sail-
ing Tor Europe, in 1841, in addition to his engineering duties, he studied
law in Washington under Gen. Walter Jones, and was admitted to the
bar. In 1S43 he resigned his army position and started the practico of
law in Baltimore. In 1845 lie was elected to the House of Delegates of
Maryland. In 1847 he was elected to Cougress from the Fourth Congres-
sional District of Maryland over the Hon. John P. Kennedy, the Whig
candidate. He was re-elected to Congress in 1849, and in 1853 President
Pierce appointed him commissioner to China, with the powers of a min-
ister plenipotentiary. In 1855, there being nothing to keep him in China,
and the climate not agreeing with him, he was recalled at his own re-
quest. Early in 1859 he was appointed by President Buchanan envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the republic of Mexico.
Diplomatic relations between the two republics had been suspended for
several years previous to Mr. McLane's appointment. While in Mexico
Mr. McLane negotiated a treaty which gave to citizens of the United
States increased commercial advantages. In 18G0, Mr. McLane resigned
and resumed the practice of law in Baltimore. During the civil war he
was counsel for the Western Pacific Railroad and several other large cor-
porations, and during 1864 and 1865 visited Europe upon professional busi-
ness. In 1878 he was State senator from the Third Legislative District of
Baltimore City, and served one 6ession. In 1879 he was elected to Con-
gress, and again in 1881. In the fall of 1883 he was nominated by the
Democratic party of Maryland their candidate for Governor, and was
elected by nearly twelve thousand majority. James L. McLane, a prom-
inent member of the Baltimore bar and at one time city counselor, and
Louis McLane, a leading banker of San Francisco, California, are broth-
ers of Hon. Robert M. McLane.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
377
by evacuating Philadelphia left the river open for
their cruisers.
The Assembly at Lancaster, in the spring of 1778,
endeavored to aid the military arm by some vigorous
legislation. The college property in Philadelphia
being in the hands of the enemy, an act was passed
suspending the functions of the trustees under the
charter. An act of attainder was also passed, requir-
ing certain persons to come forward for trial by a
certain day (April 20th), under penalty of forfeiture
of their estates, provision for the discovery and seiz-
ure of which was made, as well as for the attainting
of other persons adhering to the enemy. Those
named in this act were Joseph Galloway, Andrew
Allen, John Allen, William Allen, the younger ;
Jacob Duche, the younger ; James Rankin, of York ;
Gilbert Hicks, of Bucks ; Samuel Shoemaker, of
Philadelphia; John Potts, of Philadelphia County ;
Nathaniel Vernon, of Chester ; Christian Foutz, of
Lancaster ; Reynold Keen, of Berks ; and John
Biddle, of Berks. All subjects of the State serving
the enemy were declared to be liable to attainder,
and debtors of traitors were directed to pay their
dues to the Supreme Council instead of to the attainted
persons. Another act extended the time for taking
the oath of allegiance to June 1st, and required the
subscription to be made by every public and profes-
sional person, trustees, teachers, professors, mer-
chants and traders, doctors, lawyers, clerks, apothe-
caries, divines, etc. All who attempted to follow
any named occupation before taking the oath were
liable to fines of £500. Justices were authorized to
summon persons neglecting to take the oath and fine
them £10 or imprison them for three months. Every
person not taking the oath might be deprived of his
firearms. Persons going into Philadelphia without
permits were liable to heavy fine and imprisonment.
Persons in office under the late provincial govern-
ment and failing to renounce before June 1st for-
feited lands and tenements.
February 25th, Abraham Gibbous, William Jack-
son, Jr., Jacob Lindley, Warner Mifflin, Joseph Hus-
band, and James Jackson, members of the Society of
Friends, asked leave to lay their sufferings before the
Assembly. They were admitted, but before they were
allowed to speak were required to answer whether
they acknowledged the Assembly's loyalty, legiti-
macy, and authority to pass and enforce laws. The
Quakers replied they had not come prepared to an-
swer such questions, and withdrew. Next day they
returned, but their answers were pronounced evasive
and unsatisfactory, as they certainly were, and they
were ordered to petition in writing. They demanded
the release of the Quakers in Virginia, and pronounced
the test-oaths infringements upon the liberty of con-
science. Their request in regard to the prisoners was
complied with,, and John Penn and Benjamin Chew
were, also discharged on parole. They had been sent
to Hunterdon, N. J., and Governor William Living-
ston had protested vigorously against their sojourn in
that community.
Already Howe had found Philadelphia a barren
conquest, — a Capua to his men in one sense if not in
another, — and the evacuation of the city was felt by
Washington to be so certainly only a question of time
that as early as March he began to collect wagons and
organize teams for the transportation service of his
army when it should be required to march after the
enemy. Howe's proper point for operations was New
York, and Washington felt sure he would return
thither. Instead of that, however, Howe, yielding to
the complaints at his supineness in England, and de-
sirous to return home, resigned. Sir Henry Clinton,
his successor, arrived at Billingsport May 7th, Phila-
delphia May 8th, and took formal command of the
British army May 11th.
Howe's farewell was made the occasion of a fUe
champUre, which, a splendid folly in itself, has been
about as notorious in American history as the Field of
the Cloth of Gold used to be in the annals of the three
monarchs, — Henry, Charles, and Francis. The Meschi-
anza was, as the word implies, a medley, but the most
salient features were imitated from the Masques, such,
for instance, as Ben Jonson used to get up for the
amusement of James I.'s court at Theobald's, White-
hall, and Hampton Court. Maj. Andr§, a scholar
and an artist, with a vein of sentiment and of chiv-
alry in his composition, was a close student of dra-
matic effects and the drama. He appears to have been
sincerely and warmly attached to Howe, and, as the
contriver and chief manager of &fUe in Howe's honor,
he seems to have ransacked his fancy and his memory
to combine the bizarre and the picturesque, the roman-
WHARTON MANSION AND WALNUT GROVE, WHERE
THE MESCHIANZA TOOK PLACE.
tic and the dramatic. After all, the performance must
have been crude, as the features of it also were, some
of them, in bad taste and incongruous. The elements
of the medley would not mix. As for the folly and
mere childishness of such a performance, at such a
time and place, that is something which everybody
concedes. Conceive of such a tribute offered to Wash-
ington by Knox and Greene, Hamilton and Schuyler,
Sullivan and Wayne, St. Clair and Gates, and Putnam !
378
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The fUe took place on Monday, the 18th of May;
the place selected for the picnic was the Wharton
Mansion and grounds at Walnut Grove (where Fifth
and Wharton Streets now intersect), and the best,
most complete, and authentic account of the entire
performance is that written immediately after it was
over, by the contriver of it, Maj. Andr€, and pub-
lished in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1778.
The cost of the entertainment, Andre* says, was de-
frayed by twenty-two field officers, four of whom were
managers, — Sir John Wrottesley, Col. O'Hara, Maj.
Gardiner,1 and Montresor, the chief engineer. The
tickets of admission were engraved, the design, " in a
MESCHIANZA TICKET.
shield, a view of the sea, with the setting sun, and on
a wreath the words ' Jjitceo discedens, aueto splendore
resurgam.' At top was the general's crest, with ' vive,
vale/1 All around the shield ran a vignette, and
various military trophies filled up the ground."
The entertainment began with a regatta, which
must have been a striking and handsome spectacle.
It was a military procession along the water-front ;
boats, barges, and galleys, filled with guests and offi-
cers, including Lord Howe, Gen. Howe, Sir Henry
Clinton, Lord Rawdon, and Gen. Knyphausen, moving
in three divisions down the river, the surrounding
vessels decked with flags, and the wharves teeming
with spectators. The boats landed at the association
battery wharf, a quarter of a mile from the Wharton
House, the landing being accentuated by salutes fired
by the several men-of-war in the harbor.
" The company as they disembarked arranged themselves into a line
or procession, and advanced through an avenue formed by two flies of
1 Another writer describing himself as "one of the company," and
stated to be an "American" (Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol.
xiv. p. 296), gives the name of Sir Henry Calder, in place of Maj. Gardi-
ner, as one of the managers.
grenadiers and a line of light-horse supporting such file. This avenue
led to a square lawn of one hundred and fifty yards on each side, lined
with troops and properly prepared for the exhibition of a tilt and tourn-
ament, according to the customs and ordinance of ancient chivalry.
We proceeded through the centre of the square ; the music, consisting
of all the bandB of the army, moved in front. The managers, with
favors of white and blue ribbons in their breasts, followed next in order.
The general, admiral, and the rest of the company succeeded promiscu-
ously. In front appeared the building, bounding the view, through a
vista formed by two triumphal arches, erected at proper intervals in a
line with the landing place. Two pavilions, with rows of benches ris-
ing one above the other, and Berving as the advanced wings of the first
triumphal arch, received the ladies, while the gentlemen ranged them-
selves in convenient order on each side. On the front seat of each pa-
vilion were placed seven of the principal young ladies of the country,
dressed in Turkish habits, and wearing in their turbans the favors with
which they meant, to reward the several knights who were to contend
in their honor. These arrangements were scarcely made when the sound
of trumpots was heard at a distance and a band of knights, dressed in
ancient habits of white and red silk, and mounted on gray horses, richly
caparisoned in trappings of the same colors, entered the lists, attended
by their esquires on foot, in suitable apparel in the following order:
four trumpeters, properly habited, their trumpets decorated with small
pendent banners; a herald in his robes of ceremony, on his tunic the
device of his band, two roses intertwined, with the motto, ' We droop
when separated.' Lord Cathcart, superbly mounted on a managed
horse, appeared as chief of theBe knights ; two young black slaves, with
sashes and drawers of blue and white silk, wearing large Bilver clasps
round their necks and arms, their breasts and shoulders bare, held his
stirrups. On hi6 right hand walked Capt. Hazard, and on his left, Capt.
Brownlow, his two esquires, one bearing his lance, the other his shield.
His device was Cupid riding on a Iiou ; the motto, ' Surmounted by love.'
His lordship appeared in honor of Mibs Aucbmuty.
"Then came in order the knights of Mb hand, each attended by his
squire bearing his lance and shield.
"First knight, Hon. Capt. Cathcart, in honor of Miss N. White;
squire, Capt. Peters; device, a heart and sword; motto, 'Love and
honor.'
"Second knight, Lieut. Bygrove, in honor of Miss Craig; squire,
Lieut. Nichols ; device, Cupid tracing a circle ; motto, ' Without end.1
'* Third knight, Capt. AndrG, in honor of Mies P. Chew ; squire, Lieut.
Andr6; device, two game-cocks fighting; motto, 'No rival.'
"Fourth knight, Capt. Horneck, in honor of Miss N.R<dman; squire,
Lieut. Talbot; device, a burning heart; motto, 'Absence cannot extin-
guish.'
" Fifth knight, Capt. Matthews, in honor of Miss Bond ; 6quire, Lieut.
Hamilton; device, a winged heart; motto, 'Each fair by turns.'
" Sixth knight, Lieut. Sloper, in honor of Miss M. Shippen ; squire,
Lieut. Brown ; device, a heart and sword ; motto, ' Honor and the fair.'
" After they had made the circuit of the square and saluted the ladies
as they passed before the pavilions, they ranged themselves in a line
with that in which were the ladies of their device; and their herald
(Mr. Beaumont), advancing into the centre of the square, after a flourish
of trumpets, proclaimed the following challenge : ' The KnightB of the
Blended Rose, by me, their herald, proclaim and assert that the ladies of
the Blended Rose excel in wit, beauty, and every accomplishment those
of the whole world ; and should any knight or knights be so hardy as
to dispute or deny it, they are ready to enter the lists with them, and
maintain their assertions by deeds of arms, according to the laws of an-
cient chivalry.'
" At the third repetition of the challenge, the sound of trumpets was
heard from the opposite side of the square, and another herald, with
four trumpeters, dressed in black and orange, galloped into the lists. He
was met by the herald of the Blended Rose, and, after a short parley,
they both advanced in front of the pavilions, when the black herald
(Lieut. Moore) ordered his trumpeters to sound, and then proclaimed
defiance to the challenge in the following words:
"'The Knights of the Burning Mountain present themselves here,
not to contest by words, but to disprove by deeds, the vainglorious asser-
tion of the Knights of the Blended Rose; and enter these lists to main-
tain that the ladies of the Burning Mountain are not excelled in beauty,
virtue, or accomplishment by any in the universe.'
" He then returned to the part of the barrier through which he had
entered, and, shortly after, the Black Knights, attended by their squires,
rode into the lists in the following order :
"Capt. Watson, of the guards, as chief, dressed in a magnificent suit
of black and orange silk, and mounted on a black, managed horse, with
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
379
trappings of the same colors with his own dress, appeared in honor of
Miss Franks. He wtts attended in the eame manner as Lord Cathcart.
Capt. Scott bore his lance, and Lieut. Lytellton his shield. The device,
a heart, with a wreath of flowers ; motto, ' Love and glory.'
" First knight, Lieut. Underwood, in honor of MisB S. Shippen ; squire,
Ensign Haverkam; device, a pelican feeding her young; motto, 'For
these I love.'
" Second knight, Lieut. "Winyard, in honor of Miss P. Shippen ; squire,
Capt. Boscawen ; device, a bay leaf; motto, 'Unchangeable.'
"Third knight, Lieut. Delaval, in honor of Miss B. Bond; Bquire,
Capt. Thorne; device, a heart aimed at by several arrows and struck by
one ; motto, ' One only pierces me.'
"Fourth knight, MonBieur Montluissant (lieutenant of the Hessian
chueseurs), in honor of Miss B. Redman ; squire, Capt. Campbell ; device,
a sunflower, turning towards the sun ; motto, ' Jevise d vous.'
" Fifth knight, Lieut. Hobart, in honor of MiBS S. Chew ; squire, Lieut.
Briscoe ; device, Cupid piercing a coat of mail with his arrow ; motto,
' Proof to all but love.'
" Sixth knight, Brigade-Major Tarleton, in honor of Miss W. Smith ;
Bquire, EiiBign Heart; device, a. light-dragoon; motto, ' Swift, vigilant,
and bold.' "
Knights, squires, and ladies are all dust now, and
their swords are rust ; still, we must arrest Andrfi's
narrative here to say a word more of these ladies, who
were all (except Miss Auchmuty, an English girl)
daughters of Philadelphians. Miss Auchmuty mar-
ried Capt. J. F. Montresor, of
the Guards. The second, Miss
White, does not seem to have
been remembered in tradition.
She was, however, probably
Miss White, of New York,
daughter of Henry White and
Eve Van Cortlandt, who was
of the family of Chief Justice
Jay ; there were two daughters
of Henry and Eve White, both
distinguished belles, — Augus-
ta, married Edward N. Bibby ;
Margaret, married Peter Jay
Munro (according to Mrs.
Lamb's " History of New
York"). Miss Jane Craig died
in Philadelphia, unmarried.
She was the lady who furnished
John F. Watson with the materials for his account of
the Meschianza. Miss Peggy, or Margaret Chew, who
was distinguished by Andre's having chosen her as
his lady in the tilt, was the daughter of Chief Justice
Chew, of Cliveden (the Chew house), Germantown.
Col. John Eager Howard commanded a regiment of
Stirling's forces which deployed in front of this house
to meet the Fortieth Regiment at the battle of Ger-
mantown, and after the war was over he made Miss
Margaret Chew his wife. She lived until 1824, and
among her children and descendants have been num-
bered some of the most estimable citizens of Mary-
land. Miss N. (Ann or Nancy) Redman was a
daughter of Dr. Thomas Redman; Miss B. (Re-
becca) Redman, her sister, became the wife of Col.
Elisha Lawrence, of New Jersey, on Dec. 1, 1779 ;
Miss Sophia Chew, sister of Miss Margaret, married
Henry Phillips, of Maryland. The Misses Bond were
daughters of Dr. Phineas Bond, prominent in Phila-
delphia society for a long time. One of them, Miss
Becky, went to England after the Revolution with
Mr. Erskine, the British minister, and died there un-
married. The other became the wife of Gen. John
Cadwalader. There were three Miss Shippens at the
Meschianza,— Miss Mary (Polly), Miss Sarah (Sally),
and Miss Peggy (or Margaret). They were the
daughters of Chief Justice Edward Shippen ; Miss
Polly married Dr. William Mcllvaine, Miss Sally
married Thomas Lea, and Miss Peggy was the un-
fortunate wife of the traitor, Benedict Arnold, to
whom she was married April 8, 1779. In a careful
and brilliant paper by the very capable Frederick D.
Stone, librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical So-
ciety, on "Philadelphia Society One Hundred Years
Ago," read before that society in May, 1879, and pub-
lished in the Pennsylvania Magazine (vol. iii. No. 4),
we find that Miss Peggy Shippen was then not eigh-
teen, but an acknowledged leading belle, and very
beautiful. It has been denied that the three Misses
Shippen were present at the Meschianza, and Mr.
THE MESCHIANZA PROCESSION.
Stone quotes a letter from Mr. Laurence 'Lewis, Jr.,
on the subject, in which he says, —
" You stated that Mrs. Arnold and her two sisterB (daughters of Ship-
pen, C. J.) were present at the Meschianza. Although all the printed
and published accounts of that festivity have made a similar statement,
the tradition in the Shippen family has always been to the contrary.
The young ladies had been invited, and had arranged to go ; their names
were upon the programmes, and their dresses actually prepared, but at
the last moment their father was visited by some of his friends, promi-
nent members of the Society of Friends, who persuaded him that it
would be by no means seemly that his daughters should appear in public
in the Turkish dresses designed for the occasion. Consequently, although
they are said to have been in a dancing fury, they were obliged to stay
away. This same story has, I know, come down independently through
several branches of the family, and was told me repeatedly, the last
time not more than two years ago, by an old lndy of the family, who was
the niece of Mrs. Arnold and her sisters, and who has since died."
Miss Franks (whose name is said to have been
Polly or Mary) was the daughter of David Franks,
and married Lieut.-Gen. Sir Henry Johnson, of the
British army. Miss W. Smith was Williamina Smith,
380
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
daughter of the Rev. William Smith, D.D., provost
of the college, who afterwards married Charles Golds-
borough, of Long Neck, Dorchester Co., Md.1
In the costumes of the ladies a uniformity similar
to that adopted by the knights was observed. The
Ladies of the Blended Rose each wore a white silk
polonaise, which formed a flowing robe, and was open
in front to the waist. The pink sash, six inches wide,
was filled with spangles. The shoes and stockings
were spangled; also the veil, which was edged with
silver lace. The head-dress was towering, in the
HEAD-DRESS FOB THE MESCIIIANZA.
[From a drawing by Major Andre1.]
fashion of the time, and filled with profusion of pearls
and jewels. The Ladies of the Burning Mountain
wore white silk gowns trimmed with black, and white
sashes edged with black, in style similar to that of
the Ladies of the Blended Rose. There were about
fifty unmarried ladies present ; the others were mar-
ried, but the fair sex was but slimly represented, as
most of the ladies had left the city on the approach
of the British.
''After they had rode round the lists and made
their obeisance to the ladies," continues Andre's nar-
rative,
" they drew up fronting tbe White Knights, and the chief of these*
having thrown down his gauntlet, the chief of the Black Knights di-
i In the account of the Meschianza, written by one of the company
said to be an American, and republished from the United Slates Gazette
in " Hazard's Register," vol. xiv. pp. 205-7, the names of tbe ladies are
stated thus: Ladies of the Blended Rose,— Miss Aucbmuty, Miss Peggy
Chew, Mies Jenny Craig, Miss Wilhelmina Bond, Miss Nancy White, and
Miss Nancy Redman; LadieB of the Burning Mountain,— Miss Becky
Franks, Miss Becky Bond, MisB Becky Redman, Mi*s Sally Chew, and
Miss Williiimina Smiib.
rected his nsquire to take it up, The knights then received their lances
from their esquires, fixed their shields on their left arms, and, making a
general salute to each other by a very graceful movement of their lances,
turned round to take their career, and, encountering in full gallop,
shivered their spears. In the second and third encounter they dis-
charged theirpistols. In the fourth they fought with their swords. At
length tbe two chiefs, spurring forward into the centre, engaged furi-
ously in single combat, till the marshal of the field, Maj. Gwyne, ruBhed
in between tbe chiefs and declared that the fair damsels of the Blended
Rose and Burning Mountain were perfectly satisfied with tbe proofs of
love and the signal feats of valor given by their respective knights, and
commanded them, as they prized the future favors of their mistresses,
that they should instantly desist from further combat. Obedience being
paid by the chiefs to this order, they joined their respective bands. The
White Knights and their attendants filed off to the left, the Black Knights
to the right, and, passing each otber^it the lower side of the quadrangle,
moved up alternately till they approached the pavilions of the ladies,
when they gave a general salute.
" A passage being now opened between the two pavilions, the knights,
preceded by their squires and tbe bands of music, rode through the first
triumphal arch, and arranged themselves to the right and left. This
arch whs erected in honor of Lord Howe. It presented two fronts, in
the Tuscan order. The pediment waB adorned with various naval tro-
phies, and at top was the figure of Neptune, with a trident in his right
hand. In a. niche on each side stood a sailor with a drawn cutlass.
Three plumes of feathers were placed on the summit of each wing, and
in the entablature was this inscription : ' Laus Mi debetur, et a me gratia
major.'' Tbe interval between the two arches was an avenue three hun-
dred feet long and thirty-four broad. It was lined on each side with a
file of troops, and the colors of all tbe army, planted at proper distances,
had a beautiful effect in diversifying the scene. Between these colors
the knights and squires took their stations. The bands continued to
play several pieces of martial music. The company moved forward
in procession, with the ladies in the Turkish habits in front. As these
passed they were saluted by their knights, who then dismounted and
joined them, and in this order we were all conducted into a garden that
fronted the house, through the second triumphal arch, dedicated to the
general. This arch was also built in tbe Tuscan order. On the iuterior
part of the pediment was painted a plume of feathers and various mili-
tary trophies. At top stood the figure of Fame, and in the entablature
this device: 'J, bone, quo te virtus vocat tua; IpedefaustoS On the right-
hand pillar was placed a bomb-shell, and on thf left a flaming heart.
The front next the house was adorned with preparations for a firework.
From the garden we ascended a flight of steps, covered with carpets,
which led into a spacious hall, the panels painted in imitation of Sienna
marble, inclosing festoons of white marble. Tbe surba&e and all below
was black.2 In this hall and in tbe adjoining apartments were pre-
pared tea, lemonade, and other cooling liquors, to which the company
seated themselves, during which time the knights came in, and on the
knee received their favors from their respective ladies. One of these
rooms was afterwards appropriated for the use of the Pharaoh-table. As
you entered it you saw, on a panel over the chimney, a cornucopia, ex-
uberantly filled with flowers of the richest colors. Over the door, as
you went out, another presented itself, — shrunk, reversed, and emptied.
"From these apartments we were conducted up to a ball-room, decor-
ated, in a light, elegant style of painting. Tbe ground was a pale blue,
paneled, with a small gold bead, and in the interior filled with dropping
festoons of flowers in their natural colors. Below the surbase the ground
was of rose-pink, with drapery festooned in blue. These decorations
were heightened by eighty-five mirrors, decked with rose-pink silk rib-
bons and artificial flowers, and in the intermediate spaces were thirty-
four branches with wax-lights, ornamented in a similar manner.
"On the same floor were four drawing-rooms, with sideboards of re-
freshments, decorated aud lighted in the same style and taste as the ball-
room. The bull was opened by the knights and their ladies, and the
dances continued till ten o'clock, when the windows were thrown open,
and a magnificent bouquet of rockets began the fireworks. These were
planned by Ciipt. Montresor, the chief engineer, and consisted of twenty
different exhibitions, displayed under his direction with the happiest suc-
cess, and in the highest style of beauty. Toward the conclusion the in-
terior part of the triumphal arch was illuminated, amid an uninter-
rupted flight uf rockets and bursting of balloons. The military trophies
2 The decorations were painted by Maj. Andre and Capt. Oliver De-
lancey. The " S;enna marble'1 walls were of canvas. The mlrrorn and
other onmmentB were borrowed from Philadelphia families.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
381
on each side assumed a variety of transparent colors. The shell and
naming heart on the wings sent forth Chinese fountains, succeeded by
fire-pots. Fame appeared at top spangled with stars, and from her
trumpet blowiug the following device in letters of light: ' Tea Lauriera
sont immorlels.' A sauieiir of rockets, bursting from the pediment, con-
cluded tbe feu d'artifice.
" At twelve supper waB announced ; and large folding-doors, hitherto
artfully concealed, being suddenly thrown open, discovered a magnifi-
cent saloon of two hundred and ten feet by forty, and twenty-two feet
in height, with three alcoves on each Bide, which served for side-boards.
The ceiling was a segment of a circle, and the sides were painted of a
light Btraw color, with vine leaves and festoons of flowers, — some in a
bright, some in a darkish, green. Fifty-six large pier-glaBsee, orna-
mented with green silk, artificial flowers, and ribbons ; one hundred
branches, with three lights in each, trimmed in the same manner as the
mirrors ; eighteen lustres, each with twenty-four lights, suspended from
the ceiling, and ornamented as the branches ; three hundred wax tapers,
disposed along the supper-tables ;
four hundred and thirty covers;
twelve hundred dishes; twenty-
four black slaves in Oriental dress-
es, with silver collars and brace-
lets, ranged in two Hues, and bend-
ing to the ground as the general
and admiral approached the saloon,
— all these forming together the
most brilliant assemblage of gay
objects, and appearing at once as
we entered by an eaBy descent, ex-
hibited a coup d'ceil beyond descrip-
tion magnificent.
"Toward the end of 6upper the
herald of the Blended Rose, in his
habit of ceremony, attended by bis
trumpets, entered the saloon and
proclaimed tbe king's health, the
queen's, and the royal family; the
army and navy, with their respec-
tive commanders ; tbe knights and
their ladies; the ladies in general.
Each of these toasts was followed
by a flourish of music. After Bup-
per we returned to the ball-room,
and continued to dance till four
o'clock."!
Two addresses in verse,
supposed to have been
written by Andr6, were
to have been delivered,
one by the herald, and the
other by a person dressed
as " Mercury," or some
other mythological char-
acter, but were omit-
ted.
At night, while the ball was in full progress, an
attack on the abatis north of the city, connecting the
line of redoubts, was made by the indefatigable Capt.
McLane, at the head of one hundred infantry and
Clow's dragoons. McLane divided his command into
four squads, each of which was provided with camp-
kettles, filled with combustibles. The latter were so
placed by the soldiers that, at a given signal, the
whole line of the abatis was fired. The sudden
1 In melancholy contrast with the bright scenes of tbe Meschianza,
which Andre depicts so graphically, was that ill-fated officer's death on
the gallows two years later. Captured within the American lines, and
convicted of complicity in Benedict Arnold's treason, he was hanged at
Tappan, N. T., on the 2d of October, 1780.
blaze took the British by surprise, the long roll was
beaten, the guns in the redoubt were fired, the ships-
of-war and transports on the river, and the park of
artillery in Southwark replied, and general alarm and
confusion reigned. At the Meschianza it was repre-
sented that the fusilade was in honor of the celebra-
tion. The ladies were thus reassured and the en-
tertainment proceeded. In the mean time, McLane
having accomplished his purpose, which was to annoy
and frighten the British garrison, retreated along the
road to Wissahickon, pursued by dragoons as far as
Barren Hill, where they captured a picket and an
ensign. McLane escaped by swimming his horse
across the Schuylkill, and
was protected by Mor-
gan's riflemen, stationed
on the opposite bank.
Throughout the entire
night the festivities of
the Meschianza continued
with unabated mirth and
spirit, and when the dan-
cing ceased the sun was
more than an hour high.2
Gen. Howe's participa-
tion in the Meschianza
was severely criticised by
those who regarded it as
undignified and unbecom-
ing. Howe, it was said,
had accomplished noth-
ing in the campaign that
justified laudation, and in
permitting himself to be
the object of such an
extravagant compliment
had been guilty of an act
of folly not to be pardoned
in one who occupied so
grave and responsible a
post. Galloway was par-
ticularly bitter in his
strictures, characterizing
Howe's " vanity and pre-
sumption" as "unparal-
leled in history." He had accepted, said Galloway,
" from a few of his officers a triumph more magnificent
than would have become the conqueror of America,
without the consent of his sovereign or the approbation
of his country ; and that at the time when the news of
a war with France had just arrived, and in the very
city, — the capital of North America, the late seat of
the Congress, — which was in a few days to be deliv-
ered up to that Congress."3 But in permitting the
2 Bancroft, quoting from the manuscripts of Munchausen, aide-de-
camp of Gen. Howe, adds that a feature of the entertainment was a
gaming-table. Andr6 speaks of it as a " Pharaoh," or faro bank, which
opened with a bank of two thousand guiueas.
3 The author of a pamphlet published at London, entitled " Strictures
382
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Meschianza Howe had a purpose to serve, which was
to show the ministry that its treatment of him had
not received the indorsement of his officers. " Never,"
says Bancroft, "had subordinates given a more bril-
liant farewell to a departing general, and it was doubly
dear to their commander ; for it expressed their belief
that the ministry had wronged him, and that his own
virtue pointed him out for advancement."1
Shortly after the close of the entertainment, on the
following day, the British commander was informed
that Lafayette with twenty-five hundred men and
eight cannon had crossed the Schuylkill and was then
at Barren Hill. In the hope of capturing this force,
and thus signalizing his retirement from the command
by a brilliant stroke, Howe, on the night of the 19th,
sent Gen. Grant, with Sir William Erskine and Gen.
Grey, at the head of five thousand three hundred
chosen men, to gain the rear of Lafayette's position
by a circuitous route, and himself, accompanied by
Sir Henry Clinton, Gen. Knyphausen, and Admiral
Howe, set out with five thousand seven hundred
troops, on the following morning, expecting to inter-
cept the American army in retreat at Chestnut Hill.
Lafayette's forces were posted near the Schuylkill,
west of the Wissahickon, on Bidge road, some dis-
tance below Matson's Ford, and southwest of the
road to White Marsh. In the rear of this position the
Bidge road forked, one branch leading to Matson's,
the other to Swede's Ford. Below the American
camp and near the river the ground was broken and
rocky and partially covered by woods, and on the
east stone houses intervened between Lafayette's posi-
tion and the road. Allen McLane, with fifty Indians,
was posted on the Bidge road, together with a com-
pany of Morgan's riflemen, under Capt. Parr. The
White Marsh road was guarded by a detachment of
Fennsylvania troops. The British plan of surprise
was well conceived. Grant, with the grenadiers and
light infantry, undertook to get in Lafayette's rear by
marching to Fraukford, and thence across country by
the White Marsh road. Grey, with the Hessians, was
to cross the river and post his men at the fords in
order to prevent the Americans from making their
on the Philadelphia Meschianza, or Triumph of leaving America Uncon-
quered," attacked Gen. Howe in the strongest terms. " What are we to
think," he asked, "of a beaten general's debasing the king's ensigns (for
he had none of his enemy's) by planting all the colors of the army in a
grand avenue of three hundred feet in length, lined with the king's
troops, between two triumphal arches, for himself aud his brother to
march along in pompous procession, followed by a numerous train of
attendants, with seven silken knights of the Blended Rose, and seven
more of the Burning Mountain, and their fourteen Turkey-dressed
camels, to an area of one hundred and fifty yards square, lined also with
the king's troops, for the exhibition of a tilt and tournament or mock-
fight of old chivalry in honor of this triumphant hero ; and all this sea
and land ovation made — not in consequence of an uninterrupted suc-
cession of victories like those of the Duke of Marlborough— not after
the conquest of Canada by a Wolfe, a Townshend, and an Amherst, or
after the much more valuable conquest of all the French provinces and
possessions in India, under the wise and active Gen. Coote— but after
thirteen provinces wretchedly lost, and a three-years' series of ruinous
disgraces and defeats."
i Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. ^. p. 119.
escape. Fortune favored the British in so far that the
Pennsylvania militia, disobeying orders, abandoned
their post near the White Marsh road, and the British
advance was mistaken for that of a troop of Ameri-
can dragoons who wore scarlet uniforms. But when
the enemy were in possession of the road leading to
White Marsh, within a mile of Lafayette's camp,
news was brought that British and not American
troops were approaching. No time was to be lost. In
a few minutes retreat would have been cut off and the
army would have fallen an easy prey to the enemy.
Lafayette immediately sent forward small bodies of
troops with the view of deceiving Grant into the be-
lief that they were the heads of a large attacking
force. The ruse succeeded. Grant halted and pre-
pared for action, and during the interval thus gained
Lafayette and Gen. Poor, with the main body, con-
ducted a skillful retreat over the country between the
Bidge road and the Schuylkill, which he crossed at
Matson's Ford. Grey with his intercepting force had
cut off the direct retreat to Valley Forge, but had
failed to cover Matson's Ford. The detachments
which Lafayette had thrown forward as a " blind" re-
treated in good order, and when the two columns of
the British army united near Barren Hill Church,
Gen. Howe discovered that his intended prize had
outwitted and escaped him.
After a skirmish at Matson's Ford, in which nine
Americans were killed or captured and two British
troopers killed and several wounded, Lafayette drew
up his force in strong position on the west bank of the
river, and, having planted his cannon, awaited the
enemy's approach. But the British generals made no
further movement in that direction, and the army
was forced to return to Philadelphia, after a long and
fatiguing march, without having accomplished any-
thing.2
Although palpably a failure, the affair was de-
scribed by the Tory organs in the most favorable
light, and an attempt was made to represent La-
fayette's retreat as ignominious. But the truth was
soon demonstrated by the misfortunes which overtook
2 " Howe and the British officers," says Thompson Westcott, " were
intensely mortified at this failure. So sure were they of Bliccess that it
is said that before the troopB left town for Barren Hill the general invited
some ladies to sup with Lafayette upon his return, while his brother,
the admiral, prepared a frigate to send the distinguished prisoner at once
to England.
" Nor did Howe's enemies fail to seize upon It as another evidence of
his incapacity. Joseph Galloway and Isaac Ogden were especially severe
in their criticisms, the former declaring that nothing had been wanting
'but a small share of military exertion or perhaps inclination, to take
or destroy the chief force of the American army ;' and the latter that
the historian would not gain credit who should relate 'that at least
twenty-four thousand of the best troops in the world were shut within
their lines by fifteen thousand at most of poor wretches who were illy
paid, badly fed, and worse clothed, and scarce, at best, deserved the name
of soldiers.' But the sole responsibility for the fiasco of Barren Hill caunot
be laid on Howe. The movement was well contrived, and only failed
through the want of proper execution of details on the part of Howe's
subordinates. Sir Henry Clinton afterwards testified before Parliament
that he was not in command of the army at the time, but that the move-
ment had his unqualified approval."
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
383
themselves. One of these journals, the royal Penn-
sylvania Gazette, suspended four days after the pub-
lication of an article in relation to the engagement,
in which it asserted that " Mr. Washington and his
tattered retinue" had fled precipitately back to their
camp, " determined to act no further on the offensive
than might be consistent with their personal safety,"
and the Pennsylvania Ledger ceased to appear with
theissueofthe23d. On the following day (May24th),
Gen. Howe relinquished the command to Sir Henry
Clinton, and embarked for England. His departure
was marked by unusual demonstrations of affection
and respect on the part of his officers. " I am just
returned," writes Andre, in a postscript to his letter,
describing the Meschianza, "from conducting our
beloved general to the waterside and have seen him
receive a more flattering testimony of the love and
attachment of his army than all the pomp and splen-
dor of the Meschianza could convey to him. I have
seen the most gallant of our officers, and those whom
I least suspected of giving such instances of their
affection, shed tears while they bid him farewell.
The gallant and affectionate general of the Hessians,
Knyphausen, was so moved that he could not finish
a compliment he began to pay him in his own name
and that of his officers who attended him. . . . On
my return I saw nothing but dejected countenances."
Howe undoubtedly possessed the confidence of his
officers and is conceded to have been a brave and
experienced general ; yet it is none the less true that
the Americans profited immensely by his indolence,
his blunders, and his failure to grasp his opportu-
nities.
On the day of Howe's departure a council of war
was held under Sir Henry Clinton, at which it was
resolved to evacuate the city, and on the following
day a circular was distributed requesting the attend-
ance of gentlemen, merchants, and citizens, at the
British Tavern, formerly the Indian King, " on busi-
ness of importance." At this meeting, probably, " full
information of the intended evacuation of the city
was given, so that all those who could not safely
remain might prepare for flight. Some time previously
notice had been given that all deserters from the
American army who desired to be sent to England
would receive passage, and many availed themselves
of the privilege."1 Two days later the Supreme
Executive Council wrote to Gen. Washington asking
that measures be taken to prevent disorder in the
event of the reoccupation of the city, as it was feared
that mischievous consequences might result from the
efforts of the Whigs to revenge themselves for the in-
dignities and wrongs they had suffered at the hands
of the Tory inhabitants. A reply was immediately
sent promising that suitable precautions would be
adopted.
In the meantime, Clinton, anxious to penetrate the
1 Thompson Westcott.
designs of Washington, sent out spies for that purpose,
one of whom, Thomas Shank, who had formerly been
an American officer, was captured at Valley Forge
on the 4th of June, and, having confessed that he
was an emissary of Joseph Galloway, was immediately
hanged. On the following day, Clinton sent Joshua
Loring, the British commissary of prisoners, to the
American lines with the request that an exchange of
prisoners be made immediately, as the British forces
were about to evacuate the city. Elias Boudinot, the
American commissary, was accordingly sent to Phila-
delphia to effect the desired exchange, and, on his
arrival there found the British on the point of leaving
for New York. The arrival, on the 6th of June, of
Earl Carlisle, William Eden, afterwards Lord Auck-
land, and George Johnston (Governor Johnston, of
New York), commissioners appointed under the new
conciliatory acts of Parliament for negotiating peace,
delayed the departure of Clinton for some days.
The commissioners, on reaching Philadelphia, found
that they had come on a fruitless errand. Lord Howe
and Sir Henry Clinton had each already conveyed
the action of Parliament to Congress, which had
replied on the very day of the arrival of the peace
commissioners, that it had already expressed its sen-
timents "on bills not essentially different from those
acts," and that when the king of Great Britain should
be seriously disposed to end the unprovoked war
against the United States, it would " readily attend
to such terms of peace as may consist with the honor
of independent nations." Nor, it would seem, had
the British ministry anticipated anything else than
a rejection of the terms proposed by Parliament.
They had been suggested and the commission created
merely for the purpose of pacifying the House of Com-
mons, and reconciling the people of England to a fur-
ther prosecution of the war. Two of the men who were
thus sent to treat with Congress were notoriously hos-
tile to the American cause. Carlisle, the first com-
missioner, had in the House of Lords " spoken with
warmth upon the insolence of the rebels" for refusing
to treat with the Howes, and had stigmatized the
people of America as "base and unnatural children"
of England. The second commissioner was an under
secretary, whose chief, a few weeks before in the same
assembly, had scoffed at Congress as a "body of
vagrants." The third was Johnston, who had lately
in Parliament justified the Americans and charged
the king with hypocrisy. There was never any ex-
pectation on the part of the ministry that the com-
mission would be successful, or it would have been
differently constituted. In the certainty that it would
not be received, Germaine had given orders for the
prosecution of the war and on a different plan, such
as a consciousness of weakness might inspire in a cruel
and revengeful mind. Clinton was ordered to abandon
Philadelphia; to hold New York and Rhode Island ;
to curtail the boundaries of the thirteen States on the
northeast and on the south; to lay waste Virginia by
384
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
means of ships-of-war ; and to attack Providence,
Boston, and all accessible ports between New York
and Nova Scotia, destroying vessels, wharves, stores,
and materials for ship-building. At the same time
the Indians from Detroit, all along the frontiers of
the West and South to Florida, were to be hounded
on to spread dismay and to murder. No active opera-
tions at the north were expected except the devasta-
tion of towns on the sea, and raids of the allied
savages on the border.1
The peace commissioners left England in ignorance
of these preparations, and arrived at Philadelphia
without the least suspicion that their instructions had
been practically superseded in advance. " In sailing
up the Delaware they had seen enough 'to regret ten
thousand times that their rulers, instead of a tour
through the worn-out countries of Europe, had not
finished their education with a visit round the coasts
and rivers of this beautiful and boundless continent.'
The English rivers sunk for them into rills ; they
predicted that in a few years the opulent ' village' of
Philadelphia, which it seemed to them most melan-
choly to desert, would become a magnificent me-
tropolis." What was their chagrin, however, on
reaching Philadelphia to find that Congress had re-
jected the terms they had come to propose, and that
the city was about to be evacuated by the British
troops. " He found everything here in confusion,"
wrote Lord Carlisle, " the army upon the point of
leaving town, and about three thousand of the miser-
able inhabitants embarked on board our ships, to
convey them from a place where they thought they
would receive no mercy from those who will take
possession after us." It was said at the time that if
Philadelphia was left to the " rebels" independence
would be practically acknowledged, and America
lost ; but no other course was possible now. The
evacuation had been practically determined on, and
its effect would he, of course, to encourage Congress
in its resistance, and to revive the drooping spirits of
Americans everywhere. While recognizing the fact
that their mission was ended, Lord Carlisle and his
colleagues undertook to effect something in the di-
rection of a peaceful settlement by addressing a letter
to Congress, insinuating that France was the com-
mon enemy, and offering to recognize the colonies as
States, to grant them freedom of legislation and in-
ternal improvement, representation in Parliament,
and exemption from the presence of military forces
except by their own permission. This action was
taken without authority, and was resented by Con-
gress as an insult to its honor. " The idea of de-
pendence," declared Congress, " is inadmissible," and
nothing short of "an explicit acknowledgment of the
independence of these States," or the withdrawal of
the royal fleets and armies would, it was declared, be
accepted as the basis of an amicable settlement.
1 Bancroft, vol. x. pp. 123-24.
A portion of the British army had withdrawn from
Philadelphia even before the arrival of the peace
commissioners. On the 3d of June three regiments
crossed the Delaware and encamped in the neighbor-
hood of Cooper's Ferry and Gloucester. The upper
redoubts were gradually evacuated, the tents that
had whitened the high ground to the north of the
city disappeared, and on the morning of the 18th of
June, just one month after the dazzling pageant of
the Meschianza, the main body of the army moved
out of Philadelphia down into the Neck, and em-
barked for the Jersey shore. By ten o'clock the rear
guard had crossed to Gloucester Point, and the evacu-
ation of the city had been successfully accomplished.
During the British occupation of Philadelphia the
Tory inhabitants, as we have seen, had not been slow
in gratifying their animosity towards the Whigs.
Property was seized and used for their personal bene-
fit, and various acts of devastation committed by Tories
and British officers. " It would be in vain," writes
Pierre Du Simitiere, a Frenchman, who remained in
the town, to Col. Lamb, " to attempt to give you an
account of the devastation they committed in the
environs of the city indiscriminately on Whig and
Tory property, but am very certain that you would
not know them again. The persecution that numbers
of worthy citizens underwent from the malice of the
Tories ; the tyranny of the police on all those they
supposed to be friends to the liberties of America ; all
these would fill up a volume." From the appraise-
ment of damages made in 1782, in accordance with an
act of the General Assembly, it appears that the loss
sustained by the inhabitants of Philadelphia amounted
to £187,280 5s. 0d., but this sum is believed to have em-
braced only the more important claims. The British
officers also left behind them debts estimated at ten
thousand pounds.2
In view of the bitter feeling which these proceedings
were calculated to engender among the Whigs, now
on the eve of returning to homes from which they
had been banished, the more active Tories naturally
hesitated to remain behind, and many sought safety
in flight. Some three thousand, as has been stated,
went on board the British vessels. The rest accom-
panied the army in its march through Jersey, and
- Gen. Howe was severely criticised for the luxurious manner in which
he lived during his stay in Philadelphia. " He paesed the winter," says
Bancroft, " in corrupting his own army by hie example of licentious-
ness, and teaching the young officers how to ruin themselves by gam-
ing." Hundreds of young men, asserted an English writer in an
attack on Howe, " were ruined at the gambling-tables in Philadelphia
and New York, — places of certain distinction, protected and counte-
nanced by the commander-in-chief. Our officers were practising at the
dice-box or Btudying the chances of picquet, when they should have
been storming towns and crushing the spirit [of rebellion; and the
harlot's eye glistened with wanton pleasure at the general's table, when
the brightness of his sword should have reflected terror on the faces of
the rebels. Cleopatra's banquet was in continual representation, and the
American Antony at the head of each feast."
Watson, quoting the recollections of a lady, says (vol. ii. p. 285) that
Howe's companions were " usually a set of boys, the most dissipated
fellows in the army."
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
385
greatly impeded the movements of the troops in their
efforts to carry with them their baggage and effects.
Their flight was most deplorable. Compelled to aban-
don their property to the tender mercies of the Whigs,
whom they had insulted, persecuted and driven into
exile, and to expose themselves, their wives, and chil-
dren, to the rigors of a military march, pursued by an
active and untiring enemy, without knowing where
they would be able to find shelter and food at the end
of the weary and uncertain journey, their misery
was heightened by contrast with the luxurious ease
and abundance, the brightness and gayety of their
lives, during the period of the British occupation.
Plays, balls, and entertainments of various kinds had
made the days glide by for many of them like some
fairy dream ; and for even the staidest and most sober
the nine months during which the British had occu-
pied Philadelphia had been a grateful season of se
curity and peace. But now all was changed. " In
the streets that had lately had the air of one continu-
ous market-day," says Bancroft, "the stillness was
broken by auctions of furniture which lay in heaps on
the sidewalk. Those who resolved to stay roused
mournfully from a delusive confidence in British pro-
tection to restless anxiety. . . To the loyalists the
retreat appeared as a violation of the faith of the
British king. The winter's revelry was over ; honors
and offices turned suddenly to bitterness and ashes ;
papers of protection were become only an opprobrium
and a peril. Crowds of wretched refugees, with all of
their possessions which they could transport, fled with
the army. The sky sparkled with stars; the air of
the summer night was soft and tranquil, as the exiles,
broken in fortune and without a career, went in de-
spair from the only city they could love." 1 The Brit-
ish vessels which had dropped down the river on the
17th were crowded with refugees, and on the follow-
ing day, those who had decided to accompany the
army set out on their journey, pausing, perhaps,
on the Jersey shore to take a last look at their homes,
but only to see McLane and his hated Whig troopers
galloping through the streets of the deserted city.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
PART III.— FROM THE AMERICAN REOCCUPATION TO THE
DECLARATION OF PEACE, JAN. 22, 1784.
Washington lost no time in pushing into Phila-
delphia. As the enemy retreated into the Neck.
Capt. Allen McLane and his cavalry hovered on their
rear, and, advancing to Dock Creek bridge, surprised
and captured Capt. Sandford. An unsuccessful at-
tempt was made to seize the adjutant-general on
1 Vol. *. pp. 124 and 127.
Second Street, near Chestnut, but turning up Walnut
Street, at the bridge over Dock Creek, McLane came
upon Frederick Varnum, keeper of the prison under
Galloway, whom he took into custody. Having heard
that several officers were near the Bettering House,
he proceeded in that direction, but they had passed
down South Street and effected their escape. Many
of the officers lingered so long in town that they
came very near falling into the hands of the Ameri-
cans.2
On the day following the evacuation Philadelphia
was formally reoccupied by the American troops and
Gen. Benedict Arnold placed in command of the city.
Arnold, who was then very popular, owing to his con-
spicuous services in the campaign which had resulted
in the surrender of Burgoyne, established his head-
quarters at the residence of Henry Gurney, but in
a few days removed to Mrs. Master's house, in
Market Street, formerly occupied by Gen. Howe,
"where he entered upon a style of living but ill ac-
cording with republican simplicity, giving sumptuous
entertainments that involved him in expenses and
debt, and most probably laid the foundation, in his
necessities and poverty, of his future deception and
treason to his country."3 Arnold was accompanied
by the Massachusetts Continental regiment, com-
manded by Col. Jackson. On the day of his en-
trance into the city he issued a proclamation reciting
the resolution adopted by Congress on the 4th of
June requesting Washington to take measures for
the preservation of order in the town, and to prevent
the removal, transfer, or sale of goods or merchandise
in possession of the inhabitants belonging to the king
of Great Britain. All persons having European, East
or West India goods — iron, leather; shoes, wines, and
provisions of every kind — beyond the necessary use
of a private family were ordered to make return to
the town-major at his quarters on Front Street, the
fourth door from the Coffee-House (corner of Market
Street), by twelve on the 20th. Under these orders
'the shops were closed, notice being given that the
removal, transfer, or sale of goods made without per-
mission would be considered a breach of the regula-
tions of Congress, and that such goods would be
seized and confiscated for the public use. All per-
sons having in their possession stores or property
belonging to subjects of the king of Great Britain
2 "When they [the British] left the city," says Deboruh Logan (Wat-
son, vol. ii. p. 280), " the officers came to take leave of their acquaint-
ances and express their good wishes. It seemed to us that a consider-
able change had taken place in their prospects uf success between the
time of their entry and departure. They often spoke freely, in conver-
sation, on these subjects. The Honorable Cosmo Gordon stayed all
night at his quarters, and lay in bed so long the next morning thatthe
family thought it but kind to waken him and tell him ' his friends, the
rebelB, were in town.' It was with great difficulty he procured a boat
to put him over the Delaware. Perhaps ho and his man were the last
that embarked. Many soldierB, hiding themselves in cellars and other
places, stayed behind In two hours after we saw the last of them, our
own dragoons galloped down the street."
* Deborah Logan.
25
386
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
were directed to make a like report, and a reward
was promised to all who should discover the place of
concealment of such effects.1
Harboring or concealing British officers or soldiers,
or deserters from the Continental army, in the city or
suburbs, was declared to be an offense for which severe
punishment would be meted out. On the following
day (June 20th) another proclamation was issued
notifying the country people that the city was open
and that markets would be held as usual. Congress
met again at the State-House on the 25th of June,
and the Supreme Executive Council held its first
meeting on the following day.
The inhabitants who had fled from the city or been
driven out during Tory supremacy now began to re-
turn, and in the course of a few weeks most of them
were again in possession of their homes. They found
the city in a wretched condition, — filthy, ruinous,
dreary. In his Remembrancer, Christopher Marshall
vividly depicts the destruction wrought by the enemy.
"Within a mile or two'' of the city, he says, writing
under date of June 23d, " was presented a new pros-
pect; houses ruined aDd destroyed, fields of fine corn
without fences, etc." June 24th, he writes, " Viewing
the desolation with the dirt, filth, stench, and flies in and
about the town, scarcely credible." June 25th, " Took
a walk by myself to our once rural, beautiful place
near barracks. Now nothing but a wanton desolation
and destruction that struck me with horror and de-
testation of the promoters and executors of such hor-
rid deeds. My mind was so pained I soon returned
into the city." June 26th, " Breakfasted and dined
at Stephen Collins'. ... In the interval engaged in
viewing some of our and others houses with wonder
and amazement on the scenes of malice and wanton
cruelty. Yet my late dwelling-house is not so bad as
many others. Yet grief seized me on beholding the
ruins, viz., houses quite demolished, of which ours,
near the Bettering House, was quite gone, with the
brick walls, chimneys, etc. ; the doors, cases, windows,
roofs, etc., either destroyed or carried away entirely."'
The spectacle of filth and ruin which presented
itself to their eyes, accustomed to the neatness, clean-
ness, and good order of the prim Quaker town, as well
as the wanton destruction of their property, exas-
perated the Whigs, who determined to seek reprisals
on the Tories. Many complaints of robberies and
acts of vandalism were preferred. Whitehead Humph-
reys gave notice that "Joseph Fox, a noted traitor,
had seized and taken away four tons of blistered
steel, and all the apparatus belonging to the steel fur-
nace," which he had sold to some persons in the city.
Henry Miller, the German printer, suffered the loss
I Fart of tljo property discovered und seized under tliis order was a
quantity of Bait exceeding four ihoiisand bushels in Pritclmid's stores,
on tliu south side of Chestnut Street whnrf, consigned to Amos l''oulke
ami William lluckhonse, British subjects, who, on the tiny before Iho
evncinilioti, Bold it to Alexander WiicoekB John Wilcocks, and William
McMurlrie. In December the sherilT was ordered to deliver the salt to
George Henry, commissary of stores, fur the use of tho army.
of his printing-office and materials, which were then
as complete as any in America. James Robertson,
the Tory printer of the royal Pennsylvania Gazette,
was the person who carried off the printing press and
property, using a number of the king's wagons for the
purpose. Robertson alleged that Gen. Howe had
given him the type as a compensation for the loss of
his own printing materials at Albany, taken from him
by the Whigs. Rev. Michael Schlatter complained
that his dwelling at Chestnut Hill had been "cruelly
plundered" by the British troops, who had carried off
many valuable books together with a number of
household articles.2
Thomas Hale and Nicholas Weaver, on behalf of a
large number of Whigs who had suffered at the hands
of the British,3 addressed the Supreme Executive
2 The following is a list of those who, according to the appraisement
of 1782, suffered damages exceeding one thousand pounds:
£ >. d.
William Toting, Dock Ward, south 1797 7 6
Joint Uoruiuan, " " 1435 0 0
Isaac. Snowden, " north 1UU6 15 0
William lleliiy, " " 3045 0 0
Levi Uolling-worth, " " H'05 2 0
Alexander -Rutherford, Dock Ward, uuith 11UO 6 0
Benjamin Handolph, Middle Ward Sll 10 0
Andrew Hodge, Upper Delaware Ward 1108 0 0
Charles Meredith, " " 1350 0 0
Thomas W. Smith, " " 3U1J0 0 0
John Unburn. High Street Ward 2450 0 0
Adam Zantziuger, North Ward 1280 0 0
George Sch lessor, Mulberry Ward, east 2130 0 0
David SclmlTor, Jr., " " 3742 17 0
William Hush, " " -'-til 6 0
Daniel Joy, " west 1514 la 5
Jacob llotlman and Christian Leech, Bleckley 1178 10 0
Ulhn Kerper, Gerinautuwn 17-iO 11 0
Henry Cress, " 1275 13 0
Samuel Mechlin, " 1671 17 6
George Losch, " 2412 11 3
Adam Guire, Kingsessing 22X4, 13 6
Lawrence Varrouee, Muynmensiiig 1171 9 9
Samuel Uruester, Northum Liberties, ea*t 4243 0 0
Klias Lewis Troichel, " " 1WW 0 0
Mary Nelson, " " '"DO 0 0
Is inc Norris' estate, " " 41117 10 0
Jehu Erie's " " " 3809 H 6
l'eter Brown, " " 3111) 0 0
William Ball, " " 1385 3 0
Kichard Penn and Sarah Masters's estate, Norlbern Liber-
ties, e.ist lr>r'2 10 0
William Musters' estate, Northern Liberties, west 4890 0 0
John Bergman's estate, " " 12IU 10 0
Christian Grover, Pn-syituk 221(1 !> 0
Amy Uerkenlieil and George Grays' estate, I'assyunk 1H77 17 0
Kichard Dennis, Southwurk ''022 5 8
l.uke Morris, " 1222 0 0
Isaac Penrose, " "25 0 0
George Goodwin, " 2II1H) (I 0
William Ii'iillertotl, " 1803 9 0
.1 Jones, " 21120 10 0
Joseph Turner, " Mill 10 0
William lliewry, " ''>25 18 0
llobeitKnox, " 2315 "0
John Bull, Norrington 2<M0 15 0
University's estate, late John Bull's 10U0 0 0
In Germantown tho claims numbered one hundred anil thirty-seven.
No claim was made for the damage done to the Chew bouse. The Mo-
ravian meeting. East Mulberry Ward, claimed Ihiity-nine pounds; the
German Lnlhoi'an Church, Gerniantown, £156 it. Oil. The German Uo-
formed Church, in the same place, also claimed damages. No claim
was made for the Zion Lutheran Church, in the city, or St. George's,
buth of Mliirh were materially injured by the Biitish.
3"The following inhabitants of Philadelphia City and County were
attainted as traitors, and proclamation mado against them during the
British occupation of the city.
May 8, 1778— Of the Ciln : Enoch Story.latc merchant; Samuel Gar-
rigues, the elder, late clerk of Ihe market and tnder; .lames Steven-
son, late baker; Al.ram Carlisle, honse-carpenler ; Peier Dishong,
miller; Alexander Bartram, trader ; Christian Hook, attoruey-al-liiw ;
Peter Miller, sciivcuer; Lodowick Kcrker, butcher; Philip Marching-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE RESOLUTION.
387
Council, requesting that more stringent measures be
taken for the seizure of the property of Tories; but
that body declined to adopt their recommendation on
the ground that the laws would not justify them in
doing so. Complaints against persons for assisting
the British army were preferred before Chief Justice
ton, trader; Edward Hanlun, cooper and vintner; Alfred Clifton, gen-
tleman; Arthur Thulium, breeches-maker.
Of the County: Thomas Livezey, of Roxborongh, miller; John Rob-
erts, of Low it Mcrion, miller; Robert Iredale, the younger, and Thomas
Iredale, of Horsham, laborers ; Josh mi Knight, of Abington, black-
smith; Juhn Knight, tanner; Isaac Knight, husbandman ; Albinson
Walton, of Philadelphia; Henry Hugh Ferguson, commissary of pris-
onerstoGen. Howe. These were ordered to surrender themselves for
trial on or before the 2nth of June, 1778.
May 21,1778 — Of the City: Abel James, merchant; James Humph-
reys, the elder; James Humphreys, the younger, printer; Henry
Lisle, John Hart, Chnmlei-s Hart, David Sproat, Thomas Story, Mal-
colm Ross, William Price, Thomas Roker, and Tench Coxe, merchants;
Abel Evans, nttoriiey-at-law ; Benjamin Titley and Peter Howard,
trudera; Colemtin Fisher (son of William Fisher); William Cliltou,
gentleman; JameB Stevens, late baker; Bnwyer Brookes, ship-car-
penter; John Allen, carpenter and tallow-chandler; William Austin,
yeoman, late keeper of the Now Jersey Ferry ; Kenneth McCullough,
yeoman; Charles Stedman, the younger, attorney -at-hiw ; Juhn Sliep-
perd, stable- keeper ; JameB Delaplane, late barber; Robert Currie,
leather breeches-maker; Thomas Badge and William Compton, tal-
low chandlers; Peter Sutter, hatter; James Riddle, tavern-keeper;
John 1'arrook, yeoman; Juhn Young, heretofore of Graeme Park, gen-
tleman ; Oswald Eve, late of the Northern Liberties, morchaut and
gunpowder maker.
Of the Crninhj : David PottB, of Pottsgrove (son of John Potts) ; Chris-
topher Saur, the elder, and Christopher Saur.the younger, printers; Jo-
seph Shoemaker and Abraham Paatorins, tanners; Andrew Hathe, inn-
keeper; Melchior Meng, carter and baker; and Jacob Meng, of German-
town township; Peter Robeson ami Jonathan Robeson, the Younger;
sons of Jonathan Roberts, of White Marsh ; Abraham Iredell, surveyor;
James Davis ; William Christy, iurkou ; John Roberts, laborer, of Hors-
ham; Juhn Roberts, blacksmith ; Nathan Carver, wheelwright ; Israel
Evans, blacksmith, of Upper Dublin; John Huntsman, miller; Robert
Conrad, nm-uni ; Enoch Supplee, farmer; and William Evans, carpenter,
of Norriton; Nicholas Kii>ght, lime-burner; John Parker, John Lisle,
Robert Lisle, laborei-s, of Plymouth ; Jacob Richardson, carpenter, of
Upper Merion ; Stephen Stiger, yeoman, ol Whitpaiue; William McMur-
trey, merchant; and Edw. Stiles, mariner and merchant, of Oxford.
They were ordered to surrender themselves for trial on or before July G,
1778.
June 15, 1778.-0/ the City: James Tnglis, trader; Robert Coupar,
trader: Carpenter Wharton, late commissary; John Chevalier, mer-
chant ; James Club, manner ; Benjamin Tuwne, printer ; James Sniyther,
engraver; Joel Evans, merchant; Anthony Yeldall, surgeon ; Wood
Morris, mariner, late constable; John Cunningham, innkeeper; Wil-
liam Taylor,silveismith ; Frederick Verner, yeoman ; Anthony Thomas,
Jr., hatter; Samuel Ganignes, Jr., trader; Joseph Stansbnry, dealer in
earthenware; John Bray, Heboid master, late const able; Ross Curry, gen-
tleman, late lieutenant in the service of the American States; John
Johnson, coach-maker; John Airy, late of the posl-office; John Hales,
.stable-keeper; Diiimin Irwin, trader; John Pike, dancing- master; John
Palmer, mason ; James Craig, rope-maker and merchant; John Hen-
derson, mariner: Beiijiirnin Davi-, hatter; George Spangb-r, trader;
James Fisher, trader; Iliijih Henry, peruke-maker; Jacob Mayer,
peruke-maker ; lease Wharton, merchant; Benjamin Gibbs, merchant;
James Gregson and Thomas Bramhall, but Ion-malt era; Samuel Jeffreys,
watch-maker; Michael Cannon, merchant; Robert Loosely, shoemaker;
Henry Ynuuken, trader; Henry Welting, shoemaker; and Robert Dove,
loather-cutter.
0/ 'he Cuttnfff : William Williams, shipwright ; Lawrence Fegan, tav-
ern-keeper; Jolm Brown, distiller ; William Taylor, shipwright, of the
Nurtbcrn Liberties township; David Gregory, mariner; John Tolley,
maiiner; David Thompson and Charles M"raii, shipwrights, of South-
waik; John Buckingham. laborer : .Joseph Bolton, joiner; John Butcher,
buslmndman, of tin* township of Block ley; Peter Sour, printer, of Ger-
mautowu; and Stepheu Styer, yeomau, of Whitpaiue.
McKean, who held court several days in order to hear
evidence in support of the charges. The press en-
couraged the Whigs in the prosecution of retaliatory
measures. Town's Evening Post, which had been the
first journal to welcome the British, and had chron-
icled their departure with no extravagant protesta-
tions of joy, now took another tack, and admitted to
its columns a communication signed " Casca," in
which the writer "hinted" to "traitors and those
Tories" who had taken an active part with the enemy
during their stay in the city that it would be more
prudent for them to lower their heads and not "stare
down" their "betters with angry faces," for, it was
added, "you may be assured the day of trial is close
at hand when you shall be called on to answer for
your impertinences to the Whigs and your treachery
to the country." Dunlap's Packet, which had been
removed to Lancaster, now resumed publication in
the city, the first number appearing on the 4th of
July, and of course espoused the cause of the Whigs
with the utmost warmth. The general feeling of dis-
satisfaction among the Whigs culminated in a riotous
attack on the house of Peter Deshong, who, having
been proclaimed a traitor, had surrendered himself to
the authorities. Deshong thus escaped punishment
at the hands of the mob, which accomplished nothing
beyond alarming his family. Other Tories were sim-
ilarly threatened, and an association was formed
among the Whigs, the members of which pledged
themselves " to support each other in disclosing and
bringing to justice all Tories within their knowledge."1
1 The following were the signers of this association: Joseph Reed,
John Parke, John Coats, Benjamin Randolph, Thomas Woceten, Samuel
Nirholus, James Lung, Abraham Markoe, George Wilson, Jr., J. Prowel,
W. Humphrey, L. Keen, Thomas Proctor, James Fallow, .lames Searle,
J. Cowperthwaite, George Cottnam, Charles Stewart, Robert Harris,
Juhn Campbell, Daniel Dennis, Wd1ia.ni Drewry, Willhim Price, Peter
Browne, Thomas Forrest, Walter Stephens, Stokley Huffman, Thomas
Dorsey, Joseph Marsh, Arthur Donaldson, James Craig, Jr.. Thomas
Lei per, Thomas Paine, Fiederick Phile, Thomas Bradford, John Barn-
hill, Lewis Ktcohi, Paul Fooks, Charles Risk, Charles Miller, Matthias
Sadler, George Shufferd, George lluffner, Michael Caner, Henry Deaher-
ger, William B mm per, Jonathan B. Smith, Thomas Pry or, Richard
Humphrey*', John Chain* er, Joseph Carson, Charles Beiisell, Jr., Riloff
Albertson, Thomas Rice, Thomas Crumble, Willhim Webb, William
Allen, William Moore, William C. Bradford, William Ileysham, Wil-
liam Thorn, William Sharp, William Browne, William Gray, William
Keiliug, William Hall, Benjamin Harbeson, Benjamin G. Eyre, Jehu
Eyre, Robert Cat her, Robert Harris, Robert Allison, Robert Bay ley, P.
Scull, Edward Evans, Thomas Douglass, Cad'r Dickenson, Manuel Eyre,
William Turnbull, William Cross, William Simple, James I'ierson, Wil-
liam Will, Robert McCouuell, Abraham Michell, Jr., Nathan BoyB,
George Felkur, Edward licaeh, John Murrell, Juhn Harrison, John Rose,
John Cameron, John Melcher, John Brown, John Larlm-r, John Bell,
John Young, Jr., John Boyle, Juhn Mitchell, Sr , John Kmuihergor,
Robert Knux, Lewis Farmer, Jacob Parker, Jacob Shalliis, John Kepple,
John Brie**, John Slnito, John Ingram, William Pelt/, George Garland,
Thomas Goucher. John Lahoyteaux, Joseph II. Elli*, Geoige Dull;- lass,
James Lloyd, ExeUiel Letts, William Cunts, David Chambers, James
Armitage, James Robinson, James Loughed, Samuel Hillejjas, Adam
Alexander, Alexander Henderson. J. Bullock, Hob. Roberts, Samuel
Simpson, Imuio Cox, Alexander Ncsbitt, JameB Ash. James Bryson,
James Tilton, James Jusiah, James Bowman, F. Ila-smelever, Samuel
Correy, David Pancoast, David Lenox, John Palmer, John Patten, Wil-
liam Adcock, William Bradford, George North, J. Ilubler, James Bnd-
den, Thomas Hall, William Alricks, P. Bayuton, Samuel McLuue, Jacob
388
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Nor did the social relations of those who were sus-
pected of Toryism escape the general infection. Even
the ladies who had taken part in the Meschianza
came in for their share of the general disapprobation,
to emphasize which a special entertainment was given
at the City Tavern, in honor of "the young ladies
who had manifested their attachment to the cause of
virtue and freedom by sacrificing every convenience
to the love of their country." '
Leaving Arnold in command at Philadelphia,
Washington had set out with the main body of his
army to intercept the British retreat across New Jer-
sey. On the 28th of June the battle of Monmouth
was fought, resulting in the precipitate flight of Clin-
ton with the wreck of his army to New York. About
eight hundred of Clinton's men deserted, of whom
seventy, says Marshall, in his Remembrancer , came to
Philadelphia in one day (July 4th). Under these
circumstances the second anniversary of the Declara-
tion of Independence was celebrated at Philadelphia
with some elation. The clouds that had lowered over
the American cause so long had at length begun to
lift. Congress recommended that there should be no
illumination on the evening of the Fourth, owing to
"the scarcity of candles'' and the intense heat of the
weather, but made provision for " a decent entertain-
ment" at the City Tavern. A week later (July 12th)
the patriotic citizens had additional cause for rejoic-
ing in the arrival of Conrad Alexander Gerard, am-
bassador from the king of France. M. Gerard had
come over in one of the vessels of the fleet commanded
by Count D'Estaing. At Chester, where he landed,
he was received by a committee of Congress, which
escorted him from that point to Philadelphia. On
his entrance into the city he was greeted with a salute
from Col. Proctor's artillery, and the greatest en-
thusiasm was exhibited by the citizens. Apartments
were provided for him on Market Street, and on the
following day he was formally received by Congress
Shuner, Peter Cooper, Charles Cooper, Nicholas ColeraaD, Nicholas Mil-
ler, Adam Zantzinger, William Thompson, Edward Pole, Greenb'y
Hughes, John Mease, John Nicholson, John Cob-urn, John Diuiiap,
John Stille, John Van Brucreu, John Shaffer, John Brice, John Osman,
Joseph Rice, Joseph C. Fisher, Thomas Casdrop, Philip Paucake, Chris-
topher Pechi n, Waller Cmi6e, Isaac Roach, Joseph Robinson, Joseph
Dean, Benjamin Loxlcy,P. Duffy.Paul Cox.Sharpe Dehiuey.IsaacCraig,
James Skinner, Jofepli Sutter, William Stretch, Peter Stretch. TheBe
associate's afterwards formed themselves into "The Patriotic Society."
1 Thompson Westeott. On the other hand, Watson (vol. ii. pp. 21)2-3)
says that " no offense was offered to thu ladies afterwards for their ac-
ceptance of this instance of an enemy's hospitality. When the Amer-
icans returned they got up a great ball to be given to the officers of the
French atmy and the American officers of Washington's command.
When the managers came to invite their guestB, it was made a question
whether the Meschianza ladieB should be invited. It was found they
could not make up their company without them ; they were therefore
included. When they came they looked differently habited from those
who had gone to the country, they having assumed the high head-dress,
etc. of the Biitish fashion, . . . and so the characters, unintentionally,
were immediately perceived at a glance through the hall. (It was the
Masonic Hall, in Lodge Alley.) But lots being cast for partners, they
were soon fully intermixed, and conversation ensued as if nothing of
jealousy had ever existed and all umbrage was forgotten."
at the State-House.2 In the afternoon a banquet was
given in honor of the ambassador by Congress, at
which the State authorities and many distinguished
persons were among the guests. The presence of the
French king's representative at the seat of govern-
ment had a most encouraging effect throughout the
country. It was regarded as an earnest of the active
interposition of France in behalf of the colonies.
Every opportunity was seized upon by Congress, and
by other national and State authorities, and by the
citizens of Philadelphia generally to testify their
gratitude. On Sunday, August 23d, the birthday of
the king of France, the president and members of
Congress and the principal military and civil officers
and a number of gentlemen called upon the French
minister and tendered their congratulations. Two
days later M. Gerard gave an entertainment at the
City Tavern in honor of the same event.3
Arnold's administration of affairs in Philadelphia
was marked by gross venality. His salary as an offi-
cer being insufficient to support his extravagant
habits, he prostituted his position in order to raise the
means of gratifying them. The first incident which
attracted attention to his conduct was a difficulty
growing out of the capture of the British sloop "Ac-
tive." The "Active," laden with rum and coffee,
left Jamaica for New York on the 1st of August, and,
when near Cape Charles, fell in with two British
cruisers, from whom she learned that Philadelphia
had been evacuated by the British. Four American
sailors who had been taken on board to work the vessel
determined to attempt her capture. They succeeded
in confining the officers, passengers, and remainder
of the crew below by piling the cable and other ob-
structions upon the stairway leading from the cabin
to the deck. But the prisoners, being well supplied
with water, provisions, and ammunition, were not
disposed to surrender, and failing to dislodge the bar-
ricade, opened fire upon the mutineers. The latter
- Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams, a committee appointed for
the purpose, waited upon the ambassador at his lodgings. A coach and
six horses wore provided, in which Lee, Adams, and the ambassador
took their places. Gerard'B secretary followed in his chariot. When
the parly reached the State-Huuse they found Congress in session. A
chair was provided for the envoy, who, after being seated, rose and gave
his credentials to his secretary, who handed them to the president. The
secretary of Congress then read them aloud and translated them. When
this was done the president, Henry Laurens, and Congress rose together.
Gerard bowed to the president and Congress, and they bowed to him,
after which all resumed their seats. M. Gerard then rose and addressed
Congress in a formal Bpeech, the members sitting, after which his sec-
retary gave a copy of the addross to the president. The latter and the
members then rose, and the president made a reply, the ambassador alBo
standing. The answer being ended, they were again seated, and the
president gave a copy of his address to the secretary of the ambassador.
The president, M. Gerard, and Congress then rose, and M. Gerard
bowed to the president, who returned the courtesy, and theu to the
members, who bowed in return. The committee and Gerard then with-
drew, and returned in the order in which they had come.
8 A viBit to Philadelphia was paid about this time by the French frigate
" Chirnere," Capt. Lo Saire, which, on her return, was preceded by the
" State Sloop" in order to ascertain whether any British cruiserB were
hovering about the coast.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
389
/i&nSd
being without ammunition and unable to work the
rudder, which had been wedged, proposed a compro-
mise, which was agreed to. By the terms of this truce
the Americans were to steer the sloop near to land
and effect their escape in boats, their principal ob-
ject in attempting the capture having been to avoid
imprisonment in New York. Before this arrange-
ment was carried out, the American brig " Conven-
tion," Capt. Houston, fell in with the sloop and con-
veyed her as a prize to Philadelphia. At the time of
the capture the privateer " Gerard" was near at hand,
and when the dis-
tribution of the
prize money came
to be made, three-
fourths was award-
ed, by a jury of the
Admiralty Court
of Pennsylvania,
to the " Conven-
tion" and " Ge-
rard," and one-
fourth to Gideon
Umstead, . one of
the American sea-
men who had pre-
ferred a claim for
the money, and
his fellows. Um-
stead, it was thought at the time, would have ac-
cepted the award but for Arnold, who, having
purchased the claims of the four seamen, made an
application in their names to Congress. That body,
ignoring the decision of the Court of Admiralty,
awarded the whole of the prize money to Umstead
and his comrades, or, in other words, to Arnold.
The court refused. to execute the order of Congress,
and a controversy between the United States and the
State of Pennsylvania followed, which was not set-
tled for some years. Arnold's conduct in the matter
excited general indignation, and his subsequent
course rapidly alienated the respect and confidence
which his military services had inspired among the
Whigs. Instead of choosing his associates from
among the latter, he became a frequent visitor in
Tory families, and while obviously making every
effort to ingratiate himself with those whose loyalty
was more than questionable, observed an attitude of
marked reserve and hauteur toward those whose
patriotic course had given them the right to look for
respectful treatment at his hands. Complaint was
also made against him for the arrogant manner in
which he treated the city militia, compelling them
to do guard duty at his residence, and perform
services which they considered to be of a menial
character. A communication in the Packet, signed
"A Militia Man," after representing that the writer
had been compelled to stand at the door of Arnold's
house as sentinel, added that the general was exposed
to no real danger in Philadelphia. " From Tories, if
there be any amongst us," it was stated, "he has
nothing to fear. They are all remarkably fond of him.
The Whigs to a man are sensible of his great merit
and former services, and would risk their lives in his
defense." Shortly after this Arnold employed the
wagons furnished by the State of Pennsylvania for
the use of the army to transport private property,
some of which, belonging to Tories, was conveyed
by John Jordan with twelve teams from Egg Harbor
to Philadelphia, at a cost to the State of nine hun-
dred and sixty pounds exclusive of forage.1
Arnold, it was also charged, shut up the stores and
shops on his arrival in the city, so as to prevent even
officers of the army from purchasing, while he pri-
vately made purchases on his own account, and then
through his agents sold them again at exorbitant
prices. By these means he was able to maintain
"a style of living of unprecedented extravagance."2
He- occupied the house of Bichard Penn, formerly
the headquarters of Gen. Howe, and afterwards the
residence of Gen. Washington while President, on
the south side of Market Street between Fifth and
Sixth,3 where he lived in great state, maintaining a
coach and four, and servants in livery, and giving
magnificent entertainments.*
1 Some of this property belonged to Stephen Shewell, a Tory, who had
been attainted, and proclaimed a traitor.
2 Armor's Governors of Pennsylvania, p. 224.
3 On the 22d of March, 1779, Arnold purchased the Mount Pleasant
estate on the east bank of the Schuylkill near the point where the Read-
ing "Railroad bridge now crosses the river, from John Macpherson, with
the intention of presenting it to Margaret Shippen, his intended wife.
On the 3d of April he executed a deed to Edward Shippen, John Ship-
pen, and Samuel Powel, trustees for Miss Shippen for the use of his wife
for life, and after her death the remainder to Arnold's throe sons by the
first marriage, and such children as might have been born after the mar-
riage with Miss Shippen, in equal proportions. After the discovery of
Arnold's treason the property was seized by the State of Pennsylvania,
Oct. 2, 1780, and confiscated. Subsequently it was sold at sheriff's sale
to payoff a prior mortgage. The estate afterwards belonged to Ool.
Richard Humpton, Blair McClenachan, Chief Justice Edward Shippen
(Mrs. Arnold's father), and Gen. Jonathan Williams, from whom it de-
scended to Henry J. Williams. The latter sold the estate, about 1853,
to some Germans, who opened at the place a beer garden, which they
called Washington's Retreat. The Park Commissioners purchased the
old mansion and estate in 1868.
* " When I meet your carriage in the streets," said T. G., a writer in
the Packet, in an address to Maj.-Gen. Arnold, "and think of the
splendor in which you live and revel, of the settlement which it is said
you have proposed in a certain case, and of the decent frugality neces-
sarily used by other officers of the army, it is impossible to avoid the
question, ' From whence have these riches flowed if you did not plunder
Montreal?' "
In Samuel Breck's biographical sketch of Judge Peters, who was
commissioner of war during 1779, the following account is given of one
of the means employed by Arnold to support his extravagance :
"On the 18th of July, 1778, Mr. Peters entered Philadelphia at the
very time the enemy was evacuating the place. He went there under
a Btrong escort sent with him by Gen. Washington. His object was to
secure clothing and stores secreted by our friends who had remained in
the city, and to purchase everything that he could from the dealers.
He succeeded in fulfilling the wishes of the American general-in- chief.
Arnold took command of the city a few days after, while Mr; Peters re-
turned to York, in this State, where Congress then held its sessions.
'I left,' says Mr. Peters, in a letter to a friend, ' fifty thousand dollars
to the order of Arnold for the payment of the clothing and stores. The
traitor seized those articles and never paid for them, but converted the
390
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Having succeeded in ingratiating himself into the
good will of the Shippen family, he won the affec-
tions of Margaret (or "Peggy") Shippen, the young
and accomplished daughter of Edward Shippen,
afterwards chief justice of the State, who became
of the complaints against him. Among the most
active of those who urged an investigation of the
charges was Gen. Joseph Reed, president of the
Council, and Arnold retaliated by accusing Reed of
having permitted himself to be approached with a
P: ..^^-^M^MWV^rJmmir - s*fc7*rat
™m
is; ■■
MOUNT PLEASANT, AT ONE TIME THE PROPERTY OF GEN. BENEDICT ARNOLD.
his second wife. His corruption, greed, and ostenta-
tion at length became so scandalous that the Supreme
Executive Council was forced to take official notice
greater part of the money to his own use, among others, to buy tlio
country-seat of Mr. Macphersnu.on tlio Schn> Ikill. Col. dickering and
I detected li i lit in ordering stores ami provisions out o,f the public
magazines to fit out privateers of his own, anil for his extravagant
family establishment. An attempt to stop Ihia robbery produced be-
tween me and Arnold an open quarrel.' "
Thu following agreement, by which the power of purchasing ou the
part of tin- United Stale* was arranged to be used for the private ad-
vantage of Arindil and his partners, was found among his papers in
Philadelphia after his treuaou was discovered:
corrupt proposition from the British Government.
The basis of this allegation was found in the state-
ment of Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson, of Graeme Park,
" Whereaa, By purchasing goods and necessaries for the u-=e of the
public, sundry articles, not wanted for that purpose, may lie obtained, it
is agreed by the subscribers that all such goods and merchandise which
are or may be bought by the clothier-general, or persons appointed by
him, shall he sold for the joint equal benefit of the subscribers, and be
purchased at their risk. Witness our hands, this twenty-third of June,
1773.
"B. Aitxm.D.
"James Mkase.
" Wm. West."
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
391
relating the substnnce of interviews between herself
and Governor Johnstone, one of the British peace
commissioners just before the evacuation of Phila-
delphia by the British. Mrs. Ferguson had come
into the city from the American lines in order to take
leave of her hushand, who claimed to be a British
subject, but who had been attainted for treason by
the State of Pennsylvania. In the course of their
conversation Johnstone said to Mrs. Ferguson, who
was a personal friend of Beed's, that if Beed would
exert his influence in favor of an amicable adjust-
ment of the differences between the colonies and the
mother-country, he might command ten thousand
guineas and the best post in the service of the gov-
ernment. He closed by asking Mrs. Ferguson to
convey "that idea'' to Beed. While professing
to be " hurt and shocked"
at the suggestion, Mrs.
Ferguson submitted the
proposition to Beed, who
replied that he was not
worth purchasing, but
such as he was, the king
of Great Britain was not
rich enough to buy him.
This effort to blast his
character was not calcu-
lated to mollify Beed's
feelings toward Arnold,
and on the 3d of Febru-
ary, 1779, the Supreme
Executive Council, fol-
lowing his lead, adopted
a series of charges against
Arnold, accusing him of
illegal and oppressive con-
duct, of permitting vessels
belonging to disaffected
persons then voluntarily
residing with the British
in Philadelphia to come
to a port of the United
States without the knowl-
edge or authority of the State or the commander-
in-chief, of shutting up the stores and privately
making purchases on his own account, of imposing
"menial offices upon the sons of freemen" when
called forth for militia duty, of interposing by an
illegal and unworthy purchase of the "Active" prize-
claim at a low and inadequate price to prevent an
amicable adjustment of the suit and realize a large
profit for himself, of appropriating the wagons of the
State for the transportation of private property, of
giving an unauthorized pass to a person suspected of
disloyalty to enter the British lines, of sending an
indecent and disrespectful refusal to a request for
a statement concerning the use of the wagons, and
of exhibiting "discouragement and neglect to civil,
military, and other characters who had adhered to
MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON.
the cause of their country, while preserving an en-
tirely different attitude to those of another charac-
ter."
It was added that, "If this command had been,
as is generally believed, supported at an expense of
four or five thousand pounds per annum to the United
States, we freely declare we shall very unwillingly
pay any share of the expense thus incurred;" and
the Council decided that the attorney-general be
instructed to prosecute Gen. Arnold for such conduct
as was cognizable by the courts of law. It was fur-
ther ordered by the Council "that, as the wagons
sent by Gen. Arnold to Egg Harbor were drawn forth
under the law of this State, and the wagoners not
being able to procure payment either from the quarter-
master's department or from Gen. Arnold, who is de-
parted from this city while
the complaint against him
was depending, and they
being in a great necessity,
this board ought to relieve
them so far as to ad-
vance four hundred and
fifty pounds, until they can
procure further redress;
and that John Jordan,
wagon-master, give a spe-
cial receipt to be account-
able therefor."
Arnold, not caring to
meet the charges, lelt the
city, but before his de-
parture a certified copy
of the proceedings of the
Council, it was said, was
delivered to him. The
Council thereupon made
the whole matter public,
and Maj. Clarkson, Ar-
nold's aide-de-camp, pub-
lished a letter alleging
that the charges had been
given to the world during
Arnold's absence, and requesting a suspension of pub-
lic opinion until Arnold could return and defend him-
self. From Camp Baritan, Arnold himself sent a
letter addressed to the public under date of Feb. 9,
1779, in which he stated that since leaving Philadel-
phia he had learned " that the President and Council
of the State have preferred to Congress eight charges
against me for mal-administration while commanding
in the State; and that, not content in endeavoring in
a cruel and unprecedented manner to injure me with
Congress, they have ordered copies of the charges to
be printed and dispersed through the several States
for the purpose of prejudicing the minds of the pub-
lic against me while the matter is in suspense. Their
conduct," he added, "appears the more cruel and
malicious in making the charges after I had left the
392
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
city, as my intention of leaving it was publicly
known for four weeks before." He announced that
he had requested Congress to direct a court-martial
to be held to inquire into his conduct, and expressed
the hope that the issue would show that, instead of
being guilty of the abuses of power of which he had
been accused, he had been assailed by "as gross a
prostitution of power as ever disgraced a weak and
wicked administration," and which manifested "a
spirit of persecution against a man (who has endeav-
ored to deserve well of his country) which would dis-
credit the private resentments of an individual, and
which ought to render anybody who could be influ-
enced by it contemptible.''
Arnold's letter was followed by one from Maj. Clark-
son, denying the assertion of the Executive Council
that a copy of their charges and resolutions had been
delivered to Arnold before his departure from the
city. The action of the Council, it was said, was
taken on the day of Gen. Arnold's departure, but
after he had left. It might have happened, however,
Maj. Clarkson admitted, that the resolutions were de-
livered to Gen. Arnold, who, finding the roads bad,
had crossed the river again into Pennsylvania, before
he had again crossed Lhe line of the State, and this he
believed to be the case; but the point he wished to
make was that Arnold had not taken his departure
after receiving a copy of the charges and in conse-
quence of them.
Arnold had many friends in Congress, and it was
with some difficulty that the passage was procured of
a resolution directing that a court-martial be held at
camp to try him on certain charges selected from
those preferred by the Executive Council of Penn-
sylvania. The trial was delayed until January, 1780,
when Arnold was convicted of making private use of
the army wagons, but acquitted of any corrupt intent
and was sentenced to be reprimanded by the com-
mander-in-chief. The verdict exasperated Arnold,
who was still further humiliated by the action of Con-
gress on claims preferred by him growing out of the
Canadian expedition. His estimate was materially
reduced by the treasury officers, and when Arnold
appealed to Congress a committee reported that a
larger sum had been allowed him than was really
due. Having failed to secure a loan from the French
ambassador, he determined to betray his country for
British gold. With this end in view he made a propo-
sition through Maj. AndrS, who had known Arnold's
wife, Miss Shippen, while stationed in Philadelphia,
to Sir Henry Clinton to surrender the important
military post of West Point on the Hudson, the com-
mand of which he had solicited and obtained from
Washington. The failure of this scheme, the flight
of Arnold and the death of Andr6, are familiar facts
of history which it is unnecessary to dwell on here.1
1 Arnold died at hie house in London on the 14th of June, 1801, and
his wife in the same city on the 24lh of August, 1804. According to the
When the news of Arnold's treason reached Phila-
delphia, on the 27th of September, 1780, the sheriff
was ordered by the Supreme Executive Council to
make search for Arnold's papers and bring them be-
fore that body. This was done, and while no direct
proof of his treachery was found, the papers dis-
closed, said the Packet, " such a scene of baseness
and prostitution of office and character as it is hoped
the world cannot parallel." " The illiberal abuse
of every character opposed to his fraudulent and
wicked transactions," it was added, " exceeds all de-
scription." The popular indignation in Philadel-
phia at the revelations of Arnold's baseness was in-
tense. On the night after the intelligence of his
flight was received, a hollow paper figure, with a
light inside, and an inscription on it, was carried
through the streets, and finally hung upon a gallows.
Two days later, September 30th, a public parade
gave expression to the universal detestation of the
traitor. The procession was composed of " several
gentlemen mounted on horseback, a line of Conti-
nental officers, sundry gentlemen in a line, a guard
of the city infantry," and drummers and fifers play-
ing the Rogue's March, and preceding a cart, with
guards on each side, in which was displayed an effigy
of Arnold. The escort consisted of about twenty
militia and three light-horsemen, — James Budden,
John Dunlap, and Thomas Leiper. Each militia-
man carried a lighted candle affixed to his musket.
The figure of Arnold was seated on a stage, with one
leg upon a chair, in imitation of his manner of sit-
ting in consequence of his wound, and the head,
which had two faces, emblematic of his treacherous
conduct, was made to move continually. The effigy
was dressed in uniform. In one hand it held a mask,
and in the other a letter " from Beelzebub, telling
him he had done all the mischief he could do, and
now he must hang himself." Back of the effigy stood
the figure of a devil, shaking a purse at the general's
left ear, and holding in his right hand a pitchfork,
" ready to drive him into hell as the reward due for
the many crimes which his thirst of gold had made
him commit." In front was placed a large transpar-
ency, with pictures representing the consequences of
his crimes. On one part, Gen. Arnold on his knees
before the devil, who is pulling him into the flames.
A label from the general's mouth with these words :
"My dear sir, I have served you faithfully." To
which the devil replies, " And I'll reward you."
On another side two figures hanging, inscribed, " The
traitor's reward," and underneath, "The Adjutant-
General of the British army and Joe Smith. The
" Red Book," published in London in 1824, Edward Shippen Arnold,
James Robertson Arnold, George Arnold, and Sophia Matilda Arnold,
children of Benedict Arnold, received pensions of four hundred pounds
sterling, paid by sign-manual of the king of Great Britain at the trea-
sury. Another son, John Arnold, was a brigadier-general on the Bengal
establishment in India. Edward S. Arnold also served as an officer on
the same establishment.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
393
first hanged as a spy, and the other as a traitor to
his country." On the front of the lantern was the
following inscription : " Major-General Benedict Ar-
nold, late commander of the fort West Point. The
crime of this man is high treason," together with a
recital of the facts of his treachery, and the an-
nouncement that " the effigy of this ungrateful gen-
eral" would be hanged "for want of his body," as
that of a traitor to his native country and a betrayer
of the laws of honor. The procession formed in the
rear of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, at
Fourth and Elm (now New) Streets, and the effigy,
after having been drawn through the city, was burnt
on High Street hill.1
Arnold's " address to the inhabitants of America"
was produced in the Pennsylvania Packet, and a num-
ber of epigrams, squibs, and verses were published in
Philadelphia, some of which were clever. The Ex-
ecutive Council of Pennsylvania promptly confiscated
Arnold's property. His country estate, Mount Pleas-
ant, was seized and rented to Baron Steuben ; his
horses and chariot were sold at the Coffee-House, and
his household and kitchen furniture at the meal-
market. In a letter to Washington, Arnold had
begged protection for his wife, whom he declared to
have been ignorant of what he had done, but the
Supreme Executive Council, evidently thinking that
she was not altogether innocent, — her family was one
of Tory proclivities, and she had been one of the
principal belles of the Meschianza, — adopted, on the
27th of October, an order directing her to leave the
State within two weeks.2
In addition to the charges preferred against Arnold
in that year, the public mind in Philadelphia was
agitated, in 1779, by two other incidents affecting indi-
viduals high in the service of the colonies. The first
of these caused a difficulty between Brig.-Gen. Wil-
liam Thompson and Chief Justice Thomas McKean.
Thompson had raised a rifle regiment and marched to
Cambridge at the beginning of the war, but was cap-
tured during the Canadian expedition under Mont-
gomery and Arnold. After an imprisonment of four
months he was released on parole and came to Penn-
sylvania, where he was forced to remain for more than
two years and a half an idle spectator of the contest.
Thompson claimed that he should have been ex-
changed long before and permitted to re-enter the
service, and that Congress had treated him in a
"rascally manner." He was particularly bitter
1 Watson's Anuals, vol. ii. p. 327.
2 "The Council, taking into consideration the case of Mrs. Margaret
Arnold (the wife of Benedict Arnold, an attainted traitor with the
enemy at New York), whose residence in this city has become danger-
ous to the public safety, and this board being deiirouB as much as po--
sible to prevent any correspondence and intercourse b<-ing carried on
with persoDs of disaffected character in this State and the enemy at
New York, and especially with the said Benedict Arnold, therefore
" Resolved, That the said Margaret Arnold depart this State within
fourteen days from the date hereof, and that she do not return again
during the continuance of the present war.1'
against McKean, whom he accused of having hin-
dered his exchange, and denounced for having acted
" like a liar, a rascal, and a coward." To this insult-
ing language, evidently used with the view to pro-
voking a duel, McKean replied that, " as chief justice
of a new republic" nothing should disturb his steady
purpose by his precepts and example to maintain
peace, order, the laws, and the dignity of his station,
and that he could not "set the precedent, obliging a
member of Congress, or a magistrate, to subject him-
self to a duel with every person against whose opinion
he gives his vote or judgment." McKean sued Thomp-
son for libel, and the case was determined in the spring
of 1781 by the award of five thousand seven hundred
pounds damages in favor of the plaintiff. Dunlap,
printer of the Packet, in which the libel appeared,
confessed judgment. McKean released the damages
in both cases, " as he only wanted to see the law and
the facts settled."
The other affair alluded to was one of much greater
magnitude, involving a charge of corruption against
Silas Deane, one of the American representatives at
the court of France. Almost all the financial trans-
actions of the mission had passed through the hands
of Mr. Deane, who was charged by William Car-
michael, of Maryland, who had been secretary to the
American commissioners at Paris, but was now a mem-
ber of Congress from Maryland, with having made
improper use of the public money. Carmichael and
Deane were examined by Congress, and the investi-
gation resulted in a violent controversy, Robert
Morris heading one side of the contest and Richard
Henry Lee the other. In an " Address to the People
of the United States," which he published in the
Philadelphia Gazette, Deane severely criticised the
official conduct of Richard Henry Lee and of his
brothers, Arthur and William, at the same time
claiming for himself the credit of having obtained
supplies for the colonies through Beaumarchais, the
celebrated author of the " Marriage of Figaro."
Beaumarchais had been commissioued by the king of
France to carry the proposed transaction into effect,
but as it was desirable that the French government
should not officially appear in the matter, the business
was conducted as though it were a commercial trans-
action under the firm-name of Roderique, Hortalez
& Co. After the publication of Deane's article,
Thomas Paine, the well-known writer and author of
"Common Sense," who, besides receiving five hun-
dred pounds from the State of Pennsylvania, had been
rewarded for his pamphlet with the post of secretary
to the Committee of Congress for Foreign Affairs,
availing himself of papers which had come into his
possession in his official capacity, published a state-
ment showing that Arthur Lee and not Deane had
consummated the arrangement with Beaumarchais,
and that the money had been supplied, not by private
parties, but by the French court. As Louis XVI.
had intended that the real character of the transac-
394
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tion should not be disclosed to the British govern-
ment, with which he was then nominally at peace,-and
had assured the English ambassador at Paris that
France was taking no part in the struggle, the allega-
tion of Paine created a sensation. In consequence
of a complaint on the part of Gerard, the French
ambassador, Paine resigned his position, and Congress
passed a resolution denying that supplies had been
received from the French court previous to the treaty
of alliance between France and the. United States,
then recently concluded. Deane, however, continued
to maintain that the supplies had been furnished by
private parties and must be paid for by Congress. In
order to protect the honor of the French Court, Con-
gress voted to repay the money, although it was known
that the king of France had furnished Beaumarchais
with no expectation that it would be refunded by the
Americans. Consequently, when Beaumarchais re-
ceived the money from Congress, instead of paying
it into the French treasury, he put it in his own
pocket. In the course of the controversy growing
out of the matter the Philadelphia newspapers teemed
during the greater part of 1779 with statements and
counter statements by Deane, Robert Morris, C. W.
Peale, and others, and many bitter attacks on Paine.
In view of the strong Tory feeling in Philadelphia,
it was deemed advisable, after the reoccupation of the
city, to adopt the most stringent and energetic meas-
ures for the suppression of treason and disloyalty to
the American cause. In August, 1778, Frederick
Verner and George Spangler were tried by a court-
martial, instituted by Arnold, on the charge of being
British spies, and were convicted and sentenced to be
hanged. Spangler was executed on the commons
during the same month, but an appeal having been
made to Congress in Verner's case, the sentence of
the court-martial condemning him to death was not
carried into effect, and, after lying in prison for some
time, he was exchanged for an American in the hands
of the British. Lieut. Samuel Lyons, of the " Dick-
inson" galley, Lieut. Ford, of the " Effingham" gal-
ley, Lieut. Joseph Wilson, of the "Banger" galley,
and John Lawrence, gunner of the " Dickinson" gal-
ley, were tried by naval court-martial for having de-
serted to the enemy during the attack upon Fort
Mifflin in November, 1777. They went off in boats;
were taken by the British, and sent to Philadelphia.
Ford went about the city and sold liquor. After the
evacuation of the town he accompanied the British
army to Monmouth ; deserted from it during the bat-
tle, and went to the American camp. These four men
were all found guilty and sentenced to be shot. The
Council pardoned Wilson and Lawrence, but refused
to extend mercy to Lyons and Ford, who were exe-
cuted on board of one of the guard boats in the Dela-
ware River. On the 4th of September, 1778, Patrick
McMullin, a deserter from the Pennsylvania troops,
was executed on the commons. He had deserted from
several Continental regiments and joined others, de-
frauding Congress of the enlistment money. During
the same month occurred the trials of persons accused
of high treason, the Court of Oyer and Terminer sit-
ting at the college, with Thomas McKean as presiding
judge. Peter Deshong, arraigned as one of the per-
sons who had kept the gates of the city under the
British, was shown to have been so lenient that he
had been deprived of his office, and was therefore ac-
quitted. George Cook, accused of having acted as
guide for the British army, was acquitted ; William
Hamilton, charged with having assisted the British
troops, was also acquitted. Abraham Carlisle, a house-
carpenter by trade and a native of Philadelphia,
charged with having kept one of the gates at the
northern redoubt; and John Roberts, a miller of
Lower Merion, accused of having enlisted with the
enemy and attempting to persuade others to enlist,
were convicted and sentenced to be hung. The con-
viction of Carlisle and Roberts, both of whom were
Friends, created intense excitement among the Tories
and Quakers, who feared that it was but the precursor
of a series of sanguinary prosecutions, and powerful
influences were brought to bear to secure a commuta-
tion of the sentence. Many leading Whigs interested
themselves in behalf of the prisoners, both of whom,
well advanced in years, were shown to be men of good
character. Twelve of the grand jurors petitioned for
mercy. Ten of the petit jury that had found Roberts
guilty united in a similar appeal. The entire jury in
Carlisle's case asked that leniency and a reprieve be
extended to him. The Revs. William Smith, William
White, John C. Kunze, Robert Davidson, and Caspa-
rus Weiberg pleaded for both Carlisle and Roberts.
Three hundred and eighty-seven Phiiadelphians,
among whom were Benjamin Rush, Gen. John Cad-
walader, Col. William Coats, Col. Sliarpe Delaney,
Commodore Hazlewood, Blair McClenachan, Thomas
Fitzsimons, and other leading Whigs, signed a peti-
tion begging that Carlisle's life might be spared.
Strenuous efforts were also made on behalf of Roberts,
and a number of Whigs came forward with evidence
to show that he had interceded on behalf of prisoners,
and protected them when they were being subjected
to brutal treatment at the hands of the British and
Tories. These appeals, however, had no effect on the
Supreme Executive Council, and both Carlisle and
Roberts were hung on the 4th of November. Carlisle's
body was interred in the Friends' burying-ground,
the funeral being witnessed by a large concourse of
people. In the following year the property belong-
ing to Carlisle and Roberts was confiscated by the
State. Their execution and the seizure of their
property appear at this day to have been dictated by
the desire to satisfy popular clamor rather than a
spirit of justice. The Whigs thirsted for revenge,
and it seems to have been deemed expedient to sup-
ply them with at least two victims. It was thought
desirable, moreover, to intimidate the Friends who
were openly accused of aiding the British and of
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
395
doing everything in their power to injure the patriot
cause.
The term for trials on the charge of treason lasted
until December, and many cases were disposed of.1
On the 3d of September a Dr. Berkenhout was
arrested on the charge of having been employed by
the enemy to ascertain upon what terms Congress
would negotiate a treaty with Great Britain, and
upon searching his papers the draft of a letter to
Richard Henry Lee was found, offering to act as "a
voluntary negotiator between the two contending
powers" on the basis of a recognition of the inde-
pendence of the United States. The Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council, after having examined Berkenhout's
papers, ordered hiin to leave the city and State and
go within the enemy's lines.
While the army was engaged in the brief but de-
cisive campaign in New Jersey, active preparations
were being made for resuming the offensive on the
Delaware River and Bay. The armed brig "Con-
vention" and the galleys, after having been fitted
and manned, were ordered down the river to watch
the movements of the enemy. Lord Howe's fleet
had set sail on the 17th of June, but in consequence
of continued calms did not arrive at the Capes until
the 28th, the last vessel passing out on the 30th.
As the enemy had manifestly changed his base of
operations, it was decided to be unnecessary to retain
the naval force in its original strength, and resolu-
tions were adopted for the discharge of all the oJfi-
cers and men except those required to man three
galleys, three guard-boats, and the brig "Conven-
tion." Thomas Houston was appointed to the com-
mand of the latter vessel, with orders to cruise along
the coast for the protection of shipping. The " Chat-
ham," "Hancock," and "Bull Dog" were kept for
future service, but the other vessels were sold.
Shortly after the evacuation the British schooner
"Lord Diutnmond," supposing Philadelphia to be
still in the hands of the Howes, ventured into the
1 Samuel Piles, flint les Woodfall, James Roberts, Lewis Guioti, Pavid
Copelaml, George llevenderver, John Huiitman, Ailnm Strieker. Joseph
Boltuu, Auhiey Ilanvy, inn) Andrew Hatlie, were tried fur hie.li treason
and acquitted. The bill against David Franks Wilis returned itjiioruiiiwt.
There were discharged by proclamation — nobody appearing apiinst
th em — Ludwig Kcrcher, Antln.ny Yeldall.Tencli Coxe, Carpenter W liar-
ton, John Palmer, Joseph Shoemaker, Peter Hnbeson, John Wright,
William SchucilirT, James Davis, Isaac Km'jrht, Samuel Garrignes, Jr.,
and Stephen ISyler. Edward Shippen, Jr., John Lawrence, James Hum-
phreys, William Smith, D.D., Capt. Henry Gurney, Thomas Ashet.in,
and Samuel nl unlock, fuilnerl.v lield on parole, were di-charged early in
August. Rev. Thomas Coonibe was granted a pass to Kew Turk. On
October :llst, William Boss, cordwairter. Walnut Street; Robert White,
merchant ami manner; Itieliaid Palmer, cabinet-maker; John Burd,
butcher; John Colston, stocking-weaver; William Evans anil John
Evans, earpenler.s; Alexander Smith, blacksmith ; James Warrel,
brewer; David Jones, tavern-keeper and constable; Hudson Hnrr, hat-
ter; John Bnrkett, waterman; Alexander Stedm.in, Esq., of the city;
ThomaK Green and Thomas Silkod, of the township of Hatfield; John
Loughborough, blacksmith; Jacob Comly, yeoman ; and John Ilurke,
tailor, of Muicland, in the county of Philadelphia, were attainted as
traitors, and commanded to come forward and take their trial before
December 15th.
Delaware and was captured by one of the Pennsyl-
vania galleys. A large number of letters of marque
were issued, and commissions as privateers were
granted to the sloop " Gerard" and the "Addition,"
together with supplies of powder and cannon; but
no captures of special importance were made by any
of these vessels. Embargoes upon the exportation
of provisions were laid twice during the autumn of
1778, and the galleys were employed in guarding the
river to prevent infringements. The capture of the
British sloop "Active" by the "Convention" has
already been narrated.
Upon the resumption of authority by the State
government the fortifications erected in the Northern
Liberties and elsewhere in the vicinity of Philadel-
phia were dismantled. The bridge at Middle Ferry,
laid by the British, was removed to Gray's Ferry;
and the floating bridge, originally at Market Street,
laid during the time that Putnam was in command,
in 1776-77, was towed back from the place where it
had been concealed from the enemy, and moored at
its old station. An agreement was afterwards made in
relation to the bridge belonging to the United States
(now removed to Gray's Ferry), that the State of
Pennsylvania should pay its value and keep it in
repair, and that the United States should pay eight
hundred pounds per annum for the privilege of its
use by the army. It was determined that, for the
defense of the Delaware, four heavy pieces of artil-
lery should be placed at Billingsport and two at Mud
Island. An apartment in the old work-house at
Third and Market Streets was appropriated to Capt.
Hill for casting bullets, and the long room at the
State-House was fitted up as a magazine of small-
arms.
The scarcity of food, clothing, and other supplies
offered a tempting bait to speculators, and the stren-
uous efforts made to prevent extortion met with indif-
ferent success. While the State government was still
at Lancaster a law was passed by which the price of
various articles was determined. Wheat was to be
sold at ten shillings per barrel, and flour at twenty-
seven shillings per hundred. The charges of inn-
keepers were to be regulated by the Courts of Quarter
Sessions. In November, 1777, a committee of Con-
gress called the attention of the Supreme Executive
Council to the fact that "the dangerous practices of
engrossers" had increased so rapidly with the public
distresses, and had so accumulated them, that " every
friend to his country or even of humanity cannot but
wish to see some remedy for an evil which threatens
the existence not only of the several States, but of the
poorer part of the individuals who compose them."
It was suggested that the Legislature should not only
fix the prices, but should pass laws compelling the
dealers to part with their goods at those prices.
" Persons in office," it was stated in a later communi-
cation, were using " the moneys intrusted to them in
the engrossing of articles upon the public." On the
396
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
10th of December, 1778, the Supreme Executive
Council appointed William Heysham, George Schlos-
ser, and William Hollingshead to make inquiry con-
cerning the engrossing of flour and other necessaries
in all that part of the city northward of the north
part of Market Street. Nathan Boys, Jedediah Snow-
den, and Robert Bridges were commissioned to make
like inquiries south of Market Street, and Col. Wil-
liam Coats, Frederick Kuhl, and Emanuel Eyre for
the Northern Liberties.
The Assembly, summoned by the Supreme Execu-
tive Council to meet in August, 1778, did not secure
a quorum until late in October. Some difficulty was
experienced in organizing, from the apprehension of
members that the oath requiring them to support the
Constitution might prevent them from taking meas-
ures to ascertain the sense of the people as to proposed
alterations. Finally a form of reservation was adopted
by which members declared their right of doing any-
thing proper to test the opinion of the people on the
subject. Of the city delegation, Michael Shubart
alone took the oath unconditionally, while Robert
Morris, Thomas Mifflin, Samuel Meredith, and George
Clymer made the reservation. Of the county mem-
bers, John Bayard, Robert Knox, Robert Loller, and
Archibald Thompson took the oath. Daniel Huster
and Isaac Warner made the reservation. The question
of amending the Constitution soon came up before
the Assembly, which ordered an election to determine
whether a convention for its revision should be held ;
but such was the popular opposition that the resolu-
tion, adopted by the Assembly Nov. 28, 1778, was re-
pealed in the following February.1
In view of the departure of the British army, the
act providing that the courts of Philadelphia, Bucks,
and Chester be held at Lancaster was repealed by the
Assembly, an Admiralty Court was established, and
1 The feeling in Philadelphia in favor of the old Constitution was very
strong. Remonstrances against the proposed election poured in upon
the Legislature. On the other hand, a "Republican Society" was formed
for the purpose of urging the revision of the Constitution, the members
of which, in March, 1779, were Richard Bache, Cluiirman ; Samuel Mor-
ris, Jr., John Cadwalader, Benjamin Eyre, John Murray, W. Hum-
phreys, George Meade, William von Pbul, William Alricks, Johu Pat-
ton, John Donaldson, William Govett, Jacob Rush, Peter Scull, J.
Mifflin, Jr , Jacob Ililtzheimer, Samuel Howell, Jr., B. Dougherty,
James Crawford, Johu Baker, F. Hopkiuson, Ephraim Blaine, Samuel
Meredith, George Clymer, James Caldwell, William Allibone, Jacob
Shallus, F. Ilassenclever, Peter Bayntnn, Stephen Chambers. John Shee,
John Lardner, James White, T. Learning, Jr., Robert Morris, Peter Z.
Lloyd, John Benezet, Lewis Weiss, Philip Wager, Samuel Caldwell,
Alexander Foster, James Craig, Jr., T. Fitzsimons, John Nixon, George
Ross, Thomas Peters, E. Biddle, James Mease, Mark Bird, Alexander
Nesbitt, Samuel Nicholas, Robert Roberts, J. Humphreys, Jr., ThoniFis
Frauklyn, Thomas Mifflin, William Gray, John M. Nesbitt, George
Woods, L, Cadwalader, James Read, John White, John Parke, John
Wilcocks, J. Cowperthwait, James Wilson, Joseph Moulder, Sharpe De-
laney, N. Falconer, Thomas Smith, G. Noarth, Andrew Bunner, Charles
Thomson, Benjamin Rush, John Mease, Isaac Melcher, John Chaloner,
Henry Hill, John Colhoon, George Campbell, John Brown, Thomas
Forest, Samuel Miles. A ''Constitutional Society," of which Charles
Wilson Peale waB chairman, was formed as a counter-move, and the
controversy for a time was animated and exceedingly bitter, as, indeed,
were most of the political discussions of that day.
the duties of the naval officer defined and regulated.
A draft of a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery
was prepared and published, but the matter was post-
poned in order that the fullest opportunity for reflec-
tion might be afforded.2
On the 1st of December, 1778, Gen. Joseph Reed
was elected president of the Supreme Executive Coun-
cil, and George Bryan vice-president. After the new
officers had been proclaimed at the court-house, the
Council and Assembly dined at the City Tavern.
A supplement to the act for the better security of
government extended the time for taking the obliga-
tion, so as to include persons who had been prisoners
with the enemy and to soldiers and sailors who had
been in the service of the State for three months from
the date of the supplementary act, or after they should
come into the State. A further supplement was passed
in December, giving any person a right to take the
oath of allegiance at any time. James Young, Plun-
ket Fleeson, George Ord, and Isaac Howell were ap-
pointed commissioners for the city to take and re-
ceive the affidavits. John Moor, Jonathan B. Smith,
David Knox, Seth Tull, and John Richards were
appointed to the same office in the county. In con-
sequence of the passage of this act the Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council issued a proclamation pardoning all
persons who were confined in prison, "convicted of
pertinaciously refusing to take the several oaths or
affirmations of allegiance to the State.''
About the same time the Assembly passed an act
vesting the title to the house of Joseph Galloway,
the Tory, at the southeast corner of Sixth and Mar-
ket Streets, in the president of the Supreme Execu-
tive Council, to be occupied as his official residence,
or giving him permission, if he preferred to do so,
to rent it and receive the money for his own use.3
2 In the message from the Supreme Executive Council to the Assem-
bly,the following passage proves that a strong public sentiment existed
in favor of abolition:
"The late Assembly was furnished with heads of a bill for manumit-
ting infant negroes born of slaves, by which the gradual abolition of
servitude for life would be obtained in an easy mode. It is not proposed
that the present slaves, moBt of whom are scarcely competent of free-
dom, should be meddled witli ; but all importation must be forbid if the
idea be adopted. This, or some better scheme, would tend to abrogate
slavery — the opprobrium of America — from among us; and no period
seems more happy for the attempt than the present, as the number of
such unhappy characters, ever few in Pennsylvania, has been much re-
duced by the practices and plunder of our late invaders. In divesting
the State of slaves you will equally serve the cause of humanity and
policy, and offer to God one uf the most proper and best returns of grati-
tude for His great deliverance of us andofour posterity from thraldom.
You will also set your character for justice and benevolence, in a true
point of view, to all Europe, who are astonished to see a people eager
for liberty holding negroes in bondage."
3 On the 18th of March, 1779, the Assembly passed an act vesting the
title to the property in Pluuket Fleeson, Jonathan Bayard Smith, Wil-
liam Henry, George Sell losser, and Isaac Howell, as trustees, to allow
the president of the Supreme Executive Council for the time being to
have the exclusive care and management of the same, to use it either
as a residence or to lease the same and receive the rents, issues, and
profits for his own use. The property extended to Minor Street, at the
corner of which there was a coach-house and stable. President Reed
took possession of this mansion immediately afterwards, and continued
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
397
In December, 1778, the campaign being nearly
over, Gen. Washington paid a visit to Philadelphia,
having been preceded by his wife, who was honored
with a ball at the City Tavern on the 17th, at which
the French minister and President Reed were among
to reside in it while he hud the office. The huge mansion of the Rev.
Jacob Duche, at the northeast corner of Third and Pine Streets, also
confiscated, was, by vote of tlie Assembly, delivered to Chief Justice Mc-
Kean, to be used as an official residence. The stables of Thomas Hale,
in Lombard Street, forfeited to the State, were appropriated for the ac-
commodation of the horses of the members of the General Assembly.
During the same year the forfeited estates of the following Tories were
Hold by the confiscation agents:
David Sproat, southwest corner of Front and Walnut Streets, nineteen
feet on Front Street by ninety feet, sold to Christian Wirtz, of Lancas-
ter, for £14,400.
Samuel Shoemaker, north side of Mulberry, between Front and Sec-
ond Streets, sold to George Haynes for £39,100.
Henry Jnunkin, tract of land in Philadelphia County, sold to Owen
Faries for £17,010.
David Thompson, lot from the Delaware to Front Street, one hundred
feet by five hundred and sixty feet, sold to Tliumnfl Learning, Jr., An-
drew Bnuner, John Monger, and Joseph Coleman Fisher for £GS,600.
David Thompson, house and lot, south 6ide of Almond Street, east of
Front, twenty-one Feet by sixty-six, sold to Charles Baker for £1310.
Geortre Harding, two houses and lots, Southwark,Bold to John Compty
for £950.
George Harding, lease of lot Dortheast corner of Front and Catharine
Streets, sold to John Compty for £1500.
George Harding, lot, Third Street, Southwark, nineteen feet four
inches by eighty feet, sold to Henry Osbourne for £2300.
Arthur Thomas, Second Street, Northern Liberties, fifteen feet six
inches by sixty feet, sold to John Sternfield for £5000.
Thomas Shoemaker, Front Street, twenty feet by forty, sold to Thomas
Button for £6(>0.
Thomas Mai-It iness, houses and lot, northeast corner of Third and Vine
Streets, thirty-six feet six inches by ninety feet, sold to Ilev. David Tel-
fair and wife for £,"1,000.
John Tolly, house and lot, northeast corner of Second and Christian
Streets, forty feet by one huudred and twenty,sold to David Duncan for
£5100.
John Smith, two houses and lots, Queen Street, Southwark, fifty-three
feet by one hundred, sold to Charles Wilson Peale for £13,010.
Enoch Story, ground-rent of £3, on lot west side of Moyamensing
road, Southwark, sold to John Young, Jr., for £120.
Joseph Galloway, three tracts of meadow land on Boon's Island, King-
sessing, sold to John Dunlap for £7!)80.
Joseph Galloway, tract on Schuylkill, east side, nearSepickan Creek,
twenty-nine acres. Bold to John Little and Ephraim Blaine for £15,520.
Christopher Saur, house, paper-mill, saw-mill, mill-dam, etc., Wissa-
hickon road, Roxborongh, sold to Jacob Morgan, Jr., for £5150.
Christopher Sanr, house and lot, southwest side of main road, Ger-
mantown, corner of Bowman's Lane, Bold to Jacob Bay for £4200.
John Parrock, house and tract of fifty-four acres, on the river Dela-
ware, iu the Northern Liberties, 6old to Jacob Morgan, Jr., for £27,600.
George Euser, two houses and lots, west side of Second Street, between
South and Shippen Streets, forty feet by 6eventy-seveu feet six inches,
Bold to Gottlieb Roll for £11,400.
Peter Arthur, house and lot, east side of Second Street, Southwark,
twenty-nine feet six inches by Bixty-five feet, sold to James Rowan for
£1500.
Alexander Bartram, four houses and lots, northeast corner of Third
and Shippen Streets, one hundred feet by one hundred, sold to John
Duulap and George Henry for £7000.
Alexander Bartram, two houses and lots, west side of Second Street,
near Christian, forty-Beveu feet by two hundred, sold to Charles Wilson
Peale for £3070.
John Roberts, house and lot, one hundred acres, Lower Merion town-
ship, sold to Daniel Ulymer for £4000.
Peter Campbell, house and lot, Bouth side of Chestnut Street, between
Fourth and Fifth, one hundred and six feet by two hundred and fifty-
five feet, sold to Andrew Caldwell for £30,500.
John Bartlett, half of three houses and lots, east Bide of Second Street,
Southwark, sold to James Little for £1100.
the guests. Washington reached the city on the 22d,
but " so late in the day," says Dunlap's Packet, " as
to prevent the Philadelphia troop of militia, light-
horse, the gentlemen officers of the militia and others
in the city from showing those marks of unfeigned
regard for this great and good man which they fully
intended, and especially of receiving him on his
entrance into the State and escorting him hither."
While in Philadelphia, Washington, as a member of
the order, participated in a procession of Free and
Accepted Masons. The Grand Lodge had been re-
organized in December, and a public celebration of
St. John's Day was held on the 28th of December.
The procession formed at the college and moved
from that point to Christ Church, where divine ser-
vice was held. Prayers were read by Rev. William
White, and a sermon was preached by the Rev.
William Smith, D.D. After service the procession
returned to the college, " the musical bells belonging
to the church and the band of music playing proper
Masonic tunes." A collection was taken at the
church for the relief of the poor, which realized four
hundred pounds, and it was stated that additional
contributions might be sent to William Ball, John
Wood, John Howard, and William Shute, to whom
" objects of charity, bringing proper recommenda-
tions," were instructed to apply.
Owing to the rapid depreciation of Continental
money, persons who had goods for sale were naturally
loth to dispose of them, fearing that the currency in
which they would have been paid might soon become
practically worthless. At length the scarcity of food
and other necessaries of life became so great the
Supreme Executive Council, on the 18th of January,
1779, issued a proclamation against forestalling and
engrossing, charging the civil officers to make diligent
search for all persons suspected of such offenses and
ordering their vigorous prosecution, if detected. In
March, 1779, a petition was presented to the Assem-
bly from citizens of Philadelphia complaining of the
practice of disaffected persons who injured the Con-
tinental currency by taking smaller sums in specie
than they would in paper. A similar protest was
made by citizens of Germantown. On the 3d of
April the Assembly passed a law intended to prevent
forestalling, which prohibited purchasing in market,
or within four miles of the city, to sell again, — regular
butchers and hucksters buying to sell in market
alone excepted, and forbade buying or selling with or
for hard money ; severe penalties being provided for
each class of offenses. A law was also enacted pro-
viding for the establishment of a police force to pre-
vent the resort of Tories and other agents of the
enemy to Philadelphia, with authority to arrest sus-
picious persons and expel them from the State if
necessary.
The popular dissatisfaction at the scarcity and cost-
liness of provisions was greatly heightened by an in-
cident which occurred in May. A polacre, the " Vic-
398
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
torious,'' and some other vessels laden with flour
having arrived in port, it was expected that a reduc-
tion in the price of flour would follow; but instead
of decreasing, the price, it was claimed, had actually
risen. Robert Morris, Blair McClenachan, and others
who were interested in the vessels, were openly cen-
sured, and at a town-meeting on the 25th of May,
Gen. Roberdeau presiding, Timothy Matlack, David
Rittenhouse, Capt. Blewer, Thomas Paine, Charles
W. Peale, and Col. J. B. Smith were appointed a
committee to wait on Robert Morris to make inqui-
ries about the " Victorious." At the same meeting
Col. William Henry, Col. Bradford. George Schlosser,
Col. Will, Col. Jehu Eyre, Capt. Heysham, Maj.
Boyd, Philip Boehm, Jedediah Snowden, Nathaniel
Donnell, Capt. Robert Smith, Capt. Lang, Dr. Hutch-
inson, William Brown, Paul Cox, Edward Poole,
Thomas Casdrop, Capt. George Ord, James Skinner,
John Kling, William Thorn, William Coates (tanner),
Joseph Dean, John Young, Cadwalader Dickinson,
and Capt. Thomas Moore were chosen as a committee
of inspection to determine what the price of various
articles should be. The committee to wait on Morris
censured him for having given the refusal of the
cargo to Mr. Solikoff, of Baltimore, so that the Com-
mercial Committee of Congress were prevented from
buying it; but, as Solikoff withdrew and Morris was
able to sell the flour to Continental agents at fair
prices, the matter was dropped.
The Committee of Inspection adopted a schedule of
prices and a regulation forbidding persons to purchase
butter at a higher price than fifteen shillings a pound.
At a subsequent meeting held on the 26th of June,
1779, the removal of goods from the city exceeding
one hundred pounds in value, without a permit, was
prohibited. Itwas supposed that these stringent reg-
ulations would prove effective ; but such was not the
case. Evasions and violations of the law were fre-
quent ; and considerable indignation was aroused by
the discovery that the French consul-general, Holker,
aided by Robert Morris, was clandestinely shipping
flour to the French fleet, which had been bought at
prices beyond those established by the regulations.
A meeting at which Gen. Daniel Roberdeau presided
was held, at which Paine, who had taken a prominent
part in the newspaper attacks on Robert Morris, was
indorsed and declared to be "a friend to the Amer-
ican cause." At this meeting Gen. John Cadwalader,
on attempting to speak in behalf of Morris, was in-
terrupted by men armed with clubs. Cadwalader and
his friends then withdrew to College Yard, in Fourth
Street, where a meeting was held, with Robert Morris
in the chair. Resolutions indorsing Holker and
Morris were adopted, and a committee appointed, con-
sisting of Andrew Caldwell, James Wilson, Sharpe
Delaney, Whitehead Humphreys, Benjamin Rush,
Maj. David Lenox, and Maj. Benjamin Eyre, to give
effect to the action of the meeting.
Holker complained to the Supreme Executive Coun-
cil, which, after investigating the matter, declared that
he was free from any suspicion of carrying on a clan-
destine private trade, and that the flour which had
been seized should be given up to him. Both parties
agreed to the election of a hew committee for the
regulation of the sale of provisions, etc., and, by a
vote of 2115 to 284 for an opposition ticket, a com-
mittee headed by Blair McClenachan was chosen.1
Stringent regulations were adopted by the new
committee for the enforcement of the measures taken
to prevent engrossing, forestalling, secreting supplies,
etc. A thousand bushels of wheat were seized in a
mill near Germantown ; wagons leaving the city with
supplies of groceries were stopped and brought back;
and Richard Wistar, Thomas Story, Mason, and
B. Humphreys, charged with infringing the rules, were
arrested. Goods belonging to parties found guilty of
such violation were seized and sold. These efforts to
prevent extortion were generally indorsed; and the
Philadelphia company of artillery, Capt. John Mc-
Ginley, which had been on garrison duty at Mud
Island fort, marched to the State-House, on being
discharged, and assured the Supreme Executive
Council of their approval of all that had been done
in their absence, after which they proceeded to the
college, where the inspection committee was sitting,
and announced their intention of supporting the
committee in their efforts to reduce the prices of goods
and provisions. There was of course great dissatis-
faction among the tradesmen at the arbitrary schedule
of prices fixed by the committee, and complaint was
made that the regulations did not bear evenly upon
1 The members of this committee (far both city and county) were Blair
McCleimcluin, W. Hnllingshead, dipt. Joseph Stiles, Jacob Shriner,
Thomas Cuthbertson, Paul Cox, Cadwalader Dickinson, George Picker-
ing, D. Rilteiihnuse, Ovveu Biddle, Capt. G. Reinhart, James Skinner,
Col. Robert Allison, William Robinson (Soulhwnrk), George Henry,
Andrew Burknrt, Jared Iugersoll, Thomas Willis, .lames llond, Lewis
Farmar, Nathaniel Donnell, James Rowan, Robert Aitken, W. Smith
(druggist), La/.arus Stow, James Pickering, Andrew Kennedy, William
Peltz, Robert Bamhill, Philip Hall, Jonathan B. Smith, Dr. J. Hutch-
inson, William Moulder, Timothy Matlack, Emanuel Eyre, John Hc-
Culloch {carpenter), Andrew' Caldwell, Michael Shuhert, Thomas Paine,
Col. W. Bradford, Matthew Irwin, George Schlosser, R. Smith (hatter),
Capt, W. Coats, Jr., Joseph Marsh, Maj. Joseph Kerr, Benjamin Eyre,
William Semple, Anthony Cuthbert, Derrick Peterson, Capt. William
Brown, James Dundas, Charles Syng, William llryshain, Jedediah
Snowden, Edward Pole, Jeremiah Fisher, Samuel Young, Nicholas
Weaver, Frederick Swinkle, William Moore (Northern Liberties), An-
drew Do/., William Will, James Wharton, Maj. Alexander Boyd, ltenja-
niiu Paschall, William Thome, Frederick Hagner, T. Fitzsinions, Col.
John Wiee, Capt. George Ord, Jacob Grafflen, John Kling, Capt. R. Sal-
tar, Da\ id Pancoast, Philip Boehm, Oupt, James Craig, Willi. mi Bon-
h.im, Anthony Leek ner, Thomas Irwin, Francis Ferris, Jo8"ph Falconer,
Alexander Quarrier, Copt. William Price, James Hunter (tallow-chand-
ler), David McCulloch, Thomas Britton, William Van Plml, Isniic Roilsh,
Peter Brown, .lames ISnddeu, S. Wetherill, Jr., William Collidny, John
Slice, John Smith (Suuthwiirk), Presley Black-stone, James WilliL-an,
Ephraim Falconer, Thomas Casdrop, Thomas Shields, Thomas Leiper,
Charles W. Peale, Peter Wyltiiff, William Jackson (Walnut Street),
Joseph Carson (merchant), Samuel McLean, Hugh Hodge, Jr., Isaac
Cooper, Thomas Learning, William Thorpe, George Woellper, Ilalp/ar
Stein ford, Lam la-it W'ilsuer, F. Hopkinsou, Adam Foul lie, Itohert Knox,
Frederick Phile, Johu Barkor, Thomas Humphrey, William Richurds
(skinner).
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
399
all parties. The cordwainers, curriers, and tanners
asserted that while the prices of provisions had been
enormously increased1 there had been no correspond-
ing advance in the remuneration of their labor, and
an address signed by James Roney, setting forth their
grievances, was prepared and published. These com-
plaints were supported in a memorial to the Execu-
tive Council presented by the merchants of Philadel-
phia on the 2d of September, in which the regulations
of the committee were attacked as being an invasion
of the law of property in compelling "a person to
accept of less in exchange for his goods than he could
otherwise obtain," and consequently "a tax upon one
portion of the community only." It was urged, more-
over, that as circumstances were constantly changing
it was impracticable to undertake to maintain a fixed
and arbitrary scale of prices. It was also pointed out
that if prices were to be fixed by the purchaser, as had
practically been done through the intervention of the
committee, merchants would no longer care to import
goods, or if they did continue to do so, the foreigners
from whom they purchased would refuse to sell to a
community which forced the dealers to part with their
goods at certain prices. The address declared further
that the limitation of the price of foreign articles
could only be accomplished by enabling the merchant
to get his goods freighted upon moderate terms, fixing
the price of goods he was to export, and opening an
insurance for a low premium. "Until these things
be accomplished," it was added, "you may, indeed,
by power, force away our property at such a valuation
as you may deem proper to allow ; but, like the owner
of the goose which laid golden eggs, you will cut off
the source of supplies, and, when you repent, you will
repent in vain."
The memorial closed with a series of recommenda-
tions as to the measures most likely to bring about
an appreciation of the currency.2
1 Ten, which had sold at 3s. Oil. to 5s. per pound in the beginning of
1777, was now advanced to £t 10s., or itlmut twenty prices. Bum, from
4s. Oct i>er gallon, was increased to £u las. Gd., or about thirty prices.
Sugar was thirty prices in increase, and oilier articles experienced a like
benefit. But Bole leather was only put up 10 20s. from Is. Orf , formerly
charged, and call-skins from ll«. to 150s. In reality the advance upon
these articles was only about r.jnrtecn prices, or iess than half what was
allowed to .there. Under these rates the shoemaker would receive but
£3 10«. profit on a pair or shoi-s beyond the actual cost of materials, and
the journeyman's wages would absorb the latter, so that Ihe employer
would have nothing. While, therefore, the shoemaker was receiving
but fourteen juices advance, lie was compelled to pay from twenty to
thirty prices foralneisl every article of food or clothing which he bought.
2 The signers of this memorial were John Konii, George Kennedy,
John Steililnetz, I'hilip Wilson, Tlionuis Moore. Francis Lewis, Jr., J.
Cowperthwait, Charles Young, John Murray, John White, James Van-
uxem, James Taller, John Pattuii, Alexander T.nld, Cadwaladcr Morris,
Robert HI orris, Isaac Muses, William Turnl-ull, John Lardner, .1. Pur-
viance, William Lawrence, George Monde, William Davis, Thomas Mor-
ris, James Caldwell, Joseph Carson, William Aliicks, Hubert Bridges,
Benjamin Davis, Jr , V. Uasselu lever, John Barclay, P. Webster, J.
Shallus, J. Donaldson, Butler Slice, John Campbell, William Cross. Sam-
uel Meredith, John Wileoiks, Patrick Moore, John Bojle. Charles White,
Nicholas Law, Andrew Bunuer, David Duncan, Matthew Duncan, Sam-
uel Caldwell, T. White, John Ramsey, Thomas Barclay. Peter Kreneau,
David Lenox, Thomas Franklin, John Beuozet, John Mease, Alexander
Various expedients for relieving the general dis-
tress were suggested, and in July a plan " for raising
money and stopping the emission of paper currency
was set on foot," which received the indorsement of
a town-meeting. The features of this plan embraced
the stoppage of all issues of Continental money after
the 1st of September, and the raising of a revenue by
subscription to be solicited from house to house for
the service of the United States, the money thus
raised to be considered a loan payable in three years
and receivable in payment of taxes. A committee to
solicit subscriptions3 was appointed, but nothing is
now known as to the results of its labors.
In the mean time Congress had been pursuing a
policy which could not fail to accelerate the depre-
ciation of the currency and intensify the public dis-
tress. Reduced by the withdrawal of many of its
abler members who were busy with the affairs of their
own States, it was no longer the wise and prudent
Fostor, A. Hodge, Jr.. James Ash, S. Inglie & Co., Jonathan Mifflin, Wil-
liam Pollard, James Crawford, James Mease, Alexander NeBhiit, Francis
Gurney, William Bell, Alexander Nelson, James King, John Nixon,
James Cochran, D. H. Conyngham, John Pringle, Peter Whiteside, John
Iinlay, Samuel C. Morris, Joseph C. Fisher, Robert Duncan, Lardner
Clark, John McKimen.
3 Tliis committee consisted of the following: Norlliern Liberties, — Col.
Rice, Henry Naglee, Thomas Brittain, Benjamin Eyre, Emanuel Kyre,
Col. Joseph Cowperthwaito, William Masters, and Ellas Lewis Troichel.
Mulberry Ward, — Jacob Schrinor, Philip Boehm, William Rush, Oapt.
James Craig, David Shaffer, Jr., Maj. Kcr, Andrew Burkart, William
Collnday. Upp'r Delaware, — Andrew Hodge, William Miluor. High
Street Ward,— William Ball, William Hollingshead, Thomas Francis,
Stephen Collins. Lower Delaware.— Blair McClenachan, Andrew Cald-
well, Matthew Irwin, Samuel Howell. North,— Benjamin Hal-boson,
Jacob Burge, Peter Do Haven, Joho Wilcox, Lambert Willmore, Samuel
Wetherill. Chestnut,— Richard' Humphreys, John Stille, John Shields.
Middle, — Benjamin Randolph, John Steiumetz, Gen. Wilkinson, Robert
TucknisB, William Falkner, Francis Lee. Soutli, — Sliarpe Delauey, An-
drew Tybout, Isaac Gray. Walnut,— Samuel Caldwell, Dr. Dufnelil.
Dock, — James Hunter, Thomas Leiper, Thomas Fitzsimnns, John
Hazlewood, Presley Blackiston, William Ttirnbnll. Soutliwnrk, — William
Cliflon, dipt. Ord, Col. Robert Allison, Joseph Marsh, William Falkner.
The scarcity of salt and flour in particular occasioned much distress
in Philadelphia. In August the Supreme Executive Council succeeded
in obtaining from all holders of salt an agreement to give it up for dis-
tribution amongtlie inhabitants of the town and country, and the sheriff
of Philadelphia was ordered to have the salt stores guarded in order
that tumult or disturbance in the distiibutiou might he avoided. All
Bait that was not needed for the use of inhabitants was ordered by the
Assembly to be approp tinted to the use of the State, and Charles I'ryor,
James Hunter, Jr., John Wilson, Robert Hunter, David McUulloch, An-
thony Cuthbert, William Will, Adam Foulke, Matthew Irwin, Robert
Ailken, James Hood, Maj. Boyd, Paul Coxe, John McCullough, Thomas
Casdrop, William Robinson, William Thorp, George Henry, and William
Ilryshain were appointed commissioners "to make iiopiiry into the
quantity of salt in the city and liberties, above tlio allowance of a com-
mon family, admitting possessors lo retain one peck for every poll in
each family above seven years of age. the residue to lie considered as
public property, and paid for accordingly." They had power to seizo
ail salt above the allowed quantity, and to take into possession what-
ever cargoes might ariive. Great holies were entertained witli regard
to the salt-works established near Tom's River, N. J., but disappoint-
ment was the only result. Tlio works, arter having been operated at
great expense without producing any benefit, were finally sold for fif-
teen thousand pounds. In order to alleviate the suffering caused by the
scarcity of flour, the Assembly, on the llth of October, in response to a
recommendation from the Supreme Execulive Council, decided to dis-
tribute one hundred barrels of flour among poor housekeepers. A
bounty for the supply of firewood was also proposed.
400
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
body it had once been. "The number in attendance
seldom amounted to thirty, and was often less than
twenty-five."1 One hundred millions of Continental
money was already in circulation, but Congress de-
termined at the beginning of the year 1779 to issue
fifty millions more; in February, ten millions more,
with twenty additional millions of loan certificates ;
in April, five millions more of bills of credit; and in
May and June twenty millions more. The deprecia-
tion of the currency which resulted was so rapid that
it soon reached twenty for one, and Congress, now
thoroughly frightened, called on the States to pay in
forty-five millions of the bills, besides the fifteen mil-
lions already called for during the current year. It
was only natural that the frauds and speculations
which were suggested and promoted by the state of
the public finances should have excited intense and
general indignation. " It gives me very sincere
pleasure to find," wrote Washington to President
Reed, " that the Assembly is so well disposed to
second your endeavors by bringing those murderers
of our cause, the monopolizers, forestallers, and en-
grossers, to condign punishment. It is much to be
lamented that each State, long ere this, has not
hunted them down as pests to society and the great-
est enemies we have to the happiness of America. I
would to God that some one of the more atrocious in
each State was hung in gibbets upon a gallows five
times as high as the one prepared for Haitian. No
punishment, in my opinion, is too severe for the man
who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin."
Unfortunately, the very laws adopted for the purpose
of putting a stop to these abuses tended only to ag-
gravate them ; for, obeyed by the honest, they were
violated by the dishonest class whom they were
framed to reach, and while patriotic citizens were
compelled to suffer because of their fidelity, rogues
and Tories prospered and grew rich.
Notwithstanding the arrests and confiscations which
had followed the reoccupation of the city by the Amer-
icans, the Tory spirit continued unsubdued. Among
the most pertinacious British sympathizers was Sam-
uel K. Fisher, a Friend, who was brought before
Judge McKean on the charge of having sent in-
formation to the enemy at New York. He was con-
victed and sent to jail without any definite term of
imprisonment having been fixed, and remained there
until some time in February, 1781, when he was re-
leased by the Supreme Executive Council, whom he
had tired out by his stubborn refusal to enter a recog-
nizance for future good behavior. George Hardy,
tried for an overt act of treason in helping to disarm
citizens of Southwark, was convicted, sentenced to
death, and taken to the place of execution, where,
with the rope around his neck, he was reprieved until
after the sitting of the next Assembly.2
i Hildreth, vol. iii. page 270.
2 Duiing the year 1779 the following persona were tried for political
offenses :
In May of this year a meeting was held at the
German school-house, of which Dr. James Fallon
was chairman, and George A. Baker secretary, to
consider measures for ascertaining whether persons
inimical to the United States remained in the city,
and William Bonham, Peter Cooper, Benjamin Har-
beson, Jacob Keebmle, William Falconer, Francis
Gurney, George A. Baker, William Hardy, Theobald
Schreibel, Dr. James Fallon, James Rowan, and
Thomas Hale were appointed a committee to hear
evidence against such persons.3
James Stephens, for keeping watch for the British at the bridge at
Schuylkill, and examining persons going in and out, was acquitted, but
ordered to give security for good behavior during the war; Samuel Gar-
rigues, accused of the same offense, was acquitted ; William Whitefield,
tried for goiDg aliout with British soldiers, collectiug arms from the
citizens, was acquitted; David Solebury Franks, charged with sending
information to the enemy at New York, was acquitted; Robert Strettel
Jones, tried for high treason, wa8 acquitted ; Edw. Cutlmrt, tried for
high treason, was acquitted ; Joseph Wirt, tried for high treason, was
acquitted ; Peter Miller, tried fur high treason, was acquitted; Richard
Mason, tiied for high treason, was acquitted ; Joseph Prichard, charged
with having been employed by the British to attend Middle Ferry and
inspect persons going in and out, was found guilty of misprision of
treason, sentenced to forfeit half his property, real and personal, and
to imprisonment during the war ; John Elmslie, for refusing to serve
as constable, was arrested and imprisoned, but discharged Dec. 2, 1780 ;
Daniel Dawson, for the same offense, was imprisoned until October, 178U ;
William Cassedy, alias Thompson, tried for high treason, was convicted,'
and sentenced to death; Charles Humphreys, for misprision of treason,
was acquitted.
There were discharged— no witnesses appearing against them — John
Brown, William Williams, Michael Ryan, Christian George, Philip
Allebach, William James, and John Pike, upon their giving security for
good behavior.
On the 22d of June the following persons were attainted as traitors,
and ordered to surrender for trial:
John Bartlett, late clerk in the royal custom-house; George Knappes,
bflker ; Charles Eddy, ironmonger; Thomas York, sail-maker, — late of the
city of Philadelphia.
Joseph Greswold, distiller; John Clark, late sheriff's clerk; John
Mackinet, merchant; John Kearsley, gentleman, son of Dr. John Kears-
ley, deceased; John Adams, silk-weaver; and Thomas Mackiness, — of
the Northern Liberties.
Peter Arthur, house-carpenter ; George Ensor, cooper; Dennis Crock-
sin, lumber merchant; John Patterson, joiner ; William Rhoddon, mari-
ner,— of Southwark.
Jacob Falsterstein, yeoman, — Passynnk.
Nathaniel RobertB, yeoman, — Bristol,
Daniel Jones, yeoman,— Moreland.
John Robinson, cordwainer; Isaac Taylor, yeoman, — Whitpaine.
Thomas Gordon, yeoman, — Oxford.
Holton Jones, hatter,— Germantown.
Daniel Williams, yeoman, — Horsham.
Frederick Kesselman was specially proclaimed May 5th.
3 In the following month the grand jury made a presentment to the
effect that the wives of British emissaries still remain among us and
keep up an injurious correspondence with the enemies of the country,
by giving ihem intelligence and propagating the most poisonous false-
hoods. 1
The question as to how far citizens taken on the high seas in arms
against the United States were liable as traitors or pirates was presented
to Judge McKean in August of this year, and a decision was rendered
that " all who did not on the 11th of February, 1777, or since, owe any
allegiance, are to be deemed prisoners of war; but that those [not] fall-
ing within that description may be proceeded against as traitorB on the
Act of Assembly, entitled an Act for establishing a Court of Admi-
ralty."
The following prisoners, taken at Bea, were under confinement in Sep-
tember, all of whom had been citizens of Philadelphia;
John Papley, taken in the "Patsoy," BritiBh letter of marque, under
a captain's commission.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
401
The committee held sessions at the State-House,
but its proceedings did not satisfy the popular resent-
ment against the Tories, and at length the militia de-
termined to take more active measures. Meetings of
the different companies were held and a committee
formed, consisting of one man from each company,
to effect the arrest of British sympathizers. It soon
began to be rumored, however, that this committee
would not confine its attentions exclusively to Tories,
but would also seek the punishment of all engrossers,
monopolizers, and those who sympathized with them,
as well as certain lawyers who had appeared as coun-
sel for the accused at the Tory trials. On the 4th of
October, placards appeared in various portions of
the city, denouncing, among others, Robert Morris,
Blair McClenachan, and James Wilson, the latter a
signer of the Declaration, but one of the lawyers who
had defended the Tories accused of treason. On the
same day the committee of militiamen went to the
Friends' meeting-house on Pine Street, and when
the meeting which was being held there had ended,
arrested John Drinker. They then searched for
Joseph Wirts in his own house, but failed to find him,
after which they arrested Matthew Johns, Bauckridge
Sims, and Thomas Story, whom they conducted to
Mrs. Burns' tavern on the common. Here a meet-
ing of the militia was held, and being in want of a
leader, they sent for Charles Wilson Peale, Col. Brill,
Maj. Boyd, and Dr. James Hutchinson, who complied
with the summons in the hope of preventing a dis-
turbance, but failing to impress their views upon the
meeting withdrew. The militia, who numbered about
two hundred, with Miles, a North Carolina captain,
Faulkner, a ship-joiner, Pickering, a tailor, and a man
named Bonham, as their leaders, set out in search of
James Wilson. Wilson and his friends anticipating
an attack, had made preparations for resistance. A
large party had gathered at his house, at the south-
west corner of Third and Walnut Streets, and the
Philadelphia Troop of Light-Horse (now the First
City Troop) assembled for the purpose of protecting
those who were threatened. At the hour for dinner,
there being no signs of disturbance, the troopers dis-
persed to their homes. But the militia were now in
motion, and marching down Chestnutto Second Street,
William Ryan, captain of marines on board the privateer "Jenny,"
of New York.
Joseph Moffat, taken on hoard a schooner, prize to the " Bayard," pri-
vateer, of New York.
Joseph Paxton, taken on the privateer "Intrepid," of New York.
Jacob Gatcbens, captain of the British privateer " Impertinent."
Samuel Saunders, pilot of the Britioh privateer " Impertinent."
James Thompson, seaman, of the British privateer " Impertinent."
Charles McClain, seaman, of the British privateer " Impertinent."
John McDonald, seaman, of the British privateer " Impertinent."
Zachaiiah Hutcbins, prize-master of the British privateer " Imperti-
nent."
James Dawson, Edward Hollan, John Shannon, Charles McBride,
John Naidin, Thomas Guthrey, Robert Dodd, and William Hughes, de-
serters from the Pennsylvania State fleet, taken on hoard of British
privateers.
26
down Second to Walnut, and up Walnut to Third,
with drums beating and two pieces of cannon, they
arrived at Mr. Wilson's house. At Walnut and Dock
Streets the rioters were met by Col. Allen McLane
and Col. Grayson, a member of the Board of War,
who, addressing Faulkner (who appeared to be the
leader), requested that they would not make an attack
on Wilson. Faulkner replied that "they had no in-
tention to attack Mr. Wilson or his house. The
purpose was to support the Constitution and the
Committee of Trade. The laboring part of the city
had become desperate from the high price of the
necessaries of life."
During the halt which resulted from this brief in-
terview, Pickering and Bonham pressed to the front,
and, inquiring the cause of the delay, ordered Faulk-
ner to move on. In the rush that followed, McLane
and Grayson, together with a number of Quakers and
Tories who had been arrested, were swept on with
the mob. Wilson's house was a large brick building
RESIDENCE OF JAMES WILSON, KNOWN AS "FORT WILSON."
with an extensive garden fronting on Third and Wal-
nut Streets. Among those in the house at the time
were James Wilson, Robert Morris, Mark Burd, John
Lawrence, Jr., George Clymer, Daniel Clymer, Col.
Stephen Chambers (of Lancaster), John F. Mifflin,
Staats Lawrence, Sharpe Delaney, Dr. Jonathan Potts,
George Campbell, Paul Beck, David Solebury Franks,
Thomas Lawrence, Andrew Robinson, William Bell,
John Potts, Jr., Nathaniel Potts, Samuel C. Morris,
Matthew McConnell, Capt. Campbell, Gen. Thomas
Mifflin, Maj. Francis Nichols, and Gen. Thompson.
They were armed, but had not much ammunition ;
their whole supply consisting of some cartridges with
which Maj. Nichols and Daniel Clymer had hastily
filled their pockets at the arsenal at Carpenters' Hall,
while the mob was on its way from the common. On
reaching the corner of Third and Walnut Streets, the
militia gave three cheers and continued up Walnut
Street. But for the imprudence of Capt. Campbell,
one of the party in the house, no trouble, probably,
would have resulted. After the rear of the proces-
sion had passed, Campbell opened a window, com-
menced some conversation with persons in the mob,
402
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and, it is said, shook a pistol " at those in the street.''
According to the narrative of Philip Hagner, Camp-
bell having discharged his weapon from a third story
window, the party in the street immediately facing
about, " opened a brisk fire into the house, and Camp-
bell fell mortally wounded." Col. Allen McLane
afterwards stated that he heard Campbell " call out
to those in arms to pass on," and that " musketry was
immediately discharged from the street and from the
house." The mob gave way and fled in all direc-
tions ; but some of the militia parsing round into
Third Street, Gen. Mifflin opened a second story
window in Wilson's house and attempted to address
them. He' was fired at, the ball striking near the
sash and breaking it, whereupon he discharged both
his pistols into the street. An unsuccessful attempt
was made to force the door of the house, but a sledge-
hammer, procured by a rioter, named Huler, from a
blacksmith's shop in Pear Street, was used with such
effect that the door soon gave way, and Huler, accom-
panied by a German who had aided in procuring the
sledge-hammer, rushed in. They were confronted by
Col. Chambers, who fired upon them, wounding the
German. Huler rushed forward and seizing Cham-
bers by the hair, dragged him down stairs, and pierced
his body with a bayonet ; but before he could inflict
further injuries was pulled off by Hagner, a non-
combatant. Chambers was borne off in safety to
Willing's house by Hagner and Col. Mifflin. Several
others who entered the house, according to Col. Mc-
Lane's statement, were wounded by the inmates from
the stair-case and cellar windows. During the tem-
porary check thus given to the mob Wilson's friends
barricaded the doorway with tables, chairs, etc., and,
before the rioters had rallied, Gen. Joseph Peed, pre-
sident of the Supreme Executive Council, made his
appearance on the scene, followed soon after by
Maj. Lenox, the two Majors Nichols, Thomas Morris,
Alexander Nesbitt, Isaac Coxe, and Thomas Leiper,
of the troop of light-horse, who, together with the
troopers belonging to Col. Baylor's regiment, whom
they had met on the way, wheeled suddenly round
Chestnut Street, and charged upon and dispersed the
mob.1
1 On his way down Third Street President Reed overtook Gen. Benedict
Arnold, who, in his carriage, was heing driven towards the place of riot.
Mr. Reed forbade him to proceed further, "which order was sullenly
obeyed." " After the riot was nuelled," says Philip Hagner, in his narra-
tive, "and Gon. Reed had left the ground, Gen. Arnold came down Third
Street in his carriage, and stopped at the door of Mr. Wilson's house.
Some of the gentlemen from the house assisted him out of his carriage,
lie being lame. In getting out I beard him say, 'Your President has
raised a mob, and he cannot quel] it.' He then went up-stairs into the
house and showed himself at the window with a pair of pistols."
Samuel R. Fisher, then a Tory prisoner in the jail at Third and
Market Streets, thus relates his experience of the riot: " From the jail
I saw Joseph Reed, Timothy Mathick, James Claypoole, and John 0.
Kelly, on horseback, come down Market Street, the two first with drawn
swords in their hands. They lode round the corner of Third Street and
proceeded to Wilson's house, where, with a number of those called Hie
City Ligbt-Horse, they dispersed and took up those called Militia, some
of whom they brought to jail. They then returned to Market Street,
Many of the rioters were arrested and sent to jail,
a number having been wounded by the sabres of the
cavalry. A man and a boy were killed in the street,
and of the party in the house Capt. Campbell was
killed and Messrs. Mifflin, Chambers, and S. C. Mor-
ris were wounded. A guard was placed at the powder
magazine and arsenal, and the. streets were patrolled
by the City Troop during most of the night. Owing
to the active part taken by the troop in the suppres-
sion of the riot, the feeling against them was very
bitter. Maj. Lenox especially was singled out for
destruction. An attack upon him at his residence in
Germantown by a midnight mob was only frustrated
by means of a pledge which he gave to open the door
at daylight and the prompt arrival of some of his
comrades, whom, in the mean time, he had contrived
to summon to his aid from Philadelphia. Owing to
the excited state of public feeling the persons who
had defended Wilson's house were advised to leave
the city, but after considering the matter at a meeting
held at Mr. Gray's house, about five miles below Gray's
Ferry, they decided to return to town. It was deemed
expedient, however, that Mr. Wilson should absent
himself for a time. The others made their appear-
ance in Philadelphia as usual, and attended the
funeral of Capt. Campbell.
On the day following the riot a meeting of militia
officers was held at the court-house, at which violent
measures for the release of the militiamen confined
in jail were proposed, and would doubtless have been
carried into effect had not a compromise been reached
by which the soldiers were admitted to bail. The
twenty-seven prisoners, on being released, drew up in
front of the jail and gave three cheers, after which
they marched to the court-house, where they were
addressed by President Reed. On the same day a
large meeting was held in the Supreme Court room,
at the State-House, at which many of the clergy and
principal citizens were present, including Robert Mor-
ris and Shurpe Delaney, who had assisted in the de-
fense of Wilson's house. President Reed spoke at
at the corner of which I saw them meet some of the militia, who had
got two brass field-pieces, and were going with them to join their com-
panions. With much difficulty Reed, Matlack, Claypoole, and Kelly,
with sundry assistants, iorced the militia into the jail, not without maDy
etiukes of their swords, and, taking hold of the horses, led away the
field-pieces. Reed's party, with the Light-Hoise, were frequently put-
ting some into jail this afternoon, till the numbed amounted to twenty-
seven. Reed's party all went away, when an attempt was made by a
collection of people in the street to break the jail and let out the militia,
and, had not Hossman [the keeper] got a hint of it, and very suddenly
shut the outer door, they might have accomplished their purpose. But
in a short time a portion of the Light-Horse returned, and a parcel of
the bucks and blades of the town were stationed under arms, also some
artillery-men and field-pieces, both of which remained all night, as it
was said a party from Germantown were coming to assist. A little be-
fore dark, John Drinker, Buckridge Sims, Thomas Story, and Matthew
Johns came into my room and Informed me they had been under guard
in the street near Wilson's houso during all the firing, and were after-
wards taken out a second time to Burns' Tavern, and from thence had
been on their way home by order of some of the Light-Horse, but acci-
dentally meeting Joseph Reed in Arch Street, they were ordered by him
to jail, as they said, for the safety of their own persons from violence."
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
403
this meeting also, and by his prudent and concilia-
tory course succeeded in soothing the passions of both
parties. On the following day, however, some of
Wilson's friends paraded with cannon and insulted
members of the opposing faction ; but although there
was considerable excitement, no outbreak followed.
Meanwhile, on the 5th, the Assembly offered its assist-
ance to the president and Council in any measures
that might be necessary to restore tranquillity, and on
the 6th the Council issued a proclamation calling on
the rioters aud the inmates of Wilson's house to sur-
render themselves to the sheriff or some justice of the
peace until an examination could be made under due
process of law, and ascribing the disturbances to " the
undue countenance and encouragement which has
been shown to persons disaffected to the liberty and
independence of America by some whose rank and
character, in other respects, gave weight to their con-
duct. The un weaned opposition, and the contempt
manifested in many instances to the laws and public
authority of the State," it was added, " have also con-
tributed; and justice also requires us to declare that
some licentious and unworthy characters, taking ad-
vantage of the unhappy tumult, artfully kindled by
themselves, have led many innocent and otherwise
well-disposed persons into outrages and insults which,
it is hoped, on cool reflection, they will condemn.''
On the 10th the Assembly formally thanked Presi-
dent Reed for his exertions in suppressing the riot,
and assuring him of their support in all similar
crises. The proceedings growing out of the affair
finally ended in a compromise. Neither the militia
nor Wilson's friends were prosecuted, and on the 13th
of March, 1780, an act of amnesty and pardon to all
the persons implicated was passed by the Assembly.
The sanguinary character of the attack on the Wil-
son house caused it to be known as " Fort Wilson,"
a name which it kept as long as it remained stand-
ing.
An outbreak among the sailors in January, 1779,
was of much less consequence. Complaining that
their wages were too low, they undertook to force the
merchants to increase them, and with that object
paraded the streets, displaying clubs and other
weapons. At the wharves they compelled workmen
to suspend their labor, and unstripped some of the
vessels in order to prevent them from sailing. In
this emergency, Gen. Arnold was called upon for
military aid, but after fifteen of the rioters had been
arrested, order was restored without further trouble.
Owing to depredations on vessels belonging to
Philadelphia by British privateers from New York
it was decided by the Supreme Executive Council,
in March, 1779, to procure a cruiser to be employed
in the service of the State. A new vessel, the " Gen-
eral Greene," was purchased, and placed under the
command of Capt. James Montgomery. Blair Mc-
Clenachan and Matthew Irwin were appointed agents
to fit out the vessel, and in order to obtain seamen
with which to man her, an embargo upon the sailing
of any commercial vessel was proclaimed about the
1st of June. The sum of £20,000 was subscribed by
citizens of Philadelphia towards fitting out the " Gen-
eral Greene," and £40,000 was contributed by the
State. About the 1st of June the vessel set sail,
with a crew of one hundred and twelve men. On
passing the Capes the " General Greene" fell in with
the schooner " Humming Bird," laden with tobacco,
which had been captured by the British privateer
" Bayard," and retook her. The privateers " Imper-
tinent" and "Bayard," of New York, were subse-
quently captured by the " General Greene," which in
October took another New York privateer, besides re-
capturing two American vessels. On the return of the
" General Greene" to Philadelphia, the Council or-
dered her to be sold, the increase in the number of
privateers belonging to Philadelphia merchants hav-
ing rendered it unnecessary to retain her in the service.
The armed galleys " Fame," " Franklin," " Han-
cock," "Chatham," "Lion," and " Viper," and the
" Dragon," look-out boat, were employed on the
bay and river. The " Experiment," " Dickinson,"
"Burke," and "Effingham," armed boats, and the
hulls of the " Washington" and " Effingham" frig-
ates, burned by the British at Bordentown in 1778,
were sold. The " Holker," a privateer commissioned
during this year, and commanded by Capt. Geddes,
made many important captures, including the snow
" Diana," from London for New York, with eighty
cannon, sixty swivels, ten coehorns, powder, ball, and
ammunition ; supplies which were of great value to
the Continental army.1
1 Geddes was succeeded by Matthew Lawlor as captain of the
"Holker" in the hitter part of the year. It was probably alter the
return from the first voyage of the latter that the following circum- -
stance happened, as related by Richard Peters, who was commissioner
of war in 1779 : " Gen. Washington wrote to me that all his powder was
wet, and that he was entirely without lead or balls, so that, should the
enemy approach him, he must retreat. I received this letter while I
was going to a grand gala at the Spanish ambassador's {Don Juan de
Mirailles), who lived in Mr. Chew's fine house on South Third Street.
The spacious gardens were superbly decorated with variegated lamps,
and the edifice itself was in a blaze of light. The show was splendid,
but my feelings were far from being in harmony with all this brilliancy*
I met at this party my friend Robert Morris, who soon discovered the
state of my mind. 'You are not yourself to-night, Peters. What's the
matter?' asked Morris. Notwithstanding my unlimited confidence in
that great patriot, it was some time before I could prevail on myself to
disclose the cause of my depression, but at length I ventured to give
him a hint of my inability to answer the pressing demands of the com-
mander-in-chief. 'The army is without lead, and I know not where to
get an ounce to supply it. The general must retreat for want of ammu-
nition.' ' Well, let him retreat,' replied the high and liberal-minded
Morris, 'but cheer up. There are in the " Holker" privateer, just ar-
rived, ninety tons of lead, one-half of which is mine, and at your ser-
vice. The residue you can get by applying to Blair McClenachau and
Holker, both of whom are in the house with us.'
" I accepted the offer from Mr. Morris," said Mr. Commissioner Peters
" with many thanks, and addressed myself immediately to the two
gentlemen who owned the other half for their consent to sell, but they
had already trusted a large amount, of clothing to the Continental Con-
gress, and were unwilling to give that body any further credit. I in-
formed Morris of their refusal. ' Tell them,' said he, ' that I will pay
them for their share.' This settled the business. The lead was de-
404
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The schooner " Mars," Oapt. Taylor, captured an
English transport, having on hoard a Hesssian colonel
and two hundred men, together with a cargo of dry
goods, and after a spirited fight, the British privateer
"Active." The "Mars," which took several com-
mercial vessels during the summer, frequently cruised
in company with a vessel commanded by Capt.
Spencer, and assisted in taking several additional
prizes.
After her capture by the " General Greene," the
" Impertinent" was sent out under the American flag
in charge of Capt. Young, and falling in with the
British cruiser " Harlem," gave chase. The " Har-
lem" was abandoned off Lewes by her crew, who
made their escape. The privateer " Hunter," a
schooner under the command of Capt. John Doug-
lass, when off Cape May, having captured a schooner
from St. Kitts laden with rum, was engaged by a
large ship of twenty-two guns, and so badly damaged
that she was compelled to draw off. The schooner
" Addition," Capt. Craig, made several captures, and
the "Comet," Capt. Stephen Decatur, took a packet-
boat from England, but accomplished little else dur-
ing the several cruises which she made. Capt. John
Macpher3on now became active in the privateering
business again, and fitted out a little squadron, con-
sisting of the sloop " Tiger," Capt. Martin Parkin-
son ; the schooner " Cat," Capt. Macpherson ; and the
schooner " Jackal," Capt. Inslee Anderson, of which
Macpherson wished to be commodore. The other offi-
cers, however, refused to submit to his authority, and
when Macpherson, his own vessel having been upset,
went on board the " Tiger," and attempted to take
command, Parkinson resisted, and the enterprise was
abandoned. On returning to port, Macpherson sued
Parkinson for fifty thousand pounds damages for
breaking up the voyage.1
About this time four sailors of the sloop "Terrible,"
of New York, rose on the captain and the rest of the
crew, took the vessel, and brought her into Philadel-
phia. The " Trial," a British privateer of ten guns,
was sent in by the " Boston" and " Deane" frigates.
The privateer " Pole," of New York, a ship carrying
twenty-four six and nine-pounders, surrendered to
■ livered. I set three or four hundred men to work, who manufactured
it into cartridge bullets for Washington's army, to which it gave com-
plete relief."
1 Capt. Macpherson's son, Maj. William Macpherson, a Philadel-
phian by birth, was an officer in the King's Sixteenth Regimentof Foot.
He was a brother of Capt. John Macpherson, who was killed at Quebec.
At tho first opportunity he sold out his commission and succeeded in
effecting his eBcape from the British lines to Philadelphia, where he
tendered his services to the Board of War and the Snpreme Executive
Council. He was commissioned a major in the Pennsylvania line, and,
after the war, became the commander of the celebrated volunteer corps,
"Macpherson Blues." Capt. Alexander Fowler, of the Eighteenth
British Regiment, came to Philadelphia about the same time. His
sympathies were strongly with the Americans, and he determined, on
the breaking out of hostilities, to quit the British service. Having sold
his commission he went with the family to France, and brought them
to America, with the intention of becoming a citizen of the United
States.
the " Boston" without resistance, and was sent to
Philadelphia.
Of vessels bearing letters of marque, the ship " Gen-
eral Mercer," Capt. Robinson, brought in the ship
"Minerva," of sixteen guns, captured after a smart
engagement. The brig " Hibernia," Capt. Angus,
had two sea-fights in October, and lost ten men killed
and wounded. The "Intrepid," Capt. Gardner,
brought in four prizes in December.
On the 21st of April, George Ross, of Lancaster,
was appointed judge of the admiralty, but died on
the 13th of July, and was succeeded by Francis Hop-
kinson.
Having determined to occupy the fortifications at
Billingsport and Mud Island, the Supreme Executive
Council sent Col. Bull to repair the banks and sluices
at the latter place, to complete barracks for fifty men
and their officers, and to make, as soon as possible,
six chevaux-de-frise, to be sunk at different depths.
The plans for these works were furnished by Gen. Du
Portail, a French engineer. Col. Proctor was sent to
Billingsport on the 29th of March, 1779, with thirty
men, twenty being stationed at Mud Island. Proctor
was to stop inward-bound vessels, and if the result of
the examination was favorable, he was to signal Mud
Island to that effect. The forts were provided with
cannon, and in April two companies of the Philadel-
phia militia (artillery) were ordered to be sent down
to Billingsport and Mud Island to relieve Proctor,
who was transferred to another point. In October
the workmen at these points were discharged, and in
consequence of the unhealthiness of the posts the
troops were withdrawn with the exception of a ser-
geant and fifteen men, who were to be relieved every
week by a new party.
Some uneasiness was created in Philadelphia, in
June, by the impression that the British contemplated
a sudden movement on the city, and orders were
issued to the lieutenants of the different counties to
put the battalions in an efficient condition. The
alarm was only temporary ; but in October the As-
sembly received a letter from Gen. Washington re-
questing the co-operation of the State authorities in
raising a force to assist iu an attack upon New York
in conjunction with the fleet. President Reed issued
a proclamation calling on the militia to hold them-
selves in readiness to march at short notice. The
light-horse were divided into two squadrons, .and
Col. Eyre was appointed to command the artillery.
President Reed announced that he intended to take
the field at the head of the Pennsylvania troops, and
Col. John Bull was appointed adjutant-general ;
David Jackson, quartermaster-general ; Dr. James
Hutchinson, surgeon- and physician-general; James
Searle, Jared Ingersoll, and Mr. Shields, aides-de-
camp; and Maj. Eustace, extra aide-de-camp. In
consequence of the failure of Count D'Estaing to
arrive with the fleet, the projected movement was
abandoned.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EEVOLUTION.
405
The agitation for the abolition of slavery, whose
progress has been traced in these pages, was now
about to be crowned with success. On the 5th of
February, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council in a
message to the Assembly suggested that a plan be
adopted "for the gradual abolition of slavery, so
disgraceful to any people, and more especially to those
who have been contending in the great cause of lib-
erty themselves, and upon whom Providence has be-
stowed such eminent marks of its favor and protec-
tion." " Honored will that State be in the annals of
mankind," it was added, "which shall first abolish
this violation of the rights of mankind ; and the
memories of those will be held in grateful and ever-
lasting remembrance who shall pass the law to restore
and establish the rights of human nature in Penn-
sylvania." The draft of a law was adopted by the
Council, but the Assembly passed a resolution to the
effect that, while it was strongly impressed with the
policy of abolition, it could not consent to receive the
proposed law from the Council, as the Constitution
had committed the power of originating laws to the
Assembly. It was moved to amend that "the House,
having full power, will in due time appoint a commit-
tee to bring in a bill for that valuable purpose;" but
the amendment was lost by a vote of twenty-two yeas
to twenty-seven nays. A motion to dismiss the sub-
ject entirely was carried by a vote of twenty-nine yeas
to twenty-one nays, and a resolution adopted that as
the Constitution vested in the General Assembly the
whole powers of legislation, all bills proposed to be
enacted into laws ought to originate in the House.
A bill was shortly afterwards introduced in the manner
designated, which was read twice. Nothing more was
done with it, although the Council called attention to
the matter in September.
A new Assembly was elected in the following
month, and George Bryan, formerly vice-president of
the Executive Council, who was a member of the
newly-chosen body, moved that the subject of eman-
cipation be referred to a committee. His motion was
agreed to, and Mr. Bryan prepared a new preamble
and the draft of a law for gradual emancipation,
which, on the 29th of February, 1780, was adopted
by a vote of thirty-four to twenty-one.'
" Our bill," wrote George Bryan to Samuel Adams,
" astonishes and pleases the Quakers. They looked
for no such benevolent issue of our new government,
exercised by Presbyterians." The bill declared that
no child born thereafter in Pennsylvania of slave
parents should be a slave, but a servant until the age
of twenty-eight years, at which time all claim of ser-
vice on the part of the master should cease. All
slaves then in the State were required to be registered
before the 1st of November under penalty of their
becoming immediately free, as none were to be deemed
slaves unless registered. Negro slaves were to be tried
1 Bancroft, vol. x. p. 360.
in the same manner as other persons ; and, in case of
sentence of death, to be valued, and the price paid
out of the State treasury.2
We have seen that stringent measures had been
taken against individual Philadelphians who sided
with the British, but the hostility of the Whigs was
now extended to corporate bodies, and the first to feel
the weight of their displeasure was the College of
Philadelphia. The provost, Eev. William Smith, a
Scotchman by birth, and a clergyman of the Church
of England, who had received the degree of D.D.
from the University of Oxford, was suspected of Tory
proclivities. Before the war he had taken part with
the proprietaries in their disputes with the Legislature,
and his course in this respect had rendered him
objectionable to a. large and influential party. He
was frequently attacked in the newspapers and openly
accused of leaning to the British side. Several of the
trustees were known to be unfriendly to the American
cause, and some of them had actually gone over to
the enemy. In fact, the college was generally regarded
as a Tory institution, and as such was constantly ex-
posed to the interference of the Whig authorities. By
their discreet and prudent course, however, its officers
succeeded in averting the danger for a time. When
the Continental Congress first assembled in Phila-
delphia it was invited to attend the commencement
exercises, and, the invitation having been accepted,
the members proceeded in a body from the State-
House to the college. Through the influence, it is
supposed, of Benjamin Franklin, who was a strong
friend of the institution, a clause was inserted in the
State Constitution of 1776, which provided that all
"societies incorporated for the advancement of re-
ligion and learning, or for other pious and charitable
purposes," should continue to enjoy the rights and
privileges which they had formerly possessed; but
on the 2d of January, 1778, an act was passed by the
General Assembly suspending, for a limited time, the
power and authority of the trustees of the college and
academy, and depriving them of all their powers under
the charter. In the " act for the better security of
government," passed at Lancaster, on the 1st of April
following, it was provided that "' all trustees, provosts,
2 To George Bryan belongs tbe chief share of credit for the passage of
this humane and enlightened measure. His services in this direction
are given special prominence in the inscription upon his tombstone,
which was originally in tbe burying-ground of tbe Second Presbyte-
rian Church, Arch Street near Fifth. The inscription is as follows :
" In memory of George Bryan, who died 27th January, 1791, aged
sixty years. Mr. Bryan was among the earliest and most active and
uniform friends of the rights of man before the Revolutionary war. As
a member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and of the Congress of
New York in 1765, and as a citizen, he was conspicuous in opposition to
the Stamp Act and other acts of British tyranny. He was equally an
opponent of domestic slavery. The emancipation of the people of color
engaged the feelings of his heart and the energies of his mind, and the
Act of abolition [which] laid the foundation of their liberation issued
from his pen. He filled several important offices during the Revolu-
tionary contest, and for the last eleven years of his life he was one of
the judges of tbe Supreme Court. In his private deportment he was ex-
emplary,— a Christian in principle and practice."
406
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
rectors, professors, masters, and tutors of any college
or academy, and all schoolmasters and ushers . . .
should be prohibited from acting in those capacities
unless they took the oath of allegiance," — a measure
directly aimed at the college faculty.
In February, 1779, the growing hostility to the col-
lege showed itself in the passage of a resolution ap-
pointing a committee to inquire into the rise, design,
and condition of the college, with power to send for
persons and papers. The queries propounded by this
committee were answered by Provost Smith, at the
desire of the trustees, in a paper defending the course
of the trustees and officers, and refuting the charges
against them. No decision was reached by the Assem-
bly at that session, but at the opening of the following
Bession the matter was again brought up in the mes-
sage of President Peed, and on the 27th of November,
1779, a law was enacted abrogating the proprietary
charters of the college, and removing from office the
provost, vice-provost, professors, and all others con-
nected with the institution. The rights and property
vested in the trustees were transferred to other hands,
and it was provided that the college should thereafter
be known as "The University of the State of Penn-
sylvania." A practically new institution was thus
created, which the Assembly endowed with an an-
nual income of fifteen hundred pounds, to be de-
rived from confiscated lands. As an excuse for the
adoption of this radical measure it was alleged that
the academy and college had been founded in a spirit
of " free and unlimited Catholicism," but that the trus-
tees had, by action taken on the 14th of June, 1764,
" departed from the plan of the original founders,
and narrowed the foundation of the said institution."
The object of the act, it was claimed, was to restore
the foundation to its original character.1
A new board of trustees was appointed by the As-
sembly, consisting of three classes. The first class
consisted of persons holding offices under the govern-
1 The assertion of the Assembly that the foundation had heen nar-
rowed was not warranted by facts. The resolution of the trustees re-
ferred to was taken in connection with a letter signed by the Archbishop
of Canterbury and Thomas and Richard Penn in reference to the Rev.
Dr. Smith's collections in England in behalf of the college, in which,
after alluding to the fact that the institution had been originally
founded and carried on "for the general benefit of a mixed body of
people," and that " people of various denominations" had " contributed
liberally and freely" to its support, the hope was expressed that the
foundation would not be narrowed, whereby some party "might en-
deavor to exclude the rest, or put them on a worse footing than they
have been from the beginning or were at the time of thie collection,
which might not only he deemed unjust in itself, hut might likewise be
productive of dissension unfriendly to learning and hurtful to reli-
gion." It was therefore recommended that the trustees should " make
some fundamental rule or declaration to prevent inconveniences of this
kind," etc. The trustees, after inserting this letter in their minutes,
added a resolve "that they would keep thiB plan closely in view, and
use their utmost endeavors that the same be not narrowed, nor the mem-
bers of the Church of England or those dissenting therefrom ... be
put on any worse footing in this aeminary than they were at the time
of obtaining the royal brief." So far from narrowing the foundation,
therefore, the trustees took especial pains to preserve it in its original
breadth and liberality.
ment who were ex officio members of the board. These
were, when the act was passed : 1, The president of
the Supreme Executive Council, Joseph Eeed ; 2, the
vice-president of the Council, William Moore; 3, the
speaker of the General Assembly, John Bayard; 4,
the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas Mc-
Kean ; 5, the judge of the Admiralty, Francis Hop-
kinson; 6, the attorney-general, Jonathan Dickinson
Sergeant. The second class consisted of six clergy-
men,— the senior ministers of the Episcopal, Presby-
terian, Lutheran, German Calvinist, Baptist, and Cath-
olic Churches, viz., Rev. William White, an earnest
friend of the college under the old management; Rev.
John Ewing, Rev. John Christopher Kunze, Rev. Cas-
par Weyberg,Rev. William Rogers, and Rev. Ferdinand
Farmer. The third class was composed of thirteen
individuals, — Dr. Benjamin Franklin, then United
States Minister at Paris ; William Shippen, Benjamin
Searle, and Frederick Muhlenberg, members of Con-
gress from Pennsylvania; William Augustus Atlee
and John Evans, judges of the Supreme Court; Tim-
othy Matlack, secretary of the Supreme Executive
Council ; David Rittenhouse, State treasurer ; Jona-
than Bayard Smith, Samuel Morris, George Bryan,
Dr. Thomas Bond, and Dr. James Hutchinson. As
was to have been expected, these individuals, chosen
more on account of their prominence in public affairs
than because of any special fitness for the duties, paid
but little attention to the details of management, and
the administration of affairs soon became feeble and
inefficient.'
Another important measure with which the Assem-
bly was called upon to deal about this time was the
extinguishment of the proprietary interest in the
commonwealth. Quit-rents to a large amount and a
number of manors and other real estate were still the
property of the Penns, although their government
had been formally superseded by that of the people's
representatives, and a settlement with the Penn family
had been rendered necessary. Chief Justice McKean.
having been applied to by the Assembly, expressed
the opinion that the quit-rents were legal reservations
for the private use of William Penn, and that the
pre-emption right of buying land from the Indians
was a proper one, under the charter from Charles II.,
to be exercised by Penn and his successors; but that
by the Revolution those rights as well as the charter
totally ceased, and could not be executed again.
Judge McKean's views were opposed, except in one
particular, to the wishes of the Whigs, who decided
not to adopt them. The matter had been under con-
sideration since February, 1778, and John Penn hav-
ing been notified was represented by counsel. Dur-
ing the early part of 1779, after the subject had been
debated for five days, the Assembly adopted a series
of resolutions to the effect that the charter of Charles
II. was general in character and " ought to be con-
sidered as containing a public trust for the benefit of
those who should settle in the State of Pennsylvania,
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
407
coupled with a particular interest accruing to the said
William Penn and his heirs, but in its very nature
and essence subject and subordinate to the great and
general purposes of society mentioned in the said
grant;" that the quit-rents and payments of money
upon land other than their own tenths or manors im-
posed by the proprietaries, were in violation of the
original charter and concessions ; that the re-estab-
lishment of the powers and claims of the heirs of
William Penn as they had been exercised both in
property and government was " not to be admitted
in a government founded upon equal liberty and the
authority of the people; that all the property of the
proprietaries in Pennsylvania other than the quit-
rents arising from lands allotted to servants at the
end of their servitude, and the reserved lands knowri
by the names of proprietaries, tenths of manors, and
such purchases as may have been made by them or
either of them in their private right or capacity,
should be vested in the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania for the use and benefit of the inhabitants ;
" that commissioners be appointed, who shall hold a
board, to be called the board of property, which shall
be vested with full power to demand, receive, and
collect all papers, books, records, maps, draughts,
surveys, and other papers, now in the possession of
the said proprietaries, or any persons heretofore hold-
ing offices under them, touching, or in anywise re-
specting the administration or management of the
lands within this State, and also to be vested with
power to grant patents, confirm suspended titles,
under a seal of office to be by them devised, to
appoint deputy surveyors in each county (the sur-
veyor-general and receiver-general being appointed
by Council) and such other officers as may be neces-
sary, and to receive such moneys as may hereafter
arise from the sale of the lands within this State
that are not yet surveyed or located ;" and that,
finally, "all quit-rents heretofore reserved by the pro-
prietaries of Pennsylvania, other than the quit-rents
before mentioned, being badges of slavery, and re-
served without any just authority, shall be abolished,
and be no longer demanded of the free citizens of
this State."
In compensation for the rights of which they were
thus deprived, it was determined that the Penn
family should be paid one hundred and thirty thou-
sand pounds in five years after the passage of the act.
The Penns also retained their manors and other real
estate, their ground-rents, and quit-rents derived from
the manors, and were still the largest landed proprie-
tors in Pennsylvania. From the British government
they received in addition an annuity of four thousand
pounds for the losses resulting to them from the Rev-
olution.
In January of this year, 1779, Washington paid
another visit to Philadelphia, remaining about two
weeks, as the guest of Henry Laurens, president of
Congress, and Mrs. Washington came on from Mount
Vernon to meet him. The Supreme Executive Coun-
cil adopted a resolution requesting Washington to sit
for his portrait. The invitation was complied with,
and the portrait was painted by Charles Wilson
Peale.1
On the 18th Congress celebrated the alliance with
France by a banquet to the French minister, at which
thirteen toasts were drunk, accompanied by salutes of
artillery. Various other public occasions were cele-
brated during the year, — St. Tammany's Day, the
first recorded observance of a noted anniversary, on
the 1st of May by the Sons of St. Tammany, " and
their adopted brethren of St. Patrick, St. Andrew,
and St. George," with a dinner at the old theatre,
Southwark ; the Fourth of July, which, falling on
Sunday, was observed on the 5th (Congress having
on the previous day attended services at Christ Epis-
copal Church and the Catholic Chapel) by an ora-
tion in the Dutch Calvinist Church by Mr. Bracken-
ridge, an entertainment given by Congress to the
French minister, president, and chief officials of the
State, French consul, and others, and a display of
fire-works in the evening ; the birthday of Louis
XVI., on the 23d of August, with salutes from the
vessels in the harbor and the city artillery, ringing
of bells, and pyrotechnics from a stage erected before
President Reed's official residence, at Sixth and Mar-
ket Streets; the arrival, in less than a month later,
of M. de Luzerne, the new French minister, and M.
Marbois, secretary of the commission, who were es-
corted into the city by the light-horse and citizens
amid firing of cannon and ringing of bells, and hon-
ored by a dinner given by Congress in the following
month ; the departure of Henry Laurens, president
of Congress, who set out for Charleston November
10th, on his way to Holland as an envoy from Con-
gress, and was escorted as far as Gray's Ferry by
members of Congress and others,2 and the election of
Joseph Reed as president, and William Moore as
vice-president of the State, celebrated in November
by the usual procession, with a dinner afterwards at
the City Tavern, at which M. de Luzerne, the French
minister, was present. Another incident of a different
character was the burial of William Henry Drayton,
member of Congress from South Carolina, on the 4th
of September,3 which was followed on the 11th of Oc-
1 Don Juan Mirailles, then spoken of as "a Spanish gentleman of dis-
tinction and high character," but who afterwards appeared in his true
rSIe of ambassador from the court of Spain, ordered five copies, of which
four were sent to Europe. The original was placed in the Council cham-
ber. Peale published a mezzotint engraving of this picture the next
year, of the size fourteen by ten inches. It was the largest and most
authentic portrait of Washington that had yet been engraved. This
fine painting of Peale was not suffered to remain long in the possession
of the Council. In September, 17S1, Borne Tories broke into the Council
room, in the State-House, and totally defaced this portrait, as also a
curious picture, entitled, "A Monument to General Montgomery."
2 Lanrens was captured by the British on the voyage out, and thrown
into the tower as a prisoner of state.
3 The funeral service was performed at Christ Church, by Rev. Wil-
liam White, D.D., and the body interred in the cemetery adjoining.
408
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tober by that of Joseph Hewes, member of Congress
from North Carolina.1
Now that the authority of Congress and the State
government had been firmly re-established, home
manufactures began to revive. Works for drawing
wire were erected by Nicholas Garrison, Valentine
Eckert, and Henry Voight, but were soon relinquished
owing to the defective character of the iron furnished
by the manufacturers. In August John Marshall
unsuccessfully petitioned the Executive Council for
aid to set up a manufactory of thread, and Hewson
& Long re-established a linen-printing factory in
Kensington adjoining the glass-works.
The year 1780 opened in Philadelphia under rather
discouraging circumstances for the patriot cause.
Considerable difficulty was experienced both in city
and county in levying taxes, and divers means were
resorted to in order to evade the law. The Quakers
were particularly troublesome, declining to furnish
any information as to the extent of their property,
although liable to fourfold taxes in case of conceal-
ment.2 Great embarrassment was also caused by the
depreciation of the Continental currency, whose value
had become almost nominal. The State currency
was aifected by the general distrust, and as one of the
measures for maintaining its credit, a list of officers
of the State and lawyers and others who agreed to
take the paper money of the issue of March, 1780,
as equivalent to gold and silver, was published.3
The pall-bearers were President Reed and two members of the Execu-
tive Council, Judge Hopkinson, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and Gen.
Hogan. The president and members of Congress as mourners, and the
French minister and Buite were present.
1 Mr. Hewes was buried at Christ Church, next to Mr. Drayton.
2 Thompson Westcott.
2 The following were the signers of this agreement: Joseph Heed,
president; William Moore, vice-president; John Lacey, Jr., Joseph
Gardner, John Hambright, Thomas Scott, Jacob Arnt, members of Coun-
cil; T. Matlack, secretary of Council ; John Ord, Plunlcct Fleeson, Isnac
Howell, David Kennedy, William Rush, Benjamin Paschall, William
Adcock, justices of the peace; Samuel Miles, Joseph Dean, J. Miller,
John Purviance, auditors of accounts; Thomas McKean, chief justice;
George Bryan, fourth justice of the Supreme Court ; James Searle, Jared
Ingersoll, Frederick A.Muhlenberg, delegates in Congress; Jonathan
Sergeant, attorney-general ; J. B. Smith, prothonotary of Common Pleas;
Andrew Robeson, register of Admiralty ; William Bradford, Jr., register
of Court of Appeals ; John Morris, Jr., register of deeds; John Haley,
clerk of Sessions ; Frederick Phile, uaval officer; Erlw. Burd, prothon-
otary of Supreme Court; Ephraim Bonham, Frederick Hagner, William
Bartram, Benjamin Dungan, sub-lieutenants; Francis Hopkinson, judge
of Admiralty; John Armstrong, delegate in Congress; James Claypool,
sheriff; William Henry, lieutenant of city ; Matt. Clarkson, marshal of
Admiralty; Thomas Paine, clerk of General Assembly. Practitioners
of law who will take the bills at par: James Wilson, Asheton Hum-
phreys, G. North, George Campbell, Henry Osborne, John Vannost,
William Lewis. Merchants and traders who will take the paper
money issued by Act of Assembly of the 25th of March, 1780, as of
equal value with gold and silver: Robert Morris, J. M. Nesbltt & Co.,
Meredith & Clymer, Blair McCIenachan, Hugh Shiell, John Nixon,
William Richards, Mease & Caldwell, John Dunlap, John Donaldson,
Thomas Leiper, David Duncan, William AlricltB, F. C. Hassenclever,
Thomas Fitzsimmons, P. Whiteside & Co., Manuel Eyre, G. Clarkson,
William Hall, Andrew Tybout, R. Humphreys, James White, George
Henry, Ephraim Blaine, David Lenox, Francis Nichols, John Benezet,
Cox & Lawrence, S. C. Morris & Co., Paul Fooks, George Meade, John
Wilcocks, Sharpo Delaney, Thomas Irwin, Joseph Carson, James Ash,
On the 31st of May the Assembly passed an act
suspending the law making Continental bills a tender
for three months. Subsequently the suspension, after
having been prolonged by the Assembly for a specified
time, was continued indefinitely. On the 1st of June
the Assembly authorized the passage of an act to
redeem the Continental bills to the amount of twenty-
five millions of dollars by the collection of taxes at
the rate of one million of dollars to forty millions.
Three days previously (May 29th) the Assembly had
passed resolutions authorizing a loan of two hundred
thousand pounds to be effected on behalf of the State
and payable in ten years. Hon. James Searle was
appointed agent to negotiate the loan in Europe, with
instructions, if he succeeded, to purchase clothing
for the troops, military stores, etc., and one hundred
chests of Bohea tea and twenty-five chests of green
tea. Searle, however, failed to negotiate the loan, and
was recalled in the summer of 1781.
In the mean time the outlook for the American
cause grew rapidly darker. In its winter-quarters at
Morristown the army was undergoing privations and
sufferings equal to those of Valley Forge, and in the
South the British generals seemed to be carrying all
before them. But notwithstanding the general anx-
iety and gloom, the patriotic citizens of Philadelphia
continued their labors in behalf of the cause without
relaxation, and when news was received of the sur-
render of Charleston to the British, on the 28th of
May, the announcement, instead of discouraging
them, seemed to infuse new life and vigor into
their efforts. The ladies were the first to move.
Among themselves they instituted subscriptions for
a fund to supply destitute soldiers with clothing, and
in a few weeks had raised three hundred thousand
six hundred and thirty-four dollars, equal in specie
to seven thousand five hundred pounds. The wife of
Lafayette contributed one hundred guineas in specie,
and the Countess de Luzerne six thousand dollars in
Continental paper and one hundred and fifty dollars
in specie.*
John Mease, John Shee, Budclen & Lawrence, Isaac Wilton", James Craw-
lord, John rringle, Bertles Shee, Samuel Inglis, Matthew Irwin, William
Semple, William Turnhull, Jacob Morris, A. & H. Hodge, A. Hodge, Sr.,
Michael Hillegas, Isaac Melchor, Melchor & Vandwveer, John Peters, Jr.,
Nathan Bush, J. Lawerswyler, Andrew Forsyth, John Rupp, Robert
Worr, Peter Paris, Styner So Cist, William Will. J. Pickering, Jacob
Scbreiner, David Boehm, D. Scbaffer, Jr., John Schaffer, Isaac MoseB,
Lewis Farmer.
4 Mrs. Esther Reed, wife of Gen. Joseph Reed, was the chief officer of
the committee tinder whose direction these contributions were obtained.
The memberB of the cominittee^who made the collections were, Mrs. G.
B. Eyre, Mrs. Coates, and Mrs. J. B. Smith, for the Northern Liberties ;
Mrs. F. Wade, for the district from Vine to Race Streets; Mrs. Hutchin-
son, Mrs. Hassenclever, Mrs. Hillegas, and Mr. and Mrs. Clarkson, from
Race to Arch Streets; Mrs. Thompson Richards, Mrs. J. Blair, and Mrs.
T. Smith, from Arch to Market Streets ; Mrs. R. Bache, Mrs. T. Francis,
Mrs. J. Mitchell, Mrs. J. Caldwell, and Mrs. B. McCIenachan, from Mar-
ketto Chestnut Streets ; Mrs. S. Caldwell and Mrs. Dr. Rush, from Chest-
nut to Walnut Streets ; Mrs. J. Mease and Mrs. James Wilson, from
Walnut to Spruce Streets ; Mrs. T. McKean, Mrs. J. Searle, Mrs. J.
Mease, Mrs. Dr. Shippcn, and Mrs. R. Morris, from Spruce to Pine
Streets ; Mrs. W. Turnbull andJMrs. J. Benezet, from Pine to South
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EEVOLUTION.
409
The money thus obtained was employed, at the
suggestion of Gen. Washington, in furnishing shirts
to the army, and many of these garments were made
up by Philadelphia ladies. The patriotic action of
the women was followed by an organized movement
among the men for obtaining supplies for the army
through the agency of a bank. This institution was
known as the " Bank of Pennsylvania," and its ob-
ject was declared to be the supplying of " the army
of the United States with provisions for two months."
Each subscriber gave his bond to the directors of the
bank for such sum as he desired, obligating himself
to pay it in specie in case such payment became neces-
sary to meet the bank's engagements. The securities
amounted to the sum of three hundred and fifteen
thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, at the rate
of 7s. 6d. to the dollar. The directors were author-
ized to borrow money on the credit of the bank for
six months or any shorter period on special notes at
six per cent, interest, and were to receive from Con-
gress such sums as might be appropriated for the re-
imbursement of the bank. When the latter source
and the amounts occasionally borrowed or interest
failed to afford sufficient funds, the directors were
authorized to demand from every subscriber to the
general loan such part of his subscription as might
be needed, a note bearing interest being given for the
amount so advanced. The purchases of supplies for
the army were to be made by a factor appointed by
the sureties of the bank, who was also to forward
them to points where they were required. All
moneys borrowed or received from Congress were
to be applied " to the sole purposes of purchasing
provisions and rum for the use of the Continental
army, of transporting them to camp to be delivered
to the order of his excellency the commander-in-
chief or of the Board of War, and of discharging
their notes and the expense of conducting their
business" and for no other purposes.1
Streets; Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Ord, Mrs. Blewer, Mrs. Knox, and Mrs. Pen-
rose, for Southwark ; MrB. H. Hill, Mrs. Hillegas, Mrs. M. Clarkson, Mrs.
Hassenclever, and Mrs. R. Bache, for Germautown and Bettlebausen.
Among the names of the subscribers is that of Lady Christiana Griffin,
for two thousand dollars.
1 The officers were: Directors, John Nixon, George Clymer; Factor,
Tench Francis; Inspectors, Robert Morris, J. M. Nesbitt, Blair McCIen-
achan, Samuel Miles, Cadwalader Morris. The subscribers were: For
£10,000 each, William Moore, Robert Morris, Blair McClenachan ; for
£6000, Bunner, Murray & Co.; for £5500, Tench Francis; for £5000,
James Wilson, George Clymer, William Bingham, J. M. Ne6bitt & Co.,
Richard Peters, Samuel Meredith, James Mease, Thomas Barclay, Sam-
uel Morris, Jr., John Cox, Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., Hugh Sbeill,
Emanuel Eyre, Matthew Irwin, Thomas Irwin, John Philip De Haas,
Philip Moore, John Nixon, Robert Bridges, John Benezet, Henry Hill,
John Morgan, Samuel Mifflin, Thomas Mifflin, Thomas Willing, Samuel
Powell; for £4000, Benj. G. Eyre, William Coats, John Dunlap, James
Budden, Michael Hillegas, John Mease, Joseph Carson, Thomas Leiper,
Kean & Nicholls; for £3000, John Priugle, Samuel Miles, Charles
Thompson, Isaac Moses, Jonathan Penrose, Samuel Morris; for £2500,
Cadwalader Morris; for £2000, Joseph Reed, Thomas McKean, Isaac
Bass, Owen Biddle, John Gibson, Charles Pettit, John Mitchell, Robert
Knox, Joseph Bullock, Francis Gurney, George Campbell, William
LewiB, John Wharton, Benjamin Rush, Thomas Lawrence, Joseph
The bank was opened at its quarters on Front Street,
two doors above Walnut, on the 7th of July. Mean-
while the Continental money had continued to sink
in value, although repeated efforts had been made to
sustain it. At a meeting held at the State-House in
November (John Bayard, Speaker of the Assembly,
presiding), it was decided that the value of Continental
money, as compared with specie, be fixed at seventy-
five to one ; that a voluntary association be entered
into by the people of the city and liberties " to pay
and receive this money as freely as specie" at .the rate
agreed upon ; all who refused to do so, to be " ex-
posed to the public" as enemies to the independence
of America and to the peace and good order of the
city ; that a committee, consisting of Col. Benjamin
G. Eyre, H. Kamerer, John Dunlap, Thomas Fitz-
simmons, John Shee, Capt. Blewer, Dr. Hutchinson,
Col. Knox, Col. Cowperthwaite, John Bayard, B.
McClenachan, Andrew Tybout, and Samuel Cald-
well, be appointed to draw up articles of association,
to appoint committees for obtaining signatures to
that instrument, and generally to carry the purposes
of the meeting into effect. The committees to obtain
signatures were to be composed of two persons in
each ward and district in the city and liberties, who
were "to carry round the association, and present the
same for subscription to every householder, trader,
and tradesman within their respective districts ; and
to take a memorandum in writing of the name and
description of every person who refuses to sign the
association, and any remarkable circumstance of such
refusal, and report the same to the committee afore-
said, that they may be known to the associators." 2
The necessities of the army at this time were ex-
treme. " I assure you," wrote Washington to Eeed
on the 28th of May,
" every idea you can form of our distresses will fall far short of the real-
ity. There is such a combination of circumstances to exhaust the pa-
tience of the soldiery that it begins at length to he worn out, and we see
in every line of the army the most serious features of mutiny and sedi-
tion. All our departments, all our operations, are at a stand, and unlcsB
a system very different from that which for a long time has prevailed be
immediately adopted throughout the States, our affairs must soon be-
come desperate beyond the possibility of recovery. . . . The Court of
France has made a glorious effort for our deliverance, and if we disap-
point its intentions by our supineness, we must become contemptible in
the eyes of all mankind ; nor can we after that venture to confide that
our allies will persist in an attempt to establish what it will appear we
want inclination or ability to assist them in. , . . Now, my dear sir, I
must observe to you that much will depend on the State of Pennsylva-
nia. She has it in her power to contribute, without comparison, more
Blewer, Matthew Clarkson, William Hall, John Patton, B. Fuller, B.
Randolph, Abraham Bickley, George Meade & Co., John Donaldson,
John Steinmetz, Andrew Hodge, Henry Keppele, Francis C. HaSBen-
clever, Isaac Melcher, John Schafer, Alexander Tod, John Pnrviance,
John Wilcox, Samuel English, Nathaniel Falconer, James Caldwell,
Gerardus Clarkson, Abraham Shoemaker; for £1000, John Lacey, JameB
Thompson, John Hambright, Samuel Caldwell, Samuel Penrose, William
Turnbull, John Shee, Benjamin Davis, Jr., Sharp Delaney, Andrew Doz,
Peter Whiteside, Andrew Robinson. Total subscriptions, £315,000.
2 In December the committee "published" Richard Powell, a shoe-
maker, living in Front Street, for asking of Lieut.-Col. John Nevell
twenty-five shillings, hard money, or three hundred and twenty Conti-
nental dollars, for a pair of shoes.
410
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
to our success tban any other State in the two essential articles of flour
and transportation. . . . Pennsylvania is our chief dependence. From
every information I can obtain she is at this time full of flour. I speak
to you in the language of frankness and as a friend. I do not mean to
make any insinuations unfavorable to the Stale. I am aware of the
embarrassments the government labors under from the open opposition
of one party and the underhand intrigues of another. I know that with
the best dispositions to promote the public service you have been obliged
to move with circumspection ; but this is a time to hazard and to take
a tone of energy and decision. All parties but the disaffected will acqui-
esce in the necessity and give their support. The hopes and fears of
the people at large may be acted upon in such a manner as to make
them approve and second your views. The matter is reduced to a point,
— either Pennsylvania must give us all the aid we ask of her, or we un-
dertake nothing. . . I wi6h the Legislature could be engaged to vest
the executive with plenipotentiary powers. I should then expect every-
thing from your abilities and zeal. This is not a time for formality or
ceremony. The crisis in every point of view is extraordinary, and ex-
traordinary expedients are necessary. I am decided in this opinion. I
am happy to hear that you have a prospect of complying with the requi-
sitions of Congress for specific supplies ; that the spirit of the city and
State seems to revive and the warmth of party decline. These are good
omens of our BuccesB."
Lafayette also wrote to Reed, under date of May
31st, urging that energetic measures be immediately
taken in behalf of the army, and that in particular
the Continental battalions be filled up by militia
drafts. In consequence of these appeals the Assembly
on the 1st of June authorized the president or vice-
president in Council during the recess of the House,
should the circumstances of war make it necessary, to
declare martial law ; and on the 5th of June, Presi-
dent Reed was enabled to write Gen. Washington
that the Assembly had passed a law for raising two
men out of every company of militia, which arrange-
ment would produce about one thousand men, of
whom about six hundred might be used to fill up
the ranks of the Continental army. In the mean time
strenuous efforts had been made to increase the effec-
tiveness of the militia. On the 20th of March the
Assembly passed an act providing for the appoint-
ment of one lieutenant for the city and each county,
and two sub-lieutenants or more, not exceeding the
number of the battalions, who were to make out
lists of all white males between the ages of eighteen
and fifty-three years who were fit for military duty.
Southwark, Moyamensing, Northern Liberties and
Passyunk were incorporated with the city for military
purposes. It was also provided that there should be
one battalion of artillery in the city, and that corps
of light-horse should be formed in the counties not
exceeding in number six men for each battalion of
infantry, the troop in the city being restricted to fifty
men, exclusive of officers. On account of a provision
allowing the hiring of substitutes, the bill met with
considerable opposition, but was finally adopted under
a protest from many members of the House. In May
a petition from citizens of Philadelphia, who had
served in the army, requesting permission to form an
independent company of infantry, was laid on the
table by the Assembly, which during the same month
passed an act " for the ease of the militia," directing
that each company in the State should procure or hire
one man to be embodied with the others from other
companies, into companies to be called " the Pennsyl-
vania Volunteers," which would be available for ser-
vice at any time. Under this act William Henry was
appointed lieutenant for Philadelphia, and Ephraim
Bonham and Frederick Hagner sub-lieutenants. Col.
William Coats was appointed lieutenant for the
county, and Lieut.-Col. Jacob Engle, Col. George
Smith, Col. William Deane, Peter Richards, Abel
Morgan, and Llewellyn Young sub-lieutenants for
the county.
A meeting of the militia of the city for the choice
of officers was set for the 17th of April, but on the
14th a placard appeared, requesting the militia to
assemble at Byrne's tavern on the 17th, to take into
consideration "the present militia act and its conse-
quential bad effects on the laboring poor, as all the
fines and forfeitures, together with their own tour of
duty, will centre on themselves. Also the partiality
exhibited in said act to those least entitled to it."
The placard being regarded as seditious, the Supreme
Executive Council offered a thousand pounds for the
detection of the author, printer, or publisher. Wil-
liam Young, apprentice of Benjamin Town, printer,
was arrested on suspicion, but after having been con-
fined in jail three days was discharged. The meet-
ing summoned by the placard did not take place,
and the militia elected their officers without fnrther
molestation.1
To add to the difficulties of the situation, the
Tories began to be troublesome, and the effect of
their intrigues was such that Gen. Wayne, Col.
Walter Stewart, Lieut.-Col. John Stewart, and Maj.
Henry Lee, Jr., the principal Continental officer
then in the city, found it advisable on the 6th of
April to publish an address, declaring their " fixed
and unalterable resolution to curb the spirit of iuso-
lence and audacity, manifested by the deluded and
disaffected," and that, to effect this, they would not
associate or hold communication with any person or
persons who had exhibited by their conduct "an
inimical disposition, or even lukewarmness to the
independence of America," nor with any person
" who may give countenance or encouragement to
them, however respectable his character or dignified
his office." They also announced that they would
"hold any gentleman bearing a military commission
who may attempt to contravene the object of this
declaration in the smallest degree as a proper subject
for contempt. " On the 6th of June the Supreme
Executive Council adopted resolutions to the effect
that as extraordinary measures for the supply of the
army had become necessary, discrimination should
be made between citizens who had shown themselves
to be friends of the country, and those who had
appeared in a different character. All persons who
1 The militia, to the number of two thousand nine hundred and Bixty
men, were reviewed in May by President Keed, in the presence of Gen.
St. Olair, GeD. Wayne, the Chevalier de Luzerne, and other distinguished
persons.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
411
had taken the oath of fidelity and abjuration were
notified to keep their certificates ready for production
at the shortest notice, and those who had lost them
were advised to get duplicates. In consequence of
the intercourse and correspondence which had been
kept up between persons who had joined the enemy,
and their wives and children, the residence of the
latter in the State was declared to be inconvenient
and dangerous, and the Council ordered that notice
be given all such persons to quit the State within
ten days. The carrying of letters to and from the
enemy's lines, except under certain conditions, was
forbidden under penalty of imprisonment. On the
same day a proclamation was issued, announcing
that an "office of inquiry" would be opened for the
examination of all strangers entering the city, and
for the arrest of suspicious persons ; that in view of
the exigencies of the situation, the ordinary forms
of procedure would be dispensed with, and martial
law enforced, and that persons would be appointed
to proceed as specially directed from time to time,
for whose actions the proclamation would be con-
sidered sufficient authority. An embargo was laid
on all outward-bound vessels except those in the
service of France, in order that the collection of
provisions might be facilitated ; seizures of horses,
the property of Quakers and Tories, were made for
the use of the army, and the houses of persons
suspected of disloyalty were searched for arms.1
These stringent measures had been precipitated by
a sudden movement of the British into New Jersey.
On the 16th, Washington wrote to the Executive
Council requesting that the city light-horse should
march as soon as possible to the camp. They left
Philadelphia on the 24th, but returned on the 29th,
Sir Henry Clinton having moved off up the Hudson.
On the receipt of this news the embargo was removed,
and active proceedings under martial law suspended.
The arrival at Rhode Island of the French army
under Count Rochambeau led to the formation of a
plan for a combined attack upon New York. Wash-
ington's army, however, was in no condition for an
offensive movement. " We are now," wrote Gen.
Greene to President Reed, on the 29th of June, " in
the greatest distress imaginable. The army without
tents and the officers without baggage for want of
teams." Pennsylvania was urged to come to the
rescue, and energetic measures were taken by the
State authorities for furnishing additional troops and
supplies.2 On the 28th of July a circular was issued
1 Christopher Marshall, in his diary, mentions the following seizures
of horseB at tliis time: William Allen's two coach horses, four from
Jeremiah Warder, three from Joshua Howell, two from Samuel Einlen,
three from Pusey, two from William Garrigues, one from John
Parrish, two from James Pemberton, etc.
2 Philadelphia was directed to furnish a monthly quota of three hun-
dred barrels of flour and three thousand bushels of forage; Philadel-
phia County, two hundred barrels of flour aDd one thousand buBhels of
forage. Wagons and horses were also to be supplied. Nancarrow, a
founder, having refused to permit his air-furnace at Eighth and Walnut
requiring the county lieutenants to call out and or-
ganize the militia, four thousand being the quota de-
manded from Pennsylvania. Dr. James Hutchinson
was appointed director-general of the military hos-
pital, and Trenton, N. J., was chosen as the rendez-
vous. Here a camp, commanded by President Reed
in person, was established, but on the 2d of Septem-
ber it was broken up, on account of the abandon-
ment of the projected attack on New York.
A memorial from Friends, adopted Nov. 4, 1779,
and signed by Isaac Zane as clerk, was presented to
the Assembly of 1780, which complained of injurious
laws affecting their liberties and privileges, and as-
serted that they were restrained by divine principles
from complying with requisitions made on them for
"tests and declarations to either party who are
engaged in actual war." It was also asserted that
members of the society had been abused and vilified,
and that some of them had suffered hardship and
oppression at the hands of officers of the law, par-
ticularly in the enforcement of the militia law. The
Council passed a resolution discountenancing these
severities, and requesting that offenders be presented
for punishment. In the Assembly the committee to
whom the memorial was referred prepared a series of
queries designed to draw from the Friends an official
declaration of their sentiments towards the State
government and the established order of things. The
reply, signed by Isaac Zane, Jr., on behalf of the
committee of Friends, was so vague and unsatisfactory
that the committee of the Assembly characterized it as
being " couched in language so incomprehensible that
it could be considered only as an evasion of the ques-
tions proposed." At the suggestion of the committee
no further consideration was given to the matter, and
not long after the Friends found it advisable to adopt
an address in vindication of their political course.'
The proceedings against the Tories were still con-
ducted with unabated vigor. David Dawson, of
Chester County, convicted of high treason in having
visited Philadelphia while in possession of the British,
was hanged, and a number of Tory estates were con-
fiscated during the year.*
Streets to be used for casting shot and shell, the establishment was
seized and used for that purpose. Prompt action was also taken for
raising additional troops. From the city five hundred, and from the
county fivehundred and fifty, militia were drafted.
3 This address, which was agreed to on the 24th of August, appeared
in the Pennsylvania Packet of September 2d. It professed to emanate
from "a meeting of the representatives of the people called Quakers,
of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," and was signed by John Drinker,
clerk. After a general defense of the course pursued by Friends, the
document stated that, while some members of the society were in Vir-
ginia as prisoners, it had been intended to prepare a defense and submit
it to Congress, then sitting at Yorktown ; but, being shortly afterward
called to Lancaster, they were told that they might have certificates of
discharge. They solicited to be allowed to clear their characters, but
were not permitted. They looked upon their discharge as a complete
acquittance of the impeachment against them, and that the occasion of
their defense was removed. They therefore declined making it public.
4 During 1780 the following sales of confiscated property were made :
Samuel Shoemaker, ground-rent, £42 10s., on lut southeast corner of
Water and Callowhill Streets, sold to Thomas Britton for £15211.
412
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Notwithstanding the prohibition against communi-
cating with residents of New York and other points
within the enemy's lines, it was discovered in No-
vember that a number of persons in Philadelphia, in
concert with others in New Jersey and the city of
New York, were carrying on an illicit trade with the
latter place, and bringing British goods into Penn-
sylvania.1
Christopher Saur, tract Ridge road, Roxborough township, to Daniel
Clymer for £17,610.
Christopher Sanr, Jr., tract 19 acres 118 perches, Bristol township, to
Abraham Rex for £2820.
Christopher Saur, three lots, Germantown Street and Bowman's Lane,
to Col. John Bull for £9930.
Samuel Shoemaker, lot Shackamaxon Street and Frankford road, ODe
acre and twenty perches, to Benjamin George Eyre for £3700.
Samuel Shoemaker, 76 acres, Point-no-Point road, life estate, sold to
Peter Wikoff, Isaac Wikoff, and James Hutchinson for £12,400.
Samuel Shoemaker, life estate in three ground-rents,' amounting to
90 Spanish milled dollars and one-third of a dollar, sold to Jacob Geiger
for £4050.
Peter Arthur, one-half of lot north side of Plumb Street, South wark,
sold to James Hendry for £110.
Joseph Galloway, tract of 100 acres, Blockley township, to Thomas
Lawrence, James Budden, and Johu Dunlap for £25,000, subject to
ground-rent payable to University of Pennsylvania of twelve and a
half bushels merchantable wheat.
Joseph Galloway, tract of 58 acres 35 perches Germantown road and
Turner's Lane, sold to Thomas Lawrence, James Budden, and John
Dunlap for £60,000, subject to ground-rent 3U bushels wheat.
Joseph Comley, tract 100 acres, manor of Moreland, sold to Charles
Walker for £25,100, subject to ground-rent 12 bushels and 11-20 wheat.
John Parrock, house and lot northeast corner Second and Sassafras
Streets, 19 by 100 feet, to Christopher Wertz, John Schnffer, and John
Geiger for £40,000, subject to ground-rent 20 bushels of wheat.
George Harding, lot Third and George Streets, Northern Liberties, 22
by 200 feet, to William Lawrence for £900.
George Knapper, house, bake-house, stable, and lot, west side of Front,
between Mulberry and Sassafras Streets, 19 by 169 feet 9 inches, to
Francis Lee for £44,000, subject to ground-rent 22 bushels of wheat.
John Potts, tenement plantation tract of 235 ucres, Douglas township,
to Jonathan Potts for £20,100.
John Roberts, two plantations and tracts of ground, Lower Merion
township, containing together 378 acres, to Edward Milnerfor £271,600,
subject to ground-rent 135 4-5 bushels of wheat.
John Wright, tract of land, 50 acres, Hatfield township, sold to Owen
Faries fur £5100.
Abram Carlisle, house and lot, west side of Front, between Sassafras
and Mulberry Streets, 16 by 100 feet, sold to Capt. Robert Bethellfor
£20,00U, subject to ground-rent 10 bushels of wheat,
1 The following political offenders were arrested during 1780:
April 1. Dominick Joyce, charged with having accompanied the
British army to New York; discharged on condition of leaving the
State.
April 6. John Kugler, charged with ferrying Burgoyne's escaped sol-
diers across the Delaware thirty-five miles from Philadelphia; released
September 1st, on £GO,000 bail for good behavior.
April 13. George Harrington, charged with illuminating his windows
at the time the British entered the city; found guilty of misprision of
treason ; imprisoned until December, when he enlisted on the "Confed-
eracy" frigate.
April 29. John Wilson, charged with enlisting with the British; sen-
tenced to be hung. Edward Greswold, charged with enlisting with the
British ; sentenced to be hung. John McCarty, charged with enlisting
with the British; sentenced to be hung. These three were pardoned
afterward.
April 30. Francis Nelson, found guilty of misprision of treason.
June 18. Jacob Corlies, for getting British goods from New York ;
arreBted and imprisoned.
June 20. Thomas Hutchinson, for getting British goods from New
York ; arrested and imprisoned. Nathan Field, for getting British goods
from New York; arreBted and imprisoned.
June 27. David Dawson, of Chester, charged with visiting the city
By this arrangement lumber, which was in great
demand in New York, was shipped to the latter city
in vessels which left Philadelphia ostensibly for some
other port. If overhauled by British cruisers, they
exhibited papers secretly furnished them by the
British admiral, and proceeded unmolested to New
York; but if they fell in with American cruisers,
their regular papers procured in Philadelphia were
produced, and they were allowed to continue on their
way. On arriving at New York the captains and
crews were treated ostensibly as American prisoners,
and as such exchanged at the first opportunity.
while in possession of the British; goods confiscated; sentenced to he
hung October 26th ; hanged December 25th.
July 4. Daniel Offiey, for refusal to pay taxes on military account;
imprisoned. Caleb Offipy, for refusal to pay taxes on military account;
imprisoned. Henry Shaw, for refusal to pay taxes on military account;
imprisoned.
September 19. Alpheus Brooks, charged with conveying British refu-
gees. Joseph Perkins, charged with conveying British refugees. Both
discharged on giving bail for good behavior.
September 29. Johu Lindley, for misprision of treason while the Brit-
ish were in Philadelphia ; sentenced to forfeit one-half of his goods and
estates, and undergo imprisonment. James Scott, for going with the
British army to New York; imprisoned; released on bail for good be-
havior December 24th.
October 3. David Franks, William Hamilton, and James Seagrove,
arrested as suspicions persons and imprisoned. Seagrove afterwards re-
leased. Franks and Hamilton released on giving security in £200,000
each to go within the enemy's lines, and stay there during the war.
October 28. James Sutton, for running away with the American priva-
teer "Luzerne," and taking her into Bermuda; found guilty at the
Court of Admiralty and ordered to be hung ; executed on the lower part
of Windmill Island, December 30th.
November 5. William Constable, arrested as suspicious; admitted to
surety in £25,000. James Reed, passing counterfeit Congress bills; sen-
tenced to be hung, but pardoned. Richard Chamberlain, passing coun-
terfeit Congress bills; sentenced to be hanged December 25th. William
Cassady, charged with enlisting in the British army ; pardoned on con-
dition of enlisting in the Continental frigate " Confederacy." Philip
Swartz, charged with being inimical to the American cause; discharged
after many months' imprisonment. Samuel Chapman, of Bucks, for
entering into the British service as an officer ; found to be an English
subject; permitted to go to New York.
November 22. Joshua Bunting, of Chesterfield, N. J., charged with
trading to New York. Samuel Clark, of Stony Brook, charged with
trading to New York; bail, £4000. John Cummings, of Philadelphia,
charged with trading to New York; bail, £4000. Patrick Garvey, of
Philadelphia, charged with trading to New York; sent to New Jersey
for trial. Joseph Stansbury, of Philadelphia, charged with trading to
New York; discharged on condition of going to New York. Joseph
Greswold, of Philadelphia, charged with trading to New York; bail in
£2000.
November 25. James Stillman, of Philadelphia, charged with trading
to New York ; sent to New Jersey for trial William Black, of Phila-
delphia, charged with trading to New York; sent to New Jersey for
trial. John Shaw, of Philadelphia, charged with trading to New York;
sent to New Jersey for trial.
The following residents of Philadelphia City and County were pro-
claimed traitors by the Supreme Executive Council, and ordered to ap-
pear and stand their trials:
August 28. Thumas Eddy, ironmonger; James Talbert, trader; John
Fox, cutler; Daniel Ruudle, Matthias Aspdon, John Warder, and Ben-
jamin Booth, merchants; Phineas Bond, attorney-at-law; Joseph Fox,
blacksmith; William Pyle, mariner, of the city; William Corker,
cooper; James Wain, yeoman, Northern Liberties.
September 30. Benedict Arnold, late a major-general in the army of
the United States; Anthony Yeldale, druggist; William West, Jr., mer-
chant, late a major in the army of the United States; Thomas Light-
foot and John Turner, merchants, of the city; John Hutchinson, yeo-
man. Kingsessing: John Wright and Jonathan Wright, Hatfield
township.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
413
With the proceeds from the sale of the lumber
goods were purchased in New York and sent to
Shrewsbury, N. J., whence they were secretly con-
veyed to Philadelphia. British agents and spies
went back and forth by the same route. When the
plot was discovered, the following persons were ar-
rested on the charge of being concerned in it : Joseph
Stansbury, china merchant and Tory poet ; Patrick
Garvey, assistant apothecary in the Continental ser-
vice; Samuel Clark, living near Princeton, N. J.;
Joshua Bunting, of New Jersey, who kept the stage-
house where the emissaries and agents stopped ; John
Cummings, merchant ; and Joseph Greswold Atkin-
son, of Moorestown ; James Steelman, John Shaw,
and William Black, captains of vessels engaged in
the traffic. The discovery gave rise to an organiza-
tion known as the " Whig Association," which was
formed for the purpose of preventing all intercourse
with Tories and suspected persons. Capt. John
Shee was president, and H. Osborne secretary. The
Executive Committee consisted of Col. Joseph Beed,
Maj. Boyd, Maj. Eyre, Maj. Salter, Col. Will, Maj.
Kerr, Maj. Pancake, Col. Shee, Maj. Bees, Col. Knox,
Maj. Casdorp, Col. Marsh, Maj. McCullough, Capt.
Budden, Dr. James Hutchinson, Mr. Dunlap, Mr.
Markoe, Mr. Lieper, Dr. Sheilds, Mr. Kamerer, Mr.
Wade, Mr. Sergeant, Col. Semple, Mr. Foulke, Blair
McClenachan, Capt. McDowell, Col. Farmer, Capt.
Barker, Maj. Powell, Dr. Phile, Capt. Burkhard, and
Capt. Huston.
Several women, the wives or relatives of Tories
with the enemy in New York, were arrested, but
were nearly all released on condition of removing
within the British lines.
In consequence of depredations committed in the
Delaware Bay and Biver this year by picarooning
boats belonging to Tories, Capt. Boys was sent down
with one of the State galleys to chase off the marau-
ders. The packet "Mercury" was also ordered by
Congress to assist in clearing the bay and river, and
commissions were issued to the pilot-boats " Ran-
dolph," Capt. Abraham Bennett; the "George,"
Capt. Daniel Hand; and the "Hell Cat," Capt. Jo-
seph Jacques. In November the " Fair American,"
Capt. Stephen Decatur, captured one of the enemy's
craft near New Castle. Notwithstanding the activity
of the vessels thus fitted out, the British marauders
succeeded in inflicting considerable damage on Phil-
adelphia commerce. Privateering continued to be
prosecuted with energy from Philadelphia during this
year. The " Holker," Capt. Matthew Lawler, cruised
generally with the " Fair American," Capt. Decatur,
and the "General Greene," Capt. Samuel Hollins-
head, and, with those vessels, captured in May the
ship "Commerce," of Liverpool, loaded with rum,
sugar, and coffee, and subsequently the ship " Lady
Margaret" and some smaller craft. In August the
"Holker," "Fair American," and "Enterprise,"
Capt. Bufus Gardner, captured the packet "Mercury,"
having six British captains on board. While on her
way to Philadelphia in July the "Holker" fell in
with a British privateer off Little Egg Harbor, sup-
posed to have been the "Active," formerly of Phila-
delphia, which had been captured by a British
cruiser. A sharp engagement followed, resulting in
a loss to the "Holker" of six killed and eighteen
wounded, the latter including Capt. Lawler and his
first lieutenant. The British privateer, which finally
sheered off and abandoned the fight, returned to New
York, where she reported the captain and lieutenant
killed, with six or seven others, and twenty wounded.
Capt. Keane succeeded Capt. Lawler in command of
the " Holker," Lawler having been transferred to
the " Ariel." Under Keane the " Holker," with the
" Fair American," captured the English brigs " Bod-
ney" and "Bichard," and the ship "Richmond."
The " Fair American," Capt. Decatur, and the
"Argo," Capt. Bidge, captured the letter-of-marque
brig "Elphinstone," and the privateer "Arbuthnot;"
and a Philadelphia vesssel, commanded by Capt.
Thomas Truxton, brought iu the "Clyde," a large
and valuable prize. The " Comet," Capt. Kemp,
made prizes of some smaller vessels, and the "Ariel,"
Capt. Lawler, took a ship and schooner. Prizes were
also sent in by the Continental frigates " Saratoga,"
"Trumbull," and " Confederacy," and by the " Viper"
and other privateers. A new Court of Admiralty was
constituted by act of Assembly passed on the 8th of
March, 1780, and Francis Hopkinson, former judge
of the admiralty, was appointed judge of the new
court. The law provided that a prize-agent should
be appointed to take charge of the interests of vessels
during their absence, and growing out of the appoint-
ment of an agent under this clause, charges were
brought against Hopkinson, which resulted in his be-
ing impeached by the Assembly in December. The
charges were, first, that Hopkinson had offerred to
appoint Blair McClenachan prize-agent if he would
make him a present of a suit of clothes, but that
upon McCleuahan's refusal to do so he appointed
some one else ; second, that he had improperly issued
a writ for the sale of the prize ship " Albion's" cargo ;
and third, that he had taken illegal fees. The As-
sembly presented its charges before the Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council through a committee and the attor-
ney-general ; the accused was represented by James
Wilson and Jared Ingersoll. After a trial lasting
three days the Council unanimously acquitted Judge
Hopkinson on all the charges.
Among the local incidents of the year were the
funeral of Don Juan de Mirailles, the Spanish ageut,
who was buried at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, on
the 4th of May, in the presence of the French minister,
M. de Luzerne, Congress, military officers, and others ;
the visit of Mrs. Washington in June, her reception
by the light-horse, who escorted her into the city, and
a regatta on the Delaware given in her honor, accom-
panied by a display of colors from the vessels in port ;
414
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the parade on the Fourth of July of Col. Nicola's
invalid regiment and the artillery regiment, who
marched to the State-House, and, in the presence of
Congress and the President and Executive Council
of the State, performed various evolutions, amid the
firing of guns, ringing of bells, etc. ; a celebration by
the Chevalier de Luzerne, on the 25th of August, of
the birthday of the King of France, by an entertain-
ment given to Congress and others ; the proclamation
of President Reed's re-election, at the court-house,
followed by " a cold collation" (substituted for eco-
nomical reasons in place of the costly entertainment
usually provided) at the City Tavern, after which a
dinner was given by President Reed ; the visit, on the
30th of August, of Gen. Washington and Count Ro-
chambeau, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, the
Chevalier de Chastellux, who were received by the
light-horse and escorted to the City Tavern, and
thence to the house of Robert Morris, on Market
Street, between Fifth and Sixth.1 The difficulties ex-
perienced by the State authorities of Pennsylvania in
raising troops and military supplies culminated in the
summer and fall of 1780, and at one time seemed to
threaten the utter ruin of the colonial cause. On the
15th of July, President Eeed, who had been fiercely
attacked with charges of incompetency and lack of
energy, wrote to Washington in a strain of profound
discouragement. " Comparisons of former taxes, bur-
dens, etc.," he says, "are now frequent, and it is my
firm opinion, sanctified by that of many gentlemen
of more knowledge and experience, that the people
of this State would,- if too heavily pressed, more
readily renew their connexion with Great Britain
than any State now in the Union." " Should there be
a want of provisions," wrote Gen. Greene to President
Reed, " we cannot hold together many days in the
present temper of the army." Greene's anticipations
were speedily realized, at least in part. In May, 1780,
two Connecticut regiments, rendered desperate by the
want of clothing, food, and pay, announced their in-
tention of returning home in order to procure subsis-
tence for themselves, but through the influence of
Washington were induced to stand by their colors.
On the night of the 1st of January following (1781)
occurred a much more serious revolt, the mutiny of
a part of the Pennsylvania line at Morristown. The
soldiers, having been detained in service after the
terms of the enlistment had ceased, were unwilling
to submit for a longer period to the usual privations
of poor and uncertain pay, scanty food of bad quality,
and wretchedly inadequate camp equipage and cloth-
ing. On the night in question they broke out into
* At three o'clock tboy proceeded to the State-House and paid their re-
spects to Congress, after which they returned to Mr. Morris', where they
dined in company with Samuel Huntingdon, the president of Congress,
Gens. Knox, Moultrie, and other distinguished officers. In the evening
the city was illuminated. M. de Chastellux, who was a distinguished
writer and a member of the French Academy, visited the city again in
December, accompanied by Baron de Montesquieu, son of the great
Montesquieu, Capt. Lynch, and Col. Du Plessis.
open revolt, and during the disturbance one of their
officers was killed and another wounded. Under the
lead of their non-commissioned officers they com-
menced a disorderly march for Philadelphia, but at
Princeton were met by President Reed and Gen.
James Potter, who had been deputed by the Supreme
Executive Council of Pennsylvania, together with
Messrs. Sullivan, Witherspoon, Matthews, Atlee, and
Bland, a committee appointed on the part of Con-
gress.
A conference between these committees and the
mutineers resulted in the adoption of a compromise,
some of the soldiers being discharged at their request
and others induced to remain in the service by the
promise that their claims would be paid and their
just wants satisfied. Sir Henry Clinton, seeking to
take advantage of the apparent disaffection of the
men, sent emissaries among them with offers of pay,
provision, clothing, and a free pardon if they would
join the British army ; but the soldiers, though muti-
nous, had no intention of betraying their country.
They spurned Clinton's offers and voluntarily sur-
rendered his agents, James Ogden and John Mason,
to the State authorities, by whom they were hanged
as spies. During the absence of President Eeed at
Princeton, Vice-President Moore and the Council set
on foot a subscription in the hope of raising fifteen
or twenty thousand pounds in specie, or its equiva-
lent, to meet the emergency, but to their great mor-
tification only fourteen hundred pounds was sub-
scribed. On his return President Reed issued a
proclamation stating the circumstances under which
the loan was asked for, calling for more subscriptions,
and threatening to lay an embargo if the desired
assistance was not forthcoming. The proclamation
had the effect of procuring additional subscriptions,
but not enough to enable the authorities to redeem
their promise to the troops. In view of complaints
that he had exercised a power not authorized by the
Constitution, President Reed, whose resolution seems
to have yielded under the pressure of continuous
assaults upon it and the many discouragements of
the crisis, determined to make no further efforts to
raise the sum required, but to excuse, as best he
could, his failure to carry out the agreement with the
soldiers. The mutiny of the troops, the subsequent
negotiations, and the failure of the State authorities
to redeem their promises had a disastrous effect on
the Pennsylvania line, which was nearly broken up,
and encouraged a spirit of insubordination in the
army which immeasurably aggravated the difficulties
and embarrassments of Washington. In April con-
siderable uneasiness was caused in Philadelphia by
the embarkation of British troops at New York,
whose destination was reported to be the Delaware
River. It was decided to raise two companies of
seventy men each for the defense of the river, and
Capt. Isaac Roach was sent to the Capes for the pur-
pose of keeping a lookout for the enemy. A com-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
415
pany of artillery was ordered to Mud Fort and Bil-
lingsport, and efforts were made to man the frigate
" Trumbull" with seamen for service in the river
only. It soon became apparent, however, that the
enemy had no intention of operating on or near the
Delaware, and the preparations for an attack were
abandoned.
The movements of the British forces in the South
had now become so formidable that Washington and
Rochambeau determined to transfer their operations
from New York to that section of the country.
Notice of the intention to march southward was
given to the Executive Council of Pennsylvania in
August, and, in order to supply the army with trans-
portation for ammunition and stores down the river
from TreDton to Christiana Creek, an embargo was
laid upon all vessels of one hundred tons and up-
ward. Washington, Rochambeau, Chastellux, Gen.
Knox, Gen. Moultrie, and other prominent officers
arrived at Philadelphia on the 30th, and were re-
ceived by the militia and light-horse on the outskirts
and escorted into the town. Washington stayed at
the City Tavern, whence he proceeded to the State-
House, and had an interview with Congress. At the
house of Robert Morris, where he lodged, Washing-
ton and the other officers, with Thomas McKean,
president of Congress, were entertained at dinner.
In the afternoon the vessels in the Delaware dis-
played their colors and fired salutes, and in the
evening there was an illumination, during which
Washington, with his suite, walked through the
streets, which were filled with a vast concourse of peo-
ple, " eagerly pressing to see their beloved general." 1
On Sunday, September 2d, a large detachment of
the American army passed through Philadelphia on
its way to the South, followed on the 3d and 4th by
the French, whose fresh appearance and bright uni-
forms excited general admiration.2 The French en-
camped on the commons, and, as they marched past
the State-House, having come down Front or Second
Street, they were reviewed by Thomas McKean,
president of Congress, who on this occasion appeared
in black velvet, with a sword at his side, and his head
covered. On his left hand were Washington and
Rochambeau, uncovered, and on his right, M. de
Luzerne, the French minister. As the officers sa-
luted in passing, McKean responded by removing his
1 The Tories naturally did not see anything to admire in Washington.
"I saw this man" (Wa9hiDgton), says Samuel U. Fisher, " great as an
imlrumenl of destruction and devastation to the property, morals, and prin-
ciples of the people, several times walking the street, attended by a con-
course of men, women, and boys, who huzzaed him, and broke some of
my father's windows, and others near us."
2 Cromot Du Bourg thus describes the entry of the troops: "The
army marched, September 3d, from Bed Lion Tavern to Philadelphia,
which the First Division entered in full column at eleven o'clock." On
the 4th the Second Brigade arrived, nearly about the same hour, and
produced no less effect. " The Regiment De Soissonnais, the facings of
which were roBe color, carried upon the caps of the grenadiers a white
and rose-colored plume, which struck with astonishment the beauties
of the towa." — Les Francais en Amerique, par Thomas Balch.
hat. After the ceremonies, McKean sent a letter to
Rochambeau expressing his satisfaction, and that of
Congress, at "the brilliant appearance and exact dis-
cipline of the various corps." At the dinner which
followed, given to the officers by M. de Luzerne, the
latter announced that he had just received intelli-
gence of the arrival in the Chesapeake of the French
fleet under Count De Grasse. When the news came
to be generally known a large assemblage gathered in
front of M. de Luzerne's residence and cheered for
Louis XVI.
On the 4th of September the regiment De Soissonois,
one of the finest in the French army, was exercised
on the common in the presence of Congress, M. de
Luzerne, and the military officers. Twenty thousand
spectators witnessed the manoeuvers, which were exe-
cuted by the regiment with a spirit and precision that
excited great enthusiasm. Public confidence was still
further stimulated about this time by the arrival from
Europe of Henry Laurens and Thomas Paine with the
cheering news that a loan of four hundred thousand
French crowns had been obtained. After the depar-
ture of the troops it was feared that the unprotected
state of the country might tempt the British to make
a descent upon Philadelphia from New York, and the
Pennsylvania militia were ordered to hold themselves
in readiness for instant service. A portion of the Phila-
delphia troops, including the light-horse, together with
commands from other portions of the State, were
ordered to rendezvous at Newtown, Bucks Co., and a
lookout was established at Cape May. Preparations
were also made for the removal of the public records
in case of necessity, and on the 21st of September
the plan was proposed and advocated of raising
revenue by a compulsory collection of a quarter's
rent from the inhabitants of Philadelphia. The
Assembly also vested large powers in the Executive
in order to enable him to cope with the emergency.
About the middle of October, however, it having
become apparent that the enemy intended to attempt
the relief of Cornwallis, who had been shut up in
the trenches at Yorktown by Washington, De Grasse,
and Rochambeau, the preparations for the defense
of Philadelphia were suspended, and the camp at
Newtown broken up. About three o'clock on the
morning of the 22d of October, an express-rider,
bringing the news of the surrender of Cornwallis,
reached the city and was conducted to the residence
of Thomas McKean, president of Congress, by an old
German watchman,3 who, after the dispatches had
been delivered, proclaimed in a loud, sonorous tone,
"Basht dree o'clock and Gornwallis isht daken."4
The news spread rapidly through the town, and when
daylight came the rejoicing was general. By order
of the Executive Council, however, the public cele-
bration of the victory was delayed until the arrival
of official confirmation of the news.
3 His name is said to have been Hurry.
4 Thompson Westcott.
416
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
On the 24th, Col. Tench Tilghman, aid to Gen.
Washington and a Philadelphian, arrived with dis-
patches from the commander-in-chief, announcing
the capitulation. At eleven o'clock the vice-presi-
dent of the State and Executive Council waited upon
President McKean, the members of Congress, and
the French minister, in order to exchange congratu-
lations on the great event. The standard of the State
was raised, and at twelve o'clock salutes were fired
by the artillery in the State-House yard and by the
vessels in the harbor, which also displayed their
colors. In the afternoon, Congress, the State Coun-
cil, M. de Luzerne, and others, went in procession to
the Dutch Lutheran Church, where a service of
thanksgiving was performed by the Rev. Mr. Duf-
field, one of the chaplains to Congress. In the even-
ing there was a general illumination, and on the fol-
lowing evening a display of fire-works.1 Congress
voted honors to Washington, Rochambeau, and De
Grasse, and special acknowledgments to the officers
and troops. On the afternoon of Saturday, Novem-
ber 3d, twenty-four stands of British colors reached
Philadelphia, were escorted into town by the local
volunteer cavalry, and were carried down Mar-
ket Street, preceded by the French and American
colors, to the State-House, where they were pre-
sented to Congress, and "laid at their feet." Dur-
ing the latter part of the month, Gen. Washington
and his wife arrived in Philadelphia from Virginia,
and were received with marked demonstrations of
popular affection and respect. A number of "ad-
dresses" were presented to Washington during his
stay, and a concert was given in his honor by the
French minister, at which " an original oratorio,
composed in honor of the chief and set to music by
an amateur, a citizen of Philadelphia," was per-
formed.
The Philadelphia privateers rendered good service
to the Revolutionary cause during 1781. One of the
most gallant feats of the war was the capture of the
British sloop "Savage," Capt. Stirling, twenty guns,
by the privateer " Congress," Capt. Geddes, of Phila-
delphia, after a desperate engagement. The "Sav-
age" was afterwards recaptured from the prize-crew
of the "Congress." Capt. Lawler, in the "Ariel,"
captured the " Cornwallis" galley of the royal navy,
the fire-ship "Resolution," laden with sugar, and a
brig and schooner. Capt. Joseph Jackaways, in the
"Fair American," took two brigs, a sloop, and some
smaller craft, and Capt. Phineas Eldridge, who suc-
ceeded Jackaways in command of the vessel, captured
1 Several patriotic citizens testified their joy by the exhibition of de-
signs emblematic of the event at their dwellings. Alexander Quesnay
de Glovuy, a French teacher, displayed at his lodgings, in Second Street
between Chestnut and Walnut, pictures of Wellington, Count de
Grasse, and Rochambeau, accompanied with appropriate mottoes, em-
blems,etc.; Mr. Feale, at his home, on the northwest corner of Third
and Lombard Streets, exhibited a picture intended to typify the surren-
der of Lord Cornwallis, together with portraits of Washington and Ro-
chambeau, and the inscription "For our Allies, Huzza I Huzza!"
the privateer brig " Porcupine," which had done much
mischief, recaptured the American privateer " Ram-
bler," and made a number of other prizes. In the
fall of 1781 the " Fair American" was sold and with-
drawn from the privateer service. The " Holker,"
Capt. Keane, captured the privateer "Fame," of New
York; and the " Rising Sun," Capt. Casson, took the
privateer " Rattlesnake," and a ship, schooner, sloop,
and some smaller vessels. The ship " Revolution,"
of twenty guns, commanded by Capt. John McNach-
tane, made her first cruise in the summer, and after
taking the British privateer " Maltin," one sloop and
one large ship, was captured by British cruisers. The
"Royal Louis," a new ship of twenty-two guns, of
which Capt. Stephen Decatur took command during
the summer, captured the British brig-of-war " Ac-
tive," Capt. Delaney, and the sloop " Phoenix," of
New York. In October, however, Capt. Decatur was
compelled to strike his colors to a British frigate, two
others being in sight at the time. The letter of
marque "Dove," Capt. Lyons, and another letter of
marque commanded by Capt. Sutton made several
important captures. Prizes made by other vessels
were sent into Philadelphia during the year, among
them the ship " Revolution," and a British schooner
captured by the Continental frigate "Saratoga." The
famous Paul Jones visited Philadelphia with his
vessel in February, and was the recipient of marked
attention. The French frigate " Hermione," Cheva-
lier La Touche, arrived at Chester on the 26th of
March, and after remaining there several weeks came
up to Philadelphia. In May La Touche gave an en-
tertainment to Congress and the President and Vice-
President of the State, at which the French minister
and others were present, and soon after a ball and
supper to the citizens of Philadelphia with a display
of fire-works on Wiudmill Island.
The financial difficulties resulting from deprecia-
tion of the currency, instead of being alleviated by
the measures taken for that purpose had become
more serious, and the Continental money was des-
tined during this year to reach the lowest point of
depression. In view of the depreciation of the State
issues and the frauds which had been practiced under
the system, the Assembly, on the 20th of February,
passed a law repealing the former acts which made
the paper issues of Jan. 29, 1777, and March 20,
1777, legal tender in all cases. On the 6th of April,
however, the Assembly authorized an issue of five
hundred thousand pounds, to which it was attempted
to give value by providing that " if any person re-
fused to receive any of the bills of credit thereby
authorized when tendered in payment of any debt,
bargain, contract, or demand whatsoever, if for the
whole debt or contract, such person or corporation
refusing should forever be barred from suing for or
recovering the same, and that if any person should
refuse to take the bills of credit in payment for any-
thing he should sell or expose for sale, or offer the
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
417
same for a less price or a smaller sum of money, to
be paid in gold or silver, or should give or receive a
greater nominal sum of said bills of credit for gold
or silver, every person, on conviction before a justice,
or, if above five pounds forfeiture, in Quarter Ses-
sions, should forfeit and pay the value of the articles
so exposed to sale, one-half to the prosecutor, the
other half to the use of the poor."
Robert Morris, Thomas Mifflin, and others pro-
tested against the act on the ground that value could
not be given to money by laws imposing penalties
for its rejection, that such laws were iniquitous and
not to be justified, and that every measure to enforce
the acceptance of money rendered it to the interest
of debtors to depreciate it, and enabled bad men to
take advantage of such depreciation, "to the injury
of the honest and the absolute ruin of many who
were once in easy and affluent circumstances." A
number of other arguments were employed to induce
the Assembly to reconsider its action,1 but nothing
was done, and on the 11th of May the Council pub-
lished a proclamation stating that one-third of the
money had been issued and taken by the State troops,
that goods had been sold for it to the public commis-
sioners, and that great loss and injury would result
if depreciation followed. All citizens were therefore
urged to accept the paper, with the understanding
that no more was to be issued, and that the Assem-
bly, when it met again, would be requested to secure
the holders of it from loss. Notwithstanding this
appeal there was still exhibited much repugnance
toward the money, and at a conference of leading
business men at the Coffee-House it was decided to
take the old and new paper money at such rates as it
held on the 1st of May, thus leaving every one to fix
his own value upon it.
This arrangement was opposed by the friends of the
government, who held a meeting at the State-House,
Col. Robert Knox presiding, at which resolutions
were adopted declaring it to be the duty of every
good citizen to discourage the efforts which were
being made by " evil-disposed and disaffected per-
sons," who had endeavored to depreciate and now
altogether refused to receive the new issue of paper
money, to discredit that currency, " thereby causing
distress to the public, and the greatest hardship to
the well-affected individuals who have relied on the
public faith." It was further agreed that those
present would each take and receive, and as far as
possible promote and encourage the circulation of the
money in all their dealings and transactions; that
they would enforce the laws of the State on all such
as refused to receive it, and consider them as enemies
to the country ; that papers containing the resolutions
1 The signers of the protest were Henry Hill, Adam Reigart, George
Gray, Tliumas Lilly, John Allison, Robert Morris, Thomas Mifflin, David
Thomas, John Patton, Moses McClean, Evan Evans, Mark Bird, Joseph
Park, James Jacks, William Harris, John Steinmetz, Joseph Powell,
James Dickson.
27
of the meeting be carried through every ward by two
members chosen from each company of militia, for
the purpose of obtaining signatures, and that the
names of those who refused to sign be set down in a
separate column and published ;." that the disaffected
people shall not live with us," and that a petition, to
be drawn by Jonathan B. Smith, Mr. Cannon, and
Mr. Hutchinson, who were also to obtain signatures,
be presented to the Assembly to invest the Supreme
Executive Council with power to drive them out of
the State. When the Assembly met, however, the
promise of the Council that no more paper money
should be issued was respected, and measures were
taken for the redemption of that already in circula-
tion. For this purpose the lots in the city formerly
the property of the Proprietaries and Province Island
were ordered to be sold, and on the 21st of June an
act was passed levying a tax of not more than six
pounds, nor less than forty-five shillings, at the dis-
cretion of the assessors, on single persons, for the pur-
pose of assisting the redemption. All laws making
Continental bills a tender were repealed, as was also
the provision that bills issued by the State or colony,
with the exception of the issues of March 25, 1780,
and April 7, 1781, should be received as legal tender.
The provision for determining fines, penalties, and
salaries by the price of wheat was also done away
with, and gold and silver alone were declared to be
the legal standard.
In consequence of the passage of this law there
was an immediate rise in the value of the State's
paper money. The difficulties relating to the Conti-
nental money " were not so promptly nor so easily
removed, and after various expedients had been sug-
gested,— among them one from a writer in the Packet
in February recommending the coining of plate in
the possession of private families and individuals, —
Robert Morris, then superintendent of finance, sub-
mitted to Congress in May "apian for establishing
a national bank for the United States of North
America," with a capital of four hundred thousand
dollars, in shares of four hundred dollars, payable in
gold or silver, the notes of the bank to be receivable
in payment of duties and taxes. Congress approved
the plan, and books were opened for subscriptions to
the stock, which were not confined to Pennsylvania.
The stock having been subscribed and directors
chosen, Congress on Dec. 31, 1781, passed an act
creating the stockholders a perpetual corporation.
The bank enjoyed high credit, and the circulating
2 Samuel R. Fisher, in his journal of May 5(h, states that Continental
hills were then held at two hundred and fifty dollars for one dollar of
silver. S..me sailors, with Continental money in their hat-hands and
wrapped around the necks of their dogs, had gone around the town, and
a mob had for several days been going about the city, compelling in-
dividuals to promise that they would work for nothing but gold and
silver. The viilue of the Continental money fell so rapidly that during
the month, which opened with the rate of exchange two hundred dol-
lars of Continental money for one of specie, the rate fell, by the end of
the month, to five hundred dollars for one dollar in Bpecie, bo that Con-
tinental money went out of circulation after May 31st.
418
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
medium not being sufficient to meet the wants of the
community, its issues soon largely exceeded its capi-
tal. It rendered important aid to the government at
a serious crisis, and without its assistance the business
of the department of finance could not have been
successfully accomplished.1
On Thursday, the 1st of March, a memorable day
in the history of the country, the articles of confed-
eration and union between the States were formally
ratified by Congress. The act was announced to the
people of Philadelphia at twelve o'clock, with ringing
of bells and firing of salutes from the land batteries
and vessels in the harbor. The frigate "Ariel,"
whose commander was the famous Paul Jones, made
a gallant display of colors and fired a feu dejoie. In
the afternoon the President of Congress received
the congratulations of the State authorities, military
officers, etc., and at night there was a display of fire-
works. The Fourth of July was celebrated this year
in rather sober fashion. Congress, the State officers,
and the French minister attended the graduation
ceremonies at the college,2 after which a " cold colla-
tion" was served at the State-House. The celebration
of the king of France's birthday, on the other hand,
was marked by more imposing demonstration, in-
cluding a royal salute at dawn, and the ringing of
bells throughout the day. The President of the
State, accompanied by the militia officers of the city
and liberties, waited on the French minister to present
their congratulations, after which they proceeded to
Spring Garden, where a handsome entertainment was
provided.
1 William M. Gouge, in his ''History of Paper Money and Banking
in the United States," thus describes the straits to which the officers of
the bank were sometimes reduced in order to inspire public cuDfidence
in its operations:
"The individual subscriptions being about seventy thousand dollars,
Morris, after the bank was orgauized, took the responsibility of sub-
scribing for the stock on behalf of the United States, and applied about
two hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars (then remaining in the
treasury from the proceeds of a French loan) to that purpose, and the
United States thereby became the principal stockholder.
"As is remarked by Mr. Gouvprneur Morris, the Slim subscribed by
government may he said to have been paid in with one hand and bor-
rowed with the other, leaving the bank but seventy thousand dollars at
most for its proper operations. On this amount it undertook to make ad-
vances to the governmeut aud to individuals ; but, as the experiences of
the evil of Continental money was fresh in the minds of the people, 60me
difficulty was encountered in giving currency to the notes of the bank.
To remove this prejudice the gentlemen who were interested were, as
■we have learned from undoubted piivato authority, in the practice of
requesting people from the country aud laboring men about town to go
to the bank and get silver in exchange for notes. When they went on
this errand of neighborly kindness, as they thought, they found a display
of Bilver on the counter, and men employed in raising boxcB containing
silver, or supposed to contain silver, from the cellar into the bankings
room, or lowering them from the banking-room into the cellar. By con-
trivances like these the hank obtained the reputation of immense
wealth, but its hollownoss was several times nearly made apparent, es-
pecially on one occasion, when one of the copartners withdrew a deposit
of some five or six thousand dollars, when the whole specie stock of the
bank did not probably exceed twenty thousand."
2 An unfortunate incident of the exercises was the withholding of his
diploma from F. W. Murray, one of the graduates, owing to the fact
that in his oration, while censuring Arnold, he deplored the fate of
Andre.
In July of this year a large number of citizens of
Charleston who had been taken prisoners by the
British upon the capture of that city, were brought
to Philadelphia, under flag of truce, in a destitute
condition. Their families had preceded them long
before, having been sent to Philadelphia immediately
after the capitulation, which had occurred in May of
the previous year. Altogether there were nearly a
thousand persons thus cast upon the charity of Phila-
delphians.'
On the 13th of July the Supreme Executive Coun-
cil ordered Deputy Quartermaster-General Miles to
find accommodations for the exiles, and a subscription
paper was circulated among the Whigs in order to as-
certain how many could be accommodated by private
individuals. On the 23d, Congress passed a resolution
that five suitable persons be appointed to open a
subscription for a loan of thirty thousand dollars for
the support of "such of the citizens of the States of
South Carolina and Georgia as have been driven
from their country and possessions by the enemy ;"
and the delegates from those States pledged them-
selves that as soon as possible their Legislatures would
make repayment of the amount thus borrowed. Wil-
liam Bingham, John Bayard, George Meade, Jacob
Barge, and Dr. Hutchinson were appointed commis-
sioners for effecting the loan. It was proposed to
assess the Tories for the support of. the exiles, and
one writer suggested that Samuel Powell be called
upon to yield liberal contributions from his rent-rolls.
Robert Morris suggested a lottery for raising money,
and appealed to Hugh Roberts, John Reynolds, James
Pemberton, John Pemberton, Samuel Emlen, Owen.,
Jones, and Nicholas Wain, leading members of the
Society of Friends, to raise among their people a loan
to the United States at six per cent, interest, to be
used in relieving the wants of the exiles. These
Friends, however, replied declining the loan, on the
ground that the society's " capacity for the exercise of
benevolence" had been much diminished, "not only
through the general calamity prevailing, but most
particularly by the very oppressive laws which have
been enacted in Pennsylvania, and the oppressive
manner in which they have been frequently executed,
to the impoverishment of many innocent and indus-
trious inhabitants, so that there are divers instances
of many families in the city and county who are
already nearly stripped of their substance ;" that they
had been called upon to aid their friends in the Caro-
linas, and that they were in no condition to contribute
to the support of the exiles in Philadelphia. The
Assembly, in order to aid the latter, passed a law
3 Among the exiles were Gen. Moultrie and other prominent men.
The families of Governor Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinekney, and
Thomas Pinekney were cared for by Dr. James Logan, at Stenton, near
Germantown, where they remained for six months. Many of tho exiles
found employment, and were thus enabled to suppoit themselves. James
H. Thompson opened a school, aud Dr. Noble W. Jones, who had been
Speaker of the Georgia Assembly, commenced the practice of medicine.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
419
granting to inhabitants of other States obliged to take
refuge in Pennsylvania the right to bring their slaves
with them, and to hold them after registry, notwith-
standing the abolition law, on condition that they did
not sell them to inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and
that they would not remain longer than six months
after the expiration of the war with Great Britain.
Considerable bitterness of feeling was engendered
this year by controversies growing out of local politi-
cal contests. On the 10th of November a petition was
presented to the Assembly from citizens of Philadel-
phia County, contesting the election held in October,
on the ground that the officers of the Philadelphia
militia battalions had endeavored to force the private
soldiers to vote for certain candidates, and that Gen.
Lacey had aided this scheme by ordering the soldiers
to march to the polls under their officers, and that
they should be subject to military law until after the
election. The men, it was alleged, were marched to
the polls in battalions, and tickets already prepared
having been placed in their hands, they were re-
quired to vote. Consultation among them or with citi-
zens outside the ranks was not permitted, and sol-
diers refusing to vote were threatened with flogging.
Gen. Lacey denied having had any sinister motive in
doing as he had done, and asserted that as he had no
authority to discharge the soldiers in order that they
might go to the election, it was necessary that they
should proceed to the polls under military command.
The House, after hearing many witnesses, finally, in
March, 1782, appointed a committee to hear the evi-
dence further. Finally, on the 8th of April, it was
resolved by a vote of thirty-two ayes to eighteen nays
that the charges were not supported so far as they re-
lated to any undue means to carry the election. The
subject also came up before the Supreme Council in
connection with the election of John Bayard as
councilor, and after a long investigation it was de-
cided that the election should not be set aside. An-
other political incident of the year was an attack
upon Chief Justice McKean for holding in addition
to the office of judge those of delegate to Congress
from Delaware and president of Congress. It was
shown that other members of Congress had done the
same thing ; and although the Constitution of Penn-
sylvania prohibited him from serving as chief justice
and member of Congress at the same time, it was
urged that the prohibition did not apply to him, from
the fact that he held the offices from different States.
A feeble attempt to revive the corporation of the
city — the first since 1776 — was made this year, and a
petition to that effect with only fifty-four signatures,
chiefly of residents of the upper end of Second Street,
was presented to the Assembly in June. Distrust of
the Tories, who had controlled the old city govern-
ment, was so strong, however, that it extended to the
form of government which they had administered,
and, although a committee was appointed to bring in
a bill, nothing further was done. The feeling against
the Tories was intensified later in the year by the dis-
covery of a plot to steal and carry off as many of the
secret journals and other papers belonging to Con-
gress as could be secured. The plan was arranged by
the traitor Arnold, and its execution was attempted
by Lieut. James Moody, his brother, John Moody,
and Lawrence Marr, assisted by Addison, an English-
man, employed a3 an assistant by Charles Thomson,
secretary of Congress. The plot was discovered and
Marr and John Moody were captured, convicted of
being spies, and sentenced to death. Lieut. Moody
avoided arrest and escaped to New York, but John
was hanged on the common. Marr was respited and
afterwards released. Thomas Wilkinson, convicted
of piracy, was hanged in May of this year at Wind-
mill Island, and his remains taken to Mud Island,
where they were gibbeted.1
1 Tho following estates of Tories, seized and forfeited for treason, were
disposed of during the year 1781 :
Samuel Shoemaker, lot of ground, Poplar Lane, between Third and
Fourth Streets, containing 4 acres 48 perches, sold to William Coats for
£4900, subject to ground-rent to University of Pennsylvania of 2^
bushels of wheat.
Samuel Shoemaker, house and lot, east side of Fourth Street, above
Mulberry, 17 feet G inches by 49 feet 6 incheB, sold to Ele.izar Levy for
£3350 Pennsylvania money.
Samuel Shoemaker, three-story brick house and lot, east side of Water
Street, above Mulberry, 31 feet 11 inches by 92 feet, etc., to the Delaware,
sold to James Lacaze and Michael Maliet for £186,000 Continental
money.
Joel Evans, one-half of a tract of land of about 47% acres in Blockley
township, near Cobb's Creek, sold to James Budden, John Dunlap, and
Thomas Lawrence for £15,0U0 Continental money, subject to ground-rent
of 7% bushels of wheat.
Joseph Grieswold, tract of land, Northern Liberties, about 30 acreB,
sold to James Budden, John Dunlap, and Thomas Lawrence for £'27,000
Continental money, subject to ground-rent of 13% bushels of wheat.
John Henderson, brick house and lot, east side of Second Street, be-
tween Walnut and Spruce, 20 feet front, extending to Dock Street 97
feet, sold to Joseph Deau for £49,000 Continental money, subject to
ground-rent of 24% bushels of wheat.
John Loughborough, tract of land, manor of Moreland, 126 acres,
126 perches, sold to George Benner for £20,400 Continental money,
ground-rent 20£ bushels of wheat.
Jouathau Wright, tract of land, Hatfield township, 141 acres, sold to
Joseph Dean for £11,400 Continental money, ground-rent of 5^0 bushels
of wheat.
John Butcher, messuage and tract of land on the Schuylkill, in Block-
ley township, adjoining properties of George, Widow Peters, and
John Penn (now in Fairmount Park), 56 acres sold to Joseph Dean for
£14,800 Continental money, ground-rent of 7$j bushels of wheat.
Ilolton Jones, house and lot, Main Street, Germantown, 1 acre 40
perches, sold to Joseph Dean for £11,100 Continental money, ground-
rent of 5$^ bushels of wheat.
John Parrock, lot east side of Water Street, above Mulberry, 25 feet 6
inches to the Delaware River, sold to Capt. Michael Simpson for £560
Pennsylvania currency, ground-rent lOj^ buBhels of wheux.
Johu Parrock, two-story house and lot, Bouth side of Sussafras Street
between Front and Second, 14 feet 10 inches by 51 feet, sold to Jonas
Phillips for £16,150 Continental money, ground-rent &$, bushels of
wheat.
John Parrock, lot, wharf, and chair-house, northeast corner of Water
and Sassafras Streets, 20 feet to the Delaware River, sold to Lieut. John
Weidman for £13,500 Pennsylvania currency, ground-rent 3Q& bushels
of wheat.
John Parrock, stores, lot of ground and wharf, southeast corner of
Water and Sassafras Streets, sold to Maj. James Parr for £1850 Pennsyl-
vania currency, subject to ground-rent.
John Parrock, lot east side of Water Street, above Mulberry, 20 feet
6 inches, extending into the River Delaware, sold to Capt. Jacob Bun-
nor for £1090, ground-rent 32^ bushels of wheat.
420
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The year 1782 opened with a dramatic entertain-
ment in honor of Gen. Washington, which sorely
offended certain staid and worthy citizens. It was
Oswald Eve, bouse, two plantations, and powder-mill on Frankford
Creek, 270 acres, Bold to Capt. John Eve for £108,000 Continental money,
gromid-rent 54 liusliels of wheat.
Henry Welfling, house and lot, north side of High Street, between
Fifth and Sixth, IS feet by 110, sold to James Lang for £10,900 Conti-
nental money.
John Wright, tract of ground, Hatfield township, 50 acres, sold to
Owen Faries for £5100 Continental money, ground-rent 2££ bushels of
wheat.
John Burke, tract of ground, manor of Moreland, on Philadelphia
and Newtown road, 33^ acres, sold to James Vansantfor £6100 Conti-
nental money, ground-rent 3^ bushels of wheat.
Christopher Sauer, the elder, tract of land on the Schuylkill, Koxbor-
ough township, 11 acres 156 perches, sold to Benjamin Harbeson for
£G000 Continental money, ground-rent 3 bushels of wheat.
Isaac Allen, life estate on two tracts of ground, Hickory Lane and
Poplar Lane, Northern Liberties, containing together about 8 acres,
sold to William Coats for £1350 Continental money.
Isaac Allen, house and lot, west side of Fourth Street, between High
and Chestnut Streets, 15 feet by 49 feet 6 inches, sold to Benjamin Harbe-
son for £12,000 old Continental money, ground-rent 6 bushels of wheat.
William Rhodden, house and lot, south side of Catharine, between
Front and Second Streets, 20 feet by 101 feet 6 inches, sold to Capt.
Charles Alexander for £4100, ground-rent 2^ bushels of wheat.
Andrew Elliot, life estate in house and store and lots, west side of
Front Street, below Walnut, extending to Dock Street, sold to Lieut.-
Col. Thomas Forrest for £870 Pennsylvania currency.
Joseph Galloway, one-half house and lot, north side of Mulberry,
between Third and Fourth Streets, 16 feet by 140, sold to Maj. James
Parr for £135 Pennsylvania currency.
Joseph Galloway, house and plantation on the Schuylkill, near Mount
Pleasant, 44 acres 122 perches, sold to Dr. James Hutchinson for £24,400
Continental money, ground-rent 10^j bushels of wheat.
John Fox, frame bouse and lot, east side of Second Street, South-
wark, 20 feet by 65 feet, sold to Alexander Powers for £760 Pennsyl-
vania currency, grouud-rent 2& bushels of wheat.
Jacob Duch 6, Jr., mansion, coach-house, stables, and four lots of
ground, east side of Third, between Pine and Union Streets, sold to
Thomas McKean, president of Congress, for £7750 Pennsylvania cur-
rency, ground-rent 232^ bushels of wheat.
David Jones, lot on Dock Street, between Second and Third, 17 feet
by 64, Bold to William Power for £2765 Pennsylvania currency, ground-
rent %l\% bushels of wheat.
Jonathan Adams, snuff-mill, warehouse, houses, and lot, Wissahickon
road, Northern Liberties, sold to Christopher Stewart for £1530 Penn-
sylvania currency, ground-rent 45^5 bushels of wheat.
Peter Campbell, meadow ground, Hollander's Creek, Moyamensing
township, 3 acres, sold to Joseph Carson for £600 old Continental money,
ground-rent 3 bushels of wheat.
Benedict Arnold, life estate in mansion and plantation of Mount
Pleasant, Northern Liberties, on the Schuylkill (now iu Fairmouut
Park), 97 acres 97 perches, sold to Col. Richard Humpton for £850.
William Evans, carpenter-shop and lot, north side of Pine, between
Third and Fourth Streets, 20 feet by 160 feet to Union Street, sold to
Benjamin Evans for £900 Pennsylvania currency, ground-rent 4J^
bushels of wheat.
Nathan Roberts, one-fifth part of tract of 250 acres, Bristol township,
sold to Capt. William Rice for £810.
Christopher Saner, two pieces of ground, Northern Liberties, contain-
ing together 3 acres, sold to Joseph Carson for £2560 old Continental
money.
Christopher Saner, two lots of ground, German town township, con-
taining G% acres, sold to Joseph Carson for £1610 old Continental
money.
John Tolly, bouse and lot, north side of Catharine Street, Southwark,
13 feet 9 inches by 40 feet, sold to Patrick Robinson for £3400 Conti-
nental money, ground-rent 1/B bushels of wheat.
The following traitors were attainted during the year, and proclama-
tion made that they should appear and stand their trial: Jonathan
Adami, snuff-mnker, and Susannah, his wife, of the township of Ger-
mantown, county of Philadelphia.
given on the 2d of January, at the Southwark
Theatre, under the direction of Alexander Quesnay,
and embraced a prologue written for the occasion,
Beaumarchais' "Eugenia," and, as an afterpiece,
" The Lying Valet." Several dances were intro-
duced, and a transparency, with a painting intended
to symbolize the union of the States, was exhibited.
The success of the performance encouraged M. Ques-
nay to announce that a similar entertainment would
be given on the 11th, in aid of the poor in the Penn-
sylvania Hospital and the soldiers in the barracks,
but the magistrates of the city interfered, and issued
a notice calling attention to the act of Assembly for-
bidding such performances. Quesnay evaded the
prohibition by transforming the theatre into an
"Academy of Polite Science/' where, although he
did not venture to produce plays, he entertained the
company with "music, illuminations, transparencies,
and a variety of French dances." Notwithstanding
their Quaker tastes and prejudices, the people of
Philadelphia do not appear to have been slow to
avail themselves of the facilities for amusement con-
trived by the gay and ingenious Frenchman. Hope
had once more begun to glow in their hearts, and
after long years of wretchedness and gloom they nat-
urally turned with a sense of relief to the recreations
suggested by Quesnay.
F&tes and festivities were numerous during the year,
and the different public occasions were celebrated with
more than the customary splendor and 6clat. On the
13th of May, Luzerne, the French minister,1 formally
announced to Congress the birth of the Dauphin of
France. The ambassador was escorted to the State-
House by the City Light-Horse, and was there re-
ceived by the Continental troops and the City Artil-
lery. An autograph letter from Louis XVI., an-
nouncing the event, was presented by M. de Luzerne,
and after his address had been replied to by the presi-
dent of Congress, John Hanson, the minister withdrew
amid a feu dejoie of musketry from the troops. In
the afternoon he dined with Congress at the State-
House, and at night a display of transparencies, with
paintings by Peale, was made by order of Congress in
the State- House yard. Some days later the president
and Supreme Executive Council of the State enter-
tained the French minister and Congress; and on
the 15th of July, M. de Luzer*ne gave a splendid f§te
in honor of the Dauphin at his residence, the old
Carpenter mansion, northwest corner of Sixth and
Chestnut Streets.2
1 During a storm which swept over the city on the 27th of March,
1782, the residence of M. de Luzerne was struck by lightning. M. de
Meaux, a French officer, wub struck, and so seriously injured that
he died a few days later. The building and furniture were seriously
damaged.
2 A contemporary writer thus describes the entertainment:
" At nine o'clock in the morning his excellency invited to Mb apart-
ments all the French residents iu Philadelphia to return thanks to the
Supreme Being for the late blessing he has bestowed on their nation.
The Te Deum was chanted, after which the Chevalier De La Luzerne
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
421
Little did the gay throng which flocked to the bril-
liant entertainment imagine that the child in whose
honor it was given would in a few years bean outcast
and a beggar, — the victim of a revolution that found
received the congratulations of the officers of government, citizens,
etc. At the same time was presented to him an ode upon the birth of
the Dauphin, composed by Mr. Smith, a young lawyer. . . .
" His excellency invited more lhan fifteen hundred guests from this
aud the neighboring States to attend at this entertainment, which be-
gan at eight o'clock in theevening. In (he court-yard belonging to the
house he had caused to be built for their reception a hall of the most
excellent architecture, and the court-yard itself had assumed, in less
than two months, the form of a regular garden — groves formed into
arches, and hung over with glass lamps, the prospects judiciously dis-
posed at a small distance, where appeared a splendid illumination rep-
resenting n palace, ornamented with a great number of pyramids and
columns; the fire-workB played off at intervals from the most distant
part of this perspective ; an innumerable crowd of persons that covered
the fields round about ; a green ball raised in part of the garden, con-
cealed by porches of green ; a sky clear and serene— all contributed to
render this garden a most romantic and delightful recess. A hall, after
the Italian manner, takes up the middle space. It is built upon a plan
of seventy-five feet in length and forty-five feet in breadth. It is sur-
rounded with an insulated colonnade, detached from the main building.
The Doric orde.r, which is most used in this building, is nowhere neg-
lected.
"At the furthest extremity of the hall, and opposite the principal
entrance, are the arms of France upon a globe suspended in the midst
of a glory, whose rays break upon the square of the ceiling. At the
other extremity the arms of the United States (whose escutcheons are
charged with thirteen pieces argent aud gules, having upon the top
thirteen stars upon an azure ground) are supported by the American
bald eagle, having in his right talons an olive branch, and thirteen
arrows id his left; in his bill a legend with these words : E Pluribus
TPnum. America is personified by two young savages, who serve as sup-
porters— the one stayed by a stuff which bears the cap of liberty, the
second surrounded with the natural productions of this country in form
of an article of exchange for the riches of Europe. About the middle
of the hall are several figures supported by the columns. The cyphers
of the Queen of France, crowned with and encircled by garlands by a
Cupid, are supported by Hymen, the rays from whose flambeaux shine
upon them. The group look toward the cyphers of the Dauphin, like-
wise crowned with garlands by a genius, and supported by Mercury,
who coverB him with his wand. The galleries formed by the columns'
are ornamented with pilasters and panels of a color different from that
of the body of the building. The ceiling is fiat and set off with sophites.
From the midst of that of the architrave, and between each column,
hangB a branched candlestick. The rest of the ceiling is enriched with
a wide frame, within which light clouds are painted, and also are hung
crowns. At the four extremities of the two grand galleries are four
figures, resembling white marble, placed in niches, and representing
Diana at the instant of discharging her javelin; Flora adorned with
garlands; Hebe holding the cup of Jupiter; Mars leaning upon his
armor, where is engraved the cypher of his excellency, Gen. Washing-
ton. The galleries upon the right side of the entrance have at each of
their extremities a sideboard raised pyramidically, covered with refresh-
ments, flowers, and lights. Betwixt these two sideboards and toward
the middle of the hall is the* orchestra, under which is a close room.
The two Bpaces between that remained on each side are set off with
four doors that give entrance into two saloons which open into one he-
hind the orchestra. From the saloon is a passage into the dining-hall,
ninety feet long by forty broad, having seven tables proportioned in
size to the number of the guests. This hall as well as the saloon was
lighted by glass branches; the space between the tables, their situation,
that of the Berving sideboard, the number of avenues that facilitated
the coming in and going out, infinitely increased the splendor of the
Bfght and the magnificence of the attendance. This whole building is
covered on the outside with a roof after the Italian mode, supported by
pilasters, forming three porticoes at the two ends, and four on the side
opposite to the fire-workB and the illumination.
"ThiH splendid building, which was finished in leas than six weeks,
was the work of Monsieur L'Enfant, a French officer in the service of
the United States.
its source and inspiration in the revolt of the Amer-
ican colonies, which his father had fostered and made
successful. The powerful king and queen, whose
virtues were extolled that day in terms of warmest
adulation, were fated soon to mount the scaffold, and
the child whose coming into the world was thus hon-
ored with all the pomp of ceremonial and the enthu-
siastic acknowledgments of a grateful people was
destined to be ushered out of it so mysteriously that
history even yet is uncertain as to his fate.
The Fourth of July, 1782, was observed with ring-
ing of bells, firing of salutes, and other demonstra-
tions, and an official visit on the part of M. de
Luzerne to Congress in order to present his congratu-
lations. The king of France's birthday falling on
Sunday this year, the celebration took place on the
following day. The State flag was hoisted at Market
Street wharf, an entertainment was given by M. de
Luzerne, the officers of the city militia dined at
Byrne's tavern, and Charles Wilson Peale exhibited
at his house at Third and Lombard Streets the trans-
parencies he had shown in honor of the victory at
Yorktown, together with portraits of the king and
queen of France and the Marquis Lafayette, and a
picture typical of dependence on the mother-country
as contrasted with independence, — much to the favor
of the latter as a matter of course.
The naval operations of vessels sailing out of Phil-
adelphia were marked by one glorious victory and a
number of serious disasters during 1782. The Dela-
ware was infested with refugee boats which preyed
on Philadelphia commerce and made many prizes.
Of these the "Trimmer," an open whale-boat belong-
ing to New York, was one of the most destructive.
Being of light draught she was able when pursued
to retreat into shoal water and thus escape from the
American cruisers. Many captures of Philadelphia
"A detachment of French troops mounted guard wilhin the garden,
and several companies of militia were posted in the different avenues,
to prevent the excessive crowding of horses and carriages. No acci-
dent happened, although more than fifteen thousand persons were
present.
"The presence of His Excellency, the President, and all the membera
of Congress, of their excellencies the Governors of Pennsylvania, of
Jersey, and Delaware, and the principal military and civil officers of
those States, gave as much solemnity to the entertainment as the dress
and beauty of the ladies added to its charms. Their excellencies Gen.
Washington and Le Compte de Rochambeau, who had arrived in town
the day before, increased the general satisfaction, and seemed to bring
the laurels of Yorktown to the cradle of the Dauphin.
"An Indian chief, devoted to France and the United States, had also
arrived in Philadelphia to attend the eutertainmeut. He was appareled
and adorned in the fashion of his country, and did not fail to express
in the three languages— which he spoke well— the sincere part he and
his countrymen take in the event that was then celebrated.
" The entertainment began with a concert, succeeded by fire-works of
superior and unrivaled excellence aud a brilliant ball. At one in the
morning supper waB served up, followed by a continuation of the ball,
and joy did not cease to sparkle in the eyes of every one present. The
fire-works were exhibited for the benefit of the people who wbto invited
to the festival on the large lot on the south side of Chestnut Street, op-
posite the minister's residence. There was no entry to the garden or
exit therefrom except by the Sixth Street gate. The carriages arrived
only by Chestnut Street, and turned up Sixth Street into Market."
422
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
merchantmen were also made by British privateers
and men-of-war which were cruising about the Dela-
ware Bay.1 Among the most troublesome of the ene-
my's vessels was the "General Monk/' formerly the
American privateer "General Washington," which
had been captured by the British and refitted as a
vessel of the royal navy. Such were the losses in-
flicted on American commerce by the "Monk," that
at a meeting of Whigs at Crawford and Donaldson's
insurance offi ce on Market Street, it was determined to
fit out a vessel to take the offensive against her. Funds
were soon obtained, partly from the Bank of North
America, and partly from private individuals, and a
vessel was purchased which was named the "Hyder
Ally," in honor of Great Britain's famous antagonist
in India. Capt. Joshua Barney was chosen as her
commander, and the crew, which numbered one hun-
dred and ten men, was made up of volunteers chiefly
from the regular service. The vessel, mounting six-
teen six-pounders, went down the river disguised as
a merchantman. The object of the expedition was
to convoy a fleet of vessels to the capes, protecting
them on the way down from the refugee boats ; but
Barney had instructions not on any account to put
to sea. While the convoy were lying in Cape
May road waiting for a fair wind to take them out,
two ships and a brig were discovered standing for
them. A large cruiser of the enemy soon after made
its appearance. Capt. Barney signalled the convoy
to return to the bay, but in attempting to do so the
brig " Charming Sally" ran aground and was cap-
tured.
The " General Greene," an American privateer,
also ran aground and was taken. The cruiser
" General Monk," which had effected these captures,
now pushed on to engage the " Hyder Ally." By
skillful manoeuvring, Barney succeeded in closing
with his enemy, who was greatly superior in force, so
that the " Monk's" jib-boom caught in the forerigging
of the " Hyder Ally," and remained entangled there,
thus enabling the American vessel to rake her adver-
sary fore and aft. The British commander had ex-
pected to deliver a broadside, which, with his greatly
superior weight of metal, would have made short
1 Itivington's Royal Gazette, of New York, published in March the fol-
lowing list of privateers or letters-of-innrque belonging to Philadelphia
which had been captured in eight months by one vessel, the frigate
" Medea," Capt. Duncan. The number of merchant-vessels taken dur-
ing the same time was very great. The privateers named below are
not recorded as having taken any valuable prizes, and several of them
had doubtless been captured before a Bingle gun was fired:
Ship " Morning Star," 18 guns, 7 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Schooner " Eagle," S guns, 24 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Sloop " Phoenix," 1G guns, 77 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Ship "Rover," 20 guns, 80 men; a privateer of Philadelphia.
"King Bird," 10 guns, 30 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Schooner " Neptune," 6 guns, 20 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Brig " Marianne," 12 guns, 48 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Brig " Favorite," 14 guns, 83 men ; a privateer of Philadelphia.
Brig " Black Princess," 26 guns, 179 men ; a privateer of Philadel-
phia.
work of Barney's vessel ; but as it happened, the two
crews fought on much more nearly equal terms.
Twenty broadsides were fired by the " Hyder Ally" in
twenty-six minutes, and in less than half an hour the
British vessel struck her colors. Capt. Barney still
had the frigate to deal with, the brig having passed
on, and, without ascertaining the name of the vessel
he had captured, placed a prize-crew on board, order-
ing the lieutenant in command to make all sail up
the bay after the convoy, while he covered the rear.
In order to mislead the frigate, which was the " Que-
bec," he hoisted the British flag on his own vessel as
though she had been captured. The frigate con-
tinued the chase up the bay for some distance, but at
length gave it up, and coming to anchor signalled the
" Hyder Ally" under the impression that she was in
British hands. Capt. Barney was now at leisure to
ascertain the name and character of his prize, and to
his surprise and delight discovered that she was the
"General Monk," mounting twenty nine-pounders,
nearly double his own weight of metal, and carrying
one hundred and thirty-six men under command of
Capt. Rogers, of the royal navy. The frigate was the
" Quebec," thirty-two guns. The brig was the " Fair
American," once of Philadelphia. The ship was the
" Eldridge," once a Philadelphia privateer, but now
sailing under British colors. The " General Monk"
lost twenty killed and had thirty-three wounded.
Among the former were the first lieutenant, purser,
surgeon, boatswain, and gunner. Among the latter
were Captain Rogers and every officer on board ex-
cept one midshipman. The " Hyder Ally" had four
men killed and eleven wounded. That Barney should
have effected this capture within sightof three strong
vessels of the enemy, was justly regarded as most re-
markable, and the achievement was hailed in Phila-
delphia with great rejoicing.2
Much of the credit was due to a detachment of
Bucks County riflemen, who served as marines on the
" Hyder Ally," and whose accurate aim brought down
many officers and men, all of whom were found to
have been shot in the head or breast, so cool and
deadly was the fire. The " General Monk" was
purchased by the State of Pennsylvania, and the
original name, " General Washington," resumed.
After taking the "General Monk" into port, Capt.
Barney again sailed for the bay to get the convoy to
sea, and while engaged on this, duty captured a refu-
gee boat, the " Hook 'em Snivey." After this cruise
Capt. Barney took command of the " General Monk,"
now the "General Washington," and sailed on a spe-
2 A song " On Capt. Barney's Victory over the Ship ( General Monk,'
April 26, 1782," was written and sung through the streets of Philadelphia,
and the Legislature passed a vote of thanks to Capt. Barney, and pre-
sented him with a sword which cost seventy-five pounds specie. It was
tl small sword, with mountings of chased gold. The guard on one side
had a representation of the " Hyder Ally," and on the other the "Gen-
eral Monk," the sails of each ship set as in action, the latter in the act
of striking her flag. The hulls, sails, masts, spars, and rigging were
beautifully delineated in carved open work.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
423
cial errand for Havana. On the way out he captured
a brigantine from Jamaica laden with rum, and re-
captured a schooner laden with naval stores. In an
action near Turk's Island with a privateer the
" Washington'' had her main and mizzen-masts dis-
abled, which enabled the enemy to escape. At
Havana the "Washington" was laden with specie,
and convoyed to the Delaware by a French man-of-
war of sixty guns. On her way up the bay she re-
captured three prizes from refugee boats, which es-
caped her. After her arrival at Philadelphia she
was sold, and for some years sailed as the packet
" Washington," under Capt. Barney. The " Hyder
Ally" continued in the State service, under command
of Capt. Jonathan Starr, who was succeeded by Capt.
John Kemp, and took a few prizes. The " Holker,"
Capt. Keane, captured the privateer " Recovery," of
New York, Capt. Downie, and several commercial
vessels, and, after being refitted, was placed under
Capt. Quillen, who cruised in West India waters.
In December he captured a fine ship from Liver-
pool, which he took into Martinique.
After undergoing some months of imprisonment in
New York, Capt. Stephen Decatur assumed command
of the letter-of-marque ship "Rising Sun," and on
his return from Teneriffe, captured a large and val-
uable brig, which he brought into Philadelphia. The
"St. James,'' a Philadelphia letter-of-marque, cap-
tured a ship, a cutter, and the " Lion," a double-deck
ship, mounting forty-two guns and carrying two hun-
dred men. The " Lion," which was captured after a
severe engagement, in which the "St. James" was
assisted by the privateers " Washington" and " Queen
of France," had a cargo worth £8000. The " Com-
merce," Capt. Thomas Truxton, encountered a brig
and schooner in West Indian waters, and after inflict-
ing severe injury on both vessels, was compelled by
the appearance of a British brig and frigate to draw
off and make her escape. The letter-of-marque " Cog-
hill," Capt. Tinker, captured one vessel. During the
latter part of the summer and fall a large British fleet
hovered off the capes and inflicted great damage.
The French frigate " L'Aigle" and the brig " Sophie"
were captured by the British, but the frigate " La
Gloire," which was in their company, escaped, to the
great chagrin of the British on account of having on
board a number of French noblemen on their way to
join the French army. Among them were Baron De
Viomenil, Due De Lauzun, Marquis De Laval, Mar-
quis De Champancte, Vicompte De Fleury, Vicompte
De Melfort, Compte De Bauzon, Compte De Rue,
Compte De Langeron, Compte Leque, Prince De
Broglio De Lichthorne, Chevalier De Lameth, Vi-
compte De Vaudrieul, Baron De Montesquieu, and
Vicompte Paleske.
The schooner "Harlequin," Capt. John Earl e, on
her way up the river from Havana, in September, was
attacked by three refugee boats and captured. After
she had struck the refugees murdered Bennett, the
mate, and wounded the captain, Earle, and a passen-
ger named Paschel. In consequence of this disaster a
light-draught schooner, well armed, was placed under
command of Capt. John Snyder, and sent down the
river against the refugee boats. The privateers
"General Green," "Stark," and "Diana" were cap-
tured by British cruisers and taken into New York.
The most important prize made by the enemy this
year, however, was the " South Carolina," a frigate
belonging to that State, but which had been fitted out
and manned at Philadelphia. The "South Caro-
lina," formerly " L'Indien," had been built by the
American Commissioners at Amsterdam, and pre-
sented to the king of France, who loaned her to the
Duke of Luxembourg. From the latter Commodore
Gillon, of the South Carolina navy, hired her for three
years, the State to insure her and sail her at its own
expense, rendering one-fourth of the prize money as
compensation for her use. She was a frigate in con-
struction, carrying twenty-eight Swedish thirty-sixes
on her gun-deck and twelve Swedish twelves on her
quarter-deck and forecastle.
In 1781, under Gillon, she made many prizes, which
were sent into Spanish ports, and in the latter part
of 1782 came to Philadelphia, where the command
was assumed by John Joyner. An advertisement
for a crew, which Joyner published and which ap-
peared in Rivington's Royal Gazette, attracted the
attention of the British naval officers at New York,
and the " Diomede," of forty-four guns, the " As-
trea," thirty-two, and the " Quebec," thirty-two,
were dispatched to the capes of the Delaware to
watch for her. In December the "South Carolina"
went down the bay, and, without any suspicion of
the trap that had been prepared for her, put to sea.
Outside the capes she soon fell in with the British
vessels, and after a running fight of eighteen hours
was compelled to surrender. The loss of the " South
Carolina," the largest vessel and the heaviest in
metal that it had yet possessed, was a severe blow to
the American navy, and excited general indignation
from the fact that it was ascribed to the bad manage-
ment of Capt. Joyner.
Considerable opposition to the management of the
new Bank of North America was developed during
the winter and spring of 1782, owing to the choice of
Thomas Willing as president. Willing had been
named as president under the ordinance passed on
the 31st of December, 1781, which also designated
those who should act as directors. In March the
Assembly took up a bill to grant a charter on behalf
of the State, and a clause was suggested continuing
Willing as president aud Thomas Fitzsimons and
others as directors until new ones were chosen. Ob-
jection was made to Willing on the ground that his
conduct had been lukewarm during the war, but the
clause was adopted by a vote of thirty-eight to sixteen.
Notwithstanding this opposition the bill passed finally
on the 1st of April by a vote of twenty -seven to twenty-
424
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
four. Another financial movement of the year in which
the people of Philadelphia were largely interested was
the attempt to obtain from Congress some provision
for the payment of interest on loan certificates. On
the 5th of July a meeting of holders of these certifi-
cates at the State-House, at which Blair McClene-
chan presided, and Dr. Benjamin Push acted as sec-
retary, appointed Blair McClenachan, Charles Pettit,
Thomas Fitzsimons, Dr. John Ewing, and Benja-
min Rush a committee to address Congress on the
subject.
Petitions for the separation of the city and county,
and for the removal of the seat of government from
Philadelphia (the first attempt to change the location
of the capital), were presented to the Assembly during
1782, but failed to obtain a favorable recognition.
Another measure of general interest locally was an
act in relation to the regulation of party walls, passed
in April, which contained a provision that the city
commissioners should within three months remove
all the trees growing in the streets, lanes, and alleys
of the city. The reasons assigned for the passage of
this curious law were that the trees obstructed the
highways, disordered the water-courses and footways,
and broke up the pavements. Protests poured in
upon the Assembly, which in September repealed
that section of the act.
Notwithstanding the measures which had been
adopted for its suppression, the illicit trade with the
British in New York still continued to be carried on
during 1782. " Wagons were used with false bottoms
and sides, each of which had capacity to stow away
as much as eight hundred pounds of goods. Many
articles were packed in water-tight kegs, which were
inclosed in barrels, the latter being filled up with
cider outside of the kegs. It was estimated that as
much as one thousand pounds a week went to New
York in this traffic. To prevent the trade as far as
possible, a law was passed in September ' for the more
effectual suppression of intercourse and commerce
with the enemies of America.' By this law British
goods were declared contraband and liable to forfeit-
ure, while the importer was punishable with three
months' imprisonment."1
1 Thompson Westcott adds that dining 1782 the following estates, for-
feited for treason, were sold:
John Parrock, east side of Water Street, north of Sassafras, 20 feet to
the river Delaware, valued at £500; sold to Capt. David Zeigler for
£1515 Pennsylvania currency; ground-rent, 45^{j bushels of wheat.
Richard Yorke and Jonathan Adams (or wife), house and lot, Sas-iafras
Street, between Third and Fourth, 36 feet by 140, subject to ground-rent
of £4 18s. 6d., valued at £700: assigned to the University of Pennsyl-
vania.
Daniel Jeanes, one-third of field of eighteen acres, and one-third of
forty acres in the manor of Morelaud ; sold to Benjamin Harbeson for
£8500 Continental money.
Matthias Aspden, house and lot and stores, Water Street, between
Market and Mulberry, extending from the Delaware River, valued at
£1400; assigned to the University of Pennsylvania.
Joshua Knight, lot of ground, Abington, \<fl/£ acres; sold to William
Dean for £11,600 Continental money ; ground-rent, 5^ bushels of wheat.
Samuel Shoemaker, house and plantation on the hauksof the Schuyl-
The feeling in Philadelphia in favor of a vigorous
prosecution of the war and against any terms of com-
promise with England continued unabated. In May
the Council, in view of a possible treaty with Great
Britain, adopted resolutions to the effect that any
propositions that might be made by the British gov-
ernment tending in any manner to violate the treaty
existing between the United States and France
should be treated " with every mark of indignity and
contempt." In the Assembly, which met in special
session in August, a resolution opposing a peace with
England without the concurrence of France, a re-
union with Great Britain on any terms, or a revival
of the rights of the proprietary family came before
the Assembly. It was supposed that the House was
divided as to the last proposition (that offering a re-
vival of the proprietary rights), which had been re-
jected in committee by a vote of seven to five, but
when the news reached the public there was such a
strong demonstration in favor of the resolution in its
entirety that the Assembly passed it without oppo-
sition.
Owing to complaints from Pennsylvanians confined
on the prison-ship "Jersey" at New York, to the ef-
fect that they were cruelly treated by the British, and
were in want of clothing, blankets, and food, the
Supreme Executive Council appointed Ezekiel Rob-
bins agent at New York, and forwarded three hun-
dred bushels of potatoes and fifty barrels of flour for
the relief of the prisoners. The condition of the
latter was found to be dreadful, and their ranks were
being rapidly decimated by cruelty, starvation, and
disease.2 At the election held in November of this
year for president of the Executive Council, John
Dickinson was elected over Gen. James Potter by a
vote of forty-one to twenty-two. For vice-president
James Ewing had thirty-nine votes and Gen. Potter
thirty-four. The political contests of the year were un-
usually bitter and vituperative. The Freeman's Jour-
nal, Oswald's Independent Gazetteer, the Pennsylvania
Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Packet were al! active
and virulent in the warfare, and many prominent
kill, Northern Liberties, sold to Maj. James Parr for £500 Pennsylvania
currency.
Joseph Galloway, 105 acres of meadow, part of Hog Island, in the
river Delaware; sold to Samuel Caldwell for £175,000 Continental
money ; ground-rent, 7% bushels of wheat.
John Parrock, tract of ground, Northern Liberties, 3 acres 66 perches,
sold to .lames Caldwell for £11,90 ' ; ground-rent, 5i§ bushels of wheat.
John Robeson, tract and plantation, Whitpaine township, 75 acres ;
sold to Edmund Miln for £171.5; ground-rent, 21^ bushels of wheat.
John Pott*, lot in Pottstown, Douglass township, 60 feet by 300; sold
to Maj. -Gen. Arthur St. Clair for £6700 Continental money.
2 " The prison-ships are perfect Blaughter-houses," wrote Robbins to
the Council, Feb. 20, 1783. " Since the commencement of tin's year near
three hundred men are on the dead list. They bury sometimes from six
to eight a day. It ib impossible for any, unleBS a spectator, to form an
idea of their distressed aud horrid situation. Samuel Shoemaker, Esq.,
formerly of your place, has exerted himself for their relief by frequent
applications to the admiral, by which means numbers have been liber-
ated and sent home, so at the preBent there don't remain of Pennsyl-
vania prisoners to exceed fifty. I am in hopes their continuation on
board the prison-ships will not be of long duration."
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
425
COL. ELEAZER OSWALD.
people were involved in controversies more or less
disgraceful to nearly all concerned. Gen. Mifflin was
accused of having made a nabob's fortune as quarter-
master-general, but his refutation was so complete
that his assailauts were silenced. Gen. Joseph Reed
was also the object of bitter attacks. Among the
charges against him was one preferred by Col. Thomas
Proctor, the well-known artillery officer, to the effect
that Reed had requested protection for himself and
family and property from Count Donop, in command
of the advance-guard of Hessians at Burlington, in
December, 1776. Gen. John Cadwalader was drawn
into the controversy in opposition to Reed, and a
correspondence, marked by extreme acrimony, be-
-jg^^^fe^ tween Cadwalader
and Reed grew out
of the affair, which
finally degenerated
into a war of pamph-
lets. Reed contin-
ued to be the object
of attacks until his
death. John Dick-
inson was another
of the public men
of the day against
whom the batteries
of detraction were
turned. He was
charged with hav-
ing opposed the Declaration of Independence and the
constitution of the State, with having linked himself
with Tories, with having deserted his battalion when
it went into the field in 1776, and the American cause
until the treaty with France gave a brighter aspect to
affairs, and with having endeavored to prevent the
passage of Continental money. Dickinson replied
seriatim to these accusations, and the only weak part
of his defense seems to have been his denial of the
charge in relation to the depreciation of the currency.
His statement on this point was regarded as vague
and unsatisfactory.1
1 The author of the publication attacking Dickinson was said to be
Gen. Joseph Reed. The writers of the articles in the Freeman's Journal,
edited by Bailey, according to some, were George Osbourue, Jonathan
D. Sergeant, William Claijon, Justice Bryan, and Freneau, the poet.
Osbourne was an Irish lawyer, who had come to Philadelphia with a
certificate of admission to practice in the King's Bench. While in the
city he married an American lady, but was confounded a short time
afterwards by the arrival of a first wife from Ireland. Leaving his sec-
ond wife, he fled with the first, aud was not heard of again in Philadel-
phia. In the abort time he remained in the city he had contrived to ob-
tain several lucrative positions. He was eficheator-general, judge-advocate
of the militia, clerk in the contested election of Philadelphia County,
and solicitor in the great trial between Pennsylvania and Connecticut
regarding the Wyoming lauds.
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant was dubbed " Dark Jonathan" by the
writers in Oswald's Gazetteer, and Bryan was called " the tallow-faced
chronologer, otherwise Judge Grinner." TheBe writers for Bailey's
paper were collectively called " the Skunk Association" by their oppo-
nents, and Arthur Lee waB described as " Peter Paragraphiat for the
Freeman's Journal, and principal scribe to the Skunk Confederation."
Two of the editors, Oswald and Bailey, became in-
volved in a personal controversy, and a duel was at
one time thought to be imminent, but was averted by
the extreme sensitiveness of each as to points of punc-
tilio.2
2 Col. Eleazer Oswald was n man of great courage and perfectly fear-
less in the discharge of what ho thought was his duty. He was born iu
England about 1755 of good family, being related to Richard Auchen-
cruive. At the time of the disputes between Great Britain and the colo-
nies he took an interest in the American cause, and came to the United
States about 1770. He was engaged iu the earliest movements of the
war, and served as captain under Arnold at the capture of Ticrmderoga
and became bis secretary. He exhibited great bravery at Quebec in
1775, where he commanded the forlorn hope after Arnold was wounded.
Iu 1777 he was made a lieutenant in Lamb's regiment of artillery, and
soon afterwards distinguished himself with Arnold at Compo. For his
bravery at the battle of Monmouth he was highly commended by Gens.
Knox and Lee. He was a fine artillerist,— "one of the best officers in
the army," says Gen. Knox. Soon after the battle of Monmouth he left
the service, and in January, 1779, associated himself with Wi Ilium God-
dard in the management of the Maryland Journal, the first newspaper
published in Baltimore. Soon after Oswald entered into partnership
with Goddard the Journal incurred the displeasure of the more radical
Whigs, and the friends of Washington generally, by the publication on
the 6th of July, 1779, of an article entitled " Queries— Political and
Military," which had been written by Gen. Charles Lee, the personal
enemy of Washington, who had been suspended from his command in
the army for disobedience of orders and misbehavior before the enemy.
The publication of the " Queries" naturally caused great excitement,
and the reflections on General Washington particularly exasperated
those who believed him to be the proper person to lead the American
armies. Growing out of this difficulty a correspondence took place be-
tween Col. Oswald and Col. Samuel Smith, of Baltimore, the hero of
Mud Fort; whi- h resulted iu Oswald challenging Smith to fight him a
duel. The latter declined, and Oswald published the correspondence.
After the popular demonstration which destroyed Oswald's efficiency
in Baltimore he removed to Philadelphia, and in April, 17*2, he issued
the first number of the Independent Gazetteer, or Uie Chronicle of Freedom,
a weekly paper published on Saturdays. Oswald rendered this journal
one of the most lively and attractive printed in Philadelphia. He was
also at this time public printer.
The dispute between political parties and public m*>n during 1782 ran
to a height of detraction that all the invective and bitterness of preced-
ing controversies had not exceeded. Prominent citizens were made
targets for attack. The freedom uBed by the assailants and the method
of reply nnd defense were marked by un equaled acerbity and virulence.
Oswald's Independent Gazetteer was not as impartial in publishing all
sides of political questions as some other papers in Philadelphia, but
many articles, personal aud vindictive, were introduced to the world in
its columns.
In 1783 Oswald reopened the London Coffee-House in Philadelphia, so
long kept by William Bradford, founder of the Pennsylvania Journal.
While conducting the Coffee-House Oswald published once a month for
John McPherson the first mercantile paper published in the United
States, called the Price Current.
In August, 1786, Oswald commanded a volunteer company of infantry
in Philadelphia, which was exercised with other companies of town mi-
litia on the commons in alt the evolutions and incidents of a battle by
Baron Steuben and General Du Plessis, of the French army. The baron
made them an address after the parade, in which he highly complimented
the efficiency of the troops, aud assured them that he would immedi-
ately employ himself in forming a Bystem of legionary arrangements for
the militia of the United States. Oswald's company shortly before tbiB,
on August 1st, volunteered to march to the frontier to dispossess the
British of the posts and garrisons held by them in violation of the
treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain.
Upon constitutional principles Oswald was an opponent of Alexander
Hamilton, whom in 17S9 he challenged to fight a duel. Their friends,
however, adjusted the matter, and the meeting was prevented. A curi-
oub episode in Oswald's life, not made public until recently, shows him
to have been the first American Fenian. He was in England in 1792,
and being infected with the GalliciBm then prevalent, went to France,
joined the French army, became colonel, and commanded a regiment of
artillery under Dumouriez in the memorable battle of Jemmapes. Then
426
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
In October, 1781, Col. Thomas Proctor, upon of-
fering his vote at the poll in the Northern Liberties,
was requested by John Cling, the inspector, to show
his certificate, of having taken the test. Proctor, who
had served with conspicuous gallantry in the army,
considered the request an insult, and assaulted Cling,
who prosecuted hivn. During the trial in September,
1782, Proctor addressed the court, admitting what he
had done and justifying it. " Thus," he added, " I
chastised him according to his deserts." He was in-
terrupted at this point by Judge McKean, who pro-
hibited him from continuing his remarks, and said,
" You gentlemen of the army hold your heads too
high ; but I will teach you how to behave. I will
bring you down ; we shall be overrun else." Proctor
was fined eighty pounds, and Col. Francis Nichols,
who was tried at the same term for assaulting Joseph
Gardner, a member of the Council for Chester County,
was fined fifty pounds. MeKeau's action was severely
censured in Oswald's paper, the Independent Gazetteer,
by a correspondent who signed himself " A Friend to
the Army." McKean sent for Oswald, and after rep-
rimanding him, ordered him to be taken into custody
by the sheriff and bound over to answer in the sum
of seven hundred and fifty pounds. Oswald described
the scene in court in such insulting language that
McKean sent for him a second time, and demanded
the true name of " A Friend to the Army." Oswald
refused to give it, whereupon he was ordered to give
bail in the sum of one thousand pounds. Oswald re-
taliated by charging McKean in his paper with being
a speculator in distressed soldiers' certificates, and re-
published the article signed " A Friend to the Army."
The first bill of indictment against Oswald was ig-
nored by the grand jury, and a second bill .was
treated in the same way. The action of the grand
jury exasperated McKean, who accused them of
having been led away by party considerations and
tampered with by Proctor. He even went so far as
to ask what the evidence was on which their findings
a crisis approaching; in Ireland, the French Minister, Le Brim, sent liim
across Hie channel to that island to report its condition and pave the way
for the expedition under Gen. Hoke. He had no way to get to Ireland
except via Norway and Scotland, and when lie did roach that distracted
land the ''United Irishmen" had been betrayed, and were broken up.
Oswald, after applying to the French National Convention for further
employment, returned to the United States, and died of yellow fever in
New York on Sept. 30, 1795. His remains now lie buried in St. Paul's
churchyard, in that city, and have over them a marble headstone with
the words :
" E. Oswald, Colonel of Artillery in the American Army, an officer of
noted intrepidity and usefulness, a sincere friend, and an honest man.
Died September :t0th, 1795. Erected by his grandson, Dr. Elea/.er Bal-
four, of Norfolk, Va." (A square and compass.)
As will be seen, Oswald was a man of the greatest gallanti-y, and had
fine literary tastes and attainments. Col. John Parke, the translator of
Horace, addressed several of the odes to him.
After Oswald's death, his widow continued the publication of the
Gazetteer about a year. On Aug 17, 1796, she di-posed of the proprietor-
ship of the paper to Joseph Gales, who continued to publish it until late
in 1799, when he discontinued it and removed to Raleigh, N. C, and set
Dp a journal there.
Miss Ann L. Oswald, a daughter of Col. E. Oswald, died in Philadel-
phia on Feb. 4, 1881, aged ninety-one years.
were based. An altercation between the judge and
grand jury in open court was the result, and sixteen
of the grand jury published an appeal to the public,
in which they declared that they had acted within
their rights.
On the 4th of February the Supreme Court was
called upon to consider the first slave case brought
before it since the adoption of the law abolishing
slavery. A negro, Alexis, claimed his freedom under
the provisions of the act. He was not born in Penn-
sylvania, nor was he a resident of the State at the
time of the passage of the act ; but had been brought
into it in the summer of 1780. After having been
kept six months by a Frenchman he was sold to a
Spaniard. The court decided that he was entitled to
his freedom, aud he was accordingly discharged.
Political controversy continued to run high during
1783, but was not marked by personal disputes to the
same extent as during the previous year. James
Wilson, the distinguished lawyer, was charged by a
newspaper writer in January with holding the position
of advocate or councilor of the French crown, and
of having charge of the interests of the French gov-
ernment in the United States as far as they were sub-
jects of regulation under local laws. The position
was said to be worth one thousand pounds per annum,
and it was argued that a pensioner of any foreign
government should not be allowed to sit in Congress.
The accusation was denied by another correspondent.
In March a memorial was presented to the As-
sembly demanding a revision of the militia law, with
the view more particularly of restricting the privi-
leges of the Tories. The Assembly refused to pass
the measures asked for, but enacted a law abolishing
the offices of sub-lieutenants for the city and county,
and making other changes in the militia system.1
After a long career of success, during which she
had proved a serious annoyance to the commerce of
the enemy, the privateer " Holker" was destined to
close her career in a sudden and disastrous manner.
During the early part of the year 1783 she had a se-
vere engagement in West Indian waters with the ship
" General Elliot," of fourteen guns, which surren-
dered after every man on board, except three, had
been either killed or wounded. Within a period of
twenty-one days the "Holker" also made prizes of
1 The officers of the battalion for the city and county at this time
were :
City and Liberties. — First Battalion — John Shee, lieutenant-colonel ;
flees, major. Second Battalion — Read, lieutenant-colonel. Third Bat-
talion— Eyres, lieutenant-colonel; Brown, major. Fourth Battalion —
William Will, lieutenant-colonel; Ker, major. Fifth Battalion — Robert
Knox, lieutenant-colonel; Casdorp, major. Sixth Battalion — Deane,
lieutenant-colonel; Pancake, major. Artillery — Marsh, lieutenant-
culouol ; McCullongh, major.
County of Philadelphia. — First Battalion — Benjamin McVeagh, lieu-
tenant-colonel. Second Battalion — Matthew Holgate, lieutenant-colonel.
Third Battalion— Michael Croll, lieutenant-colonel. Fourth Battalion —
Peter Richards, lieutenant-colonel. Fifth Battalion — Matthew Jones,
lieutenant-colonel. Sixth Battalion — Robert Correy, lieutenant-colonel.
Seventh Battalion — George Smith, lieutenant-colonel.
PHILADELPHIA DUKINGr THE BEVOLUTION.
427
the " Lion," of Anguilla, ten guns, the ship " Mary,''
eighteen guns, a brig from Newfoundland, and a
cutter from England ; and in a six weeks' cruise her
captures numbered sixteen. While off Martinique,
however, the " Holker" was chased by a frigate, and,
in trying to escape, started some butts, filled, and
sank. Capt. Quinlen and seventeen men were saved,
but the rest of the crew were lost. The armed
schooner " Hawk," maintained by the State of Penn-
sylvania and commanded by Capt. Snyder, also ren-
dered good service by cruising in the Delaware River
and Bay, and protecting American commerce from
the refugee boats. In March she captured in Dela-
ware Bay the refugee galley " Ladies' Revenge," be-
longing to New York. The galley, which was well
armed and manned by a crew of sixty men, was under
the command of Kidd, a Tory refugee from Phila-
delphia, who, being hard pressed by the " Hawk,"
ran his vessel ashore and escaped with all his crew
but six.
The war was now drawing rapidly to a close. A
change in the British ministry had encouraged Dr.
Franklin to renew his efforts for a peaceful adjustment;
and, after working with the utmost industry and skill
throughout the summer and most of the autumn of
1782, he had the satisfaction of seeing his labors
crowned with success. On the 30th of November a
preliminary treaty was signed, but the news did not
reach this country until the 12th of March, 1783, when
the packet " General Washington," Capt. Joshua
Barney, arrived at Philadelphia with the joyful in-
telligence that a treaty had been concluded, acknowl-
edging the independence of the United States. On
the 23d of March the French cutter " Triumph," com-
manded by Chevalier Duquesne, arrived at Philadel-
phia from Cadiz, bringing the news that a preliminary
treaty of peace had been signed on the 20th of Janu-
ary, 1783. M. de Luzerne, the French minister, at
once issued an official notification of the fact, direct-
ing French cruisers to cease hostilities. Intelligence
of the state of affairs was also communicated to Sir
Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry Clinton
as the British commander-in-chief at New York. Sir
Guy replied that he had hitherto abstained from hos-
tilities, and would continue that conduct as far as his
own security would admit ; but that until he received
orders from England he did not feel himself justified
"in recommending measures which might give facil-
ity to the fleets and armies menacing any part of the
king's possessions to carry their hostilities into exe-
cution." Admiral Digby, in command of the British
fleet, made a similar reply. On the 11th of April the
British officers having received official notice from
home that peace had been concluded, Congress issued
a proclamation enjoining a cessation of hostilities. On
the 16th the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsyl-
vania made proclamation of the fact atthe court-house,
where the official document was read by the sheriff
in the presence of an immense concourse of people.
The State flag was hoisted, as usual on such occasions,
at Market Street wharf, and the bells were rung amid
general demonstrations of joy at the termination of
the war. In the evening Charles Wilson Peale ex-
hibited the patriotic transparencies which had done
good service on previous occasions, and one week
later Thomas Paine published " The Last ' Crisis,' No.
13," in which he declared that "The times that tried
men's souls" were over.1
On the 3d of September, 1783, a definitive treaty
was signed at Versailles in which the United States
were formally acknowledged to he sovereign, free,
and independent, and New York, the last position
held by the British on the American coast, was
evacuated on the 25th of November of the same
year.
The cessation of hostilities was followed by a gen-
eral exchange of prisoners. Among the British in
the hands of the Americans were a number of soldiers
of Burgoyne's army confined at Lancaster, who, in
anticipation of the declaration of peace, were trans-
ferred to Philadelphia and lodged in the Walnut
Street jail. Shortly afterwards they were liberated
and sent to New York. The United States then sur-
rendered the new prison to the State of Pennsylvania,
and the civil prisoners who had been confined in the
old jail at Third and Market Streets were removed by
the sheriff to the other building.
Commerce now began to revive and trade with
New York was reopened, although that city was still
occupied by the British. "A large number of ves-
sels," says Thompson Westcott, "arrived from that
place and from ports out of the United States. The
first ship under the British flag that sailed into the
Delaware after the proclamation was the 'Hibernia,'
Capt. Roger Scallion,of Dublin, last from New York.
At Gloucester Point a salute of eleven guns was fired
by this vessel, and was answered with five guns by
Capt. Barney, from the packet 'General Washing-
ton.' In front of the city the ' Hibernia' fired thir-
teen guns. Upon coming to at the wharf Capt. Seal-
lion and his crew were very politely received. By
the middle of June two hundred vessels had arrived,
and as many had sailed for different parts of the
United States, the West Indies, and Europe. The
introduction of large quantities of British goods fol-
lowed, and so plentiful was the supply that the manu-
facturers complained of the injury which was done
them. A meeting of mechanics was held July 14th
at the State-House, at which Robert Porter, the
chairman, made a speech against the importation of
manufactured goods, whereby our own tradesmen
were deprived of the right of earning the means of
supporting their families. It was resolved to peti-
tion the Assembly in relation to the cause of com-
plaint, and the proper committees were appointed to
1 "The Crisis, No. 1," published in December, 1776, commenced with
the words, " These are times that try men's souie."
428
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
do so. The memorial was received but laid on the
table, and no definite action taken upon it." 1
Considerable feeling was aroused in September by
the arrival of agents for the collection of British
debts, who, it was said, were preparing to bring suits
against the debtors. " If they are," said a writer in
one of the newspapers, " it is hoped there will be
spirit enough to make them repent of their rashness.
Their acts brought ruin upon us." No objection
was made to the ultimate payment of the debts, but
it was urged that as great destruction to American
industries and trade had been wrought by the British
fleets and armies, thus crippling the debtor class, a
reasonable time should be allowed for the payment
of obligations to British creditors. The feeling
against the Tories was not immediately removed by
the triumph of the American arms. On the contrary,
a disposition to exult over and persecute their ad-
versaries was exhibited by the more belligerent
Whigs, to whom the provisions in the preliminary
treaty giving Tories the right to go to any part of the
United States and remain there for twelve months,
and forbidding future confiscations or persecutions
for the part they had taken in the war, were decidedly
unpalatable. The militia were prompt to express
their dissatisfaction. At a meeting at the State-
House, held on the 29th of May, at which Lieut.-
Col. John Shee presided, resolutions were adopted de-
claring that Tory refugees ought not to be. permitted
to return or remain among Americans who had re-
mained loyal to their country ; that they (the militia)
were determined to use all the means in their power
to prevent them from doing so, and that they would
"cheerfully join with others of the community in
instructions to our representatives in the Assembly."
It was added that " persons harboring or entertaining
those enemies of their country ought to feel the
highest displeasure of the citizens of this city and
liberties," and that it was the opinion of " this com-
pany" that " a town meeting be called as soon as pos-
sible to take into consideration the mode of instruct-
ing representatives, and such other measures as may
appear necessary, and that a committee be appointed
1 One of the first measures necessary to complete restoration of com-
merce was the removal of the obstructions or chevaux-de-friae in the
Delaware. Thirteen of these machines, lying on the Jersey shore, were
sold by order of the Supreme Executive Council. There was a passage
through those still iu place which was known to pilots, but not always
safely navigated.
The French ship " Achilles," coming up the river in June, ran upon
one of these machines, and waB badly injured. Assisbince was offered
from Southwark, and the vessel finally brought to the wharf. The war-
dens of the port made representations to the Council in regard to the
injurious effects of allowing these obstructions to remain longer, and
were authorized to take measures to have them removed. They accord-
ingly advertised for proposals to undertake the work, but none were re-
ceived within the time specified for presenting them. A survey of the
bed of the river was made. At a later time De Brussine and Garrison
made some overtures in relation to the business, proposing to remove
the obstructions for four thousand pounds. This was finally agreed to,
the work to be finished in nine months, but the contractors failed to
comply with their undertaking.
to prepare for carrying this resolve into execu-
tion."
In accordance with the latter resolution a general
meeting of citizens was held at the State-House on the
14th of June, with Col. Samuel Miles as chairman
and Lieut.-Col. John Shee as secretary, at which res-
olutions similar to those adopted by the preliminary
meeting were agreed to, with additions and amend-
ments to the effect that those present pledged them-
selves to use all the means in their power "to expel
with infamy such persons who have or hereafter shall
presume to come among us, and that the names of
such persons be published in the newspapers of this
city by the committee appointed to carry these re-
solves into execution;'' also, "that we consider the
restoration of the estates forfeited by law as incom-
patible with the peace, the safety, and the dignity of
this commonwealth," and that " the dignity and in-
terest of this State require that funds be provided for
the payment and discharge of the public debt." A
committee was appointed, consisting of the field-
officers and captains of the militia of the city and
liberties, together with certain prominent citizens,
which met at the City Tavern and adopted a resolution
giving ten days' notice to all persons coming within
the description of the resolutions adopted by the town-
meeting to quit the State, under penalty of being
" dealt with in a proper manner."2
A few days afterwards Capt. Thomas Rawlings,
and subsequently Capt. Joseph Crathorne and Thomas
Plunket, received peremptory notice to depart in a
specified time. Thomas Faro, Launcelot Faro, James
Mitchell, Lawrence Fenner, and Thomas Gawney
were also denounced to the committee and warned
off. Earnest remonstrances were made against the
arbitrary and unauthorized course of the committee,
which was said to be in conflict with the treaty of
peace; but no attention was paid to them, the com-
mittee probably deeming itself too strong in public
indorsement and support to run much risk at the
hands of the legal authorities. The latter, in fact,
2 The committee to carry the determination of the city meeting into
effect were the field-officers and captains of the militia, and the follow-
ing citizens:
Northern Liberties. — John Rice, shipwright; John Houston, John Har-
rison, Zachariah Andrews.
Southwark. — Elias Boys, William Brown, Jonathan Penrose, George
Ord.
Mulberry Ward. — Col. Farmer, Jacob Schriner, Capt. Heysham, Col.
Bayard.
Upper Delaware. — Andrew Hodge, Jr., William Bright,
High Street. — Capt. McNaughton, Thomas Fitzgerald.
North. — Jacob Barge, Michael Shubart.
Lower Delaware. — Charles Bisk, Blair McClenachan.
Chestnut. — Jedediall Snowden, William Pollard.
Middle.— Robert Smith, William Richards.
Walnut. — George Hendy, Mr. Markoe.
Soitft.— Andrew Caldwell, Dr. H. Shiell.
Dock. — Alexander Rutherford, James Hunter, Francis Gurney, Wil-
liam Turnhull.
Resolutions similar to those of the city meeting were adopted by the
citizens of Germantown at a meeting of which James Haslett was
chairman, and Thomas Norton secretary.
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
429
would probably have found themselves powerless to
enforce their own measures, as proved to be the case
shortly after in the second revolt of the Pennsylvania
Line. In June of this year a number of the non-
commissioned officers and soldiers of the Line, exas-
perated by the delays in settling their claims, re-
solved to demand a redress of grievances and a
settlement of accounts. A body of them accord-
ingly set out from Lancaster for Philadelphia to lay
the matter before the authorities. No measures were
taken to check their advance. A committee of Con-
gress requested the Executive Council to call out the
militia in order to prevent the progress of the rioters,
but the State authorities took no action, in the belief
apparently that the troops could be conciliated.
Orders were issued from the War Office that the sol-
diers be received into the barracks and supplied with
rations. On reaching the city they marched to those
quarters in good order, and without creating any dis-
turbance. Congress and the Executive Council both
held their sessions in the State-House at this time. On
Saturday, June 21st, Congress not being in session,
having adjourned from Friday evening until Mon-
day, a party of about thirty armed men marched
from the barracks to the State-House, where the Ex-
ecutive Council was in session. They sent to that
body a message in writing, demanding that, as their
general officers had left them, they should have au-
thority to appoint commissioned officers to command
them and to redress their grievances, the said officers
to have full power to adopt such measures as they
might think best calculated to obtain justice for the
men. If this should be denied they threatened to let
the soldiers in upon the Council, who must then abide
by the consequences. Only twenty minutes were given
for deliberation on the subject.
The Council, not to be intimidated by threats, unani-
mously rejected the terms proposed. Other bodies of
soldiers had in the mean time joined the mutineers,
who now numbered three hundred men, under the
command of sergeants and petty officers. A guard of
fifteen or twenty was posted in the State-House yard
opposite the southern windows of the Council cham-
ber, and sentinels were placed at the doors. A special
meeting of Congress was called, but a quorum could
not be got together. One of the members made a
fruitless appeal to the soldiers to moderate their de-
mands, and returning to his associates advised them
to think of eternity, as he believed that within an
hour not one of their body would be left alive. It
was not against Congress, however, but the Supreme
Executive Council that the rage of the insurgents
was directed. Congress finally adjourned to meet at
Carpenters' Hall at a later hour the same clay, and
when it reassembled a quorum was found to be
present. The members seem to have been panic-
stricken ; for although they had been permitted to
leave the State- House without interference on the
part of the mob, they adopted a resolution declaring
that they had been "grossly insulted by the disor-
derly and menacing appearance of a body of armed
soldiers about the place of meeting," and that it was
necessary that " effectual measures" should be imme-
diately taken to support the public authority. A
committee was appointed in reference to the matter,
the members of which explained to the Council that
"effectual measures" meant "that the militia of the
State should be immediately called forth in sufficient
force to reduce the soldiers to obedience, disarm them,
and put them in the power of Congress."
In the mean time the soldiers had marched back to
their barracks without having resorted to violence, and
the city was entirely quiet. On Sunday morning the
Supreme Executive Council met at the house of Presi-
dent Dickinson, and decided that to call the militia
into service without being sure of collecting a suffi-
cient force would only irritate the soldiers, and drive
them on to the commission of excesses which might
otherwise be avoided. It was not even known
whether the militia would respond energetically to
the call. There was also a deficiency of ammunition,
the State magazine being in the hands of the muti-
neers. The latter, moreover, had shown a willing-
ness to negotiate, and it was very probable that in
time everything might be arranged. Delay was addi-
tionally valuable from the fact that opportunity
would thus be afforded for applying to the comman-
der-in-chief for Continental soldiers to maintain
order. On the following day (Monday) the committee
of Congress again met the Council. The latter re-
ported that by inquiry among citizens they were con-
vinced of the pacific disposition of the soldiers, that
they would be satisfied with what was just and rea-
sonable, and that the militia were not prepared for
service.
On Tuesday a consultation was held with the col-
onels and majors of the city battalions, who, through
Col. Shee, declared that it would be very imprudent
to call out the militia ; that the measure would prove
ineffectual, and that their co-operation could not be
expected until some more serious necessity for it
should appear to the minds of the citizens. The sol-
diers, who in the mean time had remained at the bar-
racks, appointed Capt. James Christie and five others
a committee "to bring about the most speedy and
ample justice." Congress, dissatisfied with the action
of the Executive Council, adjourned to meet at
Princeton ; but no sooner had that body taken its
departure than a rumor was started that the insur-
gents were about to make an attack upon the Bank of
North America. A guard was collected, and the
building put in a state of defense, but no attack from
any quarter was made. In consequqnce of the state-
ment that the soldiers at the barracks had acted in a
disorderly manner, and the apprehension that, as their
rations would be stopped on the following day, they
might proceed to acts of violence, the lieutenants of
the city militia were ordered to call out one hun-
430
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
dred men, the headquarters to be at Carpenters' Hall.
The officers commanding regiments were also re-
quired to hold their respective forces in readiness.
On behalf of the insurgents, Capts. Christie and
Symonds presented three papers to the Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council, containing their demands for the
satisfaction of their claims; but the Council declined
to receive them unless the soldiers placed themselves
under the command of their officers and made full
and satisfactory submission to Congress. Capts.
Christie and Symonds replied "that the soldiers did
not think they had offended Congress on Saturday, as
their intention was to apply to Council." They added
that they could not tell what the consequences of the
rejection of the message from the soldiers might be,
and advised the Council to prepare for their own
safety and for that of the city. The militia guard
was accordingly increased to five hundred men. In
the mean time two of the leaders among the muti-
neers, Capt. Carberry and Lieut. Sullivan, had de-
serted their men, and a note from them urging another
member of the committee to seek safety in flight fell
into the hands of the Council, and was shown to the
committee of sergeants. Information was received
that a body of Continental troops was marching to-
ward the city, and as the time seemed propitious for
effecting some arrangement, Col. Hampton proceeded
to the barracks, accompanied by citizens. After a
conference with the soldiers, the latter were finally
prevailed upon to leave their arms at the barracks,
and to proceed to the residence of the president of
the Executive Council in order to hold an interview
with that official. On arriving there in a body, they
were addressed by the president, who insisted that
they should, as a further evidence of their submission
and fidelity to the offended majesty of their country
and its laws, compel the soldiers who had marched
from Lancaster to lay down their arms or set out on
their return under the command of their officers
within twenty-four hours. After this address the
men returned to their barracks, and by noon the next
day the soldiers from Lancaster submitted, and soon
after set out on their return. Thus by a prudent and
temporizing policy a revolt was amicably settled
which at one time threatened the gravest consequences,
and did actually cause the removal of the seat of
national government from Philadelphia. The action
of Congress throughout the affair was hasty, undig-
nified, and ill-advised. The movement was not di-
rected against that body at all, but against the State
authorities, and the flight to Princeton was simply an
act of folly. But, like most acts of folly, it was per-
sisted in with an assumption of dignity that was
ridiculous in so grave a body. In August, however,
the delegates from Pennsylvania represented to the
Executive Council that, as Congress was about to re-
move from Princeton to some other point, an invita-
tion from the Council to return to Philadelphia would
probably be well received. A suitable resolution to
that effect was accordingly adopted and forwarded to
Congress.
On the 29th of August the Assembly passed reso-
lutions offering the State-House to Congress if the
members would return to the city, pledging itself
that " the House will take measures to enable the
Executive of the State to support and protect the
honor and dignity of Congress, and of those persons
who compose the Executive Council." The dele-
gates in Congress were also asked to request Congress
to define the jurisdiction which it desired in the
place of permanent residence of that body. An ad-
dress to Congress was circulated among the citizens,
and signed by a large number of persons. It repre-
sented that the citizens of Philadelphia had from
the beginning of the contest distinguished themselves
by every exertion which principle could inspire or
fortitude support. Upon this city more than upon
any other, and more than upon any other part of the
country, came the first demands in times of diffi-
culty, alarm, or danger. The signers appealed to
the past to show the manner in which the citizens
had responded. In conclusion they adverted to the
manner in which they had met the impost and other
burdens. They asked that Congress would do justice
to the army and the public creditors, and promised
that the American people would be willing to bear
their share of the burdens. In reference to the ab-
sence of Congress from the city, so long the seat of
their deliberations, promise was made that if the body
would return the citizens would try to protect them.
Congress replied to the address in terms expressive
of pleasure and satisfaction ; but, probably ashamed
to return to a city from which it had fled so precipi-
tately in the face of purely imaginary danger, that
body adjourned on the 1st of November to meet at
Annapolis.
Shortly after the interview between the insurgent
soldiers and President Dickinson, Gen. Robert Howe
marched into the city at the head of fifteen hundred
Continental troops. They had been sent by Gen.
Washington to quell the mutiny. Carberry and Sul-
livan, two of the ringleaders, escaped to British ves-
sels, but several of their associates were arrested and
tried by court-martial. Christian Naglee and John
Morrison, sergeants of the Third Pennsylvania Regi-
ment, were sentenced to be shot. John Lilly, Abner
Vanhorn, Thomas Flowers, and William Carman
were sentenced to receive corporeal punishment.
Naglee and Morrison were led out to the commons,
and a file of soldiers drawn up with loaded muskets,
as if to shoot them. Their pardon by Congress was
then announced to them, and they were released.
The arrival of Gen. Howe and the presence of other
distinguished officers determined the citizens of
Philadelphia in July to give a dinner to the officers
of the army at the State-House. Among those present
were Maj.-Gens. Gates, Howe, and DuPortail, Brig.-
Gen. Patterson, and a number of field-officers. Thir-
PHILADELPHIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
431
teen toasts were drank amid great enthusiasm and
hearty demonstrations of good-fellowship.
Peace being now assured, the State authorities
turned their attention to measures for the restoration
of the trade and industries which had been inter-
rupted by the war. Among the measures suggested
by the president of the State to the Assembly in
August were the establishment of a mint by the
State to offset the fraudulent practices for impairing
the value of the current coin ; the organization of a
chamber of commerce; the removal of the war obstruc-
tions in the river; the repair of the public highways;
official action to ascertain what highways might be
made and how far the Delaware, Susquehanna, and
Schuylkill might be rendered navigable, and an act
to ascertain the extent of the port of Philadelphia,
to prevent insults and disturbances therein, and to de-
fine the powers of the sheriff as water bailiff. Among
the matters thus urged upon the notice of the Legis-
lature, those relating to roads, canals, and internal
navigation were the only ones that received attention.
A committee was appointed which, after holding con-
ferences with the merchants of the city, reported that
the most important inquiry before them was how the
streams of commerce might be conducted from the
river Susquehanna to the port of Philadelphia. The
easiest way of accomplishing this object was by im-
proving the navigation of the Schuylkill to Reading,
and by making durable roads from thence to such
parts of the Susquehanna as offered the most easy
communication with the fertile lands to the west
thereof. The establishment of a town or towns on
the east side of the Susquehanna would, it was
thought, "be attended with capital advantages to the
trade of Philadelphia, as every inhabitant of such
town or towns would in some degre'e be a factor for
the Philadelphia market." The committee therefore
recommended the appointment of commissioners to
view the different roads leading from the Susque-
hanna to Reading and Philadelphia, and point out
the most practicable mode of improving and repair-
ing the same ; to consider of the most probable way
of opening a communication between the rivers Sus-
quehanna and Schuylkill, and to estimate the cost;
also to receive proposals from persons willing to offer
lands for the building of a town on the Susquehanna.
David Rittenhouse, Thomas Hutchiugs, and David
Sellers were elected for that purpose.
Another set of commissioners — William Maclay,
James Wilkinson, and William Montgomery — were
appointed to examine the navigation of the Susque-
hanna to its sources, to ascertain where the northern
boundary of the State would fall, and particularly to
discover whether any part of Lake Erie was within
the State of Pennsylvania. To these commissioners
was also assigned the examination of the river Dela-
ware as to its navigable advantages. During the
previous year commissioners had been appointed by
the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to confer
together in relation to the titles of the islands in the
river Delaware between the boundaries of the two
States. The result was a treaty by which the islands
were assigned to the States according to proximity.
Of the islands within the space opposite or near the
city and county of Philadelphia, Windmill Island,
League Island, Mud or Fort Island, Hog Island, and
Little Tinicum were annexed to the State of Penn-
sylvania, while Petty's Island and Red Bank Island
were assigned to New Jersey. It was further agreed
that the river Delaware should be a public highway,
and that the two States should have concurrent juris-
diction between the shores. Vessels fastened to the
shore or aground were to be considered within the
jurisdiction of the State where the shore was. Every
vessel riding at anchor before the town where it was
last loaded or unloaded, or where it was to be loaded
or unloaded, was to be considered within', the juris-
diction of the State to which the town or city belonged.
In capital or other offenses, trespasses, or damages on
said river, jurisdiction was to be vested in the State
where the offender should be first arrested or prose-
cuted. This treaty was negotiated on behalf of Penn-
sylvania by George Bryan, George Gray, and William
Bingham, and on behalf of New Jersey by Abraham
Clark, Joseph Cooper, and Thomas Henderson. It
was ratified by the State of Pennsylvania by an act
passed September 20th.
The efforts to procure a division of Philadelphia
County and the reincorporation of the city were
renewed before the Assembly this year. Residents of
the lower part of Berks, the upper part of Chester,
and the upper part of Philadelphia petitioned the
Assembly to create a new county out of those districts
with its seat at Pottstown, but the memorial was laid
upon the table. A petition to separate the county
from the city was strenuously urged on the score of
the heavy taxation which the union imposed upon
the county. A petition to incorporate the city led to
numerous remonstrances, which were referred to a
committee of members from the city. They reported
emphatically in favor of the measure, and recom-
mended that the bill for the incorporation be referred
to the next Assembly.
The citizens who had exercised arbitrary powers as
members of the committees of observation and safety,
and of inspection for the regulation of prices, etc.,
now began to realize that the conclusion" of peace and
the restoration of constitutional government might
have serious consequences for them. Without au-
thority of law they had compelled obedience to the
popular demands of the hour in relation to non-im-
portation, the sale of articles at specified rates, and
seizures of arms, salt, lead, blankets, ammunition, etc.,
and in many other matters had acted with no consti-
tutional warrant whatever. Accordingly they peti-
tioned the Assembly for the legalization of their acts,
and a law was passed declaring that no person should
be amenable for such acts or liable to prosecution or
432
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
suit for anything done during the Revolution while
in the discharge of a public duty or by assumed
powers.1
On the 14th of October an election was held for
members of the Council of Censors, whose duty it
was to inspect the acts of the legislative and executive
power subsequent to the adoption of the new Consti-
tution. The contest between the candidates was very
animated ; and after the result was ascertained a pro-
test was presented to the Assembly and to the Council
of Censors, contesting the election on the ground of
fraud. Soldiers were present in large numbers at the
polls, and the judges and inspectors of election, it was
claimed, were overawed. Peaceable citizens, it was
added, were intimidated and not permitted to vote,
and the election was declared to be in every particular
fraudulent and unjust. Committees appointed by the
Assembly and the Council of Censors, after investiga-
ting the charges, declared them unfounded ; but the
minority of the Council of Censors filed an earnest
protest, and the evidence would seem to have justified
the opinion that the soldiers were under direction of
their officers, and compelled or persuaded to vote for
certain candidates. Their presence at the polls natu-
rally had some effect on the more timid citizens.
The popular celebrations of the year derived a
special significance from the declaration of peace,
and were observed with appropriate ceremonies. On
Thursday, the 1st of May, the anniversary of St.
Tammany, " the tutelar saint of Pennsylvania," was
celebrated at the country seat of Mr. Pole, on the
Schuylkill, by two hundred and fifty " constitutional
Sons of St. Tammany," who were decorated with buck-
tails and feathers. At noon thirteen sachems or chiefs
were appointed, who selected a head chief and scribe.
The ceremony of burying the hatchet, in token that
the war with England had ended, was then performed,
each man casting a stone upon its grave, after which
the calumet or pipe of peace was smoked. The bowl
of the pipe was a huge ram's horn gilded with thir-
teen stars, and its stem a reed six feet in length dec-
orated with peacock feathers. In a cabin set apart
for that purpose a feast was prepared for the members.
At the head was a portrait of St. Tammany, above it
a design of the siege of Yorktown, and in front were
portraits of Washington and Rochambeau. Thirteen
toasts were drunk to the accompaniment of artillery
salutes and three cheers, which, when the army and
Washington were named, swelled spontaneously to
thirteen. At the toast to " The friends of liberty in
Ireland" and "The tuning of the harp of independ-
ence," thirteen cheers were again given and the band
struck up " St. Patrick's Day in the Morning." After
l The Council of CenBors in 1784 declared that all the acts of Assem-
bly authorizing the seizure of the goods of citizens for the use of the
army, and setting prices thereon, were inconsistent with the Bill of
Rights; alBo, the acls againot forestalling, authorizing the seizure or
suit etc. The acts regulating prices were declared to ho abaurd and
impossible.
the drinking of toasts had ended, the chief sang
the first verse of the original song for St. Tammany's
day, — a composition in vogue in the social celebra-
tions long before the Revolution, — and the remaining
stanzas were sung by Mr. Leacock. Other songs in
honor of the saint were sung, and the warriors, highly
pleased with the gayety of the chief, bore him on their
shoulders from the green into his cabin amid the
shouts of all present. The colors of France and
Holland and the State flag of Pennsylvania had been
raised in the morning on separate staffs. These were
struck after sunset by a signal from the cannon. The
chief and his sachems marched into the city in Indian
file, the band playing " St. Tammany's Day." They
saluted the French minister and proceeded to the
Coffee-House, where, after giving three cheers, they
dispersed and returned to their homes.
The Fourth of July was celebrated by the ringing
of bells and the display in the harbor of the flags of
all nations except that of Great Britain. At the an-
nual commencement of the University of Pennsyl-
vania in the morning the degree of LL.D. was con-
ferred upon George Washington. At noon artillery
salutes were fired, and in the afternoon an entertain-
ment was given by President Dickinson. In the
evening there was a torchlight procession arranged
by Mason & Co., upholsterers, who had finished a
sofa which they considered a triumph of mechanical
art. The back was embellished with portraits of
Washington, Gates, and Rochambeau. It was placed
in a car, decorated with knots and ribbons, and drawn
by eight white horses. A band of music preceded
thirteen young girls dressed in white, and a large
number of boys bearing torches.
It was not until the 14th of January, 1784, that the
definitive treaty of peace with England was ratified
by Congress. The event was proclaimed in Philadel-
phia on the 22d by the sheriff at the court-house. The
State flag was raised at Market Street wharf, and an
artillery salute was fired. In anticipation of this for-
mality, the Assembly had decided to erect a triumphal
arch in one of the principal streets of the city, bear-
ing allegorical figures and inscriptions, and so con-
structed as to be capable of being illuminated. Charles
Wilson Peale was intrusted with the execution of the
project, and " the upper end of High Street," then
between Sixth and Seventh Streets, was selected as
the location for the arch. The latter when built was
fifty feet six inches wide and thirty-five feet six inches
high, exclusive of a balustrade which surmounted the
whole. An arch of fourteen feet in width was placed
in the centre, on each side of which were smaller
arches of nine feet in width. The pillars were of the
Ionic order of architecture, and were adorned with
spiral festoons of flowers 'in their natural colors.
Above the centre arch was a picture of the Temple
of Janus closed ; on the south side of the balustrade,
a bust of Louis XVI. ; on the other side of the balus-
trade, a pyramidal cenotaph to the memory of those
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
433
who had died for their country during the war; on
the south side of the frieze, three lilies, the arms of
France ; on the left of the former, on a shield, a plow,
sheaves of wheat, and a ship under sail, — the arms of
Pennsylvania ; on the left of the preceding, a sun, the
device of France, and thirteen stars, the device of the
United States ; on the left of the last, two hands
joined, holding branches of olive and the caduceus
of commerce, the device symbolizing the concord of
nations; on the south panel, a figure representing
" Confederated America" leaning on a soldier, mili-
tary trophies being on each side of them ; on the
other panel, Indians building churches in the wilder-
ness ; on the die of the south pedestal, a library, with
instruments of arts and sciences; on the die of the
next pedestal, a large tree, bearing thirteen principal
and distinct branches laden with fruit, typifying the
growth of the thirteen infant States ; on the die of
the pedestal upon the right hand, Cincinnatus, whose
features resembled those of Washington, crowned with
laurel, returning to his plow ; on the die of the next
pedestal, a representation of militiamen exercising.
All the pictures were accompanied by appropriate
mottoes. The top of the balustrade was embellished
with figures of the four virtues, — Justice, Prudence,
Temperance, and Fortitude. The arch was to be
lighted with twelve hundred lamps on Thursday
evening, January 22d ; but after the preparations
had been completed, and while thousands of specta-
tors were awaiting the illumination, the paintings,
through some accident, took fire. The structure
being of framework covered with canvas, was quickly
consumed. A large number of rockets which had
been placed on the staging were also ignited, and,
darting in every direction, created a scene of terror
and confusion. Sergt. O'Neill, of the artillery, was
killed, and several persons seriously injured. Sub-
scriptions were soon obtained for rebuilding the arch,
which was subsequently removed to a position in
front of the State-House, where new transparencies
were exhibited on the 10th of May.
Although the formal ratification of Congress had
been necessary to give full effect to the treaty of
peace, the war had ceased many months before, and
the country was at length able to settle down to the
full enjoyment of the benefits which the long and
painful struggle had secured. Philadelphia had suf-
fered cruelly from the Revolution. Her trade had
been prostrated ; many of her wealthy citizens had
been reduced to want and others driven into exile ;
her industrial, educational, and social development
had been interrupted and set back many years, and
her future was clouded by the animosities and bitter
prejudices which the war had enkindled among her
people and which the cessation of hostilities left al-
most as active and virulent as ever. Throughout the
struggle she had borne the burden and heat of the
day. It was to Philadelphia, her wealth, her patriot-
ism, her resources, that all eyes were turned during
28
the darkest hours of the Revolution, and though
harassed by the intrigues of the Tories and the bicker-
ings of Whigs, the patriotic men who controlled her
affairs throughout that stormy period responded nobly
to the demands that were made upon them. The
capital of the infant nation, the great depot of sup-
plies for the Continental army, the asylum of exiles
fleeing from British oppression, the theatre of most
important movements and events, she played a grand
and imposing rdle in the great drama of the Revolu-
tion. For years she was the pivotal point of the
struggle, the centre of greatest interest, the scene of
some of the most important acts of the Continental
Congresses and of deliberations on the part of diplo-
matic agents that involved the gravest consequences
to the struggling colonies. That she played her part
worthily cannot be denied, and, while mob rule some-
times violated the sanctity of her laws, she escaped
with wonderfully trifling loss, through the wise and
prudent course of those whom she clothed with au-
thority, from those excesses which the violence of the
times encouraged and the suffering, misery, and want,
which were the most dangerous foes of order, seemed
to render almost unavoidable.
CHAPTER XIX.
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM THE DECLA-
RATION OF PEACE, JAN. 22, 17S4, TO THE PAS-
SAGE OF THE EMBARGO LAWS OF 1794.
No longer occupied with measures for the prosecu-
tion of the war, the General Assembly of Pennsyl-
vania was now able to direct its attention to schemes
for the restoration of the impoverished trade of
Philadelphia. Among the more important of these
was an act to make the river Schuylkill navigable,
which was passed on the 15th of March. Commis-
sioners were chosen to superintend the work, David
Rittenhouse, Lindsey Coates, Anthony Levering, and
John Jones being those selected to supervise the
section from tide-water below the Falls to Gulph
Mill. The filling up of Dock Creek was another
matter of great local interest. That stream had long
been a nuisance. On each side of it the streets had
been left open in the hope that a body of fresh water
would be preserved, and that those who owned lands
fronting on the stream would keep it in order ; but
it had generally filled up, and was now a source of
annoyance and disease. Petitions from citizens were
persented, asking that the stream be covered with a
culvert, the street filled up over it, and a market-
house and shambles erected in the centre. By act of
March 30th, the Legislature directed that the creek
be covered with a substantial arch of brick, founded
on stone walls, and floored with plank or logs at least
434
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
five inches thick along the middle or near the middle
of the dock, and at least nine feet high. The arch
was to commence at the intersection of the sewer at
Walnut Street, and to continue to the main hranch
of the dock adjoining the public landing. It was to
be covered with earth, and the whole was to remain
open forever as a public street, to be called Dock
Street. The work was commenced shortly afterwards,
and carried on to completion. Under authority of
a supplementary law the arch was continued to the
bridge at Front Street. The barracks in the North-
ern Liberties being no longer needed, the Supreme
Executive Council determined to lay the ground off
into lots, define the streets that were needed, and
offer the whole property for sale. The money arising
from these sales, which were authorized by an act of
the Legislature, was appropriated to pay installments
on the sums due the former proprietaries. The
opening of roads leading into Philadelphia, and the
building of an Exchange in the city, were matters
which received prompt consideration. Petitions for
the establishment of a State lottery to raise thirty-
four thousand dollars — one-half to be applied to the
making of roads from Philadelphia westward, the
other half to building the proposed Exchange — were
presented to the Legislature, which passed an act
increasing the amount to forty-two thousand dollars,
all of which was appropriated to the roads, no pro-
vision being made for the Exchange or for improv-
ing the Schuylkill. The cost of the latter, — that is,
to clear the river from Bosler's mill to tide-water,
was estimated by the commissioners at £8120. The
commissioners to whom, at the previous session of
the Assembly, had been referred the subject of
improving the means of communication between the
Susquehanna and the Schuylkill, and to receive pro-
posals for laying out a town at some convenient point
on the former stream, reported that an offer had been
made by John Harris, of Harris' Ferry, to lay out a
town of two hundred lots of a, quarter of an acre
each ; that he would convey a lot for a court-house
and jail, and give a square of four acres of ground
to the State for such purposes as might be thereafter
appointed by the government, and would increase
the same when necessary. This proposal was ac-
cepted ; and thus was the town of Harrisburg —
afterward to become the capital of the State — com-
menced. A new county was also authorized to be
laid out, of which Harris' town was to be the county-
seat.
The efforts to secure the removal of the seat of State
government from Philadelphia were renewed this year
without effect, a resolution to make Lancaster the
place for meeting at the next session being defeated
by a vote of twenty-six yeas to thirty-four nays, as
was also the proposition to erect a new county out of
portions of Philadelphia, Berks, and Chester Counties.
On the 10th of September, however, a bill was passed
to erect a new county out of part of Philadelphia
County, to be called Montgomery, the county-seat to
be at Stony Run, in Norriton township. Much of
the Assembly's time was taken up this year in con-
sidering propositions for the abolition of the " test
laws," or laws in relation to the oath of allegiance.
In March a petition requesting the Legislature to
abolish them was laid on the table by a vote of thirty-
seven to twenty-seven. A resolution was then offered
declaring that the happy time had come to heal the
divisions among the people, and that unanimity and
harmony could not exist at a time when one part of the
people were deprived of certain benefits which others
enjoyed, and that a committee ought to be appointed
to revise the law and report one more adapted to the
present times. This was lost by a vote of five yeas to
fifty nays. On the question to postpone all further
consideration of the subject of the test laws the vote was
thirty to thirty, and the Speaker gave his casting, vote
in the affirmative. In September another resolution
was offered, stating that a large number of young men
had arrived at the age of eighteen years since the
passage of the laws who had not taken the oaths of
allegiance, and who were consequently deprived of
interest in and attachment to the State. It was con-
tended that all persons should have equal rights, and
the resolution concluded with a clause directing that
a committee be appointed to consider the subject,
and, if necessary, to report a law admitting persons
who were under the age of eighteen at the passage of
the test laws " to the blessings of liberty and citizen-
ship." This was followed by a petition from non-
jurors for admission to the rights of citizenship. The
resolution and petition were referred to a committee
by a vote of thirty-one to twenty-two. In the course
of the debate which followed, a resolution was offered
to the effect that no person who voluntarily joined
the British army during the war, or who had been
tried or convicted of having aided or abetted the
king of Great Britain, his generals, fleets, or armies,
having before been a citizen of the United States,
should be capable to elect or be elected into any
office of profit or trust. This resolution was adopted
by a vote of forty-six to four.
It was then suggested that a bill be brought in to
modify the test laws so as to entitle all male white
inhabitants who had not taken the oath of allegiance
to take the oath according to the terms of the act of
June 13, 1777, and be thereby entitled to be free citi-
zens, providing that no person should be capable of
holding office until he had taken and subscribed to
the oath directed by the act of Dec. 5, 1778. On the
25th of September a vote was taken on this proposi-
tion which resulted in twenty-nine yeas and twenty-
two nays. The result caused great excitement both
in and out of the Assembly. On the 28th a motion
was made to take up the bill entitled, "A further
Supplement to the Test Laws." The vote on the
motion was twenty-five to twenty-five, but the Speaker,
George Gray, gave the casting vote in the affirmative.
GROWTH OP PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
435
When his decision was announced, nineteen members
rose and left the Assembly without a quorum. An
address to the public was issued by the seceders, who
asserted that efforts had been made to press the bill
through in violation of the rules and without the
usual formalities. They added that those who had not
participated in the toils and sufferings should not be
permitted to share the benefits of the Revolution, and
that if they were admitted to citizenship, " the elec-
tions might be carried in the favor of men who exe-
crate the alliance between the United States and His
Most Christian Majesty, and who still cherish the
hope of a reunion with Great Britain." They also
objected to the bill restoring the charter of the col-
lege as the precursor of a law to reinstate the Penn
family in their hereditary rights.1 The proposition
to restore the charter of the college had come before
the public in July in the shape of a memorial signed
by Thomas Mifflin, John Cadwalader, Robert Mor-
ris, John Redman, Samuel Powell, James Wilson,
Thomas Willing, George Clymer, Alexander Wil-
cocks, and the Rev. William White, which was pre-
sented to the Council of Censors. It represented that
they were the trustees of the old college, academy,
and charitable schools, and complained of the act
of 27th of November, 1779, abolishing that corpo-
ration. The committee to which the matter was re-
ferred reported that the act of Assembly in question
was a deviation from the Constitution. This view of
the question was strongly antagonized on the ground
that a number of the trustees of the college had not
taken the test oath ; that three of them had been at-
tainted of treason, and that the succession of corpo-
rators had not been kept up. Rev. William Smith,
D.D., provost of the college, addressed a letter to the
Assembly, which was referred to a committee. The
latter reported that the college had never forfeited its
rights, nor committed any offense against the laws ;
that the General Assembly had no power under the
Constitution to alter or dissolve a corporation for
charitable or religious purposes without violating
that Constitution under which the Legislature derived
its own authority. They therefore reported a reso-
lution to repeal the act of the 27th of November,
1779, which granted the property of the college to
the University of Pennsylvania, and to reinstate the
college in its rights. The university was by the pro-
posed law directed to surrender the property belong-
ing to the college to that institution ; but the uni-
versity, having by law been vested with many estates
forfeited as the property of traitors, was authorized to
carry on its business according to the judgment and
skill of the trustees out of the remaining estates. A
violent debate arose upon this proposition, but it
1 The Penns in a memorial Bigned by John Penn, Sr., John Penn, Jr.,
and Richard Penn, through his attorney, Tench Francis, had asked that
the Legislature would conform to natural equity as far as might be, and
not unnecessarily deprive them of rights which had existed Bince the
foundation of Pennsylvania.
was finally carried by a vote of twenty-eight yeas to
twenty-five nays, and the university and college be-
came separate and rival institutions.
As we have seen, the measure was one of those
which received the condemnation of the nineteen
members of the Assembly who seceded on the 28th
of September. The address issued by them was re-
plied to by the friends of the amendment to the test
laws, headed by George Gray, the Speaker of the
House, in a paper censuring the seceders and declar-
ing that legislation for the relief of non-jurors was
necessary in consequence of the coming of age of
many persons who were too young to subscribe to the
test act of 1779. Many of those injured by the law,
it was added, were people of means who had paid
their full proportion of the expense of the war, either
directly or indirectly, and the great majority of them
had been uniformly peaceable and inoffensive during
every stage of the Revolution. The provisions of the
test act were quoted to show that no person who had
joined the army of the British king, or who had
been tried and convicted of aiding or abetting the
king of Great Britain was eligible to office, and that,
therefore, there could be no danger of any abuse of
the privileges granted by an extension of the test
act. By the law of 1779, nearly one-half the in-
inhabitants of Pennsylvania, it was estimated, were
deprived of the privileges of citizenship. The con-
troversy over this important question entered largely
into the political canvass in October, and the popular
feeling on the subject was demonstrated in the elec-
tion of the candidates for the Assembly in both city
and county, who were opposed to the extension of
the privileges asked for to the non-jurors.
Considerable feeling was also aroused by the failure
of the State to make prompt and satisfactory arrange-
ments with public creditors in reference to their
claims for reimbursement. Besides their debts at
home many of these creditors owed merchants of
Great Britain, who were harassing them for payment.
The Assembly finally took the matter into considera-
tion, and a committee was appointed to which it was
referred. According to the committee's estimate the
State debt amounted to £548,279 10s. &d. with interest,
and the payment of £183,232 to the late proprietaries.
It was suggested that bills of credit be issued for the
amount due by the State to the Penn family, and
that the remainder be raised by taxation and by im-
posts upon goods. The opponents of the test oaths
availed themselves of the opportunity presented by
the agitation of the public debt question to urge the
measures proposed for the relief of non-jurors. When
the tax law was before the Assembly in December,
Anthony Wayne proposed to amend the test laws so
as to admit all citizens of the State, upon the ground
that there should be no taxation without representa-
tion. A motion to postpone the amendment was
carried, and another motion to appoint a committee
with instructions to bring in a bill revising the test
436
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
laws was lost by a vote of eleven to forty-seven.
Another matter of interest before the Assembly at
this session was a proposition for the establishment of
a financial institution similar to the Bank of North
America. The capital stock, which was to be £280,000,
divided into seven hundred shares of four hundred
Spanish milled dollars each, was rapidly subscribed,
and the name " Bank of Pennsylvania" was given
to the institution. Edward Shippen, Archibald Mc-
Call, John Bayard, Samuel Howell, Samuel Pleas-
ants, John Steinmetz, William Moore, Tench Coxe,
George Emlen, George Meade, Jeremiah Warder,
Joseph Swift, and Jacob Morgan were chosen di-
rectors, and Edward Shippen president. The appli-
cation of the bank to the Assembly for a charter was
resisted by the Bank of North America, but an
agreement was effected between the two institutions
by which the subscribers to the Bank of Pennsylva-
nia were admitted to share in the privileges of the old
institution, the Bank of North America. The appli-
cation for a charter was then withdrawn, and nothing
more was heard of the new project.
The Council of Censors held two sessions during
1784, the first commencing Nov. 10, 1783, and ending
Jan. 21, 1784, and the second beginning June 1, 1784,
and ending Sept. 24, 1784. During these sessions
the Council reviewed the transactions of the As-
sembly and the executive branch of the government
from the time of the adoption of the Constitution,
and considered the workings of that instrument.
The Council declared that the resolutions and laws
passed in times of danger, and intended for special
emergencies, contained much that was objectionable
and should be condemned. The acts of Assembly
for seizing goods of the inhabitants for the use of the
army, and setting compulsory prices on them, were
declared to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights,
and those against forestalling, against storing salt
and regulating prices were declared to be impracti-
cable and absurd.
The St. Tammany's celebration this year was held
on the 1st of May at Mr. Pole's country-seat. The
State flag was hoisted, with the colors of France and
the Netherlands on either side, the ceremony accom-
panied by a salute of three guns. The usual toasts
were drunk, and on their way home from the banquet
the Sons of St. Tammany ''saluted" Gen. Washing-
ton, who was dining with Robert Morris at the latter's
country-seat, Lemon Hill, with music, cheers, and
firing of cannon. The ministers of France and the
Netherlands were complimented in a similar man-
ner.1
The Fourth of July was to have been signalized by a
1 At the celebration in tbe following year, 1785, which was held at
Beveridge's country-seat on the Schuylkill, "the compliments of Gen.
Washington for the respects paid him in the previous year being com-
municated by tbe Secretary produced thirteen cheers which came from
the heart." One of the features of the celebration was the raising of a
new flag with a painting of St. Tammany upon it.
balloon ascension, the aeronaut being a Mr. Carnes,
of Baltimore. Carnes proposed to ascend from an in-
closure in a field near the city. The price of admis-
sion was two dollars for the first place and ten shil-
lings for the second. A subscription had already
been started for raising a balloon, and persons ap-
pointed to receive subscriptions in various sections
of the city.2
In order to stimulate the public curiosity and thus
aid the work of raising subscriptions a letter was pub-
lished from Benjamin Franklin, stating that he had
seen in France the balloon in which Prof. Charles and
the Robert brothers had ascended. Carnes failed to
make his appearance on the Fourth of July, but on the
17th he attempted the ascent, not from the field as had
beeu announced, but from the prison-yard. Benja-
min S. Coxe was associated with him in the enter-
prise. The balloon or aerostat was of silk, thirty-
five feet in diameter, and was inflated with heated
air, the furnace weighing one hundred and fifty
pounds. Carnes attempted the ascent from the
prison-yard, but when the aerostat had reached a
height of ten or twelve feet it struck against the wall
which inclosed the yard and he was thrown out.
The balloon,, thus lightened, shot up with great rapid-
ity. Thousands of persons had gathered in Potter's
Field, now Washington Square, and on the appear-
ance of the balloon floating above them at a great
height a shout went up from the multitude at the
novel spectacle. It soon became evident that Carnes
had made a most fortunate escape, for when the bal-
loon had traveled southward until it seemed to the
spectators no larger than a barrel it was seen to be
in a blaze, having caught fire from the furnace, and
in a few seconds was consumed. As the great ma-
2 The best evidence of the wide-spread interest taken in the project
is found in the following list of persons who signified their willingness
to receive the subscriptions :
In Vine Street — Jonathan B. Smith, Jacob L. Howell. Race Street —
Rev. Casper Weiberg, Melchior Steiner, Peter Thompson. Arch Street —
Boruod & Galliard, Charles Cist, Matthew Clarkson, Daniel Beuezet, Jr.,
James Oellers, Isaac Wharton, Miller & Abercronibie. Front Street —
Francis Johnston, John Vanghan, Ebeuezer Hazard, George Mifflin,
Joseph Harrison, James Irvin, Benjamin Nones, Hayni Solomon, Dr.
William Smith, Col. John Bayard, Joseph Palmer. Fourth Street — Pro-
fessors of the University, viz.: Rev. James Davidson, Rev. Robert
Davidson, Rev. John Ciir. Kuntze, Archibald Gamble. Cherry Alley —
George Nicola, Joseph Canffman. Market Street — Rev. Henry Helmuth,
Dr. Dunlap, Henry Lund, David G. Claypole, Edward Pote, Hall &
Sellers, Jonas Phillips, Robert Aitken, Eleazar Oswald. Chestnut Street
— John Chaloner, William Webb, Roger Flahaven. Walnut Street —
Peter Le Maigre, Joseph Bullock. Spruce Street — John Young, Abra-
ham Shoemaker, Dr. Robert Harris, Dr. John Morgan. Fifth Street —
John O'Conner. Southward — Hon. Samuel Wharton, Rev. George
Duffield, Dr. Benjamin Duffield, Thomas Casdorp, Joseph Blewer,
Joshua Humphreys, Richard Tittermary, William Robinson, Jr. Pine
Street — Rev. Robert Blackwell, Dr. Gerardus Clarkson, John Phillips.
Lombard Street— CharleB W. Peale, Capt. Angus. Penn Street— John
Swanwick, Robert BridgcB. Water Street — Woodrop & J. Sims. Second
Street— John Wharton, Dr. Hutchinson, Varden & Geisse, Miers Fisher,
Dr. Rush, Dr. Phile, Wagner & Habacker, John Morris. Third Street —
Dr. Robert Magaw, Benjamin Wynkoop, Samuel Caldwell, Andrew Doz,
John Wilcocks, John Clifford, John Miller, Dr. John McDowell. North-
ern Liberties— William Masters, William Coats, Benjamin Eyre.
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
437
jority of the spectators supposed the aeronaut to be
still in the balloon, not having heard of the accident
in the jail-yard, they went home under the impres-
sion that they had witnessed a fearful catastrophe,
and it was not until the following day that the truth
became generally known.1 Notwithstanding this dis-
aster the projectors of the subscription balloon per-
severed in their efforts and issued an appeal to the
citizens of Philadelphia asking for funds, in which it
was stated that the machine they proposed to con-
struct would be '' every way much larger and more
capable of succeeding than that from Maryland."
Another interesting event of the season was the
arrival of Gen. Lafayette, on the 9th of August,
from New York. He was
met at some distance from
the town by the City Troop,
together with a number of
militia officers and citizens,
and escorted to the London
Coffee-House, amid dis-
charges of cannon, ringing
of bells, etc. On the fol-
lowing day he was waited
on by the commissioned
officers of the Pennsylva-
nia Line, headed by Gens.
Wayne, St. Clair, and Ir-
vine, and on the day after
an address was delivered
to him by the President of
the State, John Dickin-
son, the Supreme Execu-
tiveCouncil, and theLegis-
lature.
An incident of a de-
cidedly romantic character
which occurred in Phila-
delphia this year led to con-
siderable diplomatic nego-
tiation. Charles Julian
De Longchamps, who had
been an officer in the
French cavalry service,
came to Philadelphia and
fell in love with a young lady, whom he married.
Her guardians, who were strict members of the Society
1 On the day Carnes attempted his perilous ascent, John Downie and
John Martin were executed at Centre Square for street robbery. Such
was the interest taken in the balloon ascenBion, however, that the exe-
cution attracted but little attention. During this year also the fol-
lowing executions took place: James Burke, an Irish servant-boy, for
the murder, on the 4th of September, of his employer, Timothy Mc-
Auliffe, on Water Street below Market, hanged October lGth, at Centre
Square; and at the same time and place James Crowder, convicted of
burglary, and Peter Brown and George Williams, aluts One-Armed Tom
Robinson, who were convicted of highway robbery and attempt to
murder Capt. Tolbert. Under the gallows One-Armed Tom Robinson,
alia* Williams, confessed that he had ravished and murdered a woman
near the Gray'B Ferry road some seventeen years before, for which of-
fense an innocent man was, upon the circumstantial evidence of having
of Friends, disapproved the match, and various means
were resorted to in order to annoy the Frenchman,
among them the publication in the newspapers of
offensive references, disparaging his titles, and in-
sinuating that he was of ignoble birth. In order to
repel these charges he determined to have his title
authenticated, and for that purpose took his docu-
ments to M. de Marbois, secretary of the French
Legation, whom lie requested to look over them, and
if he found them genuine to certify to the fact. De
Marbois declined to do so, whereupon De Long-
champs left the hotel in a passion, after notifying the
colonel that he would " dishonor" him. Subsequently
they met in the street, and De Longchamps struck
De Marbois with a cane.
A scuffle ensued, and De
Longchamps was after-
wards arrested by order of
Congress, to which body
M. deMarbois complained.
De Longchamps escaped
from custody, and as it was
thought that the French
government might regard
his escape as the result of
inexcusable negligence to-
wards an ally, a reward
was offered for his capture.
He was soon taken and
placed in close confine-
ment. The French consul
demanded possession of his
person as that of a French
subject, but it was decided
that he could not legally
be given up, and must be
punished in the country
where the assault was com-
mitted. Having been con-
victed of assault and bat-
tery, he was reprimanded
by Chief Justice McKean,
and sentenced to two years'
imprisonment from the
date of his original com-
mitment, to pay a fine of one hundred French crowns,
and to give security to keep the peace for seven years
in the sum of two thousand pounds.
The record of the year 1785 at Philadelphia is
mainly of that uneventful character which usually
accompanies the peaceful development of industries
and trade. The improvement of the navigation of
the Delaware was a matter of peculiar interest to the
the bloody knife in his pocket, convicted and executed. While the man
who afterwards suffered was drunk, Robinson had slipped the knife in
his pocket, and the latter, when arrested, was unable to account for its
possession. Robinson declared that he had attended the execution aDd
saw the man suffer for a crime which he was innocent, and that at the
same time he picked the pocket of a drover.
438
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
merchants at this time, and in January a memorial
was presented to the Council in favor of erecting piers
in the Delaware for the protection of vessels during
storms. Marcus Hook was chosen as the proper loca-
tion for the piers, and a contract was entered into
with Thomas Davis to build four of them, but it was
afterwards revoked and given to others. A small lot
was also purchased at Cape May " with the view of
erecting a beacon thereon ;" but in 1787, the original
intention not having been carried out, the Council de-
cided that the site at Cape May was unsuitable, owing
to the expense involved, and decided that it would be
better to place the beacon on Crow's Shoal. The cap-
ture of an American vessel by a Barbary corsair caused
a sensation among the merchants of Philadelphia,
who in February requested the Executive Council
to represent to Congress " the necessity of endeavor-
ing to conciliate the States of Barbary to us by pres-
ents, as it was practiced by most of the commercial
nations in Europe, or by treaties entered into with
them." Congress appropriated eighty thousand dol-
lars for the purpose of making the customary presents
to the emperor of Morocco, but before they reached
their destination the dey of Algiers had declared war
against the United States.
The question of providing for the public debt came
up again in the early part of 1785, and gave rise to
an animated controversy. During the previous year
it had been proposed to establish a loan office and
pass a funding law. A bill was framed providing for
the issue of fifty thousand pounds in paper money,
which was to be a legal tender under penalty of barring
from the prosecution of any suit for debt of those who
refused to take it. After having been considered and
generally approved, it was ordered to be transcribed
and printed for the further consideration of the As-
sembly. But in the mean time, the landed interest
having realized the burdens upon real estate which
the law would impose, a strong opposition to the pro-
posed policy began to be exhibited. While the peo-
ple of the Northern Liberties in town-meeting signi-
fied their approval of the funding bill, delegates from
other townships of the county of Philadelphia who
met at Germantown on the 14th of February, with
Capt. Lang as chairman, and Edward Fox as secre-
tary, decided that "the imposition of a new tax on
the virtuous citizens of this State, who have already
paid their proportions of former taxes, while a num-
ber of individuals and almost entire counties have
withheld their part of the public dues, is unjust and
oppressive until suitable exertions are made to col-
lect the same, and that the former deficiency ought to
be strictly collected, nor ought defaulters to profit by
default." It was also resolved that the supplemen-
tary bill for opening the land office was unjust ; that
the lands were placed at rates which were too cheap ;
that the funding bill was unjust and oppressive ; that
it bore too hard on landed property, instead of taxing
the luxuries of life; that the abrogation of a former
law ordering interest on depreciated certificates to be
paid in paper money was a breach of public faith.
It was declared to be the duty of Congress to provide
the means of redeeming the paper issued by the State
in accordance with Congressional requisitions, and
that an interference by the State was prematurely
loading the government in the dark with a burden
from which it could not extricate itself in open day.
Joseph Ferree, Dr. Logan, Col. Solomon Bush, Dr.
Enoch Edwards, and William Eobinson, Jr., were
appointed a committee to revise the proceedings of
the convention and present them to the Assembly.
Among the resolutions was one declaring that the
" imposition of a long — nay, a perpetual — tax in a
government before all parties are reconciled to each
other, and therefore binding on a large number of the
inhabitants before they have a chance of reconcilia-
tion, is unjust, cruel, unconstitutional, and impolitic."
The language of this resolution gave so much offense
that another meeting was held on the 19th of Feb-
ruary, at the house of Leonard Nice, with John Nice
in the chnir. At this meeting it was decided that all
the proceedings of the Germantown convention should
be adopted, except the resolution quoted, which was
ordered to be erased on the ground that it was "an
artful insinuation to convey ideas of a wish for a re-
peal of the test laws." At a meeting of merchants
and traders, held at the City Tavern on the 23d of
February, the sentiment was almost unanimous in
opposition to the emission of paper money, not one-
fiftieth of those present voting in favor of it. The
chairman, John Maxwell Nesbitt, refused to enter-
tain a motion in relation to the funding law as being
unconnected with trade. After Mr. Nesbitt had va-
cated the chair, Col. Francis Gurney was chosen
president of the meeting, and a petition concerning
the funding law was authorized. Notwithstanding
the popular opposition to the measure, however, the
Assembly passed all the acts which had been origi-
nally recommended as necessary for re-establishing
the public credit, and relieving the holders of State
obligations. The financial distress and uncertainty
felt at the time were much increased by the operations
of the Bank of North America, which, during the pre-
ceding year, had pushed out its notes to a very large
amount. The solvency of the bank began to be dis-
trusted, and in order to restore the public confidence
it became necessary to curtail its loans. As the de-
mands for the redemption of its notes in specie became
more urgent, the bank was forced to press its debtors
for payment. Distress and ruin resulted to many, and
so strong became the popular feeling against the bank
that numerous petitions were presented to the Legis-
lature demanding its abolition. On the 28th of March
the committee, to whom the matter was referred, re-
ported to the House a bill to abolish the bank and to
repeal the act making the counterfeiting of notes a
criminal offense. The suffering among the people at
this time in consequence of the bank's operations was
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
439
very severe, and the laws authorizing imprisonment for
debt were appealed to in many oases to the total ruin of
families." 1 The defenders of the bank insisted that
the distress had been produced by the groundless
want of confidence in the institution, which had forced
it to call in its loans, and that for this state of affairs
the management was in no wise to blame. On the
10th of September, however, the Assembly passed
the acts of repeal which annulled the State charter of
April 1, 1782, in less than four years after it had been
granted. But the officers of the bank, claiming the
right to continue by virtue of the charter granted by
Congress May 26, 1780, refused to wind up its affairs,
and continued the transaction of business as before.
The foreign commerce of Philadelphia, as well as
of other ports of the Union, was seriously hampered
by the want of some common agreement between
the States as to commercial regulations with foreign
countries. Each of the thirteen States attempted to
regulate its own commerce without reference to that
of others, producing confusion and many annoyances
to all concerned. At a meeting of Philadelphia
merchants, held at the State-House on the 20th of
June to hear the report of a committee " to suggest
means of relief for the present state of trade and
manufactures," it was declared necessary that Con-
gress should have full power over the commerce of
the United States, and that the withholding of such
power would prove injurious. It was also urged that
manufactures interfering with those of the United
States should be discouraged, some by absolute pro-
hibiting, others by imposts, and that the Legisla-
ture should use the best means of extending the in-
land navigation of the State, and of repairing and
improving the public roads, in order to facilitate and
increase the internal trade of the State, and to promote
the easy and commodious transport of the country
produce to and from the city. Jared Ingersoll, Wil-
liam Turnbull, Francis Gurney, William Jackson,
Benjamin G. Eyre, Francis Wade, John Barker, John
Barry, Jacob Morgan, Jr., Robert Smith, John M.
Nesbitt, and John McCulloh were appointed a com-
mittee,— which was increased by adding to it seven
mechanics, viz., James Pearson, Joseph Marsh, An-
thony Cuthbert, Joseph Roney, Thomas Leiper,
Thomas Proctor, and James Lang, — which was di-
rected to prosecute the subject before Congress and
the Legislature.
Under the stimulating influence of peace, manu-
factures had developed rapidly in Philadelphia, and
both the Legislature and the public at large were
appealed to for protection and encouragement. White
lead, glue, pianos, boxes for wheel carriages, fire-
engines, rappee snuff, horn imitations of window-
glass, yellow paint, soda for manufacturing flint-glass,
corduroys and fine jeans, steel made from bar-iron
" as good as in England," calico prints, rum distilled
1 Thompson Westcott.
from molasses, and refined sugars, were among the
products of Philadelphia industry and skill. A strong
feeling had already developed in favor of the protec-
tion of home manufactures,2 and although the mer-
chants favored free trade, they signified to the Assem-
bly their readiness to submit to any measure which
was considered necessary for the public good. A law
was finally enacted which was described as being in-
tended " to encourage and protect the manufactures
of the State by laying additional duties on the im-
portation of certain manufactures that interfere with
them."'
The printing interest was satisfied by the passage
of a law granting copyrights to authors, which was
to take effect when the other States had passed a sim-
ilar law. The passage of a copyright law by Con-
gress, however, obviated the necessity for action on-
the part of the other States.
The controversy over the test laws was renewed
before the Assembly this year by Gen. Anthony
Wayne, who introduced a resolution directing the
appointment of a committee to consider the subject.
His motion was agreed to, and the committee thus
appointed brought in a report declaring that " the
Government had an inherent and unquestionable
right to exact a test of allegiance from all persons in
the State," and that " it would be impolitic and dan-
gerous to admit persons who had been inimical to the
sovereignty and independence of the State to have a
common participation in the government so soon after
the war." This report was adopted by a vote of forty-
two yeas to fifteen nays. When the new Assembly
met in November, however, the agitation was renewed
and the non-jurors again petitioned for the repeal of
the obnoxious laws.*
.s " Col. Lewis Nicola," says Thompson Westcott, " desiring to set up a
line of stages to Reading, declared that he could not do so if, when the
enterprise became remunerative, he would be subject to opposition, and
he therefore aBketla monopoly of the stage-line to that place. Even lit-
erary laborers, backed by the printers of books, desired encouragement,
and asked for special protection. The tanners and curriers of the city
protested by memorial against the exportation of bark to foreign coun-
tries. The rope-makers desired the imposition of special duties upon
foreign cordage. The sugar-refiners asked for the placing of duties on
foreign refined Bugars, so that they could contend against the bounty of
twenty-six shillings per hundredweight, paid on refined sugars by the
British government. The cordwainers made strong complaints against
the importation of ready-made boots and shoe6, and they held a meeting
whereat it was resolved that they would not mend such articles, nor
work for anybody that wore them."
3 In this law duties were laid on clocks, playing-cards, scythes, refined
sugar, beer, ale, porter, malted barley, salt and dried fish, beef, pork,
soap, chocolate, candles, glue, starch, hulled barley, dried peas, manu-
factured tobacco, snuff, lampblack, cotton, wool, cards, manufactured
lpather, pasteboard, men's and women's leather shoes, silk shoes, stuff
shoes, boots, saddles, wrought gold, silver, pewter, tin and lead vesselB,
copper, brass, bell-metal, cast-iron, steel, bar and slit iron, nails, rods,
sheet-irou, ready-made clothing, castor and wool hats, beaver hats, blank-
books, cordage, ropes, marble and stoneware, earthenware, books, combs,
and a large number of other articles. A tax was laid on coaches and
four-wheel carriages, chaises, chairs, kitterees, and curricles.
4 " So severely did this law operate upon certain districts," says Thomp-
son Westcott, " that the number of freemen who were entitled to all the
privileges of citizenship waB not sufficient, in some sections, to administer
the local government. The freeholders of Byberry, in November, sent a
440
HISTOKT OF PHILADELPHIA.
In the new Executive Council, of which Benjamin
Franklin had heen chosen president on his return
from France in the previous autumn,1 the appeals of
the non-jurors received a more favorable hearing ; and
on the 11th of November the Council voted in favor
of revising the test laws. In the Assembly the sub-
ject was again referred to a committee, which, being
equally divided on the question, was discharged and
a new one appointed. The latter committee having
reported favorably on the measure, was ordered to
bring in a bill.
A movement for the revision of the penal laws and
a reformation of the system of punishments, so that
the latter might be made less sanguinary and less dis-
proportionate to the offenses committed, headed by
Chief Justice McKean, Justice Bryan, and the grand
jury of Philadelphia, resulted in the presentation of
a memorial to the General Assembly, in September,
suggesting that if robberies, burglaries, and most other
nefarious violations of law — murder and treason only
excepted — were punished by continual hard labor,
disgracefully imposed on the persons convicted of
such offenses, not only in the manner pointed out by
the State Convention " for the benefit of the public
and the reparation of injuries to private persons, but
in the streets of cities and towns, and upon the high-
ways of the open country, and in other public work,
the method thus employed would reform the culprits,
preserve life, and lessen the number of offenders."
The grand jury, in a separate memorial, represented
the evil effects of the " constant influx of vagabonds
from neighboring States,'' and suggested that " the
punishment of laboring hard, chained to barrows,"
substituted in New York instead of whipping, had
probably driven many of them to Philadelphia.
"This punishment," the grand jury added, "they
dread more than a thousand stripes." The grand
jury also complained of the setting-up of billiard-
tables and shuffle-boards, to the injury of the morals
of citizens ; the great increase of tippling-houses,
dirty streets, the sawing of wood on the footways, and
other evils caused by the want of a city corporation.
The members of the Society of Friends sustained this
memorial by complaints against intemperance, licen-
tious swearing, dram-shops, and other evils.
petition to the Assembly, stating that there were only three freemen
among all the freeholders in the township. They had not enough to fill
the offices, in consequence of which, assessors and collectors, etc., had
been sent to them from other townships, some of whom were unknown
to them and rapaciouB, having seized their property and distressed them
much. At that time both the collectors for Byberry were residents of
another township. "
1 Dr. Franklin arrived from France in September, and was received
by the ringing of bells and other testimonials of joy. Addresses of con-
gratulation were made to him by the Assembly of the State, by the offi-
cers of the University and the Americau Philosophical Society, by the
justices of the peace of the city and county, represented by Plunkett
Fleeson, by the officers of the militia, through Maj.-Gen. James Irvine,
and by the Constitutional Society, of which William Adcock was presi-
dent. The latter association nominated him as councilor, and he was
elected in October without opposition. On the organization of the Su-
preme Executive Council he was chosen president of the State.
The inconveniences resulting from the city's being
without a charter were strongly urged by the grand
jury, and in November, on motion of Gen. Wayne, a
committee was appointed to prepare a bill restoring
the old charter, but nothing further was done at this
time.
Among the local improvements urged upon the As-
sembly was the passage of a law regulating streets and
numbering the houses, which was advocated in a
memorial presented by John Macpherson in October.
Macpherson stated that he had completed a city di-
rectory, which was then in press, but which would be
of comparatively little use unless the streets were
regulated and the houses numbered. He prayed,
therefore, that a law might be passed authorizing the
numbering of houses, and that he might be appointed
to perform that duty. The petition was laid on the
table. Another directory was in preparation at the
time under the direction of Francis White, a broker,
and both were published before the close of the year.
White describes the residences of citizens by giving
the streets in which they lived and generally the cross
streets between which their homes were located, but
Macpherson, wishing to be more exact, adopted a
system of numbering of his own.2
White's Directory gives the profession or business
of each person, but Macpherson's only those of the
subscribers to his book. The former supplies the
names of about thirty-five hundred and sixty-nine
housekeepers, while Macpherson gives a list of about
six thousand houses as being occupied. In the ap-
pendix to White's Directory the locations of the State
offices in the city are given. David Bittenhouse,
treasurer, had his office at the northwest corner of
Seventh and Arch Streets. The building is still
standing. The office of the attorney-general was in
Third Street, between Market and Arch ; the custom-
house was at the corner of Black Horse Alley and
Front Street; the register's office was at the corner of
Front and Vine Streets ; the sheriff's office was in
Front Street, between Vine and Callowhill Streets ;
the post-office was at the corner of Front and Chest-
nut Streets; and the health-office was in Water Street,
below Spruce. From the same source it appears that
2 His system was peculiar. Instead of placing the even numbers upon
one side of the street, and the odd numbers upon the other side, he
started with No. 1 at a designated point, continuing the numbers in
regular succession to a certain extent, which was about what he con-
ceived was the built-up portion limit of the city. He then crossed to the
other side of the 6treet and continued on to the corner opposite the Btart-
ing-point. For instance, No. 1 was on the south side uf Chestnut Street,
near the Delaware. The houses along the south side of Chestnut Street
were numbered Nos. 1, 2, 3, and so on, in regular numerical order, up,
probably, to Fifth or Sixth Street, then the western limits of the city.
Mr. Macpherson then crossed over to the north side and numbered east-
ward, making his highest number immediately opposite No. 1. This
plan of numbering was objectionable, and fortunately no subsequent
attempt was made to carry out the plan. No provision was made for
numbers of the houses which might be erected beyond the limits of the
buildings then existing. Macpherson's Directory does not state which
were the corners of the streets, nor whether the houses were on the
north, south, east, or west side.
GKOWTH OP PHILADELPHIA FKOM 1784 TO 1794.
441
the physicians, surgeons, and dentists in the city-
numbered forty-two. Of all these medical men not
one was located so far west as Sixth Street. The
counselors-at-law only numbered thirty-four, and the
ministers of the gospel were but sixteen in number.
There were but two insurance companies.1
Dock Ward was divided in February by an act of
the Assembly, and a new ward, known as New Market
Ward, was created, extending from the Delaware to
the Schuylkill and from the south side of Spruce
Street to the north side of Cedar. A proposition to
divide Mulberry Ward, creating another new ward
to be known as Franklin, was rejected.
The only incident of the year recalling the stirring
scenes of the war was the sale in August, at the Coffee-
House, of the famous Continental frigate " Alliance,"
which performed so many brilliant exploits under
the command of Paul Jones and the no less gallant
Barry. She was purchased with all her tackle and
apparel for nine thousand seven hundred and fifty
pounds, Pennsylvania currency, by Col. Jehu Eyre,
who sold her to Robert Morris. The latter repaired
her, loaded her with tobacco at Norfolk, and sent her
to Bordeaux, France. In the spring of 1787 she re-
turned to Philadelphia, and in June sailed for Canton,
being, it is said, the second vessel from Philadelphia
to China, the first being the " Canton," Capt. Thomas
Truxton. Under Capt. Reed the " Alliance" took
the outside route around New Holland, or Australia,
discovering several new islands. She returned to
Philadelphia Sept. 17, 1788, was loaded with flour,
and sailed in the spring of 1789 for Cadiz, Spain.
She returned the same year, and in the spring of 1790
was sold and broken up. Her remains were run upon
Petty's Island (now called Treaty Island). Truxton's
voyage to China was made in the winter of 1786, and
his vessel was the third that left the United States for
1 From the following list of names of BtreetB, alleys, etc., as given in
Macpherson's Directory, it will be seen tbat there have been marked
changeB in the street nomenclature of Philadelphia:
Long Lane, Peters' Alley, Fleet Street, Shindle's Alley, -William's
Alley, East George Street, Miss Moore's Alley, Ground Street, Charlotte
Street, Tallman's Alley, Walshe's Court, Bailey's Alley, Razure's Alley,
Palmer's Row, Clymer's Alley, Whalebone Alley, Harper's Alley, Ta-
per's Alley, Fourteen Chimneys, Knowles' Court, Hart's Alley, Emlen's
Alley, South Church Alley, River Side, Pancake Alley, Syke's Alley,
Cobler's Alley, Society Alley, Moll Fuller's Alley, Wharton's Alley,
Armi tt's Alley, Coxe's Alley, Goforth Alley, Bowen's Alley, Ashe's Alley,
Discharge Alley, Rudolph's Alley, Sewel's Alley, Hiltsheimer's Alley,
Irwin's Alley, School-house Alley, Harris Alley, Leeche's Alley, Burch-
ill's Alley, Hill's Alley, Story Street, Neeman's Alley, Kepley's Alley,
Powel's Alley, Holmes' Alley, Stanton Court, Barrett's Alley, Elder
Street, De Haven's Alley, Millis Alley, Maiden's Row, MalliBon's Alley,
Bringhurst's Alley, Canffmau's Alley.
"Long Lane," according to Thompson Westcott, "is now Buttonwood
Street; Goforth Alley has become Exchange Street ; Moll Fuller's Alley
is now Cox's Alley; Rudolph's Alley is now Decatur Street; Ground
Street is Crown Street; Society Alley has since become a portion of Penn
Street ; Story Street was that part of the present New Street which is
between Second and Third Streets; Whalebone Alley is a portion of
Hudson's Alley, south of Chestnut Street. The ' Fourteen Chimneys'
was a locality well known in its time, between Fifth and Sixth Streets,
opposite Franklin Square. The same houses are now on the east side of
Sassafras Alley, above Race Street."
that destination. On the 2d of January Congress
granted a ''sea-letter" to Truxton, addressed in gen-
eral terms to the various potentates whose domains
he might wish to enter. The " Canton" returned to
Philadelphia in May, 1787, after having made a suc-
cessful trip.
The, controversy over the operations of the Bank
of North America was renewed during the winter of
1786. The stockholders, having failed to induce the
Assembly to reconsider the act annulling the charter,
applied for a new charter to the State of Delaware,
which granted one. The efforts to obtain a charter
from the State of Pennsylvania also were renewed,
and a committee of the Assembly reported in favor
of restoring its former privileges to the bank. The
report, however, was rejected by a vote of twenty-
seven to forty-one. Robert Morris then proposed the
appointment of a committee to prepare a bill sus-
pending the operations of the acts repealing the
charter for a certain number of years, but his motion
was lost by a vote of twenty-eight to thirty-six. At
the session of the Assembly in October, new petitions
for a charter were presented, and the matter was re-
ferred to a special committee, which reported a bill
chartering the bank for fourteen years, with a capital
of two million dollars. A clause was inserted mak-
ing embezzlement by the officers punishable with
death, but at the following session in March, the
death penalty was stricken out, and the offense made
punishable as grand larceny.
The bill as amended was finally passed on the 17th
of March, 1787, by a vote of thirty-five to thirty-one.
Another effort was also made this year to ameliorate
the test laws. In March an act was brought before
the Assembly for securing to the commonwealth trie
fidelity and allegiance of the subjects thereof, and
providing for the admission of certain persons to the
rights and privileges of citizenship. One of the
clauses of this act provided that a person who had
not yet taken the oath of allegiance might do so be-
fore any justice of the county in which he resided.
The terms of the oath required that the affiant should
renounce fidelity to King George III., of Great
Britain, and bear true allegiance to the State of
Pennsylvania ; furthermore, that the affiant would
not thereafter do anything injurious to freedom ; and
that he had not, since the independence of the
United States, voluntarily injured, abetted, aided, or
assisted_the king of Great Britain, his generals, fleets,
or armies, while employed against the United States.
A motion made by Robert Morris to strike out the
words describing the oath as one of " abjuration"
was lost, as was also another motion made by Morris
to strike out the declaration that the person taking
the oath had never assisted the king, or his generals,
fleets, and armies. On the 5th of March the bill was
passed by a vote of forty-five to twenty-three.
In addition to the usual popular celebrations — St.
Tammany's Day arid the Fourth of July — the birth-
442
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
days of Washington and Franklin were this year
made the occasion of formal demonstrations. Frank-
lin's birthday was observed by the printers of the
city as that of " the defender of the liberty of the
press" by a dinner at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern,
and Washington's birthday was celebrated, by a din-
ner also, by " the Adopted Sons of Pennsylvania," an
association mainly composed of Irishmen. The Sons
of St. Tammany, on the 11th of April, received at
their wigwam on the Schuylkill Cornplanter, alias
Captain O'Beel, a sachem of the Seneca Indians, and
five other chiefs, who had arrived in Philadelphia on
their way to New York in order to lay certain mat-
ters before Congress. About three o'clock in the
afternoon the Tammany sachems waited on Corn-
planter and his companions at the Indian Queen
Tavern, and attended the chiefs separately to a ren-
dezvous near the wigwam. Three others of the In-
dians were escorted by a company of militia. On
the arrival of the sachems cannon were fired and flags
hoisted. Cornplanter then made a speech, in which
he expressed himself in strong terms of amity and
friendship for the whites; and after a salute of thir-
teen guns and three cheers from the company, which
numbered about two thousand persons, a. circle was
formed about the " council fire" and the pipe of peace
was smoked. A libation of wine was poured out in
honor of St. Tammany, after which Cornplanter and
the other Indians performed a war-dance, followed by
a peace-dance, in which the St. Tammany sachems
and militia officers participated. One of the sachems
then replied to Cornplanter's speech in fitting terms,
a salute was fired, the colors struck, and the Indians
were escorted back to town. On the 1st of May St.
Tammany's day was celebrated after the usual forms
at the wigwam. Charles Biddle, vice-president of the
State, was elected chief sachem and hailed as Tam-
many.1 A portrait of Cornplanter was presented by
Miss Eliza Phile to the sachem Iontonque (Jonathan
Bayard Smith), and an ode was recited by Brother
Pichard. On the way back to the city the society
stopped at the residence of Franklin to pay its re-
spects to the venerable statesman.
The bitter feeling between Whig and Tory was re-
kindled this year by a difficulty among the members
of the Scots' Presbyterian Church, which, on account
of the principles involved, attracted general attention.
In 1750, on the prayer of the Rev. Mr. Craighead, the
Synod of Edinburgh took the Associate Presbytery of
Pennsylvania under its jurisdiction. In 1764 a num-
ber of persons in Philadelphia built a small frame
building for purposes of public worship, which, in
1786, was occupied by the Rev. Mr. Telfer and his
1 The other sachems were Jonathan Bayard Smith (Iontonque), Alex.
aDder Boyd (Tataboucksey), Thomas Nevill (Hoowamente), Frederick
Phile (Pechemelind), Daniel Heister (Towarraho), William Coates (Deun-
quatt), Joseph Dean (Shuetongo), William Thorpe (Simougher),Emannel
Eyre (Tediescung), Zachariah Endress (Shanbonkin), Thomas Proctor,
(Kayasbuta), and Elias Boys (Hyngapushes).
congregation. The Scots' Presbyterian Church, on
Spruce Street, above Third, was built previously.
Some of the members of these congregations disap-
proved of the subjection to which they were now
liable to a foreign jurisdiction, and they sought from
the Legislature a law annulling that portion of the
trust upon which the church property was held which
made the congregations subordinate to the Synod of
Edinburgh. The Rev. Mr. Marshall and a number
of the Scots' congregation resisted, and the matter
was warmly discussed before the Assembly. A bill
was introduced entitled, " An act to discharge and
annul the declaration of trust relating to the Scots'
Presbyterian Church in the city of Philadelphia as
far as said instrument incumbers the same church
with subjection to a foreign jurisdiction." The peti-
tions on both sides were numerous, and discussion on
the subject was general in the community. The Rev.
Mr. Marshall and the resistants were men of influ-
ence, and their opposition to the measure delayed its
success for several months. Finally, in September,
the act was passed by forty-two yeas to fourteen nays,
and thus the bond of union between the church in
Philadelphia and Scotland was severed. The law was
received with much discontent by the Rev. Mr. Mar-
shall and his party, and at the meeting of the new
Assembly in November they petitioned unsuccessfully
for a repeal of the act and a renewal of their subjec-
tion to the mother church.
The military spirit developed by the war was also
still active, and in August the entire force of the city,
consisting of five light infantry companies under
Capts. Semple, Sproat, Hagner, and Oswald, two
companies of artillery, commanded by Capts. Con-
nolly and Leonard, and the City Troop, Capt. Miles,
were exercised on the commons by Baron Steuben and
Gen. Du Plessis.2
2 One of these companies (Oswald's) volunteered to march to the fron-
tier to dispossess the British of the posts and garrisons held by them.
Their spirited offer was made in the following form :
" To the Honorable the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania : Hon-
ored Sirs, — Congress, we are well assured, has lately received an official
declaration from the Court of London ' that they will not relinquish the posts
and garrisons on our frontiers.1 This additional violation of the solemn
and 6acred treaty of peace on the part of Great Britain, we take the lib-
erty to observe, is generally viewed and considered as a declaration of
war, as it manifests a disposition for hostility and reprisal. But as the
situation of the public finances does not admit the raising of a regular
army, Congress, we understand, have it in contemplation to call on the
several States for a portion of militia to dispossess the British troops of
those fortresses. Under this idea several volunteers from New Jersey
and New York have already tendered their services to Congress; and,
as members of the light infantry company belonging to the Second Bat-
talion of Pennsylvania Militia, who wish not to be excelled or outdoDe
in point of zeal and activity in promoting the interest and welfare of
our country at large, we take this early opportunity to entreat that
your honorable body will be pleased to consider us as theirs* on the list
of volunteers from Pennsylvania, whenever Congress shall think proper
to adopt so necessary a measure.
"With every sentiment of respect, we remain, honored sirs, your most
obedient and very humble servants,
"Eleazar Oswald, captain; Samuel Hanse, lieutenant; Peter Wiltber-
ger, ensign ; Robert Parry, Robert Crosier, Jacob Mayer, Jr., Thomas
Reynold, William Caurre, William Edwards, John N. Hagenau,
GROWTH OP PHILADELPHIA PROM 1784 TO 1794.
443
In November the militia were exercised by Col.
Mentges, inspector-general. At this time the troop
of horse was commanded by Lieut. Dunlap, the artil-
lery by Capts. Spencer and Lang, and the infantry by
Capts. Semple, Oswald, Hagner, Sproat, Bower, and
Robinson.1
The organization of the " Society of the Lately
Adopted Sons of Pennsylvania" led to an acrimo-
nious controversy during this year, which resulted
finally in a duel between the two leading journalists
of Philadelphia, — Matthew Carey and Eleazar Oswald.
The latter denounced the society in unmeasured terms,
declaring that it was viewed with suspicion by citizens
" who could not but be jealous of their birthrights on
this occasion, and who look with abhorrence on such
new-fangled schemes which can only hatch the cock-
atrice eggs of sedition." "Such Arabs and vipers of
the organizations of society, such baboons of ingrati-
tude and objects of Pennsylvania detestation, should
be treated by every American with the infamy which
they deserve." Party feeling ran high in Pennsyl-
vania about this time, the opposing factions being
known as Constitutionalists and Republicans. The
former supported the Constitution then existing,
which conferred the legislative powers upon a single
Francis Wade, Jr., J. Levy, Samuel WiggleworLh, John Morgan,
John Fairbain, Robert Aitken, Jr., Francis Iugrahani, Jacob Wilt-
berger, Charles William Lecke, Samuel Folwell, Sept. Claypoole,
B. F. Bache, Abraham Singer, James Kees, Joseph Melbeck,
Thomas Spddon, J. Whitehead, Peter Benson, John Darragh, Wil-
liam Murray, Joseph Anthony, John Lawrence, Jacob Wikoff, Wil-
liam Cavenaugh, John Tillinghast.
"Philadelphia, Aug. 1, 1786."
1 " After the Revolution," says Watson, " the most famous company
waB the ' Bucktail Company,1 which was commanded originally by Capt.
Sproat, who was viewed at the time by the ladies and others who spoke
of him as a model, in his day, of smartness and military elegance on
parade. The uniform consisted of a short dark-blue cloth coatee, la-
pelled with red, and turned up with red at the skirts, white dimity vest
and breeches (tights), white cotton stockings, black knee-hands, short
gaiters, sharp-pointed, long-quartered shoes, and buckles. The captain
and every member of the company wore a long cue, or club of powdered
hair, pendent behind. The head was surmounted by a felt hat or cap,
the front presenting a flat surface, being turned up smartly, in an oval
shape, above the crown, and ornamented by way of plume or pompon
with a tail (bucktail) separated from the dried, undressed hide of the
forest buck or deer. The other flank company was of artillery, com-
manded by Capt. Jeremiah Fisher. He and some of his company had
served during the war, having fought in famous battles under the gal-
lant Col. Proctor. The artillery uniform consisted of a long dark-blue
coat, lapelled with gilt buttons down the front, and turned up with red
at the skirts, and reaching almost to the heels, yellow vest and breeches,
stiffened wide ruffles, white cotton stockings, and black leggings, but-
toned down the side, sharp-toed shoes, and large buckles almost cover-
ing the toes. In conformity with the universal fashion at the time, they
all wore long hair, powdered, clubbed or cued, and dangling below the
shoulder-blade. They also wore the large ' artillery cocked hat,' square
to the front, in marching, with » long black feather waving aloft at
every step. Martial music in those days was wholly confiued to drum
and fife,— a band, so called, waB then wholly unknown. The whole war
of the Revolution was led on by
' The spirit-stirring fife
And soul-inspiring drum.'
The cavalry only had the use of the horn or bugle. Such a bugle, used
by Gideon, of Philadelphia, as trumpeter to Washington's life-guard, is
still preserved in Philadelphia."
body — the House of Assembly — and lodged the exec-
utive authority in a president and Council. The
Republicans, on the other hand, wished to amend
the Constitution so as to divide the legislative power
between a Senate and House of Representatives.
" The Lately Adopted Sons of Pennsylvania" adhered
to the views of the Constitutionalist party, and as they
numbered among them some persons of influence and
writers of ability aud zeal, they naturally became ob-
noxious to the Republican element. Oswald, as we
have seen, was especially fierce in his denunciation
of the society, and Carey, having replied with pub-
lications of a personal nature, was challenged by
Oswald. The duel was fought on the 18th of Jan-
uary, 1786, opposite the city, in New Jersey. Oswald's
second was Capt. Rice, Carey's was M. Marmie, a
French merchant. Carey was shot through the thigh
and partially crippled for life.
The growth of the city rendered a division of Mul-
berry Ward necessary in 1786,.and an act was accord-
ingly passed on the 8th of April making Sassafras
Street the division line. The upper portion, extend-
ing from Vine Street and from the Delaware to the
Schuylkill, was called North Mulberry Ward, and the
lower part, between Mulberry and Sassafras, of the
same width, was designated as South Mulberry Ward.
Considerable opposition to the proposed extension of
the markets on High Street was developed, but the
Assembly nevertheless passed an act on the 23d of
March empowering the wardens to extend the market-
house from Third to Fourth Street, "and to extend it
from time to time, as occasion required, from street to
street, westward." On the 8th of April the Assem-
bly passed an act directing the sale of State property
situated in the city, and authorizing the Supreme Ex-
ecutive Council to reserve several lots for a burial-
ground for strangers. During this year's sessions of
the Assembly petitions for rechartering the city were
presented ; but a bill for the incorporation, laid before
the" House in March, was taken up on the 22d of Sep-
tember, and lost on the vote upon the first section.
Among the other measures before the Assembly, the
most important was an act to amend the penal laws,
which abolished the death-penalty in a number of
cases, and which was passed by the House. The act
declared that capital punishment for burglary, rob-
bery, sodomy, etc., should no longer be inflicted, and
substituted imprisonment for a period not longer than
ten years. It also provided that convicts should be
employed in public work, such as repairing the streets,
etc., and in pursuance of this law the year 1787 was
ushered in with the spectacle, a novel one in Phila-
delphia, of prisoners at work on the public thorough-
fares. In January, Chief Justice McKean addressed
a communication to the street commissioners in
which he called their attention to the provisions of
the act requiring them to employ the convicts in this
manner. The commissioners deeming themselves
not competent at that time to fix the mode or price
444
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
of compensation for the work, decided to employ the
convicts for one month, at the expiration of which, it
was thought, some definite conclusion might be
reached as to the rate of wages and the propriety of
longer employing them. The experiment proved
successful, and it was decided that the price of their
labor should be Is. 9d. per day. Thirty men were
employed. The prisoners, who were popularly known
as "wheelbarrow-men," were dressed in a peculiar
style, and were constantly guarded by keepers while
at work. Individuals who were regarded as danger-
ous were required to labor with a chain ten or twelve
feet long and a heavy iron ball attached to the ankle.
Those who were thus weighted down were employed
at sweeping and scraping, while those who were free
wheeled the barrows. After they had swept or
scraped a space around them as far as the ball and
chain would permit, the manacled prisoners would
pick up the balls and carry them to fresh spots, where
they would go to work as before. The more malicious
of them would often throw down the balls in such a
manner as to injure passers-by. In some instances
persons were severely hurt in this way. Most of the
convicts were professional thieves, and adroit street
robberies were frequently perpetrated by them. Be-
sides cleaning the streets, they were employed at
digging ditches, excavating cellars, grading, filling up
ponds, etc.
The act of Assembly declared that the services
which the convicts might be compelled to perform
were repairing and cleansing the streets of the city
and suburbs, making and repairing the highways of
the county, digging and quarrying stone, sawing fire-
wood, and digging, removing, and leveling earth ; but
the harder kinds of labor were so obnoxious to the
convicts that one of them, Jacob Dryer, convicted of
burglary, sooner than undergo them refused to avail
himself of the privileges of the act, and declared his
preference for hanging. The Supreme Executive
Council pardoned him upon certain conditions, but
having violated them he was sentenced to be hung.
The Council, however, pardoned him a second time.1
The sufferings of persons confined in prisons at-
tracted the attention of benevolent Philadelphians
during this year, and an organization known as "The
Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons"
was formed in May, to take the place of the disbanded
" Philadelphia Society for Assisting Distressed Pris-
oners," established in 1776. Right Rev. William
White, D.D., was elected president, Henry Helmuth
and Richard Wells vice-presidents, John Swanwick
and John Morris secretaries, and Thomas Rogers
1 Several riota occurred among the convicts owing to the enforcement
of the hard-labor law. On the 19th of March, 1787, the prisoners of the
Walnut Street jail attempted to execute a plan for a general escape. It
■was necessary to call in an armed force, which killed one of the pris-
oners and wounded another before the disturbance could be quelled.
Another riot took place among the wheelbarrow-men in July, in the
course of which one of them was seriously wounded.
treasurer. The society aimed to furnish relief in
money and provisions to suffering prisoners, to obtain
the release of persons improperly confined, to pro-
cure legislative improvement in the penal laws, and
to make complaints to the proper officers of offenses
against the law in the management of the jail, espe-
cially in the sale of spirituous liquors. Important
reforms in prison management were soon brought
about through the efforts of the society. Spirituous
liquors were prohibited, regulations were enforced
securing the separation of the sexes and putting an
end to immoralities which had prevailed, cleanliness
in the cells was secured, arrangements were made by
which prisoners were employed at useful labor, re-
ceiving a certain compensation, and the cells for re-
fractory prisoners were elevated above ground. The
society also secured the passage of an act of Assem-
bly in 1790 providing for inspectors of the prison.
Prior to this the sheriff was invested with sole au-
thority, and many abuses were practiced with im-
punity by the keepers, who were responsible to him
alone.
The Legislature named as inspectors a number of
the members of the society. Daniel Thomas, Charles
Shoemaker, Thomas Paul, James Bayland, James
Sharswood, John Connelly, Alexander Henry, Rob-
ert Wharton, Joseph Snowden, Caleb Lownes, James
Cooper, and Richard Wistar seem to have been the
first inspectors appointed, and under their direction
important reforms were introduced. Comfortable food
and clothing were provided, and jail-fees, " garnish,"
and the sale of liquor were abolished. Prisoners who
had been convicted were not allowed to associate
with those who remained untried. Religious instruc-
tion was provided, and many clergymen labored
under the auspices of the society. The pillory and
whipping-post were abolished, and the solitary sys-
tem of confinement was introduced. The Philadel-
phia Society, in fact, was the pioneer in America in
the great work of prison reform.2
2 The society's efforts naturally met with a determined resistance from
those -who were interested in maintaining the old order of things. " To
visit the prison at all in those days,"8ayB the author of a series of papers
entitled " Reminiscences of the Old Walnut Street Prison," " required
the exercise of a degree of moral courage uot ordinarily met with ; for,
in addition to its grim and forbidding appearance, 'its gloomy front and
portal gaping wide,' reports were rife of the desperate, abandoned, dan-
gerous dwellers within, calculated to alarm the fears of even reflecting
people. These reports were countenanced and encouraged by the keeper,
who resisted the advent of the society with all the art and ingenuity he
was master of. He represented to the public that the admission of these
gentlemen was not only ' fraught with peril to themselves, but it would
involve the risk of escape of all the criminals, and the consequent pil-
lage and murder of all the citizens.1 The sheriff, however, constrained
him to admit thorn, and the perils proved to be an ignis-fatuue from the
corrupt marshes of his own fears of detection and exposure. Defeated
in his representations to the public, aud compelled to comply, however
reluctantly, with the order of the sheriff, yet bent upon preventing the
introduction of sharp eyes on his misdeeds, he got up a theatrical ex-
hibition to deter Bishop White and Dr. Rogers from speaking to the
prisoners, and to give color to his idea of the danger they would incur.
" Arriving at an appointed time at the prison, these reverend gentle-
men,after being urgetitlysolicited to leave theirwatches and other val-
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
445
The last execution in Philadelphia under the old
code took place on the 12th of May, 1787.1 The miti-
gation of penalties which the new code provided was
not followed at first by very encouraging results.
Highway robberies were of frequent occurrence,2 and
the citizens were compelled at last, with the approval
of the Supreme Executive Council, to organize them-
selves into patrols for the protection of property and
persons passing through the streets at night.
Besides the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of
Public Prisons, two other important associations were
organized in Philadelphia during the year 1787, —
" The Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement
of Manufactures and the Useful Arts," 3 and " The
Society for Political Inquiries, for Mutual Improve-
ment in Knowledge, of Government, and for the Ad-
vancement of Political Science." The Society for
Political Inquiries, etc., was composed of fifty resident
members, meeting every fortnight except during the
summer months for the discussion of governmental and
economic questions. Benjamin Franklin was elected
uables on the outside (which they declined doing), were ushered tli rough
the two barred gates with great simulation of caution and ceremony,
and placed upon the platform of the Bteps leading from the back door
into the yard. A cannon, apparently loaded, — for a man with a lighted
linstock stood by its breech, — was pointed down the path in the faces
of an array of all the motley of the establishment. This part of the
drama had very nearly proved a failure. The play was likely to fail, for
the army of actorB did not respond. There had been no rehearsal; the
prompter had his hands full elsewhere, and the dramalis personm were at
fault. The curious look of surprise and inquiry among the culprits
betrayed that this belligerent demonstration was an unaccustomed fea-
ture in prison discipline, and the quiet, sober, and respectful attention
with which they seemed to listen to the address evinced that they un-
derstood the clap-trappery of the keeper, and were not willing by their
manner to second his eiforts. The 'keeper's battery' was a standing
joke for the prison for all time. . . .
" The labors of the Prison Society were manifold and various. While
administering to individual comfort in person, their efforts were directed
to the fountain-head in procuring the modification of laws and intro-
ducing a less sanguinary code than that we inherited from our fore-
fathers. They also took measures for improving the police of the prison,
representing to the Legislature the evils that existed, — debtors becom-
ing criminal by their intercourse with convicts; children initiated into
debauchery and wickedness by being permitted to be in confinement
with their parents ; girls and young women, put in through the caprice
of their masters or mistresses, associating with women already aban-
doned ; and apprentices and servants mingling with all sorts of vice and
infamy."
1 The culprit, Robert Elliott, had been convicted of burglary before
the passage of the act.
2 "On Tuesday night," says a city newspaper of June 25th, "between
twelve and one o'clock, as William Hamilton, Esq., and Miss Hamilton,
his niece, were returning from the city to Bush Hill, they were attacked
in the neighborhood of Twelfth and Market Streets by six or eight foot-
pads, who formed a line across the road and called violently to the pos-
tilions to stop. This not being complied with, one of the villains fired
a pistol, and another a blunderbuss. One of the postilions being
stunned by a ball, which struck his cap, for a moment occasioned the
stopping of the carriage, and the whole band immediately closed round
to Beize their prey. Mr. Hamilton, putting his head out of one of the
windows, called loudly for the postilions to drive on, and ordered his
servants, two of whom just then came up at full gallop, to fire on the
rascals, who immediately ran off with the utmost precipitation through
a corn-field, which greatly favored their retreat. The servants, being
soon after joined by others from BuBh Hill, well armed, made diligent
search after the villains until daylight, but without success."
3 See chapter on the Manufactures of Philadelphia.
president, and George Clymer and William Bingham
vice-presidents. In the following year the society of-
fered prizes— plates of gold of the value of ten guineas
each — for essays on the two subjects, " What is the
best system of taxation for constitutional revenue
in a commercial, agricultural, and manufacturing
country?" and "How far may the interposition of
government be advantageously directed to the regula-
tion of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce?"
The " Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Aboli-
tion of Slavery and the Belief of Free Negroes Un-
lawfully held in Bondage," which had been organized
in 1774, was reorganized on the 23d of April, 1787,
with Benjamin Franklin as president; James Pember-
ton and Jonathan Penrose, vice-presidents ; Benjamin
Bush and Tench Coxe, secretaries ; and James Starr,
treasurer. The labors of the society were productive
of good results. In 1793 it was stated that its zeal
and activity had given rise to many similar societies
in other States, had been " instrumental in suggesting
to the Legislature most of those improvements in the
laws which relate to the complete abolition of slavery
which have been enacted since the memorable law of
March 1, 1780," and had been "the happy means of
procuring the emancipation of several thousand
blacks who were detained in bondage contrary to the
laws of the State."
Among other questions which agitated the public
mind of Philadelphia during 1787 were a movement
in favor of free education, which resulted in the es-
tablishment of a school in the Northern Liberties in
October, the renewal of the project for the removal
of the State capital from Philadelphia,* and the re-
vival of the agitation on the subject of the test laws.
The action of the Assembly had failed to satisfy the
opponents of the laws, and in February a remonstrance
from citizens of Chester County was laid before that
body protesting against that portion of the act of
1786 which required abjuration and a declaration that
the affiant had not joined, aided, or abetted the British
government, etc. The committee to whom the peti-
tion was referred reported in favor of a general repeal
of the law, on the ground that " to the security of
a government so well established as our own the
security of an oath cannot be wanted in the form
prescribed by existing laws," and recommended the
substitution for the oath of a general declaration of
attachment. Accordingly an act " to alter the test
allegiance to this commonwealth required by the act
of March 4, 1786," was passed by the Assembly; but
notwithstanding its liberal provisions the Quakers
generally omitted or refused to make the necessary
qualification. In July, Judge McKean fined two
Quakers who had been summoned to serve on the
grand jury, but who were found not to have qualified,
* A proposition to make Harrisburg the capital of the State, offered
in the Assembly by Mr. Findley in March, was adopted by a vote of
thirty-three to twenty-nine, but the bill was shortly after reconsidered
and laid upon the table.
446
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
for having failed to subscribe to the declaration, which
failure he construed as a willful refusal to serve on
the jury. One of the Quakers so fined, Norris Jones,
refused to pay and was sent to jail. Judge McKean's
course was attacked in the newspapers as being arbi-
trary and tyrannical, and the incident seems to have
caused considerable feeling.
Southwark having now become sufficiently popu-
lous to require the laying out of streets, etc., the As-
sembly, on the 29th of September, passed an act in
which it was declared that the district had " no regu-
lation for its streets and alleys," which were " irregu-
larly placed," and that there was danger " that in
time it would become a heap of confused buildings,
without order or design." It was added that there
was no road to the south but what was " circuitous
and inconvenient." Francis Gurney, Richard Wells,
Presley Blackiston, Thomas Shields, and Gunning
Bedford were appointed commissioners to regulate the
avenues and to lay out new streets at right angles with
each other. They were specially directed to lay out
a street " from George Gray's ferry, to run in a right
line parallel with South Street, as the ground will
permit, into some central part of Southwark." The
latter improvement was objected to by residents of
Moyamensing, who remonstrated to the Assembly.
Notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts that were
made to revive the trade and industries of Philadel-
phia, the exhaustion caused by the Revolution was
still too great to be overcome, and business continued
stagnant. The depression was increased in July by
a sudden and unaccountable panic in relation to
paper money. During its existence the currency was
generally discredited, for what reason nobody seemed
to know ; poor people who could not hold it for better
times suffered heavily, and sheriff's sales were fre-
quent. On the 1st of March the inhabitants of Ger-
mantown held a meeting, at which those present
pledged themselves to discourage litigation in all
cases of dispute between themselves and others, and
to endeavor to have them settled by arbitration, in
order that " in this time of general distress" they
might present " a shield against the rapacity of the
law, which in the increase of costs and delay of jus-
tice in our courts has become such an enormous and
oppressive evil." The meeting further resolved to
study the Constitution to prevent any violation of it
" by our servants who may be intrusted with the dif-
ferent offices of government,'"' and to exert their in-
fluence in favor of domestic manufactures and against
the importation of foreign goods.1
The delegates to the convention to frame the Fed-
eral Constitution began to arrive in Philadelphia in
May. On Friday, the 18th, Gen. Washington was
1 An association against smuggling was entered into by the merchants
and traders of the city in September. They determined that they would
not " employ any master, mate, or pilot engaged in contraband trade, or
aiding or abetting others in such collusive employment."
escorted into town by the City Troop, and on Sunday,
the 27th, he attended divine service at St. Joseph's
Catholic Chapel, in Willing's Alley. In June the
city military companies were reviewed on the com-
mons by Gen. Washington, the Speaker of the As-
sembly, and the members of the Federal Convention.
Shortly after this, Washington visited Moore Hall,
in Chester County, and his old quarters at Valley
Forge.
Delegates representing twelve States assembled at
the State-House in the latter part of May and elected
Washington president, and William Jackson secre-
tary. The convention remained in session until the
18th of September, when the draft of the Constitution
was prepared and submitted for the ratification of the
individual States. When the matter came up in the
Assembly of Pennsylvania a motion was made to
authorize the calling of a State Convention to decide
whether the Constitution should be adopted by Penn-
sylvania. It being evident that there was a majority
in favor of the motion, sixteen members united in a
determination to withdraw from the body, if neces-
sary, in order to defeat it. The House adjourned
until the afternoon, and on reassembling was found
to be without a quorum. On the following morn-
ing a number of citizens, whose leader is said to
have been Commodore John Barry, forcibly entered
the lodgings of James McCalmont, a member from
Franklin County, and Jacob Miley, a member from
Dauphin County, who were among the seceders, and
whom they dragged to the State-House and thrust
into the chamber where the Assembly was in session
without a quorum. McCalmont attempted to secure
permission from the House to withdraw, but both he
and Miley were forced to remain. A quorum was
thus secured, and the resolutions providing for the
State Convention were adopted. The announcement
of their passage was hailed with three cheers and the
ringing of Christ Church bells. Great bitterness of
feeling was engendered by the violent course of the
Assembly, and an address was issued by the seceding
members, in which they protested against the action
of the Federal Convention and of the Assembly, and
asserted that the Pennsylvania delegates — Jared In-
gersoll, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Mif-
flin, Thomas Fitzsimons, James Wilson, and Gouver-
neur Morris — were all from Philadelphia, that they
did not, therefore, represent the lauded interests of
the State, and that they had exceeded their authority.
It was contended, on the other hand, that these rea-
sons were merely after-thoughts, that only one candi-
date outside of Philadelphia (William Findley) had
been named as a delegate, and he had received only
two votes, that no objection had been made at the
time against the delegates chosen, and that the asser-
tion that they had exceeded their authority was un-
founded.
On the 6th of November was held the election for
delegates to the State Convention, and the brief can-
QROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA PROM 1784 TO 1794.
447
vass preceding it was hotly contested.1 The dele-
gates to the State Convention elected for the city
were George Latimer, Benjamin Bush, Hilary Baker,
Thomas McKean, and James Wilson. They were
the candidates of the Republicans ; and Latimer, the
highest on the return, received one thousand two
hundred and fifteen votes. The Constitutionalists
had upon their ticket the names of Benjamin Frank-
lin, David Rittenhouse, Charles Pettit, John Stein-
metz, and James Irvine. Franklin had two hundred
and thirty-five votes, and Irvine, the lowest on the
return, one hundred and thirty-two votes. In the
county the delegates elected to the State Convention
were George Gray, John Hunn, William Macpherson,
Enoch Edwards, and Samuel Ashmead.
On the 21st of November the convention met, and
organized by the election of Frederick Augustus
Muhlenberg, of Montgomery County, president ;
James Campbell was subsequently chosen secretary.
On the 12th of December the question as to whether
the Constitution should be adopted was finally put to
a vote. The result was forty-six yeas and twenty-
three nays. On the following day the members of
the convention and of the Supreme Executive Coun-
cil, with officers of the State and city, and others, went
in procession from the State-House to the old court-
house, corner of Second and Market Streets, where
the ratification of the instrument was formally pro-
claimed. A salute of twelve guns was fired, and bells
were rung. The convention then returned to the
State-House, where two copies of the ratification of
the Constitution were signed. At three o'clock the
convention met again, and, with members of the
Supreme Executive Council and Congress, went to
dinner at Eppley's tavern. " The remainder of the
day was spent in mutual congratulations upon the
happy prospect of enjoying once more order, justice,
and good government in the United States.''
Efforts were made to induce the new Federal gov-
ernment to establish the capital in Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia and Bucks County united in an over-
tare of ten miles square for that purpose. An offer
was made in the name of the State to Congress of a
district of land ten miles square for the seat of gov-
ernment of the United States, in which exclusive
jurisdiction would be ceded to the Federal govern-
ment, with the consent of the inhabitants. From this
offer was excepted the city of Philadelphia, the dis-
trict of Southwark, and one mile of the Northern Lib-
erties, north of Vine Street, from the river Schuylkill
to the southern side of the main branch of Cohock-
sink Creek, and thence down the creek to the Dela-
1 On the night of the 6th a mob attacked the house of Maj. Boyd, in
which John Baird, Abraham Smith, and John Smilie, members of the
Executive Council, and James McLaue, James McCalmont, William
Findley, and John Piper, members of the Assembly and of the Anti-
Oonstitution party, were sleeping. Stones were thrown, and the occu-
pants of the house otherwise disturbed. A reward was offered for the
discovery of the offenders, but without any result.
ware River. Meanwhile, and until Congress should
make their election of a district, the use of the public
buildings at Philadelphia was offered to the Federal
authorities.
The progress in the adoption of the Federal Con-
stitution by the other States was watched in Penn-
sylvania, especially in Philadelphia, with absorbing
interest. As State after State signified its acquies-
cence, the exultation of the Federalists, as the advo-
cates of the instrument were called, and the disap-
pointment of the Anti-Federalists were exhibited
with increasing bitterness. At a meeting of Federal-
ists at Eppley's tavern, in June, it was decided that
as soon as the ninth State signified its acceptance of
the Constitution a public rejoicing should be held in
Philadelphia. On the 21st of June, New Hampshire,
the ninth State, ratified the instrument, and it was
thereupon determined by the citizens of Philadelphia
to celebrate the formation of the new Union on the
Fourth of July. Before that date Virginia had also
ratified the Constitution. The following official report
of the ceremonies, made by the chairman of the
committee of arrangements, gives a detailed descrip-
tion of the pageant:
GRAND FEDERAL PROCESSION, PHILADELPHIA, JULY 4, 1788.
On Friday, the 4th instant, the citizens of Philadelphia celebrated the
Declaration of Independence made fay the thirteen United States of
America on the Fourth of July, 1776, and the establishment of the Consti-
tution or frame of government proposed by the late General Convention,
and now solemnly adopted and ratified by ten of those States.
The rising sun was Baluted with a full peal from Christ Church
steeple and a discharge of cannon from the ship "Rising Sun," com-
manded by Capt. Philip Brown, anchored off Market Street, and su-
perbly decorated with the flags of various nations. Ten veBBels, in honor
of the ten States of the Union, were dressed and arranged through the
whole length of the harbor, each bearing a broad white flag at the mast-
head, inscribed with the names of the States, respectively, in broad gold
letters, in the following order : New Hampshire, opposite to the Northern
Liberties; Massachusetts, to Vine Street; Connecticut, to Race Street;
New Jersey, to Arch Street; Pennsylvania, to Market Street; Delaware,
to Chestnut Street; Maryland, to Walnut Street; Virginia, to Spruce
Street; South Carolina, to Pine Street; and Georgia, to South Street.
The ships at the wharves were also dressed on the occasion, and as a
brisk south wind prevailed through the whole day, the flags and pen-
dants were kept in full display, and exhibited a most pleasing and
animating prospect.
According to orders issued the day before, the several parts which
were to compose the grand procession began to assemble at eight o'clock
in the morning at the intersection of South and Third Streets.
Nine gentlemen, distinguished by white plumes in their hats, and
furnished with Bpeaking trumpets, were superintendents of the proces-
sion, viz. : Gen. Mifflin, Gen. Stewart, Col. Proctor, Col. Gurney, Coi.
Will, Col. Marsh, Maj. Moore, Maj. Lenox, and Mr. Peter Brown.
The different companies of military, trades, and professions had pre-
viously met at different places in the city of their own appointment,
where they were separately formed by their officers and conductors, and
marched in order, with their respective flags, devices, and machines, to
the place of general rendezvous. As these companies arrived in succes-
sion, the superintendents disposed of them in the neighboring streets in
such manner as that they might easily fall into the stations they were to
occupy in forming the general procession as they should be successively
called upon. By this means the most perfect order and regularity was
effectually preserved.
After a strict review of the streets of the city, it had been determined
that the line of march j^hould be as follows : To commence at the inter-
section of South and Third Streets ; thence along Third Street to Cal-
lowhill Street; thence up Callowhill Street to Fourth Street; thence
along Fourth Street to Market Street ; and thence to Union Green, in
448
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
front of Bush Hill, William Hamilton, Esq., having kindly offered the
spacious lawn before his house at Bush Hill for the purposes of the day.
The street commissioners had the evening before gone through the
line of march, directed the pavements to he swept, the trees to be lopped,
and all obstacles to be removed.
About half after nine o'clock the grand procession began to move, of
which the following is as correct a detail as could be procured :
I. Twelve axemen, dressed in white frocks, with black girdles round
their waists, and ornamented caps, headed by Maj. Philip Pancake.
II. The First City Troop of Light Dragoons, commanded by Capt.
Miles.
III. Independence. — John Nixon, Esq., on horseback, bearing the staff
and cap of Liberty. Under the cap a silk flag with the words, "Fourth
of July, 1776," in large gold letters.
IV. Four pieces of artillery, with a detachment from the train, com-
manded by Capts. Morrell and Fisher.
V. French Alliance. — Thomas Fitzsimons, Esq., on horseback, carry-
ing a flag of white silk, having three fleur-de-lis and thirteen stars in
union over the words, " Sixth of February, 1778," in gold letters. The
horse he rode belonged formerly to Count Rochambeau.
VI. Corps of light infantry, commanded by Capt. A. G. Claypoole,
with the standard of the First Regiment.
VII. Definitive Treaty of Peace. — George Clymer, Esq., on horseback,
carrying a staff adorned with olive and laurel. The words "Third of
September, 1783," in gold letters, pendant from the staff.
VIII. Col. John Shee, on horseback, carrying a flag, blue field, with a
laurel and an olive wreath over the words '* Washington, the friend of
his country," in silver letters, the staff adorned with olive and laurel.
IX. The City Troop of Light Dragoons, Capt. William Bingham, com-
manded by Maj. W. Jackson.
X. Richard Bache, Esq., on horseback, as a herald, attended by a
trumpet, proclaiming a new era. The words " New Era," in gold letters,
pendant from the herald's staff, and the following lines:
"Peace o'er our land her olive wand extends,
And white-robed Innocence from heaven descends ;
The crimes and frauds of Anarchy Bhall fail ;
Returning Justice lifts again her scale."
XI. Convention of the States. — The Hon. Peter Muhlenberg, Esq., on
horseback, with a blue flag; the wordB "Seventeenth of September,
1787," in silver letters.
XII. A band of music performing a grand march, composed by Mr.
Alexander Reinagle for the occasion.
XIII. The Constitution. — The Hon. Chief Justice McKean, the Hon.
Judge Atlee, the Hon. Judge Rush (in their robes of office), in a lofty,
ornamented cur, in the form of a large eagle, drawn by six horses, bear-
ing the Constitution, framed and fixed on a staff, crowned with the cap
of Liberty, the words " The People," in gold letters, on the staff, imme-
diately under the Constitution.
XIV. Corps of Light Infantry, commanded by Capt. Heysham, with
the standard of the Third Regiment.
XV. Ten gentlemen, representing the States that have ratified the
Federal Constitution, each bearing a flag with the name of the State he
represents, in gold letters, and walking arm in arm, emblematical of
the Union, viz. :
1. Duncan Ingraham, Esq., New Hampshire.
2. Jonathan Williams, Jr., Esq., Massachusetts.
3. Jared Ingersoll, Esq., Connecticut.
■1. Samuel Stockton, Esq., New Jersey.
5 James Wilson, Esq., Pennsylvania.
6. Col. Thomas Robinson, Delaware.
7. Hon. J. E. Howard, Esq., Maryland.
8. Col. Febiger, Virginia.
9. W. Ward Burrows, Esq., South Carolina.
10. George Meade, Esq., Georgia.
XVI. Col. William Williams, on horseback, in armor, bearing on his
left arm a shield emblazoned with the arms of the United States.
XVII. The Montgomery Troop of Light Horse, commanded by Capt
James Morris, Esq.
XVIII. The consuls and representatives of foreign States in alliance
with America, in an ornamented car drawn by four horses,
Capt. Thomas Bell, with the flag of the United States of America.
Barbe de Marbois, Esq., vice-consul of France.
J. H. C. Heineken, Esq., consul of the United Netherlands.
Charles Hellstedt, Esq., consul-general of Sweden.
Charles W. Lecke, Esq., carrying the flag of Prussia.
Thomas Barclay, Esq., carrying the flag of Morocco.
XIX. The Hon. Francis Hopkinson, Esq., Judge of Admiralty, wear-
ing in his hat a gold anchor, pendant on a green ribbon, preceded by the
register's clerk carrying a green bag filled with rolls of parchment, and
having the word "Admiralty'" in large letters on the front of the bag.
James Read, Esq., register, wearing a silver pen in his hat.
Clement Biddle, Esq., marshal, carrying a silver oar adorned with
green ribands.
XX. The wardens of the port and tonnage officer.
XXI. Collector of the customs and naval officer.
XXII. Peter Baynton, Esq., as a citizen, and Col. Isaac Melchor as an
Indian chief, in a carriage, smoking the calumet of peace together, — the
sachem magnificently dressed according to the Indian custom.
XXIII. The Berks County troop, consisting of thirty dragoons, com-
manded by Capt. Philip Strubing.
XXIV. The New Roof, or grand Federal Edifice, on a carriage drawn
by ten white horseB ; the dome supported by thirteen Corinthian col-
umns, supported on pedestals proper to that order ; the frieze decorated
with thirteen stars ; ten of the columns complete and three left unfin-
ished. On the pedestals of the columns were inscribed, in ornamented
ciphers, the initials of the thirteen American States. On the top of
the dome a handsome cupola, surmounted by a figure of Plenty, bear-
ing cornucopias and other" emblems of her character. Round the ped-
estal of the edifice were these words: "In union the fabric stands
firm."
This elegant building wa6 begun and finished in the short space of
four days by Mr, William Williams & Co.
The grand edifice was followed by architects and house-carpenters ; in
number, four hundred and fifty, carrying insignia of the trade, and pre-
ceded by Messrs. Benjamin Loxley, Gunning, Bedford, Thomas Nevel,
Levi Budd, Joseph Ogilby, and William Roberts, displaying designs in
architecture, etc. Mr.George Ingalls bore the house-carpenters' stand-
ard,— the company's arms properly emblazoned on a white field. Motto,
"Justice aud benevolence."
To thiB corps the saw-makers and file-cutters attached themselves,
headed by Messrs. John Harper and William Cook, and carrying a flag
with a hand- and saw-mill-saw, gilt, on a pink field.
On the floor of the Grand Edifice were placed ten chairs for the accom-
modation of ten gentlemen, viz. : Messrs. Hilary Baker, George Lati-
mer, John Wharton, John Nesbitt, Samuel Morris, John Brown, Tench
Francis, Joseph Anthony, John Chaloner, and Benjamin Fuller. These
gentlemen sat as representatives of the citizenB at large, to whom the
Federal Constitution was committed previous to the ratification. When
the Grand Edifice arrived safe at Union Green, these gentlemen gave
up their seats to the representatives of the States enumerated above in
Article XV., who entered the temple and hung their flags on the Co-
rinthian columns to which tbey respectively belonged. In the evening
the Grand Edifice, with the ten States, now in unison, was brought back
in great triumph and with loud huzzas to the State-House, in Chestnut
Street, where it now stands.
XXV. The Pennsylvania Society of Cincinnati and militia officers.
XXVI. Corps of light infantry, commanded by Capt. Rose, with the
standard of the Fifth Regiment.
XXVII. The Agricultural Society, beaded by their president, Samuel
Powell, Esq. A flag, borne by Maj. Samuel Hodgdon, on a buff-colored
ground in an oval conipartinent. Industry represented by a plowman,
driving a plow drawn by oxen, followed at a small distance by the God-
dess of Plenty bearing a cornucopia in her left and a sickle in her right
hand. In the background a view of an American farm. Motto, "Ven-
erate the plow."
XXVIII. Farmers, headed by Richard Peters, Richard Willing, Sam-
uel Meredith, Isaac Warner, George Gray, William Peltz, Burk-
hart, and Charles Willing. Two plows, the one drawn by four oxen,
and directed by Richard Willing, Esq., in a farmer's dress, Mr. Charles
Willing in the character of a plow-boy driving the oxen ; the other,
drawn by two horses, and directed by Mr. Burkhart, followed by a
Bower sowing seed, farmers, millers, etc.
XXIX. The Manufacturing Society, with the spinning- and carding-
machines, looms, etc.
Mr. Gallaudet bearing a flag, the device of which was a bee-hive, with
bees issuing from it, standing in the beams of a rising sun ; the field of
the flag blue, and the motto, "In its rays we shall feel new vigor,"
written in golden characters.
Robert Hare, Esq.
Managers of the Bociety.
Subscribers to the society.
Committee for managing the manufacturing fund.
SubBcriberB to the manufacturing fund.
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
449
The carriage of the manufacturers is in length thirty feet, in breadth
thirteen feet, and the same height, neatly covered with white cotton of
their manufacture, and drawn by ten large hay horses. On this car-
riage was placed the carding-machine, worked by two persons, and
carding cotton at the rale of fifty pounds weight per day ; next a spin-
ning-machine of eighty spindles, worked by a woman (a native of and
instructed in this city), drawing colton suitable for flno jeans or federal
rib. On the right of the stage was next placed a lace loom, a workman
weaving a rich Bcavlet and white livery bice; on the left a man weav-
ing jean on a large loom with a fly-shuttle. Behind the looms was
fixed the apparatus of Mr. Hewson, printing muslins of an elegant
chintz pattern, and Mr. Lang designing and cutting printB for shawls.
On the right was seated Mrs. Hewson and her four daughters penciling
a piece of very neat sprijrged chintz of Mr. Ilewson's printing, all
dressed in cottons of their own manufacture. On the back part of the
carriage, on a lofty staff, was displayed the calico painters' flag— in the
centre thirteen stars in a blue field, and thirteen rod stripes in a white
field. Round the edges of the flag were printed thirty-seven different
prints of various colors — one of them a very elegant bed-furniture chintz
of six colors — as specimens of printing done at Philadelphia. Motto,
" May the Union Government protect the manufactures of America."
Then followed the weavers' flag,— a rampant lion in a green field,
holding a shuttle in his dexter paw. Motto, " May Government protect
us." Behind the flag walked the weavers of the factory, accompanied
by other citizens of the same trade, in number about one hundred.
The cotton-card makers annexed themselves to this society.
XXX. Corps of light infantry, commanded by Capt. Robinson, with
the standard of the Sixth Regiment.
XXXI. The Marine Society, Capt. William Greenaway, carrying a
globe, supported by Gupta. Heysham and Alberson, with spyglasses In
their hands.
Ten captains, five abreast, with qnadrants, representing the ten States
that have joined the Union, viz., John Woods, John Ashmead, William
MiHer, Samuel Howell, John Souder, Robert Bethel, William Allen,
William Tanner, Leeson Simons, and George Atkinton.
Members of the society, six abreast, with trumpets, spyglasses, charts,
and sundry other implements of their profession, wearing badges in
their hats representing a ship, — eighty-nine in number.
XXX II'. The Federal Ship "Union," mounting twenty guns, com-
manded by John Green, Esq.; Capt. S. Smith, W. Belchar, and Mr.
Mercer, lieutenants; four young boys in uniform, as midshipmen. The
crew, including officers, consisted of twenty-five men. The ship " Uniou"
is thirty-three feet in length ; her width and depth in due proportion.
Her bottom is the barge of the ship "Alliance," and the same barge
which formerly belonged to the "Serapis," and was taken in the mem-
orable engagement of Capt. Paul Jones of tho the "Bon Homme Rich-
ard" with the "Serapis."
The " Union" is a masterpiece of elegant workmanship, perfectly pro-
portioned and complete throughout, decorated with emblematical carv-
ing, and finished even to a stroke of the painter's brush. And what is
truly astonishing, she was begun and completed in less than four days,
viz., begun at eleven o'clock on Monday morning, the 30th of June, and
on the field of rendezvous on Thursday evening following, fully pre-
pared to join in the grand procession. The workmanship and appear-
ance of this beautiful object commanded universal admiration and ap-
plause, and did high honor to the artists of Philadelphia who were
concerned in her construction.1
The ship was followed by
TJte Pih-ts nf the Port, with their boat, named "The Federal Pilots,"
under the command of Isaac Roach, who Bheered alongside the ship
u Union" at the place appointed, and put Mr. Michael Dawson on board
as pilot; then took his station with bis boat in the procession, and on
her arrival attended and took the pilut off again.
Boat-BuilJera. — A frame, representing a boat-builder's shop, eighteen
feet long, eight wide, and thirteen high, mounted on a carriage.
The whole machine was contrived with great skill, and drawn by four
bright bay hurseB belonging to and under the conduct of Mr. Jacob Toy,
of the Northern Liberties, followed by forty boat-builders, headed by
Messrs. Bowyer Brooks and Warwick Hale.
Sail-Makers —A flag, carried by Capt. Joseph Rice, representing the
Inside view of a sail-lolt, with musters and men at work; on the top
thirteen stars ; in the fly five vessels. Motto, "May commerce flourish
and industry be rewarded." Followed by a number of masters, jour-
neymen, and apprentices.
1 After the procession this little ship was placed in the State-House
yard, from whence it was subsequently removed to Gray's Ferry.
29
Ship-Carpenters, headed by Messrs. Francis Grice and John NorriB,
with the draft of a ship on the stocks, and cases of instruments in their
hands; a Aug, bearing a ship on the stocks, carried by Manuel Eyres,
Esq., supported by Messrs. Harrison, Rice, Brewster, mid Humphreys.
Followed by must-makers, calkers, and workmen, to the amount of
three hundred and thirty, all wearing a badge in their hats, represent-
ing a ship on the stocks, and a green Fprig of white-oak.
Ship-Joiners— Nicholas Young, conductor — his son carrying a cedar
staff before him; Robert Mc.Mnllen, master workman; William McMul-
leu and Samuel Ormes, carrying the company's arms on a flag, viz , A
binnacle and hencoop; crooked planes and other tools of that profession
proper; thirteen Btripes and thirteen starn — ten in full 6plendor. Motto,
"By these we support our families." Followed by twenty-five of the trad •
wearing cedar branches in their hats.
Rope-Makers and Ship- Chandlers. — The flag, carried in front by Richard
Titterniary, representing a rope-yard, with ten men spinning and three
standing idle with their hemp around their waists — emblematical of
the present situation of the thirteen States, — with a motto, '* May com-
merce flourish." Next in front, as leaders, were John Titteimary, Sr.,
and George Goodwin, being the oldest belonging to the calling.
Merclianls and Traders.— Their standard was the flag of a merchant
ship of the United States ; in the Union were ten illuminated stars, and
three traced round in silver but not yet illuminated ; on one side of the
Aug a ship — the "Pennsylvania" — with an inscription, " Fourth of July,
17^8 ;" ou the reverse of the flag a globe, over which was inscribed, in a
scroll, " Par tout lemonde." The staff ou which the flag was displayed
terminated in a silver cone, on which was a ring suspending a mariner's
compass. The standard was borne by Mr. Jonathan .Nesbitt, preceding
the merchants and traders.
Thomas Willing, E-q., attended by their committee, Messrs. Charles
Pettit, John Wilcocks, John Ross, and Tench Coxa.
The body of the merchautB and traders.
Next followed the clerks and apprentices of the merchants and trad-
ers, precedud by Mr. Saintonge, bearing a large ledger.
Corps of light infantry, commanded by Capt. Sproat, with the standard
of tho Fourth Regiment.
Trade* and Professions. — The order of the several trades, except house-
carpenters and those coucerued in the construction and fitting out a
ship, waB determined by lot.
XX X I II. Cordwainers. — A carriage drawn by four horses, representing
a cordwainer'sshop, in which were six men actually at work ; the shop
hung round with Bhoes, bout-, etc.
Mr. Alexander Rutherford, conductor.
Mr. Elitsha Gordon and Mr. Martin Bish, assistants ; followed by a com-
mittee of nine, three abreast.
Mr. James Rouey, Jr., standard bearer. The standard — the cordwain-
ers' arms — on a crimson field ; above tho arms Crispin holding a laurel
branch in his right hand and a scroll of parchment in his lelt.
Three hundred cordwainers following, six abreast, each wearing a
white leather apron, embellished with tho company's arms, richly
painted.
XXXIV. Coach-Painters. — With a flag, ornamented with the insignia
of the art, carried by Mr. , followed by teuof the profession carrying
palette and pencils in their hands.
XXXV. Cabinet- and Chair- Makers — Mr. Jonathan Gottelow, carrying
the scale and dividers; Mr. Jedediah Snowdeii, with the rules of archi-
tecture ; four of the oldest masters; Mr. James Lue, attended by three
masters bearing the standard, or cabinet-makers' anud,eU-gautly painted
and gilt on a blue field, ornamented with thirteen stars, ten of which
were gilt, the other three unfinished; below the arms two hands uuited.
Motto, " By unity we suppurt society."
The masters, six abreast, wearing linen aprons, and bucks' tails in
their hats.
The workshop, seven teen feet long by nine feet eight inches wide, and
fourteen feet high, on a carriage drawn by four horses; at each end of
the shop ten stars; two signs, inscribed, " Federal cabinet and chair-
shop," one ou each side; Mr. John Brown, with journeymen and ap-
prentices, at work in the Bhop.
XXXVI. Brick-Makers.— Carrying a large flag of green silk, on which
was represented a brick-yaid, bauds at work, a kiln burning ; at a little
distance a Federal city building. Motto, "It waB found hard in Egypt,
but this project makes it easy."
Ten master bricknnikeis, headed by Mr. David Rose, Sr., and followed
by one hundred workmen in frocks and trowsers, with tools, etc.
XXXV II. House-, Ship-, and Sign- Painters. — Aims, three (shields argent
on a field azure ; crest, a baud holding a brush proper. Motto, " Virtue
alone is true nobility."
450
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
The stage, fourteen feet long by seven; on it a mill for manufacturing
colore ; a glazing-table, with a stone for grinding paint; stage furnished
with pots, sashes, tools, etc. ; the business on the stage conducted by
Messrs. Stride, Wells, Cowen, Dewetter, and McEIwee. Flag, borne by
Mr. Fausburg, as oldest painter, supported by Messrs. Fling and Fuller-
ton; the rest of the company marching six abreast, with gilded brushes,
diamonds, gold hammers, glazing-knives, etc. Sixty-eight in proces-
sion.
XXYIII. Porters. — Led by John Lawrence and George Green ; on each
side a porter, dressed with a silk sash, leading a horse and dray, the horse
richly decorated with blue, white, and red ribbons; on the dray five bar-
rels of superfine flour, the words " Federal flour" painted on the heads
of the barrels, followed by John Jacobs and forty porters ; a light blue
silk standard, borne by David Sparks, on which were exhibited ten stripes
and thirteen stars, three of them clouded, the rest in full splendor. Also
a horse and dray, with four barrels on the dray and a porter loading a
fifth. Motto, "May industry ever be encouraged.1'
The standard, followed by a number of men, and the rear closed by
Andrew Dryer and Joseph Greswold.
The five barrels of Federal flour were taken, after the procession, and
delivered to the overseers for the use of the poor.
XXXIX. Clock- and Watch- Makers.— The company's arms neatly
painted on a silk flag. Motto, " Time rules all things." Headed by
Mr. John Wood, and followed by twenty-three members of the company.
XL. Fringe and Ribbon Weavers,— Mr. John Williams, bearing a blue
staff, capped with a gilt ball ; across the staff ten wires, to which were
suspended implements and a great variety of specimens of the art.
XLI. Bricklayers.— Headed by Messrs. Nicholas Hicks, William John-
son, and Jacob Graff, with their aprons on and trowels in their hands;
a flag, with the following device: The bricklayers' arms; the Federal
city rising out of a forest ; workmen building it, and the sun illumi-
nating it. Motto, "Both buildings and rulers are the works of our
hands."
The flag, carried by Messrs. Charles Souder, William MaBh, and Joseph
Wilds, with their aprons, and supported by Messrs. John Robbins, Peter
Woglom, Thomas Mitchell, John Boyd, Burton Wallace, Michael Groves,
John Souder, Edward McKaigen, Alexander McKinley; ten master
bricklayers, with their aprons on and their trowels and plumb-rules in
their hands, followed by fifty-five masters and journeymen in their
aprons, and carrying trowels in their hands.
XLII. Tailors. — Preceded by Messrs. Barker, Still©, Martin, and
Tatem, carrying a white flag with the company's arms in gold sup-
ported by two camels. Motto, "By union our strength increases." Fol-
lowed by two hundred and fifty of the trade.
XLIII. Instrument-Makers, Turners, Windsor Chair and Spinning-wheel
Makers. — Conducted by Captain John Cornish, Mr. John Stow bearing
the standard, — the turner's arms, with the addition of a spinning-wheel
on one side and a Windsor chair on the other. Motto, "By faith we
obtain."
Messrs. George Stow and Michael Fox, carrying columns representing
the several branches of turning; Messrs. Anthony and Mason, with a
group of musical instruments, followed by sixty persons dressed in green
aprons.
XLIV. Carvers and Gilders.— The carvers and gilders exhibited an
ornamental car on n Federal plan, being thirteen feet by ten on the
floor on which were erected thirteen pilasters richly ornamented with
carved work, — the heads of ten gilt, and labeled with the names of the
several States, arranged as they came into the Federal Union, the re-
maining three left partly finished; about three feet above the floor a
level rail united to the pilasters, denoting the equality of the subjects.
Before the car walked the artists of the several branches, preceded by
Mr. Cutbush, Bhip-carver, aad Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Jugiez, house, fur-
niture, and coach -car vera, with young artists going before, decorated
with blue ribbons round their necks, to which were suspended medal-
lions, blue ground, with ten burnished gold stars,— one bearing a figure
of Ceres, representing agriculture ; another Fame blowing her trumpet,
announcing to the world the Federal Union ; the middle one carrying
a Corinthian column complete, expressive of the domestic branches of
carving. In the car were a number of artists at work, superintended by
Mr. Rush, ship-carver.
XLV. Coopers.— Led on by Mr. Daniel Dolby ; an elegantflag, bearing
the coopers' arms, embellished with thirteen stars. Motto, "May com-
merce flourish. Love as brethren."
Supported by Messrs. W. King, R. Babe, and John Louch ; followed
by one hundred and fifty coopers in white leather aprons, and wearing
badges in their hats representing the tools of the trade.
XL VI. Plane-Makers — Mr. William Martin in front, bearing the
standard — white field, a smoothing-plaoe on the top ; device — a pair of
spring dividers, three planes, a brace, a square, and gauge; followed by
eight plane-makers. Motto, " Truth."
XLVII. Wltip and Cane Manufacturers. — A machine on a carriage; a
boy on it at work plaiting a whip; followed by Mr. John McAllister and
his journeymen, carrying several articles of the trade; on the top of the
machine a flag, with this motto: "Let us encourage our own manu-
factures."
XLVIII. Blacksmiths, Whitesmiths, and Nailers. — A machine drawn by
nine horses, representing the Federal blacksmiths', whitesmiths', and
nailers' manufactory — being a frame of ten by fifteen feet and nine feet
and nine feet high, with a real chimuey, extending three feet above the
roof, aud furnished for use; in front of the building three master black-
smiths—Messrs. Nathaniel Brown, Nicholas Hess, and William Perkins
— supporting the standard, elegantly ornamented with the smiths'
arms. Motto, " By hammer in hand all arts do stand."
The manufactory was in full employ during the procession. Mr. John
Mingle and his assistant, Christian Keyser, blacksmith, completed a set
of plow irons out of old swords, worked a sword into a sickle, turned
several horse-shoes, and performed several jobs on demand.
Mr. John Goodman, Jr., whitesmith, finished a complete pair of plyers,
a knife, and some machinery, with other work, on demand.
Messrs. Andrew Fessiuger and Benjamin Brummel forged, finished,
and sold a considerable number of spikes, nails, and broad tacks.
The whole was under the conduct of Messrs. Godfrey Gebbler, David
Henderson, George Goddard, Jacob Esler, Lewis Prahl, and Jacob Eck-
felt,and followed by two hundred brother blacksmiths, whitesmiths, and
nailers.
XLIX. Coach-Makers. — Preceded by Mr. John Bringhurst in a phaeton
drawn by two horses, and bearing a draft of a coach on a white silk flag.
L. Potters. — A flag, on which was neatly painted a kiln burning, and
several men at work in the different branches of the business. Motto,
" The potter hath power over his clay." A four-wheeled carriage, drawn
by two horses, on which was a potter's wheel and men at work ; a num-
ber of cups, bowls, mugs, etc., were made during the procession. The
carriage was followed by twenty potters, headed by Messrs. Christian
Piercy aDd Michael Gilbert, wearing linen aprons of American manu-
facture.
LI. Hatters.— Led by Mr. Andrew Tybout.
The standard, borne by Mr. John Gordon, viz.: On a white field a hat
in hand, on each side a tassel band; the crest, a beaver; motto, on a
crimson garter, in gold letters, "With the industry of tho beaver we
support our rights" ; followed by one hundred aud twenty-four hatters.
LII. Wheelivrights. — A stage drawn by two horses, with five men
working upon it, making a plow and a speed for a wagon wheel ; the
standard a blue flag; motto, " The united wheelwrights"; followed by
twenty-two of the trade, headed by Messrs. Conrad Rohrman and Nich-
olas Reb.
LTII. Tinplale Workers. — Preceded by Joseph Fineaur and Martin
Riser, carrying by turns a flag bearing the arms of the company properly
emblazoned ; followed by ten workmen in green aprons.
LIV. Skinners, Breeches-Malcers, and Glovers. — Headed by Messrs. John
Lisle and George Cooper, — one carrying in his hand a beaming-knife
and the other a pariug-lmife ; the standard, borne by Mr. Shreiner, viz. :
on one side a deer, and below it a glove ; on the other a golden fleece,
and below a pair of breeches; motto, " May our manufacture be equal
in its consumption to its usefulness" ; followed by flfty-eightof the trade
in buckskin breeches and gloves, and wearing bucks' tails in their hats.
To these Mr. Joseph Rogers, parchment and glue manufacturer, at-
tached himself.
LV. Tallow Chandlers. — Mr. Richard Porter, master ; two standards, —
first, the company's arms on a blue field, trimmed with white; three
doves with olive-branches; over the arms an angel bearing St. John
the Baptist's head ; on each side two blazing lamps ; motto, " Let your
light so shine." Second standard, a representation of a chandelier of
thirteen branches, a lighted candle in each, and thirteen silver stars in
a half circle ; inscription, " The stnrs of America a light to the world" ;
motto at the bottom of the chandelier, " United in one."
The uniform blue, and white cockades; blue aprons, bound with
white, aud a dove painted in the middle of each; a white rod, sur-
mounted by an olive-branch, in each person's hand, — twenty in number.
LVI. Victualers. — A flag, with this inscription : " The death of anarchy
and confusion shall feed the poor and hungry" ; two axemen preceding
two stately oxen, weighing three thousand pounds ; ten boys dressed in
white— five on the right and five on the left of the oxen, carrying small
flags with the names of the States that have ratified the Federal Con-
stitution ; two cleaver men ; a band of music.
GKOWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
451
Conductors, Messrs. Philip Hall, George Woelper, Philip Odenheimer,
and Conrad Hoff ; followed by eighty-six master victualed, all dressed
in white ; the oxen to be killed, the hides and tallow to be sold for bread
and given, with the meat, to the poor.
LYII. Printers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.— A stage nine feet square,
drawn by four horses; upon the stage the Federal printing press com-
plete ; cases, and other implements necessary to the business, by ten
printing offices united ; ou the stage men at work in the different
branches of the profession ; Mr. Durant, in the character of Mercury,
in a white dress, ornamented with red ribbons, having real wings affixed
to his head and feet and a garland of blue and red flowers round his
temples. During the procession the pressmen were at work, and struck
off many copies of the following ode, composed for the occasion by F.
Hopkinson, Esq.:
THE ODE.
Oh ! for a muse of fire to mount the skies,
And to a listening world proclaim:
Behold I behold an empire rise!
An era new, Time, as be flies,
Hath entered in the book of Fame.
On Alleghany's towering head
Echo shall stand — the tidings spread —
And o'er the lakes and misty floods around
An era new resound.
See where Columbia sits alone,
And from her star-bespangled throne
Beholds the gay procession move along,
And hears the trumpet and the choral songl
She hears her sons rejoice,
Looks into future times, and sees
The numerous blessings Heaven decrees,
And with her plaudit joins the general voice.
" 'Tis done 1 'tis done ! My sons," she cries,
*' In war are valiant, and in council wiBe.
Wisdom and valor shall my rights defend,
And o'er my vast domain those rights extend.
Science shall flourish ; Genius stretch her wing;
In native strains Columbia muses sing ;
Wealth crown the arts, and Justice clean her scales;
Commerce her ponderous anchor weigh,
Wide spread her sails,
And in far distant seas her flag display.
*' My sons for freedom fought, nor fought in vain,
But found a naked goddess was their gain ;
Good government alone can show the maid
In robes of social happiness arrayed."
Hail to this festival ! — all hail the day I
Columbia's standard ou her roof display I
And let the people's motto ever be,
" United thus, and, thus united, free!"
This ode, together with one in the German language, fitted to the
purpose, and printed by Mr. Stetner, were thrown amongst the people
as the procession moved along.
Mr. William Sellers, Si"., hearing the standard of the united profes-
sions, viz. : Azure, on a chevron argent, an American bald eagle volant,
between two reams of paper proper — between three Bibles closed proper
— in chief, perched on the point of the chevron, a dove with an olive-
branch, of the second. Supporters, two Fames, blowing their trumpets,
clothed with sky-blue flowing robes, spangled with stars argent. Crest,
a Bible displayed proper, on a wreath azure and argent. Under the es.
cotcbeon two pens placed saltiere ways proper. Motto, "We protect
and are supported by Liberty." After the standard, masters of the com-
bined professions, followed by journeymen and apprentices, each carry-
ing a scroll tied with blue silk binding, exhibiting the word "Typog-
rapher," illuminated by ten'stars in union, — fifty in the train.
LVIII. Saddlers. — A saddler's shop, dressed with saddlery and a variety
of ready-made work, elegant American plated furniture, etc., drawn by
two fine horses. In the shop Mr. Stephen Burrows and a number of
hands were at work, one of whom (having the different parts in readiness)
completed a neat saddle during the procession.
The standard carried by Messrs. Jehosaphat Polk and John Toung
was of green silk, with the company's arms elegantly painted and gilt.
Motto, "Our trust is in God." The company waB headed by Messrs.
John Stephens and John Marr. Mr. William Haley, silver-plater, joined
himself to this corps, carrying a Federal bit of his own workmanship.
LIX. Stone-Cutters.— Three apprentices before with tools, and two with
the orders of the operative lodge, one with the standard, in masons'
order, the rest followed with pieces of polished marble. Twenty in
number.
LX. Bread and Biscuit Bakers.— A. standard bearing the bread-bakers'
arms, properly emblazoned. Motto, "May our country never want
bread." Headed by Mr. George Mayer.
Biscuit-bakers' standard, a white flag with the representation of «■
bake-house and several hands working in the different branches of the
business. Motto, " May the Federal Government revive our trade."
Messrs. Thomas Hopkins and Matthias Landeuberger in front of twelve
masters. Messrs. John Peters, Sr., and William Eckart closed the rear,
each master carrying a small peel. The number of bakers in procession,
one hundred and thirty.
LXI. Gunsmiths. — A stage erected upon a four-wheel carriage, drawn
by four horses, being in length fourteen feet, and in breadth eight feet,
with a motto in large letters on each side, "Federal Armory," with a
number of hands thereon at work, employed in different branches of the
trade, conducted by two senior masters, viz. : John Nicholson and Joseph
Perkins, Abraham Morrow, bearing a standard at the head of the com-
pany, in rear of the carriage, the standard decorated with sundry devices,
representing the arms belonging to the trade.
LXII. Coppersmiths. — A car, fourteen by seven feet, drawn by four
horses, with three hands at work at fctills and tea-kettles, under the di-
rection of Mr. Benjamin Harbeson.
LXIII. Goldsmiths, Siloersmitlis, and Jewelers. — William Ball, Esq.,
senior member, with au urn.
Standard-bearers, Messrs. Joseph Gee and John Germaine, carrying a
silk flag with the silversmiths' arms on one side of it. Motto, " Justitia
Virtutnm Kegina." And on the reverse the Genius of America, holding
in her hand a silver urn, with the following motto : " The purity, bright-
ness, and solidity of tins metal is emblematical of that liberty which we
expect from (he new Constitution," her head surrounded by thirteen
stars, ten of them very brilliant, representing the States which have
ratified, two of them, less bright, representing New York and North
Carolina, whose ratifications are shortly expected.
LXIV. Distillers. — On a standard of light-blue silk a still, worm-tub,
and other implements of the business, neatly painted. The standard
borne by Mr. Michael Shubert, and followed by twelve distillers.
LXV. Tobacconists, headed by Mr. John Riley. The standard of white
silk, a tobacco-plant with thirteen leaves (ten in perfection, three leaves
not finished), a hogshead of tobacco on one side of the plant, a roll of
plug tobacco, bottle and bladder of snuff. Over the plant, on the other
side, are thirteen Btars, ten silvered and shining bright, the other three
not finished. Carried by Mr. Thomas Leiper. Motto, "Success to the
tobacco-plant." Each member with a green apron and blue strings, «
plume of the different kinds of tobacco-leaves in his hat, and different
tools of his profession in his hands. Conductors, Messrs. Hamilton, Few,
Stimble, and Murphy. Seventy in number.
LXVI. Brass Founders. — Mr. Daniel King, in a car drawn by four
gray horses, with emblematical colors, and a furnace in blast during the
whole procession. The motto of the colors. "In vain the earth her
treasure hides." The whole was executed by Mr, King, at his own
expense.
LXVII. Stocking manufacturers. — Headed by Mr. George Freytag,
thirty in number; their colors white, with a pair of blue stockings
across, a cap above, finger-mitt below, encircled with a gilded heart,
a gilded crown with ten horns or points ; on each a blue star. Above all,
motto, " The union of the American stocking manufacturers."
LXVIII. Tanners and Curriers. — Tanners twenty-five in number, led
by Mr. George Leib, carry the flag with the company's arms. Motto,
''God be with us." Curriers, led by Mr. George Oakley, carrying the
flag with the company's arms. Motto, "Spes nostra Deus," followed by
thirty-four of the trade, each carrying a cnrrying-knife, and wearing a
blue apron and jean coatee of our new manufactory.
LXIX. Upholsterers— Headed by Messrs. John Mason and John Davis.
In front a cushion, with its drapery, on which fluttered a dove with an
olive-branch in its mouth, and on its head a double scroll. Motto, " Be
Liberty thine," followed by a cabriole sofa decorated.
LXX. Sugar Refiners.— Conducted by the Hon. Christopher Kucher,
Capt. Jacob Lawerswyler, Messrs. Benjamin Panington, John Morgan,
David Miercken, Adam Cornman, and Henry Clause, wearing black
cockades, blue sashes, and white aprons with a blue standard, armB on
a gold field, the Cap of Liberty on a staff betweens two loaves of sugar.
Motto, " Double refined," in a blue field, thirteen stars ; crest, a lighted
452
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
canrile in a candlestick, on the foot the word " Proof," beneath " Ameri-
can manufactures," ornamented with sugar-canes; followed by thirty-
six with white aprons, on which were painted sugar loaves, marked ten,
and bearing the various implements of the business.
LXXI. Brewers.— Ten in number, headed by Reuben Haines, with
ten ears of barley in their hats, and sashes of hop- vines, carrying malt-
shovels and mashing-oars ; one dray loaded with malt and hops, and
one loaded with two hogsheads and a butt, marked "beer, ale, porter,"
with the followinginscription: "Proper drink for Americans." A stan-
dard carried by Luke Morris, decorated with the brewers1 arms. Motto,
*' Boms brew'd is best."
LXXII. Peruke- MaJcrs and Barber Surgeons. — Preceded by Messrs.
Perrie mid Trautwine, full dressed.
LXXIII. Engravers. — Their armorial insignias (occasionally devised)
were: Or on a chevron, engrailed gules (between a parallel ruler sabre,
barred and studded of the first, and two gravers saltor-ways azure,
handled at the third) : three plates ; the crest, a copper-plate on a sand-
bag proper, inscribed underneath, in large capitals, "Engravers."
LXXIV. Plasterers.
LXXV. Brush-Makers, — A white flag, with a wild boar, and a bundle
of bristles over him, the motto, " Federal bruBh manufactory." The
flag carried by Mr. Roger Flahaven, Jr.
LXXVI. Slay- Makers. — Represented by Mr. Francis Serre, with his
first journeyman carrying an elegant pair of ladies1 stuya.
LXXVII. Corps of light infantry, commanded by Captain Rees, with
the standard of the Second Regiment.
LXXVIII. The civil and military officers of Congress in the city.
LXXIX. The Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.
LXXX. The justices of the common pleas and the magistrates.
LXXXI. Sheriff and coroner, on horseback.
LXXXII. Board of city wardens.
City treasurer, and secretary to the board.
Clerks of the markets, with standard, weights, and measures.
Constable of the watch, with his two assistants, bearing their
Btaves.
Music.
Twenty watchmen, with their flams decorated, and in their proper
dress.
Twonty silent watchmen, with their staves.
Watchman, calling the hour, — " Ten o'clock, and a glorious starlight
morning I"
The hour and stars alluded to the ten States who have adopted the
Constitution.
LXXXIII. The street commissioners.
LXXXIV. The gentlemen of the bar, headed by the Hon. Edward
Shippen, Esq., president of the Common Fleas, and William Bradford,
Esq., Attorney-General, followed by the students of law.
LXXXV. The clergy of the different Christian denominations, with
the ralibi of the Jews, walking arm in arm.
LXXXVI. The College of Physicians, headed by their president, Dr.
John Rttdman, and fulluwed by tlie students in physic.
LXXXVII. Students of the University, headed by the vice-provost,
and of tlie Episcopal Academy, and most of the schools in the city, pre-
ceded by their respective principals, professors, masters, and tutors, a
small flag borne before them inscribed with these words: *' The risiDg
generation."
LXXX VIII. The county troop of light-horse, commanded by Maj. W.
MacPherson, brought up tlie rear of the whole.
Maj. Fnllerton attended the right wing, and Col. Mentges the left
wing of the line.
Messrs. Stoueburner, Hiltzheimer, and Jonathan Penrose furnished
and superintended the horses for the carriages.
This grand procession began to move from the place of rendezvous
about half-past nine (as was before mentioned), and the frontarrived at
Union Green, in front of Bush Hill, about hall-past twelve. The length
of the line was about one mile and a half, the distance marched through
about three miles. As the procession came into Fourth Street, Ca.pt.
David Zeigler and Lieut. John Armstrong had drawn up their company
of Continental troops, and saluted the procession as it passed, according
to military rule.
A very large circular range of tables, covered with canvas awnings,
and plentifully spread with a cold collation, had been prepan-d the day
before by the committee of provisions. In the centre of this spaciouB
circlo the Grand Edifice was placed, and the ship "Union" moored. The
flags of the consuls and other standards were planted round the Edifice.
As soon as the roar of the line had arrived, James Wilson, Esq., ad-
dressed the people from the Federal Edifice in an eloquent oration.
The several light companies were then drawn off by Capt. Heysham
to an eminence uearly opposite, where they fired a feu de joie of three
rounds, also three volleys, followed by three cheers, to testify their sat-
isfaction on this joyful occasion.
After the oration the company went to dinner. No spirit nor wines
of any kind were introduced. American porter, beer, and cider were
the only liquors. With these were drunk the following toasts, an-
nounced by the trumpet, and answered by a discharge of artillery, a
round of ten to each toast, and these were in like manner answered by a
discharge from the ship " Rising Sun," at her moorings.
TOASTS.
1. The people of the United States.
2. Honor and immortality to the members of the late Federal Conven-
tion.
3. Gen. Washington.
4. The King of Franco.
5. The United Netherlands.
6. The foreign Powers in alliance with the United States.
7. The agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the United States.
8. The heroes who have fallen in defense of our liberties.
9. May reason, and not the sword, hereafter decide all national dis-
putes.
10. The whole family of mankind.
It is impossible to be precise in numbers on such an occasion, but
averaging several opinions, there were about five thousand in line of
procession, and about seventeen thousand ou Union Green. The green
was entirely cleared by six o'clock in the evening, and the Edifice, ship,
and several machines being withdrawn, the citizens soberly retired to
their respective homes. The weather was remarkably favorable for the
season,— cloudy, without rain, and a brisk wind from the south during
the whole day. At night the ship " Rising Sun" was handsomely illu-
minated in houor of this great festival.
As the system of government (now fully ratified) has been the occa-
sion of much present joy, so may it prove a source of future blessing to
our country, and the glory of our rising empire.
Published by order.
FRANCTS HOPKINSON,
OJiairman of the Committee of Arrangement.
July 8, 1788.
The opposition to the Constitution did not cease
with its adoption. A few of the leading men in the
Anti- Federal party met in convention at Harrisburg
in September, with Blair McCIenachan as chairman
and John A. Hanna secretary, and adopted resolu-
tions declaring it expedient to acquiesce in the ratifi-
cation of the instrument, but urging that revision was
necessary. The convention then nominated a gen-
eral ticket for Congress, headed by Blair McCIena-
chan and Charles Pettit. The action of the Harris-
burg convention was severely citicised by those
friendly to the Constitution, and the nominees for
Congress were opposed on the ground that they were
Anti-Federalists, and that the power to enforce the
new Federal system ought not to be committed to its
avowed opponents. It was determined to cail a new
convention at Lancaster, and a town-meeting was
held at the State-House on the 25th of October, with
Col. Miles in the chair, at which the names of Thomas
Fitzsimons, George Clymer, Henry Hill, Hilary
Baker, William Bingham, and John M. K"esbitt were
agreed upon as those of six gentlemen suitable to
represent the city and county of Philadelphia, from
whom the choice of two was made. Walter Stew-
art, Thomas Mifflin, Philip Wager, James Wilson,
Samuel Howell, Sr., and Thomas McKean were sug-
gested as suitable for electors of President and Vice-
President. The Lancaster conference selected Fitz-
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FEOM 1784 TO 1794.
453
simons and Clymer for the Congressional ticket, and
James Wilson as the representative of Philadelphia
on the electoral ticket. At the election of members
of Congress, in November, in the city and county,
Fitzsimons had 2478 votes, Clymer 2468, McClenachan
575, and Pettit 687. In the State six of the nominees
on the Federal ticket were elected, and two (David
Muhlenberg, of Montgomery, and Daniel Heister, of
Berks), who, although Federalists, had, with two
others of the same politics, been placed as a matter of
policy on the opposition ticket.
The feeling in opposition to slavery continued to
grow in Philadelphia, and in 1788 the Pennsylvania
Society for the Abolition of Slavery was under full
headway and doing effective work. The condition of
American citizens captured by the Algerine pirates
appealed most forcibly to the society, which appointed
a committee to collect information in relation to the
captives and to suggest some means of relieving them.
About the same time the Society of Friends com-
plained to the Legislature that the law providing for
the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania had
been evaded by various persons, who had shipped
their slaves to West India islands and sold them. An
investigation was ordered by the Assembly, and the
committee to whom the matter was referred reported
that vessels had been fitted out at Philadelphia " pro-
vided with handcuffs and military implements, in
order to stir up the. princes of Africa to wage war
against each other, and for the support and encour-
agement of an unrighteous traffic in human flesh."
The act against slavery was declared to be defective,
in that it did not prohibit the owners of slaves from
selling them from their wives, husbands, parents, or
children into distant parts or foreign countries, and
there was no punishment for stealing slaves, and no
security that those negroes who would become free
at twenty-eight years of age might not be sent away
from the State before that time and sold. A new bill,
covering these defects, was accordingly prepared, and
passed by the Assembly on the 29th of March. This
act also contained the important provision that slaves
brought into Pennsylvania by citizens of the State
should at dnce become free, and that those brought
by citizens of other States, with the intention of
becoming permanent residents, should also be free.
Gen. Washington's birthday was officially cele-
brated in Philadelphia for the first time in 1788 by
salutes of artillery, the powder used on this occasion
being paid for by the Supreme Executive Council.
Owing to the escape in October of thirty-three pris-
oners from Walnut Street jail, most of whom evaded
recapture, and nearly all of whom were daring crimi-
nals, there was an unusual number of highway rob-
beries and burglaries during the remainder of the
year. The marauders finally became so bold that
it was found necessary to employ Col. Shee's light
infantry battalion as a night patrol for several weeks.
The criminal record for the year 1788 was also marked
by the execution on the 24th of September, on the
commons near the city, of Levi and Abraham Doane,
members of a noted family of Tories which lived in
Bucks County, and was the terror of that section of
the State. They were charged with a long catalogue
of crimes, — murder, rape, arson, highway robbery, and
other offenses. On the 8th of April, 1783, the Legis-
lature passed an act setting a price upon their heads.
Joseph Doane, the younger, was shot and killed in
Bucks County in 1783. Moses was captured and exe-
cuted in the same year, and the hanging of Levi and
Abraham at Philadelphia left but two brothers,
against whom the sentence of outlawry had been
pronounced, Mahlon and Eleazar.
In order to provide more effectually for the regula-
tion of the port of Philadelphia, the Assembly, on the
4th of October, passed an act directing the Supreme
Executive Council to appoint seven wardens of the
port. These officers, who were required to meet every
month, had power to license three classes of pilots.
The first class was to be composed of those who had
served four years' apprenticeship. The second class
were apprentices of three years, and the third class of
two years of service. Power to make a code or regu-
lations for the pilots was given to the board of war-
dens. It was provided that tonnage fees should be
paid by ship-builders, one-fourth of which were to be
applied to " The Society for the Relief of Widows
of Decayed Pilots." The board also had authority to
regulate the building and extension of wharves, to
regulate fees for wharfage, to regulate the anchorage
of vessels, to have jurisdiction in matters of collision,
and to have general authority over all questions con-
nected with the interests of the port. The original
members of the board were Joseph Dean, Nathaniel
Falconer, Samuel Caldwell, Joseph Irvine, Elias
Boys, Robert Buisley, and Francis Gurney.
Southwark again received the attention of the As-
sembly this year, and an act was passed authorizing
the election of regulators and supervisors. To the
latter was given authority to dig wells and establish
pumps for public use, and to regulate, pitch, pave,
light, and provide for watching the streets. William
Leonard, Silas Engle, and William Williams were
elected regulators, and Samuel Church, William Mc-
Mullen, and John Cornish supervisors.
The first election for President of the United States
was held in Philadelphia in January, 1789. In Phil-
adelphia the Federal ticket for electors, headed by
James Wilson, was successful, as was the case through-
out the State. The birthday of Washington, who was
chosen the first President of the new republic, was
celebrated with more than ordinary iclat. Bells were
rung and a salute of thirteen guns was fired by Capt.
Fisher's company of artillery, which also paraded.
After the parade the company had a dinner, at which
thirteen toasts were drank. On the 4th of March,
Fisher's company paraded again in honor of the
inauguration of the new government. President
454
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Washington set out from Mount Vernon for New
York, where Congress was in session, in April, after
having been officially notified of his election. Elab-
orate preparations were made for his reception in
Philadelphia. On the 20th of April, Hon. Thomas
Mifflin, President of the State, Richard Peters, Speaker
of the Assembly, and the city troops of horse, com-
manded by Capts. Miles and Bingham, received the
President at the boundary line of the State of Dela-
ware. After a military salute he was escorted to Ches-
ter, where breakfast was prepared. Washington would
have avoided these testimonials if he could have done
so, but finding it impossible to do so he yielded to the
necessity, and ordering his traveling carriage to the
rear of the line of procession, mounted a charger which
was in readiness. Other detachments of troops joined
the cavalcade, together with many citizens, so that
when the company reached Gray's Ferry the number
attending it was quite large. At this point every
preparation had been made which it was thought
would render the passage of the floating bridge at
this place striking to the eye and gratifying to
Washington. The bridge was spanned at the east-
ern and western ends with large arches formed of
laurel. Upon each side of the bridge laurel shrub-
berry was thickly set in hedge-like order, so that
the passage over the water seemed like a journey
along a green lane. On the north side of the
bridge were ranged eleven flags inscribed with the
names of the eleven States which had at that time
ratified the Constitution. At the southwest corner of
the bridge was placed a large white flag bearing as a
device a rising sun more than half above the horizon ;
motto, " The Rising Empire." On the northwest
corner a blue flag, which had been hoisted in the East
Indies by Capt. Bell as a Pennsylvania State ensign,
bore the inscription, "The New Era." In the centre
of the bridge, on the south side, the American flag
fluttered in the breeze. At the northeast corner a
high pole bore a striped liberty cap ornamented with
stars, beneath which a blue flag bore as a device a
rattlesnake, with the motto, " Don't tread on me !"
At the northeast corner a white flag, displaying em-
blems of trade and commerce, bore the motto, " May
commerce flourish." In the river were boats gayly
adorned with ensigns, among which was what was
then a novelty, an American jack which bore eleven
stars. Upon the ferry-house a large signal flag served
to warn the thousands of persons who were assembled
upon the commons near the city of the approach of
the distinguished guest. The procession came down
the hill at Gray's Ferry in due order, and just as the
carriage of the President was under the western arch
a laurel wreath, which had beeu suspended in its
centre, was lowered by a child clad in white and
girdled and adorned with laurel. The emblem rested
on Washington's brow, and as it did so the assem-
blage burst forth into a mighty shout. The proces-
sion then passed on to the city, and on the commons
was received by the infantry battalion, commanded
by Capt. James Rees, and the artillery, Capt. Jere-
miah Fisher, the whole being subject to the orders of
Maj. Fullerton. After the line had passed the citi-
zens fell in rank by rank, swelling the attendance,
before the head of the procession reached the city, to
a great number. Gen. Washington was conducted to
the City Tavern, in Second Street, above Walnut,
where a banquet had been prepared by the citizens.
Fourteen regular toasts were drunk, among which
were : " His Most Christian Majesty, our great and
good ally," "His Catholic Majesty," "The United
Netherlands," and " May those who have opposed
the new Constitution be converts by the experience of
its happy effects." Previous to the departure of Wash-
ington addresses were delivered to him by the Presi-
dent and the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsyl-
vania, the mayor, recorder, aldermen, and Common
Council of the city, the judges of the Supreme Court
of Pennsylvania, the trustees and the faculty of the
University of Pennsylvania, and the State Society of
the Cincinnati. To these compliments appropriate
replies were made. The next day Gen. Washington
set out for Trenton in his traveling carriage, having,
on account of inclement weather, declined the escort
of the First City Troop. A week afterward the Presi-
dent's wife arrived in Philadelphia upon her way to
New York, where she intended to join her husband.
She was received near Darby by a number of ladies
and gentlemen. A collation was served at Gray's
Ferry, and the visitor was escorted to the residence
of Robert Morris by Mile's and Bingham's troops of
light-horse, amid the ringing of bells and the dis-
charge of salvos of artillery. On the following Mon-
day she was similarly complimented upon her de-
parture for New York, and was escorted upon her way
for a considerable distance.
The Federal officers for Philadelphia appointed by
the new administration were Sharpe Delaney, collector
of the port; Frederick Phile, naval officer; William
Macpherson, surveyor. The custom-house was at the
corner of Walnut and Second Streets. Robert Patton
was postmaster, and the post-office was at No. 36 South
Front Street. The judge of the District Court was
Francis Hopkinson ; the district attorney, William
Lewis ; and the marshal, Clement Biddle.
The arguments which had been successfully urged
against the adoption of a new State Constitution and
the reincorporation of the city had now become obso-
lete, and both those important measures were success-
fully consummated during the year. On the 24th of
March the Assembly adopted resolutions recommend-
ing that delegates be chosen at the usual time for the
election of State officers to a convention which should
be charged with forming a new Constitution for the
State. The Supreme Executive Council was requested
to promulgate the action of the Assembly, but refused
to comply with the request. An organization known
as the Republican Society, and composed of such
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
455
reputable citizens as Benjamin Rush, George Cly-
mer, John Cadwalader, John Nixon, Thomas Fitz-
siraons, Thomas Mifflin, Francis Hopkinson, Robert
Morris, George Ross, and about seventy others, stren-
uously urged the proposed revision of the Constitu-
tion of 1776. The Assembly proceeded cautiously ;
the Supreme Council, on the other hand, resisted the
tendency towards reform. In September the Assem-
bly adopted resolutions in favor of calling the con-
vention, and at the general election in October dele-
gates were chosen. James Wilson and Hilary Baker
were elected from the city; Thomas Mifflin, George
Gray, William Robinson, Jr., Robert Hare, and
Enoch Edwards from the county of Philadelphia.
The convention met on the fourth Tuesday of No-
vember, and elected Thomas Mifflin president, but it
was not until Sept. 2, 1790, that the Constitution
framed by it was adopted. In the new form of gov-
ernment a number of radical departures were made
from the old system. The Supreme Executive Coun-
cil was abolished and a Senate created. The chief
executive was to be known as Governor instead of
President. The Council of Censors was dispensed
with, and in all important matters the new Constitu-
tion conformed to the system adopted for administer-
ing the general government.
There was now but little opposition to the reincor-
poration of Philadelphia, experience having fully
demonstrated the necessity for a strong municipal
government. On the 11th of March, 1789, "An Act
to incorporate the city of Philadelphia" was finally
passed. In the preamble it was declared that " the
administration of government within the city of
Philadelphia is, in its present form, inadequate to
the suppression of vice and immorality, to the ad-
vancement of the public health and order, and to the
promotion of trade, industry, and happiness;" and
that " in order to provide against the evils occasioned
thereby it is necessary to invest the inhabitants
thereof with more speedy, vigorous, and effective pow-
ers of government than are at present established."
Accordingly the inhabitants of the city within the
boundaries between Vine and Cedar Streets, and
from Delaware to Schuylkill, were constituted a cor-
poration and body politic in fact and in law by the
name and style of "The Mayor, Aldermen, and Citi-
zens of Philadelphia." The freeholders were directed
to elect, on the first Tuesday in April ensuing, and
every seven years thereafter, fifteen persons to
serve as aldermen for seven years. The common
councilmen, thirty in number, were to be chosen
for three years, and were all to be elected at the
same time. The mayor was to be elected by the fif-
teen aldermen from among their own number, and
to hold his office for one year. The recorder was
chosen by the mayor and aldermen from among the
freemen of the city, and held his office for seven
years. The mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common
councilmen constituted the law-making power when
assembled in Common Council. To the mayor, re-
corder, and aldermen were granted the powers of jus-
tices of the peace. The mayor, recorder, and alder-
men, or any four of them, whereof the mayor or
recorder was always to be one, had authority con-
ferred upon them to inquire of, hear, try, and deter-
mine, according to the laws and constitutions of the
commonwealth, all larcenies, forgeries, perjuries, as-
saults and batteries, riots, routs, and unlawful assem-
blies, and all other offenses committed in the city
usually cognizable in any county Court of Quarter
Sessions. To this tribunal was given the title of
" The Mayor's Court for the City of Philadelphia,"
holding four terms yearly. Writ of error laid from
the Mayor's Court to the Supreme Court, and the
mayor and recorder might issue writs of capias for
the arrest of offenders who had escaped or removed
into any county of the commonwealth. There was
also established a tribunal called "The Aldermen's
Court," to be composed of three aldermen designated
by the mayor and recorder during four terms in the
year. This court had power to try and determine in
a summary way all matters usually cognizable before
justices of the peace, where the debt or demand
amounted to forty shillings, and did not exceed ten
pounds. The mayor and aldermen were also each
given, individually, authority to determine sum-
marily debts under forty shillings, in the same man-
ner as justices of the peace, and the office of justice
of the peace for the city was abolished. The Mayor's
Court superseded " the City Court," and became the
custodian of the records of the latter. The offices of
wardens of the city and street commissioners were
abolished. The new corporation had authority to
license brokers, and to appoint one or more clerks of
the market, to have assize of bread, wine, beer, wood,
and other things within the city. All the property,
real and personal, and the rights aud franchises of
the late corporation known as " The Mayor and Com-
monalty of the City of Philadelphia" were trans-
ferred to the new corporation.
The act was soon found to be defective in that it
left the authority of taxation for municipal purposes in
the position it occupied under former laws, and as
the power was difficult of execution in that way, a
supplement to the charter was passed on the 2d of
April, 1790, by which the Common Council was given
power to raise and levy taxes " upon the persons of
single men, and upon the estates, real and personal,
of the inhabitants, for the purposes of lighting, watch-
ing, watering, pitching, paving, and cleansing the
streets, lanes, and alleys of the city;" also was
granted full power to regulate the rates and prices
to be demanded and received by wagoners, carters,
draymen, porters, wood-sawyers, and chimney-sweep-
ers.1 In April fifteen aldermen and thirty common
1 Some of the inhabitants of the Northern Liberties, residing below
Pegg'e Run and east of Sixth Street, were anxious tu become residents
456
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
councilmen were elected by the citizens in accord-
ance with the terms of the charter. The aldermen
thus chosen were Samuel Miles, Hilary Baker, Sam-
uel Powell, William Colliday, Joseph Swift, John
Barclay, Francis Hopkinson, Matthew Clarkson,
Gunning Bedford, John Baker, Reynold Keen, John
Nixon, Joseph Ball, George Roberts, John M. Nes-
bitt. The common councilmen were Benjamin Chew,
James Pemberton, George Latimer, Miers Fisher,
John Wood, David Evans, John Craig, James White-
all, John Morton, John Wharton, George Mead, John
D. Coxe, Andrew Tybout, William Wells, Thomas
Bartow, Henry Drinker, Nathaniel Falconer, Jacob
Shriner, Edward Pennington, Frederick Kuril, Isaac
Morton, Thomas Morris, Jared Ingersoll, William
Van Phul, John Kaighn, Israel Wheeler, John Stille,
Robert Smith, John Dunlap, and William Hall.
The aldermen elected Samuel Powell mayor, and
Alexander Wilcocks recorder. A new coat of arms
was chosen for the city. The ship and balance were
taken from the old seal of the city, and the plow
from the arms of the Commonwealth. To support
these, two female figures were adopted. The one em-
blematic of plenty is in possession of the cornucopia,
from which the fruity treasures are lavishly strewn ;
the other, which perhaps personifies the city, holds in
one hand a ground plan of a town, upon which is
laid out streets and squares. The crest is a bare arm
holding scales.
Comparatively little was done by the aldermen and
Common Council during the first year of the, new
corporation. In May they resolved to carry out the
provisions of the act of Assembly authorizing a lot-
tery to raise money for building a city hall, and ap-
pointed managers to conduct it. Four-fifths of the
proceeds was to go to the city and one-fifth to Dick-
inson College at Carlisle. A new ordinance was also
passed extending the market in High (now Market)
Street to Fourth Street, and providing rules for con-
ducting it. Wednesdays and Saturdays were fixed as
market clays. Besides the principal streets, Front,
Second, Third, and Fourth, from Mulberry to Chest-
nut Streets, and Strawberry Alley, Elbow Lane, Le-
titia Court, and Church Alley were appropriated for
market purposes. Chains were ordered to be put
across the streets during market hours to prevent the
intrusion of horses and carriages. Besides the ac-
commodations for venders of meats, vegetables, and
farm produce, stands were provided in the market
streets for porters, drays, venders of fresh fish, manu-
facturers of baskets and cedanvare, venders of hosiery
and " home-made articles," and of roots, vegetables,
and garden seeds. The Second Street market was to be
held on Tuesdays and Fridays, the regulations being
similar to those of the large one on High Street.
of the new city, nnd petitioned the Assembly for that purpose. Remon-
strances were received against the measure from other inhabitants of
the Northern Liberties, and nothing was therefore done in the busi-
ness.
After many years of comparatively fruitless agita-
tion, the opponents of the test laws succeeded at last
in 1789 in securing their repeal. The committee to
whom the subject was referred in the Assembly re-
ported that, however proper and salutary they may
have been during the war, it appeared to them that
in times of peace and well-established government
they were " not only useless, but highly pernicious
by disqualifying a large body of the people from ex-
ercising many necessary offices, and throwing the
whole burden thereof on others, and also by aliena-
ting the affections of tender though perhaps mistaken
minds from a government which, by its invidious
distinctions, the}' are led to consider as hostile to their
peace and happiness." In accordance with the rec-
ommendation of the committee a bill was passed re-
pealing all laws requiring any oath or affirmation of
allegiance from the inhabitants of the State. Dis-
franchised persons were restored to citizenship, and
foreigners alone were required to take an oath of al-
legiance before exercising the privileges of a citizen.
The action of the Assembly in depriving the old col-
lege of its charter on account of the Tory proclivities
of some of the trustees and officers was also annulled.
On the 6th of March an act was passed repealing
that part of the act creating the University of Penn-
sylvania which deprived the college of its franchises
and conferred them upon the university. The latter,
which continued as a separate institution, was com-
pelled to give up the college building, on Fourth
Street below Arch, and other real estate belonging
to the old institution. Philosophical Hall, on Fifth
Street, was secured by the university, which, while
its new quarters were being fitted up, occupied the
lodge room in Lodge Alley. It soon became evident
that the two institutions could not be sustained in a
flourishing condition, and a proposition for union
having been made by the university, which was ac-
cepted by the college, the two corporations applied
to the Legislature for an act of consolidation, which
was granted on the 30th of September, 1791, uniting
the institutions under the name of the University of
Pennsylvania.
The evil consequences of the provisions in the
penal laws compelling the employment of convicts
in the streets had now become so apparent that the
citizens began to urge upon the Assembly the advisa-
bility of repealing them. Theopposition wasstrength-
ened by incidents that occurred during the year
1789. On Sunday, January 11th, a number of" wheel-
barrow men," confined in the jail, endeavored to es-
cape by digging away the foundations. Discovered
in the act, they were fired upon by the guard, and two
or three of them fatally wounded. In March the
jailer, Reynolds, and a turnkey were seized by twenty-
two convicts, who robbed them of their watches,
money, and hats, and the keys of the prison, and
thrust them into a dungeon. They then attempted
to escape, and six of them got out before the true
GROWTH OP PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
457
state of affairs was discovered by the other keepers.
One of the convicts, William Cole, after his escape
committed two burglaries and three highway robber-
ies, and having been captured and convicted under
the new penal law, which prescribed death as the
penalty for a second felony, was hanged on the 29th
of July on the common. On the 18th of September
five wheelbarrow men, who had been at work in the
vicinity of Centre Square, having discovered that two
brothers named McFarland, who were drovers, living
on the south side of Market Street above Thirteenth,
had a considerable sum of money in their possession,
formed a plot to rob them. That night they escaped
from the jail, and, accompanied by the wife of one of
their number, a man named Logan, proceeded to the
house in which the McFarlands lived. Their demand
for admission was refused by the two brothers, who
made an ineffectual resistance. Having forced their
way in, the convicts killed one of the McFarlands,
but in the m&lee the light they had brought with them
was extinguished, and the other brother escaped.
They then plundered the house, obtaining about two
thousand dollars, after which they left. All of them
were subsequently arrested, and the five men — Cro-
nan, Burns, Bennett, Logan, and Ferguson — were
hanged at Centre Square. The woman, who had
been condemned to death with the others, was either
pardoned or had her sentence commuted. This fear-
ful crime, together with the disturbances which had
preceded it, led to the abandonment of the practice
of employing convicts in the streets.
As early as February a petition had been presented
to the Assembly in which the system was character-
ized as pernicious, and the request was made that the
statute be repealed or that the practical operation of
the law be rendered less dangerous to the lives and
properties of citizens. In March a committee of the
Assembly reported against "the present plan of em-
ploying felon convicts as being highly pernicious to
society," and recommended that the necessary altera-
tions should be made in the Walnut Street prison, in
order that felons convicted of offenses not capital
might be employed. It was also suggested that the
workhouse on Prune Street, or so much of it as was
necessary, with the benefit of the east yard, should
be used as the jail for the confinement of debtors and
persons charged with or convicted of misdemeanors,
in order that their morals might not be corrupted by a
communication with felons. In accordance with these
recommendations an act to amend the act for the
amendment of the penal laws was passed, as was one
to prevent the importation of convicts into the State,
which rendered any person convicted of the latter
offense liable to an imprisonment for three months
and a fine of fifty pounds. The penal laws were
amended still further in the following year. On the
13th of March the Assembly passed an act providing
that prisoners condemned to labor should be confined
in Walnut Street prison in solitary cells or apartments
under the inspection of keepers by day and watch-
men at night. The construction of additional cells
was authorized, and it was provided that female con-
victs should be kept separate from the males. The
workhouse building was set apart for debtors. One
of the clauses provided that convicts who, after hav-
ing escaped or been pardoned, committed offenses
which would have rendered them liable to capital
punishment before the passage of the law, should be
liable to the same punishment as if the act had never
been passed.
On the evening of Saturday, April 17, 1790, oc-
curred the death of Benjamin Franklin, who, after
serving as president of the Supreme Executive Coun-
cil from Oct. 18, 1785, to Oct. 14, 1788, had been living
in comparative retirement. During his long resi-
dence abroad as the diplomatic agent of the revolted
colonies he had been kept too busy to give much at-
tention to matters at home, but immediately after his
return to Philadelphia, as we have seen, he was elected
chief executive of the State. It was with a glad and
grateful heart that he settled down to the enjoyment
of that repose which he had coveted so long. In a
letter to a friend he wrote, " I am now in the bosom
of my family, and find four new little prattlers who
cling about the knees of their grandpapa, and afford
me great pleasure. I am surrounded by my friends
and have an affectionate, good daughter and son-
in-law to take care of me. I have got into my
niche, a very good house which I built twenty-four
years ago, and out of which I have been kept ever
since by foreign employments." But his public ca-
reer was not yet ended. As president of the Execu-
tive Council and member of the convention which
framed the Federal Constitution, he was called upon
to discharge many important and arduous duties, and
it was not until 1788, when he was over eighty years
of age, that he was able to enjoy to their full extent
the comforts of his quiet home in Philadelphia. But
never satisfied unless he was at work, Franklin utilized
his leisure by employing his tongue and pen in behalf
of various projects for the public good ; and, revert-
ing to the occupation of his younger days, had a
small printing-press set up in his room, with which
he amused himself. Here at last, at the age of more
than eighty-four years, he quietly expired. " For my
personal ease," he had written to Washington in the
previous year, " I should have died two years ago, but
though those two years have been spent in excruci-
ating pain I am glad to have lived them, since I can
look upon our present situation.''
On Wednesday, April 21st, the remains of the phi-
losopher and statesman were interred in Christ Church
burying-ground, at the corner of Fifth and Arch
Streets. The funeral procession attracted an immense
concourse of spectators, estimated to have numbered
more than twenty thousand, and during its progress
through the streets bells were tolled and minute-guns
fired. It was headed by the clergy of the city, in-
458
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
eluding the reader of the Hebrew congregation, and
comprised the Supreme Executive Council, the Gen-
eral Assembly of the State, the judges of the Supreme
Court, members of the bar, the corporation of the
city, the printers of the city with their journeymen
and apprentices, the Philosophical Society, the Col-
lege of Physicians, the faculty and students of the
College of Philadelphia, and various other societies,
besides a large number of citizens. The pall-bearers
were Hon. Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylva-
nia, Chief Justice McKean, Thomas Willing, presi-
dent of the Bank of North America, Samuel Powell,
mayor of Philadelphia, William Bingham, and David
Rittenhouse. Franklin's body was deposited beside
that of his wife, near the northern wall of the burying-
ground. A plain slab with the simple inscription,
" Benjamin and Deborah Franklin, 1790," was placed
to mark his grave. Distinguished honors were paid to
his memory by important bodies.
In Congress, Madison offered a reso-
lution, which was adopted, declaring
that " Benjamin Franklin was a cit-
izen whose native genius was not
more an ornament to human nature
than his various exertions of it have
been precious to science, to freedom,
and to his country." The members
also resolved to wear mourning for
one month. Similar resolutions were
adopted by the Supreme Executive
Council and the American Philo-
sophical Society; the latter organi-
zation deciding that one of its mem-
bers should be appointed " to pre-
pare and pronounce an oration com-
memorative of the character and
virtues of our late worthy president,
Dr. Benjamin Franklin." In France
the news of Franklin's death elicited
the most extraordinary demonstra-
tions of respect. Mirabeau an-
nounced the fact to the National
Assembly in a eulogium, in which
he described Franklin as " the sage
whom two worlds claim, the man
whom the history of empires and
the history of science alike contend
for." At Mirabeau's suggestion,
seconded by Rochefoucauld and La-
fayette, the Assembly decided to
go into mourning for three days.
Funeral honors were paid at the
Halle au Bled by order of the Com-
mune of Paris. The building was
hung with black, a sarcophagus was
erected, and from a pulpit construct-
ed for the occasion the Abbe Fauchet
delivered an oration, of which
twenty-six copies were sent to the
United States. At the Cafe Principe
many " friends of liberty" assem-
bled, and after they had erected a
mausoleum in honor of Franklin,
one of their number pronounced a
tribute to his memory. A society of printers met in
the Hall of the Cordeliers, and gathered around a
bust of Franklin, elevated on a pedestal and wearing
a civic crown. A printing-press was near, and while
an apprentice was pronouncing a eulogy, the composi-
tors and others were printing and distributing copies
to the persons present.
Franklin bequeathed £1000, or $4444.44, to the city
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
459
of Philadelphia, for the purpose of extending aid in
the shape of loans " to such young married artificers,
under the age of twenty-five years, as have served an
apprenticeship in the city, and faithfully fulfilled the
duties required by their indentures.'' Bond was to
be given with two sureties for the return of the money
borrowed, and no sum greater than sixty pounds was
to be loaned to any one person ; the loan to be repaid
in sums of one-tenth per annum with interest, the
money when returned to be lent out to fresh borrowers.
" I have considered," said Franklin, in
his will, "that among artisans good ap-
prentices are most likely to make good
citizens, and having myself been bred
to a manual art (printing) in my native
town, and afterwards assisted to set up
my business in Philadelphia by kind
loans of money from two friends there,
which was the foundation of my for-
tune and of all my utility in life that
may be ascribed to me, I wish to be
useful even after my death, if possible,
in forming and advancing other young
men that may be serviceable to their
country."
He calculated that at the expiration
of one hundred years this fund, if care-
fully managed, would amount to £131,-
000 sterling, or $581,640, of which he
recommended that £100,000 be applied
to bringing the waters of Wissahickon
Oreek into Philadelphia and for the
improvement of the navigation of the
Schuylkill River. The balance, £31,-
000, was to be loaned out as before for
another century, at the end of which
he supposed it would amount to £4,061,-
000, or more than $17,000,000, which,
according to his directions, was to be
divided between the city of Philadel-
phia and the State of Pennsylvania.
Owing to failures to repay the amounts
borrowed and the worthlessness of sure-
ties, the fund has not realized the ex-
pectations of Franklin, and at the ex-
piration of the first hundred years will
fall far short of the sum he anticipated.1
The republication of the " Encyclo-
paedia Britannica," the greatest literary
enterprise that had yet been undertaken in Philadel-
phia, was commenced in the year of Franklin's death,
1 Franklin's home and occupations just before his death are thuB de-
scribed by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, of Hamilton Church, Essex Co., Mass.,
who visited him about that time:
"Dr. Franklin lives in Market Street. Hi'b house stands up a court-
yard, at some distance from the Btreet. We (Mr. Gerry, of Massachu-
setts, and Dr. Cutler) found him sitting upon a grass-plat, under a very
large mulberry-tree, with Beveral other gentlemen and two or three
ladies. There was no curiosity in Philadelphia which I felt so anxious
to see as this great mau, who has been the wonder of Europe, as well as
by Thomas Dobson, " at the Stone-house," in Second
Street above Chestnut. The work with the supple-
ment, twenty-one volumes, was completed in 1803.
When the first half-volume was printed, in 1790, there
were but two hundred and forty-six subscribers, and
only two or three engravers could be procured. Of
the first volume one thousand copies were printed,
and these having been exhausted when the eighth
volume was published, a new edition of the first vol-
ume was rendered necessary.
In undertaking a work of such magni-
v r- tude in a country impoverished by war,
and whose educated class was compara-
tively small, Dobson exhibited a spirit
and courage worthy of the
highest praise. He was not
aloue, however, in this re-
spect. During the same
year John Churchman, who
had invented
variation
charts or
Ilk. maps of
' -,&■*
GRAVE OF BENJAMIN AND DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
all the northern hemispheres to show the variations of
the magnetic needle/' petitioned the Assembly for as-
the pride of America. But a man who Btood liigh in the literary world,
and who had spent so many years in the courts of kings, particularly!!!
the refined court of France, I conceived would not be of very easy ac-
cess, and must certainly have much of the air of grandeur and majesty
about him. Common folks must expect only to gaze at bini at a dis-
tance, and answer suoh questions as he might please to ask. In short,
when I entered his house I felt as if I was suing to be introduced into
the presence of an European monarch. But how were my ideas changed
when I saw a short, fat, trunched old man, in a plain Quaker dress, bald
460
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
sistance, and a committee reported in favor of subscrib-
ing for a number of copies, — an incident showing that
the enterprise of publishers was not lacking in sub-
stantial recognition. TheState and municipal authori-
pate, and short white locks, sitting, without his hat, under the tree, and,
as Mr. Gerry introduced me, rose from his chair, took me V>y the hand,
expressed his joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the city, and begged me
to seat myself close to him. His voice was low, hut his countenance
open, frank, and pleasing.
****** !-***
"After it was dark we went into the house, and the doctor invited me
into his library, which is likewise his study. It is a very large chamber,
and high. The walls are covered with book-shelves filled with books.
Besides, there are four alcoves, extending two-thirds of the length of
the chamber, filled in the same manner. I presume this is the largest,
and by far the best, private library in America. He showed a glass ma-
chine for exhibiting the circulation of the blood in the arteries and
veins of the human body. . . . Another great curiosity was a rolling-
press, for taking copies of letters or any other writing. A sheet of
paper is completely copied in two minutes. . . . He also showed me his
long artificial arm and hand, for taking down and putting up hooks on
high shelves; and his great arm-chair, with rockers, and a large fan
placed over it, with which he fans himself and keeps off the flies, while
he sits reading, with only a small motion of the foot. He showed me
many other curiosities and inventions, all his own, but of lesser note.
. . . Tbe doctor seemed extremely fond of dwelling on philosophical
BubjectB, particularly natural history, while the other gentlemen were
swallowed up with politics. . . . Notwithstanding his age (eighty-four),
his manners are perfectly easy, and everything about liim seems to dif-
fuse an unrestrained freedom and happiness. He has an incessantvein
of humor, accompanied with an uncommon vivacity, which seems as
natural and involuntary as his breathing."
The late Robert Carr, of Philadelphia, in a letter to J. A. McAllister,
May 25, 18G4, also relates some interesting reminiscences of the hitter
years of Franklin's life in Philadelphia. As a school-boy Mr. Carr had
been the playmate of Franklin's two youngest grandsons. "The doc-
tor's mausion-house," he writes, " was in the centre of a lot of ground,
midway between Third and Fourth Streets, about one hundred feet wide,
and extending from Market to Chestnut Street. A court or alley, ten
feet wide, called Franklin Court, extended from Market Street to the
rear of the house, which was built with the front towards Chestnut
Street; but some time after it was erected it was discovered that the title
to the front of the lot on Chestnut Street was defective, and the doctor,
rather than engage in a litigation or pay an exorbitant price demanded
by the claim-suit of the lot, abandoned it, and used the Maiket Street
avenue. (This fact I heard Mr. B. F. Bache, his grandson, relate to Mr.
Volney, the traveler, who inquired why the doctor had built his house
fronting the south, to which Iib had no outlet.)
"The mansion-house was a plain brick building, three stories high,
about forty feet front and thirty feet deep, with an entry through the
centre. There was a large parlor on the east side of the entry and two
rooms on the west side, with a door between them. The kitchen was in
the basement, with an ice-house under It. The doctor's office or study
was the 1101 tbwest room on the first floor, and there was a coal-grate, in
which he burned Virginia or English coal. Below this grate, on the
hearth, there was a small iron plate, or trup-door, about five or six
inches square, with a hinge and a small ring to raise it by. When this
door or valve was raised, a current of air from the collar rushed up
through the grate to enkindle the fire.
"The doctor's bed-chumbur was the southwest room on the second
floor. There were two cords, like bell-pulls, at the head of his bed.
One was a bcll-pnll, and the other, when pulled, raised an iron holt
about an i nch square and nine or ten inches long, which dropped through
staples at the tup of the door when shut, and until this bolt was raised
the door could not ho opened. The house was built before the Revolu-
tion, but after the war he made an addition to the east end, about eigh-
teen feet wide and thirty feet long. The lower room of this addition
was a large reception-room, in which the Philosophical Society met for
several years. The second floor was his library, and the third floor lodg-
ing-rooms. His eon-iu-Iaw, Col. Richard Bache, and family resided in
the same house with the doctor. •
"The doors of the chambers, and nearly all the doors about the house,
were lined or edged with green baize, to prevent noise when shutting,
and several of them had springs behind them to close them.
ties, iu fact, and the public at large, were now fully
alive to the importance of extending all possible en-
couragement to efforts for the establishment of new
industries and the development of old ones, nor was
aught neglected that might contribute to the growth of
commerce, manufactures, the arts and sciences, and
the material prosperity of the city generally. Among
the most important measures in this direction, of
course, were those for improving the navigation of
the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna, for con-
structing and improving roads, and for the encour-
agement of manufactures. In March, 1789, the As-
sembly passed an act appropriating £10,000 annually
for a fund for claims and improvements, opening
roads, improving navigation, and encouraging domes-
tic manufactures, and on the 28th of September of
the same year an act for the improvement of roads
" On the south side of the house there was a grass lot about one hun-
dred feet square, containing a few fine plum-trees, and Burrounded on
three sides by a brick wall. From tbo south wall to Chestnut Street
there was afterwards a tan-yard and currier's shop. On the north side
of the house there was a lot of the same size, extending to the printing-
ofiice, which was two stories high, built on each side, and over the court
or carriage-way, opening on Market Street. This office he had built on
his return from France for his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache,
with whom I served my apprenticeship. The western room on the
lower floor was a type-foundry, the opposite room on the east Bide of
the court was a book-bindery. The printing-office was on the second
floor, and was furnished with every variety of large fonts of type, from
nonpareil to the largest sizes then used for posting bills. The doctor
brought them from Paris when he returned in 1785.
"After the doctor's death, in April, 1700, there were a great many arti-
cles that hacl belonged to him stored in the loft over the office, among
others a beautiful and valuable orrery (which, I believe, was sent to the
Philosophical Society), a great variety of electrical apparatus, and a
sodan-chair, in which I have often seen him carried by two men to and
from the State-House, when he was president of the Supreme Executive
Council of Pennsylvania. This sedan-chair was Bent to the Pennsylva-
nia Hospital, where it remained a great many years in the garret ; but,
on inquiring about it lately, I ascertained that it had been broken up
ami burned.
" During the latter years of the doctor's life he was afflicted with the
gout and stone. For the latter his friends wished him to submit to an
operation ; but he said that at his age it was not worth while to undergo
the pain. Although he suffered much from his affliction, he was re-
markably patient and mild. When able to be out of bed, he passed
nearly all of his time in his office, reading and writing, and iu conver-
sation with his friends ; and when the boys were playing and very uoisy
in the lot front of the office, he would open the window and call to them,
' Boys, can't you play without making bo much noise ? I am reading,
and it disturbs me very much.1 I have hoard the servants iu his family
say that he never used a hasty or angry word to any one.
" On one occasion, when his servant was absent, he called me into his
office to carry a letter to the post-office. While waiting for it, there was
a candle burning on the table with which he had been melting sealing-
wax. He told me to put it out and set it away. I took up the candle-
stick and blew the candle out, when he said, 'Stop, my boy, I will Bhow
you the light way to put out a caudle. Light it again.' Accordingly, I
lighted the candle, and the doctor, taking it out of the candlestick,
turned the blazing end down until the tallow had nearly extinguished
it, when he quickly turned it up and blew it out. ' Now,' said he, 'it
can be lighted again very readily, and the grease will not run down the
candle.'
" The doctor was remarkable formal way b having some kind word of
advice or encouragement for those around him. Yon may recollect the
anecdote which has been published of his conversation with the man
who was brushing his shoes. 'John,' said the doctor, ' I was once as
poor a man ns you ; but I was industrious, and saved my earnings, and
now I have enough to enable mo to live in comfort in my old age.1 'Ah I
but doctor,' replied John, ' if every one was as saving and as rich as you,
who would black your shoes?' "
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
461
and navigation. Under the latter act commissioners
to view the navigable waters of the State were ap-
pointed— Timothy Matlack, Reading Howell, and
William Dean — to examine the river Delaware ; Ben-
jamin Rittenhouse and John Adhim to inspect the
condition of the Schuylkill, and Bartram Galbraith,
Samuel Boyd, and Thomas Hulings to view the river
Susquehanna. The Schuylkill was examined from
" the great falls," five miles above the city, to the
town of Hamburg, twenty-three miles above Read-
ing, also the Tulpehocken and the ground between
the head-waters of that stream and the Quittapahilla,
which communicates with the Susquehanna. The
commissioners to view the Susquehanna examined it
from Wright's Ferry to its confluence with the Juni-
ata, and the latter from the mouth to Piper's Run.
In his message of Feb. 9, 1790, the President of
the State referred these matters to the special consid-
eration of the Assembly, which appointed a commit-
tee on the subject. They reported that the surveys
had apparently been conducted with great care, and
that those rivers might be made navigable with as
little difficulty and expense as any in the United
States. The committee were of opinion, however,
that it was expedient to ascertain the most practica-
ble means of communication between the eastern
and western limits of the State, and to determine
how the waters of the rivers mentioned could be con-
nected with those of the Allegheny, Lake Ontario,
and Lake Erie, and in cases where portage by land
would be necessary, to examine the face of the
country and report the most suitable place for land-
ings and roads. It was also proposed that commis-
sioners be appointed to examine the land between
Quittapahilla and Swatara Creeks ; thence by the
latter to the Susquehanna, examining from the mouth
of the Juniata to Sunbury; thence up the West
Branch to the Sinnamahouing Creek; and up the
latter to Canoe place, or any other place that would
connect with a practicable branch of the Allegheny
River, the Consua, or Toby's Creek, or any other
discharging in the Allegheny near French Creek.
The latter was to be examined up to Leboeuf, and
the portage toPresquelsle. The commissioners then,
returning down the Allegheny, were to examine the
latter from French Creek to tlie Kiskiminetas, up the
latter to the Conemaugh, and up the last to its forks
with Stony Creek; from the same to the nearest
branches that may be improved by canal or lock
navigation to the shortest portage that can be found
to the Frankstown branch of the Juniata, near the
mouth of Poplar Run, and down the Frankstown
branch to the head of Water Street, where the com-
missioners last year concluded their work.
It was also recommended that commissioners be
appointed to ascertain the best road and the' distance
from the Delaware, near the forks of the Mohawk
and Popaughton branch, to the great bend in the Sus-
quehanna ; thence down the latter to the mouth of
the Tioga ; and thence to the junction of the east
and west branches of the Susquehanna. On their
return, the same commissioners were to be directed
to examine the Lehigh from its head to the turn-
hole, and to examine and explore the Tobyhanna
and the Schuylkill from Hamburg to the Tamaguay,
or Little Schuylkill.
The Assembly adopted the committee's recommen-
dations, and the Council appointed Timothy Matlack,
John Adlum, and Samuel Maclay to examine the
waters of the Quittapahilla, Swatara, Susquehanna,
Juniata, Sinnamahoning, Allegheny, etc. ; and Fred-
erick Antes, Beading Howell, and William Dean for
the Lehigh and Schuylkill Rivers. It was many
years, of course, before the policy of internal im-
provements was fully developed. The efforts in be-
half of manufactures had more immediate results.
The " Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement
of Manufactures and the Useful Arts," established in
1787, with Gen. Thomas Mifflin as president, proved
a most useful agent in stimulating local industries.
It offered prizes for useful inventions, improvements
in machinery, manufactured products, etc., and ad-
dressed itself with energy to the task of securing legis-
lation from the Assembly for the protection of manu-
factures. Machines for carding and spinning cotton
were imported from England by the society in March,
1788, and the manufacture of jeans, satinets, and other
goods established. On the 26th of March, 1789, the
Legislature, at the request of the society, passed an act
to assist the cotton manufactures of Pennsylvania,
appropriating one thousand pounds as a subscription
to one hundred shares of the stock of the society.
Another act, designed to encourage industrial enter-
prise, was passed by the Assembly prohibiting the
exportation of manufacturing machines for two years ;
and a variety of special legislation was enacted in aid
.of inventors and experimenters. In 1789 the " Manu-
facturing Society" awarded a prize for painters' colors,
and the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agricul-
ture offered premiums for improvements in farming
operations. The Philadelphia County Society for the
Encouragement of Agriculture and Domestic Manu-
factures, established Aug. 4, 1789, in opposition to the
Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, ad-
mitted none but farmers to membership, whereas the
old society had many members who were residents of
the city. Both societies, however, rendered valuable
aid in promoting scientific agriculture, and in foster-
ing the invention and manufacture of agricultural
machines. In March, 1789, the manufacturers and
mechanics of the city, Northern Liberties, and South-
wark met to consider the propriety of petitioning
Congress to lay such duties on foreign manufactures
imported into Pennsylvania, as would give a decided
preference to American mechanics. The various
trades were requested to send delegates to a convention
to be held during the following month, but nothing
further was done in reference to the matter.
462
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Among the Philadelphia inventors struggling about
this time for recognition and aid to carry out their
schemes, the most prominent, and perhaps the most
unfortunate, was John Fitch, who anticipated Robert
Fulton more than twenty years in the application of
steam as a motive-power for boats.1
On the 9th of July, 1790, Congress, then in session
at New York, passed a bill selecting the District of
Columbia as the permanent capital of the nation ; but
declaring that for ten years from the end of that ses-
sion the seat of government should be located at
Philadelphia. Under this act Congress assembled in
Philadelphia in the following December, and by the
close of the year the executive officers of the govern-
ment had located themselves. According to Biddle's
Directory, published early in 1791, President Wash-
ington resided at No. 190 High Street, below Sixth,
in the mansion built by Richard Penn, and occupied
during the Revolution by Gen. Howe, Benedict
Arnold, and Robert Morris. Vice-President Adams
lived in the Hamilton mansion at Bush Hill. The
house No. 307 High Street, northwest corner of
Eighth, was occupied as the office of the Secretary
of State, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's residence was
No. 274 High Street, on the south side, the fourth
house west of Eighth Street.2
The Treasury Department had its office in the old
Pemberton mansion, No. 100 Chestnut Street, south-
west corner of Third Street. The Secretary, Alex-
ander Hamilton, lived at 79 South Third Street,
tHis inventions are more fully treated elsewhere in this work.
2 "The building in which Jeffarson lived," says Thompson Westcott,
" was the very large four-story house on the south side, No. 80fi, which
was once occupied as the Washington Museum, and afterwards as Bar-
rett's Gymnasium.
"Jefferson occupied the whole of this house, and there lie gave audi-
ence to the many citizens who had husiness with him. Jefferson, hav-
ing heen amhassador to France, had imhibed some French notions of
refinement, which, it may be supposed, did not altogether agree with '
the simple manners of the age. Among other matters he introduced
a fashion of sleeping-apartment altogether unknown to our forefathers.
This was by haviDg a recess, for a bedstead, connected with the rooms
occupied for every-day business, and which recess might be so closed in
daytime that its use would not be suspected. The apartment which
was constructed for Jefferson's use was between the breakfast-room and
the library, aud offered a double convenience, according to the time the
philosopher awoke. If he did not unclose his eyes until the tinkling
of the bell warned him that the morning meal was ready, he could turn
out at once into the breakfast-room. If, however, he awoke before the
viands were upon the table be might amuse himself in the library by
looking over philosophical works, and by other mental amusements.
The house was built by Thomas Leiper. There were stables at the
lower end of the lot, which was extremely long, running back to a
small street. On the south side of the house Jefferson erected a ve-
randa, which was very pleasant in summer-time. Being of an investi-
gating mind, the philosopher, it is said, while living in the house, tried
a philosophical experiment, which did not come up to his theories. It
is said that, reasoning on the fact that plants may be preserved in hot-
houses in winter merely by the warmth of the sun striking through
the glass, the sage of Mouticello, arguing on the supposition that men
require no more caloric than plauts, tried the experiment as to whether
he could do without other heat in winter than that yielded by the sun's
rays, which were 1o be admitted by properly fitting up the south ve-
randa. Unfortunately for philosophy, practical knowledge satisfied him
that men who walk about are not precisely similar to plants in pots,
and the experiment was declared unsuccessful."
southeast corner of Walnut, and the Auditor, Oliver
Wolcott, at 121 South Third, on the east side, the
third house north of Spruce. Wolcott's office was at
44 South Third Street, on the west side, below Chest-
nut. The Secretary of War, Gen. Henry Knox, re-
sided at No. 120 South Second Street, below Dock.
The United States Treasurer's office was at No. 71
Chestnut Street, north side, between Second and
Third, and the office for settling accounts between
the United States and individual States was at No.
52 North Fourth Street, above Arch. The general
post-office was at No. 9 South Water Street, below
Market, and the Philadelphia custom-house, Sharpe
Delaney, collector, at the southeast corner of Walnut
and Second Streets. For the accommodation of Con-
gress the Supreme Executive Council surrendered to
the House of Representatives the entire west wing of
the State-House. This rendered necessary the re-
moval of several State officers, for whom quarters
were procured elsewhere. The rooms at the corner
of Sixth and Chestnut Streets were remodeled, and
a gallery capable of accommodating three hundred
persons was placed in the chamber of the House of
Representatives. Work was now commenced on the
city hall, at the corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets,
and the building was completed during the summer
of 1791, and occupied for the first time by the Su-
preme Court of the United States. A movement
was set on foot shortly after the establishment of the
seat of government at Philadelphia for providing a
permanent residence for the President of the United
States. In August the Common Council appointed
a committee to ascertain whether the Episcopal
school — a fine building on the south side of Chest-
nut Street above Sixth — could be purchased. In
case it was not for sale, the committee was instructed
to endeavor to obtain some suitable building else-
where. On the 31st of December, 1790, the munici-
pal corporation presented a petition to the Legisla-
ture stating that suitable accommodations for the
President of the United States and the two branches
of Congress had been provided, and suggesting that
the State of Pennsylvania furnish a suitable mansion
for the President and repay the moneys expended by
the corporation. The Legislature accordingly appro-
priated twenty thousand pounds for the purchase of
a lot and erection of a house for the President, and
£2903 14*. M. to the city of Philadelphia for expenses
incurred in receiving Congress and providing for its
accommodation. The Governor was authorized to
borrow twenty thousand pounds, pledging the ven-
due dues of the commonwealth for the payment of
principal and interest; and the act provided that the
lot for the building should be situated west of Ninth
Street. A lot situated on the west side of Ninth
Street below Market, costing five thousand four hun-
dred and ninety-one pounds, was purchased, leaving
£11,607 10s. 8d. for the building. The foundations
were laid shortly afterwards for a building designed
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
463
to be one hundred feet square, the construction of
which was under the supervision of Richard Wells,
Francis Gurney, and John Hiltzheimer, appointed for
the purpose. The corner-stone bore the inscription,
"This corner-stone of the house for the accommoda-
tion of the President of the United States was laid
on the 10th of May, 1792, when the State of Penn-
sylvania was out of debt. Thomas Mifflin then
Governor of the State.'' The " President's House,"
afterwards the property of the University of Penn-
sylvania, was torn down in 1829.
The convention to frame a Constitution for the gov-
ernment of the State completed its labors on the 2d
of September, 1790. On that day the members signed
the instrument, after which they went in procession
from the State-House to the court-house, where the
new Constitution was proclaimed. Provision had been
made for the continuance in office, until the new gov-
ernment went into operation, of the Supreme Execu-
tive Council and other State officers, but not of the
Legislature; and the latter body believing its au-
thority had ceased, did not proceed to the transaction
of business on the following day. On the 4th of
September forty-six of them signed an address to the
people setting forth the status of affairs. On the 7th
of December the new Legislature met at the State-
House. At the election for State officers under the
new Constitution, Thomas Mifflin received in Phila-
delphia 1434 votes for Governor, and Arthur St.
Clair 96 votes. In the county the vote was Mifflin,
1434; St. Clair, 18; and in the State, Mifflin, 27,118,
and St. Clair, 2819. On the 21st of December the
change of government was formally effected. A pro-
cession was formed at the chamber of the Supreme
Executive Council, which moved to the old court-
house at Second and Market Streets, where the old
government yielded up its powers, and the new gov-
ernment was proclaimed. On the 1st of January,
1791, the City Councils, mayor, recorder, and a
number of citizens waited on Governor Mifflin and
tendered their congratulations.
Among the matters which had demanded the atten-
tion of the old government during the last year of its
existence was one which related to the extension of
the limits of Philadelphia County. A petition from
inhabitants of Moreland, Abingdon, Cheltenham, and
Springfield townships, in Montgomery County, asked
the Assembly to annex those sections to Philadelphia
County, but the measure was declared by a committee
of the Legislature to be inexpedient. During this
year (1790), also, two hundred and six inhabitants of
the Northern Liberties, living between the northern
boundary of the city and Pegg's Run and east of
Fourth Street, failing to secure the annexation of that
part of the county to Philadelphia, petitioned for
authority to set up a sufficient number of lamps to
light the district and for the appointment of watch-
men to patrol it, the cost to be defrayed by equal tax-
ation. Applications for grants of public lands for
the support of free schools were rejected by the As-
sembly of this year, on the ground that the body of
land belonging to the State was too small to permit
of such concessions. On the 27th of March an act
was passed, supplemental to that for the incorpora-
tion of the city, extending power to the municipality
to assess and levy taxes for lighting, watching, pitch-
ing, paving, watering, and cleansing the streets, and
authorizing the mayor and City Councils to regulate
the prices to be charged by wagoners, draymen, por-
ters, wood-sawyers, and chimney-sweepers for their
services, and to do all that the old boards of wardens
and commissioners might have done. The Assembly
was also called upon this year to provide a site for the
powder-magazine. The Supreme Executive Council
had decided that the magazine should be removed to
some point outside of Philadelphia. But report was
made to the Assembly that a suitable location could
not be secured in the county, and it was decided to pur-
chase a lot on the northwest corner of Walnut and
Ashton Streets. The dimensions of the magazine
were forty feet north and south, and sixty feet east
and west. The walls were of stone, from two feet to
two feet six inches in thickness, with a four and a
half inch wall outside of these, which supported the
roof of the house. The house was properly arched,
in order to keep all secure and dry. A house for the
keeper was provided at the southeast corner of Wal-
nut and Schuylkill Front Streets. The Legislature
granted the old powder-magazine to the city of Phil-
adelphia as a house for storing oil.1
The city was the scene of some stirring events dur-
ing 1790. The removal of Congress from New York
and the proclamation of the new State government
have already been noted, and in addition there were
the celebration of Washington's birthday, observed on
the 11th of February (old style), with an artillery
salute fired at noon in High Street by Captain John
Connolly's company, and a parade of military, in-
cluding the companies of Captains Jeremiah Fisher,
William Sproat, and William Haley, and the recep-
tion of President Washington and family on their
arrival from New York. The Fourth of July this year
fell on Sunday, and was observed with religious cere-
monies. The Society of the Cincinnati met at the
State-House, and the members having formed them-
selves in procession, headed by Thomas Mifflin, Pres-
ident of the Supreme Executive Council, and Chief
Justice Thomas McKean, marched to Christ Church,
where Rev. Dr. William Smith preached an appro-
priate sermon. They were accompanied by the city
corporation, officers of the militia, Captain Fisher's
company of Volunteer Artillery, Captains Reese,
1 On the 24th of October, Lesber's powder-mill, between Germantown
and the Falls of Schuylkill, wae blown up, aman and a boy being in-
jured. Two days afterward a workman employed at the powder-mill of
Joseph J. Miller, near Fraukford, threw a snuff from a candle near some
cans containing gunpowder, which caused the explosion of a ton of file
material. The author of the accident was horribly mangled, and died
in a few minuteB. ls'o one else was harmed.
464
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Sproat, and Hodgdon's companies of light infantry,
and a number of citizens. On Monday the citizens
indulged in various recreations, among which a visit
to Gray's Gardens at the ferry on the Schuylkill was
especially popular. The grounds, laid out with pleas-
ant walks and ornamented with shrubbery, offered
great attractions ; among which were artificial islands,
waterfalls, bowers and grottoes, with illuminations and
fire-works at night. The floating bridge was draped
with flags, and the ship " Union," which had been a
prominent feature of the Federal procession, was gayly
decorated. A " Federal Temple," erected in the gar-
dens, had for one of its ornaments a vault of twelve
stones, representing the Federal Union, — the keystone
now completed by the accession of Rhode Island.
From a grove in the garden there came, at an ap-
pointed time, thirteen young ladies dressed as shep-
herdesses, and thirteen young men attired as shep-
herds. They proceeded to the Federal temple, where
they sang an ode to Liberty, which was diversified
with solos, choruses, and responses. At night an
illuminated island floated on the Schuylkill. The
reception of Washington and his family on the 2d of
September was not marked by any incidents of special
interest or by elaborate display. They were received
at some distance from the city by an escort of troops,
which accompanied them to the City Tavern, where
an entertainment was served at the expense of the
municipality. During his stay in the city, however,
Washington was the recipient of many compliments,
including af&te champUre at Gray's Ferry, given by
the citizens in honor of himself and wife. After a
collation there was a concert, followed at night by an
illumination of the grounds. On the following morn-
ing Washington set out for Mount Vernon.
At the beginning of the year 1791 the Bank of
North America abandoned the old system of keep-
ing its accounts in pounds, shillings, and pence,
and adopted that of dollars and cents. It was sug-
gested in the newspapers that citizens generally
should follow its example, and thus was begun a
gradual change which finally resulted in the uni-
versal adoption of the decimal system. About the
same time was established the famous Bank of the
United States. Hamilton, then Secretary of the
Treasury, had suggested the establishment of a na-
tional bank as an institution which could not fail to
be of great benefit in facilitating the administration
of the finances and sustaining the public credit.
•Congress adopted the plan proposed by him, and on
the 25th of February, 1791, granted a charter incor-
porating the stockholders of the proposed institution,
under the title of " The President, Directors, and
■Company of the Bank of the United States." The
•charter was to remain in force until the 4th of March,
1811 during which time no other bank was to be es-
tablished by authority of the general government.
The capital stock was limited to ten millions of dol-
lars, in shares of four hundred dollars each, payable
one-fourth in specie and three-fourths in stocks of
the United States, the government having the privi-
lege of subscribing for stock in the bank to the
amount of two millions of dollars. Philadelphia was
selected as the headquarters of the bank, but the di-
rectors were authorized to establish offices or branches
of discount and deposit for the transaction of bank-
ing business. Offices were accordingly established at
Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk,
and Savannah. Books for subscriptions to the stock
of the institution were opened on the 4th of July,
1791, and before night more stock had been sub-
scribed than could be legally issued. On the follow-
ing day thirty-five dollars was given for scrip upon
which but twenty-five dollars had been paid, and in
four days the value of the stock had doubled. By the
4th of May the increase in price was three times the
sum paid. Speculation was the inevitable result,
and large sums of money were realized by those who
bought and sold while prices were rising. Towards
the end of August the stock sold at two hundred dol-
lars for fifty dollars paid in, but in a few days fell to
one hundred and forty-five dollars, and thencefor-
ward continued to decline until it reached its normal
value. The bank commenced business in the latter
part of December in Carpenters' Hall, and proved, as
was anticipated, a most important auxiliary of the
United States Treasury.
In the year 1791 was also commenced that system of
internal improvements which was destined to bring
upon the commonwealth a heavy burden of indebt-
edness, and to form an important factor in political
affairs. The committee appointed by the Legislature,
in 1790, to consider the subject of inland navigation
submitted a report on the 19th of February, 1791, in
which they expressed the opinion that the Delaware
River could be made an important channel for the
introduction of the trade and produce of New York
to Philadelphia by the construction of a portage of
nineteen miles and the extension of two other short
portages to Lake Ontario. The cost of a safe boat
and raft navigation to the northern boundary of the
State was estimated at twenty-five thousand pounds.
Various interesting facts were stated by the com-
mittee in regard to the connection of the Delaware
and Allegheny Rivers. In 1790, it was said, one
hundred and fifty thousand bushels of wheat had
been brought down the Susquehanna, and passed
through Middletown for Philadelphia, a large pro-
portion of which came from the Juniata. In 1788 a
considerable quantity of flour went up the Susque-
hanna for the settlers of Northumberland. It was es-
timated that if the increase should be but one-eighth
annually, the total amount of wheat brought down in
eight years, ending in 1800, would be two million one
hundred and seventy-five thousand bushels, worth at
2s. Gd. per bushel — the price at that time, which was
also the price of carriage by land — two hundred and
seventy-one thousand eight hundred and seventy-
GEOWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
465
five pounds for transportation. On the 3d of April
a supplementary report was made, recommending
appropriations for opening rivers, and that the Gov-
ernor should be instructed to invite proposals for the
construction of canals and locks in and near the
waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla ; that a
canal should be made from Frankstown to Poplar
Bun ; that proposals should be invited for clear-
ing the Susquehanna from Wright's Ferry to the
Maryland line; and that the construction of a turn-
pike road from Philadelphia through Lancaster to
the Susquehanna and other roads in different parts of
the State should be contracted for. The committee's
recommendations were adopted, and on the 6th of
April a bill covering them was passed.1
In August, Governor Mifflin informed the Legisla-
ture that he had made contracts for the improvement
of the navigation of the Delaware, Schuylkill, Le-
high, and Lechawaxen, and for opening and im-
proving roads from Wilkesbarre to the Wind Gap,
and in other portions of the State. In order to facil-
itate these and other schemes of internal improve-
ment, an association composed principally of citizens
of Philadelphia was formed, with the title of " the So-
ciety for Promoting the Improvement of Roads and
Inland Navigation." On the 6th of September the
society memorialized the Legislature in favor of the
establishment of common roads throughout the State
wherever they should be deemed necessary. It also
suggested the construction of a canal between the
Delaware and Allegheny Rivers, and pointed out the
benefits that would result if the Schuylkill were con-
nected with the Susquehanna. In regard to the pro-
posed canal between the Tulpehocken and Quitta-
pahilla, for the building of which no offers had yet
been made, it recommended that a company be incor-
porated with a large capital for the construction of
the work. Accordingly, in September an act was
passed " to enable the Governor to incorporate a com-
pany for opening a canal and lock navigation be-
1 Among the appropriations were the following: For the improve-
ment of the Delaware, Lachawac, and Lehigh, and a road from the Del-
aware to the Susquehanna, near Great Bend, three thousand six hun-
dred and fifty pounds. For the Schuylkill and a road from Reading to
Harrisburg, two thousand ponnds. For the Susquehanna, from the
mouth of the Swatara to the Juniata, from the Juniata to the West
Branch, from the West Branch to the Starruca and Great Bend, one
thousand and forty pounds. For the West Branch, from the mouth
of the Sinnemahoning to its north branch, thence to Driftwood; for
a road from Driftwood to the Allegheny, twenty-three miles ; from
the Allegheny to the Conewango, French Creek, and a road from the
latter to Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, two thousand one hundred and
seventy pounds. For clearing the Conewango Falls and down to
Wright's Ferry, five thousand two hundred and twenty pounds. For
the Juniata and its connecting roads and waters — from the mouth
of the Juniata to Water Street ; from the latter to Frankstown ; thence
by road to Poplar Run ; thence by road to the Conemaugh, and a road
from the forks of the Little Conemaugh to the mouth of Stony Creek;
and for improving the Little Conemaugh, Conemaugh, and Kiskiminetas
to the Allegheny, ten thousand three hundred and ten pounds. The
Governor was also authorized to receive proposals for making sixteen
roads in Berks, Dauphin, and other countieB up to the Allegheny Moun-
tains.
30
tween the rivers Schuylkill and Susquehanna, or by
the waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla and -
th Quittapahilla and Swatara, in the counties of
Berks and Dauphin." Henry Drinker, Robert Hare,
Joseph Heister, George Latimer, George Fry, and
William Montgomery were appointed commissioners
to receive subscriptions for one thousand shares of
stock at four hundred dollars each, and the sub-
scribers were created a corporation with full power to
build the canal, under the title of " The Schuylkill
and Susquehanna Navigation Company."
Such was the popular interest in this enterprise
that although* the number of shares was only one
thousand, forty thousand were subscribed for, and it
was found necessary to distribute them by lot. A
project for another canal, brought forward by Thomas
Leiper and John Wall, of Delaware County, was sup-
ported by a petition from the Philadelphia stone-
cutters and masons. Leiper asked permission to cut
a canal from the flowing of the tide in Crum Creek,
at or near Mcllvaine's mill-dam, or W. Leiper's mill-
dam, in order to cheapen transportation from his stone
quarries to tide-water. The petition was supported
by Philadelphia mechanics on the ground that Leiper's
stone was the best procurable in the vicinity of the
city, and that the canal would be of advantage to the
public. In consequence of a remonstrance from John
and Isaac Mcllvaine, no further action was taken at
this session. In March, the Society for Promoting
the Improvement of Roads and Inland Navigation
suggested the incorporation of a company for the per-
manent improvement of the Delaware and its branches
from Trenton Falls to the northern boundaries of the
State, and of another company to complete the im-
provement of the Schuylkill from the lower falls to
the heads of its branches. Favorable reports were
made on both propositions in the Legislature, but no
definite action was taken. At the session of the As-
sembly, Dec. 18, 1791, Mr. Wells offered a resolution
favoring the construction of a canal to unite the Del-
aware and Schuylkill near the city, and a committee
was appointed to examine the proposed route. This
committee reported "that there was a gut a little
above Vine Street on the Delaware (Pegg's Run), and
a gut a little above Vine Street on the Schuylkill,
which might be deepened and united without much
probability of meeting obstructions from any body
of stone. The highest ground between the situations
named, they said, was not more than twenty-seven
feet above high water. The committee was unable to
determine whether the canal should be supplied with
water by a dam on the Schuylkill just below the
mouth of the canal, or whether the water of the
Schuylkill could be brought from a distance above
the mouth of the canal along the banks of the river
to supply it, or whether the small streams in the
neighborhood could be relied upon as feeders. They
suggested that a bill should be brought in to incor-
porate a company to build the canal, leaving the mode
466
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of supplying it optional with the company. The
ground was measured afterward by some citizens, who
made out that the highest portion of it was thirty-
seven feet above high-water mark. This depth was
thought to be too great to dig away with advantage.
The feasibility of erecting a dam to back the water of
the Schuylkill sufficiently to feed the canal was dis-
cussed. It was urged against the plan that the water
would cover a large extent of ground, thus injuring
many mill-seats and overflowing valuable fields and
meadows, and that the dam could not be made strong
enough to resist ice and freshets. It was suggested that
it would be preferable to take the water-of the Schuyl-
kill from a point near Norristown, where thestream was
forty feet higher than at Philadelphia. Thewatercould
be carried from thence to Philadelphia by a canal,
passing the hollows by means of aqueducts. By this
method it was thought that the city could be supplied
with pure water for drinking and domestic purposes,
and dry-docks might also be established. The Legis-
lature passed an act to incorporate a company to
construct the canal April 10, 1792, under the title of
"The Delaware and Schuylkill Canal Navigation."
Power was given to this company to take water from
the Schuylkill anywhere between the mouth of Stony
Creek at Norristown and the northern bounds of the
city, and to conduct the same by a canal along the
east bank of the river. The width of the locks at
the river was to be thirty feet, and no more water was
to be taken than would pass through a thirty-feet
water-way. The company was also given power to
construct a canal between the Delaware and Schuyl-
kill, to be supplied with water from the streams lying
between the Delaware and Schuylkill, and within
eight miles from the northern bounds of the city,
with authority to conduct the said streams into the
canal, and to make dry- and wet-docks, for the accom-
modation of vessels, near Philadelphia, to communi-
cate with the rivers. There was also added a more
important authority, which was given for the purpose
of supplying the city with water for drinking and
culinary purposes from the canal. Privilege was
given to conduct the water, by means of pipes and
other conductors, under the public roads, streets, and
alleys, and to dispose of it to the citizens at fixed rates.
"About the same time the Schuylkill and Susque-
hanna Canal Company commenced work at the crown
level, or middle ground, between the Tulpehocken
and Quittapahilla. The stock — two thousand shares
at two hundred dollars each — was soon taken, and
the company organized by the election of Robert
Morris, president ; Timothy Matlack, secretary ; and
Tench Francis, treasurer. It was resolved to bring
the water from the mouth of Stony Creek, near Nor-
ristown, on the east side of the Schuylkill. The
work was commenced in November, 1792, near Nor-
ristown mills." l
1 Thompson Westcott.
The construction of the proposed turnpike road
from Philadelphia to Lancaster was an undertaking
which enlisted the popular interest to a marked degree.
Owing to its necessarily heavy cost the Legislature
decided it was inadvisable for the State to attempt
the work, and accordingly passed an act to enable the
Governor to incorporate " a company for making an
artificial road from the city of Philadelphia to the
borough of Lancaster." The title of the corporation
was " The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Com-
pany." The route extended from the west side of the
Schuylkill opposite Philadelphia, so as to pass over
the bridge over the Brandywine near Downingtown,
thence to Witmer's bridge on the Conestoga, thence to
the east end of King Street, Lancaster. There were
to be one thousand shares at three hundred dollars
each. Full authority was given to the company to
enter upon lands, examine the ground and locate the
road, compensate owners of property, regulate tolls,
fix the width of wagon-wheels to be used in traveling
over the road, etc. Books for subscriptions to the
stock of the company were opened in May, and two
thousand two hundred and seventy-six shares were
subscribed, or one thousand six hundred and seventy-
six more than were provided for. A lottery was re-
sorted to in order to reduce the number of shares to
one thousand, and six hundred of the subscribers
were thrown out. The sum of sixty-two thousand
two hundred and eighty dollars had been paid in on
the subscriptions, but the lottery reduced the amount
to thirty thousand dollars. Shares on which but
thirty dollars had been paid on installment increased
in value within a few days to one hundred dollars
each. William Bingham was elected president of
the company, William Moore Smith, secretary, and
Tench Francis, treasurer. Work was commenced
soon afterwards, and the road thus built was the first
turnpike constructed in the United States.2
The attention of the Assembly was also directed
by the " Society for Promoting the Improvement of
Roads," etc., to the necessity for constructing roads
from Philadelphia to Reading; from Philadelphia to
the Wind Gap in Northampton County ; from Phila-
delphia through Chester to the Delaware State line,
and from Philadelphia through Bristol to the falls of
the Delaware. Committee reports in favor of grant-
ing charters to companies willing to undertake these
improvements were made, but no further action was
taken by the Legislature at this time.
The legislative measures affecting the local inter-
ests of Philadelphia, enacted during 1791, were not
specially important. The increase of the Northern
Liberties having become so great that the residents
in that section of the county had began to experience
the necessity of some form of municipal or borough
government, the Legislature was appealed to, and a
law was passed March 30, 1791, granting the inhabi-
2 Thompson Westcott.
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
467
tants of that part of the Northern Liberties between
Fourth Street and the Delaware and Vine Street and
Pegg's Run, authority to elect three commissioners
and a treasurer, with power to establish a public
watch, and to set up and keep in repair a number of
pumps, to procure lamps, to employ watchmen, and
to assess taxes for the same. The question of im-
posing an excise tax upon distilled liquors was quite
prominent in local political discussions about this
time. In the Legislature, resolutions opposing the
excise passed the House of Representatives, but were
lost in the Senate. The system was considered to be
of English origin, and this fact added to its unpopu-
larity. At a meeting of the Society for Promoting
Domestic Manufactures, held at Germantown, on the
4th of July, at which Dr. George Logan presided,
resolutions were adopted opposing the excise, as being
"a dangerous violation of our natural and inalienable
rights," and declaring that the Legislature had no
right to interfere with the use of distilled liquor. An
application to the Legislature for power to tear down
wooden buildings was refused this year. In their
petition the Councils asked for authority to demolish
such structures in case of fires, which made it dan-
gerous to leave them standing, and also for power to
tear down buildings that were ruinous and in danger
of falling. The application was probably suggested
by the experience gained in two destructive fires
which visited the city this year. On the evening of
May 11th fire broke out in a livery-stable, on Dock
Street near Third, belonging to Israel Israel, which
rapidly spread to other buildings, the majority of
which were of wood. About twelve o'clock the part
of the square bounded by Dock and Third Streets
and Carter's Alley, and a small alley which ran par-
allel to Second Street, was in flames. From eighteen
to twenty houses were burned, and much suffering
resulted. Committees were appointed to collect sub-
scriptions for those in distress, and Hallam & Henry
gave a benefit at the old theatre on South Street.
In October another fire occurred in Dock Street
under circumstances which justified the belief that
it was of incendiary origin. Governor Mifflin offered
a reward of five hundred dollars for the arrest of the
perpetrator; and John Barclay, the mayor, Nicholas
Wain, Thomas Fisher, John Morton, Mordecai Lewis,
Robert Wain, D. Lenox, and David Lewis agreed
to give five hundred dollars more. Four persons
were arrested on suspicion, but nothing was proven
against them. At a meeting of City Councils, "to
consult in relation to the alarming attempts to fire
the city," the mayor, John Barclay, and Aldermen
Joseph Swift, Matthew Clarkson, and Reynold Keen,
were authorized to appoint patrols to guard the city
by night and day. A meeting of citizens was subse-
quently held at Peter Evan's tavern, and the follow-
ing citizens volunteered to act as patrols: North Mul-
berry Ward, Thomas Coats, Nathaniel Falconer, Philip
Wager; South Mulberry, John Hallowell, Leonard
Dorsey, Jonathan B. Smith ; North, Samuel Emlen,
Jr., Lawrence Seckel, Israel Wheeler ; Upper Dela-
ware, Andrew Hodge, John Montgomery, Bowyer
Brooke; Chestnut, John Dunlap, William Lane, Wil-
liam Poyntell; South, Charles Marshall, Joseph P.
Norris, Raper Hoskins ; Dock, Joshua Gilpin, David
Lewis, Joseph Few ; Lower Delaware, Elliston Perot,
Nathan Field, Chamless Allen ; Middle, Charles Jer-
vis, Andrew Tybout, George Bickham ; Walnut, Cas-
per Morris, Samuel Coates, John Shields ; New Mar-
ket, Francis Gurney, James Moore, John Clement
Stocker; High Street, William Hall, Zachary Col-
lins, Jacob Baker. These patrols kept watch for
some days, when, no further attempts to commit
arson having been made, they discontinued their ser-
vices. Subsequently, William Dillon, a boy of twelve
years of age, arrested and tried for setting fire to the
stables of several citizens, was acquitted of arson, but
pleaded guilty of setting fire to the store of John M.
Jones and the stable of David Lenox. He was fined
five shillings and condemned to two years' imprison-
ment, and to give security for good behavior for seven
years.
The abuses in the management of the debtors' de-
partment of the jail was the only other subject of
local interest that is worthy of mention in the legis-
lative records of 1791. In a special message to the
Legislature in December, Governor Mifflin called par-
ticular attention to these abuses. Among the evils
cited was the " want of a provision for maintaining
the prisoners," and the lack of a competent allowance
for the service of the keeper, who was permitted to
increase the emoluments of his office by vending
liquors to the prisoners. Debtors, he added, were
permitted to languish in jail without clothes, food, or
fire, while those confined for crimes " enjoyed every
supply that was requisite to maintain life." He
recommended that provision be made for the main-
tenance of prisoners, and that the jailer be given an
adequate salary in order that every pretence for his
keeping supplies for the prisoners might be taken
away.
President Washington's birthday this year was ob-
served by the firing of salutes and by the official at-
tentions of the heads of the national departments,
foreign ministers, officers of the army and navy, State
authorities, etc., who called upon him to tender their
congratulations. The President held a levee, at which
" one hundred ladies, elegantly if not superbly dressed,
graced the ball-room, and twice that number of gen-
tlemen made their appearance during the evening."
On the 2d of March an eulogium on Franklin was
pronounced at the German Lutheran Church on
Fourth Street by the Rev. Dr. Smith, at the request
of the American Philosophical Society. Among
those present were President Washington and wife,
Vice-President Adams and wife, members of Con-
gress and the State Legislature, Governor Mifflin,
and others. The Fourth of July was celebrated this
468
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
year by a fete, given by the Messrs. G. and R. Gray at
their gardens. During the entertainment a disturb-
ance occurred, during which several persons were
thrown into the river but escaped drowning, and
many were badly hurt. Two days later the return of
Gen. Washington from the South, after a short ab-
sence, was signalized by the ringing of bells and firing
of cannon. Governor Mifflin's birthday, August 1st,
was observed in a similar manner.
The most important event of the year 1792, so far as
Philadelphia was concerned, was the passage of the
act for the establishment of the United States Mint.
Ten years before, on the 21st of February, 1782, Con-
gress had resolved to establish a mint, but the design
was not at once carried into execution owing to the
difficulty experienced in procuring artists and work-
men. On the 16th of October, 1786, a resolution was
adopted directing that the law of February, 1782,
should be carried into effect, but it was found impos-
sible to do so at that time. On the 2d of April, 1792,
an act was passed providing that the mint should be
established at Philadelphia, and during the summer
and fall a building was erected on the east side of
Seventh Street above Sugar Alley, afterward known
as Farmer Street, and now Filbert Street. In October
coining was commenced.
The acrimonious discussions and abusive newspaper
controversies which had characterized the local poli-
tics of Philadelphia had now given place to milder
methods of dealing with public affairs, and such had
been the subsidence of popular feeling, and so gen-
eral the concurrence in the results of the Revolution,
that parties had almost ceased to exist, and there
seemed to be a practical unanimity of political senti-
ment. During 1792, however, a difference of opinion
arose on the question as to how candidates for office
should be nominated. The Legislature had passed a
law providing for the election of members of Con-
gress and Presidential electors on a general ticket to
be voted for throughout the State. Washington was
the only candidate for President, and although some
opposition to John Adams, the candidate for Vice-
President, had been developed, it was not of a formi-
dable character. No question of personal preference
therefore, so far as the two principal candidates were
concerned, was involved, and the difficulty arose from
a difference of opinion as to the proper mode of nomi-
nating the candidates for electors and Congressmen.
A meeting of citizens was held at the State-House on
the 27th of July, Hon. Samuel Powell presiding, and
William M. Smith secretary, to consider the action of
a preliminary meeting at which Matthew Clarkson
had presided, and Benjamin R. Morgan had acted as
secretary. Both Clarkson and Morgan absented them-
selves from the second meeting. At the preliminary
meeting it had been proposed that conferees should
be appointed by the citizens of each county, who were
to select a ticket. This suggestion had not been
adopted; but an effort was now made to revive it.
At the second meeting (July 27th) it was decided
that conferees ought to be appointed. Another meet-
ing was called for the 30th at the State-House yard.
At this meeting Judge Wilson was chosen temporary,
chairman, and Robert Henry Dunkin acted as secre-
tary. Samuel Powell claimed the right to act as
chairman, but was resisted by Judge McKean. Rob-
ert Morris and John Barclay were then proposed for
chairmen by the contending factions, one side favor-
ing the conferee method, the other side urging the
appointment of a committee of correspondence to
transmit letters to all parts of the State, in order to
ascertain the views of citizens and settle upon a
ticket. Judge McKean, who supported the commit-
tee of correspondence plan, was finally placed in the
chair, whereupon the advocates of the conferee sys-
tem withdrew. The meeting then reversed the action
of the former meeting in favor of conferees, and ap-
pointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of
Chief Justice McKean, James Hutchinson, A. J. Dal-
las, John Barclay, Hilary Baker, and Jared Inge.rsoll,
who were directed to correspond with persons in all
parts of the State, and procure the names of individ-
uals suitable for Presidential electors and members
of Congress. These names, when procured, were to
be submitted, without the influence of selection or
comment, " to the deliberate consideration and un-
biased suffrage of the people." A meeting of the
opposition was held at Eppelsheimer's tavern on the
4th of August, and resolutions calling for a confer-
ence at Lancaster of representatives from all the
counties were adopted. A committee, composed of
George Latimer, Robert Wain, William Lewis, Israel
Whelen, William Rawle, Richard Wells, Hilary Ba-
ker, John Wilcocks, and Benjamin R. Morgan, was
appointed to correspond with the leading citizens of
the various counties on the subject of a conference,
and to invite their opinions as to the best way " to
produce a wise and virtuous representation for the
Congress of the United States, and a proper choice of
electors for the President of the United States." Del-
egates were chosen in the different counties, and when
the conference assembled at Lancaster on the 20th of
September, it was found that Philadelphia, Bucks,
Chester, Lancaster, York, Berks, Northampton, Mont-
gomery, Dauphin, and Delaware Counties were rep-
resented. The conference nominated a Congressional
ticket, upon which Thomas Fitzsimons and Thomas
Scott were candidates for Congress from the city and
county of Philadelphia. The electoral ticket was
headed with the name of James Ross, of Washing-
ton. A few days afterwards the committee of cor-
respondence issued a circular, stating that they had
addressed letters to five hundred and twenty citizens
of the State, residing in the different counties, and to
the foreman of each grand jury, for himself and his
associates. From the replies which they had received
they undertook to say that it was the sense of the peo-
ple of Pennsylvania that the electoral ticket headed
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
469
by Thomas McKean would be most agreeable to them.
This ticket was eventually presented as that of " the
friends of the rights of man," while the other, headed
by Joseph Ross, was not honored with any distinctive
title. The tickets were different throughout ; but in
the sequel it was proved that the people, not recog-
nizing the subject as one of a party nature, elected
some of the nominees on each ticket. There was no
difficulty as to the choice of Washington ; and, al-
though Adams was denounced as an aristocrat, he re-
ceived every vote in the electoral college of Pennsyl-
vania but one.
At the election in October the ticket for Congress
headed by the name of William Findley received
2179 votes in the city and 1140 in the county, while
the ticket headed by Thomas Fitzsimons received
1372 votes in the city and 506 in the county. The
electoral ticket headed by William Henry received
812 votes in the city and 210 in the county, while the
ticket headed by William Todd received but 222 votes
in the city and 47 in the county.
Public attention was somewhat distracted from
home affairs about this time by the exciting events
of the French revolution. Louis XVI., who seemed
to have yielded to the demands of his people, was
exceedingly popular on that account a3 well as be-
cause of his active interposition on behalf of the
United States during the Revolutionary struggle, and
at the Fourth of July celebration was toasted by the
Society of the Cincinnati, and the Seventh Battalion
of militia, Lieut.-Col. Coats commanding. On the
14th of July, the first anniversary of the destruction
of the Bastile was celebrated in Philadelphia with a
public demonstration. The shipping along the river
front was gayly decorated with flags, and salutes were
fired from the French vessels, of which there were
several in the harbor. A public entertainment was
served at Oeller's Hotel, at which a number of toasts
complimentary to the French king and people were
drunk, and the officers of Col. John Shee's Fourth
Philadelphia Regiment celebrated the occasion with
a dinner at Ogden's Hotel, on the Schuylkill, at
Market Street.1
1 "The militia at this time," 6ays Thompson Westcott, " was kept up
with vigor, and those who composed it were proud of its discipline and
influence. The officers participated in all public ceremonies, and were
anxious to omit no proper occasion when they could appear.
"In November, a meeting of tbe officers of the militia ot the city and
liberties was held at the inn of Michael Kitts, to hear the report of a
committee previously appointed, to determine on what occasions it was
proper for them to assist in public testimonials. Col. Williams was in
the chair ; and Col. Shoe, on behalf of the committee, made report as
follows :
"1. That the characters to whom it is incumbent to manifest such at-
tention are the President of the United States and the Governor of the
State.
"2. That the time to present our reBpects is upon the anniversaries
of those days on which happened events auspicious to our rising em-
pire.
" 3. As long as this city contains the seat of the general government
we will annually wait on the President on the Fourth of July, in com-
memoration of an era at once propitious to our country and glorious to
Among the other local events of the year were the
entertainments of the dancing assemblies and a visit
of Indian chiefs, who came to pay their respects to
the Federal government. The old City Dancing As-
sembly, which gave a ball on the 21st *of February
in honor of the birthday of President Washington,
was composed chiefly of members of old and aristo-
cratic families, who were disposed to be exclusive ;
while the new City Dancing Assembly, which gave
a similar entertainment on the 22d, was principally
made up of active tradesmen, who had been unable
to obtain admission to the older organization. There
was considerable rivalry and ill-feeling between the
two assemblies, and Washington prudently attended
both entertainments, proposing at each the toast
"The State of Pennsylvania." The Indian deputa-
tion consisted of forty-seven members, including
Oghayewas, or Farmer's Brother, first sachem of the
Senecas, Long Plover tribe; Kanodington, first sachem
of the Buffaloes, Snipe tribe ; and Sagoyewetha, or
Red Jacket, first sachem of the Wolf tribe; together
with representatives of the Beaver tribe, Cayoges,
Onondagoes, Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and Stockbridges.
They were received at the State-House by Governor
Mifflin, in the presence of a number of ladies and
other spectators. A few days afterwards they gave
an exhibition of war-dances, and about a week after
the formal reception Red Jacket made a speech ex-
pressing their gratification at the civilities shown
them.2
The year 1793 derives a ghastly pre-eminence in
the annals of Philadelphia from the yellow fever epi-
demic of that year. During the early part of the
summer the disease had been raging in the West In-
dies, and in July vessels were allowed to come to the
Philadelphia wharves without sanitary inspection or
quarantine. The fever first made its appearance
during the same month in a lodging-house on Water
Street, but it was not until the middle of August that
its progress began to attract attention. The first offi-
cial measures in relation to the disease were taken by
the mayor, Matthew Clarkson, on the 22d of August,
and four days later the physicians united in an ad-
dress to the public defining the nature of the disease,
and recommending measures of precaution and the
him who so eminently contributed to its establishment. We will as-
semble at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, with side-arms and the uni-
forms of our respective corps. The Governor on such occasions will be
requested to precede us.
"4. At the same time and hour, on the 2d of September, the anniver-
sary of the adoption of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, we will as-
semble to congratulate the Governor on the event.
"6. We will attend the funerals of commissioned officers of the mili-
tia, and will provide ourselves with uniforms."
2 During their stay in Philadelphia, Ogiheta, or Peter Jaquette, one of
the chiefs of the Oneidas, died. He had accompanied M. de Lafayette
to France on the latter's return from the United States, and had been
educated in that country. The funeral procession from Oeller's Hotel
to the Presbyterian burying-gronnd in Mulberry Street, where the re-
mains were interred, was escorted by a detachment of the City Light
Infantry, and among those present were the Secretary of War and »
number of army officers.
470
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
proper remedies for the treatment of the disease.
When the people began at length to realize the alarm-
ing character of the disease, a panic ensued, and about
the 25th of August a general exodus of the population
commenced.* Among those who remained the con-
sternation was extreme ; and, as the disease progressed,
terror and dismay were visible on every hand. Mayor
Clarkson remained at his post, and through his efforts
a committee of citizens was organized to assist the
overseers of the poor in their ministrations to the sick
and dying. Subsequently another committee was
formed, to which^were intrusted all the arrangements
relative to succoring the sick, providing physicians,
nurses, etc. Other measures were taken from time
to time to check the spread of the pestilence and pro-
vide for the destitute ; and among those who remained
in Philadelphia were many noble-hearted men and
women, who devoted all their energies, their time, and
their money to the work of relieving the general dis-
tress. Many succumbed to the disease ; among these
self-sacrificing spirits were ten clergymen and ten
physicians. The epidemic lasted from the 1st of Au-
gust to the 9th of November, during which period the
number of interments in the city, according to the
returns from the graveyards, was 4044. According to
Mathew Carey, however, the real number of inter-
ments was about 5000. During the prevalence of the
fever about 17,000 persons, it has been computed, left
the city, and during the period of greatest mortality
there were fewer than 23,000 persons in the city. As-
suming that the deaths numbered 5000, the rate of
mortality was in a fraction of twenty-two per cent.
The pecuniary loss to Philadelphia has been estimated
at from $1,750,000 to $2,000,000.1
While the epidemic was at its height the embarrass-
ments of the local authorities were increased by the
necessity of providing for a large number of French
refugees from St. Domingo, who arrived in Philadel-
phia early in August. These unfortunate persons
had been driven from their homes by the insurrection
of the negroes, and on their arrival in the United
States found themselves in a destitute condition.
About six hundred of them came to Philadelphia
and were hospitably treated. The French Patriotic
Society contributed eight hundred dollars to their
relief, and subscriptions were obtained in various
quarters which swelled the fund to eleven thousand
dollars. It was estimated that fourteen thousand six
hundred dollars more would be required, of which four
thousand dollars would be needed to pay the passage of
those who wished to go to France, and three thousand
dollars of those who desired to return to St. Domingo.
Additional subscriptions were obtained, but the in-
creasing severity of the yellow fever doubtless inter-
fered with the full accomplishment of the design.2
1 For a detailed account of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, see the
chapter in this work on the Medical Profession.
2 In February, 1795, the Legislature appointed Godfrey Haga, Edward
Penington, Robert Balaton, S. P. Grifflts, Joseph Lownes, Samuel Meck-
The proceedings of the Legislature during this
year related to a number of matters of more than
ordinary interest to Philadelphians. In April a bill
was passed directing that a road be laid out from
Philadelphia to York through West Chester and
Strasburg, crossing the Susquehanna at Blue Rock ;
and a petition was presented for the establishment of
a turnpike road from Chestnut Hill, through German-
town, to the city of Philadelphia. The committee of
the Legislature reported in favor of its being laid out
from the city to the ten-mile stone, adding that " if
carried through to Bethlehem'' it would " be bene-
ficial," and recommended that it should be built to
Chestnut Hill first, and extended to Bethlehem in ten
years afterwards. Remonstrances, born of a growing
hostility to special legislation, were presented to the
Assembly, not only against the proposed Chestnut
Hill turnpike, but also against the different canal and
turnpike companies already in existence, as being
vested with privileges in derogation of the rights of
the people. The principal grievance seemed to be
that the corporations were authorized to enter upon
the lands of citizens and take possession of them for
their own purposes. In consequence of the opposi-
tion thus developed the Chestnut Hill turnpike project
was temporarily abandoned. The Legislature this
year (March 30th) chartered another bank, — the Bank
of Pennsylvania, — which was expected to " promote
the regular, permanent, and successful operation of
the finances of the State, and be productive of great
benefit to trade and industry in general ;" and passed
a new militia act, which provided that the volun-
teers of the city and county of Philadelphia were to
form one division and two brigades. Under this law
Governor Mifflin appointed James Irvine major-gen-
eral of the first division, composed of the city and
county of Philadelphia; Thomas Proctor, brigadier-
general of the city brigade; B. I. Nicholas, brigade
inspector; Jacob Morgan, brigadier-general of the
county brigade; and Joseph Key, brigade inspector.
The Legislature also passed a law authorizing the en-
largement of the court-house building at the corner
of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, in order to provide
additional accommodations for Congress. An appro-
priation of $6666.67 was made, part towards com-
pleting the President's house, and the remainder for
taking out the south wall of the court-house, extend-
ing it forty feet on Sixth Street, and erecting a gal-
lery in the Senate for the accommodation of specta-
tors, if the United States Senate should resolve to sit
with open doors. On the 3d of April the Assembly
lin. and Joseph Sansom trustees to distribute two thousand five hundred
dollars among the French refugees, "excepting so far as can benevolently
be done such perBons as, having slaves, do by any act or device contra-
vene or evade the law of this State made and provided for the abolition
of slavery, so as, contrary to the true intent and meaning thereof, to
deprive the persons by them so held or claimed as slaves of their just
rights to freedom." In January, 179f>, one thousand dollars were appro-
priated to the same tmstees for a like purpose, and in January, 1797,
the sum of one thousand dollars.
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
471
passed a resolution directing the Governor to have ad-
ditional buildings erected, adjoining the south side of
the wings of the State-House, for the accommodation
of the land office, rolls office, and treasury, and for
the safe-keeping of records and public papers of the
commonwealth ; also to erect an additional building
at the west end of the State-House for the accom-
modation of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
The resolution, however, does not appear to have
met with the approval of the Senate.
The popular interest in ballooning experiments,
which had been somewhat checked by the disaster
which had overtaken the Carnes aerostat in 1784, was
revived in Philadelphia in 1793 by the arrival of
Blanchard, the famous French aeronaut. Blanchard's
popularity was enhanced by the fact that his devotion
to the principles of freedom had caused his imprison-
ment in the fortress of Kufstein, and he was thus en-
abled to appear in the dual rdle of a daring experi-
menter and ardent patriot. He secured the yard of
Walnut Street prison as the place from which to make
the ascent in his balloon, early in January, and a sub-
scription at five dollars per ticket was set on foot to
secure him from loss; but the desired amount not
having been obtained as soon as expected, second-
class tickets at two dollars each were issued. On the
9th of January, the day appointed for the ascension,
an immense concourse assembled at the jail-yard and
vicinity. Within the inclosure there were several
hundred spectators. Capt. Fisher's company of artil-
lery was stationed in the prison-court, and on the ar-
rival of President Washington, at nine o'clock, a
salute of fifteen guns was fired. Two guns were sub-
sequently fired every fifteen minutes until the time of
the ascension. At five minutes after ten o'clock,
Blanchard, having received a paper from Gen. Wash-
ington, took leave of the spectators and sprang into
his boat, which was spangled and painted blue. The
balloon, which was of yellowish silk highly var-
nished, was covered with a strong network. Blanchard
was dressed in a plain blue suit, with a cocked hat
and white feathers. On entering the boat he threw
out a portion of the ballast and the balloon began to
ascend, the aeronaut waving the United States flag
and the tri-colof of France. As the balloon rose the
spectators cheered, cannon were fired, and an inspiring
air was played by the band. Blanchard's voyage
lasted forty-six minutes, during which he traveled
fifteen miles, descending a little to the eastward of
Cooper's Ferry, N. J. At half-past six o'clock on the
evening of the same day he reached Philadelphia and
paid his respects to President Washington. The suc-
cess of the experiment elicited many flattering notices
of Blanchard in the newspapers; but these did not
compensate him for the pecuniary loss which he sus-
tained. He had calculated on gaining nearly three
thousand dollars by the exhibition, the expenses of
which were represented to be twenty-five hundred
dollars. Instead of realizing the amount needed, he
represented that the whole sum received for tickets
and subscriptions was but four hundred and five dol-
lars. His expenses were five hundred guineas, so
that he fell short several hundred guineas.
Joseph Ravara, consul-general of Genoa, started a
subscription to reimburse Blanchard, but succeeded
in raising only two hundred and sixty-three dollars.
Blanchard, however, determined to make another
ascension, and fixed the 30th of May for the trip.
He selected Rickett's Circus, southwest corner of
Twelfth and Market Streets, as the place from which
to make the ascension, and fixed the price of ad-
mission at one dollar. In the mean time Governor
Mifflin had, "for the encouragement of science,"
given Blanchard permission to erect a temporary
rotunda or exhibition-room on the Governor's lot,
on the south side of Chestnut Street, between Sev-
enth and Eighth. Blanchard advertised that he
would exhibit at this place the balloon with which
he intended to make his forty-sixth ascension, ac-
companied by Joseph Ravara. While it was dis-
played there it became injured and broken by stones
thrown against it from the outside, and the ascension
did not take place. On the 5th of June, Blanchard
sent up from his rotunda a balloon and parachute.
The latter had in its car a dog, a cat, and a squirrel.
A slow match was fixed so as to burn off the rope
which suspended the car when the balloon was at a
certain distance in the air. This was done, and the
balloon fell into the Delaware at Five-Mile Point,
and the parachute descended near Bush Hill. Blanch-
ard again complained that, although one hundred and
fifty dollars were received for admission to the rotunda,
he was not compensated for his outlay. The number
of outsiders was, as usual, immense. Nevertheless,
another exhibition was given June 17th. The rate
of admission was fifty cents. The balloon fell in
Arch Street, near Fifth, and the parachute, with the
animals, in the Friends' burying-ground, at Arch and
Fourth Streets. The result was similar.
On the 20th Blanchard gave another exhibition,
and on this occasion had the satisfaction of seeing
his rotunda filled with spectators. He also exhibited
models of balloons and philosophical apparatus, and
a " wonderful carriage'' propelled by an " automaton
in the shape of an eagle chained to the tongue of
the carriage and guided by the traveler." This ve-
hicle, which ran without the assistance of horses,
traveled " as fast as the best post-chaise," and could
" not only travel on all roads, but likewise ascends
any mountain which is accessible to any common car-
riage."1
1 In an advertisement headed "A curious carriage," Blancliard made
the following announcement: " Monday, the 26th August, at half-past
five o'clock, at liis rotunda, on Governor Mifflin's lot, Philadelphia, Mr.
Blanchard will make two experiments — the one of natural philosophy,
and the other of mechanism. An air balloon of eleven thousand four
hundred and ninety-eight cubic feet will he filled with atmospheric air
in the space of six minutes (instead of ten hours, which were required
formerly) by the help of a machine which he haB invented and but
472
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Iii 1794, Blanchard advertised that he would make
his forty-sixth ascension if it were possible to obtain
twelve pipes or cylinder tubes six feet in length. By
such means he declared it would be practicable for
him to fill his balloon with gas in two days. Subse-
quently he announced that he would be unable to
make the ascension in consequence of the defective-
ness of the tubes, and declared that he would hence-
forth cease to attempt aerostation in the United
States " until the arts are brought to such perfection
as to furnish him with the means necessary to success.''
During 1793 and 1794 the people of Philadelphia
were excited to a high pitch of enthusiasm by the
events of the French revolution, which in the winter
of the former year had reached its culminating point
with the execution of Louis XVI. We have seen
that only a few months before that unfortunate mon-
arch had been the object of the warmest encomiums
on the part of Philadelphians ; but now the sympa-
thies of the great majority of the citizens were wholly
with the French republicans. Such, indeed, were the
excesses indulged in for the purpose of testifying the
general devotion to the principles of the revolution,
that it is difficult to realize at this day that they could
have been committed or tolerated in staid Philadel-
phia. As the French republic was then at war with
England, the sympathy exhibited by the United
States toward France naturally aroused the deep re-
sentment of the British government, and led to offen-
sive measures on the part of the latter, which finally
necessitated the passage of the embargo laws. The.
first of the series of popular demonstrations in Phil-
adelphia following the declaration of the French re-
public was an entertainment given at Oeller's Hotel,
on the 1st of January, 1793, by a number of French-
men and Americans in honor of the recent successes
of the French armies. Hodgkinson, the comedian,
sang a patriotic song, and a number of toasts were
drank. The persons present organized the "SociUe
Frangaise des Amis de L'EgaliU," of which P. Barrier
was elected president, and A. C. Duplaine, secretary.
A number of Frenchmen had previously held a meet-
ing, at which they had resolved to open subscriptions
for the relief of their distressed fellow-citizens of
France then in Philadelphia, and to organize a society
to be known as the " SodiU Frangaise de bien Fai-
sance." John de Ternant, the French minister, was
soon after elected president.
Other celebrations in honor of the new republic
were held on the 6th of February. At an entertain-
ment at Hyde's inn on that day, thirteen toasts ex-
pressive of sympathy with the Eevolutionary party
were drunk ; and at the City Tavern a dinner was given
for the purpose of celebrating the victories of the
French armies over the Austrians and Prussians. At
the latter entertainment Governor Mifflin, the French
lately brought to perfection. The eagle fixed to the carriage beginning
its flight, the carriage will come out from it, stand aud run round the
place, carrying two persons."
minister, De Ternant, and the French consul-general,
De La Forest, the officers of the city militia, and
others were present. At the head of the table stood
a pike bearing the cap of liberty and the French and
American flags entwined, surmounted by a dove bear-
ing the olive-branch. After the drinking of toasts,
singing of songs, etc., the officers with the band pro-
ceeded to the house of the French minister, where
the band played " Qa Ira"1 and Yankee Doodle.
The French Society held a celebration on the same
day.
The effect of these demonstrations, and of the im-
portation of radical notions from the French democ-
racy, was to arouse a feeling of hostility to ceremo-
nious form and display on the part of public officers.
Thomas Jefferson had returned from France strongly
impregnated with the advanced views of " fraternity
and equality" which were being so savagely exploited
there, and his great influence was thrown in the scale
in favor of the French extremists. Such was the
feeling excited on the subject that an effort was made
in Congress to substitute for the head of Washington
on the national coins " an emblematical figure of
Liberty," which after a stubborn contest between the
Senate and House was successful.2 Objection was
1 The Aurora, Sept. 29, 1801, contained the following strange account
of the origin of thiB song, which probably was furnished by Mrs. Duane
from a statement made by her father:
" When Dr. Franklin was at PariB, and heard of the succesB of the
American armies under Gates, Greene, and Washington, his usual expla-
nation to those around him was fa ira, which is, ill literal English, 'go
on,' or 'let them go on,1 meaning thereby that success must attend
such perseverance and valor. The venerable doctor was then the Bub-
ject of general admiration and esteem at Paris,' and these words, when
the enthusiasm in favor of America was so high, became words of popu-
lar exclamation, or cant words. When the Bastile was demolished,
those who recollected the enthusiasm connected with the words ca ira
during the American revolution adopted and applied them to popular
purposes in the French, and Dr. Franklin's exclamation of fa ira be-
came the theme of the first popular song composed in the French revo-
lution."
2 This requires explanation. There never was a coin bearing a like-
ness of Washington issued as money under the authority of the United
States of America. The first coin struck out by authority of the United
States Mint was a copper cent, in October, 1793. It was commonly
called the " chain cent," and bore as a device a head of the GoddesB of
Liberty, hair streaming backward freely and unbound. On the reverse
was a circle of fifteen links formed into a chain. Another variety of
the same general design, with a wreath substituted for the chain, was
iBsued in the same year. The first half-cent of 1793 waB of the same
style, with a wreath instead of a chain. The first silver dollar and
half-dollar, struck in 1794, had a head of Liberty, tresses Ioobs and
falling below the neck. On the reverse an eagle with outstretched wings
standing on a rock. The first half-dime, in the same year, had the
same device. The first dime, in the same year, was in general design
like the dollar of 1793. The first gold eagle and half-eagle (1796) had a
head of Liberty wearing the liberty cap. Three typea of the cent were
issued in 1791, having bustB of Washington ; they were got up as pattern-
pieces under the mint authority but by private contracts. John Harper,
sawmaker, at Sixth and Cherry Streets, coined them. But they met
with Washington's disapprobation ; and at his suggestion the device
was rejected and the dies subsequently broken. Another pattern-piece,
design, or bust of "Washington (legend, "G. Washington I.") was issued
in 1792 from a design of Peter Getz, of Lancaster, Pa. This was struck
in an old coach-shop, on Sixth above Chestnut, by John Harper, in
presence of Adam Eckfeldt, afterward coiner at the mint. Some speci-
mens in silver were struck, but Washington disapproved. Another type
with bust of Washington was struck in 1792, and a half-dollar of yet
GROWTH OF PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
473
also made to the President's levees, his ceremonious
intercourse with the public, and his employment of a
coach as a means of conveyance. It was charged
that he held himself aloof from the people, and that
he would not visit the Coffee-House and mingle with
the people. The old Assembly having postponed
their ball until President Washington's birthday, the
action of the managers was criticised on the ground
that it savored of undue deference. It was also urged
that the officers of the militia ought not to wait upon
him on his birthday, and any celebration of that
event was denounced as idolatrous. Notwithstanding
these objections, guns were fired and bells rung on
the 22d of February, and the usual parade of the
militia took place. In the evening a ball and supper
were given at Oeller's Hotel.
On the 4th of March, Washington again took the
oath of office as President of the United States, and
no details of the ceremony of reading his inaugural
address before Congress were omitted. He proceeded
to the State-House " in an elegant white coach, drawn
by six superb white horses, having on its four sides
beautiful designs of the four seasons painted by Cip-
riani." 1 As the coach-door opened two gentlemen,
with long white wands, emerged, and with some dif-
ficulty opened a passage-way through the concourse
of spectators for the President. Washington was
dressed on this occasion in a full suit of black velvet,
with black silk stockings and diamond knee-buckles.
His shoes, "brightly japanned, were surmounted with
large, square silver buckles." His hair was pow-
dered and gathered behind in a black silk bag, on
which was a bow of black ribbon. He carried in his
hand a cocked hat, decorated with the American
cockade, and wore a light dress-sword in a green sha-
green scabbard, with a richly-ornamented hilt.
Ternant, the French minister, was recalled during
the winter of 1793, and Citizen Genet, a violent Re-
publican, was sent out in the frigate " L' Ambuscade"
to take his place. Genet arrived at Charleston in
April, where he had undertaken to authorize the fit-
ting out of privateers and the enlistment of sailors in
the United States. Genet brought with him official
notification of the fact that France had declared war
against England, but the news had reached New
York by British packet five days before his arrival at
Charleston. The situation was the subject of deep
concern to Washington and his cabinet. By the
treaty of commerce the right of shelter was guaran-
teed to French privateers and prizes,— a right not
another type (bust of Washington in uniform) in the Bame year, as also
two varieties of a Washington cent. Who struck them or where they
were iBsued is not known, They are all regarded as pattern-pieces.
Other pieceB, coppers, medalets, and tokens, with buetB of Washington
in copper, were issued in 1791, 1795, 1800, etc. They were never legal-
ized as currency, and their coining were private speculations. (See
further " American Numismatists' Manual," by Montroville W. Dicke-
son.)
1 " Becollections and Anecdotes of the Presidents of the United States,"
by Arthur J. Stansuurg.
conceded to nations at war with France, — and the
United States were pledged to protect the French
possessions in America. The question arose, how-
ever, whether this agreement held good under the
change of government in France, and it was finally
decided to issue a proclamation of neutrality and to
receive the new minister of France.
The frigate " LAmbuscade," after landing Genet
at Charleston, had set sail for Philadelphia. On her
way up the coast she captured seven prizes, with-
which she arrived at Philadelphia on the 2d of May.
She was greeted with a salute from two field-pieces
which had been placed on Market Street wharf.
Genet made the journey from Charleston to Philadel-
phia by land. On the 16th of May he was met at
Gray's Ferry by a great concourse of citizens, who
escorted him into the town. In the evening a meeting
was held at the State-House, Charles Biddle presid-
ing, and Robert Henry Dunkin acting as secretary, at
which a committee, consisting of David Rittenhouse,
Alexander J. Dallas, Dr. James Hutchinson, Peter
Stephen Duponceau, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant,
George Fox, and William Barton, was appointed
to prepare an address to the new ambassador. On
the following day, after the address had been adopted,
the persons composing the meeting formed themselves
in line, and, with Charles Biddle at their head, pro-
ceeded to the City Tavern, where they were intro-
duced to GeDet. The latter declared that he was
overcome by this manifestation of good-will, but he
recovered sufficiently to make a suitable reply, which
was afterwards reduced to writing. He was also
waited upon by the French Benevolent Society, on
whose behalf P. S. Duponceau made an address, to
which the minister replied, and by the German Re-
publican Society. These demonstrations, and the at-
tentions he received at the hands of individuals, en-
couraged Genet in his efforts to obtain substantial aid
and recognition from the American government. His
effrontery soon became insufferable. On his official
presentation to Washington, May 18th, perceiving in
the vestibule of the President's residence » bust of
Louis XVI., who had been guillotined a few months
before, he complained that its retention in such a
conspicuous position was an insult to his govern-
ment, by whom the execution of Louis had been or-
dered. His pretensions, however absurd they may
appear at this day, were in a measure justified by the
extravagant attentions which he continued to receive
at the hands of the people of Philadelphia.
A few days after his arrival a civic entertainment
was given at Oeller's Hotel, at which the guests were
Genet, the officers of " LAmbuscade,'' and officials
of the Federal and State governments. Charles
Biddle presided, and Dr. James Hutchinson acted as
vice-president. Each toast was greeted with a salute
from Capt. Fisher's battery of artillery,, and after the
eleventh toast Citizen Genet sang the " Marseillaise"
" with great judgment and animation." When all
474
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the regular toasts had beea drunk, the red cap of
liberty was placed on Genet's head, and then, succes-
sively, on the heads of all present. As an antidote
to the intoxicating draughts of " liberty and equality"
which the people were eagerly quaffing, three hun-
dred of the merchants and traders of the city pre-
sented an address to President Washington urging
hirn to issue a proclamation of neutrality, and pledg-
ing themselves to assist in its enforcement, and the
birthday of George III. was celebrated by a public
dinner at Richardet's tavern. The tenth toast at this
dinner was " The Cap of Liberty : but may those who
wear it know that there is another for licentious-
ness." An incident which occurred soon after the
arrival of the frigate " L' Ambuscade" compelled the
municipal authorities to take decisive action. There
were many English sailors in port at the time, and
collisions between them and the French sailors were
of frequent occurrence. Finally, on the 27th of May,
a party of Englishmen, who had attacked a similar
party of Frenchmen, were overpowered by the latter,
assisted by citizens, severely beaten, and carried as
prisoners on board " L'Ambuscade." After being
held for a time they were released, "just at the mo-
ment," said Bache's Advertiser, " when they (the
French) received information of a horrid plot among
the English to assassinate all the French who were
found alone in the streets." The mayor deemed it
advisable to apologize to Genet for the failure of the
authorities to prevent or suppress the riot, but the
City Council, taking a more sensible view of the
affair, expressed the opinion that the presence in port
of armed vessels of nations at war would be a fruit-
ful source of trouble, and resolved that a committee
be appointed with the proper authority " in order to
procure a standing order that all ships of war or
privateers be directed to moor in the lower part of
the port of Philadelphia, and not higher up the river
than the borough of Chester." On the day on which
this riot occurred Citizen Bompard, commanding
"L'Ambuscade," gave an entertainment on board
that vessel to the French minister, the Governor of
the State, and other citizens. As the Americans were
about to leave Dupont, the boatswain, addressed
them on behalf of the crew in a " patriotic" speech.
The Fourth of July this year was celebrated
more as a French than an American holiday. On
that day the first Democratic society established
in the United States was organized, with David Rit-
tenhouse as president, William Coates and Charles
Biddle vice-presidents, J. Porter and Peter S. Dupon-
ceau secretaries, Israel Israel treasurer, Dr. James
Hutchinson, Alexander J. Dallas, Michael Leib,
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and David Jackson
committee of correspondence.
The members of the society, together with those of
the French Patriotic Society, celebrated the anni-
versary by a dinner at George Lesher's tavern, No.
94 South Second Street. The officers of the Fourth
Regiment dined at Ogden's, Middle Ferry, and in the
evening proceeded to the house of the French min-
ister, where an address was delivered, which was
properly responded to by Genet. A "select com-
pany" in Passyunk township also participated in an
entertainment, at which toasts to the French republic
and Citizen Genet were drunk. The anniversary of
the destruction of the Bastile, July 14th, was cele-
brated by the officers of the Second Regiment of
militia by a dinner at Weed's Ferry. Genet and Gov-
ernor Mifflin were among the guests, and " it was
probably at this dinner that the head of a pig was
severed from its body, and being recognized as an
emblem of the head of the murdered king of France,
was carried round to the guests. Each one, placing
the cap of liberty upon his head, pronounced the
word ' tyrant 1' and proceeded to mangle with his
knife the head of the luckless creature doomed to be
served for so unworthy a company." 1
The Federal government was not infected by the
popular enthusiasm on behalf of the French revolu-
tionists, but wisely sought to avoid embarrassing en-
tanglement and to preserve the neutrality which it
had proclaimed between France and her enemies.
An English vessel, the " Grange," was captured by
the French frigate " L'Ambuscade" in the Delaware,
and an earnest protest to the French minister on the
part of the American government resulted in the
release of the vessel and cargo. Another English
vessel, the " Sally," also captured by " L'Ambus-
cade," could not make out so good a case, and hav-
ing been condemned, was fitted out by the French as
a privateer in the port of Philadelphia, under the
name of " Le Petit Democrat." As this was a clear
violation of the neutrality proclamation, the State
authorities undertook to prevent the departure of the
vessel, and notified M. Genet that if necessary force
would be resorted to. Genet replied in indignant
terms, and asserted that President Washington had
acted without authority in proclaiming neutrality
without the formal consent of Congress. If the
latter body, when it met, supported Washington's
cause, he would withdraw, leaving the dispute to be
adjusted by the two nations themselves. He peremp-
torily refused to enter into any negotiations for sus-
pending the departure of the " Petit Democrat," and
threatened if an attempt were made to seize her to
repel force by force. Finally, however, Genet prom-
ised that the vessel should not sail without the con-
sent of the authorities; but the vessel sailed, not-
withstanding, a few days afterwards. Meanwhile a
committee of merchants had been appointed at a
meeting held for the purpose, which had waited on
Governor Mifflin and urged that every effort be made
to preserve neutrality. A subscription was also set
on foot to raise six thousand dollars for the defense
of the port.
1 Thompson Westcott.
GROWTH OP PHILADELPHIA FROM 1784 TO 1794.
475
The Federal government supplemented the efforts
of the State authorities in a vigorous manner. A
British ship, the " William," arrived at Philadelphia
in May as a prize of the French privateer " Citizen
Genet," under the charge of two American citizens,
Gideon Henfield, of Salem, Mass., and John Single-
tary, of South Carolina. Henfield and Singletary
were arrested for violating the neutrality law, a pro-
ceeding which called forth a furious protest from
Genet and a demand for their release. The Federal
authorities remained firm, however, and Henfield was
brought to trial in July, but acquitted. Genet at
once gave a dinner, the guests being invited to meet
Citizen Henfield, who had been " formally taken
under the protection of the French republic." Hen-
field again took service with a French privateer, but
was captured soon afterwards by a British cruiser and
imprisoned. The ship "William" was placed in
charge of a guard of militia, which was subsequently
withdrawn in pursuance of an arrangement with the
French minister. An attempt of the " Jane," an
English armed vessel, to increase her armament at
Philadelphia was resisted by the State authorities,
and the British minister, Mr. Hammond, consented
to her departure without increasing her force. In
order more effectively to enforce the neutrality regu-
lations, Governor Mifflin ordered a battery to be
erected at Mud Island, which was garrisoned by com-
panies of the city militia. The latter, however, sym-
pathized with the French to such an extent that
their services were almost perfunctory. On one oc-
casion the " Sans Culottes," a French privateer sail-
ing up the Delaware with a prize, was brought to and
subjected to a formal examination at the fort, after
which she took her departure with her prize, amid the
cheers of the garrison. In August the Legislature
appropriated five thousand dollars for the erection of
a battery on Mud Island. On the anniversary of the
abolition of royalty in France, Sept. 20, 1793, two
French frigates in port, " La Precieuse" and " La
Ville D'Orient," were decorated with flags and fired
salutes, the patriotic societies uniting in a celebration
at Richardet's, at which one of the toasts was, " The
guillotine to all aristocrats."
Meanwhile, the French privateers were inflicting
serious damage on American commerce by overhaul-
ing and capturing American as well as British vessels
whenever it suited them. British cruisers were com-
mitting similar depredations, and on the 13th of Au-
gust a meeting of Philadelphia merchants was held,
at which a committee was appointed to collect infor-
mation respecting the capture or detention of vessels
belonging to citizens of the United States by cruisers
of nations at war, and to lay the same before the
President. The committee consisted of John Nixon,
Thomas Fitzsimons, John Wilcocks, John Swan-
wick, John M. Nesbitt, Joseph Crawford, Joseph Bull,
Francis Gurney, James Vanuxem, Magnus Miller,
Robert Wain, Walter Stewart, and Robert Ralston.
Meanwhile, the struggle between the executive au-
thority of the general government and the French
faction, headed by Genet, was being carried on with
rapidly accelerating bitterness. Genet's pretensions
were supported not only by a strong popular element,
but by an influential political faction headed by Jef-
ferson, who, although a member of Washington's cabi-
net, was also head of the opposition. Freneau's Oa-
zette and the General Advertiser, both published at
Philadelphia, — the latter becoming afterwards the
famous Aurora, published by Bache, a grandson of
Franklin, who, educated in France, was an enthusi-
astic advocate of the new order of things in that
country, — assailed the government with great vindic-
tiveness, and assured Genet that the people were his
friends, and that he had only to stand firm in order
to obtain what he wished.1
It was about this time that the name Democrat,
derived from the Democratic Society which had been
formed in Philadelphia in imitation of the political
clubs of Paris, was first introduced as a party appel-
lation into American politics. A long time elapsed,
however, before it was accepted by any but the more
ultra portion of the opposition. " It was never recog-
nized by Jefferson ; and even of these societies, sev-
eral preferred to call themselves Republican. It was
only in combination with that earlier name that the
epithet Democratic came into general use, the com-
bined opposition taking to themselves the title of
Democratic Republicans."2
The embarrassing position in which the general
government found itself was aggravated not only by
the equivocal course of Jefferson and his followers
generally, but by the conduct of many leading Penn-
sylvanians, who openly espoused the cause of France,
and declared themselves in favor of war with Great
Britain. Among these were Governor Mifflin, Chief
Justice McKean, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, David
Bittenhouse, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and Alex-
ander J. Dallas. Under their leadership and that of
prominent men in other States, the organization of
Democratic societies and the stimulation of public
sentiment in favor of France were vigorously prose-
cuted. The newspaper attacks on Washington and
his advisers grew more and more violent, and the em-
barrassments of the administration continued to mul-
tiply. Finally, in view of Genet's increasing inso-
lence, it was determined to demand his recall. Public
opinion now began to change, and ere long the gov-
ernment found itself supported by the great mass of
the people, who readily perceived that the intemper-
ate conduct of the French partisans, if unchecked and
permitted to influence the policy of the government,
1 Washington was greatly annoyed by these attacks. In a letter to
Henry Lee, he wrote: "The publications in Freneau's and Bache'a
papers are outrages on common decency." And Jefferson quotes him
with charging "that raBcal Freueau" with "an impudent design to
insult him."
2Hildroth's History of the United States, revised edition, vol. i. p.
425.
476
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
could not fail to involve the country in a war with
Great Britain. In August Genet repaired to New
York,1 where he was received with ringing of bells
and firing of cannon ; but on the day of his arrival
there, a public meeting was held, at which the policy
of neutrality was strongly indorsed. Similar action
was taken shortly afterward in many cities and towns,
and the hands of the government thus immeasurably
strengthened. On the other hand, Genet continued
to be the recipient of flattering attentions in Phila-
delphia.
On the 1st of January a meeting of the Second
Regiment of Philadelphia militia, Col. John Barker
commanding, adopted an address congratulating
Genet on the prospect of the establishment of a per-
manent republic in France ; and on the 6th of Feb-
ruary the anniversary of the alliance between France
and the United States was celebrated by the officers
of the regiment at Richardet's Tavern, Ninth above
Arch Street. On the latter occasion the crew of the
French vessel " Ville D'Orient" marched to the tavern
headed by a band of music, and bearing the French
and American colors, which were afterwards presented
to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and delegates
of the French Patriotic Society were present. On
the same day the latter society gave a dinner at Oel-
ler's Hotel, and a few days later the commander of
the "Ville D'Orient" entertained a number of Amer-
icans and Frenchmen on board that vessel. In the
mean time Genet's recall had been conceded, and on
the 22d of February M. Fauchet, the new French
minister, arrived at Philadelphia. The President's
birthday was celebrated as usual by the firing of can-
non, the ringing of bells, and the beating of drums.
His levte was largely attended, and in the evening
the President and his wife were present at the ball of
the City Dancing Assembly, which terminated with
a grand supper.
CHAPTER XX.
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OP THE
CENTURY.
Meanwhile the relations between the United States
and Great Britain were becoming more and more
unsatisfactory. It was not to be expected that the
British government would view with equanimity the
violent demonstrations in Philadelphia and elsewhere
in favor of a nation with which it was at war; and it
was only natural that it should fail to encourage a very
l During the French minister's absence, a number of sailors — a portion
of the crew of the French frigate " Jupiter," which had mutinied — came
to Philadelphia, and at Ge et'B request were arrested by the State au-
thorities. They were met a Kensington by companies of the city militia,
taken into custody, and escorted to Walnut Street prison, where they
were confined.
nice or rigorous discrimination between French and
American property in its seizures of vessels on the
high seas. So flagrant, indeed, became the aggres-
sions of the British cruisers, that on the 18th of
March, 1794, a meeting of merchants and traders was
held at McShane's Harp and Crown Tavern, Third
Street below Arch, with Stephen Girard as chair-
man, and Robert McKean as secretary. It was re-
solved that owners of American vessels had a right
to reimbursement of losses from vexation or spolia-
tion by cruisers of Great Britain or other nationali-
ties, and that additional imposts should be placed on
goods from States so offending. On the 18th a more
general meeting was held in the State-House yard, at
which the acts of hostility complained of as having
been perpetrated by Great Britain, were thus de-
scribed: "It appears that Great Britain," said one
of the clauses of the preamble, —
4i . . uniformly actuated by an ambitious and vindictive policy,
and equally regardless of positive compact and of general law, has denied
the rights, attacked the interests, interrupted the pursuits, and insulted
the dignity of the United States ; inasmuch as she has arbitrarily refused
to surrender the Western posts, conformably to the express stipulations
of treaty ; she has clandestinely fomented and maintained a savage war
upon the frontiers of the United States, contrary to the dictates of justice
and humauity ; she has insidiously let loose the barbarians of Africa to
plunder and enslave the citizens of the United States ; shebas arrogantly
attempted to prescribe boundaries to the American commerce; she has
basely authorized piratical depredations to be committed by her own
subjects on the ships and citizens of the United States ; she has violently
seized and sequestered the vessels and property of the citizens of tile
United States to the value of several millions of dollars; she has insult-
ingly imprisoned and meanly reduced or forcibly impressed into her ser-
vice the seamen of the United States to the number of several thousand
citizens ; and she has contemptuously disregarded the reiterated com-
plaints which such complicated injuries have produced."
In view of these grievances it was resolved that
the citizens of the city and county of Philadelphia,
being duly impressed with the injuries and insults
which Great Britain has offered to the rights, com-
merce, and character of the United States, ask and
expect, from the wisdom and patriotism of the gen-
eral government, and they hereby pledge themselves
cheerfully to support with their lives and fortunes
the most expeditious and the most effectual meas-
ures (which appear to have been too long postponed)
to procure reparation for the past, to enforce safety
for the future, to foster and protect the commercial
interests, and to render respectable and respected
among the nations of the world the justice, dignity,
and power of the American republic. It was also re-
solved that the general government be urged to ex-
tend to France and citizens every favor which " friend-
ship can dictate and justice can allow," and that
measures should be adopted "to prevent more of our
property from falling into the hands of Algiers or of
Britain ;" that " duties and prohibitions ought im-
mediately to take place on British ships and manu-
factures until reparation for the losses of our citi-
zens can be obtained, and the just claims of America
to the surrender of the Western posts be complied
with. The chairman having called the attention of
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTUKY.
477
the meeting to the condition of American citizens en-
slaved at Algiers, it was resolved that "a committee
of five citizens be appointed to prepare a plan for
soliciting donations from all benevolent and patriotic
freemen for the purposes of establishing a fund to re-
lieve and redeem our unfortunate fellow-citizens who,
sailing on board of vessels belonging to the port of
Philadelphia, have been captured and enslaved by
the Algerine or any other piratical State." l
The committee reported at an adjourned meeting
held on the 24th of March, suggesting the appoint-
ment of a committee of five citizens in each ward to
solicit subscriptions, and a board of trustees to super-
intend the distribution of the Algerine fund. The
persons chosen as trustees were George Latimer, John
Barclay, John Swanwick, Jacob Morgan, Thomas
Mifflin, George Meade, Thomas McKean, Israel
Israel, Alexander Boyd, Caleb Lownes, John Dun-
lap, Robert McKean, and Stephen Girard. A benefit
in aid of the fund was given at the new theatre by
Wignell and Reinagle, which realized nine hundred
dollars, and a ball given by Monsieur Sicard, for the
same charitable object, netted sixty dollars and fifty-
six cents.
Measures of retaliation had already been proposed
in Congress, and the excitement against Great Britain
was intensified by the reception of news that a Brit-
ish Order in Council, dated Nov. 6, 1793, but only just
made public, had directed British cruisers to stop, de-
tain, and bring into port all ships laden with goods
the produce of any French colony, or carrying pro-
visions or other supplies for the use of such colony.
Simultaneously with the adoption of this order an ex-
pedition was dispatched for the conquest of the French
West Indies. Great excitement was caused in Phila-
delphia by the news of this action on the part of the
British government, and on the 26th of March Con-
gress passed a resolution laying an embargo for thirty
days on American vessels bound to any foreign port
or place, which term was afterwards extended for
another period of thirty days ending on the 25th of
May. On the 4th of June the President was author-
ized, at his discretion, to lay an embargo which might
expire fifteen days after the beginning of the next
session of Congress. The embargo caused consider-
able dissatisfaction among the sailors, many of whom
were thrown out of employment. On the 13th of
April a large body of them paraded the streets, and
apprehensions of a riot were felt, but Governor Mifflin
induced them to disperse. The militia, however, were
called out, and measures taken for the defense of
the city. In addition to the embargo, Congress
adopted measures for strengthening the military forces
1 The Philadelphia vessels captured by the corsairs up to this time
were these: Ship "Dauphin,1' Capt. Richard O'Brien, captured July,
1785 ; eight of the crew redeemed, seven died. Ship " Minerva,"
Capt. John McShane, captured Oct. 18, 1793; of the crew, fifteen liv-
ing, two died. Ship " President," captured October, 1793, Capt. Wil-
liam Penrose ; the crew eleven in number.
of the country, and the Legislature of Pennsylvania
passed an act on the 28th of February for raising
troops for the defense of the Delaware and the west-
ern frontiers. A company of artillery was ordered to
be raised, of which John Rice was captain, John
Hazlewood, Jr., lieutenant, and John Salsberry en-
sign. The company held possession of the fort at
Mud Island during the summer and fall, and in De-
cember the act raising the company was revived, and
the time of service extended. In pursuance of the
act of Sept. 4, 1793, appropriating five thousand dol-
lars for the purpose, a battery was erected on Mud
Island by Peter Charles L'Eufant, engineer, and on
the 16th of April, 1795, the property of Mud Fort
was ceded by the State of Pennsylvania to the United
States. This work was afterwards known as Fort
Mifflin.
The state of popular feeling towards Great Britain
is indicated in the character of the celebrations of
public anniversaries during this year. On the 1st of
May, St. Tammany's day, there was a demonstration,
which was conducted "with great ceremony" by the
Democratic and German Republican societies and citi-
zens at the country place of Israel Israel, three miles
from the city, in " honor of the late successes of their
French brethren." Bache's Advertiser, published that
day, suggested that it was time for Americans " to put
away the old cockade borrowed from a nation that
formerly tyrannized over them. Let them form a
new one from the colors of their national flag. There
will be a similarity between it and the French, as be-
tween the flags of sister republics. Let there be a dif-
ference of colors. The French run circular ; let the
American be striped from the centre to the circum-
ference, alternately red and white, with a blue star
in the middle. It is proposed that the Democrats
who meet to-day shall provide themselves each with
one." The suggestion was probably carried out, and
is worthy of note as marking the beginning in the
United States of the custom of wearing badges as
designations of political preferences. After the din-
ner at Israel's mansion the citizens, of whom some
eight hundred were present, formed themselves in
double line before the house, and Blair McClenachan,
as president of the Democratic Society, in which office
he had succeeded David Rittenhouse, " gave the fra-
ternal embrace" to the French minister, Fauchet,
" amid the animated joy and acclamations of the
whole company." From Israel's they marched in
procession back to the city, escorted by a volunteer
company. At the house of the French minister they
partook of refreshments, and proceeding thence to the
State-House were dismissed. Two days later another
banquet in honor of French victories took place at
Dalley's tavern, in Shippen Street, between Third
and Fourth, at which Governor Mifflin and M.
Fauchet were present.
In the hope of averting war with England, President
Washington dispatched Chief Justice Jay as a special
478
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
commissioner to that country. The appointment was
very obnoxious to the Democratic element, which
charged him with having bartered away the rights of
the United States to a free navigation of the Missis-
sippi River in the treaty with Spain, and predicted
that the negotiations he was about to make with Eng-
land would prove equally disadvantageous to his own
country. After his departure from New York on the
12th of May, his effigy was exhibited in Philadelphia,
having been " ushered forth from a barber's shop amid
the shouts of the people," and, after having been
guillotined, was blown up with gunpowder.1
On the Fourth of July the Ciceronian Society held
a celebration a short distance from the city, and
among the toasts were: "May tyrants never be with-
held from the guillotine's closest embraces,'' and
" May the link which unites Americans and French-
men never be cast asunder by the aquafortis of Brit-
ish intrigue." The officers of the Second. Eegiment
dined at the " Swan Tavern," on the banks of the
Schuylkill, Passyunk, and the toasts proposed were
of a strong Gallic tendency. The Society of the Cin-
cinnati, which dined at Richardet's, avoided the ex-
pression of partisan sentiments, and the Delaware
pilots, who had an entertainment at Isaac Fish's, on
the Jersey shore, were very moderate in their toasts.
Ten days later the anniversary of the French alli-
ance was celebrated with a military parade, artillery
salutes, and an entertainment given by the ship-
wrights and carpenters. So strong was the anti-
British sentiment that a medallion inclosing a profile
bas-relief of George II., surmounted by a crown, which
had been permitted to remain on the eastern front of
Christ Church throughout the Revolution, was re-
moved by the vestry in obedience to intimations pub-
lished in Bache's Advertiser to the effect that if it was
not taken down it might be done for them.2
The demonstrations this year in honor of the French
republic culminated in "a grand festival" on the 11th
of June, "to celebrate the abolition of despotism in
France." At daybreak a salute of ten guns was fired
from two field-pieces worked by French and Ameri-
can gunners, and at an early hour a large number of
persons had assembled in Centre Square, the officers
and volunteers in uniform, but without arms. An
obelisk adorned with insiguia of liberty, with the
colors of America and France draped beside it, was
1 Referring to the excitement which prevailed in Philadelphia during
1793-94, John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson many years after-
wards, said, —
"You certainly never felt the terrorism excited by Genet in 1793, when
ten thousand people in the streets of Philadelphia day after day threat-
ened to drag Washington Old of hishouse and effect a revolution in the
government, or compel it to declare war in favor of the French Kevolu-
tion and against England. The coolest, the firmest minds, even among
the Quakers in Philadelphia, have given their opinions to me that nothing
but the yellow fever, which removed Dr. Hutchinson and Jonathan
Dickinson Sergeant from this world, could have saved the United States
from a fatal revolution of government."
2 The image and crown were for many yearB in possession of the Phila-
delphia Library Company, but are now in the vestry-roora of the church.
raised in the middle of the square ; and young girls
and boys dressed in white, with tri-colored ribbons,
and holding baskets of flowers, were grouped about
the pedestal. Fauchet, the French minister, and his
suite were greeted on their arrival with cries of " Long
live the French republic and the United States!"
French and Americans " mingled together in the most
fraternal manner," and the " Carmagnole" was danced.
At a signal of ten guns a procession was formed, the
line being headed by two pieces of artillery drawn by
French and American gunners. The obelisk was
carried by four Frenchmen and four Americans in
uniform wearing red liberty caps, and surrounded by
the young girls and boys. A French National Guard
followed carrying a pike crowned with the liberty
cap, and supported by bearers of the ensigns of the
two nations. The French minister and officers of the
State and city government came next, and after
them an immense number of persons, Americans
and Frenchmen, arm in arm, holding branches of
oak in their hands. In this order they proceeded
to the house of M. Fauchet, at the southeast cor-
ner of Twelfth and Market Streets. In the centre
of a large grass-plat a statue of Liberty surmount-
ing an altar had been erected upon a platform.
Stationed upon this eminence, Citizen Cholard de-
livered an oration in French, which was responded to
by Citizen Fauchet, who at the end took the oath
" to support the republic, one and indivisible." The
Frenchmen present also swore to support the repub-
lic, and live freemen or die. The young girls strewed
flowers upon the altar. The persons present sang the
"Marseillaise" hymn in grand chorus. The ceremonies
at this place ended by dancing the " Carmagnole." At
Richardet's a feast was prepared, at which there were
five hundred guests. The usual ceremonies on such
occasions took place, and the proceedings closed by
dancing around the tree of liberty. In the evening
fire-works were exhibited at the house of the French
minister. As an accompaniment to the excitement
of the day, the British flag was publicly burned in
Market Street.
The year 1794 was also signalized by the Whiskey
Insurrection in Pennsylvania, which for a time di-
verted the attention of the people of Philadelphia from
foreign politics. A reign of terror was established
throughout Western Pennsylvania, and the authority
of the general government set at defiance. Wash-
ington applied to Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania,
I to suppress the insurrection and re-establish the reign
of law, but Mifflin returned an evasive answer, alleg-
ing his inability to comply. His refusal determined
Washington to assume the whole responsibility and
to act with promptness and decision. Accordingly,
on the 7th of August, he issued a proclamation re-
quiring the insurgents to desist from their opposition
to the laws, and made a requisition on the Governors
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Vir-
ginia for thirteen thousand troops, afterwards in-
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
479
creased to fifteen thousand, and on the 8th of August
"general orders" were issued by Governor Mifflin
calling out five thousand two hundred militia of the
force of Pennsylvania, in accordance with the requi-
sition of the President of the United States. Maj.-
Gen. William Irvine was appointed to the command
of the State troops, and Brig.-Gen. Thomas Proctor
to the command of the brigade composed of the troops
of the city and county of Philadelphia and the. coun-
ties of Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware, in all
eighteen hundred and forty-nine men. The quota of
the city, or First Brigade, was five .hundred and fifty-
nine men ; of the county, five hundred and forty-four
men.
On the 1st of September the Legislature was con-
vened in special session by proclamation of the Gov-
ernor. He stated the facts in his message, and called
upon the members for speedy action against the insur-
gents. The matter was referred to a committee, which
recommended an appropriation of one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars to defray the expenses of the
Western expedition. The bill was passed September
19th, and the Governor was authorized to engage the
services of troops for four months. On the 9th of
September, Governor Mifflin requested the officers of
the city and county brigades to meet him at the
council chamber, City Hall. Here he made a speech,
setting forth the views of President Washington and
the necessity of immediate action. Through a defect
in the military laws the militia could not be drafted ;
but through the personal exertions of Governor Mifflin
volunteers stepped forward amounting altogether to
one thousand men, being twice as many as it was
then considered would be necessary from Pennsyl-
vania. The Governor's tent was pitched near the
Lancaster road, on the west side of the Schuylkill,
Col. Clement Biddle being deputed to lay out the
encampment. Capt. Jeremiah Fisher's company of
artillery was first to offer its services. Capt. Chand-
ler Price's light infantry was early among the volun-
teers. Maj. Macpherson raised a company in four or
five days, about one hundred and fifty in number.
This organization was called " Macpherson's Blues,''
and was the beginning of a military organization
afterwards extended to a regiment, having in it com-
panies of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, the members
of which were Federalists in politics. The uniform
of the Blues was blue cloth pantaloons, round jacket
faced with scarlet, and white buttons. Capt. Taylor's
rifle company adopted the same costume. On the
19th the First City Troop, Capt. Dunlap, and the
cavalry corps of Capts. Singer and McConnell, about
one hundred and sixty strong, marched from Market
Street, near Twelfth, to Carlisle, by the way of Norris-
town, Beading, and Harrisburg. Scott's light infan-
try, with the artillery companies and ten six-pounders
and five three-pounders, crossed the Schuylkill at the
Middle Ferry two days afterward and marched up
the Ridge road to Norristown, and so on to the place
of rendezvous. The next morning Col. Gurney's
regiment, embracing grenadiers and light infantry,
with baggage, marched by the same route. The light
infantry encampment on the Lancaster road, contain-
ing about four hundred men, was broken up on the
22d, and the troops marched by way of Lancaster.
Macpherson's Blues followed, one hundred and forty
strong. Afterwards, at camp, the Blues, Taylor's
rifles, Graham's and Clunn's artillery, and McCon-
nell's, Singer's, and Dunlap's horse were formed into
a regiment, of which Macpherson was elected colonel.
Before these soldiers left the city a meeting was held
at the court-house to devise means to support the
families of citizens who were upon the expedition,
whose maintenance depended upon the labors of
those thus suddenly called away. John Wilcocks
was chairman and Robert Ralston secretary. God-
frey Haga, William Montgomery, Israel Whelen,
Andrew Bayard, James Cox, Levi Hollingsvvorth,
John Phillips, and John Barclay were appointed »
committee to solicit subscriptions. They collected
$3249. Of this sum families in North Mulberry Ward
received the greater part, $1162.14 being distributed
there. Lower Delaware Ward received but $6; South
Ward, $505.99; and New Market Ward, $650.
Geo. Stewart remained in military command of the
city during the absence of the Governor, with power
to assist the civil authorities in the preservation of
order. After a brief campaign, attended by slight
loss of life, the troops dispatched to Western Penn-
sylvania succeeded in completely subduing the rebel-
lion and re-establishing the rule of the lawful author-
ities. Macpherson's Blues returned to Philadelphia
on the 10th of December, being received with salutes
of artillery, and the cavalry companies of Dunlap,
Singer, and McConnell reached the city on the 28th.
The movement for the abolition of slavery had been
making quiet progress during all these years, and on
the 1st of January, 1794, a convention was held at
Philadelphia, by invitation of the Pennsylvania Abo-
lition Society, of delegates from all the societies for
the abolition of slavery throughout the United States.
At this convention two memorials were adopted, one
to the Legislature of Pennsylvania and the other to
Congress, asking the adoption of suitable laws to pro-
tect the African race and to suppress the slave-trade.
The petition to Congress, which related principally to
the slave-trade, was referred to a committee, which
made a report recommending the passage of a law
against the fitting out of any ship or vessel in any
port of the United States, or by foreigners, for the pur-
pose of procuring from any part of the coasts of
Africa the inhabitants of the said country, to be
transshipped into any foreign ports or places of the
world to be sold or disposed of as slaves. The law
as finally passed on the 22d of March, rendered the
vessels prepared for such service liable to forfeiture
made all persons concerned in fitting them out liable
to a fine of two thousand dollars each, and compelled
480
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
owners, masters, or factors of foreign vessels who were
suspected of intending to turn them into slavers to
give bond that the vessels should not be employed for
such service. Another convention of abolition soci-
eties was held on the 1st of January, 1796, Theodore
Foster, of Rhode Island, presiding and Thomas P.
Cope secretary, at which an address was adopted to
the free negroes of the United States, recommending
attention to religious duties, the cultivation of habits
of industry, abstinence from the use of spirituous
liquors, and the acquirement of a knowledge of read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic.
Yellow fever prevailed in Philadelphia again
during 1794, and also in 1795, 1796, and 1802, but
during the three years from 1794 to 1796, inclusive,
Philadelphia newspapers carefully avoided any refer-
ence to its existence, and a rigid quarantine against
infected ports was maintained. Besides enacting a
quarantine law the Assembly of 1794, on the 22d of
April, passed a supplement to the act for the appoint-
ment of wardens of the port, by which the new office
of harbor-master was created. He was authorized to
superintend the execution of all laws of the common-
wealth, of the city corporation, and of the wardens
of the port, in relation to the regulations of the port,
for cleansing docks and wharves, and preventing nui-
sances thereat by burning or breaming vessels, or
otherwise ; to regulate the stationing and anchorage
of vessels in the stream or at the wharves ; and to
regulate the time during which vessels might lie at
the wharves to discharge cargoes or take them in ;
with power to remove vessels, when necessary, and to
permit others to take their places. His fees were
specified in the law at one dollar for each voyage
made by vessels, except coasters under one hundred
tons.
In August of this year was formed the " Philadel-
phia Society for the Information and Assistance of
Persons emigrating from Foreign Countries," of which
John Swanwick was elected president, Thomas Newa-
ham treasurer, Napthali Phillips secretary, Henry H.
Heins register, Dr. A. Blaney physician, T. W. Tall-
man and W. Franklin counselors. The contributions
were one dollar per year, and charitable donations
were received.
The City Council was mainly occupied this year
with legislation in regard to yellow fever and modes
to prevent its recurrence. In January it was ordered
that " five water-carts be provided to cause the streets
to be watered and cleaned," and sheds to accommo-
date three of them were built on the northeast corner
of Potter's Field (now Washington Square). In No-
vember it was determined that the most eastwardly of
the city lots on Lombard Street, between Tenth and
Eleventh, south side, should be fenced in and inter-
ments made there instead of in Potter's Field ; but the
action of the Councils was for a time a dead letter, and
burials continued to be made in the old ground. The
Councils also passed a resolution in June of this year,
directing that " a stone or column," having a base with
four sides and forming an exact square, should be
placed in the centre of the public square at Broad and
Market Streets, as a standard from which the measure-
ment and regulation of the streets and courses might
be made. In December it was determined to extend
the market-house on High Street from Fourth to Fifth
Street. The district of Southwark, by an act of the
Legislature passed on the 18th of April, had been
erected into a corporation, with fifteen commissioners,
who were empowered to employ a watch and to have
the streets lighted; paved, and cleaned, to erect mar-
ket-houses, school-houses, and public buildings, and
to levy taxes. The first election was ordered to be
held at the house of Catharine Fritz. In accordance
with this act and prior laws a road had been laid out
from Moyamensing road, opposite Brockden's gate, by
the Buck Tavern to the ferry over the Schuylkill to
States Island ; also a street from the river Delaware
at or near Prime Street, and parallel or nearly par-
allel with Cedar Street, to the Gray's Ferry road,
which the commissioners named Federal Street. Au-
thority was given, in 1796, to the county to lay taxes
to pay for the cost of opening these highways.
The recall of Genet and the failure of the Whiskey
Insurrection, which had been secretly countenanced
by some of the leaders of the radical faction of the
Democratic Eepublican party, were severe blows to the
French sympathizers in Philadelphia. Both of these
incidents demonstrated that Washington's govern-
ment was firmly seated, and able to maintain itself in
the face of popular clamor, and that while the admin-
istration lasted, it would be futile to endeavor to em-
broil the country with the enemies of France. When,
on the 1st of July, the terms of Jay's treaty with
England were made known by a publication in
Bache's Advertiser, a violent opposition to its ratifica-
tion was at once developed. On the Fourth of July,
the militia paraded by order of Brig.-Gen. Thomas
Proctor, marching from Centre Square down Market
to Front Street, and thence by way of Front and
Chestnut Streets to the State-House. " Everybody,"
said the Independent Gazetteer, " was solemn on ac-
count of Jay's treaty. It appeared like a day of mourn-
ing." The militia officers of the Philadelphia brigade
dined at Small wood's, near Frankford, and were
ardent in their expressions of sympathy with France.
Citizens dining on the banks of the Schuylkill were
equally enthusiastic. In the evening a transparency
with the figure of John Jay was brought from Ken-
sington into the city escorted by a procession. In
the right hand was held a balance. One scale, in-
scribed " American liberty and independence," was
represented as kicking the beam, while the other,
inscribed " British gold," was down in extreme pre-
ponderance. In the left hand the figure bore a scroll
representing the "treaty of amity, commerce, and
navigation," which was extended toward a group of
senators, who seemed pleased, and were reaching
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
481
forward to grasp it. From the mouth of the figure
issued the words, " Come up to my price, and I will
sell you my country.'' The procession moved from
Kensington down Front Street to Oallowhill Street,
and thence, by the latter, to Second and Market
Streets ; then to Front Street, and back to Kensington.
" A great concourse attended. All was silent," said
Bache's paper, " until its return. The figure was
burned at Kensington amid the acclamations of hun-
dreds. There was no noise nor riot."
The French Republicans had arranged a celebra-
tion of the anniversary of the Revolutionary alliance
at Richardet's on the 11th ; but the French minister
Adet would not attend on account of Jay's treaty,
and the affair was conducted coldly.
On the 22d a town-meeting was called at the State-
House to deliberate upon the treaty, Dr. William
Shippen, Jr., in the chair. A resolution was adopted
that " the citizens of Philadelphia do not approve of
the treaty between Lord Grenville and Mr. Jay." A
committee was appointed to draft an address to the
President of the United States upon the subject. It
consisted of Thomas McKean, Charles Pettit, Thomas
Lee Shippen, Stephen Girard, Jaredlngersoll, William
Shippen, Blair McClenachan, Abraham Coats, Alex-
ander James Dallas, John Swan wick, Moses Levy, F.
A. Muhlenberg, John Hunn, John Barker, and Wil-
liam Coats. This committee reported the draft of a
memorial at an adjourned meeting on the 24th. The
address was adopted, and the chairman throwing the
copy of the treaty contemptuously from the stage, it
was caught by persons present, who placed it on a
pole. Three cheers were given for Stevens Thomson
Mason, and three cheers for Archibald Hamilton
Rowan, the Irish patriot, who had arrived in the city
a few days before. The crowd then proceeded, bear-
ing the copy of the treaty on the pole, to the house
of the French minister, whence, after some cere-
mony, they took it to Second Street, and burned it
before the house of Hammond, the British minister.
Similar scenes were enacted before the house of
Phineas Bond, British consul, No. 171 Chestnut
Street, and at the mansion of William Bingham, sen-
ator from Pennsylvania, at No. 114 South Third
Street, where the windows were broken. The Dem-
ocratic papers represented that the meeting was at-
tended by six thousand citizens ; but the Gazette
of the United States declared that it was composed of
"two shiploads of Irish people, interspersed with
fifty French emigrants." The Frenchmen in the
city showed their indignation by declining to meet
on the 10th of August, as had been usual in former
years, " out of deference," it was said sarcastically,
" to the patriotism of the American people." These
demonstrations were all intended to have an influ-
ence upon Washington, who had not yet signed the
treaty; but they were without effect. Despite the
vituperation launched against himself and Mr. Jay,
he ratified the instrument on the 11th of August.
31
This act was the signal for fresh invectives from the
Democratic press; but, on the other hand, Thomas
Willing and others, a committee representing four
hundred merchants of the city who had signed an
address approving of the treaty, waited on the Presi-
dent on the 21st, and submitted their sentiments in
favor of the measure. At the election the parties
were ranged as " Treaty" and " Anti-Treaty," and in
a few instances they were styled " Federalists" and
" Democrats." For the State Senate, Robert Hare,
the Treaty candidate, received 3055 votes in the city
and county of Philadelphia and in Delaware County,
and Jacob Morgan, Anti-Treaty, had 2314. In the
city, Latimer, Federalist, had 1648 votes for the As-
sembly, and Pettit, Anti-Treaty, 1093. Blair Mc-
Clenachan, Anti- Treaty, had in the county 871, and
Thomas Forrest, Federalist, 608. There were five can-
didates for commissioner. Peter Helm was elected.1
Besides the demonstrations that followed the pub-
lication of Jay's treaty with Great Britain, there were
a number of other occasions during the year on which
the popular feeling in favor of France was strikingly
exhibited.
At a meeting of one hundred and fifty officers, held
in January at Guise's tavern, Frankford road, to
1 Among the remarkable political productions of the year was the fol-
lowing, published by Bache on the 23d of November :
" The Political Ceeed of 1795.
" 1. I believe in God Almighty as the only being infallible.
" 2. I believe that a system of excise must of itself, if continued, infal-
libly destroy the liberty of any country under heaven.
"3. I believe that national banks are equally dangerous in a free
country.
" 4. I believe that a man who holds his fellow-man at an awful distance
in private life must hold them in contempt if, by accident, be finds him-
self for a time placed above them.
" 5. I believe that man wants to be a king who chooses the advocates
for kingly government aB his first councilors and advisers.
"6. I believe that a little smiling, flattering adventurer was once
placed at the head of a national treasury because he had contended for
a monarchy over a free people.
" 7. I believe the man who was sent as ambassador to a great uation,
and at a very critical moment, was sent because he contended for the
same thing.
" 8. I believe that man wishes to he a despot who makes alliances
with despots in preference to freemen and republicans.
"9. I believe proclamations no better than popes' bulls ; that, as far as
they respect religious ceremonies, they are contrary to the freedom of
conscience; that, as they respect government, they either counteract
the force of law, or, in the vanity of government, pretend a superior
skill as to its meaning.
"10. Ibelieve that there is something more designed than fairgovern-
meut when the people are too frequently ordered to fast or give thanks
to God.
"11. I believe that honest government requires no secrets, and that
secret proceedings are secret attempts to cheat the governed.
" 12. I believe that all honest men in a government wish their conduct
and principles to be made known to the governed, and that dishonesty
only shuns the light.
"13. I believe it is the duty of every freeman to watch over the con-
duct of every man who iB intrusted with his freedom.
" 14. I believe that a blind confidence in any men who have done ser-
vices to their country has enslaved, and ever will enslave, all the nations
of the earth.
"15. I believe that a good joiner may be a clumsy watchmaker, that
an able carpenter may be a blundering tailor, and that a good general
may be a most miserable politician."
482
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
consider what measures were necessary to amend the
militia laws, the proceedings were closed by a dinner
and toasts, in which pro-Gallic sentiments were pro-
mulgated, and the anniversary of the French alliance
was commemorated by a dinner given by Lieut.-Col.
Barker's Second Regiment at Jacob Meyer's tavern,
Filbert Street, between Eighth and Ninth. On the
other hand, the officers of Col. Gurney's regiment,
together with Gen. Proctor and others, who dined at
Dalley's, in Shippen Street, toasted Alexander Ham-
ilton, the bugbear of the French party.1
A dinner to Hamilton, who had just resigned the
Secretaryship of the Treasury, was given by the mer-
chants of Philadelphia on the 18th of February, " as
a testimonial of respect for his virtues and their grati-
tude for his eminent services." Among those present
were Gen. Knox, the late Secretary of War, the judges
of the Supreme Court, the Governor of the State, and
many others. The 22d of February being Sunday,
Washington's birthday was celebrated on the 23d.
He was waited upon and congratulated by Congress,
the Society of the Cincinnati, and citizens. In the
evening the City Dancing Assembly gave a ball and
supper. On the reception of the news of the capture
of Amsterdam by the French on the 1st of April, the
bells of the churches were rung, and on the 17th the
victory was celebrated by French, Dutch, and Ameri-
can citizens and Capt. Flintham's artillery. A salute
of seven guns was fired at daybreak, and one of fif-
teen guns at Centre Square at ten o'clock. Citizen
Dubois, Sr., presided, and Citizens Dubois, Jr., and
Gautier acted as secretaries. The committee of ar-
rangements consisted of Citizens Chotard, Sr., A. C.
Duplaine, Dore, Sr., Benjamin F. Bache, J. C. Hene-
ken, Jacob Gerard Koch, M. H. Meschert, Israel
Israel, and Michael Leib. From Centre Square the
company proceeded to the garden of Minister Fau-
chet, at Twelfth and Market Streets. Here before
the statue of Liberty a French citizen made an ad-
dress, after which the citizens present took an oath "to
live free or die.'' The French minister then delivered
an address, after which Dubois united the three flags
under a civic crown. The assemblage repaired to
Oeller's Hotel, and after dinner the artillery and citi-
zens escorted the American flag to the house of Gov-
ernor Mifflin, Market Street above Seventh ; the
Dutch flag to the residence of Francis Van Berckel,
minister of the Netherlands, at No. 258 Market Street;
and the French flag to Citizen Fauchet's house, at the
southeast corner of Twelfth and Market Streets. On
the 1st of May a civic feast was given by the Demo-
cratic and German Republican Society at Oeller's
Hotel. The Dutch and French ministers were pres-
ent, and Fauchet made his appearance for the last
time. He was succeeded on the 13th of June by
1 William Colibett, whose political writings afterward attained great
circulation, came to Philadelphia about this time, and in January issued
his first pamphlet, entitled " A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats."
Citizen Adet, who with the French consul-general,
De La Tombe, now represented the French republic.1
The local measures before the Legislature and City
Councils were not specially important this year. By
an act of March 13th the Northern Liberties was di-
vided into two districts for election purposes, the di-
viding line being Second Street from Vine Street to
Germantown road, and the latter from the intersec-
tion to the boundary of the township. The divisions
were known as the Eastern and Western Districts of
the township of the Northern Liberties, and the citi-
zens were authorized to elect one assessor and two in-
spectors for each. A few days later an act was passed
to authorize the building of a town-house and market-
place in the Northern Liberties. Twenty feet of ground
on each side of Second Street, between Coates and
Poplar Streets, had been dedicated by the owners of
lots to encourage the improvement of that part of
the county, and the petitioners to the Legislature
offered to build the markets by subscription, without
any charge to the public, and proposed that, after the
buildings had been paid for, all the income of the
market should be appropriated to the benefit of the
charity school of the Northern Liberties. William
Coats, Jacob Weaver, Dr. John Weaver, Dr. Peter
Peres, Jacob Whitman, William Peter Sprague, Dan-
iel Miller, John Brown, Michael Groves, and John
Nicholas Wagner were appointed superintendents of
the building, with power to take subscriptions and
loans, and were authorized to commence in the mid-
dle of Second Street, forty feet north of Coates Street,
a town-house twenty-four feet front by thirty feet in
depth along Second Street,3 and a market eighteen
feet wide, extending to Brown Street; also a market
at the same distance from the principal streets, and
of the same dimensions, between Brown and Poplar
Streets. Henry Faunce was nominated first clerk of
the market, and three surveyors were appointed to
regulate the grades, descents, and water-courses of the
streets, lanes, and alleys of certain portions of the
township bounded by the Shackamaxon Creek, or
Gunner's Run, portions of the Frankford road, the
Germantown road, and the Old York road, and
Hickory Lane and the Wissahickon road; and also
to survey a portion of the township north of Cohock-
sink Creek.
Owing to the additional danger to the city from
fire resulting from the erection of wooden buildings,
the Legislature, on the 18th of April, 1794, passed an
act empowering, the city corporation to pass ordi-
nances forbidding the erection of any wooden man-
2 A riot took place on the 1st of June between a party of sailors be-
longing to the privateer " Brutus" and Bonie rope-mailers, during which
one rope-maker was killed and several persons were wounded. To quell
the disturbance, Neilson's grenadiers and Scott's light iufantry were
ordered out and patrolled the streets for two niglits.
3 The town-bouse stood in Second Street, north of Coates. It was in
size and general appearance similar to the buildingstiil sianding in the
middle of Second Street at Pino Street, at the north end of the " Second
Street Market," once called the " Society Hill Market."
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
483
sion-house, shop, warehouse, store, carriage-house, or
stable within such part of the city eastward of Tenth
Street as may be judged proper. Remonstrances
against the exercise of this power were presented to
the City Councils, and the matter was postponed for
more than a year, but on the 6th of June, 1795, an
ordinance was passed prohibiting the erection in fu-
ture of wooden buildings between the Delaware and
the east side of Sixth Street, between Vine and Sas-
safras, and between Walnut and Cedar Streets, and
between the Schuylkill River and Tenth Street, be-
tween Sassafras and Walnut Streets. The penalty
was five hundred dollars, besides a liability to pull
down the building so erected, under a fine of three
hundred dollars for every three months during which
the house remained up after conviction. Every per-
son engaged in the building of such wooden house
was also declared to be subject to a fine of one hun-
dred dollars. This ordinance was resisted, and suc-
cessfully. On the trial a citizen of Philadelphia was
admitted as a witness, although it was objected that
he was a member of the corporation, and therefore
incompetent to give testimony. This opinion was
sustained by the Supreme Court. The Councils de-
nounced this decision as unreasonable. By it " the
police of the city was prostrated, the execution of the
laws rendered impossible, and the very existence of
the corporation became absurd and useless."1
In April, 1795, the Legislature passed an act au-
thorizing the city corporation to pass an ordinance
compelling the owners and occupants of houses in the
city to provide and keep in repair any number of
leathern buckets not exceeding six for each building,
to be used in extinguishing fires. At the same time
an act was passed providing for the inspection of
powder, and naming David Rittenhouse, Francis
Gurney, and Thomas Proctor as commissioners, with
instructions to procure two of the machines invented
by Joseph Leacock, of Philadelphia, for ascertaining
the force of powder, and to " make experiments,
settle the standard of gunpowder, and mark the gra-
dations in the arch." It was further provided that
the strength of all manufactured gunpowder should
be fixed by an inspector appointed for the purpose.
The Legislature also passed an act authorizing the
extension of the market in High Street, between
Third and Fourth Streets, for the benefit of the
farmers only.
Among the local incidents of the year was the
death of John Penn, formerly Proprietary Governor
1 These difficulties were remedied by an act passed in 1799, which de-
clared that the interest of members of a municipal corporation in the
fines and penalties incurred for breaches of the ordinances of such cor-
poration was too remote to affect the credibility of their testimony.
Therefore it was declared that the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and of
any other town or borough, should be good witnesses in prosecutions for
breaches of ordinances or laws where the penalties inured to the corpo-
ration ; that the mayor, recorder, and aldermen might act as judges, not-
withstanding their nominal interest, and the freemen of the corporation
might act as jurors in such cases.
of Pennsylvania, which occurred on the 9th of Feb-
ruary. He was buried in the aisle of Christ Church,
in front of the chancel, nineteen feet from the north
wall.2
On the 10th of November a small schooner of
eighteen feet keel, twenty-three feet from stem to
stern, and six feet beam, arrived at Market Street
wharf at noon, and the occupants, two persons, fired
a Federal salute from a blunderbuss. This small
vessel was called the " White Fish," and it had
reached Philadelphia by water, and occasional portage
by land, from Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, now near
the present town of Erie, Pa., under the charge of
two persons, John Thomson and David Lummis.8
Thomson and Lummis were surveyors who had
been engaged in laying out lands in the Northwest-
ern Territory, and who, having finished their labors,
had determined to test the truth of a theory that there
was an easy means of establishing transportation
between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. They
built their boat at Presque Isle during the summer
of 1795, without adequate tools for the work, and
taking all their timber from the woods. The " White
Fish," as she was called, was an open boat, without
a deck. After making her way to New York City
across the State and down the Hudson, she started
for Philadelphia, and, sailing the Jersey coast,
doubled Cape May on the 4th of November.
On her arrival at Philadelphia the " White Fish"
had completed a voyage of nearly one thousand
miles, twenty-nine of which was over the land, em-
braced in five portages. It had demonstrated the
feasibility of connecting the waters of the lakes with
the Hudson River, an idea afterward acted upon
when the New York and Erie Canal was constructed.
The " White Fish" was considered a great curiosity.
It was taken from the water and placed in the State-
House yard, where it remained for many years.4
The most important event of the year 1796 was the
announcement of Washington's intention to retire
from public life at the close of his Presidential term.
On the 19th of September his Farewell Address to the
people of the United States was published in Dunlap
& Claypoole's Daily Advertiser?
2 The inscription on the tombstone reads as follows :
" Here lieth the body of
Honorable John Penn, Esquire,
One of the late proprietaries of
Pennsylvania,
Who died February 9th, a.d. 1795,
Aged G7 years."
John Jay Smith says, in " The Penn Family," that John Penn " died
in Bucks County."
8 John Thomson was at that time a native of Delaware County. He
was the father of J. Edgar Thomson, afterwards president of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company. David Lummis was subsequently lost in
a storm in a passage from Philadelphia to Charleston, S. C, in 1S04.
* An entertainment was given at Weed's tavern in January, 1796, to
commemorate the arrival of the " White Fish."
5 D. C. Claypoole, printer of the Daily Advertiser, furnished in 1826 a
committee of the Pennsylvania Ilistorical Society with an account of the
manner in which he obtained the manuscript of the Farewell Addres'B
484
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Washington's residence in Philadelphia had been
made very uncomfortable during the latter years of
his presidential service by the assaults of political
opponents, especially during the period of excitement
growing out of the French revolution. Although his
course was uniformly temperate and prudent, he was
denounced as favoring men and measures inimical to
the American form of government, and language
seemed scarce strong enough to express the suspicion
and dislike with which he was regarded by Demo-
cratic extremists. In a letter to Jefferson, written in
the summer of 1796, Washington complained that
every act of his administration had been tortured, and
the grossest and most insidious misrepresentations
made " in such exaggerated and indecent terms as
could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious de-
faulter, or even a common pickpocket."
Another noteworthy event of the year was the death
on the 26th of June of the famous astronomer, David
(1 Hiet. Soc. Memoirs, edition of 1SG4:, page 2G5.) The statement was
called for in order to settle the truth of an allegation made that the
Farewell Address was written by Alexander Hamilton and was entirely
in his handwriting. Mr. Claypoole says, —
"A few days before the appearance of this memorable document in
print I received a message from the President, by his private secretary,
signifying his desire to Bee me. I waited on him at the appointed time,
and found him sitting alone in his drawing-room. He received me
kindly, and, after I had paid my respects to him, desired me to take a
seat near him. Then, addressing himself to me, he said that he had for
some time past contemplated retiring from public life, and had at length
concluded to do so at the end of the then present term; that he had
some thoughts and reflections upon the occasion which he deemed proper
to communicate to the people of the United States in the form of an ad-
dress, and which he wished to appear in the Daily Jdrerliser, of which
I was editor. He paused, and I took the opportunity of (hanking him
for having preferred that paper as the channel of his communication
with the people — especially as I viewed this selection as indicating hiB
approbation of the principles and manner in which the work was con-
ducted. He silently assented, and asked when the publication could be
made. I answered that the time should be made perfectly convenient
to himself, and the following Monday was fixed on. He then told me
that his secretary would call on me with a copy of the address on the
next Friday morning, and I withdrew.
" After the proof-sheet had been compared with the copy, and corrected
by myself, I carried another proof, and then a revise, to be examined by
the President, who made but a few alterations from the original, except
in the punctuation, in which he was very minute.
"The publication of the addreBS — dated 'United States, Sept. 17,
1796' — being completed on the 19th, I waited on the President with the
original, and in presenting it to him expressed my regret at parting
with it, and how much I should be gratified by being permitted to re-
tain it. Upon which, in an obliging manner, he handed it back to me,
saying that, if I wished for it I might keep it; and I then took my leave
of him.
" Any person acquainted with the handwriting of President Wash-
ington would, on seeing this specimen, at once recognize it; and, as I
had formerly been honored by written communications from him on
public business, I may say that his handwriting was familiar to me ; and
I think I could at any time, and without hesitation, identify it. The
manuscript copy consists of thirty-two pages of quarto letter-paper,
sewed together aB a book, and with many alterations, as in some places
whole paragraphs are erased' and others substituted; in others maDy
lines stmck out; in others sentences and words erased, and others inter-
lined in tlieir stead. The tenth, eleventh, and sixteenth pages are al-
most entirely expunged, saving only a few lines; and one-half of the
thirty-first page is also effaced. A critical examination will show that
the whole, from first to last, with all its numerous corrections, was the
work of the same hand ; and I can confidently affirm that no other pen
ever touched the manuscript now in my possession than that of the
great and good man whose signature it bears. "
Rittenbouse, at his house, corner of Arch and Seventh
Streets. His funeral was attended by the American
Philosophical Society and the Democratic Society,
of both of which organizations he was president at
the time of his death ; and, at the request of the Phi-
losophical Society, an eulogium upon his character
was delivered on the 17th of December in the First
Presbyterian Church, in the presence of President
Washington, members of Congress, the State Legis-
lature and the City Councils, the mayor, etc.
The excitement growing out of Jay's treaty with
England, and the efforts made both in France and
America to commit the United States to an active
interference on behalf of the French republic, con-
tinued during 1796, and was intensified in June by
the announcement that the American ship "Mount
Vernon," which had sailed from Philadelphia a few
days before, had been captured a few miles outside the
capes of the Delaware by the "Flying Fish," a
French privateer, which had been lying at Philadel-
phia during the previous month, and which was sup-
posed to be owned by a resident of the city. It was
pretended that the " Mount Vernon," which was
bound for London, had goods that were contraband
of war on board, but an examination of the manifest
showed that such was not the case. The commander
of the " Flying Fish," however, took possession of
the " Mount Vernon," declaring that, since Jay's
treaty, he had determined to seize every vessel bound
to a British port, and adding that he had a list contain-
ing the names of other vessels about to sail from Phil-
adelphia which he intended to capture. Sending back
the " Mount Vernon's" crew in a pilot-boat, the " Fly-
ing Fish" bore away with her prize. On their way
up the Delaware, the captured crew met the ship
" Philadelphia" bound for Bristol, which, on hearing
what had befallen the " Mount Vernon," put back to
Philadelphia. Vessels about to sail were delayed, and
a panic ensued among the merchants which was not
allayed until the departure of the " Flying Fish" from
the coast.
Jay's treaty had its friends as well as its opponents
in Philadelphia, and in April a meeting of merchants
was held to urge Congress to pass the necessary laws
to carry the treaty into execution. In the memorial
adopted by the meeting it was represented that prop-
erty belonging to merchants of the United States,
amounting at a moderate computation to more than
five millions of dollars in value, had been taken from
them by subjects of Great Britain, the restitution of
which they believed depended in a great measure
upon the completion of the treaty. Besides this sum,
the merchants had invested large amounts in vessels
and ventures which they apprehended would be
jeopardized if the United States failed to carry out
the stipulations of the treaty. In order to give full
effect to the action of the meeting a committee of
correspondence was appointed, consisting of Thomas
Fitzsimons, Joseph Ball, Walter Stewart, George
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
485
Latimer, Samuel Sterritt, Israel Whelen, Robert
Wain, Joseph Anthony, Samuel Breck, and Francis
Gurney. This movement was antagonized by a meet-
ing of the Gallic element held several days later, with
Stephen Girard in the chair, in which the treaty was
denounced as being " unequal in its stipulations, de-
rogatory to our national character, injurious to our
general interests, and as offering insult instead of re-
dress.'' Congress finally passed the laws necessary
to carry the treaty into effect on the 30th of April.
Party lines had now come to be very strictly drawn
between the Federalists and Republicans or Demo-
crats. At the election held in October, John Swan-
wick, the Republican candidate for Congress, had
1502 votes in the city, and Edward Tilghman 1432.
The other candidates of the Federal party, however,
had a majority of 642 in the city. In the county,
Blair McClenachan, the Republican candidate for
Congress, received 1182, and Robert Wain, Federalist,
910. At the Presidential election in November, the
Jefferson electoral ticket, headed by Thomas McKean,
received 1723 votes in the city and 1832 in the county.
The Adams ticket, headed by Israel Whelen, received
1100 in the city and 399 in the county. In the State,
McKean had 12,306, and Whelen 12,181. Two Fed-
eralists, Samuel Miles and Robert Coleman, were de-
clared elected, however, in consequence of personal
popularity. At the meeting of the electoral college,
Jefferson had 14 votes, Burr 13, Pinckney 2, Adams 1.
Two electors were excluded in consequence of alleged
irregularities in the election. About this time the
wearing of the tri-colored French cockade, which had
been previously suggested, became general. Citizen
Adet, the French minister, in November, issued a
proclamation calling upon all Frenchmen resident in
America to mount and wear the tri-colored cockade,
" the symbol of a liberty the fruit of eight years' toil
and five years' victories." This request was not only
complied with by Frenchmen, but by large numbers
of citizens who sympathized with French principles.
Adet, who seems to have been almost as presumptu-
ous and overbearing as Genet had been, was much
incensed by the fact that in some periodical works,
almanacs, etc., published in the United States, and
particularly the "Philadelphia City Directory" for
1796, the name of the minister of the French republic
had been printed after that of the minister of Great
Britain. Adet applied to Timothy Pickering, Secre-
tary of State, for redress, and coolly demanded that
the error should be rectified " by suppressing the pub-
lication and distribution of the directory and other
almanacs in which it has been committed." Picker-
ing of course refused to interfere, and informed Adet
that he presumed that the government of the United
States would not " attempt by official arrangement
voluntarily to settle questions of rank among foreign
powers."
Another incident curiously illustrative of the state
of feeling in Philadelphia at the time is the announce-
ment, under date of October 25th, in the New World
(published by Samuel Harrison Smith at No. 118
Chestnut Street) of the fact that among the passen-
gers in the ship "America" was "L. P. B. Orleans,
eldest son of the ci-devant Egalite, and distinguished
in French history as lieutenant-general at the battle
df Jemmapes." The partisans of the French no longer
had it all their own way, however, for William Cob-
bett, the celebrated English political writer, who had
come to the United States in 1792, began to publish a
series of bitter and vindictive pamphlets under the nom
deplume of " Peter Porcupine," in which he fiercely
assailed the French and their American sympathizers.
His publisher was Thomas Bradford, who realized
large profits from the sale of the pamphlets. Cob-
bett, however, was very poorly paid, receiving only
four hundred and three dollars for them during the
two years that Bradford was his publisher, and in
order to reap the benefit of his writings he resolved
to establish himself in business as a bookseller, and
hired a blue frame house No. 25 North Second Street,
opposite Christ Church. " The moment, however,
that I had taken a lease of a large house," wrote
Cobbett, " the transaction became the topic of public
conversation, and the eyes of the Democrats and the
French, who still lorded it over the city and who
owed me a mutual grudge, were fixed upon me. I
thought my situation somewhat perilous. Such
truths as I had published no man had dared to
utter in the United States since the rebellion. I
knew that these truths had mortally offended the
leading men among the Democrats, who could at
any time muster a mob quite sufficient to destroy
my house and to murder me." Cobbett's apprehen-
sions, however, were not realized ; and though warned
"not to put up any aristocratical portraits, which it
was said would certainly cause his windows to be
demolished," he exhibited, without injurious conse-
quences, all the portraits of kings, queens, princes,
and nobles, — " in short every picture that I thought
likely to excite rage in the enemies of Great Britain."
" Such a sight," he adds, with evident satisfaction,
" had not been seen in Philadelphia for twenty years.
Never since the beginning of the rebellion had any
one dared to hoist at his window the portrait of
George III."
Although Cobbett escaped mobbing, the Anti-Fed-
eralist feeling in Philadelphia was still very violent.
A curious illustration of its depth and bitterness is
found in the conduct of Democratic citizens, who
celebrated the Fourth of July with a public dinner
at Oeller's Hotel, at which Pierce Butler and John
Swanwick presided. Lieut. Shaw's second company
of volunteers, after firing a salute at daybreak, took
post at twelve o'clock upon some waste ground near
Oeller's Hotel. The Society of the Cincinnati hap-
pened to be dining at Governor Mifflin's garden on
Chestnut Street, between Seventh and Eighth, and
the salutes which Shaw's company were engaged in
486
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
firing interfered with the toasts and speeches. Gov-
ernor Mifflin and the officers of the society sent a
message to Lieut. Shaw, requesting him to reserve
his fire until their last toast had been delivered ; but
"the company to a man," said Bache's Aurora, "re-
fused to acquiesce, conceiving that as they were called
upon to honor the day, they, as freemen and soldiers,
were not bound to wait on any description of men, in
which they persisted, although a second and more
strenuous effort was made."
The first gaslights ever seen in America were ex-
hibited in August of this year by Ambroise & Co.,
manufacturers of fire-works, at their amphitheatre in
Arch Street, above Eighth, who advertised that in
addition to the ordinary fire-works of combustible ma-
terial they would " show a grand fire-work by means
of light composed of inflammable air." They dis-
posed the lights so as to form an Italian parterre,
Masonic figures and emblems, a superb country-seat,
etc. The jets of light were made from orifices in
pipes bent into the requisite shapes.
After a successful campaign against the Indians in
the Northwest, Gen. Anthony Wayne returned to
Pennsylvania, and on the 6th of February was re-
ceived, at some distance from Philadelphia, by three
troops of light-horse, and escorted into the city amid
artillery salutes from cannon stationed in Centre
Square and the ringing of bells. He was afterwards
entertained by the Democratic Society at a dinner at
Eichardet's. Ambroise & Co., manufacturers of fire-
works, procured subscriptions for the erection of a
trophy in Arch Street, between Seventh and Eighth.
The structure, a triumphal arch, twenty-six feet in
height, representing the Temple of Peace, was in-
tended to show the public gratification at the fact
that there was peace between the United States and
Algiers, between the republic of France and the
king of Prussia, the republic of Holland, the king of
Spain, the Elector of Hanover, etc., and between the
United States and the Indians, " a result of the late
western expedition." The edifice was supported by
four grand pilasters, and the cornice bore appropriate
inscriptions. The front was surmounted by the figure
of a terrestrial globe, on which rested a dove bearing
an olive-branch in its beak. Beneath this was a statue
of a woman, intended to symbolize Union. Five stat-
ues, of Peace, Liberty, Plenty, Justice, and Eeason,
with their attributes, decorated other portions of the
structure, with which were intermingled vases, baskets,
and other ornaments. The temple was brilliantly il-
luminated in the evening, and there was also a hand-
some.display of fire-works.
Capt. Morrell's Volunteer Greens, a cavalry corps,
composed of Federalists, gave a dinner to Gen. Wayne,
on the 25th of February, at Weed's tavern, Gray's
Ferry. Gen. Morgan, Col. Macpherson, and the offi-
cers of the First and Second Troops of city cavalry
were present.
Material amendments to the city charter were
made during this year. By the act of incorporation
of 1789 the City Council was one body, composed of
the mayor, aldermen, and city councilmen, but on
the 4th of April, 1796, the Legislature passed an act
creating a Select Council, consisting of twelve citi-
zens, to serve for three years.
Those first elected were directed to divide them-
selves into classes for one, two, and three years, after
which one-third of the number of members was to
be chosen yearly. The Common Council, composed
of twenty persons, was to be elected annually. The
whole legislative power of the city was vested in
these two bodies. The Governor was authorized to
appoint the recorder and fifteen aldermen, to hold
their offices during good behavior. The mayor was
to be elected by the Select and Common Councils
from among the aldermen, to serve for one year. He
was to preside in the mayor's court. This act went
into operation in October, when the new Councils
were elected. The corporation was not favorable to
this change. A protest against the" measure was pre-
sented to the Legislature, and the mayor sent in a
communication asking that the corporation might be
heard by counsel against the bill at the bar of the
House. On the other side the petitioners, who were
many, sent in a memorial asking to be heard on their
side, if the privilege asked by the city was granted.
The House paid no attention to either request, but
proceeded to pass the bill, which was soon ratified by
the Senate.
Various other matters of local importance came up
before the Legislature during 1796. From the North-
ern Liberties came remonstrances in reference to the
condition of the hay-scales and public landings in
that district, which caused the passage of a law by
the Legislature in April vesting the property men-
tioned in the commissioners of the county, who were
to govern them with the approbation and consent of
three justices of the peace. They were empowered to
make rules and orders for the regulation of the ten-
ants of the wharves and landings, and of carters,
drivers, skippers, and others, to fix the prices of
weighing at the hay-scales, to lease and repair the
landings and hay-scales, and with the profits to buy
other landings and wharves in the Northern Liberties
for public use. A lottery to raise £5250 for that pur-
pose had been recommended by the committee, but
the House would not sanction the proposition. A
petition was also presented in favor of raising £6000
for paying off the debt incurred by the erection of
market-houses in the district.
In March the Senate passed a bill authorizing a
lottery for the benefit of Dickinson College. The
House amended the bill by inserting sections in favor
of a lottery to raise, among other sums, $15,000 for
the erection of piers in the Delaware River at Ches-
ter, $16,000 for finishing the town-house and Callow-
hill Street market in the Northern Liberties, and
$8000 for a town-house and repairing public landings
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
487
in Soutlivvark. These were all struck out of the bill
by the Senate. The House adhered to the amend-
ments, and so the whole bill fell. Petitions for
making the Cohocksink Creek a public highway were
sent to the Legislature in the latter part of the year,
and the committee to which the subject was referred
reported in favor of making it a highway from the
Delaware to the bridge crossing the Frankford road,
for the passage of all kinds of vessels and rafts that
could float thereon. The law, passed in accordance
Feb. 27, 1796, made it lawful for any citizen to re-
move obstructions to the navigation, so that the
width of the creek for navigation should be forty
feet. Drawbridges were authorized wherever neces-
sary. The Legislature also ordered that the roads
laid out from Brockden's gate by the Buck tavern to
the ferry on State Island, and from Prime Street on a
line parallel with Cedar Street to Gray's Ferry, and
called " Federal Street," should be opened, as the same
were surveyed under the act of 1787 ; and in Decem-
ber the Governor announced in his message that the
Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike had been com-
pleted, but it was not immediately in good traveling
order. The regular stage commenced its trips in
May, to go through in one day. The first stage left
Lancaster at five o'clock in the evening, and reached
Philadelphia at five o'clock in the morning, bringing
ten passengers. The successful completion of this
work was justly regarded as a subject for congratula-
tion.
About the only matter of interest before the City
Council in 1796 was the effort to discover the origin
of attempts that were made in December to fire the
city. A committee appointed by the Council to in-
vestigate the matter, reported that endeavors had been
made to set fire to the house of Peter Cress, harness-
maker, No. 237 Market Street, and a reward of five
hundred dollars was offered for the arrest of the in-
cendiary. The nightly watch was ordered to be
doubled, and meetings of citizens were held at the
State-House, atSouthwark Hall, and atKitt's tavern,
No. 58 Market Street, of the inhabitants of the Middle
Ward, who appointed a guard to patrol the streets.
The Councils took up for consideration a bill to oblige
owners of houses to provide and repair their fire-
buckets, and they again urged the necessity of strin-
gent laws against the construction of wooden build-
ings. It was resolved to appoint twelve assistant
superintendents to oversee the watchmen, and observe
that they do their duty. The alarm was increased by
a fire which broke out on the night of the 30th of
December at the old academy, in Fourth Street, below
Arch, which destroyed the roof of that building and
the roofs of three houses adjoining. This was sup-
posed to be the work of design. The precautions were
redoubled , and the incendiaries becoming intimidated,
did not again attempt to apply the torch.
During December of this year representatives of a
number of Indian tribes visited Philadelphia, and
accidentally met at Peale's Museum, in Philosophical
Hall, on Fifth Street below Chestnut. As they were
hostile to one another, some embarrassment resulted,
but by degrees the interpreters entered into conver-
sation, and the chiefs were induced to take part.
Their differences having been alluded to, it was finally
decided to meet again for conference. At this inter-
view there were present chiefs of the Creeks, Chero-
kees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, the Southern Shawn'ese,
Wyandotts, Delawares, Miamis, Chippewas, Kicka-
poos, and other Northwestern Indians. The con-
ference opened by a message from President Wash-
ington congratulating them that their hearts were
softened to each other, and encouraging them to make
up their differences. The Indians were so struck with
the circumstances connected with the unexpected and
singular manner of their meeting that they expressed
their belief that the Great Spirit must have brought
them thus together for the purpose of reconciliation.
In this opinion they debated their grievances, and
resolved to enter into a treaty of amity.
Among the speculative schemes projected about this
time was a lottery proposed by Joseph Cooke, who had
built stately stores and dwellings at the southeast cor-
ner of Third and Market Streets. The drawing was
to be controlled by the numbers drawn in the Federal
lottery. The house at the corner of Market Street1
was valued at $50,000 ; the house adjoining, on Third
Street, at $40,000; and the next at $30,000. The
depth of the whole lot was but one hundred and
seven feet. To this real estate Cooke proposed to add
jewelry to the value of $280,000, — making the total
$400,000. There were to be 16,739 "fortunate
chances'' and 33,261 " nothings." The price of tickets
was placed at eight dollars each. This scheme was
urged in January ; but the value put upon the prop-
erty was extravagant, and few were found who were
willing to invest in it.
The event of the year 1797 in Philadelphia was the
1 This house, which got the nickname of "Cooke's Folly," was orig-
inally built about 1792. Cooke, who was a fashionable and flourishing
goldsmith and jeweler, erected the building with the intention that it
should rival the most splendid establishments of London and Paris. It
was a lofty brick structure, with a gable on Third Street, and wings
upon either side of the gable. The Market and Third Streets fronts
were literally crowded with carvings, and grotesque faces and figures
were placed wherever there was room for them. The upper part of the
building was designed for dwellings, while the lower stories were occu-
pied, at the outset, by jewelers, who made a grand display of mirrors,
etc. The completion and opening of "Cooke'B building," or of "Cooke's
Folly," made quite an excitement, and the showy shops used to be sur-
rounded by crowds of curious gazers. The novelty, of course, wore off,
and the building being too fine for the age, it gradually fell into decay.
It went from one degree of dilapidation to another, until its fine apart-
ments up-stairs were all used as workshops; its statuary and carvings
were broken and covered with duBt, its wood-work became bare of paint,
there was scarcely a whole pane of glass in the upper windows, old hats
and rags occupied the place of glass, and when it was finally demol-
ished, about 1838, it was as gloomy a looking wreck of finery and frip-
pery as could be imagined. Mr. Cooke occupied the corner store for his
shop, and the downfall of his enterprise carried him with it. He failed
for a very large amount, and finally died poor, leaving his family, who
had been brought up in luxury, destitute.
488
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
change in the Federal administration, John Adams
having been elected President to succeed Washington,
and Thomas Jefferson Vice-President in place of
Adams.
As the anniversary of Washington's birthday was
the last that would occur during his occupancy
of the Presidential chair, efforts were made to cele-
brate it with special 6clat. In the morning Capt.
Skerritt's artillery paraded, and at noon fired a salute.
At ten o'clock the companies of grenadiers and light
infantry, commanded by Capts. Neilson, Bobbins, and
Johnston, with Hozey's Southwark Light Infantry,
assembled in front of the State-House. The militia
officers met there at the same time, and were escorted
to Washington's residence.1 At a later hour members
of the Society of the Cincinnati, escorted by grena-
diers and light infantry, called to pay their respects,
and in the evening there was a ball.
On the 3d of March, Thomas Jefferson, the Vice-
President elect, arrived in Philadelphia, where he
was received by Capt. Shaw's company of artillery,
which displayed a flag bearing the inscription, " Jef-
ferson, the friend of the people." On the following
day the inauguration of the second President of the
United States took place in the Senate chamber.
Upon the entry of Adams and of Jefferson there was
applause from their respective partisans. Adams took
a seat in the Speaker's chair. Jefferson, Washington,
and the secretary of the Senate were at his left hand.
The chief justice and associate justices of the Supreme
Court of the United States were in the centre at a
table. Gen. Wilkinson, commander of the army, all
the officers of state, and foreign ministers were present.
At the proper time John Adams arose and made
an appropriate speech. After he ceased speaking he
descended to the table at which the judges were sit-
ting and took the oath of office, which was adminis-
tered by Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. He then
returned to his seat. After a few moments he arose,
bowed to the audience, and retired. He was followed
by the Vice-President, between whom and Washing-
ton a ceremonious contest arose as to who should go
first. Washington insisted that Jefferson should take
precedence, and the latter reluctantly agreed to pro-
ceed in that manner. The foreign ministers and
others followed, and the inaugural act was concluded.
1 The building in Ninth Street below High or Market, which had
been commenced by fhe State of Pennsylvania with the intention of
making it an official residence for the President of the United States,
was now almost completed, and on the 3d of March Governor Mifflin
wrote to President elect Adams tenderin g it to him for his accommodation,
with the stipulation that rent should be paid for it equal to that which
Mr. Adams would have had to pay for any other suitable house in Phila-
delphia. Mr. Adams, however, declined to accept the house, being in
doubt as to whether he was at liberty to do so without an authorization
from Congress, and leased the residence No. 190 High Street, which had
been occupied by President Washington. On the 17th of March, 1800,
the Legislature passed a law authorizing the Governor to appoint com-
missioners to sell the President's house. The property was afterwards
sold to the University of Pennsylvania for forty thousand dollars, and
the building was torn down in July, 1829.
Mr. Jefferson was afterwards sworn into office in the
Senate chamber, up-stairs.2
2 William McKoy, who wrote his recollections many years ago in Poul-
Bon's Daily Advertiser, under the signature of " Lang Syne," giveB the
following description of this memorable scene :
"The first novelty that presented itself was the entrance of the
Spanish minister (the Marquis Yrujo) in full diplomatic costume. He
was of middle size, of round person, florid complexion, and hair pow"
dered like a snow-ball, dark, striped silk coat, lined with satin, white
waistcoat, black silk breeches, white silk stockings, shoes and buckles.
He had by his side an elegant-hilted small-sword, and his ' chapeau,'
tipped with white feathers, under his arm. Thus decorated he crossed
the floor of the hall, with the most easy nonchalance possible, and an
occasional side toss of the head (to him habitual), to his appointed place.
He was viewed by the audience for a short time in curious silence. He
had scarcely adjusted himself in his chair when the attention of the
audience was roused by the word 'Washington!' near the door of the
entrance. The word flew like lightning through the assembly, and the
subsequent varied shouts of enthusiasm produced immediately Buch a
sound as
' When loud surges lash the sounding shore.'
It was an unexpected and instantaneous expression of 'simultaneous'
feeling which made the hall tremble. Occasionally the word ' Wash-
ington !' ' Washington !' might be heard like guns in a storm. He en-
tered in the midst, and crossed the floor at ; quick step,' as if eager to es-
cape notice, and seated himself quickly on his chair, near the Marquis
Yrujo, who rose up at his entrance as if startled by the uncommon
scene. He was dressed Bimilar to all the full-length portraits of him, —
hair full powdered, with black Bilk rose and bag pendant behind, as then
was usual for elderly gentlemen of the ' old school.' But on those por-
traits one who had never seen Washington might look in vain for that
benign expression of countenance possessed by him, and only suffi-
ciently perceptible in the lithographic bust of Kembrandt Peale to cause
' a feeling,' as Judge Peters, in his certificate to the painter, expresses
it. The burst at tlie entrance had now subsided, when the word ( Jef-
ferson !' at the entrance-door again electrified the audience into another
explosion of feeling similar to the first, but abated in force and energy.
He entered, dressed in a long, blue frock-coat, single-breasted, and but-
toned down to the waist; light sand}' hair, very slightly powdered, and
cued with black ribbon a long way down his back ; tall, of benign as-
pect, and straight as an arrow, he bent not, but with an erect gait
moved leisurely to his seat near Washington and sat down. Silence
again ensued. Presently an increased bustle near the door of the en-
trance and the words, 'President!' ' President Adams!' again produced
an explosion of feeling similar to those that had preceded, but again
diminished, by repetition, in its force and energy. He was dressed in a
suit of light drab cloth, his hair well powdered, with rose and bag, like
that of Washington. He passed slowly on, bowing on each side, till he
reached the 'Speaker's chair,' on which he sat down. Again a deep
silence prevailed, in the midst of which he ruse, and bowing round to
the audience three times, varving his position each time, he then read
his inaugural address, in the course of which he alluded to, and at the
same time bowed to, his predecessor, which was returned from Wash-
ington, who, with the members of Congress, were all standing. When
he had finished he sat down. After a short pause he rose up, and bow-
ing round as before, he descended from the chair, and passed out with
acclamation. Washington and Jefferson remained standing together,
and the bulk of the audience watching their movements in cautious
silence, Presently, with a. graceful motion oT the hand, Washington
invited the Vice-President, Jefferson, to pass on before him, which was
declined by Mr. Jefferson. After a pause, an invitation to proceed was
repeated by Washington, when the Vice-President passed on towards the
door, and Washington after him. A rush for the street now commenced,
and the next view of Washington, the ' beheld of all beholders,' was on
the north side of Chestnut Street, going down, with the crowd after him,
and Timothy Pickering on his right, to 'Francis Hotel,' on a visit of
congratulation to the President elect. On his arrival at the hotel, in
Fourth above Chestnut (now Indian Queen), they passed in, and the
door was closely * wedged in' wiih people desirous of beholding to the
last the person of Washington, now passing away from them, and to be
seen by them no more forever. When the door closed another explo-
sion of feeling from the assembled throng produced a souud like thunder.
The effect was Buch that the door of the hotel again opened, and again
"Washington (to them), ' first in war, first in peace, and first in the heartB
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
On the afternoon of the same day the merchants
of Philadelphia gave Washington a farewell dinner
at Rickett's Circus. The guests assembled at Oeller's
Hotel, and proceeded thence to the amphitheatre.
As they entered the building the band played " Wash-
ington's March," and a curtain being drawn up, a
finely-painted transparency was revealed, represent-
ing the Genius of America in the act of crowning
Washington with laurel, her hand pointing to an altar,
upon which was inscribed " Public Gratitude." Two
hundred and forty persons were present, and Thomas
Willing and Thomas Fitzsimous presided. After
Gen. Washington had withdrawn a toast was drunk,
expressing the hope that the evening of his life would
be as happy as its morning and meridian had been
gloriously useful, and that the gratitude of his coun-
try would be " coeval with her existence." Washing-
ton's retirement was not by any means the subject of
universal regret, but was hailed by some of the Dem-
ocratic journals in savage terms of satisfaction. In
the Aurora he was denounced as the " man who is the
source of all the misfortunes of our country," and
was charged with having " cankered the principles of
republicanism in an enlightened people just emerged
from the gulf of despotism," and with having carried
" his designs against the public liberty so far as to
have put in jeopardy its very existence." '
On the other hand, various addresses of respect were
made to Washington on behalf of societies, churches,
and other public bodies. The City Councils not being
able to agree as to the phraseology of an address, the
Common Council determined to present an address of
its own, irrespective of the other branch ; and the
clergymen of the city presented an address signed by
the ministers of all the denominations, in which they
quoted with favor the sentiments of his Farewell Ad-
dress in relation to religion, and wished him long life
and happiness. The signers were William White,
Ashbel Green, William Smith, John Ewing, Samuel
Jones, William Hendel, Samuel Magaw, Henry Hel-
muth, Samuel Blair, Nicholas Collin, Eobert Annan,
William Marshall, John Meder, John Andrews, J.
F. Schmidt, Robert Blackwell, William Rogers,
Thomas Ustick, Andrew Hunter, John Dickins, I.
Jones, Joseph Turner, Ezekiel Cooper, Morgan J.
Rhees, James Abercrombie.
Congress met this year in quarters which had been
greatly enlarged and improved, having at last been
of his countrymen,' stood uncovered before them. A deep silence en-
sued. He then bowed three times to the spectators, varying his position
each time, which waB returned by a shout from the crowd and a clap-
ping of hands. Having so dono, he slowly retired, seemingly in much
agitation, within the door, and the grateful assembly gradually disap-
peared.'*
1 According to the late Col. Eobert Carr, the article in the Aurora was
written by Dr. William Reynolds, a physician, at that time residing at
No. 95 South Eighth Street, who took it to the newspaper office in com-
pany with Dr. Michael Leib. Tho latter looked over it and suggested
some modifications. It was published during the absence from the city
of the editor, Mr. Bache, who, on his return, expressed great anger and
annoyance at its appearance in the columns of the Aurora.
completed in accordance with the original plan. The
County Court had been extended forty feet on Sixth'
Street, and a gallery erected for spectators on the
north side of the Senate chamber, which remained
there until about 1835 or 1836. The Senate occupied
the second-story back room, which afterward became
the court-room of the District Court ; and the House
of Representatives an apartment down-stairs immedi-
ately under the Senate. The rooms fronting on Chest-
nut Street were divided into committee-rooms. From
the front door on Chestnut Street a hall or entry led to
the door of the hall of the House of Representatives, or
to the stairway leading to the second story, in the same
position as the present stairway leading to the Dis-
trict Court rooms. The arched entrance on Sixth
Street had not then been opened.2 New quarters had
also been provided for the Bank of the United States,
which in July removed from Carpenters' Hall to the
2 The following interesting reminiscences of the appearance of Con-
gress are from one who frequently saw that body in session from 1790 to
1800: "The House of Representatives, in session, occupied the whole of
the ground-floor, upon a platform elevated three steps in ascent, plainly
carpeted, and covering nearly the whole of the area, with a limited
logea or promenade for the members and privileged persons, and four
narrow desks, between the Sixth Street windows, for the stenographers,
Lloyd, Gales, Callender, and Duane. The Speaker's chair, without can-
opy, was of plain leather and brass nails, facing the east, at or near the
centre of the western wall. The first Speaker of the House in this city
was Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, who, by his portly person and
handsome rotundity, literally filled the chair. His rubicund complexion
and oval face, hair full powdered, tambored satin vest of ample dimen-
sions, dark-blue coat with gilt buttons, and a sonorous voice, exercised by
him without effort in putting the question, all corresponding, in appear-
ance and sound, with his magnificent name, and accompanied, as it was,
by that of George Washington, President, as signatures to the laws of the
Union, — all these had an imposing effect upon the inexperienced audi-
tory in the gallery, to whom all was new and very strange. He was
succeeded here by Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, a very tall, raw-
honed figure of a gentleman, with terrific aspect, and, when excited, a
voice of thunder. His slender, bony figure filled only the centre of the
chair, resting on the arms of it with his hands aud not the elbows. From
the silence which prevailed of course on coming to order, after prayers
by Bishop White, an occasional whisper, increasing to a buzz, after the
maimer of boys in school, in the seats, in the lobby, aud around the fires,
swelling, at last, to loud conversation, wholly inimical to debate.
"The United States Senate convened in the room up-stairs, looking into
the State-House garden. In a very plain chair, without canopy, and a
small mahogany table before him, festooned at the sides and front with
green silk, Mr. Adams, the Vice-President, presided as president of the
Senate, facing the north. The portrait which was in Peale's Museum
is, in the opinion of the writer, a perfect facsimile of the elder Adams in
face, person, and apparel, as they appeared to him, above the little table
placed before that venerable gentleman. Among the thirty senators of
that day there was observed constantly during the debate the most de-
lightful silence, the most beautiful order, gravity, and personal dignity
of manner. They all appeared every morning full powdered, and
dressed, as age or fancy might suggest, in the richest material, The
very atmosphere of the place seemed to inspire wisdom, mildness, and
condescension. Should any one of them so far forget, for a moment, as
to be the cause of a protracted whisper while another was addressing
the Vice-President, three gentle taps with his silver peucil-caBe upon the
table by Mr. Adams immediately restored everything to repose and the
most respectful attention, presenting in their courtesy a most striking
contrast to the independent loquacity of the representatives below-stairs,
some few of whom persisted in wearing, while in their seats, and during
the debate, their ample cocked hats, placed ' fore-and-aft' upon their
heads, with here and there a leg thrown across the little deskB before
them, and facing Mr. Jupiter Dayton, as he was sometimes called by
writers in the Aurora of Benjamin Franklin Bache."
490
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
new building specially erected for it in Third Street
below Chestnut, the law-office occupying the bank's
old quarters.
The change in the Federal administration produced
no softening of political asperities in Philadelphia,
but, if anything, rather seemed to intensify the bit-
terness between the contending factions. Fuel was
added to the flames by publications in Peter Porcupine's
Gazette, a daily evening paper published by William
Cobbett, the first number of which appeared in March.
It was strongly anti-Democratic and anti-French, and
its course was marked by great violence and vindic-
tiveness of tone. A fierce attack on Don Carlos de
Yrujo, the Spanish minister, caused the latter to make
a demand upon the American government that Cob-
bett should be prosecuted. The request was granted,
and the printer was bound over to appear in the Fed-
eral Court; but De Yrujo, dissatisfied with this dis-
position of the case, expressed a desire that Cobbett
should be tried before the Supreme Court of Penn-
sylvania, the presiding justice of which tribunal,
Thomas McKean, was his particular friend. Accord-
ingly Judge McKean, in November, delivered a
charge to the grand jury, in which he sought to
obtain the indictment of Cobbett, and even went so
far as to appear before that body as a witness against
the journalist. But the grand juries of both the Su-
preme and Federal Courts ignored the indictment.
Cobbett naturally construed this action as a tri-
umphant vindication of his course, and in his paper
severely criticised the conduct of Judge McKean.
The bitterness of party feeling was even more for-
cibly demonstrated by an attack which was made on
Benjamin F. Bache, editor of the Aurora, by Clement
Humphreys, son of Joshua Humphreys,1 during a
visit to the frigate "United States," while upon the
stocks at Southwark. The ship-carpenters employed
on the vessel were Federalists, and owing to some
strictures in the Aurora as to their political course
were deeply incensed against Bache. An attack was
1 Joshua Humphreys was a native of Delaware County, Pa., and died in
1838, aged eighty -seven. He may be called the father of the American
navy,as the veBSels constructed under the act of Congress of March 27,
1794, " to provide a naval armament for the United States," were mod-
eled alter his designB. On the 12th of April, 1794, Gen. Knox requested
Mr. Humphreys to prepare drafts and models for such frigates as he had
proposed to the War Department in his letter of that date, and also
modelB for the frames; and in July following he was instructed to have
the moulds for those to be built at Norfolk (the "Chesapeake"), Balti-
more (the '■ Constellation1'), New York (the " President"), Bostou (the
"Constitution"), and Portsmouth (the "Congress"), prepared with all
possible dispatch and sent to those places, Mr. Humphreys superintend-
ing in person the construction of the frigate " United States" at Phila-
delphia. The central idea of Mr. Humphreys' plans was that ships of
a heavier build and greater weight of metal than those of the European
navies should be constructed, in order that the United States might at
once take rank as a naval power. Mr. Humphreys' views met with some
opposition, and one of the frigates, the " Chesapeake," was constructed
on a smaller scale than had been intended, aud on a different model,
although the timbers had been prepared for the larger dimensions. The
ships constructed after Humphreys' plans proved to be fust sailers, capa-
ble of enduring heavy battering and of inflicting severe injury in a short
time.
made upon him by Clement Humphreys, who, while
beating him, exclaimed that he had " accused the
ship-carpenters of being bribed," had " abused the
President on the day of his resignation," and had
" printed several Tory pieces." Bache succeeded in
escaping, but not until after having been considerably
injured. Humphreys was arrested, tried, and found
guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of fifty dollars
and to give security in the sum of two thousand dol-
lars to keep the peace. About the time of the assault
on Bache, Cobbett was threatened with violence in
consequence of articles in relation to Governor Mifflin ;
but with characteristic boldness he published a defi-
ance, in which, in vigorous terms, he upheld the lib-
erty of the press and denounced his would-be assail-
ants. The frigate " United States," whose construction
has been referred to, was launched at Southwark, under
the direction of the builder, Joshua Humphreys, at
high water, on the morning of the 10th of May. The
launch was witnessed by thousands of spectators,
among whom the President of the United States and
the heads of departments, who were stationed on the
United States brig " Sophia," Capt. O'Brien. Commo-
dore Barry was in command of the " United States."
The latter was constructed on better principles than
those observed in building the vessels of the Revolu-
tionary navy, and was a formidable addition to the
naval armament of the country. The model was fine,
and the decoration exceeded anything which had then
been attempted. The figure-head, carved by William
Push, represented the Genius of America, wearing a
crest adorned with a constellation. Her hair escaped
in loose, wavy tresses, and rested upon her breast. A
portrait of Washington was suspended from a chain
which encircled her neck, and her waist was bound
with a civic band. In her right hand she held a spear
and belts of wampum, — the emblems of peace and
war. In her left hand was suspended the Constitution
of the Union. Above was a tablet, on which rested
three books, to represent the three branches of gov-
ernment, and the scales of Justice. On the base of
the tablet were carved the eagle and national escutch-
eon, and the attributes of commerce, agriculture, the
arts and sciences.
Political discussion was interrupted for a time by
the prevalence of yellow fever, which again ravaged
the city. The disease made its appearance on the
17th of August, and almost immediately caused a
general exodus from the town. President Adams
took refuge at Braintree, Mass., and the United States
offices were removed. The war office was opened at
the Falls of Schuylkill ; the treasury office at Gray's
Ferry, and the general post-office at Dunlap's stable,
Twelfth Street, below Market. The office of Secre-
tary of State was opened at Trenton, N. J., and the
heads of the State and Post-Ofiice Departments went
to the same town. The Secretary of War took lodg-
ings near Downingtown, Pa., and the Attorney-Gen-
eral went to Virginia. Many merchants transferred
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OP THE CENTURY.
491
their business to Wilmington, Del., at which place
sixteen Philadelphia firms announced, in the month
of August, that they were prepared to sell their goods
and merchandise.
The epidemic continued until about the 1st of No-
vember. During its prevalence the number of deaths
from the disease was twelve hundred and ninety-
two. In consequence of the frequent visitations
of the scourge the Governor urged upon the As-
sembly the importance of obtaining a sufficient sup-
ply of water for the city by means of canals, and
providing proper sanitary regulation ; and a petition
to the City Councils asking that action be taken
in the same direction, received many signatures.
President Adams' return on the abatement of the
epidemic was marked by a new display of political
rancor. The adjutant-general of the city volunteers
had issued orders for a parade of the military to re-
ceive the President. "An Old Soldier," on the 4th
of November, published a communication in the
Aurora, objecting to binding the militia " to the
chariot-wheels" of the President. He said that " the
attempt was made to convert the honorable badge of
the citizen soldier into the slavish livery of a mer-
cenary;'' to "concentrate the regiments into servants
in livery ;" and that the President had been " reveling
and feasting at Boston and New York while our un-
happy city was the prey of disease and death." Other
articles of the same kind, subsequently published,
were signed "No Idolater," "An Old Whig," etc.
The Aurora of the 11th described the reception as " the
triumphal entry of his Serene Highness of Braintree
into the city." x It said that at eleven o'clock Capt.
Dunlap's troop, consisting of twenty-four men, Mor-
rell's of eighteen, and Singer's of twelve, " went to
meet his Serene Highness." Between two and three
o'clock the cavalcade appeared. Capt. Forest, with
twenty-four men, "had the honor to precede his
Highness' horses." Capt. Dunlap's " and the other
two troops had the honor to follow his carriage.
Great order was maintained," said the Aurora.
" There was no gaping multitude; no huzzas." The
companies, according to the same authority, turned
out miserably. Nelson's grenadiers had eight men,
Robinson's artillery seven. The whole number of
soldiers on parade was about ninety, although the
real force of the eleven regiments ordered out was
about one thousand. The Aurora says that consta-
bles stationed at the doors of his Excellency ordered
some small boys to hurrah, and thus ended the re-
ception of the President at the seat of government.
The popular celebrations of the year were marked
by similar ebullitions of partisan feeling. On the
14th of January Commodore Joshua Barney was en-
tertained at dinner at Oeller's Hotel, " in considera-
tion of his services to the cause of republican liberty,"
and the anniversary of the alliance with France was
1 John Adams' residence waB at Braintree, Mass., Bince called Quincy.
celebrated at the same hotel "by as respectable an
association of citizens," said the Aurora, " as ever
convened on a similar occasion." Chief Justice Mc-
Kean and Mr. Langdon, of New Hampshire, presided,
and among the guests was Joseph Priestley, the famous
philosopher. Washington's birthday, as we have
seen, was celebrated with much Mat, and on the 12th
of April the successes of the French in Italy were cele-
brated at Kensington on the site of an old redoubt,
commenced by Gen. Putnam while in command of
the city, and afterwards completed by the British.
The usual salutes were fired at daybreak, noon, and
sunset, and the French, American, and British flags
were displayed. At the entertainment the toasts were
of strong Gallic flavor. On the 1st of July an enter-
tainment was given to James Monroe, late minister
to France, who was recalled on account of his rashly
enthusiastic course in " fraternizing" with the officials
of the French republic. Chief Justice McKean and
Mr. Tazewell, of Virginia, presided, and among the
guests were President Adams and Vice-President
Jefferson. On the 4th of July the second company
of artillery (militia), Capt. Guy, dined at the Buck
Tavern in the " Neck," fifty citizens dined at Geisse's
Point-no-Point (now Bridesburg), and the Columbian
Fishing Company spent a pleasant day at their fish-
ing hut on the Schuylkill. On the 18th of August,
Gen. Thaddeus Kosciusko, the Polish patriot, arrived
at Philadelphia as a passenger on the ship " Adriana"
from Bristol, England. He was received by a large
gathering of citizens, who took the horses out of his
carriage and dragged it in triumph to Mrs. Lawson's,
in Fourth Street, where the general was to lodge.
The sufferings of the American captives in Algiers
called forth strong expressions of sympathy in Phila-
delphia, and when the prisoners were at last released
they were received with great kindness in Philadel-
phia, where they arrived on the 8th of February.
They were met outside the city and escorted to the
Indian Queen Tavern. In the evening they were
taken to Rickett's Circus, and a subscription taken
up for their relief realized a handsome amount.
Shortly after their arrival the United States schooner
" Hamdalla" sailed from Philadelphia for Algiers
laden with gunpowder, cannon, and other munitions
of war. The construction of three vessels intended
for similar service was commenced at Philadelphia
about the same time. One, a ship of twenty guns,
was built at Kensington by Bowers. Joshua Hum-
phreys laid down the keel, in Southwark, of the
" Hassan Bashaw," a brig, mounting twenty guns,
and Nathaniel Hutton constructed a schooner, the
" Skjoldbrand," to carry eighteen guns. All these ves-
sels were transferred in payment of tributes to the
Dey of Algiers. During this year two vessels were
libeled for being engaged in the slave-trade. The
ship " Lady Waltersdorff," of New York, was one of
them. When she entered the Delaware two negroes
were found on board, and irons, handcuffs, chains,
492
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and other implements of the trade. It was ascer-
tained that she had left the coast of Africa with one
hundred and fifty men, who had been sold into slavery
at St. Croix. The vessel was seized and confiscated
at Philadelphia, and the owner made amenable to the
penalty of the act of Congress.
The next exciting incident of the year in Philadel-
phia was a fire which occurred between five and six
o'clock on the morning of the 27th of January in the
house of Andrew Brown, printer of the Philadelphia
Gazette. The escape of the family, which slept in an
upper story, was cut off by the flames. Two appren-
tices leaped from a window, and though injured, es-
caped with their lives. Two servant-girls, who were
badly hurt, were got out alive ; and Brown was res-
cued by a negro servant, who bore him down a ladder.
Mrs. Brown and three children (two girls and a boy)
were suffocated. The victims were buried in three
coffins, the funeral starting from the house of Maj. Rob-
ert Patton, on South Third Street, and proceeding to
St. Paul's Church, where the service was read by Rev.
Dr. Magaw. Mr. Brown lingered until the 4th of Feb-
ruary, when he died, and Ann Taggart, one of the
servants, died a week afterwards. The publication of
the Philadelphia Gazette was continued by Andrew
Brown, a son of the deceased.
Among the measures before the Legislature and City
Councils this year was a project for erecting a perma-
nent bridge over the Schuylkill at Middle Ferry on
Market Street. The City Councils proposed to under-
take the work, but private individuals, on the other
hand, desired the formation of a company for its con-
struction ; and, owing to the conflict of interests, no
definite action was taken in the matter this year, but
in 1798 a bill was passed incorporating a company.
In April an ordinance was passed by the Councils as-
signing the use of Dock Street, on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, to the cattle market. The location of the
market was shortly afterwards changed to Seventh
Street, between Walnut and Prune (Locust). An act
of Assembly passed on the 27th of February declared
the Cohocksink Creek, from the mouth to the bridge
on the road to Frankford, a public highway for the pas-
sage of all kinds of vessels and rafts that could float
therein. The inhabitants were granted permission to
remove obstructions, and it was provided that the
creek should be of the width of forty feet for pur-
poses of navigation. ■ Authority was also given for
the erection of drawbridges over it.
In consequence of the insolent attitude of the
French Directory and the continued seizures of
American vessels by French cruisers, the popularity
of France had now begun to decline ; and it soon be-
came evident that the country was slowly but surely
drifting into war. On the 5th of March, 1798, Presi-
dent Adams informed Congress of the receipt of dis-
patches from the American envoys to Paris announc-
ing the failure of their mission. Accompanying the
dispatches was a message from the French Directory
to the Council of Five Hundred urging the passage
of a law declaring that all ships having English com-
modities on board were good prizes, and that the
ports of France would be closed to all ships that in
the course of their voyages had touched at any Eng-
lish port. A few days later, Congress was informed
that the representatives of Talleyrand, one of the
French ministers, had demanded a bribe of fifty
thousand pounds for the members of the Directory
and a loan to the republic, in consideration of the
adoption of a satisfactory treaty. Great excitement
was caused by the publication of these facts, and a
decided revulsion of feeling in the popular sentiment
toward France soon followed. In every part of the
country was re-echoed the vigorous language of
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney : "Millions for defense,
but not one cent for tribute."
In the Pennsylvania Senate, however, the feeling
in favor of France was still very strong. On the
20th of March that body adopted resolutions de-
claring that the representatives of Pennsylvania
bear their public testimony against war in any shape
or with any nation unless the territories of -"the
United States shall be invaded, but more especially
against a people with whom our hearts and hands
have been lately united in friendship. In the House,
however, the resolutions were received and laid on
the table, but never taken up for consideration. On
the 12th of April the Common Council appointed
Joseph Magoffin and Thomas P. Cope a committee
to consider with the mayor, recorder, and aldermen
the propriety of holding a general meeting " on the
subject of uniting the whole corporation in an address
to the President of the United States on the present
critical situation of affairs." The Select Council also
adopted resolutions in favor of presenting an address
" expressing to the President of the United States the
highest approbation of his conduct relative to the
existing differences with the French republic." This
address was presented to President Adams on the 23d
of April. It expressed, in the name of the city of
Philadelphia, approbation of the Federal administra-
tion, and of "the prudence and moderation with
which our government has received the unprovoked
aggressions of France." In his reply President Adams
expressed his gratification at these expressions of con-
fidence and good will. At a meeting of the merchants,
traders, and underwriters, held at the City Coffee-
House on the previous day (April 11th), an address
to the President had been adopted expressing regret
at the failure of the negotiations with France, and
their determination to support the government. On
the following day a number of the residents of the
city, Southwark, and the Northern Liberties met at
Dun woody 's tavern, Market Street above Eighth, with
Col. Gurney in the chair and Samuel W. Fisher sec-
retary, at which it was resolved that the government
had done all that could be done to restore harmony
between the United States and France, and Joseph
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
493
Thomas, Andrew Bayard, Samuel Wheeler, Joshua
Humphreys, Henry Pratt, Levi Hollingsworth, and
Joseph North were appointed a committee to prepare
an address to the President. Popular indignation
at the conduct of France was rapidly intensifying,
and the publication of a new patriotic song, "Hail
Columbia," greatly stimulated the agitation. At the
request of Gilbert Fox, a young actor, Joseph Hop-
kinson, then twenty-eight years of age, wrote "Hail
Columbia" to accompany the air of " The Presi-
dent's March," composed by a German music-teacher
named Roth, which had become very popular in
Philadelphia. This song was sung by Fox at his
benefit in the theatre on the 25th of April, and ex-
cited the wildest applause. It was necessary to repeat
it several times, the audience joining in the chorus.
The words were immediately caught up and repeated
in all parts of the city, and thence throughout the
country. It was also sung at night in the streets by
large assemblies of citizens, including some members
of Congress. As the song was thought to be inimical
in tone to the French, it was not very popular among
the Democratic party, which, under the leadership
of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, was still strongly
favorable to France. Bache's Aurora of the 27th de-
nounced the song as "the most ridiculous bombast
and the vilest adulation to the Anglo-monarchical
party and the two Presidents," and ou the 5th of May
announced that "Joseph Hopkinson, the author of
the late Federal song to the tune of ' The President's
March,' had been nominated by the President a com-
missioner to transact some business with the Indians,"
and added, " He has written his song to some tune,
that's clear!"
Among the demonstrations for the support of the
government was a meeting of youths between eighteen
and twenty-three years of age, at James Cameron's
tavern, Shippen Street, on the 28th of April. Sam-
uel Relf presided, and Edward Bridges acted as sec-
retary. Resolutions were passed approving the action
of the Federal government, and Samuel Relf, Edward
Bridges, Charles Hare, John Woodward, Charles W.
Goldsborough, and Richard Rush were appointed a
committee to prepare an address to the President.
At an adjourned meeting held on the 30th, at which
it was computed eight hundred young men were
present, committees were appointed to procure sig-
natures to the address. On the 7th of May twelve
hundred of them assembled at a place of rendezvous
and marched in procession to the President's house.
At the suggestion of Francis Shallus it was decided
to wear a black cockade, and with this badge upon
their hats they marched into the President's house in
double file and were received by the President in his
saloon, after which they dined together. In the
evening, excited by liquor, some of them made au
attack upon the house of Benjamin F. Bache, printer
of the Aurora, and battered at the doors and windows,
but committed no further trespass. On the following
night parties of men wearing the French cockades
appeared upon the streets and created some disorder,
in consequence of which the Citizen Volunteers were
placed on guard at the mint and arsenal, and troops
of cavalry paraded the streets at night. The 8th of
May had been designated as a day of fasting and
prayer ; but political agitation rendered it a day of
excitement and disorder. The newspaper writers
contributed not a little to the excitation of feeling.
Cobbett was particularly violent, and Bache, in the
Aurora, was almost as vehement. In James Carey's
United States Gazette of May 10th, Cobbett was de-
nounced as a foreigner who had no interest in the
country, and severely criticised for having recom-
mended the wearing of a cockade by the Federalists.
" A citizen," it was urged, " has no business with a
cockade. It is a military emblem, which ought only
to be worn by a soldier. ... It ought to be discoun-
tenanced by citizens at large." Republicans — ■" the
real friends of order" — were advised " not to think
of assuming any badge liable to misconstruction,"
and which " could answer no possible good and
might be attended with mischief."
Cobbett having charged the American Society of
United Irishmen with being " engaged in a con-
spiracy against the country," was denounced in a
series of strong resolutions, and the Tammany So-
ciety, or Columbian Order, in celebrating their saint's
day at the Columbia Wigwam on the Schuylkill, on
the 12th of May, adopted a number of toasts express-
ing strong sympathy with the French and an enthu-
siastic preference for Democratic principles. The
Democratic Republicans of the Northern Liberties,
at a meeting held on the 1st of May, Col. Coats pre-
siding and William Robinson, of Southwark, assist-
ing, adopted sentiments of a similar character. On
the same day the grenadiers and infantry assembled
at the State-House and marched to Centre Square,
where they performed various evolutions. After their
dismissal, the First Light Infantry, which had gained
the designation of sans-culottes, partook of a dinner
prepared for the occasion. The True Republican So-
ciety, successor of the Democratic Society, had au
entertainment at John Snyder's Robin Hood Tavern,
in the course of which an election for officers was
held. Early in June, Governor Mifflin, in anticipa-
tion of war with France, addressed a circular letter to
the militia officers, requesting their co-operation in
the preparation of measures for defense, in accord-
ance with the act of Congress, passed near the end of
May, providing for the raising of a provisional army.
A meeting of the division officers, including Gen.
Thomas Proctor, major-general of the division of the
city and county of Philadelphia, was held at the State-
House, and resolutions adopted assuring the Gov-
ernor of their cordial and hearty support. The mliitia
of the county brigade, however, sympathizing with
France, and desiring to avoid a conflict, if possible,
were not so prompt or enthusiastic in their action.
494
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
On the 16th of June seventy of the brigade officers
assembled at the town-house, Northern Liberties,
Gen. Jacob Morgan in the chair, and by a vote of
sixty-five to five adopted resolutions offered by Capt.
Hozey, of the Southwark Light Infantry, declaring
their intention to co-operate with the Governor. On
the other hand, an address deprecating hasty action
and expressing gratitude to France for her generous
assistance during the Kevolution, which was offered
by Maj. Frederick Wolbert, was adopted by a vote of
sixty-one to nine, aud Gen. Ja-
cob Morgan, Col. Coats, Dr. Mi-
chael Leib, Col. Worrell, and Col.
Franks were appointed to present
it. New companies were organ-
ized, and Macpherson's Blues, who
promptly offered their services,
were strengthened by the addition
of new companies in the various
arms of the service; their number
being increased to six hundred
men. The different commands
embraced in the organization were
the First Troop City Cavalry, Capt.
John Dunlap, afterwards Robert
Wharton ; Second Troop City Cav-
alry, Capt. Singer, afterwards Jo-
seph B. McKean ; one company
artillery, Capt. Hale, afterwards
Taylor; one company grenadiers,
Capt. Higbee, afterwards Moore,
of which Fennell, the tragedian,
was a member ; one company riflemen, Capt. Howell ;
one company infantry, from German town, Capt. ;
four companies infantry (Blues), Capts. McEwen,
Heysham, Frobisher, and Willing.1
Several companies of infantry, artillery, and cav-
alry were also raised in various parts of the city and
county, among which were a troop of light-horse
raised by Capt. Thomas Lieper; the Philadelphia
Blues, Capt. Lewis Rush ; First Green Infantry, Capt.
Doyle Sweeny ; the Light Infantry, blue and buff,
Capt. John Johnson ; the Light Infantry, blue sash,
Capt. David Irving ; the Germantown Infantry Blues,
Capt. Daniel Rubicam, attached to Macpherson's
Blues ; the Northern Liberty Blues, and others. Gov-
ernor Mifflin accepted from the city eight hundred
and seventeen men, and from the county seven hun-
dred and ninety-five. The Philadelphia troops were
attached to the Third Division, commanded by Maj.-
Gen. Thomas Craig, of Montgomery County ; Brigs.
Jacob Morgan, of Philadelphia, and Thomas Boude,
of Lancaster.
l The general uniform of the Blues was of navy-blue cloth ; pantaloons
edged with white ; a tight round jacket, edged in thosame manner, with
red lappcls, cuffs, and collar, the collar standing, two inches high, having
two bright buttons and worked button-holes thereon. The hat was
turned up on the left with a fan-tail by a white button and looped, deco-
rated with a black cockade, out of which arose a white plume ; the crown
■waB covered with bear-skin.
A MACPHEIISOS BLUE.
As Macpherson's Blues were mostly Federalists, a'
military association of persons of opposite political
principles was formed as a set-off. It was known as
the " Militia Legion of Philadelphia/' and consisted of
all the " Republican uniformed flank companies, troops
of horse, rifle corps, grenadier, artillery, and light in-
fantry companies, established conformably to the laws
of this Commonwealth." It was to be commanded
by one general commandant and four majors, — one
of cavalry, one of artillery, and two of infantry.
Easter Monday, the 1st of May, and the Fourth of
July were selected as the regular parade days. All
the members of the association were required to sub-
scribe to a " test," declaring their attachment from
conviction or principle to Democratic Republican
government, and pledging themselves at all times to
support the laws and republican institutions of the
general and State governments. The association
was popularly known as the Republican Legion, and
exercised an important influence in public affairs.
Col. John Shee was chosen commandant.
On the 11th of June a number of merchants as-
sembled at the City Tavern, George Latimer being
in the chair and John Donaldson secretary, and re-
solved to take up subscriptions for building and equip-
ping two ships, not exceeding five hundred tons each
and mounting twenty guns, for the use of the United
States government. Joseph Anthony, David H.
Conyngham, Daniel Smith, James Crawford, and
Joseph Simmons were appointed to receive subscrip-
tions, and it was determined that, as soon as forty
thousand dollars had been subscribed, the construc-
tion of the vessels should be commenced; but, on the
recommendation of the government, the plan was
modified by the substitution of a frigate of forty-four
guns for the smaller vessels. The frigate, which was
constructed by the younger Humphreys, N. Hutton,
and Delavue, was named the " City of Philadelphia."
She was one hundred and thirty feet keel, and built
to carry thirty eigh teen-pounders and fourteen twelves.
The arrival of Gen. John Marshall, one of the envoys
to France, on the 19th of June, was the occasion of a
popular demonstration. He was received at Frank-
ford by the three troops of horse, commanded by
Capts. Dunlap, Singer, and Morrell, and welcomed
by the ringing of bells and the plaudits of a large
concourse of citizens.
Considerable excitement was created about this
time by the arrival in the Delaware of several ves-
sels having on board a number of Frenchmen and
negroes, who had come to the United States in con-
sequence of the occupation of Port-au-Prince by the
British troops. Governor Mifflin, alarmed at the
prospect of the introduction into Philadelphia of so
many persons supposed to be inimical to the country,
issued orders to the Board of Health to detain them
at quarantine, and prevent them from coming to the
city, and applied to President Adams for assistance.
The French were disposed to be turbulent, and threat-
PHILADELPHIA PROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
495
ened to take possession of the vessels in which they
were passengers and proceed to the city. Gen. Tous-
sard, who commanded at Fort Mifflin, had two guns
placed so that they commanded the vessels, and Capt.
Stephen Decatur, who commanded the frigate " Dela-
ware," which lay below the fort, took a position with
his guns bearing on the French ships. Early in July
the " Delaware" went to sea, and on the following
day captured, off Egg Harbor, a French privateer
schooner, " L'Croyable," of twelve guns, with a crew
of seventy men, which had cruised about the capes
of the Delaware and made prizes of several vessels
bound to and from Philadelphia. The news of her
capture was the subject of general rejoicing among
merchants, a number of whom met at the Coffee-
House and exchanged congratulations. " L'Croy-
able" was sent to Philadelphia and condemned as a
prize, the crew being sent to Lancaster jail under
charge of a detachment of Macpherson's Blues and
the First City Troop. The vessel was afterwards
fitted out as the American privateer " Retaliation,"
and under the command of Capt. Bainbridge ren-
dered valuable service.
The political controversies of the period resulted in
two personal affrays, — one between Matthew Lyon, of
Vermont, and Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, mem-
bers of Congress, and the other between B. F. Bache,
editor of the Aurora, and John Ward Fenno, son of
the editor of the Gazette of the United States. While
balloting, on the 22d of January, for members of the
committee on the impeachment of Senator Blount,
Griswold insulted Lyon by alluding to a story in
which Lyon was charged with having been com-
pelled, while an officer of the Revolutionary army, to
wear a wooden sword on account of cowardice in the
field. Lyon retorted by spitting into Griswold's face.
A committee of investigation reported in favor of
the expulsion of Lyon, but a resolution to that effect
was lost. Irritated by this failure, Griswold, on the
15th of February, approached Lyon, while the latter
was writing at his desk, and struck him over the head
and shoulders with a club. Lyon returned the blows
with a pair of tongs, and after they had belabored
each other for a short time, the combatants were
separated. Subsequently they met in one of the
anterooms, where Lyon assaulted Griswold with a
stick. One of Griswold's friends ran out and pro-
cured a hickory club, which he gave to Griswold ;
but other parties interfered and prevented a renewal
of the fight. A resolution for the expulsion of both
Lyon and Griswold was defeated, neither the Demo-
cratic nor Federalist party, to which they were re-
spectively attached, being willing to spare their ser-
vices.
The affair between Bache and Fenno grew out
of charges which the elder Fenno had made in his
paper to the effect that Bache was in the pay of
France. Bache retorted by asserting that Fenno was
sold to the British. Fenno thereupon denounced
Bache as a "villain," and the latter characterized
Fenno as a mercenary scoundrel. Finally young
Fenno called on Bache at his office, and inquired
who was the author of the last article. Bache told
him to send his father to ask that question, and Fenno
then left the office. On the following day the parties
met on Fourth Street, and Fenno struck at Bache,
who plied his cane over Fenno's head. After they
had been separated, Bache, according to his own ac-
count, stooped " to pick up his comb" and Fenno
gave him " a wide berth." Military preparations for
the anticipated war with France were vigorously prose-
cuted. On the 11th of November, Gen. Washington,
who was now lieutenant-general of the army, arrived
in Philadelphia to take charge of matters, and was
received by the troops of horse and a large number of
the uniformed companies of foot. On the 24th Presi-
dent Adams, who had left the city on account of the
recurrence of yellow fever,1 returned, and was received
1 The fever was again very virulent during tlie summer and early fall
of 1798. Among its victims were Hilary Baker, mayor of the city, Ben-
jamin Franklin Bache, editor of the Aurora, and John Feuno, editor of
the National Gazette. The newspaper offices suffered severely, there heiug
in all sixty-two persons who died from the disease. The publication of
the ^arorawas suspended from Septemher Kith to November 1st. Carey's
Recorder, the Gazette of the United Elates, ceased publication in the early
part of Septemher, and the American Daily Advertiser removed its office
to Germantown. The scenes attending the pestilence were often horri-
ble. Putrefying bodies were discovered in deserted houses in such a
state of decomposition that they were no longer recognizable, and per-
sons delirious from fever ran through the streets almost naked. Many
were found lying in the streets Btricken down by the disease. ■ About
forty thousand people fled from the town. At night the streets were
deserted, and the thief and robber plied their trade with impunity. On
the night of the 2d of September the Bank of Pennsylvania was robbed
of one hundred and sixty-two thousand eight hundred and twenty-one
dollars and sixty-one cents in specie and notes, and the circumstance
added to the dismay. The robbery admonished other moneyed institu-
tions to beware of a similar danger. The Banks of North America and
Pennsylvania were immediately transferred to Germantown, and the
Bank of the United States soon followed. The fever made its appearance
in the Walnut Street prison on the 13th or 14th of September, and its
mortality was Bevere. There were then three hundred persons in con-
finement, including debtors. This disaster rendered it necessary to re-
move as many as could be safely taken away. The unfinished buildings
of Robert Morris, Chestnut Street above Seventh, afterwards culled
" Morris' folly," were placed in requisition, and the women, with va-
grant and untried prisoners, were removed there. Some or those who re-
mained became desperate,and on the 18th made a bold attempt to escape.
This was not a general movement on the part of the prisoners. Some
of the convicts confined in the east wing took advantage of the visit of
Dr. Duffield to seize the key and make au effort to escape. They knocked
down Mr. Evans, a constable, who was acting as a deputy keeper, and
then called to the other convicts in the yard to aid thetn, Robert Whar-
ton, then an alderman of the city, who was in another part of the jail,
ran to the assistance of the keeper. When he arrived, Miller, the ring-
leader, had an axe raised to kill Evans. Wharton and G. Gass, an assist-
ant keeper, seeing this, both fired their muskets at the same time. One
of the balls (supposed to be from the musket of Gass) broke the right
arm of Miller and entered his body. Vaughan, another convict, struck
Evans with a bar of iron, and retreated into his apartment. Evans pnr-
Buedhim and fired at bim,sending a ball into his lungs. Another con-
vict was wounded by a bayonet in the hands of a prisoner, a negro, who
sided with the keepers. The majority of the convicts had nothing to do
with this attempt. It commenced and ended with the projectors. Seven
prisoners broke out afterwards by undermining the prison walls and es-
caped. The total number of deaths from the fever was three thousand
six hundred and forty-five, or over twenty-four per cent, of the popula-
tion remaining in the city.
496
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
with salutes from the sloop-of-war " Delaware," Capt.
Stephen Decatur, and Capt. Matthew Hale's ninth
company of Philadelphia Artillery, which was sta-
tioned near Centre Square.
Among the minor incidents of the year were the
organization of the Welsh Society for the assistance
of distressed immigrants from Wales, which was in-
corporated in 1802, many of its members having been
associates of the old Society of Fort St. David's,
which had been in existence before the Revolution :
the death of Nathan Bryan, a member of Congress
from North Carolina, who was buried in the grave-
yard of the First Baptist Church ; and the falling, on
Sunday morning, July 8th, of the roof and dome of
Lailson's Circus, in South Fifth Street. The apex
was ninety feet high, and the noise made by the fall-
ing timbers, etc., startled the whole city like a report
of cannon. The building had been used until twelve
o'clock the night before by Macpherson's Blues, and
a constant cracking was heard in some parts of the
building, but created no alarm, as no one suspected
the cause. The catastrophe ruined M. Lailson, who
soon after returned to France.
Among the laws passed this year was one, enacted
on the 4th of April, which permitted the obstruction
of the passage of certain streets of the city on Sun-
day. This act recited in the preamble that various
religious societies had been enabled to purchase and
hold lands by virtue of the act of Feb. 6, 1731, and
to erect churches and other houses of religion thereon.
The provision of the Constitution, " that all men
have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Al-
mighty God according to the dictates of their own
consciences," was quoted, and it was declared that
those rights would be "nugatory" without securing
the peaceable and quiet enjoyment of them. As a
means of securing such rights, religious congregations
in the city of Philadelphia were permitted to fasten
chains across the streets, lanes, or alleys in front of
their churches or meeting-houses, so as to prevent the
passage of horses, vehicles, or persons on horseback,
during the hours of divine service on the Sabbath.
Churches which were in High Street, opposite the
market, were permitted to fasten chains on both sides
of the market. This provision was for the benefit of
the First Presbyterian Church and the Friends' meet-
ing-house, at the corner of Second and Market Streets.
The fine for removing a chain so set up was thirty
dollars. The law specially applied to the city of
Philadelphia, and to no other part of the State. In
March an act was passed to incorporate a company to
make a turnpike road from Philadelphia to German-
town, and by the route of Chestnut Hill to the twelve-
mile stone on the Heading road, and thence to Bead-
ing, in Berks County. This road to Germantown
was a great improvement, the travel between the
city and that borough being so great that heavy
ruts were cut in the highway, which became a
slough of mire in wet weather. In the spring of the
year, especially, the way was only passable with the
greatest difficulty. Wagons were bemired, stalled,
and broken. Horses were sprained and weakened
by the extraordinary efforts necessary to drag their
loads ; and such was the bad character of the roads
that practically, at certain periods of the year, there
was non-intercourse between Philadelphia and Ger-
mantown. A turnpike road had been prayed for
immediately after the chartering; of the Lancaster
Turnpike Road Company; but the opposition by
property-owners, who did not wish to pay the tolls,
and the dilatory manner in which the Legislature
acted upon all subjects of importance, postponed and
delayed the improvement until this time. The new
corporation was entitled " The President, Managers,
and Company of the Germantown and Reading Turn-
pike Road." The new avenue was ordered to be com-
menced at the intersection of Front Street with the
Germantown road, thence through Germantown to
the top of Chestnut Hill, and thence through Hickory-
town, the Trappe, and Pottstown to Reading, — the
road to be sixty feet wide, thirty feet of which was to
be an artificial road, bedded with wood, stone, or
gravel. The income from tolls above nine per cent,
was directed to be invested as a fund, with which to
buy off the shares of the company ; and, when all
were paid off, it was directed that the road should be
free. Another measure of great importance to the
city was the incorporation of a company to build a
permanent bridge over the river Schuylkill, at or near
the city of Philadelphia. Petitions were presented
from Philadelphia for the organization of a company,
in connection with citizens of New Jersey, for the
erection of a bridge over the Delaware at Trenton, to
facilitate communication between Philadelphia and
New York. The Legislature acceded to the request
by the passage of an act incorporating the bridge
company, and New Jersey concurred.
Although the yellow fever was again severe in 1799,
and the city almost deserted by its inhabitants,1 the
political controversies were fiercer than ever. A
violent opposition to President Adams and his ad-
ministration had sprung up. The celebration of his
birthday, January 17th, with a ball and supper at the
new theatre, gave great offense to the Democrats ; and
the passage of the " alien law" led to some scandalous
scenes.
On Sunday, February 9th, William Duane (then
editor of the A urora), Samuel Cumming (a printer
employed upon that paper), Dr. James Reynolds, and
Robert Moore, who had lately emigrated from Ireland,
entered the yard of the Catholic Church of St. Mary's,
prepared with blank petitions for the repeal of the
law. During divine service they posted upon the
walls of the church copies of a placard requesting
the natives of Ireland who worshiped there "to re-
1 The deaths from the fever this year were estimated to number twelve
huudred and seventy-six.
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OP THE CENTURY.
497
main in the yard after divine service until they have
affixed their names to a memorial for the repeal of
the alien bill."
Some of the trustees of the church and members
of the congregation tore these bills down, but they
were again put up. When the congregation was dis-
missed, Duane and the others had the petitions spread
out upon the tomb of the Rev. James Burns, and
ready for signing. Some of the persons who came
out of the church signed; but others looked upon
the proceeding as an insult to the congregation,
and strenuously remonstrated against it. An attempt
was made to compel the intruders to leave the church-
yard. Dr. Reynolds was pushed by the crowd, and
drawing a loaded pistol, presented it at the body of
James Gallagher, Jr., declaring that he would shoot
any man who laid hands upon him. Gallagher struck
at him, and, as Reynolds wheeled, the pistol fell or
was knocked from his hand. Another person (Lewis
Ryan) then caught Reynolds, threw him to the
ground, and seized the pistol. Complaint was imme-
diately made to the mayor, and shortly afterward
Duane, Cumming, Moore, and Reynolds were arrested.
During the proceedings before the mayor, Judge
McKean appeared, and, according to Cobbett, exhib-
ited a spirit of partisanship in favor of the prisoners,
which must have been very offensive to the mayor.1
Duane, Moore, Cumming, and Reynolds were after-
wards tried for seditious rioting, in the Oyer and Ter-
miner, before Judge J. D. Coxe and Associate Jus-
tices Reynold Keen, Jonathan B. Smith, and A. Rob-
inson. Reynolds was also indicted for an assault and
battery upon Gallagher. The jury acquitted the de-
fendants of riot, but convicted Reynolds of the assault.
John Melbeck, Owen Foulke, Abraham Singer, Ed-
, ward Shoemaker, Jacob Cox, John Morrell, and Wil-
liam Levis were indicted for this assault i n the Mayor's
Court, but the trial was delayed until 1801, when they
were found guilty and fined, with costs. Civil actions
for damages were brought against Peter Miercken,
John Dunlap, Joseph B. McKean, Joshua Bosly Bond,
James Simmons, and George Willing.
An article having appeared in the Philadelphia
Gazette offensive to the United Irishmen, John Rich-
ard McMahon, one of the number, went to the office,
ordered his paper to be stopped, and challenged Brown,
the printer, to fight him with pistols. He was tried,
convicted, and fined twenty dollars and costs for as-
saulting Brown, and to twelve months' imprisonment
or a fine of two hundred and eighty dollars for giving
the challenge. Another Irishman, John McGurk,
was found guilty of entering the office of Fenno's
Gazette with a drawn sword and committing an as-
sault upon a man named Hilliard, whom, he found
there. Brown, of the Philadelphia Gazette, was also
1 The mayor at this time was Robert Wharton, who hart been elected
in the previous year to succeed Hilary Baker, who had died of yellow
fever.
32
beaten and injured." In May, William Duane, having
asserted in the Aurora that some of the troops which
went from the city to suppress the Northampton in-
surrection2 had lived at free quarters while engaged in
that duty, the officers of the cavalry regarded this state-
ment as an insult, and a party of them waited on Duane
and demanded to know which troop was thus stig-
matized. Duane having refused to answer, was forced
down-stairs into the yard of his house. The demand
was repeated, but he again refused to tell, whereupon
he was set upon and beaten. On the following day a
number of Democrats assembled at the Aurora office
to protect it from further violence, but no disturbance
occurred. Several days later Fenno, editor of the
Gazette, was assaulted in his office by Capt. J. B.
McKean, on accouut of a publication concerning the
latter's father. McKean struck at Fenno, and the
latter returned the blow. A scufHe ensued, but the
parties were separated. The most exciting political
controversy of the year, however, was that growing
out of the election for Governor. The Democrats
had nominated Thomas McKean and the Federalists
James Ross, of Pittsburg. McKean had many ene-
mies, among whom the bitterest and most relentless
was William Cobbett. At the public meetings of
both parties the proceedings were bold and uncom-
promising. At one of these assemblages held at
Dunwoody's tavern, of which Robert Wharton was
chairman, resolutions were adopted instructing a com-
mittee to prepare an address on behalf of the friends
of James Ross, in which it was declared to be neces-
sary to expose the "judicial tyranny and intolerance
of McKean."
Another meeting of Federalists was held at which
their reasons for supporting Ross and opposing Mc-
Kean were given. A few days before the election, a
writer, signing himself a " Pennsylvanian," declared
that McKean had been inconstant to all parties,
and ever ready to attach himself to the strongest.
Thus he had been opposed to the Stamp Act, the
Declaratory Act of 1766, and all other arbitrary crown
measures until 1772, when the post of collector of his
2 This insurrection grew out of the opposition to the levying of a di-
rect tax by the Federal government. One of the provisions of the law
directed the measurement of the windows in each house as a means of
approximating the value of the house as a subject of taxation. This
measure was resisted at first by the women, and the methods of defense
resorted to by Home of them led to the adoption of the title "The Hot-
Water "War," as applied to the disturbances. In Northampton County
some thirty persons who had been most active in fomeuting trouble
were arrested and imprisoned in the house of the United States marshal,
but were rescued by a force of men under the command of John Fries.
President Adams issued a proclamation commanding obedience to the
laws, and Governor Mifflin called out a quota of troops. From Phila-
delphia, Punlap's, Singer's, Morrell's, and Leiper's troops, and from the
county, Lesher's troop marched on the 4th of April. One troop of cav-
alry also went f iom Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Lancaster. Brig.-
Gen. Macpherson,who had been commissioned as an officer of the United
States army, was given command of the expedition, his position in the
State service being given to Col. Gnrrey. Fries was soon apprehended
and sent to Philadelphia, and others were also taken into custody.
Fries was tried and found guilty of high treason, but both he and his
companions were afterwards pardoned by the President.
498
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Majesty's customs for New Castle," Del., being vacant,
he applied for it, was appointed, and took the oath
of allegiance to the king. The latter canceled the
appointment when McKean became a warm Whig.
" He was," said the writer, " a timid member of Con-
gress in 1776; a Constitutionalist until 1787; a Fed-
eralist of the highest tone until 1793 ; and an Anti-
Federalist, a foreigner, a Jacobin, and a Frenchman
since, beside being the advocate of the Penn claim for
half a million of pounds for quit- rent." James Boss'
character was not so vulnerable, and the Democrats
confined themselves chiefly to general criticisms of
the Federalist policy. At a meeting of the citizens
of South Mulberry Ward, held on the 16th of Sep-
tember, of which John Barker was chairman, it was
resolved that the British faction and their emissaries
were "trying to destroy our government by efforts to
introduce British laws, British customs, and British
cruelties in lieu thereof," and that Judge McKean
should be supported " for his uniform opposition to
the British tyrant, for his patriotism, integrity, firm-
ness, and ability, and his long and faithful services
for thirty-three years, so early as 1765, when he man-
fully opposed the British Stamp Act." The political
excitement was so great that there was danger of
large numbers of persons flocking to the city on elec-
tion-day from their country retreats, and exposing
themselves to the infection of the yellow fever. To
prevent injury Governor Mifflin changed the place of
holding the election for the city and the townships
of Blockley and Kingsessing from the State-House
to the Centre-House Tavern, kept by John Mearns,
in Market Street west of Broad. The place of elec-
tion for the District of Southwark was removed from
the Commissioners' Hall, formerly Little's school-
house, to Isaac Wharton's house, in Love Lane, be-
tween Moyamensing and Passyunk roads. The vote
in the city was, for McKean, 1137, for Ross, 1612;
and in the county, McKean, 2513, and Ross 1188.
McKean was elected by a majority of 5395.
On the 24th of October a grand jubilee was held
"upon account of the triumph of the principles of
republicanism over a foreign faction." A number of
Republicans or Democrats met at Zeigler's Plains,
Spring Garden, " where a fine fat steer was in ancient
order immolated on the altar of liberty, beneath the
flag of America, surmounted by the classic emblem of
liberty and peace, the cap and wreath of laurel and
palm." Libations of red and white wine, said the
Aurora, "were poured upon the altar, and the classi-
cal mind was regaled with inhaling the mixed odors
of the libation and the sweet savors of the victim."
At noon " two British twelve-pounders, whose muzzles
had erst muttered destruction in the ears of the free
sons of America, were heard to bellow forth the tri-
umphs or triumph of him who had, in the hour of
peril, met and dared their thunders." Guns were
fired in honor of each of the counties where there was
a Republican majority, and nine guns collectively for
the Republicans of the counties where the opposition
had prevailed. At two o'clock two guns were fired
specially " in honor of the union of German and
Irish interests in the support of Republicanism and
the virtuous exertions of the Germans in the counties
of Lancaster and York." The evening ended with a
general jubilee, "wherein music was used in render-
ing the parade agreeable," and patriotic songs were
sung, after which the company returned to the city,
and with lights and music inarched to the houses of
leading Republicans, whom they serenaded. On the
6th of November a meeting was held at the Univer-
salist Church, Lombard Street, Israel Israel in the
chair, at which Dr. Michael Leib reported an address
congratulating Chief Justice McKean upon his elec-
tion as Governor. In his reply, McKean did not
hesitate to inveigh against the character and motives
of those who had voted against him. Among these
was William Cobbett, who had repeatedly declared
that if McKean was elected he would leave Pennsyl-
vania. When the result of the election in McKean's
favor was made known, Cobbett hastened to prepare
for his removal to New York. He was not- able
to perfect his arrangements before an execution
was levied upon his personal effects, which swept
away nearly all the property which he had accu-
mulated in America. The plaintiff in the suit was
Dr. Benjamin Rush, and the judgment had been
obtained upon a verdict against Cobbett for libel.
The quarrel between the parties, although perhaps
aggravated by a difference of political opinion, was
not about politics. In 1793 Dr. Rush had adopted a
method of treatment of the yellow fever, upon the
success of which he prided himself, and which he
labored hard to convince the community was judi-
cious. The principal features of his practice were
the administration of copious mercurial purges and
bleeding the patient as often, said Cobbett, as " five or
six times a day." During the fever of 1797 Peter Por-
cupine's Gazette was published. Dr. Rush again, by
letters printed in other newspapers, urged the adop-
tion of his system of bloodletting and the use of cal-
omel. Cobbett took up the subject, and ridiculed Dr.
Rush's system of practice unmercifully. He opposed
it by squibs, puns, epigrams, and quotations from
"Gil Bias," by which Dr. Rush's practice was likened
to that of Dr. Sangrado. " It began," said Cobbett.
"about the beginning of September, and before Oc-
tober bleeding almost to death, and calomel, or Rush's
powders, were the jests of the town." Suits for libel
were brought against Cobbett and Fenno, who joined
him in the assaults upon the Democratic doctor. The
proceeding against Fenno was abandoned, " because,"
said Cobbett, " he was an American." That against
the Englishman lingered on for two years. It had been
brought in the Supreme Court, and Cobbett, "well
knowing, from a former example," what he might
expect from Chief Justice McKean, who presided in
that tribunal, made application for a removal of the
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PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
499
suit to a United States Court upon the allegation that
he was a British subject. This favor was denied.
The suit remained untried until after the election of
McKean as Governor, and was called on in December,
while Cobbett was absent in New York. In his charge
to the jury Judge Shippen summed up the nature of
the libels complained of thus:
" He (Cobbett) repeatedly calls the plaintiff a quack,
an empiric; charges him with intemperate bleeding,
injudiciously administering mercury in large doses in
the yellow fever, puffing himself off, writing letters
and answering them himself, styling himself the Sam-
son in medicine, and charging him with slaying his
thousands and tens of thousands."
The only defense to the suit was that the articles
were not libelous nor malicious, but fair comments
on a public subject. The jury thought otherwise,
and brought in a verdict of five thousand dollars
damages,— a sum unprecedented in the record of
actions for tort in Pennsylvania. Execution was
promptly taken out, and Cobbett's property was
seized.
In his account of the affair, Cobbett asserts that
property was sold for four hundred dollars, among the
exulting yells of the sovereign people, that ought to
have brought nine hundred or a thousand. He de-
nounced the " sovereign people of Philadelphia" in
bitter terms, characterizing them as " the most mali-
cious and the most cowardly race in existence," and
revenged himself by publishing a periodical in New
York called The Mushlight, in which, after abusing
Rush, McKean, Shippen, Hopkinson, and Harper, he
ended by consigning all Philadelphians to perdition
and sailed for Europe. Before his departure he issued
"Porcupine's Farewell Address to the People of the
United States," dated May 29, 1800. He stated that
he had made John Ward Fenno his agent, and that
he intended to print his writings in England and send
them to this country, as well as The Rushlight, which
was to be continued.1
Among the measures of municipal improvement
set on foot during this year (1799) was one for provid-
ing the city with an adequate supply of water. A
petition signed by several hundred citizens was pre-
1 A writer in the Anrora, Feb. 28, 1800, snys, —
"Mr. Cobbett has assorted, buth in Ins farewell Gazette and in a late
advertisement, that all his property in this) city has been taken in exe-
cution and sacrificed at public vendue at the suit of Dr. Rush. This
is not BO. Not an article belonging to him has been sold at this suit;
but it is a fact, notwithstanding his many boasts of punctuality iu the
discharge of his debts, that all his goods found in this city Mere seized
by the executors of his landlord for house-rent disgracefully left unpaid
by him, and it is also a fact that the v. hole amount of sales arising
therefrom has not been sufficient to satisfy that claim.
" Any one questioning the truth of this statement is referred to the
sheriff's office, where it will be seen that all the moneys raised by execu-
tion does not exceed the sum of three hundred and thirty dollars."
In the Aurora of June 11, 18U1, it is said that the fine of five thousnnd
dollars was paid by six gentlemen, three Englishmen having conti ibuted
one thousand dollars each, one Englishman five hundred dollars, one
American one thousand dollars, and one American five hundred dol-
sented to the City Councils, requesting the municipal
authorities to take the lead in the work, which was
described as being one of peculiar importance in view
of its probable efficacy in moderating, if not preventing,
the ravages of yellow fever. The immense loss often
experienced from fire through the insufficiency of the
water supply was given as an additional reason, and
the City Councils were urged to take the matter into
their "immediate, wise, aud effectual consideration."
In August, 1798, the Common Council proposed that
the Spring Mill fountain in Montgomery County
should be examined, and a report made upon its ca-
pacity and the best method of bringing the water to
the city. No action was taken by the Select Council
until November, when a committee was appointed to
investigate the subject, and to examine other sources
of supply between Spring Mill and the city. It was
also determined to petition the Legislature for assist-
ance, and to request that the auction duties be appro-
priated for that service, and that full authority be
given the city corporation for the introduction of
water. Mr. Huntley, of Connecticut, having been
represented as a person who possessed some valuable
improvements for raising water from rivers to heights
above their levels, the committee of Councils was
authorized to consult with him and others.
In December, 1798, the citizens, together with the
managers of the Marine and City Hospitals and the
Delaware and Schuylkill Canal Company, petitioned
the Legislature for aid in procuring a water supply,
and the Senate appointed a committee in relation to
the subject, which reported favorably on the 12th of
January, 1799, adding that the most feasible method
of accomplishing that object would be the completion
of the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal. It was pro-
posed that the State should aid this work, and that
sufficient funds might be raised by mortgaging the
house built for the accommodation of the President
of the United States, and by the duty on auctions, to
enable the commonwealth to purchase one thousand
shares of the stock of the canal company at two hun-
dred dollars each. Benjamin H. Latrobe was selected
as the engineer in place of Mr. Huntley. He reported
that the water of Spring Mill Creek might be brought
to the city in a closed, elliptical culvert of three feet six
inches section, at least three feet under ground, except
at the valleys, over which it might be carried by means
of aqueduct or segment arches. The distance neces-
sary to be traversed was estimated at twelve miles,
and the cost at two hundred and seventy-five thou-
sand dollars. This plan, however, was not approved
by Mr. Latrobe, who proposed instead that works be
erected on the Schuylkill, near the city, to pump
water by steam-power into a reservoir high enough to
distribute the water by pressure throughout the city.
The canal company, whose interests would thus have
been sacrificed, opposed Mr. Latrobe's proposition,
claiming that by the completion of the canal, half its
water, without any engine or reservoir on the Schuyl-
500
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
kill or anywhere else, migbt be delivered into a reser-
voir on Centre Square, on a level of at least forty feet
above the high-water marks of the Delaware or
Schuylkill, " so as to send floods of water down all the
streets and raise fountains in most of them without
those aerial castles and elevated reservoirs of different
stories which have been proposed."
It was also stated that the canal company had re-
ceived a proposition from a Mr. Sambourn for throw-
ing into the canal reservoir, by means of an engine on
the banks of the Schuylkill, thirty gallons of water
for each house in the city, or three hundred thousand
gallons per day, estimating the number of houses at ten
thousand, for twenty-five thousand dollars, or one- third
of the cost as calculated by Mr. Latrobe ; and it was
declared to have been " well ascertained before the act
passed by the Legislature, after repeated examination
and levels and accurate calculations of the quantity
of water any way contiguous to or connected with
Philadelphia, that no other source and supply of
water for the city and neighborhood, dry- and wet-
docks, and extensive inland navigation could be ob-
tained so expeditiously, or at so small an expense, as
from the waters of the Schuylkill, taken off in their
purest state, as high as the mouth of Stony Creek or
Norristown, as hath been already suggested in our
memorial." Latrobe's plan, however, finally pre-
vailed, although the contest was kept up throughout
the following year, principally by the canal company
and its adherents. The employment of steam to pump
the water was especially criticised, and a writer in the
Philadelphia Gazette of July 31, 1800, spoke of it as
" a ridiculous project," expressing the hope that " the
good people of my native city will be no longer
duped by such chimeras, but that they will turn out
of Councils those men who have actively or, by suf-
fering themselves to be duped by others, passively
contributed to saddle the city with an unheard-of ex-
pense to accomplish that which, when finished, will
be a public nuisance, and the probable cause of gen-
eral calamity to our city, to wit : a reliance upon steam-
engines in the proper supply of water. They are ma-
chines of all machinery the least to be relied on,
subject to casualties and accidents of every kind."
Councils not ouly took prompt and energetic action
on their own account, but on the 9th of February,
1799, authorized an address to be prepared, praying
the assistance of citizens in this important work.
Two days before the same bodies had passed an ordi-
nance pledging the estates of the corporation, except
the High Street bridge and ferry, for the payment of
the interest and final redemption of the principal of
a loan of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in
shares of one hundred dollars each. Edward Tilgh-
man, .Tared Ingersoll, Stephen Girard, Jesse Wain,
Levi Hollingsworth, Leonard Jacoby, John Innskeep,
Jacob Shoemaker, Joseph Cruikshank, William Jones,
Jonathan Robinson, and Thomas Haskins were ap-
pointed commissioners to receive subscriptions. The
water was directed to be furnished freely in the streets ;
and it was promised that it should be introduced into
one dwelling-house, for each share subscribed, for the
term of three years, without charge. This was not suf-
ficient, and at a later period an ordinance was passed
to raise fifty thousand dollars by taxation.
The plan adopted for the works was as follows : A
basin or inlet was formed at the Schuylkill, on the
upper side of Chestnut Street, eighty-four feet wide
and two hundred feet long, the bottom of which was
three feet below low-water mark. From this an open
canal extended one hundred and sixty feet to the rise
of the hill, and thence a tunnel, six feet in diameter,
was cut through the rock three hundred and sixty
feet farther to the shaft or well in which stood the
pumps for elevating the water. This shaft was ten
feet in diameter and fifty-four feet deep, twenty-two
feet of which was cut through solid rock. Here a
powerful steam-engine was erected, which raised the
water from the shaft and forced it into a brick tunnel
six feet in diameter and one thousand and forty-eight
yards long, by which the water was conducted up
Chestnut to Broad Street, and along the latter to an-
other engine-house in the middle of Centre Square.
At this place the water was again raised into a reser-
voir containing sixteen thousand gallons, placed at
an elevation of thirty-six feet from the ground, from
which it descended into an iron chest four feet by
eight outside of the building. With this chest were
connected the main pipes for distributing water
throughout the city. On the 12th of March, 1799,
the first ground for the water-works was broke in
Chestnut Street, by John Houston, under his con-
tract for digging the trench of the upper tunnel, a
work intended to convey to the Centre Square the
water pumped into it by the lower engine. The ex-
tremely unfavorable weather retarded this work so
much that very little was done at it before the 10th
of April, when the weather became more favorable,
and Robert Maltseed began the canal from the
Schuylkill to the lower tunnel. On the 27th of April
the lower tunnel was begun by John Lewis, and in a
few days it was discovered that its whole extent would
be in the solid rock, from the Schuylkill Canal, from
whence it received the water, to the engine well, from
which it was raised into the upper tunnel. The well
was about the same time dug by Timothy Caldwell,
and sunk to the level of low-water mark. On the
2d of May the first brick was laid by Thomas Vick-
ers in the aqueduct of three arches which carried the
tunnel across the gully in Chestnut Street, a large
embankment having been previously made both above
and below the trench. In the mean time contracts
for the supply of logs for pipes of distribution were
made, and a number of rafts were purchased, as oc-
casion offered, and about the end of May the first
pipes were bored. On the 18th of June the first pipe
was laid, and at the same time the foundations of the
lower engine-house were begun to be dug. A circu-
PHILADELPHIA PROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OP THE CENTURY.
501
larroad was made in Centre Square, and the founda-
tions of the upper engine-house and reservoir were
begun. Pipes of distribution were soon laid in
Chestnut Street from Front to Seventh, and in Mul-
berry between Second and Third Streets. Nich-
olas I. Rooseveldt was employed to build the steam-
engines, and he prosecuted his work very vigorously.
A contract was also entered into with that gentleman
to maintain the engine and keep it in repair. By the
contract Rooseveldt undertook to supply one million
gallons of water to the city per day, at the rate of
three thousand dollars per annum for each engine,
and to supply any larger quantity, as far as three mil-
lion gallons per day, at a rate of half the price of the
first million per day. The whole supply was to be at
the rate of about one dollar for every one hundred
thousand gallons supplied per day. From this ex-,
pense was to be deducted the annual amount of the
rent of the extra power of the lower engine, and of a
lot of ground leased to Rooseveldt for forty-two years
on an increasing rent, being for the first seven years
$500 ; for the second, $800 ; for the third, $1000 ; for
the last twenty one years, $1800, — an average rent of
$1450 per annum. In consequence of this lease a very
large additional power was given to the lower engine,
which at a future period might meet the increasing
demands of the population of the city by arrange-
ments with the lessee.
The most important action taken by the Legisla-
ture during this year was the consummation of the
project for the removal of the State capital from
Philadelphia. In February, 1795, the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives adopted a resolution in
favor of removal, and Carlisle was selected as the
seat of government. It was provided that the whole
of the State property in Philadelphia should be sold,
and that the removal of the Legislature should be
effected by the 1st of December, 1798. The bill having
passed the House failed in the Senate, but at the ses-
sion of 1796 the matter was again taken up. Lancaster
was selected as the capital by the House by a majority
of two in preference to Carlisle and Reading, whose
claims were strongly urged, but the Senate again re-
fused to assent to the action of the House. Two years
afterwards (in 1798) Representative Bonnet moved in
the House that the seat of government should be
removed to a convenient place at or near Wright's
Ferry, on the Susquehanna River. Subsequently a
motion was made to strike out " Wright's Ferry" and
insert " Harrisburg," but it was lost by twenty-nine
yeas to forty-three nays. The proposition to have the
seat of government at Wright's Ferry was passed and
sent to the Senate, which amended the bill by the
insertion of " Harrisburg" as the capital. Neither
house would recede from its position, and no com-
mittee of conference was appointed, so the bill was
lost. In 1799 this measure was finally accomplished.
On motion of Mr. Martin, of the House, seconded by
Strickler, a resolution was adopted declaring that the
increase of the population of the commonwealth ren-
dered it necessary that the seat of government should
be removed from Philadelphia and fixed somewhere
near the centre of the population of the State, "and
more especially as of late a disease called the yellow
fever had raged at particular periods, so as to render
it dangerous for the members of the Legislature to
meet." A committee was appointed to bring in a bill
to remove the seat of government to some central
place. Efforts were made to have Wright's Ferry, on
the Susquehanna, chosen. Meanwhile the Senate
took up the subject, and fixed Lancaster as the place
of residence of the Legislature. When the bill came
to the House attempts were unsuccessfully made to
substitute " Harrisburg." The bill was finally passed
by a vote of forty-four yeas to twenty-four nays, with
Lancaster as the place to which the removal was
to be made. The Governor signed the bill April 3,
1799. The time from which Lancaster was to be con-
sidered the State capital was after the first Monday of
November. The Legislature met there on the 3d of
December, 1799, and thus, after one hundred and
seventeen years, Philadelphia ceased to be the capital
of the State, about the same time when, by removal of
the Federal government, it ceased to be the capital of
the Union. This removal had an effect upon the
people of the State that was probably not contem-
plated when it was adopted. It introduced taxation
as a necessity for the support of government. In his
message to the Legislature, in December, 1799, Gov-
ernor Mifflin said that, for the first time in the history
of the State, taxation would be necessary for the sup-
port of government. The removal from Philadelphia
diminished the amount of fees for the attestation of
public seals. The auction duties were specifically
pledged for the payment of a certain debt, and a
small contribution would be necessary from citizens.
He also suggested the sale of the mansion-house, built
for the use of the President of the United States, and
other State property in Philadelphia, including the
city lots yet undisposed of.
During the night of the 17th of December, 1799,1
news was received of the death of Gen. Washington
at Mount Vernon three days before. Congress assem-
bled next morning, but at once adjourned, and on the
following day John Marshall delivered an address in
the House of Representatives and introduced the
resolutions written by Richard Henry Lee, in which
Washington is characterized as being " first in war,
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country-
men." In the Senate orders were given to drape the
chamber in black. The Episcopal churches were
shrouded in black, and at Christ Church the pulpit
and organ and the pew occupied by Gen. Washington
were covered with the emblems of mourning. Mrs.
Adams, wife of the President, postponed her recep-
1 On the evening of the Biime day Rickett's circus, at the southwest
corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, wns destroyed by fire.
502
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
tion until the 27th, and the ladies belonging to fami-
lies of the officers of the government were requested
to wear black, while other ladies attending the levie
were requested to dress in white, trimmed with black
ribbons, wearing black gloves, and carrying black
fans. Congress decreed that a commemorative pro-
cession should take place, and that a funeral oration
should be pronounced by Gen. Henry Lee. This cele-
bration was held on the 26th of December, 1799, and
was long known in common parlance as Washing-
ton's sham funeral. The parade was formed in the
middle of Chestnut Street, right on Sixth. The route
was down Fifth to Walnut Street, down Walnut to
Fourth, and up Fourth to the church. The bier was
deposited beneath the pulpit. An anthem was sung
by a choir, and a funeral service adapted to the occa-
sion was read by Bishop White, after which Gen. Lee
delivered the address, in accordance with the resolu-
tion of Congress.1
1 Tn describing the procession the Aurora specified the volunteer com-
panies according to the political principles of the members of the vari-
ous corps :
Capt. McKean's troop Federal horse.
Capt. Price's liglit infantry, — Republican.
Capt. Jtdinson's light infantry, — Republican.
Cnpt. Rush's light infantry, — Republican.
dipt. Kessler'6 liglit infantry, — Republican.
Capt. Duane's light infantry, — Republican Greens.
Capt. Sweeny's light infantry, — Republican.
Capt. Summers' light infantry, — Republican Blues.
Capt. Hozey's light infantry, — Republican.
Capt. Nelson's grenadiers, — Republican.
Capt. Ferguson's artillery. — Republican.
Capt. Crispin's artillery, — Republican.
Capt. riale's artillery, — Republican.
Capt. Huff's riflemen. — Republican.
Capt. Leiper's dragoons, dismounted, — Republican.
Col. Sheo, commandant of the Republicau Legion.
The fifes of tile whole military corps.
The drums, — muffled.
A band of wind instruments.
The li^ht infantry of the Blues (Macphereon's), — Federal.
Infantry of the Blues. — Federal.
Grenadiers of the Blues, — Federal, — Capt. nigbee.
Artillery of the Blues, — Federal, — Capt. Taylor.
Dunlup's dragoon", — Federal.
Singer's dragoons, — Federal.
Morrell's dragoons, — Federal.
Capt. Hoyle's riflemen, — Federal.
Brig.-Gen. Macpherson, mounted, and his aides, with the staff of the
militia.
Thirty-four of the clergy, of different sects, two and two.
THE BIKlt,
carried by six sergeants.
Pall, supported by six sergeants.
Gen. Lee, the orator of the day.
A white 6tecd, caparisoned, led, with a crest of plumage and the boots
reversed.
The doorkeepers of the Senate, carrying white staves bound with
crape.
The sergeant-at-itrms.
The cleric nf the Senate and assistant.
The Senate, two and two.
Doorkeepers of the House of Representatives.
The Bergeaiit-at-arms, with the mace in mourning.
The heads of departments under the Federal government.
Heads of departments undor the State government.
Officers of militia not under arms.
At the theatre a monody was spoken by Mr. Wig-
nell on the 28th. The house was crowded. The pil-
lars supporting the boxes, the chandeliers, and the
fronts of the boxes were covered with crape. The
audience wore badges of mourning. " Washington's
March" was played, and was succeeded by a solemn
dirge, during the performance of which the curtain
rose, displaying a Grecian catafalque in the middle
of the stage bearing a portait of Washington in the
centre, encircled by a wreath of oak leaves; beneath,
swords, shields, helmets, and military insignia. The
top of the tomb rose in the form of a pyramid, and
was surmounted by an eagle weeping tears of blood.
In the beak of the bird was a scroll with the inscrip-
tion, " A nation's tears." The sides of the stage were
decorated with black banners, on which were blazoned
the name of each State. The monody was accompa-
nied by solemn dirges.
The local militia was again reorganized this year
by an act passed April 9, 1799, which constituted the
city and county one military division, — the city being
one brigade and the county one brigade, — the officers
then in commission under the former law to remain
until their terms expired. In the arrangements
made under this act, Lieut.-Col. Gurney's regiment
was numbered the Twenty-fourth ; Geyer's, Twenty-
fifth ; Nichols', Twenty-eighth; McLane's, Fiftieth;
Scott's, Eighty-fourth. In the county, Lieut.-Col.
Shrupp's regiment was the Forty-second; Patter-
son's, Sixty-seventh ; Frank's, Seventy-fifth ; Wor-
rel's, Eightieth ; Coats', Eighty-eighth. The militia
uniform was directed to be blue coats, faced with red;
lining, white or red ; buttons to correspond with the
color of the same. The uniforms of general officers
and staff to be blue, faced with buff. The State flag
was directed to be of dark blue, "the American eagle
supporting the arms of the State, or some striking
part of the same." In the upper corner, next the
staff, the number of the regiment and the word
"Pennsylvania," encircled by thirteen stars; the
other color to be of thirteen stripes ; in the corner the
same decorations as above.
The Legislature passed several other laws of local
interest, among them an act authorizing the Governor
to appoint an auctioneer for the special purpose of
selling horses, cattle, carriages, etc., and an act passed
January 16th, declaring Frankford Creek a public
highway "from the mouth up to Joseph I. Miller's
land, opposite the race-bridge across the Bristol road,
or Main Street, in Frankford." Asylums for lost
children were established this year at the taverns
of Frederick Kelheffers, sign of the Fleece and the
Dove, No. 240 North Second, near Callowhill Street,
Michael Kitts, Indian King, No. SO Market Street,
Officers in the Federal army nnd navy.
The magistrates of Philadelphia.
The Grand Lodge of Masons of Pennsylvania.
Private lodges according to juniority.
A corps of Republican cavalry from the country.
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OP THE CENTURY.
503
and at Martin Rizer's, sign of General Lafayette, No.
222 South Second Street, opposite the new market.
The frigate "City of Philadelphia," which, as here-
tofore stated, had been built for presentation to the
United States government, was launched from the
ship-yard in Southwark on the 28th of November.
The figure-head was a bust of Hercules. The arma-
ment consisted of forty-four 18-pounders. As the
vessel touched the water salutes were fired from the
ship "Ganges" and the armed brigs "Augusta" and
" Richmond." Stephen Decatur was appointed com-
mander, and the vessel speedily fitted up. Her ca-
reer was brief, as she was soon after destroyed in the
harbor of Tripoli.
The century which closed with 1799 had been, as we
have shown, an eventful one for Philadelphia ; which,
in fact, had witnessed more stirring scenes and had
been the centre of more important actions than any
other city in America. At the opening of the nine-
teenth century she still found herself among the lead-
ing cities of the new republic, advancing with steady
strides in population, industries, trade, and com-
merce. The loss of prestige as the seat at once of the
Federal and State governments did not affect ber
material interests, but on the contrary tended to give
them freer play and increased vitality. Municipal
improvements kept pace with the growth of the city.
Among these the most important was the construc-
tion of a permanent bridge across the Schuylkill, the
corner-stone of which was laid on the 18th of Octo-
ber, 1800, in the presence of the mayor, members of
the City Councils, directors of the bridge company,
and others. By an act of March 1, 1800, a new divi-
sion of the city into wards was made. Fourth Street
was established as the dividing line. The wards east
of that boundary and the Delaware River were:
Upper Delaware, from Vine to Race Street; Lower
Delaware, from Race to Arch ; High, from Arch to
Market; Chestnut, from Market to Chestnut; Wal-
nut, from Chestnut to Walnut; Dock, from Walnut
to Spruce ; New Market, from Spruce to Cedar, or
South. West of Fourth Street the wards, which ex-
tended to the Schuylkill, were the following: North
Mulberry, between Race and Vine; South Mulberry,
between Race and Arch ; North, between Arch and
Market; Middle, between High and Chestnut; South,
between Chestnut and Walnut; Locust, between Wal-
nut and Spruce; Cedar, between Spruce and South,
or Cedar. An act, passed two days after the former
law, directed that the ordinances of the corporations
of Philadelphia and Southwark should be enrolled in
the office of recorder of deeds instead of that of the
master of the rolls, which, by removal of the latter to
the seat of government, had now become inconve-
nient of access.
By act of the 7th of March the town of Frankford
was incorporated into a borough. The boundaries
began at a corner by the side of Frankford Creek,
" between the land of Rudolph Neff, and now or late
of Henry Rover, extending down Frankford Creek
one hundred and ninety-five perches, or thereabouts,
to the mouth of Tacony Creek; up Tacony Creek, by
its several courses, six hundred and ten perches, to a
comer of Jacob Smith's land; thence by said Jacob
Smith's land and the land of Robert Smith and
others; south, thirty-eight degrees fifteen minutes;
west, four hundred and nine perches; and south, six
hundred and ten perches to the place of beginning."
The government of the borough was intrusted to two
burgesses, the highest in vote being chief burgess, five
assistant burgesses, and a high constable. The title
of the corporation was to be " The burgesses and in-
habitants of the borough of Frankford, in the county
of Philadelphia." The board thus constituted was
empowered to improve the streets, regulate the depth
of wells, vaults, sinks, etc.; to regulate party walls;
with power to assess taxes for local improvements at
a rate not exceeding one cent on a dollar.
Congress was now about to establish itself at the
new Federal capital, Washington, but before leaving
Philadelphia finally, the Senate passed resolutions
thanking the commissioners of the county of Phila-
delphia for the accommodations that had been so long
provided for them. The Supreme Court held its last
session in Philadelphia in August, and adjourned to
meet at Washington. The quarters vacated by the
Federal government were occupied by the State au-
thorities, among the first consequences of the change
being the removal of the board of health to the State-
House.1
Among the last acts of Congress while in Philadel-
phia was a resolution recommending that the 22d of
February, 1800, should be observed throughout the
United States as a day set apart for exercises to ex-
press the popular esteem for the virtues of Washing-
ton. In accordance with this suggestion the Free-
masons of Philadelphia assembled at their hall at
the State-House on that day, and from thence marched
to Zion Church, at the corner of Fourth and Cherry
Streets. In the centre of the procession was exhibited
a trophy in honor of Washington, borne by four Past
Masters. Its base was five white marble steps, in-
1 Mention has already been made of the fact that the house intended
for the accommodation of the President of the United Statos was sold to
the University of Pennsylvania. By an act of March 17, ISO"1, the Gov-
ernor was authorized to appoint three commissioners to sell the building
with the ground appertaining, divided into six lots on Market Street,
and six lots on Chestnut Street. In July the house and lot adjoining
were sold to the University of Pennsylvania for twenty-four thousand
dollars. Tliewhole property, including the lotB on Chestnut and Market
Streets, brought forty-one thousand six hundred and fifty dollars. ThiB
sum was paid by installments, — the trustees raising the money by the
sale of stock, and by the disposal of a portion of the old collrge and ad-
joining premises to a society of Methodists for a place of worship. They
were careful, however,— as bound by the title-deeds, — to retain enough
of the Fourth Street property to serve for the maintenance of the charity
schools and the accommodation of itinerant preachers. The house on
Market Stroet, below Sixth, which had been occupied by Washington
and Adams, being now vacant, was leased by John Francis, who opened
it shortly afterwards as the" Union Hotel," which soon became a fashion-
able establishment.
504
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
scribed, on the four corners, " Washington Lodge,
No. 59." On the platform was a golden urn, sur-
mounted with an eagle with wings expanded, holding
in its beak a scroll in the figure of a heart, with the
following inscription :
WASHINGTON LODGE.
Honored by the name,
let us emulate
his virtues
whose loss we
deplore.
The three lights usually borne in Masonic proces-
sions were upon this occasion extinguished.1
At Zion Church an appropriate oration was deliv-
ered to the order by the Rev. Brother Samuel Magaw.
Solemn odes in the German language, composed by
the Rev. Dr. Helmuth, and set to music by Messrs.
Einrich and Weizaecker, were sung by a select choir.
After the ceremonies the lodges moved in inverse
order to their hall.
The day was solemnly observed by other citizens.
The journals say " the houses were shut and work
generally abolished." At eleven o'clock the Rev. Dr.
Carr delivered an eloquent discourse to a large con-
gregation at St. Mary's. At twelve o'clock the pro-
cession, under the direction of the Society of the
Cincinnati, left the State-House. They proceeded
up Chestnut to Third, up Third to Race, and along
Race to the German Reformed Church near Fourth
Street, where an eulogium upon the virtues of the
deceased was pronounced by Maj. William Jackson.2
At the church the exercises were commenced by a
prayer from the Rev. Dr. Rogers, after which Maj.
William Jackson delivered his address. There were
1 The following " blue lodges" participated :*
Tbe French lodge L'Ameuite, No. 73 ; Brother Joseph E. G. M. De
La Grange, Esq., Muster.
Philadelphia Lodge, No. 72 ; Brother Christian Sheetz, Esq., Master.
Orange Lodge, No. 71 ; Brother William Nelson, Master.
Concordia Lodge, No. C7; Brother Henry Voight, Esq., Master pro
tern.
Washington Lodge, No. 59 ; Brother John McElwee, Master.
Harmony Lodge, No. 52 ; Brother George Springer, Master.
Lodge No. 19 ; Brother Capt. John Coyle, Master.
Lodge No. 9 ; Brother Capt. Andrew Nelson, Master.
Lodge No. 3 ; Brother Col. John Barker, Master pro tern.
Lodge No. 2 1 Brother John Phillips, Master.
2 The procession moved in the following order:
Capt. McKean and the First City Troop Volunteer Cavalry, dismounted.
Music, in mourning.
Gen. Taylor Mith the artillery.
Gen. Macpherson.
Capt. Higbee's company of Grenadiers.
The Blues.
Music in the centre, playing " Washington's March."
Gemiantowu Light Infantry.
Second City Troop Volunteer Cavalry.
A led horse, caparisoned in full war-trappings, bearing a portmanteau,
holsters, saddle, and having thrown across him a pair
of military jack-boots, a uniform coat, u
sword, and a cocked hat.
The Society of the Cincinnati, having their badgeB covered with black
ribbon.
Officers of the army and navy.
Officers of the militia of the city and county.
present upon this occasion the President of the United
States, John Adams, and the Vice-President, Thomas
Jefferson, members of the Senate and House, and
His Excellency Robert Lister, the British minister.
In the evening Mr. Peale displayed an emblematic
transparency at his museum.
Among the ceremonies on this occasion none were
more impressive than those which were directed by
the French lodge L'Amenite, No. 73. The brethren
ordered that an oration should be delivered in open
lodge, under the most solemn and impressive forms of
the master's lodge. Brother S. Chaudron was chosen
to deliver the address. The lodge-room was accord-
ingly completely hung in black. In the centre, on a
platform, to which the ascent was by five steps, a bier
was raised, with the Mason's insignia and military
decorations proper to the character of the deceased,
surrounding which were several urns suitably deco-
rated. Over and surrounding the bier, which stood
ten feet above the lodge, black drapery was displayed
from the ceiling, festooned and knotted, and inter-
spersed with suitable emblems. The catafalque was
surrounded by more than three hundred lights.
The intemperate language used by Governor Mc-
Kean in responding on the 6th of November, 1799,
to the congratulations tendered him upon his elec-
tion to the governorship drew forth sharp expressions
of feeling. In the House of Representatives a mo-
tion to substitute for the usual complimentary reply
to the Governor's address a paper strongly censuring
the Governor for partisanship failed by a vote of
thirty-three to thirty-nine, but in the Senate, where
the Federalists had a majority, an address to the Gov-
ernor was adopted condemning him for having re-
moved from office "a great number of respectable
characters, against whom no other blame rests than
the exercise of their rights as freemen in opposition to
your wishes." The Governor replied, denying the
right of the Senate to exercise a censorship over
him. With regard to removals of persons from office,
he relied upon his right to make such changes as he
deemed proper, without accountability to any person
or party. A few weeks later he acted upon this prin-
ciple by removing Joseph Hopkinson from office, and
appointing John Beckley in his place. This incident
gave rise to an animated controversy, iu which Joseph
B. McKean appeared on behalf of his father. Governor
McKean was also assailed on account of his partici-
pation as "Grand Sachem" at the anniversary cele-
bration of the St. Tammany Society, which was held
May 12, 1800, at the Buck Tavern, in Moyamensing.
The " long talk" was made by Dr. John Porter, and
among the other " Sachems" present besides McKean
were Israel Israel and Col. John Barker. The cere-
mony was burlesqued by a writer in the Philadelphia
Gazette of June 3d, who spoke of McKean as " him
who rules poor Pennsylvania State." The course of
William Duane in the Aurora had great influence in
embittering the feeling between Federalists and Re-
PHILADELPHIA FROM 1794 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
505
publicans. His attacks against the administration of
President Adams were virulent and unceasing, while
the Federalist majority in the United States Senate, was
narrowly watched and its action frequently denounced.
Upon one occasion Duane stated in the Aurora that
Mr. Ross had introduced into the Senate "a bill to
influence and affect the approaching Presidential
election, and to frustrate in a particular manner the
wishes and interests of the people of Pennsylvania."
The bill referred to provided a mode of deciding dis-
puted elections of President and Vice-President of
the United States by the election of six persons by
the Senate and six by the House to form a grand com-
mittee, with the chief justice of the United States
as an additional member, to try disputed questions.
On the 19th of February he followed up the subject
by printing a copy of the bill which was described
as being so mischievous, and asserted that the measure
had been perfected in a caucus of Federalist senators.
This method of securing concerted action by parties
in legislative bodies was denounced as capable of being
made an instrument of oppression. The disputed
elections bill, continued the Aurora, was "an offspring
of this spirit of faction secretly working," and would
be " found to be in perfect accord with the outrageous
proceedings of the same party in our State Legisla-
ture, who are bent on depriving this State of its share
in an election that may involve the fate of the coun-
try and posterity." The publication led to the adop-
tion by the Senate of a resolution to the effect that
it contained " assertions and pretended information
respecting the Senate and the committee of the Senate
and their proceedings which were false, defamatory,
scandalous, and malicious," and that it was a " daring
and high-handed breach of the privileges of this
House." Another resolution was adopted declaring
that Duane should be called to the bar of the Senate
on a certain day, "at which time he will have an op-
portunity to make any proper defense for his conduct
in publishing the aforesaid false, defamatory, scanda-
lous, and malicious assertions and pretended infor-
mation." Duane appeared and declared his willing-
ness to answer any questions which the Senate might
think proper to ask, but at the same time asked that
he might be heard by counsel. Alexander James
Dallas and Thomas Cooper were requested to act as
his counsel, but declined on the ground that they
would not be permitted sufficient liberty of action.
In consequence of their answers Mr. Duane informed
the Senate that under the restrictions which the
Senate had thought fit to adopt he found himself
deprived of all professional assistance, and therefore
thought himself "bound by the most sacred duties to
decline any further voluntary attendance upon that
body, and leave them to pursue such measures in this
case as in their wisdom they may deem meet." The
Senate thereupon resolved that Duane was guilty of
contempt, and issued a warrant to the sergeant-at-
arms commanding his arrest.
Duane, who is reported to have kept out of the way
for a time, was not arrested, possibly because some of
the members of the Senate thought that they had
gone further than their jurisdiction extended. Re-
monstrances were presented against their action in
Duane's case. On the 12th of May the Senate re-
solved that, instead of bringing the printer before
them, he should be prosecuted in a court of law. A
resolution was passed requesting the President of the
United States "to instruct the proper law officer" to
commence and carry on a prosecution against Duane
for the article of 19th February, "intending to de-
fame the Senate and bring them into contempt and
disrepute, and excite against them the hatred of the
people of the United States."
Cooper's letter in relation to Duane's case gave
great offense to the Federalists. He was detested
heartily by the whole party, and his free-spoken
thoughts and writings involved him in trouble.
Shortly after his refusal to act as counsel for Duane
he was himself arraigned at Philadelphia in the
United States Circuit Court, before Judge Chase,
under the provisions of the sedition law, for a libel
on President Adams. The article complained of was
published in the Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette,
of which paper Cooper was editor. The expressions
seem, at the present day, to be quite moderate in
comparison to many that are now used in speaking
of public officers. They would now meet with no
other reproof than a counter-article in some oppo-
sition journal, or be passed over in silence. Cooper
had been accused of having sought the appointment
of agent of American claims from Mr. Adams in
1797, in which he failed. In referring to some com-
ments upon his position as an opponent of the ad-
ministration, after having in vain solicited its favors,
he defended himself upon the ground that he had
not at that time done anything to render his applica-
tion improper or indelicate. He added a number of
charges against President Adams, concluding finally
that had Mr. Adams been guilty of all these things
in 1797, he never would have been troubled with any
application for office from him. Cooper found an
unsympathizing bench. Chase was presiding judge,
and the law was ruled against the defendant strictly
upon all points. After a strong charge to the jury
by the judge, Cooper was found guilty, and sentenced
to pay a fine of four hundred dollars and undergo an
imprisonment of six months, and to give two sure-
ties for his future good behavior in five hundred dol-
lars each. He suffered the full penalty of this sen-
tence. The Republicans looked upon him as a martyr,
and when he was discharged from prison he was met
at the jail-door by a deputation of friends, who took
him to a fashionable hotel, where a public dinner had
been prepared for him. Two tables were set. At
one presided the popular Democrat, Dr. George
Logan ; at the other, Thomas Leiper.
Cooper had been frequently attacked while in
500
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
prison by Wayne in the United States Gazette.
After his term of confinement expired he sent a
letter to the latter referring to those attacks when he
could not reply to his insolence by a personal chal-
lenge. He had been bound over to keep the peace
when he came out of prison, but he notified Wayne
that he would right himself when he could do it
without injury to his friends. This communication
was carried to Wayne's office by Dr. Keynolds "and
another United Irishman." Wayne ordered them
out. A fracas seemed imminent, but the intruders
prudently retired without the necessity of a fight.
The friends of Adams were not less strenuous in
their opposition to Jefferson, who was denounced as
an atheist and a demagogue. Even the pulpit enlisted
in the warfare. In a sermon preached at St. Peter's
Protestant Episcopal Church in August, Rev. Dr.
James Abercrombie, referring to Jefferson, spoke of
the danger to the community to be apprehended from
the election of an irreligious chief magistrate, and
havingbeen criticised for this declaration, announced
that, as a member of the community, he had a right to
express his political opinions, and would express
them, and that as a Christian minister he conceived
it to be his duty, when the interests of religion and
morality were involved in the prevailing discussions
of public policy, publicly and professionally to de-
clare his opinions. This announcement rendered Dr.
Abercrombie a mark for newspaper pasquinades and
criticism. Rev. Dr. Helmuth, of the Lutheran Church,
who in a sermon had lamented the decline of religion,
as evidenced by its being disregarded by a "great
number of the people of this country in their choice
of rulers," — a palpable hit at Jefferson, — was also at-
tacked by the Aurora for interfering in politics.
The Philadelphia newspapers dealt in a good deal of
fierce invective about this time. Timothy Pickering,
Secretary of State under Adams, was denounced by
the Aurora as a defaulter and purloiner, his total
peculations at one time being set down at as large an
amount as eight millions of dollars. The circum-
stances attending the delivery of Thomas Nash, alias
John (or Jonathan) Robbins, to the British govern-
ment upon a claim that he was a British subject and
was guilty of murder, was a subject which provoked
a violent controversy. The Democrats claimed that
he was an American citizen who had been delivered
up to a British naval officer and hung. On the other
hand, the government asserted that he was a British
subject who had committed murder and had been
justly punished. Duane, who led the Democratic
assaults upon the administration in this matter, was
himself the object of frequent attacks. Among other
accusations brought against him was that of being
the author of a pamphlet advocating the murder of
Gen. Washington, a charge which he felt called upon
in December, 1800, to deny. Tench Coxe, to whom
many of the articles in the Aurora were attributed,
was also vigorously assailed as having been a Tory
during the Revolution, and with having guided the
British troops from the head of the Elk River to
Philadelphia, entering the city at the side of Gen.
Howe, etc. In his vindication Coxe relied chiefly
on the fact that he had been appointed to office by
Washington, who would not have done so unless he
had believed him to be a friend to his country.
Duane's vigorous advocacy of their cause obtained for
him and for his paper great popularity and influence
among the Republicans. At New York a dinner was
given in his honor, and he was frequently toasted on
public occasions.1
Among other subjects to which Duane devoted
special attention was the rivalry between the politico-
military organizations, Macpherson's Blues and Shee's
Legion. The Blues had been accepted by the Presi-
dent of the United States in 1798 for two years, upon
the apprehended danger of French invasion, and it
was resolved that the battalion should be dissolved
upon the expiration of that time. The friends of the
Republican Legion, commanded by Gen. Shee, took
occasion to exult at this circumstance. Duane, in an
article upon the subject, stated that the Blues had been
originated by Samuel Relf for young men between six-
teen and twenty-three years of age. It was said to be
a partisan organization, the existence of which ren-
dered the creation of the Republican Legion absolutely
necessary. The Blues were accused of wearing the
1 One of the principal topics of discussion among the politicians of the
day was the question as to how electors for Piesident of the United
States should be appointed. The Senate and House could not agree upon
the method in which the choice should he made. Oucof the budieB waa
in favor of a general ticket for electors, to he voted fur by ihe people of
the State in aggregate. The other chamber favored the choice of elec-
tors in districts. All attempts to reconcile these differences by n com-
promise failed, and when the Legislature adjourned in March no au-
thority had been given to hold an election for electors of President or
Vice-President in the fall. The hopelessness of any arrangement be-
tween the stubborn parties probably had its influence upon Governor
MoKean, and admonished him of the uselessneSB of endeavoring to pro-
cure any settlement of the question by the representatives and senators
then in power. lie wailed until the election in October, after which
writs were issued calling a special session of the Legislature in Novem-
ber. In his message the Governor adverted to the difficulty whereby
the citizens of the State had been deprived of all opportunity of choos-
ing electors. There was no time for holding a general election, and the
only manner in which Pennsylvania could exercise any part in the
choice of President and Vice-President would be by doctors chosen by
the Legislature. The dispute between the two btuuehes was now re-
newed in another shape. Fifteen electors were to be chosen. The
House desired to elect the whole of them by joint vote. The Senate
refused to sanction BUch a plan, inasmuch as the greater number of the
members of the House would give the latter the settlement of the ques-
tion. The Senate proposed that each chamber should choose eight
electors, but to this the House would not agree. CoiutnitteeB uf confer-
ence were appointed, and various propositions were made. The House
insisted that nine per-ons should be nominated by each chamber, from
among whom tho choice should be made. The Senate would not agree
that more than eight persons should Ihns he nominated. On the latter
basis the matter was at length compromised. The electors were choBen
in joint meeting, the hill having been signed by the Governor Decem-
ber 1st.
The determination shown by the Senate prevented the accomplish-
ment of tho object of the House, which was to secnio the entire vote of
the State to Jefferson and Burr. At the meeting of tho electors ap-
pointed by tho Legislature they voted, — for Adams, seven ; for Jefferson,
eight.
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
507
black cockade in 1798, and of being generally inimi-
cal to the country. In reply, Relf's Gazette retorted
that the Blues had always shown spirit, and had
full ranks when the necessities of the country required
it. The Legion, it was claimed, on the contrary, in
times of danger paraded ten or twelve men to a com-
pany, and only filled up after peace. On the 18th of
June the Blues, two hundred and two men, paraded
and yielded up their arms and equipments at the
Manege on Chestnut Street. After an address by Gen.
Macpherson, the members met at Dunwoody's tavern
and adopted an address of thanks to their former
commander. After the dissolution of the Blues,
Shee's Legion had no longer an excuse for remaining
in existence as a political organization. It would
probably have soon lost that feature had it not been
for the efforts of the State government. In Novem-
ber the feeling in reference to the wearing of cock-
ades was renewed by official orders from Lancaster.
The adjutant-general stated that the Governor having
observed that the military dress of the militia was
prescribed by the Legislature,— consisting of a blue
coat faced with red, and the lining white or red, — -but
that no regulation had been made by law respecting
the cockade, "and being desirous of distinguishing
the militia of this State from other corps, recommends
that in future the colors of the cockade be blue and
red, corresponding with the colors of the uniforms.''
On the first parade of the Legion after this intima-
tion Gen. Shee issued orders that the State cockade
should be assumed. An endeavor was made to render
the wearing of this badge universal among citizens,
which was strenuously opposed by the Federalists,
who signified their disapprobation by assuming the
black cockade. Shee's Legion kept up its organiza-
tion some time longer, until all pretexts for maintain-
ing volunteer companies of a purely political charac-
ter had died away, and on the 4th of July eighteen
companies paraded, and after exercising dined at vari-
ous places.
The subject of the abolition of slavery was revived
this year by petitions to the Legislature for the uncon-
ditional extinction of the system in Pennsylvania.
Absalom Jones and seventy-three other blacks of Phil-
adelphia presented a petition against the fugitive slave
bill, the Guinea slave trade, and the practice, of which
some citizens of the State it was said had been guilty,
of shipping off negroes to be sold in Georgia. A
number of free blacks also presented petitions for the
emancipation of the slaves in the commonwealth, and
requested that they (the petitioners) should be taxed
to pay for the expense of freeing them.1
Among the local incidents of the year was a deer-
chase in the spring. The hunters met at Bush Hill.
There were forty horsemen, and so little obstruction
did the face of the country present at that time that
when the buck was let loose they were enabled to
participate in an exciting chase. This was probably
the last affair of the kind that occurred near the
centre of business. In January a fox-chase was
started from the sign of the Liberty Cap, on Coates
Street, between Third and Fourth.
From Nov. 1, 1800, dates the practical end among
the merchants of Philadelphia of the British or
colonial method of computation by pounds, shil-
lings, and pence. The brokers of Philadelphia also
gave notice that, as there were no pounds, shillings,
and pence coined in the United States, they intended
thereafter to buy and sell public bonds for dollars
and cents, and they published books for the use of
those accustomed to the old way of computation.
1 On the Cth or August the schooner " Prudent" arrived at the fort in
charge of a prize-muster, having been sent in by the United States ship
"Ganges." Sixteen slaves wore on hoard of the schooner. A few days
afterward another slave-vessel, upon which were one hundred and
eighteen negroes, was sent in by Hie "Ganges." An unfeeling incident
which orcili red in relation to the human cargoes of these two vessels
attracted much attention. The negroes were at first encamped on shore
at the fort. When the second lot of slaves were taken out of the ves-
CHAPTER XXL
FIRST TEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY TO
THE TRIAL OF THE EMBARGO ACT IN 1807.
Politics occupied the greater part of public atten-
tion during the autumn and winter of 1800 and the
spring of 1801, and the contest was carried on with
a vigor hardly surpassed in any political campaign
since. The names of Jefferson and Burr were re-
turned to the House, each with seventy-three electoral
votes, but many Republicans (afterwards called Dem-
ocrats) predicted the triumph of the great Virginian.
On the 8th of January a meeting was held at the
State-House in Philadelphia, at which, in this spirit
of prophecy, it was resolved "to commemorate the
4th of March, 1801, as a day of public festivity to
celebrate the success of Democratic principles." The
committee of arrangements consisted of Hugh Fer-
guson, Daniel Boehm, John Smith, Michael Bright,
Thomas Leiper, Andrew Kennedy, Peter S. Dupon-
ceau, Joseph Worrell, James Gamble, James Ker,
William Rush, Robert Porter, Gen. Jacob Morgan,
William Coats, Dr. John Porter, Frederick Wolbert,
Bel, a woman who was among those first brought recognized her husband
among the new-comers. They had been torn apart and separated in
Africa, and by this strange accident were restored to each other. The
shock of the meeting was *o great that the woman gave birth to a child,
but fortunately recovered her health subsequently. The attention of
the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Shivery was at once called
to tliia circumstance. A large number of the Africans were housed at
the Wigwam, on the hanks of the Schuylkill, and donations of clothe9,
blankets, and piovisions were solicited. The United States marshal,
John Hall, was without means of supporting them, when the first ves-
sel w!ib libeled, condemned, and sold ; but no action was authorized in
relation to the negroes. In this condition of affairs the marshal took
the responsibility of biuding them out to service. With the aid of the
Abolition Society places were found for them in due time, anil, no in-
quiry having ever been made for them, they obtained comfortable homes,
and there was no further trouble iu relatiou to their support.
508
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Caspar Sneider, John Dover, Manuel Eyre, Jr., Eben-
ezer Ferguson, Isaac Hozey, Robert McMullen, Mi-
chael Freytag, James Ingle, George Goodwin, Philip
Peltz, Heath Norbury, and Nathan Jones. A perma-
nent committee of correspondence, A. J. Dallas chair-
man,.was appointed to correspond on the subject of
the pending electoral session. While the question was
still undecided, the most lively interest was mani-
fested throughout the city. There were processions,
with music, public meetings, immense sleds drawn
through the streets, banners, and mottoes. Almost
every one took sides, and the pamphleteers waged
energetic war against each other. February 11th
balloting was begun at Washington, and six days later
the struggle came to a close, Jefferson, fortunately for
the country, being chosen President. The delay had
caused great excitement, as news traveled but slowly,
and "rumors had been circulated charging the Fed-
eralists with revolutionary intentions." Jefferson was
greatly agitated, and the Republicans threatened that
the Middle States would take arms to prevent any
change in the method of elections. Excited crowds
surged up and down the streets of Philadelphia hun-
gry for news from Washington. Though elected Feb-
ruary 17th, the news of Jefferson's victory did not
arrive till some time on the 19th. Shaw's artillery
fired a salute at the arsenal, the bells of Christ Church
were rung, banners were displayed, and that night
some Republicans illuminated their houses. The
mayor had ordered that the bells be rung, and the
sarcastic Aurora remarked that " they were tolled for
the death of the Federal faction." The next night
the " young Republicans met and made arrangements
to take part in the celebration set for March 4th, re-
solving, however, to carefully avoid " any marks of
insult or defiance" to the vanquished. The general
" committee of arrangements" indorsed this, and also
decided against bonfires and illuminations. Mayor
Inskeep, hearing that there was talk of disregarding
this recommendation, issued a proclamation enforcing
these points, but adding that he would grant permis-
sion for the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells
at suitable places. The militia were ordered out by
Maj.-Gen. Proctor to aid the procession. Col. John
Barker, of the Eighty-fourth Regiment, showed his
political sentiments with old fashioned plainness, for
in his " orders" requiring their parade he declared, —
"No event lias laken place siDce the glorious Fourth of July, 1776, of
such importance or so congenial to the spiritof that (lay as the present.
The capture of Cornwallis is but as a drop in the bucket. That was a
victory over a host of foreign mercenaries, acting under the orders of a
royal fyrant openly. This is a triumph of Reason and Justice over
Polly and Intrigue and a phalanx of domestic tyrants and sycophants
acting under the cloak of Republicanism/'
March 4th was thus a great day in Philadelphia,
and was long remembered by those who either wit-
nessed or took part in the celebration. The city was
crowded with strangers. At sunrise sixteen guns
were fired, bells were rung, flags floated over house-
tops and shipping in the river. The procession
formed at the State-House, marched down Walnut
to Second, up Second to Race, up Race to the Ger-
man Reformed Church, and back to the State-House,
after exercises at the church, Robert Porter reading
the Declaration, John Bickley delivering an oration,
and a song, "The People's Friend," written for the
occasion, being sung.
Shee's Legion was the first in the line. It was com-
posed of Leiper's and Snyder's troops of horse, Huff's
riflemen, Shaw's and Guy's artillery with brass pieces,
the light infantry companies of Denham, Hozey, Potts,
Sweeney, and Kessler, and Goodman's and Ashton's
artillery with brass pieces. Jones' troop closed the
legion. Maj.-Gen. Proctor and Brig.-Gen. Morgan
followed, with officers of militia. The civil officers
succeeded, A. J. Dallas, secretary of the common-
wealth, at their head. The Tammany Society pre-
sented the pageant of warriors in costume, some
bearing calumets and other emblems. The tribes
representing the States were preceded by the Wis-
kinskey with the key. The True Republican Society
followed, and the Youth with their new band of music.
The schooner "Thomas Jefferson," drawn by sixteen
horses ridden by boys dressed in white, closed the
procession.
A subscription dinner was given that afternoon at
Francis' Union Hotel. At Ziegler's Plains, Spring
Garden, an ox and a sheep were roasted. Similar
barbecues, public games, and exhibits of skill were
attractions at various points in the city. At German-
town, Matthew Huston delivered an oration in the
German Reformed Church, the " Declaration" was
read, and a dinner was given at the Union school-
house. The Federalist newspapers made severe com-
ments upon " the mob honors thus lavished on Jeffer-
son," and the victors were not slow in replying.
Perhaps the severest invectives were poured out
upon the retiring President. Matthew Lyon, of Phil-
adelphia, sent him a letter, on the day of his resigna-
tion, of which the following extract will show its par-
tisan character :
"Should you stop at Philadelphia, how melan-
choly must it seem to you. McPherson's band of
cockaded boys are dispersed or grown up into Demo-
crats. No Federal mobs there now to sing ' Hail
Columbia!' and huzza for John Adams, and to ter-
rify your opposers. Hopkinson's lyre is out of tune ;
Cobbett and Liston are gone ; the Quakers are for
the living President; and your old friend Joe
Thomas, I am told, can scarcely find duds to cover
his nakedness. I am surprised you did not make him
a judge!"
Some anonymous Philadelphian printed a song on
" The Duke's Return toBraintree," the " duke" being
Adams.
One of the strongest Federalist journals was " Oli-
ver Oldschool's" Portfolio, a weekly, which first ap-
peared Jan. 3, 1801, and, though its contents were
chiefly of a literary nature, yet it often devoted space
FIRST YEARS OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
509
to forcible and often acrimonious political articles.
Joseph Denuie was the editor, and he took every
opportunity to condemn Jefferson and his famous
writings. In April some writer, over the signature of
" Common Sense," praised the Aurora's recent criti-
cism of the "Declaration of Independence," and de-
clared that " the reading of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence on every anniversary of the American
republic is an improper act, as it tends to prolong
in the minds of an ignorant and brutal mob ani-
mosity and hatred against a nation with which we
are united by a similarity of language, laws, religion,
customs, and habits, and with which we reciprocate a
large and lucrative commerce."
July 4th the Port/olio said, — ■
"To-day Mr. Jefferson's July paper is read by a
few, willing to gull the miserable populace. The
farce of republicanism is acted with much Bartholo-
mew-fair drollery. Independence is very noisy in
the morning, nonsensical orations are pronounced at
noon, and patriotism is exceedingly drunk at night."
Duane's pet name for this journal was " The Port-
able Foolery." Samuel Harrison Smith, former edi-
tor of the Universal Gazette, Philadelphia, took charge
of Jefferson's new organ, the National Intelligencer, in
point of talent far short of the passionate Aurora,
which presently called him " the silky milky Smith."
The President's appointments of Federal officers for
Philadelphia were soon announced. Gen. John Shee,
nominated "marshal of the Eastern District of Penn-
sylvania," declined, and John Smith took the place.
J. Wilkes Kittera was removed from the district at-
torneyship, and Alexander James Dallas appointed.
This gave serious dissatisfaction, because Dallas was
already "secretary of the commonwealth,'' and, re-
signing that position, was at once appointed by Gov-
ernor McKean recorder of Philadelphia, an office of a
judicial character, its incumbent being presiding offi-
cer of the " Mayor's Court." It was argued that the
State Constitution forbade any United States officer
from holding such an office. Both the Common and
the Select Councils were opposed to his taking the
recordership. Proceedings being had, the case was
argued by Hopkinson, Lewis, and Tilghman for the
Councils, and by McKean and Ingersoll for Dallas,
but the defendant won the case.1
1 The Legislature took up this subject at the next session, and passed
a law Jan. 27, 1802, declaring that the holding of an office under the
State hy a Federal office-holder was an offense. Governor McKean in-
terposed the executive veto. He declared that inasmuch as do com-
plaint had been hitherto made of the practice of uniting Federal and
State trusts in the same person, there was no necessity for the law. Be
alluded to the fact of his appointment of Dallas a few months previous.
The Governor said that he could not, hy signing the bill, declare that
he had done wrong. He also alluded to another case where he bad ap-
pointed a member of Congress (Dr. Michael Lieb) physician at the
Lazaretto. The Governor had himself been a pluralist, holding the
office of member of Congressfrom Delaware and chief justice of Penn-
sylvania at the same time. The House and Senate passed the bill over
the veto January -z7tb. Dallas then resigned the office of recorder, and
MoseB Levy was appointed.
Dallas appeared in a libel suit against the Phila-
delphia Gazette, that journal having said, "Every-
body laughs at his law opinions." The two proprie-
tors pleaded guilty, and were fined three hundred
dollars each, and ordered to give security of one
thousand dollars to " keep the peace for one year."
Dallas also sued C. P. Wayne, of the United States
Gazette, and recovered three hundred dollars and costs.
Suits for libel were abundant in those days. The
United States Gazette charged Duane, of the Aurora,
with having murdered » girl in Conmel, Ireland.
Duane brought suit, laying damages at six thousand
dollars, but offered to withdraw it if Wayne would
give the name of the author of the article. About
this time Levi Hollingsworth brought suit against
Duane charging that he was an " alien and a British
subject." The jury found in favor of Hollingsworth,
thus denying the jurisdiction of the American courts
in the libel case mentioned. The Aurora then at-
tacked Hollingsworth in severe terms, and even as-
saulted Chief Justice McKean. Duane was sent to
prison for thirty days, and damages of six hundred
dollars laid against him. Edward Burd, then the
prothonotary of the Supreme Court, also brought
suit against the impetuous Duane for charging him
" with packing a jury," but in 1803 an apology was
tendered and accepted. The Duane episode is highly
interesting, exemplifying to an unusual degree the
license of the press on the one hand, not less than
the severity of the libel law on the other.2
February 12th the Germantown and Perkiomen
Turnpike Company was incorporated. The road was
to begin at the corner of Third and Vine Streets.
Benjamin Chew was chosen president, and John
Johnson treasurer. This improvement had become
necessary. The old road to Germantown " was called
the worst road in the United States," and travelers
often went around by the way of Fraukford or across
the open fields to escape its deep ruts.
Another important incorporation created in this
year was that of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal
Company. In January the Pennsylvania Legislature
had passed favorable resolutions, and the Governor had
2 Of Duane's two attacks on Hollingsworth, the first, " The Age of
Revolutions," accused him with being a traitor, a Tory, and a slave-
trader ; in the second he declared that Hollingsworth was a member of
the City Troop during the Revolution, that he had deserted and joined
the British, and was saved by McKean, with one hundred and fifty
others, from the fate of Carlisle and Roberts. In the succeeding year
Hollingsworth published a refutation of these charges. He declared
that McKean had denied that Duane had authority to make these
charges. Hollingsworth said that he was imprisoned by a lawless mob,
in 1779, for refusing to sell a quantity of flour in his store, deposited
there by the commissary of the Eastern District of Maryland for the
United States army. The people seized npon him at the place where
the flour was stored, and took him to jail. He was kept there until the
City Court was held, in June, when Plunket Fleeson, who was upon
the bench, dismissed him, with thanks for his past services to the
country and for his humane conduct to ihe distressed. He annexed
certificates that he was taken prisoner by the British, with certificates
by Abram Markoe, Samuel Morris, and others, that lie was tried, dis-
charged, and thanked by the court.
510
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
appointed Dr. George Logan, John Hunn, and Presley
C. Lane to consult with .the Delaware Legislature,
but the latter body made conditions (1) desiring cer-
tain papers relating to lands in Delaware ; (2) that
certain parts of the health and quarantine laws should
be repealed. Pennsylvania agreed to these terms, and
February 19th the act of incorporation was passed,
though attacked by the Aurora and other papers as
"a source of vast mischief." One of these writers,
after speaking of " the canal mania in Great Britain
ten years ago," proceeded to make one of the earliest
suggestions in America concerning " wooden rail-
ways" for vehicles on common roads. A few weeks
later another writer recommended " iron rails" in-
stead of wood. The canal company was not fully or-
ganized till May, 1803 ; Joseph Tatnall, of Delaware,
president, and William Tilghman, James C. Fisher,
George Fox, Joshua Gilpin, and others directors, with
Messrs. Latrobe and Howard as surveyors.
In 1802 the report to Congress showed that the
"Arsenal" buildings built on the banks of the Schuyl-
kill had cost $152,608.02, and were still unfinished.
The Navy-Yard property had been purchased for
$37,000 in 1800, chiefly the site of the old "Associa-
tion Battery," in Southwark, and the citizens of that
district met in the Commissioners' Hall in February,
Robert McMullin, chairman, Joseph Huddell, Jr.,
secretary, and passed resolutions urging the Legisla-
ture to declare vacant all cross streets which inter-
sected the proposed site.
The water-works, delivering water from the Schuyl-
kill through pipes and at hydrants along the streets,
began operation January 27th, and this was made an
occasion for great public rejoicing. By February about
$73,000 had been subscribed to the water loans, and
an ordinance was passed furnishing water free for
three years to these subscribers. The rate for dwell-
ings was five dollars per annum. In April a sad
accident happened at the Schuylkill works, two men
being suffocated in a large wooden boiler. The com-
mittee's report in October showed that $220,310 had
been spent upon the works, and that the first esti-
mate of $127,000 had been much exceeded, and large
sums were still necessary. Of the money spent the
loans had brought in $90,007, the special tax $49,-
579.99, the sale of bridge property $20,238.02, and
various minor resources the remainder. The en-
terprise was at a standstill, the wooden pipes cost
more than was anticipated, and affairs looked gloomy.
Michael Freytag and John Curtis proposed to make
earthenware pipes, but no one believed in them.
Iron was proposed by some, and the committee insti-
tuted experiments. In 1801 sixty-three houses were
supplied with Schuylkill water, also four breweries
and one sugar refinery. Thirty-seven hydrants were
in various parts of the city.
The year 1801 was marked by beginning the prac-
tice of making local nominations by ward commit-
tees in conference or convention. The Democrats, as
the Republicans were now called, adopted it in June,
and the Federalists followed their example before
the October elections. The townships of Blockley
and Kingsessing had been made a separate election
district called Schuylkill. The city and county of
Philadelphia and the county of Delaware were made
one district, to choose four State senators. Philadel-
phia sent five representatives to the Legislature and
the county sent six.
The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce was or-
ganized this year, admission fees eight dollars, and
annual dues five dollars. Thomas Fitzsimons was
president, John Craig and Philip Nicklin vice-presi-
dents, Robert Smith treasurer. The committee for
the first month (February) was Thomas W. Francis,
Joseph S. Lewis, John Stille, Jr., R. E. Griffith, and
Archibald McCall. The meetings were held at the
City Tavern.
A permanent foundation for a free school among
the poor was laid, growing from a little social club
started in 1779 by a few young men, who in that
winter or early in 1800 organized "The Philadelphia
Society for the Free Instruction of Indigent Boys."
Beginning with not more than nine members, this
society opened a night-school, and taught twenty or
thirty pupils; their revenue the first season was but
$16.37, their expenditure was only $9.27. Others
offered help, when, in June, 1801, Christopher Lud-
wick, of Philadelphia, died, leaving about eight thou-
sand dollars to "the association first incorporated to
teach gratis poor children." The trustees of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania endeavored to incorporate
first, but the above-mentioned society won the victory,
and organized under their charter in 1801, choosing as
managers Thomas L. Bristoll, Thomas Bradford, Jr.,
Caleb Cresson, Jr., William Paxson, Robert Coe, Jr.,
Edmund Darch, William Neckervise, Thomas M.
Hall, Benjamin Williams, William Fry, Joseph Ben-
nett Eves, Joseph D. Brown, Samuel Lippincott,
Philip Garrett, Frederick Stelwagon, Thomas Smith,
Robert McMinn, and Joseph Briggs. Their school-
house was back of the Second Presbyterian Church.
John Dickenson afterwards gave them a lot in Ken-
sington. In 1803, Chambers Wharton left them four
thousand dollars. In April, 1801, there were eight
day or evening day-schools and two Sunday-schools
open, free, for colored children.
The city had brought a suit against the German
congregation which was using a part of the Northeast
Square as a cemetery. In February the Councils
agreed to stop the suit on the following conditions,
which were accepted :
"1st. That the congregation yield possession of all of tbo square in
which interments hull not been inaile.
"2d. If tlii'y will accept a lease from the corporation of that part of
the lot in which interments are made, hut fur which they buhl no patent.
"3d. That they do nut erect buildings on the lut Tor which they have
a patent, and length of possession shall be no bar to the Uly'b rights."
At that time John M. Irwin, the auctioneer, used
to sell cattle and horses on stated days on the west
: '■ i1!!-:-,.-. <:$ \
M.'i;i;:ili!i|li M
|a,;:::.
lllllll ,
FIRST YEARS OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
511
side of this square, also on the Southeast Square.
February 19th the German Reformed Church was
granted by the Legislature a lot on Mulberry Street,
between Schuylkill Sixth and Fifth, "for a burial-
place, and for charity schools.''
In April the United States frigate "Constellation,"
then lying at anchor in front of the city, capsized at
the change of the tide, being thrown suddenly on a
rocky shoal, heeling over so far that the lee guns were
under water. The vessel was, however, righted in a
few days without much loss. Late in June the Penn-
sylvania Bank took formal possession of its beautiful
new building, erected on Second Street above Walnut,
Benjamin H. Latrobe, architect.
The various improvements of 1800 and 1801 in the
way of buildings were matters of much congratula-
tion. The first row of houses on a uniform plan was
erected by or for Mr. Sansom, and were on Walnut
Street, north side, between Seventh and Eighth, and
in the street between Walnut and Chestnut, from
Seventh to Eighth, afterwards called Sansom Street.
CHESTNUT STREET, SOUTH SIDE, FROJl THIRD STREK
WHALEBONE ALLEY (NOW nUDSON STREET).
[From 181)3 to 1808.]
Some of them rented at only two hundred dollars per
year. A few years later it was announced that the
rent would be raised, because from being remote
and lonely the houses had become eligible residences.
Business men in 1800 said they were " too far from
their business." Walnut Street not being paved west
of Sixth, Mr. Sansom applied to the Councils for
permission to have two more blocks paved, and
offered to advance the money.
Dr. Michael Leib early in this year was dined and
toasted at John Snyder's, in Poplar Lane, " for his
patriotic services." One toast was, "The Northern
Liberties, the rallying-point of Democracy," a senti-
ment that, at a later period, was changed to " The
Cradle of Democracy." Late in February a dinner
was given to Oliver Wolcott, former Secretary of the
Treasury. It was in the rotunda of the new bank
building, lit by nine chandeliers. John Nixon pre-
sided. The sixteen toasts were marked by unusual
mildness and freedom from political passion. July
4th, in Harmony Hall, Irish Tract Lane, Thomas
Condie and others gave a dinner, at which a toast of
unique and somewhat famous expression was first
given, — "American Manufactures, — blast all their
furnaces, dam all their canals, sink all their coal-pits,
and consume all American manufactures."
The first public announcement of Cape May attrac-
tions for visitors was extravagantly made on July 1st,
by an advertisement in the United States Gazette.
Some time in 1801 a society was started called " The
Philadelphia Premium Society," instituted "for the
purpose of fostering American industry, by giving
premiums for improvements in arts and manufac-
tures,'' but it was soon proved that there was little
need of any such effort. American artisans and
tradesmen were sufficiently energetic and ambitious
without any such artificial stimulus.
On the 1st of January, 1802, a meeting was held at
the District Court room, to form a company, " The
Pennsylvania Improvement Company," devoted to
inland communication and to banking. Thomas
Leiper was chairman, and the subscription com-
mittee consisted of Thomas Leiper, A. J. Dallas,
Matthew Lawler, John Hunn, Samuel Carswell, Guy
Bryan, William McFadden, Robert Patter-
son, Samuel Clark, James Vanuxem, Wil-
liam Devitt, and Andrew Pettit. The Leg-
islature was petitioned to grant a charter
to the company, and also to subscribe for
shares to the value often thousand dollars,
but did neither.
Early in this year the " Company for the
Improvement of the Vine," long talked of
by enthusiastic horticulturists, was fully
organized. They laid out a vineyard near
Legaux's farm, at Spring Mill, and em-
ployed Peter Legaux to tend it. Dr. Ben-
jamin Say was president; Isaac W. Morris,
treasurer; Jared Ingersoll, John Vaughan,
Dr. James Mease, Frederick Heiss, and Elisha Fisher,
managers. At that time the following vineyards were
in the city : Montmollin's vineyard, on the Ridge road,
four miles from Philadelphia, having one thousand
plants; Peter Kuhn's vineyard, about a mile from
Montmollin's, with Lisbon, Malaga, and Madeira
grapes; Dr. James Mease chose an excellent situation
in the centre of the ground-plan of Philadelphia, on the
line of Cherry Alley, and had three thousand plants;
Paul Labrousse's vineyard was about a mile from
Philadelphia, by way of South Second Street, be-
tween Second and Third Streets, near Mr. Crou-
sillat's tavern; Crousillat's was four miles from Phila-
delphia, on the banks of the Schuylkill. He had
fifteen hundred plants. North of it was Dance's
vineyard; south of Crousillat's was Thunu's, with
many youna; plants ; Stephen Girard's, also near
Thunn's, had only forty or fifty plants.
Late in 1801, Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, pro-
posed a series of " Literary Fairs," like the book fairs
of Germany, and the project was carried into effect
in 1802. Carey's circulars, issued in December, 1801,
asked all the booksellers and printers of the United
512
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
States to meet in New York, June 1st, to "buy, sell,
and exchange" their goods.
The " fair" was formally opened at Bardin's, New
York, and Hugh G-aine, the oldest bookseller in the
United States, chosen president. Among the New
Yorkers present were Evert Duyckinck, William Fal-
coner, and James Oran ; Philadelphia sent S. F.
Bradford, W. Bradford, Mathew Carey, William
Duane, Patrick Byrne, William T. Birch, Abraham
Small, John Bioren, and Jacob Johnson. Samuel
Trumbull came from Stonington, Conn., and Charles
Pierce from New Hampshire. It was decided to hold
a fair in New York each April, and one in Philadel-
phia each October; but the presence of the yellow
fever caused the postponement of the latter till De-
cember, when it took place at the Franklin Hotel,
Mathew Carey presiding, and Samuel F. Bradford
and Samuel Campbell being vice-presidents. It
closed with a "booksellers' dinner, at which there
were seventeen toasts." For a year or two the "fairs"
were successful, but the market "was flooded with
inferior editions," and the city booksellers withdrew.
The fairs "dragged along for four or five years more,
and then sank into oblivion."
Jan. 4, 1802, the "sufferers by the spoliations of
France on American commerce" met at the City
Tavern, and drafted memorials to Congress. Stephen
Girard, Joseph Ball, Charles Pettit, James Coxe,
Thomas Fitzsimons, Henry Pratt, and John Craig
were appointed a committee. They corresponded
with other sufferers, to secure united action, and they
also prepared a "memorial" to the United States
Senate and House of Representatives, worded as fol-
lows:
"The memorial and petition of the subscribers, citizens of tbe United
States, dwelling in Philadelphia, respectfully showeth: That y on r me-
morialists and divers others, in the regular course of their trade, in the
years 1793, 1794, and 1795, invested very large sums of money in provi-
sions and other merchandise suited to the We.-t India market, and sent
them thither, where many cargoes were sold to the officers of the colonial
administration of the republic of France, to he paid for in c;isb or colonial
produce. Many others were taken by force by the &aid officers from the
supercargoes and consignees, at prices arbitrarily fixed by themselves, to
be paid for in produce at rates and terms of credit fixed at their pleas-
ure, and that others have been arrested on the high sf as, carried into
their ports, and taken fur the uBeof the republic without any stipulated
price or contract; thut your memorialists confidently believe that the
amount of property belonging to the citizens of the United States, thus
delivered to and taken by the administrative bodies of the French
republic in the West Indies, exceeds two millions of dollars now in ar-
rear, for which your memorialists and others concerned have no mode
of obtaining payment, satisfaction, or redress ; that the usual course is,
after taking tiie cargo by force and duress, to detain the vessels under
pretense of paying in produce, until the masters and crew are wearied
with idleness, sickness, delay, and insult, so as to be willing to return
either altogether without payment or with such small portions thereof
as scarcely to pay the freight and charges occasioned by these long de-
lays, whereby in most instances the whole capital has been left behind,
and in those instances where a considerable part of the cargo has been
paid for in colonial produce, the expenses of demurrage have consumed
almost the whole, as by vouchers ready to be laid before the House or a
committee thereof, will abundantly appear.
"Your memorialists further show, that some of the earliest sufferers
among them applied personally and by memorials to citizens Genet,
Fauci tot, and Adet,tlie first and succeeding ministers of the French
republic, for redress, without obtaining it; they also applied by memo-
rial to the President of the United States, who referred them to the Sec-
retary for the Department of State, whose advice they pursued in com-
mitting their claims to James Monroe, Esq.,Minister Plenipotentiary of
the United States to the republic of France, at the time of his embarka-
tion ; that although your memorialists are perfectly satisfied that the
executive authority of the Union hath done all within its power to
procure redress to your memorialists, yet it has not had the desired
effect.
"Your memorialists further represent that they had hoped that some
arrangement would have been assented to, whereby the debts due from
the republic of France to the citizens of the United StateB might have
been discharged out of the debt due to her from the United States, and
under this expectation they exercised patience ; but finding that money
funded and transferred to an agent of the republic, all hope from that
resource is vanished, your memorialists feel the more concern that while
provisions have been made by the Executive of the Union for obtaining
from other nations a redress for spoliations committed on their com-
merce, no measures hitherto adopted have been successful for procuring
satisfaction from that nation which the merchants of this have shown
so decided an affection to, by supplying their islands with provisions and
necessaries at a greater risk than attended any other branch of their
trade, — supplies that were absolutely necessary to their colonies, and
which I hey could from no other place nor in any other manner be fur-
nished with.
"Your memorialists therefore pray that the Legislature will take
their suffering case into consideration, and afford them such relief and
protection as to their wisdom shall seem consistent with right and
justice.
" Montgomery & Newbolds. Walter Stewart.
Nathan Field. David H. Conyngham.
William L. Son n tag & Co. James McCurach.
John Steinmetz. Edward Dunant.
William Bell. Isaac Hazlehurst & Son.
James Yard. For John Wilcocks, George
James Vanuxem. Armroyd.
Summer! & Brown. Nalbro' & John Frazier.
Grubb & Mather. K. Dutilh & Wachsmuth.
Daniel V. Tim nil. James Gamble.
Pettit & Bayard. Amb. Taffe.
Conyngham, Nesbitt & Co. John McCulloh.
George Davis. Capt. J. Rutherford.
Nathaniel Lewis & Sous. Charles Massey.
John Clark. John May bio.
Thomas Fitzsimons. John Gardner, Jun.
Philip Care. John Savage.
Charles White. Edward Carrell.
Clement & Taylor. Maddock, Jackson & Co.
Joseph Brown. Philip & Thomas Reilly."
John Taggart.
A "Tammany celebration'7 on March 4th was
marked by the presence of a number of Indian
chiefs. Shee's Legion and the Tammany Society
took part in the procession, and the latter had ob-
tained the help of the Indians. A few days later
one of them, a counselor of the Wolf tribe of the
Shawanese, died, and was buried by the Tammany
Society with Indian ceremonies. The " Great Wig-
wam" was at No. 85 Race Street. In April " Father
William Coats/' of the Northern Liberties, an old
Revolutionary officer, died, and was buried by Tam-
many; the members "wearing buck-tails, tied with
black ribbons, in their hats."
The return in this year of the yellow fever scourge
was the most serious event to be recorded. As be-
fore, it came from the West Indies, this time by the
ship "St. Domingo," from Cape Francois. Some of
the crew died while the ship was yet at anchor in her
West Indian port, and the steward died on the voyage.
Being quarantined on her arrival below Philadelphia,
one of the crew was taken to the hospital and died
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
513
there. Her quarantine was extended, but when it ex-
pired she. was allowed to moor above Vine Street
wharf. John Edwards, a carpenter, who had been
temporarily employed on the ship, was taken sick
July 4th, and died in three days. About the same
time numbers of persons who lived near the wharf
were taken with the epidemic; some had worked in
the vessel, some were children who had played about
the wharf, some were visitors who had ventured on
board. July 17th the Board of Health reported
" nine dead and twelve sick." The infected district
was about Vine and Water Streets, and from thence
to Callowhill along Front. An attempt was made to
quarantine " the Northern Liberties," but failed, and
the Lazaretto hospital was prepared for the poor who
fled from the scene of contagion. August 2d the citi-
zens of the district met, Frederick Wolbert, chair-
man, and Daniel Groves, secretary, and appointed a
committee to aid the Board of Health. August 5th
an alarming increase marked by most malignant char-
acteristics was reported, and citizens were begged to
withdraw from the infected district. The mayor,
Matthew Lawler, requested that " those about to leave
would send their fire-buckets to his office." One of
the newspapers published a letter begging them "not
to lock up dogs and cats in their houses" to starve, as
had occurred at previous departures of the kind.
August '4th the City Hospital, at Race Street, on the
Schuylkill, was opened. Drs. Proudfit and Church
presided, Heath Nortbbury was steward. Southwark
citizens met on the 4th, William Linnard presiding,
and James Rolph secretary; committees were ap-
pointed, but two days later they reported " no fever."
Moyamensing citizens met August 9th, Michael Kuhn,
chairman, and Michael Freytag, secretary, but found
little to do. The post-office was removed to Dunlap's
building, on Twelfth Street below Market, and the
bank officers, on the 7th, decided to remain at their
posts. On the 9th an additional patrol was author-
ized, and a loan of fifteen thousand dollars was nego-
tiated by the city to meet extraordinary expenses.
But the mortality was less than in previous years ;
admissions to the hospitals were but five or six a day ;
deaths during August were from seven to nineteen
daily.
The Southwark people were " proud of the salubrity
of their district," and assailed the Board of Health for
an erroneous report. They resolved that " no conta-
gious disease exists or had existed in Southwark,"
and " dissolved their Committee of Safety." Octo-
ber 6th the Board of Health suspended daily reports ;
October 14th, the City Hospital was closed ; Novem-
ber 1st, the board began to grant clean bills as usual.
The deaths from all causes in city and liberties were
eight hundred and thirty-five. Governor McKean,
in his message, estimated the yellow-fever deaths at
three hundred. Remembering past epidemics, John
Bleakley, April 19th, had willed one thousand pounds
to the city to relieve the indigent in times of yellow
fever, but this aid was not utilized until the subse-
quent visitations of 1803 and 1805. Bleakley also
left one thousand pounds as a fund to buy fuel for
poor widows.
The commencement of the public-school system,
that has since developed so marvelously, was in 1802,
an " Act to Provide for the Education of the Poor
gratis" being passed, and approved by Governor Mc-
Kean. It provided that the guardians and overseers
of the poor in the city of Philadelphia, and the dis-
tricts of Southwark and the Northern Liberties, and
of every township and borough in the commonwealth,
should ascertain the names of all children whose
parents they should "judge" were unable to give
them educations. It was provided that they should
give notice to such parents that provision had been
made for educating their children ; that the said
parents should have a right to subscribe for their edu-
cation at the usual rates, and send them to any school
in the neighborhood, giving notice to the guardians
and overseers that they had done so. The names
were to be properly registered, and the cost of the
schooling was to be levied for in the taxes, and col-
lected in the usual way. This act was restrained to
an existence of three years only. This experiment
was the result of a long series of efforts by private
persons, by church and college organizations, to edu-
cate the poorer classes. Ten years before the " Society
for the Establishment of First-Day Schools" had
memorialized the Legislature on the subject of " free
schools." Men like Albert Gallatin and Governor
Mifflin had become interested in this important sub-
ject.
Politics were somewhat exciting in the fall of 1802,
but the Democrats had an easy victory. Governor
Thomas McKean was warmly supported by the Ad-
ministration, received a unanimous renomination, and
in October beat James Ross, of Pittsburgh, by 30,000
majority. The vote in the city stood : McKean 1943,
Ross 1517; in the country, McKean 2965, Ross 779.
A banquet was held to celebrate this victory, at
Hamburg Tavern, on the Schuylkill ; Dr. Leib was
president, and Dr. Betton vice-president. Governor
McKean was the honored guest, as also at another
banquet given in November at Francis' Union Hotel,
A. J. Dallas and William Jones presiding.1
1 Dr. Michael Leib controlled the part)' at this time, and some mal-
contents had previously met at Dumvoody's tavern, in Market Street,
to devise measures to dethrone him. Though Leib, Richards, and Clay,
Democratic candidates for Congress, were elected, still the quarrel kept
simmering, and afterwards led to the formation of a third party, thus
dividing the Democracy.
One of the Democratic songs of rejoicing, "The Election Ground,"
that became very popular is full of personal allusions. We quote a few
stanzas :
"There were oystermen bawling aloud ;
There were fruit lasses sweetly inviting;
Oh ! the music and din of the crowd,
'Twould have done your heart good, so delighting I
514
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Some time in February a farmer, Peter Bachkerker,
was murdered and robbed by three footpads on
Market Street, between the ferry and the Centre
House. His companion escaped. Large rewards
were offered, but without avail. A petition was there-
upon presented to the Councils stating :
"That since the late unprecedented and atrocious murder and robbery,
committed on the highway in Market Street, numbers of country-people
are terrified, and neglect attending the market. Those who live so dis-
tant as to render it necessary for them to arrive at the city or its vicinity
in the evening or night are under peculiar apprehensions. At the
bridges, (in Schuylkill, it is remarked that no travelers, market-people,
or others of character pass after dusk, though it has heretofore been
customary to travel in all seasonable hours of the night. The increase
of dissolute and desperate vagabonds is notorious. This state of things
is attended with great detriment to the citizens, by keeping away sup-
plies from our market, and is dishonorable to the police of the city. It
is on all these accounts thought right that some lamps should be placed
between the built parts of the city and Schuylkill, in High Street."
From this suggestion grew the proposal to light the
streets with gas. Benjamin Henfrey came forward as
an "inventor," and published an address saying that
his system of extracting gas from coal was " appli-
cable to light-houses for the sea-coast, and, in an oc-
tagon light-house, for the use of towns." To manu-
facturers, on principles of economy and safety, his
plan would be useful, and for domestic purposes, for
the same reason. " As to expense, it will cost nothing
(first cost of apparatus and attendance excepted), as
the coal will be of more value after the gas and tar
are extracted than before." He proposed that towers
should be erected in certain parts of the city, so that
the light would not only illuminate the streets, but
the back alleys. The principle was "easy, and the
flame regulated by the turning of a cock." He ap-
pended certificates from the citizens of Richmond,
Va., where the light was tested. But he had to en-
counter opposition and prejudices. Scientific men
There was Bobby, the ci-devant mayor,*
"With tickets crammed full in each fist;
Old scape-gallows Levi was tliere.f
And one wilh the black Tory Ust4
11 And there was old goosified Tom,g
With his noted scunility scraper;
A scavenger, belter there's none,
And a foul common sewer his paper.
PorlfulUj likewise was thore,U
With three lads of the same resolution ;
To be sine, they're not paid by the year
For abusing our blest Constitution.
"And there was that Federal hack
Long dubbed the Political Pal son ;1[
He once preached a sermon, good lack !
When the gospel he made but a farce on.
He'd bilk about bi-lmps and kings;
But the people him well understood,
Of what blessings to nations it brings
To be blest with a dignified priesthood."
* Robert Wharton, mayor in 1708-99.
f Levi Hullingsworth.
+ A list of the TorieB proclaimed in the Revolution was published be-
fore this election, and was called the " Black List."
\ Thomas Bradford, printer.
\ Joseph Dennie, editor of the Portfolio.
y Rev. James Abercrombio, of Christ Church and St. Peter's.
and government officials objected, and the scheme of
this unappreciated pioneer was ignored.
One of the important events of 1802 was the ex-
hibition by Charles Wilson Peale of his splendid
collection of curiosities and works of art. The State-
House had been vacated by the Legislature, and
Peale in February petitioned for the use of the build-
ing. The American Philosophical Society and
Councils indorsed his petition, and an act was passed
March 17th granting permission to use the upper
story, and the eastern end of the lower story, under
reasonable restrictions. The collections were soon
after arranged and opened to the public. There were
about two hundred stuffed animals, a thousand speci-
mens of birds, four thousand specimens of insects, a
collection of minerals, cabinets of serpents, fishes,
etc. In one room were over a hundred portraits of
famous statesmen and soldiers, painted by Mr. Peale
and his son, Rembrandt. The greatest curiosities
were the famous Ulster County, N. Y., mastodon skel-
etons, dug from a marl-pit in 1801 by Mr. Peale, and
joined together with infinite labor. The first was
finished before the museum was opened; when the
gigantic frame-work of the second was united a unique
banquet was given, Rembrandt Peale and twelve
others dining within the skeleton, seated around a
table; room was also found for a piano within the
bony mammoth.1 Shortly after this skeleton was
taken to England and exhibited there by the Peale
brothers.
One of the laws passed this year regulating the
militia introduced changes in the Philadelphia troops.
The city and county at this time had ten thousand
two hundred and ninety-two militiamen, in one divi-
sion (the First) and two brigades. The appointment
of Gen. John Shee as major-general was severely
attacked by the Federalists. The Gazette character-
1 The toasts given at this curious entertainment deserve remembrance
for their oddity. They were as follows:
1. The biped animal, Man — May peace, virtue, and happiness be his
distinguishing chaiacter.
2. The American people — May they be as pre-eminent among the na-
tions of the earth as the canopy we sit beneath surpasses the fabric of
the mouse. Music — " Yankee Doodle."
3. Agriculture — In constituting the pride and riches of our country,
may its rewards be as abundant as this fruit was unexpected.
4. The Constitution of the United States — May " its ribs be as ribs of
brass, and its backbone as molten iron." Job, chap. xl. " LTaiL Colum-
bia."
5. The Arts and Sciences — Nursed in a genial soil, and fostered with
tender care, may their honor prove as durable as the bower which sur-
rounds us.
C. The Brains of Freemen — May they never be so barricadoed by the
jacka6s bones of Opposition as to crush their native energy.
7. The Friends of Peace — To all else such bones to gnaw as, dried by
ten thousand moons, may starve their hungry maws.
8. All Honest Men — If they cannot feast in the breast of a matumotb,
may their own breasts be large enough.
9. The Ladies of Philadelphia — Ere their naked beauties prove as
horrible as bare bones, may Virtue behold them clothed in the garments
of Modesty.
10. The Present Company — May their second birth, (hough from the
womb of the beast, be followed with every bleBsing iu life.
Volunteer — Success to these Boney-parts in Europe.
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
515
ized it as an instance of a pernicious system of favor-
itism, unguided by talents, services, or respectability.
Gen. Shee challenged Relf, the editor, but the affair
ended with publications from both sides.
The city authorities continued street improvements,
opening Cherry Street to Eighth, partly by private
subscription, citizens contributing six hundred and
thirty dollars to help buy the right of way. Addi-
tional public walks were laid out in the Potter's
Field, and rows of trees planted there. These and
other improvements ultimately led to the opening of
another public square.
In January, 1803, the two Councils sent a memorial
to the Legislature urging the return of the capital to
its ancient seat, but failed in their effort. The means
of the city government for paving and improvements
were limited, and times were dull. Edward Penn-
ington advanced one thousand dollars to pave Crown
Street. The Councils were notified that "the two
paviors employed by the city" were " going to move
to Baltimore in search of'occupation." January 15th,
Mayor Lawler sent a message to the Councils speak-
ing of two attempts in one night to fire the city.
Twenty-eight patrols were appointed, and a reward of
four hundred dollars offered for the arrest of any in-
cendiary.
The destructive fire at Portsmouth, N. H., in Jan-
uary, caused much sympathy, and committees were
appointed at citizens' meetings, who collected seven
thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars in the
city, seven hundred and twenty dollars in Southwark,
and enough from the Northern Liberties and suburbs
to raise the total to over nine thousand dollars.
In January also there occurred on Third Street
above Arch, at " Mrs. Cameron's, sign of the Golden
Swan," a meeting, the first known to the public, of
those interested in an important enterprise, the "Le-
high Coal Mining Company." Gentlemen of means
and energy were the stockholders, and they had faith
in the future, though previous experiments with coal
as a fuel had not prospered.
In February the "Pennsylvania Society for the
Encouragement of Useful Arts and Manufactures"
began reorganization, having been inactive for years.
In March they received an incorporation act from the
Legislature, and elected Dr. Benjamin Rush president,
and Tench Coxe, John Kaighn, Dr. Caspar Wistar,
and Anthony Morris as vice-presidents. Samuel
Wetherill was chairman of the " Manufacturing Com-
mittee."
Washington's birthday was celebrated by a public
dinner at Kitchen's City Tavern. Thomas Willing
and John Nixon presided, and Samuel Fox and
Joseph Ball were vice-presidents. The officers of
the City Brigade dined on the 4th of March at the
Franklin Hotel.
February 28th, Thomas Passmore, of Philadelphia,
went to the Legislature with charges against Supreme
Justices Shippen, Yeats, and Smith of illegal and
oppressive conduct and illegal imprisonment of him-
self. Passmore, in 1802, had insured a vessel, and
two of the underwriters, Pettit and Bayard, refused to
pay their share of a loss incurred. Passmore then
issued execution upon his judgment in the Supreme
Court, but Pettit and Bayard entered exceptions.
Passmore then prepared a paper denouncing their
conduct, which he put up at the Coffee-House. The
defendants then applied to the Supreme Court and
secured an attachment against Passmore for contempt,
and ultimately he was fined fifty dollars and impris-
oned thirty days. March 9th the legislative com-
mittee reported that "summary proceedings by con-
tempt were contrary to the genius of our laws," and
"a step towards establishing an aristocracy." The
necessity of the passage of some law to define the
powers of courts in cases of contempt was declared to
be urgent, and the draft of a bill for that purpose
was reported; but the time for the adjournment of
the session then being near, the whole subject was
recommended to the attention of the next Legislature.
March 28th the Legislature passed " An Act creat-
ing a corporation to be styled ' the commissioners and
inhabitants of that part of the Northern Liberties
lying between the west side of Sixth Street and the
river Delaware and between Vine Street and Cohock-
sink Creek.'" It directed that fifteen commissioners
should be elected by the citizens at the town-house
in the evening of the first Saturday in May, by ballot,
five for three years, five for two years, and five for
one year, and five annually thereafter upon the first
Saturday in May. They had power in local enact-
ments, street matters, wharves, etc. Their first act,
July 14th, was to provide for an extension of the
market on Second Street; Michael Baker, Daniel
Miller, and Daniel Groves being appointed superin-
tendents.
In March also the Legislature changed the poor
laws and health laws. The " Guardians of the Poor"
was to be a board of thirty members, sixteen chosen
by the City Councils, six by the commissioners of
Southwark, and eight by the justices of peace in
the Northern Liberties. One-half retired each year,
and their places were filled by elections. The act
was lengthy and full of minute specifications. The
new health law authorized the Governor to appoint a
board of five, three from Philadelphia, one each from
Southwark and the liberties, serving one year, at a
salary of four hundred dollars apiece. He was also
to appoint health, quarantine, and lazaretto officers.
Transportation improvements continued to develop.
March 24th the incorporation act of the " Cheltenham
and Willow Grove Turnpike Company" was passed.
Their route was "from the Rising Sun Tavern through.
Shoemakertown to the Red Lion Inn, on the Old York
road." Another company was on the same day in-
corporated to build a turnpike " from Front Street
through Frankford and Bustleton to the Morrisville
Ferry, Bucks Co." This company engaged to bridge
516
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the Delaware between Morrisville and Trenton, and
secured the services of Timothy Palmer, who was con-
tractor for the bridge at High Street, Schuylkill. Pe-
titions for a turnpike along the Ridge or Wissahickon
road were refused, " because the Germantown turn-
pike was parallel, and only a mile and a half distant."
The projectors of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal
had by this time secured two hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars in subscriptions, and May 9th they
completed their organization at Wilmington.
April 1st the Legislature decided to sell certain
vacant lots and build a new prison in Philadelphia,
the Walnut Street prison being far too small. Since
1790 the State had been using the city prison, having
previously appropriated five hundred pounds to erect
cells, and hence was bound to contribute towards the
new prison. The lots were sold and the building
commenced " on Arch Street, south side, between
Broad and Schuylkill Eighth." Funds were insuffi-
cient, and the prison was unfinished for years. In
1812 the Legislature appropriated twenty-five thou-
sand dollars, and declared that the building "should
be considered the exclusive property of the common-
wealth," an announcement that caused great dissatis-
faction, as the State was still using the Walnut Street
prison. The building, however, proved so unsuitable
that no State convicts were sent there.
Another enactment made in April secured " me-
chanic liens" in certain specified cases in Philadel-
phia and its suburbs. Bricklayers, lime merchants,
stone-cutters, carpenters, painters, and glaziers were
entitled to this benefit.
In May the admirers of Thomas Paine, the pam-
phleteer and free-thinker, gave a, banquet in his
honor at the Franklin Hotel, which had been opened
in Franklin's old mansion, in the court south of Mar-
ket, between Third and Fourth Streets.
May also witnessed the most extensive militia
parade since the Revolution, under the command of
Brig.-Gen. John Barker. The City Brigade turned
out five regiments, three thousand men in all ; there
were twelve flank companies, an artillery regiment,
and two corps of cavalry. July 4th the Legion
paraded, in two divisions, under Majs. Jonas Simmons
and Thomas Willis, and several new infantry com-
panies also paraded. In October the Legion had a
"sham battle" at the old race-ground, between Pine
and South Streets.
July 25th the Health Board called public attention
to the falsity of " reports that yellow fever existed in
Philadelphia, though it was raging in New York."
August 10th non-intercourse with that city was or-
dered, vessels were examined at the Lazaretto, and
persons were subject to detention. September 12th
the board was forced to acknowledge that " a disease
of malignant character" had appeared in the part of
the city between Market and Walnut, and from Front
Street to the Delaware. They investigated the sub-
ject, and declared that neither had any suspicious
vessel landed a cargo, nor had any sick person from
New York or elsewhere gained admission. A cor-
respondent of the Aurora contradicted this, stating
that yellow fever patients had entered from New
York, by way of Baltimore and Lancaster, and that
one had died in Spruce Street, and one in Water
Street, near Market. But the disease was not thought
violent, and the board, September 13th, after declaring
that it had done its whole duty in the matter, prohib-
ited visits to the infected districts. The quarrel of
several years' standing between the contagionists and
the non-contagionists was renewed, the latter control-
ling the Board of Health. Indeed, as early as June
citizens had met at the court-house and censured the
board for not enforcing a quarantine, Col. Thomas
Willis being president and William Duane secretary.
After the fever fairly broke out the Aurora became the
organ of the " contagionists." It accused the board
of incompetence and of making unfaithful reports.
"New York," they said, "had the yellow fever July
17th; no protective measures were taken here till
August 9th." The first cases were near the Arch
Street wharf, where the New York packets lay, also
at South Street wharf and along the Delaware. The
hospital was opened September 13th and closed Octo-
ber 16th, receiving eighty-eight patients, of whom
thirty-nine died. The city reported one hundred
and forty-five cases, and the deaths were about one
hundred and twenty, though the exact number is not
stated.
The entire year seemed to be more or less occupied
with endeavors to improve the arrangements for ex-
tinguishing fires. Public attention was called to this
by the increasing number of fires, some of them in.
cendiary. February 8th the old Quaker school-
house in Fourth Street, below Chestnut, said to be
the first school-house built in Pennsylvania, was de-
stroyed by fire, and few of the books and apparatus
were rescued. August 25th, at P. Daniels' shot and
lead factory, on Water Street near Market, a disas-
trous fire occurred in which John Clark, Richard
Naylor, and Thomas Riley were killed, and several
persons were severely injured. At this time water
was handed in buckets along lines of men and poured
into the hand-engine. The suggestion was now made
that " hose might be attached to the hydrants," and
a standard of uniform size for the fire-plugs was also
proposed. But nothing was done till after a costly
fire, December 13th, in a row of unfinished houses on
Sansom Street, near Eighth, eight of which were
destroyed, and three partially burned. Subscriptions
for the relief of the sufferers were taken up, and
the " Fire Committee'' and " Watering Commit-
tee" were spurred to renewed efforts. December
15th, Reuben Haines, Roberts Vaux, Joseph Parker,
Samuel N. Lewis, Abraham L. Pennock, William
Morrison, Joseph Warren, and William Morris met
at the home of the first named, No. 4 Bank Street,
and organized "The Philadelphia Hose Company."
FIRST YEARS OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
517
Charles E. Smith joined at the second meeting, and
age for new members was fixed at between seventeen
and twenty-one. They estimated cost of hose and in-
cidentals at three hundred and fifty dollars, and pro-
posed to subscribe it themselves, but the citizens at
once raised over seven hundred dollars, and they
built a house on lot No. 17 North Fourth Street.
The cost of the hose-carriage was seventy-eight dol-
lars. March 3, 1804, Israel Israel's stables in Whale-
bone Alley (afterward Hudson's) caught fire, and the
hose company did such service that they received a
donation of seventy dollars, and two more companies
were soon organized.
Politics were very quiet, except that Dr. Michael
Leib was still accused of being " Dictator of Phila-
delphia County." July 27th the dissatisfied Democrats
met at the " Rising Sun," but Leib's friends attended
also, and a fight occurred, in which Manuel Eyre, the
chairman, was thrown from his seat, and the meeting
brokenup. In August the County Committee required
written pledges to stand by the nominations, but the
anti-Leib party put up a separate ticket. Col. John
Barker, the regular candidate, was elected by 171 ma-
jority over William T. Donaldson, and Leib remained
in control of things. The address this year called
Pennsylvania the " keystone of the Democratic
arch," probably the first instance of this use of the
comparison.
Manufactures were growing rapidly. Of calico-
printing establishments near Philadelphia there were
Hewson's at Kensington, Stewart's at Germantown,
and Thorburn's at Darby, the three turning out two
hundred thousand yards in 1803, and employing sev-
enty persons. Oliver Evans had commenced the
manufacture of steam-engines. Mr. Eltonhead had
begun to make cotton machinery, — carding-engines at
four hundred dollars, drawing and roving frames at
two hundred dollars, mules with one hundred and
forty-four spindles at three hundred dollars each.
"The Association of Artists and Manufacturers"
was organized this year to collect statistics of do-
mestic industry, and to promote arts and manufac-
tures. Everywhere in Philadelphia County the germs
of the great industrial enterprises of the present day
were taking firm root. These diminutive factories
and engine-shops were vast creations, if we consider
the difficulties under which they had been developed.
Political excitements formed the staple events of
1804 in Philadelphia. We have spoken of the
Thomas Passmore affair in 1802-3, — his complaints
against Chief Justice Shippen and Associate Justices
Yeates and Smith. When the Legislature of 1804
again took the case up it caused a commotion that
involved every one, from city ward politicians to the
Governor himself. A committee report on March
13th recommended "that the judges should be im-
peached for high misdemeanors by arbitrarily and
unconstitutionally fining and imprisoning Thomas
Passmore." After due debate the House, March 20th,
resolved to impeach the justices by vote of 57 to 24,
and three days later articles were sent to the Senate
for action. Then occurred an extraordinary event.
Justice Hugh Henry Brackenridge, hitherto not in-
volved in the case, intruded himself upon the Legis-
lature, and March 24th wrote requesting that he also be
impeached in the interests of the Democratic admin-
istration. The genuineness of the letter was doubted,
but it was proved authentic, and a special committee
roported that it contained " evidence of a premedi-
tated insult to the House, by insinuating in a manner
neither to be mistaken nor palliated that the House
was actuated in their proceedings against the other
judges by party motives." They added, "Such un-
founded and unwarrantable insinuations (and more
especially by a citizen to whom a trust of adminis-
tering the laws is confided) must naturally tend to
general suspicion among our constituents that the
laws are the offspring of corruption and caprice, and
not framed by the unbiased will of their representa-
tives;" and, in conclusion, they thought he "was not
a proper person to discharge the important duties of
a judge." Impeachment was not advised, and being
afterwards moved in the House was lost by a vote of 8
to 68. A motion to address the Governor and ask
that he remove Judge Brackenridge was adopted by a
vote of 54 to 24, and also passed the Senate, but Gov-
ernor McKean disregarded it altogether, which caused
a storm among his adherents. Duane's energetic
journal, the Aurora, had been criticising the Gov-
ernor's veto of the " Adjustment Bill" (to extend
magistrates' jurisdiction in civil cases), and it took up
the new casus belli. May 10th and May 18th this
lately official organ made seven assaults on McKean's
course as "lending himself to traitors, Tories, and
Apostate Whigs." But since there was at this time
but one Federalist in the Senate and five in the House,
the impeachment of three out of the four judges of
the Supreme Court had all the aspects of a partisan
proceeding. Several projects for changes in legal
jurisdiction adopted by the Legislature were vetoed
by the Governor as unconstitutional. The quarrel
thus begun extended throughout the party.
It was a golden opportunity for the anti-Leib party,
determined to prevent that gentleman's renomina-
tion. Their organs were the Freeman's Journal (es-
tablished by McCorkle as the Evening Post) and Maj.
William Jackson's Political and Commercial Register.
Dr. Leib in August declined nomination, but the
city and county convention forced him to take it,
and a hot campaign followed. The Aurora termed
the anti-Leib men " Tertium Quids," a phrase in-
vented for them in 1802-3 by Tench Coxe, now one
of their leaders, and a former writer for the Aurora.
Coxe held a government office, " Purveyor of Sup-
plies," worth two thousand dollars per year. The
Federalists made no nominations this year, and the
factions had the field to themselves. The anti-Leib
men indorsed the names of Richards and Clay from
518
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the regular ticket, but nominated Penrose for Con-
gress instead of Leib. In the October election Clay-
received 7427 votes, Richards 7021, Leib 3992, and
Penrose 3685. A celebration was held over this vic-
tory at Vogdes' Inn, Chestnut Street; Mayor Lawler
presided, Thomas Leiper, Frederick Wolbert, Gen.
Barker, and Ebenezer Ferguson were vice-presidents.1
The Presidential election in November went almost
by default, Jefferson receiving 3300 votes in the city
out of 4000 votes polled.
Market space was contracted, and the Legislature
gave the Councils power to erect and regulate market-
houses as they saw fit, provided the stalls for country
people were free. In August the South Second Street
market was improved by a two-story brick building
added at the north end, Joseph Wetherill loaning
one thousand dollars, and subscriptions being also
taken to aid the work. A market, so petitions said,
was needed on Dock Street, and one on Southeast
Square, and the High Street market needed an ex-
tension, but nothing further was done this year.
Early in January the Legislature had desired to
give Abraham Baldwin, Thomas Gibbs, and Nathaniel
Nichols special privileges for carding- and spinning-
machine, but the Senate refused. William Copeley,
of Shippensburg, an inventor, wanted one thousand
dollars to complete a machine for carding and spin-
ning, but the bill to that effect failed to pass. Moses
Coats, having patented an apple-parer, desired to sell
it to the State, but was not encouraged. The Phil-
adelphia Society, mentioned as organized in 1803,
favored John Biddis' processes, — his potato starch,
sago powder, and "wool from old clothing" (or
shoddy). January 7th "an act for the inspection of
butter" was passed, and inspectors appointed at Phil-
adelphia. April 3d a similar act relating to black-
oak bark was passed, but petitions begging for inspec-
tion of gypsum and plaster were neglected.
Philadelphia, as at the Portsmouth fire, showed her
benevolence in case of need on March 20th ; a great
meeting was held at the State-House, George Latimer
presiding, and $3000 was collected for the sufferers
from a descructive fire in Norfolk, Va. The total
collections in the city were $4999.34.
Very important financial matters were brought
1 Among the toasts on this occasion were the following:
" The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Nature's keystone ill the arch
of the Union; may she continue the keystone in the arch of Principle."
"Genuine Democratic principles honeslly enforced, that, like aDtilch
fan, they may separate the wheat from the chaff."
"Tertium Quids, a new order of Jesuits, whose creed is
Religion, [ which consists iu worshiping an un-"l tiie
Liberty, restrained monopoly of niching the I Loaves
and good name of all who stand between i and
Law, [them and J Fishes."
The Tammany Society at Rowland Smith's new Wigwam adopted as
toasts:
" The Tertium Quids: May those fond of this quid find it a quiddity."
"The ad*ocates of a third party in Pennsylvania: Way they learn
experience fiom Burr's defeat, and by eaily repentance escape a similar
fate."
before the Legislature of 1804, but that of greatest
moment was the struggle over the charter of the
Philadelphia Bank, organized in August, 1803, with
a capital stock fixed at $1,000,000. AVhen its repre-
sentatives appeared before the Legislature, its charter
was opposed by the Bank of Pennsylvania, and offers
and counter-offers were made by both sides. The
struggle was long and doubtful, but the new bank
was incorporated March 5th.
The effort was made this season to secure the ex-
tension of the Lancaster turnpike to Pittsburgh, or to
build a road from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, then to
connect with turnpikes already finished. The matter
was laid over till another Legislature. Up to this
time all travel to Pittsburgh was either on horseback
or by private vehicles, usually rough farm-wagons.
On rare occasions, and in time of political excitement,
special stages and relays of horses were provided.' In
the month of August the first regular line of stages
was established. It started weekly (Friday mornings)
from John Tomlinson's hotel on Market Street. The
agreement was that the journey should not exceed
seven days, and the fare was twenty dollars per pas-
senger, twenty pounds of baggage allowed; extra
baggage twelve dollars per hundred.
The new line was praised in all the journals as a
marvel of enterprise and celerity. Those who tried it
wrote back from Pittsburgh that the cost of meals " was
eight dollars and twenty-one cents per passenger, at
good country inns. The time of passage from Pitts-
burgh to New Orleans was twenty or twenty-five days
by boat." Thus painfully and slowly were the links
with the broad region west of the Alleghentes knit
together. A stage-line to Lancaster had for some
time been in operation. Minor extensions of turnpike
enterprises went on steadily. One company incorpo-
rated to build from near Bustleton to Southampton,
Bucks Co. ; and another " from Chestnut Hill through
Flourtown to the Spring-House Tavern, in Mont-
gomery County." This year the Trenton Delaware
Bridge Company was incorporated.
When Louisiana was acquired, the friends of Jeffer-
son gave a celebration (May 12th). and the well-known
Legion took part. Capt. Powell's artillery fired seven-
teen guns at daylight, in Centre Square, and Christ
Church bells were rung. The procession consisted
of Leiper's, Holgate's, Hill's, Jones', and Connelly's
troops of horse; of the artillery companies of Shaw,
' Goodman, Powell, Cash, and Forepaugh; of the rifle
| companies of Huff, Snyder, Fessmire, Seyfert, and
Wagner; and of the light infantry companies of
' Irwin, Rush, Lyle, Lloyd, Hergesheimer, Waterman,
1 Fotterall, Ebberly, Dalzell, Stern, Sweeny, Duane,
Mintzer, Montgomery, Vogdes, Fox, Marshall, Mc-
Kellar, Symington, and Altemus. There were six
| pieces of artillery and twenty-three standards in the
! parade. The Tammany Society paraded with "the
i tribe of Pennsylvania" and sixteen others. The True
i Republican Society, the Cincinnati, and the Demo-
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
519
cratic Republican Benevolent Society were present,
and also St. Patrick's, Union, Cordwainers', United
German Beneficial, incorporated St. Tammany, Provi-
dent, Friendly, Victuallers'. The route of the parade
was down Second Street, through the new market, to
Lombard, thence up to Third, passing the house of
Governor McKean, up Third to Chestnut, along the
latter to Sixth, thence to Market, and to Centre Square,
where an oration was delivered by Dr. Michael Leib.
The Philadelphia Gazetteof May 21st said, satirically,
" This military procession, in celebration of a peace
measure, in due time straggled out to that precise
part of the common where in more wholesome days
— when a gallows was a part of the regimen of our
penal code — atrocious criminals were wont to be exe-
cuted," and " the celebrated Dr. Leib mounted the
platform."
In July news reached Philadelphia that " Hamil-
ton was no more," and the particulars of the fatal
duel created a profound sensation. The citizens met,
Thomas Willing chairman, and William Meredith
secretary, and passed appropriate resolutions. Ar-
rangements were made for the tolling of bells on the
next Sabbath. Shipmasters were asked to raise their
flags to half-mast, and clergymen were requested to
"preach upon the custom of dueling." Such citizens
as "could consistently with their religious principles"
were asked to wear crape for thirty days. One of the
last resolutions was, — " In imitation of the pious ex-
ample of the deceased in the closing scenes of his life
exhibiting an illustrious proof of the benign influ-
ences of the religion of our forefathers, the citizens,
in their respective places of worship, on Sunday next,
will render their prayers of thanksgiving to God for
His goodness in having blessed our nation with men
of talent to discern, and of virtue to pursue, her
safety, her honor, and her welfare, and especially for
having thus loDg continued to us the eminently use-
ful talents of the deceased."
Members of the bar met, — Jared Ingersoll chair-
man ; also the law students, John E. Hall chairman,
both assemblies passing resolutions. A number of
ministers met, resolved that they "were always op-
posed to dueling," and thought such prayers as sug-
gested in the resolution above quoted " would be for
various reasons inexpedient."
Philadelphia escaped the yellow fever this year.
The Board of Health not liking the location of the
City Hospital bought a lot " in Hickory Lane (Coates
Street), one and three-quarter miles from the old court-
house," and hidden from the view of travelers.
September witnessed a riot begun by several Spanish
sailors, who stabbed and dangerously wounded Wil-
liam Barry, a young American sailor. His friends
went to a Spanish house, and tore it nearly to pieces.
Several persons were severely hurt during the riot.
Jan. 1, 1805, marked the practical completion and
opening to the public of the Schuylkill Permanent
Bridge after many difficulties and delays. Its corner-
stone had been laid Oct. 13, 1800, and many new
problems had arisen in the course of its construction.
The winter of 1804-5 was one of great distress. It
was stated that since 1780 there had not been as
much suffering, want, and penury among the poor.
In order to raise the means of relief, a meeting of
citizens was held at the State-House, in January, at
which committees were appointed to make collec-
tions. John Inskeep was chairman, James Milnor
secretary, and Robert Ralston treasurer. They ob-
tained contributions from the citizens amounting to
ten thousand and eighty-three dollars and sixty-four
cents, which were properly distributed. In this sum
was embraced six hundred dollars obtained by a bene-
fit given at the theatre. The female association
opened a soup-house at the corner of Ninth and
Cherry Streets, where soup was sold at two cents per
quart. "Unfortunate individuals incarcerated in the
debtor's department underwent such privations that
the grand jury indicted the keeper for neglect of his
duty.
Nicholas Rooseveldt had a contract to supply the
city with water, but he sent a communication to the
Councils in March, saying that he had lost forty-seven
thousand dollars by his contract to build steam-
engines. The watering committee complained that
the engines did not furnish the quantity specified, and
did not work evenly ; disputes which followed lasted
most of the year. The watering committee proposed
in August to pay him ten thousand dollars for the
extra power and for his right, title, and interest in the
machinery. In the ensuing month negotiations were
opened for the purchase of the unexpired lease of
lots on the Schuylkill where the engine-house was
erected. A writ was at last issued against Rooseveldt,
who locked the gates against the sheriff. That officer
broke open the doors and delivered the engine to the
watering committee, who put Frederick Graff in
charge. The committee, in December, reported in
favor of giving Rooseveldt fifteen thousand dollars in
compromise of all claims.
In March, Capt. Preble, of the United States navy,
the gallant commander of the famous assaults upon
the pirates at Tripoli, received a public dinner, ten-
dered him by leading citizens of Philadelphia, at
Mrs. Hardy's hotel. Thomas Fitzsimons and Gen.
Francis Gurney presided, and much enthusiasm pre-
vailed.
The famous " impeachment of the Supreme Court
Judges" came to a final vote in the State Senate early
in the year, and stood, — guilty, thirteen ; not guilty,
eleven ; lacking the required two-thirds majority, the
accused were therefore acquitted. But party feeling
ran higher than before. The Aurora's head-lines were,
" The common law everything, the Constitution noth-
ing." It denounced the minority that had supported
the judges, it accused lawyers as freedom-haters, and
it called for a revision of the Constitution. Shortly
after Duane, Dr. Leib, and others organized in secret
520
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
to prevent Governor McKean's renomination, and to
agitate changes in the Constitution. In February
they presented memorials for the latter purpose.
Their platform was, — Senators elected annually; lim-
itation of executive patronage ; reforms in the judi-
ciary ; and the cheapening of justice. Early in March
the " Constitutional Republicans" organized, with
Dr. George Logan as president; Israel Israel, vice-
president; Samuel Wetherill, Jr., secretary; and A.
J. Dallas, J. B. Smith, Isaac Worrell, Samuel Weth-
erill, Jr., and Blair McClenachan as committee. The
Anti-Constitutionalists then reorganized under the
name of " Friends of the People ;" Matthew Lawler,
president, and James Carson and George Bartram,
secretaries. Messrs. Carson, Clay, Lawler, Leib,
Duane, Wolbert, and Bartram formed the committee;
all had been warm supporters of McKean. Several
of the Governor's vetoes, as also his interference in
the case of Joseph D. Cabrera, a young Spaniard,
charged with forgery, added strength to the discon-
tented party. A caucus of members of the Legisla-
ture was held at Lancaster, and Simon Snyder had
forty -two votes; McKean, seventeen; and Maclay,
one. Messrs. Mitchell, Ferguson, and Boileau drew
up a violent "Address to the People," setting forth
McKean's " austerity and aristocratical habits," his
"years of professional contention and domination in
courts," his " ungracious distribution of offices among
relatives," and his present intimacy " with those who
had been his former libelers."
The entire document was highly characteristic of
one of the most heated political campaigns that Penn-
sylvania had ever witnessed. The strongest charge it
made was that the Governor had said, " There is a
shameful and base prejudice now existing against
lawyers, which proceeded from ignorance, for it was
absurd to say lawyers were not the wisest and best
men in the community." And then he said, " The
memorial for calling a convention is a base libel, and
the authors of it are rascals and villains, and the sup-
porters of the measure are a set of stupid geese. The
present Constitution was formed by a set of the wisest
and best patriots that were ever collected; and shall
a set of ignorant clodhoppers in this way overturn
that Constitution formed by a set of gentlemen so ex-
tensively learned in the law? No! it never shall be.
I will not suffer such a thing to take place." The
charges made in this address were of too grave a na-
ture to be allowed to rest without some attempt at
explanation. Alexander J. Dallas addressed a letter
to the Governor, asking him to explain the circum-
stances connected with the conversations which were
referred to. The reply substantially admitted the
truth of the charges.
The terms " clodhoppers" and " geese" immediately
passed into the political controversies of the time, the
Anti-Constitutionalists satirically adopting them, and
losing no opportunity to keep alive the odium which
such epithets must have excited.
The assaults of the Anti-Constitutionalists were
largely directed against Dallas, who was stigmatized
as the holder of three lucrative offices. Duane pub-
lished a sarcastic pamphlet, " Samson against the
Philistines."' The officers of the militia, so high ran
the tide of political feeling, even refused to pay the
Governor the honor of a marching salute on the Fourth
of July. The Federalists preserved entire neutrality
for a time, though many were at last drawn into the
controversy, chiefly on McKean's side, as he had been
forced into the position of a conservative. When the
votes were counted, Thomas McKean had a majority
of nearly 5000 over Simon Snyder. In Philadelphia
City and County McKean had 4100 votes, and Snyder
3893. The Senate and House were strongly for Mc-
Kean. This result was caused by Federalist votes,
they holding the balance of power. The Governor,
thus vindicated, began separate libel suits against
John Steele, William Dickson, Matthew Lawler,
Thomas Lei per, Dr. Leib, Jacob Mitchell, and Wil-
liam Duane for various publications and utterances.
Samuel Bryan was removed from the comptrollership,
and Gen. John Shee was deprived of the flour inspec-
torship.
An important act relating to the opening of streets
in Philadelphia passed the Legislature March 25th.
It gave the Court of Quarter Sessions power to ap-
point twelve freeholders as " viewers," seven being a
majority capable of laying out a proposed street.
Another jury of twelve were to assess damages. The
authority of the Councils over streets was enlarged,
and the jurisdiction of the city was extended. In
April the Board of Wardens of the port were granted
a duty of four cents per ton on vessels clearing for
foreign ports, to improve navigation on the Delaware
River. Complaints were made of the pilotage charges
and the stringency of the quarantine as impeding
commerce. The wardens were granted authority re-
specting the building of wharves on the Schuyl-
kill.
During the early part of the year there was great
fear of fires, and the watchmen were ordered to ex-
amine the hydrants every hour during the night in
cold weather, and to let the water run a moment from
each to prevent freezing. If there was an alarm of
fire a watchman in High Street was to notify the
operators of the Centre Square engine, for which extra
service he was " paid two dollars per year."
The anniversary of the evacuation of Philadelphia
by Sir Henry Clinton, June 18, 1777, was celebrated
by Col. Willis' Twenty-fifth Regiment, Capt. Mar-
shall's " Volunteers," and Capt. Duane's new " Re-
publican Greens." The militia Legion had commem-
orated the 4th of March by their usual parade and
banquet of the officers.
The City Councils defeated the Dock Street Market
project. Additional improvements were made at
Southeast Square; a building there was removed and
a water-course walled over. The University of Penn-
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
521
sylvania wished to erect a medical school building in
this square, but permission was refused.
In Rembrandt Peale's studio in the State-House the
plan of an Art Society was perfected some time during
August. The building committee was George Clymer,
William Poyntell, William Rush, John R. Coxe, and
John Dorsey. This organization was incorporated
March 17, 1806, as the "Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts," and soon began exhibitions.
In August, Gen. John Victor Moreau, one of Na-
poleon's marshals, victor of Hohenlinden, banished
from France for complicity in the Pichegru plot
against Napoleon, came to Philadelphia, on his way
to Morrisville, Bucks Co., where he resided for a
number of years. Some time in December of this
year a number of his friends and admirers tendered
him a public dinner in Philadelphia.
The epidemic of 1803 re-
turned again in this year,
appearing in Southwark,
between Shippen, Almond,
and Swanson Streets, Au-
gust 20th, when two persons
were taken to the Laza-
retto, and ten others re-
ported sick. September 2d ,
the Board of Health, Da-
vid Jackson president, Wil-
liam Binder secretary, be-
gan publishing names and
residences of those taken
sick. September 7th, per-
sons were forbidden to re-
move from the infected dis-
trict under a penalty of two
hundred dollars. Any ves-
sel which remained more
than an hour at any South-
wark wharf was not per-
mitted to land elsewhere
under the same penalty.
September 9th the district
as defined was between
South Street and the navy-
yard and west to Fourth
seventv cases existed
OLIVER EVANS.
Street, in which space
The City Hospital was opened
on the 8th, under the charge of Drs. Samuel Duf-
field, J. Church, and Joseph Parrish, with Sam-
uel Goodman as steward. Two hundred tents were
pitched at Rosemount, where many poor were kept
out of the reach of contagion. Though the hos-
pital was busier than in 1802, there being three
hundred and fifty-nine persons sent there from Sep-
tember 27th to October 31st, of whom one hundred
and seventy-two died, there was less alarm manifested
in the city than in former years. At one time the
board recommended the desertion of South Street from
the Delaware to Fifth Street, in hopes of checking
the spread of the disease, but the interval suggested
was too slight to be of much benefit. After October
1st the epidemic lessened in violence ; bills of health
were again issued after the 21st, and November 5th
the board officially declared the fever at an end.
From August 16th to October 26th nine hundred and
forty-three deaths occurred in the city, but how many
of these were from yellow fever is not ascertained.
Southwark had reported six hundred and seventy-six
cases, and the city and Northern Liberties reported
one hundred and forty-seven cases. Later investiga-
tion showed that in July there were six vessels from
the West Indies lying in quarantine down the river,
and that Peter Young, Tobias Smith, and other per-
sons living at Samuel Chrisman's, Southwark, had
been boating, and had unlawfully visited these ves-
sels.
The greatest mechanical improvement of the year
was that of Oliver Evans,
whose efforts to manufac-
ture steam-engines have
been alluded to. In an
article in Pouhon's Adver-
tiser, ten years later, he
speaks of having suggested
steam as a motor on land
as early as 1773, and for
boats in 1778. He adds, —
" In the year 1804 I constructed at
Philadelphia a machine (of my in-
vention) for cleuuingdocka, — a heavy
mud flat, with a steam-engine of the
power of five horaes in it to work
ttie machinery. And, to show that
both steam-carriages and steamboats
were practicable (with my steam-
engines), I first put wheels to it and
propelled it by the eDgine a mile and
a half, and then into the Schuylkill,
although its weight was equal to
that of two hundred barrels of flour.
I then fixed a paddle-wheel at the
stem, and propelled it by the engine
down the Schuylkill and up the Del-
aware, sixteen miles, leaving all the
vessels that were under sail full half-
way behiud me (the wind being
ahead), although the application was
60 temporary as to produce great fric-
tion, and the flat was most illy formed for sailing, done in the presence
of thousands."
Before the boat was thus taken to the water, Evans
exhibited it upon the circular road at Centre Square,
as the following advertisement from the Philadelphia
Gazette of July 13, 1805, shows :
" rpo THE PUBLIC. In'my first attempt to move the Orukter Amphi-
J- boles, or Amphibious Digger, to the water by the power of steam,
the wheels and axletrees proved insufficient to bear so great a burden,
and having previously obtained the permission of the Board of Health
(for whom this machine is constructed), to gratify the citizens of Phila-
delphia by the sight of this mechanical curiosity, on the supposition
that it may lead to useful improvements, the workmen who had con-
structed it voluntarily offered their labor to make, without wages, other
wheels and axletrees of sufficient strength, and to receive as their re-
ward one-half of the sum that may be received from a generous public
for the sight thereof — half to be at the disposal of the inventor, who
522
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
pledges himself that it shall be applied to defray the expense of other
new and useful inventions which lie has already conceived and arranged
in his mind, and which he will put in operation only when the money
arising from the inventions already made will defray tile expenses. The
above machine is vow to be seen moving round Centre Square at the ex-
pense of the workmen, who expect twenty-five cents from every gener-
ous person who may come to see its operation. But all are invited to
come and view it, as well those who cannot, as those who can conveni-
ently Bpare the money.
" Oliver Evans."
Even before this experiment was made, in Septem-
ber, 1804, Evans had proposed to construct a road-
carriage for freight. He thought the engine would
cost $1500, the carriage $500, and allowed $500 for
unforeseen expenses. He thought his carriage when
built could carry one hundred barrels of flour at an
average speed of two miles per hour, thus doing in
two days (on the trip from Philadelphia to Columbia)
the work that required the work of twenty-five horses
and five wagons for three days at a cost of $3304. The
turnpike company refused to enter into a contract
OLIVER EVANS' STEAM-CARRIAGE.
with him. Evans then wagered $3000 that he " could
make a carriage go by steam on a level road faster
than any horse," but found no takers; he also an-
nounced that he could build carriages to " run on a
railway" at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. To
show how well this shrewd genius, who fairly di-
vides the honor of successful steam experiments with
Fitch and Fulton, understood the entire subject we
have only to quote from a letter of his some years
later in the New York Commercial Advertiser. Parts
of the passage have become almost classic because of
their long-ago fulfilled prophecy. Said Mr. Evans, —
"The time will come when people will travel in stagps moved by
steam-engines at fifteen to twenty miles an hour. A carriage will leave
Washington in the morning, breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadel-
phia, and sup at New York on the same day. Railways will be laid of
wood or iron, or on smooth paths of broken stone or gravel, to travel as
well hy night as by day. A steam-engine will drive a carriage one hun-
dred and eighty miles in twelve hours, or engines will drive boats ten
or twelve miles an hour, and hundreds of boats will bo run on the Mis-
sissippi and other waters, as was prophesied thirty years ago (by Fitch) ;
but the velocity of boats can never be made equal to that of carriages
upon rails, because the resistance in water is eight hundred times more
than that in air. Posterity will not he able to discover why the Legis-
lature or Congress did not grant the inventor such protection as might
have enabled him to put in operation those great improvements sooner,
he having neither asked money nor a monopoly of any existing thing."
Manufacturing enterprises continued to be estab-
lished. The largest undertaking of the sort in this
year was the Seth Craige cotton-mill, or factory, at the
old Globe Mills, Kensington. This favored location
had formerly been the site of a flour-mill belonging to
the Penns, and called "the Governor's grist-mill."
It was easily reached by boats by the way of the Co-
hocksink Creek, also by roads from city and country.
But there had long been an abundance of grist-mills,
and the enterprising Mr. Craige, as has been stated,
led the way in a new industry, his factory being the
first extensive one of the kind in Pennsylvania. His
first contracts were for "girth-web" for a saddlery
hardware establishment at No.' 110 Market Street.
As time progressed the factory developed extensive
business connections. It struggled through various
trade depressions, and by 1816 was enlarged, then
taking rank as the most extensive concern of the kind
in the Union. Mr. Houston was then taken into
partnership, but died soon after. The firm was then
increased, — Thomas H. and Seth Craige, Jr., also
John Holmes were admitted, — and the firm of Craige,
Holmes & Co. invested over two hundred thousand
dollars in new and improved machinery, manufac-
turing not only cotton goods, but also woolen fabrics
and yarn.
Allusion has been made in the last chapter to the
American difficulties with France, so threatening at
one time that war was imminent, and peaceful traders
armed for their own defense, particularly in the West
India trade, found so lucrative by the hardy sailors of
Maine and Massachusetts. Jefferson had, early in
1805, called the attention of Congress to the trade
with the San Domingo revolutionists, urged to this
by the protests of Gen. Turreau, the French envoy
extraordinary. The carrying trade of the United
States had increased to an extraordinary extent, never
since equaled in degree, until Americans seemed
about to take the commercial dominion of the seas
from England herself. The cruisers of the warring
nations, however, treated the " Yankee'' vessels as
fair prey, making unjust captures, and maltreating
officers and crew, besides taking in their courts more
stringent views of the '' rights of neutrals." The
difficulties with the French, though still existing, were
overshadowed towards the close of the year by pros-
pects of immediate hostilities with Spain. Leading
ship-owners and merchants met in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and other cities, and called upon the
government for protection.1 Spain had also allowed
1 The merchant marine of Philadelphia in these times made a credita-
ble showing, though the newspapers complained now and then of " com-
mercial decadence" Ports along the Atlantic coast now seldom or
never heard of were then rivals of Boston and New York. The follow-
ing first-rate ships were iu 1805 owned in the port of Philadelphia:
In the China trade — Ships " Woodrop Sims," Captain Hodgson, 500
tons; " China" (packet), Rosseter, 350 tons ;" Bingham," Ansley, 340
tons; "Bengal,"1 Cooper, 340 tons; " Oriental," ,350 tons ; " Pekin,"
Waters, 340 tons; " Dorothea," Hays, 450 tons ; " Hebe," Otto, 350 tone.
East Tndia trade — "Uosseau," McLevan ; " Montezuma," Ashmead,
270 tons: " William Penn," Daley, 350 tons; "Pennsylvania" (packet),
170 tons.
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
523
her officers to make military aggressions, and her re-
fusal to ratify the convention of 1802, and fix the
boundaries of Louisiana, excited public indignation.
The President sent a message to Congress on the diffi-
culties with Spain; it was read with closed doors,
referred to a committee, and the report denounced
Spain's conduct as ample cause for war. While these
steps were being taken, public feeling grew greatly
excited, and abundant offers of aid were sent to the
government. In Philadelphia, a special meeting of
Antwerp trade — " Helvetius," Bower, 350 tons ;" Commerce," Ray, 320
tOUS.
Marseilles trade — "Ocean," Gordon, 300 tons.
Leghorn trade — '.' Sally and Betty," Evans, 240 touB.
Liverpool trade — "South Carolina," Tubus, 2G0 tons; "Liverpool,"
Quandall, 300 tons.
Lisbon trade — " Voltaire," Earl, 300 tons.
Amsterdam trade — " Little Cherub," Brewton, 240 tons ; " Amster-
dam" (packet), , 3 0 tons.
London trade — " London" (packet), McDougal, 330 tons.
Bordeaux trade — " Union," Jacobs, 300 tons; "Zulema," Alftan, 250
tons ; "Bordeaux" (packet), Hedelius, 200 tons.
The owners of these vessels were Joseph Sims, Lewis Clapier,
Willing & Francis, Savage & Dngan, Stephen Girard, Snowden &
North, J. & R. Wain, Joseph Brown & Co., G. & H. Colhoun, W. Cra-
mond, Morton & Wilson, A. Piesch, Fanssat & Mann, and T. & L. Gil-
pin.
Beside the above, there were a large number of second-class ships, bnt
stanch and strong, which undertook and performed extensive voyages.
Some of these were as follows :
China trade — " Delaware," Moore ; " China," McPherson ; " Dispatch,"
Benners; " Mount Vernon," Kerr; " Gauges," Phillips ; "New Jersey,"
Cooper ; " Columbia," Dixon.
East India trade — " Benjamin Franklin," Weeks ; " George Washing-
ton," Farris; " Monticello " ■ ; " Fabius," Norris.
Bordeaux trade — " Mars," Wilson ; " Charleston" (packet), Silliman ;
"Andrew," Watkin; "Sheffield," Cowper.
Amsterdam trade — " Fair American," Fraley ; " America," Lelar ;
"Robert," Alcorn; "John Buckley,'' Clay; "Happy Star," Cox;
"Swanwick," Penrose ; " Atalanta," Tucker.
Antwerp trade — "Neptune," Scott; "Connecticut," ; " Diana,"
Mingle; "Jullies," Skinner; "Philadelphia," Cushing.
Liverpool trade — "Rose," Hamilton ; "Prosperity," Burk; "Bristol"
(packet), Day ; "Rebecca," Low; " Annawan," Holmes; "Hercules,"
Bradford ; " Cleopatra," Arundel ; " Pigeon," Collet.
London trade — " Columbia," Elder.
West India trade — " Active," Vernon ; " Maria," Calvert ; " Charles,"
Sites; "Louisiana," ; "America," Jones; "Three Sisters," Lilli-
bridge; " Peace and Plenty," Roland ; "Thomas Chalkley," Eldridge ;
"Mercury," Patterson; "Fanny," Kitchen; "Maysville," Ryan;
" Clothier," Dandelot ; " Two Brothers," Ellis ; " Temperance," Reilly.
Geneva and Messina trade — "Matilda," Strong.
Leghorn trade — "Good Friends," Thompson ; " Hannah," Tardley.
Tonniugen trade — " Pittsburg," Brown.
Belfast trade — " Edward," Craig.
Londonderry trade — " Brutus," Craig.
New Orleans trade — " Cleopatra," Arundel.
Charleston trade — "William," .
Ships for general freight or charter— " Sally," Hunt; "Margaret,"
Gardner; "Louisa," Wilson; "Columbian" (packet), Hunt; "Active,"
Stote8hury.
The owners of some of these vessels were T. & L. Gilpin, Barker &
Aneley, M. Eyre, Jr., S. Meeker, J. Baker, W. &, J. Steel, Vanuxem &
Clark, Samuel Coates, Francis 4 Curwen, J. Hollingsworth & Co., J. W.
Fousatt, Robert Bines, B. & I. Bohlen, Nixon, Walker & Co., Dale &
Rienholz, Stephen Girard, and William Brown. When we remember
that there were many brigs and schooners also engaged in the foreign
trade which were owned in Philadelphia, we may estimate that our
commercial marine was in 1805 in a flourishing condition.
Tho arrivals from foreign ports in 1805 were 647; clearances, 617.
Coasters arrived, 11G9 ; cleared, 1231 ; total, 3564. The tonnage in 1800
was 103,663 tons. Id 1805 it was probably 110,000 tons.
the First Light Infantry, Capt. Francis Shallus, was
held on December 22d, to consider the threatening
state of public affairs.
Early in January, 1806, the citizens of Philadel-
phia marked their appreciation of the heroism of the
American army and navy by splendid banquets at
Vogdes' Hotel, January 2d and January 9th, to Gen.
Eaton and Capt. Stephen Decatur. Eaton, of Con-
necticut, Revolutionary soldier at the age of sixteen,
graduate of Dartmouth College, captain under St.
Clair and Wayne in the West, American consul at
Tunis, and ally of Hamet, fugitive bashaw of Tripoli,
had led a band of four-hundred adventurers, includ-
ing but nine Americans, across the desert, and had
captured Derne, after difficulties so great that his ex-
pedition ranks high on the list of soldierly achieve-
ments. Capt. Decatur was the hero of Tripoli, the
pride and honor of the nation's navy, then uncon-
sciously training for the coming struggle with Eng-
land. At the dinner of January 9th, Capts. Bain-
bridge, Stewart, Shaw, and other officers of the navy
were present. James Mil nor presided ; Joseph Lewis
and Thomas Hale were vice-presidents.
A fire occurred January 21st at Howland's tavern,
"near the Permanent Bridge," west side of the Schuyl-
kill. The landlord, his wife, and four children were
rescued, but their colored servant perished, and the
building was reduced to ashes. Though the weather
was excessively cold and the hour 3 a.m., upwards of
five thousand persons hurried to the fire along the
slippery streets, being very anxious about the safety of
the bridge, but the wind rose, blowing from the west,
and saved that structure. Another fire of unusual
extent broke out on Dock Street, and by a curious
coincidence on May 9th, the anniversary of the dis-
astrous fire of 1791 in the same street. It began
about 8 P.M. in a trunk-maker's shop on the north
side, between Third Street and the Bank of Pennsyl-
vania, and spread for two hours despite the efforts
of firemen and citizens. The flames traveled from
where they originated along Dock Street to Third,
and up the latter street nearly to Chestnut. East-
wardly the fire was carried down Dock Street to Go-
forth's Alley, and up the latter to Carter's Alley, and
along Carter's Alley to a point near Third Street.
Thirty-two buildings, about twenty of which were
dwellings, were destroyed. Embers and sparks flew
over a large area, setting fire to a three-story brick
house on Front Street and to vessels at anchor in the
Delaware. The strong wind carried them across the
river, and the citizens of Camden were obliged to
watch their roofs assiduously till the flames lessened.
When the burnt district was rebuilt, Carter's Alley
was extended to Third Street. A meeting was called
at the City Hall for relief of the sufferers by the fire,
many of whom were destitute; some had been injured
by falling timbers and brick, one, Lewis Breimer,
dying from his burns. John Inskeep presided,
Thomas P. Cope was secretary, and sufficient was
524
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
raised to care for the sick and relieve the necessities
of the destitute.
Manufacturing interests occupied the attention of
legislators. In January the inventor, John Biddis,
of whom mention has been made, was granted privi-
leges in the nature of a lottery for selling rights to
make potato-starch, sago, hair-powder, and shoddy,
he having represented that the secrets were so simple
that his only hope of remuneration was by this plan,
and seeming to lack faith in making money in the
manufacture of those articles. A more promising
scheme was suggested in an address published in
January by Walter Franklin, Archibald Binney, and
Abraham Small, stating that the difficulty in selling
goods would be lessened by establishing a central
warehouse, where manufactures might be concen-
trated instead of being scattered about various mar-
kets. They proposed the establishment of a company
"for the encouragement and sale" of woolen, linen,
and cotton goods of home manufacture. Two months
later this resulted in the formation of the Philadel-
phia Society for the Encouragement of Domestic
Manufactures, and Stephen Girard was chosen the
first president. There was evidently a growing desire
to get rid of middlemen methods. Merchants were
separating into wholesale and retail classes, and man-
ufacturers also were adopting different business habits.
Philadelphia was becoming a commercial metropolis.
This year, too, the manufacture of flannel was com-
menced in Philadelphia.
February 1st witnessed the formal opening of the
fine bridge over the Delaware at Trenton, built by
Theodore Burr. Formerly passengers from Philadel-
phia to New York went by boat to Burlington and
Trenton, thence by stage. But now the course of
travel changed, and stages ran all the way. Turn-
pike tolls were high, and by October the stage-line
owners raised the fare. Each stage paid $5.50 in
tolls between Philadelphia and New York. Four
lines ran daily (except Sunday), the "Diligence" at
8 a.m., and the " Industry" at 9 a.m., charging $5.50
per passenger. The " Mail Pilot" left at 10 a.m., fare
$8.00, and the " Mail," at noon, only carried six pas-
sengers, fare $8.50. Each person was allowed four-
teen pounds of baggage. Though the roads to New
York were in tolerable condition, those to Baltimore
were miserably cared for, and turnpikes were advo-
cated. Meanwhile, and to avoid land carriage, a new
packet line was established, with connection by stages.
The boats left Paul Beck's wharf, Philadelphia, every
week-day. At New Castle stages took passengers
over the Peninsula to Court-House Point, on the
Chesapeake, where connections were made with
another packet line. The Delaware line had three
boats, commanded by Capts. Milnor, Eobinson, and
Whilldin; the Chesapeake line, of four boats, was
commanded by Capts. Trippe, Taylor, Owens, and
Ferguson. Wharves and warehouses were built at
the termini of each route. Petitions continued to
reach the Legislature regarding the proposed Pitts-
burgh road by the Juniata route, and February 24th
a company was given the right to incorporate and
build a turnpike from opposite Harrisburg to Pitts-
burgh via Bedford. The shares were to be fifty dol-
lars each. The subjects of internal improvement and
connection with the West were treated of in various
journals. A writer in the Aurora estimated that the
cost of each trip by a wagon to Pittsburgh and back
was two hundred and fifty dollars, which amount
could be very much lessened by the construction of
a good road. He suggested that wagons should be
provided to run regularly to Pittsburgh, and depicted
the advantages that would arise from the establish-
ment of a line of packets on the Ohio between Pitts-
burgh and Louisville. At the latter place there would
be a portage of two miles ; and from here to St.
Louis and New Orleans the water-course would be
unobstructed. This writer foreshadowed many im-
provements that have since been made. He sug-
gested the feasibility of a canal between Louisville
and Shippingsport (now called Portland), to pass the
rocky portion of the river at the falls of the Ohio,
and the erection of ship-yards below the rapids.
In February also a company was incorporated to
bridge the Schuylkill at Gray's Ferry. The height,
after much discussion, had been fixed in General As-
sembly at seventy-five feet above low water. At that
time the highest mast of the largest schooner owned
in Philadelphia, the "Unity," was sixty-three feet,
and so sixty-five feet was by many thought a sufficient
height for a bridge. The interests of Gray's estate
were carefully guarded, and two hundred shares of
bridge-stock at one hundred dollars per share were
ordered to be transferred for the franchise of the
floating bridge and for toll-rights, roadway, etc. The
enterprise seemed premature, and sufficient subscrip-
tions were not obtained. March 31st, the upper bridge
and the Lower Ferry on the Schuylkill were regulated
by an act providing that the skipper of every vessel
should blow a horn on crossing the Schuylkill bar,
again near the Lower Ferry. The penalty for failing
to open the floating bridge without delay was fixed
at twenty-five dollars.
The judiciary system was altered by an act passed
February 24th, and the Nisi Prius Courts established.
Cases were no longer tried by the Supreme Court in
banc, but only at Nisi Prius, and by one judge.
There were two districts in the State, and the eastern
one comprised the city and county of Philadelphia,
and the counties of Bedford, Somerset, Westmoreland,
Fayette, Greene, Washington, Allegheny, Beaver,
Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango,
Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson, Clearfield,
and McKean. The court was to sit at Philadelphia
on the second Monday of December and the third
Monday of March. By the same act the courts of
Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas were assigned
to districts, the city and county of Philadelphia
FIRST YEAES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
525
being the first district. By act of March 1st the
provisions of the mechanics' Hen law, which were
found beneficial in the city of Philadelphia, were ex-
tended to the county.
The Philadelphia Bank, which had agreed to pay
the State a bonus of one hundred and thirty-five
thousand dollars besides other inducements, found it
hard to pay up their stock within the term allowed,
and applied for an extension of the charter. The
Assembly passed an act extending it until May 1,
1824, and the State reserved the right to, at any time,
subscribe for stock of the value of two hundred thou-
sand dollars.
Early in May the City Councils changed the method
of assessing personal property, hoping to be able to
relieve real estate of some of its taxation, and to
reach property that had heretofore escaped. Accord-
ing to the new plan, two assessors were appointed for
each ward, to ascertain, within their respective juris-
dictions, property of the following descriptions: all
wrought plate, merchandise, stock of any description,
bonds and mortgages, coaches, chariots, phaetons,
chaises, riding-chairs, other carriages, and horses,
kept by any person for his or her own use, for the
purposes of traveling or pleasure; and all offices and
posts of profit, trades, occupations, and profes-
sions (ministers of the gospel of every denomination,
mechanics, manufacturers, and schoolmasters, only
excepted). The assessors, together with the treasurer
and the city commissioners, were to value the prop-
erty for what they thought it would sell for in ready
money ; and at their discretion rate the offices, occu-
pations, and professions, having due regard to the
profits arising from the same, and estimate the income
of all persons who did not follow any trade, occupa-
tion, or profession. Provided, that household furni-
ture in any one house was not to be taxed unless the
valuation of the same exceeded eight hundred dollars.
A tax of two hundred dollars per' annum was also
directed to be levied on theatrical entertainments,
and fifty dollars per annum on all articles " used at
any public show or exhibition, for which payment is
required from those who use the same." These pro-
visions were looked upon as very burdensome, and
their existence was made a strong ground of opposition
to the re-election of those members of the Councils
who voted for the ordinance.
The Chamber of Commerce in May passed resolu-
tions approving of a proposed exchange. The capital
stock of " The Philadelphia Tontine Exchange" was
to consist of one thousand shares, at not more than
two hundred dollars each. It was intended that the
shares should lapse, as the subscribers died, until the
last Monday in December, 1845, when the whole
estate should be sold and distributed among the sur-
vivors. As soon as seven hundred and fifty shares
were subscribed for, the managers were to call a
meeting and organize the institution. John Inskeep,
Timothy Paxson, Henry Pratt, William Montgomery,
Robert Ralston, John Craig, John Clement Stocker,
Thomas W. Francis, Daniel W. Coxe, James C.
Fisher, John Stille, James W. Fisher, and Robert
Wain were on the committee, but the project was
not successful. Meanwhile James Kitchen, who kept
the old City Tavern on Second Street above Walnut,
which was now called " The Merchants' Coffee-
House," proposed to satisfy the mercantile conven-
ience by keeping it for the purposes of an exchange.
William Renshaw, who had leased the elegant man-
sion-house of William Bingham in Third Street above
Spruce, opened subscriptions for the purpose of
maintaining the premises as "The Exchange Coffee-
House." He proposed to keep a marine diary, a reg-
ister of vessels for sale, accommodations for auctions,
ships' letter-bags, etc. An attempt was made, after
the failure of the Tontine enterprise, to obtain sub-
scriptions to " The Philadelphia Exchange Company,"
fifteen hundred shares at one hundred dollars each,
but this plan also was a failure. Renshaw soon found
that " The Exchange Coffee-House" was not remu-
nerative, and abandoning that part of his plan kept
the same establishment as " The Mansion-House
Hotel."
The difficulties with foreign cruisers, chiefly this
year, with those of the English caused energetic ap-
peals to the government. At a meeting of merchants
and ship-owners of Philadelphia, held at the Coffee-
House above alluded to, a memorial to the President
and Congress was adopted. It was signed by Thomas
Fitzsimons, chairman, R. E. Hobart, secretary, and
in behalf of the whole by Joseph Sims, James Yard,
John Craig, Thomas W. Francis, Thomas English,
Robert Wain, Robert Ralston, W. Montgomery,.
Thomas Allibone, Manuel Eyre, Jr., Abraham Kint-
zing, George Latimer, Joseph S. Lewis, Philip Nick-
lin, Daniel W. Coxe, Chandler Price, Lewis Clapier,
and Jacob G. Koch.
The " new doctrines" of the British Court were
declared to be not only novel and hostile to neutral
rights, but inconsistent with the former declaration*
of the ministry, and extraordinary in the time and
manner of their annunciation. Complaints were also
made of aggressions by Spain and violations of the
treaties made by that power. The license of pirates
and plunderers in the West Indies had become almost
unbounded, " and the defenseless and unprotected
state of our shipping exposes it to the most outrage-
ous ravages of the daring and unprincipled."
Work upon the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal
was suspended because of the slowness with which
subscriptions were paid. The Susquehanna and
Schuylkill Canal was also greatly delayed by finan-
cial difficulties.
The City Councils memorialized the General As-
sembly in regard to the powder-magazine at Walnut
Street, Schuylkill, near the thickly-settled part of the
city, and urged its removal. The Councils ordered that
" each watchman should carry a tin trumpet to spread
526
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
fire-alarms." Later in the year there was a curious
difficulty between the two Councils relative to the
firing of guns during the holidays. Common Coun-
cil desired the repeal of the law prohibiting their
use at this season. Select Council wished the mayor
to enforce that law, and, after a long wrangle, the
subject was tabled.
First and last, throughout 1806, political questions
were pre-eminent. A resolution was introduced in
the Legislature in January by Holgate, of Philadel-
phia, who offered a resolution censuring Thomas Mc-
Kean Thompson, Secretary of the Commonwealth,
for a breach of privileges of the House, perpetrated
while a committee was examining the accounts of
Samuel Bryan. A resolution was attached declaring
that it was the duty of the House to protect persons
attending committees, and that Thompson's conduct
was a breach of privilege. Sergeant and Milnor
offered a counter-resolution declaring that the motion
of Holgate was presented "in a manner novel, un-
precedented, and extraordinary, and may cause the
people of Pennsylvania to suppose that the House is
arrogating powers vested by the Constitution in other
branches of the government."
Holgate's resolution was lost. The Federalists,
joined to the Governor's faction, had a majority in
the House, and they defeated Duane, who had been
a director in the Pennsylvania Bank. In July the
Governor appointed Dr. George Buchanan, his son-
in-law, as physician at the Lazaretto. Dr. Buchanan
had for seventeen years been a citizen and resident of
Maryland, not arriving in Pennsylvania until after
the appointment was made. Such nepotism created
a stir. The Aurora, a, few months later, under the
title of " The Royal Family," gave the following list
of the persons connected by blood or marriage with
the family of the Governor, who held office in the
State, with their remuneration, viz. : Thomas Mc-
Kean, Governor, $5333.33 ; Joseph B. McKean (son),
attorney-general, $5000; Thomas McKean, Jr. (son),
private secretary, $400 ; Thomas McKean Thompson
(nephew), Secretary of the Commonwealth, $2150;
Andrew Pettit (son-in-law), flour inspector, $5000;
Andrew Bayard (brother-in-law to Pettit), auction-
eer, 2500; Dr. George Buchanan, of Baltimore (son-
in-law), Lazaretto physician, $2500; William Mc-
Kennan (brother-in-law of T. McKean Thompson),
prothonotary of Washington County, $1000; Andrew
Henderson (cousin to the Governor), prothonotary
of Huntingdon County, $800; William Henderson
(cousin to the Governor), brigade-inspector of Hunt-
ingdon County, $150; John Huested (father-in-law
of T. McKean Thompson), clerk in the comptroller-
general's office, ?850; Joseph Reed (a near relation
of Pettit and Bayard), prothonotary of the Supreme
Court, $2500. Even before this list was published the
Aurora was being sued by the Governor on three
libel cases, and by Marquis D. Yrujo, another son-in-
law on three more charges. Before the close of July
Duane was the defendant in sixty or seventy libel
suits, and kept the staid old city in a state of turmoil,
wondering what he would publish next. Governor
McKean turned out all the "friends of the People"
from office, as far as possible, and gave a chief justice-
ship to William Tilghman, a Federalist. The prog-
ress of national events combined to render the local
animosities in Pennsylvania more bitter. Burr, the
arch apostate, overlooking the stormy political field
north and south, deemed that State cohesion was
rapidly decaying, and studied with greater zeal the
region beyond the mountains. Some time in April
Governor McKean added materially to the quarrel
by attending the annual dinner of the St. George's
Society, Philadelphia, at which a toast "To the
King" was drunk. The " True Republicans," a few
days later, at their annual meeting, adopted the fol-
lowing toast: "William Pitt, the common pest of
mankind, and Thomas McKean, the pest of Pennsyl-
vania, alike the admiration of the Sons of St. George
and alike entitled to the plaudits of freemen."
The Tammany Society, at its meeting in May,
" proceeded in great state to the wigwam, at Rowland
Smith's, Spring Garden, bearing the general flag
of the General Council of Sachems, the appropri-
ate flag of each tribe, and the peculiar insignia of
the society, — the great key, the bugle horn, the calu-
met, and the sheathed tomahawk." The affair was
rendered more imposing by the appearance of a new
band of music, composed of performers upon six
clarionets, four flutes, two horns, two bassoons, one
bass-drum, a psaltery, and some violins. Dr. Michael
Leib was Grand Sachem. Among the toasts adopted
was the following: "The Clodpoles of Pennsylvania:
they scorn tyrants. May their next efforts be as suc-
cessful in resisting them as they were in resisting
Thomas McKean's friend, George III., and the Sons
of St. George."
Dr. Leib declined a renomination to Congress, but
was in October elected a member of the Pennsylvania
Legislature, there to lead the opposition to the Gov-
ernor. The Federalists and Constitutionalists (or
"Quids") made a coalition ticket in the First Con-
gressional District, but the regular Democratic nom-
inees, Dr. John Porter, Jacob Richards, and Joseph
Clay, were elected. Their candidate for sheriff,
Frederick Wolbert, received the highest number of
votes, but charges that 97 illegal votes had been
polled led the Governor to interfere. He appointed
John H. Brinton and Samuel Wetherill, of Philadel-
phia, Dr. Joseph Strong and Richard Renshaw, of
Southwark, Manuel Eyre and Thomas Barnes, of the
Northern Liberties, and Joshua Sullivan, of Frank-
ford, commissioners, under the act of 1799, to inves-
tigate the vote for sheriff. They reported "that 91
illegal votes had been cast," and the Governor set
aside the election, Gen. John Barker, the then incum-
bent, holding office till the 1807 election. The attacks
of the enemies of the Governor grew so fierce that
FIRST YEARS OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
527
his message, sent to the Legislature in December,
contained pointed allusions to them.
The Governor also recommended a consideration of
remedies for this evil, and suggested the passage of a
law to compel every printer who assailed a citizen to
publish his defense, also a registry of the names of
printers and editors of newspapers and periodicals,
and that whenever a grand jury should present a
press as a public nuisance, the editor must be bound
in sureties for his future good behavior, and the court
be authorized to suppress the paper for a limited time.
The committee to which the Governor's address was
referred reported in the House a reply, general in its
terms, in which no reference was made to the sugges-
tions upon this topic. When this report came up for
consideration, Dr. Michael Leib moved the adoption
of a substitute which took strong grounds against the
views of the Governor. This address then referred
to the Constitution of the United States securing the
liberty of the press, the odium excited by the sedition
law, and it concluded with quotations from the in-
augural speech of President Jefferson in favor of the
liberty of the press. The House avoided a contest on
the subject by postponing both the original address
and the proposed substitute. According to modern
views, the libel law was pretty effective as then ad-
ministered. About this time the grand jury of the
Mayor's Court indicted Duane for publishing a toast
given at a celebration : " General Arnold and Gov-
ernor McKean : both beans of one kidney.''
On the 15th of November the regular Democrats
celebrated their triumph, and also the new non-im-
portation law, which prohibited certain manufactures
from being sent abroad. It was an exceedingly
stormy day, but the Tammany Wigwam meeting was
a success. Dr. Leib presided, and the toasts were
hailed with shouts and with salutes from artillery
placed under shelter. Stephen Girard " gave a bar-
rel of gunpowder" towards this noisy indorsement.
Some time during 1806 anew scientific organization,
the "Philadelphia Mathematical Society," was es-
tablished, Robert Patterson, president; Samuel Wylie,
secretary ; Joseph Clay, treasurer ; and Messrs. Clay,
Wylie, and Delmar, corresponding committee. It
was decided to give premiums for the best treatises
on mathematical subjects, and early the next year
they announced an offer of fifty dollars to the author
of the best system of practical surveying, and thirty
dollars to the author of the best essay on the theory
of arches to support weight or pressure.
The business outlook was dark indeed at the be-
ginning of 1807. Everything depended upon com-
merce, but Trafalgar had been fought and Napoleon
had issued his Berlin decrees. The mighty whirl-
wind that had toppled thrones into the dust was surg-
ing in wider and yet wider circles till not a fishing-
smack off Gloucester, not a factory in Pennsylvania,
not an industry of the active American people, on
land or sea, but was threatened with immediate de-
struction. Rates of marine insurance rose to ruinous
heights, commercial enterprise seemed paralyzed.
Throughout the year impressments and unwarrant-
able aggressions, such as the affair of the " Chesa-
peake," caused the greatest indignation against Eng-
land, and every current set steadily towards war.
One after another hopes of negotiation were de-
stroyed, and the vexatious, harassing, indirect war of
regulations calculated to hamper and ruin our com-
merce went on with unabated vigor. Congress en-
deavored to retaliate, and the country was slowly
prepared for defense. These national issues tinged
all public meetings, and indeed predominated every-
where until the actual outbreak of hostilities.
Philadelphia's income suffered with her commerce,
and many needed improvements were delayed. In
January, 1807, persons living west of Broad Street
petitioned to be separated from the eastern part of
the city, and exempted from the Councils' taxes.
They wished to tax themselves for paved streets, for
pumps, and for other improvements long and griev-
ously denied them. Their memorial said, " Our
situation now is deplorable. Our streets are worked
into a mere quicksand ; our footwalks are destroyed,
so that communication with the market seems almost
impossible; and we are insulted by the calls of the
tax-gatherer for moneys from which we derive no
benefit." A communication upon the subject in the
Aurora stated that in 1806 there had come up the
Schuylkill one hundred and thirteen vessels, with
cargoes of plaster, flour, lumber, etc., to the amount
of four thousand two hundred and fifty tons, which
had to be transported over the miserable roads of
that section. The City Councils issued a counter-
memorial recounting what they had done in previous
years for that section, calling attention to its sparsely-
settled condition, whole squares being without a house
or fence. In conclusion they pleaded lack of means
to do all that was desirable, and asked leave " to tax
auctions, concerts, and theatrical exhibitions," but
this request was denied. The city commissioners a
month or so later were ordered to pave High Street
from Ninth to Twelfth " to a width of eighteen feet
on each side, measuring from the curbstone." The
middle was filled in with earth for a roadway. A
license of twenty-two dollars per year was required
upon private street-lamps. The Court of Quarter
Sessions was applied to for leave to bridge Minnow
Run, in Schuylkill Front, north of Market Street.
In April the Philadelphia and Lancaskr Turnpike
Company was made, by act of Assembly, a perpetual
incorporation.
A new bank, the " Farmers' and Mechanics'," was
formed in February ; capital stock $700,000, in shares
of fifty dollars each. When, some time later, they
applied for a charter, though offering a large bonus
to the State, their petition was rejected.
This Legislature incorporated the "Philadelphia
Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manu-
528
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
factures," established, as already described, in 1803.
Their capital stock was $10,000, in two hundred
shares, and for five years they were allowed to make
advances on goods stored in their warehouse at No. 6
North Third Street. Here the society, in June, ad-
vertised silk-worms for sale, and did all they could
to encourage sericulture, probably one of the earliest
efforts made to this end in America. The society
also established a floor-cloth factory on Chestnut Street
above Twelfth, in a building afterwards called the
Gothic Mansion. Two looms were placed in it "for
making a cloth of strong quality, between sail-duck
and Bussia sheeting." The largest loom would make
the stuff seven yards wide, and one man could weave
from thirty- five to forty-two yards in a day. The pro-
prietors advertised to sell the best quality at two dollars
per square yard. They also gave notice that they
were ready to take " worsted carpets, worn or other-
wise, even if unfit for use, if neatly darned, so as to
be flat and free from lumps or holes," and "ground"
them on one side, and without ornaments, for seventy-
five cents per square yard. Carpets, it was announced,
were " coated for mourning" in four days, at thirty-
seven and a half cents per square yard. About this
time Eobert Gibbs established a fulling-mill upon the
banks of the Schuylkill, about two miles from the
city, near the Upper Ferry, where "all colors" were
dyed on silk, cotton, and linen, finished in the same
manner as those imported from Europe ; and John
Harrison established an important business, having
succeeded in making oil of vitriol.
Some time in February an alarm over an incendiary
fire in " Budd's Alley" caused official correspondence
between Mayor Wharton and the Councils, and five
hundred dollars reward was offered for the capture of
the villains. Anxiety to further protect the city con-
tinued for some time. In November the "Union"
and " Hand-in-Hand" fire companies urged addi-
tional protective measures, and also offered the city a
bell. Common Council decided to hang it in the
City Hall cupola, but Select Council refused to ac-
cept the gift, and it was presented to St. James' Epis-
copal Church, where it yet remains. This bell had
had a checkered career. In 1750 the fire companies
gave it to the academy on Fourth Street, and it passed
into the hands of the university, but when that insti-
tution was removed to Ninth Street the authorities
returned the bell to the firemen.
Military elections, pledges of aid to the govern-
ment, patriotic meetings and addresses were the most
prominent features of the summer of 1807 in Phila-
delphia. At the election late in June, Michael Bright
was elected brigadier-general of the First Brigade,
and Dr. Michael Leib brigadier-general of the Second
Brigade. Hugh Ferguson was elected colonel of the
Eighty-fourth Begiment ; Jonas Symonds, of the
Fiftieth ; McLloyd, of the Twenty-eighth ; Wil-
liam Duaue, of the Twenty-fifth ; Daniel McCaraher,
of the Twenty-fourth ; Philip Lowry, of the Forty-
second ; John Thompson, of the Sixty-seventh ; Eob-
ert Kennedy, of the Seventy-fifth ; John Northrop,
of the Eightieth ; George Fagundus, of the Eighty-
eighth ; Samuel Hergesheimer, of the One Hundred
and Fortieth.1
June 28th, intelligence of the " Chesapeake" outrage
reached Philadelphia. The story is a familiar one.
The British man-of-war "Leopard," supported by
the frigate " Melampus" and the seventy-four " Bel-
lona," fired into the " Chesapeake," June 23d, outside
of the Virginia Capes, killed four of her crew and
wounded eighteen, and seized three men who were
claimed as deserters. The nation felt humiliated be-
yond expression, and a wave of intense indignation
swept over the country. Patriotic Philadelphia was
not last to denounce the affair. A meeting held July
1st in the State-House yard, Matthew Lawler presid-
ing, Joseph Hopkinson secretary, resolved to support
the government, and pledged themselves that the
citizens of Philadelphia would discountenance all
intercourse with the vessels of war belonging to Great
Britain, and would withhold from them all supplies
or assistance that might be necessary to their aid and
subsistence. The Committee of Correspondence ap-
pointed to carry out the objects of this meeting was
composed of Matthew Lawler, Charles Biddle, Paul
Cox, David Lenox, Thomas Forrest, Eichard Dale,
Walter Franklin, George Clymer, Michael Leib,
Thomas Leiper, Francis Gurney, James Engle, Joseph
Hopkinson, George Bartram, Edward Tilghman, Wil-
liam Linnard, and Michael Bright.
The next day the Philadelphia Militia Legion
offered its services to the government, and they were
accepted. The Legion at this time contained only
eight hundred and sixteen men, and recruiting was re-
commended. The addition of pihemen was suggested
by Gen. Shee, with espontoous for officers of the line.
A number of volunteer companies were organized, one
of which bore the cumbrous title of " The Young
Men of Correct Democratic Principles." The Presi-
dent called for 100,000 militia, and Pennsylvania's
quota of the draft was 15,600, of which Philadelphia
City and County were required to furnish 88 artillery,
177 cavalry, and 1500 infantry. Gen. John Shee was
superseded in the command by Gen. John Barker,
dubbed by the Aurora " Maj.-Gen. Nightcap," and in
August he called upon Gens. Bright and Leib for the
required contingent. His address on this occasion
was characterized by the Aurora as " a piece of rho-
domontade." In December the First Brigade paraded
two thousand uniformed men, and the County Brigade
had three thousand in line.
1 The numbers of these regiments were according to the military
order, which did not give consecutive numbers to the regiments of each
brigade. The militia were, by act of April, 1807, to consist, in city and
county, of one division in two brigades. Each brigade was to contain
four or more regiments of eight companies, of from sixty-four to one
hundred men each. Voluuteer companies must contain at least forty
men.
FIRST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
529
State and local politics were in their chronic con-
dition of excitement. The virulence of the opposi-
tion to Governor McKean took every conceivable
form. Representatives Leib and Engle desired a
committee to investigate his conduct; but the mo-
tion was lost, January 31st, by vote of thirty-nine to
thirty-three. His enemies, however, rallied to an-
other assault, this time upon his conduct in setting
aside the election for sheriff of Philadelphia. In
this case, by vote of forty-three to thirty-eight, the
committee of inquiry was ordered. March 19th,
Governor McKean, through Joseph B. McKean, at-
torney-general, attempted to have Michael Leib and
William Duane arrested for conspiracy, but the Su-
preme Court refused to grant the warrants, Leib being
a member of the Legislature.1 The committee re-
ported seven charges against the Governor, and in
April they were, by vote of forty-three to forty-one,
referred to the next Legislature. A bill was then
passed to prevent Moses Levy, recorder of Philadel-
phia, from practicing in any court, but was promptly
vetoed, and failed to pass over the veto. In May,
Thomas McKean, Jr., who had the previous autumn
challenged Dr. Leib, was arrested, and in October
the grand jury found indictments against both young
McKean and his second, Maj. Dennis. Indictments
against Leib for accepting the challenge were ig-
nored. The friends of Simon Snyder, long an as-
pirant for the governorship, in February persuaded
John Binns, proprietor of the Northumberland Argus,
to remove to Philadelphia and establish a newspaper.
It appeared May 27th, The Democratic Press, as a tri-
weekly, but within a month was published daily.
This was the first newspaper in America which bore
the title Democratic, and Duane, who was at first
friendly to the enterprise, thought the name impol-
itic. By September Binns had lost this good will by
advocating a scheme of Nathaniel B. Boileau, of the
Legislature, and by favoring district meetings in-
stead of county meetings for nominations. Binns
was thereupon expelled from the Tammany Society,
and from the " Society of the Friends of the People."
Duane had his usual crop of libel suits to gather, —
Daniel Clark, Congressional delegate from New Or-
leans, Marquis Yrujo, and Joseph Lloyd sued him
for various alleged libels. He was nominated in the
fall to the State Senate, "hoping," said the Gazette,
"to be made president of the Senate and pro tern.
Governor should the proposed impeachment suc-
ceed." But the union of Federalists and "Quids"
was too much for Duane. They elected Edward
1 The United Stales Gazette of March 30th copied a paragraph from the
Lancaster Journal in reference to this application to the effect that Duane
said, " If the warrant had been granted, in less time than twice twenty-
four hours we would have had seven hundred men at Lancaster. The
thunder and hlitzen of the Northern Liberties, the wild Irish of Irish-
town, and all the butchers of Philadelphia would have turned out. Wo
would have pressed all the wagons and carriages in Philadelphia, and
made the cartridges and cast the balls in the wagons coming up."
34
Heston, defeated Wolbert, sheriff nominee, electing
Donaldson, his old opponent, and were generally
victorious in the autumn elections in city and county.
The enmity between the opposing parties was no-
where more manifest than in the consideration of na-
tional affairs. They battled long in the Legislature
over " an address to Thomas Jefferson" begging him
to be again a candidate. It was finally passed, but he
transmitted a firm refusal. In December in the State
Senate it was resolved, —
" That the late outrages committed on our sovereignty as a free and
independent nation havo not, perhaps, been exceeded in the history of
civilized nations ;" and that a joint committee should be appointed to
address the general government, with assurances of our Bupport and
co-operation in such measures as Congress may think proper to adopt.
On the 31st was presented the draft of an address to President Jefferson,
declaring " that warlike reparation Bhuuld be demanded11 of Great
Britain, and pledging the Legislature to Rustain the measures of the
general government to effect that object, "at the hazard of everything
dear and valuable to man." The consideration of this address came on
in January, 1803. A mntion was made in the House to strike out the
words, " Resolved to die like freemen. Ilather than Bubmit to become
vassals of Great Britain, they are ready to offer up their persons and
their fortunes on the altar of the country." This was lost by a vote of
thirty-two yeas to fifty-four nays. Several amendments proposed by
the Federalists were lost, and the address was eventually carried by a
vote of sixty-one yeas to twenty-five nays."
A few other events of 1807 deserve mention. John
Dunlap, Thomas Leiper, Matthew Shaw, Stephen
Decatur, and John Singer were appointed commis-
sioners "to sell the powder magazine at Walnut and
Asheton Streets'' (before reported as dangerously near
other buildings), and to build one less than a mile
from the city, to hold ten tons of powder, and one or
more over four miles distant, to hold larger quantities.
Late in November Daniel Clark, of New Orleans,
a noted merchant and Congressional delegate, was
given a dinner at Renshaw's Mansion House hotel.
Thomas Fitzsimons presided, assisted by Robert
Wharton, and Messrs. Jackson Pratt, Biddle, and
Bayard were managers. Clark had helped to save
the officers, passengers, and crew of the ship " Argo,"
of Philadelphia. "The wreath of honor belongs to
him who save3 his fellow-men'' was the first of the
seventeen toasts.
Some Federalist merchants of Philadelphia ap-
pealed during 1807 to Congress for the repeal of the
non-importation act, and were charged with British
sympathies. December saw the passage of the em-
bargo act against all vessels in the United States des-
tined to foreign ports, and " the grass began to grow
on the wharves, and ships rot at their moorings.'' The
issue had been raised over which parties fought for
many weary months. Within a few weeks after the
embargo act was passed the British Orders in Council
of November and Napoleon's Milan decrees reached
America, and deepened the feeling of gloom in com-
mercial circles.
On the last day of 1807, resolutions were introduced
into the Councils suggesting that, since Congress was
dissatisfied with the miserable accommodations of
Washington City, and since resolutions favoring the
530
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
removal of the seat of government would soon be
offered, a committee ought to be appointed to see what
provisions Philadelphia could make. The county
court-house was offered for this purpose, and a very
lively debate in Congress followed, but the removal
bill was lost by a few votes.
The Board of Health in this year began the City
Hospital on a lot south of Coates Street and east of
Schuylkill Fourth Street, intended for receiving pa-
tients from the city and suburbs who had malignant
fever. The main building was fifty feet front and
forty-two feet deep, and was three stories high.
There were wings two stories high, and each one
hundred and eight feet long by twenty-two feet deep.
Piazzas extended the whole length, inclosed with
Venetian blinds. The accommodations were for four
or five hundred patients, and the building was ready
for occupancy some time in the following year.
CHAPTEE XXII.
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR
OF 1812-15.
The injurious effects of the embargo act, that re-
markable experiment never before tried by any na-
tion, began to be felt very early in 1808. January
16th the discontented, hungry, and penniless sailors
then in Philadelphia assembled, and marching to the
City Hall, under the folds of the Stars and Stripes,
made an appeal to the mayor, Robert Wharton, and
respectfully wished to know what they should do.
He replied that they " constituted an unlawful assem-
bly," and ordered them to lower the flag under which
they had marched through the streets. Having done
this, he spoke to them further, expressed his pity for
their condition, and said it was not in his power to
give them immediate aid ; that the government
thought the embargo was necessary, and that they
ought to disperse peaceably, but added that the
Chamber of Commerce had the matter under consid-
eration. The sailors appear to have gone home
quietly to await events, and the Chamber of Com-
merce hastening its deliberations, appointed a com-
mittee of five, Thomas W. Francis, Robert Ralston,
Manuel Eyre, Samuel Keith, and Daniel Smith, who
reported in favor of assisting the distressed sailors.
Subscriptions were taken up among the merchants in
their behalf. In the State House of Representatives
Thomas P. Cope tried to obtain an appropriation of
five thousand dollars, but failed. For a time, how-
ever, they were cared for, but by April subscriptions
ceased, times were hard beyond conception, and men
really wealthy had little ready money. The sailors,
after further appeals, went to other places, many of
them to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they entered the
British service, and helped to fight England's battles
on the high seas. Thus our commercial policy lost
us many a strong arm that would gladly have been
found on the side of the United States when, four
years later, the long-smouldering fires burst forth into
flames of war. The embargo act met with the most
violent opposition in many parts of the country, and
infractions of its provisions became frequent, particu-
larly along the New England coast, also by way of
Lake Champlain. Satires and caricatures of the ad-
ministration became numerous and bitter. One of
the most remarkable ones was " The Embargo," a
poem written by William Cullen Bryant, then a lad
of thirteen, and was aimed at what he called the
" terrapin policy" of the government. The preco-
cious youth wrote, —
" Curse of onr nation, source of countless woes,
From whose dark womb unreckoned misery flows,
Th' embargo rages like a sweeping wind, —
Fear lowers before, and Famine stalks behind."
It was found necessary to pass supplementary acts
to prevent evasions of the law, and increasing its
stringency. Petition after petition was sent to Con-
gress, but without avail. Propositions to repeal the
act and let merchants arm their own vessels were
voted down. The leaders of the Federalists de-
nounced the whole policy; they said that America
sadly over-rated her own importance if she supposed
that by holding herself aloof from commercial inter-
course with the world she was hurting any one but
herself. It was in vain that Quincy, of Massachusetts,
Dana, of Connecticut, Gardiner, of New York, and
Philip Key, of Maryland, led the opposition. Febru-
ary 20th, in Congressional debate, Gardiner exclaimed
that the embargo was but a cunning scheme to aid
France ; it was " forging chains to fasten us to the
car of the imperial conqueror." Meanwhile, how-
ever, the unjust " Orders in Council" of England,
which had chiefly roused the wrath of America, had
been attacked by a powerful minority in England
itself. Lords Erskine, St. John, Lauderdale, and
Holland made unanswerable arguments against the
legality and the expedience of such measures ; peti-
tions from merchants of Liverpool, London, and
many other cities were presented and argued for by
the famous Henry Brougham, afterwards peer and
lord chancellor. One eminent merchant, Alexander
Baring, in his able " Inquiry," said that more than
three-fourths of all vessels engaged in commerce in
America had suffered from aggressions of British
cruisers. But the classes of intelligent thinkers on
both sides of the Atlantic, who urged the total and
immediate abandonment of the policy of orders, de-
crees, and embargoes, failed to convince the majority.
In March, Napoleon issued his Bayonne decree,
" directing the seizure of all American vessels, be-
cause none could be lawfully abroad since the passage
of the embargo act." To appeals from America the
surly conqueror returned only a disdainful silence ; to
similar appeals the English ministry answered with
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OP 1812-15.
531
bitter sarcasm, and the charge that the embargo was
intended to aid France.
Throughout the States of the Union the influence
of the embargo was felt, during the spring and sum-
mer of 1808, in every department of trade, in politics,
social life, and industries of every sort. The ap-
proaching Presidential election roused all parties to
put forth their strongest efforts. Madison, Monroe,
and Clinton were candidates in the Democratic
party. The Federalists nominated Pinckney and
King, but Madison and Clinton were elected. Mean-
while the agitation continued to increase. In Sep-
tember letters which the officers of merchant ships
lying idle at Philadelphia had written to President
Jefferson and his courteous but firm reply were pub-
lished. The officers said that they were out of em-
ployment, and were without financial resources ;
the President said that the embargo was for the
good of the country, was necessary, and was success-
ful. The captains and first, second, and third mates
of a large number of vessels then met at the White
Horse Tavern, Capt. Richard O'Brien presiding,
and Capt. Samuel Peacock as secretary. They showed
the most patriotic feelings, resolving "not to adopt
political measures, but to leave each person to exer-
cise his own judgment." They resolved further that
British and French depredations upon commerce and
persons on the high seas demanded the adoption of
wise measures; that the only alternatives were the
embargo or war; that America was in an unpre-
pared state for the latter measure ; that seventy thou-
sand citizens and nine-tenths of the commercial
capital of the nation had been exposed to the depre-
dations of the enemy; that the embargo laws were
the least of these evils. The Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania in December adopted resolutions declaring
against the measures of Great Britain and France.
An amendment declaring that the embargo was ap-
proved as a surety for the maintenance of the free-
dom of the ocean was carried by a vote of seventy-two
to twenty. A protest was filed by nineteen members
declaring that they did not think that the embargo
was a measure of wisdom, and that they could not
consent to express unlimited confidence in the wis-
dom or patriotism and integrity of any administra-
tion. On the 12th of December a motion was made
by Banks, declaring that the embargo was actuated
by the purest patriotic views, " yet inasmuch as
certain evils, which it is expected will be partial in
duration, do exist — to wit, the great scarcity of the
circulating medium in almost all parts of the com-
monwealth, by reason of the reduction of prices of
staple commodities — that a committee be appointed to
consider what measures ought to be adopted to stop
the distress and sale of property for the payment of
debts in this commonwealth." This resolution was
adopted. Similar resolutions supporting the princi-
ple of the embargo were passed by a majority of the
State Legislatures, and aided to support the adminis-
tration through the partisan conflicts, the struggles,
animosities, assaults, and various manoeuvres that
characterized the second session of the Tenth Con-
gress. Eminent lawyers of the New England States
began to declare that the act was unconstitutional,
transcending the powers delegated by the States to
Congress. "The arguments used by the Virginia
nullifiers and secessionists in 1798 against the alien
and sedition laws were used in New England in 1808
against the embargo laws." The measure which, it
was believed, would starve English manufacturers
and West India plantation-owners into recognition
of American rights brought far greater evils upon
our own industries than it inflicted elsewhere. Yet
here, as in most economic experiments on a large
scale, there, was another side to the story. Some of
the results of the embargo act were highly beneficial
to the United States. It greatly helped the develop-
ment of many industries; it stimulated inventive
genius, and hastened the progress of manufactures
to a degree before unknown. Importations of foreign
goods were necessarily stopped, the energies of a rest-
less and ingenious people were forced into new chan-
nels. In October the Aurora said in justification of
the administration, —
"The embargo has built, or nearly built, ten thousand houses in this
city. The embargo has erected two manufactories of shot in this city,
which forever secures the circulatiou at home of about two hundred
thousand dollars, hitherto sent abroad to pay for shot. For shooting
birds alone we sent two hundred thousand dollat-B abroad. Philadel-
phia now, from the two towers erected for casting patent shot, can,
after supplying all America, supply all Asia besides.1 . . . AVe have two
manufactories of red lead already established, whose capacity is compe-
tent to supply the whole country with red lead aud with litharge. A
manufactory of white lead is also going on."
Early in the year the Philadelphia Manufacturing
Society was established, with a capital of fifty thou-
sand dollars in one thousand shares. Israel Israel,
Elisha Gordon, Tench Coxe, Mathew Carey, William
Y. Birch, A. Philson, David Jackson, Samuel Weth-
erill, Jr., and Joseph Jones were the managing and
subscription committee, who, in April, published an
address saying that they meant to use water-power
and erect buildings and machinery for making cotton,
woolen, and linen cloths and other goods. In July
the " Premium Society" offered premiums in money
for broadcloths, fancy cloths, dressed flannel in imi-
I tation of Welsh, flannel of cotton-chain filled in
with wool, the best cotton goods twilled and raised on
one side to imitate flannel; for the first thread-mill
set up to make gray and colored thread ; for cotton
cloth suitable for clothing of working persons; for
the best sheeting of linen chain and cotton filling;
for the best imitation of Russia iron sheeting, and for
1 These shot-towers were both completed about the same time. On
the 20ih of October, Bishop & Sparks advertised that they were ready-
to furuish American patent shot at the factory, in Southwark (it waB
on the north side of Carpenter Street, between Swanson and Front), or
at No. 4!) South Wharves. On the 27th, Pan! Beck advertised that he
had erected "a patent shut-factory, upon as large a scale as any in
Europe." This factory was situated betweeu Arch and Race Streets and
Schuylkill Front and Second Streets.
532
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Raven's duck. It turned out that there was no com-
petition for more than a few of these premiums. Col.
David Humphrey, of Connecticut, "importer of one
hundred merino sheep," received an award for the
best piece of broadcloth. Premiums were awarded to
the managers of the almshouse and of the house of
employment in Philadelphia for the first thread- or
throwing-mill set up, to Daniel McGinnis for cotton
shirting, to Stoddart & Gilbert, of Connecticut, for
cotton cloth, and to the managers of the almshouse
for cotton sheeting.1
The improved prospects of industry were celebrated
by the manufacturers and mechanics of Philadelphia,
November 17th, by a dinner, which was given in the
room formerly occupied by the United States Senate,
at the southeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets.
Col. Humphrey, of Connecticut, was present. John
Dorsey, president of the festival, appeared in a suit
of American broadcloth made from merino fleece.
The vice-presidents were Abraham Small, John Har-
rison, Samuel Smith (currier), John Miller, and Jo-
seph Strong. A toast was drunk, " The Best Mode of
Warfare for our Country — the artillery of carding
and spinning machinery, and the musketry of shut-
tles and sledges." In the State House of Represen-
tatives, in December, Gordon moved that a bounty
ought to be paid by the State for every full-blooded
merino ram and ewe, and for full-blooded rams of the
Leicester breed, which might be brought into the
commonwealth in the next ten years ; that sheep
ought to be exempted from taxation : that one dollar
per head for each sheep owned ought to be deducted
from the valuation of the property of such owner
previous to assessing the value of the same for tax
purposes; that ten sheep ought to be secure there-
after to every person from attachment or execution
for debt; and that any military company clothed in
an entire uniform of homespun cloth should be com-
pletely armed and accoutred at the expense of the
State. This year also saw the secure establishment of
the manufacture of artificial mineral waters. Messrs.
1 The Aurora of November 15lh contained a list of the principal man-
ufactories in Philadelphia, as follows: "John Dorsey, Chestnut Street
above Twelfth (Gothic mansion), floor-cloths and carpets; John McAu-
ley (near the permanent bridge), ditto; John Thorburn & Co., North
Third Street, printed calicoes; John Hewson, Jr., Third Street, calicoes
and pocket-handkerchiefs ; W. B. Lehman, W. E. Smith & Sons, South
Third Street, Windsor and fancy soaps ; Dr. Joseph Strong, South Sec-
ond Street, white and red lead, litharge, etc. (The factory was at No.
48G North Third Street, opposite the Globe Mills.) Biuney & Runahl-
Bon, Sotllh Street, letter-founders ; Harrison & Co., South Second Street
(factory at South Street wharf, Delaware) ; Thum & Bitters, South Third
Street, ditto, glassware, hollies, olc ; Paul Heck, Bishop & Sparks, shots;
R. Ilovendeu & Co, South Second Stri et, red lead; Dr Smith, Second
Street, an nott" ; Joseph Lehman, Market Snect. refining camphor ; Capt.
Towers, tw hie, hanging, thread, etc." To lliese may be added the Mars
"WorkB of Oliver Evans & Co., on the angle bounded by Ninth Street,
Wood Street, and the ltidge mad. south liy Vine Street, which were ex-
tensive, compi ising an iron-foundry, pattern-shop, Btenm mill for turn-
ing and boring heavy iron and grinding plaster, and for making ma-
chines for steam-engines, and for lnaliul'atturing wool, flax, cotton,
etc. ; a playing-card manufactory, by Thomas De Silver, No. 152 South
Sixth Street.
Cohen & Hawkins had begun it in 1807, at No. 38
Chestnut Street, imitating seltzer, soda, Balston,
Saratoga, and Pyrmont. In 1807 they also tried to
establish a company, the "Philadelphia Mineral
Water Association," capital twenty thousand dol-
lars in four hundred shares, but failed in the scheme,
and dissolved partnership.
The value of the waters was certified to by Drs.
Benjamin Rush, Thomas Parke, William P. Dewees,
John Monges, John Syng Dorsey, Rene La Roche,
James Mease, Philip Sing Physick, Adam Seybert, and
Isaac Parrish. Cohen carried on the manufactory in
1808 at No. 31 South Second Street, afterwards at No.
35 South Second Street, and later in the same year at
Dock and Second Streets. The water was furnished
from fountains or in bottles ; and during 1808, George
Shaw, at No. 98 Chestnut Street, Robert Harris, at No.
196 Market Street, and perhaps others, supplied it to
customers.
Allusion has been made to national politics and to
the excited condition of local and State politics also.
The entire year 1808 was marked by deeply interest-
ing events in Pennsylvania politics. The stubborn
and aristocratic old Governor McKean, as soon as the
Legislature assembled, was greatly assailed by his
enemies. The committee appointed to investigate
his conduct made their report, and sustained most of
the charges made against him. In regard to the
appointment of Dr. George Buchanan as lazaretto
physician, the report stated that he had been an
inhabitant and a citizen of Maryland for seventeen
years preceding his appointment in Pennsylvania,
and that his commission bore the date of July 4, 1806,
three or four days before his arrival in this State.
Concerning the practice of stamping public docu-
ments, the committee said, "The fashion which has
been introduced by the Governor of having his name
stamped upon the evidences of property by means of
a facsimile, and that, too, before they are completed
by the proper officers and passed through the neces-
sary forms, is calculated to produce endless strife and
contention, and to render uncertain the tenure of
property conveyed by the State.''
In reply to this report, and to the accusations gen-
erally urged against him, the Governor sent a long
communication to the Legislature justifying or ex-
plaining the circumstances complained of. In regard
to the appointment of Buchanan, it was argued that
the position of lazaretto physician was not a county
office, and that it was not within the prohibitions of
the Constitution. Upon the charge of " stamping"
his name, he said that the charge seemed " to be
predicated upon a supposition that there exists some
constitutional rule or some statutory direction re-
quiring the use of a quill dipped in ink to legitimatize
the Governor's signature when affixed to any official
document. But all that can be gathered from the
Constitution on the subject is the use of the word
' sign' when the Governor approves a bill or grants a
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
533
commission ; and although many acts of Assembly
mention the Governor's signature, and sometimes
require that he shall sign particular instruments, the
form of the signature and the manner of signing are
nowhere designated and prescribed." The Governor
then proceeded to argue that a facsimile stamp may
be a signature, that it is not more susceptible of for-
gery than a written one. " Deprived of the use of
both his hands by a sudden and severe disease, it is
inconceivable in what other mode the attestation of
his name could be given to a public document." To
the reception of this protest the enemies of the Gov-
ernor objected. When first received the House refused
to place it on the journal by a vote of forty-two ayes
to forty-three nays. But this vote was soon changed
by the defection of one of the anti-McKean party,
and the protest was therefore inserted by a vote of
forty-three to forty-two. Since a majority for im-
peachment could not be obtained, and since at the
Democratic caucus at Lancaster soon after Simon
Snyder was nominated for Governor, the McKean
fight was dropped by all parties. Duane and Leib
were not enthusiastic over Snyder, and said that a
"junto," or, as we should now say, a " ring," controlled
him for selfish purposes. At this time the Pennsyl-
vania Democrats were divided into two great parties,
the "Friends of the People" (Leib and Duane) and
the "Society of Independent Democrats" (Boileau
and Binns). The Federalists again nominated Boss,
of Pittsburgh ; the " Quids," or Constitutional Demo-
crats, John Spayd. " Free trade and no embargo"
was the Federalist war-cry. The old issues were
broken up by Governor McKean's retirement as not
eligible under the Constitution; all McKean's friends
hastened to rally to Madison's support. By the new
election law passed in March the city and county of
Philadelphia were made one senatorial election dis-
trict, entitled to four senators ; the city had five rep-
resentatives and the county six. Dr. John Porter
and William Anderson were elected to Congress, and
Dr. Benjamin Say took Joseph Clay's place in that
body. The returns showed that Boss had 2737 votes
in the city and Snyder had 2047 ; that Ross had 2897
votes in the county and Snyder 3860. Stephen Girard
had more votes for a seat in Councils than had any
other man on the ticket. The Democrats controlled
the Councils and elected Gen. John Barker mayor.
The whole State vote was: Snyder, 67,975; Ross,
39,575 ; Spayd, 4006. Dr. Leib ran behind his ticket,
but was returned to the Legislature, and elected by
that body United States senator.
As soon as the political campaign closed, Duane, of
the Aurora, was pelted with libel suits, and several of
the old ones were brought to a trial. The case against
Leib and Duane, in relation to means taken to force the
Governor, in 1806, to commission Wolbert as sheriff of
Philadelphia, was decided for the defendants. Gouv-
erneur Morris obtained a verdict for four hundred
and twenty-five dollars damages from Duane, for a
libel published Dec. 8, 1800. In the McKean cases,
on one count, that Duane had charged the Governor
with improperly withholding a major's commission,
the plaintiff won ; on another count, of charging the
Governor with despotic conduct, the verdict was for
the defendant. Duane's suit against Joseph B. Mc-
Kean (the Governor's son) for alleged assault by de-
fendant and thirty others of the City Troop resulted
in acquittal. Peter Miercken's suit against Duane
failed. Duane had been so sturdy and unhesitating
a friend of the administration, that President Madison
now appointed him lieutenant-colonel of a rifle regi-
ment in the regular service, a place which for some
time was in effect a sinecure.
Just before the election in Pennsylvania, which re-
sulted in Snyder's triumph, an article which caused
much excitement appeared (July 28th) in the Demo-
cratic Press. It was signed " J. B.," and was believed
to have been written by John Binns, the editor. The
Federal Republican, of Baltimore, published an offen-
sive parody, copied into the Freeman's Journal, of
Philadelphia, and Binns sued McCorkle, of the latter
paper. On the trial it was showed that Gen. John
Barker wrote the first article.1
1 This article was entitled " The Political Creed of an Old Revolution-
ary Officer." It contained thirty-one items and specifications, the moat
important of which were the following :
" I believe our prosperity, growing strength, and unparalleled increase
of commerce hath filled the cabinet of St. James with jealousy and
envy.
"I believe one million of guineas are annually distributed in this
country among British subjects, old Tories, traitors, and apostate print-
ers, for the purpose of deceiving and dividing the people, for that is
their IaBt hope.
"I believe the guineas are now flying through Pennsylvania for the
election of Mr. Boss, in which, if they succeed, I shall set it down as
the first step towards, not a Federal, but a British triumph ; for I be-
lieve Pennsylvania to he the keystone of the great arch of Democracy,
— take away the key, and the arch must fall.
"I believe what is falsely called Federalism, — I call it Toryism, be-
cause all the traitors and English agents fall into their ranks, — if that
kind of ism should succeed throughout the Union, their first steps would
be to force on a war with France, not Unit they love fighting, but to fur-
nish them with a feasible plea to become the friend, ally, and partner of
a cruel, unjust, tyrannical, bloody, profligate, and bankrupt government.
"I believe James Madison possesses every qualification requisite and
is fully competent to discharge the duties of President of the United
States, and that lie will pursue the line laid down by Mr. Jefferson. I
hope he will he elected.
" T believe James Ross to be a scholar, a statesman, and a gentlemau,
but very wrong in his politics, better suited to London than Philadel-
phia, and therefore I think ought not to be Governor.
"I believe thut Simon Snyder possesses a strong mind, good natural
talents, inflexible integrity, uncontaminated Republicanism, and a
sound judgment, and therefore ought to ho Governor.
" I believe there hits not been an election since we were a nation of
more importance or which called more for republican c;tndor than the
approaching one ; for Toryism, Traitorism, Englishism, and Federalism
(so called), aided by lies, iutrigue, and gold, will he played off against
honest Democracy.
"I believe that while the councils of this country are governed by the
principles of 177G, do justice to individuals and to nations, prefer peace
to war, tlie saving of blood to the shedding of it, sustain the same charac-
ter abroad and at home as they now have, pursue the Bame course that
they have for now eight years piist by maintaining the strong neutral
ground they have taken, mnking Justice their guide, Peace their path,
and Mercy their citadel, the navy of England and the armies of France
combined may attempt but cannot shake it."
534
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
After the Democratic State victory in October the
" Young Democrats of Philadelphia" met at the
Shakespeare Hotel and celebrated the event. Sam-
uel Keemle presided, and George Bartram was vice-
president. After the Presidential election they held
"a Whig festival" at Mrs. Saville's, in Spring Gar-
den, Gen. Leib presiding, assisted by Judge Wol-
bert, John Dorsey, and Michael Bright. Lieut. Cake
fired salutes from two pieces of artillery. Fotteral's
band played patriotic airs. Among the toasts was the
following, by Matthew Lawler: "A head wind and a
chopping sea, a lee shore, both pumps going, and a
short allowance to any person that would pay tribute
to a foreign nation for permission to carry on the
commerce of the United States."
The parades and meetings of the soldiers were
more frequent in 1808 than for several years pre-
vious. Drilling in convenient halls took place
throughout the winter, and when spring opened a
series of sham fights was instituted to train the vol-
unteers. The first occurred in March, near Mrs. Sa-
ville's tavern, in Spring Garden, Capt. Fotteral's
" Independent Blues" and Capt. Graves' " Philadel-
phia Volunteers" taking part. In March an act of
Assembly recognized the " Philadelphia Legion,"
up to this time a volunteer association of uniformed
flank companies, as a military body capable of
choosing its own officers. They elected lieutenant-
colonel and other field-officers, and in May made
their first parade under the new system in an elab-
orate expedition to train the volunteer troops.1 The
plan included an embarkation by water, a landing, a
march of manoeuvre, an attack, the defense of a town,
the incidental movements of light troops, and all the
evolutions of modern tactics which the nature of the
ground and the force would admit of. In this affair
the companies of Fotteral, Graves, Boyle, Morris, and
Col. John Thompson participated. Boats were vol-
unteered by shipmasters in port, and were formed
into two squadrons, with Capts. Benners and Webb
respectively as commodores. The troops embarked
in three divisions at Market Street Ferry, at the old
ferry, and at Arch Street Ferry. Twenty-five boats
held the contending forces. They were rowed to
Smith's Point, N. J., where a landing was made, and
a forced march ordered to Woodbury. The first corps
retreated, the other pursued, and brisk skirmishing,
followed by a sham battle, took place. June 22d the
whole legion took part in another affair on a grander
scale. Col. Jonas Symonds was commander of the
day, and appointed as his staff Capt. S. E. Fotteral,
Col. William Duane, Maj. Peter Christian, and D.
Sharp, acting quartermaster-general. The first bat-
t The uniform of the Independent Volunteers was thus described : " A
long bine coat, red lappel-facings, white lining, and to show a blue
front, with silver lace. Chapeau brass, with red feather and black top.
White pants in winter, blue in summer." The estimated expense per
uniform waB twenty-six dollars. This company had the gayest uniform
among the volunteers of that day.
talion of artillery was under Maj. Shaw. The cav-
alry was under Maj. Leiper. The flotilla, in three
squadrons, commanded by Commodores Benners and
Webb, was composed of sixty boats, respectively
manned by the following shipmasters, who had vol-
unteered for the occasion, viz. : Capts. Kitts, Cranston,
Hartwell, Norton, Grevy, Sellers, Tully, Rowe, Wing,
Stanley, Gillespie, Sloan, Williams, Smith, Watkins,
Park, Barclay, T. Kennedy, H. Kennedy, McGinnis,
Burns, Roberts, Warner, Martin, Singleton, Mingle,
Whitehead, Shedaker, Bingham, T. Ray, G. W. Wil-
liams, Calhoun, Winnemore, H. Ray, Robinson, Pea-
cock, Bunker, Brewton, W. Johnston, Crow, Phillips,
Handy, Remington, Riddle, Dehart, Kitchen, Molony,
Browne, Wade, Devereux, Wallington, Davenport,
Herod, Garwood, Gardener, Brewer, Rennolds, and
Pickle.
The first division consisted of Binney's light infan-
try as flankers, Capt. Shaw's artillerists with a field-
piece, a company of lansquenets, formed of militia
officers, under Capt. Moore, Fotteral's light infantry,
Boyd's new company of artillerists with field-piece,
Morris' light infantry flankers of the reserve, Graves'
infantry as reserve, and Fiss' riflemen. The second
division, commanded by Col. Duane, consisted of
Leiper's cavalry, Uhle's rifles, Fitler's artillery with
field-piece, Hill's flying artillery with two pieces
and two tumbrils, Cress' artillerists with field-piece,
Thompson's, Boyle's, and Walters' light infantry, and
a corps of militia officers with firelocks, acting as in-
fantry. The reserve division was composed of the
Frankford company (Maj. Duncan), Fiss' rifles, and
Norton's artillery.
According to general orders it was proposed "that
one division should be considered as an invading
enemy and the other a defending army ;" that the
first division should land from the boats under a fire
protected by water-batteries and a. resistance; "the
passage of a river in retreat and its defense against
pursuers ; the defense of defiles ; the attack in flank
and rear, and on a flank by ambuscade at the same
time ; the loss of cannon of an advance-guard, and
the retreat covered by riflemen ; the retreat through
a long defile to a cover and occupation of a strong
position, and there the retreating party to make a
stand ; a pitched battle, in which should be displayed
the special uses of a rifle corps in action, flying artil-
lery, pikes in the charge of a line and in defense of
artillery, and charge of cavalry, and the use of a re-
serve in deciding a battle." The place chosen for
these evolutions was at the mouth of Frankford
Creek, and from thence to Frankford, where the re-
serve was stationed. Over twenty thousand people
witnessed the sham battle, and it was pronounced a
great success. But the opposition journals, particu-
larly the Philadelphia Gazette, insisted that it was
held for the purpose of rejoicing at the disgrace of
the American flag by the attack upon the " Chesa-
peake" frigate. " The repose of the city," it was said,
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
535
" was disturbed at an early hour by Irishmen assem-
bled to commemorate the affair of the 'Chesapeake.'
This proceeding is in the genuine spirit of blunder-
ing. We have heard of nations celebrating their
glories, but never till now of their perpetuating the
recollection of disgrace." The affair was called " The
Battle of Point-no-Point," and long was a stock sub-
ject with the song-writers of the time, as the " Battle
of the Kegs" had been a generation before.
While political struggles and military evolutions
occupied the public attention, quieter but no less im-
portant forces were at work modifying society and
influencing the times. One of the most important
events of the year was the opening of " The Hollow
School," on Pegg's Run, in the Northern Liberties,
January 11th. In 1807 the " Philadelphia Association
for the Instruction of Poor Children" had organized,
afterwards incorporated, with membership limited to
forty-five. William Sansom and Thomas Scattergood
gave them two lots of land near Pegg's Run (on the
line of Margaretta Street below Second). Here the
society built " The Adelphi School," with two rooms
and accommodation for six hundred pupils, on the
Lancaster system, then in use in New York, and
promising great results. Children between the ages
of five and fifteen were admitted. Subscribers paid
four dollars a year and fifty dollars for a life mem-
bership. This was the noted "Hollow School" of
which, in 1860, a gentleman wrote, describing its ap-
pearance in 1818. He says, —
"The population of Philadelphia at that day was comparatively small,
— scarcely a tenth of the present number, — while field and meadow, run-
ning stream and woodland, with but an occasional farm-house, mill, or
factory greeted the eye as far as it could range north and west of Sixth
and Coates Streets. Even at the time of which I speak, Philadelphia
could boast of fire or six public schools, under the management of a
board of directors, with Roberts Vaux, Esq., as president. The majority
of those directors were of the Society of Friends. They were much re-
spected and loved by the pupils, for whom they always had a smile or
■word of encouragement. The school in which it was my fortune to be
placed was situated on Pegg Street, the boys' front resting on Adelphi
Alley, the entrance for the girls being on New Market Street. The
building was of two stories, substantially erected with brick walls, and
was capable of accommodating three hundred boys and as many girls.
The seats were gen" rally all occupied, the vacancies being filled up as fast
as they were made. The hollow, from which the Bchool derived its cogno-
men, was the general play-ground of the boys, lying on a level with the
banks of the stream known as Pegg's Bun, which is now arched over by
Willow Street. The descent to the hollow was in winter a great resort
for boys to sled down hill; while in rainy seasons the creek, which the
Indians called Cohoquinoque, waB often bo swollen that its waters would
submerge the entire hollow, affording many an adventurous embryo
navigator a fine opportunity to display his skill in paddling the logs
and timber which drifted down, or were carried up by the tides. In the
summer Beosons the bed of the creek would often be left nearly dry ; and
frequently have I joined juvenile exploring parties, who, armed with
clubs to resht the attacks of tanners' dogs,— of which a goodly number
infested the banks,— would thread its dark and tortuous ways in search
of its, to us, mysterious source. Add to nil these advantages of locality
the reputation that the hollow bore as a favorite nightly haunt for 'un-
clean spirits and pale ghosts,' and you have a spot as well calculated to
develop the organ of marvelousness or ideality as the most imaginative
mind could desire."
He proceeds to describe the mild regime of Mr.
Ely, the teacher in charge in 1818, but two years
later Joseph Ketler, of Lancaster, took his place.
He was a severe disciplinarian, and his name became
a terror to evil-doers. The gentleman from whose
reminiscences we have quoted describes the punish-
ments in use as follows, —
" The ' cage' I have, with other victims, occupied many a time and oft.
There was nothing particularly objectionable in it save that it was rather
close in warm weather, though it had several doors with Venetian Minds or
Blats for ventilation ; and had it not been for the certainty of the flagel-
lation which awaited us when called upon to come forth, which antici-
pation would always keep the neighborhood of the doors rather clear
from what otherwiBe might have proved an obstruction, we would have
considered our incarceration rather in the light of a pleasant little re-
laxation from the incessant round of duties we were obliged to perform.
Whipping upon the bare feet with a rattan — to receive which the cul-
prit was required to lie on his back, while the master slipped a noose
around his ankles to facilitate the operation — waB one of the modes of
punishment resorted to with truant-players. A strong oaken paddle
about fourteen inches long, having a termination about the size of the
palm of the hand, was used on all ordinary occasions of punishment.
This was applied to the bare palm, and was varied on extraordinary oc-
casions by being brought in lively contact with the ends of the digits,
grouped so as to receive, each one, its appropriate share of the invigor-
ating influence. It was no uncommon thing for mothers to bring their
refractory children to school, when their own harsh treatment had failed
to produce the desired effect, and earnestly entreat Mr. Ketler to try his
modes of punishment upon them; Buch was the custom of the times,
and 60 universal was the resort to corporeal torture but a third of a cen-
tury ago. The gag was very seldom brought in requisition, though I
have often seen it out of use. It was intended to curb the boisterous
demonstrations of those who were wont to vent their indignation in
threats, curses, or loud crieB. A leaden cover for the mouth, with a
block of wood attached to enter between the teeth and strings to secure
it iu its place, made up the entirety of this formidable instrument. The
Btory of suspending a boy by the thumbs has doubtless been much exag-
gerated. I am not aware of such a thing having been done while I
remained at school, though it may have happened during my absence,
as I was often sick for weeks and months during the latter part of my
Hollow School career. I am cognizant, however, of this fact, namely,
that Mr Ketler retained his position nntil some time after the school
was removed to the new building iu Third Street above Brown, a few
months prior to which my good mother had thought proper (for some
apparent injustice) to withdraw my name from his list of pupils."
In January, 1808, the Legislature received a report
from the commissioners who were to locate a site for
a new powder-magazine. They had chosen a suitable
spot four miles outside of the city, and an act passed
February 25th appropriated five thousand dollars for
the building.
It was in January, also, that the directors of the
" Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank,'' for some time a
copartnership, again applied for a charter, and made
several proposals. They offered to the State two
and a half per cent, upon the net profits; or ten per
cent, upon the excess of profits above six per cent,
on the capital ; or to pay fifty thousand dollars and
loan the State fifty thousand dollars for ten years, at
five percent, interest; or to subscribe one hundred
thousand dollars to the Northern Turnpike Company
to Pittsburgh, forty thousand dollars worth of the stock
to be the property of the State ; or to subscribe to one-
third of the stock of the turnpike company, provided
it did not exceed two hundred thousand dollars ; or,
if the State would subscribe to one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars of the stock of the bank, fifty thou-
sand dollars of the sum to be assumed by the bank,
the State should have a right to elect four directors,
536
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and the bank to extend the capital to one million two
hundred thousand dollars ; or to pay the State sev-
enty-five thousand dollars in installments, if the capi-
tal allowed was two million dollars. The committee
of the House reported in favor of the one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars subscription. In the re-
port it was said that the banking capital of Pennsyl-
vania was not increased in a ratio with the wants of
the community, in consequence of which paper money
of other States came in. The arguments of the friends
of the bill were not sufficient, and it failed to pass.
The opponents of paper money determined to check
such proceedings, and Mr. Lacock introduced a bill
into the House for preventing the formation of asso-
ciations of individuals for the purposes of banking and
stockjobbing. It passed both chambers, and was ap-
proved by the Governor March 28th.
The Philadelphia Bank this year completed its
THE OLD PHILADELPHIA BANK.
new, building at the northwest corner of Fourth and
Chestnut Streets. It was sixty by forty-three feet
square, built of brick and stone. There was a dwel-
ling for the cashier south of it on Fourth Street.
The space north to Chestnut Street was inclosed by a
low wall and an iron railing, and was handsomely
laid out with graveled walks and shrubbery. Amid
the shades of the latter, on the western side of the
garden, were lodges for the watchmen, built in Gothic
style, to correspond in appearance with the main
building. This banking-house was said to have been
the first specimen of the pure fourteenth century style
of architecture ever built in the United States, and
was one of the finest works of its architect, Mr. La-
trobe. It was demolished in 1836, to make room for
the marble building of the Philadelphia and Western
Banks.
One of the excitements of the early part of 1808
grew out of concerts and masquerade balls, and is
particularly interesting because exhibiting in a strong
light the feelings with which staid Philadelphia then
regarded such things. It seems that Messieurs Eper-
vil and Hipolite, in December, 1807, had given one
or two concerts and masked balls on a small scale,
and received encouragement to enlarge the scheme.
So, January 28th, Epervil advertised in the Aurora
that, "in consequence of an earnest invitation from a
numerous circle of genteel and friendly persons," he
had been induced to give three masquerade balls in
the city, "having previously taken all the necessary
precautions to insure an agreeable, decent, and select
assembly." The number of subscribers was limited
at two hundred and fifty, at the price of six dollars
for the series. The religious community was indig-
nant, and took immediate steps to prevent them, and
John Sergeant introduced in the House of Represen-
tatives a resolution declaring that the tendency of
masquerades was demoralizing. The mat-
ter was pushed through both Houses with-
out delay ; and upon the 15th of February
an act was passed declaring masquerades
and masked balls to be common nui-
sances, and directing that the persons who
allowed masked balls to be given in their
houses, the persons who set them on foot,
and those who attended them, should each
be subject to imprisonment not exceeding
three months, and to a fine between fifty
dollars and one thousand dollars, besides
giving surety to be of good behavior in
future. This law prevented masquerade
balls from being given in the city for half
a century.
The first race-course in Philadelphia
was established early this year. It was
in the Northern Liberties, on the old
York road, " at the corner of Nicetown,"
and a number of races were held there in
the summer for small stakes and purses.
The ministers preached against it, and some efforts
were made to put an end to its public use, but public
taste was changing, and the races were well attended.
The place was afterwards known as Hunting Park. A
number of years ago some public-spirited citizens
bought it, and afterwards presented it to the city of
Philadelphia for a public park.
Street improvements progressed rather better than
in 1807. March 26th a legislative act was passed re-
ferring to that part of the township of Moyamensing
bounded by Passyunk road, Federal Street, Passy-
unk township, and Cedar Street, and declaring that
the freeholders thereof were erecting buildings and
making improvements, but for want of some general
regulation the buildings were irregularly placed, and
it had become necessary that the lines of the streets
and alleys should be laid out and surveyed. Philip
Peltz, John Kessler, and John Maitland were ap-
pointed commissioners, the plans of new streets to be
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
537
filed in the Court of Quarter Sessions, and subject to
the approval of that court. Provision was also made
for the election annually thereafter of three regula-
tors, who, with the supervisors, were to see to paving
the footways, fix the depth of lots, provide pumps for
use in case of fire, etc.
Early in April a delegation of Oneida Indian chiefs
was shown over the public buildings and banqueted
at the expense of the city.
May 7th an unsectarian " Bible Society" was estab-
lished to distribute the Bible to the poor. It was
resolved that its field of labor should be Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The design of the
association was " to distribute the Bible in the native
speech of those who may be disposed to read it.''
English and German Bibles were printed for this
society during the year, and preparations were made
for a translation of the Scriptures into the Welsh and
Gaelic languages. The copies printed were without
note or comment. The entrance-fee was five dollars,
and annual fees two dollars. The first president was
Bishop White. The society grew, and Jan. 10, 1810,
was incorporated as " The Bible Society of Phila-
delphia." In 1840 the name was changed to " The
Pennsylvania Bible Society."
In May of this year Roman Catholic citizens as-
sembled, and choosing Mathew Carey president, and
Thomas Hurley secretary and treasurer, founded
"The Roman Catholic Society of St. Joseph," for
the maintenance and education of orphan children.
They secured a house on Sixth Street, above Spruce,
next to the Church of the Holy Trinity, and here the
asylum remained for many years.
The noted Naglee-Brouvard case occurred this
summer, and excited strong public interest upon its
trial in the Court of Quarter Sessions. John Naglee,
of Philadelphia, was there arraigned for an assault
on Capt. Brouvard, the commander of a French pri-
vateer schooner, lying in port. The facts of the case,
brought out on the trial, created much sympathy for
Naglee. Two years before, a Swedish schooner, of
which Naglee was supercargo, had been captured on
a voyage from Philadelphia to Cuba, by the privateer
"Dolph," of which Brouvard was then commander,
and taken into Baracoa. While proceedings were pend-
ing there in a prize court, one-half of the cargo, of
which Naglee had the care, was stolen from the vessel
and taken on shore, to avoid a restoration, if it should
be decreed. Brouvard, with a file of Spanish soldiers,
also attempted to arrest Naglee. The latter applied
to the governor of the port for protection, and the
schooner was ordered to St. Domingo. Naglee fol-
lowed in another vessel and found, upon his arrival,
that his schooner and cargo had been condemned and
his personal property taken by Brouvard. In his
anger he told the latter, " I am now in your power,
and must submit; but if I ever catch you in any part
of the United States, except Christ Church, I will
have my revenge I"
In 1808, Brouvard came to Philadelphia to refit
and take in supplies. His privateer was at the ship-
yard, and he and the French vice-consul were exam-
ining her, when the unforgetful and unforgiving
Naglee appeared on the scene. He made no parley,
but struck Brouvard, pushed aside the vice-consul
who tried to interfere, and in a few minutes more had
knocked Brouvard down, tore the epaulettes from his
shoulders and the cockade from his hat. Turneau, the
French minister, complained to the government, and
the United States district attorney began prosecu-
tions against Naglee in two courts for an assault on
Brouvard and the vice-consul "against the peace and
dignity of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" and
" in defiance and contravention of a treaty made be-
tween the United States and Napoleon, emperor of
France, king of Italy," etc. Naglee pleaded guilty
to the assault on Brouvard, and not guilty to the
other. Mr. Dallas appeared for the government and
Bradford and Hopkins for the defendant. The jury
acquitted Naglee of the assault on the vice-consul,
but on Brouvard's indictment he was sentenced to
pay a fine of one hundred dollars and costs. This
amount was made up voluntarily by collections
among the citizens, and the officers of the courts gave
up their fees.
A census of the city proper was taken in 1808,
being authorized by both Councils, and the returns
enable us to realize how small, as compared with
what are called cities now, this energetic and thriving
Philadelphia was then. With a total population of
less than fifty thousand persons, over five thousand of
whom were negroes, the city made its influence widely
felt in science, literature, and the useful arts. The
full census report was as follows:
- i>
a"
.S-a
5
- >
.- o
oa
Is
i— I a
si
%
o
a
S i."
L. Z>
o
Eh
1,089
689
82 1
8(19
377
582
673
999
327
353
454
614
611
783
045
943
1,320
1,401
624
773
943
1,559
659
694
705
763
821
1,391
1,046
629
789
805
350
579
544
M8
308
432
430
470
521
751
652
241
350
613
224
268
133
467
324
210
173
163
141
1355
131
1
3
5
1
I)
4
4
1
2
0
1
1
4
3
3,975
1,142
1,108
614
613
870
1,191
513
583
74 G
780
764
1,226
886
4,425
North Mulberry Ward....
Lower Deluvviire Ward...
Smith Mulberry Ward....
Stmtli Wtird
2,816
3,067
5,238
2,192
2,508
2,691
Upper Delaware Ward....
3,362
12,123
8337
13,702
8338
5256
30
47,786
A new charitable institution, the "Female Hos-
pitable Society," was organized in the autumn by a
number of ladies. They had a visiting committee, a
governess, a treasurer, and a secretary. One object
was to procure old clothes, cloth remnants, etc., and
make them over for the use of friendless orphans,
538
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
also to become acquainted with such, and give them
sympathy and help. They afterwards bought flax and
gave it out to poor women to spin, hiring a wareroom
at No. 1 Appletree Alley. For this work the making
of garments for sale was afterwards substituted.
The year 1809 opened with increased bitterness of
feeling between the Democrats and the Federalists
over the embargo act. January 9th Congress passed
the new enforcing act, exercising hitherto unheard-of
and despotic powers over trade. Throughout New
England, as soon as the news was received, public
meetings were held, and handbills were circulated
calling on citizens to stand firm and refuse to obey
the act. As a temporary expedient the embargo
might be borne, but as a permanent policy it was,
New England and New York said, cowardly, indefen-
sible, and intolerable. Even the hated "Orders in
Council" of the English cabinet were far preferable.
Federalist newspapers clothed their columns in black,
and headed them with the words, "Liberty is Dead."
Gen. Lincoln, port collector of Boston, and many
other custom-house officers, resigned their positions.
January 24th a Boston town-meeting memorialized
the Legislature, denouncing the enforcing act as
arbitrary and unconstitutional, and resolved that all
who helped to carry it into effect should be consid-
ered " enemies of the State of Massachusetts." The
patriotism of the American people never suffered a
severer test than during the ruinous stagnation and
disastrous fluctuations that marked business from
1808 to 1812. Yet patience and obedience to law
ruled everywhere. In the Southern and Middle
States the evil results of the embargo act were much
less felt than in New England. Philadelphia, how-
ever, was crowded with idle sailors and with suffering
merchants. January 23d the friends of the embargo
met in the State-House yard, Capt. William Jones
chairman, and Robert McMullen secretary. Speeches
were made and resolutions of support sent to the
President. The " Friends of the Constitution, Union,
and Commerce" immediately announced that they
would meet at the same place, January 31st. But
the Democrats, at a meeting at George Grubbs' Sorrel
Horse Tavern, agreed that they also would attend
this Federalist meeting, "in order to express their
approbation of the late measures of the government."
Other and similar Democratic meetings in other wards
showed that an organized attempt would be made to
break up or nullify the Federalist meeting on the 31st,
and political excitement ran very high during the few
intervening days. When the time came the Federal-
ists marched to the State-House yard, and organized
their meeting.
Commodore Thomas Truxton was called to the
chair, and George Clymer was appointed secretary,
supported by a strong body of sailors, who acted
summarily towards those who attempted to disturb
the meeting. Resolutions were passed which heartily
supported the Union. They denounced publications
calculated to foment discord, and to deceive foreign
nations as to our internal divisions. They resolved
that the continuance of laws imposing an embargo
would be unjust, impolitic, and oppressive ; and they
declared that the embargo, as a means of coercion,
was weak, inefficient, and useless. The enforcing
law they denounced as a direct invasion of the prin-
ciples of civil liberty. The committee appointed to
draft a memorial to Congress consisted of Thomas
Truxton, Thomas Fitzsimons, George Clymer, Tim-
othy Paxson, Joshua Humphreys, Robert Wain,
Benjamin R. Morgan, James Milnor, and Charles
W. Hare. Among others present were Commodore
Richard Dale, Col. James Read, Gen. Francis Gur-
ney, Capt. John Dunlap, Samuel Wheeler, and Moses
Levy. During the entire afternoon efforts were made
to break up the meeting. Several hundred Demo-
crats came upon the ground with drums beating and
colors flying, and made a violent attempt to get pos-
session of the stage, but they were driven off by the
sailors. They then stood back, as near the stand as
they were allowed to come, and by the beating of
drums and by hissing they attempted to prevent the
resolutions from being heard when read. After the
objects of the meeting were accomplished, the sailors
(estimated by the United Stales Gazette to be one
thousand in number) crowded around the stand,
and, taking the chair from the stage, placed "their
adored Truxton" in it, and carried him in triumph to
the Coffee-House, where he addressed them in a short
speech, " after which they made the air resound with
their acclamations, and marched off in good order
and in high spirits." The Aurora spoke of the meet-
ing as of British sympathizers, and, February 1st,
said, " For two or three days exertions were made
to bring out as many dependents upon the British
merchants as possible. Sailor boarding-houses were
resorted to. They were told that the meeting was to
remove the embargo, and that there would be plenty
of good grog for them at the Coffee-House. Some
landlords of sailor boarding-houses promised one
day's board paid for each man brought. Money was
promised and a subscription. Two hundred persons
in sailor uniform were brought forward. The mob
was conducted in British style at elections, where the
minority try to put down popular rights.
" The people were hired ;
They huzzaed as they were bid ;
They marched in the van of the
Ladylike and fine-dressed folks ;
They took possession of the place before the time ;
They shouted and huzzaed when ordered,
And they struck any one who came uear them.
"When necessitated to retreat they tore up tables
and chairs and threw them among the crowd. Many
received violent wounds. At Phineas Bond's house
(the British consul's) they huzzaed for Mr. Bond
and King George," said the Aurora. The latter spite-
ful assertion was untrue. The United States Gazette
says that seven hundred dollars " was contributed for
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
539
relief of distressed seamen." As soon as the Feder-
alists retired the Democrats took possession, organ-
ized another meeting, and passed resolutions con-
demning those already passed. Col. John Barker,
then mayor, violently denounced the Federalists,
particularly Timothy Pickering. Then a procession
was formed and marched through the principal
streets. The Aurora said there were eighteen thou-
sand men in the ranks ; but Poulson's newspaper said
there were not four thousand, and that the whole
procession, walking three abreast, passed a given
point in eighteen and a half minutes; this, if true,
shows the number to have been much less than four
thousand. A week later Pickering was hung in effigy
in front of the town hall, in Second Street, North-
ern Liberties. This proceeding is said to have been
led by Col. Barker.1
February 10th the Federalists had a dinner at the
Mansion House "in honor of Col. Pickering and the
minority." Two hundred and fifty persons took part.
Thomas Fitzsimons presided in the first room,
Commodore Truxton in the second, and George Lati-
mer in the third. There were present Messrs. Dana,
Livermore, Gardener, Milnor, and Jenkins, mem-
bers of Congress, Judge Griffiths, of New Jersey,
Bishop White, and others. Among the toasts were
several aimed at Jefferson, such as these : " A Philos-
opher in Dignified Retirement: may he find full em-
ployment in forcing exotics, coercing bullfrogs, and
pinning beetles by the side of butterflies;" "the Em-
bargo Acts of the Terrapin Congress: the worst they
ever cooked in the legislative caboose;" "the Sword
of Independence : may American blades never have
French handles."
The State Legislature, as strongly Democratic as
ever, passed a resolution recommending the members
of the next Legislature " to appear in clothes of do-
mestic manufacture." Various resolutions, passed at
different times during the year, supported the admin-
istration in all particulars, but the factions of the
party in Philadelphia continued to quarrel. Duane
and Leib did all that lay in their power to injure
Governor Simon Snyder ; Binns and the " Associated
Friends" were not slow in their replies. The contest
over the method of nominating candidates for county
offices was renewed, and what the Aurora called an
"apostate ticket" was run, but without success.
National affairs were sufficiently gloomy. Adams,
DeWitt Clinton, and the Boston Patriot made charges
of the existence of the "Essex Junto plot" to
form a new confederacy under British protection.
Quincy, Story, and other leading Federalists strug-
i The Vailed Stales Gazelle subsequently in an attack upon Mayor
Barker, said, "See liim on the rostrum, swearing, cursing, and em-
ploying language at which a Hottentot would blush, a Christian trem-
ble. Si'e him there, the chieftain of a lawleBS mob ripe for riot and
desolation, and mark him subsequently at the town hall, president over
the drunken oblations of a factious assembly, convened to satiate their
vengeance by abusing and burning in effigy an old and venerable pa-
triot."
gled night and day to persuade the Democratic ma-
jority into more vigorous preparations for a not un-
likely war, into an increase of the army and navy,
but little was done in either direction. Suddenly, and
to the great surprise of the administration, the New-
England and New York Democrats left the major-
ity, yielding to the pressure brought to bear by their
constituents, and on the 1st of March the " Embargo
Act" was repealed. A non-intercourse act was passed
that only applied to England and France, and ex-
cluded French and English ships of war from Ameri-
can ports. March 4th, Madison took the Presidential
chair. Shortly afterwards (April 19th) there came a
lull in the fierce and partisan conflict. The Presi-
dent issued a proclamation saying that the British
minister, Erskine, had received news that the " Orders
in Council" of 1807 would be withdrawn by June
10th, after which time, said the President, trade with
Great Britain would be renewed. Through May and
early June the blessings of the Federalists were
abundantly showered on the administration. All the
Atlantic seaport towns rejoiced, and the praise of the
President by his former enemies was so warm that
some of his party grew jealous. In Philadelphia,
June 10th, "the day of renewed commerce," at five
o'clock in the morning, a number of sea captains,
mariners, and citizens left Walnut Street wharf, upon
the Delaware, in a fleet of boats, led by the " Dusty
Miller," and firing salutes as they went down the
river, landed at Gloucester Point, N. J., where a
meeting was organized, of which Capt. John Dhelson
was president, and Capt. Moses Griffin vice-presi-
dent. At the dinner, among the toasts was the fol-
lowing: "The Embargo: Wise at first, but too
tedious to mention." The boats returned in the
evening, experiencing the fury of a heavy squall
before they reached the city. On the same day " the
revival of commercial intercourse with Great Britain"
was celebrated, by one hundred gentlemen, by a din-
ner given at the City Hotel.2 Francis Gurney pre-
sided, and Messrs. Stocker, Lewis, and Milnor were
vice-presidents.
All this rejoicing was premature. July 31st, Mr.
Erskine3 was forced, with mortification, to tell the
President that the whole arrangement had fallen
through. Erskine was recalled ; England rejected
2 The City Hotel, in Third Street, below Arch, was first opened to the
public on this occasion. The Philadelphia Gazette said, " The delmt; of
the hotel was such as to give ample promise of making a very conspicu-
ous figure, and proving highly useful to the public. The building is
second to nothing that our country contains. Indeed, when we take
into consideration the number, convenience, dimensions, and excellence
of the apartments, it is, perhaps, not too much to say that it in the fore-
most house of the kind ill the United States." Among the toasts given
were the following: "The People of the United States and of Great
Britain : uuited in interest, and assimilated by education and manners,
may they uever he set at variance by the mistaken or sinister policy of
their rulers."
3 Erskine, eldest son of the famous Lord Chancellor, succeeded to hie
father's titles in 182:1. In 18U0 he married the daughter of Gen. John
Cadwalador, of Philadelphia, who died in 1843. His own death occurred
in 1853.
540
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
terms honorable to both nations and highly favora-
ble to herself, hoping thus to further encourage sec-
tional disputes ; President Madison was compelled to
issue a proclamation, August 9th, declaring the non-
intercourse act in full force as regarded Great Britain.
Francis James Jackson, conspicuous in the disgrace-
ful attack on Copenhagen, was the new British min-
ister at Washington. The mere fact of sending such
a representative at such a time was evidence of Eng-
land's unfriendliness. Jackson was quarrelsome, over-
bearing, insolent, so that he was soon told that no
communications would be received from him, and
his recall was requested. Meanwhile the few Ameri-
can vessels abroad ran greater and greater risks each
month ; Danish privateers cruised in the North Sea;
French privateers and men-of-war kept watch over
each bit of beach and nook of harbor, and new
French victories extended their power over the Bal-
tic, much of the coast of Spain, and the shores of
Italy. When Congress reassembled it was occupied
almost entirely with foreign relations. It showed an
increase of Federalists, and many of the State elec-
tions had exhibited the same feature.
Owing to a long train of interesting circumstances
the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in this year,
found itself in danger of armed collision with the
government of the United States. What is known as
the " Fort Rittenhouse" affair was the culmination
of a controversy older than the Federal Constitution,
and for several days it caused a great excitement in
Philadelphia. The story begins in a heroic episode.
During the Revolutionary war the British sloop " Ac-
tive," enroute from Jamaica to New York, with stores
for the British army, was captured by Capt. Gideon
Olmsted and three other Connecticut sailors. They
had some months before been captured, taken to Ja-
maica, and there forced to join the "Active's" crew,
but rose one night off the Capes of the Delaware, and
made for Little Egg Harbor. Two days later the
Pennsylvania State cruiser "Convention" and the
privateer " Gerard" boarded the " Active," took pos-
session as a prize, carried it into Philadelphia, and
libeled it in the State Court of Admiralty, claiming
that when they took possession the capture was not
complete, the fourteen Englishmen being confined be-
low the hatches and liable to escape, A jury was
impaneled to settle the facts, and the court, on their
findings, gave one-fourth of the prize to the crew of
the " Convention," one-fourth to the State of Penn-
sylvania as owner of the cruiser, one-fourth to the
"Gerard," and only one-fourth to Olmsted and his as-
sociates. The latter appealed to Congress, which de-
creed the whole prize to the sailors. The validity of
this Congressional order was disputed by the Penn-
sylvania State judge in admiralty, on the ground
that the finding of the jury was conclusive as to the
facts. The prize was therefore sold under his order,
and the money paid into court in spite of an injunc-
tion from the Congressional committee. The matter
was brought before Congress, which by vote sustained
its own right to reverse the decision of a State court.
The appointment of a committee of conference by
the Pennsylvania Legislature was then requested by
Congress. But this was denied, and the State judge
was ordered to pay over the proceeds. David Ritten-
house, the State treasurer, then received the one-
fourth part awarded to the commonwealth, and gave
the judge a bond of indemnity.
Rittenhouse resigned his office in 1788 and settled
all his accounts. In order to save his land he retained
the certificate of Federal debt in which the proceeds
of the action were invested, and funded them in his
own name when the Federal debt was funded for the
benefit of the true owners. Olmsted and his com-
panions brought suit for the money in the State
courts. At Rittenhouse's death, June 26, 1796, the
matter was undecided. In 1801 the State treasurer
called upon his daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Sergeant
and Mrs. Esther Waters, both widows, the executrices
of his estate, to deliver over the certificates and pay
the accrued interest. They could not do so till the
Olmsted suits in the State court were settled. That
court finally, on technical grounds, declined to inter-
fere. McKean, then chief justice, afterwards Gov-
ernor, declared that the Congressional Court of Ap-
peals could not reverse the findings of the admiralty
jury. But the Supreme Court of the United States
had decided that the Federal courts succeeded on
questions of prize the Continental courts, and Olm-
sted next applied to the District Court of Pennsyl-
vania, which tribunal, in 1803, ordered the Ritten-
house heirs to pay the claim, now about fifteen
thousand dollars. McKean, now Governor, urged
the Legislature to counteract this, and they at once
passed a bill commanding the executrices of Ritten-
house to pay the money into the State treasury, and
pledging the faith of the commonwealth to hold them
harmless from the consequences. The money was
accordingly paid over by them, and during four years
nothing more was done except in the way of negotia-
tions, which proved fruitless. The United States
district judge hesitated to move in a matter which
would bring on a collision between the State and the
Federal authorities, but he was finally compelled to
proceed by a peremptory mandamus from the Supreme
Court.
It was now February, 1809, and Governor Snyder
notified the Legislature, on the 23d, that the United
States District Court would issue an order to the
United States marshal, John Smith, to arrest the per-
sons of the executrices and hold them prisoners till
they paid the money. It was his duty, he held, to
resist this under the pledges of the act of 1803.
March 2d the Legislature sanctioned this view, and
the Governor then ordered Brig.-Gen. Michael Bright,
of the Philadelphia militia, "to protect the daugh-
ters of Rittenhouse." Legislature and Governor
lamented the seeming necessity of this step, and the
FROM THE EMBARGO* TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
541
latter was desired to correspond with the President.
The ladies lived in adjoining houses on Arch Street,
one of which had been the home of their father, the
famous mathematician and philosopher. March 23d
a guard of State militia was posted on Seventh and
on Arch Streets. The next day, when Marshal Smith
tried to serve the writ, he was prevented by crossed
bayonets from entering the house. To his demands
and arguments they replied that " they must obey
orders." He twice attempted to enter, then retiring,
lie summoned a posse comitatus of two thousand men
and fixed upon April 14th for the service of the war-
rant. The Legislature were alarmed, and, though
passing an act reaffirming the State's claims, they
appropriated eighteen thousand dollars " to be used
as the Governor might see proper," thus opening a
door for retreat. The Governor at once wrote to
Madison, deploring the collision, but hoping the
President would discriminate between opposition to
the laws and constitution and resistance to the illegal
decree of a judge. But Madison, who held strong
views as to the sacredness of judicial decisions, re-
plied that if necessary he must aid in the enforce-
ment of the Supreme Court decree. On the 10th of
April the United States marshal entered Mrs. Ser-
geant's house to arrest her, but she escaped into Mrs.
Waters' house, and the guard drove the marshal back.
After the marshal's call for two thousand troops,
Gen. Bright had ordered two regiments to be in readi-
ness. The people in Philadelphia were about equally
divided on the questions at issue, and though war was
hardly expected, some sort of conflict seemed inevit-
able. But the marshal, on April 13th, climbed several
fences, gained access to Mrs. Sergeant's house through
a back window, and arrested her. No rescue by force
was attempted, though threatened, a writ of habeas
corpus being obtained instead, and marshal and pris-
oner called before Chief Justice Tilghman. Attorney-
General Franklin and Jared Ingersoll argued for
Pennsylvania, District- Attorney Dallas and Mr. Lewis
for the United States. The chief justice in his deci-
sion laid down the broad principle that if the United
States District Court exceeded its jurisdiction, it was
his right and duty as a State judge to discharge the
prisoner. But he recognized in all its force the doc-
trine that the Federal courts had succeeded to the
Continental admiralty jurisdiction, and that they
alone had a right to decide, upon the validity of the
original action of the Congressional Court of Appeals.
Upon this view of the case he remanded the prisoner
to the custody of the marshal, abandoning altogether
the question of State rights.
Governor Snyder at once paid over the money to
the marshal, and thus released the daughter of Rit-
tenhouse. But Gen. Bright and his men were already
indicted for resisting the serving of the writ, and
were soon tried in the Circuit Court before Judge
Washington. Their defense was that soldiers were
bound to obey orders. The jury, after being kept
together three days and three nights, brought in a
special verdict to the effect that the defendants had
resisted the marshal's authority under the laws of
Pennsylvania, leaving the Court to pronounce judg-
ment on their guilt or innocence. The Court then
pronounced them guilty. Bright was sentenced to
three months' imprisonment and a fine of two hun-
dred dollars, and his men to one month's imprison-
ment and a fine of fifty dollars each. After a few
days' imprisonment they were released by the Presi-
dent, on the ground that they had acted under a mis-
taken sense of duty, and were honored by Democratic
citizens with a public dinner, at which the mayor pre-
sided. A letter of thanks from Governor Snyder was
read, declaring his sense of their fidelity and patriot-
ism. It was proposed in the Legislature to give them
pecuniary compensation, but this attempt did not
succeed.
The Aurora found in these proceedings much mate-
rial for attacks upon the Governor, who was accused
of being favorable to a dissolution of the Union, and
guilty of treason against the United States. William
Findlay, State treasurer, and Boileau, Secretary of
State, were also attacked. A more violent quarrel
thus arose among the Democrats of Philadelphia and
vicinity. The Snyderites soon forgot their zeal for
a new Constitution, but carried out their favorite
scheme for arbitration instead of jury trial, when
either party preferred the former. This Legislature
also, to prevent McKean's suits from success, exempted
from indictment "any publications examining into
the doings of the Legislature or of public officers,"
but this act was to expire in three years by limitation.
Other acts restricted the power of judges to punish
for contempt, etc.
The best thing done by this Legislature was an act
to provide for the education of the children of the
poor. The assessors, at the annual assessments, were
directed to receive from parents the names of children
between five and twelve years of age whose parents
were unable to pay for schooling; and the county
commissioners were authorized to grant certificates
of the fact ; and the parents were authorized to send
their children to the most convenient private schools,
free of expense to them, the same to be paid out of
the county treasury. This law extended to the entire
State, and is frequently referred to as the origin of
the common school system of Pennsylvania.
Early in 1809 " the chain bridge" over the Schuyl-
kill was finished. In 1807 Robert Kennedy, who oc-
cupied the tavern at the fails of that river, was given
right to use the water-power, and he was also to build
lucks there. It was expected that mills would be
built tit this point. The next year permission was
given to Mr. Kennedy and Conrad Carpenter to build
a bridge and levy tolls. Kennedy's mill-site was sold
to Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, and they built
a rolling-mill and wire factory. The bridge had two
abutments and two piers all of hewn stone, and was
542
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of three spans, two of one hundred and fifty-three feet
in length. The chain support used was then a great
novelty. It was defective in construction, however,
for in 1811 it broke down from the weight of a large
drove of cattle.
In February the "Philadelphia Society for Pro-
moting Agriculture'' was incorporated. It had first
been established in 1805.
An act of Assembly, passed February 23d, directed
that thereafter three inspectors of the prison should
be elected by City Councils, three by the commis-
sioners of the Northern Liberties, and two by the
commissioners of Southwark, to serve for one year.
The act of Assembly of March 16th directed that
three county auditors should be elected annually for
the city and State.
Another act, intended to prevent accidents by fire,
was passed the same day. It prohibited the distilling,
boiling, or manufacture of turpentine oil east of Tenth
Street in the city or in Southwark, or in Moyamen-
sing east of Seventh Street, or in the Northern Lib-
erties, "including the village called Spring Garden,''
unless said distilling or boiling be in an open place,
at least thirty feet distant from property that might
be injured, or in a complete fire-proof building.
March 10th a number of Philadelphians met and
established a " Society for Vaccinating the Poor."
On the 20th a constitution was adopted which pro-
vided for the appointment of an acting committee of
twelve members, a clerk, a treasurer, and six physi-
cians. The terms of membership were two dollars
per annum. The committees were to seek in the va-
rious districts of the city and liberties for subjects for
vaccination, and the physicians were to vaccinate them
free of expense.
The " Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank Association,"
so often a suppliant for a charter, obtained it March
16th, to last till May 1, 1824. Capital limited to
$1,250,000, in shares of $50. The State was given
$75,000 in stock for this privilege. Joseph Tagert
was made president and Joseph Clay cashier.
March 17th the Marine Insurance Company was
incorporated, to continue till Jan. 1, 1827; capital,
$3,000,000, in shares of $100; John Leamy, president;
office of the company at No. 45 Walnut Street.
March 22d the company to build a permanent
bridge over the Schuylkill opposite Flat Rock was
incorporated, with a capital of $10,000.
Interest in internal improvements continued to be
shown. The legislative act of the previous year, au-
thorizing the Governor to subscribe for shares in
various turnpike companies, was carried out. The
"Philadelphia, Brandy wine, and New London Turn-
pike Company" was chartered to build via Chadd's
Ford to the State line towards Baltimore.
March 31st an act was passed relating to " the
numerous and expensive poor in Germantown town-
ship." The people of that township were authorized to
buy a house and lot of ground for a poor-house, and to
put it in repair. Samuel Mecklin and Jacob Summers
were appointed managers for the lower district, John
Johnston and Anthony Johnston for the middle dis-
trict, and Jacob Holgate and Jacob Miller for the upper
district, who were to be a body corporate and politic
under the title of "The Managers for the Relief and
Employment of the Poor of the Township of German-
town, in the County of Philadelphia." Two man-
agers were to be elected yearly in each district by the
citizens, and to them was intrusted the appointment
of collectors of the poor tax, etc.
This Legislature authorized a terminus for the first
telegraph line in the region. It extended from Phila-
delphia to Reedy Island, Delaware Bay, and was built
by Jonathan Grout for the Chamber of Commerce.
Reedy Island was State property, and special permis-
sion to use it as a station had to be obtained. The act
recited that he "had erected a line of telegraphs from
Philadelphia to Port Penn, for the purpose of the
transmission of the earliest intelligence from Dela-
ware Bay to Philadelphia, and vice versa." The first
communication sent by this line was on the' 8th of
November, announcing the arrival in the Delaware
of the ship " Fanny" from Lisbon.
A difficulty in reference to a piece of ground long
used for burying purposes occurred this year. A pe-
tition was sent to the Legislature stating that a bury-
ing-ground on the west side of the Schuylkill, which
had been for many years used as a free place of in-
terment by people of all sects, had been taken pos-
session of by the Society of Friends in the year 1806,
who then fenced it in and kept the gate locked, re-
fusing the privilege of usiug the ground to other re-
ligious sects. The subject was referred to a committee
which, in March, reported that they were of opinion
that the Society of Friends had no exclusive title to
the said burying-ground. They recommended that
a bill be prepared to vest the title in the county com-
missioners for the use of the public, which was carried
by a vote of fifty-three to twenty-seven. Immediately
afterward Jesse Williams, Thomas Parke, William
Penrose, and Samuel Bettle sent a petition to the
Legislature claiming the property, and requesting
permission to show " that the conduct of the society
has been upright." This was referred to a committee
which reported favorably to the society. They stated
that " the said burial-ground was applied, very early
after the foundation of the province, for the accom-
modation of Friends, who held their public meetings
at stated intervals at Duckett's farm, on the west side
of the Schuylkill, adjoining said farm. It appears
by public records that survey had been made of said
ground for a burial-ground. Although the title is
not complete, there is strong presumptive evidence
that it has been held by the society for one hun-
dred and twenty years, and positive evidence that
they have exercised ownership for sixty years. Al-
though persons of various sects have been buried in
the ground, there has generally been an application
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
543
to, and permission of, the Society of Friends (cases
of improper intrusion excepted). This conduct has
been misunderstood, and an impression created that
it belonged to the public."
A petition was presented to the Legislature in the
early part of the year for the incorporation of a " color
and paint company" in Philadelphia. John Brad-
ford, of the city, who had obtained a patent for an
improvement in making boots and shoes, asked the
State for permission to dispose of the patent-rights by
lottery. John G. Baxter, of Philadelphia, who had con-
structed a machine for manufacturing flax and hemp
into yarn, was recommended to the Legislature by spe-
cial message from the Governor in March. His ma-
chine could run thirty or more spindles, and was cal-
culated to save the work of twenty-six persons out of
thirty. The committee which considered the case
recommended a donation of three hundred dollars to
Baxter, but the Legislature refused. John Cook set
up a paper-hanging manufactory in Race Street, near
the Schuylkill, under the direction of Charles Smith,
formerly foreman of Caldcleugh & Thomas. Manu-
facturers of Philadelphia petitioned the Legislature
for the use of the ground floor of the State-House for
"the factory hall of Pennsylvania and the exhibi-
tion of domestic manufactures." The bill passed the
House, but failed in the Senate. On the 19th of May
the manufacturers and mechanics of the city and
county had their second annual dinner at the Shake-
speare Hotel, northwest corner of Sixth and Chestnut
Streets.
July 4th the members of the " Pennsylvania So-
ciety of the Cincinnati" resident in Philadelphia re-
' paired to the neighborhood of Paoli, in Chester
County, where they had built a monument to the
memory of their associate, Maj.-Gen. Anthony
Wayne, and held the dedication ceremonies. It was
placed in Radnor churchyard, adjoining St. David's
Protestant Episcopal Church. It was probably the
first monument to the memory of a Revolutionary
patriot erected by others than their relatives.1
1 This monument bears the following inscriptions:
ON THE NOETH SIDE.
" Major-General Anthony Wayne was born in Cheater County, Penn-
sylvania, in 1745. After a life of honor and usefulness he died in De-
cember, 1796, at Erie, Pennsylvania, then a military post on Lake Erie,
Commander-in-chief of the United States. His military achievements
are consecrated in the history of his country and in the hearts of his
countrymen. His remains are here deposited."
ON THE SOUTH SIDE.
"In honor of the distinguished military services of Major-Goneral
Anthony Wayne, and at an affectionate tribute of respect to hismemnry,
this stone was erected by his confreres in arms, the Pennsylvania State So-
ciety of the Cincinnati, July 4th, 1809, the thirty-fourth anniversary of
the Independence of the United StateB of America, an event which con-
stitutes the most appropriate eulogiuni of an American soldier."
It may not be generally known that tiie remains of Anthony Wayne
were first interred near the biock-houso which stands on the high bluff
which commands the entrance to the harbor of Erie; and they lay
there until 1800, when his son went on from Chester County, Pa., to
Brie, in a sulky, and removed them to their present resting-place.
" The Pennsylvania Society for the Improving the
Breed of Cattle" held a cattle show at Bush Hill on
the 18th and 1 9th of July, under the auspices of Law-
rence Seckel, president, and Thomas Cradock, secre-
tary. They offered premiums amounting to nine
hundred dollars for the best cattle and sheep, adding
that they did not " think it worth while to offer a
premium for merino sheep, as the public ought to
be fully aware of its importance."
The first fountain possessed by Philadelphia was
built in 1809. A wooden figure of a nymph, upon
whose shoulders was perched a swan, was placed in
a circular basin in front of the engine-house at Cen-
tre Square. From the throat of the bird issued a jet
of water, and smaller jets sprung up from the feet of
the figure. The figures were carved by Rush. The
entire affair was considered a great novelty, and one
of the sights of the city. This figure was afterward
removed to Fairmount. Rush's model was the beau-
tiful Miss Nancy Vanuxem, daughter of James Van-
uxem, merchant, who was at that time a member of
Select Council and a member of the Watering Com-
mittee. She afterward married Nathan Smith, and
died in 1874 at an advanced age. This statue has
been since perpetuated in bronze at Fairmount Water-
Works, near Callowhill Street entrance. To the taste
of persons of the present generation it seems unusu-
ally chaste in design ; but it was denounced when first
erected as immodest.
Among the local improvements of 1809 was the
enlargement of the market on South Second Street,
which now extended from Pine to Cedar Street. The
western moiety was appropriated to the use of the
country people. The inability of the city govern-
ment to execute much-needed improvements else-
where is shown by the fact that Chestnut Street,
between Ninth and Eleventh, was paved by Thomas
Pratt and John Vallance, who advanced the money
upon the pledge that City Councils would repay
them in four years.
The officers of the First Division had, the previous
year, offered a fifty-dollar gold medal to the author
of the best national soDg sent to the President within
a given time. The premium was awarded this year
to some very stilted verses. Some of those rejected
were soon after published and thought much more
meritorious, though none were above mediocre in
quality.
Among the great events of 1809 were those con-
nected with the use of steam for propelling boats and
cars. In June the steamboat " Phcenix" arrived at
Philadelphia from Hoboken, N. J. She was the
seventh steamer that had navigated the Delaware,2
2 The preceding six experiments were: John Fitch's skifT-steamboat,
first navigated in front of the city, July 2G, 1786 ; the steamboatof forty-
five feet in length, navigated by Fitch and Yoight, on Aug. 2'i, 1787;
Fitch's steamboat of sixty feet in length, navigated from Philadelphia
to Burlington, December, 1789, the same boat running regularly as a
passenger and freight boat between Philadelphia, Trenton, Burlington,
544
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and the first that had dared the ocean's perils. She
was built by John Cox Stevens, and intended as a
passage boat between New Brunswick and New York.
But Fulton and Livingston having procured from the
State of New York an assignment of the rights of
John Fitch, securing a monopoly for all boats and
vessels navigated by fire and steam, Col. Stevens found
that the employment of his boat in the waters of New
York was restricted. He therefore sent the vessel to
Philadelphia as an assistant to the line of packets
and stages upon the line to New York. Robert L.
Stevens, his son, determined to risk the trial ; and
accordingly, with a small crew, he left New York iu
the month of June. A fierce storm overtook them.
A schooner in company was driven off to sea, and
was kept out several days, but the "Phoenix'' made
a harbor at Barnegat. After the tempest subsided,
Stevens succeeded in bringing the boat round into the
Delaware. The return trip between Philadelphia and
Trenton was made July 5th, and there were nearly
forty passengers on board. The " Phoenix" had
"twenty-five commodious berths in her cabin, and
twelve in the steerage, with other ample accommoda-
tions for passengers." She was " constructed with
masts, so as to be able to take advantage of favorable
winds, and save fuel."
Railroad experiments began in good earnest this
year, Thomas Leiper being the projector. His ex-
perimental railroad, the first ever laid down in Amer-
ica, was set up in September in the large yard at-
tached to the Bull's Head Tavern, in Third Street
above Callowhill, in the Northern Liberties. Pro-
fessor Robert Patterson, of the University of Penn-
sylvania, Callender Irvine, superintendent of the
United States Mint, and John Glenn, agentfor Thomas
Leiper, certified that they were
"present at a satisfactory experiment by Thomas Leiper, of this city, of
the great utility of railroads for the conveyance of heavy burdens,— an
improvement which a few years ago was introduced into England and
some other parts of Europe, — as in many cases a cheap and a valuable
substitute for canals. In the above experiment a railroad was laid of
two parallel courses of oak scantling about four feet apart, supported on
blocks or sleepers about eight feet from e;icb other. On this railroad,
which had an ascent of one and a half inches in a yard, or two degrees
and twenty-three minutes, a single horse, under the disadvantage of a
path of loose earth to walk on, hauled up a four-wheeled carriage, loaded
with the enormous weight of ninety-five and a. half hundred, or ten
thousand six hundred and ninety-six pounds."
In the notice of these experiments in the United
States Gazette of Sept. 29, 1809, it was said,—
"Nor can we close this brief notice of an interesting work without
paying a merited tribute of apidattse to the patriotic enterprise of the
gentleman who has been the first in America to engage in it; and we hope
he may derive as much advantage from it as such an example to the
public fully entitles him to."
Bristol, Chester, Wilmington, and Gray's Ferry, In the summer of 1790;
the " Perseverance,'1 built by Fitch's Steamboat Company, to be sent to
New Orleans in the ssnie year, and driven upon Potty's Island in a
storm; the side paddle-wheel steamboat of Samuel Storey and Burgess
Allison, built at Bordentown in 1797, and navigated to Philadelphia and
back- and Oliver Evans' nondescript, a steam-carriage on land, a steam-
boat in the water, the "Eruktor Amphiholis," in 1805.
In the Aurora of September 27th, Thomas Leiper
and George G. Leiper invited proposals for contracts
"for digging part of a railroad from our quarries on
Crum Creek to our landing in Ridley, Delaware Co.
The distance and level, ascertained by Reading How-
ell, is exactly three-quarters of a mile." They also
desired to contract "for making and laying the rail
part of the same, consisting of wood." Specifications
were to be furnished by Large & Winpenny at their
manufactory, adjoining the Bull's Head Tavern,
Northern Liberties.
A sham battle took place November 20th, in which
a part was taken by the cavalry under Maj. Leiper,
the riflemen of Uhle and Fiss, Hill's light artillery,
and Town's, Rush's, Meeker's, Walter's, Read's, and
Thompson's infantry on one side, under Maj. Lewis
Rush. On the other side were Eringhaus' hussars,
Humphreys' cavalry, Binney's and Hoffman's rifles,
Boyd's artillery, and the infantry companies of Fot-
teral, Graves, Grant, and Boyle, under Maj. Graves.
Shaw's and Ashton's artillery were subsequently at-
tached to the First Division, and Erringer's to the Sec-
ond. The whole affair was under command of Maj.-
Gen. John Steele.
Governor Snyder, in his message to the Legislature
in December, congratulated the members upon the
progress of improvement during the year. The de-
velopment of the country, as shown in the building
of barns, houses, bridges, and the construction of
turnpikes, gave cheering evidences of prosperity.
" Our mills and furnaces are greatly multiplied. New
beds of ore have been discovered. We have lately
established in Philadelphia large shot manufactories,
floor-cloth manufactories, and a queensware pottery
on an extensive scale. These are all in successful
operation, independent of immense quantities of cot-
ton and wool, flax, hemp, leather, and iron, which are
carefully manufactured in our State, and which save
to our country the annual expenditure of millions of
dollars."
The surviving officers of the Revolutionary war met
at the Shakespeare Hotel on the 25th of December,
Dr. John Keemle in the chair and Daniel Broadhead
secretary. They passed resolutions declaring their
confidence in the government and their determination
to support it, to which President Madison made a
suitable reply.
The foreign relations of the United States contin-
ued doubtful and almost hostile throughout 1810, and
efforts to obtain a better understanding were fruitless.
January 3d the President's message considered the
raising of more troops to be necessary, recommend-
ing that twenty thousand volunteers be accepted for
service at the shortest warning. The Philadelphia
cavalry companies petitioned the Legislature the fol-
lowing week for leave to form a regiment, but failing,
organized in June as a voluntary association, Robert
Wharton, colonel, and John Smith, major. They
had an " annual training" in October on " the com-
FKOM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
545
mon," but a gloom was cast over the day by an acci-
dental discharge of muskets by which one citizen was
killed and five or six were wounded. The great " mili-
tary JUe" set for November 1st, under Maj. Lewis
Rush and Col. Fotteral, was therefore postponed.
In March the President, hearing through Minister
Pinckney that the restrictive orders and decrees would
soon be repealed, informed Congress, and May 1st the
non-intercourse and the non-importation laws were
withdrawn, and an act excluding French and English
war vessels was substituted. The French revoked
their Berlin and Milan decrees, so far as they ap-
plied to the United States ; stubborn England made
petty objections, and refused on purely technical
grounds. Meanwhile, Napoleon refused to indemnify
the Americans for vessels seized under the Ram-
bouillet decree of March 10th ; seizure, confiscation,
and sale of vessels and cargoes, impressments of
sailors, complex entanglements of diplomatic false-
hood, seemed to characterize the proceedings of both
the powerful nations against which the United States
had rightful cause for indignation; English cruisers
hung along our coasts, disregarding our neutrality
and our jurisdiction ; France reigned on the conti-
nent, but the great nation from whom we had parted
in anger, our kindred in language and blood, was su-
preme upon the ocean, and her tyrannies pierced far
more deeply. It was England, not France, that, ac-
cording to the best authorities, had impressed over six
thousand sailors from peaceful American merchant-
men. The Secretary of State placed the number at
six thousand seven hundred; Lord Castlereagh, in
the British Parliament, acknowledged that sixteen
hundred had been impressed.
March 19th the Pennsylvania Legislature indorsed
the administration, and denounced the conduct of
France and England. They also ordered "that no
British precedent should be read or quoted in courts
of justice, nor any British decision made after July
4, 1876, except those on maritime and international
law." They also negatived resolutions sent from the
Massachusetts Legislature, calling for a constitutional
amendment to prohibit an embargo for more than
thirty days.
State politics were in the usual and chronic turmoil.
In January the Aurora printed some attacks on Gov-
ernor Snyder, which were signed " Conrad Weiser."
The worst possible construction was placed on the
" Fort Rittenhouse" affair, and the words " rebellion"
and " high-handed" were used. But Nathaniel B.
Boileau, the secretary of the commonwealth, was as-
saulted with the fiercest invectives. Restless Leib and
discontented Duane were still leaders of this faction;
John Binns supported the State administration.
" Under McKean," said this writer, " the Legislature
was bullied and abused. Under Snyder it is cau-
cused and corrupted." February 14th, at a meeting
at the State-House, Philadelphia, "the conduct of
Simon Snyder in calling out an armed force to oppose
35
the constitutional authority of the general govern-
ment" was severely condemned. In May, at the
annual Tammany Society meeting, William Duane
gave the " long talk," and all the State flags were
decorated except that of Pennsylvania ; this was
muffled and clad in mourning, " as the State suffers
from dishonor."
Binns came in for his full share of the personal
abuse, founded on the accusation that he had turned
Queen's evidenoe in the O'Coigley trial in England
some years before, and thus saved his neck, the charge
being high treason. Counter charges, explanations,
and pamphlets were of course abundant. Thing;
were badly mixed and unpleasant. The old ques-
tion about method of nominating was revived. The
friends of Snyder favored district meetings, while
his enemies supported the old plan of county meet-
ings. At a county meeting held at Mrs. Saville's,
near Spring Garden, August 20th, of which William
Binder was chairman and E. D. Corfield was secretary,
resolutions were passed to support candidates for Gen-
eral Assembly, Congress, State Senate, House of Rep-
resentatives, sheriff, etc., by general vote. Dr. Leib
said that nominations by county meetings had been
successful since 1795, that there was no good reason
for changing, and that it would be a submission to a
faction which had, under various names, distracted
the county for years. A personal attack was made
upon Ebenezer Ferguson and others. The Democratic
Ward Committee supported the plans of Duane and
Leib, and in their report said, —
" During the administration of Governor Mifflin, parties were not mar-
shaled against each other with strength and energy. Hence the people
accepted him at the instance of a few citizens casually assembled in
Philadelphia. In 1799 people thought little of the mode in which Mc-
Kean was nominated. All that was wanted was a person from the Re-
publican ranks. The nomination was made by thirty promiscuous and
self-created organs of the public will. Tn 1802, McKean was nominated
by a similar association of persons. The next three years of his term
did not pass so acceptably. In 1805, for the first time, a portion of the
Legislature undertook to nominate, and their choice was Simon Snyder."
This, it was said, was " done by intrigue," which
was also the case in 1808. The proceedings of this
committee were signed by Thomas Leiper, chairman,
and by George Bartram, secretary.
About this time the anti-Snyder party established
"The Whig Society of Pennsylvania," "the general
object" of which, it was declared, was "the cultivation
of virtue in politics." Thomas Leiper was president ;
Robert Patterson, Richard O'Brien, vice-presidents ;
John W. Thompson, treasurer; Thomas Waterman
and Isaac Boy er, secretaries ; and Michael Leib, James
Engle, George Bartram, William J. Duane, and
Robert Patterson, committee of correspondence.
Meanwhile the Federalists had kept quiet during
this conflict, biding their time and nursing their
strength. They celebrated February 22d as a national
holiday. The " American Republican Societies" met
at the State-House, and about five hundred persons
walked from that place up Sixth to Market Street,
and down Market Street to the First Presbyterian
546
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Church, where an oration was delivered by Dr. Charles
Caldwell. A dinner in Prune Street, below Sixth, in
a building which had been erected for a cotton-factory,
concluded the ceremonies.1 The cavalry paraded
under Col. Wharton, also several companies of infan-
try. A large company also assembled at Renshaw's.
There was a dinner, at which James Milnor presided
and Jonathan B. Smith was vice-president. " The
Incorporated Washington Society" dined at Henry
Meyers'. There were toasts and speeches at all those
places. The Fourth of July was also kept by the
Federalists, seven hundred of them dining at Peter
Evans', near the permanent bridge, under a large
tent. The Revolutionary flag of the First City Troop
was displayed, and Capt. Summers' artillery replied
with salutes to the toasts. Dr. Caldwell delivered the
oration at this place. The Society of the Cincinnati
dined at Foquet's, and the Sons of Washington at the
Mansion House, James Milnor president, Jonathan
Smith and Samuel F. Bradford vice-presidents. The
First and Second City Troops exercised and dined at
Mendenhall's Ferry, two miles below the Falls of
Schuylkill.
In October the Federalists elected most of their
candidates, much to the surprise and chagrin of the
Democratic factions. The " American Republicans,"
as the Federalists were now called, nominated for
Congress James Milnor, Thomas Truxton, and
Thomas B. Dick ; for sheriff, Francis Johnston. The
Snyderites, or new-school Democrats, nominated Dr.
Adam Seybert, William Anderson, and Dr. John
Porter for Congress, and John Dennis for sheriff.
The old-school Democrats, or anti-Snyderites, nomi-
nated for Congress Seybert and Anderson, but placed
the name of Robert McMullin in place of Porter.
For sheriff they nominated Frederick Wolbert. The
election resulted in the defeat of the Leib faction,
and of the new school in their special candidates.
The Federalists carried Johnston for sheriff, and
elected one State senator, Charles Biddle ; the Sny-
derites elected Humphreys. They carried a majority
of the City Councils, and elected Eobert Wharton
mayor. Milnor, Seybert, and Anderson were sent to
Congress. The Whig Society, in November, ascribed
the defeat of their ticket to the overpowering and
irregular action of the officers of the State govern-
ment, and wound up their manifesto by still more
bitter charges against Governor Snyder. The at-
tempt of the Leibites to overthrow the legislative
caucus for the nomination of Governor also failed.
Banks and financial affairs occupied public atten-
tion. The question of the renewal of the charter of
the United States Bank was undecided, and a meet-
ing to urge such renewal was held at the Shakespeare
Hotel, Edward Penington, chairman, John Conrad,
1 This building was afterwards occupied by the Prune Street, City, or
Winter Tivoli Theatre, and by Jefferson Medical College as itB first
location.
secretary (Dec. 21, 1809). This stimulated State
bank projects, and January 20th the Mechanics'
Bank was organized, capital stock seven hundred
thousand dollars in shares of fifty dollars apiece.
When, the following month, the subscription-list was
opened there were not only a sufficient number of sub-
scribers to take up the stock, but from six hundred to
seven hundred persons, who were anxious to do so,
could not obtain access to the building. They with-
drew, organized another bank, called the " Commer-
cial," and one million of dollars were subscribed
forthwith. In the course of that day projects were
started for the formation of five additional banks.
One of these schemes ended in the establishment of
the Bank of the Northern Liberties. But on the 19th
of March a legislative act was passed prohibiting
unincorporated banks and banking associations from
issuing notes. The stockholders in the Bank of the
Northern Liberties then applied to the General As-
sembly, offering as a bonus for a charter to contribute
a. sum towards building a bridge over the Susque-
hanna at Harrisburg. This offer was made because,
by vote of February 21st, the capital was to be estab-
lished at Harrisburg before the close of October, 1812.
The petitions presented in December, 1809, urging
enlargement of the school system, received favorable
attention from the Assembly in January. " The Union
Society" of Philadelphia, for founding schools for
colored people, was sanctioned, — Arthur Donaldson,
president; William Simmons, vice-president. In Feb-
ruary the House committee reported favorably on a
lottery scheme for "the academy of Rev. John W.
Doak, pastor of the Presjayterian Church in Frank-
ford," where "Latin, Greek, and the globes" were
taught.
In February the effort was made to move the alms-
house of the city and county to a farm, and a bill was
brought in for that purpose. The report to the As-
sembly said that the building was crowded, over a
hundred persons living there in idleness ; but the pro-
posed act failed to pass. The prison inspectors of
Philadelphia begged the Legislature for more help in
building the new Arch Street prison, saying that
$85,821.12 had been received from the sale of city
lots, and that they had expended $85,600.84. They
wanted twenty-five thousand dollars more to complete
the prison and put up the wall. The committee made
a favorable report, but the matter was not taken up
during the year. The same month Charles Wilson
Peale, artist and museum-owner, petitioned that the
city and county of Philadelphia should be allowed to
convert the vacant wings of the State-House into fire-
proof offices, and that perpetual use of the upper part
should be granted to the museum. The educational
features of the collection were referred to, and Dunn,
chairman of the legislative committee, reported favor-
ably. Another act of the Assembly ordered the bar-
racks in the Northern Liberties to be sold. March
19th a very important act was passed, which gave to
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
547
the corporation of the city of Philadelphia a right to
extend any of the market-houses whenever it was
thought proper, and there were some discussions in
the newspapers as to the propriety of doing this on
High Street from Fourth to Sixth.
The City Councils were busy with local regulations
and measures of public usefulness. In January reso-
lutions were pressed with much earnestness in favor of
the city becoming an insurer of property from loss by
fire and other dangers. The Common Council passed
a resolution authorizing a memorial to the Legisla-
ture to give the corporation power to effect insurances
from loss by fire in the commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania. This was not sanctioned by the Select Coun-
cil, and the proposition was subsequently renewed,
but was not successful. The City Councils, after
having for several years held the small, triangular,
tree-covered lot bounded by Spruce, Front, Dock,
and Little Dock Streets, for the purposes of a public
square, leased a portion of it to the keeper of a board-
yard, who destroyed the trees and erected a number
of "tailors' slop-shops" upon it. The rest of the
ground was used for the storage of lumber and for the
accumulation of manure. The whole was inclosed
with a rough board fence, and was soon considered a
public nuisance. Remonstrances were sent to the
City Councils, but they met with no attention.
In the latter part of this year various matters of
local regulation were suggested in Councils. The
most interesting ones were to number and license
drays, to regulate the size of bakers' wheelbarrows, to
establish street patrols on Sunday, and to pave the
centre of the wharves, so as to furnish a convenient
footway in muddy weather.
Late in June the two floating bridges, one at the
Upper Ferry, the other at Gray's Ferry, were destroyed
by a flood, delaying travel, and causing considerable
loss to property on the banks of the rivers.
In this summer the first steam ferry-boat was used
to carry passengers between the city and Camden.
It was called the " Camden," was commanded by Capt.
Ziba Kellum, and built by Joseph Bispham. The
course was from the lower side of Market Street to
the foot of Cooper Street. There was no deck, and
it was used for the transportation of passengers only.
Horses, cattle, and wagons were still rowed across the
river in large old-fashioned boats, called "horse-
boats."1 Other steamboat lines had already been es-
tablished. The " Phoenix," through the summer of
1810, went from Philadelphia to Chester in two hours
and twenty-five minutes, and returned in two hours
and thirty-five minutes. The trip from Bordentown to
the city was made in four hours, including stoppages.
In July the " Phoenix" was advertised to leave Phila-
delphia at half-past two o'clock P.M. on Monday,
1 " Horse-boat" was also a term applied to boats worked by horses, the
animals' strength being applied to the propulsion of the machinery;
another name of the latter class of vessels was " Team-boat."
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, for Bordentown,
arriving in the evening. Stages were ready there to
take passengers to the Raritan River, passing through
Trenton and Princeton to the Raritan steamboat at
New Brunswick, connecting stages running to Eliza-
bethtown Point, whence sailing packets could be
taken for New York, and also to South Amboy, where
there were also packets in waiting. The fare to New
York by the Raritan route was $4.25 ; to Elizabeth-
town Point $3.75 ; and to South Amboy $3. When
the boat was ready to leave Philadelphia a tin horn
was blown, and hundreds of persons assembled to
witness her departure.
John Stevens published, in November, proposals to
establish » line of steamboats between Philadelphia
and Wilmington, thence overland to the head of Elk
River, and from thence by steamboat down that river
and Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore. He estimated that
seventy-five thousand dollars would be sufficient cap-
ital, in shares of one hundred dollars each. He sug-
gested that the steamboats should be built one hundred
and thirty feet long and twenty feet beam, and thought
that they might be finished by the 1st of June in the
ensuing year. Stevens thought that the annual ex-
pense would be about seven thousand dollars, and that
the line could carry each way fifteen to twenty tons
of goods or merchandise. Thirty tons at thirty cents
per hundredweight would yield one hundred and
eighty dollars a day for the three boats. He calcu-
lated upon ten through passengers daily each way at
$3.50 apiece, and as many more between Philadelphia
and Wilmington, and figured out a very alluring profit
on this modest estimate.
The water lines of travel did not, however, have
things all their own way. The " Phoenix" steamboat
route to New York found opposition in the " Expedi-
tion" line of stages through to New York in one day,
without change, for $8. A slower stage, the " Dili-
gence'' line, made the trip for $4.50, and the " Ac-
commodation" only charged $3.50. William T. Stock-
ton & Co. were the proprietors. About this time John
Tomlinson & Co., of Philadelphia, and Samuel Spang-
ler & Co., of York, established a line of stages to West
Chester, Lancaster, and Columbia, leaving the city
on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and reaching
Columbia the same night. The coaches were among
the first in the United States to have steel springs.
The fare to York was nine dollars.
The contest in relation to the burying-ground on
the west side of the Schuylkill, north of Market Street,
was renewed by a petition of the Society of Friends,
presented in the House January 7th, requesting that
the title might be vested in trustees for the use of the
society. The Board of Health shortly afterward pre-
sented a petition, asking that the same lot be made a
public burying-ground. The Senate then passed a
bill vesting the property in the Society of Friends,
but it was lost in the House by forty yeas to fifty nays.
The Senate then passed a bill vesting the ownership
548
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of another lot on the west side of the Schuylkill, near
the Upper Ferry, in the Guardians of the Poor for a
burying-ground. This burying-ground had also been
used for free interment for many years, and did not
seem to have an owner. The House, however, refused
to pass this bill.
The rechartering of the United States Bank was
one of the most important discussions which occupied
Philadelphians during this year. January 23d, a
meeting was held at the Coffee-House, of which
Joseph Grice was chairman, and Robert Wain secre-
tary. A committee, consisting of Thomas Fitzsim-
ons, Stephen Girard, William Davy, Emanuel Eyre,
and Robert Wain, was appointed to draft a memorial
to Congress in favor of the recharter of the bank,
and to appoint a committee of five to proceed to
Washington to urge the matter before the National
Legislature. This meeting was followed the next
day by another, composed of master-mechanics and
manufacturers, held at the Shakespeare Hotel, in
Market Street. General John Barker was chairman
and Frederick Foering secretary. This meeting
adopted resolutions, and appointed Jacob Vodges,
Thomas Ogle, George Ord, Samuel Smith, and Fred-
erick Foering a committee. The Aurora and the
Democratic party took the other side of the question.
In February the General Ward Committee of Phila-
delphia (new-school Democrats) sent a memorial to
Congress against rechartering the bank. Congress
was unwilling, and the time named in the original
charter expired in March without the passage of the
bill rechartering the institution. In the early part
of the year the Legislature had passed resolutions in-
structing the senators and representatives in Con-
gress to vote against it. Holgate, of Philadelphia
County, in December, 1810, had offered a long pre-
amble and resolutions, seconded by Shearer, of the
same county, arguing that the charter of the bank
was unconstitutional.
The State banks were alarmed, and the Philadel-
phia Bank, in January, sent a memorial to the Legis-
lature, stating that "said bank will be exposed by the
dissolution of the Bank of the United States to a seri-
ous reduction of its dividends, and that the most in-
jurious consequences will ensue to the community at
large." The memorial asked if the Legislature would
adopt no measures opposed to " the memorials of citi-
zens, merchants, manufacturers, mechanics, and
others, and would refrain from an expression of sen-
timent." The Bank of North America also sent in a
protest against Holgate's resolutions. Notwithstand-
ing these expressions of dissent they were pressed in
the House, and were carried by a vote of sixty-eight
yeas to twenty nays. The Senate made some amend-
ments which were concurred in. On the 18th of
March the trustees of the late United States Bank
sent a petition to the Legislature praying a charter
of incorporation or the full amount of the original
capital, with permission to employ any part of it in
such other State or States as may authorize the same.
The committee reported favorably, but when it was
brought up it was negatived by a vote of thirty-four
yeas to fifty-five nays. In December the trustees of
the bank again petitioned for a charter, but without
success.
The House of Representatives in January passed
an act to incorporate the American Color and Paint
Company, which was lost in the Senate. Difficulties
in the way of obtaining acts of incorporation appear
to have been more numerous under the Constitution
of 1790 than under its successor of 1838.
In the early part of the year there was much suffer-
ing among the poor for want of fuel. In February
firewood was very scarce, and hickory sold at twenty
dollars per cord.
Lotteries continued to be petitioned for. In Feb-
ruary the Legislature refused permission to the super-
intendents of the Callowhill Street market-house to
raise thirteen thousand dollars in this way to defray
the debts on the building.
The same month the Guardians of the Poor memo-
rialized the Legislature for authority to sell the alms-
house property on Tenth, Eleventh, Spruce, and Pine
Streets and buy a farm ; they also desired that the
keepers of the Arch Street prison should be obliged to
receive all drunken, idle, and disorderly persons. The
committee reported against the desired sale, thinking
the almshouse well located already.
About this time the new hall, built on Second Street
near Christian by the commissioners of Southwark,
approached completion, and February 10th was par-
tially opened ; by August it was entirely ready for
use and was occupied.
The First and Second City Troops celebrated Wash-
ington's birthday at Barnum's Hotel. On chat day,
also, the Society of the Sons of Washington dined at
Renshaw's Mansion House hotel. The members
wore their badges containing an excellent miniature
likeness of Washington, set in gold, and accompanied
by suitable inscriptions. The president was James
Milnor; Vice-Presidents, Jonathan B. Smith and
Samuel F. Bradford ; Secretary, Robert S. Stephens ;
and Treasurer, Samuel Relf. Civilities were also inter-
changed between the society and the First and Second
Troops and Independent Volunteers, all of which
were dining on the 22d of February.
A great deal of interest centred about the efforts
made to develop better communication by land or
water between various districts and counties. It was
really a more vital question to the people than any
local politics. The interior of the State wanted more
turnpikes; the suburbs of Philadelphia complained
of the poor roads and difficulties of reaching the
business portions of the city. The Legislature was
more liberal than ever before. An act was passed at
this session making a large number of appropriations
of sums of fifteen hundred dollars and over for build-
ing, repairing, and improving county roads in twenty-
FEOM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
549
eight counties of the commonwealth. In February a
meeting was held at Samuel Hergesheimer's, at Point
Breeze Tavern, in the Neck, of which Israel Israel was
chairman and Samuel Keemle secretary. Resolutions
were adopted complaining of the bad condition of the
roads, " which has frequently cut us off from access
to the city.'' The resolutions went on to say that, as
there was no probability that the roads in that section
of the city would ever be improved by turnpiking,
the Legislature should be addressed with a petition
to grant a part of the county taxes to the township of
Passyunk for the improvement of roads.
The state of the western part of Philadelphia at
this time may be imagined from the proceedings in
regard to Minnow Run,1 a stream which few would
suspect ever flowed over ground where all traces of
it have long since been obliterated. A resolution
was passed to build a bridge over this stream of the
width of seven feet, parallel with and at the distance
of one hundred feet north of High Street. It was
added, "The passage from Minnow Run to High
Street is not convenient for carriages now." The
Guardians of the Poor being anxious to have Spruce
Street, between Eighth and Eleventh, paved, permis-
sion was given them to employ the paupers in that
work. Chestnut Street was also directed to be paved
from Eleventh to Broad Street, if money sufficient
was subscribed by citizens, to be repaid in six years.
A petition was presented to the Assembly in the
early part of the year, asking that the inhabitants of
Moyamensing should receive a charter of incorpora-
tion. The committee of the House reported against
it. A supplement was passed March 30th to the act
incorporating the District of Northern Liberties of
March 9, 1803. It gave power to the commissioners
to establish a nightly watch, to fix up public lamps,
and to levy taxes for the support of the same, the
commissioners also to have power and jurisdiction on
the west side of Sixth Street. A supplement to the
1 Minnow Run commenced at Bush Hill in two springs, one of which
■was east of the Bush Hill mausion, near the neighborhood of the pres-
ent Buttonwood and Sixteenth Streets. The other was west of the man-
sion, about Buttonwood and Eighteenth Streets. The eastern branch
flowed south, nearly to the line of the present Callowhill Street, and
then crossed in a southwestern direction, diagonally, the squares be-
tween Sixteenth and Seventeenth, Vine and Callowhill, and Seven-
teenth and Eighteenth, Vine and Callowhill, and united between Race
and Vine Streets, within the inclosure of what is now known as Logan
Square, with the western branch, which flowed between Eighteenth and
Nineteenth, crossing west of Nineteenth, between Vine and Callowhill,
and returning eastward to the point of union with the other branch
about the centre of Logan Square. The course was then 6outh, between
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets, crossing Race and Cherry Streets.
North of the latter, and near Nineteenth, another branch united with
the stream which flowed westward from the neighborhood of Centre
Square. The run then crossed Arch Street, between Nineteenth aud
Twentieth, receiving a little stream into it at the point of junction,
which rose near Market Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth,
and flowed northwestwardly. Minnow Bun, from this point, ran diag-
onally, crossing Filbert Street, between Twentieth and Twenty-first,
and then ran due west about half-way between Filbert and Market
Streets, and emptied into the Schuylkill north of ground now occupied
by the City Gas-Works.
District of Southwark Act was passed on the 1st of
April, which transferred the jurisdiction in laying out
streets in that district, formerly exercised by the
Supreme Executive Council, to the Court of Quarter
Sessions.
A notable incorporation, under an act of March
30th, was one by which Gen. Francis Swain, James
Sharswood, Henry Nixon, Joseph Starne, Matthias
Harrison, Francis Deal, John H. Duy, John Mar-
clay, Alexander Crawford, Nathan Levering, Jr., and
Levi Pawling were appointed commissioners to re-
ceive subscriptions for the organization of a company
" for making an artificial road, beginning at the in-
tersection of Vine aud Tenth Streets, Philadelphia,
and thence to Perkiomen bridge, in the county of
Montgomery." The corporation was entitled " The
Ridge Turnpike Company." The capital stock was
divided into fifteen hundred shares, at fifty dollars
each. The route, it was declared, should be, "as near
as may be consistent with economy and utility, along,
over, and upon the bed of the present road leading
from the intersection of Vine and Tenth Streets, in
the city of Philadelphia, to Wissahickon Creek, thence
to Barren Hill, thence to Norristown, in the county
of Montgomery, and thence by the nearest and best
route to Perkiomen bridge, in the county aforesaid."
It was directed that the road should not be less than
forty feet nor more than sixty feet in width, and that
twenty-four feet at least in breadth should be an
artificial road, bedded with stone and gravel. Rates
of tolls were established. The road was to be com-
menced in three years, and finished in seven years.
On the 2d of April a supplement was passed to the
Philadelphia, Brandywine, and New London Turn-
pike Road Act, which granted permission to lay out
the route " over the road leading from Schuylkill to
Darby, commonly called the Woodlands road, where
said road diverges from the Philadelphia and Lan-
caster turnpike."
Another attempt to establish canal communication
with the west and northwest counties of the State was
begun this year. April 2d the "Union Canal Com-
pany" was incorporated. The preamble stated that
earlier companies had failed, from various reasons,
and described how the stockholders of the Schuylkill
and Susquehanna and of the Delaware and Schuylkill
Canal Companies had formed a joint stock company,
under the title of " The Union Canal Company of
Pennsylvania." It was declared that all acts passed
in favor of either company were repealed, their cor-
porate titles abolished, and the new title of the united
corporation made "The Union Canal Company of
Pennsylvania." Each holder of one share in the
Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company
was to have two shares of Union Canal Company
stock, and each Delaware and Schuylkill Canal stock-
holder was to have one share. The corporation
was also given the right to contract to furnish
water to the city of Philadelphia, the district of the
550
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Northern Liberties, the county commissioners, and to
private individuals and corporations. They were
also empowered to raise by lottery three hundred and
forty thousand dollars, — a residue of the sum granted
to be raised in that way by the companies of which
they were heirs.
Bridge companies were unusually active. March
28th the Assembly passed a law appointing Samuel
Richards, Philip Wager, John Britton, Jr., Cadwala-
der Evans, and Abraham Sheridan, commissioners,
to receive subscriptions to the stock of a company
" for erecting a permanent bridge over the Schuylkill
at or near where the floating-bridge of Abraham
Sheridan is at present situate, known by the name of
the Upper Ferry, in the county of Philadelphia."
There were to be eight hundred shares, at fifty dollars
each. It was ordered that this bridge should be at
least thirty feet wide, with a good railing on each side.
The property was to continue in the company for
twenty-five years. Rates of toll were provided for.
Funerals and military processions were to be exempt
from charge. The amount of receipts exceeding nine
per cent, per annum profit was to be applied to the
purchase and redemption of the shares. The bridge
was to be commenced in two years, and finished in
five years. On the 20th of March an act was passed
authorizing Joseph Kirkbride to erect a bridge over
Frankford Creek, " where his ferry is now kept,"
near Bridesburg. It was to be sixty feet in length,
eight feet clear above the water. It was also to be
provided with a draw eighteen feet wide. Kirkbride
was to take tolls ; and his bridge was ordered to be
commenced within a year, and completed within four
years. April 2d the Schuylkill Falls Bridge Company
was incorporated. The preamble recited that Robert
Kennedy and Conrad Carpenter bad conveyed all
their interests in the site of the Schuylkill Falls
bridge, under the act of the 22d of February, 1808,
to certain trustees for the use of themselves and others,
subscribers to the stock for the bridge. Robert Ken-
nedy, Paul Cox, Samuel Wheeler, John Johnson,
Algernon Roberts, Thomas McEwen, John Thorburn,
Walter Franklin, Francis Johnston, Reading Howell,
and William T. Donaldson were incorporated as the
president and managers of the Schuylkill Falls Bridge
Company. The erection of the new bridge was neces-
sary because of the destruction of the chain-bridge
at Schuylkill Falls a few years before. James Finley,
in an article published January 17th, said, " The
breach of the Schuylkill bridge by a drove of cattle
is an occurrence which deserves attention. An ill-
judged clip or coupling-piece broke, with which two
parts of the chain were joined together."
The growth of the city and its increased litigation
made the facilities of the Court of Common Pleas far
too little in trial of civil causes. March 30th an act
was passed establishing the " District Court for city
and county of Philadelphia, to have jurisdiction in
sums exceeding one hundred dollars, and to consist of
a president judge and two assistant judges, the first to
receive two thousand dollars per annum, and the
others five hundred dollars each. Their terms of of-
fice were limited to six years. The prothonotary of
this court was to be the prothonotary of the Common
Pleas. It was organized May 6th, Joseph Hemphill
presiding, and Anthony Simmons and Jacob Sommer
assistants. The two latter were not learned in the
law ; one had been a goldsmith, the other a farmer.
Seventy-five lawyers were admitted to practice in this
court in June.
Some time in May, Capt. Grassin, of the French
privateer " Diligente," who had captured the ship
" Hebe," of Philadelphia, Capt. William Ogle, some
time before, arrived in the harbor, and proceedings
were commenced against him. The " Hebe" had
purchased her release, but in some way Capt. Grassin
had not carried out his agreement. In July, Mayor
Wharton bound him over in the sum of five thousand
dollars, to answer a charge of arming in the port con-
trary to acts of Congress. Charges upon tonnage had
been increased about this time, the Port Wardens
having power to raise it two and a half cents per ton
above previous rates. Commercial interests suffered
greatly from the condition of national affairs.
Everything combined to keep up public interest in
military exercises ; the prospects of war were too
alarming to allow of neglect. Therefore the sound
of drum and bugle was often heard this summer in
the streets of Philadelphia. The Legislature passed
an act March 30th, granting new privileges and en-
larging the regiment of artillery of the First Brigade,
First Division, also organizing the cavalry of Phila-
delphia into a regiment. The artillery was to have
one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, two majors, and
twelve captains. Each company was to be organized
with one captain, a first and second lieutenant, two
cadets, four sergeants, four corporals, eight artificers,
and eighty privates. The twelve companies were to
be placed in three battalions as soon as five hundred
men were enrolled, and one company of horse or fly-
ing artillery was to be attached to each battalion.
The uniform of the artillery regiment was as follows:
a long, dark-blue coat, faced and lined with scarlet;
collar and cuffs of the same (scarlet), with yellow
buttons, stamped with the letters " First Regiment,"
the button-holes and edges of the coat trimmed with
gold lace or yellow silk binding ; cocked hat, with
a red feather and the cockade of the State ; blue pan-
taloons, edged with yellow or buff; vest with yellow
buttons, stamped " First Regiment;" short boots; a
cartridge-box to fasten around the body, and to con-
tain at least fourteen cartridges ; a buff bayonet-belt
with an oval plate in front, with the arms of the
State stamped thereon, and the letters " First Regi-
ment, Pennsylvania Artillery." The horse or flying
artillery uniform was to be a short, blue coat, faced
with scarlet; collar and cuffs of the same, the trim-
mings to be the same as for the foot artillery. One
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
551
thousand State arms were to be issued to the regiment.
It was required to be ordered out for exercise not less
than six times, nor more than twelve times, in a year.
The cavalry regiment was to have one colonel, one
lieutenant-colonel, and two majors.
The cavalry regiment was organized on the 29th of
April by the election of Robert Wharton colonel, John
Smith as lieutenant-colonel, Caleb Hughes and Sam-
uel Mifflin majors. A sham battle was fought on the
6th of May, under command of Gen. John Steele, the
opposing forces being officered by Maj. Lewis Rush
and Col. George Bartram. The field of battle was on
the west side of the Schuylkill River, near the Upper
Ferry bridge. The attack was made by crossing from
Fairmount. May 27th a numerous body of regular
troops from New England, under command of Col.
Boyd, passed through Philadelphia on their way to
Pittsburgh. There were large crowds on the streets
and at the windows. In October another military
fete, similar to that in May, took place on Broad Street,
near Centre Square. Col. Wharton had command
of the cavalry, and Col. Ferguson of the artillery.
Brig.-Gen. Bright, aided by Col. Irwin and Maj. Bor-
den, commanded one of the armies in the sham battle,
and Brig.-Gen. Duncan, with Majs. Dillingham and
Dennis, commanded the othe' . August 21st a dinner
was given to Gen. Pinckney it Barry's Union Hotel,
corner of Second and Union Streets. Charles Biddle
was president, and Maj. Lenox was secretary. The
First and Second Troops presented an address to Gen.
Pinckney on the 5th of September. In October the
officers of the cavalry regiment were notified by Aaron
Denman, adjutant, that they should meet for officers'
drill opposite the first turnpike gate on the German-
town road.
The fire department had proved efficient in times
of need, and in June one thousand dollars was appro-
priated by City Councils to the fire and hose com-
panies, being, it is believed, the first time that a con-
tribution had been made by the Councils for the
support of the fire department. A disastrous fire oc-
curred at Newburyport, Mass., also in June, and the
loss was estimated at two millions of dollars. A meet-
ing of citizens was held at the Philadelphia City Hall
June 15th. Robert Ralston was chairman and James
Milnor was secretary. Committees were appointed in
all the wards to solicit contributions, and a consider-
able amount of money was raised, which was for-
warded to the sufferers.
During the summer the markets were disturbed by
persons who were not butchers cutting up meat and
selling it in the market. This was the commence-
ment of what in later years led to the butcher-and-
shinner difficulties. The butchers held several meet-
ings, and petitioned Councils for an ordinance against
them.
Mention has already been made of the monument
to Gen. Wayne that the " Society of the Cincinnati"
were building at Radnor, Chester Co. Being finished,
it was dedicated June 5th of this year. Adam and
James Traguair were the builders, and their work was
much admired. Among the militia that marched to
Radnor and assisted in the dedication ceremonies
were the First City Troop, Lieut.-Com. Crawford;
Second City Troop, Capt. Thomas Cadwalader ; Third
City Troop, Capt. Samuel Meeker; Fourth City Troop,
Lieut.-Com. Clopp; First County Troop, Lieut.-Com.
Haas; Second County Troop, Capt. Humphreys, —
forming the associated regiment of volunteer cavalry
of the city and county of Philadelphia. The " So-
ciety of the Cincinnati" thought the time was appro-
priate, and passed resolutions that a monument to
Washington was desirable. Their committees were
not able to raise the necessary funds, and the project
languished for some time. July 4th the society met
in Philadelphia. The cavalry, infantry, and artillery
paraded through the streets, and escorted their guests
to Zion Church, at Fourth and Cherry Streets, where
an oration was delived by Charles Biddle. The Penn-
sylvania Society dined at the Mansion House, Maj.-
Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the president-
general of the society, being president.
There were some local incidents during the summer
of 1811 worthy a passing word. William Duane, of
the Aurora, lost a libel suit instituted by J. E. Smith,
steward (in 1804) of the lazaretto, and the verdict
against him was for eight hundred dollars. Three
female convicts, two black and one white, dug their
way under the walls of the Walnut Street prison and
escaped. The Councils authorized commissioners to
take down the east and west walls of the State-House
and put up iron palisades instead, but finding that
there were legal difficulties, an act of the Legislature
was afterwards obtained. One of the sensations of
the year was an attempt to kidnap Stephen Girard.
Two men arranged a plan to seize him by enticing
him to visit a certain store upon a proposition to buy
goods. Their idea was to obtain possession of his
person, and then compel him to draw checks for what-
ever sums of money they chose to demand. Girard
discovered the plot before an endeavor was made to
put it into operation. The men were arrested and
bound over to answer. They were in prison several
months, but in March, 1812, they were acquitted.
Over all the local events of 1811, however, the
shadow of national gloom and of approaching war
was deep and unbroken. National, State, and city
politics by turns agitated the minds of Philadelphians.
In February Mr. Pinckney, our envoy to England,
having exhausted all his arguments, returned to
America, but Augustus J. Foster was appointed envoy
to the United States " to settle the Chesapeake affair
and other disputes." March 2d another act of Con-
gress opened the way still further for reconciliation.
But it was hard to believe in peace ; many citizens
felt that the nation's honor would be compromised by
further efforts to avoid the inevitable conflict. An
American ship was captured by a British cruiser
552
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
within thirty miles of New York. Early in May
Capt. Dacres and the " Guerriere" impressed a native
of Maine from the brig " Spitfire" when only eighteen
miles from New York, and other cases determined the
government to send out some of the new frigates.
May 16th, in the evening, the forty-four-gun frigate
"President," under Commodore Rodgers, encoun-
tered the British sloop " Little Belt," forty miles
northeast of Cape Henry, and broadsides were ex-
changed. Contradictory and indeed irreconcilable
stories were told by the commanders. The Demo-
crats accepted the statement that the British were the
aggressors ; the Federalists claimed that the American
vessel had made the attack in order to force a decla-
ration of war. Partisan spirit seldom reached a greater
height; the opposition press was crowded with unpa-
triotic assaults on Commodore Rodgers. Meanwhile
in the West events of peculiar importance were oc-
curring. Elks-watawa, under the guidance of Tecum-
seh, had devoted six toilsome years to rousing the
superstition of the Indians; they had welded together
a strong confederacy of tribes, and threatened the
existence of the infant settlements from Vincennes
to Kentucky. Harrison called for aid, and the old
Indian-fighters sprang to arms. November 7th, under
the oaks of Tippecanoe, surrounded by marshes and
grass-grown prairie, was fought the battle where
Daviess fell, where Tecumseh's league was shattered,
where Harrison gained the glory which made him
President. November 4th the Twelfth Congress as-
sembled, called together by special proclamation.
The Federalists had only six senators and thirty-six
representatives. Henry Clay, war candidate, was
chosen Speaker by a vote of seventy-five to thirty-
eight. The message was firm but not bellicose. The
Committee on Foreign Relations, in their report
adopted December 16th, said, —
" The period has arrived when, in the opinion of
your committee, it is the sacred duty of Congress to
call forth the patriotism and resources of the country.
By the aid of these and the blessing of God we con-
fidently trust we will be able to procure that redress
which has been sought for by justice, by remonstrance,
and by forbearance in vain." The committee recom-
mended Congress to second the proposition of the
President by immediately putting the United States
"into an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corre-
sponding with the national spirit and expectations.''
The bill to increase the regular army was amended
to allow the enlistment of twenty-five thousand ad-
ditional men. Appropriations were made, and the
President authorized, whenever necessary, to call on
the Governors of the States for a quota of one hun-
dred thousand militia, instead of fifty thousand, as
had been recommended.
Politics in Philadelphia were marked by the usual
struggle between factions. The animosity between
the old and new schools of Democratic politicians
had not ceased to have its effects. Although both
wings supported Snyder, they were in other mat-
ters apparently as hostile as ever. The new-school
Democrats had the influence of the State admin-
istration. The old-school Democrats, under Leib
and Duane, were without power, and represented
only dissatisfaction. The Tammany Society held its
meeting on the 13th of May at the Widow Long's.
Brother John Thompson delivered the " long talk."
Seventeen toasts were duly honored. George W.
Bartram offered a strong personal toast, aimed at
Binns, which was followed by " The Dead March"
and three groans. The new-school party met at the
usual time at the house of George Fagundus, sign of
the " Cock and Lion," in the Northern Liberties, and
nominated, on the city and county ticket, for senator,
Isaac Worrell. In the county they nominated a
ticket for the Assembly, and supported John Dennis
for coroner, and Forrest, Barclay, and Schafer for
auditors. The old-school Democrats, having been
badly beaten in previous contests, were inclined on
this occasion to recommend the policy of union.
The Aurora rather favored the proposed alliance.
In September delegates chosen from the two wings
of the party held a meeting at John Miller's,
No. 63 North Fourth Street. For senator John Con-
nelly was nominated ; for county commissioner,
Abel Evans; for coroner, William Shannon; for
county auditors, Maj. John Holmes, Philip Peltz,
and William Piersol. Mr. Connelly declined the
senatorship, and George Summers was nominated.
Upon the representative ticket for the county this
convention placed the names of John Thompson,
George Morton, William Paul, John Carter, Francis
Ingall, and Samuel Castor. The Federalists in the
city nominated a full Assembly ticket, embracing the
names of Benjamin R. Morgan, Thomas McEuen,
Samuel Hodgdon, John Clawges, Sr., and John
Drinker. For senator from the city and county they
nominated John Jones, of Lower Dublin ; Jonathan
Roberts for county commissioner; Thomas Hopkins
for coroner ; and for auditors, Timothy Paxson,
Thomas P. Cope, and Joshua Comly. It was found
that no union of the Democratic wings was possible.
The friends of union of Lower Delaware Ward
declared that "the efforts to obtain a union had not
been met generally with the spirit of harmony, but
were followed by meetings in several wards under the
direction of executive officers and office-holders."
The North Mulberry Ward resolutions regretted that
" ward meetings had been called of friends of a par-
ticular man." In Southwark, at Commissioners'
Hall, resolutions were passed against the proceedings
of "a general ward committee styling itself Demo-
cratic," etc. The attacks were very strong against
Binns, and as the canvass went on the spirit of har-
mony was entirely lacking. The result, as might have
been expected, was that the Federalists carried their
city ticket. In the county there was a new-school
triumph. The election resulted as follows : Total
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
553
vote in the city and county for senator, Worrell (New
School), 3259; Jones (Federalist), 3044; Summers,
(Old School), 1661. County commissioners, Fitler
(New School), 3294; Roberts (Federalist), 3100;
Evans (Old School), 1543; coroner, Dennis (New
School), 3680; Hopkins (Federalist), 3035; Shannon
(Old School), 1731; auditors, New School, Forrest,
3227; Barclay, 3226; Schafer, 3225; Federalists,
Paxon, 3077; Cope, 3075; Comly, 3074; Old School,
Piersol, 1565; Peltz, 1564; county Assembly, New
School, Heston, 2019; McLeod, 2015 ; Holgate, 2011 ;
Groves, 2011; Shearer, 2001; Duncan, 1984; Old
School, Castor, 1401 ; Ingall, 1390 ; Thompson, 1378 ;
Carter, 1372 ; Paul, 1370 ; and Morton, 1351.
In the State Snyder received 52,319 votes ; William
Tilghman, not nominated, but voted for by some Fed-
eralists, received 3609. There were 1675 scattering
votes, of which more than 400 were polled in favor
of a well-known local character, — Richard, commonly
called " Dicky," Folwell.
The State election for Governor was very quiet.
Simon Snyder's administration had been able and
popular. There was no opposition within his own
party, the " Quids," in 1808, having but 4000 votes in
the whole State. The Federalists did not nominate
any State ticket.
Clay, in the House of Representatives, spoke for
the buckskin-clad pioneers of Kentucky and Ohio
when he exclaimed that though Philadelphia, New
York, Boston should fall into British hands, though
the Atlantic seaboard States were invaded, yet the
West would save the government. Jan. 14, 1812,
$1,500,000 was appropriated for arms and equipment,
$400,000 for the navy, and $500,000 for coast defense.
State after State promised to support decisive meas-
ures. The Aurora made the figures " 6257," the
number of impressed American citizens, the keynote
of many a war editorial. Philadelphia merchants
still deprecated hostilities.
On the 1st of April a meeting was held at the
Merchants' Coffee-House of merchants, traders, and
others interested in American property in Great
Britain. Alexander Henry acted as president, and
Samuel F. Bradford as secretary. It was resolved
that there was great danger of injury to American
merchants, not only by forfeiture of their property in
Great Britain, but by the suspending of contracts and
the confiscation of debts. A committee was appointed
to memorialize Congress. A few weeks later Congress
issued proposals for a subscription to a national loan
of eleven millions of dollars before the war had com-
menced. In May it was announced that the subscrip-
tions in Philadelphia toward this loan were : By the
Bank of Pennsylvania, $500,000; by the Farmers'
and Mechanics' Bank, $300,000; by the Philadelphia
Bank, $100,000; by the Bank of North America,
$100,000 ; by individuals, $545,800 ; by an " officer of
the general government," $60,000 ; and by a " French
gentleman," $40,000. Total $1,645,800. But the funds
that were available seemed totally inadequate. Albert
Gallatin, in his report of January 10th, had given a
gloomy account of the financial condition of the
country, and matters showed no signs of improvement.
The affair of John Henry, once a wine-dealer in
Philadelphia, also at one time an editor of a Phila-
delphia paper, attracted public attention in the spring
and summer. Henry was a secret emissary of the
British government, if the revelations he made by
letters from Philadelphia to our government can be
trusted.
The "True Republican" Society celebrated its an-
niversary on the 7th of May, at the house of brother
Frederick Meyers. Capt. Reed's band furnished the
music, and there were seventeen toasts. The Tam-
many Society listened, during the same month, to a
" long talk" by Joseph T. Clement. Dr. Michael Leib
was re-elected Grand Sachem, and George Bartram,
father of the Council. Among the toasts was the
following : " Foreign tribes strive to make us vassals.
They outrage our rights. The common path of na-
tions is no longer free for us. Slaves only submit to
oppression. Let us then unbury the tomahawk which
lies hid under our great wigwam, to assert our rights
and avenge our wrongs."
A Democratic meeting was held at the State-House
May 20th, Capt. William Jones being president, and
James West, secretary. The resolutions were strongly
worded in favor of war. The United States Gazette,
speaking of it, said that there were two thousand
persons present, including boys, and that " among
other characters present were Lieut.-Col. John Binns
(he had just been appointed aide-de-camp to Governor
Snyder), Daniel Addis, Charles J. Ingersoll, John L.
Leib, and James Carson." The meeting was a source
of disagreement between Binns and Duane. The
Aurora did not publish the proceedings. The Fed-
eralists consulted on the crisis through a convention
of delegates from the wards. This body adopted an
address declaring "their firm and unqualified con-
viction that the United States are not impelled to the
war by necessity, nor invited to it by expediency."
May 18th, with Madison's renomination in the
Congressional caucus, the die was cast, but war was
not actually declared till the 18th of June. The de-
bate in the House was of historic interest. Pennsyl-
vania and the States south and west gave sixty-two
votes for it and seventeen against. The States north
of Pennsylvania gave seventeen for it and thirty-two
against. The Smith and Leib faction, long advocates
of war, suddenly tried to delay the bill. It passed
the Senate by a vote of nineteen to thirteen. The
next day President Madison issued his proclamation.
The country, despite the years that war had been an
approaching and visible evil, was but poorly prepared
for the conflict Disunion prevailed in national
councils; the Essex Junto Federalists were opposed
to the war, and New England Congregational minis-
ters thundered from their pulpits in strong appeals
554
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
for peace at any price. We had undertaken an offen- !
sive war to force England to respect our maritime
rights, and yet the nation lacked unity.
Philadelphia was patriotic to the core. Prompt
consultation was had as to whether the citizens, prin-
cipally the merchants, might not be able to build a
ship-of-war for the use of the government, as in 1798
they built the frigate "City of Philadelphia.'' A
meeting for this purpose was held near the end of
June. Jacob Gerard Koch subscribed five thousand
dollars to this fund as a gift, but added, " If it is in-
tended to loan the ship I will build a ship-of-war
myself for the government." This proposition was
not carried out, probably because those who were in-
terested in it perceived a better method of assistance
by fitting out privateers.
Four days after intelligence of war reached the city
the cavalry regiment of Col. Robert Wharton, Lieut. -
Col. John Smith commanding, offered its services to
the general government. This precedent was followed
immediately afterwards by the Philadelphia Legion,
Col. Lewis Rush. On the 1st of July a meeting of
the staff and commissioned officers of the First Divi-
sion was held at Harvey's tavern, in Spring Garden.
Maj.-Gen. Isaac Worrell was chairman, and Maj.
Frederick Foering secretary. The committee to draft
resolutions consisted of Gen. Wharton, Gen. Duncan,
Cols. Peter L. Berry, Thompson, Erwin, Snyder,
Hergesheimer, Smith, Duncan, and Ferguson. They
recommended that the volunteer and militia compa-
nies which they represented should unite with the
constituted authorities in whatever measures of de-
fense were deemed necessary. They also recom-
mended that a special session of the Legislature
should be convened. On the same day a meeting of
citizens beyond the age of forty-five years, who were
not liable to military duty, was held at the Indian
King Hotel, in Market Street. Charles Biddle was
chairman, and George A. Baker secretary. They re-
solved to form themselves into a military association
to aid the civil authority in maintaining order. The
committee appointed to arrange for the organization
of the company was composed of the following citi-
zens : Upper Delaware Ward, John Miller ; Lower
Delaware Ward, George A. Baker ; High Street Ward,
William Wray ; Chestnut Ward, Bernard McMahon ;
Walnut Ward, William Smiley ; Dock Ward, Levi
Hollingsworth ; New Market Ward, Capt. William
Jones ; North Mulberry Ward, Alexander Cook ;
South Mulberry Ward, John Barker; North Ward,
Paul Beck ; Middle Ward, Robert Patterson ; South
Ward, Conrad Hanse; Locust Ward, James E. Smith ;
Cedar Ward, John Douglass ; for the Northern Lib-
erties, John Goodman, Jacob Beitler, Frederick
Sheetz; for Southwark, Robert McMullin, Archibald
Binney, William Linnard, Isaac Hosey, Michael
Freytag, Norris Stanley, and Capt. Glover. Each of
the members of this organization agreed to furnish
himself with a musket, bayonet, cartouch-box, and
twelve charges of powder and ball. The officers were
to be chosen by elections in the wards, and the asso-
ciation was originally called " The Venerable Mili-
tary Corps." Subsequently the title was changed
to " The Military Association of the City and Liber-
ties of Philadelphia of Friends of the Government
of the United States."
The only force immediately effective was con-
nected with the uniformed volunteer militia. In the
First Brigade were Col. Ebenezer Ferguson's artillery
regiment, the cavalry regiment under Col. Robert
Wharton, and the Twenty-fourth Regiment of in-
fantry, Col. S. F. Fotteral. Gen. Bright, of this
brigade, died in February, and Col. Wharton was
his successor. The militia regiments of this bri-
gade were the Twenty-fifth, Col. Samuel Erwin; the
Twenty-eighth, Col. Samuel Glause; the Fiftieth,
Lieut.-Col. George Bartram ; and the Eighty-fourth,
Col. Peter L. Berry. The quota of the First Brigade
was eight hundred and eighty-eight. Lieut.-Col. John
Smith's cavalry regiment made up three hundred
and twenty-two of these, and Col. Lewis Rush's
Legion added four hundred and five more. William
Etris, brigade inspector of the Second Brigade, gave
notice on the 23d of June that nine hundred and
sixty-four men would be required. They were to be •
taken from the Forty-second, Sixty -seventh, Seventy-
fifth, Eightieth, Eighty-eighth, One Hundred and
Fortieth, One Hundred and Fifty-fifth, and One
Hundred and Fifty-sixth Regiments. The Legion
resolved, on the 29th of July, to offer its services to
the Governor as part of the quota of Pennsylvania.
Its board of officers said that they could muster five
hundred men, and could soon double the number. On
the Fourth of July the volunteer companies paraded.
The strength of the regiment of cavalry was three
hundred and twenty-two men, and of Col. Rush's
Philadelphia Legion four hundred and five men.
On that day there were various military celebrations
in Philadelphia. The officers of the army dined at
Bush Hill ; the Twenty-eighth Regiment at Harvey's,
in Spring Garden ; and the Independent Volunteers
at Patterson's, on the banks of the Schuylkill. Col.
Winfield Scott was sent to Philadelphia by the
United States government to organize a regiment
for the regular service. The camp was pitched on
the west side of the Schuylkill, near the Upper Ferry.
Among the officers were Capt. Charles Smith, of the
Light Dragoons ; Capt. James N. Barker (son of
Gen. John Barker), of the artillery; and Lieut.
Thomas M. Powers. These officers dined at Bush
Hill on the Fourth of July. The organization was
known in the United States service as the Second
Artillery.1
1 Gen. Winfield Scott, in a speech in Philadelphia in 1852, said, " I
owe many thanks to Philadelphians and to Pennsylvamans. Across
your river Schuylkill, in 1812, 1 had the honor to form a camp, where a
regiment was prepared for the defense of the Canada frontier and for
the plains of Canada. That regiment was composed almost exclusively
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
555
Congress had passed an embargo law on the 4th of i
April, which expired on the 2d of July. The 30th of |
July was solemnized as a State fast-day, and was gen-
erally observed in Pennsylvania. The 20th of August
was observed as a day of fasting and prayer through-
out the United States.
In July all British subjects in Philadelphia district
were given notice to report their names, occupation,
residence, etc., to the United States marshal.
The " Old Hob" Society held a meeting on the
4th of July at the " Green Tree," Walnut Street, and
adopted, among others, the following toasts : " May
the fate of the Tories of the Revolution be a warning
to the highflyers of the present day." " May the To-
ries in New England repent, or be damned !" "Safe-
keeping to all who are dissatisfied with the liberties
and independence of America." The Twenty-eighth
Regiment, celebrating the day in Spring Garden,
adopted, as a toast : " Commodore Rodgers — When he
meets a little belt or a big belt, or any kind of a Brit-
ish belt, may he succeed in giving them a good belt-
ing !" The Independent Volunteers, Capt. Samuel
Borden, dined at Patterson's Schuylkill Hotel. Pri-
vate Clement S. Ellick offered the following toast:
" May the hides of the British garrison at Quebec be
speedily tanned in their own vats !" At the First
Light Infantry celebration the following toast was
duly honored : " Our Secret Enemies — May they ever
keep in mind that the tar of Virginia and the feathers
of our own farms keep in store abundance of stock
for the accommodation of gentlemen of that kid-
ney."
The other side of public sentiment was shown by
of Pennsylvanians. My gratitude for that regiment is unbounded, and
never will the recollection of it fade from my remembrance. There I
had the honor to meet some of the finest young men the country ever
produced. I refer to the Biddies, Thomas and John, who came out of
the army majors, a distinction they were eminently deserving of for
their gallantry and excellent services. The father of these Biddies —
CharleB Biddle — I recollect was a Revolutionary hero, and was at the
head of the Committee of Safety in October, 1814, when Philadelphia
was threatened with invasion, when your homes were threatened with
destruction, and when the United States Treasury was bankrupt. He
was a noble man, and his memory I will ever cherish. Thomas Lieper,
who kept a tobacco-honse in Market Street, was another great patriot,
and his memory also will be held in grateful remembrance along with
other worthy and good men of that day. Thomas Cadwalader was
another gentleman who, while living, I loved, and who, now dead, I
honor. He was a member, if I recollect aright, of that same Committee
of Safety which, when the United States Treasury refused to pay a
dollar, went and borrowed funds on their own credit for the defense of
your now beautiful city of Philadelphia."
The following is a description of the United States army uniforms at
this time: Artillery (officers), chapeau-bras bound around the edge with
black ribbon ; yellow buttons, golden tassels, and loop ; black cockade,
with gold eagle in the centre; white feather, three inches in height;
blue coats, scarlet collars and cuffs; white cloth, or cassimere, breeches,
and single-breasted vests. Artillery (soldiers), cocked hats; blue coats,
with scarlet cuffs, and standing collar; pants, white in summer and blue
in winter ; vests of white cloth. Infantry (field officers), chapeau-bras.
Platoon officers, black caps of cylindrical form; cockade and eagle on
the left side, to rise one inch above the cap, oblong Bilver plate in front,
with the name of the corps, number, and regiment ; white plume in
front; blue coats, scarlet collars and cuffs; white vests and pantaloons.
For privates a similar dress."
Federalist meetings. The Federalists of Upper Del-
aware Ward held a meeting in July. Those were in-
vited to come " who are attached to the principles of
the Father of his Country, and who are opposed to
the deleterious measures of the present administra-
tion." The resolutions said, " It is with despondency
we view a war declared, which, if successful to the
most sanguine wishes of its promoters, must end in
our own ruin and a complete subserviency to the
mandate of the diabolical and detestable destroyer
of mankind— Napoleon Bonaparte." In North Ward
it was
" Resolved, That a long experience has shown us the insufficiency of
our present rulers to place our beloved country in that independent po-
sition among nations which we ought to hold, and that at a moment
when commerce, the baBis of our national prosperity, is almost annihi-
lated, when wars, direct taxes, and paper money are our only resource
for supporting a war prematurely declared, and a hateful tyrant is forcing
us into a destructive alliance, it becomes proper at our ensuing election
to confide our public trusts to men pure and enlightened, who will de-
mand redress the moment insult or injury is offered, and not decline a
peace when peace can be procured on honorable terms."
A meeting was called of citizens of High Street
Ward who " desire to secure to the country an able
and independent administration, who can supply the
treasury without paper money, and procure an hon-
orable peace without foreign auxiliaries."
The Democrats of Locust Ward, in July, adopted
resolutions in favor of sustaining the government,
among which was the sentiment, — " Should the intem-
perance of despair instigate to deeds of disaffection,
we will maintain the Union against domestic traitors
as well as foreign enemies." The North Mulberry
Ward resolutions declared, " That the resolutions
adopted and published by a meeting in Lower Dela-
ware Ward of persons styling themselves Federalists,
deserve the severest reprobation of all real Ameri-
cans, and it is recommended to such gentry to recol-
lect that Nova Scotia may not be as safe a retreat for
them in this war as it was for the Tories in 1776."
The Walnut Ward Democrats resolved, that " those
who in 1798 determined to give millions for defense,
but not a cent for tribute, must have greatly degen-
erated if, in 1812, they would give millions for tribute
rather than one cent for defense." The Democratic
Tress, July 1st, published an article accusing Gregg
and Leib of voting with the Federalists in the United
States Senate against the war eleven times, and added
that they '' did not vote for the war until there was a
majority without them."
Privateers began to be fitted out with great speed.
July 4th, at noon, three of these vessels, which were
lying in the Delaware in front of the city, fired sa-
lutes. They were the " Atlas," Capt. David Maffett ;
the "Spencer," Capt. Morse; and the "Matilda,"
Capt. Noah Allen. They sailed soon afterwards, and
the " General McKean," Capt. Lucet, followed a fort-
night later. Their voyages were probably profitable,
but the risk was very great. The " Matilda," under
Capt. Taylor, sailed on the 7th of July, and before
556
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
she reached the Capes a mutiny took place, and forty
of the crew were lodged in New Castle jail. Capt.
Taylor was replaced by Capt. Allen, who captured
and sent into Savannah, in September, the British
ship " Goellet," Capt. Reed, with salt, steel, etc. ; also
the " Ranger," a British privateer brig of ten guns ;
the schooner " Jingle," with coffee, cocoa, etc. ; the
schooner "Manger," with cocoa, etc. ; and the schooner
"Woodbum," with coffee. Capt. Heard, of the
" Ranger," was wounded, and died in the Pennsyl-
vania Hospital. He was buried with the honors of
war by officers of the army and navy and the Phila-
delphia Blues, under Capt. Rush. In July the " Ma-
tilda" had a fight with five armed British ships. With
one of fourteen guns the contest was rather warm for
about half an hour, but the other four ships coming
up rapidly, the "Matilda" took advantage of her su-
perior speed and escaped, after having sustained a
running fire. The British brig " Esther and Eliza-
beth," laden with fish and dry goods, was sent in on
the 5th of August by the " Governor McKean." The
same vessel returned in the latter part of August,
bringing in the packet "Prince Adolphus," of eight
guns, which was bound to Falmouth, from Martin-
ique. A New England schooner was also recaptured
from a British privateer, and thirty prisoners released.
Other prizes were taken during the year 1812 by these
armed vessels. The "Hazard," Capt. Singleton,
which was added to our offensive fleet in August, in
December recaptured and sent in the Philadelphia
ship " Aristides," from Liverpool, which was detained
without reason.
The privateer "Spencer," Capt. Morse, and the
schooner "Shadow," Capt. Hight, went out for cruises
in the summer, but returned without success. The
" Atlas," Capt. Maffett, arrived in September from a
long cruise. Two large armed Jamaicamen, with
valuable cargoes, were taken by her after a severe
action, in which she lost nine killed and nineteen
wounded. Prize-masters were put on board, and one
of them, the ship "Pursuit," of Loudon, was brought
into port, the other, the " Planter," was probably
recaptured by a British frigate. The "Revenge,"
William Butler commander, in the latter part of the
year sent in the British schooner " Lorama," loaded
with sugar. She also captured the sloop " Kate Can-
ning," with a cargo of sugar, the ship " Neptune,"
and the " Cyrus," of Belfast. The sloop " Polly,"
captured by the " Revenge," was sunk off Chinco-
teague.
Towards the end of the year the fleet of privateers
belonging to Philadelphia was enlarged by the addi-
tion of the schooner "Snapper," Capt. Green, and
the "Rattlesnake," commanded by David Maffett,
formerly of the " Atlas." The " Rattlesnake" (vessel)
was built by Andrew Seguin, of the Northern Liber-
ties, for Andrew Curcier, and was pierced for eighteen
guns. On her way down the Delaware she was upset
at Reedy Island in a sudden gale. The pilot and
twenty of the crew were drowned. The vessel was
raised, brought up to the city, and subsequently sailed
for France. She made no captures of importance,
and was prevented from returning to port for many
months by the blockade of the Delaware.
Honors to the naval heroes of the war were lavishly
bestowed by Philadelphia. News of the capture of
the British frigate " Guerriere," Capt. James R.
Dacres, by the United States frigate " Constitution,"
Capt. Isaac Hull, was received September 3d. It was
determined to present pieces of plate to " Capt. Hull
and our townsman, Lieut. Charles Morris." A meet-
ing was held September 5th. Commodore Richard
Dale presided, and John Sergeant was secretary.1
Capt. David Porter arrived in September in command
of the United States sloop-of-war " Essex." During
his cruise he captured the ship " Alert/' of twenty
guns, and nine other prizes. The " Essex" was re-
fitted, and sailed October 28th for the South Pacific.
She captured British property worth several millions
of dollars, and was finally taken, in defiance of the
laws of nations, in the neutral port of Valparaiso, by
the British frigate " Phcebe," of thirty-six guns, and
the sloop " Cherub," of twenty guns. News of the
capture of the British frigate "Macedonian," Capt.
John S. Carden, by the United States frigate " United
States," Capt. Stephen Decatur, reached Philadel-
phia on the 8th of December. On the 10th of
December Common Council, on motion of Liberty
Browne, passed resolutions eulogizing the gallantry
of Capt. Stephen Decatur, and it was resolved to
present him with a sword. On the 10th of December,
Capt. Jacob Jones, of the United States sloop-of-war
" Wasp," whose capture of the British sloop-of-war
" Frolic," Capt. Thomas Whinyates, was just then the
subject of general congratulation, arrived in the city.
He was escorted into town by the First Regiment of
Pennsylvania Cavalry, under the command of Col.
Smith. On the next day he was, together with such
of his officers as were with him, entertained at the
City Hotel, corner of Second and Union Streets, by
the citizens of Philadelphia. Chief Justice Tilghman
presided, and patriotic sentiments were duly uttered
and honored. A subscription was also commenced
to furnish Capt. Jones and each of his officers with a
piece of plate. The gift that Lieut. James Biddle re-
ceived was a silver urn upon which was a represen-
tation of the battle between the " Wasp" and the
" Frolic," and the following inscription :
1 Pictorial skill waB engaged to illustrate this triumph. Two days
after the news was received, T. W. L. Freeman announced that he
would publish on the 1st of October, at No. 63 "Walnut Street, two
prints, each twenty by fourteen incheB, — one representing the capture
of the " Guerriere," and the other a full-length picture of Capt. Hull.
These were to be furnished at the following prices : For prints, five
dollars each ; proofs, seven dollars; colors, ten dollars. Another print
of the battle between the two ships was announced to be published on
the 31st of September, from a drawing by William Strickland. Size,
eleven by sixteen inches. Price, one dollar and fifty cents plain ; two
dollars, colored.
FKOM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
557
"To
Lieutenant James Bibdle,
United States Navy,
from the early friends and companions of his
youth, who, while their country rewards
his public services, present this
testimonial of their esteem
for his private
worth .
Philadelphia,
1813."
The Legislature of Pennsylvania voted the thanks
of the State and a sword to the same gallant officer.1
But though our naval victories were thus glorious,
defeat and disgrace attended the American army.
Hull's expedition and surrender, the Queenstown
defeat, Smythe's strange inaction, retreat, and failure,
Dearborn's mortifying disasters in the Lake Cham-
plain region, all contrib-
uted to rouse the spirit of
the people and teach them
needed lessons. A disci-
plined navy never failed ;
an undisciplined army
never triumphed. Canada,
the key of the situation,
lay open to assault, and
good generalship would
have captured both the
Upper and Lower Prov-
inces in a single campaign,
thus, perhaps, changing
the entire political history
of the northern half of this
continent. Inefficient com-
manders prolonged the war
far beyond its natural du-
ration.
As the fall elections drew
near the Democrats held
meetings and adopted reso-
lutions, few of them worth
quoting now.
On the election-day "the
Democratic cordwainers"
resolved to meet at McKaraher's tavern, and to visit
in a body the election-grounds at the State-House and
CAPTAIN JAMES BIDDLE.
1 Honors and more substantia] rewards were lavished on the heroes of
the "Wasp." The Legislature of Delaware, of which Capt. Jones was
a native, appropriated twenty-five thou-and dollars to him and his com-
panions as a compensation for the loss of pri/,e-mouey by the recapture
of the " Frolic" by the British ship-of-war " PotctierB," which happened
two hours after the surrender of VVhinyates. The Legislature of the
same State ordered the presentation of a gold medal to Jones, and one
of silver to each of his officers. The night of the Philadelphia banquet
a procession of sailors and officers of the "merchant marine marched
through the streets with flags and transparencies. The caricaturists
took up the subject, and Charles, a Philadelphia engraver, produced the
well-known picture, called " A Wasp on a Frolic ; or a Sting for John
Bull." It represented the customary figure of the Briton pierced by
the exceedingly long sting of a wasp.
James Biddle, son of Charles and nephew of Commodore Nicholas
Biddle, was born in Philadelphia on the 18th of February, 1783. He
was educated at the University of Pennsylvania. He and his brother
at the Northern Liberty town-house. Their banner
bore the inscription, " War is declared I Tories, clear
outl Democrats, unite and conquer I"
The Federalists in September nominated for Con-
gress in the city and county Joseph Hopkinson, Jo-
seph S. Lewis, Samuel Harvey, and William Pennock.
The Assembly ticket for the city was headed with the
name of Benjamin E. Morgan. The Democrats nom-
inated for Congress Adam Seybert, William Ander-
son, Charles J. Ingersoll, and John Conard. In the
city proper the vote for the Democratic candidates
for Congress was 2984: for the Federalists, 2815.
The majority of the city councilmen were carried
by the Democrats, and a Democratic mayor, Gen.-
John Barker, was elected. On the Congressional
ticket in the city and county the Democrats had
6981 and the Federalists
6081 votes. The Madison
Democrats carried both the
city and the county dele-
gations to the Legislature.
The Presidential election
took place in October, and
there was a partial division
in the Democratic party.
Duane and Binns favored
Madison and Gerry. The
Federalists decided to sup-
port George Clinton for
President and Jared In-
gersoll for Vice-President.
At the election the whole
vote of the city and county
was: For the Madison
electors, 6988 ; for Clinton,
4639. Even in the city, so
long held by the Federal-
ists, that party was over-
thrown, the vote being for
Madison, 2936; for Clin-
ton, 2657.
Governor Snyder in De-
cember sent a message to
the Legislature, and reported what the State had
done to aid the war. The government had called
Edward entered the navy in 1800 as midshipmen in the frigate "Presi-
dent." Of seven brothers, John and Thomas served in the regular
army in the war of 1812, Richard and William L. sorved actively in the
militia, and Nicholas in the State Legislature. James made a cruise
in the Mediterranean under Capt. Murray, and afterwards under Bain-
bridge. His conduct while in those waters, and especially at Tripoli,
was distinguished by great courage and nautical skill. While off Trip-
oli, iu October, 1803, be was wrecked in the frigate " Philadelphia," and
was a prisoner among the semi-barbarians of that region for nineteen
months. On his return, in 1805, he was promoted to a lieutenancy,
and was in active service most of the time until the war broke out in
1812, when he sailed in the " Wasp," Capt. Jones, in which he acquired
special honor in the fijrht of that vessel with the " Frolic." As first
lieutenaut of the "Wasp," he led the boarders in the brilliant action
with the "Frolic" on Oct. 18, 1812. Captured by the "PotctierB," 74,
and taken to Bermuda, he was exchanged March 5, 1813, made master
commander, and given a flotilla of gun-boatB on the Delaware. While
558
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
upon Pennsylvania for four thousand militia to go
into actual service. These troops rendezvoused at
Meadville and Pittsburgh. The public arms were in
a wretched condition, old and rust-eaten, and many
which had belonged to the State were scattered and
held in private hands. There were not enough car-
touch-boxes, and other military stores were wanting.
Seven hundred and fifty extra muskets and cartouch-
boxes were made by the Governor's orders. In the
wooden military arsenal at Philadelphia the public
ordnance was exposed to injury by dampness. Cloth-
ing and blankets were wanted by the militia, which
the Governor thought ought to be furnished at public
expense. The Legislature passed a law allowing the
Governor to supply the State troops in service of the
United States with blankets, watch-coats, and other
clothing. A bounty of ten dollars was ordered to be
paid to such volunteers and militia as might cross the
line into Canada.
In the early part of the year news of the frightful
destruction of the Richmond Theatre, on Dec. 26,
1811, caused a feeling of horror everywhere. The
citizens of Philadelphia deeply sympathized with the
sufferers. A meeting was called at the court-house
January 6th, Edward Ingersoll in the chair, and A.
S. Coxe secretary. It was determined that a tablet
should be prepared with a suitable inscription and
transmitted to Richmond, to be placed in the church
which it was proposed to build upon the site of the
theatre. The theatrical establishments were greatly
injured in their business. The managers of the new
theatre in Chestnut Street published an address to the
public claiming that their building was safe.
Turning to quieter topics, — for the currents of daily
existence flowed on much the same in busy " Phila-
delphia town," — we find that one of the first events
of 1812 was an attempt, fortunately unsuccessful, to
repeal the legislative bill for " instructing the children
of the poor gratis in Philadelphia." The reason
given was, " the great number of poor children and
the extravagant charges for their tuition — amounting
in some instances to nine dollars per quarter, in-
cluding stationery, which, if charged universally,
in command of the " Honiot" he was blockaded in New London, Conn.,
but escaped, and March 23d, off the island of Tristan d'Acunha, cap-
tured the British brig "Penguin," after a sharp action, in which he re-
ceived a wound in the neck. April 27th he displayed his seamanship
in escaping from the " Oornwallis," 74, after a chase of four days, during
which he threw overboard his guns and equipments to lighten Ilia ship.
ForhiB action with the "Penguin" Congress voted him a gold medal,
Philadelphia voted him a service of plate, and other honors were be-
stowed upon him. He was promoted to post captain Feb. 28, 1815, and
continued in active service until his death. In 1817 he took possession
of Oregon Territory ; in 1826 he signed a commercial treaty with Tur-
key; from 1830 to 1832 he commanded the American squadron in the
Mediterranean ; from 1838 to 1842 be was governor of the Naval ABylum
in Philadelphia; and in 1845, while in command of a squadron in the
East Indies, be exchanged the ratifications of the first American treaty
with China. He was at Japan, and, crossing the Pacific, he engaged in
some of the scenes in the war with Mexico on the coast of California.
He returned home in March, 1848, and died at Philadelphia on the 1st
of October following.
would amount to the enormous sum of sixty-five
thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars —
being the sum that is at present necessary to defray
the county expenses." It was stated that persons not
qualified gathered children together in schools for the
sake of the public payment. March 31st, an act re-
lating to Philadelphia gave the commissioners author-
ity, before sending poor children to school, to fix upon
teachers, and to furnish books, stationery, etc. It
also gave them authority to establish public schools,
when approved by City Councils and the commission-
ers of the Northern Liberties and of Southwark.
The Sons of Washington celebrated the 22d of
February at the Mansion House Hotel. James Mil-
nor was president ; Jonathan Bayard Smith and Sam-
uel F. Bradford, vice-presidents ; Robert S. Stephen-
son, secretary; and Samuel Relf, treasurer. The
society had a banquet, and the toasts were patriotic
rather than partisan. Bishop White, Chief Justice
Tilghman, Jonathan Williams, and Capt. Charles
Stewart, of the United States navy, were present.
In January the North American Fire Insurance
Company petitioned for permission to undertake life
insurance also, but failed, and March 10th the Legis-
lature passed an act to incorporate "The Pennsylva-
nia Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting An-
nuities and Reversions." John Welsh, John Warder,
and Jacob Shoemaker were appointed commissioners
to open subscriptions for five thousand shares of stock,
at one hundred dollars each.
Petitions were presented to the Legislature in Jan-
uary from inhabitants of the village of Hamilton,
asking for the enactment of a law to prevent the
great delay occasioned by the passage of vessels,
rafts, etc., through the draw of the Gray's Ferry
bridge. Petitions for the abolition of capital punish-
ment first made their appearance at this session. They
received but little attention, and were laid upon the
table. Petitions were presented to the Legislature in
January from Luzerne County for the incorporation
of a company for raising and vending of stone-coal,
the first proposition made in the State for incorpo-
rating a company for such purposes.
In February an act was passed to order and direct
the removal of all State offices and records to Harris-
burg in the succeeding month of April. Under this
law many records were removed, particularly those
affecting titles to real estate in Philadelphia, which
did not in any way concern the interests of the Com-
monwealth. On the 10th of March an act was passed
to authorize " the further improvement of the State-
House yard." It was enacted that the city might
take down the south wall and erect palisades, leav-
ing a space for a gateway, and fixing suitable folding-
gates therein. A city ordinance providing for the
improvement was passed in April, and the south
wall ordered to be taken down. In November the
United States Gazette complained that " the old, un-
seemly portal to the State-House yard still remains."
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
559
Twenty-five thousand dollars were also appropriated
by the Legislature toward completing the new prison
in Philadelphia. March 24th the county commis-
sioners were authorized to build fire-proof offices in
the State-House, also for the prothonotary of the
Supreme Court.
The Legislature passed several important acts in
March ; one authorized any State bank to make loans
to the United States government. A new Congres-
sional Apportionment bill was passed on the 13th,
which provided for an election upon a general ticket.
Delaware County was excluded, and the city and
county of Philadelphia was formed into one district,
to elect four members.
The building of a road from Harrisburg via Car-
lisle and Bedford to Pittsburgh was authorized. The
State subscribed for seven thousand shares, and also
assisted the northern route via Lewistown. The stock-
holders of the Bank of the United States again ap-
plied for a State charter, but notwithstanding very
liberal offers the charter was refused.1 March 24th
the Legislature incorporated the township of Moya-
mensing, under the title of " The Commissioners and
Inhabitants of Moyamensing, in the County of Phila-
delphia." The citizens were directed to vote at the
first election at the house of William Daily, South
Sixth Street, on the third Friday in March. Nine
commissioners were to be chosen, one-third of them
for one year, one-third for two years, and one-third
for three years. An act was also passed for the relief
of insolvent debtors in the city and county of Phila-
delphia, which gave to the Governor the right to ap-
point three commissioners of insolvency, and with
authority to the latter to appoint three curators.
The law extended the right to insolvents two years
resident in Philadelphia to petition for leave to as-
sign their estates for the benefit of their creditors.
In December a report was presented in the House
recommending the repeal of the insolvent law.
March 31st the Upper Ferry Bridge Company was
authorized to build connecting turnpikes from the
Lancaster road and the Wissahickon road, so as to
open more direct routes to the bridge. The western
section was afterwards opened, but not turnpiked.
From the bridge westward it was in later time known
as Bridge (now Spring Garden) Street. On the east
side of the river the authority given permitted the
iThey expressed willingness to subscribe $175,000 to the road from
Harrisburg to Pittsburg, authorized by the act of April, 1811 ; $100,000
to the road from Northumberland to Waterford.inErie County ; $50,000
to bridges over the Susquehanna at or near Columbia; $30,000 for im-
proving the navigation of the Lehigh River; $30,000 for a turnpike
from the east end of the Perkiomen bridge to EeadiDg; $15,000 for a
bridge over the Delaware between Black's Eddy and Wells' Falls, the
stock to belong to the Commonwealth ; $20,000 for a road from Berwick
to Newtown, in New York State ; $15,000 for the Centre turnpike ; and
$15,000 for the improvement of North and South road, Wayne County.
The proposed capital was $5,000,000. And as a still further inducement,
in addition to the offers previously noticed, the bank stockholders
offered to loan to the State $500,000 at five per cent, interest, to be used
for improvements.
turnpiking of Callowhill and Morris Streets as far as
Tenth. April 28th the corner-stone of the bridge was
laid by the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons,
Past Grand Master Jonathan Bayard Smith offici-
ating. The work of construction proceeded steadily,
and eight months later, January, 1813, it was opened
to the public.2 This bridge was long a famous one.
The chord of the arch was three hundred and forty
feet four inches, being ninety-eight feet greater than
the span of any bridge hitherto known. The rise of
the arch was twenty feet, the elevation above the
water was thirty feet, and the entire length of the
bridge was four hundred feet. At the centre of the
arch the width of the structure was only thirty-five
feet. It gradually widened on both sides until it
reached the width of fifty feet four inches at the
abutments. The designer of the bridge was Lewis
Wernwag, previously a resident of Frankford. His
first work in the bridge-building line was at Frank-
ford, over the creek, which obtained for him such a
reputation that his plans for the Schuylkill bridge,
though novel, were favorably considered. Wernwag
was assisted by Joseph Johnson. The architectural
design for the exterior was made by Robert Mills,
and presented a striking appearance. Another bridge
enterprise, a proposal to erect an arched and covered
bridge over the Schuylkill River at Gray's Ferry, by
an incorporated company, caused much difficulty
about this time and during subsequent years. Coun-
cils insisted that it should have- an arch at least
seventy-five feet above high water. The company
was incorporated under an act of 1800, but no steps
were taken to carry out the provisions of the charter.
Thomas Pope, architect and landscape-gardener, was
probably one of the applicants for authority to con-
struct the Lancaster and Gray's Ferry bridges. In
February he published an article describing his " fly-
ing, pendent, lever bridge,'' without centres or sup-
ports of any kind. A model was exhibited in Pope's
school-room, in Library Street. It was announced in
June that a bridge upon Pope's plan was to be erected
over the Susquehanna, having a span of six hundred
feet. One of the immediate results of the building
of Upper Ferry bridge was a rise in real estate in that
region. John Britton, Jr., published in April his
proposals to sell lots upon ground-rent in Mantua
village, extending from the neighborhood of the
Upper Ferry bridge to the new permanent bridge.
The subject of the burying-ground on the west side
of the Schuylkill above the Middle Ferry was again
brought before the Legislature by petition of the So-
ciety of Friends for a confirmation of their title, and
2 This bridge was destroyed by fire Sept. 1, 1838, and was replaced by
a wire suspension bridge from the plan of Charles Ellet, architect and
civil engineer, which was finished Jan. 2, 1842. The lattor becoming
decayed, it was replaced in 1875 by a fine, large bridge built by the
Koystone Bridge Company. While making repairs for the latter struc-
ture the old corner-stone laid in 1812 was displaced, and the copper-
plate laid by the Masonic Order in that year was found in good condi-
tion.
560
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
by citizens that the property might be dedicated as a
public burying-ground. Eeport was made by a com-
mittee of the House, at the end of March, entirely
favorable to the Quaker title.1 The subject, however,
was laid over till another term. On the 18th of June
the City Councils passed an ordinance to prevent the
interment of deceased persons in the public squares
of Philadelphia. The preamble recited that for a con-
siderable time the public square on the north side of
Sassafras Street had been used as a place of interment
for the bodies of persons dying at the almshouse, at the
State prison, and at the Pennsylvania Hospital, and
of strangers not belonging to any religious society.
This was deemed an infringement of the rights of the
citizens. It was ordered that no one should be buried,
after July 10th, in any of the public squares. It was
also ordered that the city commissioners should in-
close with a board fence, for a cemetery, the lot of
ground belonging to the city of Philadelphia, situate
on the south side of Lombard Street, between Ninth
and Tenth Streets.
The commissioners of Southwark passed an ordi-
nance authorizing the erection of a public market-
house (afterwards the Wharton market) on Moya-
mensing road, commonly called Old Second Street.
It was to be one square in length, and to extend from
Prime Street to Federal Street. Proposals for build-
ing it were invited in March. In 1813 the Legisla-
ture ordained that the space of one hundred feet on
each side of the road laid out by Joseph Wharton
and others, about 1767, " should be a public market-
place forever."
Among the local events of interest were the fol-
lowing: The District of Southwark, by an ordinance
of May 4th, at a cost of five thousand dollars estab-
lished a nightly watch, and ordered lamps to be
erected and maintained. May 20th a public dinner
was given at the Mansion House to Count Nicholas
Pahlen, minister from Brazil to the United States,
who was about to return to his native country.
Thomas W. Francis was president, and William
Meredith was secretary. The project of damming
the river Schuylkill began to attract public attention
in April and May. John Mullowney became director
of the Washington Pottery in Market Street, near
Schuylkill Sixth, in June. Oliver Evans about this
time completed his plan of a cylindrical globular
1 It stated that in 1684 the Society of Friends held a meeting at the
house of" Thomas Ducket, on the west side of the Schuylkill, near the
site of the present permanent bridge, from the records of which meeting,
bearing date 2d of Seventh month, 1684, it is shown that orders were
taken for inclosing and paying for a fence for a burial-ground. In an
original deed from Samuel Bradahaw to John Gardner, 24th of Seventh
mouth, 1712, for a portion of laud purchased in 1097 from John Ducket,
near the said bridge, it is described as " bounded on the west by lands
belonging to a meeting-house." From the depositions of aged witnesses
the lot is shown to have been used as a burying-ground by, and consid-
ered as belonging to, the Society of Friends from very early in the last
century to the present time. The committee reported that the Society
of Friends had a complete equitable title to the lot in question, and pro-
vision ought to be made for removing doubt on the subject.
steam-boiler. He gave notice of prosecution in June
to John Negus and others, whom he said were vio-
lating his patent.
In September, J. & F. Grice, of Kensington,
launched the steamboat " Delaware," to run on the
Baltimore Hue. Daniel Large built the engine. In
November, William Renshaw opened the new " Man-
sion House Hotel," built by Thomas Leiper, at the
southeast corner of Market and Eleventh Streets. In
December, P. C. Labbe began calico printing at No.
206 Cherry Street. A meeting of the citizens of the
Northern Liberties in Penn township was held in
December at the house of Col. George Mintzer.
Capt. William Paul was chairman, and Thomas Lip-
pincott secretary. It was resolved to collect funds
for the relief of the wives and children of soldiers in
service. In November, McCorkle, of the Freeman's
Journal, in a libel suit against Binns, tried before
Judge Brackenridge, recovered a verdict of five hun-
dred dollars.
Stephen Girard, in May, 1812, bought the bank
building on Third Street, south of Chestnut, and
went into banking on his own account. A statement
was soon published that Girard had executed and
recorded a deed of trust to David Lenox, Eobert
Smith, Robert Wain, Joseph Ball, and George Simp-
son, so that, in the event of his death, " no delay nor
obstruction in the payment of the moneys deposited
with him may ensue, but that all business may be
transacted with like promptitude and punctuality that
it could in the lifetime of Girard."
Early in the summer the necessity of moving the
water-works from Chestnut Street, Schuylkill, became
apparent. The Aurora of August 7th said, " We
understand that it is the serious intention of the
City Councils to remove the present establishment of
the water- works to a more eligible situation, to supply
the city with water of better quality and at less ex-
pense." It was suggested that the use of a steam-
engine would be made unnecessary by bringing
water from an elevation sufficient to force it by its
own gravity into the city, " as is the case in several
cities and towns, as in Mount Holly and Wilmington,
where the water is conveyed in pipes from the hills
in the vicinity. The plan, we understand, is to bring
the water from Morris' Hill, near the Upper Ferry, on
the Schuylkill." The Aurora said that some objec-
tions existed to this place, but not in such a great
degree as applied to the site at Chestnut Street. An
opinion was expressed that a better place might have
been obtained farther up the river. A few days later
the Aurora published a communication in opposition
to the proposed water-works, saying that the water
there was as impure as at Chestnut Street. Edward
Clarke, in an article in the same paper, suggested that
the water should be brought from the Wissahickon
rather than from Morris' Hill. William Rush replied
in favor of the site near the Upper Ferry. The sub-
ject was discussed by Rush and Clarke in several
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OP 1812-15.
561
papers and replies. An address, signed "A Citizen,''
on " A Permanent Supply of Pure Water" was pub-
lished in the Aurora of November 5th. The writer
was in favor of a permanent dam near Morris' Hill.
He said that the fall of the river from low-water
mark to the mouth of the Wissahickon was computed
at twelve feet. The rise of the tide was five and a
half feet, the mean head upward of nine feet, and in
every way sufficient for an undershot wheel. The plan
was mainly proposed for water-power purposes and
manufactures. Meanwhile the committee of Coun-
cils had been considering many different schemes.
The hope of obtaining a supply by means of the
Union Canal, which would bring the water into the
city, was only abandoned after it became certain that
the canal would never be built. In 1810 or 1811 the
Water Committee directed Frederick Graff and John
Davis to make examinations. They reported several
plans, one of which was to take the water of Wissa-
hickon Creek by means of a race or canal to pump-
ing machinery erected at the foot of Simes' Hill.
The water was to be sent by proper mains to the top
of the hill, one hundred and ten feet high, into two
large reservoirs, projected to be built upon the sum-
mit; thence, by eighteen-inch pipes of iron, to the
distributing-chest at Centre Square. The plan went
back again to the employment of steam, and the site
at Morris' Hill seemed most convenient. On the 1st
of August, 1812, the steam pumping-works were com-
menced at the foot of Morris' Hill, to which, by direc-
tion of City Councils, was restored the ancient name,
Fairmount. A substantial stone building, the same
one now used for public hall and offices at Fairmount,
was built at the foot of the hill, under direction of
Frederick Graff. A Bolton & Watt steam-engine was
obtained of forty-four-inch cylinder and six feet
stroke. It worked a double-acting vertical pump, of
thirty inches diameter and six feet stroke. The
water was raised through a sixteen-inch iron main,
two hundred and thirty-nine feet long, into the reser-
voir upon the hill, which was one hundred and two
feet above low water in the Schuylkill. The capacity
of the pump was 1,733,632 ale gallons in twenty-four
hours, which was pumped upon a pressure of from
two and a half to four pounds of steam upon a con-
sumption of seven cords of wood daily. The Bolton
& Watt engine was partly cast at Weymouth blast-
furnace, New Jersey, and at the Eagle Works, south-
west corner of William (now called Twenty-third
Street) and Callowhill, an establishment existing
from Bevolutionary times, and said to have been
built for casting cannon for the use of the American
army. The water was pumped directly from the
river. The works were finished and started on the
7th of September, 1815.
American manufactures were in great demand im-
mediately after the breaking out of the war. Im-
portations from Europe were nearly suspended, and
many industries were suddenly anxious to obtain the
30
assistance of the State. Stephen Andres asked the
State to buy his patent-right for a spinning and
roving machine. Frederick Sanno asked for a loan
of three thousand dollars to enable him to extend his
cotton- and woolen-factory. William Little, of the
Northern Liberties, succeeded in inducing the Senate
to pass a bill aiding him in the manufacture of wire
and silver-plate, but the House did not agree.
The first step toward the incorporation of the
Schuylkill Navigation Company was made December
5th this year, by Josiah White and others, who pre-
sented a petition to the Legislature, though it was
not acted on till the next year.
Perhaps nothing created a greater sensation in
Philadelphia during 1812 than the announcement
that perpetual motion had been discovered. Charles
Eedheffer, of Germantown, announced it early in the
summer, and soon inserted an advertisement in the
papers. Duane, of the Aurora, took much interest in
the machines and, November 13th, wrote an editorial
in which Eedheffer was likened to Godfrey and Fitch ;
and it was predicted that, to the triumphs of Penn-
sylvania in the quadrant and the steamboat, perpet-
ual motion was about to be added. As the contri-
vance was described in the first notice, it was said
that " the power of gravitation was applied to pro-
duce a perpetual horizontal action, produced by the
pressure of weights in two corresponding boxes, on a
plane iuclined in an angle of forty-five degrees." On
the 10th of November a long account of a visit to this
wonderful machine, signed " Bell," was published in
the Aurora}
1 The machine wasdeacribed in thisletterin the following terms : "It
consists of a movable inclined plane, affixed by means of chainB to an
upright shaft or axle, with which the whole revolves. On this inclined
plane a carriage, containing weights proportioned to the power required
to be produced, is attached above by means of a cross-beam passing
through an axje or shaft, which is made to move. Therefore the car-
riage, with the weight obeying the law of gravitation, and endeavor-
ing to descend, propels the inclined plane, which forces the shaft to re-
volve, the shaft forces the cross-beam, and the cross-beam again restores
the carriage to its place on the inclined plane, and in this manner the
whole perpetually revolves. It will be immediately objected that the
weight in the carriage is made to restore itself. It does so, and by an
apparent absurdity, — that is, by the operation of two unequal levers
constraining the cross-beam and wheel on which the inclined plane
rests. I call them levers, because they act on the principle of the lever
though palpably they are not 6uch."
The following was the original advertisement of Itedheffer's exhibi-
tion :
PERPETUAL MOTION— THE CURIOUS, THE MECHANICAL,
the learned and ingenious, may be gratified in seeing and in
being convinced that that which for centuries haB occupied, perplexed
and puzzled the philosophic and experimental world (and, indeed by
some of the greatest mechanical geniuseB supposed beyond the reach of
human invention) is now fully, completely and perfectly demonstrated
in the SELF-OPERATING, SELF-MOVING MACHINE, constructed
by the subscriber on principles purely mechanical, aud now offered to
the inspection of an enlightened people. Lovers of the arts and sciences
will, it is confidently expected, be highly gratified in seeing and in con-
templating that amazing display of genius which it has fell to the lot
of an American to exhibit, which must, by the whole world, be allowed
to surpass any invention heretofore discovered or made public wherein
mechanism had the principal agency. It will for a few days be exhibited
from 9 o'clock forenoon to 4 o'clock afternoon, three doors below Mr.
562
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Enthusiasm was now at its height. On the 26th City
Councils passed a resolution appointing a committee
to ascertain whether a machine upon the principle of
Mr. Redheffer's invention " might not be made capa-
ble of raising to a sufficient height a sufficient quan-
tity of water for the use of the citizens of Philadelphia."
On the ensuing day the first published dissent to the
alleged discovery appeared in the Aurora, signed
"Rittenhouse.'' The writer averred that the machine
had never been seen in actual operation for more than
half a day. and avowed his belief that it was a decep-
tion. This was replied to by the editor of the Aurora
a few days afterward. A Mr. Lukens next made an
imitation of the machine, for the purpose of showing
the facility with which a deception might have been
palmed off upon the public, and to demonstrate that
the machine was incapable of generating power.
This attempt to demonstrate Eedheffer's cheat was
reprobated by the Aurora in indignant terms. The
matter was now brought before the Legislature, and
on the 15th of January, 1813, a committee was ap-
pointed by the House of Representatives of the State
to examine into the justice of Eedheffer's claim that
he had discovered perpetual motion. He appointed
the 21st of January for an examination of the ma-
chine. Before the day mentioned he notified the
committee that it would not be convenient for him to
be present, and afterward he said that he would not
show it at all. This conduct was reported to the
Legislature, and the committee was discharged. His
newspaper champion in the Aurora now deserted him.
The City Councils on the 25th of February dis-
charged their committee, appointed to inquire
whether the works at Fairmount could not be carried
on by perpetual motion. Redheffer took his machine
to New York, where its fraudulent character was
demonstrated by Robert Fulton.
National politics in the year 1813 opened with
sharp debates on the floor of Congress, Quincy, of
Massachusetts, leading the minority and denouncing
the invasion of Canada, — " They would support a war
of defense, not a war of conquest and annexation."
To this Clay responded, with an energy of which no
printed speech can give an adequate conception,
charging the Federalists with having thwarted the
plans of their own government and with plotting dis-
union. He portrayed the situation of impressed
American sailors in sentences that drew tears from his
hearers. " And in Canada," he cried, " the tomahawks
of the Indian are whetted !" The Federalists also
claimed at this time that the causes of war had been
removed, — that England had agreed to repeal the ob-
Henry Cress' Tavern, Chestnut Hill, German town township, Philadelphia
County, Penn'a. C. K.
" N.B. — Admission, five dollars. Female visitors gratis. Tickets to
be had at the inns of Henry Cress, Levi Rex, and John Grover, Chestnut
Hill.
" H®* Editors of papers friendly to new inventions will oblige by
giving thn above a few insertions.
" September 10."
noxious Orders in Council June 23d, only five days
after the declaration of war. But news of this
reached the United States before actual hostilities
had begun. There were, however, difficulties in re-
gard to the Dearborn armistice, the subject of impress-
ment, the employment by England of secret agents,
her encouragement of Indian hostilities, and many
other subjects of dispute. Minister Russell did not
leave London till September, 1812 ; nor did the Eng-
lish government issue letters of marque till October.
There was ample time for negotiation, had England
desired peace. Jan. 9, 1813, the British justificatory
proclamation reached America, and enhanced the bit-
terness of the contest. From the West came news
of the Baisin River battle and the atrocious Maiden
massacre, that cast Kentucky and Ohio into mourn-
ing for their best and bravest. Harrison's second
campaign failed ; in February, Gen. Jackson began
his Florida expedition ; Wilkinson was trying to for-
tify New Orleans. Meanwhile there were sea victo-
ries at least, — we had Nelsons, though as yet no Wel-
lingtons. On the last day but one of 1812, Bainbridge
and the " Constitution" captured the " Java." Feb.
24, 1813, the "Hornet" defeated and sank the "Pea-
cock." But Madison was anxious for peace, and sent
Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, and Bayard, of Delaware,
to seek the mediation of Russia. March 12th, the
Pennsylvania Legislature voted extra pay to the mili-
tia, and offered to loan the government a million dol-
lars. Girard and Parrish, of Philadelphia, and Astor,
of New York, about this time took the government
loan at eighty-eight per cent.
The British blockade of the seaports became more
stringent. In February vessels entered the Chesa-
peake and closed Hampton Roads and Norfolk. In
the beginning of March a British squadron arrived
at the mouth of the Delaware. It was commanded
by Commodore Sir John P. Beresford, and consisted
of the " Polctiers," seventy-four ; the " Belvidera,"
frigate, Capt. Byron ; the schooners " La Paz" and
" Ulysses." They commence to capture and destroy
small craft, committing depredations on both sides
of the Delaware. March 16th, Commodore Beresford
made a demand upon the inhabitants of Lewes, near
Cape Henlopen, for " twenty live bullocks, with a
proportionate quantity of vegetables and hay," prom-
ising to pay reasonable prices, but threatening de-
struction to the town in case of non-compliance. To
this demand a defiance was immediately returned.
The intelligence of this transaction caused the utmost
excitement in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jer-
sey. Militia began immediately to pour into Lewes;
and at New Castle and at Wilmington batteries were
erected. The specie in the banks was removed to
Philadelphia. The excitement in the latter city was
intense, for it was practically defenseless. The troops
had been withdrawn from Fort Mifflin, under Col.
Izard and Lieut.-Col. Winfield Scott, and taken to the
West. Only fourteen invalided soldiers were in the
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
563
fort. The enemy might easily have sailed up the river
and levied contributions on Philadelphia.1 Meetings
of citizens were held at once. The " Young Men's
Democratic Association" met at Stratton's tavern,
and formed the " Junior Artillerists' Company," num-
bering about eighty officers and men. Jacob Fisler
was captain, William Roderfield first lieutenant, Jo-
seph M. Porter second lieutenant, Joel B. Sutherland
surgeon, Jonathan B. Smith quartermaster. Muskets
were delivered to the company by Maj. Sharpe, and
Gen. Bloomfield inspected them and accepted their
services. March 23d they were sent down to Fort
Mifflin, together with Capt. William Mitchell's com-
pany of Independent Blues. The fort was under
command of Capt. James N. Barker,2 of the United
States army, assisted by Capt. Williams, of the Sec-
ond Regular Artillery. These companies remained
in the fort until the 7th of April, when they were
honorably discharged, and their places filled by
United States troops.3
Other companies were formed. The members of
1 Gen. John Armstrong, Secretary of War, did not think Philadelphia
io danger. In a letter to Col. William Duane, March 21, 1813 {Historical
Magazine, new series, vol. iv. p. 61), he said, " I had anticipated two of
jour ideas, the call upon your Governorfor one thousand effectives, and
the mode of calling out militia generally. As to the first, it is a mere
soporific to quiet the present spasms of the city, and which do not, I
think, grow out of as comprehensive a view of what the enemy wish to
do and cau do, as might have been expected. . . . With the exception
of those renowned places, Sag Harbor, New Bedford, &c, no place has
made so much noiBe as Philadelphia. Pour a little oil on the waves of
folly and of faction, for the latter are at the bottom."
2 Capt. James N. Barker, who commanded the garrison, was an officer
of the regular army, the sou of John Barker, of the Revolution, a well-
known Philadelphian during the last generation. Capt. Barker resigned
from the army after the close of the war, was made an alderman of the
city, and afterwards elected mayor. He wrote several plays and Borne
valuable historical essays.
3 The Hon. James Madison Porter, second lieutenant of the Junior
Artillerists, writing to Capt, Jacob H. Fisler in 1854, gives an account
of the formation of the company. He says, "Col. Izard and Lieut. -Col.
(now General) Scott, in the fall of 1812, had marched away all tbe troops
from Fort Mifflin except fourteen invalids. During the winter of 1812
-13 the ice in the Delaware protected Philadelphia from any hostile in-
trusion. As the ice disappeared in the month of March, a British naval
force lay off the Capes of the Delaware, and the 6mall force in Fort
Mifflin could but feebly have resisted a naval incursion, which, in
barges, might have passed up to Philadelphia, and, by rockets and other
missives, have laid the town in ashes, and escaped to their vessels. I I
happened to be at the Coffee-House when three or four Philadelphia l
merchants had juBt heard this news of the British force being off the
Capes, which was entered on the Coffee-House books. They were violent
Federalists, and hegan abusing Mr. Madison and his administration for
leaving the city so defenseless. They were very violent. I remarked
to them that it would he better for them to put their own shoulders to
the wheel before they called on Hercules to assist them. I was then
just past twenty years of age. One of them inquired of some person
present who I was, deBignatiug me as ' an impudent young fellow.' He
was told that I was a son of Gen. Porter, formerly colonel of artillery
iii the Revolution. They knew him personally, and said no more. I
thought that if any movement was to be made toward manning the fort
the Democrats ought to have the credit of it. Being secretary of the
Association of Democratic Young Men, I stopped at Col. Binns' office,
and found his paper had just gone to press. It was after twelve o'clock
at noon. I stopped the press and had inserted a call for the meeting
of the Association that night. I met Beveral members of the Asso-
ciation during that day. They all approved of what I had done, and
we all gave personal notice to as many of the members as we could
Teach."
the Washington Association were requested to meet
in Washington Hall, then in Goforth Alley, running
from Carter's Alley to Dock Street, on the 22d of
March. They then organized the Washington Guards.
Condy Raguet was elected captain ; John R. Mifflin,
first lieutenant; Michael W Ash, second lieutenant;
and Thomas Anthony, third lieutenant. Some time
afterward a second company of Washington Guards
was formed, under the command of Capt. John Swift.
May 26th another company was formed, and named
" State Fencibles." Among the original members
were Joseph R. Ingersoll, Clement C. Biddle, Richard
Willing, Hartman Kuhn, Joseph B. McKean, Henry
C. Carey, Henry J. Biddle, James J. Barclay, Charles
V. Hagner, John J. Brenan, James Page, and others.
Clement C. Biddle was elected captain. This com-
WASHINGTON GUARDS.
pany was not required to go into service during 1813.
They tendered their services to Governor Snyder on
the 23d of September. The formation of a light ar-
tillery company, composed of carters and porters,
was proposed in March, but the effort failed. A
meeting was held in April of citizens over forty-five
years of age for the purpose of assisting the measures
of defense. They formed a company, and elected as
captain the venerable Gen. John Steel, a Revolu-
tionary officer; William Smiley was first lieutenant;
Benjamin Nones, second lieutenant; Charles Alcorn,
ensign.
The City Councils at first did nothing in the way of
defense. The Common Council was Democratic, but
the majority of the members of the Select Council
were Federalists. March 19th a meeting was called.
In Select Council there was not a quorum. Those
564
HISTQKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
present were Andrew Bayard, John Hart, John Read,
Eobert Ritchie, and William Rush. Those absent
were Samuel W. Fisher, Thomas Latimer, Joseph
Morris, John W. Thompson, James Vanuxem, Robert
Wain, and William Warner. The Common Council
resolved that the unprotected state of the port of
Philadelphia excited serious apprehensions from a
sudden incursion of the enemy. It was resolved that
a joint committee of three members from each Coun-
cil should be appointed to take such steps as might
tend to the better security of the port. On this com-
mittee were appointed from the Common Council
Messrs. Liberty Browne, Dalzell, and Mullowney.
The lower branch then adjourned until the following
evening, when Messrs. Latimer, Read, Ritchie, Rush,
Thompson, and Wain, of Select Council, were in
their places ; but Messrs. Bayard, Fisher, Hart, Van-
uxem, Morris, and Warner were absent, so that no
business could be done. Strong resolutions against
the majority of Select Council were introduced by
Peter A. Browne, and the citizens were recommended
to assemble on the 23d, at the county court-room, "to
consider what is best to be done for the safety of the
city." This object had been partly anticipated by a
meeting on the 20th forming an association for the
protection of the harbor and ports of the river Dela-
ware, at which Richard Willing was chairman, and
John Sergeant was secretary. Richard Willing, Hart-
man Kuhn, Samuel Israel, G. Reinholdt, and Clement
C. Biddle were appointed to prepare a plan of defense.
At the meeting on the 23d these proceedings were
ratified, and the conduct of Select Council denounced.
During this interval British ships were cruising up
and down the Delaware. The schooner " Fanny," of
Charleston, was chased by a British vessel off Lewis-
town, and was run ashore. The crew, endeavoring to
remove the cargo, were assisted by seventy-five militia-
men, who took bales of cotton from the vessel and
erected a breastwork, from whence they annoyed the
enemy, who finally destroyed the schooner. March
23d, Governor Hazlett, of Delaware, arrived at Lewes,
and sent a letter to Commodore Beresford, inquiring
if he was still determined to destroy the town. To
this a reply was made that the conditions were not
hard, nor opposed to the law of nations, and that, if
denied, whatever suffering would fall on the town or
people must be attributed to their own obstinacy. On
April 24th the county cavalry, Capt. James Miles,
marched from Philadelphia to Lewes, and the next
day the militia legion, Col. Lewis Rush, the regi-
ment of cavalry, Col. Smith, and the artillery regi-
ment, Col. Ebenezer Ferguson, were ordered to hold
themselves in readiness to march under the command
of Brig. -Gen. Robert Wharton. Late in March
Stephen Girard's fine ship "Montesquieu," from
Canton, with a cargo worth one million five hundred
thousand dollars, was captured by the British at the
capes. She had sailed from the United States in
1810, and from Canton in November, 1812, and so
the captain was ignorant of the declaration of war.
Girard finally ransomed the ship for one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars in specie.
The threatened bombardment of Lewes did not take
place until the 6th of April. On the evening of that
day the " Belvidera" and two small vessels approached
the town and commenced firing thirty-two-pound
shot, after which a flag was sent on shore renewing
the demand for bullocks, provisions, and a supply of
water. Col. Samuel B. Davis replied that neither
demand would be complied with. Capt. Byron an-
swered that the refusal was cruel to the inhabitants,
especially to the women and children. The bombard-
ment then commenced, was replied to by an American
battery on shore, and firing was kept up for twenty-
two hours. About one thousand eighteen- and thirty-
two-pound shot were fired, besides bombs and rockets.
The shells fell short, the rockets passed over the town.
Many houses were damaged by the balls. On the
afternoon of the 7th preparations were made to land.
Several boatsful of men approached the shore, but
before they could disembark they were recalled by a
signal from the squadron.
While these events were occurring, the force of
public opinion in Philadelphia was compelling the
Select Council to more decided action. According to
a request from the mayor, a Council meeting was held
April 2d, and a joint committee appointed. Many
citizens' meetings also took place. They called upon
the national government for aid to protect the Dela-
ware, but it was evident that the government was
without means, there being, April 1st, only two mil-
lion dollars in the treasury. May 6th the merchants'
meeting at the Coffee-House, Charles Biddle pre-
siding, and John Sergeant secretary, agreed that it
was clearly the duty of the citizens of Philadelphia
to provide for a more complete defense. They recom-
mended the appointment of committees to collect sub-
scriptions in each ward. This fund was to be placed
at the disposal of fifteen citizens, who were entitled
" The General Committee of Superintendence for the
Protection of the River Delaware and the City of Phila-
delphia." The members were Charles Biddle, Henry
Pratt, Daniel W. Coxe, Henry Hawkins, Charles
Macalester, Robert Wain, Chandler Price, James
Josiah, Richard Dale, David Lenox, William Mc-
Fadden, John Connelly, Thomas W. Francis, Manuel
Eyre, and Daniel Smith. The committee was to co-
operate with the United States officers and forces in
the district. Two days afterwards the citizens of the
Northern Liberties, Penn township, and Spring Gar-
den held a meeting. Joseph Grice was president,
and Samuel Potts secretary. A committee was ap-
pointed, consisting of Joseph Grice, Frederick Foer-
ing, Michael Brown, William Binder, Daniel Bickley,
James Mitchell, J. M. Norris, Jesse Shelmire, Jacob
Patterson, David Shuster, and Jacob Hoff. On the
same day City Councils passed an ordinance author-
izing the borrowing of thirty thousand dollars for the
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
565
purpose of defense, and appointing as commissioners
on the part of Councils to consult and co-operate with
the committees, Col. James Read, Commodore Rich-
ard Dale, and Capt. Henry Hawkins from Select
Council, and Gen. John Steel, Thomas Leiper, and
Capt. Gustavus Conyngham from Common Council.
April 29th and May 3d the British ships in the
Chesapeake landed parties which burned and plun-
dered Frenchtown and Havre de Grace, then depots
of quite a lively trade between Baltimore and Phila-
delphia. A little later they burned Georgetown and
Fredericktown, on Sassafras River. Coasting and bay
trade was stopped, and the name of Admiral Cock-
burn became a terror. Commodore Beresford, with
his squadron, were in Delaware Bay, but late in April
sailed for Bermuda. In their place the " Statira"
and the " Spartan" frigates, and the " Martin" sloop-
of-war, with some tenders and barges, came to the
station, the whole being commanded by Commodore
Stackpoole. On Sunday, the 29th of May, these ves-
sels stood up the Delaware with a fair wind. Ex-
presses were immediately sent out to alarm the coun-
try. The Delaware volunteers assembled. The In-
dependent Blues were ordered to march from Camp
Staunton to New Castle. The other companies stood
upon their arms, ready for service in whatever direc-
tion they should be needed. The British forces con-
tented themselves with stretching up the bay as far
as Reedy Island, where they captured and burnt some
shallops and small craft, and then returned.
On the 13th of May the first detachment of volun-
teers had marched from Philadelphia to the State of
Delaware, under the command of Col. Lewis Rush.
It consisted of the Philadelphia Blues, Capt. Henry
Myers ; the Independent Volunteers, Capt. Samuel
Borden ; and the Washington Guards. Each of these
companies consisted of one hundred privates, fifteen
officers, and two musicians. In four days they reached
Staunton, on the Baltimore road, six miles below
Wilmington. Here a permanent encampment was
formed under the direction of Gen. Bloomfield, but
the affair of May 29th showed the necessity of giving
protection to those portions of the State of Delaware
higher up the river. It was rumored that the enemy
intended to make an attempt to destroy Dupont's
powder-mills on the Brandywine. Col. Rush was
ordered to take up a new position on Shellpot Hill,
three miles north of Wilmington and one mile from
the Delaware River, covering the place of debarka-
tion at Hamilton's Landing. On the 2d of June
Camp Staunton was abandoned, and the troops
marched to Camp Shellpot, where they continued
until about the 12th of July, when they took up a
new station at Oak Hill, near Stille's Run, four miles
west of Wilmington, and four miles south of Dupont's
powder-mills. After the British descended the Chesa-
peake Bay, Camp Oak Hill was broken up, and on the
28th of July the troops reached Philadelphia. At
the Woodlands they were feasted by citizens of Phil-
adelphia, after which they were escorted to the State-
House, and mustered out of service.
When the first alarm was raised the Commissioners
of Defense began organizing a gun-boat squadron
which, under the command of Capt. Angus, was ready
for service by the end of May, and soon went down
the Delaware, in order to repulse marauding expedi-
tions. It consisted of nine armed boats, and the
" Leopard" and " Camel," armed sloops. Soon after-
ward the ''Spartan'' and " Martin" sailed for Halifax,
and the " Statira" was reinforced by the aid of the
frigate " Junon." The application to the United
States government for additional defenses was so far
successful that a negotiation was entered into with the
State of Delaware for the cession of the Pea Patch
Island. The Secretary of War then addressed the
City Councils, and promised that fortifications should
be erected thereon if the city would loan the United
States government twenty thousand dollars for that
purpose, which was soon after agreed to. The inhab-
itants of the Northern Liberties raised sufficient money
to build the "Northern Liberty" galley, which was
launched from Grice's ship-yard, Kensington, about
the middle of June. It was seventy-six feet long,
and fifteen feet beam, and was commanded by Samuel
Rinker. The State Fencibles were present at the
launch June 29th.
Capt. Angus, with eight boats and two block sloops,
discovered the British sloop-of-war " Martin," which
had returned to the Delaware, on shore at Crow's
shoals and attacked her. The "Junon" came to her
aid, but the American boats fired with the greatest ac-
curacy. The American gun-boat " No. 121," under the
command of Sailing-Master Sheed, had by accident
fallen out of the line, and was prevented from recov-
ering its situation by a strong ebb tide. This boat
was made the special object of attack by ten British
barges. Sheed was a mile and a half from the flotilla,
and it was impossible for them to afford him assistance.
While endeavoring to escape by the aid of his sweeps,
he kept up a steady fire with his long gun at the ad-
vancing enemy, but the carriage gave way, and seven
boats, with two hundred and fifty men, were able to
board him, and carried off their prize, with forty pris-
oners. Sheed had seven men wounded, and the Brit-
ish had seven killed and twelve wounded, four of
whom died from their injuries. Gun-boat " No. 125,"
Sailing-Master Moliere, was slightly damaged. Gun-
boat " No. 121" was abandoned by the British, found
on shore at Absecom, and cut up by the beachmen for
the iron and brass. Sheed was sent to Halifax, where
he was confined, with eight others, in an apartment
of scarcely more extensive area than the Black Hole
of Calcutta.
During 1813 the British blockading squadron was
kept up in force at the capes of the Delaware. In
the latter part of the year there were upon the station
the frigates " Neimen," " Narcissus," and " Belvidera,"
the sloop-of-war " Jasseur," and two tenders. These
566
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
cruised continually between Chincoteague and Egg
Harbor, and prevented all intercourse between Phila-
delphia and the ocean. The columns of the news-
papers usually appropriated to " ship-news" contained
little but intelligence of marine affairs elsewhere.
Prices began to rise, murmurs and discontent ensued,
and there was a disposition to resist. In the latter
part of December the citizens of the Northern Liberties
resolved that they would not pay a higher price than
twenty-five cents per pound for coffee, and expressed
great indignation at citizens who had used their cap-
ital for purposes of speculation. The Federal papers
frequently published, under the head of " ship-news,"
burlesque accounts of the arrival of wagons and
teams.1 The privateer fleet, in consequence of the
blockade of the Delaware, was not able to do much
execution. The " Snapper," of four guns, was cap-
tured in January, when four days out, by the British
frigate " Eolus," commanded by Lord Townsend, and
sent into Bermuda. The " Rattlesnake," Capt. Maf-
fett, managed to get safely to sea in March. The
" Governor McKean" left Philadelphia for Bordeaux,
France, was captured on the way, and sent to Eng-
land. The patriotic association formed in June began
the creation of a fund for the aid and support of the
wives and families of soldiers while in service. The
government called on Pennsylvania for a thousand
men, and the quota was made up with very little
difficulty.
Some sense of protection was afforded in the autumn
by the presence of the Thirty-second Begiment of
regulars, who were camped at "Camp Duane," near
Darby. Their officers were : S. E. Fotteral, colonel;
1 Some of these items were very amusing. The following from the
United States Gazette of November 6th will serve as an example:
"FREE TRADE AND TEAMSTERS' RIGHTS.
[Cut of a four-horse wagon, flagstaff rising from the middle of wagon,
with a flag bearing the words ' No Impressment.']
" JEFFERSONIAN COMMERCE.
" INLANn NAVIGATION.
" Tho' Neptune's trident is laid by,
From North to South our coasters ply ;
No sails nor rudders need these ships,
Which freemen drive with wagon whips /"
"HORSE-MARINE NEWS.
" Philadelphia, October 22.
" Commerce, thundering loud with her ten thousand wheels."
" Arrived yesterday afternoon, from Connecticut, a fleet of merchant-
men, with cargoes of cheese, etc., under convoy of the 'Nathan' sloop-
of-war, Commodore Hall. They achored safely in Third Street hay, hut,
finding the markets dull, the signal was hoisted for sailing, and they
bore away for Baltimore. The fleet consisted of the following flat-bot-
tomed vessels, each drawn by four oxen, viz.: the 'Nathan,' Commo-
dore E. Hall ; ' Non-Intercourse,' Captain J. B. Goodwin ; 'Jefferson,' J.
H. Fancher; ( Madison,' J. Wetter ; 'Monroe,' E. Grilley; and a store-
ship."
In the same paper is an account of a dreadful accident met with by
a wagon :
"Encountered a rough Bea, which bore him on bis beam-ends, sprung his
main axletree, broke one spoke, and sprung several of his main larboard
wheelB. His cargo shifted with such force that it stove his tailboards,
broke his larboard railings, and carried away his canvas by the board."
S. B. Davis, lieutenant-colonel ; G. H. Hunter, major ;
A. H. Holmes, major ; Captains, George F. Good-
man, William Smith, Samuel Borden, Thomas Town,
John Steel, Jr., J. J. Robinson, J. B. Smith, H. H.
Davis, Robert Patterson, and Peter P. Walter.
After they had been there some time, it was deter-
mined by the ladies of the city to present the regi-
ment with colors. The troops were marched from
Darby to the State-House, where the flags were pre-
sented by Miss Baker, and received by Ensign Copes.
The soldiers then marched to Centre Square, and
were banqueted by the citizens.
A number of dinners to officers of the army and
navy were given in Philadelphia during 1813. The
first, in January, was by the Second Artillery to
Lieut. Isaac Roach, of the United States army, on
his return from the West. He was their former
comrade, and in after-years mayor of the city. The
affair took place at McKaraher's New Market Tav-
ern. February 1st, Capt. Stephen Decatur was es-
corted to his hotel by Col. Smith's cavalry, Col.
Ferguson's infantry, and a part of the Philadelphia
Legion. Three days later he was banqueted at Ren-
shaw's Hotel, corner Eleventh and Market Streets.
In March money was raised for a testimonial to Capt.
Bainbridge, and November 27th he arrived, and was
escorted into the city, and honored with a dinner at
McLoughlin's, Chief Justice Tilghman presiding,
Charles Biddle, A. J. Dallas, and John Smith, vice-
presidents.
The " Argus" in June captured no less than twenty-
one English merchantmen in the British Channel, but
in August yielded to the " Pelican." Three of our
larger vessels and several of the smaller cruisers
were blockaded, and September 3d the " Enterprise,"
Capt. William Burroughs, in capturing the "Boxer,"
lost her gallant commander, a native of Philadelphia.
A movement was begun to erect a tablet to his mem-
ory, but the matter was neglected. September 10th,
Perry swept the enemy from Lake Erie, and on the
24th Philadelphia was illuminated in honor of his
victory, won by ships that Pennsylvania militia had
protected while building. In October City Councils
passed a vote of thanks to the heroes of Erie, and
directed that a sword of American manufacture
should be presented to Commodore Perry. October
21st there was another illumination, one in honor of
the defeat of Proctor by Harrison. A triumphal
arch forty feet in height was erected at the intersec-
tion of Eighth and Race Streets, and decorated with
paintings illustrating the battle. Many private houses
attracted attention, among which was the dwelling of
Jacob Gerard Koch, corner of Ninth and Market
Streets.
But the campaigns of the year ended in gloom.
Hampton's bootless expedition, Wilkinson's abandon-
ment of the attack on Montreal, the loss of Fort
Niagara, the outbreak of the Creeks under British
and Spanish instigation, and the Fort Mimms massa-
FROM THE EMBAKGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
567
ere, all helped to add weight to misfortune. Jackson's
brilliant Indian campaign and the recapture of Detroit
were our only successes on land. The Chesapeake was
occupied by British ships, and their buccaneering ex-
peditions were so contrary to laws of civilized warfare
that the newspapers denounced them as " Water
Winnebagoes." New England's opposition to the
war grew steadily stronger ; hints of separate peace
alarmed the government, that in December had re-
vived the restrictive system in its most complete form.
Turning to local Philadelphia political celebrations,
we note the organization, in January, of the Associa-
tion of Democratic Young Men of the city and
liberties. Jonathan B. Smith was elected president;
Joel B. Sutherland and Samuel F. Earle, vice-presi-
dents; James M. Porter and Joseph Le Clerc, secre-
taries ; and Eobinson R. Moore, treasurer. A Junior
Democratic Society was instituted in the Northern
Liberties, of which John D. Goodwin was president.
The "Washington Association," established in 1811,
celebrated the 22d of February at, the Academy in
Fourth Street, and Charles S. Cox was the orator.
The " Washington Benevolent Society" met the same
day at the Olympic Circus, and was joined by the
Washington Association and the First City Troop.
Charles W. Hare delivered an oration, and a dinner
followed, to which six hundred persons sat down, and
Commodore Richard Dale presided. July 5th the
same societies met at the Olympic, and heard an ora-
tion from Joseph R. Ingersoll. They then proceeded
to the Lebanon Garden, corner of Tenth and Cedar
Streets, where about eight hundred persons dined.
The eleventh toast was, "The War — Begun without
just cause, conducted without energy — may it end
without disgrace." The first. company of Pennsyl-
vania artillery was present, and fired salvos after each
toast.
These celebrations excited counter-displays among
the Democrats. The first was on the 4th of March,
when the Association of Democratic Young Men met
at the Universalist Church in Lombard Street. The
platform on which the orator and officers were sta-
tioned was carpeted with the British flag. Two Amer-
ican flags were suspended from the pulpit. Jonathan
B. Smith delivered the address ; after which the so-
ciety dined at Stratton's Hotel.
The struggle between Federalists and Democrats
was less bitter than usual, though some strong ad-
dresses were issued. Charles J. Ingersoll, a prominent
politician, and afterward author of a "History of the
War," published an " Address to the Citizens," which
the Federalists ridiculed mercilessly. Nominations
followed, and for Assembly the Federalists proposed
in the city Benjamin R. Morgan, Charles W. Hare,
Condy Raguet, Thomas Kittera, and John Clawges,
Sr. ; in the county, James Worth, Samuel Breck,
Abraham Duffield, James Whitehead, John C. Low-
ber, and Joseph Bird. The Democrats nominated in
the city for Assembly, William J. Duane, Thomas
Sergeant, John Connelly, Jacob Mitchell, aDd Joseph
McCoy. Jacob Shearer was nominated for the Senate
in the county by the Democrats ; and, as in former
years, this choice created dissatisfaction. In October,
William Binder published an address to the Demo-
crats, in which he complained of the nominations, as
dictated " by the insolence of Binns," a foreigner.
September 18th the opposition met in force at the
house of James Harvey, Spring Garden. Jacob
Shearer, candidate for senator, was rejected, and
William Binder was nominated. Jacob Fitler was
disapproved of, and Isaac Worrell, or Richard Palmer,
were recommended. John Thompson and Adam
Dewey for county commissioners were rejected in
favor of Michael Speel and Cornelius Trimnel. Of
the county nominees for Assembly, Joel B. Suther-
land, Charles Souder, and Isaac Heston were rejected,
and Gearge Morton, Tiberius J. Bryant, and John
McLeod nominated in their places. When the con-
test was carried to the polls, Shearer was chosen
senator, and the straight Democrats carried the city
for the Assembly, electing Duane, Sergeant, Connolly,
Mitchell, and McCoy. On the other hand, the bolters
elected, from the county, John Holmes, Charles Sou-
der, Joel B. Sutherland, Jacob Stahn, John Carter,
and Isaac Heston, also John Thompson for county com-
missioner, and Jacob Dewey for the unexpired term
of Fitler. The auditors elected were William New-
bold, Philip Peltz, and Jacob Clements. For sheriff,
Jacob Fitler was elected. The United States Gazette
charged that the election was carried by fraud, a
United States regiment, recruited in the city, having
been brought from Delaware County to vote for the
Democrats.
The State Legislature was kept unusually busy.
In January the House passed a bill to give the United
States two ships of war, the "Philadelphia," of forty-
four guns, and the " Presque Isle," of twenty, but the
Senate voted against it. In February the House re-
ceived two petitions from Philadelphia, saying that
the number of negroes in the city was 9672 on record,
and 4000 runaways not on record, who were becoming
nuisances. The petitioners prayed for a law that all
people of color should be registered ; that authority
should be giveii to sell for a term of years the services
of those of them who were convicted of crimes, and
that a tax be levied on them for the support of their
own poor. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society re-
monstrated, and no action was taken. A bill was
introduced into the General Assembly, in February
or March, to dispose of the public buildings and lot
in Philadelphia. It was proposed to divide the yard
equally by two streets of twenty feet in width, — one
running north and south, the other east and west, —
and to lay out the ground in building lots. Against
this proposition City Councils protested, declaring
that the Legislature had no power to sell the ground,
and thus prevented the passage of the bill at the
spring session.
568
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
By an act of March 12th the Governor was author-
ized to subscribe one million dollars to a loan of six-
teen million dollars authorized by act of Congress,
and to borrow the money to pay for it from the banks
of the State. In March he sent a message to the
House, stating that the United States government in-
tended to build a seventy-four-gun ship and a frigate
at the navy-yard in Southwark, and asked that the
Legislature suspend the right of opening streets
through the yard during the war, which was done.
He (Governor Snyder) also vetoed the bill for char-
tering twenty-five new banks, with a capital of nine
million five hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
The principal ground of objection was that the crea-
tion of such corporations induced speculation. The
Legislature settled the Upper Ferry graveyard dis-
pute, by vesting its ownership in the guardians and
overseers of the poor, and provided "that nothing
herein shall be construed to impair the right or in-
terest any person or persons may now have in said
land."
March 25th a supplementary act to the incorpora-
tion of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal declared
that if Maryland would make her portion of the Sus-
quehanna River a public highway, and if the govern-
ment of the United States would subscribe for eleven
hundred and fifty shares, Maryland for two hundred
and fifty shares, and Delaware for one hundred shares,
Pennsylvania would subscribe for three hundred and
seventy-five shares.
March 26th the widening of Moyamensing road at
Wharton Market was reaffirmed.
March 29th an act provided fifteen thousand dollars
for building a brick arsenal in place of the frame one
in Philadelphia. It was completed in December, and
was " large enough to hold twenty-eight pieces of ar-
tillery and apparatus, one thousand muskets, one thou-
sand tents, six thousand knapsacks, and one thousand
camp-kettles." By another act, passed in March, that
part of Penn township lying between Vine Street
and the middle of Hickory Lane, and between the
middle of Sixth Street and the middle of Broad
Street, was incorporated under the title of " the
Commissioners of Spring Garden." There were to
be twelve commissioners elected at the first election,
to be held at the school-house of the Spring Garden
Association on the first Monday in May.
It will readily be supposed that field-sports found
little encouragement during these busy war-times,
but a notice that appeared in the daily papers some
time in January shows that there were still' some
who loved to follow the hounds. It read as fol-
lows:
TALLIO ! TALLIO ! THE HOUNDS.— A beautiful Highland fox, re-
cently caught, will be let loose, to gratify the lovers of the chase,
on Thursday next, January 21st, at 11 o'clock, near the sign of the
Golden Fish, kept by C. Young, at the west end of the Permanent
bridge.
" Joseph Rhoues,
" No. 304 Market Street."
Other local happenings and enterprises deserve
mention. The city received authority in the early
part of the year to lay pipes from Fairmount, in Penn
township, to connect with the city works. In March
J. Silliman started two ferry-boats " on a new plan,
propelled by a newly-invented sculling-machine,
which occasions no rocking or other disagreeable
motion." In May an advertisement appeared in the
Aurora offering to rent as pasture-grounds the South-
east (now Washington) Public Square during the
pleasure of Councils, and also the lots on the south
side of Lombard Street, between Ninth and Eleventh,
used as the city burying-ground. Councils in June
passed an ordinance authorizing the building of a
market- house on Broad Street, between Chestnut and
High Streets. The plan was to be the same as that
of the Second Street Market. The Washington
Benevolent Society bought a lot on Third Street,
above Spruce, and prepared to build a hall there.
Manufactures received more general attention. The
Philadelphia Sugar Refining Company was organized.
The Mutual Assistance Coal Company of Philadelphia
for the Promotion of Manufactures chose Thomas
Dobson as president, and George Worrell as secre-
tary. The Pennsylvania Society for Improving the
Breed of Cattle gave its first exhibition and cattle-
show at Bush Hill on the 12th of November.
An anti- vaccine agitation occurred during the sum-
mer. The Philadelphia Vaccine Society, established
in 1809, managers Thomas Wistar, Samuel Biddle,
and others, memorialized the Legislature, reporting
that four thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven
persons had been vaccinated ; they had, however, no
more vaccine matter, and desired assistance in pro-
curing it. The subject was discussed, and their peti-
tion denied.
The improvement of river navigation was still a
leading question. November 16th a meeting of the
citizens of Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, and
Berks was held at the house of Jared Brooks, in Nor-
ristown. Gen. Francis Swayne was chairman, and
Samuel Bayard secretary. Horatio Gates Jones, of
Roxborough, Levi Pawling, of Norristown, Gen. Jo-
seph Heister and John Adams, of Reading, and Sam-
uel Baird, of Pottsgrove, were the committee. They
urged the incorporation of a company to make a
lock-navigation on the Schuylkill from Sheridan's
(Upper Ferry), in the county of Philadelphia, to
Jacob Dreibelbis's mill, in the county of Schuylkill.
On December 7th a meeting for the same purpose
was held in the city at the house of Henry Myers.
Samuel Wetherill, Jr., was chairman, and Cadwala-
der Evans, Jr., secretary. A committee was ap-
pointed to memorialize the Legislature, and corre-
spond with the committee appointed at Norristown.
It consisted of Samuel Wetherill, Jr., Gen. Jonathan
Williams, Samuel Richards, John Mullowney, Josiah
White, Robert Kennedy, and Cadwalader Evans, Jr.
Still another meeting for this object was held in
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
569
Schuylkill County, at Orwigsburg, on'Decernber 13th,
at the house of J. Reifschneider. Dr. James Mc-
Farland was chairman, and George Dreibelbis secre-
tary. The resolutions offered by James B. Hubley
suggested that the productions of the interior of the
State of New York could be brought in, and the
products of Schuylkill County sent to th.ii; State. It
took much work to overcome the prejudices in the
minds of many conservative farmers against the
scheme. They feared the overflow of their meadows,
the increased height of freshets in spring.
River steamboats increased. A new line was es-
tablished to New York. The " Camden," Capt.
Bunce, ran on the line to Burlington and Borden-
town. The " Philadelphia" arrived from New York
in October. The " New Jersey'' ran to White Hill.
The "Twins," owned by Poole & Springer, crossed
the Delaware at the upper Market Street ferry,
making regular trips. In December Oliver Evans,
the inventor, published an address about railroads
that shows clearly how little of the capacity of steam
was then known, even by so laborious a student and
daring an experimenter as Evans.1
The year 1814 was one of the most exciting periods
in the history of Philadelphia, and, indeed, of Amer-
ica. A new spirit inspired the national government
and united the people for aggressive war. The sad
1 This curious document deserves remembrance, as it shows that he
was oot able to understand the possibility of attaching a steam-engine
to the care or carriages on the railroad, and of dragging along a num-
ber of them at the same time. The ascent of an altitude of more than
two or three degrees by a steam-engine with a train was not considered
feasible. Hence he was driven to the suggestion of sending the loco-
motive to the top of the hill before the cars, to drag them up with a
windlass and rope. In order to check the danger of a descent the
steam-engine, it was suggested, might be sent ahead, while the cars
could be let down carefully by ropes. His own words are as follows :
"Mr. John Ellicot has suggested that paths be made for the wheels of
carriages to run on, of hard substances, such as turnpike roads are
made of, with a rail between them, Bet on posts, to guide the tongue of
the carriage; and that they might travel by night as well as by day.
Others have proposed lines ,of logs, flattened at the top, with a three-
inch plank pinned on them, to bear the carriage and to guide the
wheels, these strips of plank to be renewed as often ,'as necessary, and
while the logs may last and be sufficient to hold the pins. The expense
of repairs would be trifling. . . . Mr. Samuel Morey, of New Hampshire,
proposes that the two railways be laid aB near each other as will permit,
in order to let the carriages pass in opposite directions, and to cover the
whole with a slight shed, to protect the passengers from the injury of the
weather. . . . But railroads are best." he continues, because, " if they
cannot be brought to a level, yet they may be brought to within two de-
grees and a half, — the deviation allowed by law on turpikes, — and which
would do very well. And in cases of great ascents the steam-carriage
might be detached and ascend by itself, to take a stand and haul the
others up by a rope and cylinder, or by a wiudlass. In other cases the
loaded carriages might be let fall astern by veering ropes to them to
slack their motion until the steam-carriage has reached descending
ground, and then the rope might be wound up again."
He adds, " Ab soon as any of these plans are adopted, after having
made the necessary experiments to prove the principle, and having ob-
tained necessary legislative protection and patronage, I am willing to
take of the stock five hundred dollars per mile, of the distance of fifty or
Bixty miles, payable in steam-carriages or steam-engines invented for the
purpose forty years ago, and will warrant them to answer the purpose
to the satisfaction of the stockholders, and even to make steam-stages
to run twelve or fifteen miles an hour, or take back the engines if
required."
news of Bladensburg revived Revolutionary zeal ;
from the ruins of Washington Congress doubled taxes,
established sufficient revenues, and entered upon more
energetic and successful measures. Internal improve-
ments and great inventions — steamboat, railroad, and
cotton-gin — were struggling into splendid life. The
country was at last learning its own strength. But
there was depression in business, and extreme high
prices prevailed in Philadelphia. The Revolutionary
plan of fixing limits to prices could no longer be
adopted, but January 1st the citizens of Oxford and
Lower Dublin met and resolved not to purchase brown
sugar unless it was sold at twenty cents a pound, loaf-
sugar at twenty-one cents, and coffee at twenty-five
cents. For West India molasses they professed them-
selves willing to give one dollar a gallon, and one dol-
lar and twenty-five cents a gallon for sugar-house
molasses. The people of the Northern Liberties on
the same day held meetings, at which they agreed to
pay no more than twenty-five cents a pound for coffee,
and expressed great indignation at speculative citi-
zens. The United States government had passed an
act in 1813 making it necessary that stamps should
be placed upon writings, and the grocers of the city
held a meeting in January — M. W.Thompson, chair-
man, and William Patterson, secretary — and resolved
not to buy any goods at auction unless the auction-
eers paid the stamp duties.
Of celebrations and public banquets, the first oc-
curred February 18th, when a dinner was given to
Maj.-Gen. Jacob Brown at Washington Hall, Chief
Justice Tilghman presiding, and Maj. Jackson, vice-
president. February 22d the Washington Associa-
tion and the Washington Benevolent Society listened
to patriotic addresses and afterwards had a banquet,
John C. Lowber presiding. The First City Troop
celebrated the same occasion, and Paul Allen wrote
a song for the festivities. July 4th the Washington
Association and Society listened to an oration from
Nathaniel Chauncey, and then dined at Masonic
Hall. September 16th, Henry Clay, who was on his
way to Ghent to serve as one of the United States
treaty commissioners, was given a banquet at the
Washington Hall Hotel.
Affairs in Europe were of the greatest importance.
The anti-Gallican party hailed with joy the news of
the battle of Leipsic and of the entry of Wellington
into France. January 22d, at Elliot's Tavern, a
meeting was held, Gen. Robert Wharton, chairman,
and it was resolved to give a public dinner " in honor
of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Sweden,
the friends and allies of the United States, and of the
splendid victories their arms accomplished in defense
of the rights of the people and the freedom of the
world ; in honor of the generous virtues and heroic
courage of the people of Germany, in redeeming their
independence and breaking the shackles of slavery ;
in honor of the glorious, magnanimous, and success-
ful efforts of the patriots of Spain and of Portugal to
570
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
repel their unjust and cruel invaders, and in exulta-
tion at the final overthrow of a system fatal to peace,
liberty, commerce, and universal happiness."
In February it took place at the City Hotel, Col.
Jonathan Williams presiding, and the minister of
Spain and the consuls of Russia, Spain, and Sweden
being present. A few days later the native Germans,
Hollanders, and Swiss celebrated Napoleon's defeat
by a dinner at the Masonic Hall. Michael Freytag
presided, and C. G. Lechleitner was vice-president.
The principal toast was "The Emperor of Russia, — A
monarch who has a twofold claim upon our esteem."
Sentiments were also offered in honor of the King
and Crown Prince of Sweden, Field-Marshal Bliicher,
and Kutusoff, Schwartzenberg, Wittgenstein, Platoff,
Bulow, De Yorck, and other soldiers.
The Legislature, January 18th, passed resolutions
in favor of the policy, on the part of the national
government, of securing hostages for those who were
threatened with trial and execution for treason by
Great Britain. A number of naturalized citizens who
had been natural-born British subjects, but who had
renounced their allegiance upon becoming citizens of
the United States, were being treated as traitors. It
was one of the doctrines of Great Britain that native-
born British subjects could never renounce their alle-
giance. In March twenty-three British prisoners,
among them Maj. De Villette and other officers, were
brought to the city and confined in the Arch Street
prison, where they were considered hostages. Next
month eighteen of these prisoners escaped from their
place of detention by sawing off the iron bars of the
windows. Eighteen hundred dollars reward was
offered for their capture, and some were retaken, but
a number escaped.
Lulled into confidence by the inactivity of the Brit-
ish, the "Commissioners of Defense" in Philadelphia
reported, and were in February discharged. The gun-
boats they had equipped were still in service on the
river, but the blockade was less vigilant, and quite a
number of vessels passed in and out. A few priva-
teers slipped out. The "Young Wasp," Capt. Haw-
ley, made some captures in March, but being chased
by a British frigate off Rockaway, was compelled to
run a prize on shore. The boats of the frigate then
set it on fire. This vessel was out upon a cruise of
seven months, captured seven prizes, and returned
safely to port. The " Battlesnake," Capt. Maffett, was
also at sea, and on one occasion was chased by two
seventy-fours and two brigs, but succeeded in escap-
ing. In March a report that a British ship of the
line, two frigates, and a sloop-of-war were in the bay,
caused the gun-boat flotilla to sail from New Castle,
but no depredations were attempted by the enemy.
Adam and Noah Brown, on the 23d of March,
launched a sloop-of-war. In March there were on
the stocks in the Delaware two ships-of-war of sev-
enty-four and forty-four guns, eighteen gun-boats, six
barges, two blockade sloops, and a schooner. The
fleet of galleys on the Delaware now numbered nine-
teen gunboats, six barges, and two block sloops.
There were also building at Philadelphia the " Frank-
lin," seventy-four, and the " GuerriSre," forty-four.
The latter was launched' May 20th, from the ship-yard
of James and Francis Grice, at Mount Pleasant.
Alarm was again caused in June by the appearance
of the frigate "Belvidera," which sailed some distance
up the bay under false colors. The barges were then
got out, and they chased a shallop as far as Fisher's
Island, but the boats being fired at from the shore
and some of the sailors wounded, they returned. The
flotilla immediately went down as far as Cape May,
but the British frigate had left the station.
A new militia act was passed in March, dividing
the State into sixteen divisions, each of two brigades.
The city of Philadelphia comprised the First Brigade
and the county the Second. Provisions were made
for drafting troops needed for the defense of the State
or national government. It was ordered that the uni-
form of State, division, or brigade officers should be
blue coats, faced and lined with buff, other particulars
to be determined by the commander-in-chief. Vol-
unteer companies were allowed to adopt their own
uniforms. The State cockade was ordered to be blue
and red. Robert Wharton, commander of the City
Brigade, who was an active Federalist, was super-
seded, in July, by George Bartram. The latter
was succeeded, in August, by Thomas Cadwalader.
Thomas Snyder was appointed brigadier-general of
the County Brigade, succeeding William Duncan.
Maj. -Gen. Isaac Worrell remained in command of
the division.
The air was filled with rumors of British advances.
July 11th four British barges attacked Elkton, Md.,
and were repulsed by the militia. The story, how-
ever, that they had landed reached Philadelphia.
Commodore Rodgers marched at once with two hun-
dred and fifty marines ; the crews of the new gun-
boats were sent on board ; the citizens began to rally.
A company was formed by the residents of North
Mulberry Ward July 13th at Samson-and-the-Lion
Inn, corner of Crown and Vine Streets. The First
Regiment of Cavalry was directed to hold itself in
readiness to march. The Federal Republican Young
Men met at Peter Evans' tavern, corner of Sixth and
Carpenter ( Jayne) Streets, and formed thesecond com-
pany of Washington Guards. The shipmasters and
mariners assembled at the State-House, Capt. B.
Huggins in the chair, and formed the " Philadelphia
Marine Artillery." Capt. Norris Stanley, Thomas
Reilly, John Annesley, Edward Jones, Ezra Bowen,
Jacob Benners, and Edward Wallington were ap-
pointed a committee to draft rules. The Flying Ar-
tillery was revived. The citizens of the Northern
Liberties and of Kensington met at Christopher
Lee's and formed a volunteer company. The Senior
Military Association, composed of citizens over forty-
five years of age, met three times a week for exercise.
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OF 1812-15.
571
The Second Military Drill Association was changed
to the Union Guards. The Franklin Flying Artillery
became an active company. A requisition being made
at this time by the general government upon the State
of Pennsylvania for fourteen thousand men, the State
Fencibles, Capt. Clement 0. Biddle, and the Benevo-
lent Blues, Capt. Andrew C. Reed, were the first to
volunteer. Meanwhile Commodore Rodgers, rein-
forced by Lieut. Morgan with two hundred and
fifty more marines, had reached Elkton, but found
no enemy there. They sent word to Philadelphia,
and the bustle of the first excitement passed away.
Companies were still raised, however. The citizens
of the Northern Liberties met at Widow Ling's,
Fourth Street, and resolved to form themselves into
" The Military Association of the Northern Liber-
ties." A meeting to form an artillery company was
held at Peter Fisher's, in Filbert Street, John Boyd,
chairman. " The men professing the principles of
Washington," assembling at Peter Evans', organ-
ized into the volunteer company of Washington Ar-
tillerists. On the 3d of August the First Regiment
of Artillery, Col. John Hare Powel, marched to
Potters' Field and fired a salute "in honor of Gen.
Brown's victory over the British army in Canada."
During these events the dictates of benevolence
were not neglected, and in accordance with resolu-
tions passed at a public meeting, June 16th, large
sums of money were collected to relieve the inhabit-
ants of war-desolated Germany. John G. Wachmuth
was president, and C. L. Manhardt was treasurer of
the enterprise, and committees were at work in every
ward.
A committee was appointed June 9th, by the City
Councils, to correspond with the authorities of the
State and United States, to ascertain what measures
of defense were to be adopted for the bay and river
Delaware, and to inquire whether the fortifications
proposed to be erected on the Pea Patch were to be
carried on. This committee consisted of Messrs.
Leiper, Steel, Brown, and Thompson. About two
weeks afterwards Messrs. Leiper, Mullowney, L.
Brown, and Thompson were deputed to visit Harris-
burg and Washington for the same purpose. They
made report on the 14th of July, and were empow-
ered to consult with the corporations of the Northern
Liberties, Southwark, Wilmington, and New Castle,
but nothing was done.
August 25th this state of inactivity and fancied
security was suddenly ended, couriers riding in hot
haste, and flying rumors spreading the alarm before
them. Washington had fallen, and Ross might even
then be advancing on Baltimore and Philadelphia.
The time for Pennsylvanians to fight for their own
firesides might be at hand. The next morning at ten
o'clock an unusually large town-meeting of the citi-
zens of Philadelphia and all the adjoining districts
assembled in the State-House yard. Ex-Governor
Thomas McKean, then eighty years of age, presided,
and Joseph Reed, for many years city recorder, acted
as secretary. A committee was appointed to draft
resolutions. Its members were Jared Ingersoll, of
the Philadelphia bar, father of Congressmen Charles
J. and Joseph R. Ingersoll; Charles Biddle, vice-
president of the Supreme Executive Council of Penn-
sylvania under the first Constitution, and father of
Nicholas Biddle; John Sergeant, an eminent lawyer,
member of Congress, and afterwards Whig candidate
for Vice-President ; John Goodman, alderman of the
Northern Liberties, and member of the Legislature ;
Robert McMullin, of Southwark, a shipwright, and
a man of much influence; Thomas Leiper, at whose
house Jefferson was nominated, at this time president
of Select Council of Philadelphia; John Barker, ex-
mayor, sheriff of city and county, and father of Capt.
James N. Barker, afterwards successively alderman,
mayor, and port collector. This committee in a short
time reported the following resolutions, which were
at once adopted :
"Resolved, That Charles Biddle, Thomas Leiper, Thomas Cadwalader,
Qen. John Steel, George Latimer, John Barker, Henry Hawkins, Liberty
Browne, Charles Ross, Manuel Byre, John Connelly, Condy Raguet,
William McFadden, John Sergeant, John Geyer (mayor), and Joseph
Reed, of the city of Philadelphia; Col. Jonathan Williams, John Good-
man, Daniel Groves, John Barclay, Juhn Naglee, Thomas Snyder, J. W.
Morris, and Michael Leib, of the Northern Liberties and Penn town-
Bhip; James Josiah, Robert McMullin, John Thompson, Ebenezer Fer-
guson, James Ronaldson, Peter Miercken, Richard Palmer, and P. Peltz,
of Southwark and Moyamensing, be a committee for the purpose of
organizing the citizens of Philadelphia, of the Northern Liberties, and
Southwark for defense, with powers to appoint committees under them ;
to correspond with the government of the Union and the State ; to re-
ceive offers of service from our fellow-citizens in other parts of the State
and Union ; to make arrangements for supplies of arms, ammunition,
and provisions ; to fix on places of rendezvous and signals of alarm ;
and to do all such other matters as may be necessary for the purpose of
defense.
" Resolved, That our fellow-citizens who have been drafted under any
requisition of the President of the United States, or have offered their
services, be requested to consider themselves subject to the direction of
the said committee, provided that the directions of the said committee
shall in no respect contravene the orders of the general or State govern-
ment.
" Resolved, That the committee be authorized to make such applica-
tions as they may deem necessary for the purpose of procuring an ade-
quate disbursement of the funds provided by the commonwealth for
military purposes.
" Resolved, That the committee be authorized to call upon the City
Councils and upon the corporation iu the northern and southern districts
in the name of the citizens to make such appropriations as may be
necessary for the purposes aforesaid.
" Resolved, That the committee be authorized and requested to make
provision for the families of such of the drafted militia and volunteers
as during their absence on service may be in want of assistance.11
Thus ran the ringing resolutions. Of the members
of the Committee of Defense, those not hitherto
spoken of deserve a few words. Henry Hawkins was
a sea-captain and a Federalist; Gen. Thomas Cad-
walader, the son of a Revolutionary general, was a
lawyer and a Federalist, and one of his sons, John,
became United States district judge, and George
afterwards became a general ; John Steel, a native of
Lancaster County, had long been collector of the
port; George Latimer, a Federalist and merchant,
was in the Legislature ; Liberty Browne was president
572
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
of the Common Council ; Capt. Charles Ross was a
Federalist ; Manuel Eyre, bank director, belonged to a
family of noted ship-builders ; John Connelly was in
the Legislature; Condy Raguet was a leading Feder-
alist, writer, and editor of the Gazette and other jour-
nals ; William McFadden was a retired sea-captain ;
John Geyer, mayor, had been for years a printer ;
Col. Williams was Franklin's grand-nephew, had
been head of the West Point Military Academy, and
in 1814 was elected to Congress, but died before taking
his seat; Daniel Groves, a bricklayer, was in the State
Senate ; John Barclay, an ex-judge, was a bank-presi-
dent, and a Federalist; John Naglee, father of Gen.
Naglee, who served in the last war, was a lumber-
merchant ; Thomas Snyder afterwards commanded a
brigade; Isaac Norris was a ship-chandler; ex-Senator
Michael Leib was postmaster of Philadelphia; James
Josiah, an old sea-captain, was the first to display the
American flag in London harbor after the Revolution
(on the " Andrea Doria," a classic name dear to lib-
erty) ; John Thompson, a shoemaker, was representa-
tive and county commissioner ; Ferguson was a magis-
trate ; James Ronaldson, type-founder, had a hand in
most of the early improvements of Moyamensing ;
Peter Miercken was a sugar-refiner and Federalist;
Richard Palmer, prothonotary of the Court of Com-
mon Pleas, was afterwards alderman ; Philip Peltz was
a Passyunk farmer and market-gardener; his grandson
was, in 1867, receiver of taxes in Philadelphia ; John
Goodman was the secretary of the committee, and his
minutes are printed in volume viii. of the "Memoirs
of the Pennsylvania Historical Society."
The newspapers, without regard to party, urged the
people to support the committee by word and deed.
There were now but two parties, — " the country and its
invaders;" the time for action had come; the past
was forgotten, and, as we have seen, a number of the
committee were Federalists. On the afternoon of the
26th the committee met, organized, and appointed a
committee of four persons for each ward in the city,
twenty-one for the districts of Northern Liberties and
Penn township, and twenty-six for Southwark, Moya-
mensing, and Passyunk. They were to promote and
encourage the formation of volunteer companies into
battalions and regiments. The superior committee
next authorized Robert Wharton, William Jackson,
Enos Bronson, Charles W. Hare, William Meredith,
Heury Nixon, and George Gillespie, to raise one or
more companies of light infantry for the special de-
fense of the city and environs, and to form them into
battalions. The Committee of Defense then divided
itself into sub-committees, to direct needful measures
in regard to correspondence, supplies, defense of the
Delaware, to organize citizens into military bodies,
and to make provisions for the families of militia.
By concert with Gen. Bloomfield, it was determined
that the signal of alarm should be six guns, fired from
Fort Mifflin, the navy yard, and the arsenal. On
hearing this warning, the drums of the city and liber-
ties were to beat to arms. Immediately the militia,
equipped for field duty, were to parade on Broad
Street, the line extending southwardly from Chestnut
Street. It was resolved to erect field fortifications
immediately for the defense of the city; and officers
of the topographical engineers were detailed under
the superintendence of Gen. Jonathan Williams.
The City Councils met the same day, and voted that
three hundred thousand dollars should be borrowed
and placed under the control of the Committee of
Defense. The corporations of Northern Liberties
and of Southwark each resolved to raise one hundred
thousand dollars for the same purpose.
Gen. Bloomfield resolved to organize a camp at
Kennett Square, in Chester County, about thirty-six
miles southwest of Philadelphia, thirteen miles from
Wilmington, and eight or nine miles from Chadd's
Ford, and the First City Troop, Capt. Charles Ross,
was detailed for vidette duty between the Chesapeake
and the Delaware. The latter marched, August 28th,
for Mount Bull, a height on the Chesapeake Bay, five
miles from Turkey Point and thirteen miles from
Easton. This situation commanded an extensive
view of the bay, and from thence the line of videttes
was organized, extending to the camp at Kennett
Square and to Philadelphia.
August 26th the State Fencibles, Capt. Clement C.
Biddle, marched from the city to the place of general
rendezvous. The next day the Independent Artiller-
ists, Capt. Andrew M. Prevost, the Independent
Blues, Capt. Peter A. Browne, and the second com-
pany of Washiogton Guards, Capt. Joseph R. Inger-
soll, followed. August 28th the Junior Artillerists,
Capt. Jacob Cash, Jr., left the city. The first com-
pany of Washington Guards, Capt. Condy Raguet,
took up the line of march on the 29th, and on the
30th were followed by the third company of Wash-
ington Guards, Capt. Thomas F. Pleasants, and a
detachment of militia under the command of Lieut. -
Col. Peter L. Berry and Majs. Jacob Vogdes and
William Bozorth, which consisted of the first com-
pany city militia, Capt. James Perle; the second
company, Capt. Reuben Gilder; the third company,
Capt. Justus P. Bullard; the fourth company, Capt.
Peter Fenton. Between the 1st and 12th of Septem-
ber these were reinforced by the Independent Volun-
teers, Capt. Daniel Oldenbergh; first company Union
Guards, Capt. William Mitchell ; second company
Union Guards, Capt. Joseph Murray ; second troop
City Cavalry, Capt. William Rawle, Jr.; and Northern
Liberty Artillerists, Capt. John Naglee. The camp
at Kennett Square was designated Camp Bloomfield,
and Capt. Charles W. Hunter drilled the volunteers,
acting as brigade major under Gen. Bloomfield. On
the 7th of September Lieut.-Col. Clemson, of the
United States army, assumed command of the troops,
which were then reinforced by some regulars.
Reorganization proceeded rapidly, and several
other camps were established in swift succession. The
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
573
entire autumn was occupied in drilling new recruits
and preparing for the expected foe.1 But the chief
interest of the story centres in and around the city of
Philadelphia, where the greatest energy was displayed
in raising troops and building fortifications. Meet-
ings of all sorts abounded, and the newspapers were
crowded with reports of their proceedings. Volun-
teers were abundant, and camps of instruction were
formed near the city. One of these cantonments,
Camp Taylor, was near the United States Arsenal.
At Camp Mifflin there were, in September, companies
commanded by Capts. Sutherland, Huston, Buckius,
and Fess, who elected Joel B. Sutherland major, and
Joseph McCoy adjutant. Another encampment was
formed at Bush Hill, where the reserve was stationed
under the command of Gen. Snyder.2
1 The camps must have been lively places to visit. Iii the middle of
September Gen. Thomas Cadwalader relieved Col. Clemson. The latter,
with the regular troops, encamped at Iron Hill. The eight companies
of infantry in camp were soon organized into a regiment, and elected
Clement C. Biddle, colonel; Condy Kaguet, lieutenant-colonel; Joseph
R. Ingersoll and Samuel S. Voorhees, majors ; Michael W. Ash, adju-
tant; FraDcis U. Wharton, quartermaster; Thomas K. Peters, paymas-
ter. In order to fill up the commands of other companies, Hartman
Kuhn was elected captain of the State Fencibles, John Swift of the
Washington Guards, second company, and John R. Mifflin of the Wash-
ington Guards, first company. On the 10th of September the artillery
companies were formed into a battalion, and Andrew M. Prpvost was
elected mnjor, and James M. Lruuard was elected captain of the Inde-
pendent Artillerists. The staff of Gen. Cadwalader consisted of John
Hare Powel, brigade major; Richard McCall and John G. Biddle, aides-
de-camp ; Henry Sergeant, assistant quartermaster-general ; David Cor-
rey, assistant deputy- quarter master. On the 17th of September the troops
left Kennett Square and marched towards Wilmington, encamping for
the night on Gregg's farm, three miles and aJialf from the latter place.
On the 20th the brigade changed itB position to Camp Brandywine, half
a mile distant. Here they were joined by the State Guards, Capt. Henry
Meyers ; Mifflin Guards of Delaware Couuty, Capt. Anderson ; Frank-
ford Volunteer Artillerists, Capt. Thomas W. Duffield ; Frankliu Flying
Artillery, Capt. ltichard Bache; Washington Artillerists, Capt. Corne-
lius Stevenson. Camp Brandywine was onl}' maintained for nine days,
when Camp Dupont was chosen, about two miles westward. Thither
repaired from the city the second company of Independent Artillerists,
Capt. Samuel Paxson, and the Independent Riflemen, Capt. John C.
Uhle ; also the Reading "Washington Blues, Capt. Daniel D. B. Keim ;
the Union Rifles of Union County, Capt. Ner Middlewarth ; the Selius-
grove Riflemen, Capt. John Snyder ; the Union Rifles of Montgomery
Connty, Capt. John Rawlins; the Delaware Couuty Fencibles, Capt.
James Serrill ; and a regiment of riflemen, under Col. Thomas Hum-
phreys, consisting of Northampton County riflemen, Capts. Home,
Shurtz, and Dinckley ; of Lehigh County troops, under Copts. Rinker,
Hess, and Ott ; of Chester County troops, under Capt. Christian Wigter ;
of Montgomery County troops, under Capts. Hurst, Robinson, Matthews,
Crosscup, Fryer, Sands, and Sensenderfer; of Bucks County troops, under
Capts. Alexander McClean, "William Purdy, and William Magill. On
the 14th of November Maj. Prevost's artillery battalion was formed into
«, regiment. Maj. Prevost was elected colonel; Cornelius Stevenson
and Thomas W. Duffield, majors ; John G. Hutton, adjutant; Jacob Pe-
ters and Lewis M. Prevost, quartermasters ; James Smith, surgeon; and
Robert O'Neil, sergeant-major. By these changes there were vacancies
in some of the companies, which were filled up by the election of Sam-
uel C. Landis as captain of the Washington Artillerists, and Bela Badger
as captain of the Frankford Artillerists.
2 To show the public spirit, the organization of some of these com-
panies may he mentioned more in detail. A meeting of the teachers of
the city was held on the 30th of August, at George Shocb's, in Decatur
Street. The principal promoters of this Bcheme were Henry J. Hutchins,
William J. Bedlock, Joseph Hutton, John Duffy, Benjamin H. Rand,
John L. Peck, and George Denuison. They resolved to form them-
selves into an association for home defense. There was also a call for
The Committee of Defense thought that field forti-
fications should at once be thrown up on the western
side, from which an attack might first be expected.
The works which were planned were: fortifications
near Gray's Ferry, a redoubt opposite Hamilton's
Grove, on the west side of the Schuylkill, a fort at
the junction of the Gray's Ferry and Darby roads, a
redoubt upon the Lancaster road, and a redoubt upon
the southern side of the hill at Fairmount. To con-
struct these works required much labor, and they
could not have been built without the voluntary labor
of the citizens. A hearty enthusiasm was shown in
this service. Companies, associations, societies, and
the artificers of different trades organized themselves
for the work. Day after day these parties left the
city at from five to six o'clock in the morning, with
knapsacks or handkerchiefs containing a supply of
food, and marched down to the fortifications, to a day
of toilsome work at an occupation to which but few
of them were accustomed. This labor commenced
September 3d, and continued until October 1st, when
the field-works were finished. This work was done
by parties having the following numbers: house-
carpenters, sixty-two ; victualers, four hundred; the
Tammany Society, four hundred; painters, seventy;
hatters and brickmakers, three hundred ; Fourth
i Washington Guards, one hundred and sixty;. Rev.
Mr. Staughton and the members of his church,
sixty; printers, two hundred; crew of the privateer
" Wasp," one hundred and forty ; watchmakers, silver-
smiths, and jewelers (on Sunday, the 11th), four hun-
dred; cabinet-makers and joiners, eighty ; cordwain-
ers, three hundred ; Washington Association, seventy ;
True Republican Society, seventy; teachers, thirty;
friendly aliens, five hundred ; Freemasons (Grand and
subordinate lodges), five hundred and ten ; Washing-
ton Benevolent Society, five hundred ; Sons of Erin,
citizens of the United States, two thousand two hun-
dred ; Tammany Society (second day), one hundred
and thirty ; German societies, five hundred and forty ;
colored men, six hundred and fifty ; citizens of Ger-
mantown, four hundred; Scotchmen, one hundred;
friendly aliens (second day), one hundred and fifty;
Sons of Erin, citizens of the United States (second
day), three hundred and fifty. The colored people also
"a meeting of pious men, whose conscientious views would deter tbem
from joining other corps where they could not enjoy themselves as
much as in this corps, which is formed for the defense of those rights,
both civil and religious, which the Father of alt mercies has committed
to onr care." Among the advantages of this branch of the cbureh
militant it was announced were tbese: "Those who read tlmjr Bibles
will find that Gideon, Baruch, Snnison, Jeptha, David, Samuel, and ilio
Prophets subdued kingdoms, quenched the violence of fire, w;i.\ed vali-
ant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of their enemies."
The French citizens formed themselves into a company called the
Philadelphia Chasseurs. Several companies were loimud fur ciiy de-
fense. Among these were the Philadelphia Guards, Plnladelplii.i Volun-
teers, City Guards, Northern Liberty Guards, Western liiHe Hangers,
fourth, fifth, and sixth companies of Washington Guards, Schuylkill
Guards, Volunteer Greens, Philadelphia Fencibles, Lawrence Infantry,
Independent Artillerists, second company, and a company of pikemea
formed in Soutliwark.
574
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
gave a second day to the work. Other bodies also par-
ticipated. Among these were the Franklin Benevolent
Institution, the Howard and Lawrence Beneficial
Societies, and the Philadelphia Benevolent Society.
The physicians labored at the works, as did the
artists, and many others, so that when the fortifica-
tions were completed about fifteen thousand persons
had worked upon them, each for one day. In lieu of
labor many gave money, the committee collecting
about six thousand dollars. Upon arriving at the
fortifications the citizens, divided into companies,
were put to work. At ten o'clock the drum beat for
grog, when liquor sufficient for each corps was dealt
out to its captain. At twelve o'clock the drum beat
for dinner, and more grog was furnished. This was
also the case at three and at five o'clock. At six
o'clock the drums beat a retreat, when, said the gen-
eral orders, '' For the honor of the cause we are en-
gaged in, it is hoped that every man will retire
sober.''
These works were principally laid out by Col. I.
Fonciu, a French officer who had lived in Philadel-
phia for many years. He returned to France in Sep-
tember, after receiving a special vote of thanks from
the Committee of Defense. His plans were carried
out by a volunteer association of field engineers, both
civil and military, composed of the following gen-
tlemen : Chief Engineer, Gen. Jonathan Williams ;
Chief Assistant, Col. I. Fonciu ; Topographical De-
partment, Dr. R. M. Patterson, William Strickland,
Robert Brooks, William Kneass, and Jonathan Jones;
Superintendents of the Works, Thomas M. Souder,
Joseph Cloud, Adam Eckfeldt, Isaac Forsyth, Nich-
olas Esling, Samuel Richards, Spencer Sergeant,
John Coxe, Frederick Sheble, George W. Morgan,
Frederick Gaul, Joseph Watson, Thomas McKean,
Jacob S. Otto, Alexander Ramsey, William Davis,
Samuel Nicholas, Jacob Clements, William Spohn,
William Whitehead, Frederick Eckstein, Conrad
Wesener, James J. Rush, Thomas Hart, Aaron Den-
nison, and Joseph P. Zebley ; Commissary Depart-
ment, Stephen Kingston, Peter Wager, Thomas P.
Roberts, and Anthony Groves ; Topographical Engi-
neers, in the service of the United States, Maj. Rober-
deau and Capt. Clarke, assisted by Robert Frazier.
One of the early matters of discussion in the com-
mittee was the manner in which spies should be de-
tected. In September they reported that the best
plan would be to invite citizens generally to report
all persons of suspicious character to the mayor, or
to some justice of the peace, to be legally proceeded
against. This method, it was thought, would be
highly efficacious, " inasmuch as it would make every
citizen the guardian of his own rights, and would
strike terror in the minds of those incendiaries who
now infest our city with impunity." As an auxiliary
measure, it was resolved that keepers of stage-offices,
commanders of steamboats, ferrymen, and toll-gath-
erers should be instructed to furnish lists of passen-
gers arriving and departing, and of suspicious per-
sons.
The attention of the Committee of Defense was at
once directed towards the needed defenses upon the
Delaware. It was recommended that a fort should be
erected near Red Bank, on the Jersey shore, and sixty
volunteers offered their services. Application was
made to the Governor of New Jersey for authority.
It was recommended that obstructions by twelve
sunken vessels of from one hundred to two hundred
tons each, and three smaller ones, should be placed
in the channel near Fort Mifflin ; that a fort should be
erected one mile above the mouth of Mantua Creek,
on the Jersey shore, and a battery at the wharf of the
hospital on Province Island. The Marine Artillery,
Capt. Annesley, were stationed at Fort Mifflin. Ap-
plication was made to Gen. John Armstrong, Secre-
tary of War, for the building of a battery of thirty-two
24-pounders on the Pea Patch, and for suitable forti-
fications at Newbold's Point and Red Bank. Capt.
Babcock, of the engineer corps, thought that he could
do no more than provide for the erection of two mar-
tello towers at the Pea Patch. The Committee of De-
fense and Councils desired more permanent fortifica-
tions. They built a martello tower in the Northern
Liberties. Gen. Swift, of the United States army, ac-
companied members of the committee down the Del-
aware in September, and prepared plans for the forti-
fications on the Pea Patch and Newbold's Point.
Thomas Clarke, of the topographical engineers, had
undertaken, for twenty thousand dollars, to erect a
tide-hank around a part of Pea Patch Island which
would inclose about eighty acres, and also to build
a wharf, and execute other work necessary for per-
manent fortifications.
The Committee of Defense desired a force of United
States regulars near Philadelphia. Two thousand
regulars were named as sufficient. The Secretary of
War had not the troops to spare, and it was re-
solved to apply to the Governor, and request that he
would apply to the Secretary of War for such an en-
campment ; also to ask that authority should be given
to the city of Philadelphia to enlist three regiments
of infantry. Governor Snyder sent a brigade of mili-
tia, under Gen. Spering, from the counties of Lehigh,
Pike, Northumberland, and Columbia, which was
quartered at the Arch Street prison.
September 8th the committee reported that,
"in the opinion of your committee, all measures short of the author-
ity of the Commonwealth, legally exercised, would be found ineffectual,
inasmuch as the inhabitants of the part of the country through which
the enemy must pass would be proportionably injured. Recommenda-
tions, therefore, could only operate on the few who prefer the public
benefit to private prosperity ; and the most virtuous and patriotic citi-
zens would, consequently, be the most exposed to these burdens or pri-
vations. Tour committee is therefore of opinion that the chairman of
the general committee, or a special committee appointed for the purpose,
should without delay wait upon the Governor of the State, and request
him to appoint proper persons to carry into effect, on the first luuding
of the enemy, the following indispensable measures:
" 1. To cause all horses, cattle, and every species of vehicle to he driven
FKOM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAE OF 1812-15.
575
into the interior, out of the possible reach of the enemy, so as to deprive
them of every means of transportation.
"2. To drive off or carry away every auimal of every description that
may serve for food, and to carry away (or destroy, if there Bhould not be
time to carry away) all provisions of every kind.
" 3. To draw the lower box and take away the Bpear of every pump,
and all the apparatus by which water may be drawn from wells.
'*4. To impede roads as far as possible, and to stop all narrow passes
by felled trees, or by such other means as time and circumstances may
permit.
"5. To take an indispensable wheel from every mill, so as to prevent
the possibility of its being used when in the enemy's possession."
Early in its proceedings the Committee of Defense
discussed the raising of black troops. August 27th,
L. M. Merlin, an upholsterer at No. 192 Lombard
Street, and a French Canadian, wrote a letter in
French to the committee on which the sub-committee
reported August 30th, —
" That it has taken into consideration the letter in French addressed
to the general committee by Mr. L. M. Merlin ; that the writer of said
letter makes a proposition to have organized a legion of people of color,
to be called the Black Legion, and to be commanded by white officers;
that it seems improper to the committee to have the proposed legion or-
ganized at this time, when there is so short a eupply of arms aud ac-
coutrements for our white citizens ; but the committee thinks that under
a proper regulation these people of color miglit be employed as fatigue
parties on the work, — to act, in a manner, detached from the white citi-
zens who may be so employed."
No further reference to the subject is found in the
minutes of the Committee of Defense. During the
summer and autumn, however, there was a brigade of
blacks recruited for United States service in Phila-
delphia, but by whom does not seem to be now known.
In "The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Des-
tiny of the Colored People of the United States," by
Martin Robinson Delaney, published in Philadelphia
in 1852, a quotation is made from a pamphlet by W.
C. Nell, of Boston, which, after speaking of the ser-
vices of colored men on the fortifications at Phila-
delphia, says, " A battalion of colored troops was at
the same time organized in the city under an officer
of the United States army, and it was on the point
of marching to the frontier when peace was pro-
claimed." 1
1 Citizens living in 1814 agree that there was an organization of black
troops in Philadelphia that year, and one of them lias stated that he
remembers having several times seen the colored soldiers march to
Christ Church to attend religious services. In a communication to the
Dispatch, some years ago, a citizen stated that he remembered to have
"seen a company of colored troops, under command of Capt. Bussier,
marched on the ice across the river Delaware (in 1815) to Camden."
The raising of colored troops had also been suggested to the general
government. Among the few papers saved from the burning of the War
Office building, after the war of 1814, is the following:
"Inspectoe-Genebal's Office, Third Military District,
"Wednesday, Aug. 23, 1814.
" Gen. John Armstrong, Secretary of War, Washington :
"Sir,— I have just been informed by my good fneud, Col. A. Dennis-
ton, that you have in contemplation to raise a regiment of blacks.
Should this be the case, I solicit permission to tender my services to assist
in recruiting such a regiment, confident that in Pennsylvania (the place
of my nativity) I sbould be able in a short period to enlist from three
hundred to five hundred men. Any information or recommendations
you may require respecting me shall be furnished from the most respect-
able military characters in thia and the Fourth Military District.
"Permit me to refer you to the Secretary of the Navy and Kichard
Bush, Esq., who, I believe, have some knowledge of me.
On the 14th of September news arrived of the land-
ing of the British near Baltimore, and of the expected
attack upon that city. The excitement now culmi-
nated. The headquarters of Gen. Gaines, corner of
Eleventh and Market Streets, was surrounded by
thousands of anxious persons. There were rumors
of a heavy engagement long before intelligence of the
bombardment of Fort McHenry was received. The
greatest agitation prevailed, and the chances of an
attack upon Philadelphia were canvassed. While
this state of uncertainty prevailed, the city treasurer
addressed the Councils to know if he had authority
to remove the public books and papers, if the Com-
mittee of Defense should so decide. A resolution
granting him this privilege was passed, and the city
officers were ordered to pack up their papers, books,
and documents so that they might be easily removed.
The news of the British retreat caused great rejoicing.
September 29th, Gen. Winfield Scott was received
with military honors and escorted to his hotel. Gen.
Edmund P. Gaines was at this time commander of
the Fourth District, including Philadelphia.
Many applications were made to the committee by
inventors. Joseph G. Chambers, in September, pro-
posed to organize a company to act with repeating
fire-arms, and the sub-committee reported favorably.
Chambers was then authorized to form a company,
and the Secretary of the Navy ordered fifty such guns
to be made. In October, Robert Fulton, of New York,
sent a letter to Bernard Henry, which was referred to
the Committee of Defense, in which he said, —
" I have prepared for you a torpedo, with its fulminating lock, from
which any number required can be made, either for anchoring or for
the various modes of attack and defense which I have explained. But
it is to be understood that I do not give to you, or to the Committee of
Defense of Philadelphia, any right to draw emolument for the use of
my invention. A law has been passed by Congress, with a view to en-
courage the practice of torpedoes, that grants half of the estimated
value of all vessels of an enemy that shall be destroyed by means other
than vessels of the government. Having labored for fifteen years to
introduce the practice of submarine explosions, and being inventor of
the machinery, I cannot throw away the fruits of so many years of ex-
ertion and expense; nor will the public, who seek only for protection,
require it of me."
This torpedo was sent on, and the committee paid
Mr. Henry one hundred and thirty dollars for it.2
Some experiments were made on a floating chain,
" I am at present detailed by the commanding general of this district
as acting inspector-general, during the arrest of Col. N. Gray.
" Soliciting your attention to my application, I am, with sentiments of
the highest regard, sir,
" Your most obedient servant,
"P. P. Walter,
" Capt. Co. I, Thirty -second Regiment, Acting Inspector- General Third Mili-
tary District."
2 Jan. 1, 1815, Fulton wrote again, describing a new invention of hie, a.
torpedo-boat with a submarine wheel. The committee wisely concluded
that it would be prudent to insist that such a boat Bhould first be tested.
The Secretary of the Navy was then written to, to inquire whether he
approved of Fulton's torpedo-boat, whether it would be accepted as a
temporary substitute for the frigate, and if the money raised for build-
ing a frigate could be diverted for the torpedo-boat, but the reply was
unfavorable.
576
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
costing one hundred and eleven dollars. Over
twenty-one thousand dollars was paid for hulls sunk
in the Delaware. In November, George Clymer sent
a letter to the committee relative to the defense of the
Delaware by steam vessels of war. The sub-commit-
tee said it was " unable to comprehend Mr. Clymer's
mode of warfare for want of accurate description.
Every inventor is bound to exhibit either a demon-
stration of his invention on known principles, or the
result of actual experiment attested by competent
judges."
' The steam frigate " Fulton the First" had been
launched at New York, and great expectations were
entertained of the value of the vessel. The " Com-
mittee of Vigilance and Safety," of the city of Balti-
more, in November applied to the Secretary of the
Navy, William Jones, for the construction of a steam
floating battery. He replied that if they would
raise one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and
place the sum to the credit of the United States in
any bank of Baltimore, the amount should be applied
to building a battery, and the government would give
the builders six per cent. United States stocks to the
amount of the subscriptions. Secretary Jones then
wrote to Philadelphia, making similar offers. He
said, "A single vessel of this kind, together with the
defenses and obstructions, now, I understand, in op-
eration at the Pea Patch, would render the Delaware
perfectly secure, and would supersede the immense
expenditure, loss, and anxiety which the inhabitants
of its shores must otherwise sustain."
The Philadelphia committee, November 18th, re-
solved to raise money for a steam frigate. A few days
afterward they resolved to call upon New Castle, Wil-
mington, and the inhabitants of the adjacent country
to contribute toward the expense of the defenses on
the Pea Patch and the building of a battery. Wil-
mington subscribed fifteen thousand dollars, and paid
five thousand dollars to the Philadelphia committee
within five weeks. The committee in regard to sub-
scriptions for the steam frigate reported that sub-
scriptions to the amounts expected could not be
procured. It then was resolved to petition the Leg-
islature for an appropriation of the auction duties
usually paid into the State treasury, but the news of
the negotiation of a treaty of peace, which reached
the city after the beginning of the year 1815, put
an end to this, and the Wilmington money was re-
funded. Late in November the Secretary of the
Navy authorized George Harrison, navy-agent at
Philadelphia, to enter into a contract for the build-
ing of a steam floating battery upon the plans of Ful-
ton, adopted in building the frigate at New York.
Permission was given to build it in the navy-yard,
either by the builders of the " Fulton" or by others.
The troops at Camp Dupont were drilled steadily
during the summer and autumn. About the middle
of November six companies, under the command of
Lieut.-Col. Eaguet, were marched to Camp Gaines,
two miles below New Castle, until that time occupied
by Col. Irvine with a detachment of regular troops,
who were ordered to take up a new station farther
down the Delaware, to prevent an anticipated land-
ing of the enemy. Col. Eaguet remained at Camp
Gaines until a storm occurred, which filled many of
the tents with water. Eepairing to New Castle, the
soldiers were quartered in a church, the court-house,
and a private dwelling. In addition to these troops,
composed of citizens of Philadelphia, there had been
nearly ten thousand State militia encamped near
Marcus Hook, under the command of Gen. Isaac
Worrell. November 30th, " the Advance Light Bri-
gade" broke up the encampment at Dupont, and
marched to Wilmington, where the detachment from
Camp Gaines and New Castle joined it. The whole
body, numbering over three thousand, then took up
the line of march homeward, and on the 2d of De-
cember entered the city, presenting to their delighted
kindred and friends such a sight as had not been seen
in Philadelphia since the Eevolution. They were
marched over the permanent bridge to the head-
quarters of Gen. Gaines, at Eleventh and Market
Streets, and thence to the State-House, where they
were dismissed. Shortly afterwards they were mus-
tered out of service, but were expected to be ready
for more efficient action in the spring. The brigade
of Gen. Snyder marched back a few days afterwards.
And thus ended the military operations of 1814 in
Philadelphia. A few days later, Gen. Spering, com-
manding a brigade of militia quartered at the Arch
Street prison, made application to the Committee of
Defense for assistance in procuring shoes and stock-
ings for his men, who were about to march over a
dreary country to their homes, and four thousand
dollars were appropriated.
Local politics were not entirely suspended even
during the excitement of the war. Col. Eobert
Patton, postmaster since Oct. 2, 1789, died January
3d, and after a fierce struggle Dr. Michael Leib, in
February, carried off the prize. Richard Bache,
aided by Binns and Randall, was his chief opponent.
Ingersoll, Conard, and Seybert, congressmen from
Philadelphia, voted for a suspension of the embargo,
and were abused by their party friends. Binns, in
his Democratic Press, charged the Society of Friends
with having declared against war contribution, and
in October some of them wrote to Governor Snyder
denying it. In autumn the Democrats nominated for
Congress Adam Seybert, Charles J. Ingersoll, Willi;im
Anderson, and John Conard. The Federalists nomi-
nated Jonathan Williams, Joseph Hopkinson, Wil-
liam Milnor, and Thomas Smith. In the county the
new-school Democrats nominated for the Assembly
Jacob Holgate, J. Holmes, John Carter, John D.
Goodwin, and Joel B. Sutherland. The old-school
Democrats, belonging to the Leib party, held the usual
opposition meetings, and nominated for the Assembly
Joseph Engle, George Morton, John Kessler, Corne-
FKOM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.
577
lius Trimnel, Samuel Castor, and John Cochrane.
In the city the Federalists nominated for State sen-
ators Nicholas Biddle and William Magee. At the
election the political status of the previous year was
reversed, and the Federalists carried the city and
county for their congressmen, senators, assemhlymen,
city councilmen, county commissioners, and auditors,
every office, in fact, except coroner, to which John
Dennis was elected hy a small majority. For Gov-
ernor Col. Isaac Wayne, Federalist, received in the
city and county 5674 votes ; Simon Snyder, Democrat,
4573 votes. By this victory the Federalists, for the
first time in many years, sent a county delegation (J.
Whitehead, C. Wheeler, Dr. De Benneville, Samuel
Breck, T. Bird, and J. Thum) to the Assembly.
March 18th, a bill to charter forty-two new banks
■was passed, vetoed by the Governor, and passed over
his veto. Three were to be in Philadelphia and two
in the county. August 30th, after the capture of
Washington, the banks of Philadelphia suspended
specie payments, a measure which was followed by
the banks of New York, and by all others throughout
the country. The banks said that they were com-
pelled to suspend in order to keep the entire specie
capital of the country from being exported. A meet-
ing of merchants and traders was held at the Coffee-
House on the day after the suspension, Thomas M.
Willing chairman, and Robert Richie secretary. It
was resolved to sustain the banks, and to take their
notes as usual.
The suspension eventually caused a great deal of
trouble. The scarcity of coin for the purposes of
business was so general that large numbers of notes
for small sums, or " shinplasters," were issued by in-
dividuals.1 In November a proposition was made
that the city should issue small notes, less than one
dollar in amount, but the Councils refused.
Early in 1814 resolutions were introduced into
Councils in favor of having watchmen and lamps in
Centre Square. It was finally agreed to place watch-
men at the Centre Square engine-house only. The
lighting of the city was somewhat difficult in conse-
quence of the increasing scarcity of oil, — a result of
the war, which interfered with the whale fisheries.
In February, E. Clark proposed to light the city with
tallow and old fat instead of with oil. In March the
City Commissioners were authorized to make experi-
1 The following is a specimen of this sort of currency :
A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF GROCERIES.
i
6^cts.
Chest of Tea
and hogshead.
No. 233.
I promise to pay the bearer on demand,
in Groceries, or Philadelphia Bank Notes,
at No. 130 North Water street, six-and-a-
quarter cents.
John Thompson.
Phila., December 10, 1814.
37
ments, and in April a resolution was introduced into
Common Council to purchase Clark's patent-right for
lighting streets for six thousand dollars. An amend-
ment to pay two thousand dollars was carried, but
the project was finally rejected. In September a plan
of Philip Mason's for burning tallow was exam-
ined. Five hundred dollars were soon appropriated
to alter the public lamps in accordance with Mason's
plan for burning tallow or lard. In December fur-
ther action was taken in that direction.
The Athenaeum originated in this year at a meeting
held February 9th, of which Roberts Vaux was chair-
man. It was resolved to establish a reading-room at
the southeast corner of Chestnut and Fourth Streets.
Upon the permanent organization of the associa-
tion, William Tilghman was elected president, James
Mease vice-president, and Roberts Vaux secretary.
The Washington Benevolent Society and the Wash-
ington Association celebrated February 22d with ora-
tions from Condy Raguet and Richard S. Coxe. July
4th the Washington Benevolent Society listened to
an oration by Dr. Charles Caldwell, and then dined at
the Lebanon Garden. Their new hall was begun this
year. Proposals were issued for a loan of one hun-
dred and twenty thousand dollars. The corner-stone
of Washington Hall was laid in August by Robert
Wharton. The Society of the Cincinnati on the
same day dined at the Mantua Hotel, north of Ham-
ilton Village. The Tammany Society celebrated their
anniversary day in May by a parade and celebration
in the wigwam at Richmond, kept by Brother Trotter.
They also had a celebration, July 4th, at the wigwam
in Spring Garden.
A meeting was held in February, of citizens of
Southwark and of New Jersey, and it was resolved
to establish a steamboat to run between the Point
House and Gloucester Point. The steamboat " Bris-
tol," launched this year, ran from Arch Street ferry,
under the control of Jacob Meyers. He announced
that the boat was built at the "joint expense of citi-
zens of Burlington, Bristol, and Philadelphia, without
any view to profit, but merely for the accommodation
of the public." A few other items are perhaps worth
record. March 22d a company was incorporated for
improving the navigation of the river Lehigh. Among
the commissioners were Robert Wallace, John Na-
glee, lumber merchant of the Northern Liberties,
Thomas Stewardson, and Joseph Grice. George
Clymer gave notice in April of this year that he had
completed on a new plan an iron printing-press,
which was to be seen at William Fry's printing-
office, Prune Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets.
Certificates were given afterwards by Professor Rob-
ert Patterson and Oliver Evans.
In April, Mr. Palmer proposed to the Councils to
filter the water at Fairmount. A contract was au-
thorized with Oliver Evans in June for building an
engine at Fairmount, with power to raise three mil-
lion five hundred thousand gallons of water from the
578
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Schuylkill in twenty-four hours, at a cost not exceed-
ing twenty-three thousand dollars. On the 3d of
August the First Kegiment of Artillery, Col. Powell,
fired a Federal salute at Potter's Field in honor of Gen.
Brown's victory over the British army in Canada. In
September the Common Council resolved that all the
" uninclosed part of northeast public square east of
Seventh Street and south of the oil-house be cleared off,
so far as the same is not inclosed, and that the militia,
or any company or companies thereof, or any military
association, shall be permitted to drill or parade on said
open ground when cleared." Permission was given at
the same time to use the southeast square for military
exercises. A whale was taken in the Delaware near
Trenton, in the autumn, and was exhibited near the
High Bridge, Kensington. It was twenty-four feet
eight inches long, and the girth of its body was fifteen
feet.
But nothing that had occurred for years had a
greater bearing on the future of Philadelphia than
certain experiments with Schuylkill coal, reported
December 14th in the Union and United States Ga-
zette. They took place at the wire-mills of White &
Hazard, Falls of Schuylkill. Figures were printed
showing the amount of work in heating and rolling
iron, which had within a certain time been done by
aid of the Pennsylvania coal, and also a statement of
what was usually accomplished by the use of Virginia
coal in the same period of time. The result was
greatly in favor of anthracite coal. This may be said
to be the first successful experiment in the use of the
anthracite coal made in Philadelphia, and it was the
beginning of the use of an article of fuel the value of
which in subsequent years is beyond all estimate.
Charles V. Hagner, in his "History of the Falls of
Schuylkill," thus describes the circumstances attend-
ing this experiment :
"White & Hazard were using, in their rolling mill, bituminous coal.
They knew of the large body of anthracite at the head uf the Schuyl-
kill, and early commenced making experiments with it. They had
some brought down iu wagons, at an expense of one dollar per bushel, —
twenty-eight dollars per ton, — expended a considerable sum of money
iu experimenting, but could not succeed in making it burn. The bauds
working in the mill got heartily sick and tired of it, and it was about
being abandoned. But, on a certain occasion, after they had been try-
ing for a long time to make it burn without success, they became exas-
perated, threw a large quantity of the 'black stones,' as they called
them, into the furnace, shut the doors, and left the mill. It so hap-
pened that one of them had left his jacket in the mill, and in going
there for it some time afterwards he discovered a tremendous fire in the
furnace, the doors red with heat. He immediately called all bands, and
they ran through the rolls three separate heats of iron with that one
fire. Here was an important discovery, and it was, in my opinion, the
first practically successful use of our anthracite coal, now so common.
This important discovery was the simple fact that all that was wanted
to ignite it wns time, and to be 'let alone.' All this may appear strange
now but the men employed in that mill — and every one else who used
the bituminous coal — were accustomed to see it blaze up the moment
they threw it on the lire, and because the anthracite would not do so
they could not understand it, and the more they scratched and poked at
it ao operation necessary with the bituminous coal — the worse it was
with the anthracite. Upon making this discovery, Josiah White imme-
diately began to make experiments in contriving various kinds of
grates to make the anthracite applicable for domestic use, in which he
finally succeeded to admiration."
This coal was sent down from the Lehigh by Hill-
house, Miner & Cist. It was the first ark-load of
that coal which had reached the city. It was deliv-
ered August 14th to Stellwagen & Knight, who were
selected as agents to dispose of it. The ark held
twenty-four tons, and the expenses of getting the coal
to the city, including mining, hauling, and the build-
ing of the ark, were three hundred and thirty dollars
and seventy-seven cents, so that the coal cost the
owners about fourteen dollars a ton to land it in
Philadelphia. It was a portion of this cargo that
went into the hands of White & Hazard.
Charles Miner, in a letter to Samuel J. Packer,
written in 1833, says further, —
" But while we pushed forward our labors at the mine, — hauling coal,
building arks, etc., — we had the greater difficulty to overcome of in-
ducing the public to use our coal when brought to their doors, much as
it was needed. We published handbills in English and German, stating
the mode of burning the coal, either in grates, smiths' fires, or in stoves.
Numerous certificates were obtained and printed from blacksmiths and
others who bad successfully used the anthracite. Mr. Cist formed a
model of a coal-stove, and got a number cast. Together we went to
several houses in the city, and prevailed on the masters to allow us to
kindle fires of anthracite in their grates, erected to burn Liverpool coal.
We attended at blacksmiths' shops, and persuaded some to alter the
'too-iron,' so that they might burn the Lehigh coal; and we were some-
times obliged tu bribe the journeymen to try the experiment fairly, so
averse were they to learning the use of a new sort of fuel so different
from what they had been accustomed to. Great as were our united ex-
ertions (and Mr. Cist, if they were meritorious, deserves the chief com-
mendation), necessity accomplished more for us than our own labors.
Charcoal advanced in price, aud was difficult to be got. Manufacturers
were forced to try the experiment of using the anthracite, and every
day's experience convinced them, and those who witnessed the fires, of
the great value of this coal. Josiah White, then engaged iu some man-
ufacture of iron, with characteristic enterprise and spirit brought the
article into successful use in his works, and learned, as we have under-
stood, from purchases made of our ageut, its incomparable value."
The year 1815 opened with abundant preparations
for a vigorous campaign. News of the battle of New
Orleans, January 8th, was not received at Philadel-
phia till February 5th, and the " Guerriere," lying in
the Delaware, fired a national salute. Before that
time Gen. Jackson was scarcely known ; but his ser-
vices and bravery, even at this early period, brought
the idea of his being an available Presidential candi-
date to the minds of some of the people. On the 4th
of July, at various dinners in honor of the occasion,
complimentary toasts to Gen. Jackson were received
with great applause. All of them were eulogistic in
tone, and declared that his services at New Orleans
demanded the admiration of the country and some
future reward.1
On the 13th of February news of the signing of a
treaty of peace with England was received in Phila-
delphia. Mayor Wharton announced that there
should be a general illumination, which took place
1 At a dinner held at the wigwam, on Sixth Street, Spring Garden,
among the toasts was the following, from Mr. Gray, of the firm of Gray &
Wylie, teachers, residing in Locust Street, above Ninth : " Maj.-Gen. An-
drew Jackson, for his services a Presidency of the Uuited States." This
toast was laughed at and laid aside for awhile, but it was so often called
for that they reluctantly read it. This was probably the first nomina-
tion of Jackson for President.
FROM THE EMBARGO TO THE CLOSE OP THE WAR OP 1812-15.
579
on the evening_of the 15th of February. The two
bridges over the Schuylkill were illuminated bril-
liantly. Paul Beck's shot-tower, near Arch Street
and the Schuylkill River, rose up like a pillar of fire,
the top being crowned with one hundred and sixty
lamps. There was an illuminated arch thrown over
the streets at the intersection of Eighth and Callow-
hill Streets. Another, at Eighth and Market Streets,
was decorated with a transparency representing an
Arcadian shepherdess attending a flock of merino
sheep. At Locust and Eighth Streets an arch was
decorated with paintings of ships and naval trophies.
At Eighth and Sansom Streets a painting represent-
ing Peace bore the motto, " Peace is the Nurse of the
Arts." In front of the Masonic Hall was a gigantic
figure of Charity. The theatre was adorned with ap-
propriate emblems. Peale's Museum shone bril-
liantly. The office of Poulson's Daily Advertiser was
likewise decorated. The private houses generally
were adorned with appropriate devices, among the
most conspicuous of which was the mansion of Jacob
Gerard Koch, northwest corner of Ninth and Market
Streets. There were afterward various galas and fes-
tivities. John Scotti gave, in May, at Vauxhall Gar-
den, northeast corner of Broad and Walnut Streets, a
brilliant ball in honor of peace and of the hero of
New Orleans. The ball-room was illuminated with
six thousand lights.1
Proposals were issued for striking a historical medal,
the design to be drawn by Sully, and the engraving
to be done by Reich, " from the designs of a well-
known literary character, corrected by persons of ac-
knowledged patriotism and taste." The medals were
to be from two to three inches broad. The price of a
copy in gold was to be fifty dollars ; in silver, ten dol-
lars; in bronze, one dollar. A grand Te Deum, with
full accompaniments, was sung at St. Augustine's
Church on the 26th of February.
At the conclusion of the war some of the privateers
belonging to the city were at sea. The " Spencer"
put to sea on the 11th of January, the commander
being ignorant of the treaty of peace and of the battle
of New Orleans. The " Young Wasp," Capt. Haw-
ley, at the beginning of February sent in the " Mar-
garet" as a prize, and on the 7th of March sent in a
brig. The " Perry," privateer, arrived a day or two
previously. In the middle of March there were still
1 The first veBsel which Hailed for the United States with news of the
ratification of the Treaty of Ghent was the schooner "Transit," Capt.
Hughes, which brought as passenger Mr. Carroll, Secretary of Legation,
with a copy of the treaty. The "Transit" was the official vessel, and
ought to have heen the first to arrive. But she was beaten by the BritiBh
sloop-of-war " Favorite," which sailed from Falmouth ten days after and
arrived at New York Feb. 11, 1814, two weeks before the "Transit"
reached a Northern port. The hulk of a vessel entitled " The Messenger
of Peace" was after the war drawn up on Windmill or Smith's Island,
and used for many years as a bar-room. The masts were taken down,
and the hull was roofed over. Access to the vessel was obtained through
a door cut near the stern, to which high wooden steps led. The stern
of the vessel was toward the river, with the name " Messenger of Peace"
painted upon it. It was probably the hull of the schooner "Transit."
several vessels at sea under privateer commissions.
The "Young Wasp" came in at the end of March.
Shortly afterward the flotilla of 1813-14 was disposed
of by auction, and eighteen gun-boats, three barges,
and one pinnace were sold at the navy-yard. The
frigate " Guerriere" sailed for New York about the
middle of March. The " Franklin," seventy-four, was
launched from the navy-yard on the 21st of August
of this year.
The city assumed the debts contracted by the Com-
mittee of Defense, and paid the Bank of Pennsylvania
the interest on the sum of $100,000 advanced by that
corporation. The committee having a cash balance
of $13,000, paid the city $11,666,66, and to the dis-
tricts of Northern Liberties and Southwark $666.66
each. They likewise held $95,000 in six per cent,
stock of the United States, which was thus divided :
to the city, $85,258 ; Northern Liberties and South-
wark, $4871 each. The bank received the stock from
the city as collateral security for the loan of $100,000.
In September the Committee of Defense transferred
$48,270.23 of stock to the city, which was also assigned
to the bank. Thus closed the war of 1812, and the
citizens of Philadelphia turned with renewed energies
to the development of their commercial and industrial
interests.2
2 In 1868 a number of the surviving soldiers of the war of 1812 met
in the Supreme Court room, Philadelphia. Alderman Peter Hay pre-
sided, and in the course of his opening remarks he said, "Most of our
members served in defense of Baltimore or of Philadelphia, and were
instrumental in saving those cities from capture, or worse. So late as
1814 Philadelphia was utterly without defense, if we except the weak
and imperfect work of Fort Mifflin. The advance light brigade, under
Gen. Thomas Cadwalader, the main army at Marcus Hook, with the New
Jersey brigade of militia near Billingsport, under the gallant old Revo-
lutionary soldier, Gen. Ebenezer Elmer, in all probability preserved
Philadelphia from a worse fate than that of Washington ; and what was
of hardly less importance, though perhaps not generally known to the
mass of our citizens, saved from destruction the powder-worlts of Messrs-
Dupont, which, at that time, furnished nearly the whole supply of that
indispensable article for the United States troops. The Philadelphia
volunteers received no bounty, furnished their own uniforms, the officers
their sidearms, were not paid even the paltry sum then allowed till
months after the restoration of peace, aud then iu a depreciated cur-
rency. These, however, are thing6 of the past, generally unknown or
forgotten."
Col. John Thompson, of the Executive Committee, reported forty-four
deaths during the previous ye*ar. Among these deaths were three of
the vice-presidents of the association, Messrs. Samuel Sappington, Mat-
thew Newkirk, and Col. John S. Warner. We notice the decease of a
number of other active members, — William Weaver, Owen T. Abbott,
Joseph Worth, Charles Haverstick, Isaac Barnes, Dr. William Gibson,
Capt. Thomas Hand, George Rockenberg, Hugh Dean, Francis Lasher,
and John Miller.
The committee submitted the following resolutions:
" Resolved, That whilst we rejoice that our State Legislature, at its last
session, had the grace to re-enact the law of 1866, granting an annuity
of forty dollars to certain Pennsylvania soldiers of the war of 1812,
which, by some unexplained legislative legerdemain, had been repealed
shortly after it went into operation, we regret exceedingly that, in order
to receive even this pittance, applicants are required to prove them-
selves rjaupers by their own oath, supported by the oath of another citi-
zen, rather than do which some prefer to suffer penury in silence.
" Resolved, That we earnestly request the Senate of the United States,
before the close of the present session of Congress, to pass the bill sent
to that body from the House of Representatives, granting pensions to
the few remaining soldieis and sailors of the war of 1812, whose num-
bers are daily diminishing with fearful rapidity, and many of whom are
580
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO THE CLOSE OF
THE QUARTER-CENTURY.
The war of 1812, with its varied incidents, re-
flected honor upon the devotion of Pennsylvania.
She had contributed her full quotas of men, her full
proportion of money, and her sons had distinguished
themselves on land and sea. Commodore James Bid-
die, the hero of the " Hornet," was born in Philadel-
phia. Stephen Decatur, that Bayard of the sea, spent
much of his life in this city, and his remains lie in the
cemetery of St. Pe-
ter's Church. Two of
the five commission-
ers who signed the
Treaty of Ghent were
Philadelphians. One
James A. Bayard,
graduate of Prince-
ton, was a lawyer and
leader of the Feder-
alists ; the other, Al-
bert Gallatin, native
of Switzerland, tutor
in Harvard, Demo-
cratic leader of the
House, Secretary of
the Treasury, minis-
ter to France, presi-
dent of distinguished
societies, was one of
the most remarkable
men that ever came
to the United States.
Dec. 24, 1814, that
treaty was signed,
and the news, reach-
ing Philadelphia
early in 1815, was
celebrated, as de-
scribed in the last
chapter. But still
our privateers were
at sea, still British ships were captured, still battles
went on by land, still prisoners languished in dun-
geons, for news in those days traveled slowly.
George Coggeshall's "History of American Pri-
depcndent on public charity or the aid of their old companions in arms
for the supply of their urgent necessities, none of whom can he under
the age of threescore years and ten."
The following members were elected officers for the ensuing year:
President, Peter Hny; Vice-Presidents, Capt. William T. Elder, James
Peters, Col. John Swift, Col. Joseph S. Eiley, Col. Francis Cooper, Col.
John Agnew, Col. Joseph P. Leclorc, Capt. John Wilson ; Corresponding
Secretary, Hiram Ayres; Recording Secretary, John H. Frick; Assistant
Secretary, Gen. Charles M. Prevost; Treasurer, JameB Benners; Execu-
tive Committee, Col. John Thompson, Capt. Jacob H. Fisler, Col. C. G.
Childs, Robert O'Neil, Gen. John Davis, of Bucks County, Charles Lom-
baert, and Joshua M. Bethell.
vateers and Letters of Marque" is full of thrilling
stories of the sea and episodes of desperate courage.
Vessels fitted out by private merchants laid the foun-
dations of many a princely fortune through the dark
days of the war of 1812, and did much to convince
England of the impossibility of the task she had
undertaken. The " Shadow," of Philadelphia ; the
" Saratoga," " Governor Tompkins," and " General
Armstrong," of New York ; the " Comet," " Non-
such," "Chasseur," "Kemp," and "Lottery," of
Baltimore ; the " Decatur" and " Saucy Jack," of
Charleston ; and dozens of other vessels made famous
records, capturing or destroying thousands of dol-
lars' worth of prop-
erty, and creating the
most wide-spread
terror. In all there
were two hundred
and fifty private
armed vessels sent
out, forty-six with
letters of marque.
Baltimore, New
York, Salem, and
Boston sent out one
hundred and eighty-
four, and Philadel-
phia, Portsmouth,
N. H., and Charles-
ton, S. C, sent out
the rest. About six-
teen hundred British
merchantmen were
destroyed. Manu-
script log-books still
contain much that
has never been pub-
lished in reference to
the adventures of
these gallant free-
lances of the ocean.
The famous " Hart-
ford Convention,"
with its twenty-six
delegates, was still
in session when the war closed, and January 4, 1815,
they presented the result of their labors, in resolu-
tions deeply tinged with States-right doctrines, and
advocating restrictions on the powers of Congress.
When the news of peace reached Washington, Feb.
13, 1815, stocks and government bonds rose. Mer-
chandise fell one or two hundred per cent. Private
expresses were sent in every direction. Medals and
commemorative designs were made. One of the finest
allegorical pictures of the time was published in
Philadelphia, by P. Price, Jr. Madam Plantou was
the artist, and Chataignier the engraver. Minerva
dictates terms of peace to Britannia ; America passes
in triumph to the Temple of Peace; the ruins of the
O &_s ^^y^c^Z^ZZT
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
581
capitol lie in the background. It is a composition
possessing distinct features of merit.
Feb. 17, 1815, the treaty was ratified by the Senate.
It in nowise secured immunity from the " search and
impression claims" of England, but it settled disputed
boundaries, and acknowledged our exclusive right to
navigate the Mississippi. In England the treaty was
very unpopular. It was welcomed by all classes in
America. Too long had we been kept from what was
instinctively felt to be our appointed task, — the de-
velopment of the great West, the sowing of the prai-
ries, the conquest of the Eocky Mountains, the domin-
ion of the Pacific slope, the shaping of mighty States,
the building of new cities, the government of com-
monwealths as yet unnamed, the weaving of networks
of steel over leagues of desert, to link town with town,
ocean with ocean, — these triumphs, and such as these,
awaited the keen American intelligence.
When the war of 1812 closed the grand total of
American capital in both personal and real property,
including public lands estimated at $1,000,000,000,
was only about $7,200,000,000. The President wished
a standing army of twenty thousand men, but half
that number was considered sufficient as a peace es-
tablishment. The Northwestern Indians were pacified
at a great council held in September. In the House
of Representatives there were in 1815 one hundred
and seventeen Democrats and sixty-five Federalists.
Harrison of Ohio, and Tyler of Virginia were among
the new members; Clay was again in the Speaker's
chair.
The currency of the country was in a bad way ;
New York bank-notes at fourteen per cent, discount,
and Philadelphia and Baltimore notes at sixteen per
cent. The new debt was $63,000,000 in 7's and 6's, and
$17,000,000 in treasury notes, besides many claims of
individuals. The necessary expenditures were over
$40,000,000 a year, and to meet this a tariff on imports
was increased to an average of forty per cent, over the
ante-war rates. A suggestion that was made in Con-
gress about this time, by Rhea of Pennsylvania, excited
much comment. When appropriations were being
made to rebuild the capitol he made a fiery speech in
which he proposed to encircle the ruins with iron
railing, to let the ivy grow and cling to the smoke-
blackened marble, and to write on a brazen tablet,
" This is the effect of British Barbarism."
Philadelphia, as we have seen, settled quietly back
into the paths of peace and commercial progress, after
one enthusiastic illumination in honor of the treaty.
But we have sufficient evidence that the financial
difficulties of the times were very great. Suspension
of specie payments had put every one in debt. The
Assembly had, in December, 1814, given banks privi-
lege to issue more notes than before, and this privilege
lasted till February, 1815, in which interval a great
many were issued. There was no coin in circulation ;
notes of two cents face-value were issued and were
circulated in immense numbers, often by individuals
who never redeemed them, and in fact never ex-
pected to.1
Politics were as lively as ever. The Federalists
often joined forces with the old-school Democrats.
In September the latter published a three-column
review of local politics in Philadelphia for a dozen
years previous. John Goodman was chairman and
James Thackara secretary of the meeting which pro-
mulgated it. The document recommended John Ser-
geant as a candidate for Congress, Col. Isaac Boyer
as State senator, John Miller as county commis-
sioner, and Robert McMullin as auditor. For repre-
sentatives to the Legislature in the county, the old-
school Democrats nominated Michael Leib, Cor-
nelius Trimnel, Jacob Winnemore, Samuel Castor,
Andrew French, and John P. Colcord. The Federal-
ists also nominated John Sergeant for Congress, but
severed on the others. For senator they named Ben-
jamin R. Morgan ; for county commissioner, Frederick
Axe ; and for auditor, Cornelius Stevenson. In the
city they nominated for Assembly, Thomas McEuen,
John Hallowell, John Reed, Thomas Rutter, and
John M. Scott. The new-school Democrats nomi-
nated a full city ticket, but without hope of election.
They also nominated for Congress, John Conard ;
senator, John McLeod ; county commissioner, Tim-
othy Matlack; auditor, Philip Peltz; and a full
Assembly ticket in the county : Joel B. Sutherland,
Jacob G. Tryon, Jacob Holgate, Joseph B. Norbury,
John Holmes, and George Morton. At the election
the Federal and old-school candidates were gener-
ally successful. Sergeant was elected to Congress,
Morgan to the Senate, Axe as county commissioner,
and Stevenson as auditor. In the county the old-
school legislative ticket was carried by majorities of
less than three hundred.
Among the events of the early part of 1815 were
the formation of the " Religious Tract Society for the
Dissemination of Religious Sentiments in the Com-
munity ;" also, the purchase by the commissioners of
the Northern Liberties of the old barracks property
on Third Street, below Green, after the Revolution
used as a tavern, and, by act of February 8th, con-
verted into " Commissioners' Hall." The poor suf-
fered much during the winter of 1814-15, and Feb-
ruary 27th Chief Justice Tilghman presided at a
meeting for the relief of the poor, held at the county
court-house. In April the committees reported that
1 The following is a copy of a two-cent note of this period, the dimen-
sions of which were four inches id length by two in breadth :
_. #
TWO CENTS. TWO CENTS. *
*
I promise to pay the Bearer %
two cents, *
*
On demand, at the
*
SCHUYLKILL BANK %
*
When a sum amounting to One Dollar shall be presented. *
Phixad'a., July 4th, 1816. Kioh'd Bachb. *
582
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
they had collected $6376.24, and had distributed
$3358.11 in the city. This winter a soup-distributing
society was formed, Mordecai Lewis being president.
The charitable societies connected with the various
churches were kept busy responding to the numerous
calls for help.
A long struggle, of which little has hitherto been
said, came to the surface early this year in a petition
to the Legislature from the City Councils asking for
leave to make all the country people pay rent for their
stalls, stands, etc., in the markets. The hucksters and
retailers were at the bottom of the movement, but it
failed, the Legislature stoutly refusing to curtail the
ancient privileges of the farmers, market-gardeners,
and ruralists generally. The Councils on March 23d
established a fish-market on High Street, east of
Water Street. At this time the cattle-market was on
the west side of Southeast Square, on the line of
Seventh Street, and petitions were sent to the Coun-
cils to have it removed. In April it was resolved that
the cattle-market should cease at that place after
the 1st of May, and that " persons bringing cattle to
market should be notified that they could take them
to the place where the hay-market is kept, in Sixth
Street, above Callowhill."
The Legislature passed a new State apportionment
bill in March. The city and county were made one
senatorial district, to elect four senators. The city
was given four members in the House, and the county
six. An act was passed to authorize the Governor to
appoint commissioners to lay out and mark a road,
beginning at or near the west end of the Middle Ferry
bridge over the Schuylkill Kiver, thence along the
road called " the Marlborough Street," etc., to the
bridge " now erecting at McCall's Ferry over the Sus-
quehanna, in Lancaster County." The Pennsylvania
and New Jersey Steamboat Company was incorpo-
rated by act of March 11th, with authority to build
a ferry from Philadelphia to Kaighn's Point, N. J.,
capital not to exceed fifty thousand dollars ; shares,
twenty-five dollars each. They also incorporated
" The President, Managers, and Company of the
Schuylkill Navigation Company," those being days
when long names abounded in such enterprises; they
fixed the price of stock at fifty dollars per share, and
two hundred shares had to be subscribed for to organ-
ize ; among the commissioners were Samuel Wetherill,
Jr., Jonathan Williams, Samuel Eichards, Robert Ken-
nedy, and Josiah White, of the city ; Conrad Carpen-
ter, Francis Deal, and Joseph Starne, of the county ;
and there were commissioners for other counties.
Another incorporation was the "Flat Eock Bridge
Turnpike Road," with nine hundred shares at fifty
dollars each ; they were to build a road " from where
the Flat Eock bridge road intersects the Eidge turn-
pike, near Eobinson's mill, up the river Schuylkill to
Gulph Creek, and by the shortest and best route to
the Gulph road, near the bridge below the Bird-in-
Hand Tavern in Montgomery County." The com-
missioners were Lewis Eush and James Traquair, of
the city, and Joseph Starne, Horatio Gates Jones, and
William Alexander, of the county. The charter of
the Gray's Ferry bridge came up again, but the Leg-
islature insisted on arches of seventy-five feet height,
and the City Councils petitioned against the height
of forty feet wanted by the company.
Early in May the '' manufacturers of Philadelphia"
attempted to organize a society. The committee con-
sisted of Thomas Leiper, dealer in snuff and tobacco;
George Worrall, iron ; James Whittaker, nails; Sam-
uel Emory, white wax candles ; John Sangy, jeweler ;
David Simpson, silver-plater; William Camm, hats
and caps; Philip Jones, umbrellas; William Levis,
paper ; Jonathan Lukens, saddles ; Alexander Camp-
bell, boots and bootees; Frederick Gaul, beer and
ale; George Laws, tanner and currier; and William
Seal, silversmith. They do not seem to have made
any permanent organization. About this time the
Mutual Assistance Coal Company, for the promotion
of manufactures, issued an address, in which there
was an interesting report upon the trials made of
stone-coal as a fuel. It was declared that the coal
could be easily ignited and burned, and an interesting
account was given of the Schuylkill coal region.
Quite a number of city improvements were made
this year. In May a resolution was adopted by Com-
mon Council that, as soon as the owners and occu-
piers of property in the vicinity of Southeast Public
Square paid fifteen hundred dollars into the city treas-
ury, the Councils would construct a culvert, remove
the paving-stones, lumber, and dirt from the line of
Seventh Street, lay the footways with gravel, put up
an open fence on the Seventh Street front, and repair
the fence around the remainder of the square. Shortly
afterwards it was resolved that when the owners and
occupiers of property near the Southwest Public
Square loaned eight hundred dollars for three years,
free of interest, to the city, the Councils would in-
close that square with a substantial fence of rough
boards. In September another bill passed the Com-
mon Council to inclose the Northeast Public Square.
The money was raised for the Southwest Square, and
the fence was then put up.
About this time the Northern Dispensary was
opened, at the corner of Green and Budd Streets, at
the suggestion of the Philadelphia Dispensary.
Steamship navigation was increasing steadily.
The steamboat " Eagle," which had been on the
line to New York, cleared for Baltimore in June,
under the command of Capt. Sogers. This boat, two
hundred and sixty-one tons burden, was intended to
ply on the new line between Baltimore and Philadel-
phia by the way of Elkton and Wilmington. The
line was completed on the Delaware by the steam-
boat " Vesta," Capt. William Milnor. The fare was
six dollars, but in December it was raised to ten
dollars. On the 29th of that month the new steam-
boat " Baltimore" was launched from the ship-yard of
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
583
Vaughn & Bowers, in Kensington, intended to run in
connection with the steamboat "Philadelphia," being
built in Baltimore. The steamboat "Burlington,"
commanded by Capt. Jacob Myers, which plied be-
tween Philadelphia and Burlington, was burned at
the latter place in June.
July 24th, news of the disastrous fire at Peters-
burg, Va., having been received, Chief Justice Tilgh-
man presided and Roberts Vaux was secretary of a
public meeting, at which a large sum of money was
collected for the sufferers. An appeal to the public
was made a month or so later by the " Philadelphia
Bible and Missionary Society," Rev. Dr. Jacob Brod-
head president, and books and money were liberally
given to the enterprise.
November 30th, at Peter Evans' famous tavern, one
hundred guests assembled, Charles Chauncey presi-
dent, to celebrate Thanksgiving, for peace had come,
abundant harvests crowned the land, Pennsylvania
was evidently entering upon an era of unbounded
prosperity. Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely had written a song
for the occasion, and speeches and toasts were given.
Early in December the city was informed of a legacy,
the Councils receiving a letter from Edinburgh, Scot-
land, informing them that John Scott, chemist, of
Edinburgh, had bequeathed to the city of Philadel-
phia three thousand dollars in American three per
cents., to be applied to the same purposes as Dr.
Franklin's legacy ; also four thousand dollars in three
per cents., the interest to be expended in premiums
to American inventors, men or women. No premium
was to exceed twenty dollars, and each was to be ac-
companied by a copper medal with the inscription,
" To the most deserving."
December 28th, a letter was received by the City
Councils from James McMurtrie, who offered to in-
troduce gas-lights. He said that, in company with
Dr. Bollman, he had, while in Europe, examined gas-
works in England, and thought there was no difficulty
in establishing a manufactory in which gas should be
made from wood. McMurtrie and Bollman hoped to
connect these works with the manufacture of pyro-
ligneous acid, which could be used in the preparation
of white lead. Mr. Learning offered a Council reso-
lution saying, —
" Whf.reas, Gas-lights have, by actual experience in the city of Lou-
don, been found to cost less and to yield a better light than oil lamps,
and there i.s good reason for believiDg that they may be introduced with
advantage into the city of Philadelphia, and as the materials for making
the apparatus and preparing the gas are abundant in the United States,
be it
" Eesolved, That a committee of two members of each Council be ap-
pointed to ascertain facts, as far as they are able, relative to the effect
and economy of gas-lights, and to procure for Councils copies of such
books relative to the subject of gas-lights as they may deem useful, and
to consider the practicableneBS and expediency of facilitating and en-
couraging the use of them in the city of Philadelphia."
The Common Council appointed on that committee
Messrs. Learning and Thompson, and the Select
Council Messrs. Rush and Vaux, but nothing was
done at that time.
The year 1815 closed without any further event of
note in Philadelphia, — a year of quiet and growth.
National affairs had moved along peacefully, and di-
plomatic relations were re- established with Europe.
John Q. Adams was made minister to England, and
Albert Gallatin to France. America had thrilled
with indignation at the tales that released prisoners
told of rotting hulks and of walled inclosures on des-
olate Devonshire plains, such as Dartmoor, where the
guards in March causelessly fired upon the prisoners,
killing five and wounding thirty-three. The year
1816 opened with questions of revenue and tariff up-
permost in Congress, a Presidential campaign close
at hand, internal improvements the most vital issue
in each State, and coal and steam recognized as the
leading factors of the industrial future.
Local and State politics were decidedly brisk from
January to November. The new-school Democrats
lost strength in Philadelphia. The old-school wing
was opposed to the caucus nomination system, by
which Congress and State Legislatures signified their
Presidential preferences. They therefore met in the
town hall of the Northern Liberties during August,
and passed a series of resolutions protesting against
the system.
On the 19th of September a convention of dele-
gates appointed at this meeting, of which John Coch-
ran, of Philadelphia, was chairman, met at Carlisle
in order to select an electoral ticket to be recom-
mended to the suffrages of the old-line Democrats of
the State. An address was drawn up setting forth cer-
tain reasons against the authority of caucus nomina-
tions, and protesting against the practice of determin-
ing in a caucus composed of members of Congress who
should be nominated for the offices of President and
Vice-President of the Union. The convention then
nominated an independent electoral ticket headed by
Charles Thompson, of Montgomery County ; Andrew
Gregg, of Centre County ; Joseph Reed and Matthew
Lawler, of Philadelphia City ; and Michael Leib, of
the county. The Federalists generally were in sym-
pathy with this old-school movement, and they in
Locust, South, Upper and Lower Delaware Wards
passed resolutions in October " against cabals and cau-
cuses," and the controversy helped to throw unusual
spirit into the October State election. The Demo-
crats of the Northern Liberties met again October
18th, and supported the Carlisle nominations. The
United States Gazette, October 22d, advised the Fed-
eralists to support the independent, or " new-school"
movement.
The old-school party were not contented on this
occasion with following in their old beaten tracks
and being satisfied with running a separate legislative
ticket in the county and uniting with the Republi-
cans on the Congressional ticket. This time they
were thoroughly aggressive. For Congress they
nominated William J. Duane, Thomas Forrest, Adam
Seybert, and William Anderson, the two last being
584
HISTOEY OP PHILADELPHIA.
also on the new-school Democratic ticket, with the
addition of Jacob Sommer and John Oonard. The
nominees of the Federalists were Joseph Hopkinson,
John Sergeant, William Milnor, and Samuel Ed-
wards, and this ticket was elected. A Federal ticket
and a new-school ticket were put in the field in the
city for the Assembly, the old-school party support-
ing Thomas Fitzgerald, James Thackara, and Jacob
Edenborn, besides three candidates on Select Coun-
cil and sixteen on Common Council tickets. Both in
the Assembly and the Council the Federal ticket
triumphed, and the same result was seen in the
county, where the old-school candidates for the As-
sembly were Dr. William Eodgers, John E. Neff,
Andrew French, Eobert McMullin, Michael Leib,
and George F. Goodman, while the new-school nomi-
nees were John Holmes, Jacob Holgate, Daniel
Groves, George Morton, Jacob G. Tryon, and Joel B.
Sutherland. In the city the Federal assemblymen
were John M. Scott, John Read, Thomas McEuen,
Thomas Morris, and Joseph Watson. For the pos-
session of the various county offices there were several
candidates. Commodore Thomas Truxton, Federalist,
was elected sheriff; John Thum, also Federalist,
county commissioner; and John Bacon, auditor.
This revolution, so unexpected and yet so complete,
may be said to have brought about the disintegration
of the new-school party, as the successful candidates
and others in thorough accord with them politically
controlled the affairs of the county in the Assembly
for several years.
After the excitement attending the result of theState
campaign had subsided, the interest which had been
felt in it was transferred, only in larger measure, to
the contest for electoral tickets. The legislative
caucus ticket, which was pledged to the election of
Monroe and Tompkins, was headed by Paul Cox,
William Brooke, and John Conard, but the inde-
pendent or Carlisle Convention ticket was not pledged
to any candidate, simply being opposed to the ticket
of the other party. In city and county the inde-
pendent ticket received 4110 votes, and the caucus
ticket 2837 votes, but in the State the caucus ticket
was successful, and the electoral vote of Pennsylvania,
twenty-five in number, was polled for James Monroe
for President, and Daniel D. Tompkins for Vice-
President.
Manufactures were not neglected, however, even in
the heat of politics, and the Assembly, on January
29th, passed an act creating White & Hazard, manufac-
turers of wire at the Falls of Schuylkill, a corpora-
tion under the title of the Whitestown Manufacturing
Company. The firm also built a suspension bridge
of wire across the falls, which was said to have been
the first instance of wire being used in bridge-build-
ing, at least in this country.1
1 This bridge was one of the great curiosities of the time. Notice was
given that only eight persons would be allowed on it at a time, but " A
Visitor," writing to the Gazette, said that he " saw thirty people on it at
The local events of 1816 were extremely varied in
character. Hardly a year for a quarter of a century
had witnessed so much organization, the founding of
new societies and the increase of old ones ; certainly
no year since the city was founded witnessed a more
tragic occurrence than one which occurred in January,
— the murder of Capt. John Carson by Lieut. Eich-
ard Smith. It was one of those passionate tragedies
unhappily far too common in overwrought modern
society. Capt. Carson in 1801 had married Ann
Baker, daughter of a naval captain ; in 1812 he went
to Europe, remaining there till January, 1816. When
he returned he found that his wife had sold the prop-
erty, set up a china-shop, and, representing herself a
widow, had been married, at Frankford, in October,
1815, to Lieut. Eichard Smith, nephew of the noted
Daniel Clark, of Louisiana. This was the situation
when Carson returned. He agreed to forgive his wife,
and Smith promised to leave the city, but on the even-
ing of January 20th he went to the house, entered the
room where Capt. Carson, his wife and children, also
Capt. Baker and his wife, were sitting, and, drawing a
pistol, shot Carson dead. The jury found him guilty,
and he was hung ; but while yet in prison Ann Carson
attempted to force his pardon. She hired or persuaded
several desperate men to make an attempt to steal the
child of John Binns, who was Governor Snyder's most
intimate friend ; this failing, she endeavored to have
the Governor himself kidnapped. These strange and
audacious plots came to grief, and her agents were
arrested and imprisoned until some time after Smith's
execution.
The benevolent ladies of Philadelphia on January
29th incorporated the Orphan Society ; membership
two dollars a year, or thirty dollars for life members.
The following ladies were elected officers : First Di-
rectress, Sarah Ralston ; Second Directress, Julia
Rush ; Secretary, Maria Dorsey ; Treasurer, Mary
Yorke ; Managers, Susannah Latimer, Elizabeth Mc-
Lane, Rebecca Gratz, Abigail B. Warder, Hannah
Parke, A. Den man, Sarah Henry, Margaret Lati-
mer, Letitia Buchanan, Elizabeth Abercrombie, Deb-
bie H. Malcom, Elizabeth Harkins, Wilhelmina
Minor, E. Smith, Sarah Bacon, Eliza Brodhead,
a time, including rude boys running backward and forward." Charles
V. Hagner (" Early History of Falls of Schuylkill, Manayunk," etc.)
says, "White & Hazard had two mills on the western side of the river,
— one a saw-mill, the other a mill for making white lead. The wire-
mills were on the east side of the river. There were two buildings at
one time. On one of the occasions of the breaking down of the Falls
bridge, White & Hazard erected a curious temporary bridge across the
river by suspending wires from the top windows of their mill to large
trees on the western side, which wireB hung in curve, and from which
were suspended other wires supporting a floor of boards eighteen inches
wide. The length of the floor of this bridge was four hundred feet,
without intermediate support. The eutire cost was one hundred and
twenty-five dollars. They charged a toll of one cent per passenger, and
when, from that revenue, the cost of the structure was realized they
made the structure free. The works on the east side of the river were
those of White & Hazard, and sepnrate from those on the west side,
which were established under water-power leases by White & Qilling-
ham."
FKOM THE TREATY OP GHENT TO 1825.
585
Ann L. Eyre, Rebecca Ralston, J. H. Phillips, Mary
Richards, and Hannah Jones. This society grew
out of one organized March 20, 1814, by ladies con-
nected with the Second Presbyterian Church. They
established a home for orphan children March 3,
1815. After this incorporation Messrs. John Cooke,
Jacob Justice, James Wilmer, and Jonah Thomp-
son presented to them a lot at the northeast corner of
Cherry and Schuylkill Fifth Streets, now Eighteenth
Street. The foundation was at once laid, and the
building was occupied in 1818.1 Other charitable
and religious societies also prospered.
The Philadelphia Auxiliary Bible Society, which
had been established in 1813, was assisted in its object
by the institution of auxiliary societies in various parts
of the city and county. The association of the south-
western section, including Middle, South, Locust, and
Cedar Wards, was formed at a meeting February 6th,
of which Alexander Henry was chairman. Two days
afterward the Northwest Auxiliary Bible Society was
formed within the limits of North Mulberry and South
Mulberry Wards, and S. P. Glentworth was chairman.
The Northeast Bible Society was formed February
14th, for High, Upper Delaware, and Lower Delaware
Wards, and John White was chairman. Next day
the Southeast Bible Society was formed for Chestnut,
Walnut, Dock, and New Market Wards, and William
Phillips was chairman. February 23d, the Auxiliary
Bible Society of the Northern Liberties was formed,
and March 16th, the Spring Garden Bible Society.
Before this, however, on January 3d, in fact, the New
England Society for Charitable and Social Purposes
was formed, with Charles Chauncey president; Enos
Bronson, Otis Ammidon, J. Barnes, Gideon Fairman,
vice-presidents ; Revs. William Rogers and E. S. Ely,
chaplains; Thomas Lyman, secretary ; George Hailes,
assistant secretary; Asaph Stone, treasurer; Hum-
phrey Atherton and William H. Dillingham, coun-
selors; J. F. Waterhouse and Nicholas C. Nancrede,
physicians ; George A. Bicknell, Samuel Nevins,
George Fobes, and John W. Lyman, stewards. Early
in May were also organized the Religious Historical
Society, for the purpose of collecting and preserving
interesting historical documents, particularly those of
an ecclesiastical nature. In 1816 Charles M. Depuy
was secretary. The officers in Philadelphia were, in
1817, Jacob Brodhead, D.D., president; Rev. Jacob J.
Janeway, Rev. James Milnor, New York, Rev. Wil-
liam Staughton, D.D., Rev. Samuel B. Wylie, Rev.
Anthony A. Palmer, and Robert Ralston, vice-presi-
dents. Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely was corresponding sec-
retrary ; John Welwood Scott, recording secretary ;
Nathaniel Chauncey, treasurer; James R. Wilson,
librarian. There were only thirteen members at this
time; but they collected a fair library, some of which
were manuscripts. Papers were read before the so-
1 This building cost twenty-six thousand six hundred and seventy -six
dollars, and was of brick, three stories high, with attic and basement.
ciety at its meeting, and some of them were published
in the Religious Remembrancer by J. W. Scott. In
December the friends of the deaf and dumb met,
Chief Justice Tilghman presiding, John Bacon sec-
retary, and tried to raise funds for the proposed Hart-
ford Asylum. Laurent Clerc, a deaf and dumb pupil
of the Abb6 Sicard, was present under charge of Mr.
Gallaudet. Charles Chauncey addressed the meeting,
and considerable money was secured. Not long after-
wards the newspapers advocated the founding of an
asylum in Philadelphia, and the suggestion was after-
wards adopted. During this year (October 1st) the
Washington Benevolent Society took possession of
their new marble building on the west side of Third
Street, north of Spruce. All in all, the Philadelphia
of 1816 had a right to feel proud of the spirit of be-
nevolence and practical charity shown by her citizens
on every occasion.
Bank-notes were continually depreciating. There
were forty-one new banks chartered in 1814 by a fool-
ish Legislature, and the suspension of specie pay-
ment enabled them to enlarge their issues to an un-
limited extent. At first there was " plenty of money"
and high prices, and every one was happy, but the
notes of the Philadelphia banks depreciated fifteen or
twenty per cent, before April, 1816. The banks took
alarm, and began to contract their currency, bringing
their notes to ninety-two per cent, by July, but many
business failures occurred. The second Bank of the
United States was established by Congress in 1816, at
Philadelphia, capital, $35,000,000. The president was
William Jones ; cashier, Jonathan Smith ; assistant
cashier, James Houston ; first teller, Jonathan Pat-
terson ; second teller, Caleb P. Iddings. Among the
public directors were the following citizens of Phila-
delphia: William Jones, Stephen Girard, and Pierce
Butler. Among the ordinary directors were Robert
Ralston, Chandler Price, Thomas M. Willing, John
Bohlen, Thomas Leiper, Cadwalader Evans, Jr., Sam-
uel Wetherill, Emanuel Eyre, Thomas McEuen, John
Savage, Guy Bryan, John Goddard, James C. Fisher,
and John Connelly. Philadelphia had a bank robbery
to talk about in October. On the 21st of that month
N. W. L. Learned broke into the Philadelphia Bank,
but was unable to enter the vaults. From the desks
he took three thousand dollars in notes, three hundred
dollars in coin, and some silver plate, but was arrested
and sent to prison for twelve years.
The Councils found plenty of occupation, as a brief
account of various acts, local happenings, and
problems in reference to streets, lights, etc., will
show. The new fish market was ready for use in Jan-
uary. Turner Camac then issued proposals for the
supply of fish and the building of ice-houses. In
July, for the first time, fishing-vessels went to sea and
brought the finny cargoes in ice to the Philadelphia
market.
In January, William J. Allinson sent a communi-
cation to the Councils on the subject of gas-lights.
586
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
During the year the applicability of gas was made
clear. In April the advertisements of Peale's Museum
proclaimed that there would be shown in the apart-
ments " gas-lights — lamps burning without wick or
oil." The illumination was to be " with carbonated
hydrogen gas on a new and improved plan." Dr.
Kugler, a merchant, had charge of the enterprise.
November 14th the Councils witnessed the successful
lighting of the new Chestnut Street Theatre.1
By an act of February 20th the act of April 4, 1798,
allowing chains to be placed across the public streets
in front of churches on occasion of public worship,
was extended to the district of Northern Liberties.
In March a law was passed which allowed piers to be
sunk in the Delaware River at the borough of Ches-
ter. The military was reorganized and the uniform
somewhat changed, the red and blue cockade being
abolished. Jacob Mayland erected a saw-mill in
Blockley township at Mill Creek, near Gray's Ferry
bridge, and soon added a snuff-mill. A flour-mill
had been built there several years before. In March
prisoners were transferred from the old Walnut Street
prison to the new one at Broad and Arch. A correction
department was established for the reception and safe-
keeping of " untried prisoners, witnesses, vagrants,
servants, and apprentices." Some public-spirited
citizens offered five hundred dollars donation to the
city toward the improvement of the Southwest Public
Square, a portion of which at that time was used for
the reception of night-soil. The subject was referred
to a committee of Councils, which reported in April
that the Southwest Square, "in those parts not used for
particular purposes, should be tilled and laid down
with grass." Regarding the Southeast Public Square,
it was proposed that the city carpenter-shop should be
removed to Lombard Street. In the Northeast Square
it was recommended that the high parts be plowed
down and grass-seed sown. It was also recommended
that the square should be planted with forest-trees,
and other improvements inaugurated under the direc-
tion of the City Commissioners. The occupation of
the Northeast Square by the German Reformed con-
gregation continued. In September a fifteen years'
lease of the ground to that congregation expired, and
they asked that it should be renewed for ninety-nine
years. The Councils gave a lease of two years and four
months from the 20th of September. In December,
Mr. Learning, in Common Council, proposed the four
public squares should be called Washington, Frank-
1 This was an important step forward. Warren & Wood, iu their
theatre bill on November 25th, said, "The theatre is to be hereafter
entirely lighted with gas-lights, established under the inspection and
contml of Dr. Kugler. The managers are happy to be the first to intro-
duce this system of lighting theatres, and flatter themselves that its
superior safety, brilliancy, and neatness will be satisfactorily expressed
by the audience." William Henry, copper and tinsmith, at No. 200
Lombard Street, near Seventh, constructed the whole apparatus. He
put up a gas-machine at his own house, and invited Councils to call and
examine the process. This was the first private residence in the United
States lighted by gas. The gas committee made a report on the subject,
but no definite action was taken.
lin, Columbus, and Penn; also that statues of marble
and bronze should be erected therein ; but the Select
Council refused to concur.
Street questions were numerous as usual. In
April it was resolved that if the citizens of Penn
township would pay half the expense of paving Vine
Street, from Broad to the Schuylkill, the city would
pass the bill. It was also desired to extend Seventh
Street through Northeast and Southeast Squares, but
in November the Councils passed a resolution direct-
ing that the Southeast Public Square should be fenced
according to its patent boundaries, and that gates
should be left open opposite Seventh Street for the
use of foot passengers. The street opened on the
west side of Southeast Square was named Columbia
Avenue.
The smallpox prevailed in portions of the city in
March, and the regular physicians and the Vaccine
Society were kept very busy. In May, Mr. Vaux, in
Common Council, offered a, resolution providing for
the gratuitous vaccination of the poor in indigent
circumstances, which was passed. It provided for
the appointment of vaccine physicians and the gratu-
itous vaccination of all persons in indigent circum-
stances, establishing a fee and compensation to the
physician. This was the beginning of a system which
has been maintained ever since. The city was divided
into four districts, in each of which was a collector of
vaccine cases and a physician. These officers were :
Northeast District, Dr. John Austin ; Collector, Rich-
ard Pryor. Northwest District, Physician, Dr. David
J. Davis ; Collector, John Lane. Southeast District,
Physician, Dr. Joseph G. Shippen ; Collector, Amos
Roberts. Southwest District, Physician, Dr. Joseph
G. Nancrede ; Collector, Chamless Allen.
March 19th there was held a meeting of citizens
interested in claims upon the United States govern-
ment, for remuneration for spoliations committed by
the belligerent powers during the recent European
wars. Henry Pratt was president, and a committee
was appointed, consisting of the latter, with Robert
Wain, Robert Ralston, John Coulter, and Daniel W.
Coxe, to prepare a memorial to the President of the
United States. Reminiscences of the war abounded,
and gifts to its heroes were still being bestowed. The
sword to Commodore Perry had cost seven hundred
dollars. In January a service of plate, consisting of
an urn and pitcher, made by Edward Chaudron, sil-
versmith, had been presented by the citizens of Phil-
adelphia to the widow of Capt. James Lawrence, of
the "Chesapeake." March 5th, the Legislature re-
solved that a sword should be presented to " Capt.
Charles Stewart, a native of Pennsylvania, for his
valor in capturing at the same time the British ships
' Cyane' and ' Levant.' "
The City Councils early in the year sent a memo-
rial to the Legislature stating that there were four
thousand taverns and eighteen hundred tippling-
houses in city and county. Means of repression were
FROM THE TKEATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
587
urged. Educational matters attracted much atten-
tion. The act of April 4, 1809, had been altered in
March, 1812, as before noted, but the war prevented
the matter from receiving much attention. In No-
vember, 1815, the County Commissioners proposed a
plan of education to the City Councils, which led, in
January, 1816, to the appointment of a committee to
consult with the commissioners of Southwark and of
the Northern Liberties. It was not until 1818 that
the details were sanctioned by the Legislature, when
an act was passed providing for the education of poor
children at the public expense in the city and county
of Philadelphia, and forming the " First School Dis-
trict of Pennsylvania." Meanwhile the State-House
was a source of difficulty. March 11th, the Legisla-
ture directed the sale of the building and lot. The
city was to be allowed to purchase subject to certain
conditions for $70,000. The east and west wings of
the State- House were confirmed to the city of Phila-
delphia.
On the 11th of April the mayor was authorized to
contract with the Governor for the purchase of the
State-House on the terms prescribed, and the money
was raised by loan. A writer in the United States
Gazette of April 19th declared that, so far as the law
proposed to cut a street through the State-House
yard, and to sell it out in lots to private purchasers,
it was beyond the power of the Legislature, which
already had been, by the act of 1769, pledged to keep
the tract " a public green and walk forever."
In June the grand jury presented as a public nui-
sance the practice of flying kites in the streets. The
mayor supplemented this, a few months afterwards,
by a proclamation, in which he specified as nuisances
the flying of kites, the rolling of hoops, the ringing
of bells by vendors of muffins, the sweeping of gravel
from the interstices of stone pavements, and the
placing of merchandise on the footways.
Jacob Rush, judge of the Court of Common Pleas,
some time in June asked the attention of the Coun-
cils to the subject of connecting the Walnut Street
sewer with the sewer which passed through the
county prison at Sixth and Walnut. The citizens
who agreed to loan five hundred dollars for this work
had paid the money into the treasury.
In June, also, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey
Steamboat Company bought Fulton's patents as far
as related to their use "five miles north and south of
Kaighn's Point." Peale, of the Museum, urged the
claims of his collection, and some time during the
summer a public meeting was held, Charles Biddle,
chairman. 'The resolutions declared that " the dis-
persion of the Museum by the death of the present
aged proprietor, and the division of his property
among his numerous descendants, would be a serious
disadvantage to the city." Perhaps the most amusing
event of which we have any record during this sum-
mer was the reappearance of Redheffer, the perpetual-
motion claimant. He succeeded in securing the for-
mation of a committee of reputable gentlemen to
examine his machine, but when the day of trial
came refused to set his machine in motion, and the
smiling public, after a fit of laughter, turned its back
forever on the fraudulent inventor.
The last month of 1816 was marked by few im-
portant events except the reception by the Councils
of letters from citizens of Lower Delaware Ward
relative to " attempts lately made to fire the city."
The mayor was authorized to offer five hundred dol-
lars reward for the arrest of incendiaries ; and a re-
ward of twenty dollars was authorized for the arrest
of persons who should raise false alarms of fire, and
a nightly patrol was established.
Early in December a Council committee was ap-
pointed to look out a place for a public burial-ground
in lieu of the Lombard Street lot, according to an act
of the last Legislature granting said lot to the city.
This was the lot on the south side of Lombard Street,
between Ninth and Tenth Streets, running from street
to street. It was three hundred and eighty-six feet
in breadth, and seventy-six feet in depth north and
south.
About the same time John A. AVoodside was paid
sixty dollars for painting the city arms, which was
put up in the Common Council chamber, in a space
formerly occupied by the central window, in the
recess or " bay." This was the first instance of such
a decoration of the Council chambers.
The national appropriation for internal improve-
ment was three hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
though six hundred thousand dollars more had been
asked for. New York revived the Erie Canal scheme ;
Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, all started
extensive projects. Congress voted money for a cus-
tom-house at Philadelphia. The duties levied on
cotton and woolens were to favor the industries that
had been created by the embargo and the war. The
cotton manufacturers employed one hundred thousand
persons, consumed twenty-seven million pounds of
cotton, and produced eighty-one million yards of
cloth, which sold for $24,300,000. The value of the
woolens produced was $19,000,000. During 1815 and
1816 New England was shaken to its foundations by
ecclesiastical disputes between Unitarians and Trini-
tarians, between Dwight and Channing. The discus-
sion extended to Pennsylvania, as is amply shown in
the chapters on Religious Denominations in this work.
Western Virginians met in convention at Staunton,
dissatisfied with their representation. Indian sessions
in the Southwest enlarged the bounds of Carolinas,
Georgia, and Tennessee. September 28th, Col. Clinch
attacked and destroyed the Floridian fort on the
Apalachicola, held by three hundred and fifty In-
dians and runaway negroes. This was the beginning
of the Seminole wars. The government resolved to
cease receiving irredeemable paper on Feb. 20, 1817.
In October, 1816, Dallas resigned the treasuryship,
and was succeeded by Crawford. To Congress, in
588
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
December, the revenue was reported as $47,000,000,
and the debt at $105,000,000.
The year 1817 opened with a resumption of specie
payments by the government. The new national
bank went too freely into discounting notes of certain
stockholders at Philadelphia and Baltimore, and cur-
tailed its 'capital. Attempts to secure payment of our
claims against Spain, France, Russia, and other gov-
ernments were made, but with little success. John
Trumbull was authorized to " paint four Revolution-
ary scenes" for the Capitol. Alabama Territory was
established. The "American Colonization Society"
was formed at Washington by Clay, Randolph, Judge
Washington, Wright, of Maryland, and others. Mon-
roe, soon after his inauguration, set out on a tour
through New England, and "the era of good feeling"
was fairly begun. Establishments of Spanish-Amer-
ican adventurers on Amelia Island, off northeast
Florida, and on Galveston, on the Texas coast, were
suppressed by United States expeditions. Late in
November an Indian massacre on the Appalachicola
roused the country.
Philadelphia had a good deal of " local politics"
during 1817. In March a letter was published which
had been written by Dr. Joel B. Sutherland, physi-
cian at the Lazaretto, to Joseph McCoy, who had
been associated with him in the Legislature. This
letter was dated at the Lazaretto, June 27, 1816, and
directed to McCoy at the " New Market." In that
epistle Sutherland said, referring, as was alleged, to
the uncertainty of the Democratic nomination for
Governor in the next year, " You may think me a
d strange creature, to be vacillating between
Boileau and Findlay. But as you and I, and all pol-
iticians, are men of principle in proportion to our
interest, I have written to you undisguisedly on this
matter." McCoy, in April, published a letter in re-
gard to the subject, in which he said, " During the
last summer a letter addressed to me by Dr. Suther-
land was taken from the mail, and carried to a haunt
of political intrigue in this city, which it is not neces-
sary to mention" (meaning Binns' Democratic Press).
He added what he represented to be a true copy of
Sutherland's letter, in which the last sentence was as
follows : " But as you and I know well, these politicians
are all men of principle in proportion to their inter-
est." Binns then gave an account of the manner in
which he got a copy of Sutherland's letter. He
copied it, and sent for Josiah Randall, with whom
he verified the copy and the original. Randall then
wrote a certificate that it was correct, after which
Binns sent a copy to Governor Snyder, also to
Boileau and Findlay. He added that the letter pub-
lished by McCoy, although it might be in the hand-
writing of Sutherland, was not the original letter, and
he declared that the original phrase was, " But as you
and I are politicians in proportion to our interest."
Sutherland, on the publication of the letter, was re-
moved, and Dr. George F. Lehman appointed. He
thereupon took the case to the Supreme Court, and
it was decided that Lehman's commission was il-
legal.
The quarrel between the new-school and the old-
school Democrats was prosecuted with its usual in-
tensity. The new-school party favored nomination
by a caucus, to be held by members of the Legislature
at Harrisburg. In March the Federalists of the
Northern Liberties resolved that they would not sup-
port a candidate nominated by the Harrisburg caucus,
and that they would support the anti-caucus candi-
date, whoever he might be. The new-school Demo-
crats, at Harrisburg in April, nominated William
Findlay for Governor. A little later the opposition
convention met at Carlisle, and nominated Joseph
Heister.
In the cily the Federalists nominated for the As-
sembly William Lehman, Griffith Evans, Samuel
Worrall, Samuel Hodgdon, and John Purdon. The
independent Republicans, or anti-caucus Democrats
(the old-school party), nominated for Assembly in
the city William J. Duane, James Thackara, Lewis
Rush, Robert Kennedy, and Edward D. Coxe. The
caucus, or Findlay, Democrats nominated George M.
Dallas, John Jennings, Samuel Jackson, James Har-
per, and John Lisle. At the election, the Federal
Assembly ticket was carried over the caucus, or Find-
lay, ticket by majorities exceeding twelve hundred.
The old-school Democrats ran from five hundred to
six hundred behind the new-school faction. For
State senators the Federalists nominated John Read
and Samuel Breck. The caucus Democrats named
Horatio G. Jones and John Connelly. The independ-
ent Republicans (Heister men) nominated Thomas
Fitzgerald and Joseph Stouse. The Federalists car-
ried the whole ticket by votes of about four thousand
eight hundred, gaining the election by majorities of
from fifty to one hundred. The independent Repub-
licans, or Heister men, had votes of less than two
thousand five hundred. The Federalists elected their
auditor (Samuel Pancoast) by a small majority. The
caucus Democrats elected Philip Peltz county com-
missioner by a majority of six. John Dennis, caucus
Democrat for coroner, ran eleven hundred above the
highest opposition, though there were nine candidates
in the field.
The contest for Governor was animated, and showed
a serious division among the Democrats. In 1814 the
entire vote for both candidates was over 80,000, but
in 1817 Findlay and Heister polled an aggregate vote
of more than 124,000. Findlay received 67,905 votes
and Heister 66,300. In Philadelphia tlfe vote was :
For Heister, city, 3946; county, 3537; total, 7483.
Findlay, city, 1551 ; county, 3030 ; total, 4581. Heis-
ter's majority, 2902. Such Federalists as voted cast
their ballots for Heister. AVhen the Legislature met
in December three petitions were received, each signed
by fifty persons, protesting against the election of
Governor Findlay. Slaymaker, in the House, moved
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
589
to suspend the inauguration, which was lost. Two
days afterwards two of the petitioners attended the
Senate and asked to be heard. The parties desiring
to contest the election were required to go on and
make out their case after the Governor was in office.
The real object was to prevent or postpone Findlay's
inauguration, and this design having failed the contest
was not carried any further.
At the beginning of the year the times were hard,
business was dull, and as many people were turned
out of employment, much suffering followed among
the poorer classes of the community. Meetings for
relief were held and considerable money subscribed,
but in order to render the public benevolence sys-
tematic it was determined to form a society " for the
purpose of ameliorating the condition of the poor, and
for removing or preventing the causes which produce
mendicity." Dr. Mease proposed a " savings-bank,"
under corporate authority. On the 13th of May " The
Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public
Economy" was organized. It was determined there
should be standing committees on the following sub-
jects : Poor Laws, Public Prisons, Domestic Economy,
Public Schools, etc. Robert Ralston was elected pres-
ident, Robert Wain and Thomas Leiper vice-pres-
idents, and Samuel Hazard secretary.
One of the first subjects which interested the mem-
bers of the society was that of education, and the
Lancasterian system of instruction was introduced
into several of the schools in the city.1 The assessors
of the city and county returned in the summer of this
year that the number of poor children to be schooled
by direction of the County Commissioners, under au-
thority of law, were three thousand and ninety-two.
Financial affairs were rather worse than better.
Early in January, 1817, the second Bank of the United
States went into operation. Being under a penalty
of twelve per cent, per annum to pay specie on de-
mand, it was against its interest that it should be the
only institution which redeemed its notes, and con-
sequently the first move of the directors was to in-
duce the other banks to resume specie payments.
They were not in a condition to carry out this meas-
ure, but they trusted to the forbearance of the com-
munity. A committee of the Legislature, in 1820,
said that the resumption, which took place February
21st, was nominal, and adduced as a proof the fact
that for a long time afterwards American and foreign
a " A Complete Lancasterian School for Females" was opened in Pear
Street in April by James Edwards, teacher. .In the same month John
Daniel Weston notified the public that he had introduced the Lancas-
terian system into the Northern Liberties at No. 422^ North Fourth
Street, seven doors south of Poplar Lane. He said that he had acquired
his knowledge of the system by having taught for four years uuder
Joseph Lancaster in London. In June, Benjamin Shaw delivered an
address before the Public Economy Society in favor of establishing
schools on the Lancasterian system. Abel S. Trood opened a school on
the Lancasterian system at No. 5 Appletree Alley in June. Edwards
called his school the Lancasterian High Schoolin the latter portion of
the year. Edward Baker set up a Lancasterian school at No. 48 South
Fifth Street in December.
coins were at a premium. By this means, however,
the United States Bank checked the tendency to draw
coin from it. Having effected this much, loans began
to increase enormously, and in a few months there
were more bank credits than there had been before
the State banks began the work of curtailment.
The interesting acts of Council and Legislature
during the year referring to Philadelphia were nu-
merous. In January, the Councils wished to borrow
six hundred dollars from citizens to improve the
Southeast Square. The same month John Wheatley
presented to the city five hundred and fifty dollars,
being the proceeds of one night's performance of
West's Equestrian Company at the circus ; to be used
for charitable purposes, one-fourth for firewood for
the poor. In January, also, the Legislature passed
an act to authorize the Schuylkill Falls Bridge Com-
pany to sell its corporate rights to persons " who will
undertake to erect a permanent bridge." A new chain
bridge was soon commenced from the design of Louis
Wernwag, architect, which was completed by Isaac
Nathans, the builder, in the month of December. In
March the Assembly passed an act incorporating the
Gloucester and Greenwich Point Ferry Company.
They also prohibited horse-racing on any of the pub-
lic roads of Philadelphia City or County, under pen-
alty of fifty dollars and the forfeiture of horses en-
gaged in it. The same month the Governor was
authorized to subscribe for one thousand shares of
stock of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. At
the same time eight thousand dollars were appro-
priated for building piers at Chester, on the Delaware.
The Council committee on lights reported in March,
and a standing " committee on gas-light" was ap-
pointed " to recommend when they think proper its
general adoption." Some time in April John Hart,
high constable of the city of Philadelphia, was tried
before the United States District Court, Judge
Bushrod Washington presiding, upon an indict-
ment for having stopped the United States mail.
He had charged the drivers with breaking city ordi-
nances, in one case with "driving faster than six
miles an hour," in another with not having bells at-
tached to the horses, but was acquitted. In the Com-
mon Council June 5th, on motion of Roberts Vaux,
resolutions of inquiry into recent steamboat disas-
ters were passed, and Messrs. Vaux, Smith, and Leh-
man being appointed, addressed many questions to
persons supposed to be acquainted with the subject.
They made a long report, but could only recommend
partitions of great strength between the engines and
the cabins. Among the persons consulted were Pro-
fessor Thomas Cooper, Joseph Cloud, Jacob Perkins,
and Frederick Graff. The committee recommended,
in the first place, a monthly boiler-inspection, with
double safety-valves ; one to be kept locked and ac-
cessible. The Common Council passed a bill in
September to arch the dock and draw-bridge, and
■ abolish the sand-dock at the corner of Dock and
590
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Front Streets, but the Select Council demurred. Pe-
titions were presented in October saying that Chestnut
Street and several other streets leading westward
" were too steep for a safe and convenient passage
from the river Schuylkill ; this was occasioned, they
said, by the tunnel laid in Chestnut Street to convey
the water from the Western to the Centre Engine-
Works, which was no longer requisite." In December
the Councils granted to the American Philosophical
Society for seven years " the southeast and southwest
rooms in the basement story of the centre house, at
the Centre Square, and so much of the circular part
of said building as is above the basement ; and the
roof of the said story, for the purpose of an astro-
nomical observatory."
Society proceedings, receptions, and celebrations
deserve a word of comment. Early in the year the
" Belles-Lettres Society" was organized, with G. R.
Barry as secretary. The Washington Benevolent
Society at this time was under the conduct of the
following officers : President, Commodore Richard
Dale ; Senior Vice-President, Robert Wharton. It
held its usual celebration on the 22d of February,
at Washington Hall. Charles Chauncey delivered
the oration before the Benevolent Society and the
Washington Society (another association), of which
Charles S. Coxe was president. In the evening a
birthnight ball was given at Washington Hall. The
room was lighted by two thousand wax candles.
Rush's statue of Washington was placed in a con-
spicuous position. Five hundred persons were pres-
ent at these festivities.1 Early in the month of May
Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, and Marshal
Grouchy were in the city, and attended Gillies' concert
at Washington Hall. But the greatest society event
of the year was the visit of President Monroe, in
June.
A meeting of the civil officers of the United States
and State governments had been previously called,
and it was arranged that a committee composed of
seven representatives of each branch of service
should be appointed to wait upon him. The fol-
lowing were selected : Federal officers, John Steel,
Robert Patterson, David Caldwell, William Duncan,
William Jones, James Glentworth, and Dr. John
White; State officers, Joseph B. McKean, John
Goodman, Thomas Truxton, Joseph Reed, Timothy
1 This ball was determined upon ata meeting held at the Washington
Hall Hotel on the 4th of January, of which William Meredith was
chairman, and Joseph P. Nurris, Jr., secretary.
The meeting " Renolved, That on the eve of the approaching anniver-
sary of the birthday of George Washington a ball shall be given by the
citizens of Philadelphia; that the following gentlemen, members of
the Cincinnati, be respectfully requested to act as managers of the ball:
Mr. Charles Biddle, Maj. Lenox, Maj. Jackson, Commodore Dale, Com-
modore Truxton, Gen. Steel, Commodore Murray, Gen. Robinson, Judge
Peters, Capt. Markland.
"That the following gentlemen be requested to assist as managers on
the same occasion : Mr. Biuney, Mr. Gillasspy, Gen. Cadwalader, Mr.
Meredith, Capt. James Biddle, Mr. J. B. Wallace, Gen. Izard, Col.
Prevost."
Matlack, Jacob Rush, and Peter A. Brown. At
Fort Mifflin the barge of the " Franklin," seventy-
four, decorated and manned by sixteen seamen, was
ready. Having previously visited New Castle, he
landed at the fort early on the morning of the 6th,
and was received by Col. Moses Porter with a na-
tional salute. He was then rowed up the Schuylkill
to Gray's Ferry, where he was received by the volun-
teer cavalry and a large number of citizens on horse-
back. Proceeding thence by the Hamilton road, he
was received at the western end of the permanent
bridge with a Federal salute fired by the Franklin
Flying Artillery, Capt. Richard Bache. At the eastern
side of the Schuylkill Gen. Thomas Cadwalader's bri-
gade was drawn out to receive him, and the proces-
sion proceeded through the principal streets to the
Mansion House. The next day he breakfasted with
Mayor Robert Wharton, Joseph Reed, recorder, and
the presidents of the Councils. He then visited the
prison, the Pennsylvania Hospital, Peale's Museum,
and Sully's gallery of paintings. From thence he
went to the navy-yard, where due honors were paid
by the officers and crew of the " Franklin." On his
return he was waited upon by the Society of the Cin-
cinnati, and addresses were delivered. He inspected
the custom-house, the Bank of the United States, the
mint, and the lot near the draw-bridge proposed as
the site of the new custom-house, and left Philadel-
phia on the 7th for Trenton, N. J., on his way to
New York and Boston. The last " society note" of
the season is to the effect that in November a meet-
ing was held at Renshaw's, at which was adopted the
following: "Resolved, That within the city of Phila-
delphia, the residence of so much elegance and the
resort of so much gayety, there ought to be public
dancing assemblies." It was determined to open
subscription-books at twenty dollars for each sub-
scriber. The religious organizations of the city
were active. In May the Philadelphia Sunday and
Adults' School Union was formed, Alexander Henry
being president. It was upon this foundation that
the American Sunday-School Union was afterward
established. The new orphan asylum at the corner
of Cherry and Schuylkill Fifth Streets was opened
on Sunday, May 4th, and a sermon was preached by
Bishop White. July 23d there was a meeting to
organize an auxiliary colonization society. Bishop
White presided, and Jonah Thompson was secretary.
This subject excited much attention among the ne-
groes, who were opposed to the scheme. They held
a meeting at Bethel Church, James Forten presi-
dent, and Russell Parrot secretary. Resolutions were
adopted denouncing the colonization scheme. In
August they held another meeting, and a memorial
addressed to citizens of Philadelphia was adopted re-
questing them not to join in the formation of such a
society. But this opposition was not successful, and
on the 12th of August " The Philadelphia Coloniza-
tion Society auxiliary to the American Society for
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
591
Colonizing the Poor People of Color of the United
States" was organized. Bishop William White was
elected president; Rev. William Staughton, Rev.
Thomas Sargent, M.D., and Rev. J. J. Janeway
were vice-presidents. In December " The Common
Prayer-Book Society of Pennsylvania" was founded.
Its object was to furnish prayer-books to poor Episco-
pal congregations. William Tilghman was president.
There were two disasters during the year. The first,
in March (the 4th), was the burning of the house of
a shoemaker named McDermott, No. 287 South Front
Street, by which his five children were burned to
death, a misfortune that created the warmest sympa-
thy. The other disaster, in July, was the burning,
fortunately with no loss of life, of the steamer " Vesta,"
of the new Baltimore line. The steamboat " Sea-
horse" was brought from Elizabethport and took the
" Vesta's" place. At this time the " Philadelphia,"
upon the Delaware, and the " Olive Branch," at the
New York end of the route, formed one line between
the two cities. Stages were run overland, carrying
passengers and freight between the boats. The laud
carriage between Trenton and New Brunswick was
twenty-six miles, and the fare in November was $5.62.
The " Sea-horse" ran to Bristol and Burlington, and
connected with the Industry line of stages. The
" Active," Capt. Bennett, ran independent to Bur-
lington. The old line to Baltimore was composed of
the " Delaware," Capt. Wilmon Whilldin, and the
" Baltimore," Capt. M. C. Jenkins, on the Delaware
River; the " Chesapeake," Capt. J. Owen, and the
"Philadelphia," Capt. E. Trippe, on the Chesapeake.
Sixteen miles of land carriage connected these boats.
The new Baltimore line, via Wilmington and Elkton,
was composed of the " Superior," Capt. William
Milnor, and the " New Jersey," Capt. Moses Rogers.
Passengers were taken from Philadelphia on Tues-
days, Thursdays, and Saturdays of each week. Be-
fore the burning of the " Vesta," the " Eagle" ran
upon the Chesapeake, making a daily line. After the
" Vesta" was burned the " Eagle" was withdrawn. The
next year, 1818, there were some improvements in the
river and bay steamboat lines. The Baltimore steam-
boat line, by way of Elkton, was established with in-
creased conveniences, there being running on it the
" Pennsylvania," Capt. Branson ; the " iEtna," Capt.
Kellum; and the "Bristol," Capt. Myers. Capt.
Rogers formed an association with the design of
building a steamship to run between Savannah and
Philadelphia, but the effort was not successful. A
packet line of sailing-vessels to New Orleans was,
however, established in the month of August by
Chandler, Price & Morgan. It was composed of the
ships "Ohio," Capt. Simeon Toby; "Feliciana,"
Capt. N. Franklin ; " Orleans," Capt. Grover ; and
" Margaret," Capt. H. Benners. In the navigation
of the river there were some changes. The team-boat
" Peacock" ran from Market Street Ferry to the Min-
eral Springs on the Rancocas and to Mount Holly.
The team-boat "Phcenix" was placed upon the line
between Gloucester and Greenwich Point. It was
propelled by the action of eight horses. A post-
coach line was set up between Philadelphia and New
York by way of Paulus Hook, starting from Judd's
Hotel every morning at five o'clock, and arrived in
New York the same afternoon. The United States
mail coach, of the same line, started at three o'clock,
and arrived at New York the next morning. A sec-
ond line of post-coaches was connected with the
steamboat " Bristol," which left Market Street every
afternoon at three o'clock for Burlington. The
coaches crossed New Jersey, and connected with a
steamer, passengers reaching New York at 2 p.m. the
next day. Another line of coaches left the Green-
Tree Inn at 8 p.m., and reached New York at eleven
the next morning.
National affairs in 1818 were largely occupied with
our foreign relations. The government in April
returned in a measure to the old system of commer-
cial retaliation, but soon found it unprofitable. The
slavery question began to loom up in greater propor-
tions. A new fugitive slave law was passed. Gen.
Jackson in January took the field against the Semi-
noles, captured the Spanish fort at St. Marks in
April, and Pensacola in May, hung several Indian
chiefs and the white men whom he found with them,
and returned in triumph. Already he was widely
spoken of as a future President.
Early in January Richard Bache established a
new journal, The Franklin Gazette, in Philadelphia,
chiefly to support Governor Findlay, and at the
same time supersede the Democratic Press, but this
hope proved futile. The old-school and new-school
Democrats still kept up their contest over methods
of nomination. The Federalists were disposed to
take advantage of these dissensions, and passed reso-
lutions declaring that they were opposed to manifes-
tations of party spirit, and would " discard party
distinctions, and unite with those who will sacrifice
political prejudices and support men without refer-
ence to party names." Duane then advocated a
union, and argued that the principles of the Democrats
and the Federalists were the same. C. W. Hare,
Independent candidate for Congress in the First Dis-
trict, published an address in October against caucus
nominations. The Federalists adopted the inde-
pendent Republican (or old-school) ticket, and ran
for Congress, for the district comprising the city and
county of Philadelphia and the county of Delaware,
Thomas Forrest, John Sergeant, Joseph Hemphill,
and Samuel Edwards. For senators, Michael Leib
(old-school Democrat) and Condy Raguet were
nominated. The new-school Democrats nominated
Nicholas Biddle, John Connelly, George G. Leiper,
and Jacob Sommer; for senators, Samuel Wetherill
and. Daniel Groves. In the city the Federal and old-
school ticket for the Assembly was composed of John
Purdon, William Lehman, George Emlen, James
592
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Thackara, and Edward D. Coxe. The Democrats
nominated Andrew M. Prevost, Dr. Samuel Jackson,
Samuel Rush, James Harper, and John Wurts, In
the county the Federalists and old-school Demo-
crats supported for the Assembly Robert McMullin.
James Dyre, Andrew French, William Binder,
George F. Goodman, and Robert Carr. The new-
school ticket was composed of John Holmes, Wil-
liam Weaver, Eichard F. Bowers, Nathan Jones,
Jacob Souder, and Joel B. Sutherland. John Mc-
Leod was run as an independent candidate against
Sutherland. The Federalists nominated for county
commissioner, Robert Brooke; for county auditor,
William J. Baker. The new-school Democrats sup-
ported Mr. Ingalls for county commissioner and Peter
Herzog for auditor. The Federalists carried their
Congressional ticket — Forrest, Sergeant, Hemphill,
and Edwards — by majorities ranging from 1000 to
1400. They elected their county commissioner, Rob-
ert Brooke, and auditor, William J. Baker. In the
city the Federal Assembly ticket was carried. In
the county Holmes, Weaver, Bowers, Souder, and
Jones, new-school Democrats, and Robert McMul-
lin, independent Republican and Federalist, were
elected.
One of the first acts of the Councils during 1818
was the presentation to Commodore Perry of the
costly sword voted in 1813 and finished in 1815.
The Councils had under consideration during 1817
a proposition for the purchase of the water-power of
the river Schuylkill from the Schuylkill Navigation
Company, but in January it was reported to be inex-
pedient to buy it. The subject of internal improve-
ments now began to be urged, and Philadelphia sub-
scribed to five hundred shares of the stock of the
Schuylkill Navigation Company. A meeting was
held in the Northern Liberties in February to urge
the authorities of that district to introduce Schuyl-
kill water for use within their jurisdiction. In Feb-
ruary the Councils resolved that Charles W. Peale
should pay twelve hundred dollars per annum for the
use of the State-House, that they disapproved of his
manufacturing gas in the State-House, and said he
would be held responsible for any damage which
might ensue. The two rooms on the lower floor of
the State-House, occupied by the Supreme Court and
by the District Court, were authorized to be rented to
the county commissioner for twenty-six hundred dol-
lars a year. Citizens residing west of Broad Street
held a meeting at the Centre House Tavern in March,
and protested against the manner in which the South-
west Square was allowed to be made a depository for
filth, as also a lot near the Arch Street prison, with
many other lots in the western part of the city. The
Councils at length ordered the dirt and filth to be re-
moved and the Square plowed. In May, Councils or-
dered that the public buryiDg-ground lot purchased
in March, 1816, adjoining the Vineyard, should be in-
closed with a fence, and the Northeast Public Square
should be closed as a burying-ground after the 15th
of June. A house for the gravedigger was built at
an expense of three hundred dollars. This ground
was on the northwest side of George Street, near the
intersection of Charles Street, in the village of Fran-
cisville, at some distance west of the Ridge road.
That portion of Francisville is now obliterated. The
old burial-ground, which cost two thousand dollars,
is intersected by the present Twentieth and Parrish
Streets. The trouble with the German Reformed
congregation, which had possession of a portion of
the Northeast Square, continued. The church main-
tained its position in favor of a ninety-nine-year
lease, which Councils were not willing to grant.
Late in the year the Councils agreed to appropriate
five hundred dollars for a clock in the Market-Hall
steeple, at Pine and Second Streets, provided that
citizens raise the balance required, and a subscription-
list was started.
The city was anxious to have the new custom-house
well located, but the draw-bridge lot, which seemed
very desirable, could not be sold without legislative
permission, which was petitioned for but refused.
This lot had originally been a swamp, and was in-
tended to be granted to the city, on the 25th of Octo-
ber, 1701, with liberty to dig docks and make harbors
there. Before that time, through inadvertence, it
had been patented to John Marsh. John Penn after-
ward, about the year 1758, purchased it from Marsh
and presented it to the city, as was intended by the
charter. But in time the swamp became fast land,
Dock Creek filled up, and the swamp was high
ground. Vessels could not approach nearer than
two hundred and fifty feet. The lot could not be
used according to the original intention, and re-
mained neglected for many years.
When the State Legislature first met a charge was
brought by John Wurts, member from the city,
against Thomas Sergeant, Secretary of the Common-
wealth, accusing him of misconduct in office. A com-
mittee of the House reported in favor of Sergeant.
The latter had tried to do a favor for Wurts by ob-
taining a clerkship for a friend of his, and the com-
mittee said that he was not guilty of corruption. In
February the Legislature passed an act dividing the
Northern Liberties into seven wards. The bounda-
ries of the First Ward were from Vine Street to Wil-
low, and from the Delaware River to Third Street;
the Second Ward, from Third Street to Sixth, and
from Vine to Willow ; the Third Ward, from Third
Street to the Delaware, between Willow and Green
Streets, and Wells' Alley, commonly called White-
hall Street; the Fourth Ward, from Third Street to
Sixth, between Willow and Green ; the Fifth Ward,
from Third Street to the Delaware River, between
Green Street and Poplar Lane, and that part of Co-
hocksink Creek called the Canal; the Sixth Ward,
from Third Street to Sixth, between Green Street and
Poplar Lane ; the Seventh Ward, bounded by the
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
593
Cohocksink Creek on the north and east, Poplar
Street on the south, and Sixth Street on the west.
An act of Assembly was passed March 3d, which de-
clared that all real estate in Spring Garden should
be subject to the debts of the commissioners in pitch-
ing, curbing, or paving streets. This was the com-
mencement of the municipal lien-claim system, after-
ward extended to the other districts so as to include
charges for water-pipe and culverts. Application
was made to the Legislature of New Jersey in No-
vember for authority to erect a bridge across the
Delaware River to Windmill Island, opposite the
city. It was represented that the distance from the
shore to the island was twenty-two hundred feet, and
that the latter was eight hundred or nine hundred
feet wide. From the west bank of the island to the
wharves of the city the distance was about eight
hundred feet.
An article in the Portfolio in May showed clearly
the condition of the city as regarded street improve-
ments, and gives a pleasant picture of steady growth
and progress. A portion of this article reads as fol-
lows:
" It must be gratifying to every liberal-minded man to see the grad-
ual improvement of our city. The buildings wbicb have been erected,
and the streets which have been paved during the past ten years, by far
surpass the most sanguine calculations of former days. Vine Street
is built and paved as far as Ninth. Race Street is built and paved as
far a~ Broad. Arch Street is built out entirely to Twelfth with beauti-
ful bouses, and is paved to Eleventh. Market Street is paved to
Schuylkill Sixth, and is entirely built up as far as the Centre Square,
and is partially built up on all the squares between Broad Street and
the river Schuylkill. Chestnut Street is entirely built up nearly as far
as Twelfth, and is paved and partially improved as far as Schuylkill
Seventh, which is two squares west uf Broad. Walnut Street is nearly
built out to Eleventh, is paved as far as Twelfth, and will shortly he
paved up to Thirteenth. Spruce Street is built up to Eleventh, and is
paved to Broad. Pine Street is built and paved up to Ninth. South
Street is partially improved as far as Broad, and is paved to Ninth.
Broad Street is paved from Centre Square to Vine Street. AH the streets
running north and south as far west as Eleventh, and most of the inter-
mediate and secondary streets, are paved in whole or in part, accord-
ing to the extent of the improvements. "What has very much con-
tributed to the great extent of pavements within the last few years haB
been the enterprise — or, if you choose, the calculating spirit — of Borne of
our citizenB, who, in order to procure pavements in front of their prop-
erty before the regular period arrived at which they would be made by
the public, have loaned the money to Councils, free of interest, for such
a term as would be likely not to make them a public burden before their
regular turn. Thus, for the pavement of Chestnut Street weBt of
Broad the money was loaned by the owners of the property interested
for fourteen years, without interest. For the pavement of Walnut
Street between Eleventh and Thirteenth the money was loaned with-
out interest for seven years. And so of other streets. It is probable
that further extensions of the pavemente may be called for in the pres-
ent and ensuing years upon the same principles of anticipation, and we
hope that Councils will act upon a liberal system, and grant them,
whenever the loan is for so long a period as to make it an advantageous
contract for the city. It would not be difficult to show that where a
loan is for a long period, the increase of taxeB upon the property
paved, arising from improvements and its increased value, would pro-
duce an extra revenue to tbe city more than sufficient to clear the city
the whole cost of the pavement. Should this be the case, what motive
could there he for refusing so reasonable a request as an offer to put
money into the city treasury ? — which unquestionably would have been
the case in several late arrangements."
There were a few local events of the year that de-
serve mention. The Philosophical Society gave up
the idea of maintaining an observatory for a few years
to come. The Washington Benevolent Societies of
Philadelphia, Germantown, and other places cele-
brated the Fourth of July ; Charles Pierce was orator.
In June, Perkins & Jones advertised a "supply-
pump" they had invented. George Bruorton about
this time began an enameling and gilding establish-
ment on Chestnut Street. Sellers & Pennock an-
nounced the manufacture of " riveted fire-hose."
Oliver Evans gave notice that he had patented high-
pressure steam-engines, " using strong globular or
cylindrical boilers, being the only form admitted by
Nature or Art by which the principles described, or
elastic steam, can be used with safety." The city
firemen met in July and declared, "There are now
in the city and liberties thirty-four engines and fif-
teen thousand feet of hose, under the direction of
forty-nine companies. These companies are all will-
ing to receive new members. It is asked that Coun-
cils will pass an ordinance to prevent the use of water
from the plugs, except under license from the city
government." The " Philadelphia Southern Society"
met in May, Pierce Butler president, and toasts were
drunk to Southern patriots and leaders, from Capt.
John Smith to Thomas Jefferson. The first mention
of an association for the purpose of "securing coun-
try air to the children of those whose limited circum-
stances deprived them of it" was this year. There
was procured from the Board of Health for this pur-
pose the use of a wing of the City Hospital at Bush
Hill, where accommodations, food, and medical at-
tendance were provided for sick children and their
mothers.
The Bank of the United States in April bought the
old Norris mansion on Chestnut, between Fourth and
Fifth Streets, paying one thousand dollars per foot,
and offered five hundred dollars for the best plan of a
building. John Haviland secured it in August. Bank
loans had been curtailed since October, 1817, and by
October, 1818, the reduction reached seven million
dollars, resulting in a severe money stringency. In
December, at the Coffee-House, a meeting of mer-
chants passed resolutions that Congress should* be
petitioned to prohibit exportation of specie from the
United States. A committee was appointed, but when
its members assembled it was found that they were
opposed to obeying their instructions. Three declined '
to act, three refused to draw up the petition, and only
one was in favor of it.
Rut the subject that attracted most attention in
Philadelphia during 1818 was the Lancasterian sys-
tem of teaching, of which something has already
been said. James Edwards, who had established
himself in the city in 1817, claimed to be the only
certificated teacher from Joseph Lancaster in Phila-
delphia. Edward Baker, in January, delivered a
lecture on the Lancasterian system. Edwards came
out shortly afterwards with a long statement, claim-
ing his position as the only teacher of the real and
594
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
true Lancastrian system, which he followed strictly,
"excepting such corporeal punishments as are not
permitted by the laws of this country." In a subse-
quent advertisement Edwards admitted that he never
had learned the system from Lancaster, in fact, had
never seen that person, but had obtained his knowl-
edge in Canada from William Scott, who was one of
Lancaster's pupils. Baker claimed to have organ-
ized the Lancasterian schools in New York. Mr.
Cullen lectured upon the system in the Lancasterian
high school in January. Mrs. Baker opened a Lan-
casterian school for girls at No. 48 South Fifth Street
in March. John B. Weston opened a new model
school at No. 7 Pear Street in June. Meanwhile the
system had attracted legislative attention. It offered
a cheap and seemingly feasible way of educating large
numbers of pupils with great speed. Without some
such incentive the free-school system could not have
been adopted so soon, nor have propitiated a bitter op-
position. Lancasterian methods were received with
great enthusiasm. The Legislature had in 1817, as we
have said, declared the city and county the "first school
district" of Pennsylvania. The city was declared to
be the first section, Northern Liberties and Kensing-
ton the second section, Southwark, Moyamensing,
and Passyunk the third section, and Penn township
the fourth section. Another act directed that City
Councils should elect annually twelve directors, the
Commissioners of Northern Liberties six directors,
and the Commissioners of Southwark, Moyamensing,
and Spring Garden, each six. The directors of each
section were authorized to elect one person from
among every six of themselves to be a member of a
select body, to be called "The Controllers of the
Public Schools for the City and County of Philadel-
phia." The number of sections was also increased.
Oxford, Lower Dublin, Byberry, and Moreland were
made the fifth section, Oxford and Lower Dublin
having four directors, and Byberry and Moreland
each two. Germantown, Bristol, and Boxborough
constituted the sixth section ; Germantown with four
directors, and Bristol and Koxborough each with two.
Blockley and Kingsessing formed the seventh section ;
Blockley having three directors, and Kingsessing two.
The directors of the fifth, sixth, and seventh sections
were authorized to superintend the schooling of poor
children within the district. The directors of the
fifth, sixth, and seventh sections were to be appointed
by the Court of Quarter Sessions. The law declared
that "the principles of Lancaster's system of educa-
tion in its most improved state shall be adopted and
pursued in all the public schools within the district,
with the exception hereinafter mentioned." The ex-
ceptions were in the outer districts. The controllers
organized on the 6th of April, and established two
schools in Southwark, two in Moyamensing, two in
the Northern Liberties, and two in Penn township.
In the second section the Adelphi School was adopted
as a public school. Edward Baker opened a school
at No. 48 South Fifth Street, which was continued
until the arrival of Joseph Lancaster, who was en-
gaged by the controllers to superintend the working
of his system in Philadelphia. The model school
was first established in a building on Fifth Street, ad-
joining St. Thomas' African Episcopal Church, below
Walnut Street. The house was afterwards used as a
place for exhibitions, under the name of Maelzel's
Hall. A building for the purpose of a model school
was then contracted for. It was built of brick, upon
the east side of Chester Street above Pace, and school
was begun on the 21st of December by Joseph Lan-
caster. At the end of the first quarter there were in
the school four hundred and thirteen boys and three
hundred and twenty girls. The boys were taught
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the girls were
taught the same branches, also needlework. At the
end of the first year the number of pupils was two
thousand eight hundred and forty-five. The cost of
maintaining the schools in teachers' salaries (ex-
cluding buildings, rents, etc.) was $5082.75, a great
reduction on the amount formerly paid by the county
under the poor-school law, which was from ten to
twelve dollars for teaching each pupil. Lancaster
delivered a course of lectures upon educational topics
and other subjects, and his employment for the pur-
pose of superintending the schools was considered a
most judicious movement on the part of the con-
trollers.1
1 The Lancasterian system was at this time an object of general atten-
tion in Great Britain and the United States. Joseph Lancaster, usually
considered tile founder of this plan of instruction, adopted a system
originated liy Rev. Dr. Andrew Bell, chaplain and teacher of orphan
children at Madras. The principal point in Bell's syBtern was that as it
was impossible in his school to obtain the services of ushers, the school
should be conducted by the scholars themselves, the master superintend-
ing all. Bell published a pamphlet on the subject on his return to Eng-
land in 1797, and Lancaster took it up and applied the principles of
what he called the " Monitorial System" to the education of poor children,
lie was in Baltimore, New York, and other cities, and established num-
bers of schools. He also published a pamphlet and a book, now quite
rare, in Philadelphia, descriptive of his system, with illustrative skeUhes.
Thomas Dutilap, for many yeard president of the Bo;ird of Controllers
of the public schools, spoke in the following manner, in 1851, of the
Lancasterian system, as he found it when he entered the Board of Di-
rectors of the public schools, in 1824: " I found (and for several years
saw nothing bettor) seven school-houses, containing fourteen schools,
in each of which about two bundled children were to be educated; that
is, imbued with valuablo learning, and trained to future usefulness, on
a patent scheme, the visionary hallucination of a wild, though perhapB
benevolent, enthusiast. And what were its requirements, its promises,
its hopeful machinery? It formed schools — pardon the misnomer —
where the young idea was to be developed into penmanship by scratch-
ing with sticks in a sand-bath, and showing educational agility by
quickly erasing the crow tracks; developed into arithmetic by the duleful,
simultaneous chantor the multiplication-table, in which neither scholar,
monitor, nor muster could detect one intelligible sound, or, in Saxon
vernacular, ' bear their own ears;' developed into poetry and morals by
howling in horrid chorus certain doggerel ballads, or Lancasterian (not
Pierian) hymns; schools where the baby of five was the all-sufficient
teacher of iho baby of four, save that the latter, if stoutest, generally
practiced more successfully in flogging his monitor than in figuring in
his sand-box ; and where, but too often, a master — whose qualifications
for leaching, like the reading and writing of a ceitain distinguished
functionary, 'came by nature1— lounged through two or three hours of
the morning, and as many of the afternoon, in gazing down upou the
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
595
The year 1819 was the year of a new convention
with Great Britain, the acquisition of Florida, and
practically of Oregon also, the beginning of the
Missouri Compromise struggle, the rousing of the
anti-slavery sentiment of the North, and the reas-
sembling at Philadelphia of the convention for pro-
moting abolition. This movement originated in the
Middle States, — in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
New York, soon spreading to Massachusetts. We
shall hear more of these important issues and discus-
sions.
Local politics in Philadelphia were unusually vir-
ulent. The Wurts charges against Thomas Sergeant,
secretary of the State, were revived. The old-school
Democrats nominated for senator in the county
Robert McMullin ; county commissioner, John Y.
Bryant; sheriff, Thomas Elliott or Caleb North;
auditor, John Roberts. The Federalists generally
supported these nominations. The old-school party
in the Northern Liberties called a meeting in Sep-
tember, and were driven from the hall by the Findlay-
ites ; but, meeting elsewhere, nominated an inde-
pendent ticket for commissioners, among whom were
Dr. Michael Leib and Mordecai Y. Bryant. The new-
school Democrats nominated John Connelly for the
Senate. When the election came off McMullin re-
ceived 6482 votes, and Connelly 3603. There were
■eight candidates for sheriff, and Caleb North was
elected. For county commissioner, George Ingalls,
and for auditor, John Roberts, were elected. In the
city the Democrats carried both Councils. The old-
school elected to the Select Council, Stephen Girard,
Anthony Cuthbert, Elijah Griffiths, and William
Delaney. Joseph Worrell succeeded to the presi-
dency of the Common Council, and George Vaux
succeeded Robert Wain as president of the Select
Council. In the city the Federal ticket for Assembly
was Benjamin R. Morgan, George Emlen, William
Lehman, Thomas McEuen, and Henry Solomon.
The Democratic ticket for Assembly was James
Thackara, Josiah Randall, William J. Duane, Dr.
Richard Povall, and Alexander H. Cox.
An unexpected element was introduced into the
city canvass, which controlled the election for the
House of Representatives. This disturbing influence
came from the volunteer fire companies in the city.
They found that the cost of maintaining the com-
panies was increasing annually. The insurance com-
panies gave them no assistance. An association was
therefore formed among the fire and hose companies
for the purpose of assisting themselves, but a bill
which was presented to the Legislature for a charter
making the association an insurance company was
lost, and it was charged that the influence of the old
insurance companies had prevented its passage. The
firemen therefore determined to enter the political
intellectual pandemonium beneath liis rostrum, diversifying 1 1 is educa-
tional labors by not uufrequcntly bringing his rattan in as third man
between the stout baby and the cowardly baby monitor."
contest in the city with a firemen's ticket, nomi-
nated October 2d, at the Falstaff Hotel, upon which
were the names of William Lehman and Henry Sol-
omon, Federalists, and James Thackara, Josiah Ran-
dall, and William J. Duane, Democrats, this being a
combination ticket. This movement caused the great-
est excitement among the politicians, nor were the
firemen themselves unanimous in support of the step.
The politicians were therefore able to start a counter-
movement, and on the 9th of October a meeting of
firemen, at which John M. Scott presided and Rich-
ard Price acted as secretary, was held at the mayor's
court-room. About five hundred firemen were present,
and resolved that "fire companies were instituted
for the sole purpose of promoting the public good
by exertions at fires;" that " the nomination by fire-
men who lived in the county of candidates to repre-
sent the city in the Legislature was highly improper ;"
and that "the proceedings of the Fire Association
emanated from but a small portion of that influential
body, the fire department." Members were present
from the following fire companies: Resolution, Ni-
agara, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Humane, Hi-
bernia, Federal, Hope, Reliance, Friendship (North-
ern Liberties), Friendship (city), Vigilant, Harmony,
United States, Sun, Relief, and Washington; and
from the following hose companies: Neptune, Hope,
Phoenix, Washington, Fame, Resolution, and Co-
lumbia. The Southwark Hose Company published
a card declaring that they would support the fire-
men's ticket, and the Resolution Hose Company pub-
lished a card stating that they did not belong to
the Fire Association, and would oppose the ticket.
This company at that time numbered the Dutilhs,
Destouets, Chaudrons, Bosquets, and other natives of
France, among its members, and was called the French
company. The members of the Diligent Fire Com-
pany were unanimously in favor of the firemen's
ticket. They formed the company into a committee
of vigilance to secure its success, and ordered all
members to be waited upon to secure their votes. The
firemen's movement proved successful, the vote being
as follows: Morgan, 2277; McEuen, 2346; Solomon,
2115; Emlen, .2315; Lehman, 2543; Povall, 2380;
Randall, 2519; Coxe, 2349; Duane, 3012; Thackara,
2494. Messrs. William Lehman, James Thackara,
Josiah Randall, and William J. Duane — four out of
the five on the firemen's ticket — were thus elected.
Local politics immediately after the fall elections
centred again about the charges against Sergeant and
Governor Findlay. A memorial was sent to the Gen-
eral Assembly charging the Governor with miscon-
duct in office; with corruptly exercising his official
duties for the purpose of advancing his own private
interests; with misusing his patronage to obtain pe-
cuniary advantages for himself, family, and friends,
from applicants for office; with misconduct in award-
ing auctioneers' licenses, and various other abuses
of his position.
596
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The Legislature passed several important acts re-
lating to Philadelphia. In January there was a
strong but unsuccessful effort made to create a new-
county to be called Decatur. It was to consist of the
townships of Roxborough, Germantown, Bristol, Ox-
ford, Lower Dublin, Byberry, and Moreland, and
such parts of the Northern Liberties and Penn as
should lie eastward, northward, and westward of a
certain line " beginning on the north side of the Del-
aware River at Gibson's wharf, and including the
same, and from thence in a direct line to Penn's Soli-
tude, on the west side of the river Schuylkill, and
from thence to where the division-line of Kingsessing
and Blockley intersects Mill Creek on the property of
Jacob Mayland, and thence along said township line
until it strikes Cobb's Creek, and thence along said
Cobb's Creek until it strikes the Montgomery County
line, and thence along said line until it strikes Rox-
borough township." The district thus defined was
intended to become a separate county on the 1st of
November. On the 25th of February an act to in-
corporate the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society was
passed. The corporators were Andrew Bayard, Sam-
uel Archer, Richard Bache, Charles N. Bancker,
Clement C. Biddle, Samuel Breck, Turner Camac,
Reuben Haines, Thomas Hale, Adam Konigmacher,
Louis Krumbhaar, John McCrea, Samuel B. Norris,
Isaac W. Norris, Richard Peters, Jr., Condy Raguet,
Joseph Rotch, William Schlatter, Samuel Spackman,
John C. Stocker, John Strawbridge, Roberts Vaux,
John Vaughan, Daniel B. Smith, and Matthew C.
Ralston. March 16th, the Legislature incorporated
that part of the township of the Northern Liberties
lying between Sixth Street and the river Delaware,
and between Vine Street and Cohocksink Creek, as
"Commissioners and Inhabitants of the Incorporated
District of the Northern Liberties." This was an
alteration and an amplification of the first "act incor-
porating the district, passed March 28, 1803. " The
Indigent Widows' and Single Women's Asylum of
Philadelphia,'' the "Philadelphia Society for Pro-
moting Agriculture," and the "Schuylkill West
Branch Navigation Company" were also incorporated
in March. The. latter intended to use lock-naviga-
tion, and to have a canal "from the mouth of the
west branch to its intersection with the east branch
on the farm of Daniel Dreibelbis, on the Centre
turnpike, five miles from the town of Orwigsburg."
•Early in January the pioneer in the coal trade of
the Schuylkill, whose name, however, was not given,
advertised in the United States Gazette that orders
would be received for Lehigh coal at No. 172 Arch
Street, " in quantities not less than one ton, between
the 1st of April and the 1st of December, at thirty
cents per bushel of eighty pounds. The coal may be
seen burning at the above place." The house referred
to was the residence of Josiah White, who, with his
partner, Erskine Hazard, had previously demon-
strated the value of anthracite coal. At the price
mentioned, the cost of a ton of Lehigh coal was eight
dollars and forty cents. The origin of the manufac-
turing town at Flat Rock, afterward Manayunk, dates
from this spring.
In February the Schuylkill Navigation Company
published proposals to supply water-power from the
Schuylkill. They had erected a dam at Flat Rock,
completed a canal, and had power for the extensive
manufactories. " The price is for the present at three
dollars per annum, in the nature of a ground- and
water-rent for each square inch of aperture under a
three-feet head. An aperture of one hundred square
inches is computed to yield water sufficient to grind
about ten bushels of wheat per hour." The point at
which the dam was erected, which was called Flat
Rock, was so named from a peculiar rock now in the
upper part of Manayunk. Ariel Cooley was brought
from Connecticut to construct the dam. The first
power was sold to Capt. John Towers April 10, 1819,
who built a mill, the pioneer manufactory in the vil-
lage afterward known as the Falls of Schuylkill, and
still later as Manayunk. Charles V. Hagner pur-
chased the second power in September, 1820. It was
fifty inches, and subsequently he added fifty inches
more. Here he commenced making oil and grinding
drugs, afterward adding a fulling-mill and a number
of power-looms for weaving satinets, the first power-
looms used in Pennsylvania for weaving woolen goods.
Coal and new manufactories gave business a decided
impetus, but there were complaints from some that
the new water-works would ruin property along the
Schuylkill. " Judge Peters will lose an island of two
or three acres. Mr. Johnson, Mr. Burd, and others
will surfer considerably. Bingham will lose a fine
meadow of twenty acres, and Breck a meadow, a fine
island of sixteen acres, a wharf, and a distillery."
The " Association for the Promotion of the Internal
Improvements of New York" authorized its secre-
tary, in September, to report on the practicability
and expense of a canal between New York and Phila-
delphia by the Raritan and Delaware Rivers, or by
any other practicable route. This was the first move-
ment toward inland water-communication between
the two cities.
Philadelphia had two fires in 1819. The first, Jan-
uary 28th, at 11 p.m., burned "the old red stores" on
the second wharf below Race Street on the Delaware,
owned and used by William T. Elder, cotton and hay
presser. On the night of March 9th the Masonic
Hall on Chestnut Street was totally destroyed by fire.
The loss was thirty-five thousand dollars, partly
covered by an insurance of twenty thousand dollars.1
1 This fire waB long remembered as a grand spectacle. Roofs and
street were covered with snow. It began in a defective flue, about nine
P.M.
" Room after room was gained by the flumes ; and in about an hour
after the first alarm a wild burst of fire and 6muke betokened that the
roof was nearly consumed. The beautiful Bteeple, the pride aud glory
of the Order, was the next object of attack. The blight flames ran
rapidly up the wood-work to the Bpire. In a short time the entire tow er
FROM THE TREATY OP GHENT TO 1825.
597
On the day after the fire the Masons met at Washing-
ton Hall. Thomas Elliott, Grand Master, presided,
George A. Baker acted as secretary. The meeting
was opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. Rogers, the
Grand Chaplain. Committees from the various lodges
were appointed to receive contributions. Victor
Pepin, manager of the Olympic Theatre, at Ninth
and Walnut Streets, a member of the fraternity, vol-
unteered to appropriate the proceeds of a benefit.
Warren & Wood, the managers of the new theatre,
Chestnut Street, expressed their wish to do the same.
Labbe, the famous dancing-master of the day, gave a
grand ball at his room on Library Street, — since
called Military Hall. Hupfeldt, Lefolle, Danenburg,
and Schetky, the principal instructors in music, gave
a grand concert at Washington Hall, and the frater-
nity succeeded in disposing of six thousand tickets.
After the destruction of the Chesnut Street building,
the brotherhood appear to have returned to the old
hall on Filbert Street, between Eighth and Ninth,
although Concordia and LAmenite lodges held their
meetings on Taylor's Alley.
An act of March 27th required an exact list of
births in the city, to be registered alphabetically.
Another act, passed the same day, vested in the Board
of Health the burying-ground in Blockley township,
adjoining the grounds of Elizabeth Powel and the
corporation of the city of Philadelphia. This was the
southernmost of the two burying-grounds lying on the
banks of the Schuylkill, upon the east side of the
street or road leading from High Street to the bridge
at the Upper Ferry. It was the ground which the
Society of Friends had claimed in former years. The
preamble to the bill recited that the lot belonged to
the Society of Friends under an equitable title, but
that the "Monthly Meeting had by a formal act
ceded and relinquished to the Board of Health all
their rights and claims.''
The City Councils in February memorialized Con-
gress to remit customs duties upon iron pipes im-
ported from London for the water-works. The joints
had to be nine feet long, and of twenty and twenty-
two inches diameter. It was difficult to procure con-
tracts for such large-sized pipes in this country.
Congress, however, took no action on this memorial.
In March the Councils ordered the city commis-
sioners to open a street fifty feet in width on the
western boundary of the Northeast Public Square to
connect Race and Vine Streets. After it was opened
the commissioners were ordered to close up Seventh
Street. Some citizens who were opposed to this
change commenced proceedings in the Quarter Ses-
sions in June to reopen Seventh Street.
was wrapped in tbe embraces nf the glowing destroyer and stood a pil-
lar of fire I In ail hour after tbe first alarm tbe flames were roaring
and triumphing with vindictive fury within the walls of'the edifice. In
Imir »n hour more the steeple had fallen ; and by three o'clock the next
morning the only memorials of the late Masonic edifice were the black-
ened walls, fitfully revealed by the light of burning embers."
A proposition to erect a bridge across the Delaware
in front of the city led to strenuous opposition from
the Councils, who objected that there was no restric-
tion as to the abutments, and urged that they should
not be allowed to approach each other nearer than
two thousaud three hundred feet. They finally de-
sired that the Legislature would postpone the con-
sideration of it until the next session, which was done.
A meeting in opposition to the building of this bridge
was held in December at Elliott's tavern.
The clock and bell at the new market, Second and
Pine Streets, was finished in August, and six hundred
dollars appropriated by the Councils towards the ex-
pense. The Councils ordered culverts built in North-
east Square, and there was talk of one on Pegg's Run.
Among the important improvements of the year was
the laying out and partial building of Palmyra Square,
which, as originally projected, extended from Vine
Street to Wood and from Tenth Street to Twelfth.
The row between Tenth and Eleventh Streets, on
Vine, was for a time the chosen residence of citizens
of wealth and influence.
The city, early in February, gave a banquet to
Gen. Andrew Jackson, who was on his way to New
York, it being probably the first time that he had
been in Philadelphia after hi3 service as United
States Senator for Tennessee, in 1797-98. The offi-
cers of the First Division called upon him on the
morning of February 18th, and an address was made
by Gen. Cadwalader, to which Gen. Jackson re-
sponded. The dinner took place at the Washington
Hall Hotel. Pierce Butler presided. The 22d of
February was celebrated at the hall of the Washing-
ton Benevolent Society, and the oration was deliv-
ered by David Paul Brown. Great alarm was occa-
sioned this year by deaths from hydrophobia. Two
of such instances occurred in the early part of June,
and were followed by several others. The Councils
passed an ordinance for the destruction of dogs, it
being the first regulation of the sort. They ordered
all dogs running at large to be seized, killed, and
buried, and promised one dollar for each. In the
summer yellow fever began in the Upper Ferry
Tavern, on the north side of Market Street wharf.
Two persons died in the vicinity, and twenty were
affected. Energetic measures were taken, and not
more than ten or twelve deaths took place. It prob-
ably originated in a filthy condition of several yards
and cellars, no suspected vessels having arrived.
July 4th the Society of the Cincinnati reported
$3576.59 on hand for their proposed monument to
Washington. July 12th, the new custom-house build-
ing, on the west side of Second Street, near Dock
Street, William Strickland architect,- was opened for
business. Rush was the carver of a wooden statue of
Commerce near the apex of the gable. July 30th, a
number of prisoners in the Walnut Street jail made
an unsuccessful attempt to escape. One man was
stabbed in the fight. In August, the gold medal
598
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
voted by the Pennsylvania Legislature to Capt. Jesse
Duncan Elliott for his gallant services in Perry's vic-
tory on Lake Erie in September, 1813, was presented
to him in Philadelphia. August 2d, the Point Pleas-
ant Market, at the corner of Frankford road and
Maiden Street, was completed, and the stalls were
rented a few days later. In December a meeting was
held at the mayor's office, and contributions were se-
cured for the persons burned out at Wilmington, N. C.
Mayor Barker was chairman and Robert Ralston was
secretary.
One of the events of the year was a riot which
grew out of a series of balloon ascents. September
2d, Lee, Bulkley & Pomeroy were to have a balloon
ascent at Camden, and thirty thousand persons visited
the spot, but the inflation failed, and the angry crowd
slashed the balloon with their pocket-knives. It was
repaired and used successfully several days later.
Soon after this Monsieur Guille announced that he
would make an ascension about the 20th of Septem-
ber in this city. But Monsieur Michel forestalled
him, and fixed upon the 8th as the time for his ascen-
sion from Vauxhall Garden with balloon, gondola,
and parachute. At the height of two thousand feet
he proposed to cut loose and descend to the earth as
near Vauxhall as he could. He was aided in the
preparations by M. Stanislaus; and they expected a
rich harvest, as the price of admission was one dollar.
At that time the grounds about Vauxhall were open
commons; and the entire neighborhood from the
Centre Square to George [Sansom] Street, south nearly
to Locust Street, eastward to Thirteenth Street, and
westward nearly to Schuylkill Eighth Street, was cov-
ered with people, thirty or thirty-five thousand persons
being crowded together.
On the previous day another attempt had been
made to ascend with the Camden balloon. Mr. Lee
took his place in the parachute. The aerostat was
blown against a tree, and a hole made in it. It was
then suffered to escape, and soared to parts unknown.
This failure was heard of by those who went to wit-
ness the ascent of Stanislaus and Michel's balloon,
and no doubt contributed towards the belief that all
aeronautic endeavors were impositions upon the pub-
lic. About noon September 8th the inflation of the
Vauxhall balloon began, but the wind was very un-
favorable, and caused many delays. Michel expected
to be able to start at 5.15 p.m., but postponed the time
one hour. At 6 p.m. the balloon was hardly a fourth
filled. The crowd now became impatient, angry, and
excited.', [About this time a boy, who endeavored to
climb over the fence of the garden, was struck by an
attendant of the establishment, and seriously injured.
It was reported that he was killed, and a number of
persons seized sticks and stones, rent the silk of the
balloon, tore down the fence, and rushed in. Some
one took the money-box, containing nearly eight hun-
dred dollars. Others broke the barrels containing the
acids, demolished the pipes, and did every ^'possible
injury. They attacked the bars, drank the liquor,
broke the bottles and glasses, and then commenced
operations in the pavilion, where they tore down the
scenery, carried off the dresses, and finally set fire to
the building. It was after eight o'clock when this
occurred. The fire and hose companies were early
upon the ground, but in a short time the pavilion was
in ashes. Mr. Magner, the proprietor of the garden,
was the greatest sufferer. The balloonists lost twenty-
five hundred dollars. A concert was afterwards given
at Washington Hall for the benefit of Mr. Magner
by Mr. Keene, vocalist. Messrs. De Luce and Bren-
nan assisted. It is a comment upon the manner in
which newspapers were then conducted that Poulson's
Advertiser and the Aurora contain not a word in rela-
tion to this riot. Local news was not much attended
to by old school newspapers. The United States Gazette,
speaking of the affair, says, —
"A mobbing spirit has not been characteristic of Philadelphia, and it
is with regret that we publish that such a disgraceful riot has tuken
place."
We have spoken of the anti-slavery agitation that
grew out of the Missouri contest. The meeting held
in Philadelphia in November, this year, was of his-
toric importance. The Aurora of November 29th
published the following report of the meeting :
" On Tuesday afternoon a very numerous and respectable meeting was
held in the State-Mouse, in the ennie chamber in which the Declaration
of Independence was declared. The object was to 'cunsider an applica-
tion to Congress to resist the extension of human slavery in the new
States that arc about to lie, or may be hereafter, added to this confedera-
tion.' Jared Ingersoll, Esq , was called to the chair, aud .Robert Ral-
ston was appointed secretary.
" Tlie business of the meeting was opened by Mr. Horace Binney in a
very perspicuous and eloquent speech, in which he most ably and clearly
developed the inhumanity, impolicy, and injustice of slavery generally,
'its pernicious tendency in human society, and its incompatibility with
republican institutions, with tho spirit of our Revolution aud Constitu-
tion, and with divine and human laws.' He also clearly demonstrated
the power of and obligation on Congress to prohibit the extension of
slavery in new States. His argument on the constitutional pait of the
question was so explicit and perspicuous as to place that point beyond
the possibility of controveision. After Mr. Binney bad thus opened the
business, he offered a series of resolutions, which were lead and unani-
mously adopted."1
1 These resolutions were, — "The slavery of the human 6pecies being
confessedly one of the greatest evils which exist in the United Slates, —
palpably inconsistent with tho principles upon which the independence
of this nation was asserted and justified before God and the world, as
well as at variance with the indestructible doctrines of universal liberty
and right, upon which our Constitution is erected, — it unavoidably fol-
lows that personal bondage beyond those States which were originally
parties to the confederation tniuf be deprecated, ami slmuld be prevented by
an exertion of the legislative power of Congress; therefore.
" Resolved, That In the opinion of this meeting it will be inconsistent
in principle, unwise in policy, and ungenerous in power, to allow Statea,
hereafter to be created members of the American Union, to eslnbhVh or
to create slavery within their jurisdiction, and that every lawful means
should be employed to prevent so great a moral and political transgres-
sion.
"Resolved, That this meeting will adopt a momorial, to he signed by
our fellow-citizens, imploring the Congrossof the United States to exert
all its constitutional power for the prevention of slavery in States here-
after to be admitted into the Union.
" Resolved, That a committee of correspondence, consisting of twenty-
five, be appointed; that it be requested to circulate these proceedings
throughout the State of Pennsylvania, and be further authorized to
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
599
The following gentlemen were appointed as a com-
mittee of correspondence, viz. : Jared Ingersoll, Wil-
liam Rawle, Horace Binney, Robert Ralston, Thomas
Lei per, Robert Walsh, Jr., Caleb North, Roberts
Vaux, Dr. George Logan, Gen. John Steel, Charles
Chauncey, Peter S. Duponceau, William Sansom,
Manuel Eyre, Joseph P. Norris, Moses Levy, James
C. Fisher, Samuel Breek, James N. Barker, Benjamin
R. Morgan, John Hallowell, John W. Thompson,
George Latimer, John Connelly, and Timothy Pax-
son.
In November the people of color held a meeting to
protest against the colonization scheme, James Forten
being chairman.1
The year 1820 was an important one in the history
of the city. It was signalized by the return of the
yellow fever in a much more malignant form than it
had assumed during its brief visitation in the previous
year, and although the Board of Health took meas-
ures to stop its progress by barricading the streets in
which it had gained a foothold and ordering away
the shipping from the vicinity, the malady increased,
and so much alarm was created that some citizens
removed from the city. The first case made its ap-
pearance on the 24th of July in Water Street, near
Race. From that time until the 2d of August four-
teen persons residing in the neighborhood were at-
tacked, and ten died. Then there was a lull, and the
temporary hospital in Schuylkill Front Street was
closed. August 9th, eighteen cases were reported
near Walnut Street wharf, and the hospital was re-
opened and put in charge of Dr. Burden. On the
19th of August the City Hospital at Bush Hill was
opened and placed in the charge of Drs. Hewson and
Chapman. September 7th, when the seventy-four-
makc bucIi publications in support of the opinions of this meeting as it
may deem proper."
A memorial ufterwardB adopted was, —
"Reaoloed, That tlie committee of correspondence be authorized to ap-
point committees to offer the memorial for signature to the citizens in
their respective wards and districts.
" Ilevlced, That the ward and district committees supply any vacan-
cies which may occur in their several circuit-', and that they be requested
to deliver the memorials, when signed, to the committee of correspond-
ence, to be transmitted to CougreBS.
"Uoolceil, That the thanks or the meeting be given to the chairman
for his dignified conduct in the chair.
" Berilcal, That the thanks of the meeting be presented to Tlorace
Binney, Esq., for his very eloquent and conclusive arguments before the
meeting.
" Ordered, That the proceedings be published."
' Among the resolutions passed by the colored people were these,—
"Hi-soloed, That how clamorous soever a few obscure and dissatisfied
strangers among us may be in favor or being made Presidents, Gover-
nors, and principal men in Africa, there is but one sentiment among the
respectable inhabitants of odor in litis city and county,— whicli is, that
it meets their unanimous and decided disapprobation.
" lletohed. That we are determined to have neither lot nor portion in
a plan whicli we only perceive to be intended to perpetuate slavery in
the United States. And it is, moreover,
"Renrilved, That the people of color of Philadelphia now enter nnd
proclaim their most solemn protest against the proposition to send their
people to Africa, and against every measure which may have a tendency
to convey the Mea that they give the project a single particle of coun-
tenance or encouragement."
gun frigate " North Carolina" was launched from the
navy-yard, the Board of Health requested citizens
not to assemble. Between August 19th and Septem-
ber 10th thirty-six patients, eleven of whom died,
were received at the hospital. September 12th, lead-
ing merchants, Paul Beck, Marsden & Bunker, and
others, published an address to citizens of other States,
intended to disprove rumors in reference to the extent
of the fever in Philadelphia. It said that the infec-
tion had been confined to a part of the city but rarely
frequented by Western or Southern merchants ; also
that danger was then over, and strangers might visit
the city with safety. In order to show the mild char-
acter of the disease, a table of deaths in Philadelphia
and New York, between the 22d of July and Septem-
ber 12th, was published, by which it was shown that
the deaths in this city in the period above were but
seven hundred and fifty-seven, while in New York
there were seven hundred and ninety-three. Phila-
delphia had then a larger population than New York.
During the summer the negroes of Philadelphia were
affected with a fatal disease peculiar to themselves.
A letter was also published, signed by Samuel Archer,
R. M. Whitney, and Charles Biddle, Jr., addressed to
Dr. Samuel Jackson, president of the Board of Health,
who replied that there was not a single case of yellow
fever at that time in the city or liberties. On the
16th, John Tremper, Peter Shade, and others residing
in Front Street, between Market and Arch, published
a statement similar to that of the merchants' me-
morial.
On the 22d of September the Board of Health offici-
ally announced that they would grant the usual bills
of health, and that the epidemic had ceased. The
whole number of cases of fever between the 24th of
July and the 30th of September was one hundred
and three, and the deaths were sixty-seven. The loss
occasioned by this epidemic was estimated as follows,
in a paper prepared a month later :
" In 1820 there were three hundred and twenty-four families removed,
consisting of two thousand and fifty-five persons. Bloving, at eight
dollars each, out and honie, fix thousand four hundred and eighty dol-
lars. Two hundred and eighty-nine dwellings shut up, and one hun-
dred and fifty-two stores, counting-houses, and shops; total, four hun-
dred and forty-one, at two hundred and fifty dollars per annum, on an
average of seventy-five days, twenty-two thousand nine hundred and
sixty-eight dollars. One hundred and ninety-three persons supported
by the Board of Health, averaging, at about forty days, one thousand
six hundred and eleven dollars. Additional expenses of the Board of
Health, say — independent of their usual expenses— five thousand dol-
lars. The mercantile loss of the most productive months in the year
cannot be est mated at a less sum than five hundred thousand dollars.
Total, five hundred and thirty-six thousand and fifty-nine dollars."
The attention of the public was directed to the
subject of sanitary improvement of the dangerous
parts of the city. Paul Beck, Jr., an eminent mer-
chant, suggested a return to a certain extent to the
original plan of William Penn. The right to all the
wharves and buildings, from the Delaware to the east
side of Front Street, inclusive, and between Dock
and Vine Streets, was to be first purchased. All the
600
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
buildings were to be torn down, and blocks of stores
erected, each twenty feet front by one hundred feet
deep, and two and a half stories high, between the
east line of Front Street and the boundaries of the
wharves. This would leave a wide space on each
side of the stores, and would promote the circulation
of air. A wall, with iron railings, it was suggested,
should be erected on the east side of Front Street,
and the view being uninterrupted from the stores on
the west side, would render the property much more
valuable. The improvement, it was estimated, could
be effected for $3,651,000. To recompense this outlay,
the sale or rent of the stores was the first source of
income. It was also expected that a privilege of
levying wharfage upon foreign and domestic imports
might also be obtained, and that the annual yield
would amount to more than six per cent. But it was
obvious that the levy of a wharfage- tax at this part
of the city would drive business to that part of the city
front below Dock Street, so the purchase of the prop-
erty from Dock to Cedar [South] Street was suggested.
A meeting of citizens in favor of this plan was held
at the Coffee-House in December, and it was there
agreed that the entire city front, from Vine to Cedar
Street, would require the improvement. It was esti-
mated that two million dollars would be amply suffi-
cient to accomplish the work, as the proceeds of sales
of the stores would supply the balance. Accordingly
it was resolved to form a stock company, in shares of
one hundred dollars each, and to apply to the Legis-
lature for a charter. The scheme was, however, too
extensive for general approbation, and the levy of a
wharfage tax in that district would have driven the
shipping business to Southwark and the Northern
Liberties. The plan met with much opposition, and
the matter was finally abandoned.1
1 After this epidemic a report was made to the Councils in reference
to yellow-fever visitations previous to 1820. It was as follows :
" The committee appointed to estimate as far as practicable the losses
which have been sustained at different periods by the prevalence of ma-
lignant fever in the city of Philadelphia, report that, having entered on
the subject submitted to them, they have found it encumbered with dif-
ficultiesof no ordinary magnitude. The deficiency of all the neceBsary
data precludes them from presenting a calculation in all its details ac-
curate, and founded on established principles. The Committee of Health
for the year 1793 have left, however, among other documents which
they collected during that period of arduous duties, a very complete
census of the city and liberties. The document haB furnished your
committee with the means of estimating with tolerable correctness the
losses sustained by our city in that memorable and fatal epidemic. In
those particulars in which it has beeu necessary to resort to hypotheti-
cal positions we have endeavored to approach the truth, and have
sought carefully to avoid any exaggeration. We have wished to err
rather in the lownesa of the estimate than otherwise. The particular
items of the calculation will be found in the annexed schedule, from
which it appears that the whole loss suffered by the city in that year may
be fairly taken at $1,751,449. In the year 1797, although the pestilence
was not so general as in 1793, yet nearly, if nut quite, as many persons
abandoned the city, and the stagnation of business was equally great.
And in 1798, the disease assuming a still more malignant and fatal
character than in 1793, a far greater proportion of the citizens fled from
their homes. Dr. Currie, in his account of the fever of 1708, states that
on the 9th of October no more than 1654 houses remalued opened from
Vine to South Streets, and from the Delaware to Twelfth Street. By
some it was conjectured that 40,000 persons had retired to the country,
A meeting was held in January at the City Hall,
and money raised for the relief of sufferers from a
great fire which took place in Savannah, January 11th,
when four hundred and sixty buildings were burned,
and a loss of four millions of dollars was caused.
Chief Justice Tilghman was chairman, and Mayor
James N. Barker was secretary. Rev. Abner Knee-
land preached at the First Independent Church of
Christ, in Lombard Street (Universalist), for the
benefit of the fund. Another meeting in July raised
money for the sufferers at a fire in Troy, N. Y.
In February and March great alarm prevailed in
consequence of supposed attempts to " fire the city,"
and the mayor addressed the Councils. A resolution
offering two hundred dollars reward for the detection
of the incendiaries was increased to five hundred
dollars, and afterwards to one thousand dollars. An
additional police force was also authorized. This ex-
citement was increased by the entire destruction of
the Chestnut Street Theatre, on Sunday evening,
April 2d. The origin of the conflagration has never
been satisfactorily ascertained. It was attributed to
an incendiary, but Mr. Wood, one of the managers
of the theatre, has since, in his published autobiog-
raphy, ascribed it to a chance spark which may have
fallen from one of the torches used by a fire company
and it was the general opinion that full three-fourths or five-sixths of
the inhabitants bad deserted their houses. It cannot, therefore, be con-
sidered far from the truth to estimate the losses of each of those years
as equal to those of 1793, which would give for three years the sum of
85,254,347. Your committee have not been able to obtain any informa-
tion that would enable them to enter into a detailed estimate of the
losses sustained in years when the disease only partially prevailed.
But in 1802 and in 1805 some thousands of persons left the city, and
commerce and most other business were completely arrested. On a
mere conjecture, the losses occasioned by the disease might be set
down as equal in the two years to the losses of 1793, which will
give us a total loss for five epidemics of 87,005,796. The committee
have been furnished with materials which have enabled them to
calculate the loss produced by the appearance of the disease the
last summer and autumn with some degree of acouracy. The re-
sult is presented in the annexed schedule. An opinion may be formed
of the immense loss that necessarily attends the prevalence of pesti-
lential fever, eveu to a small extent, by the facts disclosed in the report
of the Board of Health of New York on the fever of 1805. It there ap-
pears that only 645 cases of the disease occurred, and 302 deaths; and
that 26,996 persons removed from the city out of a population of
75,770. It is not considered requisite to dwell on the enormous losses
that we endeavor to show must have beeu sustained by our city from
the different epidemics that have laid itwaste. But it is well to bear in
mind that the aggregate loss of the epidemics of 1793, 1797, 1798, 1802,
and 1805 occurred in the short space of fifteen months, — an average of
three monthstor each year, or $467,053 permonth. Noexertions should
be esteemed too great to guard against the occurrence of similar evils.
There is one circumstance, however, which we cannot forbear to press
on your attention. The table of deaths indifferent streets in 1793, in
the accompanying schedule, exhibits clearly that the disease does not
spread in the more cloanly and well-ventilated parts of the city. This
is now the unanimous opinion of medical men, founded on experience
and observation, however different may be their theoretical doctrines.
From the unquestionable nature of this fact it is demonstrated that it
is not a matter of ingenious theory or conjecture that, whether malig-
nant fever be imported, or is of domestic origin, its ravages can be pre-
vented. It can be rendered perfectly innoxious by removing whatever
vitiates the air or renders it confined.
" Paul Beck, Jr.
" Samuel Jackson."
FROM THE TREATY OP GHENT TO 1825.
601
located in the building on the Carpenter Street front.
Nothing was saved hut the green-room mirror, a
model of a ship, and the prompter's clock. The
scenery, a most valuable wardrobe, a choice and rare
musical and theatrical library, and great stores of
theatrical property, were destroyed, and the loss was
estimated at more than one hundred thousand dollars.
Early in February a meeting was held at the room
of the Carpenters' Company, on the east side of Car-
penters' Court, to establish a library for the use of
apprentices, and Horace Binney was president. The
library was opened at Carpenters' Hall, No. 100 Chest-
nut Street, in May, the time for giving out books
being Saturday afternoon. The preamble to the orig-
inal charter, obtained in April, 1821, declared that it
would " promote orderly and virtuous habits, diffuse
knowledge and the desire for knowledge, improve the
scientific skill of our mechanics and manufacturers,
and increase the benefits of the system of general edu-
cation." The library was in 1821 removed to old Car-
penters' Hall, and kept there until September, 1828,
when it was removed to a building on the north side
of Carpenter (now Jayne) Street, east of Seventh
Street. Subsequently it was stored in the old United
States Mint buildiDg, Seventh Street, above Sugar
Alley, now called Filbert Street. The Free Quaker
Society, in 1841, leased the second story of their meet-
ing-house, Fifth and Arch Streets, to the library
company, the rent to be fifty dollars a year, which
was returned as a gift. The library was opened here
July 17, 1841. Some years afterward a library for
girls was also opened, and the use of the whole building
was obtained. A reading-room was also established.
We have spoken of efforts to aid the deaf and dumb
asylum in Hartford. In February or March of this
year David G. Seixas came to Philadelphia and es-
tablished a school for the instruction of the deaf and
dumb " on the south side of Market Street, the third
brick house west of Schuylkill Seventh Street." A
meeting was held April 12th, at the hall of the
American Philosophical Society, for the purpose of
establishing an asylum. Seixas was present, and it
was shown that for some months past he had con-
ducted a school, and had instructed ten or twelve
deaf-mute children without pecuniary recompense.
The persons present at this meeting resolved to es-
tablish a school under the auspices of a society en-
titled " The Pennsylvania Asylum for the Deaf and
Dumb." An exhibition was given at Washington
Hall on the 24th of May, aad William Rawle de-
livered an address. Measures were taken to enlarge
the institution, and by the end of the year Seixas had
accommodations for sixty or seventy pupils.
The Windmill Island bridge project was steadily
fought by the Councils in the Legislature, and sev-
eral meetings were held to express the public feel-
ing. One in January in South wark, Benjamin Martin
chairman, and Samuel Sparks secretary, was in favor
of the bridge. Another meeting was held at the
county court-house in favor of the bridge a few days
afterwards. Timothy Matlack was president. The
Commissioners of the Northern Liberties adopted
resolutions protesting against the passage of the
bridge law. On the other hand, a meeting of citizens
a few days afterward favored a bridge, but not at
Windmill Island. These parties passed resolutions
in favor of " a bridge across the Delaware, from shore
to shore, within two miles of the iron-foundry of the
city.'' City Councils sent a committee to Harrisburg
in February to oppose the passage of the bridge
law. The Legislature passed the bill to incorporate
"The President, Directors, and Company of the
Pennsylvania and New Jersey Communication Com-
pany." The commissioners were Pierce Butler, Rob-
ert Wain, William Meredith, Andrew Bayard, Charles
Penrose, Edward Pennington, Edward Sharp, Caleb
Newbold, Isaac Mickle, Samuel L. Howell, Samuel
Harris, and Henry Chew. The bridge was to com-
mence at New Street, Camden, about three hundred
feet south of Wild's Ferry, and thence to extend
direct to the island or sand-bar in the river Delaware
opposite the city. If the Councils of the city, with
the Commissioners of the Northern Liberties and
Southwark, and the board of wardens of the port
should represent that the bridge " has created or is
creating a bar or bars in said river injurious to the
navigation thereof, or otherwise injurious to the port
of Philadelphia," the Governor might appoint com-
missioners to make report, which, if unfavorable,
would justify him in ordering the bridge to be taken
down. It was to be thirty-six feet wide and twelve
feet above the water without a draw, and was to be
built within six years. The company was given au-
thority to establish a ferry between the west of the
island and the city. The proviso placed in the bill
operated against its success, as the risk of having the
bridge abated as a nuisance, kept prudent persons
from subscribing to the stock.
Some of the minor events of the year are worth
record. Col. Biddle's regiment was reviewed by Maj.-
Gen. Scott on the 22d of February, and Joseph P. Nor-
ris afterwards delivered a patriotic address. In Feb-
ruary, also, the " Musical Fund" Society was formed,
"to relieve distressed musicians and their families."
March 6th, the Kensington District of the Northern
Liberties was incorporated.1 March 13th, took place
1 The boundaries of the district were, — "Beginning at the mouth of
Cohocksink Creek and the line of the incorporated district of the North-
ern Liberties; thence northward along the river Delaware to the south
line of the land late of Isaac Norris, deceased, and now of J. P. Norris ;
thence along the same line, the several courses thereof, acroBS the Frank-
ford road to the Germantown road ; thence down the eastwanlly side of
the said Germantown road to the middle of Sixth Street cou tin tied ; thence
along the middle of the same to the line of the incorporated district of
the Northern Liberties ; thence along the line of the same to the place
of beginning." There were to be fifteen commissioners, who, after the ex-
piration of three years, were to be elected, five persons annually, for three
years. Upon this board the Legislature conferred all the public land-
ings within the district, " the market-houses lately erected on Beach and
Maiden Streets, in the said district, and the lots thereunto belonging."
602
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
a notable "butchers' procession." There were sixty-
carts in the line, forty-four of which carried beef, and
the others mutton, pork, and goat flesh. The drivers
were attired in white frocks, with hats ornamented
with ribbons. The horses were adorned with por-
traits of Washington and Franklin. Each cart bore
a white flag with the word " Pennsylvania" printed
on it. A number of butchers accompanied the carts
upon horseback. There was a boat on wheels, the
"Lewis Clapier," in which were persons who heaved
the lead and executed nautical manoeuvres. Books of
subscription to the stock of the Delaware and Rari-
tan Canal Company were opened at the Merchants'
Coffee-House on the 24th of April, and eight thou-
sand shares of stock were offered at one hundred
dollars each. In June a dinner was given to Henry
Baldwin, a member of Congress from Pennsylvania,
by the "friends of national industry," at the Peacock
Tavern. June 20th, an attempt to rob the Philadel-
phia Bank by digging in from a sewer was discovered,
but the parties engaged in the enterprise escaped. In
October the " Union Adult Society" opened four free
schools, — two for whites, and two for negroes.
Next to the deadly assaults of yellow fever the
event of the year was the insurrection which broke
out, March 27th, in the Walnut Street prison. This
was one of the most remarkable outbreaks on record
in the United States, and grew partly out of the diffi-
culty at that prison the previous year. Powell, the
colored man who had then interfered for the protection
of Keeper Armstrong, was an object of much dislike
to the other prisoners. March 27th, Powell had a
quarrel with another convict named Hedgeman, in
which the latter was badly stabbed. The other con-
victs rushed to the spot, and with the cry "Murder
the snitch 1" some forty of them, armed with sand-
spades, made an attack on him. Powell fought bravely,
but fell back until he reached the blacksmith-shop,
seized a bar of iron, and stood at bay. Bars of iron,
stones, tools, and other missiles were hurled at him.
Several who approached too near were knocked down,
but he was at length dislodged from his shelter by
Mcllhenny and others, who obtained access to the
shop by a rear window. Retreating from his shelter,
Powell, reaching the jail-yard, was met by a convict,
who struck him with an iron bar, crashing through
skull and brain, and Mcllhenny stabbed him with a
clasp-knife. The inspectors met shortly afterward,
and resolved that the ring-leaders should be put in
cells to await trial. The next morning, accompanied
by keepers, the inspectors went to the door of the
room in which Mcllhenny and the more desperate of
the prisoners were confined. Mcllhenny came out,
seized an iron bar from the hands of a keeper, and
attacked inspectors and keepers, being reinforced by
some forty convicts, who rushed out of the room in
which they had been confined. The keepers and
inspectors fled, and the convicts, black and white, pro-
ceeded to the doors of the various prison-rooms, and
tore them open. In a short time two hundred pris-
oners were added to the wild force, and the apart-
ments of the women convicts were also forced. The
prisoners repaired to the yard and made energetic ef-
forts to escape. An alarm spread through the city.
Citizens assembled in the neighborhood of the prison,
and mounted the sheds and buildings of Carter's
livery-stable, adjoining the eastern wall of the prison.
They were armed, and John Runner, a mulatto pris-
oner, was killed by shots fired from that direction.
A number of the prisoners obtained a heavy plank,
and used it to batter down a gate leading to Sixth
Street. Some muskets were fired at this party, and
three were wounded in the limbs, after which they
dispersed. Foiled in the attempt to escape, the pris-
oners roamed about the yard in squads and gangs,
shouting, hallooing, and seeking means of escape.
Meanwhile citizen soldiers had assembled. A com-
pany of marines was brought from the navy-yard.
Caleb North, the sheriff, put this force under the
command of Col. Biddle, who marched his men into
the prison-yard with loaded muskets and bayonets
fixed. Col. Biddle mounted a marble block, and said,
"I give you three minutes to march to your rooms.
Any hesitation will bring upon you a volley from
these muskets." This intimation was sufficient.
Forty-five of the most prominent prisoners were ar-
rested and put in their cells. For three or four
nights fifty armed men patrolled the building, when,
order being restored, they were discharged. Thirteen
or fourteen of the convicts who took part in the
murder of Powell were tried, but the prosecution
failed.
There were several more balloon ascensions at-
tempted. One by Monsieur Guille, who had failed
at Vauxhall in 1819. July 10th, at Camden, he
made a trial, but his balloon escaped before he could
get in the car. In October he made another trial, and
landed at Pennington, N. J. November 23d he again
ascended, sent a monkey down in the parachute, and
landed himself at Mantua village.
August 19th, the cadets from the United States Mili-
tary Academy at West Point, under their regular offi-
cers, arrived in the city. They were received by the
volunteers, marched to Mantua village, and encamped.
They were two hundred in number, and had marched
from the Academy across New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania. They were under the command of
William J. Worth, afterward a major-general. The
uniform of the cadets was very neat. The coat was
of gray, with no facing, and little trimming; panta-
loons of white, and cap of leather, surmounted by a
tall narrow black feather; cartouch and bayonet belts
of white. August 21st, the cadets drilled at their en-
campment in the presence of thousands, after which
the citizens gave them a dinner at the Mantua Hotel.
The mayor presided, assisted by Gen. Cadwalader,
Charles Ingersoll, and Richard Bache. The mayor
and Gen. Cadwalader made speeches of welcome,
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
603
which were responded to by Maj. Worth and Cadet
Holland. The next morning they struck tents, and
marched back to West Point over the same roads.
Local politics in 1820 hinged entirely on the guber-
natorial contest. The new-school Democrats gave
Governor Findlay a unanimous nomination ; Joseph
Hiester, his opponent, was supported by old-school
Democrats and by the Federalists. The patronage
of the executive was very considerable under the
Constitution of 1790, and it was useless for any
man, no matter how able a politician or honest and
wise a leader, to hope to use this patronage with-
out rousing jealousy, party faction, private hatred,
and public assaults. Governor Findlay was defeated,
and at the general elections of the following year the
Democrats gained entire ascendency in the Legisla-
ture.
The last important event of the year was a Tariff
Convention, composed of delegates from various parts
of the United States opposed to high-tariff rates,
which met at Washington Hall in November. Wil-
liam Bayard was elected president. They adopted
resolutions in favor of a low tariff and "the encour-
agement of commerce, which would increase importa-
tion but not encourage smuggling." The merchants
of the city gave them a dinner November 4th, Thomas
M. Willing acting as president.
The year 1821 has generally been considered by
historians of national affairs as an epoch-marking
period, a dividing line between the old landmarks
and the new. It witnessed the reannexation of Flor-
ida and its claims acknowledged to the Pacific; it
saw the effort to part out those new domains between
South and North, — freedom and slavery. The party
tests and political doctrines of the generation that
fought the war of 1812 were already of the past, were
dead and forgotten issues ; the quarrels of the Duanes
and Binnses were of no consequence to mortal man
any longer. Questions of finance, internal improve-
ment, and tariff demanded a new sort of political
training. Old Mathew Carey's economic doctrines
were being studied; the works of Franklin and Ham-
ilton were read by young American statesmen. But
nearer and more portentous than any or all other
issues, the slave interest, crystallized into a unity of
purpose, and led by men of absolute genius, began to
battle for the control of the national policy. Cal-
houn and nullification were at hand; the guns of
Sumter were but forty years below the time-horizon.
From 1821, the close of Monroe's first term of office,
the era of American politics that closed with the end
of the late war may properly be said to date its
beginning.
With the year 1821 there were many subjects of
importance brought before the Legislature of Penn-
sylvania. The subject of city taxation was already
becoming more interesting by reason of the increase
of the burden of contributions to the public support,
which was growing heavier every year. A meeting
was held in Dock Ward on the 18th of January, at
which a method of relief to tax-payers was proposed,
which was in advance of the times, indeed, was
more than thirty years ahead of the popular favor.
John Leamy was chairman, and Robert A. Cald-
cleugh was secretary. Resolutions were adopted
declaring that the visits of tax-collectors were in-
convenient, ill-timed, and caused irritation. It was
declared that the opening of a central tax-collection
office for the reception of the taxes of citizens who
would pay voluntarily, with an allowance and deduc-
tion to those who pay in proportion to the time of
payment and the amount due, would be a measure of
wisdom. A committee was appointed, consisting of
the president and secretary, with Messrs. Levi Gar-
rett, John McMullin, Henry Tumbleston, Thomas
Mitchell, William Abbott, and Thomas Dunlap, to
draft a memorial to the Councils in favor of this
change. As an illustration of the value of the plan,
it was stated that the collection of the United States
direct taxes in Philadelphia in the years 1815 and
1816 had been made in that way, and without a
single loss to the public. A meeting was held in
Walnut Ward in the succeeding month favoring the
same plan. But the proposition was entirely too
soon. The influence of the tax-collectors was very
powerful in city politics, and became much stronger
in after-years. The increase of pauperism was one
of the causes which added to the burdens of taxation,
and it was expected that something practicable would
be elicited in regard to the prevention of that evil in
the report of the commission on the causes of pauper-
ism appointed by the Legislature in the preceding
year. That report was sent to the Assembly in due
time, and was of considerable length. It was suc-
cessfully shown that pauperism had increased. But
the material duty of the committee, which was to
show why it had increased and what means should be
taken to reduce the evil, was not discharged.
The consumption of coal in the city was by this
time becoming more extensive. In this year the Le-
high Navigation and Coal Company sent three hun-
dred and sixty-five tons of coal to Philadelphia.
March 20th, the Legislature passed an act to provide
for the erection of a State penitentiary within the
city and county of Philadelphia. The commission-
ers appointed to erect it were Thomas Wistar, Dr.
Samuel P. Griffits, Peter Meircken, George N. Baker,
Thomas Bradford, John Bacon, Caleb Carmalt, Sam-
uel R. Wood, Thomas Sparks, James Thackara, and
Daniel H. Miller. They were given authority to se-
lect a site and to make contracts for the building,
which was to be on the plan of the penitentiary at
Pittsburgh. They were also to sell the Arch Street
prison to the Commissioners of the County of Phila-
delphia if they would pay fifty thousand dollars for
it. These commissioners advertised in May for plana
for the building, promising to give one hundred dol-
lars for the design of a prison of two hundred and
604
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
fifty cells. In the early part of the year they selected
the Cherry Hill farm property, on the north side of
Francis Lane (since Coates Street and Fairmount
Avenue), west of the Ridge road. Improvements
since made have placed this lot between Corinthian
Avenue and Twenty-first Street. John Haviland was
selected as the architect.
One of the most important reforms accomplished
in this year was the breaking up of the auction mo-
nopoly, which had prohibited auction sales except by
a few licensed auctioneers, appointed by the Gover-
nor. This office had become very valuable, and was
conferred for political reasons. If not a source of
actual corruption, it had subjected the administration
of Governor Findlay to much suspicion. By the act
of April 2d the business was thrown open without
limitation. It was then declared that a first-class li-
cense to sell within two miles of the State-House
should be given to any one who should apply for it,
give proper surety, and pay a license fee of two thou-
sand dollars in advance. Licenses to sell horses, cat-
tle, and carriages, it was directed should be furnished
for one hundred dollars per annum.
Political affairs in the early part of the year were
quiet. The defeat of Findlay was not accompanied by
sufficiently important results in the Legislature to fur-
nish Governor Hiester with a working majority. Find-
lay's friends were very active in pushing him for United
States senator. At the joint meeting of the Legisla-
ture in January three ballots were taken, but no can-
didate could obtain a majority over all others. The
convention therefore adjourned sine die. In April Gov-
ernor Hiester arrived in Philadelphia, and put up
at the Eotterdam Hotel, in Fourth Street above Race.
A week afterward ex-Governor Findlay was in the
city, and his admirers gave him a complimentary
dinner at the house of William Stewart, No. 46 North
Sixth Street.
The local election contests of 1821 were about as
lively as usual. An " Administration ticket,'' sup-
ported by Federal Independents (old-school Demo-
crats), was nominated, having for senators Stephen
Duncan and William Wurts, in place of William
McMullin, resigned ; county commissoner, Robert
Brooke ; auditor, Samuel Patton. In the city, what
were called the Federal Republican nominations for
Assembly were William Lehman, James M. Broom,
John Edwards, Jr., George Emlen, and Joseph Rob-
ertson. In the county the Independent Bepublicaus
(old-school)— Hiester men— met at the house of Bar-
tholomew Graves, in Spring Garden, and nominated
for the Assembly Lynford Lardner, Robert Carr, Al-
gernon S. Logan, Tracy Taylor, Charles Levering, and
John Thompson. The new-school (late Findlay)
Democrats nominated John Conrad, Jacob Holgate,
Jacob Shearer, Nathan Jones, and Joel B. Sutherland.
At the election the Administration party carried most
of the city and county, and elected Senators Dun-
can and Wurts, County Commissioner Brooke, and
Auditor Patton, also getting control of the Legisla-
ture.
Among other interesting events of 1821 was the in-
corporation of the Apprentices' Library, also the es-
tablishing of the Philadelphia Law Library, under
the auspices of " The Society for the Promotion of
Legal Knowledge and Forensic Eloquence." This
year occurred the death of Elias Boudinot, in the
eighty-second year of his age. He was born in Phil-
adelphia in 1740, of Huguenot ancestors, and was
eminent in law, politics, and literature. At the time
of his death he was president of the American Bible
Society.
The year 1822 was marked by the usual political
conflicts. Indeed, the study of the past is enough to
convince any one that heated political contests are
not a modern invention ; that rancor, charges and
counter-charges, "mud-throwing and wire-pulling,"
were not unfamiliar sixty or seventy years ago. For
more than twenty-five covered by this narrative we
have seen the annual elections, city, county, State, or
national, conducted with an energy and plain-speak-
ing unsurpassed. The disposition to attack all in
power, and to call them sharply to account for
their doings, had long been exercised almost without
limit or discretion. Governor Hiester, in 1822, called
the attention of the Legislature of Pennsylvania
to the chief causes of this. " Permit me to suggest,"
he said, " whether it would not be possible to devise
some method of reducing the enormous power and
patronage of the Governor, . . . and whether the
annual sessions of the Legislature might not be
shortened?" Early in 1822 ex-Governor Findlay
was elected to the Senate of the United States for
the full term of six years from the preceding 4th of
March. Two of his brothers were in the House of
Representatives at the same time.
Philadelphia politics were divided about as usual.
The Federalists nominated on the county ticket for
sheriff, William Milnor; county commissioner, John
Simmons ; auditors, John Roberts and Isaac Boileau ;
senator for the county, Mr. Jones; senator for the
city, James Robertson. The Federal nominations for
Congress were : First District, Samuel Breck ; Second,
Joseph Hemphill ; Third, Thomas Forrest. The
Democrats of the old school, under the title of the
"State and Administration ticket," nominated for
senator in the county, Joshua Jones ; Assembly, Wil-
liam Wagner, Joseph Parker, Tracy Taylor, Lynford
Lardner, Robert Carr, George Rees, and John John-
son. They supported for Congress in the Third Dis-
trict Thomas Forrest, the Federal candidate. The
Federal nominations for the Assembly were William
Lehman, Dr. George Gillespie, Henry J. Williams,
Charles Roberts, of Arch Street, and George M. Lynn.
The new-school Democrats nominated for Congress
in the First District Joel B. Sutherland ; in the
Second District, Adam Seybert ; and in the Third
District, Daniel H. Miller. The new-school candi-
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
605
date for county commissioner was Jeremiah Peirsol ;
senator in the county, Daniel Groves ; senator in the
city, Joseph Barnes ; sheriff, Jacob G. Tryon ; audi-
tors, John 0. Tillinghast and George A. Baker ;
County Assembly, Jacob Holgate, Jacob Shearer,
John Conrad, James S. Huber, George N. Baker,
Nathan Jones, and Joel B. Sutherland. The latter
also ran upon the Congressional ticket in the First
District, thus holding on to two chances. There was
strong opposition to Sutherland in the First District,
upon the ground that he was responsible for that part
of the Congressional apportionment bill which divided
Philadelphia and Delaware County into districts,
and had thrown his influence towards carving out the
First District in such a manner as would make an
opportunity for himself. Sutherland was also charged
with being an opponent of the Chesapeake and Dela-
ware Canal. The principal objection to Breck was
that he had voted for a bill taxing the retailers. The
Union said, "Mr. Sutherland is a young man, noisy
and vapory. His age alone is a sufficient objection to
him as a candidate for Congress. We have no predi-
lection for boy legislators. ' Woe to that nation whose
prince is a child !' " When the election was held
Sutherland was defeated for Congress, but was re-
elected to the Legislature on the new-school ticket.
Breck and Hemphill, Federalists, carried respectively
the First and Second Districts for Congress; and
Daniel H. Miller, new-school Democrat, succeeded
in the Third District. Tryon was elected sheriff;
Tillinghast and Baker, Democrats, auditors ; and
Piersol, Democrat, county commissioner. Groves was
sent to the Senate from the county. The new-school
ticket was elected in the latter, while in the city the
Federalists had their usual fortune, — carrying sena-
tors, Assembly, and City Councils.
During the year but few events of permanent in-
terest occurred. Manufactures increased, city im-
provements extended into the suburbs, the public
squares preserved a better appearance ; the sentiment
in favor of free schools for rich and poor alike, not
merely for the children of the indigent, increased
steadily. On the 24th of January there occurred a
fire which destroyed the Orphans' Asylum, and in
which twenty-three children perished. The Mercan-
tile Library was formed, and the College of Pharmacy
and also the Museum were incorporated. It is inter-
esting to note that the American edition of Bees'
Cyclopedia, in forty-one volumes, with six additional
volumes of plates, was completed this year in Phila-
delphia. It contained one hundred and forty-seven
engravings, and was, up to that time, the most costly
publication attempted in the United States.
The Fairmount Water- Works were fairly completed
by the end of this year, the dam being finished and
the water-wheels in order. The substitution of iron
pipes for wooden pipes was not entered upon until
1818 ; and at the end of 1822 there were still thirty-
two miles of wooden water-pipes in use in the city.
The year 1823 was marked by the usual political
campaign, this time chiefly for Governor. Hiester
had long before announced that he was not a candi-
date, and refused to allow his name to be used. In
January a legislative caucus was held at Harrisburg,
which recommended a nominating convention at the
same place, March 4th, to choose a Presidential candi-
date and to make up an electoral ticket. This con-
vention was held, and it not only arranged an elec-
toral ticket, but went into nomination for Governor,
George Bryan and Samuel D. Ingham being prom-
inent candidates. John Andrew Shulze was a third
candidate. After several ballots, Ingham and Bryan
leading the votes, the convention adjourned. Before
it assembled on the second day an arrangement had
apparently been made between the friends of Ingham
and Shulze, which resulted in the abandonment of
Ingham and the union of his friends with those of
Shulze, who was nominated by a vote of ninety-six
to thirty-five for Bryan. This result caused surprise
and dissatisfaction, Shulze being little known, though
certainly a man of much ability.
The Federalists met at Lancaster, James Buchanan
presiding, and nominated Andrew Gregg, of Centre
County, an old Democrat. A number of discontented
Democrats sent delegates to this convention, and per-
haps influenced the nomination. Other considera-
tions beside those of State politics were involved in
the nomination for Governor. The Presidential
question intervened. Calhoun and Crawford were
strong candidates against Gen. Jackson, and the
nomination of Shulze was supposed to be made in
the Calhoun and Crawford interest. A meeting of
Democrats was called at the county court-house,
June 12th, in reference to the nominations, of which
Thomas Leiper was president and Josiah Randall
secretary. Mr. Wurts made a motion to approve the
nomination of Shulze; but confusion ensued, and the
meeting adjourned without taking any action. Shortly
afterwards another meeting was called of the sup-
porters of Shulze. The American Sentinel, supporting
Shulze, said that seven hundred or eight hundred
persons were present; but the United States Gazette
said there were not more than three hundred and
fifty. The Gregg party next day met in the State-
House yard. The United States Gazette said that two
thousand persons were present. Col. Thomas Forrest
was president, and Mr. Wurts offered a series of reso-
lutions. The journals of the city which were attached
to the new-school party supported Shulze, but were on
most unfriendly terms with each other. Binns said
of the Franklin Gazette, " It is doubtful whether that
paper be more conspicuous for folly or dictation."
The Franklin Gazette said of Binns, " The Democratic
party would much rather be in a minority than in a
majority that would elect a Governor over which the
alderman had any influence." The Columbian Ob-
server remarked, " John Binns is a notorious rascal,
and the Franklin Gazette not much better." Binns
606
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
was indignant at the United States Gazette for pub-
lishing these extracts. When the time came for
local nominations the Gregg party in the county
nominated for the Legislature George Gorgas, Wil-
liam Binder, Jesse Y. Castor, Samuel F. Moore,
George De Benneville, Evan W. Thomas, Jr., and
John Durney. The new-school (Shulze) Democrats
nominated in the county for the Legislature, Jacob
Holgate, Jacob Shearer, George N. Baker, James A.
Mahany, Joseph B. Norbury, Joel B. Sutherland, and
Samuel Neill. The Federal ticket for the Assembly
was : For senator, George Emlen ; Assembly, William
Lehman, John Keating, Jr., John M. Read, Charles
Graff, Henry J. Williams, and Henry Wikoff. Jacob
G. Tryon, the sheriff, whose term had not expired,
died during the early part of the year, and nomina-
tions were made for that office. The Federalists and
Gregg party nominated Robert Brooke; the Shulze
Democrats, John Douglass. For coroner, John Den-
nis was nominated in the Shulze interest, and George
Ritter by the friends of Gregg. For county com-
missioner, John Markland was nominated by the
Gregg party and Conrad Wile by the advocates of
Shulze. For auditor, Stacy Potts (Gregg) ; Benjamin
S. Bonsall (Shulze). The result upon the Gubernato-
rial ticket was that Gregg had in city and county 7757
votes and Shulze 6654. This majority ought to have
carried through all the candidates on the Gregg
ticket, but Douglass for sheriff and Dennis for cor-
oner, by personal popularity, overcame it, and polled
good majorities besides. John Markland, an old
Revolutionary officer, was elected county commis-
sioner, and Stacy Potts auditor, beating the Shulze
candidates. The Federal tickets carried the city,
and the new-school (Shulze) Democrats, as usual,
elected their assemblymen. In the State, Gregg was
badly beaten. Shulze received a very large German
vote, while Gregg lost a good many Federalist votes
on account of his former political career as a Demo-
crat.
The settlement of the State canvass did not end the
political agitation of the year. The Presidential
question to be determined in 1824 was of great in-
terest. It was said that the interests of the Shulze
party were in favor of Crawford or Calhoun, and that
Ingham was bitterly opposed to Gen. Jackson. The
opposition to caucus nominations by legislative bodies
which was developed in Pennsylvania during the
State canvass was now turned against the Congres-
sional caucus system of nominating candidates for
President of the United States. The friends of Jack-
son were opposed to a Congressional caucus, it being
evident that the majority in Congress was favorable
either to Calhoun or to Crawford. A meeting of
Democrats was held December 20th at the county
court-house, Chandler Price, chairman, James Thack-
ara and Henry Horn, secretaries. Col. John D. Good-
win offered resolutions denouncing the caucus and in
favor of the nomination of Gen. Jackson ; also order-
ing the appointment of a committee to go to a con-
vention at Huntingdon, to form a Jackson electoral
ticket for the State. John Biuns was at this meeting
with resolutions in favor of the Congressional cau-
cus, which were negatived by a large majority. The
convention appointed as delegates to Huntingdon,
Thomas Leiper, Henry Toland, Washington Jackson,
John N. Taylor, Stephen Simpson, William Duncan,
Nathan Jones, of Blockley, Chandler Price, John D.
Goodwin, Dr. George W- Riter, William Moulder,
James Ronaldson, and Isaac Worrell.
March 31st the Legislature passed an act to incor-
porate a company to construct a railroad from Phila-
delphia to Columbia, in Lancaster County. The pre-
amble said, —
" Whereas, It hath heen represented by John Stevens, in his memo-
rial to the Legislature, that a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia
would greatly facilitate the transportation between those two places, —
suggesting, also, that he hath made important improvements in the
construction of railways, — and praying that, in order to carry such bene-
ficial purposes into effect, himself and associates may be incorporated."
It was ordered that John Connelly, Michael Baker,
of Arch Street, Horace Binney, Stephen Girard, Sam-
uel Humphreys, of Philadelphia, Emmor Bradley, of
Chester County, Amos Ellmaker, of Lancaster City,
and John Barbour and William Wright, of Columbia,
should be constituted the president and directors of
a company to be called "The President, Directors,
and Company of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com-
pany." Connelly was named as president until an
election was held under the provisions of the act.
The law granted a term of fifty years for the exist-
ence of the company, with power to lay out a rail-
road from Philadelphia to Columbia not more than
forty feet wide, — to be located so as to do the least
damage to private property. The United States Ga-
zette said, in May, that " the Pennsylvania Iron Rail-
road is to commence at Hamiltonville." The shares
were to be six thousand, of one hundred dollars each ;
and the road was to be laid out under the superin-
tendence of John Stevens. So little was this plan
understood that a correspondent of the Philadelphia
Gazette, in April, inquired of the editor, " What is a
railroad? What does this plan mean?" And the
editor himself wisely responded that it was probable
some of his correspondents "might be able to ex-
plain.'' In the latter end of the month the same
paper published an article on railroads in England.
Among other things it was said that a horse could
draw from twenty to fifty tons. No allusion was
made to steam. It could not be in utter ignorance of
the idea of railroads that these comments were made,
after the discussions caused by Oliver Evans' plans.
The object probably was to discover the plan of
Stevens, which was claimed to be original. The
Senate passed, during this session, a bill to incorpo-
rate a company to build a railroad from Harrisburg
to Pittsburgh, but it failed in the other House.
May 22d, the corner-stone of the " New Penitenti-
ary" was laid at Philadelphia. This building was in-
FKOM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
607
tended for solitary confinement of prisoners, and the
great outbreak, of which we have given an account,
doubtless led to the plan. There were to be cells se-
cure and separate. It was a year of severe drought,
and forest fires were unusually abundant. The great
fires in Maine during the summer and the nearly total
destruction of Wiscasset, Alna, and other villages
caused widespread sympathy, and a public meeting
was held in Philadelphia, at which a large sum was
raised for the sufferers.
During this year the Schuylkill water was introduced
into three thousand nine hundred and fifty-four private
houses and one hundred and eighty-five manufactories
in Philadelphia ; four hundred and one private baths
were supplied with it.
An event of national importance was the signing,
March 13, 1824, of the convention between Great
Britain and the United States for suppressing the slave-
trade. April 5th a treaty was signed at St. Petersburg
with Russia relating to the boundaries of what was
then Russian America. Gen. Lafayette, under invi-
tation from Congress, came to America, arriving in
New York August 13th, and his triumphal tour
through the prosperous and united land that he had
aided to make free is one of the pleasantest episodes
of our history. Said Edward Everett, the eloquent
and polished orator, addressing Lafayette, August
25th, at Harvard University : " With the present year
will be completed the first half-century . . . from the
commencement of our Revolutionary war." Lafayette
"has returned in his age to receive the gratitude of
the nation to which he devoted his youth. Enjoy a
triumph such as never conqueror nor monarch enjoyed,
the assurance that throughout America there is not a
bosom which does not beat with joy and gratitude at
the sound of your name." Of Lafayette's reception
in Philadelphia we shall have more to say hereafter.
During 1824 national and local issues were closely
intertwined in politics, since it was the Presidential
year, and the Democratic party was rent by the fierce
struggle between Jackson, Crawford, Adams, and
Clay. The Federalists made no nomination, and the
overwhelming strength of the Democratic party, to-
gether with the want of systematic nominations, ren-
dered the canvass uncertain, because there were no
means of ascertaining the relative strength of each
candidate, and the fight among them became more
bitter. Controversy ensued as to the manner in
which the Democratic nominations should be made.
Heretofore a Congressional caucus settled upon the
candidates for President and Vice-President on behalf
of the Democratic party; but the spirit of opposition
to caucus decrees which had commenced in Pennsyl-
vania during the gubernatorial canvass of 1817, and
which had been intensified in later years, had grad-
ually spread over the Union, and feelings of opposi-
tion to that method were particularly strong among
those who favored Gen. Jackson. From an exam-
ination of the roll of Congress it was thought that a
caucus of the members of that body would favor the
nomination of William H. Crawford. The friends of
Gen. Jackson, of Adams, and of Clay, therefore, op-
posed a caucus, and argued against it long before the
conference was held. Governor Hiester, of Pennsyl-
vania, in his message, suggested some amendment of
the law relating to Presidential electors. He recom-
mended that the law of the commonwealth relating
to the meeting of electors for President and Vice-
President of the United States should be changed so
as to designate some other place for the meeting of
the electors than that in which the Legislature was in
session, because the electors, if they met at the seat
of government, would be under the influence of the
Legislature, and could not freely exercise their judg-
ment. A committee was appointed by the House of
Representatives to consider this recommendation, and
it undertook to defend the legislative right to govern
political nominations by consultation. Wheu this
report was presented, Gen. Ogle, of the House, said
that it had " a squinting toward a Congressional cau-
cus, where, it was supposed, William H. Crawford
would be nominated." The majority of the House
of Representatives wisely refused to become com-
mitted in relation to this question. A resolution to
strike out those portions of the report of the commit-
tee which related to the rights and wrongs of the
caucus question was adopted by a vote of sixty-two
to twenty-six, and a resolution against changing the
place of meeting of the Presidential electors was then
carried.
The Jackson Democrats of Philadelphia met in
February, and appointed delegates to the Harrisburg
Convention. This convention assembled on the 4th
of March, and Jacob Holgate was chairman. Reso-
lutions in favor of Jackson were carried with but one
dissenting voice. For Vice-President, John C.Cal-
houn received 87 votes, Albert Gallatin received 10
votes, Henry Clay received 10 votes, William Findlay
received 8 votes, John Todd received 8 votes, and
Daniel Montgomery received 1 vote. At the delegate
elections in August the Jackson ticket swept the city
and county, carrying every ward. The Crawford
party held a convention at Harrisburg in August, in
which ten counties were, represented. Philadelphia
City sent as delegates Josiah Randall, T. F. Gordon,
Maj. Samuel H. Perkins, Col. Joseph Strahan, Joseph
Diver, and Lambert Keating. From the county the
representatives were James McEwen, Capt. David
Hardie, Joseph P. Le Clerc, Col. James Dyer, John
Johnson, and John R. Jones. A committee of cor-
respondence at Philadelphia consisted of Judge Jacob
Sommer, Charles J. Ingersoll, Manuel Eyre, Horatio
G. Jones, Samuel Badger, Thomas F. Gordon, and
Josiah Randall. On the electoral ticket for Crawford
and Gallatin were the names of Richard Rush, Samuel
Wetherill, John Geyer, and John Connelly. The
friends of John Quincy Adams held a meeting in the
court-house on the 18th of October, Thomas Forrest
608
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
chairman, and Clement C. Biddle and Bloomfleld Mc-
Ilvaine secretaries. John Purdon made an address.
A committee of correspondence was appointed, con-
sisting of Thomas Forrest, John Purdon, Clement C.
Biddle, John Conard, Samuel Humphreys, and John
Sergeant. The electors upon the Adams ticket from
the city and county of Philadelphia were Col. Thomas
Forrest and Josiah Supplee, of the county, and John
Sergeant, Thomas P. Cope, and Clement C. Biddle, of
the city. An Adams meeting was held at the court-
house in October, of which William Montgomery was
chairman, and Richard C. Wood secretary. Commit-
tees were appointed to conduct the ensuing election
on behalf of the Adams men. The Henry Clay party
were not early in the field, but they formed an elec-
toral ticket, upon which Philadelphia was represented
by Langdon Cheves, John Todd, Matthew Lawler,
Mathew Carey, and Mark Richards. On the Jack-
son ticket, when completed, were the names of Thomas
Leiper, Cromwell Pierce, Philip Peltz, Alexander Mc-
Caraher, and Daniel Sheffer.
The State elections were of course influenced by
the Presidential controversy. A town-meeting of
Democrats was called at the court-house on the 16th
of September. Alexander Cook was chairman, and
Samuel Badger and William Stewart were secretaries.
They agreed upon a ticket for the Assembly from the
city, — Henry Horn, William Duncan, Josiah Ran-
dall, Lewis Rush, John M. Taylor, and Robert
Cooper ; for Congress, William J. Duane. The latter
declined, and his father, William Duane, was nomi-
nated in his place. The Federalists nominated for
Assembly in the city William Lehman, John M. Read,
John K. Kane, George M. Stroud, John R. C. Smith,
and William M. Meredith ; for Congress, Joseph
Hemphill. In the county Samuel Breck was nomi-
nated by the Federalists in the First District for
Congress, but he declined, and John Wurts was
chosen. The Democrats nominated Joel B. Suther-
land for Congress. In the Third District three can-
didates ran, William Duncan, Daniel H. Miller, and
Jacob Shearer. Three tickets for the Legislature
were nominated in the county. They may be said to
have represented the Jackson, Crawford, and Adams
or Clay parties. The successful ticket had upon it
Jonathan J. Knight, David Snyder, James A. Ma-
honey, George N. Baker, Robert O'Neill, and Joel B.
Sutherland. At the election Wurts beat Sutherland
for Congress in the First District by 95 majority.
Hemphill was elected in the Second District by 576
majority. Miller succeeded in the Third District.
For county officers the Democrats carried the com-
missioner (Conrad Wile) and auditor (Benjamin S.
Bonsall).
At the election the vote in the city for electors was,
Jackson, 2264; Adams, 1500; Crawford, 580; Clay,
107. In the county, Jackson, 3634; Adams, 576;
Crawford, 580 ; Clay, 91. In the State the vote was
even more overwhelming in favor of the hero of
New Orleans. It stood as follows: Jackson, 35,898 ;
Adams, 5405; Crawford, 4186; Clay, 1701. Jack-
son's majority over all was 24,601, and over Adams,
30,488. He received the whole electoral vote of Penn-
sylvania. The election went to the House of Repre-
sentatives, and John Quincy Adams was chosen
President. The old parties were broken up. The
name Federalist sank into oblivion, and after sailing
in different sections under various titles with which
the party did not broadly agree, the Whig party of ten
or twelve years later substantially took the place of the
old Federal party, rallying about Henry Clay, " the
mill-boy of the slashes," and finding its chief strength
in the great and growing West.
The Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, the construc-
tion of which had been urged for many years, was now
placed in the way of fulfillment. A contract for build-
ing it was made with John Randel, Jr., on the 20th of
March. On the 15th of April work was commenced
upon the canal at Newbold's Landing, opposite the Pea
Patch Fort on the Delaware River, in the presence of
the chief justice of the State of Delaware, the mayor of
Philadelphia, and many citizens, this being from the
beginning essentially a Philadelphia work. The first
sod was cut by the chairman of the superintending
committee of stockholders, after which Thomas P.
Cope delivered an address giving the history of the
enterprise.
The great public event of the year was the welcome
given to Lafayette. July 29th, the Councils of Phil-
adelphia extended an invitation, and began to make
preparations for the great occasion. Brig.-Gen. Robert
Patterson called a meeting of the officers of the
First Brigade to assist in the arrangements, and
this was followed by a general meeting of the offi-
cers of the division, at which there were present
Maj.-Gen. Cadwalader ; Gen. Robert Patterson, of the
First Brigade; Gen. Thomas Castor, of the Second
Brigade ; Col. Thomas W. Duffield, of the First Regi-
ment of Philadelphia County Volunteers; Lieut.-Col.
Andrew Geyer, of the First Regiment ; Henry J. Wil-
liams, lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment;
Andrew M. Prevost, lieutenant-colonel of the Artil-
lery Regiment; and Kenderton Smith, lieutenant-col-
onel of the Second Regiment of County Volunteers.
A committee of arrangements was appointed, consist-
ing of Cols. Charles S. Coxe, Nineteenth Infantry ;
Anthony Simmons, Ninety-sixth Regiment; Joseph
Strahan, Ninety-first Regiment; JohnG. Watmough,
One Hundred and Twenty-third Regiment; Lieut. -
Cols. George Jeffreys, Ninth Regiment; William J.
Dubbs, Seventy-fourth Regiment ; Andrew Geyer,
One Hundred and Second Regiment; Maj. William
S.Simmons, Seventy-second Regiment; and Capt.
Robert Cooper, of the Artillery Regiment.
Three days after Lafayette's arrival in New York
the citizens of Philadelphia met, and were presided
over by Thomas Leiper. A committee of twenty-
one was appointed to make arrangements for the
PROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
609
reception. During the months of August and Sep-
tember meetings of persons engaged in various
trades were held to adopt measures proper to be
taken in honor of the event. Mayor Watson issued
a proclamation permitting an illumination of the
city, and it was resolved to have a civic ball during
the time that Lafayette was a guest of the corpora-
tion. The 28th of September was appointed for the
reception of Lafayette, and volunteers from different
portions of the State and from adjoining States came
to take part in the ceremonies. The procession was
THE LAFAYETTE AEOH.
to be divided into civic and military sections. The
latter portion was under the command of Maj.-Gen.
Thomas Oadwalader. Of the civic division John
Swift was the chief marshal, and James S. Skerrett
was the aide-de-camp. The assistant marshals were
Henry Shoemaker, Bloomfield Mcllvaine, James Har-
per, James C. Biddle, Edward S. Coxe, Edward
Twells, Edward Ingersoll, Thomas Penrose, Thomas
Morrell, and Mordecai S. Lewis. The volunteers
were ordered to be concentrated in Rush's field, on
the Frankford road, half a mile beyond the first
turnpike gate. A salute was ordered to be fired as
Lafayette entered the field, and the troops were
then to be reviewed by Lafayette before the line of
march was taken up.
On the 26th of September the First City Troop left
the town, and at Holmesburg it was joined by the
Second City Troop and the First and Third County
Troops, the whole squadron being under the command
of Capt. J. R. C. Smith, of the First City Troop.
The next day, at Morrisville, where the Governor had
delivered an eloquent address of welcome to Lafay-
ette, they were joined by the Second County Troop
and the Bucks County Troop. They met and escorted
Gen. Lafayette and Governor Shulze to Frankford,
where they slept for the night at the United States
Arsenal. The people of Frankford were very much
disappointed at the escort arriving when it was yet
too light for illumination and still too dark to give a
favorable view of the procession. Lafayette visited
the village the next morning and was received by
Isaac Worrell, town clerk, who made a speech of wel-
come on behalf of the borough authorities. On the
morning of the 28th the First City Troop and the
39
First County Troop escorted Lafayette and Governor
Shulze to Rush's field, where the main body of the
escort was drawn up. Here the ceremonies of review
were gone through with. The two troops of cavalry
were formed for escort. The barouche was drawn by
six cream-colored horses, and in it, with Lafayette,
was the venerable Judge Peters, of the United States
District Court, Governor Shulze following in another
barouche. At one o'clock the ceremonies of the re-
view were over. The line of march was then taken
up, the barouche of Lafayette being followed by those
of the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
City Councils, and other dignitaries. At the stone
bridge the civic procession was passed by the First
Brigade and the accompanying troops, after which
that portion followed the military. The rear of the
procession- was brought up by the Second Brigade and
some of the county troops.
Upon reaching the State-House further ceremonies
were held, and Lafayette was escorted to his headquar-
ters at the Franklin House, south corner of Walnut
Street and west side of Washington Square. On Wed-
nesday, September 29th, in the Hall of Independence,
the State Society of the Cincinnati waited upon La-
fayette, and Maj. William Jackson delivered an ad-
dress. The children of the public schools were re-
ceived in the State-House yard on the 30th, and in
the afternoon the general was received at Masonic
Hall by members of the Masonic order. He remained
in the city for a week, during which time there were
many other receptions, balls, and festivities, his visit
having stimulated patriotic feelings which had long
lain dormant and directed the popular mind toward
the history of the American Revolution, and to the
contemplation of the claims which the services of the
fathers of the republic had upon posterity.
Local events present nothing further of great im-
portance during 1824. Robert Wharton, who had
been for many years mayor of the city, resigned in
the month of April, and Joseph Watson was chosen
in his stead. The Franklin Institute was incorpo-
rated this year. A census taken by a committee of
business men showed that the city contained fifty-
five printing-offices, one hundred and twelve presses,
and one hundred and fifty printers. Among the men
of note who died this year were Rev. Dr. William
Rogers, aged seventy-four (professor for years in the
Pennsylvania University), and Charles Thomson, who
has been called " perpetual secretary of the Revolu-
tionary Congress," aged ninety-five.
On the 4th of October a noteworthy celebration
took place in Philadelphia, being to commemorate
the anniversary of the landing of William Penn, the
great legislator. It took place in Letitia Court. It
was intended to hold it in the cottage of William
Penn, presented to his daughter Letitia. But so little
did the historical enthusiasts of the time know of the
real topography of the neighborhood, that they se-
lected a house, Doyle's Rising Sun Inn, which had
610
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
not been built until long after Penn left America for
the last time. Peter S. Duponceau delivered the ad-
dress.
The year 1825 was in many respects more crowded
with events than any year since the beginning of the
century. Pennsylvania's strenuous efforts to develop
internal improvements, to which cause the Legisla-
ture had pledged six million dollars, began to meet
with success. Coal, iron, and manufactures were be-
coming triple pillars of the commonwealth, the agri-
cultural interests of the State were more prosperous
than ever before, and abundant harvests for several
years previous had rewarded the husbandman's labors.
The financial and industrial difficulties which had
seemed so enormous but ten years before were swept
away and nearly forgotten. There was, it is true, too
much hopefulness, and too great debts wer§ incurred
at this period to link Lake Erie with the rivers of the
South and East, and to connect Philadelphia with
Pittsburgh. A debt was contracted by the State that
five years later brought its finances into a deplorable
condition, which required the utmost skill, firmness,
and energy on the part of the Governor to remedy.
But 1825 was a period when optimism was predomi-
nant.
Politics ruled throughout the year. It was the re-
fluent wave after the Presidential election, the tidal
rush after an earthquake. A Pennsylvanian was in-
volved in the great struggle in the House of Repre-
sentatives, and some account of the affair is neces-
sary.
In January the official and correct list of the elec-
toral votes of the various States upon the election of
President and Vice-President was published. It stood,
for President, Jackson, 99; Adams, 84; Crawford,
41; Clay, 37. For Vice-President, Calhoun, 182;
Sanford, 30; Macon, 24; Jackson, 13 ; Van Buren, 9;
Clay, 2; and one blank. There were 261 votes, and
131 were necessary for a majority. Calhoun was
elected Vice-President, but for President there was
no choice. The friends of Jackson stood alone,
making no combinations ; each of the others would
have preferred any success rather than Jackson's.
At that time the position of Secretary of State was
considered the stepping-stone to the Presidency, —
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe having been in that
office before reaching the Presidency. On the 28th
of January the Columbian Observer published a letter
" written by a Pennsylvania member of the House of
Representatives," in which it was charged that there
was a coalition or arrangement to the effect that
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who was then Speaker of
the House of Representatives, should be made Secre-
tary of State if he and his friends would aid in the
election of John Quincy Adams. On the 3d of Feb-
ruary there appeared in the United States Gazette a
card from Clay, dated January 31st, pronouncing it a
base forgery, but "if genuine," calling its author a
"dastard and a liar."
Two days afterward a card was published in the
National Intelligencer of Washington City, signed
" George Kremer, member of the House from Penn-
sylvania," avowing its authorship. On motion of
Mr. Clay a committee was appointed by Congress,
and it summoned Kremer to appear before it. He
protested against the authority of the House, and re-
fused to appear before the committee. He also pub-
lished, March 3d, in the United States Gazette, a letter
addressed to his constituents of the Ninth Pennsyl-
vania District, giving his reason for the charges
against Clay, and stating that his letter was written
for the information of his constituents ; that he sup-
posed that Clay would call on him personally, and
that this was the reason why he revealed his author-
ship. Clay afterwards published a letter to his con-
stituents in relation to the attitude he held toward
Adams, and denied the allegations of Kremer. He
also used the words " military chieftain," referring to'
Jackson, and the latter in hot anger wrote a letter,
published in the United States Gazette on March 7th,
in which he spoke very strongly in relation to the
imputed charges of ambition contained in the words
of Mr. Clay, and in other respects. There was a sub-
sequent correspondence, published April 8th, between
Mr. Clay and John H. Eaton, in reference to the
Kremer letter. The Philadelphia Gazette published
on April 28th a letter from Samuel D. Ingham, of
Pennsylvania, on the Clay-and-Kremer affair. When
Congress proceeded to vote for President the result
was, John Quincy Adams, thirteen States; Andrew
Jackson, seven ; William H. Crawford, four ; Clay's
friends supported Adams. All the members from
Pennsylvania voted for Jackson except Samuel Breck,
of Philadelphia, who supported Adams. On the 4th
of March, Adams and Calhoun were inaugurated.
Shortly afterward Henry Clay was made Secretary
of State.
The friends of Jackson in Philadelphia had formed
in 1824 the Hickory Club, No. 1. This body resolved
to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of New
Orleans (January 8th) by a public dinner at Amos
Holahan's inn, Chestnut Street, east of Sixth. Chan-
dler Price was chairman of the first meeting, and
Charles Harned was secretary. A committee was ap-
pointed to make arrangements, consisting of Gen.
William Duncan, John Pemberton, Charles Harlan,
Peter A. Grotjan, H. S. Hughes, Benjamin S. Bonsall,
Henry L. Coryell, Frederick Stoever, William Taylor,
and Edward King. The officers of the day were:
Thomas Leiper, president ; vice-presidents, Chandler
Price, William Duncan, John Pemberton, and James
N. Barker. In place of Holahan, Thomas Hieskell,
of the Indian Queen, prepared the dinner. Among
those present were Judge John Bannister Gibson, of
the Supreme Court, and Col. John G. Watmough.
Volunteer toasts were offered by Thomas Leiper,
Chandler Price, William Duncan, J. N. Baker,
Henry Horn, Alexander Cook, James Page, John
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
611
Curry, Sheldon Potter, John Lyle, Nathan Nathans,
John Worrell, James Ronaldson, and others. An-
other dinner was held January 8th, at Branson's
tavern.
At the fall election the Federalists in Philadelphia
nominated for senator, Stephen Duncan ; Assembly,
William Lehman, Jacob S. Wain, Jacob F. Seeger,
William M. Meredith, Cadwalader Evans, and John
R. C. Smith. The Democrats nominated for senator,
Mark Richards ; for Assembly, William Duane, Henry
Horn, Robert Cooper, Richard Poval, William Dun-
can, and Edward D. Ingraham. The Democratic
conferees of the county nominated for senator, Joel
B. Sutherland ; for Assembly, George N. Baker, Jona-
than T. Knight, David Snyder, Peter Hay, Joseph
Bockius, Jesse R. Burden, and Jacob F. Heston ; for
county commissioner, Jacob Holgate ; auditor, Rich-
ard Palmer. The Federalists and old-school Demo-
crats of the county nominated for senator, Robert
Carr ; for Assembly, Charles Peirce, Joseph Starne,
William Binder, Franklin Comly, Thomas Ryerson,
John Keefe, and Nathan Jones ; for county commis-
sioner, Dr. John M. White ; for auditor, Robert Mc-
Mullin, Jr. An attempt was made to nominate a
" Federal Internal Improvement Ticket," from which
the names of Stephen Duncan and William M. Mere-
dith were omitted. They came out in a card before
the election, and said the opposition against them
was because they had opposed the Schuylkill Coal
Company, objecting to so great an interest being
placed in the hands of a corporation, to the injury of
individual mining interests. At the election, Duncan
was chosen State senator by a majority of less than
one hundred. On the Assembly ticket, Lehman,
Wain, Seeger, and Smith (Federalists), and William
Duncan and Poval (Democrats), were elected. Mere-
dith and Cadwalader Evans were defeated. On the
ticket for Select Council there were elected three
Democrats and one Federalist, and on the Common
Council ticket, eight Democrats and twelve Federal-
ists. In the county, Sutherland was elected senator,
and also the full Democratic ticket for the House of
Representatives. For county commissioner, Jacob
Holgate was successful over White by nearly four
thousand, and Palmer over McMullin by three thou-
sand six hundred. In the Northern Liberties the
water question entered into the contest for the elec-
tion of commissioners. The Federalists supported
the ticket for commissioners who were in favor of
obtaining the water supply from the city, but they
failed.
Another question submitted to the people was on
constitutional amendments. The Legislature in the
early part of the year had authorized a vote to be
taken on the question of calling a Constitutional Con-
vention. This proposition was lost in Philadelphia,
the vote being in the city,— for, 1776 ; against, 3450 ;
in the county,— for, 1496 ; against, 2701 : total city
and county vote,— for, 3272 ; against, 6151. The vote
in the State also was largely against the proposition,
and it was not until 1838 that a new constitution was
adopted by the people of Pennsylvania.1
We have spoken of the internal improvements at
this time attracting the attention and increasing the
taxes of the people, and shall now consider them more
in detail. Early in January a large meeting of citi-
zens was held in the court-house, Chief Justice Tilgb-
man presiding, and Nicholas Biddle secretary. The
meeting discussed the proposed Alleghany and Sus-
quehanna Canal bill. Mathew Carey, the noted
economist, desired to amend it to "a canal between
Lake Erie and the Alleghany." Speeches were made
by John Sergeant, Mathew Carey, Samuel Chew, Jr.,
Samuel Archer, William J. Duane, Charles J. Inger-
soll, Thomas Biddle, Daniel W. Coxe, Judge Duncan,
and Josiah Randall. The original subject and the
amendment were referred to a committee ; also a mo-
tion by Charles J. Ingersoll directing the committee
to inquire into the expediency of railroads. An ad-
journed meeting was held on the 24th of January, at
which the committee reported that the Schuylkill
Navigation was completed, that the Union Canal was
rapidly advancing, and would soon reach the Susque-
hanna. They reported also the following resolutions :
" Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting a communication by
water between the Susquehanna and the Allegheny Rivers, and between
the rivers Susquehanna and Allegheny and Lake Erie, ought to be
opened with all practicable expedition at such points as soon as a suit-
able board of skillful and experienced engineers may select.
" Reaoh-cd, That in the opinion of this meeting the work ought to be
undertaken by the State and executed at the expense of the State, be-
cause it requires for itB completion large powers,, which may be safely
intrusted to the public authorities of the commonwealth under the direc-
tion of the Legislature, but which would be regarded with jealousy in
the hands of an individual or corporation."
A committee was appointed, William Tilghman
chairman, to memorialize the Legislature, and thanks
were also voted to the " Pennsylvania Society for
Promoting Internal Improvements." This society
was active during 1825, as for a number of years pre-
vious, urging the public to increase the means of
interior communication. They published an address
early in January upon the proper means of construct-
1 Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, was in Philadelphia on the elec-
tion day, in 1824. Speaking of the State-House, he 6aid, " In front of it
we saw a great assemblage of people. We heard it was the election of
the Common Council. . . . From the public-houses in the vicinity flags
were displayed, to give notice what political party assembled there.
Handbills were sent all over town into the houses to invite votes. From
the tenor of these bills one might have concluded that the city was in
great danger. The election, however, to our exceeding astonishment,
passed oververy peaceably. Here is oneof thebillB: 'Sir, — Theinclosed
Federal Republican ticket is earnestly recommended to you for your sup-
port this day. Our opponents are active. Danger threatens. Every
vote is important. One may be decisive. Be therefore on the alert.
Vote early for your own convenience and the public good. Bring your
friends to the poll and all will be well. The improvement of the city is
carefully regarded; good order and tranquillity abound ; general pros-
perity is everywhere apparent. Then secure by your vote this day a
continuance of the present happy state of things. Our mayor is inde-
pendent, faithful, and vigilant. Who will be mayor if we fail? Think
on this and hesitate no longer,but vote the whole of the inclosed ticket.
[Naturalized citizens will please to take their certificates with them.]' "
612
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ing railroads. A few days afterward an address made
its appearance in relation to the importance of increas-
ing the canal accommodations of the State of Penn-
sylvania. In this document it was said that in 1796
the aggregate exports of Philadelphia were forty per
cent, more than those of New York ; whereas now
they are forty-five per cent. less. The difference was
to be ascribed to the facilities for transportation
afforded by the canals of New York. In March the
acting committee of the society published an article
on railways, with plan of a railroad, etc., taken from
European sources. The United States Gazette, March
28th, published a description of wooden-track rail-
roads in use near Philadelphia.1
In April the United States Gazette published an ac-
count of a steam- carriage, with three wheels, invented
by T. W. Parker, of Edgar County, 111.
Some time in March the New Jersey Legislature
authorized the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and this
was hailed with joy in Philadelphia as another link
in the Middle State system. Much nearer, however,
to every citizen's thoughts was the project of uniting
the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Engineers were
requested by the Water Committee of Councils to ex-
amine the most suitable route. The utility of making
a canal of Pegg's Run had been urged in 1821, and the
Commissioners of the Northern Liberties then had the
matter before them. A meeting of the citizens of
that district deemed it inexpedient to press the
scheme, and suggested that it would be better to wait
until the works at Fairmount were completed. Those
works having been finished, the project was again
renewed, and two routes were examined, one com-
mencing near the pond at Fairmount, passing near
Callowhill Street, and thence along the bed at Pegg's
Run to the Delaware. Another plan was to take the
canal so that it would fall into the Cohocksink be-
tween Second and Third Streets. A third route was
to commence near Pine Street on the Schuylkill,
thence southeastwardly by a small run and by deep
cutting until the Delaware was reached about Reed
Street, in Southwark. The completion of the works
of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and the con-
nection by the Union Canal with the Susquehanna,
and by the projected State canal, from thence to the
Alleghany, would, it was thought, bring a vast trade
down the Schuylkill, and render a canal from the
1 This article said, " A wooden-rail track, which has proved very
efficacious, is at present under the direction of that excellent engineer,
Mr. Randal], for the purpose of removing the excavated earth of the
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal below Philadelphia. A wooden rail-
way, for the purpose of transporting ice from the bank of the river,
where the depot was established, to the shipping in the Delaware, was
introduced by our enterprising citizen, Turner Catnac, Esq.., whose early,
repeated, and BucceBBful effortB to promote internal improvements en-
title him to our gratitude. A model of a railway several hundred feet
in length has been made by Mr. John Stevens, the gentleman who re-
cently applied for permission to construct a railway from Columbia to
Philadelphia. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the launch of
every large vessel is an exhibition on a large scale of the prodigious
effects resulting from a species of railways, viz., the shipways."
Schuylkill to the Delaware necessary. This entire
scheme waB intimately connected with the disposal
of the surplus Fairmount water-supply owned by the
city. It was thought that by means of the proposed
canal water-power could be taken to manufactories
constructed along the route. Surveys were made by
Canvass White and Samuel Hains, city surveyors. In
regard to manufactures, the committee expressedabe-
lief, in a report of July 6th, that there was no doubt
that water-rights could be sold. An agreement was
made with the owners of the Morrisville estate
(which lay below Fairmount) for the city to purchase
ground there. Negotiations were begun with the
owners of the Lancaster-Schuylkill bridge to carry
the water across their roadway. The owners of the
Morrisville property offered to sell their water-front on
the Schuylkill, below the Upper Ferry bridge, for a
ground-rent of eighteen hundred dollars per annum.
The expense of the southern route was estimated
at $194,758.50, with only a guard-lock at Fairmount.
On the northern route there would be eight locks,
and the length would be two and three-fourths miles.
There was considerable opposition to the scheme, and
the proposal to build a railway was renewed.2 A
meeting was held September 24th at the Supreme
Court room, of which John D. Goodwin of the North-
ern Liberties was chairman, and Gerard Ralston sec-
retary. Gen. Cadwalader presented a report and
resolutions in favor of the formation of a company to
build a railway between the Delaware and the Schuyl-
kill. Estimates were ordered, " the work to be con-
structed on the system of levels and inclined planes,
and to embrace all the necessary sidings in the single
way, together with all the late improvements." The
committee was composed of Thomas Cadwalader,
Peter A. Browne, Charles J. Ingersoll, Paul Beck,
Jr., Gerard Ralston, Mark Richards, Samuel Weth-
erill, Charles Goodman, John Naglee, Henry J. Wil-
liams, and Alexander Cook.
But while this discussion was going on a State con-
vention was organized. May 6th, in the Philadelphia
court-house, citizens met and chose delegates to an
" Internal Improvement Convention," which met Au-
gust 4th in Harrisburg, and was increased by dele-
gates from many other counties of the State. Joseph
Lawrence, of Philadelphia, was chosen chairman,
and N. P. Hobart and Francis R. Shunk secretaries.
Resolutions were adopted in favor of the construction
of a canal from the Susquehanna to the Alleghany or
Ohio River, and from the Alleghany to Lake Erie.
2 A writer in the United States Gazette, who opposed the plan, said that
the canal would not be used, and that it would cost much more than
the amount uamed. The Union Canal boats might be able to use the
proposed canal, while the boats of the Schuylkill Canal, which were
much wider, would not be able to pass through it. In addition he
urged the objection that a canal through the city would become a nui-
sance by the deposits thrown into it. Instead of paying the money
which would be required for such au experiment, the writer suggested
that three tow-boats of twenty-five tons each, with engines of forty
horse-power, should be employed to tow the boats around to the Dela-
ware front of the city.
FROM THE TREATY OP GHENT TO 1825.
613
It was also resolved that " application of the resources
of the State, beneficially invested, increases the pub-
lic wealth, improves the revenue, and greatly enlarges
the ability of the State to extend aid in every quarter
where it may be wanted." At the same time was pub-
lished the report of William Strickland, who had been
sent to Europe by the Pennsylvania Society for In-
ternal Improvements. He took strong ground in favor
of railways as preferable to canals. Under date of
Edinburgh, June 5th, Mr. Strickland said, " I state
distinctly my full conviction of the utility and decided
superiority of railways above every other mode as
means of conveyance, and one that ought to command
serious attention and adoption by the people of Penn-
sylvania." On the 5th of September the United States
Gazette republished an article from the Wittiamsport
Gazette, in which the writer argued that railways were
inexpedient in Pennsylvania, and that canals were
much more economical. This was followed the next
day by a long article in favor of railways. A meet-
ing was held in the borough of Columbia on the 8th
of October, urging a railway between Columbia and
Philadelphia. James Buchanan, of Lancaster, made
a speech supporting the proposition. In the early
part of the year the city journals rejoiced over the
fact that passengers had arrived from New York in
nine and a half hours. There were many routes and
a number of changes this year. The " Pennsylvania,"
Capt. Kellum, ran from Market Street each morning
for Bordentown. The Union Line went by way of
Trenton and New Brunswick, its steamer, the " Phil-
adelphia," leaving at noon. The new steamboat
"Trenton, "which was built at Hobokeu by Robert
L. Stevens, arrived at Philadelphia in the spring of the
year, and took her place on the Union Line, under
Capt. Elisha Jenkins.1 *
In April proposals were issued to receive subscrip-
tions to the Philadelphia, Dover and Norfolk Trans-
portation Company, — route by steamboat from Nor-
folk, Va., to Seaford, Del., one hundred and fifty miles;
from Seaford to Simon's Creek, near Dover, by land
forty-three miles ; by steamboat from Dover to Phila-
delphia, seventy miles. This route was shorter than by
the way of Baltimore. The capital stock was fixed at
$75,000, of which $33,000 was already subscribed in
1 This boat was larger, swifter, and more handsome than any steamboat
which bad yet appeared on the Delaware. Her boilers were on the
guards of the boat, outside the hull, and on the deck there was a clean
sweep of passageway from stem to stern. The cabin was decorated with
paintings, imitation marble pillars, etc. On her first trip, on April 27th,
the "Trenton1' beat all the other boats on the river, having a particular
trial with the " Congress" of the Exchange Line, and the " Pennsylvania"
of the Columbian Line. The "Trenton" went to Burlington in one hour
aud twenty-nine minutes ; lo Trenton in three hours and nine minutes,
— stoppages, eighteen minutes. This boat enabled the Union Company
to run two lines a day,— the "Trenton," Capt. Jenkins, at six o'clock in
the morning, connecting with the " Thistle," Capt. Cornelius Vander-
bilt, at New Brunswick ; the " Philadelphia," at noon, connecting with
the " Bellona," Capt. G. Jenkins. The fare in the morning line was
three dollars and fifty cents, and by the line leaving at noon the fare was
three dollars.
Delaware. It was said that the line could make two
trips each way in one day and two nights. The proba-
ble receipts were estimated at $39,996 ; freight, $10,-
000 ; total receipts, $49,996. The expenses were esti-
mated at $28,000. A new packet line to Reading was
established in June by John Coleman and Jacob
Peters. The canal-boat " Lady of the Lake" ran in
connection with mail-coaches. Passengers were taken
from the White Swan Hotel to Fairmount, where the
packet lay. The fare to Reading was two dollars and
fifty cents. Passengers left Reading at noon on Mon-
day, lodged at Pottsgrove, and arrived at Fairmount
early Tuesday evening. The boat left the Upper Ferry
on Thursday night and arrived in Reading the next
morning. There were several transportation lines for
the carriage of freight between Philadelphia and New
York. The new Exchange Line was managed by
James McLouer and C. & F. King, proprietors, freight
being taken by the " Congress" and the " Legislator."
The Columbian Transportation Line was connected
with the steamboats "Pennsylvania" and "Etna."
The Mercantile Transportation Line also employed
the same boats. In July the steamboat " Pennsyl-
vania" was placed on the line to Cape May, carrying
passengers destined for the Cape Island House.
Two steamboats were destroyed this year. May 1st
the " Albemarle," which was lying at Arch Street
wharf, took fire, was towed to Smith's Island, and
was burned almost to the water's edge.
On the 2d of June the steamboat " Legislator," of
the New York and Philadelphia Line, exploded her
boiler at New York. Five persons were killed and
several were badly scalded. The boat had low-pres-
sure engines, and this disaster renewed the contro-
versy about low-pressure and high-pressure engines
for steamboats. The " Legislator" was on the New
York end of the new Exchange Line, and the "Con-
gress" was on the Delaware River end.2
Several important acts of Legislature and Councils
deserve note. In January the Legislature incorporated
the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company, capital
two hundred thousand dollars, which might be
doubled ; in February they incorporated the Philadel-
phia Fire Insurance Company. In February an act
was passed granting eight thousand dollars per annum
2 After the explosion the steamboat " Bolivar" for a long time took
the place of the " Legislator." In order to calm the fears of persons
afraid to take passage in the steamboats, the plan of a safety-barge was
suggested. The latter was to be towed by the steamboat, so thatif there
were an explosion the barge would escape. The proprietors of the Ex-
change Line now built the safety-barge " Cherry and Fair Star." There
was a ladies' apartment handsomely fitted up, and the dining-table was
large enough to accommodate eighty persons. On the first trip the
" Congress," under command of dipt. De Graw, towed the barge to Bur-
lington in one hour and forty-five minutes. The fare to Burlington was
usually fifty cents, but in the safety barge it was seventy-five cents. On
the New York end of the line the safety-barge " Matilda" was built and
towed from New Brumwick by the "John Marshall." The ,line then
changed its name to the Safety Exchange Line, the fares being two dol-
lars and fifty cents in the steamer and in the barges three dollars and
fifty cents.
614
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
to the " Pennsylvania Deaf and Dumb Asylum,"
the inception and growth of which we have previously
recorded. A bill was reported to the Legislature in
February to incorporate the Philadelphia Gas-Light
Company, with authority to manufacture gas, to lay
pipes in the public streets, and to furnish gas to the pub-
lic. The City Councils were conservative, and raised
many objections. Writers in the journals denounced
gas as " unsafe, unsure, a trouble, and a nuisance,'
and spoke particularly of its " intolerable stench."
The Legislature finally denied the petition, and the
gas company had to wait for their charter. The bill
for a new division of wards, which had been before
the Legislature on previous occasions, was passed on
March 15th. Seventh Street was made the dividing
line. The eastern wards extended from the Delaware
River to the east side of that street, and were, — Upper
Delaware, from Vine to Sassafras ; Lower Delaware,
from Sassafras to Mulberry ; High Street, from Mul-
berry to High; Chestnut, from High to Chestnut;
Walnut, from Chestnut to Walnut; Dock, from Wal-
nut to Spruce ; Pine, from Spruce to Pine ; New Mar-
ket, from Pine to Cedar. The western wards extended
from the west side of Seventh Street to the Schuylkill,
and were, — North Mulberry, from Vine to Sassafras ;
South Mulberry, from Sassafras to Mulberry ; North,
from Mulberry to High ; Middle, from High to Chest-
nut; South, from Chestnut to Walnut; Locust, from
Walnut to Spruce; Cedar, from Spruce to Cedar.
April 11th, a very important act was passed appointing
a Board of Canal Commissioners for the State of Penn-
sylvania, to which was intrusted important powers in
connection with the general subject of internal im-
provements. The commissioners were Dr. Robert M.
Patterson and John Sergeant, of Philadelphia; Dr.
William Darlington, of Chester County ; Albert Gal-
latin, of Fayette County; and David Scott, of Luzerne
County. Mr. Gallatin declined, and Abner Laycock
took his place. In May a city ordinance was passed
changing the names of the public squares. The
Northeast Square, it was ordered, should be known as
Franklin Square ; Southeast, as 'Washington ; South-
west, as Rittenhouse ; Northwest, as Logan ; Centre,
as Penn ; and State-House Yard, as Independence
Square. The Councils considered that the Fairmount
Works were now completely finished, even to decora-
tions, and it was so announced.
May 9th there was a fire in the Northern Liberties,
on Third Street, near Brown, and nearly thirty houses
were destroyed. That corporation had refused to use
the Schuylkill water, and the citizens had voted
against it on several occasions. Their economy was
now found enormously expensive. This was the third
large fire that had occurred in that region within
three years. In September they again refused to use
Fairmount water.
In July the ex-Empress Iturbide and her sons set-
tled in Philadelphia. Achille and Napoleon Murat,
sons of the king of Naples, were living here at this
time, and in July filed declarations of intent to be-
come citizens.1
Dinners, celebrations, and social events were unu-
sually numerous in 1825, though fortunately less po-
litical than for some years previously. The Wash-
ington Benevolent Society went to Zion Church, on
Fourth Street, February 22d, and were addressed by
Joseph M. Doran. May 17th, a superb dinner was
given at Washington Hall Saloon to Commodore
James Barron, who had given up the command of
the Philadelphia Navy-Yard, being succeeded by
James Biddle. Mayor Watson was president ; John
Leamy, Gen. Robert Patterson, Josiah Randall,
James M. Broom, Chandler Price, and William
Craig were vice-presidents. There were present, as
invited guests, Gen. Cortes, admiral of the Mexican
navy ; Commodore Daniels of the Colombian navy ;
Colonel Placio, consul-general of Colombia ; Capts.
Biddle, Harris, and McCall ; Dr. Harris, of the navy ;
and Maj. Gamble, of the marine corps. The Marine
Band was present. Thirteen regular and many vol-
unteer toasts were offered. May 24th, Maj. Gamble,
of the marine corps, was given a dinner by his friends
at the Washington House, Fourth Street, Mayor
Watson presiding. June 2d, a preliminary meeting
was held to arrange for a banquet to be given to the
famous De Witt Clinton, of New York, James C.
Fisher, president, and E. S. Burd, secretary. June 4th,
a committee of merchants and city officials met Gov-
ernor Clinton, and they went, on the steamer " Tren-
ton," to visit the works of the Chesapeake and Del-
aware Canal, but the day was extremely stormy. June
8th, the banquet took place as previously arranged for
in Masonic Hall, the mayor presiding. Governor
Geddes of South Carolina, and C. L. Livingston, of
New York, were, also present. The mayor's toast was,
"The Erie and Champlain Canal, magnificent in
design and prompt in execution." Clinton's toast
was, "The colossal power that has one foot on the
Delaware and the other foot on the Ohio : may its
wisdom be commensurate with its strength, and be
manifested in the flourishing state of internal im-
provement and productive industry." Many volun-
teer toasts were given.2 Philadelphia welcomed
1 The emperor Augustine de Iturbide, after having served in the
revolution against the SpaniBh crown, was successful in securing the
independence of his country under the Tguala plan of Feb. 24, 1821.
He was president of the regency until May 18, 1822, when the people
of Mexico proclaimed him emperor as Augustus I. He held that office
until March 20, 1823, when he resigned, and was banished. He went to
Italy and England, re-embarked for Mexico in 1824, landed at Soto la
Marina July 14th of that year, and was taken prisonpr aud shot April
28th. The empress and two of their children, who had accompanied him,
had also landed at Soto la Marina. The Mexican government was mer-
ciful to them. It continued to the widow the pension promised to be
paid to the family at the time of the emperor's abdication, giviug her
privilege to live in Colombia or in the United StateB. She chose the
latter, came to Philadelphia, and raised and educated ber children here,
remaining until the time of her death.
2 Fletcher &. Gardner, silversmiths of Philadelphia, finished in March
two elegant vases of silver, intended for presentation toDe Witt Clinton,
by the merchants of Pearl Street, New York. The pieces were twenty-
FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT TO 1825.
615
Governor Shulze in September, and he also visited
the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The Governor,
with a select company, went down the river in the
steamboat "Delaware," inspected the fortifications
at the Pea Patch, and partook of a public dinner at
New Castle, on which occasion Gen. Thomas Cadwal-
ader presided, and Judge Joseph Barnes and Daniel
Groves were vice-presidents. In October (the 24th)
the Pennsylvania Society had a dinner at the Masonic
Hall. John Quincy Adams, who arrived in the city
two days before, was present, as was the Duke of
Saxe-Wiemar, then traveling in the United States.
An ode, " The Pilgrims of Pennsylvania," was read
by the author, James N. Barker, and also " Penn's
Treaty Elm," a poem by Judge Peters. They also
had an address at the University of Pennsylvania
Hall, by Charles J. Ingersoll.
The greatest festivities of the year, however, were
those that marked Lafayette's second visit to Philadel-
phia. He had been through the growing West, and
July 16th arrived on his way to embark for Europe.
A committee from the Councils met him at Borden-
town, and they landed at the new Chestnut Street
wharf. Then he was escorted to the Franklin House,
corner of Walnut Street and West Washington Square,
the whole house being appropriated to his use. Here
he dined with the mayor, recorder, and aldermen. He
gave as a toast, " The great and beautiful city of Phil-
adelphia, where I was first, nearly half a century ago,
welcomed as a recruit, and am now as kindly welcomed
as a veteran.'' On Monday, July 18th, "the nation's
guest" attended a concert given for the benefit of the
Female Hospitable Society. On the 20th he visited
Germantown. Accompanied by a committee of Coun-
cils, he was met at Logan's Hill by the Germantown
companies and by citizens. They took breakfast in
the Chew House, visited Benjamin Constant's acad-
emy, went to Mount Airy, and then to Chestnut Hill.
On his return he listened to an address by Charles
Pierce, of the Masonic lodge, at Reuben Haine's
house, and visited Walter R. Johnson's academy.
Returning to Philadelphia, he attended the Rush
dinner, July 20th, at Washington Hall, in honor of
Richard Rush, for eight years envoy to England.
Among those present were Lafayette, Bishop White,
and Judges Peters, King, and Morton. Chief Justice
Tilghman presided, and Mathew Carey and Charles
J. Ingersoll were vice-presidents. Lafayette paid "a
tribute to the happy message, in 1824, of his old friend
and companion-in-arms," alluding to the "Monroe
doctrine." He said it was "a declaration from the
government of the United States which had already
determined the recognition by one European govern-
ment of the independence of the American repub-
lics." Lafayette offered this toast, " The memories
of Penn and Franklin, — the one never greater than
i 1
four inches high, and weighed about four hundred ounces. They were
eleganlly chased. and were enriched with scenes on the canal.
when arraigned before an English jury, or the other
when before a British Parliament." On July 21st,
accompanied by City Councils, Lafayette went to
Fairmount to inspect the water-works. On the 22d
he held a reception for the ladies at Independence
Hall. On the 23d, in the evening, he visited Vaux-
hall Garden, where there was a grand exhibition of
fire-works by Joseph Diackery. He entered the gar-
den at nine o'clock, and was received by a numerous
band of little boys and girls, each holding a torch.
The stage, steps, and ornamental architecture of the
garden were canopied with red, white, and gold ; the
American flag and the French flag were displayed.
On Monday, the 25th of July, in the afternoon, La-
fayette left the city, intending to visit the battle-field
of Brandy wine, and enter Lancaster on the 27th. An
effort to have Lafayette lay the corner-stone of a mon-
ument to Washington in Washington Square deserved
success, but failed because only eleven thousand dol-
ars, or less than a sixth of the required sum, had been
pledged, so that the committee were not willing to
proceed.1
A local sensation of 1824 continued to attract at-
tention this year. John Pluck, an ignorant hostler,
was elected colonel of the Eighty-fourth Regiment,
as a joke and to ridicule the militia system. The
election was resisted, a board of officers setting it
aside as illegal, and a new election was ordered, at
which Pluck received 447 votes ; Benjamin Harker,
64; and John Ferday, commonly called "Whistling
Johnny," 15. The successful candidate issued orders
for a parade of the First Battalion on May 1st on
Callowhill Street, the right resting on Sixth Street;
and the Second Battalion on the 19th. " Lieut.-Col.
Joseph Norbury was to command the training of the
First Battalion. The colonel took charge of the Sec-
ond Battalion. On the 19th Col. Pluck's famous
parade took place. Numbers of persons appeared in
fantastic costumes, armed with ponderous imita-
tions of weapons. Philadelphia was not accustomed
to such displays, and this parade of 'horribles'
attracted much attention. Col. Pluck and Adjt.
Roberts were the moving spirits. The regiment
marched out to Bush Hill, followed by thousands of
people on foot and hundreds on horseback. The press
was either silent or expressed dissatisfaction. A few
days afterward Pluck issued new orders. He said,
' Well, I am an honest man, anyhow. And I ain't
1 The Councils in June, upon the petition of the officers having charge
of the Citizens' Washington Monument Fund, had passed a resolution
authorizing its construction, and approved of the plan designed by Wil-
liam Strickland. This design, never executed, was thus rlescribed:
"It is a copy of the famous choragic monumeut of Thrasylbus, at
Athens. Square pillars rest upon pedi-stals of the same form, and that
on a terrace, the ascent to which is by a flight of stone steps. On each
side the pillars are ornamented with pilasters in panels between faceB
and other ornaments, the top ornamented with entablature and gar-
lands. The entrance into the interior of the monument from a terrace
by a door on each side. The whole may be surmounted by an urn or
statue. The monument will be one hundred and twenty feet high.
Estimated cost, sixty -seven thousand dollars."
616
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
afraid to fight, and that's more than most of them
can say.' "1
The Southwark Bank, projected several years before,
had now been chartered, and April 19th books for
subscription were opened at Commissioners' Hall.
The commissioners had ordered that only two shares
should be sold to any one person. This made trouble,
because all persons who desired large quantities of
the stock hired porters, draymen, and other muscular
persons to make subscriptions for them. The affair
was conducted something like an election, the officers
being inside their building and the subscribers ap-
proaching a window, of which one pane was open.
The mob pushed, squeezed, and ended by kicking,
cuffing, and striking. Strong and rough men clam-
bered over the heads of others to reach the window.
Many citizens had their clothing nearly torn off, and
the scene was disgraceful. The bank was organized,
after the stock was all taken, by electing Samuel
Humphreys president, and J. J. Skerritt cashier. It
was opened for business August 22d, at No. 266 South
Second Street, below South.
The Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, organized
some time before, obtained permission to give exhibi-
tions " not less than seven miles from the city." In
May this society offered a gold medal, valued at fifty
dollars, " to the person who should conduct the busi-
ness of a farm in Pennsylvania on the largest scale
in two years, without using or suffering ardent spirits
to be used on his property, unless prescribed by a,
physician." Also a silver medal to the farmer who,
previously to the 1st of January, 1827, shall have
made in Pennsylvania the most successful and ex-
tensive experiments in the use of fish as a manure.
Their annual exhibition of cattle and manufactures
was held in October, near Holmesburg.
Remembering the " Pluck parade" and many dis-
orderly assemblages, the grand jury in June declared
Bush Hill a public nuisance. This was a large open
field on the north side of Callowhill Street, between
Schuylkill Fourth and Schuylkill Fifth. Their pre-
sentment stated that there " men and women have
resorted on various days, as well as on the Sabbath
and other days of the week, between the 1st of May
and the time of making presentment, as well in night
as the daytime, drinking, tippling, cursing, swearing,
etc." The grand jury said that it had "particular
reference to the days on which regiments and battal-
ions of militia parade, when numerous booths, tents,
and gaming-tables are there erected."
The noted Franklin Institute had been meeting
with much success in its work, and was now one of
the well-established organizations of the city. The
1 The United Slates Gazette said, " Pluck is the head groom at the corner
of Third and Callowhill Streets. Some months ago he was chosen com-
mander-in-chief of the 'Moody Eighty-fourth ;' hut the powers that be
refused to commission him. . . . The military system is a farce. Dema-
gogues have been using commissions in the militia as stepping-stones
to offices of profit and honor. A cure must be found for the evil, which
is to make fun of it."
directors were encouraged to raise funds for a build-
ing, and soon secured thirty-four thousand dollars in
shares of fifty dollars. June 8th, the corner-stone
was laid, on the east side of Seventh, below Market,
by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Rev. J. Potts
offered the prayer, and Peter A. Browne delivered the
address. In the cavity of the corner-stone were de-
posited a curious medal by Abraham Eckfeldt, a
medal of Monroe by the same, and a bronze head of
Washington by Peter A. Browne, together with coins
and other things. In the Masonic ceremonies Gover-
nor De Witt Clinton, Past Grand Master of New York,
and Past Grand Master Geddes, of South Carolina,
assisted. The city authorities, the Agricultural So-
ciety, the Philosophical Society, and the Academy of
Natural Sciences were present. In October the insti-
tute gave an exhibition. The same month John Havi-
land and Peter A. Browne organized with others to
build an " Arcade" on Chestnut, near Seventh, on a
lot one hundred and nine feet front and one hundred
and fifty feet deep. It was to cost one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, to be two stories high, and
contain eighty-eight stores, tweuty-four stands and
stalls, and four cellars, to be fire-proof, and estimated
to rent at seventeen per cent, profit on the whole in-
vestment.
During the winter months vessels bound to Phila-
delphia were often in great peril in Delaware Bay,
and measures were taken by the merchants to induce
Congress to form an artificial harbor. December 28th,
a meeting of citizens was called at the Supreme Court
room. Horace Binney presided, and Samuel Jaudon
was secretary. Resolutions were offered by Joseph
Hopkinson and adopted. They affirmed that it would
be highly useful to the commercial and naval inter-
ests of the United States if a secure artificial harbor
were constructed at or near the mouth of the Dela-
ware Bay. The attention of the general government
was requested, and the influence of Congress was in-
voked. Two years before commissioners appointed
by the Secretary of War had examined the bay, and
recommended the construction of a harbor near the
capes as essential to navigation. The loss of shipping
in consequence of the want of a natural harbor had
been immense. By statistics afterward compiled by
the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, it was shown
that between January, 1807, and August, 1826, twenty
ships, fifty-seven brigs, forty-eight schooners, forty-
three sloops, and twenty-five other craft, or a total of
one hundred and ninety-three vessels, had been driven
on shore in the neighborhood of the capes, blown out
to sea, wrecked, sunk, and damaged. Between the
28th of December, 1826, and the 15th of January,
1827, a period of only eighteen days, sixty-two ves-
sels of all kinds, having cargoes valued in the aggre-
gate at more than two millions of dollars, were driven
to sea, injured by storms and ice, or compelled to seek
a precarious anchorage in the bay, the crews being
much injured and frost-bitten. The commercial ma-
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
617
rine of Philadelphia was increased by the launch in
April of the brig " Agorea," built by Haines &
Vaughn, in Kensington; also by the ship "Ohio," a
New Orleans packet, launched June 26th, from the
yard of Joseph Ogilbie, below Almond Street, South-
ward October 27th, Tees & Van Hook, of Kensing-
ton, and Bowers & Van Dusen, launched from the
ship-yard of the former a large vessel of eighteen
hundred tons burden, calculated to carry sixty guns,
built under the superintendence of Mr. Grice, " for
a gentleman in New York, who intends her for the
South American or Greek market." Several compa-
nies of militia were on board when she was launched,
and twenty thousand people were spectators.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN
1354 OF THE VARIOUS CORPORATIONS, BOROUGHS,
DISTRICTS, AND OTHER MUNICIPAL BODIES WHICH
NOW, IN THEIR UNITED FORM, CONSTITUTE THE
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA.
In the years 1826-27 there were frequent alarms in
relation to kidnapping colored children, which created
much excitement. A story was published concerning
the operations of a person residing at Rocky Springs,
Miss., who had carried off five negroes. The names
and residences of the boys were given, and the kid-
napper was represented to have taken them off from
Philadelphia in a vessel to Virginia, whence they
were transported to Alabama. They were stopped at
Rocky Springs, and finally returned to the city. The
operations of the kidnappers were reported to have
extended to the abduction of twelve persons. These
facts were so well substantiated about the beginning
of 1827 that the City Councils passed a resolution
offering a reward of five hundred dollars for the
arrest and conviction of every person concerned in
kidnapping. The agitation on this subject, which
continued for several months, caused the passage on
the 25th of March, 1826, of an act of Assembly, which
denounced the offense of kidnapping negroes or mu-
lattoes from the commonwealth, and subjected all vio-
lators to a fine of not less than five hundred dollars
nor more than two thousand dollars, and imprison-
ment of not less than seven years, nor exceeding
twenty-one years.
The introduction of the Schuylkill water into the
city by the corporation seems to have been looked upon
by the inhabitants of the adjoining districts with in-
difference for nearly a quarter of a century. In the
Northern Liberties there had been several severe
fires, the destruction by which had been much in-
creased by reason of the scarcity of water to supply
the fire-engines. The necessity of a better supply
for the district was urged by prudent citizens, but
resisted by the majority, who succeeded on several
occasions in preventing definite action. The district
of Spring Garden was the first to accede to what
seemed to be a necessity. A contract was made by
that district with the city in March, 1826, by which
water was supplied from the Fairmount works at
fifty per cent, advance to consumers beyond city
rates. The commissioners of Spring Garden were
to make collection of water-rents with an allowance
of six per cent, with that service. This arrangement
stimulated a new effort in the Northern Liberties.
A meeting was held in that district in May, Dr.
Joseph Martin being chairman, and Joseph Cow-
perthwait secretary, at which it was resolved "that
it is expedient to introduce the Schuylkill water into
the incorporated districts of the Northern Liberties
immediately.'' The commissioners of the district
were requested to enter into a contract on the best
terms that could be obtained. The pressure was very
great, and the commissioners were obliged to obey.
They agreed to take the Schuylkill water from the
city on the same terms as the district of Spring Gar-
den. The district of Southwark came to the same
conclusion at the same time, and on the 8th of June
Councils ratified the contracts. The iron pipes were
ready, and immediately afterward they were laid
down in the districts. The first hydrant in Spring
Garden north of Vine Street was in place and ready
for use in May.
On the 3d of May, 1826, the corner-stone was laid
of a building which it was expected would be an
ornament to the city and a successful business en-
terprise. As far as regarded appearance and archi-
tectural effect these hopes were fulfilled, but as a
financial project the building was a failure. The
Philadelphia Arcade was the property of a joint stock
company. The idea of its erection was borrowed from
the city of London, where the Burlington Arcade, a
collection of small retail shops in one building, was
about this time successful. The Philadelphia Arcade
Company purchased for the purpose of the building
the mansion and grounds of Chief Justice Tilghman,
on the north side of Chestnut Street, between Sixth
and Seventh, which extended through to Carpenter
(now Jayne) Street. Here had been erected at an
early period a mansion-house by Joshua Carpenter,
and in which he had lived, and .afterward Dr.
Thomas Graeme, John Dickinson, and others about
and during the Revolution, Gerard, the French am-
bassador, and Chevalier de La Luzerne. Dickinson
tore down a part of the old Carpenter mansion and
erected in front a double three-story brick building
of imposing dimensions. It was for many years the
grandest house in Chestnut Street. Chief Justice
Tilghman bought the property in 1798, and lived
there until it was sold to the Arcade Company. The
managers paid forty-two thousand five hundred dol-
lars for the ground. They estimated that the entire
property, when the building was finished, would cost
618
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
them one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They
had obtained subscriptions of eighty-eight thousand
five hundred dollars when the corner-stone was laid,
and there was a comfortable balance with which to
commence the building. The Arcade was built upon
the Chestnut and Carpenter Street fronts of Pennsyl-
vania marble, one hundred feet front and one hundred
and fifty feet deep. There were four open arches of
great height in front. The interior was divided into
one large central building, on each side of which was
a wide open avenue leading from street to street. On
w
liiillii JMS*P
1111 Mil tM r.iil tr mw&
THE PHILADELPHIA AKCADE.
the east and on the west side a row of shops opened
upon the avenues. The centre building was wider
than the others. It contained shops running from
avenue to avenue, which were capable of being di-
vided in the centre and inclosed, so as to make a
shop on each avenue. Entrance to the second story
was obtained by stairways near the Chestnut Street
and Carpenter Street fronts. Galleries extended
through from street to street at this story, and gave
access to the second-story rooms. The third story
was closed and used on all sides of the building by
the Philadelphia Museum, the entrance to which was
by the main stairway and a stairway leading upward
near Chestnut and Carpenter Streets. Over the av-
enues (which were paved with flags) were two sky-
lights, of the full width of each, for the purpose of
giving light to the apartments below, and making the
avenues in effect covered streets, which in actual use
they were, being favorite short-cut thoroughfares be-
tween Market and Chestnut Streets. John Havilaud
was the architect of this beautiful building. There
were ten apartments running from side to side in the
centre, and twelve on the sides of the avenues. The
second-story rooms were of somewhat smaller dimen-
sions. Altogether there were eighty rooms in the
shop part of the building, with a museum occupying
the whole of the upper story, and in the cellar a fash-
ionable restaurant, extensively visited, and kept for
many years by David Gibb. There were niches at
each flank of the Chestnut Street front, in which it-
was designed to place iron-bronze statues represent-
ing commerce and navigation. The project, however,
never reached fruition. Over the niches there were
placed in bas-relief the arms of Pennsylvania and of
Philadelphia cut in marble. The pilasters of the
arches were ornamented with heads of Mercury cut
in bold relief. The construction of this building cost
one hundred and twelve thousand dollars. It was
finished in September, 1827, and was opened with the
most flattering prospects. The rents of the shops
were six thousand four hundred and seventy dollars,
and of the museum seven thousand nine hundred and
seventy dollars. For some years the place was pop-
ular, but it never achieved the success that was an-
ticipated. The great current of business swept by
on Chestnut Street without eddyiDg into this bay.
The tenants became discouraged and went elsewhere.
i The rents dropped in amount. Finally, when the
museum was removed to Ninth and Walnut Streets,
the upper stories were used as a music saloon and as
a hotel. In the lower stories a few shops or offices
were opened, but were not places of general resort.
The property was finally bought by Dr. David Jayne,
who, in 1863, tore down the Arcade and erected there
three fine marble stores, extending through to Car-
penter Street.
The militia system, which at this time required that
every male between the age of eighteen and forty-five
years should parade and receive military instruction
twice in each year, had become worse than a farce
because the State failed to provide arms or uniforms.
Persons who did not regard the order of the militia
officers to turn out "and toe the curbstone," as the
method of alignment was facetiously called, were
subjects of fine. The collectors were paid commis-
sions on the amounts received, and were under in-
centive to be vigilant. They had summary powers to
seize personal property and sell it, and their conduct
in many instances was so rude and outrageous that
they were excessively unpopular.
Statements in the latter part of the life of the ven-
erable Thomas Jefferson that he was in pecuniary
difficulties attracted much attention about this time,
and stimulated many persons towards obtaining for
the benefit of the patriot such contributions as true
sympathy ought to accord not as a charity, but as a
debt of gratitude to one who had done much in the
service of his country. At a public meeting, held in
May, 1836, resolutions were adopted declaring that
subscriptions should be taken up in the city and
county of Philadelphia limited to one dollar each,
and similar subscriptions were recommended to the
people of the State in all the counties. The one-dol-
lar limitation fared as usual with such projects. The
idea of allowing the whole country to contribute was
PKOGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
619
libera], and it was expected that patriotism would be
stimulated largely among individuals. It was found
in a month, as was reported at a meeting of the sub-
scribers to the Jefferson fund, that very little had
been collected in comparison to what had been ex-
pected. In consequence, upon the limitation of the
subscriptions, the committee was instructed to pro-
ceed without limitation, and to receive any and all
sums that might be tendered. Up to the 4th of
July the whole amount which had been collected
■was $2414.14. Jefferson died on the 4th of July, and
in September the trustees of the fund were ordered
to pay it over to the executors under his will for the
benefit of his daughters. News of the death of
Thomas Jefferson and of John Adams, which oc-
curred upon the anniversary of the day of the de-
claration of independence, in procurement of the
passage of which they were active and earnest advo-
cates, created great sensation throughout the country.
In the city the bells of Christ Church were tolled
by order of the mayor. Councils ordered the Hall of
Independence and their own chambers to he draped
in black for six months. John Sergeant was appointed
to deliver an oration on the 24th of July. A public
meeting of citizens was held at the District Court
room. It was resolved that the 24th of July should
be set apart as a day of mourning ; that occupation
and business ought to be suspended; that the public
offices be closed and places of religious service opened.
The mayor was asked that the old Liberty Bell in the
State-House should be muffled and tolled ; that Gen.
Cadwalader, commanding the division, should cause
minute-guns to be fired; that the vessels in the river
should display their flags at half-mast; that all the
apartments on the lower floor of the State-House
should be hung in black ; and that all citizens
should wear mourning for thirty days. These rec-
ommendations were generally observed. There was
a solemn military and civic parade. The soldiers
marched to Independence Square. In the rear of
the State-House was a scaffold covered with black
cloth, over which was a black canopy. The only
brightness was in the flags of the United States and
volunteer corps displayed around the scaffold. Here
John Sergeant delivered his oration, the scaffold being
filled with members of Councils and the judges of the
various courts, while below, upon the ground, were
other benches used by citizens. The military and
civic parade, under the command of Brig.-Gens.
Thomas Cadwalader and Samuel Castor, entered the
yard at the Walnut Street gate, marched in slow
time up the centre walk, and took position twenty
paces from the platform. The civic portion of the
parade grouped beyond the military. Mr. Sergeant
was not an impassioned orator, but he was a gentle-
man of fine education, an elegant scholar, thought-
ful, and philosophic. His oration and eulogium was
justly considered a finished production.
Shortly afterwards Mr. Sergeant, who had been ap-
pointed one of the two envoys extraordinary and
ministers plenipotentiary to the Congress at Panama,
from which it was hoped important benefits would
flow looking towards a diplomatic union between the
republic of the United States and South America, re-
ceived the honor of a complimentary banquet from
the Philadelphia bar before his departure. This
tribute took place in November, at Masonic Hall ;
sixty or seventy lawyers were present. William Rawle
presided, and Joseph Hopkinson, William Meredith,
and Horace Binney were vice-presidents. A few days
afterwards another dinner was given to John Sergeant
by his fellow-citizens at Masonic Hall. Samuel
Wetherill acted as president, and James C. Fisher,
Capt. William Jones, Daniel W. Coxe, Andrew
Bayard, and Edward Shippen Burd were vice-presi-
dents. Within a few days afterwards Mr. Sergeant
sailed for Mexico in the United States sloop-of-war
" Hornet."
At this time Greece had broken out in rebellion
against Turkey, a contest which attracted largely the
attention and interest of Christian people throughout
the world. There was strong disposition in the United
States not only to sympathize in words with the
Greeks, but to give them substantial aid. On the 2d
of January, 1826, a meeting of the young men of the
city and county was held at the court-house, with
George S. Geyer chairman. Strong resolutions were
adopted. In October of the same year, at a meeting
held at Mrs. Holt's tavern, at Chestnut Street, G. R.
Lillibridge being chairman, it was resolved to form
a military corps to be called the American Greek
Legion. This spirit was emulated in the succeeding
month at a meeting of citizens, at which the venerable
Mathew Carey was chairman, who resolved that sub-
scriptions should be taken up to build a vessel of war
to be presented to the Greeks. Shortly afterwards
two other meetings were held, and it was resolved, in
December, that charity rather than military assistance
was needed. Mathew Carey offered a resolution that
contributions should be gathered for the purpose of
obtaining the necessaries of life for the Greeks. One
gentleman offered to contribute one thousand barrels
of flour, whilst another volunteered the service of a
vessel to convey provisions to Greece. The attempts
to send military assistance were not popular, and
they were soon abandoned. There was little difficulty
in obtaining subscriptions for the relief of distress,
but few persons cared to contribute money for pur-
poses of war. After this subscriptions were taken up
in churches, and money made up in various other
ways. The brig " Tontine," in March, 1827, sailed
with provisions on board worth sixteen thousand dol-
lars. The subscriptions closed about the summer of
1828, when there had been collected altogether
$25,574.82.
In July, 1826, a movement was made which re-
sulted in the introduction of great changes in the
custom of burying the dead, more particularly in
620
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
relation to the places in which interments were
made. The church burying-grounds or the Potter's
Field were the only places of interment. The famil-
ies of persons who did not belong to religious congre-
gations were at great disadvantage on the occasion of
their death, or if there was no difficulty on this ac-
count the charges for opening the ground and per-
mitting the burial were heavy. Besides, there was no
property in a grave, and it became necessary in
course of time to dig new graves exactly where old
ones had been situate. These circumstances led to
the calling of a meeting at the " New Market" Inn,
Pine Street near Second, kept by William Ogden,
about the 12th of July, 1826, " for the laudable pur-
pose of forming a mutual association, without any
exception or distinction on account of differences of
religious tenets, to economize the heavy expense at-
tending of sepulchral ground for an interment, and
to insure to every individual member a lot or piece
of ground of equal size to him and to his heirs for-
ever to be reserved as a family cemetery, and the
possession of a burying-place after the example of
the patriarch Abraham." It was stated at this time
that the church-wardens of Christ Church and St.
James presented bills of twenty and thirty dollars
for opening graves, and would not allow a tombstone
to be put up until the money was paid. These pro-
ceedings culminated in the formation, at a meeting
held at Lambert Keating's, Sixth and Chestnut Streets,
on the 17th of August, of the Mutual Burying-Ground
Society of the City and County of Philadelphia. The
members purchased a piece of ground on thesouthside
of Prime Street [or Washington Avenue], east of the
line of Tenth Street, and in a few days the price of a lot
in Mutual Cemetery, of the dimensions of eight feet
by ten feet, was announced to be ten dollars. In the
succeeding year the Union Burying-Ground was
formed in Southwark. A large lot of ground was
purchased on the line of Sixth Street, extending
down to Federal Street. The price of lots was fixed
at ten dollars. The Machpelah was formed about
1827, and purchased ground on the north side of
Prime Street [Washington Avenue], extending from
Tenth to Eleventh Street. About the same time the
Philanthropic Cemetery was established on Passyunk
Avenue, below the county prison. All these were
upon the mutual and associate plan.
About the period that the Mutual Cemetery Com-
pany was established, James Eonaldson, who was the
owner of a lot of ground bounded by Shippen, Fitz-
water, Ninth, and Tenth Streets, determined to lay
out the eastern portion of the ground, nearly the
whole of it, for the purposes of a cemetery. He opened
main walks and intersecting small walks. The plots
between were divided into burying lots, ten feet north
and south and eight feet east and west. On the 2d
of April, 1827, Mr. Eonaldson conveyed the ground
to Joseph Parker Norris, Eoberts Vaux, Robert M.
Patterson, and Joseph Watson, in trust, to permit the
said James Eonaldson and his heirs " to use and oc-
cupy the said several small lots or subdivisions only
as burial-places for the interment of deceased human
beings other than people of color." There was also a
provision to permit Eonaldson to build on both sides
of the gate, or carriage-way, on Shippen Street, suit-
able houses for the keeper, etc. On the 8th of April,
1833, the Legislature incorporated the lot-holders as
the Philadelphia Cemetery Company, in the township
of Moyamensing. Mr. Eonaldson displayed great
taste in the establishment of this ground and in the
manner of laying it out. It was for some years con-
sidered the finest cemetery in the county, and was a
popular place of burial. The projector said, in rela-
tion to his original plan, that he wanted to erect
within the inclosure of the Philadelphia Cemetery a
dwelling-house for the keeper, or grave-digger, on one
side of the gate, and on the other side a house uniform
with the grave-digger's, this house to have a room
provided with a stove, couch, etc., into which persons
dying suddenly might be laid and the string of a bell
put into their hand, so that if there should be any
motion of returning life the alarm-bell might be rung,
the keeper roused, and medical help procured. The
first interment at Eonaldson's Cemetery took place
June 2, 1827, of the body of a lady who had died in
a hospital under Dr. Physick.
The centre house at Centre Square was torn down
about the beginning of the year 1827. The ordinance
to open streets through the square was presented in
May of the preceding year, but the measure was not
finally accomplished for some time.
On the 24th of November, 1827, pursuant to a call
in the newspapers signed by James Mease, N. Chap-
man, George Pepper, John Vaughan, Eeuben Haines,
Joseph Hopkinson, Charles Chauncey, Horace Bin-
ney, and Mathew Carey, a meeting was held at the
Franklin Institute to form a Horticultural Society.
Mr. Carey was chairman and Dr. Mease secretary. It
was resolved " that it is expedient to establish a Hor-
ticultural Society in the city of Philadelphia for the
promotion of that interesting and highly important
branch of science, and that a constitution be framed
for that purpose." A committee, consisting of D.
Maupay, D. Landreth, Jr., T. Hibberd, T. Landreth,
John McArran, and A. D'Arras, all practical gar-
deners and florists, was appointed to obtain members,
and a resolution was passed that the society should be
organized as soon as fifty members could be secured.
This work did not require much time. On the 21st of
December the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society was
founded, with a roll of seventy-eight members. It
was not until the 2d of June of the succeeding year
that the first regular election was held. Horace Bin-
ney was chosen president ; Dr. James Mease, Mathew
Carey, D. Landreth, Jr., Dr. N. Chapman, vice-presi-
dents ; William Davidson, treasurer ; Samuel Hazard,
corresponding secretary ; David S. Brown, recording
secretary ; George Pepper, Nicholas Biddle, Thomas
PROGRESS FEOM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
621
Biddle, Robert Patterson, Daniel B. Smith, Moses
Brown, M. C. Cope, Thomas Astley, David Landreth,
Jr., Thomas Hibberd, Thomas Landreth, and Joseph
Longstreth, acting committee. Mr. Binney resigned
in five months, and Zaccheus Collins was elected in
his place. The presidents of the society since that
time have been as follows : 1829-31, Joseph R. Inger-
soll; 1831-36, George Vaux; 1836-41, Horace Bin-
ney; 1841-52, Caleb Cope; 1852-58, Robert Patter-
son; 1858-62, Matthias W. Baldwin; 1862-63, J. E.
Mitchell; 1863-64, Fairman Rogers; 1864, J. E.
Mitchell ; 1864-67, D. Rodney King ; 1867-83, Wil-
liam L. Schaeffer. In 1828 the meetings were held in
the rooms of the Philosophical Society. The first
autumnal exhibition of fruits and flowers was held at
Masonic Hall, Chestnut Street, on the 6th of June,
1829. The second annual exhibition took place at
Washington Hall, South Third Street. For some
years these displays were matters of interest not only
to the members of the society, but to citizens gener-
ally. The floral shows were handsome and attractive.
The rare plants and fruits were regarded with atten-
tion by visitors. The places used for the collections
were also resorts at which people could see and be
seen, and for years they were visited by thousands of
persons. They were generally held in the Masonic
Hall up to the year 1841. In 1842 the Chinese Mu-
seum was engaged, and the exhibition was given Sep-
tember 21st in the lower saloon, and afterwards annu-
ally in the upper and lower saloons until the building
was destroyed by fire in 1854. " These exhibitions
were not only the most profitable, but among the most
beautiful ever held by the society, and their annual
occurrence was considered one of the great events of
the time; both saloons," about two hundred feet long
by sixty-five feet wide each, " were not large enough
to hold the crowds of ladies and gentlemen who de-
sired to visit them, and it was no uncommon thing
for Ninth Street to be filled with people as far as
Chestnut Street waiting to gain admission."
After the burning of the Museum building, in 1854,
the society was embarrassed for the want of a suitable
place to hold the annual exhibitions. They were ac-
commodated at one time at Sansom Street Hall and
at Concert Hall. In 1855 the use of the Southeast
Penn Square was granted by Councils for the pur-
pose. The show was arranged under three large
circular canvas pavilions, connected with each other
by passages floored over, and brilliantly lighted at
night with gas. The burning of the Museum build-
ing caused serious thought as to the best method of
providing a permanent place for the accommodation
of the association. In 1865-66 committees were ap-
pointed to procure subscriptions for the purchase of
a lot of ground and the construction of a hall. Eighty
thousand dollars was raised without much difficulty.
The society, which had been incorporated March 24,
1831, received authority from the Legislature to make
the necessary purchase, and the committee bought a
lot of ground at the northwest corner of Broad and
Lardner Streets, adjoining the Academy of Music, of
the dimensions of ninety feet front by two hundred
feet in depth. A strip of fifteen feet on the north
was left open for ventilation and light, and a splendid
building seventy-five feet front by two hundred feet
in depth was commenced according to designs fur-
nished by Samuel Sloan, architect, on the 1st of Sep-
tember, 1866, and was completed and formally opened
with a grand bazaar, conducted by ladies, for the
benefit of the society, on the 29th of May, 1867.
This building was of imposing proportions. The
front, which was of sandstone, with brownstone acces-
sories, appeared to give the edifice a height of two
stories, but on the sides it was seen that there were
three stories. A basement partly under ground, a
first story hall, and the main saloon of the third
story, except in the space taken by a foyer of mod-
erate size in front, was of the full length and breadth
of the building, with ceilings of considerable height,
which was encompassed on three sides by a gallery.
The 31st of January, 1881, Beth Eden Baptist Church,
at the northwest corner of Broad and Spruce Streets,
took fire and was totally destroyed. The flames were
carried to Horticultural Hall, immediately opposite
on the north, which was also destroyed. The loss
on that building was estimated to be sixty thou-
sand dollars. In a few months the hall was rebuilt.
The side walls were generally in good condition.
The new front, of sandstone and brownstone, was
somewhat modified from the former style, the prin-
cipal change being in doing away with the high steps
which rose between each pillar and pier of the colon-
nade and substituting an entrance not much above
the street level.
The construction of a breakwater near the entrance
of Delaware Bay had been a matter of interest fre-
quently urged by merchants and business men of the
city for many years. The movements and discus-
sions on this subject were of sufficient importance to
influence Congress by act of May 7, 1822, to appro-
priate twenty-two thousand seven hundred dollars
for erecting in the bay of Delaware two piers of suffi-
cient dimensions to be a harbor or shelter for vessels
from the ice, if the Secretary of the Treasury, after
survey being made, should deem the measure to be
expedient. The examination was made and a plan
reported sufficiently extensive to employ the small
appropriation which had been made. The engineers,
however, suggested that a work upon a larger scale
might with advantage be constructed of durable ma-
terials.- Upon this an application was made to the
President for a more extensive and accurate survey.
A board was formed, under direction of the War and
Navy Departments, of officers of the engineers and of
the navy, consisting of Gen. S. Bernard, Lieut. -Col.
J. G. Totten, of the army, and Commodore William
Bainbridge, of the navy. They examined into the
whole subject by personal inspection of the shores of
622
HISTOEY OP PHILADELPHIA.
the Delaware Bay, near Cape Henlopen, and filed in
the War Department plans for the construction of an
artificial harbor in the bay of Delaware upon an exten-
sive aud durable plan. The President recommended
the matter in an annual message. Itbegan to be consid-
ered that the work proposed was something more than
a local improvement for the benefit of the commerce
of the Delaware Bay and River. It was a matter that
concerned all sorts of shipping, foreign or domestic,
which might be within sufficient distance to make
their course to the harbor of refuge in rough weather
or impending storms. The Chamber of Commerce of
the city of Philadelphia at the end of 1825 petitioned
Congress for the building of the breakwater accord-
ing to the plans of the engineers already made. A
large town-meeting was held on the 28th of Decem-
ber of that year in the Supreme Court room, Horace
Binney being in the chair. Resolutions were adopted
that Congress should be memorialized in favor of the
construction of the breakwater according to the plans
of the commissioners to the Secretary of War in 1823.
In addition to other matters there was a suggestion
" that in times of war a harbor at the mouth of the
Delaware, guarded by the simple but impregnable
fortress which the locality admits, would be invaluable
as a national work, and as a place of refuge for ves-
sels pursued by an enemy, unapproachable under all
circumstances without a pilot, or as a station from
which access to the ocean is at all times practicable,
it would combine advantages to the national and
commercial marine scarcely equaled by any port in
the United States." In this memorial it was stated
that the registered tonnage belonging to the port of
Philadelphia was nearly sixty thousand tons, enrolled
and licensed for the coasting trade more than twenty-
five thousand tons, exclusive of river craft, making
a total of eighty-five thousand tons navigating the
Delaware Bay from the port of Philadelphia. The
imports at that time from foreign countries were esti-
mated to exceed $12,000,000, and the exports were esti-
mated at $10,500,000. To the memorial of the Cham-
ber of Commerce was appended a schedule of cases of
shipwreck, loss, and disaster within the bay of Dela-
ware by vessels being driven into or out thereof by
storm or ice, and which would have been prevented
had there been a place of shelter at its entrance. This
schedule included the period between October, 1826,
and January, 1827, and registered the misfortunes of
twenty ships, fifty -seven brigs, forty-eight schooners,
forty-three sloops, four pilot-boats, one bark, and
twenty other vessels, the classification of which was
not ascertained. In 1828 another movement was
made to effect action iu Congress, and there was sent
to that body the names of and particulars of misfor-
tunes within the space commencing on the 28th of
December, 1826, and the 15th of December, 1827, of
disasters to thirteen ships, eighteen brigs, twenty-
five schooners, four sloops, one bark, one steamboat,
—total, sixty-two vessels, the value of which with
their cargoes was beyond $2,000,000. The Committee
of Commerce of Congress reported, in February, 1828,
in favor of the construction of the breakwater. It
was estimated that the amount necessary for its con-
struction would be $2,326,627, but that many years
would be required for its completion, so that the cost
might be defrayed by installments.
Finally these efforts resulted in the passage of an
act, May 23, 1828, "that the President of the United
States cause to be made near the mouth of the
Delaware Bay a breakwater." The sum of two hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated for
the accomplishment of that object. This, in the lan-
guage of the commissioners selected by Congress, was
" to shelter vessels from the action of the waves caused
by the winds blowing from east to northwest round
by the north, and also to protect them against injuries
arising from floating ice descending from the north-
west." The first stone of the breakwater was laid
shortly afterward. The light-house, known as the
breakwater light, was built in 1848. The plan of the
engineers comprised a structure of semi-hexagonal
shape. One wing ran from the east northwestward
five hundred and eighty yards, then bending a little
to the southwest extending seven hundred and forty
yards, then bending southwest four hundred and forty
yards; within these bends there was room for a large
harbor of nearly one million cubic yards. The work
was commenced in 1829, under the direction of Wil-
liam Strickland, architect. Blocks of rubble from the
nearest quarries were thrown into the sea to form
their own slopes for a foundation. The surfaces of
both slopes, to the level of low water, were paved
with rough blocks set at right angles to the slope and
well wedged together, thus presenting as little surface
as practicable to the action of the waves. The upper
portion of the slopes, to within six feet of the low-
water mark, were of blocks of three tons weight ;
thence to high-water mark three to four tons, and
above this four to five tons to a height of four feet
three inches above the highest water. The ordinary
rise of tide at the breakwater is nearly five feet, equi-
noctial tide seven feet. The plan of the breakwater
was altered somewhat when it was built. A straight
mole twelve hundred and three yards long was laid
in water of from five to six fathoms depth, having a
base at the bottom of one hundred and seventy-five
feet, and a width at top of thirty feet. Its position
was in a line tangent to the seaward extremity of Cape
Henlopen, extending southeast and west-northwest,
in the original course of the ebb tide, the shore of
the cape being one thousand yards distant from its
eastern end, but only five hundred yards distant op-
posite toward the south. This mole protects the har-
bor behind it from the northern and eastern winds.
The second mole, intended for an ice-breaker, is op-
posite the western end of the breakwater proper, and
separated from it by a channel of three hundred and
fifty yards. In the inclosed and sheltered portion
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
623
there was an estimated harbor of three hundred and
sixty acres, with a depth of from three to six fathoms.1
The manufacture of silk, which had been matter of
interest from the time of the Stamp Act, when the
promotion of domestic manufactures was advocated,
again became a subject of discussion and of effort.
An association was formed in 1828, entitled "The
Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of the
Culture of the Mulberry and the Raising of Silk-
worms." This association offered a premium of sixty
dollars for the greatest quantities of sewing silk of
the best quality produced within this State, raised
within the same, and produced by one family, not less
than twenty pounds. Second premium forty dollars
for the next best quality and greatest quantity, not less
than fifteen pounds. Third premium of twenty-five
dollars for the next greatest quantity and quality,
not less than ten pounds. Fifty dollars premium
was offered for the greatest number of cocoons raised
in Pennsylvania, and thirty dollars for the next
greatest quantity, not less than fifty pounds. For the
best white mulberry-trees not less than two years'
growth and planted at equal distances, say twenty-five
feet apart, raised within twelve miles of the city, not
less than four hundred trees, fifty dollars. Thirty
dollars for the next greatest quantity, not less than
three hundred, and twenty dollars for the next greatest
quantity, not less than two hundred.
Michael McGarvey, a carter, murdered his wife in
November of this year in a most brutal manner.
They lived in a frame house at the corner of Ball
Alley and Pine Alley. McGarvey beat and whipped
his wife with a cart-whip until she died, and then
hung her body head downward out of a second story
window. The cruelty of the assault created much
feeling, and there was an expectation that McGarvey
would be convicted of murder in the first degree and
hanged. He was convicted of murder in the second
degree and sentenced to imprisonment of eighteen
years.
In August, 1828, a riotous disposition was mani-
fested in Kensington among some weavers. Atan affray
which took place on the 11th of that month, Stephen
Heimer, a watchman, was killed. Two days after-
ward another riot took place at the corner of Third
and George Streets, on account of the hanging out of
a weaver's banner. Stones and brickbats were fired at
the house from which the offensive display was made.
1 Col. J. G. Bernard, of tbe corps of Topographical Engineers United
States army, in 1876 wrote that the utility of the Delaware break wnter
was best exhibited by the statement that Bince 1833, 246,011 vessels
had taken refuge from storm under its protection, of which there were
17,307 in the year 1S71 alone. " Let a threatening sky foretell the ap-
proaching storm, and a few hours will suffice to fill a previously vacant
harbor. Let a northeasterly storm continue for a day or two with sever-
ity, and the harbor becomes crowded entirely beyond its capacity. The
fleet of vessels which now fill it are seen to come in in rapid succession
from the seaward, and there is no single fact more capable of impress-
ing on the mind tbe magnitude of our coasting trade than the great
Dumber of vessels which a few hours' ti me will, under the above circum-
stances, congregate at this point."
Guns were fired, some persons were wounded. The
sheriff called out the posse comitatus, issued his proc-
lamation, and called upon the mayor of the city for
help. These occurrences led to the holding of a
meeting of native and naturalized citizens of the
Northern Liberties and Kensington at the house of
Patrick Murphy shortly afterward, John Thoburn
being the chairman. By this body resolutions were
adopted in reference to the disturbance. The pre-
amble declared that owing to misrepresentations in
the city a general and unfounded belief was held
that the riots were preconcerted, or carried on or sub-
sequently sanctioned by the great body of weavers re-
siding in the district, and that, moreover, the public
mind had been unfavorably impressed relative to the
character of those natives of Ireland who lived in the
vicinity of the disturbances. The persons composing
the meeting therefore resolved " that we absolutely
disclaim all participation in said proceedings, and that
we will co-operate with our fellow-citizens to bring to
punishment the offenders, etc." A committee was ap-
pointed to inquire into the cause of the riots, and an-
other to collect subscriptions for the relief of the family
of the deceased watchman, Heimer. Collections were
no doubt made. But if there was any attempt to in-
quire into the causes of the riots, there does not ap-
pear that there was public report. Thomas Weldon,
James Weldon, George Weldon, James Oliver, and
John Browne were tried for participation in this riot
in December. It appeared that the disturbance arose
in consequence of Heimer, who was not on duty that
night, going along Third Street above Poplar Lane
making a noise. He went into Weldon's house, which
was a tavern or restaurant, to get something to eat or
drink. He was requested to be quiet, as there was a
dying woman in the house. He paid no attention to
this request, and the Weldons, with the others, set
upon him and beat him so that he died from his in-
juries. The Weldons were Irish. Heimer, in the
quarrel, had called them " bloody Irish transports."
These words repeated excited much indignation
among the Irish weavers of the neighborhood, while
an opposition to them of Americans quite as strong
arose. The second riot was caused by the weavers'
taunt, by hanging out their banner. This was the
first disturbance in the city or county in which race
prejudice was manifested. It was the forerunner of
fearful outrages arising from such causes.
On Sunday, the 6th of December, 1828, the Read-
ing mail-coach, which left the city at half-past two in
the morning with nine passengers, was stopped upon
the Ridge road about Turner's Lane by three men,
one of whom ran out from the side of the road,
grasped the leading horse, and turned him around to
one side ; two men then stepped up, one on each side
of the road, opposite the driver's box, presented a
pistol at the latter and ordered him to stop. The lamps
were struck with the pistols and the lights put out.
The robbers then coolly commenced their operations
624
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
on the passengers. A person who was riding on the
seat with the driver was ordered down and his money
demanded, after which his hands were tied behind
his back by the robbers. The coach was opened and
the passengers ordered out, and each one required
to hand over his money and valuables. One of the
villains then jumped into the coach, took possession
of the valises, saddle-bags, and what they could find,
and threw them into the road, carried off the mail-
bags from the driver's seat and threw them into the
road also, and cut open the mail-bags at once. The
passengers, after being personally robbed, were or-
dered into the stage and the driver to his seat, and
the robbers made their escape in the darkness. The
driver, well frightened, did not attempt to continue
the journey, but drove back to the city. James Por-
ter, George Wilson, and Poteet were arrested on
charge of the commission of this crime shortly after-
ward. Poteet turned State's evidence. Porter and
Wilson were convicted and sentenced to be hung.
For some reason President Jackson approved the sen-
tence against Porter but did not confirm that against
Wilson. The latter was sentenced to a long term
of imprisonment. Poteet escaped punishment alto-
gether. Porter was executed at Bush Hill, about on
the line of Seventeenth Street, at Wallace, on the 2d
of July, 1830.
The struggle in the British Parliament at this time
for the emancipation of the Catholics attracted much
attention and interest. On the 14th of May, 1829,
news arrived of the passing of the Catholic Relief
bill by the British Parliament. There was an unusual
rejoicing. The old State-House bell as well as the
bells of Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal, were
rung " in testimony of joy at the recent triumph of
religious liberty in England." Three days afterward
a meeting of the friends of Ireland was held in the
county court- room. A resolution was adopted "that
the emancipation of the Irish Catholics is under the
providence of God mainly to be attributed to the
energy, patriotism, and influence of the Catholic As-
sociation of Great Britain ;" also that thanks were
due to Daniel O'Conuell, the Duke of Wellington,
and others, and it was resolved that there should be
a celebration in this city. This rejoicing took the
shape of a dinner, which was held in Independence
Hall at the State-House, that being the last occasion
upon which the apartment was used for such purpose.
There were three hundred and fifty persons present,
and Mathew Carey presided. On his left hand was
seated Turner Camac, and at his right the mayor of
the city, Benjamin W. Richards. Judge Edward
King, of the Common Pleas, announced the toasts.
A poem written by Dr. James McHenry for the occa-
sion was read by Mr. Dunkin, and Lewis W. Ryckman
sang a soDg. Stephen Edward Rice and John Binns
of the Democratic press spoke upon the occasion, and
a song was sung by Mr. Worrell, also written for the
occasion. At the head of the room was a large trans-
parency, upon which was painted a female figure rep-
resenting Ireland in chains. Lord Wellington in a
military dress was depicted as presenting a scroll to
the king of Great Britain, George IV., — a scroll upon
which was written, " She must be free or I resign."
The king is represented as saying, " Thou hast con-
quered ; she is free." Daniel O'Connell upon the right
side of Ireland was represented as rejoicing.
Some excitement was created in 1829 by the visit
of Frances Wright, commonly called " Fanny," and in
her after-life Frances Wright Darusmont. She was an
English woman, a social reformer and a philanthro-
pist, a native of Dundee in Scotland, where, being left
an orphan at the age of nine years, she was brought
up by her guardians in doctrines of social philosophy
such as were held by the French materialists. She
promulgated opinions in regard to slavery, the quali-
ties of the white and black races, which were of the
advanced character of the doctrines afterwards enun-
ciated with great strength by the American abolition-
ists. She was peculiar in her views of social topics,
religious principles and doctrines, and political ques-
tions. She was a good speaker and fearless in the
pronunciation of her opinions, the novelty of which
attracted much attention, with expressions of dissat-
isfaction among large numbers of the people. She
had been in America before this time, traveled
through the United States between 1818 and 1820,
and published a book called " Views of Society and
Manners in America." Fanny Wright came to the
city in June, and delivered lectures " On the Forma-
tion of Opinions" and " Existing Evils." On the 4th
of July she delivered an address at the Walnut Street
Theatre on " Subjects Applicable to the Day." Tickets
for admission, admitting a gentleman and two ladies,
were sold at a nominal rate. Some of the clergy
undertook to reply to her. Among these was the
Rev. W. L. McCalla, of the Scotch Presbyterian
Church, who reviewed " Miss Frances Wright's Sys-
tem of Knowledge" on the afternoon of the 26th, and
announced, " in observance of an old custom, he will
take a text out of the Bible. It shall, however, be
one which makes particular examination of a female
predecessor of Miss Wright who taught a system of
knowledge in the first century of the Christian era."
In September this lady spoke at the Walnut Street
Theatre for two Sunday evenings upon " National Re-
publican Education for all the Children in the Land."
A riot between blacks and whites arising out of
some personal cause of quarrel in which others than
the original disputants became involved took place on
the 22d of November, 1829 ; some persons were in.
jured on both sides and some were arrested. This
was the beginning of a series of riots, in which white
people were generally the assailants upon the blacks.
They were inflamed by prejudice and strong opposi-
tion to the doctrines of the friends of the abolition of
slavery, which about this time were beginning to be
boldly pronounced.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
625
In September, 1830, news of the revolution in
France upon the three days of July and the expul-
sion of the Bourbons was received in the United
States, and excited lively interest throughout the
country. The sympathies of the Americans always
being strongly inclined toward the people struggling
for their liberties, and especially in favor of France,
whose assistance to our own government during the
war of the Revolution secured independence, it was
a matter of more than ordinary congratulation that in
the movements which resulted in the banishment of
Charles X. Gen. Lafayette, the nation's guest only
six years before, was prominent as a leader. A town-
meeting was called at the District Court room Sep-
tember 25th. William Rawle was president, Nicholas
Biddle and Daniel W. Coxe vice-presidents, Rich-
ard Willing and Charles J. Ingersoll secretaries. The
principal speaker was John Sergeant, whose remarks
were addressed as much to the political meaning as
the historic results of the Revolution. Mr. Sergeant
proposed a preamble and resolutions, in which were
set forth, —
" Whereas, The sacred principle of resisted tyranny and oppression
exemplified and put in practice by our glorious Revolution, and subse-
quently by those of the other independent American States, has taken
such deep root as to become a part of the common law of nations in this
hemisphere, while in Europe immortal Greece has anew implanted it in
a soil where liberty once flourished, but for ages has been trodden down
by a barbarouB despotism ;
"And whereas, France, our first and faithful ally, after a struggle of
forty years against powerful combinations of enemies within and with-
out, has at last succeeded, by a unanimous and heroic effort, in shaking
off the yoke of bigoted and tyrannical rules and establishing a govern-
ment of her own choice ;
" And whereas, The interesting position in which the French natiou
by its courage, its moderation, and its wisdom has thus assumed in the
world, invites in a particular manner the expression of our sympathy
and gratification ; therefore,
"Resolved, That this meeting cordially participates in the joyful feel-
ing which has been excited throughout the United States by the great
event6 that have lately taken place in France.
" Resolved, That we cannot withhold our admiration of the unexam-
pled courage and self-devotion with which the people of Tans on the
memorable 27th, 28th, and 29th of July last rushed, unarmed and un-
prepared, upon a formidable armed force arrayed against them in the
heart of their city, by their unanimouB and well-directed efforts in the
short space of three days conquered for themselves and for their country
the blessings of liberty and self-government. . . .
"Resolved, That [a committee] be directed to convey to Gen. Lafay-
ette our sincere congratulations upon the triumphs of the principles of
liberty achieved by the people of France, and to express to him the grat-
ification we feel as citizens of the United States, bound to him by the
recollection of his eminent services to our country, at the distin-
guished and virtuous part he has taken and the large share that he has
had in producing this great result."
John Binns offered a resolution declaring that the
press of Paris deserve particularly to be congratulated.
Mr. Binns said, "There are no acts which more en-
tirely command our admiration and esteem than the
devotion to sound principles and the general wel-
fare which pre-eminently distinguished the editors of
newspapers in their prompt and magnanimous deter-
mination to resist and utterly disregard the tyranni-
cal and unconstitutional edict of Charles X., which
was intended to prostrate the freedom of the press
40
and convert that glorious instrument into an engine
of despotism." Other speeches were made by William
J. Duane, Joseph R. Ingersoll, George M. Dallas,
Josiah Randall, Peter S. Du Ponceau, Thomas Bid-
die, and Charles J. Ingersoll. About the same time
a meeting of workingmen was held at Military Hall,
Joseph R. Chandler being chairman, and J. O'Connor
and Robert Morris secretaries. The preamble re-
ported to this meeting said, —
" The part which the workingmen of Paris took in that contest, fighting
in the thick of the battle when it raged with the greatest violence, and
returning to their peaceful occupations when the strife was done, meets
with our warmest and proudest approbation. Be it therefore
" Resolved, That as this signal viclory was wou by our brethren, the
workingmen of Paris, commanded by the pupils of the Polytechnic In-
stitute, we hail the triumph with peculiar delight."
In honor of the occasion the workingmen deter-
mined that they would celebrate it by a public dinner.
The officers of the First Division of the Pennsyl-
vania militia also held a meeting at Military Hall.
Maj.-Gen. Thomas Cadwalader was chairman, and
Lieut.-Col. Morris, inspector of division, was secre-
tary. Col. James Page offered the resolutions, among
w hich were the following :
" Resolved, That regarding the achievement of the French as of vast
imporiance to that nation and of immeasurable consequence to the
whole human race, inasmuch as it is a proof of the spread of liberal
opinion and the firm footing which the principles of liberty are obtain-
ing throughout the world, we will celebrate the late glorious and au-
spicious event by a general parade of the volunteers of the city and
county of Philadelphia.
" Resolved, That the ' tri-colored flag' be displayed in company with
our national stundard, as emblematic of the pure principles which gave
origin to both, and as indicative of the fellowship we wish to maintain
with the people which, in time of need, Bent a Lafayette to our aid, and
revived the hopes of our almost despairing countrymen."
The military celebration took place on the 4th of
October. Before the procession was formed there
were some interesting proceedings. The company of
Philadelphia Grays, Capt. John Miles, bore a splen-
did tri-colored banner, upon which, in the white
centre stripe, was painted a likeness of Lafayette.
The State Fencibles were presented by Miss Emilie
Chapron. at the house of her father, John M. Cha-
pron, with an elegant tri-colored flag, which was re-
ceived by Capt. Page with a fitting reply, the bands
playing the " Marseillaise." The parade was of more
than ordinary size. It was participated in not only
by the volunteers of the division, but by several com-
panies of horse, infantry, and riflemen from New
Jersey, and from Montgomery and Chester Counties,
in Pennsylvania. Maj.-Gen. Thomas Cadwalader
was in command. The First Brigade was led by
Brig.-Gen. Robert Patterson, and the Second Brigade
by Brig.-Gen. John D. Goodwin. Aged citizens in
barouches and a civic cavalcade of several hundred
horsemen followed. Along the route of the proces-
sion tri colored flags and hangings abounded. The
theatres were illuminated in the evening. The pro-
ceedings were fitly concluded by a celebration by
French citizens at Head's Hotel, at which one hun-
626
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
dred and twenty gentlemen took part. Peter S. Du
Ponceau officiated, assisted by Dr. La Eoche and M.
Laussat, masters of ceremonies; Messrs. Clapier
and Dupont De Nemours, of Wilmington, were vice-
presidents, assisted by Messrs. Destouet and Lajus,
who were the committee of arrangements. Among
the guests present were Mr. Johnston (a senator from
Louisiana), the Hon. James Brown (late ambassador
to the French Court), the consul-general of France
at Richmond, M. Chevallie, Mr. Dannery (French
consul at Philadelphia), and the vice-consul of
France at New York, M. Hersant. Mr. Du Ponceau
was the only speaker at length. There were thirteen
regular toasts, and about thirty volunteers. A patri-
otic hymn, written for the occasion by N. Peyre
Ferry, was sung by M. Alfred, of the French Comedy
Company. There was a song, composed by M. Tabarri,
sung by M. Victorin, and another; also specially pro-
duced, sung by M. Meignen. Other songs were sung
by Messrs. Leitellier, Curtot, and Privat, of the
French company.
Circumstances attending a duel which occurred
this year and occasioned the death of William Mil-
ler, Jr., a young lawyer of talent and respectability,
attracted more than ordinary attention, and created a
feeling of regret which was universal with all classes
of people. Miller fell in a duel with Midshipman
Charles G. Hunter, of the United States navy. A
most unfortunate fact, so it was thought, was that
neither Hunter nor Miller had anything to do with
the original quarrel, which was between other persons.
They were brought in by the supposed rules of the
duelling code, which rendered it necessary that a
second to a party challenged or challenging should
himself be bound to fight in support of the honor of
his friend. The origin of the quarrel which eventu-
ally involved Miller and Hunter was in a supposed
offensive remark made in the latter end of 1829 at a
dinner-party by H. Wharton Griffith. The words
were resented by Roger Dillon Drake, who was pres-
ent. The difficulty was made up, however, by the in-
tervention of friends, and the parties were apparently
reconciled. In the early part of 1830, Dr. Alfred
Drake, who was a brother of Roger Dillon Drake,
received aD anonymous letter which was construed
to reflect in some manner upon the character of the
lady to whom Dr. Drake was about to be married.
R. D. Drake assumed that this letter was in the hand-
writing of Mr. Griffith. The two met near a billiard-
room in the neighborhood of Fourth and Chestnut
Streets, to which they both repaired, apparently in
an amiable humor, but when there Drake suddenly,
and without aDy warning, struck Griffith in the face,
and followed it up with several blows, and in his pas-
sion produced the letter, which he showed to Griffith
in the intervals of the attack, and asked him if he
knew the handwriting. The latter denied knowledge
of the letter or the writer, statements which instead
of mollifying added to the fury of Drake. The
result was a challenge by Griffith to Drake, which
was sent by Midshipman Charles H. Duryee, of the
United States navy. Drake refused to accept the
challenge on the ground that Griffith by his conduct
had rendered himself " too infamous to be met as a
gentleman." Upon this Duryee declared that if
Drake would not meet Griffith, he must be prepared
to meet him (Duryee). • There was considerable dis-
cussion and correspondence, in which Miller was for
the first time introduced as a friend of Drake. The
latter continued to declare that he would not meet
Griffith. Thereupon Duryee denounced Drake as
"a base coward and calumniator." On this Drake
challenged Duryee. Then came into the quarrel for
the first time Lieut. Hampton Westcott, of the United
States navy, as second for Duryee. Westcott declared
that Duryee could not meet Drake until the latter
should give to Griffith the " satisfaction he required,
and redeem your [Drake's] character." Drake then
sent a peremptory challenge to Duryee by the hands
of Miller. Westcott, as second for Duryee, refused to
meet him upon any other terms than those already
indicated. At the time this was going on, there were
further disputes between Pierce Butler, friend of Grif-
fith, but not a second, and William M. Camac, also a
friend of Griffith, with Duryee as to certain things that
were said. They were explained, however, so as to pre-
vent trouble. While these disputes were going on a
new element appeared in the controversy in the shape
of a letter dated at New Brunswick, N. J., March 7,
1830, and signed R. A. De Russey, Miles C. Smith,
James Neilson, Hatfield Smith, and Digby D. Smith.
It was addressed to William Miller, Jr., and in refer-
ence to the difficulties between Drake and Duryee.
In this curious epistle the parties stated that they dis-
approved of Duryee's conduct, as the same had be-
come the subject of discussion, that they considered
that he had lost the privilege to retrace his course,
and that it rested with Drake to point out " what step
on the part of Mr. Duryee shall efface the stain which
this rashness of Duryee has put upon the character
of your friend [Drake]." They further said in effect
that they believed " that Mr. Duryee is convinced of
his error, that he is willing to acknowledge that he
committed it while under such excitement as his rea-
son could not control." The signers of the letter then
proposed a meeting at Trenton of a committee ap-
pointed on their part and one on the part of friends
of Drake for a conference and settlement of the dis-
pute. With a little more correspondence, the affair
might have then been quietly concluded. Miller, as
a friend of.Drake, replied that " they looked upon the
controversy between the latter and Duryee as settled
on terms satisfactory to Drake, and that no stain rested
upon his character in consequence of the misunder-
standing with Duryee," and that there would be no
advantage in reopening the controversy. By this time
the character of the New Brunswick letter had be-
come known to Duryee. He introduced a new party
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
627
to the controversy, — Midshipman Charles G. Hunter,
of the United States navy. He was instructed by
Duryee to call on Miller and demand the original !
New Brunswick letter, and that all copies of it should
be destroyed. Miller at first hesitated, and asked
time for consultation. Finally he determined to com-
ply. He delivered to Hunter the original letter, and
at the United States Hotel burned the only copy which
he said he knew of or believed to be in existence.
Here the affair might have rested without the effusion
of blood ; but five days afterwards, March 17th, a
printed copy of the New Brunswick letter made its
appearance in the city, and was circulated among ac-
quaintances of the party. Upon this Hunter, on the
theory that Miller had deceived him, challenged him
at once, and Hampton Westcott was the second. Mil-
ler refused to accept the challenge on the ground that
he knew nothing of the publication and had no con-
nection with it. Whilst Westcott was with Miller
most unfortunately Roger Dillon Drake came into the
apartment where the conference was going on, igno-
rant, perhaps, of its character, and without waiting
for a proper occasion to see Miller alone, presented a
copy of the New Brunswick letter, which he said had
been sent to his brother, Dr. Drake. Miller upon re-
ceiving it offered to Westcott to destroy it, in accord-
, ance with his original agreement, but Westcott re-
plied that he did not care about its being destroyed,
as printed copies were in circulation. Hunter upon
this sent, by the hands of Westcott, a challenge to
Miller, which the latter refused to receive, and Hunter
posted Miller as a coward. Thus, after the quarrel
had been tossed from Griffith and Drake to Duryee and
Drake, and from them to Hunter and Miller, the af-
fair that had been going on for two or three months
was brought to a dead point. No amount of denial
on the part of Miller was sufficient to relieve him in
the minds of the other party of a suspicion of being
concerned in the publication of the New Brunswick
letter or of being concerned in making copies of it.
Nobody seemed to think that it could be possible that
of the five persons who had signed that letter one or
more of them might have made a copy and circulated
it for the information of other "gentlemen." The
posting of Miller brought on the crisis. He sent his
friend, Lieut. Edmund Byrne, of the United States
navy, to Westcott, second of Hunter, with an accept-
ance of the challenge. The duel took place on Sun-
day, the 21st of March, at the nearest boundary of
the State of Delaware, on the southern shore of Naa-
man's Creek. Miller's party consisted of himself,
Lieut. Byrne, " another gentleman," and a surgeon.
With Hunter's party were Westcott, Duryee, and an-
other gentleman. The seconds had agreed that if the
first exchange of shots was harmless, Hunter's friend
should, if Miller acted like a brave man, retract the
charge of cowardice ; and if Miller's friend should
declare that on his honor he believed that Miller was
innocent of the charge of the publication of the New
Brunswick letter, the parties should be reconciled.
They stood up, were placed in position, and fired at
the word. Miller fell, uttering an exclamation, and
died immediately, the ball having gone through his
lungs. As he fell Hunter advanced and said, " Gen-
tlemen, I assure you that I had no enmity against
that man. His blood must rest upon the heads of
others who have dragged him into their quarrels."
The circumstances excited much regret and intense
indignation. Hunter was denounced in anonymous
letters and in the newspapers as a bloodthirsty mur-
derer. The House of Bepresentatives of Pennsyl-
vania declared in the resolution that Hunter was the
challenger and the aggressor, and that the President
of the United States should be requested to dismiss
him from the navy. John Branch, the Secretary of
the Navy, addressed President Jackson upon the sub-
ject, and said that it had been proved to his satisfac-
tion that Lieut. Edmund Byrne, Lieut. Hampton
Westcott, Passed Midshipman Charles H. Duryee, and
Midshipman Charles G. Hunter, of the United States
navy, had been concerned in a duel in which William
Miller, Jr., was killed, and that he recommended their
names be erased from the list of officers of the United
States navy. On the next day President Jackson re-
plied, " Let the above-named officers of the navy be
stricken from the roll." 1
Who was responsible for the printing of the New
Brunswick letter was never publicly known. After
the death of Miller, Dr. Alfred Drake denied that he
had furnished the copy for that publication, and
R. Dillon Drake denied knowledge of the source of the
publication, and asserted that he had made diligent
search to discover the printer and the persons pub-
lishing it without success.
A singular difficulty between the butchers, who
rented stalls in the markets, and the venders of meats
from carts and wagons, who were not country people
bringing their produce of their own farms to the city,
but were really hucksters, threatened the inhabitants
of the city for some days with a famine. These un-
qualified venders of meats, as the victualers called
them, were nicknamed by them " Shinners." They
generally came to market in the farmer's garb and
pretended to be cultivators of the soil, but actually
they were only dealers in meats. The trouble was
that under the system of market laws the farmers had
the privilege of using certain stalls in each market-
house without the payment of any rent, whilst the
butchers, on the contrary, were assessed with consid-
erable stall-rents. They did not complain of the legit-
imate country farmer. A few sheep or hogs, with an
occasional bullock or cow, was all the meat the latter
could spare from their farms in the course of a year.
They offered but little competition to the butcher.
1 Two of them at least were restored in after-years. Hunter during
tlie Mexican war captured Alvarado, and was known afterwards as
" Alvarado HuDter." Westcott was also restored to the service and re-
mained several yeara.
628
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
And they were, besides, guaranteed by the law with
free stalls, — a regulation that had been enforced from
the earliest days of the province. But the " shinners"
were in market every day, and could afford to sell
cheaper than the butchers. These annoyances had
been the subject of frequent petitions and remon-
strances to Councils with but little avail. In July an-
other memorial was presented, in which the butchers
complained that they were charged with heavy stall-
rents, while the " shinners," who falsely pretended to
be farmers, escaped all contribution. They asked for
the passage of an ordinance prohibiting the sale of
butchers' meat in less quantity than a quarter in any
other stalls than those appropriated to victualers.
This request, which would have given the butchers
the monopoly of retailing meats, was not granted as
soon as the impatience of the wielders of the cleaver
desired. Whilst the matter was still under considera-
tion the butchers resolved by a bold piece of strategy
to convince the community how much it was indebted
to the profession. They agreed not to attend the
markets until their petition should be answered. On
the next regular market-day the butchers' stalls were
deserted in the High Street markets ; all but one,
which was furnished as usual by a member of the fra-
ternity who did not join in the. resolution of his breth-
ren. The result was not agreeable to the butchers.
The people, suddenly deprived of supplies of food,
which had always been accessible before that time,
were not affected to any degree of sympathy with the
butchers. Instead of taking sides with them, house-
keepers were quite indignant. Councils were not
frightened, and during the period of the absence of
the butchers from the markets the committee which
had charge of the butchers' petition reported unan-
imously against granting the request that had been
made. In the interval the farmers and " shinners"
came forward actively with considerable supplies.
The butchers stood out about a week, and then, with-
out any flourish of the trumpets which used to blare
when show-beef was in abundance, returned quietly
to their stalls, the demonstration having proved to be
a decided failure.
On the 11th of June the City Guards of Boston, a
fine uniformed company of volunteers, paid a visit to
the city. There had been little of that sort of visit-
ing done previously by military bodies. The reception
of Lafayette in 1824 brought companies from the in-
terior of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but Boston
was so far away that a visit from the military of that
city was really an event of novelty and interest in
which the whole town took part. The uniform of
the City Guards was a gray coat trimmed with black,
white pantaloons, high cap with large black feather.
The Boston Brigade Band of twenty musicians, con-
sidered at that time one of the finest military combi-
nations in the country, came with the Guards. The
strangers arrived in Kensington about half-past nine
o'clock in the morning, and were received by an
escort of infantry companies under command of Col.
James Page. A salute of twenty-four guns was fired
as they approached the wharf. The main street of
Kensington was completely choked with people of
all sizes, ages, and sexes, who not only occupied the
sidewalks and streets, and the windows of houses, but
were crowded on the roofs of buildings and sheds, the
lumber piles in the board-yards, the limbs of trees,
fences, and all other available places throughout
the streets of the Northern Liberties and the city.
Col. Page marched his escort to Arch Street and
Second, where was drawn up a large number of the
uniformed companies of the First Division under Brig.-
Gens. Robert Patterson and John D. Goodwin, the
whole being under command of Maj.-Gen. Thomas
Cadwalader. Some time previously City Councils had
granted the use of one of the public squares for the
Guards as a place of encampment. They were marched
to the southwest Penn Square, where their tents
had already been pitched. A guard from the Phila-
delphia company was detailed, and the division was
dismissed. In the afternoon the whole company was
marched to Swaim's Baths, at the northeast corner of
George (now Sansom) and Seventh Streets. In the
evening they were entertained by Gen. Cadwalader
in his own house, on Arch Street below Ninth. The
next day was Sunday, and the Guards attended reli-
gious services with their band. The Rev. Stephen
H. Tyng, rector of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal
Church, had formerly been a member of the company,
and it was an agreeable thing that he should be
called upon to address them. The regular services
were gone through with, and a sermon was preached
from the 23d chapter of Proverbs, 15th verse, " My
son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice,
even mine."
In this year was passed an act which rendered trav-
eling in the streets of the city and county as free and
unrestricted on Sunday as on any other day. For
more than a century after the foundation of the city
there was no difficulty on this score. On the 4th of
April, 1798, the Legislature passed an act, the pre-
amble of which recited " that religious societies had
a right to worship peaceably, and that having such
rights it was proper that they should be protected in
them." It was therefore enacted that the congrega-
tions of churches in the city of Philadelphia should
be authorized to fix chains across the streets where
churches were situate, at a distance from the build-
ings, during the time of divine worship, in order that
the congregation should not be disturbed by the noise
of vehicles passing by. At the time when this act
was sanctioned (1798) there were few churches in
comparison to the number that were in existence
thirty years later. The privilege of putting up the
chains was generally embraced by the churches, and
a vehicle endeavoring to pass from the northern part
of the city to the south, or vice versa, found no street
clear between Front Street and Ninth. The streets
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
629
running east and west were also greatly impeded.
The United States mail, the carrying of which was
supposed to have rights superior to all others, was
frequently compelled to take a vexatious course in its
way to and from the post-office. The firemen, fre-
quently stopped by the chains, usually cast them
down or broke them when it was possible, and it was
a general feeling that it was a vexation that they
should be maintained. Petitions were sent to the
Legislature on the subject remonstrating against the
continuance of the obstructions. On the other hand,
remonstrances by the clergy and members of churches
were as strongly made against a repeal. The Legis-
lature finally, with some effort, was brought to a con-
clusion, and on the 15th of March the act of 1798 was
repealed.
The trial of a woman for the murder of her hus-
band, in April, led to the establishment of two im-
portant-principles of law of much more than common
interest. Johanna Clew was charged with poisoning
her husband by administering to him arsenic mixed
with molasses. The case was tried in the Quarter
Sessions, in the Oyer and Terminer, before Judge
King. The jury was charged about ten and a half
o'clock on a Saturday evening, and according to the
command of the English common law they were kept
without meat or drink, fire or candles. After they
had been out twenty-four hours the counsel for the
commonwealth and the prisoner agreed that they
should be supplied with food if they would receive
it. The majority of them refused to do so. On
Monday morning two of the jurors, Ebenezer Fergu-
son and Andrew Hooten, declared that if they were
longer confined their lives would be in danger. Fer-
guson was seventy-six years old. His health had
been impaired by previous illness. He could not
walk without assistance, and he said that if he was
kept in the state of privation and restriction in which
he then was his life would be in danger.- Hooten
represented that he was ill and feeble from the effects
of a previous bilious fever. Dr. Joseph Klapp was
ordered to attend the jurors, and he reported that if
they were " much longer kept in privation and re-
striction their lives would be in danger.'' On receiv-
ing the report, Judge King discharged the jury. In
December of the same year Johanna Clew was again
put on trial for the same offense. Her counsel pleaded
autre foin acquit, and insisted that it was a constitu-
tional privilege that no person's life could be twice
put in jeopardy for the same offense. The Quarter
Sessions decided against this plea, but upon the re-
moval of the question to the Supreme Court that
tribunal decided that there must be an overruling
necessity to justify the discharge of a jury in a crim-
inal case. This necessity was not shown upon the
first trial. The jurors were not discharged because
they were under actual suffering, but by reason of a
fear that they might suffer. More than that, the
Supreme Court said that the ancient English prac-
tice of depriving the jurors of meat, drink, fire, and
candle was not in force in Pennsylvania, and that
the jurors could have been supplied with everything
they needed. Johanna Clew escaped punishment,
but the law principles established by her case were
of so much importance that her release was entitled
to but trifling consideration in view of the results
achieved thereby.
On the 26th of December, died in his house, Water
Street above Market, Stephen Girard, a native of
France, but for many years an active merchant and
citizen of Philadelphia. He was buried on the 30th
of December at the Boman Catholic Church of the
Holy Trinity, his remains being accompanied to
the tomb by the Councils of the city of Philadel-
phia, public officers, and a number of societies and
many citizens. By his decease and the munificent
bequests which he made a great influence, manifested
in many ways shortly after that event and until the
present time, was exercised upon the city of Phila-
delphia.
Girard was the richest man of his period. He
was childless, his early marriage having been ter-
minated in a few years by the insanity of his wife.
He had exerted himself with dangerous generosity
during the yellow-fever periods of 1793, and subse-
quently at the hospitals, and for this kindness he was
greatly respected. At his death the value of his es-
tate was estimated to be $7,500,000. Of this amount
he bequeathed to his relatives and friends $140,000
in cash, with annuities amounting to $65,000 more.
His public bequests affected the rest of his estate.
He gave to the city of Philadelphia for the improve-
ment of the eastern front of the city on the Delaware,
$500,000. He bequeathed to the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, for internal improvements, $300,000.
To the cities of Philadelphia and New Orleans he de-
vised 280,000 acres of land in Louisiana. This splen-
did gift was lost subsequently by an adverse decision
in a lawsuit. To different institutions of charity in
Philadelphia he bequeathed $116,000. To the city
of Philadelphia he devised in trust $2,000,000 for the
purpose of erecting and maintaining a college for the
education of poor white male orphans, and lastly the
residue of his wealth was devised to the city of Phil-
adelphia for the support of the college, the improve-
ment of the police system, and the reduction of tax-
ation. Eventually the estate did not turn out to be
as large as was expected, not because the estimate of
the value was too large, but by reason of various
losses in diminution of the capital.1 The heirs of
1 The value of the real estate and other properties secured by the
heirs amounted to a large sum. Yet, with diminished capital, the
residue of the estate in the hands of the city has, under the man-
agement of the board of trustees of the college and of the Board of
City Trusts, which succeeded, increased greatly. On the 1st of January,
1884, the an nual report of the Board of Trusts fixed the value of the real
estate, whicli included the college buildings and grounds and other real
estate from which revenue was derived, at 87,857,717.75. This waH the
assessed valuation, and much below the real value. There were besides
630
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Stephen Girard, mainly his nephews and nieces and
their descendants, attacked the devisees and hequests
to the city by every available legal method. The
lands in Louisiana were lost by one decision. Girard
had bought considerable real estate (coal lands) in the
Schuylkill region and property elsewhere after his
will was signed and before his death. Under the law
of Pennsylvania at that time it was held that this
newly-acquired property did not pass under the will,
and the whole of
it, of very consid-
erable value, was
divided among the
heirs. Finally a
suit was brought to
break entirely the
trust to the use of
the college, and it
was taken finally to
the Supreme Court
of the United States
(Vidal vs. City of
Philadelphia).
The invalidity of
the devise was
urged upon vari-
ous grounds, tech-
nical and other-
wise, among which
the strongest was
the allegation that
the college was " an
infidel institution,"
because in his will
Girard had declared
" no ecclesiastic,
missionary, or min-
ister of any sect
whatsoever shall
ever hold or exer-
cise any station or
duty whatever in
the said college, nor
shall any such per-
son ever be admit-
ted for any purpose
or as a visitor within
the premises appro-
priated to the pur-
poses of the said
college. In making this restriction I do not mean
to cast any reflection upon any sect or person what-
ver two million and a half dollars, in par value, of stocks, bonds, etc.,
worth much more at market value. The total value of the residuary
fund, real estate, stocks, etc., was $10,138,268.10. The par value of the
stocks held for the improvement of the Delaware front of the city under
Girard's will was 5772,006.94. The receipts and income during the year
1883, including a cash balance from ;i former year, were $1,005,673.99.
The expenditures of the college in 1883 for maintenance of pupils,
teaching, etc., was 8444,013.57. The grose expenditures fur the estate
soever, but as there is a multitude of sects and such
a diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire to
keep the tender minds of the orphans who are to
derive advantage from this bequest free from the
excitement which clashing doctrines and sectarian
controversy are so apt to produce. My desire is that
all the instructors and teachers in the college shall
take pains to instill into the minds of the scholars
the purest principles of morality, so that on their
entrance into ac-
tive life they may,
from inclination
and habit, evince
benevolence toward
their fellow-crea-
tures and a love of
truth, sobriety, and
industry, adopting
at the same time
such religious ten-
ets as their matured
reason may enable
them to prefer."
The Supreme Court
decided against this
objection. Since
then there has
been little trouble,
although at times
essays toward bring-
ing new suits have
been made occa-
sionally or proceed-
ings threatened.
The gradual ad-
vance of the Asiatic
cholera to Conti-
nental Europe had
been marked by
the people of the
United States for
some years. Ap-
pearing as an epi-
demic in the neigh-
borhood of Calcutta
in August, 1817, it
seemed to travel
westward by reg-
ular stages. In 1819
it extended to the
Burmese empire, and in 1820 it destroyed one hundred
and fifty thousand persons at Bombay. Persia, Arabia,
and Asia Minor were visited in 1823. It appeared at
Moscow, in Southern Europe, in 1830. In 1831 most of
Central Europe was subject to its ravages. It appeared
in England, at Sunderland, in October of that year.
in taxes, repairs, betterments, etc., during the year were $528,706.60.
After full payments on account of the estate and the college there was
a balance on hand of $32,353.82.
PROGRESS FKOM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
631
It was in Edinburgh in January, 1832, at London in
February, and was doing its deadly work in Paris in
March. There was hope that it would not cross the
Atlantic, and this feeling had its effect to such a de-
gree that no efforts were made to put the city in a
position to meet the visitor until a few days before its
ravages commenced in this country. The Board of
Health addressed Councils on the subject on the 2d
of June. Six days afterwards the first American case
of cholera was reported at Quebec, and two days sub-
sequently at Montreal. A communication of the Board
I
fii]ilHI lip KPfl li S3 's5, [
GIRARD'S DWELLING AND COUNTING-HOUSE IN 1831.
of Health to City Councils urged the necessity of
cleansing the streets, the removal of noxious matter,
and abatement of all nuisances. Councils did not
respond for two weeks afterwards. An appropriation
of thirty thousand dollars for sanitary matters was
made June 18th, and a sanitary board appointed, con-
sisting of three members of Select Council and eight
of Common Council. Southwark and the Northern
Liberties soon afterward made appropriations for the
same purposes. The sanitary board appointed a med-
ical commission, consisting of Dr. Samuel Jackson,
Charles D. Meigs, and Richard Harlan, to visit Can-
ada and the city of New York, where the disease had
broken out on the 24th of June, to investigate, if pos-
sible, the causes of the epidemic and the best methods
of prevention and cure. While they were gone the
managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital were granted
permission to erect wooden sheds for temporary hos-
p'ital purposes upon one of the lots in the neighbor-
hood of Pine and Eighth Streets. The sanitary com-
mittee set to work to establish cholera hospitals, and
were aided by the Board of Health in the establish-
ment of hospitals in the county.1
These places of refuge were fitted up with the ap-
pliances considered necessary for the accommodation
of patients, beds, bedclothing, utensils, drugs, and
other articles, among which as permanent supply
were many coffins. There was considerable preju-
dice in some quarters of the city against the estab-
lishment of these places of refuge. Violence was
threatened in some instances, and in one case the
place selected for a hospital had to be abandoned.
The medical commission appointed to visit Can-
ada and New York made report on the 8th of July.
They agreed that the disease which had made its
appearance in the northern portion of the country
was the genuine Asiatic or spasmodic cholera, that it
was atmospheric, and consequently there was a gen-
eral free disposition among all persons which made
them liable to be affected with the disease without
exciting causes. Such causes, they stated, were mainly
"moral excitants, as fear or anger; intemperance in
the use of fermented or spirituous liquors or in eating,
or in the use of acid drinks; the use of undigestible
animal or vegetable food; excessive exertion or fatigue
and exposure to the night air.'' Prudence in living
was recommended, tranquillity of mind and body, and
the wearing of flannel next to the skin was considered
an important precaution. In addition to these recom-
mendations there seems to have been established, with-
out medical direction, a popular sanitary code which
was influenced by public opinion. Precautions in
diet were considered necessary ; the cucumber was
put under ban as a deadly food ; the usual summer
fruits were looked upon as extremely dangerous; the
blackberry maintained its character because it was
supposed to be a good medicine in case of diarrhoea ;
1 Hospitals were located in the following places :
City.
In the Presbyterian Session room, Cherry Street above Fifth.
City Carpenter-shop, Lombard Street above Tenth.
City Carpenter-shop, Jones' Alley, near Front Street.
Session- or school-room, St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church,
Crown Street, below Vine.
Model School-house, Chester Street above Race.
Public-school house, corner Twelfth and Locust Streets.
Dock Street near Front.
Penn Street below Pine.
Corner of Eleventh and Race Streets.
County.
Bush Hill City Hospital, Dr. Thomas C. Hewson physician-in-chief.
Public-school building, Buttonwood Street near Eleventh, Dr. W. 0.
Brinkley physician.
Near Sixth and Vine Streets, Dr. Isaac Remington.
School-house, Third Street above Brown, Dr. Jacob S. Zorns.
Near Sixth and Coates Streets for blacks, Dr. John A. Elkinton.
School-houBe, Hope Street above Otter, West Kensington, Dr. Abra-
ham Helfenstein.
School-house, Sixth Street near Catharine, Dr. LewiB P. Thompson.
School-house, Catharine Street between Third and Fourth, Dr. D. F.
Coudie.
West Moyamensing, Dr. George B. McKuigbt.
Eight other hospitals were intended to be established by the Board of
Health, and some of them were afterwards opened.
632
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the huckleberry was denounced, and even the mild
strawberry and raspberry were looked upon with sus-
picion ; the peach was dangerous ; the canteloupe
was avoided, and the watermelon was as noxious as
an ascertained deadly poison ; simple diet prevailed ;
mush and milk and bread and milk were more largely
used than ever before, and the meats were sparingly
used. Personally the people suffered more from heat
this summer than they ever did before or afterward ;
the weather was hot and yet the majority of persons
kept themselves warmly clothed with flannels, and
some with medicated hair skins upon their chests,
while others were shielded on their breasts or backs
by Burgundy-pitch plasters ; camphor in bags sus-
pended from the neck and resting on the breast was
worn by many people ; pocket-handkerchiefs were
saturated with it; household closets were provided
with " cholera medicines," — camphor, brandy, Cay-
enne pepper, and mustard, — for use in case of attack ;
the pungent odor of chloride of lime could be smelled
everywhere, and in many parts of the city the gutter-
stones and curbs were whitewashed.
The first case of cholera occurred on the 5th of July.
The victim died in three days. He was a man named
Musgrave, and resided in a cellar in Filbert Street near
Schuylkill Fifth. He had lately been discharged from
the New Jersey State prison, and had been suffering
from diarrhoea for some days previous. On the 9th of
July a colored man, who had no premonitory symp-
toms, as in the other case, was suddenly attacked, and
he died in four days. He had resided in St. John Street
above Callowhill. These were followed, on the 13th
and 14th, by the death of a man, his wife, and his
wife's mother, who lived on Coates Street near Third.
They expired one after the other within twenty-four
hours. The old lady died within twelve hours, and
on the same day a French woman, living in Kensing-
ton, was taken suddenly, and died in three or four
hours. These cases occurring in various parts of the
city, and apparently increasing in the deadliness of
the attacks, attracted great attention and much alarm.
It was evident that they were not disseminated by
personal contagion. The persons attacked lived at
distances apart, and there were no known cases of
sickness from which they could have taken infection.
After the 14th the disease lingered. There were three
or four cases a day until about the 27th or 28th of
July, when the epidemic fairly set in. In the mean-
while measures were taken by the Board of Health to
prevent the increase of the pestilence, by compelling
the vacation of premises which were overcrowded.
[A block of six four-story houses, inhabited by
ninety-two families, consisting of four hundred and
seventy-three persons, and situate between Front
Street and Water and Race and Vine Streets, was first
attacked. In thirty of the houses there were fifty-five
families, and it was reported that they were without
a single privy. It was believed that if they were al-
lowed to remain the ravages would be terrible there,
and that the premises would be a great danger to the
neighborhood. The Board of Health was assisted by
a consulting medical board, composed of Drs. Thomas
F. Hewson, L. P. Thompson, William C. Brewster,
Thomas H. Brinckle, George McClellan, William D.
Brinckley, Isaac Kline, Samuel Calhoun, Jesse R.
Burden, Joseph Pancoast, John T. Sharpless, Jacob
S. Zorns, and David F. Condie. Under the advice of
these physicians the houses in Front Street, together
with those in other portions of the city where the
conditions were considered dangerous, were va-
cated and the inmates removed. Common Council,
on the 23d of July, passed a resolution interdicting
intercourse with New York and other towns af-
fected with the Asiatic cholera as soon as practicable.
It was manifest that such a quarantine could not be
maintained by authority of the city, no matter what
vigilance had been exercised, while the adjoining
districts were free for any one to enter. Select Coun-
cil refused to pass the resolution. During the time
that the disease was at its height an asylum for chil-
dren whose parents were taken sick, or who had died
in consequence, was opened in Library Street, under
the care of ladies. Fifty-five children were received
and attended to there. The old engine-house of the
water-works, near the Schuylkill at Chestnut Street,
was fitted up as a place of refuge for the poor, and a
large number of shanties were erected in the same
neighborhood. Thursday, August 9th, was observed
as a fast-day, and it was more truly so on account of
the solemnity of the occasion than such humiliation
had been at any previous time.
A common incident was the assembling of large num-
bers of people on Fifth Street below Library. The office
of the Board of Health was immediately south of and
adjoining the Philadelphia Dispensary. From the
high wooden steps daily at twelve o'clock the official
reports of the progress of the epidemic were made.
The crowds assembled usually heard the announce-
ment in silence, to which succeeded low murmurs of
approbation if the intelligence was favorable, or of
regret if it [was otherwise. They separated imme-
diately afterwards, and carried the news to all parts
of the city. George Washington Dixon, " the great
American buffo singer," who had acquired notoriety
as singer of the negro song, " Coal-Black Rose," had
improved the occasion by issuing a daily paper called
the Cholera Gazette. It was published every afternoon
as soon as the Board of Health reports were made,
and had a very considerable circulation. The occur-
rences connected with the breaking out of the epi-
demic in the Arch Street prison on the 30th of July,
during which seventy out of two hundred and ten
persons died, will be found in the chapter on prisons.
Much alarm existed after the disease got fairly to
work. There was strong prejudice among the igno-
rant against the cholera hospitals. They were repre-
sented to be depots for the distributionjof the disease,
and the story got about that the physicians were
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
633
anxious to force persons into the hospitals so that they
might practice upon them. Under the influence of
such ideas much indignation was expressed against
the physicians, and some of the nurses were subject
to maltreatment. These threats and insults became
so unbearable that on the 6th of August, Drs. Joseph
Parrish, Nathaniel Chapman, Samuel Jackson,
Thomas Harris, Richard Harlan, Charles D. Meigs,
Charles Lukens, and O. H. Taylor presented an ad-
dress to the Sanitary Committee, in which they de-
clared that unless they were sustained and protected
by their fellow-citizens in the discharge of their pain-
ful duties they would "wash their hands in inno-
cency," and retire from the charge of the hospitals.
The Sanitary Board requested the mayor to take
measures to protect the physicians and the hospital
attendants. But fortunately the publication of the
physicians' protest and the good sense of the people
prevailed, so that there was no longer annoyance.
The disease lasted until the 4th of October, when the
last case was reported. Altogether there were two
thousand three hundred and fourteen cases reported,
and nine hundred and thirty-five deaths. The ratio
of cases to the population within the bills of mortality
was one in seventy, the deaths one to one hundred
and seventy-three and a fraction. The cases of attack
exhibited considerable difference in ratio of severity
in various parts of the territory. In the city, exclu-
sive of fractions, the cases were one in one hundred
and ninety-seven in the population; in Kensington,
one in one hundred and twenty ; in the Northern
Liberties, one in two hundred; in Penn township,
one in one hundred and two ; in Southwark, one in
eighty-two ; and in Moyamensing, one in thirty-
nine.1
After the pestilence had ceased the Councils and
Board of Health determined, in fear of future visita-
tions, to keep two hospitals permanently open. The
hospital for contagious diseases at Bush Hill was
placed in order for new patients, and the cholera
hospital in Jones' Alley was reserved to the same
purpose. The physicians at the hospitals served
without remuneration. Councils resolved to present
those who represented the city with pieces of silver
plate with appropriate inscriptions. Thirteen silver
pitchers were prepared and presented, in March, 1833,
to Drs. John C. Otto, Nathaniel Chapman, Joseph
Parrish, John K. Mitchell, Thomas Harris, Samuel
Jackson, Charles Lukens, William E. Horner, Charles
D. Meigs, Richard Harlan, Hugh L. Hodge, Oliver
H. Taylor, and G. Emerson. The Sisters of Charity
of the Roman Catholic Church had during the calam-
ity volunteered their assistance to act as nurses in the
hospitals, and had, during the whole melancholy
scene, discharged those duties with care, attention,
1 Philadelphia escaped with less loss by this scourge than any other
large North American city. In New York the cases were one to 15^ in
the population; deaths, one in 25%; in Montreal, cases one in 5$ of
the inhabitants, deaths one in every 10%.
and kindness. It was proposed to present pieces of
plate to them, but they declined their acceptance,
because such a course would be contrary to the spirit
of their vows. City Councils therefore appropriated
a sum of money equal to the value of the plate to the
Catholic Asylums of St. John's and St. Joseph's and a
school which was under the charge of the Sisters of
Charity.
The approach of the centennial anniversary of the
birth of Washington had been spoken of in various
parts of the country as an occasion suitable for com-
memoration in some uncommon way. In the city of
Philadelphia a town-meeting was called in reference
to the subject on the 1st of February. Benjamin W.
Richards was president, and Alexander McCaraher
secretary. Resolutions were offered by Joseph R.
Ingersoll, by which it was resolved to celebrate the
22d of February with civic honors. A committee of
twenty-four persons was appointed to carry out the
designs of the meeting. Councils appointed a com-
mittee of co-operation, and appropriated two thou-
sand dollars to aid in the object. There was a gen-
eral interest in this matter, but unfortunately the
period between the time when the meeting was held
and the day fixed was very short, or the procession
would have been much larger. As it happened there
was a handsome display. It was estimated that there
were upwards of twenty thousand persons in the pro-
cession,2 and more than one hundred thousand per-
sons in the streets as spectators. The movements of
the civic portion of the procession were directed by
a chief marshal and twelve assistants. The first di-
vision was preceded by eighteen pioneers with axes,
and the city police and watchmen with badges and
sashes. The Cincinnati Society, Revolutionary offi-
cers and soldiers, with officers of the late war and
of the army and navy, with foreign ministers, city
officers, City Councils, commissioners of the districts,
county, State, and Federal officers succeeded. The
second division included the volunteers of the late war,
the butchers, mounted, four abreast, in white frocks
and blue sashes, carrying a banner, " We feed the hun-
gry." The saddlers and harness-makers followed. The
hatters bore the banner of St. Clement, and had
cars displaying skins of the various animals used in
the business, with a full working hatter's shop, bows,
and felting apparatus, kettles, with hatters at work
making hats ; during the procession they made a hat
out and out in the street, which was intended to be
presented to Gen. Lafayette, and one for Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, while another hat was com-
menced for Mayor Richards. In the third division
were ferrymen, tobacconists, and cigar-makers at
work, bakers with an oven in which bread was baked
during the procession, glass manufacturers and cut-
ters, cabinet-makers, barbers, gilders, and gold-beaters.
2 This was the estimate of some newspapers at the time. From later
experience in processions, it must be pronounced a greatly exaggerated
calculation.
634
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The house-carpenters and builders were preceded by
a handsome oblong temple consisting of twenty-four
sides, each representing a State, each side forming an
arch, above the summit of which was inscribed the
name of the State in a blue field. The columns were
white, surmounted by a blue architrave plinth and
cornice, with a cupola roof of variegated blue and
white, surmounted by a cap of liberty of blue and
white silk in spiral stripes with gold fringe. This
temple was built by the journeymen at very short
notice, and was one of the finest features of the pro-
cession ; several old carpenters were seated in the car,
which was drawn by six horses. The brick-makers,
bricklayers, plasterers, stone-cutters, painters and
glaziers, black- and white-smiths, tin-plate workers,
plumbers, and brass-founders were all in the fourth
division. The brick-makers had working cars show-
ing the manufacture from preparing the clay to burn-
ing the bricks. The stone-cutters on a car drawn by
seven horses displayed the corner-stone which they
had prepared for the new Washington monument.
The smiths displayed on a car a forge, anvil, and
working-bench, and heated and hammered iron, and
made horseshoes. The tin-plate workers struck off
medals of tin with the head of Washington, which
were distributed along the streets. The fifth divis-
ion embraced the tailors, cordwainers, and comb-
makers. The latter were accompanied by a car in
which combs were made and distributed. In the
sixth division there were manufacturers and dyers,
who exhibited spinning jennies at work, weaving,
dyeing, bleaching, and finishing. The spinners and
weavers, accompanied by a car on which spinners,
spoolers, and weavers were at work, were succeeded
by the carpet-weavers. The chasers, silversmiths,
jewelers, and engravers struck off and distributed a
medal with a head of Washington. The potters were
at work making jugs, bowls, pitchers, etc. The
printers struck off on a press an ode composed for
the occasion by James N. Barker. The bookbinders
and booksellers, copper-plate printers, tanners and
curriers, morocco- and skin-dressers, plane-makers and
coopers, all exhibited on floats or cars the manner in
which their respective trades were conducted. The
shipwrights and rope-makers, boat-builders, riggers
and sail-makers, ealkers, and block-makers were all
provided with means of displaying the operations of
their respective crafts. The mariners presented one of
the most interesting objects of the procession in the
shape of a full-rigged ship, called the " Washington,"
which was the largest object in the line. The ship
was commanded by Oapt. James Dumphey, First
Lieut. John McKeever, and the other officers and crew
composed of sea-captains. The "Washington" cast
anchor whenever the procession came to a stop, and
hove anchor when it started. The deep-sea lead was
kept going from the mizzen chains and the depth an-
nounced. The captain, with spy-glass, was continually
looking ahead for squalls, and the mimic scene was
amusing. Two models of canal-boats followed. The
ninth division was composed of draymen and carters,
mounted, wearing white aprons and other decorations.
The Horticultural Society pleased all eyes with a
beautiful display of flowers. The tenth division con-
sisted of the Philadelphia Association of Young Men
for Celebrating the Fourth of July without distinction
of party ; the Hunting Park Association, with the trot-
ting horse Top-Gallant, the wonder of the world, and
several other famous race-horses and mounted citizens
on horseback. The firemen made their first appear-
ance in public in a procession on this occasion. There
were thirty-seven companies, men in their uniforms,
engines and carriages decorated, with other features
that were attractive. Here was first introduced in a
firemen's procession a representation of a North
American Indian by the Weccacoe Engine Company,
which was preceded by a chief in full dress. The
twelfth division was entirely civic, officers of colleges,
learned and scientific societies, lawyers, teachers, di-
rectors, and pupils of the public schools, etc. The
Odd-Fellows made their first appearance in public in
this division. The military, in consequence of the
sickness of Maj.-Gen. Cadwalader, was commanded
by Brig.-Gen. Bobert Fatterson, and consisted of the
whole division, cavalry, artillery, and infantry. The
procession started about half-past ten o'clock in the
morning, and moved over a long route. It was not
until six o'clock in the afternoon that the military, at
the end of the line, reached the State-House. It is
necessary to explain that the participants were not
marching all that time. The management was not
good. There were great stops for long periods of
times, which were tedious and fatiguing to those who
participated as well as to the spectators.
On the 22d of February, while the Centennial pro-
cession was passing along Third Street, the corner-
stone of the Philadelphia Exchange was laid in Dock
Street near Walnut. A short address was delivered
upon the occasion by John K. Kane. The persons
interested in this enterprise had been eleven years in
reaching the point which they had now attained. A
design for a merchants' exchange was exhibited at
the Coffee-House in May, 1821, and it was intimated
that the proper place for the building was on the lot
bounded by Third, Walnut, and Dock Streets. It
was then proposed that the principal front of the
building should be upon Dock Street, with a portico
one hundred feet in width. The successful movement
towards the building of an exchange was the result
of a meeting held on the 19th of July, 1831, at which
it was resolved to form a company, and appoint trus-
tees for the stockholders to hold the necessary real
estate in trust until an act of incorporation could be
obtained. The trustees were Stephen Girard, Robert
Balston, Joseph P. Norris, James C. Fisher, and
Joshua Longstreth. The building was constructed
without delay, and was opened for business in 1834.
It was in its time considered the most beautiful edifice
PROGRESS FEOM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
635
in the city. The material was Pennsylvania marble.
The shape that of a parallelogram, ninety-five feet
front on Third Street, one hundred and fourteen feet
on Walnut Street, with a semi-circular radius on
Dock Street of thirty-six feet, making the extreme
length from east to west one hundred and fifty feet.
The eastern front was embellished with a portico of
eight Corinthian columns and antee. The Dock Street
front presented a semicircular portico with eight
similar columns, supporting a roof, above which rose
a lantern forty feet above the roof, pierced with win-
dows and ornamented and modeled after the choragic
monument at Athens, called the Lantern of Demos-
thenes. The lower stories were divided into apart-
ments rented out for various purposes. The United
States post-office occupied nearly the whole of the
northern front on Dock Street. Insurance companies
had their offices on Walnut Street, and brokers occu-
pied offices of a small semicircle on Dock Street. A
wide hall ran through the centre of the building, from
which two flights of marble stairs rose to the entrance
of the main 'change-room in the second story. This
apartment was also approached by marble steps rising
from Walnut Street and Dock Street, flanked and
protected on each side by the marble figure of a lion
and handsomqly-cut scroll work. The main 'change-
room was high, extending to the roof, and marked by
four splendid marble columns which supported the
lantern. The ceilings and walls were painted in fresco
with elegant effect by Monachesi. The main room
was occupied at first by the officers of the Merchants'
Exchange and of the department for shipping news,
and by stands for newspapers from all parts of the
Union, which were arranged from a semicircle in
the rotunda. In time these were removed and placed
in a large room in the north part of the building.
Here, for some years after the building was finished,
the merchants met at the high 'change hour, twelve
o'clock, communicated with each other, arranged for
sales or payments, and did a great deal of business.
Here the public auction sales were held of real estate
and stocks every week, and the exchange-room was a
place at which might be seen upon the news-books,
openly exposed to all every day, shipping and other
news. The building held its position for thirty years,
but gradually fell into mercantile disuse. The Corn
Exchange, a much more vigorous and active asso-
ciation, was formed and took in bright and enter-
prising business men, and in time the Merchants'
Exchange ceased to be used for any mercantile pur-
pose. The stock gradually went into a few hands.
The situation was excellent for business purposes,
and the owners came to consider it as a source of
investment to be measured as to its worth by the
annual value of the rents which it produced.
At the general election in October political feeling
ran high. It was the year of the Presidential elec-
tion. Gen. Jackson was the candidate for re-election,
and there was strong opposition to him. In those
times the city elections being held at the State-House,
each party usually rented and occupied some neigh-
boring building for the purpose of a headquarters.
Transparencies of muslin, upon which were painted
emblematic scenes or allegorical figures or other de-
vices, were common. They were in gaudy colors, but
were very effective when illuminated at night, lights
being placed behind them. At this election the anti-
Jackson headquarters in the city were at the Bolivar
House, an inn kept by Samuel Carlls on the north side
of Chestnut Street west of Sixth, between the Chestnut
Street Theatre and the Arcade. Above the first story
was displayed a transparency representing the arms of
the State of Virginia, an armed figure of Liberty stand-
ing over the body of a prostrate foe, beneath which was
the ordinary motto, " sic semper tyrannis." The streets
were crowded all day. The anti- Jackson transparency
attracted much attention. Somebody in the crowds
gave out that the prostrate figure on the ground was
that of Gen. Jackson, and it was averred that the face
of the man upon the ground was that of " Old Hick-
ory" himself. These stories led to an attack upon the
house in the evening, during which considerable injury
was done to the premises and the transparency broken
and cut by stones. The Jackson headquarters were
opposite the State-House, and symptoms of an attack
by the anti-Jackson men on those premises were ob-
served. By good fortune the police managed to pre-
vent any further outbreak.
The death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, which
took place at Baltimore on the 14th of November,
1832, was subject of a solemn commemoration. Coun-
cils passed a resolution of respect for the memory of
the deceased. John Sergeant was requested to de-
liver an eulogy upon his life and character. A mili-
tary procession in commemoration of his death
marched through the streets, and the proceedings
upon that day wound up with an oration at the Arch
Street Theatre by Anthony Laussat.
The centennial celebration of the birth of Wash-
ington revived the interest which had been displayed
in 1824 in favor of the erection of a monument to the
memory of Washington, towards the cost of which
some contributions had been collected. A meeting
had been held in June, 1832, at which it was resolved
to collect subscriptions for the purpose, and a com-
mittee was appointed to act in conjunction with the
survivors of the committee of 1824. So sanguine
were the parties at this time of their success in ob-
taining funds that they resolved that the corner-stone
of the monument, prepared by the marble-masons
during the procession of February 22d, should be
laid on the 4th of July. Councils gave the necessary
permission. As soon as these enthusiastic gentlemen
began to make their solicitation for money subscrip-
tion they were mortified by the hesitation and indif-
ference with which their requests were met. It was
therefore determined to postpone the laying of the
corner-stone until the 22d of February, 1833. Even
636
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
with so long a time to get ready, the preparations were
scanty. The public generally was given short notice
of the intended ceremonies. In consequence the civic
portion of the parade was meagre. The marble-
masons, to whom the occasion was one of great in-
terest, came out in strong force. The corner-stone was
drawn upon a platform by four white horses. The
hatters turned out, wearing cocked hats of the Revo-
lutionary fashion ; farmers, gardeners, tin-plate work-
ers, tobacconists, cabinet-makers, silver-plate work-
ers, cordwainers, and saddlers, with their banners and
insignia, were the principal participants. They did
not appear in the strength of the previous year.
The military parade was quite respectable. There
were three troops of horse, a battalion of artillery of
five companies, and eleven companies of infantry.
The place assigned for the monument was the central
circular plot in Washington Square. Here an excava-
tion was made, ten or fifteen feet deep, in the course of
which the remains of several of the ancient tenants
of that ground were unearthed. After the stone was
laid an address was delivered by Dr. W. C. Draper,
chairman of the committee on celebration. David
Paul Brown followed, Bishop William White, of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, offered a prayer, and
the ceremonies were concluded. The stone was cov-
ered up with care in the anticipation that the monu-
ment would soon be commenced. It has never been
disturbed. After fifty years it remains where it was
placed.1
Another result of the centennial parade was the
encouragement of the firemen to arrange a procession
of their own companies and apparatus. Flattered
and surprised by the applause lavished on them, they
chose the 27th of March, the anniversary of the for-
mation of the Fire Association, as the day of their
parade. Forty fire-engine and hose companies par-
ticipated. Jacob E. Lancaster was chief marshal,
assisted by numerous aids, and the procession marched
over a long route, and closed up the day with a fine
ball at Musical Fund Hall.2
1 The Washington monument fund of 1824 and 1832 not being sufficient
to authorize the commencement of any work, came eventually into the
possession of Joseph Ingeraoll, as surviving trustee, appointed by the
meeting of 1832. On the death of Mr. Ingersoll, Alexander Purves,
president of the Philadelphia Saving Fund, held the subscription moneys
for some years. They had been carefully invested, and the interest re-
invested during the trusteeship of these gentlemen, and amounted to a
respectable sum, which finally, by decree of the Court of Common
Pleas, was given in charge to a trust company. About the beginning
of 1882 the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, which had com-
menced the collection of a fund for the erection of a monument to
Washington in 1811, made application to the Court of Common Pleas that
the monument funds of 1824 and 1832 should be paid over to them, their
purpose being the Bame as was intended by persons who gave their
money to the citizens' committees. The amount of the citizens' funds
was about fifty thousand dollars. The Cincinnati Society fund was
one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. By decree the petition was
granted, and the Cincinnati Society now having one hundred and eighty
thousand dollars for the purpose of building the monument, measures
were taken to obtain designs and set the work of preparation in motion.
2 In after-years the firemen's parades were brilliant events. The com-
panies were strongly governed by emulation and rivalry in the matter of
On the 8th of June, President Andrew Jackson,
who had determined to make a tour of the Northern
cities, arrived in Philadelphia. He landed from the
steamboat " Ohio," which had brought him from
New Castle to the wharf at the United States navy-
yard, where he was received with a warm welcome
by the large crowd of citizens there attending. The
appearance of " Old Hickory" was striking. His
tall figure, and peculiar and strong-marked counte-
nance, and clothing which was not cut according to
the latest Philadelphia fashions, was surmounted by
a high white hat, with a brim of generous size, above
which black crape appeared. At the navy-yard the
President was seated in a barouche, after a salute of
twenty-one guns, and escorted by the First City
Troop, Capt. Hart, National Troop, Capt. Eiley, and
the Washington Cavalry and Montgomery Troop.
A civic parade of committees in carriages and horse-
men in citizen's dress followed, and proceeded to the
City Hotel, HeiskelPs, on Third Street, near Arch.
There was a strong political feeling at the time,
which had been much increased by the measures
taken by Jackson against the Bank of the United
States. In some portions of the county the demon-
strations were uproarious, but in the city they were
not marked nor enthusiastic. The next day being
Sunday the President attended divine worship at the
First Presbyterian Church, on which occasion an
excellent sermon was preached by the Rev. Albert
duty and the decoration uf their apparatus. A style of ornamentation
with paintings and emblems grew almost barbaric with ornaments of pol-
ished copper, brass, silver, and gold, and with mirrors and inlaid mother-
of-pearl and other elegancies. The banners were decorated with the
finest paintings by artists of merit. The uniforms were almost always
new. There were great displays of artificial flowers- and tinsel on the
apparatus, which were frequently loaded down with them. The mouths
of silver and brass trumpets were filled with bouquets of flowers, and
there were great displays of ribbons and other adornments. The com-
panies paraded with their full strength, and frequently there were from
six thousand to eight thousand firemen in line. The following are the
dates of these parades, with the names of the chief marshals up to the
time when the volunteer department was superseded by the department
established by the city of Philadelphia:
1832, February 22. In centennial procession; Alexander Henry, of
Hope Hose.
1833, March 27th. First parade, Jacob B. Lancaster, Southwark Hose
Company.
1834, March 27th. Second parade, George K. Childs, Good Intent Hose
Company.
1837, March 27th. Third parade, John Price Wetherill, Philadelphia
Hose Company.
1840, March 27th. Fourth parade, Peter Fritz, Perseverance Ho6e
Company.
1843, March 27th. Fifth parade, John T. Donnelly, Pennsylvania Hose
Company.
1846, Marcli 27th. Sixth parade, Thomas Graham, Southwark Engine
Company.
1846, March 27th. Seventh parade, Edward S. Wester, Globe Engine
Company.
1849, May 1st. [Extra parade.] Edward S. Wester, Globe Engine Com-
pany.
1852, May 3d. Eighth parade, David Matthews, Franklin Hose Com-
pany.
1857, May 5th. Ninth parade, John F. Gibson, Northern Liberties Hose
Company.
1865, October 16th. Tenth parade, Henry B. Bobb, Washington Engine
Company.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
637
Barnes. Previous to his arrival, City Councils had
appointed a committee to tender the proper expres-
sions of respect for the chief magistrate, and to offer
him the use of Independence Hall as a place for the
reception of his friends. Mayor Swift and members
of both Councils, with the aldermen and city officers,
formally received him there on Monday morning.
The Hon. Louis McLane, Secretary of War, and
Hon. Lewis Cass, with Mr. Donaldson, the private
secretary, were present. Citizens were then admitted,
and for more than two hours a continuous line of per-
sons of all ages and sexes filed into the room, passed
by the President, and bowed to him or shook hands,
and then passed through the southern window in the
State-House yard. Several thousand persons took
part in these ceremonies, which lasted two hours.
Afterwards the President, mounted on a large white
horse, was escorted by a strong body of volunteers,
under the command of Maj.-Gen. Robert Patterson,
through the streets of the city, over a long route, ex-
tending as far northeast as Beach and Maiden Streets,
to Twelfth Street on the west, and to Catherine Street
on the south. The parade ended at the City Hotel.
The next day Gen. Jackson left the city for New
York.
At the same time that the President was in the city
the Indian chief Black Hawk, with other warriors,
who had been on a visit to Washington, were also in
town. This party was lodged in Congress Hall, in
Third Street above Chestnut. The mayor and a dele-
gation of the City Council took charge of them and
went with them to places of interest in the neighbor-
hood of the city. The Indians viewed the procession
accompanying the President from their hotel. They
left town a day or two afterwards. A bitter political
controversy followed these receptions. The Demo-
cratic papers charged boldly that the mayor (John
Swift) and Councils of the city had decidedly insulted
the President of the United States, and had made the
reception of Indian captives the pretext for neglect-
ing the chief magistrate. On the part of the city
officers this was denied. They cited the resolutions
passed by Councils before the President came and the
reception at Independence Hall, in which they, as
city officers, participated. They denied the practice
of any discourtesy, and argued that after their own
forma] reception it was their duty to leave the Presi-
dent in the hands of his attached friends. However
this might be, it was clear that the mayor and Coun-
cils were bitterly hostile to the President on political
grounds. Their courtesy might have been up to the
boundary of exact politeness, but it did not go be-
yond it, while the attentions paid to the Indians
were so marked that the contrast seemed offensive.
As an offset to these shortcomings, at a later period
in the year the reception of Henry Clay by mayor
and City Councils in November was noted. Clay was
the idol of the anti-Jackson party. He was received
by a procession of citizens at Kensington, where he
landed from steamboat, November 23d. He was met
officially by the mayor and Councils at Independence
Hall, and many courtesies were extended.
John Randolph, of Roanoke, Va., an eccentric
statesman and politician, died at the City Hotel on
the 24th of May. He had come to the city for med-
ical treatment, and was under the ministrations of
Dr. Joseph Parrish. He had been minister to Russia
in 1830-31, and was about to return to Europe at the
time of his death. A public meeting was held on the
day after his death in the District Court room of the
United States, of which the Hon. Joseph Hopkinson
was chairman and the Hon. John G. Watmough sec-
retary. A committee was appointed " to confer with
the personal friends of the deceased, and if consistent
with their views and feelings, to make arrangements
for uniting with them in a public tribute of respect to
the remains of our distinguished countryman, the late
John Randolph, of Virginia, whose death in the
midst of us has peculiarly reminded us of the splen-
did contribution his talents and genius through along
public life have made to the reputation of our coun-
try." Nicholas Biddle was made chairman of this
committee, and he addressed immediately John S.
Barbour, Henry E. Watkins, and William J. Barks-
dale, citizens of Virginia and friends of Mr. Ran-
dolph, who returned suitable acknowledgments in
reply. But they declined any ceremonies of a fune-
real character in Philadelphia, saying, " The wish
which he avowed for the removal of his mortal re-
mains and their interment within his native land will
make their early departure necessary. And the delay
that must follow any further tribute of respect to
the memory of the deceased than that already mani-
fested by the inhabitants of this city would be at-
tended with great inconvenience."
In August a riot took place between whites and
blacks, which was much more serious than any oc-
currence of that character previously known. The
abolitionists were beginning to be active in their op-
position to slavery. Their efforts occasioned great
indignation at the South, and there was a strong
body of sympathizers at the North to demonstrate
their prejudices. A slight cause was sufficient to excite
these feelings to active, hostilities. There was an ex-
hibition of flying-horses in a temporary building upon
a lot on the north side of South Street above Seventh.
Blacks and whites were visitors to this show, and some
difficulties between persons present led to strife of no
serious character. The story, however, that the ne-
groes had insulted the whites got out, and led to the
institution of measures which were originated in
another part of the city. On the night of the 12th
of August a large party of young men, who were
supposed to have come from the Northern Liberties
Kensington, and Spring Garden, made their appear-
ance at the flying-horse exhibition and stimulated a
quarrel, in the excitement of which they attacked the
machinery and apparatus used in the show, which they
638
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
totally destroyed, as well as the building in which the
exhibition had been given, after which they retired,
and there was no further disturbance on that night.
News of these transactions was circulated through the
city the next day, and in the evening a far greater
crowd than had yet assembled marched down Seventh
Street to an open lot near the Pennsylvania Hospital,
where they were joined by others. They were mostly
boys and young men, and nearly all of them were sup-
plied with clubs or sticks. From the lot this mob re-
paired to Mary Street in the city, and to Bedford and
Baker Streets in Moyamensing, in which colored peo-
ple mostly resided. Here the crowd commenced the
destruction of property, breaking windows, battering
down doors, and entering the houses, which were
stripped of their furniture, which was thrown into
the streets and broken. The police force of Moya-
mensing were unable to suppress these rioters, and
their ravages extended to Shippen Street and Sev-
enth Street, and as far down Small Street as Fifth or
Sixth. The negroes, whenever they were caught, were
assaulted and beaten mercilessly, and the most sav-
age feeling prevailed. The rioters were put to flight
by the arrival of two divisions of the city police,
headed by Mayor John Swift and High Constable
Willis H. Blaney. Marching boldly upon the mob
they attacked them, securing about twenty prisoners.
In these proceedings the whites who resided in the
neighborhood escaped injury by reason of displaying
lights in their windows. The next day the civil au-
thorities, which had allowed two nights of riot to go
by without attempt, except on the second night, to
interfere with it, were thoroughly awake. Three
hundred special constables were sworn in and placed
under command of Peter A. Browne. The City Troop,
Capt. Hart, and the Washington Grays, Capt. Wor-
rell, were ordered under arms, and remained at their
armories all night. The posse comitatus assembled
about eight o'clock and marched down to the hospital
lot, and thence to the neighborhood of the disturbances
of the previous evening. A new excitement was
active in the neighborhood, under a rumor that the
hall of the African Grand Lodge of Masons, Seventh
Streetbelow Lombard, westside, was filled with several
hundred armed negroes. Expressions of determina-
tion to destroy the building were heard. The posse
marched on the ground. Mayor Swift addressed the
persons present, exhorting them to keep the peace.
Officers who entered the hall found that there were
black men there who were very much frightened.
They were told to depart, which they did without
much ceremony. The posse remained until after
twelve o'clock, by which time the crowd had dispersed.
In the mean while there was an excitement elsewhere.
Near the Wharton Market upon Moyamensing road
there was a small meeting-house used by a congrega-
tion of colored people. Some demonstration had been
made on the previous evening in that neighborhood,
but there were no overt acts. Late in the evening a
story went into circulation that some boys passing the
meeting-house were fired upon from a dwelling-house
in the neighborhood. A mob soon collected and pro-
ceeded to tear down the meeting-house. It was a
slight structure, which stood upon posts rising from
the ground. These were cut through with axes.
Popes were attached to the upper parts of the build-
ing, at which the mob pulled until the whole struc-
ture came down and was entirely broken up. Some
eight or ten houses in the neighborhood were also
attacked and the windows broken. News of these dis-
turbances were sent to the city, and Peter A. Browne
marched down with a portion of the posse comitatus.
They arrived on the ground about ten o'clock and
found everything quiet, the rioters having dispersed.
At a subsequent meeting of citizens it was estimated
that the damage done during these riots amounted to
four thousand dollars, and a committee was appointed
to make collections toward a fund to reimburse the
sufferers.
A murder, committed in the neighborhood of the
Locust Ward election-poll, near Twelfth and Locust
Streets, on the 3d of October, presented a mystery
which was never cleared up. William Perry, a young
man, standing in the evening conversing with a friend
at a position some distance from the crowd, and on
the opposite side of the street, was suddenly killed.
Some circumstance happening near the polls created
a scattering in the crowd. Persons ran across the
street in the direction where Perry was standing, and
while passing him some one stabbed him several times,
so that he died in a few hours. There was apparently
no motive for this crime, certainly no justification in
anything which Perry had done. He had not been
engaged in any recent quarrel, and was not among
the persons who might have been in dispute near the
polls. The attack was sudden and unexpected, and
so quick in action that the murderer escaped before
the perpetration of his crime was even suspected.
Large rewards were offered for the arrest of the as-
sailants. Some few persons, against whom nothing
could be proved, were arrested and discharged, and
the perpetrator was never discovered. The body of
Perry was buried on the succeeding Sunday, and was
attended by an immense crowd of persons, being the
largest funeral that had ever taken place in the city
up to that time. The Democratic Association of
Locust Ward afterwards erected a monument to the
memory of Perry.
A few days afterwards, on the 14th, the general
election took place amid much excitement. In Moya-
mensing the citizens voted for the first time at the
Commissioners' Hall, Christian Street between Ninth
and Tenth. There were some disturbances in the
evening at one of the voting windows between rival
partisans, which resulted in scuffling and blows. The
Jackson men in Moyamensing were at the time in the
minority. They were driven away from the polls and
their lamps broken. The fight was shifted to the
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
639
ground to the east of the hall, where the Jackson
headquarters were held in two tents, in front of which
was a hickory pole. The Whigs drove the Jackson
men away, demolished their tents, and cut down the
pole. This was the end of the disturbance at that
time, but news of the circumstance having been car-
ried to the polls at Southwark, large numbers of per-
sons went over to Moyamensing, and a Jackson dele-
gation marching down from the Northern Liberties
joined the crowd. The new-comers reinforced the
Jackson men of Moyamensing greatly, and methods
of revenge and retribution were determined upon.
Opposite the hall, at the northeast corner of Christian
and Montcalm Streets, stood the Whig headquarters,
in a three-story brick house, in front of which was a
tall liberty-pole. The mob in revenge for the cutting
down of the Jackson hickory-tree attempted to pros-
trate this pole. The lower portion was strapped with
iron, and the accomplishment of the task was rather
difficult. Assaults were made upon the headquarters
in which the Whigs had taken refuge, and then new
efforts were made against the pole. At this moment
the parties in the Whig headquarters fired from the
upper windows with muskets loaded with buckshot.
Fifteen or twenty persons were wounded in the crowd,
one of whom, James Bath, afterward died. Ren-
dered desperate by this attack, the mob rushed against
the doors and windows of the headquarters, which
were broken in by main force. The inmates were
assaulted, and got out the best they could. The
windows were broken and the furniture thrown into
the street. While these things were going on a fire
had been kindled with wood placed around the lib-
erty-pole. As they could not cut it down by reason
of the iron hooping around the lower portion, they
endeavored to burn it down. Whether the house
adjoining caught from the pole was not known. In
a short time it was on fire, and the flames spread to a
row of four dwelling-houses on the east. The prem-
ises were known as Robb's Row, and some of the
houses were inhabited. The light of the fire created
an alarm. Fire-engines and hose-carriages came from
other portions of the city. They encountered an in-
furiated mob, which had determined that the prop-
erty should not be saved. The firemen were ordered
to desist their active efforts to save the property. The
hose was cut, their engines defaced, and some of the
firemen dragged from their apparatus were terribly
beaten. They could do nothing, and before morning
Robb's Row was totally destroyed. The loss upon
the property fell upon the tenants and on James
Robb, the owner of the houses. A meeting was
called afterward at which it was resolved to com-
pensate these sufferers. Nothing of importance was
effected by these measures. On the 11th of March,
1836, the General Assembly passed an act for the
relief of James Robb and others by reason of the
damages sustained during these riots. The Court of
Quarter Sessions was authorized to issue a venire and
summon a jury to inquire into the damages, and on
their certificate the same should be paid, providing
that the sum did not amount to more than six thou-
sand dollars. This was followed in the succeeding
June by an act which afterward became very impor-
tant in its operations upon the city treasury. "In
case any dwelling-house or any other building or
property, real or personal, shall be injured or de-
stroyed within said city and county of Philadelphia,
in consequence of any mob or riot therein at any
election, or at any other time, it shall be lawful for
the owner thereof, or his agent, to apply in the county
to the Court of Quarter Sessions, and if in the city to
the Mayor's Court, who shall thereupon appoint six
disinterested persons, who shall be sworn or affirmed,
to ascertain and report the amount of said loss, and
also whether the said owner had any immediate or
active participation in the said mob or riot, and on
such report being made, and the fact that the owner
had no such participation being ascertained and the
report being confirmed on an examination of the law
and fact by said court, the said report and confir-
mation shall be certified to the County Commissioners,
who shall forthwith draw their warrant on the treas-
ury for the amount so awarded, which warrant shall
be duly paid by the treasurer." Under the special act
for the relief of Mr. Robb the full amount named in
the act, six thousand dollars, was paid to him and
other sufferers by the fire.
In the country at this time there was strong politi-
cal excitement among the people in reference to the
measures which the government, under the influence
of President Jackson, had taken against the Bank of
the United States. The latter was a Philadelphia in-
stitution, and citizens of Philadelphia were to a large
degree stockholders. Whatever touched the bank
affected also the interests of the city, it was argued,
and in no part of the Union was hostility to the ad-
ministration of Gen. Jackson more openly pronounced.
The bill to recharter the United States Bank was
vetoed by President Jackson on the 10th of July,
1832, a measure which created indignant protest and
bitterness of feeling among large classes of persons.
As early as August, 1833, circulars were sent by di-
rection of the President to various State banks, in-
quiring if they would receive the deposits of govern-
ment moneys if the President should decide to remove
the funds from the Bank of the United States. On
the 18th of September, in the same year, the President
read to the members of his cabinet his reasons for the
removal of the deposits from the national bank. The
principal reasons given were that the bank had en-
tered the political arena, and had exerted its vast in-
fluence to the promulgation of certain political prin-
ciples which, it may be said, were not those which
were held by the government. President Jackson said
that in sixteen months, ending shortly before the veto,
the bank had increased its loans over twenty-eight
million dollars, with the intention of bringing a large
640
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
number of people under its power and influence, and
that a considerable part of this fund had been appro-
priated towards subsidizing conductors of the press.
For these reasons and others named, the President
declared that it was no longer safe to allow the public
moneys to remain in the possession of the Bank of
the United States. The 1st of October, 1833, was
named as the day on which the deposits should be
removed. Great efforts were made to prevent this
dreaded consummation. The bank appointed a com-
mittee to examine the charges made by the President,
which made report in December. The institution was
defended against the specific charges of malfeasance.
The statement of the increase of the loans of the in-
stitution was declared to be a great exaggeration, and
the figures named were eleven million dollars more
than the actual amount of the loans. The withdrawal
of the government deposits from the bank was de-
nounced as a gross violation of the contract. The
financial results were deplorable. The Bank of the
United States and the State banks, in a policy of pre-
caution and safety, began to draw in their loans and
curtail their circulations, and pressed for the pay-
ment of debts due them. Distress and difficulty fol-
lowed from the pressure. Large numbers of persons
could not pay their debts, and became insolvent.
Wages were reduced. Industry was depressed. Work-
men were discharged. Prices fell, and all over the
country there was suffering and distress. The Board
of Trade, on the 1st of January, 1834, passed resolu-
tions which declared that the sudden change which
had come over the community and spread gloom and
apprehension throughout the great interests which
support its prosperity could be ascribed to no other
cause than the policy of the government towards the
Bank of the United States, and that nothing would
counteract those evils and restore the confidence of
the people in their future prospects than the restora-
tion of the Bank of the United States to the station
it had heretofore held as an agent of the government.
This was followed by a memorial from the following
banks of Philadelphia: North America, Pennsyl-
vania, Commercial, Mechanics', Penn Township, Man-
ufacturers' and Mechanics', Moyamensing, Schuylkill,
Farmers' and Mechanics'. The officers of these in-
stitutions stated that the removal of the government
deposits from the United States Bank to the State
banks was a disorganization of the whole moneyed
system and the whole revenue system of the country;
the manner in which the national bank controlled the
currency was declared to be salutary, and kept it in a
healthful condition. The restoration of the deposits
to the Bank of the United States was a measure which
these banks declared to be absolutely necessary. In
this memorial the Philadelphia, Western, Southwark,
Kensington, Northern Liberties, and Girard Banks
did not join. The latter had already become one of
the deposit banks, a measure about the propriety
of which there was considerable difference among the
stockholders. The Councils of the city passed reso-
lutions against the removal of the deposits, and urged,
among other reasons, the fact that the stocks of the
Girard estate had depreciated by the amount of
$312,304.18.
Felix Murray was hanged in this year for the mur-
der of Joseph Sutcliff in November, 1833. The latter
was sitting at home with his wife and children.
Murray came in carrying a leather wheelbarrow-
strap. Another person also entered with a club.
They attacked Sutcliff with both weapons, and beat
him so severely that he died. Murray was convicted
of murder in the first degree.
On the 15th of April the United States senator,
William C. Preston, and Representative George Mc-
Duffee, of South Carolina, addressed a meeting at
Musical Fund Hall, which was called in opposition
to the measures of President Jackson. About this
time news had been received of an anti-Jackson vic-
tory in New York. The name Whig, as distinctive
of the opposition party, had just been adopted. Reso-
lutions were passed complimentary to the Whigs of
New York, and it was resolved to celebrate their vic-
tory by a public festival to be held at Powelton, the
country-seat of John Hare Powel, on the west side of
the Schuylkill, between the Market Street and the
Callowhill Street bridges. A committee of one hun-
dred was appointed to make the necessary prepara-
tions. They acted with great liberality, and there
were placed upon the ground an immense stock of
provisions, — boiled ham, beef tongue, crackers and
cheese, bread, and other articles, — with a large stock
of ale, beer, porter, and cider. Refreshment-stands
were set up in various parts of the ground, and every-
body could eat and drink without stint. A matter
quite unusual was the throwing open the bridges at
High and Callowhill Streets to all passengers free of
toll. This was a great novelty, and had considerable
influence in swelling the crowd, the number of which
was computed to be sixty thousand persons. In the
cify many stores and factories were shut, and all who
were usually engaged therein went out to the " Pow-
elton Jubilee," as the fete was officially denominated.
A large delegation of the Whigs from New York ar-
rived at Chestnut Street wharf about two o'clock in
the afternoon, and the persons composing it were es-
corted to the public grounds. Here there had also
been erected a very large platform and booth for
speaking. Speeches were made by Josiah Randall,
David Paul Brown, James C. Biddle, and Col. James
Watson Webb, editor of the New York Courier and
Inquirer.
The steamboat " William Penn," a new and hand-
some boat which belonged to the People's Line be-
tween Philadelphia and Baltimore, while coming up
the river Delaware on the 4th of March was dis-
covered, when near Greenwich Point, to be on fire.
The flames progressed so rapidly that the captain de-
cided to run the boat on the flats below the navy-yard.
PKOGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
641
This was done, but the change in the direction of the
vessel brought the burning portions to the windward
side and the flames swept completely across the decks.
The bow of the vessel was in shallow water, and the
persons who were on board the boat could jump over-
board and wade on shore, but those who were on the
stern were compelled to jump into the deep water and
risk the chances of swimming to the shore; five per-
sons were drowned, — the Rev. John Mitchelmore, of
Lewes, Del., Col. Joseph S. Porter, W. W. Buckley,
a merchant of Connecticut, and a lady and child.
The boat, with its furniture, was totally destroyed,
entailing a loss of seventy thousand dollars.
Information of the death of Gen. Lafayette, at
Paris, was received in June. Councils of the city
passed resolutions of regret, and resolved that there
should be a procession of commemoration on the 21st
of July. It was civic in character, participated in by
officers of the city and district corporations, members
of benevolent societies, and several fire and hose
companies. The commemorative exercises were held
at Zion Lutheran Church, southeast corner of Fourth
and Cherry Streets. A prayer was made by Bishop
White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and an
oration was delivered by Peter S. Du Ponceau, the
friend and military companion of Lafayette during
the Revolution.
The dullness of the times, the diminution of wages,
and the necessity which existed for reducing the
number of mechanics and laborers employed in many
industrial pursuits were met by the parties most in-
terested with counter demonstrations. A trades-union
society had been established in the city and county in
the previous year. According to the counsels of the
leading members, a remedy for the distress and pinch-
ing necessities of a portion of the people was to
shorten the hours of labor, while the remuneration
should remain at the old standard. The trades-union
resolved that twelve hours ought to be the utmost
limit of a day's work, and in that time one hour
should be allowed for breakfast and one for dinner.
The actual working hours were therefore only ten.
But the ultimatum was expressed in the phrase and
motto prevalent in the newspapers, chalked on fences,
and exposed in the windows and stores of persons who
desired the custom and influence of working men,
" from six to six.'' These cabalistic words were seen
everywhere. The agitation was kept up with per-
sistence. Meetings were held by various classes of
mechanics. Speeches were made, and resolutions
passed. The claim was not considered unreasonable
on the part of citizens not engaged in mechanical
employments. On the contrary, there was a strong
feeling that the demand was just, and that the con-
cession ought to be made to toiling men. By degrees
the various trades came into this movement. The
employers yielded. In June, City Councils directed
that the hours from six to six shall be allowed to all
persons in public employment.
41
The feelings of animosity against people of color,
which had previously been manifested, were again
brought forth conspicuously through an unfortunate
circumstance. Robert R. Stewart, who had been
United States consul to Trinidad, resided on the east
side of Sixth Street, between Prune and Walnut.
He had in his service a native African boy, called
Jjian, who was a native of the Eboe nation, the rep-
resentatives of which bore the character of being
vindictive, revengeful, and easily moved to anger.
Juan had been brought to the United States from
the West Indies by Mr. Stewart. For some reason
not known he determined to take the life of his mas-
ter. An attack was made upon Stewart while sleep-
ing of an afternoon in his chamber, and the butt end
of a hatchet was used in a shocking manner upon the
head of that unfortunate gentleman. He was fright-
fully mutilated and injured, and it was supposed that
he would never recover. He did live, and died sev-
eral years afterwards. Juan attacked Stewart on the
12th of July. A statement of the circumstances in
the newspapers of the next day created excitement,
and in the evening crowds began to assemble in the
neighborhood of Sixth and Locust Streets. The city
authorities had learned something from the events of
previous years, and a large body of watchmen and
police were assembled near the lower portion of the
city, in the neighborhood of Sixth, Seventh, Lom-
bard, and South Streets. Crowds began to assemble
in that neighborhood, composed of men and half-
grown boys, iu the early part of the evening. They
were dispersed about the neighborhood, talking to-
gether, in small groups. Rendered prudent by the
presence of the police of the city, they carried their
destructive propensities into an adjoining district,
and commenced an attack upon houses occupied by
colored people in Small Street, between Sixth and
Seventh. The inmates were beaten and put to flight,
and their furniture destroyed. From this place their
ravages were carried upon Seventh and Shippen
Streets. Thence the destruction was transferred to
"Red Row," — eight or nine houses on Eighth Street
below Shippen. The mob here made a discrimina-
tion. All the young colored men that could be
found were assaulted, because the young men were
generally saucy, but^the old men and women of color
were not injured. During the proceedings " Red
Row'7 was set on fire, and all the houses were de-
stroyed.
The mob were unrestrained by the presence of
police, and from Eighth and Shippen they pro-
ceeded to Christian and Ninth Streets, where several
brick and frame houses were attacked. Some of
these were defended by the owners, and several shots
were fired from them, two persons in the mob being
wounded. The houses were finally entered, but the
residents had escaped. Meanwhile the fire kindled
at " Red Row" had been burning, and when the fire-
men came to perform the duties [of their mission
642
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
they were opposed by the mob, which attempted to
cut their hose and to prevent them from playing on
the premises. The firemen persevered, and fought
their way, and succeeded in saying all but the house
which was first set on fire. Houses in Fitzwater Street
were attacked and injured, and, coming back to Ship-
pen Street, fresh assaults were made on buildings
which were passed by at the beginning of the dis-
turbances. By these occurrences the colored people
in the lower part of the city were frightened to a de-
gree of terror which had not affected them in previous
years. On the day afterwards hundreds of families
moved out of the neighborhood of the previous day's
destruction, or, locking up their houses, sought refuge
where they could find it. Numbers of men, women,
and children bivouacked in the woods and fields, and
several of the fugitives were given shelter in barns
and outhouses.
In the evening of Tuesday, the 14th, crowds again
began to assemble in the neighborhood of Sixth and
South Streets. On the rumor that a house on St.
Mary Street was garrisoned by armed blacks the mob
proceeded there. The statement was true. Fifty or
sixty colored men were in the building, armed with
knives, razors, bludgeons, and pistols, besides a great
store of bricks and paving-stones placed in the third
story to be hurled at an attacking party. These men
were desperate, and were rendered savage by the oc-
currences of the two previous days. The city police
force was ready to prevent the assault intended to be
made by the whites upon the house, and at the same
time were charged with the difficult duty of getting
the colored men away in safety. The matter was
finally managed, and there were no further disturb-
ances.
The members of the Abolition party were active at
this period in the Northern States. They were few
in number but greatly in earnest, exceedingly indus-
trious, and ready to adopt any policy which would
annoy slave-holders or render the holding of slaves
unpopular. The Southern people, passionate and
deeply interested in slaves as property, were much
excited. There was an equal degree of hostility to
abolitionism in the North, partly sympathetic with
the Southern people, and partly controlled by pre-
judice. The Abolition societies were active. They
were publishing newspapers, pamphlets, and tracts,
in which slave-holders and the practice of slave-hold-
ing were attacked by argument, invective, sarcasm,
and ridicule. Many citizens not connected in interest
with slave-holders believed that from the character
of the Southern people, and the continuing perversity
of the Abolitionists, dreadful consequences would
ensue. In order to assure the Southern people that
their rights were respected by others than members
of the Abolition societies, a town-meeting was held
on the 24th of August at Musical Fund Hall. A
series of strong resolutions were presented by Robert
T. Conrad. They deprecated agitation upon the sub-
ject of slavery, censured the formation of Abolition
societies as unwise and dangerous and menacing to
the peace of the Union, pledged the friendship and
sympathy of the citizens of Philadelphia to the South,
and declared that they regarded " the dissemination
of incendiary publications through the slave States
with indignation and horror." A circumstance which
unexpectedly happened on the day succeeding gave
to the persons who were prominent at this meeting
an opportunity to prove their sincerity. On the ar-
rival of a steamboat from New York, a wooden box,
directed to a citizen of Philadelphia, was accidentally
broken open by laborers. To the dismay of those
who examined the box " it was found to be stuffed
with incendiary publications." There were packages
of the Liberator, of Human Rights, The Slave's Friend,
and other papers and publications directed to persons
in the Southern States. The officers of the meeting
of the night previous were apprised of the grave cir-
cumstances, and they consulted with each other as to
what had best be done. The person to whom the box
was directed was waited upon. He denied all knowl-
edge of the package, where it came from, or who sent
it, and surrendered all rights that he might have in it
to the committee. Upon this the latter, with about
one hundred other persons, went to the transportation
office, and upon a vote being taken, it was decided to
carry the box out upon the river Delaware, where its
contents should be destroyed. This sentence was
solemnly performed. The Liberators and the Slave's
Friend, etc., were consigned to the waters. "The whole
affair," said the Pennsylvania Inquirer, " was conducted
in a spirit which exhibited a fixed purpose to resist
everything like the circulation of incendiarism of any
description, and at the same time to avoid any im-
proper excitement among ourselves."
John Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, died at the boarding-house of
Mrs. Crim, in Walnut Street, between Fourth and
Fifth, on the 6th of July. He had been in the city a
short time, and was expected to return to Virginia,
but was not able to proceed in consequeuce of sickness.
The information of his death was contained in the
newspapers of the 7th. On the afternoon of the same
day a town-meeting of citizens was held, of which
Bishop William White, of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, was president, Benjamin R. Morgan and
Thomas M. Pettit vice-presidents, and Nicholas Bid die
and Judge Edward King secretaries. Resolutions were
passed expressive of sorrow and of admiration for the
character of the deceased, " that as he has died in the
midst of this community, it feels itself as specially
called upon to express its sentiments of respect for
his memory. And as the citizens of Philadelphia
would have rejoiced to meet him in life with every
mark of hospitality, they will extend to his honored
remains the testimony of their unfeigned veneration."
They resolved that they would form a funeral proces-
sion, to move from the late residence of the deceased
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
643
to the place of the embarkation of his body. On
the same day the members of the bar held a meeting,
Peter S. Du Ponceau being chairman and Justice
Charles Smith, of the Supreme Court, being secretary.
Resolutions of admiration for the character of the late
chief justice were passed, and it was recommended to
the bar of the United States to co-operate in erecting
a monument to his memory at some suitable place in
the city of Washington. A committee of thirty mem-
bers of the bar, William Rawle being president, was
appointed to carry out this design and to confer with
their brethren in other parts of the Union in carrying
the resolution into effect.1
At the bar meeting a committee, consisting of Asso-
ciate Justice Baldwin, of the Supreme Court, Richard
Peters, Jr., John Sergeant, William Rawle, Jr., Thomas
I. Wharton, and Edward D. Ingraham, was appointed
to accompany the remains of Chief Justice Marshall
to the city of Richmond, and to attend the funeral
there. John Sergeant was requested to deliver an
eulogium upon the character of the deceased.
City Councils at special meeting also passed reso-
lutions of regret, and determined to attend the remains
of the lamented deceased beyond the borders of Penn-
sylvania, and that the mayor, recorder, aldermen,
and citizens be invited to assist in paying this tribute
of respect to his distinguished character and services.
Horace Binney was invited to pronounce an eulogium
on the character of the chief justice. The American
Philosophical Society requested Judge Joseph Hop-
kinson to prepare an obituary notice.
On the morning of July 8th, about five o'clock, the
remains of Chief Justice Marshall were removed from
Mrs. Crim's boarding-house, and, attended by city
officers and Councils, members of the bar and citizens,
were carried by the most direct route to the steamboat
lying at the foot of Chestnut Street wharf. The
mayor and Councils and many citizens went down
with the boat as far as New Castle, and the bar com-
mittee traveled to Richmond. Mr. Binney's oration
was delivered at Musical Fund Hall, on the 24th of
September.
On the 21st of March, City Councils passed an ordi-
nance "for the construction and management of the
Philadelphia Gas- Works." Thus was effected the so-
lution of a controversy which had been carried on for
1 The amount realized was small. Little response was made outside
of Philadelphia, and the total collections were discouraging. The gen-
tlemen who held the trust managed it with fidelity, and continual invest-
ment of the interest added to the principal. In the course of forty-seven
years the fuud had increased to such an amount that it was considered
the time had come to carry out the resolution of 1835. Peter Mc-
Call, the last survivor of the committee of thirty, held the fund. At his
death the papers and securities were found'by his executors. The Law
Association of Philadelphia taking the place of the departed trustees, all
of whom had been members of that flociety, petitioned Congress in 1883
for the erection of the monumental statue in memory of Chief Justice
Marshall at the city of Washington. As nearly the whole cost was to be
supplied from the Philadelphia fund, there was no difficulty about the
passage of the resolution, and the necessary authority of Congress was
given.
many years. »The first inflammable gas used for illu-
minating purposes was made in 1796, by Michael
Ambroise & Co., Italian fire-workers, who had an
amphitheatre for exhibitions on Arch Street between
Eighth and Ninth. They displayed representations
of temples, masonic emblems, and allegorical devices,
which they said were produced by "inflammable air,
with the assistance of light." J. C. Henfrey, in 1803,
made a proposition to Councils to light the city by
gas-lights burned in high towers. James McMurtrie,
in 1817, petitioned Councils for liberty to introduce
gas-lighting.
In 1816, Dr. Charles Kugler exhibited to the public
at Peale's Museum, in the State-House, "gas-lights,
lamps burning without wick or oil." This effect it was
said was produced " with carbonated hydrogen gas,
on a new and improved plan." This lighting took
place in April. The effect was so satisfactory that
Warren & Wood, of the new theatre, introduced the
gas-lights at the fall season, commencing November
25th of the same year. Dr. Kugler was not a prac-
ticing physician, although he had received a scien-
tific education. He was a member of the firm of
Pratt & Kugler, merchants. William Henry, copper-
smith and tinsmith, constructed the apparatus for
the use of the gas at the museum and theatre. He
was so well satisfied with the result of his work that
he put up a gas apparatus in his own house, 200 Lom-
bard Street, near Seventh, and invited City Councils
to witness the effect. This was the first private dwell-
ing illuminated by gas in the United States. The
Councils committee reported next year that they had
examined the gas-lights at the museum and theatre,
and, whilst not taking any present action, recom-
mended that a standing committee on gas should be
appointed to learn something more upon the subject,
and report from time to time. Peale continued to
light his museum with gas until the spring of 1818.
His manufactory was in a small closet under the steps
in the great hall leading to the upper floors of the
State-House building. Here he had a furnace and
apparatus, and the establishment being considered
dangerous, objection was made to its further continu-
ance, and he thereupon ceased that method of illu-
mination.
The use of gas-lights at Masonic Hall was brought
to a sudden close by the burning of that building on
the 9th of March, 1819. When the hall was rebuilt in
1822 the Grand Lodge erected a new gas-works. As
the new Chestnut Street Theatre was also being built
about the same time, it is probable that the petition
presented by the Grand Lodge in 1822, asking permis-
sion to lay pipes on streets to furnish other consumers
than themselves, was principally governed by an ex-
pectation of furnishing light to the theatre. Councils
refused the privilege asked for. The theatre was not
supplied, and predictions were freely made that gas as
an illuminator would soon go out of use. For many
years Masonic Hall was the only public building in
644
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Philadelphia which was lighted with gas. There was
ahout this period a tavern on Second Street near Dock,
called the " Gas-light Tavern," which was the only
other building illuminated in that way.
In 1825 an effort was made to induce the Legisla-
ture to pass a bill to incorporate the Philadelphia Gas-
Light Company, with authority to manufacture and
furnish gas and lay pipes in the streets. Councils
were aroused, and the proposition was opposed. A
writer in the United States Gazette denounced the pro-
ject of lighting by gas to be " a folly, unsafe, unsure,
a trouble, and a nuisance. Common lamps take the
shine off all gas-lights that ever exhaled their intol-
erable stench." Other writers denounced gas as an
unpleasant nuisance, and the influence against it was
sufficient to prevent the passage of the act of incor-
poration.
Henry Robinson and Robert Carey Long, who
were concerned, with others, in schemes for light-
ing Baltimore with gas, requested authority, in No-
vember, 1826, to introduce that plan of illumination
into Philadelphia, and were willing to make a con-
tract with the corporation. The Councils committee
reported favorably to the plan. But doubt was ex-
pressed whether it was expedient to confide such a
matter to individuals. There was risk of failure; it
would be better, it was thought, for the city to manu-
facture the gas. A committee was appointed to make
the necessary inquiries. In the succeeding year the
committee reported in favor of the proposition of Rob-
inson & Long, and recommended that a contract be
made with them. Common Council adopted the rec-
ommendation unanimously; but the other chamber
was not as eager, and the proposition languished for
want of ratification.
The application for a charter was renewed in
1828, but was again refused by Councils. In Oc-
tober, 1830, a public meeting was called for the pur-
pose of urging Councils to take into consideration
a plan for the introduction of gas-lights into the city.
The committee representing the persons interested in
this meeting said, "This brilliant and economical
method of illuminating the public streets and public
and private buildings has long since been adopted in
many of the principal cities of Europe with entire
success, and several places on this side of the Atlan-
tic have followed the example. It has often been a
matter of astonishment that the beautiful city of
Philadelphia should have been suffered to slumber so
long in comparative darkness." These parties offered
to light a portion of the city gratis if the privilege
was granted of laying down the pipes in the streets.
Common Council voted to appoint a joint committee
on the subject, but Select Council was not prepared,
and laid the proposition on the table.
Peter A. Browne, in April, 1831, petitioned Councils
for authority to lay down pipes upon Carpenter Street
and Lodge Alley, crossing Seventh Street, to be con-
nected with the gas-works of the Masonic Hall. This
permission was sought for the purpose of lighting the
Arcade. A report was made in favor of granting this
privilege in Common Council, and authority was given
by the vote of both chambers, but the plan was not
carried out. In November of the succeeding year
memorials were introduced to Councils asking that
the corporation of the city of Philadelphia would erect
suitable works for the supply of gas for lighting the
public streets and private houses. They represented
that there could be no danger in the work, that the
experience' of other cities in Europe and in the
United States proved that every reasonable objection
could be avoided, and that in time the works would
yield a large profit to the city from the sales of gas to
private consumers. As usual, Councils listened and
deliberated.
A year elapsed before the committee appointed on
the subject was able to report. On that occasion a
much more elaborate examination was given to the
subject than at any previous time. The committee
reported estimates of the cost of proper buildings,
gas-holders, retorts, furnaces, main pipe, and four
hundred lamp-posts, altogether sixty-six thousand
seven hundred dollars, without considering the value
of a lot of ground for the works, it being proposed to
use the buildings and lot of the old city water-works
at Chestnut Street, Schuylkill. The estimate was
that gas might be manufactured and supplied at three
dollars and fifty cents per one thousand cubic feet,
exclusive of the interest to capital and salaries to
officers. The gas-rate of sale would be higher to con-
sumers. In the city of New York at that time gas
was sold to citizens at seven dollars per one thousand
feet.
On the 1st of January, 1833, the committee presented
a further report embodying statements and estimates,
and recommended that the gas-works should be built
and managed by the city corporation. Remonstrances
began to be presented with freedom. One of these
papers protested against " the plan now in agitation
of lighting the city with gas as one of the most inexpe-
dient, offensive, and dangerous nature ; in saying this
we believe we are fully sustained by the accounts
of explosion, loss of life, and great destruction of
property where this mode of lighting has been adopted.
We consider gas to be an article as ignitible as gun-
powder and nearly as fatal in its effects." The manu-
facture was represented to be dangerous. The dis-
charge of refuse from the works would poison the
water of the Delaware and Schuylkill, and cause " the
destruction of the immense shoal of shad, herring, and
other fish with which they abound." Appended was a
list of accidents and injuries produced by the use of gas
by explosion, fires, destruction of fish, etc. Another
report on the subject, in which the objections of the
signers of the remonstrance were explained or refuted,
was made in March. Many testimonials were sub-
mitted from persons in places where gas was used,
with explanations of the true facts in relation to the
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
645
supposed objections and references to cases of dis-
aster.
The matter lingered. In February, Mark Richards
and James J. Rush sent a communication to Councils
stating that they were authorized by a company of
gentlemen who were willing to undertake to manu-
facture gas to light four lamps in each square free of
charge if authority was given, with privilege to sup-
ply lights to private consumers. Further petitions
and remonstrances were presented, and among others
was one which suggested that Councils should send to
Europe " a person from previous pursuits well quali-
fied to examine, understand, and report on the highly
diversified manufacture of gas in the different coun-
tries in which itis used on a large scale." Prof. Robert
Hare, of the University of Pennsylvania, sent a com-
munication to Councils in October, 1833, in which he
declared it to be his opinion " that it would be inex-
pedient for a corporation of a city to assume the
business directly, and upon the whole, for one I would
rather be without gas than to endure the inconven-
ience of attending its introduction." On the other
hand a gas company would be a monopoly. In 1834,
D. B. Lee and W. Beach made a proposition to light
the city by lamps placed on the top of a tower or
towers. The illumination to be by gas "obtained by
burning tar, pitch, and rosin over a hot fire of anthra-
cite coal. The light was to be placed at the top of
the tower in a glass lantern or case. On a large tower
the lantern should be from ten to twenty feet in height,
and flaming from a diameter of from three to five feet
from the bottom to twelve or fifteen feet at the upper
end. They expressed the opinion that the whole city
could be lighted from one tower three hundred feet in
height.
Finally in extreme prudence Councils adopted the
resolution that a person of scientific knowledge should
be sent to Europe as agent of the city to examine into
the methods of manufacturing gas there, and to ob-
tain all the information possible as to the effects of
gas-lighting. Samuel V. Merrick was intrusted with
that duty, and he returned in December, 1834, with
a very favorable report. He declared that gas-light-
ing was superior to any other method of illumination.
That the manfacture of gas could be carried on profit-
ably and safely. That the fears and objections of
many were groundless. That all danger from explo-
sion could be obviated by care in the construction and
connections of pipes. That the works should be con-
structed upon a moderate scale with capacity of
future extension, and that the city ought to own a
manufactory.
On the 21st of March, 1835, Select Council passed
unanimously, and Common Council nineteen for and
two against, an ordinance for the construction and
management of the Philadelphia Gas-Works. It was
directed that one hundred thousand dollars should be
raised in shares of one hundred dollars each, the
money payable in the city treasury. For these in-
terest certificates were to be granted by the mayor,
countersigned by the city treasurer, stating the
amount of the subscription, pledging to the holder the
faith of the city for ultimate redemption of the loan
with interest, subject to the right of Councils at any
time to take possession of the works, and to convert
the stock into a loan. Twelve trustees were to man-
age the works. They were divided at first into
classes of one year, two years, and three years, and
thereafter four trustees were to be elected annually to
serve for three years. It was declared to be the duty
of the trustees forthwith to construct suitable works
for the manufacture of carburetted hydrogen gas from
bituminous coal, and to lay pipes for its distribution
through the city. The works were to be on a scale
competent to manufacture seventy-five thousand cubic
feet of gas daily. For the purpose of the construction
of the works a lot of ground belonging to the city
was assigned, bounded north by Filbert Street, east
by Schuylkill Front Street, south by Market Street,
and west by the river Schuylkill. In October the
trustees reported their rules and regulations in regard
to the manner of supplying gas and the method in
which it should be introduced into houses. The
price determined upon was $3.50 per thousand cubic
feet, with a. discount of five per cent, upon the
amount of all bills paid within three days after pre-
sentation. The works were finished and put in
operation on the 8th of February, 1836. Up to that
time there had only been applications for -nineteen
private services and for forty-six public burners.
Only two stores were fitted up so as to be able to il-
luminate as soon as the gas was supplied. On the
1st of July, 1841, the city took advantage of its right
to buy out the stockholders. There were paid one
hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars in cer-
tificates of loan, and for their security there was a
guarantee offered to the loan-holders that the trustee
system with which the works started should be main-
tained for the benefit of the loan-holders. This con-
tract in later years was found to be an obstacle to the
city in endeavors to take possession of the works and
oust the trustees. It was a guarantee which could
not be broken. Another oversight continued the
trustee system long after it ought to have expired.
Either by inadvertence or purposely it is not known
which, the new loans for the extension of the gas-
works were for many years issued in the same terms
as those originally given to the stockholders of the
gas company. There was a guarantee in the certifi-
cates that the trustee system should be retained, al-
though the persons loaning the moneys contracted on
the faith of the city, and not because trustees were
placed in power at the works. The form of certifi-
cate was then changed, but it had to be maintained
until the last loan with the trustee guarantee could
be paid off. This event is expected to happen in
1885.
The original works at Schuylkill Front and Market
646
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Streets were enlarged from time to time until there
was no more space for accommodation. The trustees
purchased a tract of land of twenty acres near Point
Breeze, to which other additions were afterward
made. Here there were extensive buildings, gas-
holders, and other constructions. The great telescopic
gas-holder was one hundred and sixty-five feet in
diameter and ninety-five feet high, and could be ex-
tended to its greatest height by three sections, sliding
into each other. This establishment, afterward called
Point Breeze, or Twenty-sixth Ward Works, were put
into operation on the 13th of December, 1854. Sub-
sequently large works were erected on the Delaware
River at Port Richmond by the trustees. In Spring
Garden, by virtue of an ordinance passed by the Dis-
trict Commissioners Sept. 7, 1846, the erection of gas-
works near the river Schuylkill at the intersection
of Twenty-sixth Street was authorized. The works
were so far completed by the end of 1847 that some
gas was manufactured. They were considered to be
finished in the spring of 1851.
In the Northern Liberties an ordinance to estab-
lish the Northern Liberties Gas- Works was passed
by the commissioners March 15, 1838. Subsequently
the stockholders were incorporated as the Northern
Liberties Gas Company, April 1, 1844. The capital
was two hundred thousand dollars. This company
supplied the gas manufactured at its works on Laurel
Street, near Frankford road, at the intersection of
Cobocksink Creek, and was the source of supply of gas
to public and private consumers in Northern Liberties
and Kensington. Other gas-works were established
at Manayunk and at Frankford. A company was
chartered to introduce gas into Southwark, but it
occupied only the position of a huckster, purchasing
gas supplied from the city works and retailing it at a
profit to consumers.
Boat clubs for rowing purposes were established
about 1833. Four-oared, six-oared, and eight-oared
barges, each carrying a cockswain, were the favorite
shapes. These associations were first seen in exercise
upon the Delaware. But, after some experience of
the rough water and difficulties and dangers incident
to commerce which rendered the river unfavorable
for ordinary rowing, the barge clubs took to the Up-
per Schuylkill above Fairmount. The first boats in
use on that stream belonged to the " Imp" and " Blue
Devil" clubs. They were each manned by eight
oarsmen and a cockswain. The " Imp" was a long,
dark boat, and the uniform of the crew was white
trowsers, red-and-white-striped shirts, and close red
Grecian caps. The " Blue Devil" was painted blue
with a white stripe. The crew wore white pan-
taloons, blue -and -white -striped shirts, and small,
round hats. These inaugurated boat-racing on the
Schuylkill on the 14th of April, 1835. The novelty
of the contest attracted several thousand persons to
the banks of the river, some coming in carriages and
some on foot, and they occupied every available place
of lookout. The course was from Fairmount to Bel-
mont, estimated to be nearly three miles. The race
was won by the "Imp" coming in ahead of the "Blue
Devil" about forty yards in eleven minutes' time.
A stand of colors and a silver oar were the prizes as-
signed to the winning crew. The success of this race
stimulated preparations for a regatta. There were ten
boats on the Schuylkill, and material sufficient for a
fine display. The time fixed for the first regatta was
the 12th of November. There were two classes of
boats. The first embraced the "Cleopatra," "Falcon,"
"Sylph," "Blue Devil," "Metamora," "Aurora,"
and " Imp" ; all of eight oars. The second class was
composed of six-oared boats, the " Ariel," " Nymph,"
" Dolphin," and " Neptune." The course was up the
Schuylkill to a point and return. The " Ariel" took
the first prize for the second class, a silver cup, and
the " Nymph" the second prize, a flag presented by
Mr. Debaufre. The first-class prize was a very hand-
some boat named " The Prize." It was won by the
" Cleopatra" in twenty minutes' time. The " Falcon"
followed in twenty and a half minutes and took a,-
silver pitcher, while the " Sylph" won a silver goblet,
presented by the theatrical manager, F. C. Wemyss,
of the Walnut Street Theatre. This festival brought
to the shores of the Schuylkill more persons than
were ever assembled on its banks before. From Fair-
mount to Belmont, on both shores, the heights and
vantage-places were crowded. Large numbers of
spectators came on horseback and in gigs and wagons
and coaches, the number present being several thou-
sand, and the event being also considered by some
persons sufficient to justify a cessation of business
for the day.
■ On the 18th of February, 1836, the General As-
sembly passed a law to incorporate the stockholders
of the National Bank of the United States, excepting
the government of the United States and the Treas-
urer of the United States, as the " president, direc-
tors, and company of the Bank of the United States."
The corporation was to continue until March 3, 1866.
No note was allowed to be issued by the bank for less
than ten dollars. The capital was to remain as before
under the charter of Congress, thirty-five million
dollars. This action had been vigorously urged on
behalf of the stockholders of the bank from the time
that it became apparent, after the veto of the first
bank bill by President Jaekson, that a Federal re-
charter could not be obtained. It was urged in favor
of the continuance of the operations of the institu-
tion that winding it up would produce great financial
difficulty and distress which would be highly injurious
to the business interests of the community, and that
the continuance of the operations of the bank with
its great capital was necessary for the public good.
The ^Democrats, fully imbued with the Jackson hos-
tility against banks, were violent in expressions of
opposition, and when the bill was passed their de-
nunciations were warm and vigorous. Jesse R.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
647
Burden, member of the Assembly from the county,
who had been a prominent Democratic politician,
and was exceedingly popular with members of the
party, voted on this occasion for the bank bill, a
proceeding which caused the bitterest feeling. His
course was denounced passionately. The indigna-
tion culminated in a procession in which effigies of
Burden and one of his Democratic companions who
also voted for the bill were carried. Marching to the
sound of the " Rogue's March," played by fifers and
drummers, the party repaired to Southwark. On an
open lot between houses on the west side of Second
Street the effigies were hanged, and a great fire being
kindled under them, they were consumed amidst the
plaudits of the crowd. Burden, in a letter to the
Commissioners of Southwark explaining his position,
admitted that in 1834 he was opposed to the recharter
of the National Bank. But he declared that he was
anxious at the same time for the creation of a great
State institution, and that at the period he joined with
many other Democrats who were opponents of the
United States Bank in a petition to the Legislature
for the charter of a State bank of ten million dollars
capital. The privilege which was granted by the
commonwealth was required to be paid for at a good
round price, much more, in fact, than subsequent oc-
currences showed that the franchise was worth. The
conditions were that the bank should pay into the
treasury two million dollars as a bonus for the favor,
the payments extending over ten years, the money
to be appropriated for common-school purposes. The
institution was also required to loan to the State six
million dollars, and purchases of stocks in several
railroad, canal, and turnpike companies were stip-
ulated for. Out of the two million dollars bonus
to be paid by the bank appropriations were made to
several turnpike companies and toward the State
canal improvements. The stockholders of the bank
were prompt in accepting the provisions of the act.
Nicholas Biddle, president of the National Bank of
the United States, offered his resignation about the
beginning of March. It was accepted by a unani-
mous vote, aad it was resolved that in memory of his
services a valuable set of silver plate should be pre-
sented to him. This was afterward done. The set
was made in magnificent style, the value being rep-
resented at thirty thousand dollars. Mr. Biddle was
at once elected president of the State Bank of the
United States, which went into operation on the 4th
of March.
Gen. William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, who had
been spoken of as a candidate for the Presidency of
the United States, visited the city in July. It was
arranged that he should be received with marks of
distinction. Numbers of Whigs congregated at the
steamboat wharf where " the Hero of Tippecanoe'7
was expected to arrive. A fine barouche with four
horses was prepared to carry him to his hotel. The
animals became excited in consequence of the shouts
and huzzas of the crowd after they had proceeded a
short distance, and were restive and threatened an
accident. In this emergency they were taken out of
the harness, and the people who were following the
carriage took their places. Ropes were obtained and
men took hold of the line. It was not long enough
to accommodate all who were willing to take part in
this strange proceeding. Cries of " More rope I" were
heard above all the noise of the accompanying pro-
cession. The line was lengthened from time to time,
and when the carriage reached the United States
Hotel, in which Gen. Harrison was to be lodged,
there were several hundred persons who had hold of
it. The circumstance created much amusement among
the Democrats, and furnished them with a taunting
catch-word which was used sarcastically for many
years. " More rope" was an epithet of derision which
sometimes led to resentment and fights. During his
continuance in this city Gen. Harrison was received
by his friends at Independence Hall, at Commis-
sioners' Hall, Northern Liberties, and other places.
The district of Southwark was divided into five
wards by act of March 31st. The division-line was
the centre of Third Street from South to the line of the
Southwark Railroad, on Prime Street or Washington
Avenue. The First Ward lay east of this line, between
the middle of South Street and the middle of Cath-
arine Street. Immediately adjoining to the south was
the Second Ward, which took in the remaining ground
as far as the Southwark Railroad. West of the centre of
Third Street, extending to the district boundary- line
on Passyunk road, was the Third Ward, between South
and Catharine Streets, and the Fourth Ward between
Catharine Street and the railroad. The Fifth Ward
included all the ground in the district south of the
centre of the Southwark Railroad and between the
Delaware and the western line of the district.
In June, as noted on a previous page, an act of As-
sembly was passed which placed upon the county of
Philadelphia liability for the payment of damages in
case of the destruction of the property by mobs or
riots. The losses on property destroyed in the riots
before this time were borne by the owners. There was
no provision for compensation. The act allowing an
inquiry into the circumstances of the destruction of
Robb's Row and the payment of damages thereon was
the first attempt to make the community responsible
for the preservation of the peace. In after-years the
operation of this law was found to be important. A
large amount of valuable property was destroyed in
various riots, the most noted of which was the burn-
ing of Pennsylvania Hall in 1838, and during the
Native American riots of 1811 15.
By the will of Dr. Jonas Preston, who died in 183<3,
a new charity was provided for. In the document
referred to he expressed his opinion " that a lying-in
hospital for indigent married women of good charac-
ter ought to be established in the city of Philadelphia,
which would be distinct and unconnected with any
648
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
other hospital, where such females may be received
and be provided with proper obstetric aid for their
delivery, and with suitable attendants and comfort
during the period of their confinement." Mr. Pres-
ton bequeathed a large portion of his estate for the
support of such a hospital "when established and in-
corporated." In consequence, John Sergeant, Joseph
Parker Norris, and about one hundred other persons
associated themselves as the society to carry out the
will of the donor. The Legislature by act of June
16, 1836, incorporated these persons as " The Preston
Retreat," with provisions for the increase of the cor-
poration by the admission of contributors. A visit-
ing committee was directed to be appointed annually
" of not less than twelve respectable females" residing
in the city or county of Philadelphia, or the county
of Delaware. Women patients only were to be ad-
mitted who were residents of those districts. The
time for their remaining under the care of the insti-
tution was four weeks, with power to increase it to
twelve weeks in case of necessity.
The great benefits which were expected to follow
the chartering of the United States Bank as a State
institution were not realized. The banks which had
expanded their issues were drawing them in, greatly
to the annoyance and distress of many of their debt-
ors. There were also political movements connected
with the pressure, which were caused by the action of
the Federal United States government, and followed
the war which had been waged against the Bank of the
United States. Under the "Treasury Circular," or
the "Specie Circular," as it was indifferently called,
it was ordered that the land-office of the United States
should receive no payments for purchases of public
lands unless they were in gold or silver. This regu-
lation required the payment of coin, and frequently
occasioned large drafts upon the banks. Over-im-
portation of foreign goods caused heavy exportation
of coin to Europe. Under all these circumstances
business failures were made frequent. Trade was
dull. Thousands of persons were out of employment,
and the collection of debts was a difficult matter.
The banks stood up against these obstacles until the
10th of May, when those institutions established in
New York City suspended specie payments. The
news was received in Philadelphia by mail upon the
evening of the same day, and the next morning, May
11th, the banks of Philadelphia suspended, and they
were followed in that action by the banks all over the
country. The circumstances created dismay. The
difficulties likely to result for the want of currency,
especially small change, were at once anticipated.
The specie in circulation it was foreseen would com-
mand a premium, under the stimulus of which the
retirement of coin would be a matter of necessity. In
this emergency the Councils of the city were peti-
tioned by citizens to issue notes for purposes of fur-
nishing a currency of the denomination of twenty-
five and fifty cents, and one, two, or three dollars.
The finance committee, to which these petitions were
referred, took cognizance of the subject at once. Tliey
reported on the same evening, May 11th, an "ordi-
nance for raising supplies and making appropriations
for the year 1837." Appropriations were by this bill
authorized to be made for various objects, and the
mayor was empowered to borrow the sum of one hun-
dred and thirty thousand dollars, " in such amounts
and at such times" as the committee on finance
should direct, the same to be redeemable in one year,
and the certificates bearing an interest of one per
cent. Within two days notes of twenty-five and fifty
cents and upwards, printed in blue ink, were issued
and immediately went into circulation, passing from
hand to hand as coin might do. The example of the
city was followed with little delay by the Commis-
sioners of Northern Liberties, Spring Garden, Ken-
sington, and Southwark, and the Commissioners of
the county of Philadelphia. By these means some
relief was effected. The example of the municipal
corporations was, however, a bad one. They had
power to borrow money, but none to issue notes in re-
semblance of a currency. Necessity, it was argued,
caused the illegal course to be taken and justified it.
Their course was immediately followed by certain
corporations lately created, which were called Savings
and Loan Companies. They also went largely into the
issue of circulating notes. Their authority to do so was
doubtful, but they argued that they had permission
bjT charter to loan money, and this was only a loan-
ing of money in small sums. The chartered compa-
nies were soon assisted in the work of pushing out a
paper currency by various companies which were not
incorporated. They took occasion of the public ne-
cessity to put into circulation notes of five, six and a
quarter, ten, and twelve and a half cents and upward.
Specie retired entirely from circulation, being a mat-
ter of purchase and sale by brokers. Even the old
red cent became scarce. Distressing consequences
followed the bank suspensions. It was estimated that
there were three hundred mercantile failures in New
York City in 1837, involving the loss of some mil-
lions of dollars. In Philadelphia there were insol-
vencies and general suffering. Rents went down,
wages were reduced, prices fell, and the injury was
universal.
Up to this time the navigation of the river Dela-
ware ija winter, when ice prevailed, was left to chance.
The Philadelphia Steam Tow-Boat Company was the
first to iuterfere with the solid reign of winter. It was
established under a charter granted in 1832, but did
not get into full operation for two or three years after-
ward. The boats were stanch and strong, and were
able to contend with floating ice successfully. But
frequently they were embarrassed in the effort to tow
vessels by the freezing of the courses which they had
made in channels before they could return to open
them. In 1837 petitions were sent to Councils asking,
that the city would make an appropriation for the
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
649
purpose of building an ice-boat and keeping it in
order for winter service. A town-meeting aided in
producing the desired effect. An appropriation was
made and work on the boat commenced at once, and
prosecuted with such diligence that the vessel was
launched in August, and was fully ready for duty by
the middle of December.
On the 19th of May, James Moran was executed,
under a conviction for murder, on the high seas, of
Capt. Smith, of the schooner " William Wirt," on the
22d of November, 1836. This vessel was bound from
Boston for Rio Janeiro. Moran had shipped on board
as a seaman. A quarrel between the captain and
Moran, about three days before the murder was com-
mitted, was followed by the striking of the latter by
Ward, the mate. Moran having gone below was con-
fined there for some time, and becoming free, was taken
and lashed down and scantily fed with biscuits and
salt. On the third day he was released in the after-
noon and ordered to duty. During the following
night Moran went into the captain's cabin and
stabbed the latter seriously. Ward, the mate, was
also assaulted and killed and his body thrown over-
board. The captain lingered. Moran and Estevan
Garcia, a Spanish sailor who had enlisted with him,
practically took command of the vessel. Subse-
quently Garcia was killed by Charles Reyman, a
sailor, and James Johnson, and his body thrown over-
board. This was done at the instigation of Moran.
Finally Reyman, Johnson, and Hart, the cook,
united to overcome Moran. He was overpowered
and secured. These men then undertook to navi-
gate the vessel. The captain was not yet dead, and
being brought up from below, he was strong enough
to give orders, by which a vessel passing near was
hailed. Some of the crew came on board and finally
showed the way to Peruambuco, the " Wirt" being
steered by the course of the other vessel. Capt.
Smith died about six days after the arrival at that
port. Moran was convicted in the United States Cir-
cuit Court, before Judge Baldwin, on the 27th of
April, and sentenced to death. He had been con-
fined in the Eastern Penitentiary. On the day of the
execution lie was taken thence, under guard of a com-
pany of the United States marines from the navy-
yard. The gallows were erected about the middle of
Schuylkill Sixth [Seventeenth] Street at the inter-
section of Green Street. The execution was seen by
thousands of spectators. It was the last public exe-
cution in Philadelphia.
For the encouragement of trade it was argued by
certain persons that much good would result from the
establishment of a public warehouse for the inspec-
tion and storage of tobacco. The wholesale trade in
this article had not been large. The reason was as-
serted to be the want of proper accommodations for
the business, a result of which was that large quanti-
ties of tobacco were passing through the city to other
places where there were sufficient preparations. Un-
der this stimulus it was resolved that a public to-
bacco inspection warehouse should be built on the
city lot, part of the old draw-bridge property, bounded
by Spruce, Little Dock, and Dock Streets. At the
same time a row of fine stores was built on Front
Street. The tobacco inspection and storage ware-
house was a solid, large building, suitable in strength
and capacity to every demand of the trade. It was
finished shortly afterward, and occupied at the begin-
ning for the purposes intended with seeming prospects
of success. Gradually the trade fell off, and in a few
years the premises were abandoned altogether for the
purposes for which they had been built.
A convention to consider amendments to the Con-
stitution of the State of Pennsylvania had been
authorized by the vote of the people. City Councils
offered to provide that body with accommodations if
it should come to the city. The proposition was ac-
cepted. Musical Fund Hall was hired for the purpose.
The meeting-room was in the second story ; the first
story was occupied by committees and officers of the
convention. This body remained in session several
weeks, and having agreed upon the instrument known
as the Constitution of Feb. 22, 1838, adjourned.
A false alarm in the autumn created much excite-
ment in the community and throughout the country,
the incidents of which, considered with reference to the
cause, were quite ludicrous. By some means a rumor
was put into circulation that the packet-ship " Susque-
hanna," belonging to Cope's Liverpool Line, which
left the port of Philadelphia about the middle of Oc-
tober, was captured just outside the capes of the Del-
aware by "a long low black schooner," sailed by
pirates. The most wonderful stories were told of the
strange movements of the corsair and the confusion
which was observable on board the ship. The " Sus-
quehanna" bore a valuable cargo, and many well-
known and respected citizens were passengers. Acts
of piracy had been unknown upon the Atlantic for
many years. The sea was considered 'as safe for ves-
sels as the crowded streets of a city in daytime to the
unoffending person. On the reception of the " news,"
which came to the city by express, great consternation
followed. At Wilmington the revenue cutter " Gal-
latin" was at once prepared for immediate service.
Commodore Stewart, at the Philadelphia navy-yard,
detailed a detachment of officers and men for imme-
diate service. Lieut. Dale was in command of this
party, which was taken to Wilmington by the steam-
boat " Pioneer" on the same night. As soon as they
reached the "Gallatin" that vessel sailed in quest of
the marauder. On the next day a meeting of me-
chanics and citizens was held at the Exchange, at
which William D. Lewis presided, and Judge King,
of the Common Pleas, made a speech. An executive
committee was at once appointed to take measures
to regain possession of the ship, relieve the passengers
and crew, and punish the authors of the outrage.
The employment of the steamship " Charleston" was
650
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
advocated, but the vessel was found to be in no con-
dition for a long and dangerous cruise. Instead the
pilot-boat " William Price" was armed and equipped,
under the command of Lieut. Ritchie, of the navy,
and manned with a crew of volunteers, captains and
mates of ships, with some men from the navy-yard.
This vessel was towed to the capes by the steam tow-
boat " Delaware" in a few hours. The United States
brig "Porpoise," schooner "Active," and cutter
" Alert" were sent out from New York to cruise for
the pirate, and at the same port, in order to prevent
new outrages, the United States brig " Pioneer" con-
voyed a fleet to sea. While these measures were in
progress there were some peculiar proceedings in
the city. As soon as the " outrage" was announced
certain knowing persons jumped at once to the
conclusion that such a transaction as the carrying
off of the vessel could not have occurred unless the
parties connected with it had the assistance of accom-
plices in the city. Rumors flew fast, and as a result
one gentleman fell under suspicion, was arrested and
brought before a magistrate for examination. Noth-
ing appeared against him, but he was held to bail for
a further hearing. The vessels sent out to the rescue
of the " Susquehanna" returned in a few days with-
out further information either as to the fate of the
ship or the whereabouts of the "long low black
schooner." A voyage to Europe at that time was a
matter of three or four weeks for sailing-ships each
way. It was not uutil the beginning of January
ensuing before information was received by a steamer'
from England in the ordinary ship news that the
" Susquehanna" had arrived at Liverpool about the
proper time, the passengers and crew being entirely
ignorant of the excitement created on their behalf.
On the return of the ship it was learned that there
had been no suspicion of her danger. Off the Five
Fathoms Bank, outside of the bay, an oyster-boat had
been signaled to come alongside. Several bushels of
this shell-fish had been transferred to the "Susque-
hanna" for use during the voyage. " The long low
black schooner" turned out to be a harmless oyster-
boat, and the confusion on board the ship was only
caused by the desire of the crew to hoist up safely on
board every one of the allotted bivalves.
The effects of the bank suspensions of 1837 con-
tinued during the remainder of that year and a por-
tion of 1838. Generally, the Legislatures of the
Eastern States were hostile to the measure, and desired
a return to specie payments, enforcement of which
was not resolved upon in consequence of the fear
of injury to the people. The Legislature of New
York, however, determined that the banks of that
State should return to specie payments, and by law
the 13th of August was fixed for resumption. Under
these circumstances the banks of Pennsylvania, Mas-
sachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, Kentucky, and Missouri resolved to resume
on the same day. In other States such action was
not taken, and the bank currency was not redeemed.
As a necessary consequence the currency of the States
in which resumption had taken place was in demand,
and redemption in coin sought as a matter of pru-
dence as well as speculation. The effort of the banks
was to limit the circulation of their notes as much as
possible. The liability to demands for specie was
much beyond the necessities of ordinary times, so that'
it was prudent to limit the bank issues to the actual
ability of redemption dollar for dollar.
The municipal officers found that their necessities
had by this time become greater than the accommoda-
tion. The construction of a new city hall was urged for
the use of the municipal government. Immediately
there arose a controversy between the advocates of
particular localities for the sites of the buildings.
Some of these only looked to public necessities and
accommodation, but those who were most active were
interested for or against the various sites that were
spoken of. The lot at the southeast corner of Walnut
and Sixth Streets, formerly occupied by the County
Prison, had some advocates among property-owners
in that neighborhood, who dreaded the consequences
of the removal of the courts and city and county
offices from the vicinity. But the greatest pressure
came from the western part of the city, and took the
shape of recommendations that a city hall should be
erected on the northwest section of Penn Square.
Common Council adopted a resolution, in which it
was stated that the proposed construction would cost a
million of dollars, and would materially change the
course of business by removal of the public offices in
the neighborhood of Chestnut, Fifth, and Sixth
Streets. It was resolved that the question should be
submitted to a formal vote of citizens. Select Coun-
cil did not agree to this, and so the matter fell through.
The Centre Square had been dedicated by Penn as a
place for public buildings, and Councils had a right
to place the city hall there. But in caution it may
be supposed, legislative authority was obtained in the
act of April 16th, which gave the city corporation
authority to erect the city hall on any part of the
Penn Square, the building to be under the control of
the city government, and the expense paid for out of
the city treasury, provided that if the county of Phila-
delphia had any legal claim to the square the consent
of the county commissioners should first be obtained.
In the year 1837 the societies for promoting the ab-
olition of slavery had become sufficiently established
to require some better means of enforcing their pecu-
liar doctrines than had yet been allowed them. It
was almost impossible for them to obtain places for
holding their meetings without difficulty, and some
of the leading persons of the party determined that
they would have a hall of their own. A large lot of
ground at the southwest corner of Sixth and Haines
Streets, below Race, was purchased by a joint-stock
company, the members of which were chiefly aboli-
tionists. Upon this ground they built a fine and ca-
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
651
pacious building, which they dedicated to free discus-
sion, and called " Pennsylvania Hall." The lot was
sixty-two feet front by one hundred feet deep. The
building was forty-two feet high. Stores, offices, and
committee-rooms occupied the first story. The second
story was the grand meeting saloon, occupying the
entire width and length of the building, and having
capacious galleries. It was estimated that three
thousand persons could be accommodated with seats
in that hall. The fixtures and furniture were in good
taste. For purposes of public meetings the building
was more complete than any that had yet been con-
structed. While this edifice was being built there
was some unfavorable comment in regard to its pro-
posed uses', but they did not go so far as to recommend
any violence or destruction. The day of the dedica-
tion of the hall was the 14th of May. In anticipation
of the occasion there was a gathering of men and
women abolitionists from all parts of the country.
The exercises of dedication were principally an ora-
tion by David Paul Brown. It was not
strongly abolition. He expressed him-
self in favor of the abolition of slavery,
but was not willing to go the whole
length of urging immediate abolition.
On the day of the dedication it was
announced that the hall had not been
erected for anti-slavery purposes alone,
but that it would be consecrated to
any purpose not of an immoral char-
acter. In the afternoon of the first
day there was a public meeting in the
hall, held by the Philadelphia Ly-
ceum, at which essays were read on
social and scientific subjects. In the
evening there was a temperance meet-
ing. On the next day the abolition-
ists occupied the meeting-room and
debated the subjects of "free discussion,'' Indian
wrongs, colonization, and the address of David Paul
Brown at the dedication of the hall, which did not
suit the leading abolitionists. In the afternoon the
Philadelphia Lyceum again occupied the hall with
the reading of scientific essays and papers. In the
evening there was held an abolition meeting, at which
George Ford, Jr., of Lancaster, Alvan Stuart, of At-
tica, N. Y., Alanson St. Clair, of Massachusetts, and
others delivered speeches. During these two days
the hall was crowded, and on the streets leading
to it there were throngs of persons pressing towards
the building. Among these were people of color,
who were admitted freely without distinction, and
sat among the audience, not being particularly as-
signed to any reserved space set aside for " people
of color." Among the throngs passing along the
streets the white abolitionists and the blacks walked
frequently in company with each other, and on
friendly terms. It was reported that white men and
black women, and black men and white women
walked arm-in-arm. These statements, whether true
or false, had much to do with what followed. A
rising hostility against the building and its occu-
pants began to be manifested. If the opening ser-
vices had been confined to the meetings of the first
and second days, leaving an interyal during which
the hall was closed, the excitement would have prob-
ably died away. But the parties owning the hall or
interested in its management, strongly insisting upon
the right of free discussion, determined to maintain
their own privileges without regard to the feelings
or prejudices of others. On the evening of the 15th
written placards were posted in different parts of the
city which stated: "A convention to effect the im-
mediate emancipation of the slaves throughout the
country is in session in this city, and it is the duty
of citizens who entertain a proper respect for the Con-
stitution of the Union and the right of property to
interfere." It was suggested that citizens should as-
semble at Pennsylvania Hall on the next morning,
PENNSYLVANIA HALL.
Wednesday, May 16th, "and demand the immediate
dispersion of said convention." There was a meeting
in the hall at the time designated, with a discussion
upon "Slavery and its Remedy." " The Anti-Slavery
Convention" of American women occupied the lecture-
room, and the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society met
in the afternoon. In the evening there was an aboli-
tion meeting, at which William Lloyd Garrison, Maria
W. Chapman, and Abby Kelly, of Boston, spoke.
There had been no serious demonstration about the
hall in the morning, but at night persons evidently of
riotous disposition were in the streets, and some within
the hall hissing and hooting the speakers. Stones
were thrown from the streets, and some of the upper
windows broken. In consequence of these demonstra-
tions the meeting was brought to a close much sooner
than had beeu expected. The managers of the Penn-
sylvania Hall notified the mayor of the city next day
of the manifestations that had been made, stating the
character of the meetings that were held and were yet
to be held, and that they requested protection for
652
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
themselves and property. The mayor endeavored
to persuade the managers of the hall to give up
the night meetings, but they, insisting upon their
rights as citizens to hold them, refused to comply. If
they had done so, after results would probably have
been different. Toward the evening of the 17th
crowds began to assemble near the hall. Harangues
were made by excited persons. The managers by
this time had become somewhat alarmed. They as-
sembled in the hall about six o'clock, and after con-
sultation it was determined to close the building and
give the mayor, John Swift, the key. Kepairing to the
street, the latter made a speech to the crowd, who
heard him and responded with applause. There were
about three hundred persons present, and some of
them went away with the mayor. But knowledge of
the occurrences of the previous day and curiosity were
bringing persons to the vicinity from all parts of the
city. The crowd became so dense that it substantially
occupied Sixth Street from Arch to Race, with por-
tions of Cherry Street, Cresson's Alley, and other
neighboring a-venues. It was not long after dark
before all the public lamps in the neighborhood were
extinguished. Some persons with a scantling or long
timber began to batter against the centre doors of the
building in front. The mayor with a force of police
came upon the scene and obtained passage through
the crowd nearly to the place where the destroyers
were at work. Very few if any citizens rallied to the
support of the mayor. Before long the police were
assaulted, some of them knocked down and bruised.
By this time the doors had been broken open ; two of
the police force entered the building. On reaching
the main saloon they found that fires had been
kindled in three places. Short work had been made
with the Venetian window-blinds, which were new and
freshly painted, and in condition to burn easily. The
gas-pipes had been broken, and the gas was leaking
out into the room ready to assist the flames. The
policemen were compelled to withdraw. About the
same time the anti-slavery office in the first story was
broken open, and the books, pamphlets, etc., thrown
into the street. The flames soon attained headway
and became furious. Firemen who repaired to the
scene upon the alarm being given were deterred by
threats from playing upon the hall, but were per-
mitted to direct their efforts to the protection of ad-
joining property. In a short time the destruction
was complete. The interior of the building down to
the cellar was destroyed. The walls had been sub-
stantially built and might have stood the force of the
conflagration, but under the effect of the fire and
water the granite pillars on Sixth Street, which sus-
tained the front from the second story up, crumbled
away and the whole front came down. The managers
of the hall association estimated their loss at one hun-
dred thousand dollars, and commenced proceedings
against the county of Philadelphia to recover com-
pensation. The jury of inquiry to which the matter
was referred reported in 1841 that the loss amounted
to thirty-three thousand dollars. The value of the
lot which remained might have been ten thousand or
fifteen thousand dollars.1
The excitement did not terminate with this de-
struction. On the next evening the Shelter for Col-
ored Orphans, a quiet and unobtrusive establishment
managed by the members of the Society of Friends,
and situate on Thirteenth Street, above Callowhill,
was attacked by a mob composed of comparatively
few persons. They obtained an entrance to the build-
ing and set fire to it. The firemen again appeared ;
efforts to intimidate them were resorted to with inten-
tion of preventing them from playing upon the fire
and saving the property. At this time there was some
resistance. Morton McMichael, police magistrate of
the district, called upon citizens to aid him. The
firemen rallied to his assistance. The Good- Will
Fire Company was working strenuously to save the
building; the members turned in under McMichael,
and cleared out the gang of rioters without ceremony,
so that the building was saved. It was afterwards
used for the original charitable purpose for some
years. These excesses were denounced with great
strength of language in the Public Ledger newspaper.
The expressions were so strong that some manifesta-
tion of hostility were made in the neighborhood of
the office of that paper, at the northwest corner of
Second and Dock Streets. Large crowds assembled
in the streets for two or three evenings. The police
force was now under much better control and man-
agement than on previous occasions, and the men
were well disposed for the prevention of disturbances.
The excitement in the neighborhood continued for
two or three days, but there were no violent manifes-
tations.
At the general election in October the Democrats
and the Whigs of the county contested particularly the
tickets for the Legislature. The Democrats claimed
that they had upon the Assembly ticket 7870 votes, and
they made the number of Whig votes 6346. This cal-
culation was made by excluding the vote of the North-
ern Liberties. The Whig ticket there claimed a major-
ity of 1000. At a meeting of the return judges the
Democrats, being in a majority, set aside the Northern
Liberties vote altogether, on the allegation that it
was fraudulent. Six of the Whig return judges with-
drew, met together, and made up a return, including
the Northern Liberties vote, which elected the Whig
ticket. The Democrats certified that Charles Brown
and S. Stevenson were elected to the Senate, and
Charles Pray, J. W. Byan, Miles N. Carpenter, Ben-
jamin Crispin, T. H. Brittain, A. Helfenstein, J. W.
Nesbitt, and T. J. Heston, members of the House of
Bepresentatives. The Whig certificates were Sena-
tors James Hanna and William Wagner, Kepresen-
1 The ruins of the hall remained a sad monument of disgrace for some
yeara. The lot was eventually sold to the order of Odd-Fellows, by which
a hall for their own purposes was erected and dedicated Sept. 17, 1S46.
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
653
tatives Michael Day, Adam Woellper, W. F. Hughes,
William Lloyd, William J. Crans, Samuel F. Reed,
Benjamin R. Mears, and J. F. Smith. When the
Legislature met, both of these sets of claimants went
to Harrisburg. There had been two certificates, but
Governor Ritner and Secretary of the Commonwealth
Burrowes favored the Whig returns, and laid them
before each branch of the Legislature. In the Sen-
ate, Charles B. Penrose, the Speaker, recognized the
Whig candidates, who were sworn in. In the House
the action was different; there were forty-four Whigs
from other counties, and they, recognizing the eight
Whig candidates from Philadelphia, organized and
elected Thomas S. Cunningham Speaker. There were
forty-eight Democrats in the Legislature, and they
united with the eight claimants of their own party
from Philadelphia, and elected William H. Hopkins
Speaker. Neither party had a majority of the whole
number without the aid of the Philadelphia delega-
tion. The measures taken were therefore founded
upon the necessity to rule. Governor Ritner recog-
nized the Cunningham, or Whig body, as the legal
House of Representatives, and the Senate took the
same action. Each "House" insisted that it alone
possessed legal authority. There was danger of viola-
tion of the peace, and perhaps of civil war. In this
emergency the Governor proclaimed a rebellion, and
made a requisition for troops upon Maj.-Gen. Patter-
son, commanding the First Division. In issuing his
orders the Governor directed that the volunteers
should load their guns with " buckshot and ball."
From this arose the term " Buckshot War," which was
given to the events of the period. The troops, about
twelve hundred in number, left the city on the morn-
ing of the 8th of December, under the command of
Gens. Patterson and Goodwin. They were carried
by the cars of the Columbia Railroad from Broad and
Market Streets. At Harrisburg they were put on
guard at the arsenal and other places. Particular
care was manifested to prevent collisions with the
citizens, and the politicians were scarcely disturbed
in their subsequent operations. A large number of
persons went up from the city with the troops and
afterward. They were mostly Democrats, and con-
stituted themselves " a Committee of Safety." The
two houses kept up their separate organization. The
Hopkins party was strengthened by the accession of
two Whig members, — Chester Butler, of Luzerne, and
John Montelius, of Union. This gave to the Hop-
kins House fifty members, without counting the Phil-
adelphia delegation. It also reduced the Cunning-
ham House to forty-two members, without the Whig
delegation. The work of the Committee of Safety
here began. They crowded the chamber occupied by
the Cunningham House, and were noisy, turbulent,
and threatening. In the Senate the demonstrations
were so violent that Speaker Penrose jumped out of a
window near his chair. The Cunningham House was
broken up by the pressure. Finally the Hopkins
House triumphed. The Whigs who had withdrawn
went back to their seats, and the trouble was over.
The troops were retained at the capital for nearly
three weeks, and did not return to the city until the
beginning of January.
Another trouble in relation to the same controversy
took place in connection with the Congressional rep-
resentation of the Third District, of which the North-
ern Liberties were a part. The Democratic return
judges awarded the certificate of election to Charles
J. Ingersoll, Democrat. The Whig return judges
certified that Francis J. Harper was eleeted. Harper
died before the appointed time to claim his seat. At
a special election Charles Naylor, Whig, was returned
as elected. He contested the seat of Ingersoll, and
the latter was ousted and Naylor admitted.
The resumption of specie payments in 1838 was
premature. The banks were unable to satisfactorily
meet the demands of business, and were managed
with care in order to prevent the issuing of more notes
than they could meet. They were under disadvan-
tage through the law which prevented the circulation
of small notes of less than five dollars. They were
compelled to pay checks and drafts upon them in
which there were balances beyond five dollars in coin,
and it was estimated towards the end of the year that
in Philadelphia alone those institutions had paid out
over one hundred thousand dollars in small balances.
While they were contending against adverse circum-
stances the Bank of the United States, on the 9th of
October, stopped specie payments, a movement which
was immediately followed by other banks in the city
and throughout the Union. The reasons given for this
act were not the true ones. The Bank of the United
States was actually insolvent at the time, but it was only
stated that it was embarrassed in consequence of
the large balance of mercantile exchange with Europe
which existed against the United States, and which
caused a heavy drain of specie, and which was also
increased by large demands against the banks of the
Western and Southern States. As there was likelihood
of another issue of " shinplasters," or small notes,
Governor Porter promptly interposed an obstacle by
a proclamation warning all persons that any attempt
to violate the law prohibiting such issues would be
prosecuted and punished. The effect was to keep
specie in circulation to a much greater extent than
during any previous bank suspension.
In little more than a month a new cause of financial
alarm arose. On the 18th of December, in conse-
quence of legal proceedings commenced by the Bank
of Kentucky against the Schuylkill Bank, the doors
of the latter were closed by injunction. The cause of
this proceeding was the filing of a bill by the Ken-
tucky Bank, which charged that the Schuylkill Bank
had fraudulently issued more than thirteen thousand
shares of the stock of the former institution. The
allegation was that the Schuylkill Bank was agent for
the Bank of Kentucky in the management of its busi-
654
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ness, and that by reason of this trust and confidence
the fraud had been effected. The directors of the
Schuylkill Bank insisted that their institution was
not liable. Hosea J. Levis, for many years the
cashier and latterly the president of the bank, was
alleged to be the person who had committed these
frauds, which were said to have been consummated
without any knowledge of the bank. The grand jury
sustained this position in a presentment which charged
Levis with perjury, forgery, and conspiracy to de-
fraud. It was also discovered that he had issued a
large number of shares of Schuylkill Bank stock
without authority, and appropriated the proceeds of
the sale to his own use. He had also issued post-
notes to a considerable amount and taken special de-
posits made in the bank to his own use, beside the
Kentucky Bank shares, the value of which was com-
puted to be $393,183.57. Levis fled to Europe, but
was brought back and never punished. The suit be-
tween the two banks continued, the principal question
being whether Levis was not personally the agent of
the Bank of Kentucky. The decision finally was
against the Schuylkill Bank. The claim of the Bank
of Kentucky and the demands of the note-holders
were satisfied, but after that nothing was left for the
stockholders.
A fire of more than usual destructiveness broke out
on the 4th of October in the neighborhood of Chestnut
Street wharf on the Delaware. The flames were first
noticed in the provision-store of W. C. Stroup, on
Delaware Avenue north of Chestnut Street, and ex-
tending through toward Water Street. The stock in
Stroup's store was calculated to feed the flames, and
some adjoining buildings used by oil merchants aided
the combustion. A strong wind blew the flames
across Chestnut Street, and enveloped two-story build-
ings between Water Street and Delaware Avenue, and
extending to the southeast corner of Front and Chest-
nut Streets, proceeded down the latter, destroying
three or four wholesale stores and their contents.
They were stopped by the tall bulwark and thick
walls of stores Nos. 57 and 59 South Front Street, the
latter occupied by Miesegaes & Unkaert. On Chest-
nut Street the stores at the northeast corner of Front,
extending upward, were damaged. The Napoleon
Hotel, northeast corner of Water and Chestnut Streets,
kept by John H. Myers, and the Union Line office
adjoining were consumed. On the south side of
Chestnut Street the Steamboat Hotel was burned.
Altogether twenty-three houses were totally destroyed
and fifteen or twenty badly damaged. Most of the
buildings were old, and some of the warehouses had
but small stocks of goods on hand, so that the loss was
not estimated at more than three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. The firemen were in great danger
by the falling walls. William P. Moreland, a mem-
ber of the Good- Will Engine Company, aged twenty-
eight years, and Thomas Barber were killed, and
seven firemen were seriously injured.
On the 14th of October, Martin Van Buren, Presi-
dent of the United States, arrived in the city, and was
received by a number of volunteer companies and
many citizens, political friends, by whom he was
escorted to Sanderson's Merchants' Hotel, on Fourth
Street below Arch, to which place the City Councils
afterward went to pay their respects. Mr. Van Buren
left the city the next day.
A murder occurred on the 31st of September at the
most fashionable confectionery establishment in the
city at that time, situate in Chestnut Street, between
Fifth and Sixth, and kept by James Wood. The vic-
tim was his daughter, a woman of more than ordi-
nary personal attractions. Wood's place was popular,
and this young girl being the cashier, was extensively
known to frequenters of the saloon. Her offense was
in marrying Edward Peak, a boot-maker, whose place
of business was in the Shakespeare buildings, on Sixth
Street above Chestnut. Wood, it is believed, was not
aware of the intimacy between Peak and his daugh-
ter, and would have been opposed to a marriage be-
tween them under any circumstances. They were
married privately two or three days before the father
was made aware of the facts, to which his attention
was called by his daughter's absence from his house
for two days. After her return he became desperate.
He drank a quantity of brandy to nerve himself to
the deed, and, repairing to an upper room, where his
daughter was, shot her dead with a pistol. Great ex-
citement in the public mind attended these circum-
stances. When Wood was tried for the murder the
facts were admitted. The defense, which was princi-
pally conducted by Peter A. Browne, was the plea of
insanity. In support of this the French doctrine that
a desire to commit murder was moral insanity was
brought forward and urged with great pertinacity.
Wood was acquitted.
James Williams, alias Lownes, alias Dave Seal, was
executed in the jail-yard at Moyamensing for the
murder of Francis Kearney, a watchman, on the 9th
of August. Williams was a colored man, and the
deed was committed under treacherous circumstances.
Kearney was standing with his brother and sister.
Williams approached in an apparently friendly man-
ner, saluted them, and, suddenly drawing a knife,
stabbed Kearney so severely that he lived but a short
time.
In the summer of this year another watchman was
killed in Southwark District. His name was Batt.
One night, while on duty at Third and Shippen
[Bainbridge] Streets, he was attacked by a negro, who
assaulted him with a club and beat him about the head
in a dreadful manner. Batt died almost immediately.
Upon the arrest of the negro it was found that he had
been an inmate of the Insane Department of the
Blockley Almshouse, from which he had escaped.
His insanity was so obvious that he was never tried.
The burial of Batt took place upon a Sunday after-
noon at St. Peter's Church, corner of Third and Pine
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
655
Streets. A great crowd gathered, and after the body
was deposited there were symptoms of riotous inten-
tions against the blacks. A mob assembled on Pas-
syunk road and on Fifth Street below South. John
G. Watmough, the sheriff, came upon the ground and
attempted to persuade the persons present to disperse.
They yelled at him and threatened violence, so that
he was glad to get out of the way. The mob then
came up Fifth Street, intending mischief. Mayor
Swift, with a squad of officers, was stationed at Pine
and Fifth Streets. Seeing the mob approach, he went
toward them with nothing but his cane in hand.
With daring courage he seized the ringleader, and de-
spite the murmurs and threats of the others, held on
to him and dragged him up the street to the ofiicers.
Finally the mob retreated into Southwark and dis-
persed ; but in the evening there were scenes of riot-
ing and attacks upon the houses inhabited by negroes.
Among the consequences of the bank suspension was
the failure of Dr. Thomas W. Dyott. An apothecary
:ind druggist, he had in previous years, by attention
to business, made some money. Among his other
enterprises he had become the owner of the glass-
works in Kensington at the mouth of Gunner's Run.
These had been considerably enlarged, and an exten-
sive business was carried on, principally in the man-
ufacture of bottles and vials. To these works Dr.
Dyott gave the name Dyottville. He devised some-
what extensive plans of government of the establish-
ment, which he said was to be conducted on the
manual labor system. Encouraged by success, he set
up business as a private banker, and established the
Manual Labor Bank, so called, which was not a char-
tered institution, and was maintained entirely upon
the credit and responsibility of Dr. Dyott himself.
This establishment pushed out its notes as extensively
as possible. A considerable amount were in circula-
tion at the time of the bank suspension of 1837.
Dyott was in no worse condition at that time than
the banks of the city and county. They could not
pay specie for their notes, neither could Dyott. But
the difference was that the banks were sustained some-
what in character by their chartered privileges, while
Dyott was acting on his individual responsibility and
without any backing. He was also under the disability
of personal unpopularity among certain classes. The
banks were generally considered to occupy the posi-
tion of suspension by misfortune, and it was agreed
that if the people would sustain them with forbear-
ance and sympathy, they could work through their
difficulties. Dyott was not cheered by such manifes-
tations in his favor. He was generally denounced as
an intentional swindler. Suits were brought against
him, to which he could not respond by payments in
specie. The notes of the bank, which they boldly
refused to pay in coin, went from hand to hand not-
withstanding, with nearly the same credit as if they
could have been redeemed at the bank-counters dollar
for dollar. But Dvott could not hide behind a charter.
He was individually responsible, and finally charges
of fraud were brought against him. Indicted for
fraudulent insolvency, he was put upon trial on the
1st of February. The investigation consumed four
months. On the 1st of June the jury brought in a
verdict of guilty. On the 31st of August Dr. Dyott
was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the
penitentiary.1
Governor Porter represented Democratic doctrines
while holding the executive chair. The party, by
the course of Gen. Jackson in opposition to the
United States Bank, was considered hostile to all in-
stitutions of that kind. On the assembling of the
Legislature, at the session of 1840, the Governor
called attention to the bank suspensions of the pre-
vious year, and urged some strict measures to compel
those institutions to perform their promises. The
banks of Philadelphia sent an address to the Legis-
lature in February, in which they declared that they
could not with safety resume before the 1st of Feb-
ruary, 1841. The Board of Trade confirmed these
statements. The Legislature was as much disposed
to severity as the Governor, and a resolution was
passed directing resumption of specie payments on
the 15th of January, 1841, under penalty of forfeiture
of the bank charter.
During the suspensions the city was compelled to
adopt a somewhat liberal policy with its creditors.
The course of the banks had practically driven bank-
notes out of circulation. It was the desire of those
institutions to get possession of as many of their
own notes as possible, and to keep them from going
into circulation again. The currency in use was
made up of notes from small amounts up to five or
ten dollars, issued by the city and district corpora-
tions, by various loan companies, some of which were
frauds, and by notes of banks of other States. This
sort of paper, under the compulsion of circumstances,
was received for debts due to the city for taxes and
on other claims. It was paid out again from the city
treasury with but little difficulty. In January the
beginning of a change in this matter was brought
about in consequence of a communication addressed
to City Councils by Horace Binney. That gentleman
represented that he was owner of twenty thousand
dollars of city loans, notice of the payment of which
had been given. He stated that he did not require
redemption, but if it was attempted he would receive
nothing but specie or its equivalent. He was willing
to allow the loan to stand, or to reloan the amount to
the city, but he would not receive depreciated cur-
rency as full payment. The matter was sent to the
1 He did not serve out the whole term, but was pardoned after a time.
There was some sympathy for him afterward. It wns not established
that he had intended fraud. He was conducting hiB bankiDg operations
at a risk as the banks were doing. They, overtaken by the storm, man-
aged to float, but Dyott was swamped. After he came out of prison ho
resumed his business as a druggist on Second Street, and attended to it
faithfully and honorably until his death several years afterward.
656
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
finance committee, which reported that there was a
large fund on hand composed of the sort of money
which Mr. Binney rejected, which had been taken in
the usual course of business, and ought to be accepted
by the city creditors. It was finally recommended
that persons who did not wish to receive payment of
loans in that way should be given new certificates of
loan for like amounts. Councils went further, and
on the 25th of June passed a resolution that all in-
terest should be paid in specie.
On the 26th of November the remains of Gen. Hugh
Mercer, of the Revolutionary army, who was killed at
the battle of Princeton in 1777, were removed from
the place of sepulture, on the south side of Christ
Church, adjoining Church Alley, and taken to Laurel
Hill Cemetery, where they were deposited beneath a
handsome monument, erected to the memory of Mer-
cer by the St. Andrew's Society. The remains were
accompanied by a large and imposing military pro-
cession to the First Presbyterian Church, at the cor-
ner of Locust and Seventh Streets, where, after appro-
priate religious exercises, an eloquent oration upon
the life and services of Mercer was pronounced by
William B. Reed.
By act of February 13th the township of Moya-
mensing was divided into four wards. The First
Ward embraced the territory in the eastern part,
north of the centre of Carpenter Street and east of
the centre of Seventh Street. The Second Ward ran
from Seventh to Eleventh Street, north of Carpenter.
The Third Ward, west of Eleventh and north of Car-
penter Street. The Fourth Ward was all the terri-
tory south of Carpenter Street. The township of
Germantown was also divided into two wards, the
Upper Ward being northwest of Washington Lane,
and the Lower Ward southeast of that lane. The
district of the Northern Liberties was also given
power to elect a mayor for two years by citizens at
general elections.
By act of February 27th some of the western wards
of the city were divided into election precincts. Those
which were subjected i;o this arrangement were Cedar,
Locust, North, South Mulberry, and North Mulberry.
The divisions were called South Cedar and North
Cedar ; East Locust and West Locust ; East North
and West North; East South Mulberry and West
South Mulberry; East North Mulberry and West
North Mulberry. A somewhat complex and puzzling
nomenclature. Theextra divisions had to be provided
for at the general election at the windows in the back
part of the State-House and county court-house.
Middle and South Wards were the only western wards
not divided. Upper Delaware, Lower Delaware,
High Street, Chesnut, Walnut, and Dock Wards re-
mained unchanged.
On the 23d of April was passed an act to incorporate
the Grandom Institution. This society was formed in
compliance with the will of Hart Grandom, a citizen
who by his will, made in 1833, authorized his executors
to convey to an incorporated benevolent society all the
ground-rents which he owned, the clear annual value
of which was about fifteen hundred dollars, for the
purpose of a permanent fund " to alleviate the most
prudent of the poor [who must not be intemperate]
in procuring fuel, clothing, and other necessaries
which such persons want in winter." Mr. Grandom
also appropriated real and personal property worth
about twenty thousand dollars, to be granted to a
society to be formed in Philadelphia, "composed
of discreet members who feel an interest in the
moral and religious welfare of young men who
have arrived at manhood and want assistance to
commence the various vocations they have learned,
and whose parents are unable or unwilling to aid
them." The Grandom Institution undertook to dis-
charge both of these trusts. There were a large
number of corporators, among whom were John Ser-
geant, Thomas P. Cope, William M. Meredith, Henry
J. Williams, and others.
On the 15th of January, James Morris, a colored
man, was hanged in the county prison for the murder
of a boy in a schooner lying in the Delaware River
in the preceding year.
A commemoration somewhat in the character of
the Mereer obsequies of the previous year took place
on the 2d of July. The remains of Col. John Has-
lett, of the Delaware line in the war of the Revo-
lution, who was killed at the battle of Princeton,
in 1777, had been interred in the burying-ground
of the First Presbyterian Church, adjoining that
building on Bank Street below Market Street. After
the church building was removed to the southeast
corner of Locust and Seventh Streets the site occu-
pied by the church on Market Street had been built
upon, but the old graveyard, with its dilapidated
tombstones, yet remained. The church had concluded
to sell the ground, which rendered removal of the
bodies necessary. The Legislature of the State of
Delaware resolved that the remains of Haslett should
be buried at Dover, where a monument should be
erected to his memory. They were disinterred by di-
rection of the Hibernian Society and taken to the First
Presbyterian Church at Seventh and Locust Streets.
Thence they were escorted, on the day fixed, by the
City Troop, Philadelphia Grays, and Washington
Grays to Chestnut Street wharf, and delivered by John
Binns, on behalf of the Hibernian Society, to a com-
mittee appointed by the Legislature of Delaware to
receive the remains. An address was made by Mr.
Binns, and by Mr. Huffington on behalf of the Dela-
ware committee.
On the 4th of April, Gen. William Henry Harri-
son, President of the United States, died at Wash-
ington, after the brief enjoyment of the Presidential
office during one month. This was the first occasion
upon which a chief magistrate had died during his
official term. The novelty of the bereavement, as
well as the character of the man, who had been
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
657
elected by a large majority, created a sensation of
regret of more than ordinary character. On the 7th
of April a public meeting was held at Independence
Hall, at which Mayor Swift presided. The resolu-
tions of condolence prepared by John Sergeant were
adopted. It was determined that citizens would unite
with City Councils in rendering due honor to the
memory of the deceased. The ceremonies, which
were to take place on the 12th, were postponed in
consequence of the tempestuous weather on the pre-
vious day until the 20th. The latter proved to be
lowering, and before the procession got in motion
snow began to fall. It was a larger procession than
had been seen for some years, and included all the
city and district corporations and officers, a large
military force, firemen, Odd-Fellows, literary and be-
nevolent societies, schools, and citizens. The par-
ticipants displayed a profusion of banners draped in
black, and wore mourning badges and other emblems.
The funeral-car was drawn by eight horses, each dec-
orated with white and black plumes, and led by a
groom, and the h«arse was heavily loaded with crape,
and black cloth banded with gold fringe. In place of
a coffin, on the dais of the funeral-car were displayed
a sword, a laurel wreath, rolls of parchment, and many
flowers. A riderless horse, led by a groom, followed
the car. Fourteen pall-bearers walked by its side.
The churches were open, and as it was impossible for
the procession to be accommodated in any one of
them, various societies were assigned to different
buildings, so that there was a concert of memorial
services about the same time in different parts of the
city. By the time that the persons participating in
the parade reached these places the snow, which had
continued to fall, was of considerable depth. City
Councils went to Christ Church, where an appropriate
discourse was delivered by Right Rev. Bishop Under-
donk. In the other churches addresses and orations
were delivered.
A heavy freshet on the 9th of January did more than
an ordinary degree of damage in the neighborhood
of the Schuylkill and the Delaware. At the perma-
nent bridge the water rose six feet above high-water
mark. The cellars of stores, dwellings, and other
buildings were filled with water, and in some the first
story was nearly full. A large quantity of ice was
brought down, and this article was deposited on
the wharves and in the streets for the distance of one
or two squares from the river. The track of the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad was
carried away below Gray's Ferry. On the Delaware
the water was eighteen inches above the top of the
wharf at the draw-bridge. The cellars and stores were
flooded, and much damage was done to valuable prop-
erty.
In September the Prince de Joinville, son of Louis
Philippe, king of France, who was traveling in the
United States, arrived in the city. He was waited on
at Independence Hall by the mayor and Councils,
42
and by French citizens and residents. The usual
civilities in other ways were tendered to him. He re-
mained in the city only two days.
There were several destructive fires during this year.
At one, which occurred on the 23d of January, at
Wright's umbrella store, Market Street above Third,
the front wall fell, by which Oscar Douglas and Mark
Rink, two firemen, were killed. On the 24th of June,
at the fire at Mulford & Alter's grocery-store, Market
Street above Sixth, a similar misfortune befell George
L. Eisenbrey, also a fireman.
On the 15th of January the banks of the city and
State, in compliance with the mandate of the Legis-
lature, commenced specie payments. This act was
not received with much confidence by the business
people. There was a feeling of distrust, a doubt
whether the banks could maintain themselves ; a
disposition to take advantage of the opportunity, and
demand in ordinary transactions with them the pay-
ment of coin rather than the acceptance of their own
notes. The resumption opened with a hostile dispo-
sition among many people, and large sums in coin
were taken from the banks. The condition of the
Bank of the United States attracted general attention.
On the 4th of January, according to a statement made,
that institution had $2,171,722.97 in specie funds, and
notes of State banks, $1,148,101.93. Altogether the
assets that could be used in redemption of notes were
less than $3,300,000. The bank-notes in circulation
were $9,386,000.90, and there were post-notes amount-
ing to $1,887,658.09, without taking into consideration
the amounts due to depositors. The stock of the
bank was selling at that time at sixty-three dollars
per share, the par value of which was one hundred
dollars. The price of shares began to go down, and
sank on the 4th of February to forty-five dollars and
seventy-five cents per share. When the doors of the
bank were opened a brisk demand for specie was com-
menced. The condition of the institution had been
considerably strengthened, so that in twenty days it
had met the demands upon it to the amount of
$6,683,321, all of which had been paid in coin. The
other banks of the city were also hardly pressed.
The Philadelphia, Girard, and Pennsylvania Banks
in the same period had each paid out more than
$1,000,000 in coin. The city banks, except the United
States Bank, had redeemed of their own notes within
the same period, $5,122,732. The pressure was so
great that on the 4th of February the United States
Bank gave way before it, and an announcement
was made that this bank had again suspended specie
payment. The other banks made a show the next
day of continuing business. The United States Bank
paid coin on their five-dollar notes. The other banks
redeemed all demands until late in the day of the
5th, when it was found that the run was so heavy that
they could not stand it. Several of them also sus-
pended payment of specie on notes above five dollars.
The system of marking checks " good" instead of pay-
658
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ing them came into vogue. On the 13th of February
the Bank of the United States memorialized the Leg-
islature for assistance. They declared that they had
honestly attempted to carry out the law, but were pre-
vented by " a combination of hostile interests," and
" a pervading distrust stimulated into activity by a
part of the public press in another State." The
situation of the banks was undoubtedly precarious.
The Legislature undertook to furnish some relief.
A bill to allow the bank to issue notes for six mil-
lion dollars in sums less than five dollars to run for
six years was vetoed by the Governor. An act " to
provide revenue to meet the demands on the treasury"
was also vetoed by him, but it was passed in both
branches of the Legislature by a two-thirds majority
over his veto on the 4th of May. This act, generally
known afterward as " the relief law," authorized the
State banks, except the United States Bank, to loan
three million one hundred thousand dollars to the
commonwealth in amounts in proportion to their
capital, the same to be paid to the State in notes of
their own issue of the denomination of five dollars
and under. By a section of this act the United States
Bank was authorized to make an assignment for the
benefit of creditors.
A proceeding by George F. Alberti against the
Bank of the United States, in February, for a for-
feiture of the charter upon the ground that the bank
had refused to pay specie for two notes, led to a
decision H>y the Court of Common Pleas that under
the charter of the bank the great bonus paid to the
State made the transaction a special contract. Under
the charter a refusal to pay a bank-note rendered the
institution liable to a penalty of twelve per cent.
No proceeding for forfeiture of charter could be com-
menced until three months from the time of refusal.
Alberti's proceeding was under the act of 1840, order-
ing resumption of specie payments. By that law the
time when proceedings for forfeiture of charter could
be commenced was fixed at ten days after the refusal to
pay a note. The court decided that under the special
contract made with the bank the law of 1840 was un-
constitutional so far as the right to a forfeiture of the
charter after ten days' refusal to pay a note was con-
cerned. While these things were taking place a com-
mittee of six stockholders of the Bank of the United
States were examining into the condition of the insti-
tution. In April they made report of their discoveries,
and stated that there were evidences of fraud, misman-
agement, and misapplication of the funds of the in-
stitution. The estimate of the value of the assets was
that there was a depreciation whereby securities rep-
resented to have been once worth $69,351,742.46 were
now worth no more than $42,779,795.24. The liabil-
ities were $36,959,539.63. The capital was $35,000,000.
If this valuation was sustained, the stockholders could
not expect to receive more than about $15,000,000
for the $35,000,000 paid in, a clear loss of about
$20,000,000. The manner in which the money had
gone was not so satisfactorily ascertained. Upon the
suspended debt it was calculated that there would be
a loss of over $5,000,000. Estimated depreciation in
stocks over $7,000,000. On the amount due by State
banks a loss of nearly $3,400,000 was anticipated. A
large loss was expected upon the true active debt. In
February, 1836, it was reported that the surplus fund
of the bank above the capital was nearly $8,000,000.
The report, however, was not correct. Before the
State bank was chartered, the exchange committee of
the Federal bank, finding an over surplus of funds
from the collection of the debts of the bank, with a
view of winding up the concern, under authority of
the resolution of the directors loaned out immense
sums of money upon the hypothecation of stocks of
all kinds. In one year they had increased the loan
on stocks considerably over $15,000,000. When the
old bank was to be wound up there were $20,000,000
of bank-notes still liable to redemption, and the State
of Pennsylvania bonus was $5,000,000. Crippled by
the course of the exchange committee, the bank was
compelled to seek relief in loans, principally in Eng-
land and France. These amounted in July, 1840, to
more than $23,000,000. Post-notes were issued prom-
ising payment, and when these became due there was
no money to pay, so that the hypothecation of stocks
in large amounts was necessary to raise money.
Among other arrangements were the " cotton trans-
actions," which commenced in July, 1837, with a pur-
chase of cotton worth more than $2,000,000, which
was shipped through commercial houses at Philadel-
phia to a branch commercial house at Liverpool.
In three years the cotton transactions were a little
short of $9,000,000. The cotton was paid for by
drafts, which were met by funds advanced by the
bank. There were some profits, but what became of
them was never clearly understood. It was charged
that most of these transactions were unknown to the
directors generally, and that they were carried on by
the exchange committee and others without knowl-
edge on their part. These revelations created im-
mense surprise in the community and great suffering
among stockholders of the institution, many of whom
supposed to be in affluence held large numbers of
shares, and had depended upon the dividends for the
means of living. They were suddenly reduced to
want or poverty. The feeling was very strong against
the principal officers of the bank.
In January, 1842, Nicholas Biddle, the former presi-
dent, Joseph Cowperthwaite, John Andrews, Samuel
Jaudon, and Thomas Dunlap were brought before
Recorder Richard Vaux, charged with conspiracy to
cheat and defraud the stockholders of the Bank of
the United States. Jaudan and Dunlap obtained
writs of habeas corpus from the Common Pleas. The
result was the discharge of both of them. The accu-
sations turned chiefly upon the loans made to officers of
the bank by the exchange committee. The court held
that the directors had given power to that committee,
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
659
that their transactions were entered regularly in the
accounts under the proper heads, and that if the di-
rectors did not know of the transactions, they might
have done so. Also that the directors had accepted
stock and other means of payment for some of the loans
made by the exchange committee, and that the cotton
transactions, not being in power of the bank to carry
on under its charter, might be managed by individual
officers for their own profit without their being guilty of
a conspiracy. The relators were discharged. Shortly
afterwards Messrs. Biddle, Cowperthwaite, and An-
drews applied for writs of habeas corpus to the same
court. They were sent under a legal technicality to
the Court of Criminal Sessions. Biddle and Cowper-
thwaite were charged with conspiracy in connection
with the cot'ton transactions. Cowperthwaite was com-
plained of in consequence of having made large loans
without knowledge of the directors. The same charge
was made against Andrews, with the addition of
having fraudulently received moneys without author-
ity, for the expenditure of which no voucher could be
shown. The judges of the General Sessions, Barton,
Conrad, and Doran, heard these cases and decided them
as the Common Pleas had done. The payment of the
foreign bonds, it was said, must be met. The directors
devolved the duty of finding funds to the exchange
committee ; the committee put the labor and re-
sponsibility upon the officers of the bank ; the officers,
in theJtecline of private credit, not being able to obtain
good bms of exchange, " adopted the obvious if not
the only resource of shipping produce instead of pur-
chasing bills of exchange. After that the logical con-
clusions were obvious." The bank had no right to
deal in cotton by its charter, and the officers who had
engaged in the transaction were the only persons who
were entitled to the profits. A train of reasoning on
the same line, which would have shown that the offi-
cers who made the profits instead of the bank should
have borne the losses instead of the bank, was not at-
tempted. In regard to the payments by the officers
in depreciated and depreciating stocks at par, the
fault was in the directors who took them. All the
defendants were therefore discharged, and afterwards
there was no attempt to make them criminally re-
sponsible. On the 1st of May the bank made a par-
tial assignment to secure the payment of certain post-
notes due to the banks of Philadelphia. On the 4th
of September the directors made an assignment to
five trustees of certain other property except some
particular stocks specified in a schedule. The assets
were ordered to be applied, in the first place, to the
satisfaction of judgments against the bank ; second, to
the indemnification of certain sureties of the bank;
and third, to the payment of all debts of the bank
rateably and equally. Two days afterwards a supple-
mentary assignment was made to the said trustees,
conveying all rights in hypothecated stocks, loans,
and other pledges, and in all other property held by
the bank.
An intensely interesting and remarkably curious
criminal case was tried before the United States
Circuit Court, Judges Baldwin and Randall, in April,
1842. Alexander William Holmes was charged with
the murder of seven persons whom he threw out of
a long-boat at sea, after the ship " William Brown,"
Captain George L. Harris, foundered, on the 13th
of March, 1841. The ship was bound from Liver-
pool for Philadelphia, and carried a crew of seven-
teen men. There were sixty-five passengers, mostly
Scotch and Irish. The cargo consisted of salt, coal,
crockery, hardware, and other merchandise. The
voyage had been stormy for about twenty-three days.
On the 20th of April the ship struck an iceberg and
immediately commenced leaking. The bows had been
stove, and the water came in fast. The boats were
got out and launched. As many of the passengers as
could be got into them were so placed, and the boats
were veered astern of the ship. There was not room
for all the passengers, and some were left on board
the ship, and were carried down when the latter sunk,
bow foremost. The accident took place in the night.
The passengers were roused when the danger was ap-
parent, and were thinly clad. There were only two
boats. In the jolly-boat nine persons were placed, and
in the long-boat there were forty-two, with water,
provisions, etc. The next morning the boats parted
company. Captain Harris, in the jolly-boat, steered
toward Newfoundland, and ordered the long-boat
to follow. He was picked up six days afterwards
by a French fishing-boat one hundred and fifty miles
from land. Holmes was in command of the long-
boat. The sailors and passengers rowed and sailed
all day after the ship sank. The boat was exceed-
ingly crowded, and the dreadful determination was
taken to lighten it by throwing over some of the
passengers. Owen Reilly was the first to be sacrificed.
Frank Askins and his sisters, Mary and Ellen, were
next drowned. Charles Conlin followed. The next
day John Nugent and another man were thrown over.
In a few hours afterwards the ship "Crescent"
picked up the boat. None of the crew were subjected
to this misfortune. The trial of Holmes introduced
the question Whether it was lawful to take some lives
in order to save others, or whether the persons who
were in authority on board a ship were justified in
throwing persons overboard in order to save their
own lives. The trial occupied considerable time.
Holmes was found guilty of manslaughter, and sen-
tenced to six months' imprisonment.
The Girard Bank was chartered April 3, 1832, with
a capital of one million five hundred thousand dol-
lars, in shares of fifty dollars each. It was expected
that this institution would be the means of prevent-
ing a reduction of bank capital if the funds of Stephen
Girard's private bank should be withdrawn and the
amount used in other ways. In 1836 the charter was
extended for twenty years, and the capital increased
to one hundred thousand shares at fifty dollars each.
660
HISTORY OE PHILADELPHIA.
The consequence was that the bank had more money
than it could legitimately employ in its business. In
order to realize anything toward profit, the risk of
making loans upon doubtful security had to be en-
countered. Large numbers of Girard Bank notes
were in circulation. The market value of the stock
had declined to eight dollars and fifty cents per share
for fifty dollars paid. The other banking institutions
held the Girard Bank in suspicion. The notes of the
latter were refused on deposit by the Bank of the
Northern Liberties on the 26th of January. Other
city banks followed this example. The Girard Bank
was compelled to close its doors. Finally the institu-
tion made a general assignment of property for the ben-
efit of creditors. The trustees managed with discre-
tion, and in 1844 the Legislature passed an act com-
manding the stockholders to elect directors, so that the
bank went on with its business, and in 1.853 the charter
was extended for twenty years. On the 29th of Jan-
uary the city banks in concert refused to receive the
notes of the Bank of Pennsylvania. A run upon the in-
stitution commenced. This bank was a depository of
the funds of the State of Pennsylvania. Eight hun-
dred thousand dollars of the money of the common-
wealth were on deposit there, and payable on the 1st
of February, only two days after the run commenced.
Governor Porter came to town immediately, and gave
notice that he had directed the attorney-general to
take measures to secure the public funds, and to apply
for an injunction against the bank to prevent the pay-
ment out of the State money and for the appointment
of a receiver. There was a little delay in the pay-
ment of the interest on the State debt, but on the 15th
of March sufEcient funds were secured and payments
made to the public creditors at the Bank of Pennsyl-
vania building. By resolution of March 29th per-
mission was given to this institution to make an as-
signment for the benefit of creditors. This privilege
was not accepted. By degrees the bank straightened
out its affairs and resumed business without attracting
much attention. Warned by the threatening state of
affairs, the officers of the other banks of the city con-
sulted in regard to the best methods to be followed
in case of " a general run." The method proposed
was by a league, and the formation of a fund by mu-
tual pledge of capital and means for the redemption of
the notes of the banks. It was agreed that seventy-five
thousand dollars should be deposited for every five hun-
dred thousand dollars of capital of the bank league.
Ten city banks and the Bank of Camden, N. J., which
had an office in the city, acceded to the plan. The
Banks of Germantown and Kensington did not accede
to the arrangement. The Pennsylvania Bank and
Girard Bank were in difficulties. The Supreme Court
granted the injunction prayed for by the Governor
against the Bank of Pennsylvania, and that institu-
tion was closed. On the 31st of January, being Mon-
day a run was commenced on the Moyamensing
Bank which by the assistance of the league it met
and maintained all demands. The bank league re-
fused to take country bank-notes. As large numbers
of these were in circulation, great inconvenience fol-
lowed. The Legislature was Democratic, and these
proceedings of the banks were not viewed with admi-
ration. Measures were immediately taken to compel
resumption. An act was passed March 12th which
directed that the banks of the commonwealth should
forthwith redeem their notes and deposits and other
liabilities in gold and silver coin. Refusal to do so,
except in case of previous contract for the payment
of deposits in some other way, " shall be deemed and
taken to be an absolute forfeiture of their respective
charters." The act directed that " hereafter only gold
or silver, or the notes of specie-paying banks, or
the legal issues under the act of May 4,-1841, shall
be received in payment of tolls, taxes, or other
revenues of the commonwealth." This act gave no
time to the banks to prepare, and those which were
in the city did not resume immediately. A consul-
tation was held on the 15th without definite conclu-
sion. On the 16th a heavy run was made on the
Bank of Penn Township, which could not sustain the
pressure, and was closed. On the 16th the Mechanics'
Bank and the Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Bank
met with the same fate. On the other hand, the
Philadelphia, Commercial, North America, and West-
ern Banks resumed payments on that day. On the
next day the Farmers' and Mechanics', Southwark,
Northern Liberties, Kensington, and Germantown
Banks resumed. The Penn Township, Manufactu-
rers' and Mechanics', Moyamensing, and Mechanics'
Banks alleged that having accepted the relief law
they were not bound to resume, and they refused to
do so.
Eiots, in which colored people were maltreated and
their property injured, broke out on the 1st of Au-
gust, and were caused in the first place by disturbance
between colored persons who were in a procession of
the " Moyamensing Temperance Society" and boys
and other white persons who were in the streets. The
police made arrests, which created excitement. A
mob of white persons immediately afterwards com-
menced operations against dwellings inhabited by
blacks in the vicinity of Lombard Street between Fifth
and Eighth Streets, and in various small courts and
alleys adjacent. Windows were broken, doors demol-
ished, furniture thrown out of the houses, and negroes
assaulted and beaten. The discharge of a gun by a
black man in Bradford's Alley fanned into fierceness
the flames of excitement, which were about subsiding.
The person who used the gun retreated to a house,
which was assaulted, broken open, and all the colored
persons within were dragged out and beaten. The
city police interfered to save these men, and while
they were taking them to the mayor's office desperate
efforts were made to rescue them from the officers. In
the evening houses occupied by colored people be-
tween Seventh and Eighth were broken open and the
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
661
inmates assaulted and injured. On the north side of
Lombard Street between Seventh and Eighth was a
large building erected by Stephen Smith, a colored
man, as a rjlace for the meeting of literary and bene-
ficial societies, and called " Smith's Beneficial Hall."
Being used by colored men, it was an object of attack.
A strong force of police was stationed in front of the
building and the mob kept at a distance. But while
they were guarding the front the enemy was success-
ful at the rear. By some means entrance was obtained
to the building, and at an unexpected time flames
were suddenly seen to break out from the upper stories.
The destruction was complete. The building was en-
tirely burned out. Some injury was done to adjoin-
ing houses by falling walls. While this fire was in
progress a church on the north side of St. Mary Street,
running from Seventh to Eighth, and south of Lom-
bard, was found to be on fire. Nothing was saved
here but the walls. This church was the first church
building of the Society of Covenanters, who had af-
terward removed to a better site on Eleventh Street
above Chestnut. The property had passed into pos-
session of a religious society of colored persons. It was
never known whether this building was set on fire by
an incendiary, or whether it caught from the sparks
and brands flying from the great conflagration of
Smith's Beneficial Hall.
The negro riots ceased at midnight, but on the next
day there was a disturbance at the coal-yards on the
Schuylkill River, caused by Irish laborers employed
in those places attacking colored laborers at work in
the neighborhood. The sheriff, Henry Morris, sent
out a posse of sixty men. These were attacked by a
mob and forced to fly, leaving the field to the rioters.
The latter marched to Moyamensing and made attack
upon colored people in Baker Street, Clymer Street,
Little Oak Street, and Fitzwater Street from Thir-
teenth Street downward. Sheriff Morris perceiving
the danger of greater destruction that night, applied
to the County Commissioners for means to pay the
volunteer soldiers whom he intended to call out. City
Councils at a special meeting voted five thousand
dollars for that service. The troops mustered in great
strength, not only with loaded muskets but with some
pieces of artillery. They were stationed in Washing-
ton Square, which took for the time the appearance of
a military cantonment. A strong force of police was
also stationed in the neighborhood. Persons of riot-
ous disposition were warned by these occurrences of
the danger of manifestations, and by being prepared
to meet disorder with vigorous measures further
trouble was prevented.
The weavers' riot in Kensington, at the beginning
of 1843, was in effect a relief from the general course
of outrages which sought its victims among the col-
ored people. The disturbance arose in consequence
of disputes among the working weavers in regard to
the wages which they should receive for their services.
A trade society which was embodied by some of
these persons had demanded higher wages and ordered
a strike. Other weavers in considerable numbers held
aloof from the association, and did not sustain the
measures which had been adopted. They continued
at their work. At that period the weavers generally
did their work upon hand-looms in their own houses
and not in mills. The parties standing out were
therefore much incensed at the refusal of their com-
panions to join them. The latter were assaulted on
the streets. A mob of weavers at Front and Brown
Streets, on the 11th of January, entered the houses of
persons in the trade, cut warps, destroyed looms and
stuff in the process of manufacture. Information
being sent to the city, the sheriff, William A. Por-
ter, proceeded to the scene with a small posse.
The rioters had in the mean while retreated toward
a market-house in Washington [American] Street,
north of Master, which in the neighborhood was
krfbwn as " The Nanny-Goafc Market.'' From this
fortress the sheriff's party, approaching, were as-
sailed with stones and broken bricks. The posse at-
tempted to make a charge upon them, but the rioters,
being armed with clubs, stood their ground. The
sheriff was severely beaten, and although some arrests
were made, his force was compelled to retreat. The
next day the streets of Kensington were paraded by
crowds of men armed with clubs. They attacked and
beat persons who came in their way who were obnox-
ious to them. Some of them took possession of the
Nanny-Goat Market, which they boarded up at one
end. They also supplied themselves with bricks from
a neighboring pile, intended to be used for building
purposes. The market committee of the district of
Kensington ordered these bricks to be removed from
the market, and sent a cartman for the purpose. He
was seized, beaten, and compelled to fly. The sheriff
finding, by the experience of the previous day, that
he could not cope with the rioters, called out four
companies of the volunteer battalion, which were
marched to Kensington, and in the evening eight
companies of Gen. Cadwalader's brigade were also as-
sembled at their armories. Knowledge of these prepa-
rations was sufficient to prevent further disturbances.
Commodore Isaac Hull, of the United States Navy,
a hero of the war of 1812, died on the 13th of Feb-
ruary, and was buried from his residence in Portico
Square, Spruce Street, between Ninth and Tenth, on
the 17th. The hero of the sea-fight between the
United States frigate " Constitution" and the British
frigate " Guerriere" was held in high esteem by the
people of the United States. The funeral procession
was of considerable size. It was attended by a com-
pany of United States marines, twenty-five companies
of volunteer militia, the City Councils, and many
others. The coffin, covered with a pennant, indica-
ting the rank of the deceased, was borne upon a bier,
supported by United States sailors. The services took
place at Christ Church, where the body was deposited
in a vault preparatory to removal to Laurel Hill.
662
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
John Tyler, President of the United States, was
formally received on a visit to the city on the 9th of
June. A committee of citizens met him at Wilming-
ton, Del., from which place he was brought by a
steamboat and landed at the navy-yard, where there
was a reception by officers of the navy attached to
the station and by a committee of citizens, for which
Alderman Peter Hay was spokesman. A route of
parade had been previously arranged. The proces-
sion was principally composed of the military com-
panies, called out for the occasion, and a few citizens.
In a barouche drawn by four white horses the Presi-
dent was escorted to the United States Hotel in
Chestnut Street. He was accompanied by James
Madison Porter, Secretary of War, Abel P. Upshur,
Secretary of State, John 0. Spencer, Secretary of the
Treasury, and Charles A. Wickliffe, Postmaster-
General. There was strong political feeling at this
time in opposition to Mr. Tyler upon account of the
policy which he had developed after the death of
President Harrison, which was entirely different from
that of the Whig party, by whom he had been elected.
His visit to the city was asserted to be a mere political
journey undertaken in hope of making some popu-
larity. The procession was coldly looked upon in
many parts of the city, and when the President
passed along Chestnut Street, near Sixth he was
loudly hissed at by persons standing on the sidewalk.
City Councils granted Mr. Tyler the use of Inde-
pendence Hall, and he received his friends there the
next day, and left in the afternoon for Baltimore.
Marshal Bertrand, one of the officers of Napoleon
Bonaparte, who had afterward been employed in the
service of the United States as an engineer officer,
visited Philadelphia on the 14th of November. City
Councils voted that he should be received as a guest
of the city, and tendered him the use of Independ-
ence Hall for the reception of his friends.
The Kensington Gas Company was incorporated
April 4th, with a capital of ten thousand dollars and
right of extension to twenty thousand dollars. The
shares were ten dollars each. The company had
authority to manufacture carbonated hydrogen gas
and lay pipes for distribution for public and private
use in the district. Actually this was a huckster
corporation, which was expected to buy the gas from
the Northern Liberties Gas- Works and sell the same
to the inhabitants of Kensington at a profit. The
district of Kensington was authorized to buy the
rights of the company after five years on payment of
the money expended.
The first steps were taken toward the establishment
of the district of Peun by act of April 19th, under
which James Markoe, Andrew D. Cash, William
Esher, Jacob Heyberger, and Edward T. Tyson were
appointed commissioners, with authority to have sur-
veyed and laid out that part of Penn township be-
tween the north line of Spring Garden District and a
line parallel with and one hundred feet north of Sus-
quehanna Avenue, and between the middle of Dela-
ware Sixth Street and the river Schuylkill. They
were given authority to lay out streets and lanes, and
pitch, pave, and curb them, and establish sewers, etc.,
in the same manner as the commissioners of the dis-
trict of Spring Garden might do.
The incorporated districts of the county were restive
under the necessity of complying with the demands of
the city of Philadelphia, whatever they might be, for
the supply of water to the inhabitants of the districts.
The city compelled all persons in the adjoining districts
to pay on an average a half-rate more than was paid
by persons residing in the bounds of the city and using
the water. The feeling was that the water-rents from
properties in the districts were nearly all clear profit,
that the Fairmount Works were large enough to pump
and supply all the water needed by the districts by a
very trifling additional expense beyond those incident
to the ordinary operations of the works. If any at-
tempt was made to induce a reduction it met with no
favor. This policy brought about a movement on the
part of the commissioners of Northern Liberties and
Spring Garden which eventually produced a change
in the method of obtaining the water supply, and
broke up entirely the supposed monopoly or sole right
of the city of Philadelphia to the use of the water of
the Schuylkill Eiver for domestic or other purposes.
On the 18th of April an act was passed the preamble
of which recited that a large portion of the district
of Spring Garden could not be supplied with water
from the works of the city at Fairmount, the ground
in some parts of that district being higher than the
level of the said works. The act then proceeded to
authorize the incorporated districts of the county of
Philadelphia to construct steam or other suitable
works on or adjacent to the river Schuylkill, between
the south line of Coates Street and the northern
boundary of the district -of Spring Garden, "for the
purpose of pumping up and supplying the said dis-
tricts and the inhabitants thereof with water from the
said river, or such other stream of water in the vi-
cinity of said districts as may be practicable." There
was a provision that no more water should be taken
than might be necessary for the use of the districts.
Much more important was the following: " Provided,
that this act shall not go into effect if the city of Phil-
adelphia shall within three months reduce the water-
rents in the incorporated districts to the same amount
charged to citizens of the city." There was another
proviso, — that compliance with the city should not
prevent the incorporated districts from taking water
from the Schuylkill below Fairmount or from any
other stream. The districts were given authority to
construct reservoirs, lay pipes, etc. Further provision
established that if, after the expiration of four months,
any of the incorporated districts should neglect or re-
fuse to accept the provisions of the law, any of the
remaining districts should have that privilege. If
Northern Liberties, Kensington, South wark, or Moya-
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
663
mensing should not accept the provisions of the act,
Spring Garden might execute the work alone. The
other districts might, however, have a right to apply
to Spring Garden for water, which must then be fur-
nished at Spring Garden rates. This measure came
from the Spring Garden district commissioners al-
most entirely, with some encouragement in words,
perhaps, from the officers of other districts. The con-
ditions were not hard. The city could nullify the act
by the concession of justice. During the three
months which followed the Councils did not reach the
opportunity or seem to appreciate the danger which
menaced. The watering committee was opposed, to
the reduction of the water-rents to the inhabitants of
the districts. It was argued that as the State had
granted the use of the waters of the river Schuylkill
to the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and as the
city had bought from that company the full right to
the use of the Schuylkill water, except what was re-
quired for the purposes of navigation, there had been
a solemn contract, which was beyond the power of
the Legislature to modify or break. Finally the City
Councils refused to reduce the water-rents to residents
of the districts. Upon this the commissioners of the
district of Spring Garden undertook the work. Ap-
plication was made to the Supreme Court by the city
for an injunction to prevent this invasion of the rights
of the city corporation. The case went against thecity.
It was admitted, in the learned and important opinion
which was delivered, that the city had an apparent
good right under the contract with the Schuylkill
Navigation Company. But all this was swept away by
the clear declaration that the Legislature had uo con-
stitutional right to grant the entire use of any stream
in diminution of the privilege to the people of the com-
monwealth to the use of the rivers for culinary, drink-
ing, or domestic purposes or for any other object. This
declaration was equal to a new Magna Charta. Under
that authority the districts of Spring Garden and the
Northern Liberties united in the erection of a water-
works. A piece of ground in a valley on the east
side of the Schuylkill, adjoining Sedgely on the north,
and now just above Girard Avenue, was purchased.
Here was built an engine-house of brick, solid in ap-
pearance, with a high chimney-stack in the style of
an Egyptian column. The pool from which the water
was pumped (called at Fairmount the forebay) ran
from the river, from which it was separated by guard-
wall and sluice-gate, up to the works, which were
some two or three hundred feet distant. Water was
pumped from this storage-place to the reservoir, situ-
ate in what was then called *' Morris City,'' north of
Fairmount. The reservoir was built upon Thompson
and Master Streets, west of the present Twenty-fifth
Street and east of Twenty-seventh Street. At that
time none of those streets were laid out ; otherwise the
blocking up of Twenty-sixth Street might have been
avoided. The Spring Garden and Northern Liberties
Water-Works were opened for use in December, 1844.
The spirit of riot and disorder which for some
years had mostly vented itself upon negroes and
mulattoes found an entirely new object in events
which happened during the year 1844. In previous
years a feeling against foreigners had arisen in sev-
eral States, caused by the activity of certain classes
of adopted citizens in politics, and their intention, as
was suspected, of making the subject of political re-
wards dependent upon nationality rather than merit.
This feeling on the part of native-born citizens was
greatly increased by the action of the Roman Cath-
olics in some of the States claiming privileges in
regard to the education in the public schools of chil-
dren of Catholic parents, which were calculated to
arouse animosity of feeling among Protestants. The
Catholic claims varied in different localities. In
New York it was declared that the demand on be-
half of the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, by
whom they were supported, was that the reading of
the Bible according to the King James version should
be prohibited in the public schools. These circum-
stances brought sectarianism into the subject, and
gave to the Native American party, which would
have been of little importance if the object had only
been to protest against naturalized foreigners voting
or being voted for, a strength from the religious' sup-
porters of Protestantism which gave a force to the
party at the beginning. Passion and prejudice also
added greatly to the hostility which was manifested.
If there had been no desire on the part of the Cath-
olics to antagonize the Native American party, they
were driven into it by the combination of opposing
elements.
The first Native American meeting in Philadel-
phia was held at Germantown in 1837, and resulted in
the adoption of a preamble and constitution for a
society, in which the following language was used :
"While at the same time we invite the stranger, worn
down by oppression at home, to come and share with
us the blessings of our native land, here find an asy-
lum for his distress, and partake of the plenty a kind
Providence has so bountifully given us, we deny his
right (hereby meaning as foreigner any emigrant who
may hereafter arrive in our country) to have a voice
in our legislative hall, his eligibility to office under
any circumstances, and we ask a repeal of that natu-
ralization law, which it must be apparent to every
reflecting mind, to every true son of America, has
now become an evil." This movement at German-
town found a few supporters, but amounted to very
little. In December, 1843, a meeting was held in a
hall on the Ridge road in the district of Spring Gar-
den, at which " The Subject" of the undue influence
and misused privileges of the foreign population
" was discussed." Those who were present formed
the American Republican Association of Second
Ward, Spring Garden. Shortly afterward an asso-
ciation was formed in Locust Ward, of the city,
and in January, 1844, societies were established in
664
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
North Mulberry and Cedar Wards. From this time
the movement went on so rapidly that, in the course
of four or five months, there was a Native American
association for almost every ward and township in
the city and county. The first doctrine of the Ger-
mantown association was that foreigners should not
be allowed to vote, no matter how long they remained
in the country. This was generally modified by the
associations of 1844. The principles of those asso-
ciations, it was generally agreed to, were embodied in
the following declarations :
" First. We maintain that the naturalization laws should be so altered
as to require of all foreigners who may hereafter arrive in this country
a residence of twenty-one years before granting them the privilege of
the elective franchise ; but at the same time we distinctly declare that
it is not our intention to interfere with the vested rights of any citizen,
or lay any obstruction in the way of foreigners obtaining a livelihood,
or acquiring property in this country ; but, on the contrary, we would
grant them the right to purchase, hold, and transfer property, and to
enjoy and participate in all the benefits of our country (except that of
voting and holding office) as soon as they declare their intentions to
become citizens.
" Second. We maintain that the Bible, without note or comment, is
not sectarian ; that it is the fountain-head of morality and all good gov-
ernment, and should be used in our public schools as a reading-book.
"Third. We are opposed to a union of church and state in any and
every form.
" Fourth. We hold that Native Americans only should be appointed
to office to legislate, administer, or execute the laws of the country."
For four months the Native Americans wentOD in-
stituting new societies and obtaining new members,
exciting some attention, but with little show of oppo-
sition. On the 3d of May an incident occurred which
was premonitory of disaster. A Native American
association was proposed to be established in the
Third Ward, Kensington. The place chosen for the
meeting was upon an open lot at the southwest corner
of Master and Second Streets, adjoining a school-
house. About three hundred persons were present.
While a speaker was addressing the meeting an at-
tack was made upon it by a number of persons who
were armed with clubs, who suddenly fell upon the
individuals who formed the meeting, and took them
so unexpectedly that they were driven away. The
stage or platform which was in use by the meeting
was demolished. The breaking up of this meeting
caused great excitement, particularly so as it was as-
serted that the persons of the attacking party were all
foreigners by birth, and the majority of them were Irish-
men. The persons connected with the meeting rallied
and repaired to a place in the neighborhood, where
they passed resolutions denouncing the outrage upon
them, and determined that in the maintenance of
their constitutional rights to peaceably assemble and
discuss public measures they would adjourn to meet
on the succeeding Monday afternoon, May 6th, at the
place from which they were driven. The narrative
of the circumstances connected with this affair, as
published in the newspapers, attracted much atten-
tion and excited considerable feeling. On the day
named the meeting assembled on the lot at Second
and Master Streets. The proceedings commenced
quietly and went on favorably for about half an hour.
About that time a cart, driven by John O'Neill, an
Irishman, was forced on to the lot and into the throng
which was assembled and nearly to the speakers' stand.
A small quantity of dirt which was in the vehicle
was shot upon the ground and the cart driven away.
This incident excited some indignation, as it was be-
lieved O'Neill came purposely to disturb and break up
the meeting. The business of the afternoon was re-
sumed, however, and continued until a sudden shower
of rain put the parties to flight. They took refuge
in the market-house in Washington [American] Street
above Master, called the Nanny-Goat Market, some-
what conspicuous in the weavers' riot of the year pre-
vious. Here an attempt was made to reorganize the
meeting, and » speaker proceeded to address them.
On the outskirts of this assemblage there were per-
sons who evidently were opposed to the object of the
meeting, and disposed to prevent its being continued.
A quarrel between these and persons composing the
meeting occurred, and a pistol was fired. On the
west side of Washington Street, immediately oppo-
site the market-house, was a vacant piece of ground
about one hundred and fifty feet wide, which ex-
tended to Cadwalader Street, which ran northwardly
parallel with Washington Street. Upon the west side
of Cadwalader Street, and opposite the vacant piece
of ground, was a house occupied by the Hibernia
Hose Company. As soon as the sound of the pistol
was heard a gun was pointed out of a raised window
in the hose-house and fired in the direction of the
meeting. It was followed by an irregular volley of
shots from the same place, and in a few minutes
guns were again fired. Some of these came from the
hose-house and some from the upper stories of the
houses in the neighborhood. Upon this the great
majority of persons who were in the market-house
scattered and ran. A few stood their ground, and
threw stones and brickbats at or toward the houses.
The disturbance soon became enlarged to a regular
battle. Some of the persons driven away procured
fire-arms. Others, who were not present but heard
of the affair, also armed themselves and repaired to
the scene. Generally the battle was waged prudently
and with the tactics of Indian fighting, shooting from
ambush, and from shelters behind trees, doors, or cor-
ners. By degrees the field was shifted from Washington
to Cadwalader Street and Germantown road, and as
far north as Jefferson Street, being much beyond the
original spot where the first difficulty took place.
During this skirmish George Stuffier, a lad between
eighteen and nineteen years old, was mortally
wounded, and died soon afterwards.1 Eleven other
i It waB represented that Shiftier was "defending the American flag"
when he was shot, trying to prevent it being carried off by Irishmen.
Whether true or false, Shiffler was honored as a martyr and a hero. The
scene of his death was painted on the banners of some of the Native Ameri-
can associations. A hose company, established about this time in South-
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
665
persons were wounded, all of them Americans, but
subsequently recovered. The persons in the houses
are not known to have been injured at this time.
When intelligence of these transactions flew through
the city, great excitement was created. Thousands
of persons paid a visit to the neighborhood of the
riot. Generally they avoided the battle-field, as any
one who was seen there was considered to be in
danger of being shot from the houses. The bulk of
the crowd was in Second Street, principally about
Franklin Street [Girard Avenue]. Here, about ten
o'clock in the evening, stones and bricks were thrown
against a house said to be inhabited by Catholics.
Not far from this place, at the southeast corner of
Second and Phoenix [Thompson] Streets, was a school-
house, used by Sisters of Charity of the Roman Cath-
olic Church as a seminary. This building was popu-
larly called " The Nunnery." An attempt was made
to break into this building, probably to set it on fire.
Upon the attack guns were fired from the upper
stories, by which two spectators not engaged in any
violence were shot. They were John W. Wright
and Nathan D. Ramsay. The latter was mortally
wounded, and died a few days afterwards. Wright
was killed on the spot. These occurrences, being re-
ported in the papers next day, intensified the excite-
ment. Extras were published by the Sun and Native
American, requesting citizens to assemble in the State-
House yard at half-past three o'clock in the afternoon.
Handbills were put up in various places to the same
effect, having at the bottom the following significant
words: "let evert man come prepared to de-
fend HIMSELF."
The meeting was large and tumultuous. Officers
were chosen and resolutions offered. Thomas R. New-
bold was president. There were short speeches by
James C. Vandyke, William Hollinshead, John H.
Gihon, John Perry, and Col. C. J. Jack. The reso-
lutions by Perry stigmatized the proceedings in Ken-
sington as a gross and atrocious outrage. They
averred, —
" Resolved, That the proceedings of a portion of the Irish inhabitants
of the district of Kensington on Monday afternoon is the surest evi-
dence that can he given that our views on the naturalization laws are
correct, and that foreignersin the short space of five years are incapable
of entering into the spirit of our institutions.
" Resolved, That we consider the Bible in the public schools as neces-
sary for a faithful course of instruction therein, and we are determined
to maintain it there in Bpite of the efforts of naturalized and unnatu-
ralized foreigners to eject it therefrom.
"Resolved, That this meeting believes that the recently successful
efTurts of the friends of the Bible in Kensington was the inciting cause
which resulted in the murderous scenes of the 6th instant."
There was also a resolution approving of the offer-
ing of a reward of one thousand dollars for the con-
viction and apprehension of the murderers, and that
a collection should be taken up for the benefit of the
wark, was named after him, and continued until the Volunteer Fire
Department was superseded by the "Paid Fire Department," established
by the city of Philadelphia in 1871.
widows, mothers, and children of the murdered. If
the matter had ended with the dispersion of the per-
sons present at this meeting to their respective homes
or business places the circumstances would have been
proper enough, but somebody moved that the meet-
ing should adjourn to meet in Kensington on the fol-
lowing Thursday, which was lost. Another motion
to meet the next day was also lost. Then there was
passed a resolution that the meeting adjourn to meet
at the corner of Second and Master Streets. This
meant forthwith, and forming themselves into an
irregular sort of a procession a portion of the meet-
ing swarmed out into Chestnut Street, passing through
the centre hall and doors of the State-House, and
thence marched up-town. When the head of the line
reached Master Street it was about five o'clock iD the
afternoon. The place selected for the meeting was
on Washington [American] Street, between the mar-
ket and the houses on Cadwalader Street from which
the firing had come on the previous day.
A movement was made, to hoist an American flag
about the spot where Shiffler fell. While this was
being done a volley of musketry was poured into the
meeting from the Hibernia Hose house. Although
the persons who attended the State-House meeting
were requested to come armed they had not done so,
and there is reason to believe that not, one out of one
hundred persons in the meeting even carried a pistol.
Some persons joined the crowd as it marched up carry-
ing guns. There were probably a dozen of these when
Master Street was reached. At a subsequent legal in-
vestigation there was a conflict of testimony as to the
manner in which the disturbances now commenced.
Some said .that the meeting was called to order and a
speaker began to address them. Others testified that
the business of the meeting had not commenced be-
fore guns were fired from the Hibernia Hose house.
At this the persons connected with the meeting made
an attack upon the hose-house, broke it open and ran
out the hose-carriage, which was destroyed. They
did not venture in the upper stories, but the Hibernia
house was set on fire, and the flames spread to other
buildings. Guns were then fired from other houses
in the upper part of Cadwalader Street as far as Jef-
ferson, afterward above that street, and at times from
the back part of houses on the Germantown road and
upon MasterStreet. John Wesley Rinedollar, a young
man, was shot in the back and killed on the spot, and
five or six others were wounded. Louis Greble,
Charles Stillwell, and Matthew Hammett were shot
dead. Joseph Coxe and John Lescher were wounded
mortally and afterward died, and several Americans
were wounded. On the other side, Joseph Rice, an
Irishman, was killed while looking over a fence on
the west side of Cadwalader Street; John Taggart,
an Irishman, who was accused of firing a gun, was ar-
rested and ordered to be committed to prison by an
alderman ; the mob made an attack upon the officers
who had him in custody. He was severely beaten,
666
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and an attempt was made to hang him to a lamp-post.
This ferocity being prevented, his body was dragged
over the stones of the streets for some distance, beaten,
and finally left for dead on one of the stalls of the
market-house in Second Street below Poplar. His
body was taken to the police-office of the Northern
Liberties, his wounds treated, and finally he recov-
ered. While these transactions were in progress the
fire which had commenced at the Hibernia Hose
house extended along Cadwalader Street on both
sides, on the west side of Washington Street and
south side of Jefferson Street. Altogether about
thirty houses were destroyed, and the "Nanny-Goat
Market" also took fire and was consumed. The mili-
tary was called for by the sheriff on Monday evening,
but the officers refused to respond. On Tuesday
efforts were again made for the same purpose, and
after a meeting of the officers of the First Brigade
and a discussion of the matter, it was resolved to
muster. The troops came upon the ground about
dark, and the firemen, who had been ready to play
upon the burning buildings, but were prevented by
the danger of being shot, proceeded to check the
flames under the protection of the military. The mob
had dispersed, and during the night there was no
further disturbance. The next day was the 9th of
May. Great crowds of persons visited the scene of
the riots out of curiosity. The military had been
withdrawn, all except two companies, the Monroe
Guards and the Philadelphia Cadets, Capt. White.
Many of the Irish were removing their goods and
fleeing from the dangerous neighborhood. Their
dwellings were entered. There were rumors of guns
and ammunition being found in them. A row of
houses in a court running from Cadwalader Street,
above Jefferson, were set on fire, as also two brick
houses at the southeast corner of Jefferson and Cad-
walader Streets, and a court of frame houses running
from Cadwalader to Germantown road, above Master
Street. The whole neighborhood was menaced, and
American flags were displayed from the windows of
various houses to indicate that the tenants were not
Irish.
At this time the Eoman Catholic Church of St.
Michael, a large brick building at the corner of
Second and Jefferson Streets, was set on fire. The
pastor's residence adjoining and some frame build-
ings on the south caught from the flames and all
were destroyed. About the same time the Female
Seminary at Second and Phoenix Streets, which had
resisted the attacks of the previous day, was set on
fire and consumed, as was also a grocery-store occu-
pied by Joseph Corr, a Catholic, at the northeast cor-
ner of Second and Phoenix Streets. The two military
companies on the ground were weak in numbers and
could not prevent these outrages. Indeed, they were
taunted by the rioters and insulted in the most outra-
geous manner. About five o'clock the First Brigade,
under Brig.-Gen. George Cadwalader, Sheriff Morton
McMichael and Maj.-Gen. Robert Patterson being
with them, arrived upon the ground by way of Fourth
Street. They were divided into two bodies, one of
which marched down Franklin Street [Girard Avenue]
to Second Street and to Jefferson. The other, under
command of Col. James Page, marched up Fourth to
Jefferson and thence to Second Street. The rioters,,
who had been insulting to the military, ere this be-
came less demonstrative. Many of them left the
ground, and proceeding to some distance from the
soldiers, made an attack upon the office of Alderman
Hugh Clark, at Fourth and Master Streets, battering
the doors and windows. He was an Irishman and a
Catholic, free-spoken and unpleasant in his manner,
and was highly unpopular. His house stood the attack,
but that of Patrick Clark, adjoining, was entered and
the furniture thrown into the street. A detachment
of military arrived in time to prevent the place from
being set on fire. Some other houses on Master and
Jefferson Streets were burned. Harmony Court, run-
ning west from Cadwalader Street above Master,
which contained six or eight houses, was subject to
the incendiary and totally destroyed. While these
outrages were carried on in Kensington other parts
of the city and county were unguarded, and there was
a better chance of wanton destruction to exert itself
elsewhere. Unfortunately, rumor in the course of the
day had circulated through the city that there was
probability that the Roman Catholic Church of St.
Augustine, on Fourth Street below Vine, and oppo-
site New Street, would be attacked. There was no
particular reason why this church should have been
selected for destruction while others belonging to the
same sect were not even thought of. But there were
stories looking to an attack upon St. Augustine's, and
they had the effect to attract a considerable crowd to
the neighborhood. The seat of previous disturbances
having been in Kensington, the city authorities were
not prepared for this danger. The mayor, John M.
Scott, was on the ground with a body of police, who
were stationed on the pavement in front of the
church. The First City Troop of Cavalry was sta-
tioned in the neighborhood. The throngs of people
coming to the scene increased the crowd. Thousands
stood or looked at the church or were engaged in low .
conversation. There was no demonstration of vio-
lence to attract attention. But whilst the police and
the crowd were on the outside, somebody had entered
the church and kindled a fire, the light of which was
soon seen. No efforts were made to quench the
flames. They increased in brightness as pew led the
fire to pew, the galleries caught, and at length the
flames broke forth from the roof and the windows in
front, and finally the steeple was on fire, and as the
cross which crowned the height yielded to the flames
and fell in, plaudits arose with savage exultation
from many in the streets. The firemen who were
upon the ground did not attempt to play upon the
church, but devoted themselves to saving the adjoin-
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
667
ing property. The flames were resistless and they
left nothing unconsumed, — nothing but the blackened
walls, and there in the morning, through the broken
windows over what had been the high altar, were
seen as plainly as they had existed on the previous
day, the remarkable words, " The Lord Seeth."
Beside the church building, other adjoining property
was destroyed. The large building on Crown Street,
used as a school-house, in which, during the cholera
visitation of 1832, the sick had been nursed and the
sufferings of the dying alleviated as far as could
be by Sisters of Charity, was totally destroyed. It
had contained the large and costly theological li-
brary of the Hermits of St. Augustine, including rare
books not to be found elsewhere in America. Some
of these during the fire were thrown out
into Crown Street, and torn up or trod-
den upon so as to be worthless. Some
were picked up and returned eventually
to the fathers, but the greater portion of
this fine collection of books were de-
stroyed. During all this wanton van-
dalism the troops had been stationed in
Kensington. When news of the occur-
rences were sent to the military they were
marched to the city, and during the rest
of the night disposed in detachments
for the protection of Catholic churches.
Some of these were guarded by citizens.
City Councils had an informal session on
the evening of the 8th, and it was agreed
by those present that twenty thousand
dollars should be appropriated to the
police committee toward payment of en-
deavoring to maintain the peace. It was
now seen that the temporizing policy of
the previous three or four days, the want
of preparation to meet emergencies, the
seeming helplessness which had allowed
rapine, arson, and murder to hold satur-
nalia, was a great mistake of policy, and
had given impunity to the worst ele-
ments.
On the morning of the 9th the mayor
called a meeting of the citizens in the State-House
yard to deliberate upon the present state of the public
peace. As many as ten thousand persons were pres-
ent. John M. Read was chairman, Frederick Fraley
secretary. Horace Binney and John K. Kane made
short speeches. Resolutions were adopted recom-
mending citizens to " forthwith enroll and hold them-
selves in readiness to maintain the laws and protect
the public peace under the direction of the consti-
tuted authorities of the city, county, and State." Other
resolutions pledging support to the authorities were
adopted, among which was one requesting citizens to
meet in their several wards at the places of holding
ward elections, " there to organize under the consti-
tuted authorities and support of peace and order."
The aldermen of the wards organized these compa-
nies. Each man was furnished with a white muslin
badge, intended to be worn round the hat, upon which
were printed the words "peace police." They were
divided into patrols for the blocks and divisions of
each ward, and were on duty all that night. On the
same day Maj.-Gen. Patterson, who had hitherto not
appeared in a military capacity except as attendant
with the brigade of Gen. Cadwalader, called out the
whole division and established his headquarters at
the Girard Bank. Governor David R. Porter ar-
rived in the city on the 9th, and issued a.proclama-
tion in relation to the late events. He ordered Maj.-
Gen. Patterson to call into service the volunteers of
the division to act in conjunction with the sheriff, and
inii liiHi in
111 ifiil ili
H
■M
ST. AUGUSTINE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, DESTROYED BY MOB IN 1844.
made other suggestions in the interests of peace. The
soldiers remained on duty for several days, during
which there were no disturbances of any kind. On
the Sunday, the 12th of May, succeeding the burning
of St. Augustine's, the Catholic Churches were closed
by direction of Bishop Kenrick. On the same day
the military, fearing that persons might collect in
places where mischief might be done, paraded through
the streets in force. There was also sent up from the
United States steamship " Princeton" a large de-
tachment of the crew armed with boarding-pikes,
cutlasses, and helmets. There was no disturbance,
and in a few days the military were withdrawn from
service.
Shortly after Governor Porter arrived he was ad-
668
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
dressed in a written communication by fifty-four
citizens, whose signatures followed those of Horace
Binney and John Sergeant. The communication was
voluntary. The signers approved of all the Governor
had done for suppression of the riots and prevention
of future disturbances. Thanks were due to the mili-
tary for their conduct during the whole of the trying
emergencies ; it was asserted that in cases where the
military operations had resulted in wounds and death of
citizens opposing them, such wounds and death were,
in law and in conscience, wounds and death occasioned
by the insurgents, and them only. This manifesto
was subject in several particulars to severe criticism,
which it received at the hands of the Native American
party. The grand jury was in session at this time,
and immediately afterwards made a presentment
which was favorable to the Native Americans. They
said that the commencement of the disturbances was
caused by " the efforts of a portion of the community
to exclude the Bible from the public schools. Those
efforts in some measure gave rise to the formation of
a new party, which called and held public meetings
in the district of Kensington, in the peaceful exercise
of the sacred rights and privileges guaranteed to
every citizen by the Constitution and laws of our
State and country. These meetings were rudely dis-
turbed and fired upon by a band of lawless, irrespon-
sible men, some of whom had resided in the country
only for a short period. This outrage, causing the
death of a number of our unoffending citizens, led to
immediate retaliation, and was followed up by sub-
sequent acts of aggression, and in violation and open
defiance of all law.''
The Catholics were greatly dissatisfied with this,
and. protested against the conclusions of the grand
inquest. A meeting of Catholic citizens was called
shortly afterwards, the Hon. Archibald Randall, judge
of the United States District Court, being chairman,
and William A. Stokes secretary. They adopted an
" address of the Catholic laity of Philadelphia." In
this document the presentment of the grand jury was
boldly attacked and declared to be unjust. It was
denied on behalf of the Catholic community that they
had made efforts to take the Bible from the public
schools. They said that they only sought to procure
the Catholic version of the Scriptures for the use of
children of Catholic parents. Referring to the letter
of the Catholic bishop of Philadelphia to the con-
trollers of the public schools in 1842, they relied upon
the fact that the Board of Controllers had by resolu-
tion exempted children from the necessity of reading
the Bible in public schools whose parents were con-
scientiously opposed thereto.1 In political matters
1 The following extract from the communication of Bishop Kenrick,
published in March, 1844, Bhows the Catholic statement of their posi-
tion in this controversy :
" Catholics have not asked that the Bible bo excluded from the public
schools. They have merely desired for their children the liberty of
using the Catholic version in case the reading of the Bible he prescribed
the address declared that Catholics were free from
religious control. They recognized no authority in
their spiritual teachers to control them in relation to
such subjects, and they averred that their obedience
to their bishops regards not the things that pertain
to this world. In regard to the disturbances of the
few days previous, it was asserted that Catholics did
not commence them, and that in reference to all mat-
ters connected therewith they would await a legal
investigation.
Before this time the Native American party had
been feeble, and had scarcely attracted serious atten-
tion among politicians. The movement was looked
upon with contempt by members of the old parties.
It is doubtful whether the entire strength of the per-
sons who had shown any sympathy with Native
American doctrines before the riots of May were, in
Philadelphia, as many as five hundred legal voters.
But the riots gave to the party an immense popu-
larity in the city and county, and the reason was
because in the public opinion the rights of American
citizens had been grossly attacked and abused, and
that too by foreigners by birth, many of whom were
unnaturalized, while others, who had become Ameri-
can citizens by favor of the naturalization laws, were
more bitter even than the aliens. The Native Amer-
ican party from a few hundred swelled up immedi-
ately to an aggregate counted by thousands. Native
American associations were established in every ward.
Two classes of citizens became members. Young
men, native-born, enthusiastic, and not politicians
by interest, were naturally attracted by the sentiment
"Americans should rule America." There was an-
other class, which included some young people, but
mostly of persons some years beyond manhood, or
approaching or beyond the middle age, who were led
by religious prejudices against the Catholics. These
conflicting influences were at first accommodated by
the immediate pressure and excitement. But the
time came when the two sections disagreed, and the
party gradually fell to pieces.2
The accessions to the ranks of the organization were
so many, the enthusiasm was so high, and the belief
in the success of the effort was so strong, that it was
resolved to celebrate the Fourth of July by a Native
American procession. The associations and clubs
by the controller or directors of the schools. They only desire to enjoy
the benefit of the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania, which
guarantees the rights of conscience and precludes any sectarian modes
of worship.
"They ask that the school laws be faithfully executed, and that the
religious predilections of the parents be respected. They ask that the
regulations of the controllers of the public schools adopted in Decem-
ber, 1834, be followed up, and that the resolutions of the same body
adopted in January, 1843, be adhered to. They desire that the pulilic
schools be preserved from all sectarian influence, and that education
be conducted in a way that may enable all citizens equally to share
all the benefits without any violence being offered to their religious
convictions."
2 In the latter days of the party the " pure" Native Americans, who
separated from the sectarian Native Americans, were called in the slang
of the party " Mountain Sweets."
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
669
entered into the project with immense spirit. Fifty
ward and township associations participated. They
were all provided with banners, and some of them
carried several. The greater portion of these were
elegant and large, of silk, satin, and velvet, decorated
with bright and handsome paintings from the pencils
of skilled artists. There was a profusion of gilding,
gold and silver bullion fringes, artificial flowers, rib-
bons, with never-ending recurrence of American flags
and repeated presentation of the group colors, — red,
white, and blue. There were about four thousand
five hundred persons in this procession. The members
of the ward associations turned out on foot. There
were representatives of twenty-five States, on horse-
back, each gentleman bearing a banner. A temple
of liberty, sixteen feet square at the base and twenty-
two feet high, and supported by thirteen columns,
rose from a pediment of four steps, and was placed
upon a truck drawn by fourteen horses ; a full-rigged
ship, twenty-six feet long, drawn by four horses, fol-
lowed by a pilot-boat fifteen feet long, was in the dis-
play made by the Fourth Ward, Southwark. The
Third Ward, Kensington, the ship-carpenters' home,
displayed an elegant model of a sloop-of-war, twenty-
eight feet long, which was manned by seamen. There
were other vessels with flags and insignia, the whole
procession being accompanied by numerous bands of
music. The participants turned out with the appear-
ance of health, strength, and intelligence, and the
parade, which marched over a long route, was the
finest political procession that had ever been seen in
the city, and nothing equal to it in the shape of
party demonstration has been seen since. The per-
sons participating marched to an inclosure of hill
and valley on the east side of the Schuylkill, above
Fairmount.1
Here there were appropriate exercises suitable to
the day, and in the evening there was a handsome
display of fire-works, which was viewed, according to
estimate, by fifty thousand persons. There were some
apprehensions of disturbance from this procession.
As far as the Native Americans were concerned, they
took pains to prevent anything of the kind. They
marched quietly, and those who witnessed the pageant
made no hostile demonstration. It would have been
well if all danger of disturbance had passed away
with the smoke of the fire-works. A new occasion of
bitterness, violence, destruction, and loss of life was
connected with this procession by subsequent events.
1 The valley was just above Sedgely. The Schuylkill Spring Garden
■Water-Works are built at the lower end of it; crossing the Heading
Railroad, it extended up toward the northeast. A gentle brook purled
along the bottom, and the bauks were pleasant with wild vines, shrub-
bery, and in the spring here was the spot nearest the city where the
dogwood-tree bloomed most abnndant. Tears ago this charming little
valley was obliterated. Those who would seek for it will wander in
vain amid the ponderous and immense buildings of Brewertown in
search of the wild beauties of the Bpot. Scarcely any portion of Phila-
delphia has been more strangely changed from its original appearance
than this.
Some Catholics, excited by memories of the occur-
rences of May, anticipated that the " Church-Burners,"
which epithet was used to designate the Native Amer-
icans, would make the day a new occasion for arson
and riot. On the afternoon of the 5th of July, some
persons who were in the neighborhood of the Catholic
Church of St. Philip de Neri, on the south side of
Queen Street between Second and Third, saw several
muskets carried into that edifice. Southwark at this
time was strongly Native American in i*8 population.
Immediate excitement followed the spreading of the
news. Rumor said that the church was " a fort filled
with guns and ammunition." In the evening small
groups of persons gathered near the church td talk
over the affair, and in time there were some hundreds
of them. The small police force of the district was
unable to do anything with so large a crowd if there
should be any attempt at disturbance. Application
was therefore made to the sheriff, McMichael. He
had no posse embodied, but applied for troops to Gen.
Patterson, and himself proceeded to Queen Street.
Here the people outside being somewhat angry, and
demanding that the church should be searched for
arms, the sheriff, with Aldermen Hortz and Palmer,
entered the building and brought out twelve unloaded
muskets with bayonets, which were in fact the same
that had been taken in at an earlier hour of the day.
The crowd was dissatisfied and another search de-
manded. A party was made up from persons in the
crowd. These persons searched closely. Seventy-five
additional muskets were discovered heavily loaded,
and axes, pistols, bludgeons, knives, and a keg of
powder, cartridges, etc., also some bayonets fastened
on poles to be used as pikes.
Subsequent investigation ascertained how these
carnal weapons were placed there. It was the result
of a great piece of folly, principally on the part of
William H. Dunn, a brother of the pastor of the
church. He was a lawyer by profession, a fiery young
Irishman, possessed of much more zeal than prudence
and common sense. After the destruction of St.
Michael's and St. Augustine's, he persuaded some forty
or fifty men to enroll themselves as a company for the
defense of the church. They were without arms, and
applied to Governor David E. Porter for muskets.
The latter gave an order for twenty-five of those
weapons to be furnished from the arsenal. Dunn also
applied to Brig.-Gen. Horatio Hubbell, of the Third
Brigade, for a commission as captain of a volunteer
company, which was granted. He held this rank at
the time, and the commission was not revoked until
afterward, upon the allegation that Dunn was an alien.
The company met in the church previous to the
4th of July and were drilled there. There were
one hundred and fifty armed men in the building on
the night of the 4th of July, when an attack was
feared. The guns which were taken into the church
on the 5th of July were defective, and had been sent
to a gunsmith for repair. The open manner in
670
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
which they were returned led to the suhsequent dis-
turbances.
While the committee of search were in the church
the City Guards, Capt. Hill, arrived on the ground.
Sentinels were thrown out, and the persons in the
crowd were ordered to disperse, which they did.
The guards spent a quiet night in watch and sentry
duty, but when next day the result of the examina-
tion of the second searching committee was reported,
the excitement blazed up afresh. The guards re-
mained on duty all the succeeding day (Saturday,
July 6th), and, as the throngs increased, the difficulty
of restraining them became greater. Brig.-Gen.
George Cadwalader was upon the ground in the after-
noon, and addressed the crowd, and requested the
persons composing it to disperse. His eloquence pro-
duced no effect. The crowd increased towards night,
and about dark groups of people filled up nearly the
entire space on Queen Street, between Second and
Third. About dusk a military force, consisting of
the Mechanic Rifles, Washington Blues, Cadwalader
Grays, Montgomery Hibernia Greens, Markle Rifles,
and Junior Artillerists, the latter having three field-
pieces, came upon the ground, and reinforced the City
Guards. The streets in the neighborhood of Queen,
Second, and Third Streets were filled with people.
The military filled up the square upon Queen Street,
and the crowd was pushed out from there. This
movement added to the throngs on Second and
Third Streets. On Second Street, by vigorous meas-
ures the square between Queen and Christian Streets
was cleared, and sentinels were placed. Upon Third
Street the movement was not so successful. The peo-
ple retired slowly. Some of them taunted the soldiers,
and dared them to fire. Some persons, it is said, threw
stones at the men. Sheriff McMichael, with his
posse, was in front of the military endeavoring to
clear the streets. The taunts of the crowd were irri-
tating, and Gen. Cadwalader, who was with this part
of the force, gave orders to fire. One of the field-
pieces was leveled at the crowd. At this moment a man
stepped out in front of the cannon and said, "No, don't
fire! don't fire I" It was Charles Naylor, a lawyer,
formerly member of Congress from the Third District,
and at that time acting as a member of the sheriff's
posse. His impulse was humane, and in order to
save the lives of men, women, and children in the
crowd, who were innocent of insult to the soldiers,
and were there as spectators. Gen. Cadwalader or-
dered the immediate arrest of Naylor, and under a
guard he was sent at once to the church, where he
was held as a military prisoner. The circumstance
was sufficient to effect the clearing of Third Street,
and guards were placed.
But the people who were forced away from the
immediate vicinity were given by the occurrences
cause, as they believed, for fresh animosity against
the soldiers. Naylor became at once a hero, and the
story of his bold interposition in behalf of the people
flew from mouth to mouth. Toward midnight the
crowds gradually dispersed. The military companies
were dismissed, with the exception of the Markle
Rifles, the Mechanic Rifles, and the Montgomery
Hibernia Greens. It was one of the blunders of the
unhappy occasion that the latter should have been
retained for any duty. The organization was Irish,
and the members probably without exception Catho-
lics. They might be trusted on this account more
faithfully to defend the church. But as the whole
trouble arose from the fact that the church had on,
and previously to, the 4th of July been garrisoned by
a company of armed Catholics, it was bad judgment
to have sent that company to the place. And the
determination of the general only added to the irri-
tation and excitement. With daylight of Sunday
morning, the 7th of July, crowds of people began to
assemble in the neighborhood of the church. The
story was told that Naylor, the friend and defender
of the people, was held prisoner in the church by
Irish soldiers. As the day advanced the excitement
increased. About eleven o'clock some rough char-
acters made their appearance in front of the church
upon Queen Street, dragging with them an old four-
pounder cannon, lashed upon wheels, which was re-
ported to be loaded with slugs and various missiles.
A formal demand was then made for the release of
Naylor. During the delay Alderman Charles Hortz,
of Southwark (a Native American in politics), who
was present, suddenly stooped to the gutter in the
street near the curb-stone, and with his hands scooped
up water, which he threw upon the priming of the
gun. This bold and thoughtful act no doubt saved
the church at the time. While this was going on an-
other gang of desperadoes, with an eighteen-pounder
lashed on wheels, came up Christian Street, and enter-
ing a court between Second and Third Streets, pro-
ceeded toward the rear of the church, against which
they commenced a bombardment of little effect for
the want of cannon-ball of sufficient size. Two or
three rounds were fired at a circular window, the am-
munition being slugs and nails, and the damage being
but small. This piece was withdrawn about one
o'clock, and brought back afterwards with another.
They were fired without any serious damage being
done. Thomas D. Grover and Lewis C. Levin, two
prominent Native Americans, went among these per-
sons and requested them to desist. Finally, they con-
sented to withdraw if Mr. Grover would agree to ride
upon one of the pieces. He did so, mounted the can-
non, and was drawn down Christian Street to Dela-
ware Avenue. There the guns were abandoned by the
persons who had them.
All this time Mr. Naylor was under guard in the
church. It was determined that he should be released.
The crowd in front of the church, whose cannon had
been disabled by the strategy of Hortz, now had re-
course to a much more ancient weapon. They got a
large piece of timber and^using it as a battering ram,
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
671
with frequent blows broke in the front door of the
church. The soldiers were within. Fortunately, they
did not fire upon the crowd, although it was said that
they were commanded to do so by their officers. The
release of Naylor became a necessity. He was
discharged by some of the aldermen of the district
upon his recognizance to appear and answer when-
ever wanted. His release was the signal of wild en-
thusiasm. He was received by the mob with cheers,
made a short address from the steps of the church,
entreated the people to keep the peace and retire to
their homes, and was escorted by a multitude of per-
sons to his residence in Fifth Street, above Walnut,
where he again made a speech, and requested the
people present to act like worthy and respected cit-
izens.
With the release of Naylor might have closed the
unpleasant story, if it had not been for another re-
minder of the excitement of the previous day. The
military company of Montgomery (Hibernia Greens)
was still in the church. Their remaining there was
a constant irritation. The mob demanded that the
soldiers should be removed from the church. Lewis
C. Levin, Thomas D. Grover, and other leading Na-
tive Americans, were present. Each of the former
addressed the crowd in the interests of peace. Finally
it was agreed by a sort of a treaty made with the ring-
leaders that they would cease their attacks if the
" Greens" were withdrawn. The church was evacu-
ated entirely and the troops marched out, the Me-
chanic Rifles and theMarkle Rifles escorting and en-
deavoring to protect the "Greens.'' The Rifles were
received with cheers, but the " Greens" with hootings
and yells. The march was attempted to be made by
way of Q.ueen and Second Streets. A great crowd fol-
lowed the soldiers, occasionally cheering the Rifles,
but pelting the " Greens" with stones and brickbats
whenever there was a chance to reach them. At
German Street one of the Greens fired at the crowd ;
with that the company broke, leaving their escorts,
and ran. They were hotly pursued. Some of them
were overtaken and beaten. One who was alleged to
be the man who had fired was left for dead. Capt.
Colahan succeeded in rallying a platoon or two of
his meu somewhere in Fifth Street, and with them
marched up to the State-House. This ought to have
been the last outrage of that unhappy day. It was
unfortunately the prelude of something yet more se-
rious. The disturbances in Southwark, growing more
and more turbulent, were reported all over the city, and
great crowds of people repaired in the afternoon to
the neighborhood of the church, most of them from
curiosity. The troops being withdrawn, there was
great danger of further violence. Here the leading
men of the Native American party intervened to pre-
vent, if possible, further disturbance. They arranged
themselves on the steps, in front of the church, as de-
fenders of the building. They wanted the persons in
the mob to understand that the church was under the
protection of the members of the Native American
party. Messrs. Thomas D. Grover, Lewis 0. Levin,
Charles J. Jack, John Perry, and others made short
speeches, and whenever new symptoms of violence
occurred their voices were heard in expostulation and
remonstrance. They could not prevent a demonstra-
tion which was made toward the middle of the after-
noon, by means of the battering-ram which had been
used against the door in the morning. This missile
was employed with great effect upon the brick wall
of the side yard of the church west of it. A breach
was effected, and through this the besiegers entered.
Breaking through the windows and doors on the side
of the church, they gained access to the building and
swarmed over it. The Native American leaders, who
had been on the outside, entered with them and en-
deavored to prevent destruction. They were quite
successful. Very little damage was done, with the
exception of breaking doors and windows on enter-
ing. The satisfaction of curiosity was the prevailing
disposition. In the course of the afternoon hundreds
of persons entered the building almost with the regu-
larity of a procession. They went through the church
and, having satisfied their curiosity, retired by the
door of exit in good order. After the pressure of sight-
seers was over, and the parties who had desired access
to the church had been satisfied, the prominent Na-
tive Americans who were present organized a com-
mittee of one hundred to defend the church. From
their own numbers they stationed guards at the va-
rious doors. Persons were allowed to depart, but
none to enter, and before dark the building was en-
tirely within their charge. The excitement was
now subdued. The riotously inclined were satisfied.
Naylor was free, and the church was in charge of the
Native Americans. Nothing more could have been
desired, and as the spectators dispersed to their homes
it was generally supposed that the trouble was over.
It might have been so if the citizens' committee had
been left in charge of the church.
In the afternoon, while the turmoil was fierce in
front of the church, the bell in the steeple of In-
dependence Hall rang out the signal for the assem-
bling of the military staffs. At half-past six o'clock
the troops left the State-House yard with music
playing, and proceeded in that way, attracting much
attention (martial music on Sunday being very un-
usual, except in case of funerals), down Fifth Street
toward Queen. Many persons attracted by the show
accompanied them, and when they got to Third and
Queen Streets a large crowd was following or march-
ing with them on the sidewalks. The head of the
column reached the front of the church about seven
o'clock. It was a long summer afternoon, and not
yet dark. The Oadwalader Grays, Capt. Robert K.
Scott, were ordered to clear Queen Street down to
Second. The crowd retired slowly, and some who
were in it sullenly. The Grays found difficulty in
forcing the people back, and the City Guards, Capt.
672
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Joseph Hill, were ordered to support them. The lat-
ter pointed their bayonets in the manner of a charge
toward the crowd, and pressed forward. However
those nearest might have desired, they could not get
out of the way ; there was a great pressure behind
them, and those farthest away did not understand the
necessity of quick movement. There was no ex-
traordinary show of animosity by the people ; the
majority of them were peaceably inclined, but a few
rough-tongued fellows among them endangered the
safety of all. At this moment, while persons in front
of the bayonets were in some cases taking hold of
them and endeavoring to deflect them, so that they
should not be wounded, the citizens' committee of
one hundred was marching toward Second Street on
the south sidewalk in procession two and two. They
had surrendered the charge of the building to Gen.
Cadwalader.
While some persons in the street were engaged in
altercation with the soldiers or taunting them some
bricks and stones were thrown from the crowd, and
soldiers in Scott's and Hill's companies were struck
and some of them knocked down. Capt. Hill, in
front of his company with sword drawn, was seized by
a person, who took him by the arm and endeavored to
wrest the sword from him. In the scuffle Hill was
partly down on one knee. More stones were being
thrown. Then Capt. Hill gave the order to fire. The
companies at the time were near Second Street. They
fired across and down Queen Street and down Second
Street. By this discharge Isaac Freed, William Cro-
zier, Ellis Lewis, and James Linsenberger, a boy,
and perhaps others, were killed outright, and several
persons were severely wounded. Among the latter
were women, some of whom were standing at their
own door-steps as the soldiers came down, and one
was shot while leaving a private house at which she
was a visitor. The bodies of the dead were removed
to the Southwark Commissioners' Hall near by. A
savage excitement sprang up among the people.
Some of them repairing to the hall took possession
of the muskets and the guns which had been taken
from the church on the 5th of July. They proceeded
to use them against the military. A regular battle
commenced. The soldiers were fired at from neigh-
boring streets and alleys. On the other hand every
precaution was taken to save the lives of the volun-
teers. To prevent their being seen by the lamp-lights
and good aim taken at them, the lights were put out
and the soldiers placed as well as could be under
shelter of houses and steps. The mob made the
Wharton market, at Second and Wharton Streets,
their rendezvous. There were soon brought four
cannon, two of-them having been in service in the
morning attacks upon the church. One of the latter
had been spiked.
About ten o'clock a cannon, brought up quietly by
the rioters and posted at Front and Queen Streets,
was fired up the street at the military. It was loaded
with chains, bolts, spikes, and other missiles. The aim
was too high and the load flew over the heads of the
soldiers. The latter immediately returned the fire
from two guns in battery at Second and Queen Streets.
The rioters replied from their gun, and there was a
sharp cannonade for some time, as also musketry
firing. There had been a general alarm to call out
the military from the State-House, and before ten
o'clock two regiments of the Second Brigade had ar-
rived with three pieces of artillery. They were posted
in the neighborhood of Third and Queen Streets.
The rioters becoming aware of this, shifted the point
of attack. They muffled the wheels of the wagons
upon which their pieces were placed by various de-
vices. Among other things it was said that jackets
and portions of the clothing of the ruffians had been
tied around the wheels. One gun was brought up
Christian to Third Street and pointed up the latter.
By its discharges Sergt. John Geyer, of the German-
town Blues, was instantly killed. Corp. H. Troutman,
of the same company, was mortally wounded and
afterwards died, and several soldiers were wounded.
The fire was immediately returned by the soldiers
posted on Third Street without doing any damage.
The attack was so unexpected that they were not
quite ready, and before their piece was discharged the
cannon at Third and Christian Streets had been pulled
away by a long rope which was managed by the persons
who had it in charge, who were skulking behind the
house at the corner of Christian Street, and were safe
from the soldiers. Afterward a cannon, which had
quietly been brought to Fourth and Queen Streets by
the rioters, was fired down the street. Some of the
soldiers were wounded. The military were under
difficulty for the want of cavalry when the fight com-
menced. A charge upon any gun after it was fired
would have insured the capture of the piece. The
Washington Cavalry, Capt. Snyder, and the first State
Troop, came upon the ground about eleven o'clock.
Gen. Patterson had sent them from his headquarters,
established at the Girard Bank. The insurgents, who
seemed to be well apprised of the military movements,
soon knew this. They prepared for it by stretching
ropes across the street from tree to tree, or by other
means of fastening. Fortunately, the obstructions
were not necessary to be passed, otherwise many horses
would have been thrown down and the men injured.
Later in the night there was firing almost at the same
time by the rioters with the cannon from Front and
Queen, from Fourth and Queen, and from Third and
Christian Streets. In the course of the night the cav-
alry by successive charges had succeeded in capturing
three pieces, and the war was over.1
1 It was impossible to ascertain the names and number of the wounded.
The following were killed:
Military.
John Geyer, of the Germantown Blues.
Corp. H. Troutman, of the Germantown Blues.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
673
Before morning the fight was over, but the condi-
tion of the soldiers was really alarming. Some of
them had been marched upon the ground early in the
afternoon. They had been without supper or food,
or even water, except such as might be obtained
from the public pumps during the night. They were
exceedingly fatigued and hungry. They were sur-
rounded by a hostile population, and there was no
commissariat. They received nothing to eat and no
supply of ammunition until near noon on the 8th,
when citizens' volunteer police guards, of Locust,
Pine, and Cedar Wards, all armed, brought to them
ammunition and provisions. This was the first re-
freshment furnished many of them for twenty-two
hours. There were ominous rumors of what was to
happen in the evening and night succeeding if the
troops were kept at the church. Dreadful scenes of
slaughter were predicted. The commissioners of the
district of Southwark, recognizing the imminent prob-
ability that there would be bloodshed and arson, per-
haps, if the troops were kept in the district, interested
themselves to obtain an order for the withdrawal of
the force. There was consultation with the sheriff,
the judges of the Court of Quarter Session, and the
members of the County Board. The commissioners
were confident that, if possession of the church were
given over to them and the aldermen and police of
the district, the church-building could be preserved
from harm, excitement would cease, and public peace
be restored. It was therefore thought prudent to
withdraw the military. Maj.-Gen. Patterson gave the
proper order. The force marched off from the ground
in the afternoon, and there was no disturbance after-
ward.
Governor David R. Porter, apprised of the disturb-
ances, arrived in the city on the afternoon of Monday.
He issued general orders sustaining the course of the
military, and directing measures for the maintenance
of the peace thereafter. He also called out a consid-
erable number of troops from other counties of the
State near Philadelphia. The headquarters of the
force was at the Girard Bank. Detachments of sol-
diers were there, and sentries were placed. The
other troops were quartered in detachments at vari-
ous places. Altogether it is estimated that five thou-
Cilixens.
Isaac Freed, "residing in Green Street, aged sixty-one yearB.
William Crozier, residing in Plum Street, aged thirty-six years.
Ellis Lewis, aged twenty-five years.
James Dougherty, aged fifteen years.
Edward Lyon, aged twenty-five years.
David Cathcart, Hged twenty-seven years.
Thomas C. Saunders, aged eighteen years.
Elijah P. Jester, residing on Second above Spruce Street, aged
thirty-eight years.
Gerhart Ellis, residing on Queen Street, aged twenty-eight years.
John Cook, an oysterman, one of the rioters, aged thirty-three years.
James Linsenberger, Parrish Street, aged nineteen years.
A German, name unknown, who looked out of a garret-window on
the south side of Queen Street, betweeu Front and Second, had his head
taken off by a cannon-ball.
43
sand soldiers were under arms in the city at this time.
They were gradually dismissed during the next two
or three weeks, and there was no public disturbance.
The difficulty of the previous season had been the
doubt as to whether the military force could be prop-
erly called upon by the sheriff, as well as the indispo-
sition of the volunteer soldiers to be used as police-
men, and put upon a service unpleasant, thankless,
and dangerous. It was under the argument that the
city ought to be supplied with an armed force, subject
to be called out when necessary for the preservation
of the peace, that an ordinance was introduced into
Select Council "to provide for the preservation of the
peace of the city." It authorized the enlistment of a
battalion of artillery, a regiment of infantry, aDd one
or more full troop of horse. The companies might
be any of the present volunteer corps, or such as
might thereafter be enrolled and equipped. They
were to be under command of the brigadier-general of
the city brigade in case of necessity. Ten thousand
dollars were to be set aside at once to meet the re-
quirements of the ordinance, and six thousand dol-
lars were appropriated shortly afterward. The ordi-
nance was passed on the 11th of July, and on the 26th
of September, Gen. Cadwalader reported that the
full complement was made up and consisted of one
thousand three hundred and fifty men. Seven thou-
sand dollars were appropriated by the city at once to
pay for uniforms and equipments. Gen. Cadwalader
insisted that these troops should be clothed in the
United States uniform. Several of the volunteer
companies, which had distinctive uniforms, refused to
adopt the suggestion. The city troops were therefore
made up from some of the volunteer companies which
had been languishing, and were glad, for the sake of
filling up their ranks and their treasuries, to accept
the bounty. Several of the companies were entirely
new in men and in officers.
When the Legislature assembled at the ensuing
session, the necessity of strengthening the hands of
the civil authorities for the preservation of the peace
became of paramount consideration. All through the
riots and disturbances of the preceding ten years, and
an incentive and assistance even, though not intended,
was the anomalous condition of the city and county in
consequence of the municipal divisions of govern-
ment which had been created from time to time.
A boundary street running between one district and
another was as effectual a barrier to the passage of a
policeman or constable across it to an adjoining dis-
trict as if there had been a strong wall there fifty feet
high. When there were riots in Moyamensing the
city police might be massed in a body on the north
side, of Cedar or South Street, and be witnesses of riot,
murder, or arson within fifty feet of their station
without having the right to interfere. If there was
a riot in the city the disturbance was no affair of the
police of the districts. The latter, indeed, were of small
account, few in number, and expecting in emergency
674
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
valuable reinforcement from the district constables.
The latter were conservators of the peace from time
immemorial by the common law. But in the city
and county at this time they had practically ceased to
exercise their privileges, and made scarcely any at-
tempt to discharge other duties than those connected
with civil proceedings, the serving of writs of summons
and subpoena, the process of execution and distress in
suits for debt and under landlords' warrants. The
functions of constable were with such men only a
business to be conducted for the benefit and profit
of the officer, to be discreetly managed so as to need
as little work as possible, and to bring in as many
fees as the law allowed, and frequently much more.
The sheriff, under the common-law doctrine, was con-
sidered the conservator of peace of the county. He
had large powers; he might summon the posse comi-
tatus. The whole power of the county was subject to
his command. But if the power should refuse to
come, it was a great legal puzzle to the sheriff and his
advisers how he could compel it to come. A few
friends or citizens might rally round his standard,
but even they considered themselves volunteers, with
no compulsion to serve or to remain in service
longer than they chose. Hence it became apparent
that the only hope of the sheriff in great turbulence
was in calling out the armed militia. But whether he
had any power to do so was a debatable question.
The volunteers themselves did not fancy the sort of
work which turned them into constables. Coming from
among the citizens, some of them were likely to be in-
fluenced by the same passions and prejudices that were
carried to extremities by the mob. Many of them did
not desire to be placed in positions of antagonism to
their fellow-citizens, and the duty of enforcing the civil
laws in times of excitement was not pleasant. Added
to all this was the idea that they were troops of the
State, organized under the laws of the commonwealth,
subject only to the orders of the Governor as com-
mander-in-chief of their superior officers. There were
several occasions during which the sheriffs or mayors
sought the assistance of the volunteers in time of
danger, and when their services were either refused or
given with reluctance.
There were some citizens bolder and more far-seeing
than others, the latter being among the most influ-
ential, who saw that the remedy for such a state of
things was only to be found in the breaking up of the
separate and independent municipalities, and uniting
them under one government. Some of these persons
met in the county court-house in December, Samuel
Webb being the chairman, and Joseph Eeese Fry
the secretary. This meeting boldly attacked the
difficulty by adopting an address and presenting
the draft of a law consolidating the city and
districts in one corporation. The proposition was
a great shock to conservatism. Certain persons in
the city, whose opinions were looked to as the1 sum
total of human wisdom, were surprised by the au-
dacity of the movement. They could not agree to
anything of the kind. Therefore, immediately after-
ward, a meeting was called at Evans' Washington
Hotel, in George [Sansom] Street, at which ex-Mayor
John M. Scott was president, and Bichard Vaux sec-
retary. Horace Binney, Sr., offered the resolutions
which deprecated the proposed remedy of consolida-
tion of the city and districts. A committee was ap-
pointed to prepare memorials to Councils and the
Legislature in opposition to the plan.1 City Councils,
influenced, it may be supposed, by a desire to prevent
the uncertain political changes that would follow con-
solidation, among which was the danger that the old,
repectable, and conservative methods of city legisla-
tion would be overborne by the less formal methods
of proceedings in the districts, passed resolutions de-
claring their opposition to the consolidation plan,
but recommending, instead, the establishment by act
of Assembly of a police system for the city and dis-
tricts which would not interfere " with the integrity
of the (city) corporation." Under this influence the
Legislature passed the desired law. The act was
passed April 12, 1845. Under its provisions the city
of Philadelphia and the incorporated districts of
Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, and Penn, and
the township of Moyamensing were required to es-
tablish and maintain police forces of "not less than
one able-bodied man for one hundred and fifty tax-
able inhabitants," for the prevention of riots and
the preservation of the public peace. A superin-
tendent of police was required to be elected for the
city and for each district. If there was failure in
any section to comply with the law, the city, town-
ship, or district so failing was to be held responsible
for all damage and loss of property occasioned by
riot or tumult within its territorial limits. In case
of any riot occurring which the police force of the
district was unable to suppress, the sheriff had au-
thority to call on the several superintendents of
police for the whole or any part of their forces. In
case twelve or more persons were unlawfully, riot-
ously, and tumultuously assembled, the sheriff or
his deputies or the police superintendents were author-
ized " to go among them, or as near to them as he can
safely go, and there with a loud voice make procla-
mation, in the name of the commonwealth, requiring
and commanding all persons there so unlawfully,
riotously, and tumultuously assembled, and all other
persons not being there on duty as police, immediately
to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their
habitations or to their lawful business." To continue
there after such proclamation was of itself a misde-
meanor to be punished by imprisonment, and every
one who remained on the ground might be arrested.
1 It was composed of Joeiab Randall, Horn K. Kneass, Horace Binney,
Jr., St. George Tucker Campbell , Sidney G. Fisher, Robert H. Hare,
William A. Stokes, John H.Markland, and James W.Paul. It 1b worthy
of note that all these gentlemen, as well as the officers of the meeting
and the mover of the resolutions, were lawyers.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
675
This statute also clearly established the right of the
sheriff to call upon the major-general commanding
the military division of the city or county or his assist-
ants, upon certifying to him that there was an exist-
ing riot or tumult which the police force under his
command was, in his opinion, not competent to sup-
press without further aid. The troops were author-
ized to " proceed in military array and subordination,
and by military force in any part of the city and
county to restore the public peace. . . . And it shall
be lawful for the said military to proceed in suppres-
sion of such riot, tumult, and unlawful assembly as
aforesaid by such military force, and in like manner
as in the case of war or public insurrection." 1
In the summer and autumn of this year the follow-
ers of the Rev. William Miller, the false prophet, who
by pretended interpretations of the Scriptures, and
particularly of the book of Revelation in the New
Testament, formed theories by which he thought
was established the certainty that the end of the
world was at hand, were active in the city. They held
frequent meetings, and rented a church building in
Juliana Street above Vine, at which many of their
conferences were held. The Millerites were pious,
and generally estimable people, strong in their relig-
ious views, but carried astray by the plausibility of
the arguments of Miller, strengthened by quotations
from Scripture, which they undertook to construe for
themselves according to their own belief. Two or
three times during 1843-44 the " last day" had been
named and waited for by them in apprehension. Each
failure instead of discouraging them seemed to
strengthen their faith, and every postponement only
appeared to them a confirmation of their belief that
the great day was at hand. The last dread prophecy
told that on the 24th of October the last trumpet
would blow. The world would come to an end.
Those who were living upon the earth would be trans-
lated to heaven. The dead would rise and the awful
judgment be pronounced. Fully believing in the ex-
pected event, they prepared for it with great solem-
nity. Ascension dresses were made and ready. With
these the persons repaired to various places, some
in New Jersey, and some in Pennsylvania. Show-
ing their sincerity, many of them abandoned their
houses and property, leaving their dwellings and
places of business with doors unlocked, and every-
thing exposed to thieves. Property was of no value
to them, and would soon be destroyed. In many
places the neighbors of these deluded people, in kind-
ness and pity, watched their property for them, or took
1 This act was the foundation upon which was afterwards built the act
to establish the marshal's police, paBsed May 3, 1850, which was one step
nearer consolidation. Under the act of 1844 there was a police superin-
tendent in each district, and he was independent of the superintendents,
OouncilB, or commissioners of other districts. The act of 1850, while
not interfering with the regular police forces of the city and districts,
put the extra police under the control of a single officer elected by the
people of the districts to serve for three years, and called the marshal
of police for the Philadelphia police district.
measures to fasten up their houses from predatory
visitors. The most of the Philadelphia Millerites
repaired to a field near Darby, where they pitched a
tent about noon of the 22d, and passed the time with
hymns and prayers waiting the dread moment.
Before night this canvas shelter was too small for
those who sought it. Some of them were compelled
to stay in the fields. Some had divested themselves
of their earthly garments, and were thinly clad in
their ascension dresses. Rain began to fall. The
night was dark and stormy. There was no fire nor
any means of comfort, not even food. It was folly to
cater to the appetite, or to seek warmth or comfort at
such a moment. A second tent was put up on the
23d. That was the last day beyond all question. At
midnight it was expected that the Son of Man would
come. All were prepared, and they awaited the
dreadful change with tears and prayers, and yet the
tide of time ran on. Midnight came and passed.
There was no signal. Some awaited the consumma-
tion all day of the 24th. Others began to go off after
daylight, and straggled on to the city toward their
earthly homes, disappointed, tired, cold, sick, and
hungry. If, after they had recovered, they held on
to belief in the doctrines of William Miller, they
gradually fell away and died without the sign.
This year may be considered the foundation date of
the establishment of the great public inclosure, Fair-
mount Park. Among the assets of the Bank of the
United States at the time of its failure was the estate
immediately north of Fairmount Water- Works known
as Lemon Hill, which had formerly been the seat of
Henry Pratt. The disposition of this valuable prop-
erty, for as large an amount as possible to be obtained
for it, was the object of the assignees. The period was
unpropitious. The failure of the bank had paralyzed
trade, crippled capitalists, and rendered money scarce.
" Hard times" prevailed, and the prospect of selling
this fine estate, which had been purchased for two-hun-
dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, to any one pur-
chaser or even to a company for anything like the
amount was small indeed. Some shrewd person seems
to have suggested that the city of Philadelphia ought to
be compelled to buy it. It was a good idea, and only
needed the presentation of certain arguments to make
it seem as if such purchase was an absolute necessity.
The Schuylkill water ! How necessary to preserve
its purity for the health and convenience of the
people ! What a source of poisonous drainage and
danger might a piece of property so near the water-
works become if it should be built upon and occupied
by dwellings, stores, or factories I The newspapers
were brought to the assistance of the plan by judicious
publications, the text to which was that the posses-
sion by the city of the Lemon Hill estate "may
prove the means of more effectually protecting the ba-
sin at Fairmount from the introduction of substances
more or less prejudicial to the community." " The
College of Physicians rallied in favor of the scheme
676
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and sent to Councils a memorial setting forth the sani-
tary and salutary benefits that would follow the ac-
quisition. Twenty-seven petitions, signed by two
thousand four hundred and forty-three citizens, were
sent to Councils, and those bodies yielded to the argu-
ments. They got a great bargain. Two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars was the amount which the
bank expected to realize from the property at the
time. The purchase was made for twenty-five thou-
sand dollars less. The assignees knew that they
could not obtain any such sum. They modestly offered
to take one hundred and thirty thousand dollars ; but
the city finally bought the tract, fifty-two acres, for
seventy-five thousand dollars, a great bargain, indeed."
The deed was dated July 24, 1844. Nothing was
done with the property for some years. Lemon Hill
Park was dedicated for public use, separated from
Fairmount by Coates Street and Landing Avenue,
Sept. 18, 1855. Sedgely, north of Lemon Hill, was
acquired in 1856. The Lansdowne property, on the
west side of the Schuylkill, was obtained in 1866.
And in 1867 the possible boundaries of the park were
extended, under authority given to the Park Commis-
sioners, on the east side of the Schuylkill from Cal-
lowhill Street, Fairmount, up to the mouth of the
Wissahickon, and on both sides of that stream to
Chestnut Hill, whilst upon the west side the territory
extended from the Callowhill Street bridge up to a
point nearly opposite to the Falls of Schuylkill.
The borough of West Philadelphia, in the township
of Blockley, was incorporated by act of February
17th. The boundaries commenced at the intersection
line of Hamilton village and the Darby road; thence
along the northwest curb-line of that road to the
north side of Chestnut Street; along the curb, on
the north side of that street, to the Schuylkill ; along
the Schuylkill to the north line of property of the
city of Philadelphia on Washington, or Market Street ;
thence on the north line of the said property west to
the western termination of that property ; thence
south by the west line of that property to the north
side of Hugh Mcllvaine's property; tbence west
along the said north line to Mcllvaine's western
boundary ; thence south along the west line of his
property to the south side of the Lancaster turnpike
road ; thence along the south side of the said road to
the eastwardly line of the late Creans estate ;, south
by the same to the south side of Green Street; along
the south line of that street to the west side of Cedar
lane; along the latter to the east line of Rose's es-
tate ; thence south along the same to the westerly line
of Hamilton village, and along the same to the inter-
section of Darby road, the place of beginning. It would
puzzle a surveyor to lay out these lines at the present
day. The usual method of laying out districts by
recognized street or ward boundaries was laid aside
for the benefit of special private estates mentioned in
the act. This legislation had been rendered necessary
by a former illegal proceeding. The borough of West
Philadelphia had been created by order of the Court
of Quarter Sessions in 1840. The authority to do
this was contested by certain citizens, and the pro-
ceeding was finally decided by the Supreme Court to
be illegal. The act of Assembly chartering the bor-
ough was intended to do away with the mischief
caused by the former error, and to provide for the
debts of the late borough. The first commissioners
of the borough appointed under the act were Henry
Leech, H. G. Freeman, Jacob Brown, Richard Mc-
Ilvaine, James Hanna, and James Twaddell.
By act of February 26th the inhabitants of the
district of Penn, as the same was bounded by the
act of April 19, 1843, were constituted a corporation
under the title of " The Commissioners and Inhabit-
ants of the District of Penn." There were nine com-
missioners, the full term of each being three years.
The borough of Frankford was authorized to elect
councilmen for three years, full term, by act of
March 14th.
The Northern Liberties Gas Company, which had
been established before this time, was incorporated
April 13th, with a capital of $200,000, with authority
" to construct and maintain suitable works for the
manufacture of high carburetted hydrogen gas from
bituminous coal and other substances, for the purpose
of public and private illumination in the district of
the Northern Liberties, or in streets dividing that
district from those opposite."
The Spring Garden Gas Company was incorporated
April 27th, "for the distribution of hydrogen carbu-
retted gas, for the purpose of public and private illu-
mination." The capital was $20,000,. with right to
increase to $40,000. The public lamps in the district,
it was stipulated, should be lighted at one-half the
rates to private consumers. This corporation was
given authority to purchase the works of the Spring
Garden Gas Company then in existence.
A horse-race at the Camden (N. J.) race-course
between " Fashion" and " Peytona," on the 28th of
May, was attended by many thousands of citizens of
Philadelphia. The horses were favorites. During
the morning the stand upon which many people
were crowded fell. Several persons were thrown
down. The wildest excitement was caused by the
accident. The news spread to the city, and the hor-
rors of the case immensely magnified. Hundreds
were killed, so rumor said. Their friends and rela-
tives swarmed the ferries, crowded the steamboats,
and crossed to New Jersey. Terror and alarm fol-
lowed in many families. Finally, it was discovered
that nobody had been killed. Twelve persons were
injured rather seriously, and several more slightly,
but eventually all recovered.
A fire took place in the Academy of Fine Arts, in
Chestnut Street, between Tenth and Eleventh, by in-
cendiary means, on the evening of the 11th of June.
The valuable collection of statues, casts, models,
paintings, and engravings belonging to the society
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
677
were in great danger, and many of them were de-
stroyed. Benjamin West's painting, " Death on the
Pale Horse," was cut from the frame and saved in a
damaged state. Stuart's original full-length portrait
of Washington was rescued, but was considerably in-
jured, and several other paintings of great merit were
lost. Among them were the "Roman Daughter," by
Murillo, which once belonged to Godoy ; " Prince of
Peace;" "St. Jerome," by Murillo; a shipwreck,
by Salvator Eosa; "St. Francis," by Guido ; a por-
trait of Columbus, and portraits of Dugald Stewart,
John Quincy Adams, Judge Shippen, and Judge
Hopkinson. The antique gallery, containing fifty
or sixty statues, was totally destroyed. The library
of the academy was materially injured. In many
particulars the loss was irreparable. A public meet-
ing was held shortly afterwards, and subscriptions
were authorized to be taken up for the benefit of the
academy. Many paintings and engravings were dam-
aged by water, but were afterwards restored with
considerable skill.
In the early part of September a fire at Broad and
Cherry Streets destroyed two forwarding depots and
warehouses, extensive in size and well stored with
goods ready to be transported. The fire commenced
in a stable near Arch Street, on the west side. The
flames were communicated to the large storehouse of
Siter, James & Co., and thence communicated to the
warehouse of James Steel & Co., at the southwest
corner of Cherry Street. Crossing over that street to
the north side, the warehouse of Craig, Bellas & Co.
was also totally destroyed. In front these establish-
ments took up nearly three-quarters of a square be-
tween Arch and Race Streets, and they extended
back two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet.
They were filled with grain, flour, provisions, and
other staples brought from the West, and with gro-
ceries, dry goods, clothing, etc., ready to be taken
West. The loss was very heavy.
The first movement toward the construction of the
Pennsylvania Railroad took place during this year.
It was thought that the transportation facilities be-
tween Philadelphia and the West were not sufficient
for the business. Transportation was slow by rail-
road to Columbia. By canal along the Susquehanna
and Juniata to Blairsville, by inclined plane over the
mountains to the Conemaugh, and thence by canal
at Pittsburgh, was considered slow in comparison to
what might be done and what ought to be done. A
meeting was held December 9th at Musical Fund
Hall, Thomas P. Cope, president. Speeches were
made by William M. Meredith, Henry D. Gilpin,
Isaac Hazlehurst, John J. McCahen, James M. San-
derson, and George Darsie, of Pittsburgh. The bur-
den of all these addresses was that better means of
communication were necessary, and that they could
be secured by building a railroad between Harris-
burg and Pittsburgh. Committees were appointed to
prepare an address on the subject to the people of
Pennsylvania, and to petition the Legislature for an
act of incorporation for a railroad company between
the points named. This proceeding led to important
results in after-years.
The intelligence of the death of ex-President An-
drew Jackson was received with regret. City Coun-
cils ordered that the Independence Hall should be
hung with black ; that the State-House bell should
be muffled and tolled upon such day as should be
appointed for a general mourning solemnity. This oc-
curred on the 26th of June. There was a great pro-
cession ; Samuel J. Henderson was chief marshal.
The volunteers of the city and county brigades, fire-
men, Odd-Fellows, Sons of Temperance, and the
officers of municipal corporations and members of
various societies swelled the concourse. The proces-
sion marched to Washington Square, where, upon a
platform deeply draped with sable hangings, the
Rev. George W. Bethune delivered a prayer, and the
Hon. George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United
States, an oration.
Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott, of the United
States navy, died in December, and was buried on the
13th from his residence, South Fourth Street near
Spruce. The volunteers of the First Brigade, United
States seamen, City Councils, and other public bodies
attended. The burial took place in the modest little
graveyard belonging to the United States Naval
Asylum.
The project to connect the Columbia Railroad and
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail-
road on the east side of the river Schuylkill led to
the passage of the act of April 15, 1845, by which
the Schuylkill Railroad Company was incorporated.
Power was given to construct a suitable railroad, with
a single and double track, commencing at and con-
necting with the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad
at a point between the east side of Schuylkill Front
Street (Twenty-second), and the west side of Fair-
mount Street (Twenty-fifth) ; thence southwardly
by the most convenient and practicable route, ap-
proaching as near the Schuylkill River as the nature
of the ground, the accommodation of trade and busi-
ness, and other circumstances will reasonably admit,
until it reaches South Street, with liberty of exten-
sion, if stockholders approve, from South Street to
the intersection of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and
Baltimore Railroad at a point above Gray's Ferry,
subject to the same rights and restrictions as the
Northern Liberties and Penn Township (Willow
Street) Railroad Company by act of April 23, 1829.
One track of this railroad was built. It was near the
Schuylkill, and crossed Market Street about Twenty-
third, ran west on the south side of the abutments of
the permanent bridge and southward by Beach Street
and other streets as far as South. It is doubtful
whether it extended farther. It was really of no
benefit, and if used at all might have been for the
benefit of some of the coal-yards near the Schuyl-
678
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
kill. The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
Railroad Company did not need to use it, as it had a
clear and agreeable connection with the Columbia
Railroad in its most busy quarter of the city by the
means of Broad Street.
Some of the streets and lanes in the upper part of
Spring Garden and Penn township, built and opened
originally for private rather than public use, running
irregular courses, were found to be in the way of im-
provement. An act of Assembly ordered the vacation
of old Master Street, or Masters' Lane, between the
east side of Tenth Street and the east line of Broad
Street. This had been laid out by William Masters
long before the Revolution, and by usage was pre-
sumed to have been a public highway. The ground
went one-half to the owner on each side. It was
made a condition of the vacation that the ground to
be occupied by Jefferson Street from Tenth to Broad,
Eleventh Street from Jefferson to Camac, and Tenth
Street from old Master Street to Jefferson, should first
be laid out by the owners of property thereon without
cost to the county.
Before this time the property of the public schools
had been held by the county of Philadelphia and the
commissioners of the county, and in some cases by
private persons, in trust, for the use of the controllers
of the schools. The latter, by previous acts, were
given authority to use the schools and the school
property, but they were not the owners. The fact led
to the passage of the act of April 16th, by which the
controllers of the public schools of the First School
District of Pennsylvania, then in office, and their suc-
cessors, were constituted a corporation to take and
riold real and personal estate for public-school pur-
poses, and to sell and convey the same when necessary
free from all trusts.
On the 11th of May, 1846, the Congress of the
United States declared that war existed by the act
of the republic of Mexico. Ten millions of dollars
were appropriated for the expenses of the war, and
the President was authorized to call out fifty thousand
volunteers. On the 13th of May a public meeting of
the citizens of the city and county was held in Inde-
pendence Square. It was large and highly enthu-
siastic, and free from party manifestations. In order
to insure a representative set of officers the sheriff of
the county, Morton McMichael, called the meeting to
order, and on his motion John Swift, mayor of the
city, was made president. The vice-presidents were
Richard Vaux, recorder of the city; William M.
Meredith and Samuel Norris, presidents of the Select
and Common Councils of the city ; John F. Belster-
ling, mayor of the Northern Liberties ; Jacob Fry,
president of the Commissioners of Spring Garden;
Thomas D. Grover, president of the Commissioners
of Southwark ; Samuel F. Reed, president of the Com-
missioners of Moyamensing; Samuel T. Bodine,
president of the Commissioners of Kensington ; Ig-
natius Ford, president of the Commissioners of
North Penn ; James Landy, president of the Com-
missioners of the Northern Liberties ; and Thomas
Allibone, burgess of West Philadelphia. There were
eleven secretaries, selected fairly from the political
parties, Democrat, Whig, and Native American.
Speeches were made by Josiah Randall, Col. Robert
M. Lee, Col. James Page, Benjamin H. Brewster,
Peter Sken Smith, and Robert T. Conrad. The reso-
lutions were offered by Peter A. Browne. The pre-
amble recited the facts in the President's message to
Congress, that hostilities had been commenced by
Mexican troops on the Rio Grande against troops of the
United States, and that war actually existed. It was
said " the power of a government to resist aggression
or chastise the aggressor, and its means of maintain-
ing its honor and defending its territory, depend upon
the hearty concurrence of the people in the measures
adopted by their representatives and a steady co-oper-
ation in carrying out those measures. It was therefore
"Resolved, That while this meeting deeply regrets that negotiations
of a friendly character have failed to effect a pacific settlement with our
sister republic and that she has resorted to hostilities, we deem it a duty
to make known to the nation at large, and particularly to the govern-
ment, that our full and entire sympathies are with our country, and
that should the emergencies of the nation require it, our services, our
fortunes, and our lives are now voluntarily pledged for the preservation
of the integrity of the national domain, the security of the liberties
and the conservation of the rights of our fellow-citizens, and the honor
of our country.''
On the 13th of May, President James K. Polk
issued a proclamation of war against Mexico. It was
not published in the city until the morning of the
15th. Before that time there was a stir among persons
willing to volunteer.
On the morning of the 13th, in anticipation of the
call, the state of affairs between the United States and
Mexico being such that war seemed inevitable, Charles
J. Jack, of No. 12 North Seventh Street, who had
been an officer of the militia in former years, issued
proposals for recruiting "the First Regiment of Native
Guards." In support of this scheme he said, " The
foreigners have heretofore raised companies and bat-
talions, let us raise a regiment. The undersigned, long
known to you as connected with the volunteers of this
city and county, will assume the command and take
upon himself the discipline of the corps, nor will he
ever be found absent from the post of duty." An-
nouncing that the colors of the regiment would be
red, white, and blue, the obliging self-commissioned
Col. Jack announced that he would select officers to
fill up all the " commissioned posts."
On the same day the journeymen printers met at
the Keystone Building and resolved that they would
take up their shooting-sticks in their country's cause.1
1 The company afterward organized was called the Press Guard, Capt.
"William C. Toby (a writer for the Spirit of the Times and other papers,
and afterward a correspondent of newspapers from Mexico, under the
signature of "John of York"); First Lieut. Franklin D. May (after-
wards a railroad agent and officer, familiarly known as "The SubBori-
ber") ; Second Lieut. John T. Doyle (years afterward captain of the
Hibernia Target Company) ; First Sergt, James H. Roberts.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
C79
They had heard " with pride and pleasure" that their
brother craftsmen in New Orleans had done this.
For themselves, they declared " as long as we have life
and limb we shall be found battling in the cause of
American freedom and against the wily schemes of
crowned heads, so palpably shown in the recent move-
ment by the Mexican soldiers." The printers resolved
that they would give their own services when wanted,
and called upon their fellow-citizens to "at once
rally round the standard of our country's glory."
Young men of Spring Garden to the number of sev-
eral hundred, meeting at Buddy's Hotel, corner of
Ninth and Green Streets, on the 16th, resolved to
form a military corps. Governor Francis R. Shunk
on the 16th made proclamation stating that the Presi-
dent had called for volunteers, and ordering the offi-
cers and soldiers of the commonwealth to hold them-
selves in readiness. Pennsylvania, according to
requisition through the Secretary of War, Hon.
William L. Marshall, was called upon for six regi-
ments of ten companies each for the United States
service; each company to consist of one captain,
two lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, two
musicians, and sixty-four privates. On the 21st re-
cruiting-parties with drummers and fifers marched
through the streets. Governor Shunk did not call for
the six regiments until May 26th. The orders were
issued through Adjt.-Gen. George W. Bowman.
The reputation gained by Gen. Zachary Taylor in
the military operations on the Rio Grande made him
the hero of the hour. His ''availability" as a can-
didate for the Presidency at once struck the fancies
of the politicians. A meeting of Whig citizens, by
call signed by James Vinyard, Dr. J. Knox Morton,
William F. Parry, Samuel Allen, and others, took
place in the hall over Keim's 'plumber-shop, North
Fourth Street, " opposite the Indian pole." The
object was to make preparations to celebrate the
Fourth of July, and "to rejoice over the victories of
the Whig Heeo, Gen. Taylor, on the Rio Grande."
The spirit was so strong and the number of adven-
turous persons so many, that Gen. Bowman found,
before the end of July, that he had a much greater
force of volunteers than could be employed. His
offers were from one hundred and two companies.
Those who belonged to Philadelphia were as follows :
Patterson Guarda, Ca.pt. William A. Stokes, seventy-seven men.
Steuben Fusileers, Capt. Arnold Syberg, seventy-eight men.
Independent Guards, Capt. Edwin Cbandler, seventy-seven men.
National Guards, Capt. Stephen B. Kingston, seventy-seven men.
State Fencibles, 1st Company, Capt. James Page, seventy-eight men.
State FencibleB, 2d Company, Capt. Jos. Murray, seventy-seven men.
Washington Blues, Capt. William C. Patterson, seventy-seven men.
City Guards, Capt. Joseph Hill, seventy-seven men.
Lafayette Light Infantry, Capt. William G. Smith, eighty-eight men.
National Artillery, Capt. John K. Murphy, eighty-two men.
Philadelphia Repealed Volunteers, Capt. William Dickson, seventy-
seven men.
Monroe Guards, Capt. William F. Small, seventy-seven men.
Frankford Artillery, Capt. John F. Pechel, eighty-one men.
National Grays, Capt. Peter Fritz, eighty-five men.
Cadwalader Grays, Capt. Bobert K. Scott, eighty-four men.
Union Fencibles, Capt. Kobert M. Lee, eighty-five men.
Philadelphia Light Guard, Capt. John Bennett, eighty-four men.
Philadelphia Grays, Capt. George Cadwalader, eighty-two men.
Harrison Blues, Capt. N. Hicks Graham, eighty-three men.
Washington Light Infantry, Capt. F. W. Binder, eighty men.
Irish Volunteers, Capt. Amable J. Brazier, seventy-eight men.
Montgomery Guards, Capt. Kush Van Dyke, eighty-two men.
Washington National Guards, Capt. John Reiss, ninety men.
JefferBou Guards, Capt. Turner G. Morehead, seventy-nine men.
Tyler Guards, Capt. Bobert Tyler, eighty-four men.
Junior Artillerists, Capt. Frederick Fritz, seventy-eight men.
Germantown Blues, Capt. John D. Miles, seventy-eight men.
Jackson Artillerists, Capt. Jacob Hubeli, seventy-nine men.
Mechanic Bines, Capt. , seventy-seven men.
Montgomery Guards (Irish), Capt. Michael McCoy, eighty-six men.
This was a total of thirty companies, — enough to
fill three regiments. In other parts of Pennsyl-
vania volunteering was quite as active, and on the
15th of July information was sent to the War Depart-
ment that ninety companies — enough for nine regi-
ments— had volunteered in the State. The responses
from other portions of the Union came thick and fast,
and the War Department was embarrassed. Finally
it was resolved not to call upon Pennsylvania at that
time. The majority of the companies above named
belonged to the regular volunteer militia of the city
and county. Their members were disappointed, and
their offers not having been accepted, the enthusiasm
in some degree fell away, and the membership dropped
off. On the 18th of November the Governor received
a requisition from Washington for one regiment of
infantry to rendezvous at Pittsburgh on the 15th of
December. The call found not one of the thirty com-
panies which had volunteered in May and June ready
to go. It was manifest that many of them could not
recruit in time to the required number. Some of them,
however, immediately beat up for recruits. The
Washington Light Infantry, Capt. Frederick W. Bin-
der, was the first company ready for the field. The
City Guards, Capt. Joseph Hill, Monroe Guards,
Capt. William F. Small, Philadelphia Light Guards,
Capt. John Bennett, Cadwalader Grays, Capt. Rob-
ert K. Scott, Jefferson Guards, Capt. Turner G.
Morehead, and Philadelphia Rangers, Capt. Charles
Naylor, were got ready in time for acceptance.1 Of
the six companies accepted for the First Regiment,
three, those of Binder, Bennett, and Morehead, had
never made parade. The same may be said of the
Rangers of the Second Regiment. Two regiments
only went from Pennsylvania. The colonel of the
First was Frederick M. Wynkoop ; the colonel of the
Second, E. T. Roberts. Subsequently there was re-
cruited in the city for the regular United States ser-
vice a company of voltigeurs, Capt. Charles J. Biddle,
infantry originally raised for volunteers, Capt. Arnold
Syberg, and a company of dragoons, Capt. John But-
ler. A public meeting to obtain funds to assist the
volunteers with means to equip themselves, with a few
private comforts for the soldiers, the government
1 The Bangers were ready in time, but missed the inspection. They
were subsequently accepted, and attached to the Second Pennsylvania
Begiment.
680
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
bounty of twenty-one dollars being thought insuffi-
cient, was held, and two thousand dollars raised for
the purpose. Drilling went on without cessation at
the company quarters until they left the city. The
friends of officers and soldiers presented them pub-
licly with swords, revolving pistols, munitions of war,
and uniforms. On the 7th of December the four
companies the first to depart were ready to go. The
uniform was sky-blue pantaloons and roundabout
jackets, Monroe shoes, and blue caps of the pancake
fashion. Plainer uniforms had never been seen in
connection with military costume, and though the
volunteers proved themselves effective in the Mexican
campaign, there was as little of the " pomp and cir-
cumstance of glorious war" about them as could be
imagined. The companies were escorted to the Co-
lumbia Railroad depot by the Washington Volun-
teers, Capt. Metz, and the Native Rifles. There were
the usual scenes of tender leave-taking by the mothers,
wives, children, and sisters of the volunteers, and
wild huzzas and displays of excitement by throngs of
spectators, who only thought of the glory and patriot-
ism of the occasion. The companies of Small, Scott,
and Morehead were escorted with like circumstances
to the depot by the Washington Rifles, Capt. Baum-
gard, two days afterward. Naylor's Rangers went on
the 14th, and so ended the volunteer contributions of
the city of Philadelphia to the Mexican campaign.
The soldiers were almost immediately given some taste
of the fatigues of war. The winter was well on. The
State canals were closed. The troops were carried by
railroad to Chambersburg. From that place, in the
cold month of December, they marched to Pittsburgh,
a distance of one hundred and fifty miles.
The construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad
occupied attention during the greater part of the
year. The amount of money required was so great
that even with the valuable assistance of general
public interest and favor, and of liberal subscriptions
according to the means of citizens, it was evident
that there was little hope of success in obtaining
the necessary capital. Unless help could be se-
cured from large and powerful corporations it was
feared that the project would fail. A meeting upon
this subject was held at the Chinese Museum on the
27th of April. Care was taken to make it strongly
impressive by the weight of character of the partici-
pants. Thomas P. Cope was president. The vice-
presidents were John K. Kane. Robert Toland, George
N. Baker, Isaac W. Norris, George W. Carpenter,
David S. Brown, and Thomas Sparks. The secreta-
ries were Henry Welsh, John S. Littell, and Thomas
Tustin. Robert Toland, on behalf of the committee
of twenty-six appointed at the meeting of Dec. 10,
1845, made report of their proceedings, and submitted
the charter of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
passed April 13, 1846. It authorized the incorpora-
tion of the company by the Governor as soon as fifty
thousand shares at fifty dollars each had been sub-
scribed for, and five dollar installments had been paid
upon each. The route was to be " from the western
terminus of the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy,
and Lancaster Railroad at Harrisburg, or of the
Columbia Railroad at Columbia, and to be carried by
such direct practicable routes with moderate gradients
as will . . . most conduce to the public interests and.
the interests of the company, . . . and to terminate
at such point or points at or near the city of Pitts-
burgh, or other place in the county of Alleghany . . .
as to said president and directors may seem most advan-
tageous or expedient." The first subscription might
be extended to one hundred and fifty thousand shares,
and be increased at times until the capital should reach
ten millions of dollars. At the same time that this bill
was passed another was enacted for the benefit of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, which con-
tained a clause that if, before the 30th of July, 1847,
three millions nine hundred thousand dollars should
not be subscribed to the stock of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, one million dollars paid in, and
thirty miles of the road put under contract for con-
struction, all those advantages should be transferred to
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. This con-
cession was the key-note of the report, which set forth
the positive necessity of immediate action. The reso-
lutions offered by David S. Brown and seconded by
Frederick Fraley set forth the facts, and the danger of
the trade which might come to Philadelphia being
carried to a rival city. The resolutions declared that
it was tbe duty of the Councils of the city and the
commissioners of the districts to subscribe to the
stock. The proportion of the city should be at least
two million five hundred thousand dollars, and of the
districts not less than one million two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, thus making the municipal
corporation subscriptions equal to one-half of the
capital stock, leaving the other half open for private
subscription. Speeches were made by Frederick
Fraley, Col. William Bigler, of Clearfield, afterward
Governor of the State, William A. Crabbe, Hill, of
Montgomery, and Piolet, of Bradford County. Pe-
titions immediately afterward began to pour into the
City Council in favor of the two-million-and-a-half
subscription, and remonstrances followed in great
numbers. The members were somewhat in doubt as
to the best policy to be pursued. The joint special
committee to which the subject was referred reported
in May that before proceeding it would be judicious
to obtain the views of citizens at an election to be
held in June. Select Council refused to receive
those suggestions. The matter was recommitted,
with instructions to obtain legal opinions as to the
authority of the committee to subscribe. On the 3d
of July, the committee reported that in the opinion
of John Sergeant, Thomas M. Pettit, and Thomas I.
Wharton the city had a right to subscribe to the stock,
and the opinion of engineers as to the feasibility of the
route was also submitted, with opinions of transporters
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
681
as to the value of the road if it should be built. The
committee recommended a subscription of ten thou-
sand shares by the city whenever fifty thousand
shares should be subscribed by other parties, and ten
thousand shares additional when one hundred miles
of railroad were finished and in use, ten thousand
shares more when one hundred and twenty-five
miles were finished and in use, ten thousand more
when one hundred and seventy-five miles were com-
pleted, and ten thousand more when two hundred
miles were finished, making the total of fifty thousand
shares. The majority of the committee which made
this report was composed of Henry C. Corbit, chair-
man, Isaac Elliott, Robert Toland, A. J. Lewis, Ed-
mund A. Souder, James J. Boswell, Benjamin Orne,
Algernon S. Roberts, and John Rodman Paul. The
minority of the committee were John Price Wetherill
and Horace Binney, Jr. The latter said " of the four
thousand and odd persons who are so ready to place
upon the city the burden of the debt which they have
memorialized Councils to assume, only some three or
four hundred have been found willing to prove their
own faith in the success of the road by subscribing to
the stock. About eight hundred thousand dollars is
all that is subscribed up to this time. The corpora-
tion cannot be called into existence unless the city
subscribes, two million five hundred thousand dollars
being necessary before letters patent can be issued."
The minority estimated that the cost of the construc-
tion of the road, with double track, with locomotives,
cars, machinery, depots, etc., would be one hundred
and twelve million five hundred thousand dollars,
and if the Councils should subscribe two million five
hundred thousand dollars the city would eventually,
to save her money, be obliged to subscribe seven or
eight millions.
The minority argued that the city had no right to
involve tax -payers in that way. The resolution for a
subscription finally came before Councils, and being
taken up in Common Council was lost on second
reading by a vote of nine to nine. The question
entered into the political contest for election of
members in the fall, and the friends of the railroad
seem to have succeeded. Within a week after the
organization of the new Councils, in October, a new
resolution in favor of a subscription for thirty thou-
sand shares was introduced. It was to be conditioned
upon thirty thousand shares having been subscribed
by others. Ten thousand shares were to be taken
when ten thousand shares above the former amount
had been subscribed by others and seventy-five miles
of the road finished and in use, and ten thousand
more shares when ten thousand more were subscribed
by others and one hundred miles of the road finished.
The opposition tried to hamper this bill by amend-
ments, but they were all voted down, and it went
through finally by twelve yeas to eight nays. In
Select Council the bill was amended so that it should
be necessary that one hundred miles of the railroad
should be finished before the second installment was
subscribed for, and one hundred and twenty-five miles
before the third block of shares were taken. Various
amendments were proposed, with the intention of clog-
ging or killing the bill in Select Council, but they were
voted down and the ordinance was finally passed by
eight yeas to four nays. One of these amendments was
quite important. It was to the effect that the sanction
of the Legislature to the subscription should be ob-
tained.1 The majority refused to act with the caution
which such an amendment would have caused. Sub-
sequently other districts of Philadelphia also sub-
scribed to the railroad stock. At the time of consoli-
dation, with the shares subscribed by the city and
those by the districts, the full holding was one hun-
dred thousand shares, worth five million dollars. Of
these the city had subscribed for eighty thousand
shares, value at par, four million dollars ; the district
of Spring Garden, ten thousand shares, value, five
hundred thousand dollars; Northern Liberties, ten
thousand, value, five hundred thousand dollars.
On the 22d of December a public dinner was given
to Daniel Webster at the museum. About four hun-
dred gentlemen participated and sat down to table.
Quite an unusual thing on such occasions, there were
ladies present. Fifteen hundred of them sat in the
galleries, and saw how their husbands, sons, and
brothers ate. The occasion of their being present was
the expectation that Mr. Webster would make a great
speech. There was no disappointment about this.
After Samuel Breck, the president, read the compli-
mentary toast, Mr. Webster rose- in reply, and spoke
for nearly five hours, during which time he went over
the whole range of political discussion on topics
domestic and foreign.
The remains of Commodore Stephen Decatur, who
fell at Bladensburg, in the District of Columbia,
March 22, 1820, in the duel with Commodore Barron,
were brought from Kalorama,' where they were orig-
inally entombed, and reinterred in the graveyard of
St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church at Third and
Pine Streets. A handsome monument had been
erected here by subscription. The remains were re-
interred on the 29th of October. They were received
1 Horace Binney, Sr., had delivered an opinion that the city had no
right to subscribe without act of Assembly. In the end hia opinion was
demonstrated to be the correct one, and the opinions of Sergeant, Pettit,
and Wharton were wrong. The Supreme Court, some years afterward,
decided in another case that a municipal corporation had no right,
under the ordinary provisions of a charter, to subscribe to the stock of a
railroad company. The fear of such judgment led to an application to
the Legislature, which passed, March 7, 1848, an act authorizing the
county of Alleghany, the cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and the
municipal corporation in the county of Philadelphia to subscribe to stock
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and to borrow money to pay
therefor. The aggregate of subscriptions was not to exceed five per
cent, of the taxable value of property for State or county purposes. As
a matter of precaution and safety it was declared that the previous sub-
scription of the city of Philadelphia and the loans contracted therefor
should he validated. Any county, city, or municipal corporation having
ten thousand shares or more in the said company might elect one direc-
tor for each ten thousand shares.
682
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
• and escorted to the ground by three brigades of vol-
unteers, comprising thirty-six companies, marines
and seamen of the United States navy, City Councils,
and citizens.
In this year Charles Mosler, convicted of the mur-
der of his wife under circumstances of peculiar
atrocity, was hanged in the yard of the county
prison. Mrs. Eve Mosler was nearly seventy years
old at this time. Her husband cut her throat with a
razor. Bridget Harman, convicted of the murder of
her infant child, which she drowned by holding its
head in a pool of water, was convicted at the same
time with Mosler. She was sentenced to be executed,
but the death-warrant was never signed by the Gov-
ernor, and she remained in prison many years.
The people watched with anxiety the events of the
Mexican war. For a time the progress of the arms
of the United States seemed slow. Yet, while not
advancing as rapidly as some had expected, there was
a sure management which led to victory and prog-
ress. The intelligence of the result of the battle of
Buena Vista, and the defeat by Gen. Zachary Taylor
of the Mexican Gen. Santa Anna, was received in
April. On the 8th, Charles Gilpin introduced into
Select Council a resolution which declared that the
successes at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey,
and Buena Vista had shed imperishable lustre on the
American arms, and that it was expedient to illumi-
nate the public buildings in honor of Maj.-Gen. Zach-
ary Taylor, his officers and soldiers, for brilliant vic-
tories won with disparity of numbers by their skill and
labor. The resolution was adopted. Mayor Swift by
proclamation recommended that citizens should join
in the testimonials. The 19th of April was chosen
for the celebration, and it proved to be clear and
pleasant. Great preparations were made all over the
city and districts. Nothing equal to the display had
been seen before that time. The old State-House,
City Hall, court-house, and public offices were illu-
minated in the old way with candles in every pane.
The State-House steeple was festooned with displays
of colored lights. Large stars of burning gas blazed
between the columns of the custom-house, behind
which, and invisible from the streets, were pillars
of lights which gave to the colonnade a soft yet bril-
liant appearance. The newspaper offices were lighted
from roof to pavement, some with Drummond lights
and other bright displays, which lighted up the entire
square in which they were situate. Theatres and
places of amusement were brilliant. The windows of
the museum were illuminated with three thousand
candles. Baldwin's locomotive-factory on Broad
Street was lighted at every pane. Engine- and hose-
houses, hotels, factories, and stores vied with each
other in display. In private dwellings all the chan-
deliers were lighted in every story, and blinds and
curtains drawn up, and in many the burning candle
was at every pane. Flags, flowers, festoons of na-
tional colors, and other devices abounded. The num-
ber of transparencies was large, some of them finely
painted. The subjects represented were generally
connected with the war, and many of them were
identical in the idea of the representation, differing
only in the delineation. Gen. Taylor on horseback
upon all sorts of horses, white, black, roan, sorrel,
and bay, surrounded by his staff, were favorites. Maj.-
Gen. Winfield Scott and the heroes of the bombard-
ment of San Juan de Ulloa and the capture of Vera
Cruz, news of which had been received in the city
two or three days before, were not forgotten. The
battle of Buena Vista, hard fought, furnished various
incidents for the painter, favorite among which were
the charge of Capt. Bragg upon the Mexican field bat-
teries, and the flight of the Mexican, with such mottoes
as, " A little more grape, Capt. Bragg," " Gen. Taylor
never surrenders." The battles of Palo Alto, the
charge of Capt. May, the death of Maj. Ringgold, the
capture of the Bishop's palace, and the bombardment
of Vera Cruz, with many other appropriate designs
were exhibited. The streets were filled with a large
concourse of spectators moving from building to
building until long after midnight.
Shortly afterward Commodore David Connor, who
was in command at Vera Cruz, arrived in this city, of
which he was a resident. A complimentary dinner
was tendered to him by citizens, which took place on
the 7th of May, at the Columbia House, north side of
Chestnut Street, east of Seventh. The Hon. Joseph
R. Ingersoll presided. Commodore Connor responded
to the compliments paid to him, and appropriate
speeches were made by George M. Dallas, Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States, John M. Read, Col. James
Page, Capt. Reynolds, and Surgeon King, of the army,
and Commodore Engle, of the navy.
President James K. Polk, on a visit to the North-
ern States, came to the city on the 23d of June.
Traveling by railroad as far as Wilmington, Del., he
was received there by a committee of citizens of Phil-
adelphia and brought up the river Delaware by the
steamboat " George "Washington." A formal act of
delivery of the custody of the charge of the guest
was made about the Delaware State line by the Wil-
mington committee, which transferred the visitor to
the Philadelphia committee, with accompanying
speeches. At the navy-yard the United States steamer
" Princeton" and the revenue-cutter " Forward" were
decorated with flags. After proceeding up the Dela-
ware along the city front as far as Kensington, re-
ceiving en route the customary salutes by artillery,
ringing of bells, huzzas, etc., the steamboat returned
to the navy-yard, where a salute of twenty-one guns
was fired from the "Forward." The President, on
disembarking, was received by Commodore Charles
Stewart, of the United States navy, and Gen. Robert
Patterson, then of the United States army. A mili-
tary procession of three brigades, under Brig.-Gen.
A. L. Roumfort, Col. James Goodman, and Brig.-Gen.
Horatio Hubbell, consisting of thirty-four companies,
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
683
was the principal escort. The President was taken
to the residence of Vice-President George M. Dallas,
on the north side of Walnut Street, east of Ninth.
At night there was a serenade by the Masnnerchor
Vocal Society, and the Liedertafel and Breiters Band,
which organizations turned out in great strength, and
were assisted in executing the music by torches in
abundance. The principal performances were " Hail
Columbia" and "Star-Spangled Banner," sung in
German by the vocal societies, and some fine instru-
mental music by the band. On the succeeding day
the President visited Laurel Hill Cemetery, Pair-
mount, Girard College, the Mint, and the Public
Model School, in Chester Street. At noon he was
formally welcomed by the mayor and Councils in In-
dependence Hall, and received his friends there. In
the evening he visited Commissioners' Hall, Northern
Liberties, and attended a ball and banquet given at
the house of Maj.-Gen. Patterson. On the succeed-
ing day he went to New York.
A severe fire, which broke out in the evening of
August 21st, in Bread Street, near the corner of
Quarry, at the large sugar-house refinery of George
L. Broome & Co., occasioned loss of life. The build-
ing was eight stories high. The flames came from
the engine-room, and mounted successively to the
top of the house in one roaring, fierce conflagration.
The flames were carried to the large brewery of Rob-
ert Newlin and a range of stables on the north be-
longing to Joseph Eubicam. The grain, liquor in
vats and hogsheads, hops, and other merchandise,
added to the fury of the fire. Bread Street being
very narrow, the firemen worked in much peril. By
the falling of the north wall of the refinery into
Quarry Street the. Reliance Engine was crushed, and
some of the firemen severely injured. Shortly after-
wards the gable end of the refinery fell upon the
brewery, and forced the walls of the latter into Bread
Street. Twenty-seven men were struck down by the
falling walls. They were connected with the work-
ing of the Fairmount Engine and the Perseverance
Hose-Carriage. Andrew Butler and Charles H.
Hines, members of the Perseverance Hose Company,
were so badly crushed and hurt that they died soon
after. Mr. Butler had been for several years secre-
tary of the Fire Association, and was widely known.
Hines was about twenty years of age, and an appren-
tice to Mr. Dunlap, a coachmaker. The two victims
were buried at the same time, and the funeral was at-
tended by fifty-one fire companies, numbering over
three thousand members. The line of the procession
was estimated to be three miles long.
By act of February 27th was incorporated " the
district of Richmond, in the county of Philadelphia."
It was immediately north of Kensington. The bounds
commenced at the river Delaware and the northern
boundary of the Kensington District. The eastern
boundary was the Delaware River. The northern
boundary commenced at the river, on the west side
of Westmoreland Street, and ran along the same to
the westward side of Emerald Street, along the same
to the southerly side of Hart Lane, and along the
latter to the northern boundary of Kensington Dis-
trict, and by the same to the Delaware River and
place of beginning. The official title of the cor-
poration was "The Commissioners and Inhabitants
of Richmond, In the County of Philadelphia." The
act named as the first commissioners Philip Duffy,
Michael Barron, Isaac Tustin, Richard R. Spain, Jo-
seph Ashton, John W. Kester, Henry Mather, George
Funk, and Enoch Blackman. The first election was
to be held on the first Tuesday of October, 1847, at
the Railroad Hotel, occupied by Elisha McCarty.
Three commissioners were to be elected for one year,
three for two years, three for three years, and after-
wards three annually, to serve for three years. The
charter of this district contained two provisions not
to be found in any other act of municipal incorpora-
tion, namely, that no new street should be thereafter
opened by the public, or individuals for public "use,
less than twenty feet in width. All streets heretofore
opened to be public highways. The following streets
were vacated by the same act: Indiana Street, from
Frankford road to Richmond Street; Ann Street,
from Tulip Street to Richmond Street. Richmond
Lane and Frankford road, as originally laid down and
now opened, were to remain.
A supplement to the act of incorporation of the
borough of Manayunk increased the number of the
Town Council to ten, five to be elected for one year,
five to be elected for two years, and afterwards five
annually.
A supplement to the act for the incorporation of
Germantown recited that the duties of the burgess
and Town Council were growing onerous by increase
of population. The burgess was directed thereafter-
wards to be elected to serve one year, and four persons
for Town Council were to be chosen annually to serve
for two years.
Some changes were made in the western wards of
the city for voting purposes. They had grown largely
in population within a few years. It was not thought
judicious to create new wards, which would have
affected the representation in Councils, but the plan
was taken of dividing the wards into precincts
bounded as follows :
Locust Ward. — East Locust Precinct, between the west side of Dela-
ware Seventh and east side of Twelfth Street, north side of Spruce
Street and sooth side of Walnut. West Locust Precinct, Between Spruce
and Walnut, and from Tenth Street to the Schuylkill.
South Ward. — East South Precinct, from west side of Delaware Seventh
to east side of Twelth Street, and from north side of Walnut to Bouth
side of Chestnut. West South Precinct, from west side of Twelfth Street
to the Schuylkill, and from North side of Walnut to south side of
Chestnut.
Middle Ward.— e<w( Middle Precinct, from the west side of Seventh to
the east side of Broad, and from the north side of Chestnut to the south
side of Market Street. West Middle Precinct, from the west side of Broad
Street to the river Schuylkill, north Bide of CheBtnut to the south side
of Market.
North Ward. — East NorVi Precinct, from west side of Seventh to the
684
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
eaBt side of Twelfth, and from the north side of Market to the south side
of Arch, or Mulberry. W est North Precinct, from the west side of Twelfth
to the river Schuylkill, and from the north side of Market to the south
side of Mulberry.
South Mulberry Ward. —Bast South Mulberry Precinct, from the west
side of Seventh to the east side of Twelfth, and from the north side of
Mulberry to the south side of Sassafras Street. West South Mulberry
Precinct, from the west side of Twelfth Street to the river Schuylkill,
from the north side of Mulberry to the south side of Sassafras.
North Mulberry Ward.— East North Mulberry, f»om the west side of
Seventh to the east Bide of Twelfth, north side of Sassafras Street and
south side of Vine. West North Mulberry, from the west Bide of Twelfth
to the river Schuylkill, from the north side of Sassafras to the Bouth
side of Vine Street.
Upper Delaware Ward. — East -Upper Delaware Precinct, from the
Kiver Delaware to the east side of Third Street, and from the north side
of Sassafras to the south side of Vine. West Upper Delaware Precinct,
from the west side of Third to the east side of Seventh Street, and from
the north side of Sassafras to the south side of Vine Street.
Lower Delaware Ward. — East Lower Delaware Precinct, from the
river Delaware to the east side of Fourth Street, from the north side of
Mulberry to the south side of Sassafras Street. West Lower Delaware
Precinct, from west Bide of Fourth Street to east side of Seventh Street,
and from north side of Mulberry to south side of Sassafras Street.
The creation of these sixteen new voting divisions
made it necessary that new voting places should be
obtained at the State-House or in its neighborhood.
The electors of East and West North Mulberry, East
and West Lower Delaware, East and West Upper Del-
aware were directed to vote at windows on the north
side of the State-House. Chestnut and Walnut Wards,
and East and West South Mulberry, and East and West
North Wards on the east and south sides of the south
room of the County Court. East and West South,
with High Street Ward, to vote on the north and east
side of the north and east rooms of the county court-
house.
A scheme of improvement, upon the success of
which high hope was built, originated among prop-
erty owners in Richmond and Kensington Districts.
Gunner's Bun, entering the Delaware at the Dyott-
ville Glass-Works, ran north by west, and touched
the Richmond branch of the Philadelphia and Read-
ing Railroad. It was believed that by widening and
deepening the stream a grand depot for trade could
be established near the railroad with docks and basins,
and that the ground on the side of the creek could be
made available for wharves, warehouses, etc. This
scheme culminated on the 15th of March by the pas-
sage of an act to incorporate the Gunner's Run Im-
provement Company, with power to construct a canal
not exceeding one hundred feet in width from the
north side of Queen Street (not far from the Dela-
ware), on Gunner's Run, Kensington, and to terminate
at a point at or near the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad crossing. There was to be a tide-lock and
gate not less than twenty-four feet wide, and at least
one hundred and fifty feet long, at or near Queen
Street, and from Second Street to the river Delaware ;
the canal was to be not more than sixty feet in width.
The building of a bridge by the company of the full
width of Franklin Street (now Girard Avenue) over
the canal was provided for. Authority to take tolls
was granted, and the commissioners of Kensington
might change the grades of streets or water-courses so
as not to interfere with the navigation of the canal.
The shares were to be one hundred dollars. In 1848
authority was given to carry the canal to the river
Delaware at or near Wood Street. Subscriptions
were made, and some work was done. By act of
April 6, 1850, it was declared that the canal should
thereafter be known as the Aramingo Canal. The
work turned out to be useless. A great deal of money
was spent upon it. The amount of business done was
found insufficient to pay expenses, and for many years
afterwards the so-called canal was considered a nui-
sance.
By act of March 25, 1848, the boundaries of the
district of Richmond were extended by taking off
from the township of the Northern Liberties the tract
of ground beginning at the river Delaware, on the
west side of Westmoreland Street, and extending
along the river to the north side of Tioga Street;
thence along Tioga to the east side of the Point road ;
along the Point road to Westmoreland Street, and
along the same to the place of beginning. By this
addition the importance of the district of Richmond
was increased.
A new division was made between the townships
of Moyamensing and Passyunk by a change of boun-
daries. The dimensions of Passyunk were changed
by the addition of new land taken from Moyamen-
sing. The territory next began on the west side of
the Delaware River, two hundred feet south of the
line of McKean Street, then west on line parallel
with McKean Street to a point two hundred feet west
of the west side of Broad Street ; thence north to a
point two hundred feet south of the south line of
Franklin [Tasker] Street; then west on line parallel
with Franklin Street to lower water-mark on the
river Schuylkill ; all that portion of the township of
Passyunk north and west of the said line to become
part of the township of Moyamensing. The act was
really an increase of the Moyamensing territory ;
that township now became a district, and was called
" The Commissioners and Inhabitants of the District
of Moyamensing." A new ward was added, the Fifth.
The Fourth Ward was extended south to the new
boundary, and the Fifth Ward was all that part of
the township west of Broad Street. Ward elections
for the Fourth Ward were ordered to be held at the
public-house of Mahlon Gilbert, at the intersection
of Tenth and Passyunk road. The Fifth Ward elec-
tions were at Daniel Young's, corner of Buck road
and Long Lane. An addition was also made to Ken-
sington District by act of April 6th. The annexa-
tion was of " that portion of the township of un-
incorporated Northern Liberties, beginning at the
middle of Norris Street and the west side of Frank-
ford turnpike road ; then north along the said turn-
pike road to a point one hundred and thirty feet
north of Lehigh Avenue ; then crossing the said turn-
pike road, continuing parallel with Lehigh Avenue
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
685
west, to the west side of Germantown turnpike road ;
then south and southeast along that road to the then
north boundary of Kensington ; thence crossing Ger-
mantown road along the boundary between Kensing-
ton and the Fairhill estate to the place of beginning."
Actually this was an annexation of the Fairhill and
Sepviva estate, belonging to the Norris family. The
new territory was made the Eighth Ward of Ken-
sington, and elections were ordered to be held at the
house of Michael Price, Frankford road above Wood
Street. By a special section the trustees of the Fair-
hill estate, under the will of J. P. Norris, were author-
ized to sell to the commissioners of Kensington, for
such consideration as they might think proper, two
lots of ground, to he held " for public use as a public
green and walk forever." One of these was Fairhill
Square, bounded north by Lehigh Avenue, south by
Huntingdon Street, east by Fourth, and west by
A pple Street. The other was Norris Square, bounded
north by Susquehanna Avenue, south by Diamond
Street, east by Howard Street, and west by Hancock
Street. An intermediate street called Clinton Street,
which' would have run through the middle of the
square from Diamond Street to Susquehanna Avenue,
was vacated.- The two squares were a gift from the
Norris family. The sale was for a nominal consider-
ation. The district commissioners were ordered by
the act to have the squares " properly inclosed and
planted with trees for public squares and walks, for
light, air, and recreation forever. . . . Such square
shall never be used for any other purpose whatever,
and n6 building shall ever be erected upon them." By
the same act the commissioners of Kensington were
authorized to construct steam or other suitable works
on or near to the river Delaware, at the foot of any
public street landing, or other suitable location, "for
the purpose of pumping up and supplying said dis-
trict, and any other district in the said county and
the inhabitants thereof, with water from the river
Delaware ;" also with authority to buy ground and
establish a reservoir, lay pipes, etc. The authority
thus given was embraced willingly by the commis-
sioners of the district, but with very little discussion
on their part as to the location of the pumping
works. They selected a lot on the south side of Gun-
ner's Run, at its junction with the Delaware River.
There were erected an engine-house, with pumps and
apparatus, which took the water from the Delaware,
adjacent to the mouth of the creek, which became a
foul drain, into which flowed filth and impurities
from establishments on the stream, or Gunner's Run
Canal, or Aramingo Canal, far beyond the Reading
Railroad crossing, above Lehigh Avenue. The water
might have been comparatively pure in 1850, when
the Kensington Water- Works were finished. It has
been complained of ever since. Sometimes wide-
spread sickness through the district has resulted from
its use. The Water Department has been frequently
called upon to devise means to avoid the pumping
up of the foul discharges from Gunner's Run, and of
obtaining the purer waters of the Delaware. The
reservoir of the Kensington Water- Works was built
between Lehigh Avenue and Somerset Street, and
Sixth and Seventh Streets.
The district of Penn was divided into two elec-
tion precincts. The East to be that portion of the
district east of the middle of Broad Street, and the
West Precinct west of Broad Street. Elections for
the East Precinct were to be held at the Commis-
missioners' Hall, northeast corner of Tenth and
Thompson Streets, and for the West Precinct at the
house of Jacob Peters, southwest corner of Ridge
road and Girard Avenue.
A horrible murder committed March 23d created a
strong sensation among citizens. C. L. Rademacher,
keeper of a German bookstore at No. 39 North
Fourth Street above Arch, occupied the back part
of the house and the upper stories for a residence for
himself and his wife, a young woman of twenty-four
years of age. In the early portion of the morning one
or more persons entered the house. By some means
Mr. and Mrs. Rademacher were awakened and may
have interposed. The burglar or burglars made a
desperate attack upon them with a knife. Mrs.
Rademacher was killed. Upon her person after her
death were found six incised wounds on her left
arm, one upon her right arm, one upon her face, and
one upon the breast which penetrated the region of
the heart. Mr. Rademacher was found covered with
blood, with a large wound on his right arm which
deprived him of the use of that limb, a gash on his
head through to the skull, and bruises about his face
and head, where he had been beaten by some blunt
instrument. The wife was dead, the husband sense-
less, and unable to give any explanation of the cir-
cumstance. Among the bedclothes was found the
blade of a peculiar looking knife resembling the
instrument of that kind generally in use among
shoemakers. It was broken off near the handle.
Upon examination of the wounds, it was determined
that they could not have all been produced by that
sort of a knife, and that although that instrument
had been employed, there must have been some
sharper cutting instrument in use. Everything about
the premises showed that there had been a terrible
fight against the burglars. It was conjectured that
the assassin had obtained access to the house by
climbing up a shed in the rear, above which a window
opened directly into the bedroom. Within two days,
by the efforts of the police, a German named Charles
Langfeldt was arrested. He was a shoemaker, and
boarded somewhere on Front Street, in the Northern
Liberties. He had been convicted in 1844 of larceny
of a velvet pulpit-cloth belonging to the Zion Lu-
theran Church, at the southeast corner of Fourth and
Cherry, near by. Convicted of this crime, he had
been in prison for about four years. His time had
but lately expired. In the morning of the same day
686
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Langfeldt was in the shop with other workmen, and
news having been received of the affair at Rade-
macher's, it was discussed in his presence. He said
nothing, but arose, took a basin of water up-stairs to
his lodging-room, but came down shortly afterward
with a bundle, and said that he was going to take his
clothes to a washerwoman. Upon subsequent inspec-
tion blood was found on the bed in which he had
lain, upon his outer clothing, in his pockets, and on
his boots. The broken blade of the knife found at
Rademacher's was identified by his comrades as that
of his knife. It had some peculiar marks, and on the
morning after the murder was missing from the
work-bench of Langfeldt. A crooked sharp knife was
missing from another shop which Langfeldt had
visited a day or two before, and its loss had been no-
ticed immediately after he left the premises. As it
appeared that the wounds had been produced by two
knives of different character, and the one which
Langfeldt had used at his own shop was identified,
it was conjectured that the stolen crooked knife was
the other one which he had used. It was a case
of circumstantial evidence, sufficiently strong in the
opinion of the jury to justify conviction. Langfeldt
was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and
hanged in the yard of the county prison (Moyamen-
sing) October 20th.
In this year the government of France was over-
thrown by revolution. Louis Philippe 1. fled to Eng-
land. An attempt to permanently establish a repub-
lican government was made. In Italy the government
of Naples was attacked by revolutionists, and the
Bourbon king of Naples, commonly called Bomba,
was forced to fly. Risings took place in Germany,
causing bloodshed, but not being successful. In
sympathy with these movements a grand meeting
was held in the State-House yard to express the
feelings of the natives of foreign countries in the
, revolutionary movements in Europe, which not only
promised republicanism to France, but gave hope for
the success of popular rights in Germany and Italy.
Three stands were erected for the convenience of the
participants in this polyglot assemblage. One of them
was decorated with a French tri-color, red, white, and
blue, and the Italian liberty flag, red, white, and
green. The speakers here were French and Italian,
and very enthusiastic. Another stand was decorated
with the colors of the German nation, black, red,
and gold. The speakers addressed those within
hearing in the German language. The main stand
was reserved for the English-speaking people. Mayor
Swift presided. Speeches were made by Henry D. Gil-
pin, Morton McMichael, Benjamin Champneys, Joseph
R. Chandler, William D. Kelley, Peter Sken Smith,
William E. Lehman, and Francis J. Grund. An inci-
dent entirely unexpected and unprepared for was fur-
nished by the assemblage of men of color, Americans
by birth. No invitation had been given to them, but
as this was a celebration on behalf of universal lib-
erty, they ventured to attend in sufficient numbers to
get up a meeting of their own. They were addressed
in good style by several speakers of their own race.
There was more noise than oratory, more music than
speeches. The Frenchmen in small groups sang the
" Marseillaise" and " Mourir pour la Patrie." The
Germans sang many national songs and choruses.
"Hail Columbia" and the "Star-Spangled Banner"
were attempted by the Americans, and in the noise
of so many lyrics, all sung at the same time, there
was some discord but no confusion.
The war with Mexico was over in this year. Its
successful result was reason for exultation. Brig.-
Gen. George Cadwalader, who had been appointed
to a command in Mexico and served in the Mexican
Valley campaign, came home in May, and was ac-
corded a public reception. He was received at Gray's
Ferry by five companies of cavalry, on the 20th of
May, and escorted to Broad and Prime Streets. Here
the First Division, artillery and infantry, were drawn
up, under command of Brig.-Gen. A. L. Roumfort.
Amid salutes of artillery, Gen. Cadwalader reviewed
the line, and was then escorted to Independence Hall,
where he was received by the City Councils of Phil-
adelphia. The speech of reception was made by Wil-
liam M. Meredith, president of Select Council. In
the course of his remarks he alluded to the gallantry
of Cadwalader in the engagements at the National
Bridge, La Hoya, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino
del Rey, Chapultepec, and the Garita San Cosme.
About the same time the trustees of the Philadel-
phia Gas- Works determined to make an exhibition
in honor of victory and peace of the availability of
gas for the purpose of ornamental illumination. John
C. Cresson, superintendent of the gas-works, made
the arrangements, and the display took place in front
of the State-House, by permission of Councils. By
the shaping of gas-pipes and the multiplication of
jets from them figures in fire were made. The God-
dess of Peace, seated on a chair holding in her right
hand the olive-branch, was the principal figure, and
nearly thirty feet high. At her feet and by her side
were the emblems of commerce, manufactures, and
agriculture, — the anchor, boxes, barrels, chests,
wheels, the plow, with a ship in the distance. Above
all hovered the eagle with wings of fire, surrounded
with a halo of stars, and bearing a scroll with the
national motto, while below was the simple inscrip-
tion, "Peace." There were four thousand burners
which lighted up this piece.
The Pennsylvania volunteers did not return from
Mexico until late in the year. It was determined
that they should be honored with a grand compli-
mentary reception and a banquet. A town-meeting
was held to make arrangements. Councils made
liberal appropriations. The cars, by the Columbia
Railroad, arrived at Coates Street and Pennsylvania
Avenue about eight o'clock in the morning of July
24th, and formed in the street to meet the escort
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
687
which was being prepared in their honor. There
were not as many of them as there were when they
started. The bullet and disease had reduced them to
about one-half of the original strength, as the follow-
ing will show :
Went Ke-
Firet Pennsylvania Regiment. away turned
with with
Co. C, Monroe Guards, Capt. Wm. F. Small, 95 men. 45 men.
Co. D, City Guards, Capt. Joseph Hill, 90 " 20
Co. E, Washington Light Inf., Capt. F. W. Binder, 92 " 49
Co. F, Philadelphia Light Guards, Capt. John Bennett, 96 '• 58
Co. G, Jefferson Guards, Capt. Turner G. Morehead, 90 " 37
Co. H, Cadwalader Grays, Lieut. S. D. Breece, 96 " 45
TotalB
659
254
With the Philadelphia companies were the Potts-
ville Artillerists, Oapt. Nagle, who had lost fifty men.
The Philadelphia Rangers, Oapt. Naylor, of the Second
Regiment, did not return at this time. The reception
at Coates Street when the escort came up was quite
interesting. The women — wives, mothers, daughters,
and relatives — were present in great numbers, and
there were some interesting scenes, yet everything
was quiet and even solemn. The committee of re-
■ ception greeted them through David Webster, who
made the address of welcome. The ceremonies were
entirely civic. The usual accompaniments of most
parades, in the presence and participation of military,
were absent; the Mexican soldiers were to be wel-
comed again to the pursuits of peace. There was a
respectable civic procession, — six hundred butchers
on horseback, in white frocks, blue sashes, and ro-
settes ; thirty-four fire and hose companies, in cos-
tume, and with their apparatus; clubs and societies,
and public officers in coaches. Col. S. W. Wynkoop
commanded the detachment. Maj.-Gen. Robert Pat-
terson, in whose division the Pennsylvania regiments
had been in Mexico, marched at their head, with
Maj.-Gen. Pillow, the latter in citizen's dress. The
Mexican soldiers marched quietly. There was little
enthusiasm in their demeanor. They seemed to be
worn and weary. Flags were hung. out upon the
route of march. There were hurrahs, ringing of
bells, and salutes of artillery. The soldiers were
marched to the museum building, where a banquet
had been prepared for them. The tables extended
the whole length of the upper saloon. The decora-
tions were appropriate. A large banner, stretching
from side to side of the hall, near the ceiling, bore
the inscription, " Pennsylvania volunteers, welcpme
home !" The tables were elegantly decorated with
statu es.vases, flags, and other ornaments, and the colors
of the United States and Mexico, so lately carried in
hostile directions, were twined together in the bond
of peace. About one thousand persons were present;
James Ross Snowden, president. A welcome song,
written by James Bellak, was sung by a choir of ladies
and gentlemen. John M. Scott delivered a classic
and elegant oration of welcome. Regular toasts suc-
ceeded. Gen. Patterson and Col. Wynkoop made
speeches, and this part of the ceremony closed in the
afternoon. In the evening the State-House, public
buildings, hotels, theatres, and custom-house were
illuminated. There was no general illumination
by citizens. This was by recommendation of the
committee, in consequence of the heat of the weather
and the absence of many persons from town.
Henry Clay visited Philadelphia on the 24th of
February. He was the idol of the Whig party, and
nowhere stronger in the affections of men of Whig
politics. As this was the year of the national con-
vention, which was also to be held in the city, it was
determined among the leading men to make the re-
ception more than usually enthusiastic. A commit-
tee of the Young Men's Democratic Whig Associa-
tion and a committee appointed at a town meeting of
the friends of Henry Clay, met him at Elkton in Mary-
land and escorted him to Broad and Prime Streets,
where the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
Railroad intersected the Southwark Railroad. A
large concourse of persons were present to await his
coming. The procession included twelve hundred
citizens on horseback and a large number in car-
riages. Mr. Clay was placed in a barouche which
was drawn by six splendid horses. While the ac-
companying procession was not large, its reception in
every street was most enthusiastic. The huzzas
which began in Broad Street rolled on with the idol
of the hour in one incessant psean, being taken up
from house to house ; as the guest came onward,
ladies waved their handkerchiefs from the windows
of houses, and the whole community was wild with
excitement. No such reception had been given to
any man in Philadelphia since Lafayette had come in
1824. On the same evening Mr. Clay was serenaded
by several fine bands ; he was received the next day
at Independence Hall by City Councils, and was
visited by about eight thousand persons, after which
he remained for some days, visited several institu-
tions, and was entertained by his friends. On the 1st
of March he held a levie for the reception of ladies
only at the museum. On that occasion it is estimated
that five thousand women were present. He made
some remarks to the ladies upon the respective duties
and privileges of the sexes which were in excellent
taste and marked by good sense.
On the 7th of June the national convention of the
Whig party to nominate candidates for President and
Vice-President of the United States met at the mu-
seum building, northeast corner Ninth and George
[Sansom] Streets. Great hope had been placed upon
this assemblage by the friends of Henry Clay. His
services as a statesman, his ability as an orator, and
his long career as a friend of protection of American
industry were all elements in his favor. The Whigs
of Philadelphia admired Clay ; they were willing to
acknowledge his claims. The large majority of them
were stanch, while others, not hostile to Mr. Clay,
argued that in the selection of a candidate " avail-
ability" was the most important consideration. They
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
perceived in the military services of Maj.-Gen.
Zachary Taylor the opportunity which was needed.
The contest in the convention was bitter, but avail-
ability triumphed, and Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana,
was nominated for President, and Millard Fillmore,
of New York, for Vice-President.1
In honor of the conclusion a grand Whig ratification
meeting was held on the evening of the third day in
Independence Square. It was not as enthusiastic
as had been hoped, although there was no disorder.
The friends of Clay were disheartened at the "treach-
ery" of those who had been his friends, and they took
no great interest in the demonstration. As far as re-
garded the proceedings and the number of speakers,
this occasion was quite exceptional. William F. John-
ston, of Pennsylvania, Speaker of the Senate, and by
the resignation of Francis R. Shunk, a month after-
ward, Governor of the commonwealth, was president
of the meeting. There was a vice-president for every
State, and fourteen secretaries. The city being
crowded with delegates of the national convention
from all parts of the Union, there was no difficulty
in obtaining the services of speakers, many of whom
were men of distinction in their own States. At the
main stand speeches were made by Governor More-
head, North Carolina; Gen. Barrow, Tennessee;
George R. Richardson, Maryland ; Col. Haskell, of
Tennessee; John Sherman, of Ohio; and Maxwell,
of New York. At the southeast stand, in the square,
Gen. James Irwin presided, and among other speakers
were Walker, of Indiana; Rivers, of Rhode Island;
Whitney, of New York; Sweet, of Illinois; Col.
Duncan, of Louisiana ; Cogdill, of Indiana ; Ray, of
Ohio; Parker, of Massachusetts; Barringer, of North
Carolina; and Beddinger, of Kentucky. At the south-
west stand Col. Fowlers, of New York, presided. The
speakers were Batchelder, of Massachusetts; Z. Col-
lins Lee, Maryland; ex-Governor Stratton, New
Jersey ; Cocke, Tennessee ; Lyman, Vermont ; Stan-
ton, of Ohio; Brown, Pennsylvania; Foster, Georgia;
Piatt, Delaware ; Mix, of New York ; Dr. Cowdell,
Indiana; Ricardo, Louisiana; Chandler, Massachu-
setts.
The remains of Maj. Levi Twiggs, of the United
States marine corps, who was killed at the battle of
Chapultepec, Sept. 13, 1847, were reinterred with ap-
propriate ceremonies on the 25th of February. They
were taken from the United States navy-yard to
St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church, on Tenth
1 Henry White, of Pennsylvania, called the convention to order. John
H. Collyer, of New York, waB temporary chairman, and James Harlan,
of Kentucky, and John Sherman, of Oiiio, temporary secretaries. The
permanent president was Governor John M. Morehead,of North Caro-
lina. A vice-president represented each State, and the twelve secreta-
ries were headed by John Sherman. The balloting occupied two days.
Taylor was nominated at the fourth ballot. On the first ballot the v.ote
stood, — Zachary Taylor, Louisiana, 111; Daniel Webster, Massachusetts,
22 • Henry Clay, Kentucky, 97; Winfield Scott, New Jersey, 43 ; John
M. Clayton, Delaware, 4 ; Lewis McLane, of Maryland, 2. Clay's vote
in three ballots fell steadily,— first, 07; second, 86; third, 74; fourth,
32.
Street, under charge of four companies of volunteers
and one company United States marines. The
funeral service at the church was read by the Rev.
Henry W. Ducachet. The body was interred in the
little graveyard adjoining the church. The Wash-
ington Grays, Capt. McAdam, fired a volley over the
grave. The body was subsequently removed to
Laurel Hill Cemetery.
A much more solemn display took place on the
7th of March. The remains of John Quincy Adams,
who had died at Washington, D. O, February 23d,
were received while on their way to Quincy, his for-
mer residence in Massachusetts, under charge of a
committee of thirty appointed by Congress. The
committee with the body was received at Broad and
South Streets by the First and Second City Troop.
A funeral-car heavily draped had been provided, and
the coffin being placed therein, was considered to be
in charge of the pall-bearers, who were Chief Justice
John B. Gibson, Richard Willing, Samuel Breck,
United States District Judge John K. Kane, John
M. Scott, Dr. R. M. Patterson, Horace Binney, Dr.
Nathaniel Chapman, William J. Duane, Benjamin W.
Richards, Isaac Roach, and James Page. The hearse
was drawn by six white horses, carrying black plumes.
The cavalry acted as a guard of honor. The City
Councils, with numerous societies and citizens, several
hundred men being in the procession, accompanied
the remains to Independence Hall. It was dark be-
fore the procession started, and the novelty of a funeral
by torchlight was added to the ceremonies. The
cortege was in consequence of more than usual
solemnity. There was no music; the participants
marched quietly. The absence of noise and the
strange appearance of the men under the fitful light
made the occasion quite impressive. The body re-
mained in Independence Hall during the night, and
was removed for further progress the next day. That
building had been prepared for the occasion, and was
heavily draped with black. The Washington Grays
acted as a guard of honor during the night, and es-
corted the body to the Kensington Railroad depot
the next morning.
The remains of Commodore James Biddle were in-
terred on the 5th of October, in the burial-ground of
Christ Church, in charge of a military escort com-
manded by Gen. Cadwalader.
The remains of Capt. George Ayres, who fell in
Mexico, were carried from Southwark Hall, March
20th, and reinterred in Monument Cemetery by a
funeral procession consisting of sixteen military com-
panies. The body of Lieut. Montgomery P. Young,
of Capt. Morehead's company, Jefferson Guards, who
was killed in Mexico, was brought to the city and
deposited in Monument Cemetery in December. The
military escort was under the command of Col. James
Page. On this occasion the returned Mexican volun-
teers who were in the city participated. It was the
first time that they had met together since they were
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
689
mustered out of service, and from that period may be
dated the foundation of the association of soldiers of
the Mexican war known as the Scott Legion.
A vexatious accident on the 12th of November de-
prived the districts of Spring Garden and Northern
Liberties of a water supply. About four o'clock in
the morning the large reservoir belonging to the water-
works of those districts north of Girard College (now
at Twenty-fifth and Thompson Streets) gave way, and
the whole body of water rushed in a torrent out of the
southwest corner of the basin. A ravine — the dry
bed of a stream — extended from near that part to-
ward the Schuylkill, through the grounds of Girard
College. The water found this to be a convenient
course. A culvert had been laid down in the upper
part Of the ravine. The water swept away this con-
struction so completely that not a brick was left, and
the chasm was thirty feet wide and twenty feet deep.
An obstruction to the rush was encountered at the
wall of Girard College, three feet thick and twelve
feet high. For a short time the progress of the flood
was stayed; but the obstruction could not withstand
the pressure, and gave way to a width of about one
hundred feet ; then, rolling across the college grounds,
the flood carried the stones of the north wall even to
the distance of the south wall. The latter also gave
way in turn. There was no obstruction after this.
The Dark Woods Pond was near, lying between high
hills, with an area greater than any water-works res-
ervoir could fill. The flood was received there, and
found a way to the Schuylkill without further de-
struction. The break did little damage comparatively.
No lives were lost, no houses were in the way, and as
the outburst took place in the night-time, nobody saw
the flood. The consequences might have been very
serious to the inhabitants in daylight. Here were
two important districts, comprising several thousand
houses and inhabited by many thousand persons, lit-
erally without a drop of water. The quarrel of these
districts with the city of Philadelphia a few years be-
fore had been so bitter upon the question of the water
supply that as soon as the Spring Garden Water-
Works were finished the stop-cocks of the pipes con-
necting the city distribution with that of the districts
were turned off, so that there should be no claim for
water furnished. The authorities of the city acted
with great kindness. The watering committee of
Councils took the responsibility of ordering that the
pipes of Northern Liberties and Spring Garden, which
had formerly been connected with those of the city
and supplied from Fairmount, should be reconnected
with them. The work was prompt. By ten o'clock
in the morning of the day of the break at the Spring
Garden reservoir the water of the city works was
turned on in Spring Garden and Northern Liberties,
and intense suffering and distress was thereby avoided.
The bitterness of feeling and insubordination to the
authorities exhibited on the part of the fire depart-
ment, and the frequent scenes of riot and disorder, to
44
the scandal of the community, led to the passage of
an act " for the better regulation of the firs depart-
ment of the city and incorporated districts of the
county of Philadelphia," passed March 7th. This
law declared that if members or adherents of fire
companies were guilty of fighting or rioting in the
streets while going to a fire, or upon an alarm of fire,
the company which they represented might be put out
of service for six months by the Court of Quarter Ses-
sions and their doors closed. If, after return to ser-
vice, the members of the company should be again
guilty of rioting, the company might be disbanded.
New fire companies could only be created by the
authority of the Quarter Sessions; no company
thereafter to use a stationary alarm-bell.1 The city
and districts were ordered to keep at least one alarm-
bell, to be rung in time of fire. Defacing, injuring,
or destroying fire apparatus was declared to be a
felony, punishable with fine or imprisonment of not
less than six months nor more than one year, either
or both.
The boundaries of Richmond District were now
extended so as to take in the ground on the Delaware
north of Westmoreland Street and extending to Tioga,
and westward from the Delaware to the Point road.
The boundaries of Passyunk township and Moyamen-
sing District were also changed. Passyunk was to
begin on the Delaware River, two hundred feet south
of the line of McKean Street, and to run of that width
westward to a point two hundred feet west of Broad
Street, thence north to a point two hundred feet south
of the south line of Franklin | Tasker] Street, thence
west to low-water mark on the river Schuylkill. All
that part of the township of Passyunk lying west and
north of the line mentioned was to be added to and
become part of the township of Moyamensing. The
Kensington District was also extended by act of April
6th. The added territory was bounded south by the
middle of Norris Street, and eastward!}' by the Frank-
ford turnpike road. Extending northwardly along
that road to a point one hundred and twenty feet north
of Lehigh Avenue, it extended west to the west side
of Germantown turnpike road, and down the latter to
the north boundary of Kensington. This extension
was made the Eighth Ward of Kensington.
By act of March 27th the cities of Pittsburgh and
Alleghany and the city of Philadelphia and the mu-
nicipal corporations of the county were authorized
to subscribe for shares of stock of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, and to borrow money to pay
therefor, the aggregate of subscriptions not to exceed
five per cent, of the taxable value of property for
State or county purposes. The previous subscription
to the railroad stock by the city of Philadelphia and
the loans issued therefor were validated. It was
provided that any city, county, or municipal corpora-
1 This act was soon modified in favor of several companies, which were
by special act of Assembly given authority to use stationary alarm-bells,
notwithstanding the restrictions of the act of 1848.
690
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tion owning ten thousand shares or more of the stock
of the company might elect one director for each ten
thousand shares.
By act of April 1st the village of Bridesburg was
created a borough. The boundaries were : Beginning
at a junction of the Frankford Creek and the river
Delaware, along the creek southwest to a corner of
land of Mr. Reynolds, thence by his line southeast to
the river Delaware, and along the latter to the place
of beginning. The official title of the corporation
was, "The Commissioners and Inhabitants of Brides-
burg, in the County of Philadelphia."1
The Asiatic cholera made its appearance in Europe
in the year 1847, and had progressed in its western
march as far as England in 1848. In November of
the latter year the attention of the Board of Health
was attracted to the subject. It was deemed a cer-
tainty that the disease would be brought to the United
States in the year 1849. The board passed a set of reso-
lutions declaring that it was the duty of the various
municipalities to place the city in a favorable condition
to avert as much as possible the consequences of the
expected visitation. Attention to cleansing, sewerage,
and the removal of nuisances was particularly recom-
mended. The districts appointed agents, and by the
beginning of December they were at work carrying
out the objects intended. A ship from Havre brought
the disease to Staten Island, N. Y. Just about the
same time its ravages were noted at New Orleans. A
committee of the Board of Health sent to New York
reported that the disease manifested at New York, at
the Quarantine station, was the Asiatic cholera in its
malignant form. In the early part of January the
board notified the authorities of the city and district
of the necessity of paying special attention to the
condition of the market-houses. On the 6th of Jan-
uary a resolution was passed that vessels coming from
New Orleans, or other ports of the United States
where the cholera prevailed, should be subject to de-
tention and quarantine. Dispensaries and hospitals
were arranged for by a general plan adopted on the
7th of March. The row of houses on the east side
of Front Street above Vine, which had been pest-
places during the yellow fever of 1820, were again
made objects of particular inquiry and attention.
They were in a filthy condition. Some of them were
cleansed and closed, and the tenants compelled to find
accommodation elsewhere.
The first three cases of cholera in Philadelphia
occurred on the 30th of May, the victims being two
persons employed upon a canal-boat which had ar-
rived shortly before at Port Richmond.
The third case was that of an Irish emigrant in
1 In 1850 additional ground was annexed to the borough south of the
limits above named, and extending to the north line of Mortimer Lewis'
land; along the latter it ran to the Point road, then not by the road,
but by a direct line through other properties west of the road until it
struck the middle of Frankford Creek, then down the Bame until it
reached the former boundary of the borough.
Fourth Street, above Shippen. He had recently come
from New York, at which port he had arrived from
Europe a few days before. All these died. A case on
Barclay Street, above Sixth, on the 31st of May, was
that of a laborer who usually worked at Market Street
wharf. Two more cases were reported the same day.
Under charge of the board general supervision was
used over the streets ; the gutters were cleansed con-
stantly by the copious use of pure water ; the sprink-
ling of streets by the watering machine was dis-
couraged. The controllers of the public schools were
recommended to give a vacation to the children dur-
ing the epidemic, and were asked to give the use of
some of the school buildings for hospitals. They
refused both these requests. The city hospitals were
opened in Cherry, Pine, and South Streets ; in the
county, at Bush Hill, Moyamensing, Southwark,
Northern Liberties, Kensington, Richmond, and
West Philadelphia. The following physicians were
in attendance at these hospitals : Drs. T. W. Sargeant,
W. B. Wilson, J. Neill, R. B. Cole, S. L. Hollings-
worth, E. Shippen, J. P. BethelL H. Ladd, J. L. Ad-
kin, H. Y. Smith, D. F. Condie, M. W. Dickeson,
J. L. Zorns, H. W. Rohl, J. McAvoy, M. E. Sender-
ling, W. C. Makin, T. C. Smith, and S. C. Hustin.
The whole number of persons admitted into the hos-
pitals during the summer of 1849 was four hundred
and sixty-three, of whom three hundred and forty-four
were cholera patients, the others having various dis-
eases. The number of deaths in the hospitals was
one hundred and eleven. The Moyamensing hospital
was most actively employed, the number of admissions
being one hundred and twenty, of which one hundred
and sixteen were cholera cases ; the number of deaths
there was twenty-nine. In June the disease mani-
fested but little influence. On some days there were
no cases reported, and on others but one or two.
From the 30th of May to the 20th of June there were
but thirty-six cases reported and seventeen deaths ;
after this time they increased. On the 24th the cases
were twenty ; on the 25th, twenty-one ; on the 26th,
forty-three ; and on the 1st of July, sixty-five, with
twenty-five deaths. The height of the epidemic was
on the 13th of July, when there were eighty-four
cases and thirty-two deaths. The returns from that
time decreased steadily. On the 18th of August, the
report for the day being but four cases and one death,
the board discontinued its daily bulletins. The dis-
ease lingered on in a mild form until September 8th,
when the last death was reported. The whole number
of deaths in the city and county between May 30th
and September 8th was one thousand and twelve. The
number of cases is not as well ascertained. According
to the daily bulletins of the Board of Health there
were up to August 18th two thousand two hundred and
forty-one cases and seven hundred and forty-seven
deaths ; there were fifty deaths between August 18th
and September 8th, which would make the aggregate
but seven hundred and ninety-seven deaths. The
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
691
weekly reports were prepared with more care, and
show that some physicians did not report cases for the
daily reports, which were afterwards included in the
weekly bulletins. The average of deaths to cases
was reported to be 1 in 2.86. The number of cases
not being reported after the 18th of August, it may
be estimated that, according to that ratio during
the entire season, the cases were two thousand eight
hundred and eighty-four, and the deaths one thou-
sand and twelve. The greatest mortality at any
one place was at the almshouse, the inmates of
which were generally broken down in constitution
or weak and feeble. The number of cases there be-
tween the 1st of July and the 14th of August was
three hundred and fifteen, and the deaths two hun-
dred and twenty-nine. The cost of preparation for
the visitation by the Board of Health and of attend-
ance and relief during its continuance was $22,635.37,
a contrast with the expenditure upon account of the
cholera in 1832, when the population was much
smaller, — $105,285.91 were appropriated at that time.
The difference may be ascribed to better knowledge
of the nature of the disease by the city authorities, and
partially to the experience which had been gained as
to the character of the epidemic at the former visit.
The triennial parade of the firemen in this year
took place amid the severity of a driving snow-storm,
which continued until night. The fine banners and
paraphernalia could not be displayed without receiving
such injuries from the snow that they would be use-
less. The most costly of these standards, together
with the tinsel and artificial flowers usually displayed
on fine parade days, were left at home. The few
banners which were brought out to brave the storm
were old. The greater portion of them were dis-
mantled before the day was over, and at the close of
the procession but one, which belonged to the Shiftier
Hose Company, was to be seen in the whole line.
Only forty-eight companies, about one-half the usual
number, paraded, and these with ranks constantly
reduced by desertion. The whole number of firemen
out at the beginning of the parade was about two
thousand. They fell away gradually, so that at the
end of the route there were only a few hundred. The
noted curiosity of the procession was an old fire-engine
which once belonged to the city of Philadelphia, and
which is supposed to have been the same bought ■
by the corporation from Alderman Abraham Bickley
in 1718. A plate upon it showed that it was built by
Loud, of London, in 1698. On this day the Diligent
Hose Company paraded by itself. The trouble which
led to that course was produced by the band which
had been hired to attend the company in the parade.
It was that of Dodsworth, of New York. The mem-
bers of this high-strung organization were shocked
at the employment of Frank Johnson's band of
colored men and of other bands of colored musicians,
which was quite an ordinary thing for many years in
Philadelphia. The Dodsworth bandsmen, a consider-
able portion of which were foreigners by birth, de-
clared that they would not parade in a procession in
which bands composed of colored musicians were
allowed to play. The fire companies which had hired
colored bands for the procession refused to submit to
this impudent dictation, and would not discharge
their bands or withdraw from the procession. The
result was that the Diligent was compelled to make a
solitary march. The firemen were very much dissat-
isfied with the misfortunes of the day, and they resolved
to try it again. They were quite successful. The day,
May 1st, was bright and balmy. All the fine banners,
decorations, and insignia, which could not be brought
out on the stormy 27th of March, were now in full
display. There were sixty companies and over four
thousand men. Among the novelties of the parade
was the stuffed skin of the dog Cash, who for many
years ran to fires with the Good Intent Hose Com-
pany. The Northern Liberty Hose presented a
Roman triumphal car, drawn by horses, in which
was a living representative of the Goddess of Liberty.
The William Penn Hose Company presented its usual
masque of William Penn and the Indians, at this
time in unusual strength, the members in it number-
ing fifty.
Three companies paraded on this occasion apart
from the main procession. They were victims to their
musicians, who would not play in the same procession
with colored bands.
The spirit of misrule and disorder which had been
growing annually for fifteen or sixteen years was now
at the height. The miserable system of a city with
adjacent districts each independent of each other was
a protection to the disorderly and encouragement to
them to unite together for the purpose of showing
their disregard of law. Organized gangs of ruffians
and thieves were associated under such names as
Killers, Blood-Tubs, Rats, Bouncers, Schuylkill Ran-
gers, and other vulgar appellations. The walls and
fences in the neighborhood of the resorts of these
gangs were decorated with their titles in chalk and
paint. It was a noticeable thing that all of these as-
sociations were " No. 1." The Killers, No. 1, fought
with the Buffers, No. 1, or the Rats, No. 1, as the case
might be, but nobody ever heard of the Killers,
Buffers, or Rats, No. 2. These associations were so
strong that they committed depredations wife impu-
nity, to the terror of citizens, and in contempt of the
authorities. The district of Moyamensing was par-
ticularly afflicted with these gangs. The district
police arrangements were ineffective. The firemen of
the district were also in deadly enmity. A fire was
as likely to be an incendiary attempt to lure a hostile
company into a district where it could be taken in
ambush as to have been accidental. An outrageous
fight which took place in that district in June, on a
Sunday, lasted nearly all day, and was fought with
bricks, stones, and fire-arms in the public streets, rang-
ing from Eighth to Eleventh, and from Christian to
692
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Fitzwater Streets. Two weeks afterward a shed on
Shippen Street, between Ninth and Tenth, was fired
purposely. The carriage of the Franklin Hose pro-
ceeding toward the place was seized by a gang of ruf-
fians who were lying in wait, and run down to Wash-
ington Street wharf on the Delaware, where it was
pushed into the river. A retaliatory operation on the
same night was brought about by setting fire to a shed
on another part of Shippen Street. The Moyamen-
sing Hose was attacked by adherents of the Franklin.
A serious fight took place with fire-arms, in the course
of which Alexander Gillies was killed and nine or
ten wounded.
The work upon the Pennsylvania Railroad and the
progress made in laying the tracks upon the sections
between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh was guarantee
that in a few months the entire line would be in full
operation. As a great increase of trade was ex-
pected, the means of proper accommodation were
important. It was obvious to persons acquainted
■with the subject that the old route by way of
the inclined plane at Belmont would be quite
insufficient, and that some better means of commu-
nication with the city was necessary. It was a mis-
take of the engineers when the Columbia Railroad
was built which brought it to Belmont, with neces-
sity of adoption of the slow, expensive, and danger-
ous inclined-plane system. The surveys which had
been made previously showed the availability of
routes to the Market Street bridge by which that
structure might be crossed nearly at the level of the
street grade. The Canal Commissioners notified City
Councils that they were willing to so alter the Co-
lumbia Railroad as to avoid the inclined plane at
Peters Island. The City Councils offered, if the
tracks were brought to Market Street, to pay the
expense of altering the permanent bridge and of
laying a track along Market Street to connect the
road with Broad Street. This proposal was accepted
and the changes were soon commenced, in the course
of which the bridge was so strengthened, modified,
and changed as to be in the wood-work an entirely
new structure. The builder was John Rice.
Zachary Taylor, President of the United States,
passed through Philadelphia, on his way from New
York to Washington, in September, and received
courtesies somewhat novel in character. The steam-
boat "Trenton," coming down the river with the
President on board, was met in the stream near Port
Bichmond by the steamboat " State Rights," in which
were Mayor Swift and a committee of Councils.
The President, together with William M. Meredith,
Secretary of the Treasury, Reverdy Johnson, At-
torney-General, and others, were transferred to the
" State Rights." Gen. Taylor did not intend to
stop in Philadelphia.' The design was to give to the
crowds assembled on the wharves and in the ship-
ping a sight of his features and person. The " State
Bights" steamed down the river very near to the
wharves, and the old soldier was recognized by ap-
plauding thousands. Near the navy-yard the " State
Rights" approached the steamboat " Robert Morris,"
of the Baltimore line. The President and suite were
placed on board the latter and proceeded on their
journey.
A serious riot on the night of the general election,
October 9th, ended with murder and arson. In the
evening an old wagon on which combustibles were
placed and set on fire was dragged by a party of men
from the lower part of Moyamensing up Seventh
Street as far as St. Mary Street, and along the latter
toward Sixth. The neighborhood was inhabited by
colored people, and they were greatly alarmed because
it had been reported in the course of the day that an
attack would be made at night upon a large four-story
brick building at the northwest corner of Sixth and
St. Mary Streets, called the California House. It was
a tavern frequented by blacks. The proprietor was a
mulatto and his wife a white woman. This case of
miscegenation was well known, and had been the
subject of hints of violence before that time. Noth-
ing might have come from the running of the burn-
ing wagon down St. Mary Street if it had not been
for the rumors of the day. Many of the negroes an-
ticipated an attack, and had prepared for it. They
manifested their intentions in St. Mary Street by
throwing bricks and stones at the party drawing the
blazing wagon. This assault led to retaliation. An
attack was made upon the California House, and mis-
siles thrown at the doors and windows. The building
was defended. In consequence of the rumors of the
day several colored persons were in the house. They
employed bricks, stones, and fire-arms against the
assailants. Finally the latter triumphed. They ob-
tained an entrance to the house, went to work in the
bar-room, broke the fixtures and furniture, piled them
in the middle of the apartment and set them on fire.
The city police, unarmed, now came upon the scene.
They encountered ruffians armed with revolving pistols,
knives, clubs, and stones. The officers were boldly
attacked and driven back as far as Lombard Street,
where they endeavored to hold in check a body of
excited blacks who seemed to be anxious to partici-
pate in the fight. The latter were restrained a short
time, but tearing up bricks and paving-stones they
went toward St. Mary Street and took part in the
fight. The fire at the California House had been
slow in its progress, too slow for the impatience of
the rioters. To assist the destruction they tore out
the gas-fixtures and set the gas free. Soon the build-
ing was in a fierce blaze. The alarm of fire was now
sounded. The firemen with their apparatus repaired
to the scene and encountered strong opposition. The
members of the Hope Fire Company preparing to go
into service were beaten off, the engine taken from
them, run up St. Mary Street and abandoned. The
Good- Will Fire Company, on arriving near St. Mary
Street, was received with a volley of fire-arms.
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
693
Charles Himmelwright, a member, was shot, and died
in three minutes, and John Hollick, a member of the
same company, was seriously wounded, and afterward
died from the effects. The California House was now
in a full blaze. Two frame houses adjoining on Sixth
Street, two brick houses and a carpenter-shop were
burned. This riot raged during the evening and
night without attempt to check it by the police until
about midnight, when the State-House bell was rung
to call out the military. The rioters had in the mean
while retired for a time. The soldiers reached the
scene about half-past two o'clock on the morning of
the 10th. They found everything quiet. The mis-
take was committed by the commanding officers of
withdrawing them. They marched down Sixth Street
as far as Shippen Street, along the latter to Fifth, and
up the latter to the mayor's office, where they were
dismissed. This unusual proceeding, not proper to
be adopted while the passions of the rioters were yet
heated, gave them notice of their opportunity. In
the morning they set fire to a frame house in St.
Mary Street, and commenced attacks upon the col-
ored people. The Phoenix Hose Company on the
way to. the fire was stopped, the members assaulted
with stones and compelled to fly. The Robert
Morris hose-carriage was seized, taken from the
members, and run into Moyamensing. The Diligent
Hose Company, attempting to get into service, had
its hose cut and injured. The firemen at length ral-
lied aud succeeded in saving the burning house. The
blacks were emboldened by this assistance. They
gathered before daylight, and until about eight
o'clock maintained a furious battle with the rioters
in Fifth Street. About ten o'clock the military,
which had been again summoned, marched to the
scene, stationed their guards, and placed two cannon
of Col. Bohlens' artillery in front of the California
House. Companies and sentries were stationed on
Sixth Street at Pine, Lombard, South, and Shippen
Streets, and on the cross-streets at Fifth and Seventh
Streets. The military were on the ground for two
days, when, quiet being restored, they were with-
drawn. Beside Himmelwright and Thomas G. Wes-
terhood, a fireman, who died in the same month,
Jeremiah McShane, an Irishman, was shot and killed
while looking out of a window, and John Griffith, a
colored boy, lost his life. The wounded taken to the
hospital were nine whites and sixteen blacks. The
number injured was doubtless greater.
The Philadelphia and Atlantic Steam Navigation
Company, chartered in 1848, commenced business
with the new steamship " Osprey," Capt. R. H. Leese.
The route was between Philadelphia and Charleston.
Passage by cabin; twenty dollars; steerage, ten dol-
lars. This ship had not been built by the company.
It was specially chartered for the purpose, and the
Bteamship " Albatross" was associated with it in the
same line. The latter made her trial trip in March,
1851. This line, after a trial of three or four years,
failed. The " Osprey" was sold at the close of 1853,
and broken up.
Cemetery companies were organized in this year,
as follows : The Odd- Fellows' Cemetery Company of
Philadelphia, by act of March 14th. The persons
associated had before that time purchased a lot on
Islington Lane, Penn township, northeast of the Ridge
road, the dimensions of which were about thirty-two
acres. The Olive Cemetery Company, incorporated
February 5th, had purchased a lot of ten acres in
Blockley township, on the north side of Lancaster
turnpike, and west of the present Belmont Avenue.
This ground was taken up by colored persons, and
intended to be for the use of that race. The Leba-
non Cemetery Company of Philadelphia, another
graveyard for the use of colored persons, was char-
tered January 24th. They selected a lot on the
northerly side of Passyunk road, about one-fourth of
a mile west of Broad Street, which contained about
eleven acres.
In this year, also, the ground of the Philadelphia
Cemetery Company, on the northwest side of the
Passyunk road, immediately below the Girard school-
house, came into use as a burial-place. The grounds
contained about twenty-two acres. The company
had been incorporated March 24, 1848.
By act of April 9th, "White Hall, in the county of
Philadelphia, was erected into a borough, to be called
" the Borough of White Hall." The boundary began
at Frankford Creek and the easternmost line of Dr.
Dunkin's farm, from which it extended to the centre
of the Tacony road, and by that road to the centre of
Church Street ; north by the centre of that street to
Little Tacony Creek ; up that stream the boundary
was carried to James D. Pratt's land ; thence by that
tract and other farms over to the Delaware and the
mouth of Frankford Creek, and along the middle of
that creek to the place of beginning. The govern-
ment was to be by a burgess and a Town Council of
six members.
The feeling in favor of consolidation of the city and
districts was extending, although greatly resisted. A
town-meeting, held Nov. 16, 1849, brought business
methods to the assistance of the project. An execu-
tive committee was appointed, consisting of John
Cadwalader, Eli K. Price, Gideon G. Westcott,
Charles M. Ingram, John M. Read, John M. Cole-
man, Henry L. Benuer, John M. Ogden, Francis
Tiernan, William White, George W. Tryon, Job R.
Tyson, John G. Brenner, Josiah Randall, William
L. Hirst, Henry M. Watts, John H. Dohuert, John
M. Kennedy, Edward F. Hoeckley, Thomas S. Smith,
Peter Williamson, Alexander Cummings, Jacob
Esher, Christopher Fallon, and Michael Pray.1
1 The following citizens signed this call for the meeting:
John Swift, JoBiah Randall, Clement C. Biddle, A. M. Prevost, Wil-
liam Rawle, Garrick Mallery, John Cadwalader, William S. Charnley,
G. G. Westcott, David Paul Brown, Benjamin Mifflin, Francis Wharton,
Samuel H. Perkins, Jacob Currigan, Jr., John SI. Kennedy, JameB Dur-
694
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Nothing resulted from their efforts except the pas-
sage of a new police bill, which proved to be one
step further toward consolidation. Efforts made in
1849 to insure the nomination of candidates for elec-
tion to the Legislature who would be favorable to the
passage of a consolidation act were but moderately-
successful. There was a strong influence in all the
districts against the measure, and more of it, perhaps,
in the districts than in the city. Yet the measure was
warmly urged, and could not be safely opposed in a
regular fight. To turn aside the feeling a substitute
was proposed, which it was hoped would appease the
popular demand. The act passed in May, 1850, for the
establishment of a consolidated police had been tested
to some extent, and was not satisfactory. The vari-
ous special policemen of the city and districts re-
strained their vigilance within their own boundaries.
Practically this was nothing more than a system of a
separate police force for each district without any
superior directing authority. The sheriff might call
out the consolidated police, but as his principal
duties were to get as large amount of fees and com-
missions out of the civil business of his office as was
possible, he had no desire to meddle with the police
except upon some important emergency. The riot at
the California House in the previous year was suffici-
ent to prove the defect of the system. An improve-
ment of the former method was therefore determined
upon.
On the 3d of May the Legislature passed an act di-
recting that the citizens of the city of Philadelphia,
Northern Liberties, Southwark, Spring Garden, Moya-
mensing, Eichmond, and Penn districts should at
the next fall election choose one person to serve for
three years as marshal of the Philadelphia police
district. The territory was sub-divided thus, — the
city formed four police divisions, and each of the in-
corporated districts of the county was a division.
There was to be a lieutenant of police for each divi-
sion. The policemen were not to exceed one for
every one hundred and fifty taxables, nor to be less
than one for every six hundred taxables. The old
system of nomination to the police marshal by Coun-
cils and commissioners of the names of three times
the number of policemen required from which he was
nell, Jacob Freas, Edwin B,. Cope, John W. Kester, David Boyd, George
W. Tryon, John M. Ogden,P. P. Morris, M. Myers, Thomas McGrath,
Thomas Bradford, F. Stoever, John Leadbeater, George C. Naphes, John
G. Brenner, William G. Cochran, John H. Dohnert, C. L. Ingram,
Henry M. Watts, William Elder, Henry D. Gilpin, A. Boyd Hamilton,
Henry S. Patterson, Henry Horn, George H. Earle, James Laws, Chap-
man Biddle, Henry A. Beck, William West, L. Johnson, Mahlon Gil-
lingham, Thomas Finley, George W. Biddle, Jacob Snider, Jr., Theodore
Cuyler, B. Arthur Mitchell, St. George T. Campbell, William L. Hirst,
Benjamin Stiles, Eli K. Price, John Naglee, Andrew Miller, William H.
Smith, William White, Jacob Eslier, James Mngee, John H. Campbell,
George W. Farr, E. S. Jones, T. M. Pettit, J. B. Sutherland, Samuel
Barton, Daniel Smith, Sr., William McGlensey, W. C. Parker, B. H.
Brewster, Peter Armbruster, William K. Dickerson, John M. Coleman,
Peter Fritz, James Harper, E. P. Middleton, Thomas Sparks, George K.
Childs, Harry Connelly, Passmore Williamsou.
to make his selections was re-enacted. A police board,
consisting of the presidents of the two Councils of
the city and of the presidents of the various boards of
commissioners of the districts, was provided for. They
were to have direction of the ways and means of rais-
ing a force and of paying them. The force was to
act in conjunction with the regular police of the city
and districts, or independent of 'them if necessary.
It was charged specially with maintenance of the
peace of the police district, or might go beyond it into
any part of the county if necessary. The marshal
was granted the full power of the sheriff in suppress-
ing riots and disorders, and of arresting offenders
against the laws. When in his opinion the existing
police force was not sufficient to suppress disturbance,
he had authority to call on the major-general com-
manding the military division to call out a military
force to assist in maintaining the law. After procla-
mation to the evil-doers to disperse, and neglect or
failure on their part to do so, the marshal and the
military force were authorized to suppress the dis-
order " in like manner as in case of war or public
insurrection." At the election in October, John S.
Keyser, of Spring Garden, was elected police mar-
shal. He had been lieutenant of the consolidated
police of that district, and had shown himself to be
vigilant and bold, so that his merits were well under-
stood by the people.
The police board, which was shortly after organ-
ized, agreed that the number of policemen should
consist of one for every four hundred taxable inhabi-
tants of the police district, and that the salaries should
be four hundred dollars per annum, payable monthly.
The force was small, but being in charge of a man of
activity and courage the effect was wonderful. The
lawless clubs and associations which had for years
committed disorder and crime were subdued and
broken up. In a few months scarcely any of them
pretended to exist, and the small force which Mar-
shal Keyser had under his command was managed
admirably. The office of the police marshal was es-
tablished upon the organization in the Adelphi build-
ing, Fifth Street below Walnut.1 The ruffians who
were particularly active in the districts were but little
interfered with before the marshal's police got to
work. On the 25th of May, about one o'clock in the
morning, a large bonfire was kindled in an open lot
in Eighth Street, near Fitzwater, and opposite the
Moyamensing Hose House. Neil Mooney, a watch-
man of the district, in accordance with his duty, at-
tempted to extinguish the fire. He was warned to
desist by some persons lying in ambush near, but
persisted in the discharge of his duty, and while
taking an empty barrel from the flames was shot
with a musket, and afterward died from his wounds.
1 In 1853, John K. Murphy (Democrat) was elected police marshal.
By special provision in the consolidation act of 1854, this office and police
force were retained until the expiration of Marshal Murphy's official
term, in 1856.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
695
The perpetrator of this murder was never discov-
ered.
The attempted revolution against the Austrian
domination in Hungary, under lead of Louis Kos-
suth and others, which had been carried on in 1848-
49 with spirit, was subdued in the latter year. Much
interest in the contest had been excited in the United
States, and the patriotism of the Hungarians was
greatly admired. A band of exiles arrived in Phila-
delphia in January. In this party were Gen. Ujhazy,
governor of the fortress of Comorn, his wife, daughter,
and two servants ; Mademoiselle Jagella, whom it
was asserted had fought in soldier's uniform in the
Hungarian ranks ; Edward Remenyi, Antoine Count
Vass, and Col. Prejal. They were lodged at the
Washington House, Chestnut Street above Seventh,'
and serenaded on the evening of their arrival by the
members of five German vocal societies who came
upon the ground with one hundred torches, by the
assistance of which they could see the score of the
music which they were singing.
By act of February 19th the Glenwood Cemetery
Company, an association established before that time,
was incorporated. They had bought a piece of ground
on Ridge road, at the northeast corner of Islington
Lane, in Penn township. The corporators were
Joseph D. Stewart, John W. Trumpp, Joseph S.
Langer, Horn R. Kneass, Thomas Sandland, William
D. Baker, Charles R. Bicking, Francis Knox Morton,
William A. Witte, Henry A.Stevens, Aaron Waters,
Henry T. Grout, Henry S. Patterson, Alexander
Whiteside, John G. Michener, George W. Gordon,
Peter Weikel, James D. Whetham, William L. Ward,
and Henry Simonds, Jr.1
The Philadelphia and New York Steam Transpor-
tation Company was chartered March 8th, with au-
thority to carry merchandise and passengers between
Philadelphia and New York, connecting with inter-
mediate points. Robert T. Loper, William M. Baird,
William H. Loper, William Thomson, and Nathaniel
Briggs were the corporators. The capital was to be
one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
with right to increase to one million seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. The company was re-
stricted from receiving or landing freight or passen-
gers from any point on the river or bay of Delaware
or Schuylkill River, above or below the city or incor-
porated districts. This corporation, originally a pri-
vate partnership, managed a large business of trans-
portation by steam-propellers, which ran to and from
New York and Providence, R. I., by way of the
Delaware and Raritan Canal.
A fire of great extent in the ground burned over,
in the number of buildings destroyed, and in the
value of the property destroyed, broke out on the 9th
1 Nearly all, perhaps all, of these persons were members of the order
of Odd-Fellows. The ground was immediately adjoining the Odd-Fel-
lows' Cemetery on Islington Lane.
of July, 1850, in a store at No. 39 North Water Street
below Vine, on the east side, in the upper part of the
building, which, with one adjoining, was occupied by
Gordon & Berger, whose stock consisted principally
of pressed hay. The fire is believed to have origin-
ated from the friction produced by the wheel of a
hoisting-machine in active use. The firm of John
Brock & Co. occupied the lower part of the store,
and the wheel was in use all day in lowering hogs-
heads of molasses into the cellar. The firemen were
summoned, and were soon in full service, principally
in Water Street and on the wharf adjoining. During
the operations of the firemen some noises, as of ex-
plosions, were heard. A witness afterward, before the
coroner's jury, testified that he had counted sixteen
of them before the last and most terrible in its force.
The noise made by the latter was exceedingly loud.
In a moment the walls of the Brock, and Gordon,
and Berger warehouses were blown out, and the mate-
rial (bricks, stones, and blazing timbers) were sent
flying about the neighborhood. Upon the west side
the fragments were with great violence blown into a
house immediately opposite, which was occupied by
several families. Of the inmates, Marcus Marcus,
aged eighteen years, Caroline Marcus, his younger
sister, and Isaac Marcus, a younger brother, were
killed, and the father of the Marcus family very
much injured by the explosion. Persons in the street
were also injured and killed. A large number who
were standing on a wharf near by were blown over-
board, and several jumped iuto the river.2 By the
explosion a fire which might have been local was
rendered of general character. The falling walls
crushed in the roofs of adjacent buildings, and com-
municated the fire to their contents. Adjoining the
Brock store were the warehouses of Ridgway & Budd
on one side, and of the Lehigh Transportation Com-
pany on the other. Immediately opposite a burning
bale of hay and fire-brands had been blown into
houses on Water Street extending to Front. They
were soon all of a blaze. In a short time the flames
crossed Front Street, and attacked dwellings on the
west side. Extending south to New Street, the flames
swept along the latter to Second Street. About the
same time the houses on Vine Street, -between Front
2 The number of persons killed was twenty-eight, as follows : Marcus
Marcus, aged eighteen years ; Caroline Marcus ; Isaac Marcus ; Miss
Ann Connell, burned to death ; David Mulford, member of the Northern
Liberty Hose Company ; Mortimer Morris, United States Engine Com-
pany; Thomas Stees, Fairmount Engine Company; Caroline B. Drake,
thirteen years ; Ellen Theresa McKee, thirteon years ; Dorothy Hand,
twenty-five years; Thomas Donahoe," forty years; Ellen Gilligan, two
years; Adolph Soistman, a boy. Two men and three boys, names un-
known, were found, and inquests held upon them. William L. Bach-
man and Benjamin Davis May afterward died from their injuries.
There were missing and never found, Cornelius Griscoe ; George Smith,
nine years old ; Isaac Brown, of the Weccacoe Hose Company ; Samuel
Reeves, thirty-eight years; H. Leichtenhahm, Assistance Engine Com-
pany ; Richard Owens, Assistance Engine Company ; Samuel McKee ;
Mary McKee. None of the missing were ever heard of again. Probably
others were killed or drowned. The number of wounded was fifty-
eight, as far as known. No doubt there were a greater number.
696
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and Second, were on fire. Laborious efforts to pre-
vent the flames from crossing to the west side of
Second Street were successful. Above Vine Street
they were carried along Second northward on the
east side, and were only stopped about six houses
below Callowhill Street by the parapet walls of the
White Horse Tavern. One house above that was
consumed. There was considerable destruction on
Front Street above Vine, in New Market Street, and
upon Callowhill Street. The following will give some
idea of the extent of the destruction :
Houses burned on east side of Water Street and Delaware Avenue
south of Vine 17
Houses burned on east side of Front Street through to Water Street 18
Houses burned on west side of Front Street south of Vine 12
Houses burned on south side of Vine Street, between Front and
Second Streets 26
Houses burned on New Street, between Front and Second 28
Houses burned on east side of Second Street south of Vine 10
Houses burned between Vine and Callowhill, Delaware Avenue and
Second Street 211
HoUBes burned north and east of Callowhill and Water Streets 15
Total 367
These were totally destroyed. Many other houses
were injured by sparks and pieces of burning boards,
which were carried by the explosion and the wind far
and wide. Pieces of brimstone from Brock's store were
picked up in Broad Street, and zinc from the roof of that
building fell in Bidge Avenue. About three hundred
of the buildings destroyed were dwelling-houses ; the
remainder were stores. The loss could scarcely be esti-
mated accurately. It was supposed that it could not
be less than a million of dollars, and it might have been
much more. The insurance amounted to three hun-
dred and sixty-eight thousand dollars. During the
continuance of this fire the greatest consternation
prevailed in the neighborhood for squares distant,
and anxiety all over the city. The volumes of flame
aud smoke were immense, and were visible from every
direction. Many persons who resided or were in
business at the distance of one-quarter or one-half
mile from the place where the fire was burning packed
up their goods, and prepared for a sudden removal.
The flames were got under control by the firemen about
two o'clock the next morning, and were confined to the
district already injured. The news being sent by
telegraph throughout the United States brought fire-
men from other cities. One hundred of them came
from New York the same night; some from Newark
and some from Baltimore. The City Councils ap-
propriated ten thousand dollars for the relief of
the sufferers by the calamity. The Commissioners
of the Northern Liberties gave an equal amount.
A meeting of citizens was held at which measures
were taken to collect contributions for the assist-
ance of the injured. They received about thirty-
one thousand dollars, which was properly appropri-
ated. The cause of the explosion was for a long time
a subject of controversy, and was never satisfactorily
settled. The most general belief was that it was
caused by the large quantities of saltpetre and brim-
stone in the store of the Messrs. Brock. Here were
two of the ingredients of gunpowder. The other, it
was suggested, could have been furnished by the
brands and coal from the fire dropping from above
into the saltpetre and nitre. There was great discus-
sion on the subject in the newspapers, with ingenious
attempts to solve the question, " Will saltpetre ex-
plode?"1
On the same day, when the fire was making its rav-
ages, Zachary Taylor, President of the United States,
died at Washington, D. C. The news was in the same
paper which contained the accounts of the great fire.
The Councils of the city resolved that the death of
the President should be commemorated by appropriate
ceremonies, which took place on the 30th of July.
The shops and public buildings were generally closed,
and the fronts of many of them draped and hung
with black. At the custom-house the marble columns
of the portico were shrouded in crape wound round
them from bases to capitals. The doorways were fes-
tooned. Upon the cornice, in silver letters upon a
black ground, was the sentence, "I have endeavored
faithfully to discharge my duty." The city buildings
on Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth were
heavily draped. Crape and black hangings were gen-
erally displayed upon the large hotels, stores, and
some private residences. There was a military parade
of the three city brigades, under Maj.-Gen. Robert
Patterson, with United States marines from the navy-
yard, a company of United States artillery from Fort
Mifflin, and returned Mexican volunteers. A cata-
falque fifteen feet high was elaborate in its sombre
decorations, which were of white satin for the canopy,
white satin for the pillars with capitals of silver
flames, which supported an elliptical arched canopy
with a dome covered with black cloth surmounted by
an eagle. Black and white with silver fringes, stars,
and trimmings decorated the car, which was drawn
by eight white horses covered with black cloth, and
led by white grooms dressed in black, except that the
bands upon their hats were white. A white horse
with military saddle and caparison followed. . In the
civic part of the procession were Governor William
1 There was stored in the Btore of John Brock, Sons, & Co., at the time
of the fire two hundred and fifty bags of Baltpetre, averaging two
hundred pounds each; eighty barrels of brimstone, about three hundred
aud thirty pounds each ; fifty hogsheads, twelve tierces, seventy barrels
of molasses, and ninety-one hogsheads of sugar. The saltpetre and
brimstone were on the first floor on Water Street; the molasses and
sugar on the lower or cellar floor. A hatchway was between each floor
and open. As the saltpetre and brimstone fused it ran down through
the hatch and spread among the sugar and molasses. This was seen by
a number of firemen in or about the building. The burning of so large
a quantity of saccharine matter rapidly formed carbon, and thus were
brought into contact in a high state of heat all the elements of gun-
powder.
To prevent such dangers in future the Legislature passed a law, April
8, 1851, " to regulate the storage of saltpetre in the city and districts of
Philadelphia," and not more than three kegs, or three hundred pounds,
were allowed to be placed in any storehouse at one time, under penalty
of one hundred dollars. Forwarding houses in Philadelphia might re-
ceive and store any quantity of saltpetre intended to be carried over the
public works of Pennsylvania for forty-eight hours.-
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
697
F. Johnston and other State officers, with officers of
the city and districts, societies, firemen in citizens'
clothes. There were forty-one companies of the latter.
The Vigilant Fire Company had in their line a mar-
ble monument, drawn by horses, which had upon it
the inscription, " This is the end of life. I am pre-
pared." The Hope Hose Company had a funeral
car. The line of the procession extended over twenty-
six squares. The day was intensely hot; the ther-
mometer at 11 o'clock a.m. stood at ninety-four de-
grees, and at 3 p.m. at ninety-seven degrees. There
was considerable suffering among the soldiers and per-
sons in line from the heat. The cortege halted at
Christ Church, where a memorial sermon was preached
by the Rev. William Bacon Stevens, from the text
Jeremiah xlviii. 5-17.
The boundaries of West Philadelphia were changed
in this year by additions of territory of such intricate
character as to boundaries that an attempt to describe
them, except with the particularity of the technical
language of a surveyor, would be impossible. The
extension began at the mouth of Sweet Brier Creek,
which emptied into the Schuylkill near Sweet Brier
mansion, now in Fairmount Park. The boundary
was by the centre of the creek until the centre of the
Falls of Schuylkill road was reached. Westward the
boundary extended outward toward the Cathedral
Cemetery and down the creek to the Haverford road,
crossing by the Pennsylvania Hospital wall to Mill
Creek, by the latter to the Philadelphia and Baltimore
turnpike road, and along the latter to Hamilton vil-
lage and the Darby road to John Hare Powell's
ground, the Philadelphia Almshouse, and then to the
Schuylkill River. In this tract was included the vil-
lage of Mantua and a great deal of adjacent ground.
West Philadelphia was divided into three wards. The
first ward had no name. The second was called the
Hamilton Ward, and took in the greater part of Ham-
ilton village. The third, or Mantua Ward, was north-
east of the Lancaster turnpike.
The western boundaries of Kensington were
changed so as to include ground between Lehigh
Avenue and Somerset Street, and out to Sixth Street,
with some other modifications.
The village of Doverville and its neighborhood, in
the unincorporated township of the Northern Liber-
ties, was, by act of April 11th, made a corporation,
under the title of "the Commissioners and Inhabit-
ants of the Borough of Aramingo." The situation was
west of Salmon Street and the Bridesburg borough
line, and was bounded by Frankford Creek and pri-
vate properties, the location of which would now be
difficult to fix. The dimensions of Bridesburg were
also extended by act of April 30th.
In the city the elections for ward officers, which
had been held in the spring, were carried over
to the second Tuesday in October. A change was
also made in the manner of electing councilmen.
These had previously been chosen in both chambers
by wards, there being one representative from each
ward in Select Council at all times, and in Common
Council one or more from each ward, according to
population. Under the new law, for the Select Coun-
cil the city was divided into four districts, which were
not a single ward. The Select Council districts ex-
tended from the Delaware to the Schuylkill. The First
District was from the south side of Vine to the north
side of Mulberry, and included Upper and Lower
Delaware, North Mulberry, and South Mulberry
Wards. The Second District extended from Mulberry
to Chestnut Street, and included High Street, Chest-
nut, North, and Middle Wards. The Third District
extended from Chestnut to Spruce Street, and took
in Walnut, Dock, South, Locust, and Spruce Wards.
The Fourth District, from Spruce to Cedar, took in
Pine, New Market, Lombard, and Cedar Wards. A
member for each district could be elected from any
portion of the districts. One member of Select Coun-
cil was to be elected annually in each district, to serve
for three years. The Common Council was divided
into seventeen districts, as follows :
1st, Upper Delaware Ward; 2d, Lower Delaware Ward; 3d, High
Street; 4th, Chestnut; 5th, Walnut; 6th, Dock; 7th, Pine; 8th, New
Market; 9th, Spruce; 10th, Lombard; 11th, Cedar; 12th, Locust; 13th,
South; 14th, Middle; 15th, North; 16th, South Mulberry; 17th, North
Mulberry.
Each district was to elect one member of Common
Council annually, except in the 12th, 15th, 16th, and
17th districts, which might each elect two members.
The act of May 15, 1850, changed the boundary
lines between Moyamensing and Southwark. Begin-
ning on the river Delaware, on the south side of
Mifflin Street (laid out but not then opened), the line
extended on the south side of that street west to the
west side of Fifth Street ; then crossing to the north
side of Mifflin, and then along the same to the east
side of Seventh, and along Seventh to the north side
of Reed Street, and along the same west to the western
boundary of the district of [Southwark] on the west
side of Passyunk road. This was the district of South-
wark, and embraced the land up to the city line.
Moyamensing was somewhat reduced in size by the
change.
Commodore Jacob Jones, of the United States navy,
who had, in the United States sloop-of-war '' Wasp,"
captured the British sloop-of-war " Frolic," Oct. 18,
1812, died in August, and was buried on the 7th, with
military honors, City. Councils participating.
Gen. Antonio Paez, ex-President of Venezuela, ar-
riving in the city in July, was received as a public
guest by the mayor and Councils. At the hall of In-
dependence he was addressed in English by the
mayor, and responded in Spanish. During his stay
in Philadelphia he received many hospitalities and
civilities.
A violent freshet on the 3d of September did con-
siderable damage on the Schuylkill. The bridge at
Flat Rock was destroyed. A new bridge at the Falls,
698
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
with the exception of one arch, was swept away. At
Fairmount dam the water was ten feet ten and a half
inches above the ordinary level. At Harding's Tavern,
on the west side of the Schuylkill, near the Suspension
bridge, the water was twenty inches above the first
floor. William Street | Twenty-fourth] from Callow-
hill to Vine Street was flooded, and the water ex-
tended nearly to Schuylkill Front Street [Twenty-
second] . Beach Street [Twenty-third] , below Chestnut,
Bank Street, and Sutherland Avenue were submerged.
The city gas-works at Market Street and the Schuyl-
kill were flooded. The fires were put out. The manu-
facture of gas was stopped. In the evening the city
was in darkness. The Arch and Walnut Street The-
atres were closed. At Barnum's Museum a large
number of camphene lamps were put into requisition.
Candles, for which there were no candle-sticks, were
the only means of illumination in many private
houses. The public lamps were in gloom until about
nine o'clock, when tallow candles were placed in some
of them. The damage on the Schuylkill front of the
city and county was great throughout its extent.
Coal, wood, and lumber in large quantities were swept
from the wharves. On the west side of the Schuyl-
kill the cars of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and
Baltimore Railroad found that it was not safe to cross
the river at Gray's Ferry. The passengers were taken
back to Chester, and brought to the city in the steam-
boat " Robert Morris." The amount of the damage
was never satisfactorily estimated.
The City Councils, in 1845, had made a pledge of
a subscription of five thousand dollars to the stock of
the Schuylkill Railroad Company whenever twenty
thousand dollars should be subscribed by citizens.
This sum had been obtained and the money was ap-
propriated. The railroad was built, but never suc-
ceeded in attracting business to a profitable degree.
Pecuniarily it turned out a complete failure.
The city on the 17th of January made a subscrip-
tion for ten thousand additional shares of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company.
The convention to consult upon the subject of
building a great railroad to the Pacific, which had
met at St. Louis, Mo., at an earlier period in the year,
adjourned to meet at Philadelphia in April. The
session commenced at the museum building in April,
and lasted two or three days. This matter had been
discussed for some time previous, and efforts were
made to enlist a public sentiment in favor of the
work. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, by reso-
lution of March 3, 1848, declared in favor of the
plan of Asa Whitney, of New York, of constructing
a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean,
by an appropriation and sale of the public lands upon
its line, connecting the sale and settlements of the
lands with the building of the road, and making it
an individual enterprise, yet under the control of
Congress. Resolutions of a similar character were
passed by the Legislature in the succeeding year.
In August, a range of government store-houses,
erected in Granite Street, between Dock and Front
Streets, suddenly fell in by the breaking of the tim-
bers and supports. The floors were heavily loaded
with goods, spirits', wines, brandies, and large quanti-
ties of heavy merchandise, the weight of which was
beyond the capacity of the structure. Several per-
sons in the warehouse were injured, but it is believed
none of them died. The' building was a perfect
wreck. The walls were forced out, and the interior
presented a confused mass of barrels, boxes, and
crates. Casks of wine and brandy were stove in,
boxes of tea were broken, casks of hardware were
burst open, and their contents thrown out. The
d&bris presented a remarkable scene of confusion, and
the work of clearing out the ruin was difficult and
slow. The stores were afterward rebuilt in stroriger
fashion.
The steamship " Benjamin Franklin," of Loper's
Philadelphia and Boston line, was launched in the
early part of the year. In December, a fine war-
steamer, built for the republic of Venezuela, and
named " The Libertador," was built at Kensington,
and made her trial trip December 28th. The boilers
of the steamboat " Telegraph," on the Wilmington
line, exploded on November 9th ; eight or nine per-
sons were killed and thirty wounded. This had been
a popular and fast boat, built in 1836, and for a long
time favorably known upon the Cape May line. The
machinery of the Kensington Water-Works was first
put in operation December 21st of this year.
Charters for medical colleges were granted this
year by the Legislature. One of these, the Medico-
Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, was given power
for the furtherance of the dissemination of medical
knowledge, the defense of the rights and the preser-
vation of the repute and dignity of the medical pro-
fession. It was not a school, but rather a trade soci-
ety. The college might grant diplomas of fellowship,
honorary, senior, and junior membership, but not the
degrees of doctor or bachelor of medicine. The Ec-
lectic Medical College of Pennsylvania was incor-
porated February 25th, with power to grant the de-
gree of doctor of eclectic medicine to any such person
as shall have attended two courses of medical lec-
tures and completed a course of study, and possesses
the qualifications necessary for the same. An impor-
tant innovation upon the restrictive and close guilds
which had authority in matters of medical instruction
was effected by the incorporation of the Female Med-
ical College of Philadelphia, for the purpose of in-
structing females in the science and art of medicine.
The corporators were Frederick A. Fickard, M.D.,
William J. Mullen, Henry Gibbons, M.D., Joseph S.
Longshore, M.D., Ferdinand J. Dreer, William J.
Birkey, M.D., Robert P. Kane, John Longstreth.1
1 The Hedico-Chirurgical College was probably organized and con-
tinued in existence for a period. The Eclectic Medical College was first
established in Haines Street, west of Sixth, adjoining the Odd-Fellows'
PKOGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
699
The Philadelphia and Savannah Steamship Com-
pany was incorporated by act of March 18, 1851.
Shares, five hundred dollars. The company was to re-
ceive a charter whenever twenty-five dollars were paid
upon forty shares. The object was to own, employ,
and dispose of ships, vessels, steam-engines, etc., for
the navigation of oceans, bays, and rivers by steam
power, and the transportation of merchandise, goods,
passengers, etc., the act to be void if the company
did not instruct and employ at least one steam ves-
sel suitable for ocean navigation between Philadel-
phia and Savannah within three years. No corpora-
tors were named in the act. By act of February 10th
was incorporated the Pennsylvania Steamship Com-
pany. The corporators were Charles S. Boker, Thomas
Richardson, S. Morris Wain, Thomas S. Newlin, James
C. Hand, Daniel L. Miller, Jr., John Ashhurst, Chris-
topher Fallon, Matthew Newkirk, Jesse Godley, Rich-
ard Price, John B. Myers, George H. Martin, Gideon
G. Westcott, John G. Brenner, Robert Ewing, Rob-
ert Patterson, Thomas Allibone, Stephen Flanagan,
William C. Ludwig, and William V. Baker. Stock,
one million dollars. The power given was to equip,
own, purchase, and sell vessels to be "propelled
solely or partially by the power of steam or other
expansive fluid, and to be run and propelled in navi-
gating the Atlantic or other oceans."
The opening of the new year was signified by pub-
lic rejoicings upon the occasion of the establishment
of a line of steamships between Philadelphia and
Europe. The screw steamship " City of Glasgow,"
Capt. Mathews, the pioneer of the line, entered the
Delaware on the 2d of January. When the ship was
in the bay the fact was telegraphed to the city. In a
short time afterward the steamboat "Trenton'' went
down the river with four hundred merchants and
'business men on board. Near Chester the " City of
Glasgow" was seen, and greeted with " Hail Colum-
bia" by the band on the " Trenton," with a salute
of thirteen guns and hearty cheers. Capt. Mathews
and some of the passengers were brought on board
the " Trenton," and received with speeches by John
Price Wetherill and Morton McMichael. The cap-
tain, who was a stout little Englishman, and no ora-
H all, am] was afterward removed to the northeast corDerof Sixth and Cal-
lowhill Streets, upper story. It was reputably managed for ten years by
a quiet, earnest faculty, strictly in the interests of science. The gradu-
ates Were but few in comparison with thoBe of other institutions. About
1859 or 1860 a quarrel between the professors led to the establishment of
a rival institution, also eclectic, and the running off of a large number
of the students to the new concern. The institution deolined from that
time, and finally got into bad hands. Ostensibly open for medical in-
struction, on the south side of Pine Street above Fifth, the Eclectic
Medical College became a great factory of bogus diplomas of doctors of
medicine, which were sold to any applicant who was williDg to pay for
them at home or abroad, without distinction of birth, race, color, or previ-
ous condition of servitude. The Female Medical College became in the
course of years an honorable and highly successful institution, during
which time was erected a fine hospital in connection with the college
building on North College Avenue, Twenty-first and Twenty-second
Streets. The title of this school waB afterward changed to the Woman's
Medical College.
tor, was surprised and embarrassed by these unex-
pected attentions, but managed to make a suitable
reply. On the passage up the river salutes were
fired from the steamship "Osprey" and the Vene-
zuela war-ship " Libertador." One hundred guns
were fired from artillery stationed at Washington
Street, Southwark, and a salvo from Kaighn's Point,
N. J. The shipping in port was. decorated with flags,
and cheers and demonstrations of welcome were heard
all along the city front. On the 11th of January a
grand banquet in honor of the arrival of the " City
of Glasgow" was given by City Councils in the upper
room of the museum building, at Ninth and George
[Sansom] Streets. There were eight hundred guests
present, including the members of the Legislature of
Pennsylvania, the executive officers of the common-
wealth, the leading officers of the city and districts,
and merchants and business men. Charles Gilpin,
mayor of the city, presided. A prayer was offered by
the Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal Church of Pennsylvania. An
address of compliment was made to Capt. Mathews,
to which he responded appropriately. Speeches
were made by Hon. James Buchanan, afterward
President of the United States ; William M. Mere-
dith, who had been Secretary of the Treasury ; Wil-
liam C. Patterson, president of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company ; Daniel L. Miller, Jr. ; Robert
Morris, editor of the Pennsylvania Inquirer ; John L.
Dawson, Judge William D. Kelley, and others.1
The Girard College now being completed, it was
resolved that the remains of the donor, Stephen
Girard, should be transferred to the sarcophagus be-
neath the statue of the merchant and mariner by
Gevelot, in the vestibule of the main building of the
college. It was intended that the funeral should be
entirely under the control of members of the Masonic
order. Some of the heirs of Stephen Girard objected
to this transfer, alleging that the body of their rela-
1 The " City of Glasgow" was under the British flag, and belonged to
an English corporation, which had determined to try its fortune in es-
tablishing a line to Philadelphia. The steamships were all named after
cities. The " City of Glasgow" was followed by the " City of Manches-
ter," which came into the river in the month of August. The " City of
Pittsburgh" arrived in January, 1852. The " City of Philadelphia" was
built some months afterward, but never entered the Delaware. The
fate of these vessels was unfortunate. The "City of Glasgow" left
Liverpool for Philadelphia March 1, 1854, and was never heard of
afterward. There were more than five hundred passengers; and the
value of the vessel and cargo was eight hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. The " City of Pittsburgh" was burned in the harbor of Val-
paraiso Oct. 24, 1852. No lives were lost. The " City of Philadelphia,"
while on a voyage from Liverpool to Philadelphia, struck on Cape Race
Sept. 17, 1854. The passengers were saved and the ship lost. The value
of the ship and cargo was six hundred thousand dollars. The " City of
Manchester" alone remained, and ran between Philadelphia and Liver-
pool monthly until the breaking out of the Crimean war between Great
Britain, France, and Russia, when her services were demanded by the
British government for the transportation of troops. After the war the
title of the line was changed to the Philadelphia, New York, and Liv-
erpool Steamship Company. The first name in the title was surplusage.
The office of the company was transferred to the city of New York, from
which the " City of Manchester" and other vessels ran for some years.
No vessel of this line afterward entered the port of Philadelphia.
700
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tive had been deposited in the vault of the Holy
Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Sixth and Spruce
Streets, in accordance with his own wishes, and that
there was no authority, either in the Masonic order
or the city of Philadelphia, to remove them. It was
an important fact that they had been removed before
application was made for an injunction. The point
was strongly debated on both sides. Judge Edward
King, of the Common Pleas, before whom the motion
for an injunction was discussed, took the sensible
view that the body having been removed, an injunc-
tion against removing it could not be consistently
granted. The public ceremonies had also been ar-
ranged for, and, finally, he continued the case with-
out making any decision, stating that if an injunction
could be legally ordered after the remains had actually
been removed from the churchyard, it could be as
well disposed of afterward upon full argument on
bill and answer and final decree. Nothing was ever
done afterward in relation to the matter. The object
of the heirs was vexatious and without justification.
They asserted that the will of Girard and the trusts
created in the city of Philadelphia by that instru-
ment were void, but possession of the mortal remains
of their relative could have no influence upon a
decision of the legal questions involved in the con-
troversy. Under the particular state of the case,
the old adage that possession is nine points of
the law became available. The funeral ceremonies
were entirely Masonic, under direction of the Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania, which upon this occasion
permitted the first parade of the brotherhood for
many years. Care was taken to present the members
of the order under the most favorable circumstances.
They were uniformly attired in full-dress suits of
black, and wore white kid gloves, the white sheep-
skin apron of the Master Mason trimmed with broad
edging of blue ribbon, and blue sashes, ornamented
with silver fringe. Fifteen hundred and nineteen
members of the order paraded, and the procession, in
the fine appearance of the members, the personal
respectability of all of them, and the decorum ex-
hibited, had never been equaled in impressive charac-
ter. The procession marched from the Masonic Hall,
Third Street above Spruce, by the most direct route,
via Ridge Avenue, to Girard College. Here the
orphans under tuition in the institution, three hun-
dred in number, were placed upon the steps of the
college building. The remains of the founder were
brought forth and borne by twelve Past Masters to a
platform erected on the east side of the main build-
ing for the purpose. The Grand Lodge was placed
upon this elevation, the brethren being arranged in
close columns before it. A dirge, composed for the
occasion, was played by a band of musicians under
the direction of Brother William P. Cunnington.
Past Grand Master Joseph R. Chandler then delivered
an appropriate and eloquent oration, and the Most
Worthy Grand Master, William Whitney, made a
short address. The dirge was again performed. The
remains of Girard were then removed to the vestibule
of the college and deposited in the sarcophagus. The
line of Masons filed along in front of the latter, and
each brother deposited his palm-branch upon the
coffin as he passed. After this the march was resumed
to Masonic Hall, where the members were dismissed.
On the 12th of November a terrible disaster oc-
curred at Bruner's cotton-mill, at the southwest cor-
ner of Nixon [Twenty-third] and Hamilton Streets.
The mill at that time was a stone building, four
stories in height, immediately at the corner of the
two streets. A fire broke out in a lower story, and the
flames rapidly ran up the only stairway in the build-
ing, which was at the southeast corner, on Nixon
Street. There were about thirty men and women in
the third and fourth stories. A few of them, upon
the alarm, managed to get down the stairway, but
the majority of them were cut off from escape in that
way by the flames. The contents of the factory were
very inflammable. Some of the persons in the upper
stories endeavored to get down by the hoisting-rope,
which was upon the outside of the building. A few
managed to escape in this way, but the others, the
greater portion of whom were girls and women, could
not escape in that manner. They were driven to the
dreadful alternative of jumping from the third- and
fourth-story windows into the street beneath. All
of them were severely bruised, and several of them
broke their limbs. Edward Crossley and Mary Ann
Browning were burned to death in the factory. Ag-
nes Morrow, who jumped from a window, was killed.
In a short time the factory was totally destroyed.
Such a melancholy circumstance had never happened
in Philadelphia, and the owners of other mills and
factories, admonished by the disaster, generally
adopted measures for the better escape of their"
employes in case of fire, but with little success,
judging from the number of similar catastrophes
that afterward happened. The apparatus of the fire
department at this time consisted only of fire-engines
and hose-carriages. There was no ladder service. A
hook-and-ladder company, the Empire, No. 1, was
shortly after established, and it was followed by the
institution of the Keystone Hook-and-Ladder Com-
pany, No. 2.
On the 18th of March the Assembly Building, four
stories in height, situated at the southwest corner of
Tenth and Chestnut Streets, and extending to George
[Sansom] Street, was totally destroyed by fire. The
lower stories were fitted up with stores and shops. The
upper stories were occupied by two large saloons,
which were used for balls, concerts, lectures, etc., and
it had been a place of great resort. It had been
opened for such purposes on the 10th of November,
1839, and for over eleven years had been in good ser-
vice and constant employment upon festive occasions.1
J It was rebuilt immediately after the fire, opened in 1852, and has
been employed for public purposes iu the upper stories ever since.
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
701
The fire was first discovered in a grocery-store at the
corner of Tenth and George Streets, and mounting
rapidly to the upper stories, the whole huilding was
totally destroyed. The loss was estimated, to the
owner of the building and the tenants, at one hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars. The night was cold
and stormy. Much snow was falling, and the firemen
were embarrassed by the freezing of fire-plugs and
hose. Their labors were arduous, and they only suc-
ceeded in saving the buildings in the rear on George
Street and Chestnut Street, and prevented the flames
from doing damage to the houses on the east side of
Tenth Street immediately opposite the hall. The
snow was heavy, and the weight upon roofs of build-
ings was very great. Early in the morning of the
19th, about five o'clock, the roof of the Spring Gar-
den Presbyterian Church, at the northeast corner of
Eleventh and Wistar Streets, fell in from the weight
of the snow. It was a new building, but was weak
in the upper portions. The weight of snow upon
the roof pressed out the side and end walls, and
the entire interior was demolished. Nothing was
left standing except the pillars of the front colon-
nade.
Millard Fillmore, President of the United States,
passed through the city on the 12th of May. The
steamer " Roger Williams" took down a large escort
of gentlemen to Wilmington, from which place the
President was brought by the boat to the city. He
was accompanied by Daniel Webster, Secretary of
State; John J. Crittenden, Attorney-General; Nathan
K. Hall, Postmaster-General; and William A.Gra-
ham, Secretary of the Navy. At the navy-yard the
party was received with an official salute, and thence
escorted by eight companies of volunteers to the
United States Hotel, Chestnut Street. At that place
short speeches were made by the President and Daniel
Webster to the citizens assembled in front of the
house. In the evening the party was complimented
by a serenade. They left the city in the morning
train for New York.
On the 20th of May the steamboat " Ohio," coming
up the Delaware with passengers from Baltimore,
came in collision with the steamboat " Commodore
Stockton" a short distance below Greenwich Point.
The "Ohio," struck nearly amidships, was in danger
of sinking. The captain steered the boat at once to
the Jersey shore, and it was run upon the flats below
Kaighn's Point. The bell was tolled as a signal of
distress, in hope of bringing to relief the ferry-boat
at Kaighn's Point, which came to assist. Forty or
fifty passengers were rescued by that means. But be-
fore all who were on board the " Ohio" were taken off
the boat filled with water and slipped off the shoal
into the deep channel, where it sank. Some of the
passengers were rescued by wherry-boats and by
means of the long-boat belonging to the "Ohio."
Three horses upon the forward deck swam ashore,
one of them carrying the owner on his back. Two
passengers, E. A. Taylor, of Washington, D. G, and
Shute, of Baltimore, were drowned. The hull
of the boat was submerged, the tops of the chim-
neys alone being visible. The " Ohio" was after-
wards raised, repaired, and put in service upon the
line.
The anniversary of American independence was
celebrated this year more generally than for a long
period previous. The Councils appropriated a liberal
sum for an exhibition of fire-works in honor of the
day, which was to take place in Broad Street, between
the Southeast and Southwest Squares. In the morn-
ing the entire First Division of volunteers paraded
under the command of Brig.-Gens. George Cadwal-
ader, John Bennett, and John Sydney Jones. The
Declaration of Independence was read at one o'clock
in Independence Square by William M. Bull. Polit-
ical meetings and dinners also took place in various
parts of the city. In the evening about fifty thousand
persons assembled in Broad Street at Market, and in
Broad Street above Chestnut and neighboring streets
to witness the display. Unfortunately, it was not
brilliant. The day was very warm, and some of the
principal pieces set up in the afternoon exploded from
the heat of the sun. There was a meagre show in
consequence, and the persons present were much dis-
satisfied.
The Fugitive Slave Law, passed by Congress on the
18th of September, 1850, led to many displays of feel-
ing. The sentiment of a large portion of the people
of Philadelphia was in opposition to the statute, and
great interest was manifested in fugitive slave cases.
Under the act commissioners appointed by the United
States District Courts were vested with the powers
of magistrates, and authorized to remand to captivity
all fugitive slaves who were brought before them.
In Philadelphia, Edward D. Ingraham, a member
of the bar, was appointed commissioner under this
act. He was a man of strong feeling, prejudice, and
determination, and decided in his views not only as to
the expediency, but as to the legality of slavery. Other
commissioners were appointed, but Ingraham was the
first to be appealed to on behalf of slave-owners.
The examples of the law commenced unfortunately.
The first case brought before Ingraham was that of a
colored man claimed to be a slave of a person resid-
ing in Delaware. The owner was not present, but
was represented by his agents. The alleged fugitive
offered testimony to show his identity and prove his
right to freedom. All efforts in this way were over-
ruled, and the man was sent to Delaware. Upon
his reception there the claimant declared that he was
not his slave. He was not the man whom he had
intended to be arrested, and the negro was set free.
This terrible blunder on the part of the commis-
sioner was the point of many personal attacks after-
wards made upon Commissioner Ingraham by the
Abolitionists and sympathizers with them. The re-
sult did not change his determination, but rendered
702
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
him more careful, so that in after-time his judgments
were scarcely ever attacked.1
Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary during the
attempted revolution of 1848-49, was compelled to
fly after the failure of that desperate effort, and took
refuge in Turkey. There he was confined with his
companion in Widin, Shumla, and in Kutaieh, in Asia
Minor. His extradition was demanded of Turkey by
.Austria and Russia. The measure was opposed by
England and France, and at the intervention of the
United States and England he was permitted to leave
Turkey with his wife and family. The United States
government, in accordance with the resolution of the
Senate, sent the steam frigate " Mississippi," Capt.
Long, to receive him and bring him to the United
- States. He arrived at New York on the 5th of De-
cember, 1851, accompanied by his wife and Mr. and
Mrs. Pulzsky. The visit of Kossuth created great in-
terest and enthusiasm throughout the United States.
In Philadelphia special preparations were made to re-
ceive him with honor. On the 24th of December the
Hungarian patriot arrived at the Kensington depot of
the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad. The Councils
of the city and the commissioners of the districts had
resolved to receive him with every possible honor.
The party arrived on the 24th, at three o'clock in the
morning, and were taken to lodgings at the United
States Hotel. At ten o'clock Kossuth was escorted
to Independence Hall, the front of which, in refer-
ence to the season, was decorated with evergreens,
and with flags of Hungary, Turkey, and the United
States. Here in the chamber of Independence the
guest was appropriately received by themayor and City
Councils. Placed in a barouche drawn by six horses,
and escorted by the City Troop, at. Sixth and Arch
Streets a body of soldiers was met. The military pro-
cession was unusually large, and as an evidence of
the great interest which the people throughout the
State took in the fortunes of the man, there were
more volunteer companies from the interior of the
State present than had marched in the streets of the
city on a festival occasion since the reception of Gen.
Lafayette, more than a quarter-century previously.
There were twenty companies from Berks, Schuyl-
kill, and other counties, under command of Gen.
William H. Keim and Col. John P. Hobart. Twenty-
six companies of the First Division were in line under
command of Maj.-Gen. Patterson.
Kossuth reviewed the troops from his carriage. His
figure was not conspicuous in size, for he was a man
somewhat under the average stature. But his dress,
a black velvet coat with a fur collar, fur edges and
1 Among the fugitive slave cases subsequently decided, nearly all by
Ingraham, were the following : 1850, December 22d, Adam Gibson ; 1851,
January 26th, Stephen Bennett ; 1851, February 9th, Tamer or Uphemia
Williams; 1851, March 9th, case of a colored woman and boy; 1852,
George Bordley; 1853, January 23d, Charles Wesley; 1853, July 24th,
William FiBher ; 1853, July 24th, William Cummins, before Commis-
sioner Heazlitt.
sleeves, and low hat with black feather, attracted
general attention. His pale countenance, the regu-
larity of his features, the brilliancy of his black eye,
and the general expression of melancholy which was
settled over all, was a subject of interesting study.
In the civic procession were members of Councils and
Commissioners of. Southwark, Northern Liberties,
Kensington, and Spring Garden, in carriages. The
Scott Legion of soldiers of the Mexican war marched
in their old uniforms. The survivors of the " Dart-
moor" prisoners of the war of 1812 turned out the
remnant of their rapidly-decreasing number. Several
German societies, natives of Switzerland, the Inde-
pendent Order of Red Men, and the Junior Sons of
Temperance swelled the procession. At Independence
Hall Charles Gilpin, mayor of the city, greeted the
guest in a complimentary speech, to which a suitable
reply was made. Afterward Kossuth made a short
address to citizens assembled from a platform in In-
dependence Square. The reception was a city gala
day. At the corner of Eighth and Chestnut Streets
an arch with four spandrels springing from the cor-
ners of the streets was decorated with evergreens,
the flags of Turkey, Hungary, and the United States
flying from the top. This structure had been erected
by the volunteer company of State Fencibles, Capt.
James Page, the armory of which was in the Union
building adjoining. In the evening the Fencibles
marched to the United States Hotel, where an elegant
gold medal, the gift of private Martin Leans, a mem-
ber of the Fencibles, was presented to Kossuth by
Capt. James Page on behalf of the donor, and re-
ceived by Kossuth in an interesting speech. On the
same evening the corporation of the city of Philadel-
phia gave a banquet in honor of Kossuth at the
United States Hotel. Kossuth made a few remarks
in reply to the compliment tendered to him. Speeches
of a spirited character were made by Commodore
George C. Read, of the United States navy, Maj.-
Gen. Robert Patterson, Morton McMichael, Judge
John K. Kane, of the United States District Court,
Judge William D. Kelley, of the Common Pleas, and
John C. Montgomery. The next day, being Christ-
mas, Kossuth was waited upon by a deputation from
Harrisburg, and a delegation of the clergy of the
city, of which the Rev. John Chambers, of the Inde-
pendent Presbyterian Church, was spokesman. In
the evening, at the upper saloon of the museum, there
was a reception by the children of the public schools.
Master John S. Painter delivered an address on the
part of the boys, and Master A. McNeill on behalf
of the girls. A book containing a copy of the Con-
stitution of the United States was presented to the
great Hungarian. The citizens of German birth took
warm interest in the visit of Kossuth. They arranged
a grand torchlight procession and serenade for the
evening. The vocal societies and other participants
met in Broad Street, near Chestnut, and marched down
the latter street to the hotel. Their way was lighted
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
703
with fourteen hundred torches and many large fire-
baskets filled with blazing faggots. There were illu-
minated paintings, transparencies, banners, and flags.
The coopers had with them a large painting represent-
ing the assault which had been made a short time
before upon the Austrian Gen. Haynau by the brewers
in the city of London. A transparency representing
the Goddess of Liberty, holding a laurel wreath in her
right hand and a broken wreath and shackles in her
left, was also displayed. At the custom-house, oppo-
site the United States Hotel, the vocal societies were
arranged upon the steps with their flags, banners,
and insignia, in picturesque groups. The effect was
heightened by the fact that snow was falling fast,
covering every building and tree, which, with the
lights, gave to the scene a wild and fantastic charac-
ter. The chorus clubs simply sang the national an-
them of the Star-Spangled Banner, the words in Ger-
man. Kossuth had retired, and was in bed. He was
addressed at his bedside in behalf of the members
of the procession by Herr Wesendonck, after which
Hanjik, one of the Hungarian exiles, addressed the
people from an upper window of the hotel. The pro-
cession then withdrew in. good order and with cheers.
On the evening of the 26th of December a banquet
was given by subscription by citizens of Philadelphia
to Louis Kossuth at the Musical Fund Hall. One
table, upon a raised platform, extended across the hall
at the south end. There were seated the guest of the
evening and other invited guests. Three tables, ex-
tending northward in the centre and at the sides of the
room, were occupied by the subscribers to the banquet.
After the feast was over the Hon. George M. Dallas,
as president of the subscribers, addressed the guest
and the people present in a classic and well-considered
speech. Kossuth responded in a speech which occupied
nearly four hours in delivery. It was in the English lan-
guage, a knowledge of which he had acquired by unas-
sisted study during his captivity in Turkey. In the man-
ner of delivery, fervency of expression, and elegance of
language, this was an oration extraordinary by reason
of the previous life-studies and exercises of the man.
It was historic in character, an able and philosophic
examination of European politics, and colored by a
surprising and correct familiarity with the leading
events of American history, and the sentiments and
policy of the American people. What was more re-
markable was the correct pronunciation of the Eng-
lish language by the orator, which only occasionally
was marked by a peculiarity of accent that did not pre-
vent the words from being understood. The general
opinion of all who listened to this address was that Louis
Kossuth, mentally, was one of the most extraordinary
men of the age. On the same night, in response to the
regular toasts, speeches were delivered by Capt. Bayse
N. Westcott, of the United States navy, Judge John
K. Kane, James Cooper, United States senator for
Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron, of Dauphin County,
Judge Joseph Allison, of the Common Pleas, Judge
William D. Kelley, Robert Morris, John Cadwalader,
and Dr. William Elder. Kossuth and his suite left
the city for Washington the next day.
The night of the 26th was cold and stormy. The
guests who tarried long at the Kossuth banquet had
scarcely left the building before they heard an alarm
of fire, the light of which showed that the place was
very near the State-House. At the northeast corner
of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, extending northward, |
was a large four-story brick building occupied by
stores in the lower portion and by bookbinders, en-
gravers, and other tradesmen in the upper parts. This
property belonged to Abram Hart, long a successful
bookseller and publisher, and was familiarly known as
Hart's building. The flames were first discovered in
a drying-room attached to the engraving-office and
copper-plate printing establishment of John M. Butler.
They broke out about half-past, twelve o'clock on the
morning of the 27th. The firemen came at the alarm.
The thermometer stood at four degrees above zero.
Most of the fire-plugs were frozen. To thaw them
the firemen, in many instances, set fire to the straw
which surrounded the pipes to which the hose was to
be attached. In some cases the woodwork of the
plugs was destroyed. The delays and difficulties were
so serious that Hart's building was soon enveloped in
flames. It was totally destroyed. On the west side
of Sixth Street the Shakespeare building, an old land-
mark, was also attacked by the fire and entirely con-
sumed. It extended from Chestnut Street to Carpen-
ter Street. Not a wall was left standing. Immediately
adjoining the Shakespeare building was the Chestnut
Street Theatre, filled with combustible scenery and
in great danger. Luckily the west wall of the Shakes-
peare building was thick and rose like a battlement
above the roof of the theatre. It was a barricade
which kept off the fire, and no more injury was done
in that direction. Adjoining Hart's building, on
Chestnut Street, was the store of Messrs. Johnston,
law booksellers and publishers, and next to that
Holahan's Eagle Tavern, an old and well-known
place of resort for many years. J. W. Moore, book-
seller, joined Holahan's. These buildings and their
contents were seriously injured, but not entirely de-
stroyed. The roof of the county court-house, imme-
diately opposite, on the south side of Chestnut Street,
was on fire. Fortunately the flames were checked,
and the public offices in State-House Row and the
venerable old State-House building were preserved.
A melancholy incident of the Hart's building fire was
the death of William W. Haly, a lawyer and mem-
ber of the City Councils, and police-officer Baker.
They were engaged with others in removing goods
from a store on the ground floor of a building, and
while in that service were overwhelmed by the falling
in of the upper walls and the precipitation of bricks,
timbers, and machinery into the store. They could
not escape, and were burned to death. Several other
persons were caught in the wreck, but managed to ex-
704
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
tricate themselves. Shortly after the fall of the walls
of the Hart building, the east walls of the Shakes-
peare building fell into Sixth Street. Two colored
men, who were active in removing goods that were
in danger, were crushed in this disaster. Their names
were never ascertained. The pecuniary loss by these
fires at Hart's and the Shakespeare building was esti-
mated to be two hundred thousand dollars.
Two days after this great destruction, and while the
ruins were yet smoking, people in the neighborhood of
Sixth and Chestnut Streets were startled by another
alarm. About five o'clock in the afternoon of the
30th 'of December, a large brown-stone building five
stories in height, and situate at the southeast corner
of Seventh and Chestnut Streets, commonly known
as Barnum's Museum, was discovered to be on fire.1
Barnum had made the establishment a branch of his
museum in New York, and supplemented the dis-
play of figures and curiosities with performances in
the lecture-room, sometimes plays, songs, music,
exhibitions of sleight of hand, ventriloquism, etc.
There had been an exhibition in the lecture-room
in the afternoon. Fortunately, the audience was not
subjected to the danger of an attempt to escape by
the only stairway which was connected with the
upper stories. The flames were first discovered
among the scenery. They spread rapidly through
the wings and flies, and were gradually carried down-
ward until the whole building was enveloped and the
walls fell in, and the whole structure was involved in
ruins. The Clymer mansion, occupied by George
Harrison, on the east, was slightly injured. The
fronts of the buildings on the opposite side of Chest-
nut Street were severely scorched. The value of the
building was estimated at sixty thousand dollars, and
the museum collection and fixtures at fifty thousand
dollars. The occupants of the stores beneath had
sufficient time to remove the bulk of their valuable
property, and, excepting in counters, shelves, and fix-
tures, they lost but little. A fire at the office of the
Public Ledger, at the southwest corner of Third and
Chestnut Streets, on the 5th of January, originated,
it is believed, in a spontaneous combustion of some
rags in the press-room. The flames were carried to
the upper stories. The fourth and fifth stories were
1 This building had been constructed by the estate of the late William
Swaim, proprietor of " Swaim's Panacea," a celebrated patent medicine
in its day, upon the Bite of the fiDe mansion and grounds originally built
by a member of the Wain family, but which had been occupied by Mr.
Swaim until the time of his death. The lower stories were arranged for
stores. The upper stories were constructed iu large apartments for a
museum on the second story and a theatre on the third, extending to
the height of the fourth story and the roof, which was commonly called
the lecture-room. The entrance was by the western store apace on Chest-
nut Street, with hall, ticket-office, and stairways. The place was opened
on the 25th of December, 1848, with some curiosities, wax figures, etc.,
and a regular dramatic company for the lecture-room, by Taber and Sils-
bee, under the title of the Atbenasum. They failed in the establishment,
and the lease and property was afterwards bought by P. T. Barnum,
of New York, and at the time of the fire was managed by Lysander
Spooner.
burned out and the lower portions of the building
flooded with water. The proprietors, with indom-
itable energy, determined that this occurrence should
" not stop the press," and the next morning the Ledger
came out as usual. There was a serious fire at James
S. Earle's picture-gallery, on Chestnut Street, in Feb-
ruary, which destroyed many valuable paintings and
other works of art.
During this year the steamship " Albatross" was
finished and run, in connection with the " Osprey,"
on a line to Charleston, S. C. The steamship " S. S.
Lewis" was built by E. F. Loper, and purchased as a
pioneer ship to run between Boston and Liverpool.
The steamship " Lafayette" was brought from New
York in April, and intended to be the first vessel of
the new Philadelphia steamship line to Liverpool.
She left the city in the next month on her first trip,
but it was found that the "City of Glasgow" line was
so well established that there was no opportunity for
an opposition.2
The Odd-Fellows' Hall, at the southwest corner of
Tenth and South Streets, was dedicated, after a pa-
rade of the brethren of the order, on the 22d of Sep-
tember. The lower portion was used for business
purposes ; the upper rooms for the lodges, of which
there were several in Southwark and Moyamensing.
The corner-stone of the Roman Catholic Orphans'
Asylum of St. John was laid April 6th, upon ground
adjoining the cemetery afterwards known as the Ca-
thedral Cemetery, which was greatly in use.
In the early part of the year the committee ap-
pointed at the town-meeting of 1850 addressed the
Legislature, asking for the consolidation of the city
and districts in one municipal corporation. They
said, " Uninfluenced by either personal or political
bias, and prompted by a sense of the public welfare
only, this committee, composed of men of all parties,
earnestly commend this measure to the favorable
action of the Legislature."
John Cadwalader and Eli K. Price repaired to
Harrisburg to represent the evils under which the
community suffered, and to advocate the passage of
a consolidation bill. They were heard with attention
and treated with respect, but no legislation on the
subject ensued.
Granville John Penn, a great-grandson of the
founder of the province of Pennsylvania, arrived in
the city in the early part of the year 1852. Many
courtesies were paid to him by societies and citizens.
The City Councils, January 15th, passed resolutions
of congratulation, and appointed a joint special com-
mittee to invite him to meet the corporation of the
city in the Hall of Independence, " to receive the
expression of their gratification and satisfaction on
his sojourning in a city whose foundations were pro-
jected by William Penn, and amid the successors of
2 The fate of these ships was also unfortunate. The " S. S. Lewis" was
wrecked near San Francisco, April 15, 1853, and the " AlbatrosB" in the
Gulf of Mexico, two days afterward.
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
705'
a people whose rights and freedom of conscience the
founder in early times upheld, and labored to secure
even to the latest posterity.1
The subject of the ownership of Smith's Island (or
Windmill Island) created some attention this year.
John Harding, who build the windmill there, secured
a lease for ninety-nine years from the proprietaries.
The time was about to expire. The property was
extremely valuable. Various persons had acquired
titles of some sort, and they proposed that the Legis-
lature should validate and confirm them. The city
of Philadelphia protested against the passage of that
law. It was urged that the interests of the commu-
nity might be prejudiced by such ownership. Its
situation was such, and its importance to the interests
of the port was so great, that the public good required
that the title to this island should be granted only to
the city of Philadelphia and the adjoining districts.
The erection of wharves upon it might prove injurious
to navigation ; besides, it was not improbable that at
some future day the interests of the port might re-
quire removal of the island altogether. These views
were set forth by Councils in resolutions. The Legis-
lature was asked not to pass the law, and the measure
was not then perfected.
The death of Henry Clay at Washington on the 29th
of June created great sensation throughout the country.
No American statesman was better known. He had
that magnetic disposition and frank manner which at-
tached thousands of persons to his fortunes with a
strong affection. The remains arrived in the city on the
2d of July. They were received at the southwestern
depot of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
Railroad Company, Broad and Prime Streets, by a
large concourse of citizens. The pall-bearers, men of
position and social distinction, accompanied the coffin
to Independence Hall. The City Troop was the guard
of honor. The remains arrived in the evening. The
members of the Philadelphia Hose Company sur-
rounded the hearse carrying lighted torches. Forty-
six companies of the fire department and a large
number of citizens followed. The number of torches
used was over three thousand. The coffin was depos-
ited in Independence Hall, under charge of the Light
Artillery Corps Washington Grays. In the morning
the hall was thrown open, and many persons passed
through the apartment, which was heavily draped in
black, and viewed the catafalque and arrangements.
1 During his stay Mr. Penn received maDy social civilities from the
citizens. In return he gave &fele champHre at his own property in Phila-
delphia,— Ihe mansion and grounds of "Solitude," — on the west side of
the Schuylkill, below Girard Avenue. It was attended by many promi-
nent citizens, and was a successful afl'air. " Solitude" still stands, and,
with the grounds adjoining, is occupied by the Zoological Society in
West Fairmount Park. During his stay an amusing incident occurred.
The " William Penn Hose Company" opened a correspondence with him
and entreated him to undertake the personation of his great ancestor
in the usual pageant of that company in the firemen's triennial proces-
sion which was about to come off, representing the treaty between Wil-
liam Penn and the Indians. Mr. Penn respectfully declined.
45
The Washington Grays yielded up their charge to a
committee of the City Councils. In the hearse, upon
the coffin, was a wreath of japonicas and many flow-
ers. The cortege, of a civic character, accompanied
the body to Walnut Street wharf, where Bloodgood's
Hotel was hung with mourning and the passage-way
to the steamboat heavily draped. In the procession
was a committee of senators appointed by the Senate
of the United States, delegations from Kentucky,
New Jersey, and New York, city authorities, and
others. The steamboat " Trenton," prepared for the
occasion, was festooned with black from stem to stern,
and on the deck a sombre canopy near the stern was
the place of reception of the coffin. The flags of the
shipping and port were at half-mast. The proceed-
ings were solemn, and reminded many of the great
difference between the circumstances attending the
final transhipment of the remains and the warm en-
thusiasm which rendered the reception of the living
Henry Clay in 1848 a wild, swelling, and continuous
hurrah.
Daniel Webster died at Marshfield, Mass., Octo-
ber 24th. Next to Henry Clay he was admired by
large numbers of citizens. The Councils of Phila-
delphia passed resolutions expressing to the authori-
ties of the city of Boston their sympathy and regret
upon the event which had deprived that city of an
illustrious son. It was also determined that on the
day of the funeral, at Marshfield, October 26th, the
bells of the State-House, Christ Church, and St.
Peter's Church should be tolled. Citizens were
requested to close their stores and places of busi-
ness. The exterior of Independence Hall and the
City Hall were shrouded in mourning. The Inde-
pendence Chamber was also draped, and the Council
Chambers for six months. John Sergeant, a re-
spected citizen who had been prominent in city
affairs for many years, and had held important pub-
lic offices, died November 23d. The Councils of the
city, recognizing his activity and energy for the pro-
motion of objects for the public good, passed resolu-
tions of respect for his memory and resolved to attend
his funeral. William M. Meredith was requested to
prepare a eulogy upon the deceased, which he did.
It was pronounced in the presence of a large num-
ber of citizens, at Musical Fund Hall, in July, 1853.
In the latter part of this year the western public
squares were greatly improved in appearance. The
wooden picket-fences which inclosed Penn, Logan,
and Eittenhouse Squares were removed and hand-
some iron railings substituted.
A destructive fire, which broke out March 28th,
proved the great value of stocks in mercantile estab-
lishments. It commenced Sunday morning, March
28th, in the basement and first story of the store of
Lewis & Co., upon Strawberry Street, below Market.
It extended through to Bank Street, and was supposed
to be a fire-proof building. The doors and shutters
were of iron, and resisted attempts by the firemen' to
706
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
break them open in order to throw in water. The
flames ascended to the third and fourth stories of the
same building, occupied by Wyeth, Eogers & Co., and
extended to an adjoining building, occupied by Stu-
art & Bros., also "fire-proof," and injured adjoining
property, occupied by Gihon & Co., and others. The
total loss was calculated at $755,000 : Lewis & Co.,
$300,000; Stuart & Bros., $280,000; Wyeth, Eogers
& Co., $75,000; Gihon & Co., $100,000. Much of
this destruction was caused by water, the articles
injured being silks and fine lace goods.
The firemen's triennial parade this year was of un-
surpassed splendor. The firemen were rough fellows,
but they took great interest in making their hose-car-
riages and engines beautiful, and there was much
rivalry between the companies, as to which should
present the most handsome appearance. The whole
line of the procession glistened with the shine of
metals, the glare of bright paintings on the apparatus,
and the elegance of the banners of silk and velvet,
with richly painted emblems and scenes upon them,
with ribbons, flowers, and tinsel of silver and gold.
There were two hundred marshals to conduct the pa-
rade with discipline and decorum. Five thousand and
eighty-nine firemen were in line. The bands were
numerous, and embraced together about six hundred
musicians. The city could not furnish such a force
of harmony, and many bands were brought from the
interior of Pennsylvania and from other States. The
procession occupied two hours in marching by any
one point. The route of the parade was extremely
long, extending from the extremity of Kensington to
Southwark and Moyamensing, passing through the
Northern Liberties, Kensington, and Spring Garden.
Eighty-four companies participated. On the Fourth
of July an effort was made to celebrate the day more
successfully than in the previous year. The first divi-
sion of volunteers paraded in the morning, and was
reviewed by Governor Bigler. In the evening the
unlucky ground designated for a display of fire-
works in 1851 was again in use, and this time very
successfully. There was no accident, the pieces were
splendid, and at least one hundred thousand persons
(it was estimated by the newspapers) were gratified
by the exhibition.
In 1851 Councils had adopted resolutions in favor
of the erection of a monument in Independence
Square to commemorate the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. In such a work it was thought the " old
thirteen" Continental States only should participate.
Delegates from those States were invited to assemble
in Philadelphia, and Councils by resolution ceded
sufficient ground in the square for the erection of the
memorial. On the Fourth of July delegates from
all the States designated, except Maryland, North
Carolina, and South Carolina, met in Independence
Hall. Governor William Bigler, of Pennsylvania,
was elected president; Charles F. Adams, of Massa-
chusetts, and A. Hull, of Georgia, vice-presidents ;
and L. S. Foster, of Connecticut, and Albert G.
Waterman, of Philadelphia, a member of Councils,
secretaries. Mr. Waterman was the author of the
original resolutions adopted by Councils, and was a
warm advocate of the scheme. The convention re-
solved that the erection of some memorial of the
patriotism of the fathers of the republic was neces-
sary and proper, and that a monument ought to be
erected. When nine of the original States acceded
to the plan and made necessary appropriations, it
was resolved that the work should be commenced.
Committees were appointed to receive and solicit
plans for the monument, and to make all necessary
arrangements. They adjourned, hoping soon to be
called together in furtherance of the objects of their
appointment. Their patriotism was beyond that of
the respective States. Some of the States formally
indorsed the plan, and made the proper appropria-
tions. Others delayed action. When the war of the
Rebellion broke out, in 1861, there had not been an
accession to the plan by a sufficient number of States
to authorize the commencement of the work. The
result of that great struggle was sufficient to prevent
the Southern States, which had not taken action, from
manifesting any interest in the subject thereafter.
In the beginning of January, Jacob Lehman, a
boy, who had been employed in peddling small arti-
cles of jewelry, disappeared. Twenty-two days after-
ward some children, who were sliding upon the ice of
the Delaware, below Port Richmond, had their atten-
tion attracted by something beneath the ice, which
aroused their curiosity. An axe in the hands of a
neighboring wood-cutter developed the mystery. The
object seen was a bag, which being opened was found
to contain a portion of a human body. Two other
sacks, one containing a head and trunk, and the
other portions of limbs, were afterward discovered
in the same neighborhood. These were determined
to be the remains of young Lehman, who had un-
doubtedly been murdered. Facts and theories were
at fault, at first, as to the perpetrator. Finally sus-
picion came down to a belief that three Poles —
Matthias Skupinski, Blaise Skupinski, and John Kai-
ser— might have committed the murder. They lived
in Richmond, not far from the plaee where the re-
mains were found. Upon investigation it was dis-
covered that the boy Lehman, with his jewelry, had
been seen going into the house of these foreigners,
and could not be traced afterward. The men, about
a week after the disappearance of Lehman, gave up
the tenancy of the house, sold their furniture to a
second-hand dealer, and went away. The empty
house was searched, and marks of blood were found
upon the cellar-steps, upon stairs leading to upper
stories, and in closets. It was supposed that the deed
had been committed in the house. A strong circum-
stantial fact was found in comparing the cord, with
which the mouth of the sacks in which the remains
were discovered were tied, with some which these
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
707
men had sold to the second-hand dealer. Descrip-
tions of the appearance of the three men were pub-
lished, and general attention was directed to the case
by citizens and the police. After a few days, Matthias
and Blaise Skupinski were found ; they had removed
to a distance from Port Richmond, and were residing
in Front Street, below Federal, in Southwark. Upon
their arrest they were identified by residents of Port
Richmond, near their former habitation, as living in
the house in which the murder was supposed to have
been committed. Upon searching the house in Fed-
eral Street some jewelry was found buried in the cel-
lar, and it was discovered that the men had given
other articles of jewelry to women residing in the
neighborhood for washing and other services. These
trinkets were identified by the father of the boy Leh-
man as having been in his possession on the day he
left the house for the last time. Kaiser had escaped,
but the Skupinskies were tried and convicted. Mat-
thias, the elder of the brothers, was executed August
6th. Blaise, the younger, was respited, partly in
hope that Kaiser might be arrested and partly be-
cause of his age, it was supposed that he was forced
into the position of an accessory. Both the Skupin-
skies, after their conviction, made statements or con-
fessions, which contradicted each other. Their ob-
ject seemed to be to throw the responsibility for the
actual deed of murder upon Kaiser. In their ac-
count of themselves they admitted" having been en-
gaged in murders in other parts of the country.
Nothing was shown to establish a belief that Blaise
was less guilty than the others, and he was executed
on the 3d of September.
In February the steamship "Benjamin Franklin"
left Philadelphia as the pioneer of a line to Cali-
fornia. The enterprise was not successful.
In the early part of this year meetings were held
in the upper part of the city and in the Northern
Liberties in favor of the building of a railroad from
Philadelphia to Easton, and beyond. It was argued
that much of the rich trade of Bucks and Northamp-
ton in produce and other articles, and of the trade in
Lehigh coal, was for want of railroad connection with
Philadelphia diverted to the city of New York.
Under this stimulus application was made to the
Legislature, which, on the 8th of April, passed an act
to incorporate the Philadelphia, Easton and Water-
Gap Railroad Company. The road was to begin at a
point north of Vine Street in the county of Philadel-
phia, and thence by the most expedient and practica-
ble route to or near the borough of Eastqn, or some
other point in Northampton County, with right to
extend to any point or place in MoDroe or Pike
Counties, and to connect with the Delaware, Lehigh,
Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad, and with the
Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad, and with any
connection or part of the Erie Railroad of New York,
or any railroad connected with it in Pennsylvania.
The capital stock was thirty thousand shares, with
power to increase it to $2,000,000. Measures were at
once taken to obtain subscriptions. The corporations
of the city and districts were warmly entreated to
subscribe to the stock. They were willing, and
the work was commenced with promise of success.1
In the succeeding year the title of this corporation
was changed to the North Pennsylvania Railroad
Company.
A new district was added to the many already in
existence in Philadelphia County by act of April 14,
1853. It embraced ground north of West Philadel-
phia, and began on the northern boundary of the
latter at Sweet Brier Creek, on the west side of the
Schuylkill. Running by the courses of the creek to
the point where it crossed the centre of Westminster
Avenue, the line was continued along the centre of
the latter to the middle of the Haverford plank-road ;
along the same, northwest, to Fountain road ; along
the latter, by ground of John Miller and Jacob P.
Jones, to a dividing-line between the latter and George
Prentice; west to Merion road; north along the road
to lands of Lewis Jones and William P. Walters ;
then to the Virginia road and by other lines not of
private property to the Schuylkill River. The title
was to be " the commissioners and inhabitants of the
District of Belmont." There were to be nine com-
missioners, to be, divided at the first election into
classes for one, two, and three years. This district
had scarcely got into working order before the con-
solidation law was passed, which put an end to its
powers.
The township of Delaware was created by the
Court of Quarter Sessions, about 1851, out of parts of
Lower Dublin township. The Legislature validated
that proceeding by act of May 3, 1852, which estab-
lished the township as an election district, and ordered
that special elections should be held at the Athenaeum
in the village of Holmesburg.
A company was incorporated April 20th, under the
title of the Manayunk Gas Compauy, the object of
which was to manufacture and sell gas, to be made
from bituminous coal or other materials, in the village
of Manayunk. Capital, one thousand shares at twenty-
five dollars each. The Germantown Gas Company
was authorized by special act to lay down gas-pipes
throughout the township of Germantown and in and
through School-house Lane, in the borough of Rox-
borough.
By act of April 9th, authority was given to incor-
porate a company to construct a bridge over the
Schuylkill at Penrose Ferry, under title of the Pen-
rose Ferry Bridge Company. The authority was to
build a floating bridge, with a draw therein, for pas-
sage of vessels at or near where the public road crosses
that river. Capital stock, four hundred shares at
twenty-five dollars each. The draw was to be at least
1 Tho city of Philadelphia subsequently subscribed $500,000; the dis-
trict of the Northern Liberties, $500,000; the district of Spring Garden,
$150,000; and the district of Richmond, $250,000; total, $1,400,000.
708
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
fifty feet in width. This was the first attempt to build
a bridge at the point. It had always been a ferry,
crossed by scows and guided or pulled by ropes,
whence the old name " The Rope Ferry." The bridge
was finished in 1855.
On the 18th of April the Legislature declared "that
the square of ground in the rear of the Philadelphia
County prison, known as the parade-ground, should
be kept open as a public square. The County Com-
missioners were directed to open streets bounding on
the square fifty feet wide, according to the plan of the
streets of Moyamensing. There was power also in the
County Commissioners to sell some part of the ground
and to purchase others adjoining, so as to place the
public square within the boundaries of Eleventh and
Thirteenth Streets, east and west, and Wharton and
Reed Streets, north and south. The purpose of em-
ploying the inclosure for a parade-ground was not
given up, and it was declared that it should be al-
ways available as a public square and a parade-
ground.1
A notable movement toward a change in the charac-
ter of the public markets took place. The markets in
city and district belonging to the respective municipal
corporations were all in public streets ; for instance,
the middle of Market Street, Callowhill Street, Second
Street, etc. Objections to their continuance began to
be made. It was asserted that the market-houses or
sheds were obstructions to the highways; that the in-
terests of business required their removal, and that it
would be better for venders of marketing, whether
farmers or butchers, that they should be gathered in
large and well-ventilated buildings specially con-
structed for their accommodation. These represen-
tations were urged in the name principally of busi-
ness people. The time seemed ripe for some change
in this matter. The first movement was made by au-
thority of act of 2d of May, which incorporated
" The Broad Street Market-House Company." The
corporators were John Rice, John H. Diehl, John
White, Joseph M. Feltwell, and Thomas Birch, Jr. The
capital was one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
shares of five hundred dollars each. The company
was given authority " to erect a suitable building or
buildings and stalls in the city, to be used as a pub-
lic market-house," for the sale and vending of meats,
vegetables, and all other kinds of victuals and pro-
visions whatever. The company purchased the build-
ings and lot of ground on the east side of Broad
Street below Race. The structure was known as the
West Chester Railroad Depot. The market-house was
used in after-years as an armory, and was occupied
by the Gray Reserve Regiment; it was solid, and of
i A portion of Hie northwestern wall of the county pri8on extended
into or to a portion of Eleventh Street, and blocked the highway. It
would have been inconvenient to have deflected its course. When the
public square now called Passyunk Square was laid out, the boundaries
extended only between Twelfth and Thirteenth and Wharton and Keed
Streets.
appropriate and handsomestyle of architecture. It was
one great high room. The stalls were built upon the
ground-floor. There was an open space to the arched
ceiling above, forty or fifty feet. High windows east
and west insured plenty of ventilation, and the place
was sweet and clean. The building was opened June
4th with some expectation of success. The difficulty
was that the fashion of going for marketing to Market
Street was so deeply rooted in popular practice that a
new place could not draw away the custom. There
had been no diminution in the accommodations in
High Street. As long as the market-houses remained
there was no hope of making business elsewhere. The
property afterward went into the possession of the
city, and was known as the City Armory. In 1884 it
is to be given up to the battalion of State Fencibles.
Besides the Broad Street Market-House the same
parties erected the Race Street Market-House, on
the south side of Race Street, between Juniper Street
and an alley, by which it was separated from the rear
end of the Broad Street Market. The Race Street
Market was expected to be in use by venders of
vegetables and other matters. It also proved to be a
failure, and was bought by the city of Philadelphia
subsequently, and used during the war of the Rebel-
lion as an arsenal for the storage of cannon and arms
belonging to the city.
Franklin Pierce, President of the United States,
passing through the city to New York upon the occa-
sion of the opening of the Crystal Palace Exhibition
in that city in July, was received with the usual
courtesies. Attended by his Secretary of War, Jefferson
Davis, his Attorney -General, Gen. Caleb Cushing, and
others, he was taken on board the steamboat "John
Stevens" at Wilmington, and brought to the city
with the customary ceremonies of firing salutes, dis-
play of flags, etc. There was a military procession of
three brigades, a reception at Independence Hall by
the mayor of the city, a dinner given by Councils at
the Merchants' Hotel, and other civilities.
New railroad enterprises which sought the means
of success in the public treasury came forward in this
year. The building of a railroad between the town
of Suubury and the city of Erie, in Pennsylvania, had
been frequently advocated as a measure of importance,
which would bring to the city the trade of the great
lakes. A company for the building of such a railroad
was incorporated April 3, 1837. It had been fre-
quently assisted by the passage of other favorable laws
between that time and 1853. The arguments in favor
of building the road, which could be connected with
the State road to Columbia, or with the Pennsylvania
Railroad when built, were quite convincing, but the
subscriptions were slow. The success of the subscrip-
tions to the Pennsylvania Railroad stock by the city
and districts of Philadelphia stimulated a movement
to obtain a similar favor for the Sunbury and Erie.
The amount of private subscriptions to the latter in
1853, when the city was applied to for assistance, was
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
709
one million seven hundred and forty-five thousand dol-
lars. An ordinance directing a subscription on behalf
of the corporation was passed in this year, which di-
rected that when an additional subscription of one mil-
lion dollars was secured by the company the city would
subscribe to the amount of one million dollars in ad-
dition, with the like subscription when another mil-
lion dollars had been obtained. Only two weeks
afterward Councils passed an ordinance suspending
the subscription, and directing the mayor not to make
it. The reason given was that the board of directors
of the company had broken its pledges to the city.
The officers of the railroad company, disappointed by
this unexpected circumstance, boldly applied to the
County Commissioners for subscriptions to the amount
of two million dollars. Those officers assuming that
they had power to comply, undertook to do so.
City Councils passed resolutions of remonstrance, and
appointed a committee to proceed to Harrisburg and
present the protest to the members of the Legislature
from Philadelphia, composing the county board. The
latter had authority to sit in Harrisburg when the
Legislature was in session. They refused to sanction
the subscription. Months afterward the object was
accomplished by the passage of an ordinance by the
city authorizing a subscription to the Sunbury and
Erie Eailroad Company of nine hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. The district of Richmond sub-
scribed five hundred thousand dollars.
The Hempfield Railroad Compauy was more fortu-
nate. That company was chartered for the purpose
of building a railroad from Greensburg in Pennsylva-
nia to Wheeling in Virginia. Greensburg was on
the route of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh,
and it was argued that by this communication the
trade of the Ohio would be reached, and railroad
connection established with the city of Cincinnati.
The city made a subscription of five hundred thou-
sand dollars, and Spring Garden one hundred thou-
sand dollars. The investment was unlucky. The
enterprise turned out disastrous, and the whole
amount of money paid was lost.
The Northwestern Railroad Company, which was
incorporated Feb. 9, 1853, was also an applicant for
city and district subscriptions. The city of Phila-
delphia was induced to subscribe one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. This was an abortive specula-
tion also, and the amount paid was lost. The road
was intended to commence at some point on the Al-
leghany Portage Railroad, at or west of Johnstown,
by way of Butler to the Pennsylvania and Ohio State
line, at some point on the western boundary of Law-
rence County.
On December 8th of this year a measure of reform
long needed was resolved upon. In popular language
High Street was always called Market Street, Mul-
berry was known as Arch Street, Sassafras as Race
Street, and Cedar as South Street. In deeds and in
ordinances they were invariably designated by the
ancient name. After one hundred and seventy years
of attempt to bring the legal titles into common use,
Councils abandoned the contest and gave to those
streets their popular names. West of Broad Street a
reform was also effected. The streets running north
and south were numbered from the Schuylkill, a
method which had always been confusing to stran-
gers. It was resolved to give them new names.
Schuylkill Eighth became Fifteenth Street, and the
others proceeded in regular order to the river Schuyl-
kill. Schuylkill Seventh was changed to Sixteenth',
Schuylkill Sixth to Seventeenth, Schuylkill Fifth to
Eighteenth, Schuylkill Fourth to Nineteenth, Schuyl-
kill Third to Twentieth, Schuylkill Second to Twenty-
first, Schuylkill Front to Twenty-second, and Ashton
Street to Twenty-third Street.
On the 12th of January a startling assassination
took place in the most crowded part of the city and
almost in the sight of persons on the sidewalk.
Joseph Rink, who kept a small toy and variety shop
on Chestnut Street below Ninth, was stabbed behind
his counter and almost immediately killed. The
perpetrator fled. He was pursued by some person
who saw his hasty departure, but escaped. A dirk-
knife covered with blood was found on the counter,
and there was also found an old patched umbrella
somewhat broken. The goods in the store were par-
tially disarranged, as if there had been a struggle,
but nothing was found which at that time could re-
veal the mystery.
In less than three months, March 10th, Mrs. Honora
Shaw and Mrs. Ellen Lynch, two sisters, were found
dead in the house in which they resided, 260 Federal
Street, above Seventh. They had been alone in the
house that night, the other occupants being absent.
The bodies of the women were pierced with many
wounds, most of which had evidently been done with
a knife. But there were contused wounds, which
must have been produced by blows from some blunt
weapon. There was no difficulty in believing that
this missile was a piece of leaden pipe battered and
bent (having blood and hair upon it), which was found
in the room. The police authorities took up the
theory that the murder was perpetrated by some per-
son who was acquainted with the house, and had
probably been a visitor there. Arthur Spring, an
Irishman, was said to have been a visitor to one of
the women, Mrs. Lynch, and a few days before had
learned of her reception of a quantity of money,
about one hundred dollars, from her husband, who
was a sergeant of the United States marines, and
absent from the city. That robbery was the motive
was also shown by the fact that a trunk in another
room, which had held the money, was broken open
apparently by the use of a dirk-knife, a portion of
which was found on the floor. The lodgings of
Spring, on Market Street near the permanent bridge,
was searched. Some of his underclothing was cov-
ered with blood, and there was blood on his coat and
710
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
pantaloons. The principal witness against Spring
was his son, Arthur Spring, Jr., whose testimony
showed that the father had come home between ten
and eleven o'clock on the night of the murder, and
procured water, with which he attempted to wash out
stains of blood which were upon his shirt. He was
much excited and agitated. He gave to his son sev-
enty dollars in gold. The youth was surprised, and
asked whence it was obtained. The father told him
the circumstances of the robbery and murder, and
that he had set fire to the house in the hope that
when the bodies were found it would be supposed
that the women were suffocated. The next day he
sent the boy down to Federal Street, the scene of
the murder, to ascertain what was said among the
persons likely to be gathered around in the neigh-
borhood in reference to the deed. Spring was tried
March 21st, and his effort was to throw the guilt
upon his son. The latter was fortified with testi-
mony to show that he had been in or about the tavern
where himself aad father boarded all the evening of
the murder. This was proved so clearly that there
could be no doubt upon the point. The jury rendered
a verdict against Arthur Spring, the elder, of murder
in the first degree. Scarcely had the finding been
recorded before it was discovered that a person had
served upon the jury who was not on the regular
panel, and this under an assumed name. Charles
McQuillen, who had been regularly summoned as a
juror, did not care to attend. He handed the sum-
mons to Bernard Corr, a neighbor. Corr came to
court, answered to the name of McQuillen, and had
been impaneled and served on various juries for
sixty days previous. The court took the case in
hand. McQuillen was sent to prison for sixty
days for contempt of court, and Corr was fined
thirty dollars, which, under the law, was the great-
est punishment that could be inflicted upon him.
This trial had been upon a bill charging Spring with
the murder of Honora Shaw. Anther bill had been
found charging him with the murder of Ellen Lynch,
and on the 4th of April he was again tried and con-
victed of that crime. Up to this time and afterward
he had insisted that his son was the murderer, but
gradually his determination gave way, and he re-
vealed the place in which some of the stolen money
was hidden. A strange incident was connected with
an investigation before the grand jury, in which it
was proved that the old umbrella which was found
in the shop of Joseph Rink on the day he was mur-
dered had been the property of Arthur Spring. The
fact was proved by a person who had mended the
umbrella for Spring, with a curious arrangement of
wire, which he identified ; it was also shown that
Spring had carried the umbrella with him on the day
of the Rink murder, and he was identified as the man
who had fled from Rink's store just before the mur-
der was discovered by persons who saw him in his
flight. The grand jury made a presentment to be
placed on record that Arthur Spring, a convicted
felon, under sentence of death for the murder of
Ellen Lynch and indicted for the murder of Honora
Shaw, was the murderer of Joseph Rink. Sub-
sequently Spring confessed that he had been in
Rink's shop and that he was the owner of the um-
brella, but he denied that he had anything to do with
that murder. He was executed at Moyamensing
prison on the 10th of June, 1853.
On Saturday, June 29th, Christopher Soohan, thirty-
five years of age, was stabbed and killed at Swanson
Street and Swanson Court, near his residence. John
Capie and Carson Emmos were convicted of this
murder. They had attacked Soohan, who was par-
tially intoxicated, robbed him of a small sum of
money, and wounded him so that he died. The trial
took place on the 18th of February. The men were
sentenced to be hanged, but on account of some
doubt in the mind of the Governor they were never
executed, and were subsequently pardoned. In 1859
Capie was killed by a man named Robert Thompson,
with whom he had got into a quarrel. The latter
was tried, convicted in the first degree in 1860, and
sentenced to be hanged, but for some reason he never
was sent to the gallows.
A meeting was held on the 9th of January in favor
of the institution of a paid fire department. The
numerous riots and disturbances, the murders and
arsons which resulted from the rivalry of firemen,
were declared to be sufficient reasons for the abolition
of the volunteer system. It had been very useful and
respectable in its day, but a large number of the
companies were dominated by rough fellows, who
were much more ready to fight than to extinguish
fires. Good reasons were presented for the measure,
but it was too soon. Eighteen years more were ne-
cessary to roll by, carrying with them annual record
of misdemeanors, before the community was ready to
take a step so far in advance of old customs.1
The firemen generally protested against the meas-
ure, and their influence was very powerful.
On the 12th of February Concert Hall, a new
building erected partially as a music hall and for
balls, lectures, and other entertainments, was opened
on Chestnut Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth,
on the north side, on the site of the former Gothic
mansion and St. John's Catholic Orphans' Asylum.
The lower portions of the building and the third
story were occupied by the owner, George W. Wat-
son, a carriage-builder, for purposes of his business.
The opening entertainment was a grand concert,
in which Madame Sontag and others participated.
The exhibition-room was in the second story, and
extended nearly from Chestnut Street to Clover
1 The volunteer fire department was aboliBhed by ordinance passed
in 1870. The Board of Commissioners of the fire department met and
organized Jan. 3, 1871. They were over two months in arranging the
details of the new system, and on March 15th the paid fire department
went into operation.
PROGRESS PROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
711
Street, in the rear. There was a stage at the north
end, used by musicians, lecturers, and performers, and
a small gallery at each end. The seats for the audi-
ence were mainly upon the floor. On the sides of the
room, near the wall, they were placed on platforms.1
In the month of November, Councils having passed
an ordinance directing the demolition of the market-
houses on Market Street, that work was performed
between Front Street and Eighth, and in West
Market Street, between Schuylkill Eighth and
Schuylkill Sixth Streets.
The yellow fever made its appearance in 1853
under peculiar conditions, and its progress was marked
by different circumstances than were usual upon the
introduction of malignant epidemics. The bark
"Mandarin," which had sailed from Cienfuegos, in
Cuba, lost two of the crew on the voyage by yellow
fever. At the Lazaretto the crew were found to be in
good health. The ship was put through the usual
processes of ventilation, cleansing, fumigation, and
the destruction of the clothing of the deceased sailors.
After three days the vessel came up the river and
took a berth at South Street wharf. Three days after-
ward, July 16th, the position was changed to the first
pier below Lombard Street, where the cargo was dis-
charged. On the 20th the vessel dropped down to the
first pier above Almond Street, and remained there
until the 26th, when she was removed for purification
by order of the Board of Health. While the bark
was above South Street and Lombard Street wharf,
no disease seemed to have been developed among the
crew or the laborers on board the vessel engaged in re-
moving the cargo. The first case of fever, traceable
to the vessel, was that of Joseph Sharp, driver of a
furniture-car which generally had its stand at South
Street wharf. He was taken with the fever on the
19th of July, and died on the 26th. Capt. Robinson,
of the British brig " Effort," which lay in a dock ad-
joining the " Mandarin" at Walnut Street wharf, died
next. His death was followed by others who resided
near the dock where the vessel lay or had been in
that neighborhood. The great majority of cases
which afterward occurred were confined to the dis-
trict extending from a little north of Mead Alley,
Southwark, as far north as Union Street, in the city,
and west to Second Street. A few persons died at a
distance from the infected section, but careful inves-
tigation showed that every one of them before being
taken sick had been in the neighborhood of the wharf
at which the " Mandarin" lay. ' One death took place
in Lombard Street above Third, another on Tenth
Street above South, and another on Christian Street
above Eleventh. The epidemic prevailed from July
19th to October 12th, when the last death took place.
There were one hundred and seventy cases and one
hundred and twenty-eight deaths. The ratio of cases
1 This room, after several years' service, was abandoned for that pur-
pose June 10, 1879, and the space which had been occupied by the hall
was used for business purposes.
to population was estimated at one in two thousand
seven hundred and seventy-eight, and of deaths one
in every three thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight
in population. The most curious circumstance con-
nected with this visitation was that the fever was not
contagious through any infection that was communi-
cated from any person that was sick.2
Dr. Wilson- Jewell made a laborious investigation
of the particulars of every case of yellow fever which
had occurred, and traced the comings and goings, as
far as possible, of all who were stricken with the ill-
ness. There was no instance of the fever being com-
municated to the families or nurses of the sick. Yet
every one of the sufferers had been overtaken by a
contagious disease.
The Belvidere Delaware Railroad, which, by con-
nection with the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad,
insured a recommunication with Eastern Pennsyl-
vania, was formally opened on the 3d of February,
1854. It extended from Trenton to Phillipsburg, op-
posite Easton, a distance of fifty-four miles. There
was a celebration of the event by the Philadelphia
and Trenton Railroad Company. Citizens of Penn-
sylvania and of New Jersey were carried to Eas-
ton in twelve passenger-cars. At that place there
were artillery salutes, ringing of bells, and speeches,
winding up with a very good dinner, which was fol-
lowed by more speeches by Rodman M. Price, Gov-
ernor of New Jersey ; Charles Gilpin, mayor of Phila-
delphia ; Judge James M. Porter, of Easton ; Judge
McCartney, Col. R. P. Thompson, of Salem, N. J. ;
H. D. Maxwell, of Easton ; and John M. Kennedy,
of Philadelphia. A fine ball in the evening termi-
nated the rejoicings. The railroad was subsequently
extended to the Delaware Water Gap.
On the 5th of May the boilers of the steam tow-
boat " Pennsylvania," Capt. Joseph Scull, exploded,
when the boat was in the Delaware River, nearly op-
posite Florence, N. J. There were sixteen empty
canal-boats and barges in tow. The forward deck of
the boat was occupied by horses of the canal-boat
teams and some of the drivers. All persons who were
on the boat were either badly scalded or blown over-
board. Eight persons were killed and several more
badly injured. The " Pennsylvania" was the first
city ice-boat, and had become the property of the
Philadelphia Steam Tow-Boat and Navigation Com-
pany, and was used for towing purposes.
The steamship " Quaker City," intended for the
Philadelphia and Charleston line, was launched in
May. After a short experience in that service the
vessel was withdrawn.
The gallery of portraits of distinguished persons
by Charles Wilson Peale and others, which had been
for many years a valuable portion of the articles ex-
hibited in connection with his museum, was sold at
2 " Yellow or Malignant Bilious Fever in the Vicinity of South Street
Wharf, Philadelphia, in 1853," by Wilson Jewell, M.D., president of the
Board of Health.
712
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
auction, and brought $11,672.06. The city of Phila-
delphia purchased the rarest of these pictures to be
placed in Independence Hall.
An enterprise, which was almost entirely of Phila-
delphia origin, and which was controlled by Phila-
delphia capital, became sufficiently perfected for a
useful purpose on the 1st of July. This was the
Camden and Atlantic Eailroad, a work authorized
by charter received from the State of New Jersey.
It was intended to open a new communication with
the sea-coast, not so much for purposes of naviga-
tion and commerce as for the establishment of a
watering-place, with hope of employment for freight
purposes in the transportation of oysters, fish, and
game from the bays and sounds on the east coast of
New Jersey. From Camden the route of the railroad
was southwest to the town of Absecon, in New Jer-
sey, and thence to a narrow island, separated from
the meadows and mainland by sounds and estuaries,
which was called Absecon Beach. There were two
houses upon it at the time when the bold project was
resolved upon of establishing there upon the drifting
sand a city. One of these buildings was a small inn
or hotel, and the other the habitation of fishermen.
The Camden and Atlantic Eailroad was opened on
the 1st of July by an excursion, in which six hundred
persons participated. The United States Hotel at At-
lantic City was partly finished, and the celebration took
place there.1 The experiment seemed hopeless. It
was like building a railroad to nowhere. Yet the
projectors persevered. They had connected their
stock railroad interests with real estate purchases of
the lands on the beach. These became valuable. The
city, which was commenced in faith, was built by
works, and in the course of a quarter of a century it
became one of the most popular seashore towns in
New Jersey.
By act of April 28th, it was ordered that a house of
correction and employment for the city of Philadel-
phia should be established, with twelve managers, to
be appointed in equal numbers by the judges of the
Quarter Sessions, the judges of the District Court,
and the mayor and aldermen of the city. The title
of the corporation was " The Philadelphia House of
Correction and Employment." The managers had
authority to prepare plans and estimates for the proper
buildings, to be erected on the farm-lands of the alms-
house at Blockley or iu any other situation that they
might select, the ground not to exceed fifty acres in
extent, and the expense not to be more than one hun-
dred thousand dollars. All this was to be subject in
1 The officers of the meeting of excursionists, at which speeches were
made, were: President, Hon. Robert C. Grier, associate justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States; Vice-Presidents, Thomas Flam-
ing, Abraham Browning, Henry C. Carey, Thomas P. Carpenter, Rob-
ert Morris, A. H. SimmonB, J. P. Ten Eyck, John C. Montgomery, Ed-
ward Haines, John M. Odenheim'er ; Secretaries, James S. Wallace,
William H. Crump, Col. Wynkoop, Thompson Westoott, John Davis
Watson, Caspar Souder, Jr., J. England.
some degree to the control of Councils, which was to
furnish the money. The project was not carried out.
The managers and Councils disagreed in regard to
the manner, and finally the plan was by neglect quietly
allowed to die without effort in its behalf.
The Farmers', Drovers', and Butchers' Drove-yard
Company was incorporated by act of April 7th. Cor-
porators were Henry Imhoff, Jacob Frantz, Peter
Brough, William T. Feilis, Charles P. Bower, Fred-
erick Feithner, Henry K. Harnish, Peter Fisher, Ed-
ward Wartman, Ferdinand Geissler, Jacob Lentz,
Henry Boot, and Michael D. Wartman. They had
authority to " provide a place for the sale and safe-
keeping of cattle, sheep, swine, and other live stock."
Capital, fifty thousand dollars ; shares, fifty dollars
each. This company purchased the grounds, after-
ward called the Western Drove-yards, on Belmont
Avenue, extending nearly from the Lancaster road
to the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was in use for such
purposes for many years.
The Sixpenny Saving Fund of Philadelphia was
incorporated by act of May 5th, with a large number
of corporators. The object was to receive and take
care of deposits by mariners, tradesmen, clerks, me-
chanics, laborers, minors, servants, and others. There
was no restriction as to the amount that might be
received. The title was presumed to convey an in-
timation that much smaller deposits would be ac-
cepted than were taken by the other saving funds.
This society was established for some years at the
southwest corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets, but
finally wound up its affairs, paid its depositors, and
went out of business.
The Mount Moriah Cemetery Company was organ-
ized in this year as a private association. The parties
who established it bought ground about three miles
from Market Street bridge, on the bounds of Dela-
ware County, upon the Darby plank-road. They laid
out the inclosure in a proper manner, and had the
stock in market in the month of June. Shares, price
fifty dollars, payable in installments of five dollars
per month, entitled the holder to four hundred
square feet of ground. The officers were : President,
Bobert P. King ; Managers, Hon. William D. Kelley,
Dr. William Calvert, Edward Wiler, George H. Hart,
Francis Blackburne, James F. Johnston, John Mc-
Carthy, and Thomas Hope Palmer ; Treasurer, Wil-
liam Harbeson; Secretary, George Connell. The
office was at No. 108 Walnut Street. The company
was incorporated in a succeeding year.
There was trouble in this year in regard to propo-
sitions to put the police-force in uniform. The mar-
shal's police was strongly opposed to this innova-
tion. The silver star was not for them. They " did
not want to be put in a livery." In the latter part of
the year Mayor Conrad made a cautious movement
for the establishment of a uniform for the police by
commencing at the head, hoping to work down. His
decree was that every policeman should wear upon
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
713
his round hat a cover for the top, extending below it
a distance of about two inches. It was to be com-
posed of patent leather, and, having a shining surface,
the policeman could be readily recognized.
A new place of amusement was opened on the
north side of Oallowhill Street, between Fourth and
Fifth. The building and ground of the Second Uni-
versalist Church were purchased for the purpose. The
interior was torn out, the arrangements entirely
changed, and on September 11th the place was opened
as the City Museum, under the management of Ash-
ton & Co. The first floor was appropriated for the
display of curiosities in natural history and natural
science, pictures, portraits, and other representations.
The second floor was fitted up for dramatic perform-
ances. The stage was fifty-six feet deep and thirty-
three feet wide at the north end of the building.
The audience were accommodated in a parquet and
one tier of boxes. The former was large, seventy
feet in depth and fifty-seven feet wide. Altogether
this was quite a handsome establishment; the theatre
was neat and attractive.1
On the 4th of December a new place of entertain-
ment was opened at the southeast corner of Eleventh
and Marble Streets, below Market. A building which
had been for years occupied by the First Reformed
Presbyterian Church at the corner of Eleventh and
Marble Streets was sold, and altered for the pur-
poses of a music hall, and opened December 4th as
the Lyceum, by H. S. Cartee. It has been employed
for such purposes ever since, and has been a popular
and successful establishment.2
On the 15th of December the upper portion of the
armory of the military company of National Guards,
Chestnut Street, between Fifth and Sixth, was burned.
The loss was three thousand dollars.
The movement in favor of the consolidation of the
city and districts had increased during the interven-
ing years from the time it was first agitated. One
meeting at least in favor of consolidation took place
every year. The question worked itself into local
politics in a manner quite unpleasant to the feelings
of partisans, whose great object was to be put in
power, with authority to do as they pleased and dom-
inate the measures which they advocated for their
1 The City Museum Theatre waB opened with an inaugural address by
James Rees and Shakespeare's comedy " As You Like It," and the farce,
" Sketches in India." John E. McDonough was manager of the theat-
rical department. John Robinson acting and general manager. The
drop-curtain, representing a view of Fairmount, was inclosed within a
frame, on which were painted portraits of American actors and actresseB
by Peter Grain. The professor of natural sciences having charge of the
museum was Dr. Montroville W. Dickeson. This enterprise was mod-
erately successful during the first season, but did not obtain a profitable
popularity. The house was burned Nov. 25, 1868, having, in the mean
while, gone through many changes of fortune. It was reconstructed
afterward, and opened afterward for German performances under the
title of the Concordia Theatre.
2 This bouse was afterward known as Sanford's Opera House (mana-
ger, S. S. Sanford), and as the Eleventh Street Opera House, CarncroBS
and Dixey managers, and for some years has been managed under the
sole control of J. L. Carncross.
own purposes, under the pretense that they were ex-
pressions of the popular will. The friends of con-
solidation having discovered in the early part of their
campaign that many, if not all, the members of the
Philadelphia delegation in the General Assembly
were secretly, if not openly, opposed to the measure,
resolved to take the best means of convincing them
what the popular opinion was by edicts registered at
the polls. A system of interrogation of candidates
for the Legislature was resorted to. The persons
nominated by the old parties generally made favor-
able responses, but when they got into their seats at
Harrisburg they paid no attention to the matter.
This had been a subject of observation at the session
of 1853, and of indignation also. Measures were
taken to make neglect on the manifestation of treach-
ery to be more difficult thereafter. At the election in
1853 a better system in regard to nominations was es-
tablished. Thorough and known friends of consoli-
dation were nominated to the Legislature and some
of them elected, so that there could be less fraud ex-
ercised than in former years.
Before the meeting of the General Assembly the
committee on consolidation appointed by the town-
meeting drafted a bill to be laid before the Legisla-
ture, fixing the details of the measure. The bill pro-
vided that the city of Philadelphia, as limited by the
charter of 1789, should be enlarged by taking in all
the territory comprised within the county of Phila-
delphia. The incorporated districts were abolished.
Southwark, Northern Liberties, Kensington, Spring
Garden, Moyamensing, Penn, Richmond, West Phil-
adelphia, and Belmont ceased to have corporate ex-
istence. The boroughs of Frankford, Germantown,
Manayunk, White Hall, Bridesburg, and Aramingo
were deprived of their franchises. The townships of
Passyunk, Blockley, Kingsessing, Roxborough, Ger-
mantown, Bristol, Oxford, Lower Dublin, Moreland,
Northern Liberties (unincorporated), Byberry, Dela-
ware, and Penn were abolished, and all the franchises
and property of those governments transferred to the
city of Philadelphia. In order that this extraordi-
nary change should be complete, it was directed that
the board of police, the mayor and Councils of the
city then in existence, the commissioners and officers
of the districts, and the burgesses of the boroughs
should be superseded when the act went into effect.
Some of the executive officers were continued for their
terms and some of them for longer periods. The treas-
urer of the city was continued beyond his term some
time, in order to give opportunity for arranging finan-
cial affairs. The marshal of police was continued in
separate and independent jurisdiction.3 Other pro-
visions were adopted for temporary purposes, which,
8 The term of Marshal John K. Murphy expired in 1857. Before that
time it was agreed by many that, as the mayor was to be at the head of
police, another head, in the person of the marshal, was unnecessary. It
was therefore enacted that the office of marshal of police should be abol-
ished after the expiration of the term of the present incumbent.
714
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
when their action had ceased, did not interfere with
the perfect system. The new government was di-
rected to be composed of a mayor, a marshal of po-
lice, city treasurer, a city controller (a new office), a
receiver of taxes (another new office), and three city
commissioners, who took the place of county commis-
sioners, to be elected for specified terms, the Select
and Common Council.
The enlarged territory thrown into the city, much
of which had never been under any government other
than township officers and county commissioners, was
divided into twenty-four wards, twenty-three of which
lay east of the Schuylkill. Beginning at League
Island, the enumeration of the wards ran northward
in tiers. The First Ward extended from the Dela-
ware to the Schuylkill south of Wharton Street, Pas-
syunk road, Little Washington Street, and below
South Street, west of Broad. The Second, Third,
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Wards lay adjoining the
First Ward on the Delaware front as far "north as
Vine Street. The Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth
Wards were on the east side of the Schuylkill. The
Eleventh and Twelfth Wards (old Northern Liberties)
extended as far north as Poplar Street. The Thir-
teenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth took in nearly the
whole of Spring Garden. The Sixteenth, Seven-
teenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Wards were
originally portions of Kensington and Richmond.
The Twentieth Ward took up the district of North
Penn and ground belonging to the unincorporated
Northern Liberties. The Twenty-first Ward was
above the Twentieth, on the east side of the Schuyl-
kill, and included the township of Roxborough and
the borough of Manayunk. The Twenty-second Ward
included the borough and township of Germantown
and the township of Bristol. All the rest of the
county east of the Schuylkill was the Twenty-third
Ward, including Frankford, Holmesburg, Bridesburg,
Aramingo, Byberry, Moreland, and Lower Dublin
townships. The Twenty-fourth Ward was composed
of Blockley and Kingsessing.
Each ward was to elect to Common Council three
members, except the Seventeenth and Twenty-third,
each of which might elect four. The Select Council
was to be composed of one member for each ward.
After the year 1855 it was directed that elections to
Common Council should be in the ratio of one mem-
ber for every twelve hundred taxable inhabitants, and
one for any fraction over six hundred. The Select
councilmen were to serve for two years, and the Com-
mon councilmen for one year. The provisions of laws
in force in reference to the offices of sheriff, coroner,
recorder of deeds, register of wills, clerks and pro-
thonotaries of the courts, remained unchanged. The
duty of electing officers of various departments in much
larger number than had ever been done before was
also authorized. The citizens of each ward were to
elect for the ward one member of the Board of Health,
increasing the numbers of those officers to twenty-
four for the whole city. Twelve directors of the public
schools to serve for one, two, and three years were
ordered to be chosen by all the wards except the
Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and Twenty-third, for
which some special provisions were made. Each
ward also selected two aldermen, two constables, and
two assessors. The mayor was to be elected for two
years, and to have the full power in the suppression
of riots or disturbances that the sheriff had under any
law or statute. The mayor had authority to sign or
to veto ordinances passed by Councils. If objected
to, an ordinance might be passed notwithstanding his
veto by a vote of two-thirds. This important law
was introduced at Harrisburg early in the session,
and pressed with so much vigor that it was passed on
the 2d of February, 1854.
The probability, which amounted almost' to a cer-
tainty, that the bill would be got through the Legis-
lature had a tendency in the districts to encourage
a wild saturnalia of running in debt. It was proba-
ble that in a short time each district would cease to
have existence. There were many schemes which
were selfishly urged with the object of " making im-
provements" and pushing properties on the various
districts which the consolidated city would have to
pay for. The district of Southwark led off in the
dance in January by purchasing on credit the Miller
lot in Southwark, extending from Third to Fourth
and from Washington to Federal Street, which was
afterward called Jefferson Square. The Councils of
the city held a special meeting on the 30th of Jan-
uary, the consolidation law being very nearly certain,
at which money was voted for the purchase of six
lots of ground for building market-houses thereon.1
1 They were situate as follows : Broad below Race Street, and Race
east of Broad Street; northwest corner Race and Crown Streets; be-
tween Spruce and Pine and Twentieth and Twenty-first Streets; east
side Sixteenth between Filbert and Jones Streeta (afterwards the arsenal
lot) ; northwest corner of Locust and Juniper Streets ; west side of Sixth
between Barclay Street and Middle Alley. Only two of these properties
(at Broad and Race Streets) was ever put to the proposed uBe. They
remained for many years idle, moBt of them producing no revenue.
The following is a summary of the extra expenditures authorized by
the districts with the full expectation that the new city would have to
pay the piper. Within thirty days between the assembling of the Leg-
islature and the passage of the consolidation act nearly four millions
and a half of dollars were added to the city debt for objects which were
not of pressing necessity, and which would not have been considered or
favored if the public affairs had been expected to stand on the old
foundation. The following comprises a list of some, but not all of them :
City. Sunbury and Erie Railroad subscription 82,000,000
Six lots for market-houses 650,000
Estimated expense for building the same 250,000
Southwark. The Miller lot, Fourth and Washington Streets,
for a public Bquare 85,000
Grading and preparing the same, estimated 15,000
Culvert in Reed Street 60,000
Northern Liberties. Subscription to the North Penn. Rail-
road Company 500,000
Kensington. For paving and culverts, estimated 150,000
Richmond. Subscription to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad
Company 500,000
For building seven bridges, estimated G3,000
Germantown. For a lot and town hall 100,000
Paving 7,000
Frankford. Paving 7,000
Purchase of the Shallcrosa property 7,000
West Philadelphia. Paving 13,000
Loan for improvements 40,000
Total $4,447,000
PROGRESS FROM 1825 TO THE CONSOLIDATION IN 1854.
715
The passage of the bill was the cause of great re-
joicing. The committee which had prepared it was
of opinion that some celebration of the important
event would be proper. Very complete arrangements
were made. The Governor and Legislature and the
chief officers of State were invited to visit the city of
Philadelphia, to participate in the ceremonies. The
Board of Tirade had made arrangements for a steam-
boat excursion on the river Delaware, to show the
officers and representatives of the commonwealth the
extent of the city front on that stream. The steam-
boat " Robert F. Stockton," on the 11th of March, car-
ried them down the river to Bow Creek, and return-
ing, passed up the stream to Poquessing Creek, the
northern boundary of the city. There were salutes,
a banquet in the cabin, and speeches by Samuel
V. Merrick, of the Board of Trade, Morton McMichael,
Col. William C. Patterson, Thomas B. Florence, Gov-
ernor William Bigler, Cook, of Westmoreland, E. B.
Chase, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Roberts, of Fayette, Monaghan, of Chester, and Judge
James Burnside, of the Supreme Court. The party
landed at the navy-yard, inspected the new dry-dock
and other works, and was finally landed at Walnut
Street wharf. In the evening the Consolidation Ball
took place at the Museum building, occupying both
saloons. They were elegantly decorated with flags,
evergreens, flowers, an extra profusion of gas-fixtures,
and other effects. The supper took place in the lower
saloon. The decorations of the table were more pro-
fuse than had ever been seen on a, like occasion in
the city. The number of persons who partici-
pated was estimated to be from three thousand to four
thousand. On the next day, March 12th, the city of
Philadelphia gave a banquet to the guests at Sansom
Street Hall. Morton McMichael was president, and
the Governor, United States and State senators, mem-
bers of Congress, members of the State Legislature,
judges of the Supreme Court, and others were guests.
Under the directions of the act of Assembly the
first election for mayor, members of Councils, and
other officers was to take place on the first Tuesday
of June, 1854. Politics at this time were in a mixed
condition. The Whig party was essentially dead,
but shrewd people were operating with the skeleton
of the defunct. Apparently there were only two
nominees for the office of mayor, — Robert T. Conrad,
Whig, and Richard Vaux, Democrat. Before the
election there were rumors that a new force un-
known in politics was about to come in action. A
Beside these appropriations efforts were made to obtain others. la
Penn District there was an attempt to get an appropriation of three
hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars for the purchase of the Gratz
estate, in the neighborhood of Master, Jefferson, and Oxford Streets,
west of Broad, for the purposes of a public park. In West Philadelphia
it was proposed to buy the Powelton eBtate, between Market Street
and Bridge [Spring Garden] Street, for seventy-five thousand dollars, the
ground to be appropriated for a public park. But the popular indigna-
tion had been so aroused by the other appropriations that these plans
were not successful.
mysterious association secret in character, which bore
among its members some high-sounding title, was
nicknamed by persons who did not belong to it " the
Know-Nothing organization," or "the Know-Nothing
party."1 Conrad had the support of the " Know-Noth-
ing's," and when the ballots came to be counted it
was found that he had 29,507 votes, and Richard
Vaux 21,011. Conrad was sworn into office on the
first Monday of July, and the city of Philadelphia
with enlarged boundaries had fairly entered upon the
experiment of a new government. City Councils or-
ganized on the same day. There were twenty-four
members of Select Council, and they elected John P.
Verree, of the Eighteenth Ward, president, Edmund
Wilcox clerk, and Joseph Wood, Jr., assistant clerk.
The Common Council was composed of seventy-four
members. John H. Diehl was elected president, and
John M. Riley clerk, and C. W. Steele and John Q.
Adams assistants. One of the first duties of Councils
was to ascertain how the city stood financially.2
Something was received from the various districts.
The departments of the city and districts handed over
1 The name Know-Nothing was applied to this organization because
the members were ordered to reply to any question in regard to the
party or its purposes, "I don't know." In the same way Sam was a
nickname for the same party, which was applied frequently to personB
suspected of being members, of whom it was said they had " seen Sam."
2 The full amount of the city debt was found to be by report of a com-
mittee in the latter part of the year to be $17,108,343.79, as follows :
I Funded Debt
of the City
and Districts.
Late City of Philadelphia. ...
County of Philadelphia
Southwark
Moyamensing
Northern Liberties
Kensington
Richmond
Penn District
Frankford
Belmont
West Philadelphia
Bridesburg
Spring Garden
Germantown
Blockley
Guardians of the Poor..
52,441,300.00
1,815,177.93
492,200.00
113,862.15
341,000.00
726,563.22
304,839.40
271,902.92
61,612.33
20,000 00
376,110.80
2,500.00
1,097,371.00
43,000.00
2,000.00
642,904.04
Total 88,758,343.79 $8,350,000.00 817,108,343.79
Railroad.
Subscrip-
tions.
86,100,000.00
1,000,000.00
500,000.00
750,000.00
Total.
88,541,000.00
1,815,177.93
492,200.00
113,862.15
1,341,000.00
720,563.22
804,839.40
271,902.92
61,012.33
26,000.00
376,110.80
2,500.00
1,847,371.00
43,000.00
2,000.00
642,904.04
A heavy portion of this was for railroad subscriptions, as follows:
Pennsylvania Railroad, $5,000,000; North Pennsylvania Railroad,
81,400,000; Hempfleld Railroad, $600,000 ; Sunbury and Erie Railroad,
$1,200,000; Northwestern Railroad, $150,000; Schuylkill River Rail-
road, $5000. Of these the Hempfleld Railroad and Northwestern Railroad
proved to be utter failures, and the whole subscription was lost. The
Sunbury and Erie Railroad, although in better condition, and put into
operation, has not, up to 1884, paid a dividend. The city also came into
possession of the following stocks: West Philadelphia Canal stock and
loan, amount 810,000; Philadelphia Tow-Boat Company, $7600; Schuyl-
kill Permanent Bridge Company, balance, $1536 ; Blockley and Merion
Plank-road Company stock, amount $10,000; Belmont Avenue Plank-
road Company, $10,000; Branchtown and Germantown Road, $100;
Moyamensing Gas Company, 500 Bhares, worthless ; Arbon Land Com-
pany, 240 shares, worthless ; Haverford Plank-road Company, 80 shares ;
Philadelphiaand West Chester Turnpike Company, SO shares ; Delaware
County Turnpike-road Company, 80 shares.
716
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
in the course of 1855, leGG^m1 The treasurers of
the city and districts and county officers turned in
$422,399.49.2 The city also came into possession of a
large amount of real estate. Beside the State-House,
court-houses, and public offices, and the tobacco ware-
house, dwellings and stores, there were nine Com-
missioners' halls and town halls, lock-ups, station-
houses, almshouse and township poor-houses, county
prison, several farms and properties used for town-
ship and district school-houses, the Lazaretto sta-
tion and grounds, the city hospital, forty-nine sec-
tions of market-houses, the two market-houses at
1 Amounts paid into the city treasury from heads of departments and
officers of the late city and corporations other than city or district treas-
urers for debts due those corporations np to the time of the consolidation
of the city and districts :
City treasurer 8130,981.09
Spring Garden 27,726.92
Southwark 8,004.64
Moyameusing 7,977.48
Kensington 30,493.98
Richmond 11,006.37
Horthern Liberties 2,600.66
Penu District 17,278.81
German town 11,261.34
Frankford 2,149.43
Manayunk 100.00
Blockley township 520.98
Belmont 42.00
Lower Dublin 82.58
Bristol township 87.31
Aramingo 41.10
Unincorporated Northern Liberties 1.06
Moreland township 41.15
Guardians of the Poor 6,605.35
Board of Health 550 60
County of Philadelphia 216,723.94
West Philadelphia 1,402.84
— $476,338.53
State appropriation to public schools 30,430.05
Poor taxes in settlement of duplicates 18,366.27
Wharf rents, Northern Liberties 1,187.50
Board of Health 10,700.00
Collections by city solicitor for debts due late
city and corporations 58,735.14
119,418.96
County taxes, 1853 37,662,27
School taxes, 1853 20,485.82
Corporation taxes, 1653 9,314.99
Registered taxeB 998.55
Outstanding debts late District Kensington 2,600.07
71,061.70
Total 8666,819.19
2 The following were the receipts from the city and district treas-
urers :
Funds received from the treasurer of the city districts and corpora-
tions at the time of consolidation :
City balance in hands of mayor, aldermen, eto $102,370.98
City from other sources 2,420.28
Southwark 3,171.43
Northern Liberties 1,167.63
Kensington 4,281.14
Spring Garden 10,445.62
Moyameusing 2,696.55
Penn District 10,328.25
Richmond 1,292.29
Germantown 11,261.34
West Philadelphia 659.58
Unincorporated Northern Liberties 1.06
Frankford 1,685.60
Moreland 41.25
Bristol 87.31
Lower Dublin 82.58
Manayunk 100.00
Blockley 520.98
Board of Health 550.60
Guardians of the Poor 6,358.17
Aramingo 41.10
$159,513.64
Amount received from other sources but due late city and
corporations prior to consolidation 35,471.80
Taxes, rents, etc., due the late city and corporations paid in
1864 after consolidation 227,414.05
$422,399.49
Broad and Eace Streets, purchased in the early part
of 1854, twelve public landings in the city, five in
Northern Liberties, six in Kensington, eight in So"uth-
wark, three in Eichmond, and fifteen public landings
belonging to the city on the Schuylkill, Girard Col-
lege, city gas-works, water-works of the city, Spring
Garden, and Kensington, bridges over the Schuylkill
Eiver, the high school at the corner of Broad and Green
Streets, the normal school in Sergeant Street below
Tenth, and one hundred and fifty-seven school-houses
and lots, ten public squares, a church building on
Crown Street above Eace, purchased for a market but
never used, and a considerable number of lots of
ground, stores, dwelling-houses, etc., the value of
which could not conveniently be estimated.
The debts due to the city and districts other than
taxes, etc., at the time of consolidation were one hun-
dred and fifty-six thousand five hundred and sixty
dollars.3
Beside the mayor the following officers were chosen
at the spring election of 1854: City Solicitor, Isaac
Hazlehurst; City Controller, John N. Henderson;
Eeceiver of Taxes, John M. Coleman; City Treas-
urer, John Lindsay, remained in office by act of As-
sembly. The new departments were organized as
follows : Water Department, Chief Engineer, Fred-
erick Graff; Department of Highways, Chief Com-
missioner, Thomas Birch; City Property, Commis-
sioner, John Diehl ; Girard Trust, Treasurer, Charles
S. Smith ; City Surveyors and Eegulators, Principal,
Spencer Bonsall; Inspectors of the Philadelphia
County Prison, President, E. Y. Farquhar ; Board of
Health, President, Wilson Jewell, M.D. ; Guardians
of the Poor, President, Frederick M. Adams ; Direc-
tors of Girard College, President, Samuel H. Perkins ;
Girard Trust, Treasurer, Charles S. Smith; Master
Warden of the Port, Jared Ketcham ; Harbor Mas-
ter, William Bice; Controllers of the Public Schools,
President, Thomas G. Hollingsworth. At this time
the county officers were : Sheriff, Samuel Allen ;
Coroner, Joseph Delavau.
CHAPTEE XXV.
PROM THE TEAR OF CONSOLIDATION, 1854, TO THE
BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR.
The winter of 1854-55 was one of more than or-
dinary severity. In addition to the rigor of the season
the scarcity of employment among the poor tended
a They were as follows :
Moyamensing $14,950
Southwark 3,530
Old City 100
WeBt Philadelphia 62,200
Spring Garden 6,780
Richmond 16,780
Kensington $11,583
Penn District 6.303
Board of Health 778
City of Philadelphia „ 33,286
Total $166,560
These were put in suit by the city solicitor. He estimated in 1855
that fifty per cent, would be recovered.
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OP THE CIVIL WAR. 717
very much to the spread of suffering and destitution.
Early in the year 1855 Mayor Conrad presided at a gen-
eral meeting called for the purpose of relieving the dis-
tres • of the poorer classes. A proposition was also
made in Councils to set aside an appropriation for
them. The soup-houses and the various charitable or-
ganizations contributed not a little toward tiding over
the misery of the winter. It was at this time that the
thought occurred to many of the friends of public
benevolence that their object would be much better
promoted if all the societies which were devoted to
charity could be consolidated into one general organ-
ization. In the spring Matthew Newkirk presided
over a convention which was intended to further this
design of a union, but the delegates could not agree
upon a plan. There were too many interests to be
overcome. Even charity may be selfish, and prefer
to direct its own benevolence.
The lively interest with which the movements of
the famous singers in Italian opera — Mario and Grisi
— were regarded throughout the United States at this
time was felt in Philadelphia at the beginning of the
year among the fashionable circles of society. They
appeared in several popular operas at the Walnut
Street Theatre, the best seats in the house being sold
for three dollars apiece. The fact that the city did
not at this time possess a regular operatic stage on
which it could welcome these world-renowned artists,
went a long way toward suggesting the idea of an
Academy of Music, which was afterward realized
during this period, to be regarded with favor.
With the opening of the year- preparations were
made by the North Pennsylvania Railway Company
to establish a line of passenger cars drawn by horses.
On the 3d of January the company put them in ope-
ration on a route about a mile and a half in length,
extending from Willow Street along Front to Ger-
mantown road, thence to Second Street, to Cadwala-
der, to Washington Avenue, to Cherry Street, and
connecting at what was known as the " Cohocksink
depot." The experiment seems to have given great
satisfaction to those who were anxious to see the
lumbering omnibus superseded by a new mode of local
traveling, and the North Pennsylvania Company is
credited, in a contemporary account of the innova-
tion, with the honor of " being the first to introduce
the light, convenient, and useful city passenger cars."
These vehicles were fourteen feet long, seven feet
wide, and six feet four inches in height, and were
built to seat twenty-four persons.
The good-natured patriotism with which the pro-
ject of a Washington monument at the national
capital has always been regarded by the people of
this city, was exemplified toward the close of Janu-
ary, when several marble blocks, prepared under the
direction of Maj. Peter Fritz, were forwarded to Wash-
ington. Two of these stones were presented by the
firemen of Philadelphia. On one of them was a rep-
resentation of the Fairmount Water- Works, together
with figures of a hose-carriage, an engine, and a hook
and a ladder; on another were the names of the com-
panies that had contributed thirty dollars apiece to
the monument fund. Another block, for which the
actors and actresses had raised a subscription, was
presented in the name of the " ladies and gentlemen
of the dramatic profession in America."
The war which England and France were waging
against Russia in the Crimea was watched with the
deepest interest in Philadelphia. During the winter
the suspicion became noised about that the agents of
the English government were busy in shipping off
from our ports recruits who had been enlisted in this
country for the queen's armies. Citizens of Irish
extraction were particularly anxious to ascertain
whether there was any truth in these reports. ,
Finally, however, sufficient information was col-
lected to justify United States Marshal Wynkoop in
boarding the steamer " Sanford" as it was proceed-
ing down the Delaware on its way to New York.
Thirteen men were captured on the 28th of March,
and the alleged recruiting-officers were detained in
custody. It was asserted that they had already for-
warded sixty enlisted men, but their business seems
to have been pretty effectually broken up by this
movement of the Federal authorities.
On the last night of January what came near being
a very serious calamity happened in Moyamensing
prison. A great flow of coal-gas escaped from a de-
fective heating apparatus, and found its way into
many of the cells. When the officers of the institu-
tion became apprised of the trouble they discovered
thirty of the prisoners in a state of unconsciousness.
With the exception of one inmate, who was too much
overcome to be restored, they were all resuscitated.
The spring political campaign this year was, as the
conservative Ledger described it, a " queer affair.''
The Whig party was rapidly falling to pieces. Know-
Nothingism had not yet spent.its force. There was
a general restlessness among both the politicians and
the people. Thus, in some parts of the city, five or
six different tickets were in the field. These were
variously known under such cognomens as "Know-
Nothing," " Anti-Know -Nothing," " Regular Whig,"
" Clay Whig," " Whigs and Americans," " People's
Reformers," and " Citizens' Reformers." The subject
of Know-Nothingism seems to have chiefly occupied
the thoughts of the political leaders, the Whigs suf-
fering from serious divisions in consequence of the
attempt made to ally them with the fortunes of the
Native Americans. At the election which was held
on the 1st of May only two officers were voted for,
city treasurer and city commissioner, — both of which
offices were captured by the Native Americans by
small majorities.
The Mexican war was still fresh in the memory of
the people, and the anniversary of the battle of Cerro
Gardo, on the 18th of April, was not allowed to pass
unnoticed. The Scott Legion had caused a hand-
718
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
some marble monument to be erected in Glenwood
Cemetery, and its dedication was the occasion of a
military parade, the gathering of an immense crowd,
and an inspiring oration by Dr. Joel B. Sutherland.
During the month of May Governor Bigler met
with a hearty reception in a tour which he made
among the city's public institutions. At the Boys'
Central High School, on Broad Street, the exercises
were of a particularly interesting character. It was
at this time that a department of phonographic in-
struction was maintained in that institution, and two
of the pupils were detailed to report the Governor's
speech. The next day it appeared at length in the
daily journals. These young tyros in the reporter's
art were James J. Murphy and Joseph N. Wilson,
one since distinguished as the official reporter of the
United States Senate, and the other afterwards popu-
lar among younger Philadelphians as a professor in
the high school.
Mayor Conrad, on the 18th of May, sent to Coun-
cils his first message under the consolidation act.
Written in the excellent style which he impressed
upon official documents as well as upon ventures of
a more decided literary cast, it was largely devoted
to a discussion of the duties and responsibilities of
his organization of the new police-force. He was
inclined to be well satisfied with his work, although
he complains that the nine hundred men who made
up his force were insufficient for Philadelphia, with
its sixty thousand houses, and especially when com-
pared with New York's force of twelve hundred men
with but thirty-seven thousand five hundred houses,
occupying half as much area as Philadelphia. It
was his habit, unlike some of his successors, to 'visit
the station-houses in person and to call the rolls, in
order that he might become familiar with the men by
direct personal contact. He took great pride in the
standard of qualifications which he required of a man
who wished to become a policeman. These were that
the officer must be between the ages of twenty-three
and fifty; that he must be of "American birth," —
a rule which certainly was not long enforced, and
which was doubtless the extreme of Know-Nothing
doctrines, — that he must be able to read and write ;
that his character and habits must be pure; that he
must be invariably temperate, steadfastly courageous,
and always courteous. Although there was abundant
need of the services of a large body of policemen, —
for the city at this period was more turbulent than it
now is in proportion to the population, — there were
not a few complaints that it was too extravagant for
the municipality to maintain, and that it could, with-
out doing any harm, be reduced at least one-third in
number. The volunteer firemen, who had more or
less of an instinctive dislike to a policeman, were
generally disposed to adopt this opinion.
Up to this time the old hand-engine was still the
principal apparatus in the fire department. It was
soon, however, to be replaced by the steam fire-engine.
The contemplated improvement, with which one or
two other cities were already familiar, was not intro-
duced without considerable opposition. The firemen
themselves were not all disposed to welcome an in-
vention which, in lessening the labor required for the
extinguishment of a fire would, perhaps, lead to a
reduction of the number of volunteers. Citizens
who did not share this semi-professional interest in
the introduction of the new engine were ready to
recognize its superior merits. Accordingly, on the
12th of February, there was a great crowd assembled
at Dock Street wharf to witness the trial of the
"Miles Greenwood," an engine which had been built
in Cincinnati for the city of Boston, and which had
been permitted to remain here a few days for the
purposes of experiment. It was claimed for it that
it would throw a stream two hundred and forty feet
horizontal, and one hundred and thirty feet perpen-
dicular through a one-and-three-quarter-inch nozzle,
and although the result of the test did not come fully
up to this promise, the apparatus was looked upon
generally with admiration and surprise. Another
Cincinnati engine, the " Young America," was ex-
hibited on the 1st of June, in front of the Presbyte-
rian Church, on Arch Street above Tenth, and so suc-
cessful were its operations that Council's Committee
on Trusts and Fire Department recommended the
introduction of such engines into Philadelphia.
Nevertheless, it was nearly three years later, or on the
20th of January, 1858, that the first of these engines
was permanently established in the city by a volun-
teer organization, the Philadelphia Hose Company.
Within a year subsequent they had become numerous
enough to cease being spoken of as wonders.
The Wagner Free Institute of Science, corner Seven-
teenth Street and Montgomery Avenue, was opened by
Governor Pollock on the 21st of May. On an humbler
scale than that of the great institution which Peter
Cooper founded in New York, it has done a similarly
useful work in this community under the benevolent
direction and patronage of William Wagner.
The celebrated campaign which Henry A. Wise, of
Virginia, had successfully waged against the Native
American party in that State, was the occasion of a
great Democratic rejoicing in Independence Square
on the 31st of May, at which telegraphic congratula-
tions were exchanged with the Tammany Hall breth-
ren in New York, and at which Col. Thomas B.
Florence, William H. Witte, John Bobbins, and John
Cadwalader were the principal orators. During the
following week the Native American party held a
national council in this city, the deliberations of
which were conducted in secret, and which finally
broke up in a vain effort to reconcile differences of
opinion between the Northern and the Southern del-
egates on the subject of slavery. While the council
was in session the local leaders of the party invited
the delegates and guests to the number of five hun-
dred to a banquet in Sansom Street Hall. Among
PROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 719
the decorations the most conspicuous was a represen-
tation of " The Death of Shiffler.'' Mayor Conrad
presided at this festive gathering, and was assisted by
Benjamin H. Brewster. The presence of this gen-
tleman at the banquet called out, a few days later, a
public correspondence between him on the one side
and Lewis C. Cassidy and some other friends of Mr.
Brewster on the other. His course was somewhat
sharply referred to by them as " a surprise." On the
18th of the same month the Americans held another
great rally in Independence Square, and listened to a
speech by ex-Governor Neil S. Brown, of Tennessee.
On the 17th of July the steamboat " John Stevens"
caught fire at night, near White Hill, and was totally
destroyed. Five colored cooks perished in the flames.
On the night of the 4th of August the steamer "Gen-
eral McDonald" collided, near Fort Mifflin, with the
schooner " Peace," and eight persons were drowned.
These disasters were soon afterward supplemented
by a calamity which was productive of intense ex-
citement. On the morning of the 29th of August a
train, bound for New York on the Camden and
Amboy Railroad, had proceeded about a mile above
Burlington, when the engineer, catching sight of a
train approaching him on the same track, reversed
the movement of his engine. The rear car backed
into a wagon driven by Dr. Henikin, which was
crossing the track, and the train was hurled off the
rails by the collision. Twenty-three passengers were
killed, and twice as many more were wounded. The
victims comprised many merchants and other men
of local prominence, among them being the Baron de
St. Andre, the French consul at this port, and the
Rev. John McOonnell, of Delaware. The bitter
feeling which this catastrophe awakened against the
railroad company did not subside for several weeks.
It was largely instrumental in showing the necessity
of double tracks on railroads. The directors of the
road expressed themselves in favor of having it fenced
in, and issued an order that no train should hence-
forth exceed a speed of thirty miles an hour.
The first section of the North Pennsylvania Rail-
road, from Philadelphia to Gwynedd, a distance of
nineteen miles, was formally opened by an excursion
in which business men and councilmen participated
on the 2d of July.
Such had been the rapid progress of the railroad
system that, on the 16th of July, the announcement
was printed in one of the daily papers that " the last
mail-stage running from Philadelphia has made its
final trip."
Toward the close of the summer of 1855 the newly-
formed Republican party began to take root in Phil-
adelphia. There was a meeting on the 21st of Au-
gust of what was known as the " Democratic League,"
together with those "in favor of organizing a Repub-
lican party." William B. Thomas, who was the
principal leader of the movement, offered the resolu-
tions, which denounced slavery in warm terms, and
which called for a meeting on the 30th of the same
month to form a Republican association.
The dedication of the Masonic Hall, on Chestnut
above Seventh, was an event which was attended with
imposing ceremonies on the 27th of September. More
than four thousand members of the Masonic order
paraded in honor of the occasion, and for several days
the new hall was a subject of general talk. Many
thousands of people availed themselves of the oppor-
tunity, which was accorded them for a few days before
the dedication, of visiting the edifice.
At the election on the 9th of October the Demo-
cratic party was treated to a genuine surprise in the
election of pretty much its entire ticket in Philadel-
phia. The Native American, the Temperance, and
the Abolitionist elements were arrayed against it.
The combination was thought to be a strong one, and
the Democrats expected defeat. But the alliance
which the Americans had made with the temperance
men turned out to be more a source of weakness than
of strength. The Democratic local ticket, composed
of George Magee for sheriff, Charles W. Carrigan
for register of wills, and John Sherry for prothono-
tary of the Orphans' Court, was elected by an aver-
age majority of 1500. One of the first effects of this
Democratic triumph was seen a short time afterward
in a meeting at the Falstaff Hotel, which was called
to promote the interests of a Philadelphia Democrat,
George M. Dallas, as a candidate for President of the
United States.
Connected to some extent with the issues presented
at this election was the question of the enforcement
of the new Sunday liquor law, which had gone into
effect on the 1st of April, much to the dissatisfaction
of proprietors of taverns, oyster-houses, and other
places of refreshment and entertainment. The result
of Mayor Conrad's attempt to enforce this law was an
agitation which lasted for some time, and which was
accompanied by much bitterness of feeling. Indeed,
the feature by which Mayor Conrad's administration
is chiefly distinguished is the pertinacity with which
he insisted on the observance to the letter of all laws
that had for their object the suspension of labor and
of entertainment on Sunday. The Sunday newspa-
pers in particular were subjected to not a little oppo-
sition at his hands. The liquor interest during the
summer of 1855 tried to create an opinion in favor of
the repeal of the new law, and in September a pro-
hibitory liquor law convention was held for the op-
posite purpose of sustaining it. All the candidates
whom the friends of this movement favored were
beaten at the polls. In November, however, the
mayor created much excitement by committing for
trial a number of saloon-keepers for violating the
Sunday laws, he having directed his officers to enter
the saloons and drink liquor in order that they might
not lack evidence. These proceedings were upheld
at public meetings of clergymen and religious citi-
zens, while, on the other hand, they caused the mayor
720
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
to be subjected to much caricature, ridicule, and de-
nunciation.
The French actress, Rachel, who had come over to
this country at the height of her fame, played in
Corneille's " Les Horaces" at the Walnut Street
Theatre, on the 19th of November, to an audience
which failed to fill the house at three dollars a head.
Exposed to a draught, she is represented to have
contracted the sickness here which resulted in her
death. At any rate, this was her only appearance in
Philadelphia, her three sisters being the attractions
on the other nights of the engagement.
At the meeting of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery
Society, on the 11th of December, in Sansom Street
Hall, William Lloyd Garrison, who, with C. C. Bur-
leigh, E. M. Davis, and Lucretia Mott, was among
the speakers, denounced Philadelphia for its luke-
warmness in the Passmore Williamson case, and said
that the result would have been different had the
affair taken place in Boston. " A young man," Wil-
liam S. Pierce (afterwards Judge Pierce), replied to
Garrison, and defended the Republican party from
the agitator's attack upon it. The resolutions of the
society were especially emphatic in their denunciation
of Judge John K. Kane for his course in the William-
son trouble.
The remembrance of the terrible winter of 1856
is still vivid in the minds of Philadelphians who
witnessed its severities. They have a most lively
recollection of the experiences which were brought
about by the freezing of the Delaware River. Before
the middle of January that stream was frozen solid
from bank to bank, as far down, at least, as the
" Horseshoe Channel." Great multitudes of people
by day and night amused themselves in sleighing,
skating, promenading, flirting, or trafficking on its
icy surface. Numerous booths, bars, and tents were
erected by enterprising vendors, and gamblers with
their cards and dice, cleared away a space in the
snow for their seductive tables. On the 26th of Jan-
uary not less than twenty thousand people were esti-
mated to be participating in the diversions of winter
sport. Suddenly, opposite the upper wharves of the
city, a horse and sleigh with its occupants were seen
to disappear partially in an air-hole. The drowned
bodies were recovered, those of the widow of Col.
Peter Albright, of the Northern Liberties, and her
daughter. This melancholy occurrence did much to
check the popularity of the fun on the icebound river.
Such was the loss, not to speak of the embarrass-
ment, to which commerce was subjected by this em-
bargo, that on the 7th of February a meeting of
business men was held at the Board of Trade rooms,
in order to devise means of keeping the river open.
Professor Hare was in favor of blowing up the ice
with gunpowder. William S. Pierce was inclined to
think that the permanent remedy for the evil would
be to utilize League Island for the heavy shipping op-
erations of the port, inasmuch as it was situated at a
point where the river was comparatively free from
ice, and that by means of railroads it could be
brought within fifteen minutes' ride of Broad and
Market Streets. Finally, it was agreed to try the
gunpowder experiment on the 20th of February. It
was tested opposite the Point House Hotel, under the
direction of Professors Rogers and Frazer, and was a
failure. In the mean time the city ice-boat struggled
in vain to keep open a channel for navigation, and it
was not until the beginning of March that the ice
broke up sufficiently to enable the ships that had
been unable to reach the city to make some move-
ment up the stream.
But this blockade was not without a most calami-
tous sequel. On Saturday night, the 15th of March,
the ferry-boat " New Jersey," belonging to the Phila-
delphia and Camden Steamboat Company, left its slip
at Walnut Street wharf for Camden. Capt. Corson
headed the boat for the canal directly opposite, but
found that he could not enter it on account of the
vast masses of ice. He then turned the boat to the
north, with the intention of crossing the bar at the
upper end of Smith's Island. When the "New
Jersey" had reached this point, fire was discovered
near her smokestack. The one hundred passengers
became frantic with fear as they saw the flames spread
with inconceivable rapidity. The captain, again
changing his course, did his best to reach Arch Street
wharf. When within hardly more than thirty feet of
the shore the pilot-house fell in, and the boat became
utterly unmanageable in the ice. The flames drove
the passengers overboard, and the firemen and citizens
who lined the wharves were serviceable in rescuing
many of the unfortunates. Thirty dead bodies were
found, and there were, perhaps, many more who per-
ished, but who were never afterward seen. It was
some time before the public mind recovered from
the shock of this disaster. On investigation, it was
discovered that the boat was scantily equipped with
the appliances which the law required, and that
her boilers, the fireplace, and the brick-work sur-
rounding them had been in a defective condition.
Hardly had the sensation which the burning of
the "New Jersey" caused subsided than it was par-
tially revived, on the 29th of May, by the explosion
of the boiler of the steamer " Union" of the Ericsson
Line, near New Castle, and the killing of four men.
The victory at the October election of 1855 had
greatly elated the Democrats. The approach of a
Presidential election, together with the prospect of
wresting the mayoralty from the hands of the Native
Americans in the spring election of 1856, imparted to
them a strong degree of confidence. The first signs of
the waning of Know-Nothing influence were clearly
perceptible, while the downcast Whigs were almost
in the last stage of disintegration. The Republicans
were still a little band of hopeful enthusiasts, who
derived a large share of their inspiration from Wil-
liam B. Thomas.
FKOM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAK. 721
The Americans, however, had the benefit of what
stimulus could be gained from a Presidential con-
vention and the presence among them of their
national leaders. The opening session of this body,
which had been preceded for several days by the
meeting of the American National Council, was held
on the 22d of February. It was characterized by
not a little discord and confusion as to matters of
policy. Millard Fillmore, of New York ; " Sam"
Houston, of Texas ; Garret Davis, of Kentucky ;
Kenneth Raynor, of North Carolina; John Bell, of
Tennessee ; R. F. Stockton, of New Jersey ; Erastus
Brooks, of New York; and John M. Clayton, of
Delaware, had been named for the Presidential nomi-
nation ; but Fillmore's friends carried the convention
with little difficulty, and to his name joined that
of Andrew Jackson Donelson, of Tennessee, for
Vice-President. The local members of the American
party received the nominations with approval, and on
the 12th of March ratified them at Concert Hall, in
a meeting which was presided over by John M. Scott,
and which was addressed by William D. Baker, Charles
Gibbons, Henry M. Fuller, and Henry D. Moore.
The Fillmore and Donelson men had a large vari-
ety of candidates for mayor to select from, among
them being named E. Joy Morris, John P. Verree,
O. P. Cornman, W. B. Mann, John Welsh, William
Welsh, Isaac Hazlehurst, Charles D. Freeman,
George F. Gordon, James C. Hand, Henry D.
Moore, and Peter Fritz. Mr. Hand, who was first
nominated, declined, and made way for Henry D.
Moore. With him were associated on the ticket F.
Carroll Brewster, for city solicitor, and S. Snyder
Leidy, for city controller. The Whig convention
named John Thompson for mayor, William S. Price
for city solicitor, and Benjamin Huckel for con-
troller, but not without the opposition of those old-
line Whigs who were drifting over to the Democratic
party. It was on this occasion that Josiah Randall
declared that "if the contest shall be between the
Know-Nothings and the Democrats, I will vote with
the Democrats," and William B. Reed, the coolest
and ablest of the Whig leaders, also gave out inti-
mations to the same effect. Not long afterward, how-
ever, the Whig ticket was entirely withdrawn through
the influence of Reed, accompanied by the declaration,
which was in the nature of a final dissolution, that
" every individual member was left free to pursue his
own course" in the coming election.
The Democrats unanimously nominated Richard
Vaux for mayor, and placed on the ticket William
A. Porter for city solicitor, and Stephen Taylor for
controller. They were all followers of the rising star
of James Buchanan. That statesman, then in the
zenith of his popularity, was on his way home from
the court of St. James, with the avowed purpose of
prosecuting his Presidential fortunes. The Philadel-
phia Democrats had sent an instructed Buchanan
delegation to the State convention after having com-
46
plimented their townsman, Mr. Dallas, and the State
convention, in its turn, had named a solid Buchanan
delegation to the national convention. As soon as
it was known that Mr. Buchanan had arrived in the
United States, preparations were made to give him a
reception in Philadelphia. A few weeks before Ed-
ward Everett, whose lecture on Washington had been
delivered at Musical Fund Hall, had been permitted
to hold a public reception in Independence Hall. Mr.
Buchanan's friends were anxious that he should have
the same privilege and honor, but the political oppo-
sition was dominant in Common Council, and it tartly
refused the request. The reception was therefore held
at the Exchange, the address of welcome being de-
livered by William Welsh. On the same evening
there was a banquet at the Merchants' Hotel, and
among those who replied to toasts were William B.
Reed, John W. Forney, Morton McMichael, and
George M. Wharton, the head^of the table being oc-
cupied by Josiah Randall.
The campaign for mayor between Mr. Vaux and Mr.
Moore was hotly contested. The Democratic canvass
in particular was managed with great vigor. One of
the flaming pronunciamentos of Mr. Vaux's follow-
ers bore this inscription : " No increase of taxes ! No
excursions of Councils ! No Free Dinners ! No Free
Rum at expense of Councils ! No Free Cigars I No
Free Hack Hire ! But a frugal and economical ad-
ministration of municipal affairs I" The Democratic
leaders who were most conspicuous1 in the campaign
were Lewis C. Cassidy, James R. Ludlow, Brinton
Coxe, Daniel Dougherty, S. S. Remak, John C. Bickel,
and G. W. Biddle. They succeeded, at the election
on the 6th of May, in carrying through their ticket
by an average majority of 4000.2
Before the close of the winter of 1855-56 the police
and fire-alarm telegraph system, which was con-
structed by Messrs. Phillips & Robinson, was com-
pleted. The politicians who assembled at Fifth and
Chestnut Streets while the Vaux convention was in
session in an up-town hall, a mile and a half away,
were surprised and delighted at being informed so
promptly, through its agency, of what was going on.
On the 19th of April the new system went into formal
operation. The first important use of it was made
early on the morning of the 1st of May, when a fire
broke out in the rag and paper warehouse of Jessup
& Moore, on North Street, between Fifth and Sixth
and Market and Arch Streets, and which destroyed
forty-four buildings in that locality, and caused a loss
of upwards of half a million dollars.3 A fireman
1 Much antipathy was expressed against William McMullen and the
" Moyamensing Killers."
2 There was also a Republican ticket which had a scattered vote. It
was composed of "W. B. Thomas for mayor, W. S. Pierce for city solicitor
(now Judge Pierce), and Lewis S. Heins for controller.
8 "The only really fire-proof building we have seen erected in Phila-
delphia," said the Ledger, a day or two subsequent, "is one at Eighth
and Cherry, built for Cornelius <fc Baker, which has nothing combustible
about it."
722
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
was crushed to death by falling walls, and another
was stabbed and killed in a fight. On the 11th of
April the Artisan's Building, on Ranstead Place, near
Fourth and Chestnut Streets, together with much
other property, aggregating three hundred thousand
dollars in value, had been burned down, and these
two large fires, coming so closely together, suggested
very forcibly the need of the new steam fire-engine
in Philadelphia.
On the 11th of April a terrific hurricane, which did
not last more than ten or fifteen minutes, passed over
the city, unroofed one hundred and fifty buildings,
and in other ways created considerable havoc.
Peter Mattocks, a mulatto, who had been convicted
of the murder of Elizabeth Gilbert, was hanged on the
23d of May at Moyamensing prison by Sheriff George
Magee in the preseuce of a crowd which numbered
at least a thousand men, all of whom had been ad-
mitted nominally as deputies to the sheriff.
The assault which Preston S. Brooks, of South Car-
olina, committed on Charles Sumner in the United
States Senate chamber, excited much indignation,
which first vented itself in this city on the 6th of
June at large and exceedingly enthusiastic meetings
in the District Court room, where John B. Myers,
Judge Wm. D. Kelley, Charles Gilpin, Morton Mc-
Michael, and Rev. W. H. Furness, denounced the
slave-power. On the same night there were illumina-
tions in honor of the nomination of James Buchanan
for President. The Keystone Club had gone to Cin-
cinnati to help accomplish this event. Marshaled
by W. B. Rankin and with George A. Coffey and Dr.
George Nebinger as their spokesmen, they called on
the " Sage of Wheatland" on their way home from
the convention and exchanged congratulations.
The Democratic enthusiasm1 over the success of
Pennsylvania's "favorite son" in the national con-
vention, at Cincinnati, vented itself at a great ratifi-
cation meeting in Independence Square, at which
Mayor Vaux presided, and to which additional in-
terest was lent by the presence of Buchanan's most
conspicuous rivals, General Lewis Cass and Stephen
A. Douglas.
But the leaders of the young Republican party were
not inactive in their preparations for the Presidential
struggle. On the 16th of June their State convention
met in Philadelphia with Henry C. Carey as tempo-
rary chairman. John Allison, of Beaver County,
was made permanent president, and Allen McKeen
and Russell Errett, secretaries. An attempt, made
by David Taggart, to have the delegates at large in-
structed for Fremont and McLean, was, after much
debate, relinquished. On the following day the na-
tional convention to nominate a President assembled
in Musical Fund Hall. Edward D. Morgan, of New
York, called the delegates to order, and on his motion
1 At this time bo great was the mob of office-seekers od the new mayor
(Vaux) that on one day the south Bide of Chestnut, in the vicinity of his
office, was "almost impassable" for tbem.
Robert Emmet, of the same State, was chosen tem-
porary chairman. A permanent organization was
effected by the choice of Henry S. Lane, of Indiana,
for chairman. On the following day John C. Fre-
mont was nominated for President of the United
States, receiving three hundred and fifty-nine votes
to one hundred and ninety-six for Judge John McLean,
two for Charles Sumner, and one for William H.
Seward. There was a strong opposition to Fremont
among the Pennsylvania men, and twenty-three of
them held out against him to the last.2 William L.
Dayton, of New Jersey, was nominated for Vice-Presi-
dent, his principal opponent being Abraham Lincoln,
who, although hardly known outside of his own State,
obtained one hundred and ten votes.3
At the end of Reed Street was a long wharf, ex-
tending into the Delaware, which had been built by
Merrick & Sons. It was frequently used by the resi-
dents in that part of the city as a promenade. On
the evening of the 1st of July it was full of men and
women, who were refreshing themselves after the
heat of the day. Without any warning, the yield-
ing alluvial deposit on which it was built gave way,
and a mass of people were precipitated into the water,
and ten of them drowned.
One of the most appalling railroad disasters that
up to this time had ever happened in the United
States took place on the North Pennsylvania Rail-
road on the 17th of July. Early on the morning
of that day an excursion train containing six hun-
dred of the children and young people of the St.
Michael's Roman Catholic Church, of Kensington,
left the Cohocksink depot. On reaching Camp
Hill, near Fort Washington, about thirteen miles
from the city, the engineer descried the down train
from Gwynedd approaching, and before he could do
anything to lessen the speed of thirty miles an hour,
at which his train was moving, the two c( lided.
Five of the excursion cars were instantly broken x>
pieces. The fire from the locomotive communicated
to the wreck, and many of the passengers perished n
the flames. Among the victims who were bur led to
death was the Rev. Father Sheridan. Upwu 'ds • f
fifty dead bodies were drawn out of the d&bris, nd at
least one hundred of the excursionists were wounded.
A coroner's jury ascertained that the accident w: s
due to the " gross negligence" of the conductor oft!
excursion train.
Politics, which were quiet and apathetic after tb
Presidential conventions, began to revive toward tbi
2 The delegates from Philadelphia to this first national convention of
the Republican party were B. D. Pettingill, C. D. Cleveland, John F.
Gilpin, William S.Pierce, Henry C. Carey, Joseph J. Gilliugham, Thomas
S. Cavender, Mahlon H. Dickinson, George H. Earle, W. B. Thomas,
and Passmore Williamson.
3 Judge Spaulding, when Lincoln was named, asked, " Can he fight ?"
To which Mr. Archer, of Illinois, replied, " Tea, sir ; he is a son of Ken-
tucky, and a tall man whatever way you put it." The delegate "who
nominated Lincoln said, " He is a good fellow, a firm friend to freedom,
and an old-line Whig."
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 723
end of August, and for the next ten weeks seemed to
absorb everybody's energies. Probably never before
had so many meetings and parades taken place in a
political campaign in Philadelphia. The Fillmore
and Donelson men were bent on making a vigorous
canvass, but the Democrats, under the bold, dashing,
and aggressive leadership of John W. Forney, who
was chairman of their State committee, used all the
resources at their command with skillful effect. He,
as well as his paper (The Pennsylvanian), was tire-
less in advancing the interests of Buchanan, not only
in the city but throughout the State. In the city the
leader who played the most conspicuous part in look-
ing after the local fortunes of the party was Lewis 0.
Cassidy, then described by his admirers as " the young
giant of Democracy." He was nominated for district
attorney, defeating in the convention William Badger
and James R. Ludlow. His opponent was William
B. Mann, who was put up for the office by the Fill-
more and Donelson party, and who was characterized
by the opposition as the " Republican-Fusion- Aboli-
tionist-Know-Nothing" candidate. A tendency to a
coalition between the followers of Fillmore and those
of Fremont early manifested itself in Pennsylvania,
and finally resulted in a fusion electoral ticket. They
were also united in Philadelphia in all the Congres-
sional tickets, except the Fourth, where William D.
Kelley, as a regular Republican, made a gallant but
unsuccessful fight for the seat which he was after-
ward destined to occupy for nearly a quarter of a
century. There was a small group of Democrats,
under the leadership of John M. Read, who detached
themselves from their party because of their opposi-
tion to the pro-slavery features of the Buchanan plat-
form, and who maintained an organization called
"The Democratic Fremont Club." All through the
campaign the greatest bitterness was manifested on
tile slavery question, and the exchange of epithets
between the Democrats and the Fremont party was
particularly vindictive. The Republican canvass was
tbnducted with much vigor, notwithstanding the fact
that Kb leaders had neither the facilities nor the re-
sTmrdfe possessed by the older organizations.1 Prac-
tically, however, the conflict was waged between the
Democrats on the one side and the Fusionists ( Amer-
icans and Republicans and some Whigs) on the
8fther.
An imposing political display was made by the
^Democrats on the 17th of September, in celebration
■yf the sixty-ninth anniversary of the adoption of
the Federal Constitution. Independence Square was
packed with a multitude, which gathered around two
1 The first Republican City Committee was composed as follows :
George "W. Martin, John Ashton, Jr., Joseph R. Lyudall, R. P. Gilling-
ham, Edward B. McDowell, W. J. H. Verdette, Thomas Balch, J. L.
Gossler, John M. Pomeroy, Randall Parsons, John H. Bullock, Joseph W.
Gaskell, Nathaniel Randolph, George Gillingham, Charles Wright, Wil-
liam V. Edson, N. F. Campion, 0. N. Thatcher, J. L. Littlefield, Theo. S.
Williams, James Verree, and C. C. Pierson.
stands presided over by George M. Wharton. John
W. Forney offered the resolutions, and the principal
orators were Howell Cobb and Herschel V. John-
son, of Georgia, and John Floyd, of Virginia. In
the torchlight parade there were ten thousand men in
line, conspicuous among whom were the visiting
guests of the Keystone Club, the "Blue Hen's
Chickens" of Delaware and the Union Club of New
York. Mr. Buchanan, who was in town, was called
upon by these clubs under the charge of the Key-
stone's president, Lewis C. Cassidy.
There were many other notable meetings during
this heated period of political strife. Chief among
the Republican orators were N. P. Banks, of Massa-
chusetts; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont; Lyman Trum-
bull, of Illinois ; and Anson Burlingame. A speaker
whom the Democrats used with much effect at Na-
tional Hall was James B. Clay, son of the great Ken-
tuckian.
The election in October was exceedingly close, and
in the State was for several days undetermined. The
Democratic majority in Philadelphia was about 3000,
and finally settled down to that figure for the State.
Lewis C. Cassidy, for district attorney, was returned
elected by a majority of little more than five hundred.
The Congressional delegation was solidly Demo-
cratic, consisting of Thomas B. Florence, John A.
Marshall, James Landy, Henry M. Phillips, and
Owen Jones. The result of this election made it
clear to observing politicians that the drift for Bu-
chanan was too strong to be successfully resisted in
November. When the Presidential vote for the city
was counted it was found that the Buchanan electors
had 38,222, and that the total Fusion vote for both
Fillmore and Fremont was 31,976.
During the autumn of this year the corner-stone of
the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane was laid by
Mayor Vaux (October 1st). The corner-stone of Na-
tional Guards Hall on Race Street (September 17th)
was laid by Peter McCall in the presence of a fine
body of the military, and Handel and Haydn Hall,
at Eighth and Spring Garden Streets, then known as
Harrison Hall (Joseph Harrison, Jr., was the owner),
was opened (November 18th) by Morton McMichael
as orator, followed by a concert, in which the eminent
pianist, Gottschalk, was the chief participant. On
the 20th of October a number of citizens who had
purchased the forty-five acres of the old Hunting
Park course on the York road, originally known as
Allen's Race-course, formally presented the property
to the city as a public park.
The United States Agricultural Exhibition, on
Powelton Avenue, West Philadelphia, was opened
on the 7th of October, and on one day it was esti-
mated that between eighty thousand and one hundred
thousand persons visited it. Two days after the open-
ing there was a picturesque parade of butchers, which
was the finest display of its kind since the celebrated
procession of 1821.
724
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
On the 19th of December the ice, which had be-
come thick in the Delaware Eiver, damaged the
receiving-ship " Union," lying in front of the navy-
yard, so badly that she sunk, but not before the ninety
apprentices, seamen, and marines on board of her
were safely transferred to the " Preble."
Toward the close of the year 1856 experiments
were made with a new form of street-sweeping ma-
chinery, consisting of rapidly-revolving brooms. The
apparatus was the invention of the firm of Smith,
Sickel 1 & Co., who were in business as contractors for
the city. These machines could keep fifteen carts
busy, and the success of the experiment started the
hope, which then was as fervent as it has ever since
been, and still is, that the intolerably filthy highways,
which vexed sorely the souls of the citizens, would
at last be kept clean.
The Democracy of the city were thrown into in-
tense excitement and indignation on the 13th of Jan-
uary, 1857, by dispatches from Harrisburg announcing
that Messrs. Maneer and Lebo, of York County, and
Wagenseller, of Schuylkill, Democratic members of
the Legislature, had not only refused to support the
caucus nominee of their party for United States
senator, John W. Forney, but had given their votes
to the opposition candidate, Simon Cameron. For-
ney was one of the favorites of the Philadelphia
Democracy at this time, and they were moved to the
warmest feelings of resentment by the base treachery
which had removed from his grasp the cherished ob-
ject of his ambition. Meetings were held by various
clubs and associations, denouncing the traitors in
unmeasured terms. The Keystone Club in particu-
lar, under the influence of scathing speeches by
Stephen S. Remak and Capt. E. W. Power, hotly
denounced them. The names of Maneer, Lebo, and
Wagenseller remained for many years synonymous
with corruption. At Harrisburg the hotels long re-
fused to receive them, and in this city old politicians
have not yet forgotten to regard them with contempt.
The result of this unforeseen defeat of Col. Forney
was to lose the Senate house an accomplished pub-
licist; and to give Philadelphia, in the career which
opened before him a few months later, its most
eminent journalist.
The night of the 18th of January, 1857, has long
been a memorable one to the firemen who were called
upon to brave its severity. It was on a Sunday, and
the snow had been falling in large drifts, which it was
almost impossible to wade through. The winds were
howling a perfect gale, and the mercury in the ther-
mometers was on the verge of touching zero. Sev-
eral alarms of fire were struck. The volunteers re-
sponded with undaunted energy. The principal alarm
came from the Tabernacle Methodist Church, at
Eleventh and Oxford Streets, which was then far up
1 This was Gen. H. G. Sickel, for some years the president of the Board
of Health.
town. When the men after tremendous labor had
cleared their way through the snow, they found
nearly all . the plugs frozen. The church and some
adjoining dwellings were destroyed, and the firemen
thought themselves fortunate in not perishing in the
intense cold. The next morning the snow-banks at
places were as high as a man's head, and it was more
than a week afterwards before the railroads were suf-
ficiently cleared of the drifts that trains could be run
on schedule time.2
The newly-built Academy of Music was to have
been thrown open to the public on the night of the
20th, but so great were the piles of snow in the streets
that the event was postponed, and did not take place
until the 26th. The occasion was signalized by a ball
and concert. About four weeks later a Maennerchor
ball, the first of a long series of these festive events
at that house, was given. On the following night,
the 25th of February, a brilliant audience assembled
to witness the first operatic performance on the Acad-
emy stage. The opera was Verdi's " Trovatore,"
then almost new to Philadelphia ears. Gazzaniga
was the Leonora, and Brignoli the Manrico of the oc-
casion. The company was Maretzek's, and had just
come from Havana.3 The opening was most suc-
cessful. The series of performances which followed
by the same troupe, and which embraced the range
of all the popular operas of the period, like "Lu-
crezia Borgia" and " Norma," was pronounced to be
the most " brilliant and lucrative season ever known."
The news of the death of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane,
in Havana, was received in Philadelphia with general
sorrow. On the 27th of February, Mayor Vaux pre-
sided at a meeting which was called to make prepa-
rations for receiving the body of the great explorer.
The feasibility of erecting a monument to his mem-
ory was, as is usual at such meetings, a subject of
discussion. A list of pall-bearers was prepared, con-
sisting of Horace Binney, Commodore Read, ex-Gov-
ernor Pollock, George Peabody, Commodore Stewart,
Maj. C. J. Biddle, Dr. Dunglison, Chief Justice Lewis,
Judge Grier, Bishop Potter, Rev. H. G. Boardman,
William B. Reed, John A. Brown, Henry Grinnell,
Maj. Hagner, and Professor A. D. Bache.* On the
11th of March the remains of Dr. Kane arrived at
the Baltimore depot. A committee of citizens, mem-
bers of Councils, and a military escort, consisting of
the Washington Grays and the First City Troop,
conveyed the body to Independence Hall. The next
day it lay in state, and was viewed by many thousands
of people. The funeral procession, which, in the
mean time, was forming on the streets, was a notable
2 The body of a person lost in the snow on the streets was found sev-
eral days afterwardB.
8 E. A. Marshall was the lessee, and Peter Richings the stage-manager.
The price of the best seats was one dollar.
* Messrs. Hagner, Grinnell, and Bache did not bear the pall in the
funeral, and their places were taken by Dr. Dillard, Samuel Grant, and
Professor H. L. Hodge.
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OP THE CIVIL WAR. 725
one. It consisted of the military, which preceded the
hearse, Kane's comrades in his Arctic expedition,
members of Councils, committees from Baltimore and
New York, clergymen,' officers of the State govern-
ment, Society of Sons of St. George, Albion Society,
St. Andrew's Society, Scotch Thistle Society, naval
officers in uniform, distinguished visitors, judges and
officers of the various courts, the American Philosoph-
^^ ^k>ius
ical Society, United States civil officers, members
of the bar, Corn Exchange, the Fire Department,
Odd-Fellows, American Protestant Association, order
of Druids, Young Men's American Club, faculty and
officers of Girard College, Princeton College, and the
Central High School, medical faculties and students,
and various other organizations. The vast cortege
moved to the Second Presbyterian Church, on Seventh
Street, below Arch, where the funeral sermon was
delivered by Rev. C. W. Shields. The body of the
great Philadelphian was laid to rest in Laurel Hill.
In January, 1857, a new plan of numbering the
houses, the ordinance for which had been signed by
Mayor Vaux on the 16th of September, in the pre-
ceding year, and which was chiefly the work of Coun-
cilman Mascher, went into operation. It was slow
work in inducing the citizens to comply with the re-
form, but before the beginning of 1858 the new sys-
tem had been pretty generally introduced.
The spring election of 1857 caused hardly a ripple
of excitement. The opposition to the Democrats en-
tertained little or no hope of beating them. William
V. McGrath was elected city treasurer, and James
Logan city commissioner, over the Native American
and the Republican candidates without much diffi-
culty. On the night of the election ex-President
Pierce, who was stopping at the La Pierre House,
was serenaded by the jubilant Democrats.
The question of the suppression of polygamy was,
at this time, one of national interest, and bloodshed
in Utah between the United States troops and the
followers of Brigham Young was imminent. The
Mormons were still objects of great curiosity in the
East, and the ship " Westmoreland," which arrived
at this port on the 31st of May with five hundred and
fifty-two converts to the faith, was described as carry-
ing " extraordinary freight." These people, who were
mostly Norwegians, had been recruited by Matthias
Cowley, and were shipped to the West on the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad, by the "General Mormon
Emigration Agent for United States Shipping Ports,"
one A. F. Cannon, whose name has since become dis-
tinguished in the polygamous annals of Utah. Not
long afterward the ship "Tuscarora" brought over
five hundred and thirty-seven more Mormon prose-
lytes, whom the industrious agents of Brigham Young
had gathered together in England, Scotland, Wales,
Denmark, and Sweden.
About this time Mayor Vaux established what was
known as "The Fire Police," a department of the
municipal service which was ordered to consist of a
chief, an assistant, "who is an experienced builder,"
and such officers as may be deemed necessary. High
Constable Blackburn was the first chief in a position
which afterward was known as fire marshal.
The Melodeon building, which occupied a site on
Chestnut Street above Sixth, was burned down on
the 3d of June, after a performance by a band of
negro minstrels known as Myers & Landis' Virginia
Serenaders. It had been built in 1854, on the walls
of the old Bolivar House, and it turned out to be an
unfortunate speculation. David Matthews, a mem-
ber of the America Hose Company, was killed by
falling walls at this fire.
An event in which almost the entire German popu-
lation of the city were participants was the musical
jubilee, which began at the Academy on the 14th of
June by an oratorio performance, and which, with a
ball, a parade, a concert, a picnic at Lemon Hill, and
a banquet, was kept up for four days, bringing together
many singing societies from the Eastern and the Mid-
dle States.
In recognition of the service which William B.
Reed had performed in turning over many of the old-
line Whigs to the support of Mr. Buchanan in 1856,
he was appointed minister to China. His mission
was looked upon as a most important one, and he was
well fitted for it by the tact, dexterity, and coolness
of his diplomatic qualities. On the 23d of June a
large company of his Philadelphia friends invited
him to a public dinner at the La Pierre House.
Joseph R. Chandler presided, and the guest, who was
a master of pure English, delivered a graceful speech
on the importance of his mission in opening a path-
way to American commerce in the East. A few days
later Mr. Reed sailed for China from Norfolk in the
United States ship "Minnesota," which had been
elaborately fitted up for his accommodation.
During the spring and summer of 1857 a large
number of churches were either about to be opened
726
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
or in process of construction. Among these were the
Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity,
Walnut and Nineteenth Streets (corner-stone laid
May 25th), First Southwark, Presbyterian, German
below Third (corner-stone laid April 2, 1857), Protes-
tant Episcopal Church of the Evangelist, Catha-
rine and Seventh, Westminster Presbyterian Church,
Broad and Fitzwater (corner-stone laid May 10, 1856),
Front Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Front
above Maiden (corner-stone laid July 10, 1857), Zion
Protestant Episcopal Church, Eighth and Columbia
Avenue (corner-stone laid May 20, 1856), St. Clement's
Protestant Episcopal Church, Twentieth and Cherry
(corner-stone laid May 10, 1856), Olivet Baptist
Church, Sixth and Federal (corner-slone laid August
20, 1857), Scott Methodist Episcopal Church, Eighth
and Dickinson (corner-stone laid July 7, 1857, by
Bishop Scott), and Emanuel Protestant Episcopal
Church, Holmesburg (corner-stone laid September
21st, by Bishop Potter).
The Odd-Fellows of Philadelphia on the 1st of
June dedicated a statue of Franklin in their ceme-
tery, celebrating the occasion by a large parade ; on
the 4th of August, in the same cemetery, the firemen
of the city, after a fine procession, dedicated a monu-
ment, and listened to an oration by Charles M. Neal ;
a month later the colored Odd-Fellows, on the 3d of
September, made an imposing display in honor of the
laying of the corner-stone of their hall on Lombard
Street below Seventh.
The financial panic of 1857 was precipitated upon
Philadelphia by the closing of the doors of the Bank
of Pennsylvania on the 25th of September. Within
an hour the Girard and the Commercial declared a
suspension of specie payments. Business men were
thrown into a fever of excitement, and the managers
of some banking institutions called for detachments
of police to protect them from the clamorous impor-
tunities of creditors. The alarm caused by these
events spread quickly through all classes of society.
Many of the leading business men insisted that the
State Legislature should give relief to them by legal-
izing the suspension of specie payments. On the 8th
of October they held a mass-meeting in Independence
Square, at which Charles Macalester presided, urging
the General Assembly to do something that would
relieve the " suffering community" in its monetary
distress. There were other citizens who did not favor
such a measure, and they held a mass-meeting in the
same square, at which George M. Wharton, John Cad-
walader, Charles Brown, and Joshua T. Owen pro-
tested against a legalization of the suspension of spe-
cie payments. The Legislature, however, did pass
such a measure a short time afterward.
In the mean time there was a great depression in
almost every branch of trade and industry. Before
the middle of October there was a general suspension
of labor in mills and factories. The streets were soon
full of unemployed men. Demands were made on
the city authorities for assistance. Demagogues in
Councils were in favor of ordering a virtual issue of
paper money by the municipality. On the afternoon
of the 12th of November, while Councils were dis-
cussing the question, ten thousand workingmen as-
sembled in Independence Square in order to stimu-
late their representatives in the State-House to an
appreciation of their troubles. The effect of their
appearance was the passage of ordinances by Councils
appropriating money for extending wharves, building
culverts, and repairing other public works. Only a
short time before this they had adopted resolutions
calling on the departments to cut down expenses, to
practice the most rigid economy, and otherwise to
comport themselves with the ''hard times." But
Mayor Vaux refused to give them his approval, and,
in a special message, took the ground that in such an
emergency it was the duty of the city to spend its
money freely, and thus relieve the general embarrass-
ment.
There were many meetings of tradesmen, working-
men, and philanthropists during this period, all hav-
ing some bearing on the prevailing distress ; one or
two of them muttered "bread or fight;" some en-
deavored to reduce the price of provisions, some
formed plans for sending unemployed women to the
West, and others made preparations for what it was
thought would be a winter of unexampled suffering.
In November, George J. Henkels set the example
of distributing bread to the needy, and it was followed
by many other citizens. It is sufficient to say, how-
ever, that while the suffering among the working
classes was widespread, it was by no means so severe
as had been anticipated, in consequence largely of the
charity of the opulent, but principally because the
winter that succeeded was unusually and unexpectedly
mild.
The financial uproar in September quite over-
whelmed the autumn political campaign. William
F. Packer had been nominated by the Democrats for
Governor, David Wilmot by the Republicans, and
Isaac Hazlehurst, of this city, by the Americans.
The campaign did not awaken much interest. Its
most remarkable feature was the appearance of the
author of the " Wilmot Proviso" on the local stump
in his efforts to organize the Republicans. The elec-
tion resulted, as had been generally anticipated, in a
clean sweep for the Democrats. In the city the vote
for Governor was Packer, 27,749 ; Hazlehurst, 14,455 ;
and Wilmot, 10,001. It was at this time that James
R. Ludlow, then a popular Democratic orator, was
elected to the judicial bench, on which he has so long
sat. He beat, by a majority of upwards of five thou-
sand, ex-Mayor Conrad, the candidate of the Amer-
icans and Republicans.
The firemen's parade, on the 5th of October, was an
event for which not less than one hundred thousand
dollars had been spent in preparation. For months
the companies had been looking forward to it with in-
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 727
tense interest. On the day of the procession the city
was in holiday attire. There were visitors in the line
from New York, Harrisburg, Washington, Baltimore,
and many other cities. The chief marshal was John
F. Gibson, and upwards of one hundred organizations
made up the long and brilliant column.
On the 2d of November there was a fine display
made by the American United Mechanics under the
marshalship of H. C. Cobb. The dedication of their
new hall at Fourth and George Streets, where Col.
H. H. K. Elliott delivered the oration, was the occa-
sion of this celebration. Two weeks later there was
a fine parade of the militia at the dedication of the
National Guards Hall by John W. Forney.
All through the year 1857 there was a lively agita-
tion over the introduction of passenger railways into
Philadelphia. In December, 1855, a meeting had
been held in Frankford looking to the establishment
of a railway that would connect that suburb with the
city proper. During the first two or three months of
the following year petitions were freely circulated
asking the Legislature to authorize the construction
of such a road between Frankford and Southwark.
In a short time the elements of opposition to the pro-
ject began to be stirred up. They manifested them-
selves in a vigorous fashion at a public meeting on
the 26th of March, 1856, in which Dr. W. Jewell, J.
Altamont Phillips, and others, were the principal
movers, declaring that Fifth and Sixth Streets were
too narrow for a railway, and intimating that the
enterprise was the offspring of that most unpopu-
lar of corporations, the Camden and Amboy Kail-
road. During the next twelve months the feasibility
of the undertaking furnished a very decided conflict
of opinion in the press, in pamphlets, and before
Legislative committees. Finally, in May, 1857, the
General Assembly granted to the "Philadelphia and
Delaware River Bailroad Company'' the right to
build a railway on Fifth and Sixth Streets from
Frankford to Southwark, and at the same time con-
ferred similar authority on the projectors of the West
Philadelphia Railway Company. The Frankford and
Southwark corporation1 was not slow in making use
of their franchises, and by the opening of the year
1858 their tracks were laid. On the 8th of January
the first car passed over the route, but in consequence
of a difficulty with the owners of omnibuses, whose
vehicles the company were compelled to buy, the line
could not be opened to the public until the 20th of
January. The route extended from Chatham Street,
at the northern terminus, to Morris Street at the
southern terminus, a distance of seven and six-tenths
miles, for traveling over which the passenger was
charged five cents.2 The undertaking was an imme-
diate success. The receipts were nearly six hundred
1 Martin Thomas was the firat president of the company.
2 A few weeks after the road was opened J. A. Wear emphatically pro-
tested through the press against bis being compelled, along with other
colored people, to stand on the front platform of the cars.
dollars a day, and before the winter was over there
was a perfect swarm of new railway enterprises.
The strong opposition to railways was slow in sub-
siding. That the streets were too narrow, that they
would be spoiled both as to their looks and purposes
of trade, and that powerful monopolies would be en-
gendered, was the burden of the argument against
them. Much of this prejudice was, doubtless, due to
the unsightly and annoying freight railroad which
ran along Market and Third Streets, and which busi-
ness men had been trying to have removed. At any
rate, the capitalists, who, stimulated by the success
of the Fifth and Sixth Streets Railway, immediately
began to form plans for similar railways on Spruce
and Pine Streets, Bidge Avenue, Second and Third,
and other thoroughfares, found that the resistance of
the conservative element had not entirely disappeared,
and were obliged still to combat the arguments that
were made against them at numerous public meet-
ings in the spring of 1858, as well as in the columns
of some of the influential newspapers.
The attempt of President Buchanan's administra-
tion to impose what was known as the " Lecompton
Constitution" upon the people of Kansas in the pro-
slavery interest, had been received with considerable
disfavor by many of his warmest supporters in Phila-
delphia. Their distrust, which had been expressed
very pointedly in the columns of Forney's Press,
was also conveyed to the mind of the Executive in
the form of speeches at a meeting in National Hall,
over which John W. Forney presided, and which em-
braced those Democrats who had voted for Buchanan
in 1856, but who were " inexorably opposed to all at-
tempts to force the Lecompton Constitution on the
people of Kansas." The resolutions declared faith in
the national administration as regards all other mat-
ters than this, requested the Philadelphia congress-
men to resist the fraud, and commended the stand of
the Douglas men. From this time on the famous
break between Forney and Buchanan grew wider,
and this meeting was the first step which finally led
many Philadelphia Democrats over to the Republican
party.
The operations of a company which had been
formed to raise some of the one hundred and six
vessels that had been sunk in the harbor before Se-
bastopol, in the war between Russia and the allied
powers, attracted some attention at this time. It was
known as the " Philadelphia Marine Exploring Com-
pany,"3 and in April of the previous year had taken
out to Europe one hundred and fifty men for this
work.
The May election in 1858 resulted in the complete
discomfiture of the local Democracy. The adminis-
tration of Mayor Vaux had been conducted on strict
party principles. In many respects it was vigorous,
» The principal parties to this enterprise were Johu Tucker and Dr.
Morris S. Wickersham.
128
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
efficient, and satisfactory, but complaint against the
character of its police force was limited not entirely
to its political opponents. This was described in
very cautious and conservative quarters as a " terrible
load" to carry. The Ledger, which had made many
complaints of its inefficiency during the previous two
years, was in favor of making the discharge of the
bad policemen the issue in the election for mayor.
The result of this dissatisfaction was the formation
of a People's ticket in a convention at Spring Garden
Hall.1 Alexander Henry was nominated for mayor,
and the Americans and the Republicans were, with
but little difficulty, induced to unite in his support.
The combination defeated Mayor Vaux by more than
four thousand majority, and elected the remainder of
their ticket2 by about one thousand majority less.
Mayor Vaux, on leaving office, took pains to im-
press his policemen with a sense of his confidence in
them. In a long address he declared that they had
done their duty well, and that the prejudices which
had been raised against them were the results of
political calumny. No sooner had his successor taken
his place than there was a clamorous demand by his
supporters for places on the police force. During
the first month of Mayor Henry's administration
there were days when his office was so crowded with
these importunates that it was almost impossible to
force a passage through them to his presence.
A new political movement which originated in
Washington and was intended to be national in its
scope created some interest during the summer. It
was inaugurated in Philadelphia, on the 15th of
June, at a meeting in National Hall, over which
Henry 0. Carey presided. The call stated that its
purpose was " to unite all the opposing elements to
the Democratic party in a national organization."
This was to be done by agitating the tariff question
in favor of a restoration of the protective system and
to put an end to what was declared to be the free-
trade policy of the Buchanan administration. Simon
Cameron and E. Joy Morris, in particular, were com-
mended for their course in Washington. Addresses
were made by several statesmen of national reputa-
tion,— Jacob Collamer, of Vermont; Solomon Foote,
Humphrey Marshall, and Richard W. Thompson ;
and Mr. Carey was empowered to appoint a commit-
tee of seventy-six. The movement attracted some
attention, but was soon lost in the more absorbing
agitation of the anti-slavery issue.
The news that the first Atlantic cable had been put
in operation by a message from Queen Victoria to
President Buchanan, occasioned much rejoicing in
1 The citizens who were mentioned on this occasion as candidates for
the mayoralty were Alexander Henry, Henry B. Moore, Peter Fritz,
H. T. King, John S. Watmough, Morton McMichael, Charles Gilpin,
James 0. Hand, E. D. Wagner, 0. H. P. Parker, Jacob Dock, W. D.
Lewis, John G. Thompson, and M. Russell Thayer.
2 It consisted of Henry T. King for city solicitor, George W.Huftyfor
controller, A. J. Plomerfelt for receiver of taxes, and K. II. Williams
for city commissioner.
the latter part of August, 1858, guns being fired and
flags displayed. On the 1st of September a general
celebration took place. The day was virtually a holi-
day. In the morning there were two processions, one
made up of the local military, and the other of civic
societies. They both marched to Independence
Square, where a great crowd was listening to Judge
William D. Kelley's oration. Chief Justice Lewis,
who presided, stated that they had assembled to com-
memorate " the greatest event the world ever wit-
nessed." At Jayne's Hall the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association held a special celebration, in which
George H. Stuart, Rev. Byron Sunderland, Dr. Ley-
burn, and John Chambers were the principal partici-
pants. In the evening the firemen paraded with their
torches, dwellings and public buildings were illumi-
nated, there were numerous transparencies and em-
blematic devices displayed from the windows, and at
Broad and Spring Garden Streets many thousands of
people were congregated to witness Professor Jack-
son's fire-works. There were not a few people who
were opposed to these public demonstrations,3 and
when it was soon afterward discovered that the cable
could not be regularly operated, they were somewhat
sarcastic at the tumultuous rejoicing of the more en-
thusiastic.
On the 6th of September the services of Baron von
Steuben, of Revolutionary fame, were commemorated
at Lemon Hill by a picnic, which more than ten
thousand people attended. There was also a parade.
The career of the German patriot was eulogized by
Col. J. Ross Snowden and Dr. Godfrey Vellner, the
editor of the German Democrat.
The bitter fight which Stephen A. Douglas was
waging against the Buchanan administration, and in
which John W. Forney's energies were enlisted on be-
half of the Illinois statesman, had its effect in Phila-
delphia in the autumn campaign of 1858. Col.
Thomas B. Florence, who represented the first dis-
trict in Congress, who professed the warmest in-
terest in the poor and laboring classes, and who was
widely known under the cognomen of " the Widow's
Friend," had sustained Buchanan's course on the
Kansas question. This, together with some offense
given by his distribution of navy-yard " patronage,"
had arrayed against him a formidable opposition
within his own party. A split convention put Dr.
George W. Nebinger, a popular Southwark Democrat,
in nomination against him. The Douglas Democrats,
headed by Forney, Daniel Dougherty, George W.
Thorn, and Dr. Kamerly, supported Nebinger with
great vigor. The Democratic ticket in the remaining
Congressional districts and in the city was not openly
opposed by this element, but it doubtless suffered from
the opposition which was ostensibly concentrated on
3 Col. Page, at a public meeting of the firemen, warmly dissented from
the proposition to parade, and succeeded in persuading a large number
of companies not to take part in the celebration.
PROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 729
Florence. The Native Americans and the Republi-
cans made substantially pretty much the same coali-
tion, under the name of the People's party, that had
been so successful in the May election. With Wil-
liam H. Kern at their head for sheriff, they carried the
city by more than 5000 majority. The rebuke to
Buchanan's administration on the Kansas question
was emphatic. Of the Democratic Congressional can-
didates— Martin, Landy, Phillips, and Florence — all
were beaten except Florence, who managed to secure
a plurality of about 300 over Col. John W. Ryan,1
Nebinger having taken away about 2500 Democratic
votes from the regular candidate.2
Although the depression that followed the '57 panic
had served to make the year 1858 a dull one generally
in Philadelphia, this stagnation was not visible in rail-
way circles. Fourteen charters for the construction of
such roads had been obtained from the Legislature,
and before they ear was over workmen were busy in tear-
ing up many of the streets and laying rails. The West
Philadelphia road, on Market Street, was the second
to go into operation, and was closely followed by the
Tenth and Eleventh, on the 29th of July. At this
time the Spruce and Pine, Second and Third, Green
and Coates, and Race and Vine were in course of con-
struction, and the Chestnut and Walnut Street Com-
pany was still engaged in beating down a bitter oppo-
sition. The fourth road to go into operation this year
was the Spruce and Pine, on the 3d of November.
An unsuccessful agitation for the running of the cars
on Sunday served to create some asperities at this
period.
In November, Councils ordered the removal of the
old market-sheds which occupied the middle of
Market Street and had given it its name, and during
the winter and spring of 1859 the ordinance was com-
plied with. But this improvement was not effected
without resistance. A " Market Protection League"
was formed to save the sheds from demolition, but
the great majority of the butchers and stall-owners,
chiefly under the influence of Philip Lowry, were in-
clined to acquiesce with the popular demand for clear-
ing the streets of obstructions. They were partly
induced to take this submissive position by the stipu-
lation which they made with the city, that the " shin-
ners," who occupied the curbstones and sidewalks,
should be broken up. In return for this favor the
occupants of stalls in the sheds in the upper portion
of Market Street expressed their willingness to build
a new market-house at Sixteenth Street. They formed
the Western Market Company, and had gone to work
with their plans so promptly that, on the 16th of No-
vember, Mayor Henry laid the corner-stone of this
building.
The launching of the United States sloop-of-war
1 Ryan tried to contest Florence's seat on the ground of fraud, butwaB
unsuccessful.
2 The successful Congressional candidates of the People's party were
E. Joy Morris, William Millward, and John P. Verree.
" Lancaster," on the 20th of October, brought an im-
mense crowd to the navy-yard. The vessel had been
named in compliment to President Buchanan's county,
and his popular niece, Miss Harriet Lane, broke over
the bow the bottle of wine with which the ship was
christened.
No man who has performed the duties of a profes-
sional teacher has occupied a higher place in the
estimation of this community than John S. Hart.
For nineteen years he had been the principal of the
Central High School, and three thousand nine hun-
dred pupils had been under his careful charge. His
retirement from that institution, on the 3d of Decem-
ber, 1858, was therefore felt to be a genuine public loss.
On this occasion he was presented by his pupils with
a silver set. Some of the boys who took part in
the exercises were afterward widely distinguished.
George Alfred Townsend, who in a few years became
the most brilliant and original of newspaper corre-
spondents, delivered the valedictory poem, and the
presentation speech was made by Joel Cook, Jr., now
an editor of the Public Ledger.
It has been frequently remarked that a period of
stringency and distress in business is apt to be fol-
lowed by religious excitement. This was to some
extent the case in Philadelphia during the year 1858.
There was general economy in all classes of society.
There was no disposition to engage in new move-
ments or enterprises. The second season of opera at
the Academy had been a dire failure. It was, there-
fore, not difficult to start the religious revivals which
were frequent during the early part of the year.
They even went so far as to lead the reformatory
meetings of pious men and women in the houses ot
the fire companies, — a class of the community which
had been more than ordinarily turbulent this year,
and which Mayor Henry and Fire-Marshal Blackburn
had been trying to reduce to an orderly condition.
But religious circles themselves were to be stirred up
before the year was out by a man who, at this time,
acquired great notoriety for his professions of atheism.
This was Joseph Barker. He appeared in Philadel-
phia in November, speaking on Sunday mornings at
the Assembly Building, Tenth and Chestnut Streets,
and at Ninth and Arch Streets, and in the even-
ings at Franklin Hall, Sixth below Arch Street. For
some time he was the talk of the town in the animated
controversies which he carried on with the Rev. John
Chambers and other defenders of Christianity. The
Young Men's Christian Association was also a centre
of considerable activity during this period. Its anni-
versary in December was celebrated with much fervor,
and Mr. John Wanamaker, then an unknown young
man, figured in the committee on celebration.
The Douglas Democrats were greatly elated by a
visit from their leader on the 3d of January, 1859.
As the " Little. Giant" landed at Walnut Street wharf
a display of fire-works in his honor was made on
Smith's Island. The committee on reception then
730
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
escorted him to the St. Lawrence Hotel, where he
was serenaded, and where he delivered a speech.
The principal local leaders of the Douglas move-
ment who took part in this reception were John W.
Forney, Daniel Dougherty, and David Webster. On
the following day Mr. Douglas, whose appearance
had created quite an excitement in the city, held a
public reception in Independence Hall.
The terrible ravages which the yellow fever visita-
tion of 1855 made in the South had impelled a large
number of Philadelphia men and women to go to the
relief of the sufferers. Many of them never returned
from their errand of mercy and humanity. But the
memory of the noble deeds which they had performed
at Norfolk and Portsmouth did not die with them.
In 1858 it was determined to reclaim their bodies,
and give them a burial which would be worthy of
them. A vault was constructed at Laurel Hill, and
a monument, commemorating their sacrifices and un-
timely ending, was erected over it. The remains of
fifteen of the men and women who, as physicians or
as nurses, had been stricken down by the deadly pes-
tilence, were interred in this vault 1 on the 18th of
January. Impressive services were held in St. Ste-
phen's Church, at which Dr. Ducachet, Dr. Durbor-
row, and Dr. Smith (of Troy) officiated. A slave,
known as " Bob" Butt, who had had with his own
hands buried eleven hundred and fifty-nine bodies
while the plague was raging, attracted general at-
tention, and for a time was quite a hero.
The slavery agitation flamed up into popular ex-
citement in the spring of this year, when an attempt
was made by residents, of Virginia to reclaim Daniel
Dangerfield, a colored man, who, it was alleged, was
a runaway slave. The abolitionists in Philadelphia
were determined to exhaust every available means of
preventing Dangerfield's return. At the hearing, on
the 4th of April, before United States Commissioner
Longstreth, they were represented by George H.
Earle, William S. Pierce, and Edward Hopper. The
Virginia complainants had retained Benjamin Harris
Brewster, who was made the object of many disagree-
able expressions and threats. The case was adjourned
until the following day, when the commissioner's office
and the street outside were filled with a dense crowd.
Inside were Lucretia Mott and many of the most
vehement abolitionists. There they remained for
fourteen hours. All night long the lawyers exam-
ined the witnesses, and, just as the sun was rising on
the morning of the 6th, Mr. Pierce concluded his ap-
peal. After Mr. Brewster had finished his speech, the
commissioner ordered a recess, in order to make up
his decision. When it was announced in the after-
1 The following were tho Philadelphians who died at Portsmouth and
Norfolk : Robert H. Graham, Thomas W, Handy, John O'Brien, B. Perry
Miller, Dr. Coortland Cole, Mrs. Olive Whittier, Singleton Mercer, J.
Jackson Thompson, Dr. ThomaB Oraycraft, Edmund B. Barrett, Fred-
erick Muhlsfleat, Henry Spriggman, Dr. Hermann Kierson, Miss Lucy
Johnson, and James Hennessey.
noon that he had discharged the prisoner, because
his identity had not been conclusively established,
Dangerfield was placed in a carriage, and driven
through the streets by a crowd of anti-slavery
men.2
The opposition to the continuance of the market-
sheds on Market Street had the effect of causing a
number of plans to be formed for the erection of reg-
ular market-houses like that of the Western Comr
pany. In January there was a meeting of stall-
owners in the old sheds, who established the plans for
the construction of the Eastern Market on Fifth
Street. A few weeks afterward work was begun on
the Franklin Market, at Tenth and Marble Streets,
now occupied by the Mercantile Library, and on the
12th of March the Kater Market on South Street, be-
tween Fifteenth and Sixteenth, was opened. The City
Market, at Broad and Race, was again put in opera-
tion. Much of the material of the old sheds was used
for building the South Eleventh Street Market,3 and
in no long time the city was adjusted in its new rela-
tion to the farmers and butchers, whom it had dis-
persed.4
The session of the Legislature of 1859 was note-
worthy for the efforts made to secure legislation on
behalf of new railway enterprises in Philadelphia.
The charges were freely bruited about the city that
much corruption had been practiced in order to ob-
tain the passage of certain laws. On the 23d of Feb-
ruary there was a meeting at the county court-house,
presided over by John W. Stokes, in which strong
resolutions were passed denouncing the demoraliza-
tion and degradation that had been caused in public
life by " the excessive speculative mania over rail-
ways." Edward G. Webb brought some very serious
charges againstthe Legislature, and John M. Kennedy
thought the fares should be reduced to three cents.
Judge Kelley, who was not entirely in sympathy with
the purposes of the meeting, thought that the " indis-
criminate charges of fraud and corruption were too
vague," and he was in favor of attaining cheap fares
by fostering competition among more companies. A
short time after this movement, Joseph Harrison,
Jr., addressed a communication to the Legislature,
in which he took the ground that the right to occupy
the streets was a valuable one, which should be dis-
posed of to the highest bidders, and that a yearly
rent of a thousand dollars a mile should be charged.
The speculative interest which the new railways had
excited among the people was attested in April by a
rush, which was made in Dock Street, to subscribe to
the stock of the Chestnut and Walnut Street Com-
2 Mr. George F. Gordon, a member of Common Council, offered a reso-
lution inquiring why Mayor Henry had permitted his police to assist in
an effort "to consign a free man to slavery."
3 John H. Taggart, now the editor of the Sunday Times, was active at
public meetings for the establishment of this market.
4 Many of the farmers, through the exertions of Ellis Branson and
Samuel W. Hess at public meetings, were induced to locate themselves
on Callowhill Street, from Broad Street westward.
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OP THE CIVIL WAR. 731
pany. This craze was repeated with more violent
symptoms on the 9th of May, when the books of sub-
scription to the stock of the Thirteenth and Fifteenth
Street Railway Company were opened at Washing-
ton Hall to a crowd of men who had been in waiting
all night, and who fought one another like lunatics
in their efforts to reach the counters.
On the 26th of April there was an imposing parade
of Odd-Fellows in honor of the fortieth anniversary
of the establishment of that order in the United
States. The participants took advantage of the occa-
sion to dedicate an Odd-Fellows' Hall at Ridge
Avenue and Twenty-third Street, James B. Nichol-
son delivering the oration.
The municipal election of 1859 was one of the
quietest ever held in Philadelphia. The combination
known as the "People's party" was again renewed,
and on a light vote it elected Benjamin H. Brown
city treasurer, and Charles M. Neal city commis-
sioner, by a majority of more than 2000 votes.
The arrival of William B. Reed on the 11th of
May, after having completed his diplomatic mission
in China, would have been commemorated by a pub-
lic dinner had it not been that Mr. Reed declined the
proffered honor, wishing, instead, to meet his fellow-
citizens at a general reception. This was accorded
him on the 31st of May, at the Board of Trade rooms,
a formal welcome being given him by Mayor Henry.
Mr. Reed delivered an elaborate address in explana-
tion of the details of the treaty which he had nego-
tiated with the Chinese government.
All through the year 1859 the subject of running
the street-cars on Sunday was discussed with much
feeling in the press and the pulpit, and finally was
carried into the courts. There was an emphatic de-
mand from a considerable number of the people that
they should be accommodated on Sundays in the new
cars. The opponents of Sunday travel, who had a
powerful following, resisted this demand with great
zeal and activity. That the sentiment in favor of it
was not confined entirely to the non-religious classes
of the community was shown in the petitions which
some of the Lutherans of Frankford sent to the Leg-
islature during the winter, praying for a modification
of the Sunday laws that would enable them to travel
in the cars on Sunday. The agitation became so per-
sistent that, on the 10th of July, the Green and Coates
Street Railway Company, together with the Girard
College (Ridge Avenue) line, determined to bring the
matter to an issue. The running of cars on that day
by the former company gave great offense to the con-
gregation of the Green Street Methodist Church, of
which Bev. George Duffield was pastor. They lodged
a complaint with the mayor, and in the mean time a
meeting was held at Spring Garden Hall on the 13th
of July, to protest against the alleged desecration of
the Sabbath. It was presided over by J. H. Shilling-
ford, and in the course of the speech-making Wil-
liam S. Pierce intimated that some " Saturday night
the Green and Coates Railway Company might find
a square of their road torn up, as was done years ago
with another railroad company by the women of Ken-
sington." This remark elicited much attention and
criticism at the time, and was sharply commented
upon, even by the Rev. John Chambers, one of the
most earnest champions of the Sunday laws. A few
nights afterward another meeting was held in the
same hall, at which resolutions were passed to the
effect that the running of the cars on Sunday would
disturb the worship of God, would impair the morals
of the public, would cause much additional labor,
would create a great demand for intoxicating liquors,
would tempt the laboring classes to squander their
money, and would expose the suburbs of the city to
plunderers. The supporters of this and of other meet-
ings with a like object called upon Mayor Henry,
and obtained his promise that in case of a repetition
of the running of cars on Sunday, the 17th, he would
interfere with his police. Accordingly, on that day a
detachment of policemen, under the command of Chief
Ruggles, was detailed to watch the movements of the
employes of the Green and Coates Street Company.
Amid the somewhat excitable disapprobation of a
crowd which did not relish the interference, the offi-
cers stopped a car that had been started out, and ar-
rested the driver, one William H. Jeandelle. This
arrest was productive of a very lively agitation. Judge
Oswald Thompson, of the Common Pleas, decided, in
habeas corpus proceedings, that the prisoner should
be held for a breach of the peace. On the night of
the same day that he made this decision, the 23d of
July, five thousand citizens assembled in Independ-
ence Square to protest against it, and appointed a
committee of ninety-six to agitate for the repeal of
the Sunday law. A week afterward there was another
demonstration by the same element, at the same place,
at which John M. Butler presided, and at which
speeches were made by Josiah Bond, C. H. DeWolf,
J. Solis Cohen, William B. Sipes, Dr. L. M. Coates,
John O'Byrne, and Dr. C. E. Kamerly. In the
autumn, when the Jeandelle case came up before
Judge Ludlow, he discharged the prisoner on the
ground that the charge, which was committing a
breach of the peace, and not a violation of the Sun-
day laws, had not been made out. But the railway
companies were not ready to face any more opposi-
tion for the present, and the Green and Coates Street
Company decided, by a unanimous vote of its stock-
holders, not to run cars on Sunday.1
The merchants of the city were disposed to be en-
thusiastic over a project which was formulated this
year for establishing a line of steamships between
1 The newspapere and the clergy were exceedingly animated in car-
rying on this exciting controversy. Two sermons, one delivered by the
Rev. I. D. Williamson and the other by Eev. William Cathcart, of Ihe
Second Baptist Church, dissenting from the view that religion needed
to be enforced by the civil law, and that such prosecution was persecu-
tion, attracted particular attention.
732
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Philadelphia and Liverpool, and which in September
had come sufficiently to a head to warrant the election
of a board of directors, consisting of George H. Stuart,
M. W. Baldwin, J. Edgar Thomson, Charles Macal-
ester, and S. Morris Wain, and which was known
under the title of the "Philadelphia and Crescent
Navigation Company." About the same time the
Pennsylvania Eailroad Company, which was desirous
of locating a terminus on the Delaware front, had
under consideration two plans, — one for crossing the
Schuylkill at Gray's Ferry, and running through the
region known as the " Neck" to Greenwich Point,
and the other for crossing the Schuylkill on a line
with the newly-opened Powelton Avenue, and then
reaching the Delaware through a tunnel, which was
to be constructed under Callowhill Street, at a cost of
a million dollars. This scheme was proposed by S.
K. Hoxie, was urged by him with great vigor, and
had many advocates. The company, however, chose
the other plan.
The chief political event in the fall election was
the struggle between Horn R. Kneass, the Demo-
cratic candidate, and William B. Mann, the People's
candidate, to obtain the district-attorneyship. Beyond
this the campaign was devoid of interest. Mr. Mann,
together with the remainder of the People's ticket,
was successful by a majority of 3000 votes.
The centennial anniversary of the birth of Schiller
was celebrated on the 9th and 10th of November. On
the evening of the former day there was a torchlight
parade by the German population, together with a dis-
play of fire-works and the illumination of dwellings.
A jubilee took place at the Academy of Music on the
following day, when an oration in German was de-
livered by Gustavus Remak, and one in English by
Eev. William H. Furness.
The John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry was the
beginning of a popular excitement which may be
said not to have entirely quieted down until after the
close of the civil war. The most bitter public feeling,
exceeding the vehemence of any of the previous
agitations of the slavery question, was called forth by
this event. On the 28th of October, Joshua R. Gid-
dings, the venerable abolitionist, explained at Na-
tional Hall what relation he had sustained toward
Brown, but as yet no serious signs of a bad public
temper had been manifested. When, however, the
leader of the famous insurrection was hanged, on the
2d of December, the abolitionists living in Phila-
delphia were in a perfect fever-heat of indignation.
In the morning they held a meeting in National Hall,
at which James Mott presided, and in which Lucretia
Mott, Theodore Tilton, Mary Grew, and Robert Pur-
vis were the chief participants. When it came the
turn of Mr. Purvis to speak, he was unable to proceed
for some time on account of the storm of hisses and
groans which greeted him from the pro-Southern
element that had also responded to the call. When
he was able to be heard, he made the remarkable as-
sertion that " John Brown would be looked upon as
the Jesus Christ of the nineteenth century." It was
only with the protection given by a force of policemen
under the command of Chief Ruggles that the meet-
ing was able to adjourn without violence.
Two days afterward the body of Brown arrived in
the city at the Broad and Prime [Washington Avenue]
Streets Depot. Mayor Henry was determined that it
should not remain here if he could possibly secure some
other disposition of it. To the requests of the aboli-
tionists at the depot, and of a deputation of colored
men from a ''sympathy prayer meeting" that had
been held at the Shiloh Baptist Church, Mr. Henry
replied that the peace of the city was more important
than their arguments. When the train arrived with
the remains of Brown, it was found necessary to prac-
tice a trick on the clamorous crowd in the streets. A
box, decked out as if it were a coffin, was solemnly
carried out by six men, and. soon afterward the real
body was quietly and safely conveyed to the New
York Ferry at Walnut Street wharf.
These demonstrations by the sympathizers with
Brown aroused the passions of the lawless, and caused
no little concern to the mercantile interest. The
abolitionists met with little consideration from the
great majority of the people. The feeling of the com-
munity at this time was essentially a conservative
one. Even the reticent and dispassionate Ledger was
moved to denounce the " band of fanatics'' and "in-
cendiaries" for what was called their treasonable pro-
ceedings. Business men, who were largely interested
in the Southern trade, were particularly anxious to
impress upon the South a sense of their hostility to
the John Brown movement. A general meeting,
called without distinction as to parties, for the pur-
pose of " preserving the Union," and said to be one
of the largest meetings ever held in the city, took place
at Jayne's Hall, December 7th. Joseph R. Ingersoll
was made chairman. The resolutions assured "our
brethren of the South that there exists a determined
spirit to assert and maintain the Constitution of the
Union, and the rights of the States under it." The
addresses, delivered by William B. Reed, Richard
Vaux, Charles Ingersoll, Robert Tyler, James Page,
Isaac Hazlehurst, Benjamin Harris Brewster, Henry
T. King, and John C. Bullitt (the last-named speak-
ing from the balcony of the hall), were in a similar
vein. In the following week the annual meeting of the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society was held at the
Assembly Building, and the speeches delivered by
Theodore Tilton and Oliver Johnson, of New York,
and Mary Grew, served only to intensify the prevail-
ing excitement.
A telegram from Governor Wise, of Virginia, to the
Southern young men at the Philadelphia medical col-
leges, requesting them to withdraw from those institu-
tions, and assuring them that if they should come to
Richmond and other cities in the South to finish their
education, they would receive the heartiest welcome,
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OP THE CIVIL WAR. 733
helped to create fresh anxiety and alarm. A large
number of the medical students immediately accepted
the invitation. Just at this time all the vigilance of
Mayor Henry and his officers was needed to prevent
a riotous outbreak. George William Curtis, of New
York, had been announced to deliver an address at
National Hall on the 15th of December, his subject
being the " Present Aspect of the Slavery Question.''
There was a desire on the part of the extreme anti-
abolition element to prevent Mr. Curtis from speak-
ing at all. In order to effect this purpose, a meeting
was held on the street in front of National Hall, and
warm speeches on behalf of the Union were made by
John D. Miles and John 8. Painter. Fearing that the
two meetings would come into violent collision with
each other, the mayor had ordered fifty policemen to
protect Mr. Curtis. The orator was introduced by
Judge Kelley, and it was only amid great confusion
and many interruptions, with some stone throwing,
that he was able to finish his address.
Among the other events of interest that took place
during the year 1859 was the opening of the Girard
College (Ridge Avenue) Railway on the 14th of
March ; the repetition in the spring by Edward Ever-
ett of his famous lecture on Washington at the Acad-
emy of Music ; the meeting on September 7th of the
national convention on prison discipline ; the conven-
tion of the American Vegetarian Society on the 22d
of September; the continuation of Joseph Barker's
addresses ; the launching of the United States war
sloop " Pawnee" on the 10th of October ; the cele-
brated cricket match between the All England eleven
and an American twenty-two, in which the English-
men were the winners by six wickets ; the beginning
of work in October on the Reading Railroad Depot
at Broad and Callowhill ; the opening, on the 27th of
October, of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane;
and the opening of the Eastern Market on the 26th
of November.
The year 1860 might be concisely described as a
period of politics. From almost the beginning of
January to the close of December the slavery ques-
tion, together with its bearings on the Presidential
election, was a subject of continuous agitation. As
early as 1859 the Central Republican Club had, in
preparation for the campaign of 1860, opened its rooms
at Seventh and Chestnut Streets, with addresses by
George A. Coffey and George In man Riche. Early
in the year the class of politicians who had been
Fillmore men in 1856 began to make preparations for
the Presidential struggle by founding a new political
organization. On the 14th of January, under the
guise of a dinner to Bailie Peyton, of Tennessee, the
movement was started in Philadelphia. The parquet
of the Academy of Music was floored over, and up-
ward of seven hundred citizens occupied seats at the
tables. The parquet circle and the balcony were filled
with spectators. The principal speakers were John
J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, Horace Maynard, of Ten-
nessee, Thomas W. Gilmer, of North Carolina, and
Morton McMichael. This was the first manifestation
in this city of the national movement for a Constitu-
tional Union party, which culminated in the nomina-
tion of Bell and Everett. The spring election was
looked forward to with intense interest. The cam-
paign began as early as February, when Andrew G.
Curtin, the nominee for Governor, who had been se-
lected by the convention of the People's party, was
indorsed at a meeting of the Central Republican
Club, Judge Kelley and A. K. McClure being the
speakers. A short time after this there was a great
Democratic ratification of the nomination of Henry
D. Foster. The meeting was held in National Hall,
and among the speakers were Henry M. Phillips,
Hendrick B. Wright, and John Cessna. The contest
between John Robbins and Mayor Henry for the
office of mayor, drew out every available stump
speaker from both parties. The Democrats made the
most desperate efforts to recover the mayoralty. Party
lines were rigidly drawn, for it was generally recog-
nized that the result would have an important effect
on the Presidential election. When the votes were
counted, in May, it was found that the People's party
had re-elected Mayor Henry by a majority of 882
votes.
The fact that the national convention of the Democ-
racy held its prolonged sessions at Charleston during
the most important part of this campaign deprived
the Democrats of the services of some of their lead-
ers. The Pennsylvania delegation, with the Phila-
delphians under the leadership of Lewis C. Cassidy,
had embarked for that city on the 18th of April in
the steamship " Keystone State." A crowd of several
thousand people cheering for Stephen A. Douglas saw
the vessel off. On this occasion five hundred bottles
of domestic liquors, as well as a proportionate supply
of beer and wines, were put on board for the comfort
of the political tourists.
When John Bell was nominated for President by
the Constitutional Union party he was stopping in
the city, at the La Pierre House, where his admirers
congregated together on the night of May 11th, and
honored him with a serenade. The nomination of
Abraham Lincoln by the National Republican con-
vention at Chicago was received with general satis-
faction by the members of that party. On the 26th
of May Independence Square was crowded with
them at a meeting called to ratify the nominations.
The addresses of Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, John
Sherman, of Ohio, Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylva-
nia, William Dunn, of Indiana, C. F. Train, of Mas-
sachusetts, John B. Myers and Robert P. King, of
the city, were received with great enthusiasm. Form-
ing in procession, the crowd then marched up to the
Continental Hotel, which had been recently opened,
and serenaded Mr. Sherman and Mr. Grow.
The hotel was then as great an object of interest to
the populace as any of the distinguished speakers.
734
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
It was considered at the time by good judges to be
the most magnificent hotel in the country. During the
previous year its construction, under the supervision
of architect John McArthur, Jr., had been watched
with much interest. The earliest public meeting in
advocacy of such a hotel had been held in March,
1857, at the Board of Trade rooms, under the direc-
tion of Caleb Cope, at which time $200,000 had been
subscribed, but nothing had been done in the way of
selecting a site. After considerable controversy, a
stock company that was formed to build the hotel
decided to purchase the lot at the southeast corner of
Ninth and Chestnut Streets for $355,000, and in Au-
gust of the same year work was begun by tearing
down the ruins of the old Museum building which
had occupied the site. AVith the exception of an in-
terruption in the winter of 1858, caused by the pan-
icky times, the work went steadily on until the com-
pletion of the edifice in February, 1860. On the
13th of that month it was opened to the stockholders
for inspection, and soon afterward for the accommo-
dation of guests, having been rented to Paran Ste-
vens for twelve years, at $40,000 a year.
The experiment of running steam-cars on a pas-
senger railway was made in March, on the Fifth and
Sixth Streets Railway running to Frankford. It was
calculated that one of these cars could be run for a
dollar a day, and they were subsequently introduced
on that road. About the same time the subject of
salting the tracks of the railways after snow-storms
first began to excite some adverse comment. It was
calculated that during this winter thirty thousand
bushels of salt had been scattered over the tracks of
the various companies.
The dangerous excitement that had attended the
Dangerfield slave case was partially revived on the
27th of March, when Judge Cadwalader remanded
Moses Horner, a fugitive slave, to the custody of his
Southern owners. When Horner was placed in a
carriage to be taken to prison, the vehicle was sur-
rounded by a howling mob, largely composed of col-
ored men, who attempted to rescue him, and who
came into a lively collision with the police. Benja-
min Harris Brewster represented the complainants
in this case. A night or two afterward his admirers
serenaded him, in appreciation of his course. In the
speech which he made on that occasion, Mr. Brews-
ter declared that " the institution of domestic servi-
tude is a great political necessity,— politically right,
socially right, and morally right."
The Arcade, which for many years had been one
of the best known of Philadelphia buildings, was de-
molished in April, and on its site were erected large
and commodious buildings by Dr. Jayne. John
McArthur, Jr., was the architect of these structures,
which since have been used for commercial purposes.
During the spring of this year Philadelphia was
the rendezvous of a large number of Mormon re-
cruits, preparatory to their departure for Utah. They
had even established a " conference" among them-
selves. On the 7th of May about three hundred and
fifty of them, joined with as many more from New
York, took their departure for the West, thoroughly
armed and equipped. Most of those who had been
stopping in Philadelphia were English men and
women, but fifty of them were natives of this city.
The dedication of a monument in Eoxborough on
the 28th of May, was the occasion of an interesting
and somewhat lively demonstration in that section of
the city. This shaft was erected in remembrance of
the brave Virginia soldiers who were slaughtered at
Wood's barn in 1777. The oration was delivered by
Horatio Gates Jones, and there was a military dis-
play under the command of Maj. Charles Thomson
Jones. While the ceremonies were in progress there
was a disagreement between Maj. Jones and Brig.-
Gen. Miles as to the places they should occupy at the
head of the column. It resulted in the withdrawal
of Miles and his soldiers, a proceeding which drew
upon him much unfavorable comment.
The arrival of the famous Japanese embassy of
1860 had been awaited for some weeks with an intense
feeling of curiosity. On the 9th of June there was
an immense mass of humanity at the Broad and Prime
Streets Depot to catch a glimpse of the ambassadors.
The hospitality of the city was extended to them by
Mayor Henry, and by the time the military parade
was ready to start it seemed as if the whole popula-
tion had poured out into the streets to see the princes
of Niphon. It was estimated that, with the numer-
ous visitors who came to the city from the country,
the multitude numbered half a million people. The
Japanese were taken to the Continental Hotel, and
during all the next day the streets outside were
crowded with people, eager to catch sight of the
strange faces of these Asiatic dignitaries. On Monday,
the 11th, they were escorted to factories, stores, and
public institutions, on the 12th they attended a special
matinee performance, consisting of farce, pantomime,
and opera, at the Academy of Music ; on another day
they witnessed a balloon ascension in the First Ward,
and much of the remainder of their stay was occupied
at the Mint, in comparing and testing our coins with
those of Japan. The hospitality of the citizens was prac-
tically unbounded ; indeed, during that week, there
prevailed a " Japanese fever." So strong was it that
five days after their arrival Councils could not get
a quorum together. The presents received by the
Japanese and the articles which they purchased
while in the city were valued at one hundred thou-
sand dollars. For some time the reigning sensation
of that summer was the popular, nimble-witted " Japa-
nese Tommy" and his American lady-loves. When
the ambassadors left this country they donated twenty
thousand dollars to the policemen who in the various
cities had taken care of them, and more than three
thousand dollars of this amount was subsequently
distributed among the policemen of Philadelphia.
FROM THE CONSOLIDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 735
The question of erecting public buildings on Penn
Square was agitated with great earnestness during the
greater part of this year. A commission which had
been called into being by an act of Assembly, had de-
cided that the site for them should be at that point.
The controversy was vigorous, and at times bitter,
the opponents of the commission declaring that Broad
and Market Streets was a location too far west, and
that Independence Square should have been chosen.
With the coming on of the civil war this movement
received a check, and was not revived until ten years
afterward.
The visit which Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth's " Chicago
Zouaves" made in the last week of July, had no
small effect in arousing a military spirit among the
young men of the city, and the melancholy ending of
Ellsworth's career a year later at Alexandria, together
with the renown which his men achieved in the early
days of the Rebellion, caused this visit to be remem-
bered subsequently with much more than ordinary
interest.
The mammoth vessel, the "Great Eastern," which
was anchored off Cape May toward the end of July,
was visited on the 31st of that month by a large ex-
cursion-party from Philadelphia on board the steamer
"John A. Warner." The excursion was ill managed,
so much so that an indignation meeting was held in
the city several days afterward.
John C. Heenan, the prize-fighter, who was then
an object of much admiration from a considerable
number of Americans in consequence of his recent
pugilistic contest in England with Sayers, arrived in
the city on the 15th of August. A popular reception
was accorded him at Camac's woods, and in the even-
ing his admirers assembled to the number of several
thousand in and around the Girard House and com-
plimented him with a serenade.
The visit of the Prince of Wales on the 9th of Oc-
tober was not attended with any of those demonstra-
tions of popular excitement that had characterized a
few months before the arrival of the Japanese princes.
In company with Mayor Henry he was quietly driven
in a carriage to the Continental Hotel. The October
election took place on this day, and the royal visitor
was much interested in its results. On the following
day he made an inspection of our public institutions,
attended the races at Point Breeze, and in the even-
ing was welcomed at the Academy of Music in a pri-
vate box by a brilliant audience. On this occasion
one act of the opera of " La Traviata" was performed,
with Pauline Colson as Violetta, and the whole of
the opera of "Martha," with young Adeliua Patti as
Henrietta.
The Presidential campaign of 1860 followed closely
upon the spring election. It was accompanied also
by a canvass for the Governorship of Pennsylvania.
After the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas for the
Presidency, and that of John C. Breckinridge for
the same office, the split in the ranks of the local De-
mocracy over national questions became wider. It
did not extend, however, to State and local issues.
They were substantially united in their support of
Henry D. Foster for Governor. The larger propor-
tion of the Bell and Everett men was also in his favor.
The People's party, which by this time had really be-
come the Republican party, although still not gener-
ally known in Philadelphia by that title, supported
Lincoln for President, and Curtin for Governor, with
all the enthusiasm of which they were capable.
They had what they had never possessed before, — a
well-disciplined organization, under the guidance of
Alexander K. McClure as chairman of the State Com-
mittee. In the city they made themselves particu-
larly active and conspicuous in clubs and associations,
known under such names as the " Wide Awakes,"
"Lincoln Defenders," "Republican Invincibles,"
and "Rail Splitters." The Constitutional Union
leaders also aroused a fair share of enthusiasm for
their candidates by organizing such bodies as the
" Bell Ringers" and the "Minute-men of '56." The
followers of Douglas were at all times exceedingly
demonstrative, and the Breckinridge men were not
far behind them in this respect. The amount of
money spent on public meetings and parades had not,
up to this time, been exceeded in political campaigns.
It would be impossible, so numerous were these gath-
erings, to give an account in a brief space of the most
| interesting and significant of them. In the main
they were all conducted with as much decorum as
could be expected in a period of so much contention
and rivalry, and with but little of the violence that
had been anticipated at the opening of the year.
The election in October resulted in the success of
the People's or Republican ticket, headed by Alfred
C. Harmer for recorder of deeds, by an average raa-
i jority of 2000. The Republicans elected three out of
their four Congressional candidates, but in the city
Curtin, their candidate for Governor, was 2000 behind
| Foster. He was elected, however, by his majorities in
j the interior of the State, and the Republicans were
, wildly jubilant over the assurance thus given them of
the coming triumph of Mr. Lincoln. The Democrats
immediately lost heart. The remainder of the Presi-
dential campaign was without excitement, and even
before the election, newspapers which had not sup-
ported him began to speak of the " Lincoln adminis-
tration." When the votes were counted up, on the
6th of November, it was found that, while the Bell
ticket had received 7131, and the Breckinridge and
the Douglas tickets together 30,053, the Lincoln ticket
had obtained 39,223, or a majority of more than 2000
over all, and the first of the long line of distinct-
ively Republican victories in Philadelphia had been
achieved.
736
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE CIVIL WAR.'
On the 6th of November, 1860, the long political
struggle between the North and the South on the
slavery question, which began in the Constitutional
Convention of 1787, and which was intensified by the
purchase of Louisiana in 1803, ended with the elec-
tion to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln and the
triumph of the Republican party. The accession of
the anti-slavery party to political power filled the
South with dismay and created the greatest excite-
ment throughout the country. Hardly had the result
been ascertained before some of the extreme Southern
States began military preparations, and set on foot
measures to carry into effect their oft-repeated threats
of secession and combination in resistance to alleged
Northern encroachments. Meetings were held in
every city, town, and village of the South, and these
were' addressed in vehement language by members of
Congress and other prominent speakers. Resistance
to the authority of the new administration and the
duty of the Southern States to secede from the Union
were the chief topics of their impassioned appeals to
the people. On the 20th of December the State con-
vention of South Carolina, after a brief debate, passed
the ordinance of secession by a unanimous vote, and
on the following day a declaration of the causes which
had led to this action was also adopted.
The announcement of the passage of the ordinance
of secession excited general enthusiasm in all the more
Southern slave States, but in other slave States, par-
ticularly the border States, it served to intensify
the painful feeling with which their people had
watched the progress of events in South Carolina.
That the action of the latter State had been hasty
and ill-judged a majority even of the people of the
South admitted, and this fact gave additional poig-
nancy to the general sorrow with which this first dis-
union movement was regarded. By the passage of
the South Carolina ordinance of secession an impetus
was given to the prevailing excitement in the South,
and the measures of the cotton States, looking in the
same direction, were greatly accelerated. Mississippi
followed the example of South Carolina on the 9th of
January, 1861 ; Alabama and Florida, January 11th ;
1 In the limited Bpace at our command it is impossible to treat that
portion of the hiBtory of the city of Philadelphia between the election
of President Lincoln, on Nov. G, I860, and 1866, except in the briefest
possible manner. During the period of the great civil war, almost every
day bristled with prominent local events, and every week gave birth to
numberless incidents of local or general interest. The magnitude of
the subject and the multiplicity of the details required in a connected
narrative of one of the most interesting and stirring epochs in the his-
tory of the city demand a far more extended and elaborate treatment
than can be given within our present limits, and we have therefore been
forced, reluctantly, to content ourselves with simply a chronological
presentation of the most prominent events in Philadelphia history from
Nov. 6, 1860, to January, 1S66.
Georgia, January 20th ; Louisiana, January 26th ;
Texas, February 1st; Virginia, April 17th ; Tennes-
see, May 6th ; Arkansas, May 18th ; North Carolina,
May 21st; and Kentucky, November 20th.
The progress of these events caused intense excite-
ment in Philadelphia, where the people were pro-
nounced and decided in their support of the Union.
The geographical position of the State of Pennsyl-
vania, added to its overshadowing political importance,
made the duties of the Governor peculiarly responsible
and perplexing. Separated from the slave States by an
imaginary line, and looked to from both the North
and the South to exhaust its great moral and political
power to avert the threatened conflict, every expres-
sion from its government was awaited with profound
interest. It was under these grave circumstances
that Andrew G. Curtin took the gubernatorial chair.
The conflict which was then raging throughout the
country obliterated old and sacred landmarks in
political teaching, but in his inaugural address of
January, 1861, Governor Curtin proclaimed the duties
of patriotism, and sounded the sentiments of the
North upon the relations of the States to each other.
In that address he said, " No one who knows the
history of Pennsylvania, and understands the opin-
ions and feelings of her people, can justly charge us
with hostility to our brethren of other States. We
regard them as friends and fellow-countrymen, in
whose welfare we feel a kindred interest, and we
recognize in their broadest extent all our constitu-
tional obligations to them."
Upon the right of a State to secede from the Union,
he said, " No part of the people, no State, nor com-
bination of States, can voluntarily secede from the
Union, nor absolve themselves from their obligations
to it. To permit a State to withdraw at pleasure from
the Union without the consent of the rest, is to confess
that our government is a failure. Pennsylvania can
never acquiesce in such a conspiracy, nor assent to a
doctrine which involves the destruction of the gov-
ernment. If the government is to exist all the
requirements of the Constitution must be obeyed;
and it must have power adequate to the enforcement
of the supreme law of the land in every State. It is
the first duty of the national authorities to stay the
progress of anarchy and enforce the laws, and Penn-
sylvania, with a united people, will give them an
honest, faithful, and active support. The people
mean to preserve the integrity of the National
Union at every hazard."
Again on the 30th of April, when the Legislature
met in extraordinary session in obedience to his proc-
lamation, he said, "The time is past for temporizing
or forbearing with the rebellion, the most causeless
in history. . . . The insurrection must now be met
by force of arms, and a quarter of a million of Penn-
sylvania's sons will answer the call to arms, if need
be, to wrest us from a reign of anarchy and plunder,
and secure for themselves and their children, for
THE CIVIL WAR.
737
ages to come, the perpetuity of this government and
its beneficent institutions."
Finally the Legislature of the State passed the
following resolutions, early in the session of 1861,
upon the subject of secession, then being actively
pushed in the Southern States, which were a fair
index to the temper of the people, and which gave
no uncertain sound as to the course which Pennsyl-
vania would pursue in the impending crisis :
"Resolved, That if the people of any State in this
Union are not in full enjoyment of all the benefits to
be secured by them by the said Constitution, if their
rights under it are disregarded, their tranquillity dis-
turbed, their prosperity retarded, or their liberties
imperiled by the people of any other State, full and
adequate redress can and ought to be provided for
such grievances through the action of Congress and
other proper departments of the national government.
That we adopt the sentiment and language of Presi-
dent Andrew Jackson, expressed in his message to
Congress on the 16th of January, 1833, ' that the right
of a people of a single State to absolve themselves at
will and without the consent of the other States from
their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberties
and happiness of millions composing this Union, can-
not be acknowledged, and that such authority is utterly
repugnant, both to the principles upon which the
general government is constituted, and the objects
which it was expressly formed to attain.' That the
Constitution of the United States of America con-
tains all the powers necessary to the maintenance of
its authority, and it is the solemn and most impera-
tive duty of the government to adopt and carry into
effect whatever measures are necessary to that end ;
and the faith and power of Pennsylvania are hereby
pledged to the support of such measures in any man-
ner, and to any extent that may be required of her
by the constituted authorities of the United States.
That all plots, conspiracies, and warlike demonstra-
tions against the United States, in any section of the
country, are treasonable in character, and whatever
power of the government is necessary to their sup-
pression should be supplied to that purpose without
hesitation or delay."
The authorities of Pennsylvania understood the
magnitude of the impending conflict, and resolved to
prepare for it according to their appreciation of the
public danger. With a long line of southern border
exposed to the sudden incursions of the Confederates,
and the Union army at first composed of only three
months' men, and likely even with these to be out-
numbered in the field, they determined not to rely
upon the mistaken conceptions of the Federal author-
ities for the protection of the State. Immediate steps
were taken to organize troops, subject to the call of
the Federal government, if needed, and to be at all
times in readiness for active service. And when the
nation stood appalled after the disasters at Bull Run,
and Washington was exposed to the attacks of the
47
Confederates, Pennsylvania was the first to forward
a thoroughly organized and equipped military force
to strengthen and reinspire the Union army
in defense of the capital. The reputation of [1860
the State for promptness in furnishing troops
when called for by the government was maintained
throughout the war. Pennsylvania, during this
crisis, was an empire in itself, and its vast wealth
and resources were constantly tempting to devastate
it. She, however, never asked that the armies in the
field should be diminished to defend her territory or
maintain the State's authority ; but, on the contrary,
she cheerfully supplied every demand for troops as
fast as called for, and in addition always displayed a
willingness to raise forces for her local protection.
The Legislature gave an attentive ear to the govern-
ment appeals for aid in defense of the Union, and
voted liberally millions of money in support of the
cause. Besides all this, Pennsylvania was ceaseless in
her devotion to the interests and wants of those whom
the State had given for the national defense. She
sent kind agents to the field, who visited the soldiers
in their camps and provided for their wants. Wher-
ever were sickness, or wounds, or death, there was the
official agent of the State to perform every duty to
the living and the last rites to the dead. The bodies
of the deceased were brought back to sleep with their
kindred, and their names enrolled in the lists of the
martyred patriots.
The election of Mr. Lincoln excited compara-
tively little interest in Philadelphia. The result had
been accepted beforehand as a foregone conclusion.
"We never saw an election," said a Philadelphia
paper of November 7th, " for even ward officers, that
excited so little interest. . . . After nightfall persons
began to assemble about the newspaper- and tele-
graph-offices to get some news from New York. But
there was even here nothing like the interest usually
evinced in a Presidential election." About nine o'clock
at night a procession of men and boys made its ap-
pearance on Chestnut Street, with a transparency at
its head bearing the inscription, " Lincoln on his
way to the White House." The illustrations of
this text were, however, so equivocal as to make it
uncertain what party the men belonged to, and,
finally, when the procession reached Fifth and
Chestnut Streets, a disturbance occurred, which
caused the interference of the police and the arrest
of the more active participants. During the evening
processions were formed by the Lincoln clubs belong-
ing to the different wards, each having transparencies
with the majority given in the ward represented by it.
—At a meeting of the Democratic Association of
the Twenty-second Ward, held at their hall in Ger-
mantown on the 8th of November, Harry Ingersoll,
late Democratic nominee from the Fifth Congres-
sional District, presiding, and Franklin Jones, secre-
tary, resolutions were adopted regretting the result
of the election, but declaring it to be the duty of all
738
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Democrats to acquiesce in the will of the majority
constitutionally expressed. At the same time it was
resolved " to extend to that portion of our
1860] fellow-countrymen of the South, who think
differently, the assurance of a cordial and
respectful fellow-feeling, under the invasion of their
constitutional rights and domestic peace and dignity
to which they have been so long subjected by the
controlling voice of the party which has now pre-
vailed in the choice of a Chief Magistrate." The
South was also urged to reflect well before pro-
ceeding to extreme measures, and was appealed to
not to desert " the weaker party at the North, struck
down in their defense." The sentiments expressed
by Mr. Lincoln in his speeches were denounced as
being " subversive of our mixed federal and national
system," and it was declared that they (the mem-
bers of the meeting) were " not yet able to spare a
single star or a single stripe from the glorious flag of
the Union." Among those who advocated the reso-
lutions were J. G. Gibson, A. S. Tourison, Albertis
King, George W. Wolf, William Best, H. Harkins,
and Harry Ingersoll.
— On the 22d of November the banks of Philadel-
phia determined to suspend specie payments. The
measure was precipitated upon them, and the other
banks of the Union, by the political agitation which
had destroyed confidence between the North and
South, suspended trade, and produced widespread
monetary embarrassments. The suspension, though
it came suddenly upon the community, was generally
regarded as unavoidable, and was acquiesced in as a
probably temporary inconvenience, which a favor-
able turn in the aspect of political affairs might
render of only short duration. The large manufac-
turing interests of Philadelphia, on the other hand,
did not feel the effects of the crisis until some time
after the election. The Public Ledger of November
27th said, " The present financial and political de-
rangement of affairs does not seem to affect the large
manufacturing interests of Philadelphia to any great
extent." At least most of those we visited yesterday
have their usual number of men employed, and are
receiving orders and remittances from the South. . . .
Some of the large manufacturers of furniture, which
is sold to dealers in the South, have been somewhat
affected, but as yet only a few men have been dis-
charged. . . The manufacturers of carriages, which
are sold at wholesale to the South, feel the effects of
the pressure considerably, but not to such an extent
as yet as will be likely to lead to a general discharge
of hands, for there are still orders arriving."
—Thursday, November 29th, was observed as
Thanksgiving Day in Philadelphia with the usual ser-
vices in the churches. Among the sermons preached
on this occasion was a discourse by Rev. E. W. Hut-
ter, on " The Blessings of the Union," delivered in
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, New Street below
Fourth. Rev. W. T. Brantley preached at the First
Baptist Church, corner of Broad and Arch Streets,
on the causes of the political troubles with which the
country was afflicted. In the afternoon there was a
parade of military organizations.
— At a meeting of manufacturers and business men
of Philadelphia and vicinity, held at the Manufac-
turers' Exchange on the 1st of December, W. Blakely,
of Delaware County, presiding, it was decided, in
view of the business depression, to recommend to
manufacturers of cotton and woolen goods that they
should run their mills at half time until increased
sales or reduced stocks justified full-time production
once more. A resolution was also adopted to the
effect that the longer selling of domestic dry-goods
on eight and ten months' credit was impolitic.
— In the Select Council, on the 6th of December,
Mr. Drayton offered the following :
"Whereas, There is great reason to fear that there is serious peril of
the dissolution of the Union of these States, under whose protection we
have grown to be a great and prosperous nation, and it is fitting that
the citizens of Philadelphia, — that city in which the great principles of
the Union were first embodied and promulgated, — should in some suit-
able way express their love for the Union and their devotion to its per-
petuation, and to the strengthening of those bondB which unite us,
whether of the North or the South, the East or the West, as one great
and united people ; therefore,
"Resolved, By the Select and Common Councils of the city of Phila-
delphia, that the mayor of the city he, and he is hereby requested by
his proclamation, to invite our fellow-citizens who love the Union to
assemble at the old State-House, at twelve noon of a day to be appointed
for the purpose, there to express their attachment to the Constitution of
the United States, and their love for the Union which it creates and
protects.
" Resolved, That a joint special committee, consisting of six members
from each chamber of Councils, to which shall bo added the presidents,
be appointed to co-operate with the mayor in such arrangements as may
be proper in their judgment by way of preparation for such meeting."
The resolutions were adopted by a unanimous vote.
In Common Council, after a prolonged discussion,
the resolutions, as they came from Select Council,
were passed by a vote of fifty-three to sixteen.
— It having been announced that George William
Curtis would deliver an abolition lecture before the
People's Literary Institute on the 13th of December,
intimations were given out that if the lecturer at-
tempted to speak there would be a disturbance, and
it was said a mob had been organized to break up
the assemblage. In consequence of these reports,
Mayor Henry addressed a letter to J. W. White,
chairman of the lecture committee of the institute,
stating that the appearance of Mr. Curtis as a lec-
turer would be extremely unwise, and that if he pos-
sessed the lawful power he would not permit it. The
lessee of Concert Hall, in which the lecture was to
have been delivered, notified Mr. White that he had
been informed officially that a riot was anticipated,
and that, under the circumstances, he could not per-
mit the hall to be used for the purpose indicated.
The lecture was accordingly postponed.
— In accordance with the resolutions of the City
Councils, Mayor Henry issued a proclamation calling
a meeting of citizens in Independence Square, " to
counsel together to avert the danger which threatens
THE CIVIL WAR.
739
our country." At the request of members of the bar
who desired to participate, the courts adjourned over
the day of meeting, and the navy-yard was closed by
order of Commodore Stewart. The meeting was
held on Thursday, December 13th, in the presence of
an immense concourse of spectators, estimated to
number fifty thousand persons. Charles B. Trego
called the meeting to order, and nominated as chair-
man Alexander Henry, mayor of Philadelphia, who
was received with cheers. William H. Drayton then
read the following list of vice-presidents and secre-
taries :
Vice-Presidents, Samuel Breck, Charles Macalesler, C. W. Poultney,
William J. Dunne, John B. Myers, John M. Irwin, Edward Coles, Mat-
thew Baird, Joseph Lea, Charles J. Tngersoll, John B.Austin, A.J. Bos-
well, David S. Brown, L. J. Leberman, Thomas Barnctt, Robert Morris,
Benjamin Gerhard, Pierce Butler, T. T. Tasker, Sr., John Thomson,
Robert Kelton, Anthony J. Drexel, Charles S. Coxe, John T. Smith, M.
Robinson, Y. L. Bradford, G. W. Toland, Gen. Robert Patterson, S. M.
Felton, Robert Ewing, D. Rodney King, Peter A. Keyser, Josiah Ran-
dal], Edward S. Whelen, William Martin, Robert Steen, C. R. Moore,
W. A. Blanchard, Dr. C. D. Meigs, E. G. Dutilh, Abraham Hart, J. E.
Thomson, Elijah Dallett, Thomas H. Powers, John Robbins, Jr., Jasper
Harding, George D. Rosengarten, Charles H. Fisher, John L. Goddard,
Samuel V. Merrick, J. Eisenbrey, Jr., Stephen Colwell, Eli K. Price, J.
H. Campbell, Charles N. Bancker, Dr. William Welherill, Arthur G.
Coffin, Archibald Campbell, Peter Sieger, Frederick Brown, Benjamin
Rush, T. H. Dupuy, Capt. James West, Richard C. Dale, Barton H.
Jenks, F. A. Packard, H. C. Harrison, Col. Joseph S. Riley, Johu 0.
James, Frederick Fraley, S. T. AltemuB, Isaac Lea, James Y. Watson, J.
V. McLean, Thomas Robins, A. S. Roberts, William R. Lejee, Johu S.
Hart, John McCanlesa, David Jnyne, Dr. W. Shippen, John Baird, T. E.
Harper, James Dundas, J. E. Caldwell, Henry Rowland, II. Catherwood,
George H. Stuart, Edward Dingee, Henry C. Carey, George Thompson,
Dr. John Neill, George H. Martin, John Rice, Benjamin Rowland, Ed-
ward H. Trotter, William Struthers, Henry Bumm, JameB C. Hand, S.
W. De Coursey, George Bartolett, Andrew C. Craig, William F. Hughes,
John P. Levy, Isaac P. Morris, Edwin H. Filler, Joseph Patterson, Peter
McCall, G. B. Presbury, William Sellers, David P. Brown, J. E. P. Ste-
vens, S. A. Mercer, G. H. Kirkham, Col. James Page, J. Phillips Mont-
gomery, 0. Campbell, Eli W. Bailpy, J. B. Colnhan, J. B. Lippincott,
Hugh L. Hodge, P. Williamson, A. L. Bonnafon, T. T. Tasker, Jr., C. J.
Wolbert, John Childs, John Welsh, J. C.Mitchell, E. P. Middleton,
Isaac Jeans, David Samuel, C. H. Rogers, Gen. W. Duncan, Jules Hauel,
Robert Wood, Caleb Cope, Moses Thomas, F. B. WTarner, Dr. James
Bond, Frederick Fairthorne, William Cramp, Nathan Roland, J. Hans-
worth, Richard Price, St. George Tucker Campbell, George Trott, H. R.
Coggeshall, J. Waiuwright, Asa Whitney, J. Rodman Paul, A. G. Water-
man, Joseph B. Mitchell, Thomas Smith, M. S. Shapleigh, John Grigg,
Joseph A.Clay, Alexander Brown, Lemuel Coffin, Dr. S.Thomas, Charles
Harmer, D. Solomons, Edward Hoopes, Arad Barrows, D. B. Cummins,
Thomas Rowland, Benjamin Lehman, J. C. Cresson, William Divine, S.
S. Bishop, Col. John G. Watmough, David Faust, P. V. Savery, D. C.
EnoBrJohn Passmore, Dr. J. Pancoast, JameB Dunlap, Francis Cooper,
Isaac Koons, Samuel Moore, W. R. Thompson, William B. Bement, Al-
bert Benton, Francis King, Henry Croskey, James R. Campbell, Benja-
min F. Huddy, Joseph Ripka, A. G. Cattell, William B. Taylor, Daniel
Smith, Jr., Commodore Charles Stewart, Benjamin Etting, William D.
Lewis, George K. Zeigler, B. H. Brewster, Gen. Cadwalader, William C.
Ludwig, F.J. Dreer, Charles Megarge, William Welsh, F. G. Smith,
CharleB J. Biddle, Edward C. Dale, James S. Smith, Henry Simons, W.
L. Springs, Thomas S. Newlin, S. MorriB Wain, John Jordan, Jr., B. H.
Rand. The secretaries were Conrad S. Grove, Joseph F. Tobias, J. F.
Johnston, Charles Wheeler, S. W. Arnold, E. C. Mitchell, Chapman Bid-
die, J. Bonsall, A.J. Holmau, Coleman Fisher, C.A. Yeager, W. Sargent,
M.D., G. W. Hacker, John M. Collins, T. A. Barlow, Benjamin Patton,
Dr. John Gegan, W. D. Cozzens, T. C. Wood, J. Murray Rush, C. Pierce,
W. D. Lewis, Jr., J. E. Montgomery, B. W. Richards, Benjamin S. Riley,
E. P. Kane, H. Samuel, James D. Keyser, J. D. Sergeant, E. A. Hendry,
L. N. Brognard, M. J. Micheson, G. Townsend, Gen. W. M. Reilly, C.
W. Littell, E. S. Amer, William Sergeant, W. Clifford, J. C. Fryer, J.
Balleuger.
Eight Rev. Dr. Potter, Protestant Episcopal bishop
of Pennsylvania, at the invitation of Mayor Henry,
delivered a prayer, in which he petitioned
that " a double portion of the wisdom and pa- [ 1 860
triotism of the fathers" might " descend and
rest upon their sons, that from this place there may go
forth an influence which will be felt throughout the
republic, — an influence which will tend to the healing
of the waters of strife and discord, and to the bringing
back to our distracted land the reign of unity and
concord." Mayor Henry then delivered an address,
in which he stated that the people of Philadelphia
were now called upon to avow their unbroken at-
tachment to the Union and their steadfast determina-
tion that no honest effort should be left untried to
preserve its integrity. John B. Myers read a series
of resolutions proclaiming the attachment of the
people of Philadelphia to the Union, pledging that
every statute in force in Pennsylvania, if there were
any such, invading the constitutional rights of a
sister State, should be repealed, recognizing the obli-
gations of the act of Congress of 1850, commonly
known as the fugitive slave law, pointing " with pride
and satisfaction" to the recent punishment and con-
viction in Philadelphia of those who had broken the
provisions of the fugitive slave law, by aiding in the
attempted rescue of a slave, as proof that Philadel-
phia was faithful in her obedience to the law ; recom-
mending to the Legislature of Pennsylvania the pass-
age of a law giving compensation in case of the rescue
of a slave by the county in which such rescue oc-
curred; acknowledging and submitting "obediently
and cheerfully" to the decisions of the Supreme Court
of the United States as to the recognition of slaves as
property and the rights of slave-owners in the Terri-
tories ; declaring that " all denunciations of slavery
as existing in the United States, and of our fellow-
citizens who maintain that institution and who hold
slaves under it, are inconsistent with that spirit of
brotherhood and kindness which ought to animate all
who live under and profess to support the Constitu-
tion of the American Union ;" cordially approving
the suggestion that a convention of delegates from
the several States be held for the purpose of suggest-
ing remedies for the dangers that menaced the Union,
and appealing to those Southern States which were
considering the question of seceding from the Union
to forbear and not destroy " so great and so fair an
inheritance." Speeches indorsing the resolutions
were made by Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, Judge Wood-
ward, Charles E. Lex, Theodore Cuyler, and Isaac
Hazlehurst, after which S. Benton offered a resolution,
which was adopted, that the presiding officer appoint
a committee of three citizens to prepare a report of the
proceedings and provide for its widest possible circu-
lation throughout the Union.
The demonstrations in behalf of union and peace
were not confined to the mass-meeting. Nearly all
the wholesale stores and many of the retail stores on
740
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Second, Third, Market, Chestnut, and Eighth Streets
were closed and decorated with flags. The Conti-
nental Hotel displayed three large American
1860] flags. The balcony was draped with the
national colors, and along the front of the
building was exhibited the motto " Concession before
Secession." A number of private dwellings were
decorated with bunting, and attached to the horses
and cars of the street railway lines were small
streamers of red, white, and blue. On the 15th it
was announced that Mayor Henry had been deputed
to transmit the resolutions adopted by the meeting
and reports of the speeches to the authorities of
South Carolina.
— On the 14th of December a meeting of the Twenty-
second Ward Democratic Association was held in
Germantown, which also included " friends of the
Union irrespective of party." Benjamin Rush pre-
sided. George W. Wolf offered a series of resolu-
tions, which were adopted, approving the measures
recommended by the Union meeting in Independence
Square, and cordially responding " to all the inspir-
ing proceedings and patriotic resolutions of the great
Union demonstration." A resolution offered by C.
W. Littell was also adopted, commending Governor
Hicks, of Maryland, for " his declination to convene
the Legislature of his State for the purpose of adopt-
ing measures preparatory to her secession from the
Union." A. King having been called to the chair,
the president, Benjamin Rush, offered a series of reso-
lutions, which were unanimously adapted, declaring
that the meeting could give " no countenance to the
extraordinary doctrine lately set up, that this great
Union possesses no power to maintain its integrity,"
and that it contemplated with infinite pain the pro-
jected secession of South Carolina, hoping, however,
that she would not put it out of her power to retrace
her steps. Addresses on behalf of the Union and
conciliation, and in favor of securing the just and
coequal rights of all the States, were delivered by Mr.
Rush, John S. Littell, Henry Flanders, Emmanuel
Key, and Samuel Johnson.
— December 18th it was announced that Mayor
Henry. had selected S. Benton, J. B. Lippincott, and
J. S. Newlin as a committee to attend to the distri-
bution of the pamphlet containing a report of the
proceedings of the Union mass-meeting.
1861. — Desiring to obtain a parade-ground for the
troops under his command, Gen. Patterson, who was
then major-general First Division Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers, made application early in the fall of 1860 to
the City Councils for permission to use the arsenal
lot. The Councils referred him to City Solicitor
Charles E. Lex, and a number of letters passed be-
tween Gen. Patterson and Mr. Lex, which were pub-
lished in the newspapers of Jan. 2, 1861. The lot in
question had been conveyed by the city of Philadel-
phia to the State of Pennsylvania as the site for an
arsenal, but had been rented by the adjutant-general
to the Western Market Company. It was alleged
that the adjutant-general had acted without authority
and in violation of the agreement between the city
and State. Gen. Patterson applied to City Solicitor
Lex to know what steps could be taken to recover
possession, and Mr. Lex replied that the only remedy
he could suggest was the placing of a fence around
the square by the military, and if the market com-
pany attempted to tear it down, the bringing of an
action of trespass against them to test the right of the
adjutant-general to make the lease complained of.
Mr. Lex's advice did not satisfy Gen. Patterson, who,
in a rather caustic letter, said, " I cannot bring my-
self to believe that when Councils referred my com-
munication to the City Solicitor, they intended that
officer to tell the military to put up a fence around
the arsenal yard, to employ men to watch for the
person who tore the fence down, and whose butcher,
huckster, or fish wagons were put on the arsenal yard
or lot, and that then when this was ascertained, that
the military or the major-general was to employ
counsel, commence an action for trespass against the
offenders, waste his time and dance attendance at
courts in a controversy with persons who never had
a transaction with him, and who, when he got a ver-
dict, would probably not be able to pay the costs, and
all this to test the right of the adjutant-general to
make the lease complained of." He added that if it
was Mr. Lex's opinion that the Councils intended, in
referring his complaint to him (Lex), " that the mili-
tary should incur the expense and trouble of protect-
ing the public interests and property," he would thank
him to say so. On the 26th of December, after the
lapse of some weeks without action on the part of the
City Solicitor, Gen. Patterson again wrote to the City
Councils, stating that, having been disappointed in
the hope that the City Solicitor would take measures
to protect the interests of the city and have the fence
removed by the market company replaced, as the lot
was required for storing certain articles and for the
use of the men under artillery instruction, he would
make application to those bodies for the necessary
action to have the lot fenced in.1
— On the 3d of January, Capt. C. M. Berry, of the
Minute-men of '76, fired three salutes of thirty-three
guns in honor of Maj. Anderson, the commander at
Fort Sumter, S. C, — one at two o'clock at the corner
of Broad and Spring Garden Streets, one at three
o'clock at Broad and Prime Streets, and one at Reed
Street wharf. After the firing three cheers were given
by the spectators for Maj. Anderson. A salute of
thirty-three guns was also fired by the Shiftier Hose
Company in front of their house.
— On the evening of the same day a meeting was
1 In printing this correspondence the Press remarked that " should
hostilities grow out of our present unhappy divisions the counsels of
Gen. Patterson will be sought by men of all parties," on account of
" his large experience in military matters, his undoubted patriotism,
his services in the Mexican war, and his devotion to his own State."
THE CIVIL WAR.
741
held at the Board of Trade rooms, mainly represen-
tative of the mercantile interests of the city, at which
reports were received from the district committees
charged with the work of procuring signatures to a
memorial to the State Legislature praying for the
repeal of certain sections of the statutes relating to
the return of fugitive slaves, and also " asking for the
repeal of any former legislation which might be
deemed unfriendly to our Southern brethren." Dur-
ing the meeting it was stated by Marcellus Mundy
that the memorialists were likely to be misunderstood,
as from the memorial it might be made to appear that
they desired the repeal of the law against kidnapping.
They desired no such repeal, and Mr. Mundy sug-
gested that the sections of the law which were desired
to be repealed should be printed and sent to the Leg-
islature along with the memorial.
— On the 4th of January a meeting composed of
about one hundred and fifty leading citizens of Phila-
delphia was held at the Board of Trade rooms, Chest-
nut Street above Fifth, in pursuance of a call signed
by C. G. Childs, Henry C. Carey, M. McMichael,
Edward G. Webb, Charles Gilpin, Ellis Lewis, C. C.
Lathrop, Lewis C. Cassidy, William D. Lewis, Wil-
liam H. Kern, and Daniel Dougherty. In the call it
was stated that the object of the meeting was to con-
sider " what measures should be adopted by the citi-
zens of Philadelphia in the present condition of our
national affairs to aid the constituted authorities of
the State and general government in the enforcement
of the laws, to remove all just ground of complaint
against the Northern States, and to secure the perpe-
tuity of the Union." On motion of Sheriff William
H. Kern, C. G. Childs was called to the chair, and
Lewis C. Cassidy, who had acted as secretary of a
previous meeting, was, at the suggestion of Charles
Gilpin, appointed secretary. In taking the chair Mr.
Childs said that a few days before some half-dozen or
more gentlemen had met at that place " to talk over
matters, and ascertain, if possible, the best course to
be pursued, and it was agreed that each should make
inquiries among his circle of friends and acquaint-
ances, in order that when they again met, by com-
parison they might ascertain what the sentiments of
the people of Philadelphia were." The speaker ex-
pressed the hope that they would be able to present
a united front, and that the measures adopted by the
meeting would be in accordance with those patriotic
feelings which ought to govern a State in which the
Declaration of Independence was adopted and pro-
mulgated." In conclusion he said, "Let our action
here to-day show that we are determined to uphold
and strengthen the administration of the government,
and to put down disunion and everything that looks
like a separation of this glorious confederacy." Hon.
Ellis Lewis, who had signed the call for the meeting,
followed Mr. Childs, with the request that his name
be stricken from the call, as he found that his views
did not agree with those of some of the other gentle-
men, and he feared that, if urged, they might dis-
turb the harmony of the meeting. The president re-
plied that an effort had been made to bring
together gentlemen of all political parties [1861
in order that a free interchange of opinion
might be had, and he hoped Judge Lewis would
remain and give the benefit of his counsel. C. C.
Lathrop also urged Judge Lewis not to withdraw,
and Daniel Dougherty called attention to the fact
that as the motion of Chief Justice Lewis to have
his name stricken from the call had not been sec-
onded, it was not before the meeting, and he hoped
he expressed the unanimous wish that he would re-
main and take part in the deliberation. If not con-
sidered discourteous he would offer a series of resolu-
tions, with the request that they be referred to a
committee, with the exception of one, on which he
desired immediate action. This resolution was as
follows :
" Resolved 4, That we heartily approve the coDduct of Maj. Auderson,
the gallant commander of the United States Fort Sumter, in Charleston
Bay, and we thus express the unanimous feeling of our great State ; and
that we call upon the Federal authorities to furnish him Buch reinforce-
ments as will convince him and the enemies of the republic that the
laws are to be enforced at all hazards, and that resistance to these laws
is treason, and will be punished as such."
The reading of the resolution was greeted with
great applause, which was followed by cheers, when
Judge Lewis said, "Mr. President, allow me the
pleasure of seconding that resolution." Mr. Dough-
erty then read the other resolutions, which declared,
first, " that there exists no right of peaceable seces-
sion, that secession is rebellion, and that the laws of
the United States must be enforced by the proper au-
thorities ;" second, " that the Constitution is the su-
preme law of the land, and that the Union, like the
Constitution, was intended to be perpetual, because it
asserts no power of self-destruction, and provides for
its alteration by a certain explicit mode ;" third,
" that we will cheerfully sustain the Federal govern-
ment in all honorable efforts to maintain the Consti-
tution and enforce the laws, but that any refusal to
do so ought to be punished by the impeachment of
all the guilty parties;" fourth, "that in view of the
threatening aspect of public affairs, it is advisable that
the military establishment of Pennsylvania should be
put upon a new footing by the augmentation of the
present regiments, and by such State legislation as
will encourage all citizens to enroll themselves at
once, either by increasing the present militia force or
by an appropriation out of the public treasury ;" fifth,
that " we heartily indorse the sentiments of the mes-
sage of Governor Packer, as well as the speeches of
Bobert M. Palmer, Speaker of the Senate, and Elisha
W. Davis, Speaker of the House, as to the propriety
of Pennsylvania repealing any law that may be im-
properly construed to give offense to the rights of the
people of any sister State ;" and, sixth, that " we call
upon the senators and representatives of Pennsyl-
vania in the Congress of the United States, without
742
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
reference to party ties, to join in any honorable ad-
justment that will restore the ties of brotherhood
that until recently have united all the peo-
1861] pie of the republic." Charles Gilpin moved
that these resolutions be referred to a com-
mittee ; but, before the motion was put, Judge Lewis
offered another set of resolutions, to the effect that,
as the people of the Southern States had " con-
tributed their blood and treasure in the acquisi-
tion of the Territories equally with those of the
other States,'' the principle which recognizes the
rights of all the States to the same " is founded on
the clearest equity, and ought to be supported by
every good citizen, unless a satisfactory division line
can be settled by an amendment to the Constitution ;"
that " it is equally clear that every constitutional
right in the Territories, as elsewhere, ought to be pro-
tected by appropriate legislation ;" that " every State
is bound by the Constitution of the United States to
aid in delivering up fugitive slaves to their owners,
and all legislation which refuses such and throws ob-
structions in the way is unconstitutional, and ought
to be repealed and substituted in accordance with the
Federal duties of the respective States ;'' that " no
State has a constitutional right to resist the laws of
the Federal government by force, whether in the
form of partial nullification or secession, and that
such armed resistance is treason and rebellion, and
should be put down by the naval and military
power of the nation;" that "if the Northern States
should be unwilling to recognize their constitu-
tional duties toward the Southern States, it would
be right to acknowledge the independence of the
Southern States, instead of waging an unlawful war
against them." Mr. Gilpin moved that all the reso-
lutions be referred to a committee, and pending ac-
tion in the matter addresses were made by Wil-
liam B. Mann, Hon. Charles Brown, and John W.
Forney. Mr. Mann urged that the meeting take
such action as would make plain the intention of the
people of Philadelphia, after full justice had been
done the people of the South, that " at all hazards
and every sacrifice these people are to be preserved
one people under the Constitution." Mr. Brown's
speech was strongly pro-Southern in tone. He op-
posed coercion, and declared that if the people of the
North could not do the people of the South justice
and satisfy them that it was to their interest to re-
main in the Union, it was their duty to part from them
in peace. If the Northern conquered the Southern
States, he added, they "might hold them as con-
quered provinces, but they could not afterward be
held as equals." Mr. Brown's remarks created great
excitement and confusion, and toward the close were
frequently interrupted. Mr. Forney claimed that
the resolutions offered by Mr. Dougherty contem-
plated no attack upon the South, but simply meant
that when the laws created in pursuance of the Fed-
eral Constitution had been resisted the power of the
government came in force. "We do not propose,"
he added, "to go to South Carolina, or to any seced-
ing State, for the purpose of compelling such State to
come back into the Union. If she chooses to remain
outside and deprive herself of the benefits of the
government and does not interfere with it and destroy
us, that is her loss. But when she attempts to set her-
self up in defiance of the law and to ruin Philadelphia
and New York, to laugh at the authority of the Presi-
dentand to defy this great government, which has made
us the proudest people at God's footstool, then the in-
stinct of self-preservation comes in, and we will main-
tain the Constitution and enforce the laws. That is
all." Mr. Forney said further that the people of the
South were brothers, not savages, and he therefore
proposed that every peaceable remedy should be ex-
hausted, party platforms set aside, individual records
cast to the winds, and that all should " unite in asking
them to come back to us." On the other hand, if, after
all possible concessions had been made, they continued
to attack the laws, and showed their purpose to be
the destruction of the government, he for one was
ready " to go in such a cause, and to die in the last
ditch in defense of my country." The question was
then taken to refer all the resolutions to a committee
to be appointed by the president, and it was agreed to.
Mr. Ford offered a resolution that " Maj.-Gen. Pat-
terson be requested to call a meeting of the officers of
his division at the earliest practicable period, for the
purpose of taking such measures as they may deem
necessary to increase the force and make its efficiency
equal to any emergency." This resolution was also re-
ferred to the committee, but leave was given Marcel-
lus Mundy to address the meeting in connection with
the resolution. Mr. Mundy declared his devotion and
the devotion of the Bell-Everett party, which he rep-
resented, to the Union, but deprecated any hostile
collision between the two sections. Mr. Gibbons
said that, as a Republican, he regretted the last reso-
lution had been introduced, as the military arm of
the government, if required for any purpose what-
ever, would be called upon by those in authority, and
not by a miscellaneous assembly such as the one he was
addressing. Mr. Ford then said that as his resolution
had created more discussion than he anticipated, he
would withdraw it. This announcement was greeted
with cheers. Mr. Gibbons, continuing, said he was
" sure there was no man in the room, or in this city,
or in this commonwealth who contemplated so seri-
ous and frightful a resort as making war upon the
fifteen Southern States. ... At the same time he
hoped that they would all be prepared, should the
dread hour ever come, to stand by the constituted
authorities in the maintenance of the laws and the
preservation of the Union." J. Murray Bush called
attention to the fact that the meeting had forgotten
in the midst of its patriotic deliberations to pay a
tribute to the gallant conduct of Governor Hicks, of
Maryland, who, placed in a delicate and trying posi-
THE CIVIL WAR.
743
tion as the executive of a border slave State, had shown
himself to be calm, manly, and intelligent in the
present crisis. Mr. Rush therefore proposed the fol-
lowing :
" Essoined, That we have observed with admiration, and approve to the
fullest extent the bold and patriotic course of the enlightened Governor
of Maryland, Thomas H. Hicks; that it entitles bim to the cordial sup-
port of every lover of the Union, and if persevered in will give him an
enviable name on the page of American history."
The resolution was adopted, and the meeting ad-
journed. A few minutes later, while the gentlemen
who had composed the meeting were still conversing,
a telegraphic dispatch conveying the news that
Maj. Anderson was besieged at Fort Sumter by
the forces of the disunionists was received and
read. Great feeling was occasioned by this intelli-
gence, and a call for a public meeting to be held at
Independence Square was immediately prepared and
signed by those present. " Whatever differences may
have taken place," said a newspaper at the time, " in
reference to other matters, there was but one senti-
ment on this subject, — that was, admiration for An-
derson and hostility to all his foes. Among those
who signed the call were Democrats, Republicans,
and Americans." In the same journal it was an-
nounced that a subscription had been set on foot to
purchase a sword of honor to be presented to Maj.
Anderson in acknowledgment of his patriotic conduct
at Charleston.'' Pending the appointment of a com-
mittee for the purpose, Joseph Curtis of the Orleans
House, Chestnut Street, received subscriptions.
— In accordance with the recommendation of the
President of the United States, Friday, January 4th,
was observed as a fast day in Philadelphia. In many
churches special services were held. Sermons were
preached at St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal
Church, by the rector, Rev. Dr. Ducachet; at the
Arch Street Presbyterian Church, by Rev. Dr. Wads-
worth; at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, by Rev.
E. W. Hutter; at the Third Baptist Church, by Rev.
Reuben Jeffrey ; at the Protestant Episcopal Church
of the Epiphany, by Rev. T. W. Cracraft; at the
Moravian Church, corner of Franklin and Wood
Streets, by Rev. A. A. Eeinke; at the Presbyterian
Church, corner of Broad and Sansom Streets, by
Rev. John Chambers, and at a number of other
churches, at all of which, with one or two exceptions,
the dangers threatening the country were alluded to.
At Reed Street wharf the Shiffler Hose Company
fired a salute of thirty-three guns in honor of the
State of Delaware, which had rejected the proposals
of the secessionist commissioner, Mr. Dickinson, and
the citizens of Manayunk fired a similar salute in
honor of Maj. Anderson. Some stores and all the
public offices were closed. " The anticipations of a
war with the secessionists are so fully realized in many
minds," said a Philadelphia newspaper of January
5th, " that we are informed of grand propositions on
the part of certain boat-builders and ship captains in
this city to inaugurate privateering expeditions so
soon as hostilities shall commence. It was reliably
rumored yesterday afternoon that most of the
coasting vessels now leaving this city are [1861
armed with cannon and ammunition."
—On the evening of Saturday, January 5th, a
meeting, in accordance with the call, to sustain Maj.
Anderson, was held at National Hall, on Market
Street, below Thirteenth. A number of patriotic
inscriptions were displayed on the walls ; among
them, in front of the gallery, the memorable words
of Henry Clay, " So long as it pleases God to give
me a voice to express my sentiments, or an arm, weak
and enfeebled as it may be by age, that voice and that
arm will be on the side of my country, for the support
of the general authorities and the maintenance of the
powers of the Union." Along the front of the plat-
form were displayed the American flag and Webster's
sentiment, "The Union, now and forever; one and
inseparable." In the rear of the platform, extending
across the room, were the following : " ' Frown indig-
nantly on the first dawning of an attempt to alienate
one portion of the Union from another,' — Washing-
ton ;" and " ' The Union must and shall be preserved,'
— Jackson." A band of music, stationed in the gal-
lery, played a number of popular airs, and just before
the organization of the meeting the following senti-
ments were proposed by different persons in the as-
semblage and greeted with enthusiasm : " The Star-
Spangled Banner," three cheers and a "tiger;" "The
Union," nine cheers ; " Major Anderson," nine cheers ;
" General Scott," six cheers ; " James Buchanan,"
three cheers; "Senator Crittenden," three cheers;
"Governor Hicks, of Maryland," six cheers; "The
State of Delaware," three cheers. " After this dem-
onstration," says a contemporary account, "the band
was called upon for ' Yankee Doodle,' and the scene
which took place as it was played baffles description."
Lewis C. Cassidy called the meeting to order, and an-
nounced that those present had been invited, without
regard to party proclivities, " to meet for the purpose
of taking into consideration the situation of that
patriot soldier of Charleston, Maj. Anderson." At
Mr. Cassidy's suggestion William D. Lewis was
chosen to preside. In taking the chair Mr. Lewis
said the meeting was one of the most important that
had been held in Philadelphia since the Declaration
of Independence, and that it had been called " for the
purpose of declaring our determination to support the
Federal authorities in any measures they may take to
support Maj. Anderson, that gallant man who at
present represents our government in the harbor of
Charleston, and all other measures calculated to pre-
vent the entire overthrow of all law and order." Mr.
Lewis denounced the late Secretary of the Treasury,
Howell Cobb, and the late Secretary of War, John
B. Floyd, as " perjurers and traitors," and said he
trusted that " for once this great city, with one voice
and one heart, will send forth its hearty greetings to
744
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the brave defenders of their flag, and sustain the gov-
ernment in every act which it may deem necessary
to take to support those noble soldiers who
1861] are now, in point of fact, the impersonation
of the Union itself." John W. Forney then
came forward and read the list of officers, being fre-
quently interrupted by applause as he uttered the
name of some popular favorite, the uame of Com-
modore Stewart, or " Old Ironsides," as he was gen-
erally called, eliciting three cheers :
President, William D. Lewis; Vice-Presidents, Commodore CharleB
Stewart, Morton McMichael, Maj.-Gen. Robert Patterson, John W, For-
ney, John M. Head, Richard Vaux, William Strong, Charles Gilpin, Jo-
seph R. Ingersoll, William D. Kelley, Evans Rogers, Daniel Dougherty,
"W. M. Meredith, John Grigg, J. Murray Rush, John B. MyerB, Edward
Coles, Lewis C. Cassidy, Edward C. Knight, Marcellus Mundy, George W.
Nebinger, William B. Mann, George M. Stroud, William Duane, Joseph
Allison, Robert Hare Powel, Samuel E. Stokes, J. I. Clark Hare, Peter C.
Ellmaker, Oswald Thompson, William Sergeant, Henry C. Carey, Wil-
liam A. Porter, James Landy, Frederick Stoever, Charles Gibbons, John
Hazeltine, John C. Knox, William H.Kern, William A. Babcock, Thomas
Smith, Alexander J, Derbyshire, William B. Thomas, Jacob W. Goff,
Henry Horn, John B. Austin, John Dallett, Algernon S. Roberts, George
K. Zeigler, Robert P. King, William Wister, Edward G. Webb, James
Verree, John Campbell (Seventh Ward), C. B. Trego, Thomas Webster,
Jr., Thompson Westcott, Gibson Peacock, Isaac Hazlehurst, Henry
Bumm, R. M. Foust, Cephas G. Childs, Andrew C. Craig, Edward Gratz,
C. C. Lathrop, Evan Randolph, Peter Lyle, E. J. Hincken, Dr. C. Her-
ring, David M. Lyle, Samuel Field, G. P. McLean, John M. Butler, Wil-
liam S. Smith, William E. Lehman, A. G. Buckner, Thomas Potter,
Charles M. Neal, William F. Hughes, George Wunder, William Elliott,
Ludlam Matthews, Hiram Miller, John Porter, James Traqnair, William
McMnllen, George A. Coffey, William Bradford, John H. Bringhurst,
Edward King, Lindley Smith, R. T. Carter, William Sellers, Aubrey H.
Smith, William Dwight, Jr., S. V. Merrick, James V. Watson, John K.
Laughlin, Nathan Roland, Charles McDonough, Thomas J. Potts, J. Mc-
Cahen, George Erety, William McGlensey (Third Ward), George Megee,
J. E. Addicks, James Magee, E. W. Clark, Albert D. Boileau, Benjamin
Gerhard, Francis Wolgamuth, Heory J. Williams, George R. Berrell,
Samuel Bispham, Charles A. Rubicam, William 0. Kline, William
Laughlin, A. L. Crawford, Samuel C.Perkins, John Devlin, John Kline,
John K. Gamble, Andrew Noble, Henry Crilly, Charles R. Able, Capt.
Becker, Alexander T. Dickson, Peter Faasel, Joseph Enue, Theodore
Bucknor, George W. Thorn, James D. Whetham, William McCandless,
Thomas Bosily, John 0. James, John Cloud, William Malone, William
F. Small, Francis Warner, Lieut. Spear, Charles F. Miller, Samuel G.
Ruggles, Adam Warthman, Joseph McGeary, William M. Haughey,
Porter Ringwalt, Adam B. Walter, Horn R. Kneass, Aaron V. Gibbs,
Frank Patterson, P. Barry Hayes, Charles M. Pre'vost, Dr. David Jayne,
George Northrop, Andrew M. Jones, William V. Wicht, Edward Buck-
ley, Patrick McDonough, A. A. Gregg, G. Freytag, Charles Lorenz, John
McArthur, Martin Shultz, Edward Wartman, Henry Conrad, John Alex-
ander, Richard Garsed, John F. Hight, Joseph S. Lovering, John W.
Jones, Eugene Ahern, Godfrey Metzger, John B Colahan, Lorin Blod-
gett, Wm. Richardson, Win. C. Ludwig, Geo. D. Wetherill, Wm. C. Kent,
Jas. Dundae, John Thompson, Jos. H. Brady, Tbos. Biddle, Jacob B. Val-
entine, Geo. Rush Smith, Dr. Andrew Nebinger, S.J. Christian, Dr. C. E.
Kamerly, Chris. J. Hoffman, Letd T. Butter, Thomas Birch, James
Gordon, James Devereaux, Dr. John J. Sinnickson, John McCanless,
Benjamin Allen, George Boldin, Samuel S. Kelley, S. C. Morton, Wil-
liam C. Stotesbury, Charles E. Lex, A. R. McHenry, Andrew C. Barclay,
A. I. Flomerfelt, John D. Taylor, William Moran, Thomas F. Parry,
William D. Baker, J. G. Watmough, Marshall Sprogell, Gen. George
Cadwalader, Henry D. Moore, John S. Keyser, E. A. Souder, Franklin
A. Comly, Thomas H. Moore, C. C. Sadler, Joseph S. Riley, Sr., Joseph
W. Byers, John W. Ryan, Henry Davis, Jesse Godley, Jonathan Palmer,
J. K. Murphy, William S. Grant, Peter Fritz, Edwin Smith, Philip S.
White, Henry D. Landia, H. Montgomery Bond, John Ashton, Jr.,
Joshua T. Owen, John Thompson, George H. Hart, A. C. Harmer,
James W. Paul, Leonard Myers, A. J. Pleasonton, Benjamin Rush,
C. J. Biddle, George W. Swearingen, John P. Kilgore, Wade Morris,
Martin J. Croll, William P. Hacker; Secretaries, Dr. Eliab Ward,
Samuel E. Slaymaker, John Davis Watson, James Freeborn, George T.
Thorne, James Metcalf, George Inman Rich6, William Strunk, John
Goforth, Cyrus B. Newlin, Frank Johnson, Samuel Hart, James B.
Sheridan, Ernest C. Wallace, Michael Dunn, Charles C. Wilson, Wil-
liam J. Gillingham, Joseph Herr, John J. Franklin, Henry Neill, Ben-
jamin Huckle, Conrad Groves, Howard Ellis, Theodore T. Derringer,
John L. Ringwalt, John O'Byrne, James Bateman, James D. Campbell,
Dr. Francis R, Shunk, Joseph Longhead, Alfred P. Scull, Henry C.
Baird, Harmsin Baugh, Henry T. Smith, A. M. Walkinshaw, John H.
Diehl, E. G. Waterhouse, C. H. T. Collis, E. G. Simpson, William D.
Frismuth, J. Barclay Harding, Thomas B. Stotesbury, Pierce Archer,
Jr., Jeremiah Nichols, Charles B. Miller, A. F. Hugh, Moses A. Dropsie,
Thompson Reynolds, James P. Perot, William Shinn, Thomas Hart,
John B. Adams, James W. Sagers, Joseph P. Loughead, E. N. Hallowell,
Caleb H. Needles, John Getty, William S. Stewart, Theodore Beck,
Henry Schellinger, Robert Burton, Richard G. Devereaux, Philip F. Kel-
ley, Henry Lapsley, E. P. Kershaw, John C. Keffer, William R. Bray,
Clement Tingley, Jr., N. B. Le Brim, George Burton, William C. Mc-
Cammon, William F. Corbit, George M. Conarree, C. Willing Littell,
Thomas M. Hall, Robert Coulton Davis, R. M. Batturs, Stephen Taylor,
James Harper, Henry W. Napheys, Andrew McDole, Robert B. Cabeen.
When the list of officers had been read, John W.
Forney introduced J. Murray Rush, who, after making
a brief address, in which he urged the importance of
extending a prompt and hearty support to the general
government, offered a series of resolutions, declaring
that the foresight, prudence, and energetic conduct of
Maj. Anderson at Charleston merited the hearty ap-
probation of the government and people of the United
States, that it was the imperative duty of the Presi-
dent to provide Maj. Anderson with all the force he
might require " for the successful defense of his pres-
ent position ;" that " all persons who wage war against
the United States for the purpose of destroying the
government established by our fathers, or for any
other purpose whatever, and all who aid, counsel,
sanction, or encourage them, can be regarded in no
other light than as public enemies ;" that the meet-
ing would 4t sustain the President of the United States
and the constituted authorities of the government in
whatever measures they may adopt to support Maj.
Anderson, and to maintain the supremacy of the Con-
stitution and the laws of the United States ;" and that
"the flag of the Union is the property of the people,
and whenever lawfully unfurled it must and shall be
protected to the last extremity.'' The resolutions
were greeted with nine hearty cheers, after which the
band in the gallery struck up the " Star-Spangled
Banner." Charles Gibbons seconded the resolutions
offered by Mr. Rush, and stated that he had called on
the venerable Horace Binney, with the request that
he should preside at the meeting. Mr. Binney, how-
ever, declined on the ground that his advanced age
exposed him to danger from the excitement of such
a gathering. At the same time he declared that his
heart was bound up in the Union, and expressed the
opinion that nothing would overthrow the Union or
materially curtail or enfeeble it, " if to the purity and
energy of our forefathers we unite that coolness, calm-
ness, and obedience to the Constitution we live under,
which carried them to success in their day and gen-
eration." Mr. Binney's letter of declination was read
to the meeting, and was greeted with cheers, after
which Mr. Gibbons read an extract from Washing-
THE CIVIL WAR.
745
ton's address, pointing out the evils of factional spirit.
The resolutions were then put and adopted. At the
same time a large American flag was unfurled behind
the speakers on the stand, and as it made its appear-
ance was caught by those on the platform and so
drawn down as to form a canopy above those on the
stage. Marcellus Mundy then made a brief address, in
the course of which he mentioned that Maj. Anderson
and himself were natives of the same State, Ken-
tucky. Morton McMichael thereupon proposed three
cheers for Kentucky, which were given with a will.
At the conclusion of Mr. Mundy's remarks the meet-
ing adjourned. An immense assemblage gathered
outside the hall, to which the resolutions were read.
A number of speeches were also made, " which were
all well received, it only being necessary to utter the
most commonplace Union sentiment to call forth the
greatest applause."
— On the same day (January 5th) an adjourned
meeting of citizens was held, without distinction of
party, at the Board of Trade rooms, to receive the
report of the committee on resolutions appointed at
a previous meeting. Joshua T. Owen called the
meeting to order, and Cephas G. Childs was chosen
to preside. Judge Lewis moved that his resolutions
offered at a former meeting be adopted ; but the chair-
man ruled the motion out of order, as no report had
been received from the committee. The meeting then
adjourned in the midst of great confusion and angry
demonstrations on the part of individuals toward
each other ; and David S. Winebrener moved that
a new meeting be organized by calling Judge Ellis
Lewis to the chair. Judge Lewis moved toward the
chair, but Mr. Blodget, secretary of the Board of
Trade, announced that he had been instructed by the
board to forbid the use of the room for any political
meeting. Judge Lewis, however, took the chair amid
great excitement. William B. Mann suggested that
all favorable to the original call for the meeting which
had just been adjourned, and whose object was to
sustain the laws and the American flag, should retire
from the room. This suggestion, however, was not
acted upon. Daniel Dougherty made an earnest ap-
peal for order, and Marcellus Mundy, after stating it
was not the object of those present to break up the
meeting, added that in order to meet the exigencies of
the situation he would offer a series of resolutions.
Mr. Mundy thereupon offered resolutions to the effect
that " in the opinion of the citizens of Philadelphia,
irrespective of party, the spirit of compromise which
characterized the labors of the framers of the Consti-
tution should pervade our national council and influ-
ence the actioii of the people's representatives in
settling the difficulties which now threaten the disso-
lution of the Union and make civil war imminent ;"
that " the heedless legislation of some of the Northern
States in passing personal liberty bills, which would
interfere with a proper exercise of the constitutional
rights of the slave-holding citizens of Southern States,
is to be deprecated as not only an unwise and un-
constitutional assumption of power, but as an ab-
negation of that comity and courtesy which
should characterize the fraternal relations [1861
and intercourse of the several States of
the Union with each other;" that "the renuncia-
tion by South Carolina of the duty she owes to
the confederated government, and her avowed pur-
pose to destroy the Union by withdrawing there-
from, is in utter disregard of the rights of her sister
confederates, and a mad sacrifice which should be
prevented, as it can, through such pacific measures
as will appeal to the patriotism of her people and her
sense of right; induced by a generous sacrifice of
Northern prejudice against the institution of slavery
and a unanimous resolve to adopt as an honorable and
at the same time the most practicable basis of com-
promise, the resolutions proposed by the Hon. John
J. Crittenden in the Senate of the United States ;"
that " while pacific measures and compromises only
should be resorted to to allay the fears and appre-
hensions and appease the resentment of an excited
people, as the subjugation of one State, through the
combined power of the other States of the Union,
would be to deprive her of equality, and thus effect-
ually destroy the constitutional Union of the States,
the honor, property, and capital of our general gov-
ernment, if need be, should be preserved and pro-
tected by our national army and navy under the
proper direction of the heads of government." Mr.
Mundy's resolutions were adopted, the persons favor-
ing the original meeting declining to vote for or
against them.
— On the evening of January 5th a meeting of na-
tives of Maryland residing in Philadelphia was held
for the purpose of approving the course of Governor
Hicks in refusing to convene the Legislature of
Maryland in obedience to the demands of the dis-
unionists. S. W. De Courcy presided, and Tristram
Bowdie acted as secretary. Besolutions warmly in-
dorsing Governor Hicks' action were adopted. On
motion of J. W. Kramer it was determined that a
society similar to that of the Sons of New England
should be organized, and that a festival should be
held annually on the 12th of September, the anni-
versary of the battle of North Point. A letter from
J. Murray Rush warmly indorsing Governor Hicks
was read, and addresses were delivered by Charles B.
Pottinger, Marcellus Mundy, and several others.
— At a meeting of the Republican Invincibles, held
on the same evening, Thomas M. Hall presiding, the
resolutions adopted at the Union meeting at National
Hall were read and adopted. A motion that the In-
vincibles organize into a military company was laid
on the table, but resolutions deprecating any legisla-
tion at variance with the principles upon which the
campaign had been fought and won, and recognizing
"in its fullest extent the truth of Webster's great
sentiment, that the will of the people, constitution-
746
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ally expressed, is the supreme law of the land," and
declaring that " the will of the people having been
unequivocally expressed in the late election,
1861] it becomes the duty of all good citizens and
Union-loving men to carry it into execution,"
were agreed to after considerable discussion.
— Salutes were fired in honor of Maj. Anderson on
the 5th by the Minute- men of 76, Capt. Berry, and
the members of the Independence Hose Company,
on George Street between Second and Third.
— On the 7th of January a meeting of citizens " op-
posed to war" and in favor of giving guarantees to
the South was held at Barr's Hotel, on Sixth Street
below Chestnut. Col. Isaac Leech was called to the
chair, and John F. Gibson and Charles Leisenring
appointed secretaries. On motion of Robert Pale-
thorp it was determined that a mass-meeting of citi-
zens opposed to the use of coercion in settling the
difficulties with the South should be held on the even-
ing of the 10th, at National Hall. Mr. Palethorp also
offered a resolution indorsing the course of President
Buchanan ; but it was finally decided, after much dis-
cussion, that a committee should be appointed to pre-
pare a set of resolutions to be presented to the public
meeting.
— At a meeting of the veterans of the war of 1812,
held on the 8th of January at Independence Hall, a
resolution was adopted invoking "the blessings of
Divine Providence upon our beloved country in these
times of peril and alarm, trusting most fervently that
our prayer, going up as it does from this sacred place,
will be answered, and that the whole people of the
republic may live in good fellowship for all time to
come.'' Col. Joel B. Sutherland, president of the as-
sociation, made an address, in which he denied the
right of any State to secede, but counseled modera-
tion. " The occasion," he said, " might possibly be
the last whereon the old soldiers would meet under
the flag of all the States. He trusted in God that it
would not be."
— The meeting of citizens opposed to coercion,
which was called for the 10th, was held on the after-
noon of that day at Barr's Hotel, Vincent L. Brad-
ford presiding. John McCarthy offered a resolution
to the effect that it " would be unwise and inexpedient
for those originating this meeting to make arrange-
ments for a mass-meeting purporting to express the
opinions of the Democracy of Philadelphia," but his
motion, which created some disorder, was not adopted.
A series of resolutions to be proposed at a mass-meet-
ing were then read. They admitted the right of a
State under certain contingencies to secede, and de-
clared that in the event of secession on the part of
the South, Pennsylvania would decide whether she
would go " with fanatical New England or with the
South, whose sympathies are ours." It was also as-
serted that neither the President nor Congress had
power to declare war against a sovereign State.
—The mass-meeting of the anti-coercionists was
held at National Hall, on the evening of January
16th. Vincent L. Bradford called the meeting to
order, and Charles Macalester was elected chairman.
In his address on taking the chair, Mr. Macalester
said that "the South should have remained loyal to
the Union and fought the battle of the Union in the
Union, but as they seem determined to go, let them
go in peace, and let us say in a spirit of kindness and
fraternal love, ' Let there be no strife between us, for
we be brethren.' " " Let the Northern States," added
Mr. Macalester, "before they commence fighting the
South (for which some of them seem so anxious)^ re-
peal the odious and offensive nullifying acts called
' personal liberty' bills ; let them discard the whole
tribe of itinerant lecturers and demagogues who have
been so eminently industrious in sowing discord
throughout the land, and then let them resolve to
mind their own business, and when this is done per-
haps there will be no fighting to do." After Mr.
Macalester had concluded, cheers were proposed and
given for Maj. Anderson, President Buchanan, Gen.
Scott, John J. Crittenden, and John C. Breckinridge.
The name of Stephen A. Douglas was greeted with
hisses. Robert P. Kane proposed a series of resolu-
tions appealing " to the high sense of honor of the
South not to turn away in anger from their steady
friends, leaving them to the despotism of a sectional
party flushed with victory, and which even the danger
of disunion and civil war has not yet moved to concili-
ation," and declaring that among the most important
features inculcated in the text-books of the Democratic
party " is a strict construction of the Constitution of
the United States, a sacred regard for the rights of each
State to administer its own domestic concerns, and
an absolute non-interference, directly or indirectly, by
the people of the several States with the domestic
institutions of each other;" that had these principles
been respected by the opposition party, the alienation
of the North and South might have been avoided;
that " the present difficulties in the country are prin-
cipally attributable to the sentiment prevalent in the
North against the moral, social, and political right of
the citizens of any State in the confederacy to retain
the African race in bondage ;" that " the question of
domestic slavery for the African race in any of the
States of the Union is purely a question of political
economy," and that the support of the institution,
with such guarantees and protection for the slave as
duty and humanity might suggest, did not in any way
involve a question of religion or morals ; that the
common Territories belonged to all, and no right of
property of any kind, recognized by a State, could be
divested by Congressional action or intervention ;
that " the denial of this community of interests and
the compressions of domestic slavery within its pres-
ent limits, involves in our judgment, as a matter of
right, a violation of the Federal compact, and has led
to most pernicious results;" that each of the States
was a sovereignty and possessed full power, subject to
THE CIVIL WAR.
747
the Constitution of the United States, of legislating
in such manner as might best comport with the inter-
est of her citizens ; that the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania should at once repeal all acts not consonant
with a spirit of friendliness to the sister States, and
should, by legislative enactments, " secure to the citi-
zens of every State while within our limits as so-
journers, and while coming to and going therefrom,
ample protection for themselves and their property;"
that any attempt to dissolve the Union should be
looked upon with sorrow and alarm, but that " all
conciliation failing, if the people of these States can-
not live in harmony under the Constitution as it is, it
should, by a general convention, be amended ; and
that failing, which we are loath to believe possible,
acquiescence in peaceable separation is so far prefer-
able to the horrors of civil war ;" that it (the meet-
ing) was utterly opposed to any such compulsion " as
is demanded by a portion of the Republican party," and
that the Democratic party of the North would " by the
use of all constitutional means and with its moral and
political influence, oppose any such extreme policy
of a fratricidal war thus to be inaugurated ;'' that " we
cordially approve the disavowal by the President, in
his last annual message, for himself and for Congress,
of the war-making power against a State of the con-
federacy ;" that, "in the deliberate judgment of the
Democracy of Philadelphia, and, so far as we know
it, of Pennsylvania, the dissolution of the Union by
the separation of the whole South, a result we shall
most sincerely lament, may release this common-
wealth to a large extent from the bonds which now
connect her with the confederacy, except so far as
for temporary convenience she chooses to submit to
them, and would authorize and require her citizens,
through a convention to be assembled for that pur-
pose, to determine with whom her lot should be cast,
whether with the North and East, whose fanaticism
has precipitated this misery upon us, or with our
brethren of the South, whose wrongs we feel as our
own, or whether Pennsylvania should stand by her-
self as a distinct community, ready, when occasion
offers, to bind together the broken Union and resume
her place of loyalty and devotion ;" that " we gladly
acquiesce in the plan of compromise, embodied in the
resolutions for amendment to the Constitution, offered
in the Senate of the United States by Mr. Crittenden,
and now pending before that body, as a proper basis
for settlement of all existing difficulties;" and finally,
that "we earnestly recommend our Democratic breth-
ren in different cities and counties of this State and
of New York and New Jersey, who agree with the
views enunciated by this meeting, to take the earliest
opportunity of holding mass-meetings in their respec-
tive localities." The reading of the resolutions was
frequently interrupted by mingled applause and
hisses. An attempt to introduce a series of adverse
resolutions was made by Charles Gilligan, who, how-
ever, was ejected from the meeting. George M.
Wharton then addressed the meeting, advising con-
ciliation and opposing secession. He was followed by
Charles Ingersoll, who, after making a few re-
marks in the same strain, was interrupted by [1861
cries for " Brewster" (Benjamin H. Brewster),
the confusion finally becoming so great that the speaker
was unable to continue. William B. Reed then made
an earnest plea in behalf of peace and conciliation,
claiming that he spoke the true sentiment of every
one around him, "Nay, of all Pennsylvania, except
those who, as technical Abolitionists, I count as out-
laws." Benjamin H. Brewster, who was the next
speaker, declared that the South had been wronged,
which would never have happened had not the Dem-
ocratic party been divided. The South had been too
precipitate, but he thought the difficulty might be
adjusted even yet if a policy of conciliation were
adopted. William Neal, of Ohio, made the closing
speech, and the meeting adjourned with cheers for the
Union, Stephen A. Douglas, and Maj. Anderson.
— In the newspapers of January 17th appeared the
letter of William D. Lewis, chairman of the mass-
meeting of January 5th, to Maj. Anderson, trans-
mitting an account of fthe proceedings, and Maj. An-
derson's reply, in which he expressed the hope that
" by the blessing of God the impending political
storm may be dispersed without bloodshed."
— On Saturday evening, January 19th, a meeting
of workingmen, without distinction of party, was
held at Spring Garden Hall, Dr. A. L. Kennedy pre-
siding, at which resolutions were proposed in favor of
using every effort for the preservation of the Union
and of repealing every " unconstitutional enactment"
adopted by Northern States which had given offense
to the South. The resolutions also called on Congress
to take some action to allay agitation and excitement,
and to restore confidence throughout the country, and
indorsed President Buchanan's declaration of the
right of the national government " to use military
force defensively against those who resist the Federal
officers in the execution of their legal functions, and
against those who assail the prosperity of the United
States." The first resolution, declaring in favor of
resistance to all efforts to dissolve the Union, was
adopted, but the second resolution, calling for the re-
scinding of unconstitutional enactments, was amended
by the substitution of one indorsing the Crittenden
Compromise. The consideration of the other resolu-
tions was postponed, and, after a committee to arrange
for a mass-meeting had been appointed, the meeting
adjourned.
— At a meeting of Marylanders residing in Phila-
delphia, held on the 22d of January, J. M. Stevens
presiding, and H. Hollyday secretary, the constitu-
tion of the proposed society, to be known as the
Maryland Association, was adopted. The society was
then organized by the election of the following officers :
Rev. J. W. Kramer, president; M. Hall Stanton, vice-
president; J. M. Stevens, treasurer; H. Hollyday and
748
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
J. D. Watson, secretaries; Thomas Watson, J. D.
Watson, William B. McAtee, G. J. Naylor, and H.
Dickson, executive committee.
1861] — During the visit of members of the Chi-
cago and Milwaukee Boards of Trade, who ar-
rived in Philadelphia on the morning of January 24th,
a number of speeches were made at the reception and
banquet given them in which earnest Union senti-
ments were expressed. A t Independence Hall, Mayor
Henry, in welcoming the visitors, expressed the hope
that " ere long the fanaticism and treason that obscure
the early pathway of our country's progress may be
dissipated, and happiness again become the heritage
of the whole people.'' At the banquet given by the
United Trade Association on the 25th, Gen. Bufus
King, responding to the toast " The Great Northwest,''
said that all the past and
present of that section were
bound to the Union, and
proposed as a toast " The
Locomotive and the Can-
non,—
The iron that walks,
And the iron that talks.
With the one they could
preserve the Union, with
the other defend it against
all enemies." The senti-
ment was received with
cheers, and all present
joined in singing the " S tar-
Spangled Banner." A. G.
Cattell, president of the
Philadelphia Corn Ex-
change, claimed that there
was no power, native or
foreign, capable of sub-
verting the Constitution ;
and Commodore Charles
Stewart, United States
Navy ("Old Ironsides"),
declared that the Consti-
tution, like his own ship of that name, •' might be sunk
by her friends, but was never to be taken."
Charles Stewart, or " Old Ironsides," was born of
Irish parents in Philadelphia, July 18, 1778. At the
age of thirteen he entered the merchant service, in
which he rose from the situation of cabin-boy to the
command of an Indiaman. On March 9, 1798, he
was commissioned a lieutenant in the navy, and in
July, 1800, was appointed to the command of the
schooner "Experiment," and cruised in the West
Indies, where he rendered efficient service. On Sep-
tember 1st he captured the French schooner " Deux
Aims," of eight guns, and soon after " The Diana,"
of fourteen guns, besides recapturing a number of
American vessels which had been taken by French
privateers. In 1802, as first officer, he joined the
frigate "Constellation," which had been ordered to
CAPTAIN CHARLES STEWART
the Mediterranean to blockade Tripoli ; and on his
return, after one year's cruise, was placed in com-
mand of the brig " Siren." In this vessel he was en-
gaged in the expedition sent to destroy the frigate
" Philadelphia" on Feb. 16, 1804, and subsequently
in the blockade and siege of Tripoli. For his ser-
vices in the bombardment of Aug. 3, 1804, he re-
ceived the thanks of Commodore Preble in general
orders. Promoted to be master-commander on May
] 9, 1804, he was placed in command of the frigate
" Essex," which joined the squadron in Tunis Bay,
and subsequently took command of the frigate " Con-
stellation." On April 22, 1806, he was made captain,
and was employed in superintending the construction
of gun-boats at New York. In December, 1812, Capt.
Stewart was again appointed to the " Constellation,"
and proceeded to Hampton
||§|§§§P .-flf Roads, where he assisted
WmmtW/ :'<0b in defending Norfolk and
'^9 Craney Island from the at-
IliSIIS ' ;HH tacks of the British. In
December, 1813, he sailed
in command of the frigate
" Constitution," in which,
in February, 1815, he fell
in with the British ships-
of-war "The Cyane," of
thirty-four, and " The Le-
vant," of twenty-one guns,
and captured them after a
sharp conflict of forty min-
utes. "The Levant" was
subsequently retaken by a
British squadron, but the
" Constitution" escaped
with her other prize to St.
Jago. On his return to
America he was received
with the highest honors.
The Legislature of Penn-
sylvania presented him
with a gold-hilted sword,
and a gold medal was ordered to be struck by Congress.
He commanded the Mediterranean squadron from 1817
to 1820, when he took command of the Pacific fleet.
On his return home he was tried by a court-martial,
but was honorably acquitted. He was a member of
the board of navy commissioners in 1830-33, and in
1837 succeeded Commodore Barron in command of
the navy-yard at Philadelphia. In 1857 he was
placed on the reserve list on account of his ad-
vanced age, but in March, 1859, he was replaced on
the active list by special legislation, and on July 16,
1862, was made a rear-admiral on the retired list. He
rendered important service in the organization of the
navy, and submitted to the department many valuable
papers on the subject. He died greatly lamented at
Bordentown, N. J., Nov. 7, 1869.
—The mass-meeting of workingmen to take ac-
THE CIVIL WAR.
749
tion on the political crisis was held in Independence
Square on Saturday evening, January 26th. The fol-
lowing officers were chosen: President, Isaac W.
Van Houton; Vice-Presidents, John A. Wallace,
Alexander McPherson, George W. King, Eli Howell,
A. V. Brady, Henry Clark, James Pugh, Joseph B.
Hancock, John J. O'Connor, F. B. Smith, S. B.
Whiting, Francis Reiley, George Widener, David
Conrad, Hiram Gaston, William Cannon, Thomas
Gibbs, Alfred A. Kennedy, George Hensler, Hiram
Maxwell, Richard Newsham, John Hall, George Oat,
William Morton, W. Wells, Passmore M. Collins,
John Williamson, Thomas Clark, Joseph Travis,
John A. Hughes, George Christy, Frank Walker,
Thomas Christy ; Secretaries, John A. Fulton, John
Keesey, Robert J. Magee, Jonathan E. Fincher,
John Curley, and John Call. Speeches were deliv-
ered by James B. Nicholson, Stacy Wilson, Henry
A. Gilder, and J. J. Greenfield, urging moderation and
a conciliatory policy, and resolutions were adopted in
favor of the repeal of legislation obnoxious to the
people of the South and deprecating collisions be-
tween the military force of the general government
and the seceding States ; but declaring that, after all
fair and honorable means of reaching an amicable
settlement had been exhausted, the workingmen of
Philadelphia would sustain the government in all
just and legal measures for enforcing the laws. The
Crittenden Compromise was indorsed, and the com-
mittee of arrangements was authorized to appoint
two delegates from each of the Congressional districts
of Philadelphia to meet in convention on the 22d of
February, as recommended by the mechanics and
workingmen of Louisville, Ky.
— Hon. Simon Cameron, then United States sena-
tor from Pennsylvania, was serenaded at the Girard
House on Saturday evening, January 26th, and, in
acknowledging the compliment, declared that he was
willing to make any reasonable concession, not in-
volving a vital principle, to save the country from
anarchy and bloodshed.
— At a meeting of Kentuckians resident in Phila-
delphia, held on the 29th of January, Dr. S. D. Gross
presiding, an address to Governor Magoflin, of Ken-
tucky, stating that the people of the North would in
time repeal all obnoxious laws and concede all rea-
sonable demands, and a series of resolutions favoring
conciliation and the Crittenden Compromise, were
adopted.
— The committee appointed by the meeting of
workingmen, held on Saturday, January 25th, to
present the resolutions passed at the meeting to the
United States senators and representatives, and to
the Pennsylvania Legislature, repaired to Washing-
ton and Harrisburg for that purpose, and on their
return were received at the Pennsylvania Railroad
depot by a large delegation from the principal ma-
chine-shops, and escorted to their headquarters with a
band of music. A line was formed, and the proces-
sion, headed by a large lantern, which had inscribed
on the face of it in large letters, " Welcome home, com-
mittee," moved down Eleventh Street. After
marching through several of the principal [1861
streets, the procession halted in front of the
Wetherill House, on Sansom Street, where addresses
were delivered by Messrs. Van Houton and Lowry.
The former, in behalf of the committee, reported that
they had been well received in Washington by the
President of the United States and the senators from
Pennsylvania, and that they had been assured by sena-
tors and representatives from the Southern States that
the visit of the committee had had more effect upon
Congress and the people of Washington than anything
that had occurred in the course of the pending politi-
cal agitation. In the House of Representatives the
petition prepared by order of the mass-meeting had
been received, read, and ordered to be printed. During
their stay in Washington the members of the commit-
tee were introduced to Mr. Crittenden (author of the
Crittenden Compromise). At Harrisburg the com-
mittee had received assurances from all the Philadel-
phia members of the Legislature, with but one excep-
tion, that they would do all in their power to secure
the repeal of legislation injurious to the people of
other States.
— On the 9th and 10th of February quite a large
assemblage was attracted to the wharf of the Reading
Railroad Company, foot of Willow Street, by the
presence of a large number of heavy cannon, to-
gether with several tons of shells. They had been
transported from the Fort Pitt foundry, near Pitts-
burgh, and were destined for the Stevens Water Bat-
tery in the harbor of New York. In the excited state
of public feeling special significance was attached to
the accumulation of war material, and three cheers,
proposed by one of the spectators, were given with a
will.
— On the 15th of February it was announced that
Messrs. Hacker, Bradford, & Wetherill had been
chosen by the special committee of Councils ap-
pointed to make arrangements for the reception of
Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President-elect of the United
States, to visit Cleveland for the purpose of present-
ing resolutions of the Councils inviting Mr. Lincoln
to visit Philadelphia on his way to Washington. A
committee of citizens was also appointed, which co-
operated with the committee of Councils. The former
committee adopted as a badge to be worn on the oc-
casion of the President's reception a design com-
prising a spread-eagle, with the figures of Commerce
and Agriculture under the wings. On their return
from Cleveland the sub-committee of Councils re-
ported to the committee that Mr. Lincoln had accepted
the invitation. It was stated that Gen. Patterson had
been called upon in reference to ordering out the First
Division of volunteers to act as an escort to the Presi-
dent-elect, but that the general had declined to do so
because there was no precedent for it, Mr. Lincoln
750
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
not coming in an official capacity. At a meeting
of the committee held on the 19th, Mr. Benton,
from the sub-committee appointed to as-
1861] certain if the First City Troop would pa-
rade as a body-guard, reported that Capt.
James had been called upon, and had stated that
he thought the Troop would be governed by the law
of etiquette as laid down by Gen. Patterson. Capt.
James afterwards came in and said he had concluded
not to order out the Troop, for the reasons which Gen.
Patterson had given for not calling out the First Di-
vision. He had no feeling in the matter, and at an-
other time would be glad to conform to the wishes of
the authorities and citizens. At a meeting of the
committee held on the 20th, it was resolved that the
citizens residing on the route of the procession be re-
quested to display flags and ensigns, and also that
they be requested not to display any of a partisan
character.
— The reception of Mr. Lincoln on Thursday, Feb-
ruary 21st, was an imposing demonstration. Many
of the hotels and public buildings displayed bunting
from their flag-staffs, and the city generally wore
a holiday appearance. At two o'clock the mem-
bers of Councils met at the hall, and the citizens'
committee in the building opposite, preparatory to
taking carriages for the depot. A salute fired by a
detachment of soldiers under command of Capt.
Berry announced to the multitude assembled at the
Kensington Depot the arrival of the train. The
committee of Councils appointed for the purpose
having met the President-elect at Trenton, there was
no particular ceremony after the train entered the
depot. The procession to escort the President-elect
was formed in the following order: Policemen,
mounted, under command of Chief of Police Ruggles,
detachment of police on foot; Col. P. C. Ellmaker,
chief marshal of the procession, and aids ; Conrad
B. Andress, marshal, and aids ; cavalcade of citizens,
James Freeman, chief marshal ; Pennsylvania Dra-
goons, commanded by Maj. Charles Thomson Jones;
the President-elect in a barouche drawn by four white
horses, and accompanied by the chairman of the
committee of Councils and the presidents of Select
and Common Councils; suite of the President-elect;
committees of the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey and officers and members of the City
Councils of Philadelphia, all in carriages. A guard
of police was posted on the flanks of the carriages
and moved with the procession. The streets through
which the parade passed were densely thronged, and
the assemblage at the depot was so great as to render
the sidewalks almost impassable. As the procession
was about turning into Girard Avenue salutes were
fired from the cupola of the William Penn Hose-
house, on Frankford road, which was gayly decked
with flags and patriotic emblems. A large American
flag floated over the building of the James Page
Library Company, on Girard Avenue, below the
Frankford road, and the front of the house of Wil-
liam P. Hacker, on Arch Street, near Broad, was fes-
tooned with three large American flags. An ever-
green arch, decorated with American flags, extending
across the street, was erected on Sixteenth Street,
near Chestnut, under which the procession passed.
Flags were also displayed from many private resi-
dences. Mr. Lincoln was loudly cheered all along
the route, and frequently rose and acknowledged the
greetings of the spectators. Several handsome bou-
quets were thrown into his carriage. When the pro-
cession reached the corner of Ninth and Walnut
Streets the pressure of the crowd was tremendous.
On Ninth Street from Walnut to Chestnut a strong
force of police was stationed to keep the street clear;
but at times its efforts was unavailing. The Conti-
nental Hotel, at which lodgings had been provided
for Mr. Lincoln, soon became so crowded that it was
found necessary to close nearly all the doors and to
station policemen at them, in order to prevent the
entrance of the thousands who surged toward them
after the President-elect had entered. Mr. Lincoln
soon after presented himself on the balcony of the
hotel, and was greeted with prolonged cheering. A
band stationed on the balcony struck up a lively air,
at the conclusion of which the mayor of Philadel-
phia, Alexander Henry, tendered the hospitality of
the city to Mr. Lincoln, who responded in a brief
address. When he had concluded Mr. Lincoln re-
tired to his apartments, and the vast assemblage
slowly dispersed. A little after eight o'clock the
President-elect took a position at the head of the
grand stairway of the hotel, where he remained some
time, in order to gratify the curiosity of those who
wished to see him. About ten o'clock an arch of
fire-works with the words, " Abraham Lincoln" in
large letters in the arch, and the words, " The Whole
Union" beneath it, was exhibited at Ninth and Chest-
nut Streets, extending across Chestnut.
— Washington's birthday, February 22d, was more
generally observed in Philadelphia this year than for
many years previous. The presence in the city of
the President-elect, together with the ceremony of
flag-raising at which it had been arranged he should
assist, gave the celebration a more important charac-
ter than ordinarily. From all the public buildings,
hotels, shipping, newspaper offices, and engine- and
hose-houses the American flag was displayed, and a
large number of private dwellings were decorated in
a similar manner. At sunrise a national salute was
fired, and at seven o'clock a committee of the City
Councils waited upon Mr. Lincoln, who was escorted
from the Continental Hotel to Independence Hall by
the Scott Legion. On entering the hall Mr. Lincoln
was formally received by Theodore Cuyler, president
of Select Council, to whose address of welcome Mr.
Lincoln briefly replied. After inspecting the por-
traits and relics in the hall, Mr. Lincoln was escorted
to the platform in front of the building, where his
THE CIVIL WAK.
751
appearance was the signal for long-continued cheering.
Everything had been arranged for unfurling the new
flag with thirty-four stars, the thirty-fourth represent-
ing Kansas, then recently admitted as a State. The
flag was rolled into a ball in man-of-war style, so that
when it reached the peak of the staff it should grad-
ually unfurl to the breeze. The Scott Legion was
drawn up in front of the platform. Mr. Benton,
chairman of the joint committee of Councils, then
said that he had been deputed to request Mr. Lincoln
personally to raise the new flag with thirty-four stars,
" the first elevated by the city government." Mr.
Lincoln consented to perform the ceremony, signify-
ing his acceptance of the invitation in a brief ad-
dress, in which he said, " I think we may promise
ourselves that not only the new star placed upon that
flag shall be permitted to remain there to our perma-
nent prosperity for years to come, but additional ones
shall from time to time be placed there, until we shall
number, as was anticipated by the great historian, five
hundred millions of happy and prosperous people."
After prayer by the Rev. Henry Steele Clark, Mr.
Lincoln grasped the halyards until the flag, having
ascended to the peak of the flag-staff, was unfurled.
The band played the " Star-Spangled Banner," which
was followed by " The Stars and Stripes are Still
Unfurled," a piece of music dedicated to Mrs. Robert
Anderson, wife of Maj. Anderson, commander of
Fort Sumter. During the ceremonies a detachment
of the Washington Grays stationed in Independence
Square fired artillery salutes. Great enthusiasm was
exhibited by the spectators. Having performed the
task allotted him, Mr. Lincoln returned to the hotel,
and at half-past eight o'clock left in an open barouche
drawn by four horses for West Philadelphia, where a
special train awaited him. At this point a salute was
fired, and a large assemblage witnessed Mr. Lincoln's
departure for Harrisburg at half-past nine o'clock.
The next feature of the day's celebration was that in
which the City Councils took part. Both branches
met in joint convention, being called to order by
Mayor Henry, and repaired in procession to the plat-
form in front of Independence Hall. Mayor Henry
here stated that the object of their meeting there was
to listen to the reading of Washington's Farewell
Address by the Hon. Joseph R. Iugersoll. Bishop
Potter offered a prayer, in which he expressed the
hope that Washington's words of warning and admo-
nition might be heeded throughout the length and
breadth of the land. Mr. Ingersoll was then intro-
duced and read the address, which was attentively
listened to by the vast assemblage. The address was
also read at the meeting of the soldiers of the war of
1812, which was held in the Supreme Court room
on the same day, Hon. Joel B. Sutherland presiding,
by Col. Robert Carr, who had carried a musket at a
review of troops by Gen. Washington, and was the
oldest of the survivors of the war of 1812. Resolu-
tions were adopted by the meeting requesting Con-
gress and the State Legislatures "to adopt such
measures as will present to the people of the sev-
eral States such amendments to the Con-
stitution of the United States as will tend [1861
to secure peace and amity between the dif-
ferent States, and thus add new strength to our in-
stitutions and make our republic the continual admi-
ration of the civilized world;" thanking Virginia
" for coming to the rescue and holding out the olive
branch of peace to the other commonwealths ;" and
expressing the hope that the Peace Congress would
not adjourn until it had perfected some plan for the
preservation of the Union. At Mechanics' Hall a
large number of citizens assembled to do honor to
the memory of Washington. The building was pro-
fusely decorated with flags, and at the back of the
speakers' stand portraits of Washington and Commo-
dore Decatur were exhibited. After the national
hymn ("America") had been sung, Rev. J. E. Mere-
dith offered a prayer. The choir then rendered the
" Birth of Washington," after which the master of cere-
monies, William B. Thomas, introduced the orator of
the day, Rev. D. W. Bartine, who delivered a patriotic
discourse. The day was also marked by an imposing
procession of workingmen, representing the leading
industrial establishments of the city. During the pa-
rade bells were rung at frequent intervals, and many
beautiful flags, banners, and appropriate emblems
were displayed, with inscriptions expressing fidelity
to the Union. At National Hall a mass-meeting of
workingmen was held. Isaac W. Van Houton pre-
sided. After Washington's Farewell Address had
been read by James Blakeley, Mr. McPherson offered
a series of resolutions demanding immediate action
on the part of Congress, " either by the adoption of
the Crittenden, Guthrie, or Bigler amendments, or by
some other full and clear recognition of the equal
rights of the South in the Territories;" opposing
"any measures that will evoke civil war;" recom-
mending the repeal of all acts of the Pennsylvania.
Legislature which were not consonant with a spirit of
friendliness to sister States, and that the workingmen
of Philadelphia hold their senators and representa-
tives in Congress and in the State Legislature to " a
strict account for the fulfillment of the promises made
to the Workingmen's Committee of Thirty-three at
Washington and Harrisburg;" and suggesting that
the organization of the workingmen of Philadelphia
should be maintained. In addition to the other ob-
servances of the day, there was a parade of the mili-
tary organizations of the city, including the Minute-
men of 76, Capt. Berry, the Garde Lafayette, Capt.
Archambault, the Washington Grays, Capt. Parry,
the Philadelphia Grays, Capt. Foley, and the Meagher
Guards.
— A national convention of workingmen began its
sessions at the Wetherill House, Sansom Street, on
the 23d of February. Delegates were present from
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana,
752
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Ohio, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. S. W. Cloyd, of
Kentucky, presided. Resolutions deploring the sec-
tional agitation which was disturbing the
1861] country, and indorsing the Crittenden Com-
promise, were adopted. J. B. Nicholson, of
Pennsylvania, having been introduced to the meeting,
presented the chairman, on behalf of the workingmen
of Philadelphia, with a handsomely-bound copy of
Washington's Farewell Address. A series of resolu-
tions were offered by Mr. Touchstone, of Maryland, de-
nouncing the " nabobs and aristocrats of the South
and fanatics of the North," but having been objected
to were withdrawn. On motion of Mr. Lawrence, of
Virginia, it was determined to appoint a National
Executive Committee, consisting of three persons,
with power to increase their number to thirty-four.
The convention then adjourned.
— At a convention of workingmen, composed of
delegates from the different industrial works of
Philadelphia, held at Spring Garden Hall, on the 4th
of March, for the purpose of choosing delegates to a
national convention to be held at Louisville, Ky., on
the 4th of July, Joseph Christy was chosen presi-
dent, J. M. Stephens vice-president, and Richard
Flach secretary. An executive committee was ap-
pointed, which, on March 7th, organized by electing
the following officers: President, I. W. Van Houton;
Vice-Presidents, A. N. Macpherson and E. W. Fraley.;
Recording Secretary, John Hall ; Corresponding Sec-
retary, W. H. Sylves ; Treasurer, W. Obdyke.
— Hon. David Wilmot, senator-elect from Penn-
sylvania, and famous as the author of the Wilmot
Proviso, arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday, March
16th, and stopped at the Continental Hotel, where he
was serenaded by a number of his political friends.
Mr. Wilmot acknowledged the compliment by mak-
ing an address, in which he defined the principles
that would guide his course in the Senate.
— A meeting of the friends in Philadelphia of Hon.
J. J. Crittenden was held on the 6th of March at the
American Hotel. Dr. Alfred L. Elwyn was appointed
chairman, and S. E. Cohen secretary. It was re-
solved that a committee of ten persons be appointed
to confer with Mr. Crittenden " to ascertain when it
would be convenient for him to visit Philadelphia, in
order to afford its citizens an opportunity of mani-
festing their deep sense of approbation of the patriotic
efforts made by him to maintain and perpetuate the
union of these States." The committee, consisting of
Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, Hon. Peter McCall, Hon.
Edward King, Peter Williamson, James C. Hand,
Dr. Alfred L. Elwyn, Robert H. Hare, John Hulme,
J. E. Peyton, and Marcellus Mundy, wrote to Mr.
Crittenden, who replied on the 17th, declining the
invitation on account of having been called to his
home in Kentucky.
At a meeting of the Workingmen's Committee of
Thirty-four, which was held at the Wetherill House
on the 19th of March, it was resolved that " the work-
ingmen of Philadelphia do hereby recommend to all
our fellow-workingmen of our common country to lay
aside all political and sectional feeling, and to come
out in the majesty of their power and show to
political party tricksters and to the world that our
country must and shall be preserved."
— The action of the Pennsylvania Legislature in
postponing the spring municipal election was the oc-
casion of several political meetings in Philadelphia
about this time. On the 20th of March the county
convention of the Constitutional Union party met at
the county court-house, George C. Collins presiding,
and after electing S. H. Norris president, S. S. Sun-
derland secretary, and M. B. Dean treasurer, ap-
pointed a committee to draft resolutions denouncing
the action of the Legislature, with instructions to re-
port at a subsequent meeting. On the 21st the Minute-
men of '76 appointed a committee, consisting of H.
F. Knight, James W. Martin, F. S. Altemus, H. C.
Laudenslager, and W. J. McMullen, to confer with
committees of other associations as to the propriety
of holding a mass-meeting to protest against the action
of the Legislature. The Democratic City Executive
Committee characterized the act as an " outrage per-
petrated by the Black Republican majority in the
State Legislature," and appointed a committee to
consult counsel as to its legality.
— Early on the morning of March 26th a secession-
ist flag was found flying from a pole in front of the
" Jolly Post," in Frankford, and soon attracted a
large crowd. It was finally taken down, and the
assemblage dispersed.
— A meeting of the Constitutional Union conven-
tion was held on the 27th of March, I. H. Norris in
the chair, at which resolutions were adopted declaring
it inexpedient at that time to attempt to test the con-
stitutionality of the late act of the Legislature by
which the spring election had been postponed until
the fall, and that the time had come when those " who
love their country for their country's good must unite
in beating down under foot the fell spirit of disunion,
anarchy, corruption, and fanaticism."
■ — On the 29th of March an opinion was published
of City Solicitor Charles E. Lex, rendered in com-
pliance with a' request from City Councils, affirming
the constitutionality of the act of Legislature abol-
ishing the spring election for municipal officers.
— During the annual session of the Philadelphia
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church the
Committee on the State of the Church, to which was
referred the subject of the repeal of the new chapter
on slavery inserted into the " Discipline" by the Gen-
eral Conference, reported March 29th, concurring in
the resolutions of the East Baltimore Conference re-
questing the General Conference at its next session
to repeal the chapter on slavery, and instead thereof,
empower each annual Conference within whose
bounds the institution exists " to make such regula-
tions upon this subject as in their judgment may best
THE CIVIL WAR.
753
subserve the interests of the Eedeemer's kingdom
among them." The committee also recommended the
adoption of an address to the members of the church
in Delaware and on the Eastern Shore of Mary-
land and Virginia. The address assured them that
they had the profoundest sympathies of the Confer-
ence in their disquietude and agitated condition, and
that no exertions should be wanting to secure them re-
dress for their grievances and to maintain their eccle-
siastical rights in and under the constitution of the
church. It also declared that the change in the
church discipline introduced by the chapter on
slavery was entirely uncalled for, " highly offensive
to our brethren on the border, and lamentably injuri-
ous to the welfare of the church among them," and
ought to be repealed. The committee also reported
that " in view of our present national difficulties and
embarrassments, and the consequently disturbed con-
dition of the public mind on the one hand, and the
conflicting opinion of our churches in Delaware and
Maryland on this subject, we deem it inexpedient to
divide the Philadelphia Conference by State lines at
this time." The report of the committee was adopted
unanimously.
— News of the firing upon Fort Sumter (April
12th) was received in Philadelphia by telegraph on
the same day, but did not become generally known
until published in the newspapers of the following
day. On the reception of the news at Harrisburg
the State Legislature immediately passed the bill,
drawn up by A. K. McClure, appropriating five
hundred thousand dollars toward organizing, equip-
ping, and arming the militia. On Saturday, April
13th, a feverish interest in the dispatches from the
seat of hostilities followed the announcement in the
morning papers that war had actually commenced.
The streets in the centre of the city were thronged
until a late hour at night, and "every one who
hinted any sympathy with the secessionists was
made to take an unequivocal stand." At an early
hour on Sunday groups of men gathered around the
newspaper and telegraph offices, and eagerly discussed
the news of the surrender of Fort Sumter, as pub-
lished in the extras. The feeling in opposition to
secession was very strong, and one individual who
openly expressed his sympathy for the South was set
upon and chased from Third and Chestnut Streets
into Dr. Jayne's drug-store. Here he was protected
by policemen, who barred the door, and thus effected
his rescue. A hand-bill was circulated during the
day calling upon " young men desirous of rallying
around the standard of the Union" to enroll them-
selves immediately in the new volunteer Light Ar-
tillery Eegiment, " now rapidly filling up, and ready
to march upon the receipt of orders from the Gov-
ernor." This circular was issued by order of Capt.
J. Brady, acting major. At most of the city armories
the volunteers gathered during the day, discussing
the probable effect of the news from a military point
48
of view. The Union feeling was strongly in the as-
cendant, and it was agreed on all hands that the
government should be sustained at all haz-
ards, and independent of party predilections. [1861
During the evening the throngs on the street
increased, and the extras, announcing that a procla-
mation would be issued by the President calling for
seventy-five thousand volunteers, were quickly sold.
— A meeting of the officers of the First Eegiment,
Washington Brigade, was held at Military Hall,
Third Street near Green, on Saturday evening, April
13th, Lieut.-Col. C. M. Berry presiding. Gen. Small
stated that he had visited Washington and tendered
the command of the brigade to Hon. Simon Cameron,
who had accepted. Eecruiting soon became general,
and the ranks of the volunteer companies filled up
rapidly.
— On Monday, April 15th, an excited crowd col-
lected in front of No. 337 Chestnut Street, owing to
a rumor that a paper called The Palmetto Flag, which
advocated secessionist principles, was published in the
building. Finally several men entered the door lead-
ing to the stairway and attempted to ascend to the
third story, where the publication-office was said to
be. A policeman interfered, and the men left the
building. The crowd, however, continued to in-
crease, and a demand was made that the American
flag should be displayed from one of the windows of
the room in which The Palmetto Flag was said to be
published. Mayor Henry soon made his appearance
at one of the windows, waving a small flag, and was
greeted with cheers. The mayor addressed the as-
semblage, appealing to all citizens who were loyal to
the flag to show their respect for it and for the laws
by retiring to their respective homes. The request
was not complied with, however, until a large flag
had been unfurled from the building, and a number
of persons remained until some time in the afternoon.
In consequence of the excitement, Town & Co., the
publishers of The Palmetto Flag, announced that they
would suspend its publication. While the crowd was
still gathered in front of The Palmetto Flag office, the
stars and stripes were being run up at the American
Hotel, Chestnut Street, above Fifth. By some mis-
management the flag ascended the staff union down.
As soon as the mistake had been discovered the flag
was lowered, but not until the crowd, having noticed
the reversal of the ensign, and interpreting it as an
insult to the Union, had made a rush for the hotel.
In a few minutes the flag reappeared in the usual
way, and was greeted with cheers. About noon the
crowd began to move in other directions, visiting
various places where flags had not been exhibited
as an evidence of the Union sentiments of the occu-
pants, and requiring them to be displayed. A paper,
declaring the unalterable determination of the sub-
scribers "to sustain the government in its effort to
maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence
of our national Union and the perpetuity of the popu-
754
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
lar government," was circulated on the 15th and fol-
lowing days for signatures. Among the subscribers
were Horace Binney, S. G. Fisher, James
1861] E. Webb, Joseph R. Ingersoll, J. I. Clark
Hare, Samuel C. Perkins, William M. Mere-
dith, Charles Gilpin, B. Gerhard, Richard Vaux,
William H. Kern, James Bayard, H. C. Carey,
Thomas A. Biddle, William E. Lehman, V. Gilpin,
James W. Paul, C. W. Churchman, Oswald Thomp-
son, George M. Stroud, C. N. Bancker, Morton Mc-
Michael, L. C. Cassidy, S. A. Mercer, Charles S.
Peaslee, Charles Gibbons, Ch. Borie, Charles Piatt,
David Webster, Charles Dutilh, Edward H. Trot-
ter, John C. Knox, Edward S. Whelen, Matthew
Morris, R. Smethurst, John W. Field, William R
White, C. H. Fisher, C. G. Childs, W. Cummings,
Alexander Fullevton, William D. Lewis, Charles Gil-
pin, George H. Stuart, Samuel H. Perkins, Richard
S. Smith, E. M. Lewis, Benjamin Rush, Thomas C.
Hand, Daniel Smith, Jr., J. Murray Push, E. A.
Souder, H. P. Borie, C. Guillou, J. Hill Martin, I. P.
Hutchinson, Victor Guillou, John R. Penrose, Wil-
liam E. Lejee, S. P. Wiltbank, Alexander Biddle, D.
Dougherty, Joshua W. Bates, Horace Binney, Jr.,
Theodore Cuyler, J. H. Curtis, Jr. On the evening of
April 15th the members of the Corn Exchange fired a
salute of thirty-four guns from their rooms in Second
Street in honor of their new flag and the whole
Union.
— On the 15th of April, Maj.-Gen. Eobert Patter-
son, commanding the First Division Pennsylvania
Volunteers, issued an order calling attention to the
President's proclamation asking for seventy-five thou-
sand volunteers, and stating that he relied on the
loyalty of the officers and men of his division for
the enforcement of a rigid system of military instruc-
tion. The brigadier-generals were directed to give
orders for special attention to the instruction of mem-
bers of companies, and to adopt the most efficient
means for putting their brigades in condition for im-
mediate service. Under President Lincoln's requisi-
tion upon the State of Pennsylvania for sixteen regi-
ments, Philadelphia's quota was six regiments, and
the companies in process of organization vied with
each as to which should have their ranks full first.
Gen. Robert Patterson died Aug. 7, 1881, aged
eighty-nine years. He was for a half-century one of
the most conspicuous public men in Philadelphia.
His military position gave him unusual prominence.
Entering the army of the United States during the
war of 1812, he was appointed first lieutenant in the
Twenty-second Eegiment of Infantry. He was trans-
ferred to the Third Regiment in May, 1813, and before
the war ended held the position of captain. Return-
ing to Philadelphia, he became interested in the vol-
unteer branch of the Pennsylvania militia. He was
elected captain of the Washington Blues upon the
formation of that company, on the 17th of August,
1817. The Blues was a large and spirited company,
and was noted for its strength and efficiency in mili-
tary exercises. Some time after they were formed,
Capt. Patterson was elected colonel of the City Vol-
unteer Infantry Eegiment, retaining at the same time
the command of the Blues. In 1824, Brig.-Gen.
Thomas Cadwalader, of the City Brigade, resigned
that position, having been previously elected major-
general of the First Division, to succeed Gen. Isaac
Worrell. Col. Patterson was elected brigadier gen-
eral of the City Brigade. In 1833, Gen. Cadwalader
having resigned the position of major-general, Brig.-
Gen. Patterson succeeded him. He held that rank
until 1867, when he resigned. During all that period
he was prominent in the city upon occasions of mili-
tary parades, processions, and as chief commander of
the division in times of riot and disturbance, when
the services of the troops were called. He was in
command of the troops which went to Harrisburg
during the Buckshot war in 1835. During the Native
American riots of 1844 he had command of the troops
in Kensington, and at the church of St. Philip de
Neri in Southwark. For some time after the latter
riot the city was practically under martial law. Gen.
Patterson had his headquarters at the Girard Bank,
and remained there until quietness and good order
were assured. Upon the breaking out of the war be-
tween the United States and Mexico he was appointed
major-general in the service of the United States.
He was in command at the battle of Cerro Gordo,
which was fought on the 18th of April, 1847, in which
eight thousand five hundred American troops van-
quished twelve thousand Mexicans. He commanded
the advance which followed the retreating enemy,
and on the 19th of April captured Jalapa. He took
part in the subsequent engagements in the heart of
Mexico, and entered the city of Mexico with the vic-
torious army. After the close of the war he returned
to the United States with the troops, and participated
in the reception of the Pennsylvania volunteers by
the citizens of Philadelphia on the 24th of July,
1848. At the outbreak of the rebellion he was com-
missioned major-general by Governor Curtin, and was
assigned to the command of the Pennsylvania three-
months' volunteers. The United States government
immediately appointed him to the command of the
military department composed of the States of Penn-
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of
Columbia. With the three months' men he crossed
the Potomac on the 15th of June, 1861. There were
skirmishes and engagements with the rebels. Event-
ually Gen. Patterson reached Winchester ; a rebel
force, commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, being
in front of him. While there he was anxious to
attack the enemy, but was restrained by positive
orders from Gen. Scott to make no movement until
directed. That order to attack never came. Patterson
remained idle at Winchester, menacing Johnston,
without authority to fight him. Meanwhile the bulk
of the force of Johnston was enabled to slip away
THE CIVIL WAR.
755
to reinforce Beauregard toward the close of the
battle of Bull Run, in consequence of which the
Union troops under Gen. McDowell were defeated.
This disaster caused great feeling throughout the
Union, and Patterson was severely censured for his
inactivity. As a soldier he was compelled to bear
this odium without being able to show that he was
in no fault. It was years afterward before he was
able to break the seal of secrecy which had been
maintained by the government, and to show by the
publication of official orders that Gen. Scott was to
blame, by compelling Patterson to remain idle in front
of the enemy, waiting for orders which were never
issued. On the expiration of the three months' term
Gen. Patterson retired from active service, and re-
turned to Philadelphia. Gen. Patterson was the son
of an Irish farmer, and was
born in the County Tyrone,
Ireland, Jan. 12, 1792. His
father came to Pennsylva-
nia, and settled at Ridley,
in Delaware County, about
1 799 or 1800, and lived upon
the estate of John Sketchly
Morton. He purchased five
or six hundred acres of land
on Ridley Creek, not far
from the present village
called Morton, in Spring-
field township, and engaged
in farming. Robert Patter-
son was sent to the Spring-
field school, near by, a
somewhat famous academy
at the time, at which John
Edgar Thomson and others
who became eminent men
were afterward educated.
Having an inclination for
a mercantile life, Robert
Patterson was placed in the
counting-house of Edward
Thomson, who was a leading merchant of this city in
the China and India trade, about the year 1808. He
was appointed to the United States army while in Mr.
Thomson's service. About 1817 he commenced on his
own account as a grocer at No. 260 High Street. Some
time in 1818 he removed to No. 287J High Street. In
1833 the store of Robert Patterson & Co. was at No. 182
High Street, between Fifth and Sixth. The wholesale
grocery business led Gen. Patterson into purchases of
sugar, and gave him extensive connections with the
sugar-growing districts of the South, especially in
Louisiana, where he became owner of sugar planta-
tions. From sugar he gradually was induced to take
participation in the cotton trade, and by degrees
the grocery business was abandoned. He became
a large dealer in cotton, and furnished the material
for cotton-mills. Those interests compelled him
GENERAL ROBERT PATTERSON,
at length to become a cotton manufacturer, not so
much from inclination as by necessity. The failure
of manufacturers who'were his debtors com-
pelled him, in order to save himself from [1861
loss, to purchase their mills, and thus by
degrees he became a manufacturer. This interest
increased so that he became in time the largest cotton
manufacturer in the country. At the time of his
death he was the owner of the Patterson Mills, in
Chester, the Ripka Mills, in Manayunk, and the
Lenni Mills, in Delaware County. His principal
offices and counting-houses at the time of his death
were at Manayunk and at No. 136 Chestnut Street.
Gen. Patterson was a man of strong social instincts.
He was a prominent figure upon every social occa-
sion. He was one of the founders of the Aztec Club,
established by officers of
the United States army in
Mexico in October, 1847,
was elected president at
that time, and remained in
that office until his death.
He was one of the founders,
and a member until his
death, of the Saturday Club
of the city. He was a mem-
ber of the Farmers' Club,
a social organization. He
held a few prominent civil
offices. He was a member
of the State Board of Canal
Commissioners from 1827
to 1829. He was State di-
rector of the Philadelphia
Bank for many years, and
was afterward director elec-
ted by the stockholders.
He was for some years
president and member of
the Board of Inspectors of
the Eastern Penitentiary.
He was the first president
of the Philadelphia and Wilmington Railroad Com-
pany. He was for a long time member and presi-
dent of the Hibernian Society. In 1874 he was
elected a trustee of Lafayette College at Easton.
In politics he was always a Democrat. He was a
Presidential elector and president of the Pennsylvania
electoral college in 1837. Gen. Patterson survived
his wife (who was a Miss Engle) about six years. His
son, Col. Francis E. Patterson, had command of the
First Regiment of Pennsylvania Artillery during the
three months' service, and unfortunately died in the
service from an accidental pistol-shot wound. His
eldest son, William Patterson, i3 a resident of Ten-
nessee. His son, Gen. Robert E. Patterson, a gradu-
ate of West Point, and for some years an officer of
the United States army, was engaged in business with
him. One of his daughters married the Hon. J.
756
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
Ross Snowden, who was for some years treasurer of
the United States Mint, and clerk of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania. Another daughter
1861] married Gen. John J. Abercrombie, of the
United States army. Mrs. Lynde was an-
other daughter.
— The Board of Trade and Board of Stock Brokers
met on the 16th of April and passed resolutions de-
claring their unalterable attachment to the Union
and their purpose to support the government. Sim-
ilar resolutions were adopted at a meeting of citizens
of the Nineteenth Ward, which was held on the same
day at Temperance Hall, Frankford road and York
Street. Speeches indorsing the resolutions were made
by John M. Carson, Fletcher Budd, A. Warthman,
A. J. Holmes, and others.
— -On the 16th of April Mayor Henry issued a proc-
lamation declaring that treason against the State of
Pennsylvania or against the United States would not
be suffered within the city, nor would violence to the
persons or property of its inhabitants be tolerated.
" I do hereby require all good citizens," continued
the proclamation, "to disclose and make known to
the lawful authorities every person rendering in this
city aid to enemies in open war against this State and
the United States by enlisting or procuring others to
enlist for that purpose, or by furnishing such enemies
with arms, ammunition, provisions, or other assist-
ance. I do hereby require and command that all
persons shall refrain from assembling in the high-
ways of this city unlawfully, riotously, or tumultu-
ously, warning them that the same will be at their
peril. The laws of our State and Federal govern-
ment must be obeyed. The peace and credit of Phila-
delphia shall be preserved. May God save our
Union."
Commenting upon this proclamation, the Public
Ledger of April 17th said, " Under the supposition
that manufacturers have been furnishing arms to the
secessionists, manufactories have been visited by or-
ganized bodies of persons, and the workmen com-
pelled to leave. Private citizens have also had their
houses visited, and a display of flags demanded of
them." After indorsing the mayor's declaration
that persons engaged in rendering aid to the enemies
of the United States would be handed over to the
lawful authorities, the same paper expressed its ap-
proval of the mayor's determination to protect citizens
suspected of Southern proclivities from the violence
of party spirit.
A. meeting of merchants and manufacturers of
Philadelphia was held at the Board of Trade room,
on the 17th of April, for the purpose of taking action
expressive of their determination to support the gov-
ernment. John E. Addicks called the meeting to
order, and nominated David S. Brown as chairman,
and William C. Ludwig as secretary. After a brief
address by Mr. Brown, S. V. Merrick said, " The ex-
ecutive committee at its last meeting felt that the
time had come when every man should show where
he stood, — whether for the government or against it.
The committee, on that occasion, passed resolutions
expressive of their fidelity to the Union. At the
same time it was thought proper that a meeting of
the merchants of the city should be called to indorse
their resolutions." Mr. Ludwig then read a series of
resolutions, to the effect that the merchants and man-
ufacturers of Philadelphia, " forgetting all political
differences, unmindful of party lines and distinctions,
remembering only that we are fellow-citizens of one
beloved country, and that country in danger," pledged
themselves to use all their influence to strengthen the
hands of the government and cheerfully to bear their
share " of the sacrifices and perils of the hour."
After speeches by George N. Tatham, George L.
Buzby, and W. D. Lewis, the following resolution was
offered by Levi T. Butter :
" Resolved, in the glowing words of out Bevolutionary sires, we
hereby pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to support
the Union, the Constitution, and the laws."
After an earnest pro-Union speech by Marcellus
Mundy, the resolution was adopted. Hon. William
D. Kelley, Frederick Fraley, and Dr. Elder then
addressed the meeting, after which the resolutions
as read by Mr. Ludwig were adopted by acclama-
tion.
— On the evening of the same day (April 17th) a
number of persons formerly connected with the Wash-
ington Grays Artillery Corps met at the Wetherill
House for the purpose of organizing a reserve guard
for the protection of the city. Charles S. Smith was
elected chairman. Col. C. G. Childs said that Inde-
pendence Hall, the birthplace of liberty, " should be
defended against all assaults of those traitors" who
were "contemplating the capture of Washington."
Col. Childs, Morton McMichael, Joseph M. Thomas,
Peter C. Ellmaker, and Charles Gilpin were appointed
a committee to draft a series of resolutions expressive
of the sense of the meeting, and a paper was submitted
for signatures stating that the undersigned, retired
and contributing members of the Washington Grays,
and other citizens of the city of Philadelphia, over
forty-five years of age, agreed to " raise a regiment of
at least eight hundred men for the purpose of defend-
ing and protecting the city of Philadelphia, to be
designated as the Reserve Corps," and pledged them-
selves to each other to maintain the laws and uphold
the constituted authorities of the country in her hour
of trial. At the different recruiting-stations the ex-
citement continued unabated, and on the 18th it was
announced that the ranks of the Washington brigade
were nearly full. The display of the national flag
had also become general. " The city," said a contem-
porary journal, "never presented so brilliant an ap-
pearance as at present in the way of the display of
the stars and stripes. All the public buildings and
hundreds of proprietors of stores have thrown the
glorious flag to the breeze, and in some quarters it
THE CIVIL WAK.
757
floats from private dwellings." The following appeal,
said to have emanated from a meeting of ladies, was
widely circulated :
" The crisis now impending ou the country calls forth the true pa-
triotism of every woman in the community ; and while our husbands,
fathers, and brothers are engaged in war, that we may not bo found
wanting in deep sympathy,
" Resolved, This 16th day of April, that we, as a body of ladies, do here-
after adopt the colors of the Union, to be worn aB a rosette or how,
hoping to express hy this simple manifestation the devoted feeling we
have for our country, and aB we think every true American woman must
feel at this present time.
" Red, White, and Blue."
The suggestion was promptly complied with, and
on the following day, April 18th, a number of women
appeared on the streets wearing the rosettes.
— In Select Council, on the 18th of April, Mr.
Megary submitted an ordinance authorizing the mayor
to issue a proclamation offering a reward of five hun-
dred dollars for the apprehension and conviction of
any person or persons who, within the limits of Phila-
delphia, should violate the provisions of the act then
recently passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature de-
fining treasonable acts. An ordinance offered by Mr.
Wetherill provided that the sum of ten thousand dol-
lars should be appropriated for the purchase of arms
or other munitions of war for the use of a home
guard or any other company that might be formed for
the defense of the city. In the same connection Mr.
Wetherill presented a subscription paper in which
the signers volunteered to give five thousand dollars
toward the purchase of twelve howitzers and their
equipment, to be under the control of the Home
Guards. Mr. Dickson submitted an ordinance ap-
propriating one hundred thousand dollars for the re-
lief of families of volunteers. Similar ordinances were
offered by Messrs. Bradford and Beideman, and Daniel
M. Fox introduced a series of resolutions expressing
gratification that Pennsylvania had proven her loyalty.
Mr. Benton offered a resolution instructing the com-
missioner of city property to tender the city halls for
the purpose of drilling; and another resolution di-
recting the commissioner to purchase American flags
and to have them displayed from the dome of every dis-
trict hall. Mr. Bradford submitted an ordinance to
organize, equip, and pay a mounted police force of
five hundred men for a term of three months, the
members to receive the same pay as that of the regu-
lar police force. A series of resolutions was submitted
by Mr. Davis declaring the undying devotion of the
citizens of Philadelphia to the Union, and pledging
the faith and credit of the city to the general govern-
ment to the extent of one million dollars to aid in the
enforcement of the laws. Mr. Ginnodo submitted a
resolution beseeching Maryland to stand by the Union,
and pledging the sympathy of the people of Philadel-
phia to the people of Baltimore in their efforts on
behalf of the Union. These ordinances and resolu-
tions were referred to a special committee, which re-
ported in favor of asking Common Council to ap-
point a committee to confer with the Select Council
committee as to the measures proper to adopt in
the pending crisis. The report was agreed
to. Mr. Benton offered a resolution, which [1861
was adopted, instructing the special com-
mittee to inquire into the propriety of continuing
the salary of any public officer " who shall be en-
rolled into the service of the United States whose
pay is less than two hundred dollars per annum."
On motion of Mr. Craig it was determined that a
committee should be appointed to tender to Maj.
Robert Anderson the hospitalities of the city on his
arrival in Philadelphia. In the Common Council, Mr.
Quin offered resolutions approving the general gov-
ernment's determination to "enforce the laws, quell
rebellion, and preserve the integrity of the Union,"
and declaring that " the defense of Fort Sumter by
the gallant Maj. Anderson demands, and deserves,
the highest meed of praise, and that, as a mark of our
high appreciation of his incorruptible patriotism and
unfaltering courage, the city of Philadelphia present
him with a sword, and that the mayor, together with
the presidents of Select and Common Councils, be a
committee for carrying this resolution into effect."
Both resolutions were adopted, the first unanimously,
and the second with only one vote in the negative.
Mr. Kerr submitted a letter from the clerk of Com-
mon Council, Gen. William F. Small, asking leave of
absence during the period in which he should be en-
gaged as a soldier in aiding to suppress the insurrec-
tion in the Southern States. A resolution was passed
granting the desired leave of absence provided it did
not continue longer than the first Monday in January
following. The resolution was afterward concurred
in by Select Council with the exception of a section
appropriating five hundred dollars to furnish equip-
ments to Gen. Small. Mr. Potter submitted an ordi-
nance appropriating sixty thousand dollars for the
relief and support of such of the families of the citi-
zens of Philadelphia who were then or should be
subsequently regularly mustered into the service of
the United States, as needed assistance during their
absence; the same to be expended for that purpose
in such manner as a committee of six of the citizens
— three to be chosen by each branch of Councils
separately — should, in conjunction with the presi-
dents of Select and Common Councils, the mayor and
the city solicitor, from time to time direct. The ordi-
nance recommended to the citizens that they co-
operate in this design by individual subscriptions.
On motion of Mr. Cattell the amount was made one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars instead of
sixty thousand dollars, and the ordinance as amended
was then adopted. Mr. Potter submitted an ordi-
nance, which was passed, appropriating five thousand
dollars for the use of the mayor, "to be employed
by him as he may deem expedient for the preserva-
tion of the public peace, the security of the city, and
the detection and prevention of any plans or combi-
158
HISTOET OF PHILADELPHIA.
nations to destroy the government of this State or of the
United States." The mayor was also requested and
authorized " to use all and every means in his
1861] power to detect and preventany combinations,
conspiracies, or endeavors whatever or by
whomsoever made, within the city, to subvert the gov-
ernment of this State or of the United States, or to
aid, succor, or assist any person or persons in -rebellion
against the same, or to molest or disturb the peace or
property of the citizens, and to prosecute such person
or persons to the full extent of the law." The resolu-
tion from Select Council requesting Common Council
to appoint a committee to confer with a similar com-
mittee of the former body on the state of the country
was concurred in. The two committees consisted of
the following members: Select Council, Messrs. Mc-
Intyre, Megary, Wetherill, Davis, Beideman, Dickson,
Drayton, and Riley ; Common Council, Messrs. Cath-
erwood, Kerr, Hodgson, Moore, Paul, Lynd, Loughlin,
and Potter.
— On the 19th of April a card was published by S.
E. Cohen announcing that in compliance with re-
quests from various quarters he had opened a muster-
roll at his office, 712 Chestnut Street, for the organ-
ization of a battalion of volunteers for home protec-
tion, to be known as the Municipal Guard. On the
same day all the military companies intended for
service under the general government were mustered
and placed under marching orders. The Sixth Mas-
sachusetts Regiment, Col. Edward F. Jones, which
had arrived on the previous evening en route for
Washington via Baltimore, met with an enthusiastic
reception. On their arrival at the foot of Walnut
Street, by steamer from the Jersey shore, they were
greeted with cheer after cheer from the large assem-
blage of men and women collected on Delaware
Avenue and the wharves in the vicinity. The
regiment formed in line on Delaware Avenue, and
marched up Walnut to Dock Street, up Dock to
Third, up Third to Chestnut, and up Chestnut to the
Girard House. So great was the crowd about the
hotel that it was with much difficulty that the troops
obtained admission. In the evening the regiment
was entertained at the Continental Hotel.
— The news of the attack in Baltimore, on the 19th
of April, on the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment and
the troops from Philadelphia created great excite-
ment in the city and intensified the Union sentiment.
The Philadelphia troops, consisting of one-half of
the Washington Brigade, comprising six companies
of the First Regiment, Lieut. -Col. Berry, and four
companies of the Second Regiment, Lieut.-Col.
Schoenleber, left Philadelphia for Washington at
three o'clock on the morning of the 19th, under the
command of Gen. William F. Small. They num-
bered about eighteen hundred men. A short time
before their departure the Massachusetts volunteers
had left their quarters at the Girard House, and hav-
ing marched to the Philadelphia, Wilmington and
Baltimore Railroad Depot, took the cars for Wash-
ington. On their arrival at the President Street
Depot in Baltimore, the Massachusetts troops were
met by a mob, which obstructed their passage through
the city. On attempting to force their way they were
attacked by the rioters, and three of the Massachu-
setts soldiers were killed and several wounded. The
troops returned the fire, killing eleven of the citizens,
and finally succeeded in reaching the Camden Depot,
whence they proceeded over the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad to Washington. At the request of the Gov-
ernor of Maryland and the mayor of Baltimore, the
train containing the Philadelphia troops was ordered
by the railroad officers to remain in the depot. The
Philadelphians were unarmed, and without uniforms.
Missiles were thrown at them while in the cars, and
some of them were injured. In his report of the
affair, as narrated to a newspaper reporter, Gen.
Small said that the Pennsylvanians behaved gal-
lantly, and many of them sprang from the cars upon
their assailants and engaged in a hand-to-hand con-
flict with them. It was impossible, however, to dis-
tinguish friends from foes, as the mob was composed
of Union men and secessionists, who were fighting
among themselves, and the Pennsylvanians, not
being uniformed, could not be distinguished from
either. This state of things continued more than
two hours, when Marshal Kane, the chief of police
of Baltimore, appeared upon the ground, restored
something like order, and placed the Pennsylvanians
in cars ready to be returned North. The officers and
men from Philadelphia, he added, conducted them-
selves with the utmost courage and deliberation.
Regular troops could not have behaved better. The
main body of the Washington Brigade returned on the
night of the 19th, reaching the depot at Broad and
Prime Streets at eleven o'clock. Twenty-eight mem-
bers of the force became separated from the rest
of the command, and according to the statement
of one of their number, Samuel Baker, of Philadel-
phia, after fleeing about twenty-two miles from Bal-
timore in a northwesterly direction, they were ar-
rested by a number of secessionists, marched across
the country to Belair, Harford Co., Md., and there
placed in jail. On the following day, however,
they were released and escorted by troops to the
Pennsylvania line, whence they proceeded to Phil-
adelphia. The Baltimore riot produced intense re-
sentment in Philadelphia, and called forth strong
expressions of indignation from public bodies. In
the City Council prompt action was taken for aiding
a vigorous prosecution of the war. The special com-
mittee appointed by Select and Common Councils
reported in favor of passing ordinances, — first, re-
questing the citizens of Philadelphia to assemble in
their respective wards and form companies of one
hundred each for the purpose of drill for home ser-
vice, and to answer any call from the government;
second, instructing the Committee on Finance to
THE CIVIL WAK.
759
report at the next meeting an ordinance for a loan of
one million dollars for the purpose of meeting the
appropriations to provide for the families of volun-
teers and for other purposes connected with the dis-
turbed condition of the country; third, that the
commissioner of city property be requested to place
at the disposal of any military organization for drill
any of the city halls, when not otherwise occupied,
free of charge ; fourth, that " the fervent devotion to the
Union manifested by the citizens of Baltimore entitles
them to the warmest thanks of the citizens of Phil-
adelphia and to the unbounded admiration of every
Union-loving citizen of the United States ;" fifth, that
" the patriotic stand against secession maintained by
Thomas H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland, proves him
a patriot worthy of the proudest days of Greece or
Rome, and will hand down his name to posterity en-
graven with the same scroll with the worthiest of the
heroes and sages of 1776 ;" sixth, that fifty thousand
dollars be appropriated for the purchase of such arms
and other munitions of war, " for the use of a Home
Guard, or any other company hereafter to be formed
for the defense of the city ;" seventh, that one hun-
dred and twenty -five thousand dollars be appropriated
for the relief and support of the families of volunteers
engaged in the service of the Union ; eighth, that the
determined attitude taken by the general government
for the suppression of the Eebellion be heartily ap-
proved, and that a sword be presented to Maj. Ander-
son; ninth, that five thousand dollars be appropriated
to the use of the mayor for the preservation of peace
in the city, the detection of persons engaged in trea-
sonable designs against the government, and of per-
sons engaged in molesting the property of citizens of
Philadelphia. All of these recommendations were
agreed to by both Select and Common Councils.
Mr. Benton submitted a resolution continuing the
salary of any officer of the city who, before the proc-
lamation of the President of the United States, was
connected with volunteer companies, and who might
be called into service. This resolution was referred
to the special committee. The activity at the recruit-
ing stations was greatly increased after the attack upon
the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania troops in Balti-
more had become generally known. On the 19th,
Maj.-Gen. Eobert Patterson issued an order directing
the regiments and companies of the Second and Third
Brigades, who had volunteered for service, to report
to Brig.-Gen. George Cadwalader for instructions.
The troops, it was stated, would be inspected and
mustered into the service of the United States by
Maj. Ruff and Capt. Heth of the army, and would
march as soon as arms, ammunition, great-coats,
blankets, and other appointments indispensable for
the health of the men could be procured from the
government. The First Division received orders to
be in readiness to march at two hours' notice, and the
armories all day on the 19th presented an animated
appearance. The organization of companies of Home
Guards in the different wards also received an im-
petus from the news from Baltimore, it being ap-
prehended that if the secessionists retained
possession of Baltimore, an attack might [1861
be made on Philadelphia. At a meeting
of the soldiers of the war of 1812, held at Inde-
pendence Hall, Hon. Joel B. Sutherland presiding,
resolutions were adopted complimentary to Gen.
Scott, Maj. Anderson, and Hon. Simon Cameron, Sec-
retary of War, and pledging the support of those
present to the general government in its efforts to put
down domestic treason. A committee was appointed
to draft an address to soldiers of the war of 1812
throughout the Union. During the quarterly meet-
ing of the State Council of Pennsylvania, Order of
United American Mechanics, held on the 19th, at
their hall, corner Fourth and George Streets, it was
determined to recommend the several councils to
take such action as was necessary to provide for the
keeping of such of their members in regular standing
as might leave their homes for the defense of their
country, and make such provision for their families
as their necessities required. The members of the
Tivoli Hose Company having volunteered for service
in the Union army, decided, at a meeting held on the
19th, that the apparatus be placed in the hands of the
citizens and police, to be used during their absence.
It was also resolved to appropriate one hundred dol-
lars out of the amount received from the city for the
benefit of the families of volunteers.
— On the evening of the 19th of April the Eighth
Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Col. Monroe,
arrived in the city. As they marched from Wal-
nut Street wharf to their quarters at the Girard
House they were enthusiastically cheered, and, on
reaching the hotel, were received by an assemblage
that crowded Chestnut, Eighth, and Ninth Streets in
that vicinity. On the following day the regiment
proceeded southward, taking a steamer at Havre de
Grace for Annapolis. The Seventh New York Regi-
ment arrived at Camden, N. J., early on the morn-
ing of the 20th and proceeded via Washington Street
to the Broad Street Depot, where it remained until
Saturday afternoon, when, news having been received
of the interruption of travel southward via Balti-
more, it returned to Washington Street wharf and
embarked on the steamer " Boston," which dropped
down the Delaware.
— A seizure of contraband goods was made on the
19th of April by officers Taggart and Sharkey, who
took possession of nine cases which, it was said, had
been packed for shipment to Savannah, Ga. Four of
the cases contained camp equipage, kettles, and pans ;
the other five were filled with knapsacks and haver-
sacks. The goods were found in possession of a mer-
cantile firm, which, upon discovering their character,
declined to ship them. The officers were unable to
trace them to first hands. On being opened the cases
were found to contain two hundred and fifty camp-
760
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
kettles, two hundred and fifty mess-pans, five hun-
dred and fifty knapsacks, and five hundred and fifty
haversacks, all of which were turned over to
1861] the commissary department.
— On the night of Friday, April 19th, Fort
Delaware was garrisoned with one hundred and sev-
enty-five men from Philadelphia, and on Saturday five
thousand stand of muskets arrived in the city and
were distributed among the troops. The Girard
House was selected by Governor Curtin as a military
depot, and a notice was posted on the streets on the
20th stating that women were wanted to make up
army clothing for the Pennsylvania troops. On
Saturday and Sunday, April 20th and 21st, the re-
cruiting stations throughout the city were the scene
of much excitement in consequence of the large
numbers of volunteers who presented themselves for
enlistment. On Sunday the companies belonging to
the National Guard Regiment were drilled in Frank-
lin Square. Drilling was also going on in most of
the armories of the city.
— The Buena Vista Guards, attached to the Wash-
ington Brigade, returned to Philadelphia from Balti-
more on the 20th. Their commander, Capt. E. W.
Power, returned the following list of casualties:
killed, Peter Rogers, John V. Greaves ; wounded,
John McGercher, James Teague, Richard Mooney,
Patrick J. Campbell, James Agnew, Miles Shield,
John P. Murray, Thomas Foster, Thomas P. Little.
— A town-meeting was held at the Exchange on
the 20th, at which it was resolved that, "in view of
the impending danger to our homes and liberties," it
was "indispensable that a body of not less than ten
regiments of resident citizens should be organized as
a Home Guard without delay, each regiment to be
composed of ten companies of not less than eighty
men each, and that a committee of citizens be ap-
pointed to solicit subscriptions to the amount of two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the purchase
of arms. Meetings were also held in the different
wards, at all of which patriotic resolutions were
adopted, and in some instances measures taken for
the organization of companies of Home Guards. On
the 20th Mayor Henry issued an order appointing
Col. Augustus J. Pleasonton commander of the Home
Guard in Philadelphia, with authority to organize,
under the direction of the mayor, a force to be com-
posed of the residents of Philadelphia for cavalry,
artillery, infantry, and light infantry service.
— On the night of April 19th the railroad bridges
on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail-
road west of Havre de Grace and on the Northern
Central Railroad south of Cockeysville were burned
by Marylanders in order to prevent the passage of
Northern troops through Baltimore to the South, thus
necessitating their transportation from Havre de
Grace by water to Annapolis. The country residence
of Gen. George Cadwalader, on the Gunpowder River,
Harford Co., Md., was also burned.
— On the 22d of April it was announced that the
total number of men enrolled up to that time in the
three Philadelphia brigades, exclusive of Gen. Small's
brigade, which numbered two thousand men, was
seven thousand six hundred. In addition to these, a
number of independent companies had been formed.
Gen. Robert Patterson, it was added, had been ap-
pointed to the chief command of the Pennsylvania
troops, and Gen. Cadwalader to the command of the
whole of the First Division, comprising the First,
Second, and Third Brigades, all of Philadelphia.
— Seizures of four tons of lead and a lot of gun-
stocks, locks, and other portions of guns on their way
South were made in Philadelphia on the 21st.
— A number of ladies who were stopping at the
Continental Hotel asked permission of Capt. Gibson,
in charge of the military depot at the Girard House,
to assist in making up clothing for the troops. Their
offer was accepted. Hundreds of workingwomen
congregated at the Girard House in order to obtain
employment.1 During the day two hundred cutters
were employed, and enough sewers to make up one
thousand suits a day. At the town hall, Germantown,
work of a similar character was given out.
— On the 21st of April a joint committee of the
City Councils, headed by Charles B. Trego, had an
interview with Maj. Anderson in New York, and ten-
dered that gentleman the hospitality of the city.
Maj. Anderson expressed his gratification at the com-
pliment, but said he was unable to make any engage-
ment at that time.
— A number of ladies met at 912 Chestnut Street
on the 22d of April and organized the "Philadelphia
Military Nurse Corps." It was decided that the mem-
bers wear a uniform consisting of bine Canada flan-
nel and a Shaker bonnet trimmed with red, white, and
blue. Each lady subscribed to a pledge to act as
nurse in the United States army.
— On the 23d of April it was announced that George
Leisenring, a member of Gen. Small's brigade, who
was severely stabbed during the riot in Baltimore,
had died the night before at the Pennsylvania Hos-
pital.
— The uniform of the Home Guards, as determined
by the commander, Col. Pleasonton, consisted of a
single-breasted light- or cadet-gray frock-coat, with
standing collar and buttons of the arm to which the
regiment belonged, pantaloons of drab color, army
pattern, and a rosette of the national colors.
— A meeting of members of the bar of Philadel-
phia was held at the Supreme Court room on the 22d
of April. Hon. William M. Meredith presided, with
St. George Tucker Campbell, Judge Hare, and H. J.
Williams as vice-presidents. On motion of O. W.
Davis it was resolved that a committee be appointed
1 This fine hotel was vacant at the time when the attack waa made on
Fort Sumter, and it was very convenient for the use to which it was put
at this period.
THE CIVIL WAR.
761
to receive subscriptions from members of the bar for
the support of families of volunteers who were depen-
dent upon their daily labor. Marcellus Mundy offered
a resolution, which was adopted, that " the bar of the
city of Philadelphia, in meeting assembled, are anx-
ious and ready to tender their services as volunteers
to protect the city of Philadelphia, and, if called
upon, the government of the United States from the
assaults of the rebels who are now in arms in the
South," and that " a company be at once formed, in
accordance with the above resolution." Considera-
tion of the matter was postponed.
— On the 24th of April it was announced that the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
Company having been taken in charge by the Federal
government through an agent in Philadelphia, all its
equipments were under the control of the govern-
ment, and trains with troops were being sent out as
fast as possible, an uninterrupted route to Washington
having been completed. The Chesapeake and Dela-
ware Canal, used for conveying troops from Philadel-
phia to the Chesapeake, was guarded by a force of one
thousand men of Gen. Cadwalader's division. The ar-
rival of troops in Philadelphia was now a matter of
daily occurrence, the city being the chief point of con-
centration for the dispatch of military forces to the
South. On the 23d the First Regiment of Infantry,
Col. William D. Lewis, Jr., with ten full companies
of about one hundred men each, paraded, marching
through the principal streets. Although men enough
to make up six regiments had already been enrolled, re-
cruiting was still proceeding rapidly. On the evening
of the 23d the Reliance Fire-Engine Company held a
meeting, and appropriated one hundred dollars per
man to provide equipments for those members who
had volunteered for military service. On the 24th it
was announced that the Municipal Guards had elected
the following officers : S. E. Cohen, Sr., captain and
acting major of battalion; Col. William H. Dinmore,
vice-president ; William H. Helmbold, secretary ; and
J. L. Hamelin, battalion paymaster. On the same day
the following appointments by Gen. Reuben C. Hale,
quartermaster-general of the Pennsylvania militia,
were made public : Assistant Quartermasters, John
K. Murphy, W. V. McGrath, William M. Hale,
R. R. Young ; Assistant Quartermaster for duties in
Ordnance Department, A. L. Magilton ; Assistant
Quartermasters for the transportation of troops and
provisions from West Philadelphia, F. A. Showers and
O. D. Mehaffey ; Clerks, H. H. Shillingford, Samuel
W. Wray, and James McMullin ; Commissary De-
partment, Reuben C. Hale, acting quartermaster-
general ; Assistant Commissaries, John Derbyshire,
A. J. Antelo, Thomas Webster, Jr., John Haviland,
Thomas J. Diehl; Chief Clerk, Evan W. Grubb;
Clerk, Jonathan Cummings; Messengers, John R.
Dialogue and E. P. Stiles. At a special meeting of
the trustees of the city ice-boat held on the 23d, it
was determined to tender the vessel to Capt. Dupont,
commandant at the navy-yard. Capt. Dupont ac-
cepted the boat, and said she would be employed on
important business at once. Col. Pleasonton,
commander of the Home Guards, announced [1861
on the 24th the following appointments:
Aids, Samuel B. Henry, Andrew Cohen, Lewis H.
Ashhurst, and Thomas B. Dwight; Secretary, Lewis
A.Scott; Quartermaster and Commissary, Col. Wil-
liam Bradford ; Assistant Commissary, James S. Wat-
son ; Secretary to the Quartermaster, Henry C. Kutz.
— A movement to create a "Volunteers' Home
Fund" was inaugurated at a meeting held in West
Philadelphia on the 23d, Judge Allison presiding.
The subscriptions were payable in monthly install-
ments during the ensuing six months, and were to be
distributed through a general executive committee.
At a meeting of residents of Chestnut Hill, on the
evening of the 22d, Col. C. G. Childs presiding, simi-
lar action was taken for creating a fund for the relief
of families of volunteers.
— An adjourned meeting of members of the bar of
Philadelphia was held on the 22d, for the purpose of
taking final action upon Mr. Mundy's resolution for
the formation of a military company. Judge Knox
proposed the form of a paper for members to sign,
tendering their services as volunteers to protect the
city of Philadelphia, and " to aid, if called upon, the
government of the United States in the suppression
of the rebellion now existing in some of the Southern
States." The document was approved by the meeting,
which then adjourned, whereupon Mr. Mundy drew
up a more specific paper, which he submitted to the
members for signatures, declaring that the subscribers
volunteered their services to guard and defend the
city of Philadelphia, "and, if required by the consti-
tuted authorities, to aid in the defense of the govern-
ment and the American flag." Mr. Mundy, however,
did not meet with much success in obtaining signa-
tures.
— On the 25th of April it was stated in the Philadel-
phia newspapers that the delay in forwarding troops
to Washington from Philadelphia, caused by want of
information as to the condition of the route via Havre
de Grace and Annapolis, Md., had been obviated.
Armed men had been placed along the whole route
of the railroad from Elkton, Md., to Havre de Grace,
at which point a fleet of vessels had been concentrated
for the purpose of conveying troops to Annapolis, and
the railroad being in the hands of the Federal gov-
ernment, the transportation of troops and stores was
being prosecuted with great energy.
— In addition to the armories the public squares
were now used for drilling troops, and the city had
the aspect of a great military camp.
— The Ladies' Union Relief Association announced
on the 25th that they would be glad to receive con-
tributions of money or materials, such as flannel,
cotton socks, handkerchiefs, and crash, to be made up
for the soldiers who had volunteered in defense of
762
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
their country. At this time over two thousand per-
sons were employed in the manufacture of army
clothing at the Girard House. Among those
1861] engaged in the work were many ladies from
fashionable portions of the city. At the
United States Arsenal a large force of women was
employed in the same kind of work. A meeting of
ladies representing various Christian denominations
was held at Rev. Dr. Boardman's church on the 24th
of April, to concert measures for the relief of sick
and wounded soldiers and sailors. Dr. Boardman
opened the meeting with prayer, and Mrs. Judge
Jones was chosen to preside. It was resolved to pro-
ceed at once to carry out the objects of the meeting,
and a committee was appointed to procure the requi-
site information as to the furnishing of a hospital and
other matters.
— On the 25th it was announced that the chairman
of the bar meeting, held on the 22d, had appointed
O. W. Davis, H. M. Phillips, E. S. Miller, D. Dough-
erty, and Charles Gibbon's a committee to receive
contributions to the fund for the support of the fami-
lies of volunteers.
— A meeting of the committee of superintendence,
appointed at a general meeting of the soldiers of the
war of 1812, was held on the 23d, Peter Hay pre-
siding, and Edward King secretary, at which it was
resolved that there being still some among them some
whose physical energies had not been materially im-
paired, they would organize a corps for the defense
of the city, and the maintenance of order and public
security. It was also determined that subscription-
lists or enrollments of soldiers of the war of 1812
should be opened at the offices of Alderman Hay
and Matthew Newkirk, and at the residence of Col.
Lemuel Painter, and that when the enrollment had
been completed a meeting should be called for the
organization of a command to be known as " The
Veteran Guard of the War of 1812."
— As the bell at Independence Hall struck twelve
o'clock on the 24th an American flag with thirty-four
stars was unfurled from the flag-staff of Carpenters'
Hall, where the first Continental Congress met. The
ceremony was accompanied by the singing of the
"Star-Spangled Banner" by a chorus of young
ladies-. On the morning of the same day a meeting
of the Carpenters' Company was held at the hall
(with James A. Campbell presiding, John Wil-
liams secretary), at which patriotic resolutions were
adopted. It was also decided that those of the mem-
bers who were able and willing should form them-
selves into a volunteer company, to be known as the
Carpenters' Company, to be attached to the Home
Guard of the city of Philadelphia, to be used in
such service, either mechanical or military, as might
be deemed most advisable.
— Col. George Gibson, Jr., of the United States
army, who, at Governor Curtin's request, accom-
panied R. L. Martin, the Governor's special agent,
to the city to assist in getting up the ten thousand
uniforms required for the troops then concentra-
ting in the field, published a card on the 25th,
acknowledging the services rendered the State by the
cutters and trimmers of the Schuylkill arsenal, in
cutting out from United States patterns the various
garments to be used by the volunteer troops. Col.
Gibson, on behalf of the Governor, returned sincere
thanks to all who were engaged in sewing clothing
for the troops. "Never," he added, "has been wit-
nessed such devotion to the comforts of the soldier
as is presented by the crowds of ladies (both rich and
poor) daily besieging the doors of the Girard House
for employment."
— The Germans of Philadelphia held several meet-
ings for the purpose of devising measures for the relief
of the families of German volunteers, and a committee
of fifty was finally appointed to solicit contributions.
The following were elected permanent officers of the
organization : President, Jacob Kemper ; Vice-Presi-
dent, Julius Hein ; Treasurer, C. A. Thudium ; Secre-
tary, F. Reuter. A sub-committee, consisting of Capt.
V. Wicht, Julius Hein,. Fr. Staake, John Weik, and
August Bourkner, was appointed to confer with the
city authorities with regard to the distribution of the
relief fund appropriated by Councils. About three
thousand Germans, it was stated, had thus far entered
the service of the government in Philadelphia.
— At a meeting of the St. George's Society, held
on the 23d, the members passed a series of resolutions
expressive of their loyalty to the government under
which they lived, and calling earnestly upon all Eng-
lishmen residing in Philadelphia to declare them-
selves in support of the stars and stripes. It was also
decided that, in view of the distracted state of the
country, the usual anniversary dinner be dispensed
with, and that the money which would have been de-
voted to it should be subscribed for the relief of
families of volunteers requiring aid.
— In the City Councils, on the 25th of April, the
committee under whose control the one hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars appropriated for the re-
lief of families of volunteers was to be distributed
was announced as consisting of the mayor, city so-
licitor, presidents of Select and Common Councils,
M. W. Baldwin, John Robbins, Jr., and Peter Wil-
liamson, on the part of the citizens, and Thomas
Potter and William Loughlin, on the part of Coun-
cils. Mr. Kerr submitted a communication from J. J.
Gumper, in which he stated that, " believing it to be
the duty of every citizen to aid the constituted au-
thorities to the extent of his abilities during the pres-
ent unnatural rebellion," he would tender to the city
of Philadelphia a loan of five thousand dollars with-
out interest for two years if the war should last so
long. The reading of the letter was greeted with
loud applause, and a resolution thanking Mr. Gumper
was adopted. An ordinance authorizing the mayor,
in connection with the joint special committee of
THE CIVIL WAR.
763
Councils, to take such measures as he might deem
necessary for the safety of the city and the protection
of property, and appropriating two hundred thou-
sand dollars therefor, was passed by both branches of
Councils. In the Common Council, Mr. Quin an-
nounced that the Buena Vista Guards, of Philadel-
phia, had assigned to him the duty of presenting to
the city of Philadelphia, through the president of
the chamber, the first trophy gained in the war just
inaugurated. The trophy was the flag borne by the
secessionists and under which they had fought during
the riot in Baltimore on the 19th of April. It was
captured by the Buena Vista Guards, who formed
part of Gen. Small's command, and brought it to
Philadelphia. The Council adopted a resolution
thanking the donors.
— The Southwark Navy- Yard became the scene of
great activity soon after the firing upon Fort Sumter,
and on the 25th over six hundred men were at work
fitting out vessels for the use of the government. A
large quantity of stores had been concentrated at the
yard, over fifty thousand dollars' worth of provisions
and clothing having been removed from Norfolk, Va.,
before the destruction of government property at that
place. Great activity also prevailed at the rendez-
vous for shipping seamen, from twenty to thirty being
sent to the yard daily. At the Bridesburg Arsenal
the employes worked day and night to fill orders for
arms and ammunition.
— On the 26th of April news was received that the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, between Baltimore and
Washington, had been put in condition for travel,
and that the New York Seventh and the Massa-
chusetts regiments, which had left Philadelphia for
the national capital via Havre de Grace and Annap-
olis, a week before, had arrived at Washington. It
was added that the route being now unobstructed,
the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania troops would be
sent off as rapidly as they were equipped.
— Announcement was made on the 29th of April
that the full quota of men called for from Philadel-
phia under the requisition of the Governor had
been furnished, and that most of the companies
had received their equipments and were ready to
march.
— In compliance with the advice of the United
States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsyl-
vania, William Millward, marshal of the district,
gave notice on the 27th of April that he would take
into custody all flour and other provisions, and also
all munitions of war and military stores, directed and
intended to be sent to Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, Arkansas, and all other States engaged in
making war on the Federal government, and would
hold them subject to legal process or the order of the
government. Under this order Deputy Marshal Jen-
kins seized two hundred and fifty barrels of flour at
the Baltimore Railroad Depot, intended for Balti-
more, two kegs of powder, and six revolvers, which
were found at the same place among the effects of a
resident of Cecil County, Md.
— During the excitement in Baltimore [1861
which followed the 19th of April riot, a num-
ber of Union sympathizers left the city, and most of
them came to Philadelphia. On the evening of the 26th
addresses were delivered to a large assemblage in front
of the Continental Hotel by some of the refugees.
Among the speakers were J. B. Shoemaker, E. Raw-
lings, and T. J. Rogers. A meeting of Marylanders,
resident in Philadelphia, was held at the American
Hotel the same evening, for the purpose of devising
some means of relieving those Baltimoreans who had
been summarily compelled to leave their homes. H.
Dickson was called to the chair, and A. Holland was
appointed secretary. A communication was read from
the Hibernia Fire Company tendering the use of
their hall for the Baltimoreans, and it was deter-
mined that those present should act in connection
with a committee which had been appointed by the
Hibernia Company for aiding the refugees.
— On Sunday, April 28th, after the benediction, the
organ at St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church
pealed forth " The Star-Spangled Banner," the rector,
Rev. Henry W. Ducachet, D.D., remaining in the
chancel until it had ceased. Dr. Ducachet had al-
ready accepted the appointment of chaplain of the
First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded
by Col. William D. Lewis, Jr.
— An order of Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott, extend-
ing the Military Department of Washington so as to
include, in addition to the District of Columbia and
Maryland, the States of Delaware and Pennsylvania,
and assigning Maj.-Gen. Robert Patterson to the com-
mand, was published in the Philadelphia newspapers
of April 30th. Gen. Scott instructed Gen. Patterson,
in the same order, to post the Pennsylvania volunteers
as fast as they were mustered into service all along
the railroad from Wilmington, Del., to Washington
City in sufficient numbers and in such proximity as
would give reasonable protection to the lines of par-
allel wires to the road, its rails, bridges, cars, and
stations. In compliance with Gen. Scott's instructions
Gen. Patterson issued an order, from his headquarters
in Philadelphia, directing that commanders of troops
entering the department from the East, North, or
West should, on their arrival, report for instructions,
and stating that Lieut.-Col. Hale, quartermaster-gen-
eral of Pennsylvania, would be prepared to furnish
cooked rations for three days to the troops of any
State on their way to Washington. Gen. Patterson
cautioned the troops against molesting peaceable citi-
zens, but announced that those who were not peace-
able, or who were disposed to resist the authority of
the government, would be punished. Commanders
of corps were instructed to "shoot dowu without hesi-
tation any man or party of men caught in the act of
arson," or in any attempt to interrupt the line of com-
munication.
764
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
— The Providence Marine Artillery, of Providence,
R. I., which arrived in Philadelphia on the 28th of
April, and was quartered at the Broad and
1861] Prime Streets Depot, left for Washington
via Annapolis on the 30th. The Eighth
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, from Schuylkill
County, which arrived in Philadelphia on the 23d,
encamped near the depot. Three companies of this
command left on the 25th for Elkton, and the rest
remained at the depot drilling. The regiment left
Philadelphia on the 7th of May for points on the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad.
— A Committee of Public Safety, appointed by the
citizens of Philadelphia, co-operated with the muni-
cipal authorities in preparations for defense. On the
1st of May it was stated that many of the Philadel-
phia corporations had responded most liberally to the
solicitations of the Safety Committee for funds.
— C. A. Greiner, of Georgia, was arrested on the
30th of April by Capt. McMullin, by order of Gen.
Patterson, on the charge of treason. The family of
Mr. Greiner had been living in Philadelphia for some
months, but he had reached the city only a few days
before his arrest. It was alleged against Mr. Greiner
that he had headed the citizens of Savannah, Ga.,
who drove the United States forces from Fort Pu-
laski. Mr. Greiner admitted that he had participated
in the capture, but only as a private, and claimed
that he had done so in order to aid in preventing the
fort from falling into the hands of a mob. He added
that he was a native of Philadelphia and as good a
Union man as could be found. He was committed
for trial, but after a hearing before Judge Cadwalader
was released on ten thousand dollars bail to keep the
peace.
— In his message to the Legislature of Pennsylva-
nia, in extra session, on the 30th of April, Governor
Curtin stated that seven regiments had already been
organized and mustered into service in Pennsylvania.
— At a meeting of the British residents of Phila-
delphia, held on.the 2d of May, it was determined to
form a company for home defense.
— Maj. Robert Anderson, who had commanded the
Union garrison at Fort Sumter, arrived on the 3d
of May, on his way to Washington. As he passed
through the streets he was frequently recognized from
the numerous portraits of him in circulation, and
enthusiastically cheered.
— In the daily papers of May 6th appeared an ad-
dress to Gen. Winfield Scott, dated April 30th, and
signed by about two hundred leading citizens, express-
ing their admiration, and offering their thanks for
his services to the country. Among the signers were
Alexander Henry, Richard Vaux, Theodore Cuyler,
Horace Binney, William M. Meredith, and C. Mac-
ales ter.
— An iron car, built for the government at the lo-
corAotive-works of Baldwin & Co., and to be used for
defensive purposes on the Philadelphia, Wilmington
and Baltimore Railroad, was taken to the Broad and
Prime Streets Depot on the 4th of May. The sides
and top were of the best boiler-iron, warranted to
resist rifle-balls. One-half of the car was furnished
with port-holes, so as to permit the use of a cannon
which moved on a pivot. It was also pierced with
holes for the use of riflemen. The battery was placed
in front of the locomotive.
— Moyamensing Hall, on Christian Street between
Ninth and Tenth, was fitted up as a military hos-
pital, and was in operation on the 6th of May, only
one patient, however, having been received. The
medical staff consisted of Dr. John Neill, medi-
cal director ; and Drs. Francis G. Smith, S. S. Hol-
lingsworth, John McClellan, and Ellerslie Wallace,
aids ; Drs. John Brinton, John Packard, George C.
Harlan, and F. W. Lewis, assistant surgeons ; and
Dr. C. H. Boardman, resident physician.
— Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, issued
an appeal to the clergy and laity of his jurisdiction,
early in May, expressing the hope that chaplains —
" men of the right stamp" — would be numerous, and
that Testaments, Bibles, and tracts would be supplied
to the volunteers in liberal measure. It was the
earnest desire, added Bishop Potter, to offer a copy of
the prayer-book to every Pennsylvania volunteer
who might be willing to receive it, but, in order to
accomplish this object, it needed additional contribu-
tions. Bishop Potter accordingly recommended that
in every congregation a special contribution should
be taken up to aid in the work.
— On the afternoon of the 7th of May the Twen-
tieth New York Regiment, Col. G. W. Pratt, arrived
en route for the South.
— The First Artillery Regiment, Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers, Col. Francis E. Patterson, composed of old
and regular organizations of militia, left the city for
the South on the 8th of May. The regiment formed
at Washington Square at eight o'clock in the morning.
A large assemblage of spectators had congregated at
the square, and the route of march to the depot was
lined with people. At nine o'clock the regiment,
headed by a fine band and drum corps, started for the
depot. As it passed the Franklin Hose-house, on
Broad Street, the hose-carriage was brought out into
the street, and the bells rang out a merry peal. At
the depot many painful scenes were enacted while
friends and relatives were taking leave of the de-
parting soldiers. Thousands of persons accompanied
the cars as far as Gray's Ferry bridge, being able,
without difficulty, to keep up with the train. The
other regiments which had received orders to move
at the same time as Col. Patterson's received contrary
orders during the night, but were instructed to hold
themselves in readiness for marching at any time.
On the afternoon of the same day the Third Regi-
ment United States Infantry, commanded by Maj.
Sheppard, passed through Philadelphia on its way
THE CIVIL WAR.
765
to the South. The Philadelphia regiment passed
through Baltimore on the 9th, accompanied by the
Third United States Infantry and Sherman's Battery.
— The work of reconstructing the bridges on the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
was commenced, with a large force of workmen, on
the 10th of May.
— At a meeting of the Ladies' Union Belief Asso-
ciation held on the 8th of May, a statement of the
work accomplished by the society, the receipts and
expenditures, etc., was made. The chief object of
the organization was to supply needy volunteers with
a second outfit of clothing and other necessary arti-
cles. The officers were : President, Mrs. M. P. Ket-
terlinus ; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Parker and Mrs.Neff ;
Secretaries, Miss Baird and Miss Pauline Roberts;
Treasurer, Mrs. Dorsey ; Distributors of Outfits, Mrs.
Whiteman and Mrs. Patterson.
—The First Regiment of Infantry, Col. William D.
Lewis, Jr., paraded on the 9th of May, and was pre-
sented with two flags from lady friends of the members.
After marching from Broad and Chestnut Streets down
Broad to Walnut to Eighteenth to Chestnut, and
down the latter street, they halted at the United
States Mint. Here Col. Lewis and staff left the line
and mounted the steps for the purpose of receiving
the colors, — a national and a State flag, — which were
presented by David Paul Brown. After an address by
Mr. Brown, and a brief acknowledgment from Col.
Lewis, Rev. Dr. Ducachet, rector of St. Stephen's
Protestant Episcopal Church, and chaplain of the
regiment, blessed both flags and kissed them. The
regiment then took up the line of march again to its
quarters and was dismissed.
— Col. Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame,
arrived in Philadelphia again on the 10th of May,
accompanied by Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, who was on
her way to Boston. A committee of the City Coun-
cils, consisting of Messrs. Craig, Dougherty, Smedley,
and McMakin, of Select Council, and Messrs. Peale,
Case, Cattell, and Queen, of Common Council, met
the colonel at the railroad depot, and, after an inter-
change of civilities, escorted him to the Continental
Hotel, where he was received by Theodore Cuyler,
president of Select Council. On the following day
(May 11th) Col. Anderson was formally received by
the mayor and City Councils at Independence Hall.
He was escorted from the hotel by a military proces-
sion, consisting of the Black Hussars, Capt. Beaker,
Philadelphia Light Guards, Col. Morehead, and the
National Guards, Col. Lyle. The line was formed on
Ninth Street, and when Col. Anderson made his ap-
pearance and took his place in an open barouche,
drawn by four white horses, he was greeted with
deafening cheers by the immense crowd which had
congregated there. All along the route to Independ-
ence Hall he was repeatedly and enthusiastically
cheered. At the hall the mayor and both branches
of the City Councils were in waiting, together with
the venerable Commodore Charles Stewart, Col. C.
G. Childs, Col. Pleasonton, Rev. Drs. Ducachet and
Boardman, and other leading members of
the community. As Col. Anderson entered [1861
the hall, accompanied by Mr. Cuyler, presi-
dent of Select Council, he was received by Mayor
Henry, who welcomed him in terms highly eulo-
gistic of his conduct at Fort Sumter. Col. An-
derson replied briefly, after which the persons pres-
ent were introduced to him. Before leaving the
hall he entered his name on the visitors' book,
" Robert Anderson, Colonel U.S.A., Kentucky," and
then exclaimed to those near by, " Thank God, she
is still in the United States I" After he had returned
to his carriage, the military marched past, honoring
him with a salute, and when the line had filed by a
gentleman stepped forward, and, on behalf of Miss
Albright, presented Col. Anderson with a handsome
national flag. He took it and waved it, and as he did
so the band struck up the " Star-Spangled Banner,"
amid the enthusiastic cheers of the multitude. In the
afternoon Col. Anderson left Philadelphia for New
York.
— On the 13th of May the repairs to the bridges on
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail-
road had been completed, and two passenger trains
passed through to Baltimore during the day and
evening.
— The First City Troop, Philadelphia's ancient
cavalry company, was mustered into the service
of the United States on the 13th. The troop num-
bered eighty-five men, and its officers were : Captain,
Thomas C. James ; First Lieutenant, Richard Butler
Price; Second Lieutenant, William Camac; First
Sergeant Lieutenant, Richard C. Devereaux ; Second
Sergeants, William D. Smith, Charles F. Taggart,
and Fairman Rogers.
— On the 14th of May the First Regiment National
Guards, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. Peter Lyle,
the Philadelphia Light Guards Regiment, Col. Turner
G. Morehead, and the First Regiment, Pennsylvania
Volunteers, Col. William D. Lewis, Jr., left Phila-
delphia for the South. The scenes of excitement
and enthusiasm which attended the departure of Col.
Patterson's regiment were repeated. The regiments
proceeded by rail to Perryville, where they were
transferred to steamers for Baltimore, where they
were stationed for some time.
— A musical entertainment was given at the Acad-
emy of Music on the evening of the 16th of May
by the pupils of Zane Street (Female) Grammar
School, the proceeds to be devoted to the formation
of a fund for the relief of volunteers. The feature
of the evening was the singing of the " Star-Spangled
Banner."
—Suffolk Park, a race-course in the southwestern
portion of Philadelphia, was used as camping-ground
for troops, and was given the name of " Camp Mc-
Clellan." Two regiments from Ohio— the First Reg-
766
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
iment, Col. A. D. McCook, and the Second Regiment,
Col. Wilson — were the first organizations to occupy
it, and during their stay the camp was visited
1861] daily by thousands of people from Philadel-
phia. On the 17th of May one of the regi-
ments (the Second Ohio) was presented with a stand
of colors by Col. Bradford, representing citizens of
Philadelphia. At Hestouville, a suburb of Philadel-
phia, another camp was established about the same
time with the name of " Camp Owen," in honor of
the commander of the Irish regiment of Pennsylvania
volunteers located there. The Ohio regiments left
Philadelphia for the South on the 23d.
— The Fourteenth (New York) Regiment, or Brook-
lyn Chasseurs, Col. A. M. Wood, arrived May 19th,
on their way to Washington.
— Three small schooners, the " Mary Willis,"
"Emily Ann," and "Delaware Farmer,'' were towed
to the navy-yard on the night of the 17th of May
by the propeller " Live Yankee" from the mouth of
the James River, Va., where they had been captured
by the United States blockading squadron. They
were loaded with tobacco and pig-lead, which they
were taking from Eichmond to Baltimore. They
were the first prizes of the war that were taken to
Philadelphia. On the 25th, Judge Cadwalader, of
the United States District Court, released them, on
the ground that the fifteen days allowed by the block-
ading proclamation had not expired at the time of
the seizure.
— In the Presbyterian General Assembly (O. S.),
which was in session in Philadelphia during the
month of May, a resolution was offered by Bev. Dr.
Spring on the 18th, that " a special committee be ap-
pointed to inquire into the expediency of this As-
sembly making some expression of their devotion to
the Union of these States and their loyalty to the
government, and if in their judgment it is expedient
to do so, they report what that expression shall be."
The resolution was laid on the table by a vote of one
hundred and twenty-three yeas to one hundred and
two nays. Toward the close of the meeting, how-
ever, a call was read, inviting such members of the
Assembly as felt a desire to give expression to their
loyalty to the Union to meet in the basement of
the church. This meeting was organized by the elec-
tion of Rev. William C. Anderson, of San Francisco,
chairman, and Rev. J. D. Smith, of Columbus, Ohio,
secretary. A committee to prepare business was ap-
pointed, after which the meeting adjourned, subject
to the call of the chairman.
In the United States District Court, on the 20th
of May, Judge Cadwalader addressed the grand jury,
defining the nature of treason and misprision of trea-
son and charging them that all questions arising
under these heads should be considered with calm-
ness and caution.
The Second New York Regiment passed through
the city on the 20th of May, going South. It was
enthusiastically cheered as it marched through the
streets.
— Another naval prize, a fine ship called the " Gen-
eral Parkhill," belonging to parties of Charleston,
S. C, was brought into port on the 21st of May by
Midshipman W. Scott Schley. The " General Park-
hill" was captured off Charleston by the United States
vessel "Niagara."
— On the 21st the Scott Legion Regiment, Col.
Gray, attended Rev. Dr. Boardman's church, at
Twelfth and Walnut Streets, for the purpose of hear-
ing a discourse by the pastor, preparatory to the
regiment's departure from the city.
— When, on the 23d of May, the announcement
was made in the Presbyterian General Assembly that
the " record" of the Synod of South Carolina had
been received, a scene of subdued excitement fol-
lowed. Bev. Dr. Bergen, who submitted the record,
said he rejoiced to learn from it that certain pre-
ambles and resolutions of a character unfriendly to
the United States government had been laid upon
the table by a vote of seventy-seven to twenty-one,
and that a resolution to take up the matter again had
been overruled. The committee appointed to draft
resolutions expressing the sentiments of the Synod
had reported that " the Synod of South Carolina is
one of thirty-three which comprise the Old-School
Presbyterian Church of this country, and from our
brethren of the whole church annually assembled
we have received nothing but justice and courtesy."
The committee of the Assembly on Synodical Records
recommended that the report from South Carolina be
adopted, on the whole, with the exception of the
following passage: "The act of 1818 was adopted by
the South of that day as well as by the North, but
has been since virtually rescinded." A motion to
strike out this clause gave rise to a debate, which was
postponed, the Assembly finally adopting the record,
with the exception of a clause concerning the politi-
cal action of South Carolina. On the 24th an excit-
ing debate occurred on a series of resolutions intro-
duced by Rev. Dr. Spring, two days before, appointing
the 4th of July as a day of general prayer, petition-
ing God " to turn away his anger from us and speedily
restore to us the blessings of a safe and honorable
peace," and declaring that, "in the judgment of this
Assembly, it is the duty of the ministers and churches
under its care to do all in their power to promote and
perpetuate the integrity of these United States, and
to strengthen, uphold, and encourage the Federal
government." Speeches were made by Rev. Dr.
Thomas, of Ohio; Mr. Gillespie, of Tennessee ; J. G.
Bergen, of Illinois ; and Rev. Dr. Hodge, of Prince-
ton. Rev. Dr. Hodge offered as a substitute for Dr.
Spring's resolutions an elaborate paper professing
amicable feelings toward the members of the denomi-
nation at the South, but at the same time declaring
that " both religion and patriotism require us to cher-
ish a union which, by God's blessing, may yet be a
THE CIVIL WAR.
767
powerful and beneficial means of reuniting the
broken links of our political Union, and spreading
peace and joy over a grateful land." Dr. Spring's
resolutions were strongly advocated by Dr. Anderson,
of San Francisco ; Dr. Spring ; Judge Ryerson, of
New Jersey ; Rev. Mr. Hastings, of Pennsylvania ;
and Rev. Dr. Musgrave, of Kentucky ; and were op-
posed by Rev. Mr. Watt, of Pennsylvania, and Pro-
fessor Hoyt, of Nashville, Tenn. Before a vote was
reached the Assembly adjourned for the day. On
the following morning the debate was resumed, and
Rev. Dr. E. C. Wines read a dispatch from Hon. Ed-
ward Bates, Attorney-General of the United States, in
which Mr. Bates said he thought the best thing the
Assembly could do to strengthen the government and
maintain the Union was " to preserve the unity of the
Presbyterian Church by abstaining from any deliber-
ation upon the present troubles." In conformity with
this advice Dr. Wines offered a resolution, that " the
General Assembly deem it injudicious at the present
time to give any formal expression touching upon
the existing crisis, and therefore the matter be in-
definitely postponed." Judge Allen, of Ohio, then
addressed the Assembly in favor of Dr. Spring's reso-
lution, but suggested that the second resolution should
be amended by providing that the Assembly would
support the government " in the just exercise of all
its functions under our noble Constitution." Dr.
Spring accepted the amendment. Rev. Mr. Matthews,
of Kentucky, then spoke on the resolutions, com-
mencing with, " Mr. Moderator, — It is, sir, with great
pleasure that it is known that the State from which I
come unfurls the stars and stripes of our govern-
ment." At this point Mr. Matthews was interrupted
by a wild outburst of mingled hisses and applause.
" The house," says a contemporaneous account, " was
thrown into a perfect furor. Cheers, with clapping
of hands and stamping, commingled with hissing,
were almost deafening in effect." It was with great
difficulty that the moderator succeeded in restoring
order. A prolonged discussion resulted, and no
action was taken prior to adjournment. Another de-
bate ensued on the 27th, in the course of which Dr.
Spring offered a substitute for his resolution, pledg-
ing the Assembly to support the government, as fol-
lows : "Resolved, That this General Assembly, in the
spirit of that Christian patriotism which the Scrip-
tures enjoin, and which has always characterized this
church, do hereby acknowledge and declare an obli-
gation to promote and perpetuate the integrity of
these United States, and to strengthen, and uphold,
and encourage the Federal Constitution, in the exer-
cise of all its functions under a noble Constitution."
Various substitutes for and modifications of Dr.
Spring's resolutions were proposed from day to day,
and the discussion was kept up with much energy and
warmth. On the 29th a telegram from Hon. Salmon
P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, was read in the
Assembly, stating that he could perceive " no valid
objection to unequivocal expressions," on the part of
the Assembly, "in favor of the Constitution and free-
dom." A substitute for Dr. Spring's resolu-
tion, recommended by a special committee to [1861
whom they had been referred, was rejected on
the 29th of May, by a vote of eighty-four to one hun-
dred and twenty-five, and the resolutions, as proposed
and amended by Dr. Spring, were adopted by a vote
of one hundred and fifty-four to sixty-six. A protest
against the action of the Assembly, which was signed
by over forty members, was filed on the following
day. The adoption of Dr. Spring's resolutions was
characterized in this protest as " a great national
calamity, as well as the most disastrous to the inter-
est of the church which has marked its history."
— Saturday, May 25th, was a day of great excite-
ment in Philadelphia, owing to the reception of news
that the Federal army had on the previous day com-
menced its march into Virginia, and that Col. Ells-
worth, commander of " Ellsworth's Zouaves," had
been shot and killed at Alexandria. At half-past
nine o'clock on the evening of the same day a train
arrived at Philadelphia bearing Col. Ellsworth's re-
mains, accompanied by a guard of honor consisting of
seven Zouaves. Among them was Francis E. Brown-
ell, the man who shot Col. Ellsworth's murderer, and
who had with him the secession flag cut down from
the " Marshall House," Alexandria, by Col. Ellsworth.
The body was taken from the Baltimore Depot to the
New York Depot at Kensington, where a special
train was in waiting. Although it was not generally
known that Col. Ellsworth's body would be brought
to Philadelphia, there was a large crowd at the depot,
and the Pennsylvania Rangers, Capt. Davis, were in
attendance ; Mayor Henry was also present. At the
request of the committee which accompanied the re-
mains, representing the citizens of Chicago and the
New York fire department, no other escort was pro-
vided, except the guard of honor, composed of
Zouaves, the committees, and a squad of policemen.
As the cortege passed out of the building every head
was uncovered.
— On the 27th of May it was announced that the
Charity Hospital had been offered to the City Council
for the use of the volunteers, and had been accepted.
— At the breaking out of the war gray was gener-
ally used for uniforming the volunteer regiments, but
after experience in the field it was found that great
confusion and danger resulted from the similarity of
the Confederate uniforms, the troops of the enemy
being frequently mistaken for friends, and Union
regiments for bodies of the enemy. The change to
blue, as the regulation color for uniforms, was made
very gradually, and for some time after the battle of
Bull Run gray clothing continued to be dealt out
to the Pennsylvania volunteers. Among the first
regiments to adopt gray uniforms was the Gray Re-
serves of Philadelphia, Col. P. C. Ellmaker.
—On Thursday , May 30th, there was a general move-
768
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ment of troops from Philadelphia toward Chambers-
burg and other points in Southern Pennsylvania,
preparatory to an advance on Harper's Ferry,
1861] Va. Among the commands ordered to the
front was the historic First City Troop, Capt.
Thomas C. James, which left Philadelphia on the
30th.
— In Select Council, on the 30th of May, a resolu-
tion was adopted requesting the mayor to tender to
Lieut. Slemmer, the defender of Fort Pickens, the use
of Independence Hall for the purpose of receiving his
friends. In the Common Council, on the same day,
an ordinance was adopted authorizing a loan not ex-
ceeding one million dollars for the relief of families
of volunteers.
— On the 2d of June, Maj.-Gen. Robert Patterson
left Philadelphia for Chambersburg, to take charge
of the Federal advance into Virginia by way of Har-
per's Ferry.
— The Presbyterian General Assembly adjourned
on the 1st of June. In dissolving the Assembly the
moderator, Rev. Dr. Backus, said the church had,
during the session just ended, passed through the
severest ordeal it had ever had to encounter. With
a firm reliance in God he hoped that prosperity and
harmony would soon again prevail throughout the
country. He then delivered a fervent prayer asking
for a special blessing upon all the members of the
Assembly.
— On the 4th of June it was announced that the
Pennsylvania Regiment of Independent Riflemen had
been thoroughly reorganized, with the following staff:
Colonel, E. G. Chorman ; Lieutenant-Colonel, S. M.
Ramsey ; Major, A. E. Griffith ; Adjutant, N. W.
Kneass ; Quartermaster, W. M. Singerly ; Surgeon,
H. Ernest Goodman ; Assistant Surgeon, David G.
Bowman ; Chaplain, Rev. Mr. Egan. About the same
time the organization of Col. William F. Small's
regiment was completed, with the following officers :
Colonel, William F. Small ; Lieutenant-Colonel, Rush
Van Dyke; Major, Casper M. Berry ; Quartermaster,
John Adler ; Quartermaster-Sergeant, William Dick-
inson ; Adjutant, Joseph Dickinson ; Sergeant-Major,
George Wigner ; Chaplain, Rev. Charles A. Beck ;
Commissary-Sergeant, Robert L. Bodine; Assistant
Surgeon, John W. Mintzer; Hospital Steward, Luther
Gerhard ; Sutler, J. L. Gihon.
— The Union troops in passing through the city re-
ceived many kind attentions from citizens of Phila-
delphia, especially from the ladies in the lower section
of the city. A number of families residing in the
vicinity of Washington Street Depot made it a rule
to deal out coffee, sandwiches, etc., to the soldiers on
their arrival at that point. Persons wishing to aid
them in their patriotic work were requested to send
contributions of money, coffee, sugar, hams, etc., to
110 South Street. In order to notify the ladies of the
expected arrival of troops guns were fired, each gun
representing the hour of the expected arrival of the
soldiers. By this arrangement persons in the district
inclined to assist in the preparation of food, knew at
what period they should be ready.
— At the commencement of the June term of the
Court of Quarter Sessions, on the 3d, Judge Allison
called the attention of the grand jury to the bill, then
recently passed by the Legislature of Pennsylvania,
providing for the punishment of those residents of
the State who extended aid and comfort to the enemies
of the Union, or accepted commissions in the Con-
federate service, or aided in procuring or furnishing
vessels for the Southern privateer service. In this con-
nection Judge Allison said, " The mere expression of
opinions, spoken or written, adverse to the government
and the war waged by it in defense of the unity and in-
tegrity of the States composing it, unless such written
declarations assume the form of a traitorous corre-
spondence with the enemies at war with this State or
the United States, however ill-advised such conduct
may be at the present juncture of affairs, is not an
offense punishable under the act of Assembly, though
it may reasonably be regarded as subjecting the person
thus acting to a well-grounded suspicion of disloyalty,
of being at heart a traitor, wanting but the oppor-
tunity to consummate his treason, though not liable
to indictment. The law punishes only the overt act,
and if it comes to your knowledge as grand jurors
that any one belonging to or residing within this
jurisdiction has offended against the law to which I
have called your attention, let such an one be pre-
sented without ' fear, favor, or affection,' that the law
may be vindicated, the hands of the government
strengthened, and the guilty brought to speedy and
condign punishment.''
— On the 4th of June the cases of three Balti-
moreans charged with being concerned in the de-
struction of bridges on the Northern Central Railroad
came up before Judge Cadwalader, of the United
States District Court, on an application by their
counsel for a writ of habeas corpus. George H. Wil-
liams, of Baltimore, one of their counsel, had come
on to Philadelphia, but having seen an article in a
Sunday newspaper counseling the men of Gen.
Small's command to hang him on account of his
supposed complicity in the Baltimore riot of the 19th
of April, and having received anonymous warnings to
the same effect, he determined to return to Baltimore.
Accordingly, when the cases were called he did not
make his appearance in court. On being informed
of the cause, Judge Cadwalader said that ample pro-
tection would have been afforded Mr. Williams had
he applied for it. Mr. Wharton, another of the coun-
sel for the defense, then announced that just before
coming to court he had received a letter from Mr.
Williams stating that, by orders of the War Depart-
ment, the petitioners had been discharged, and that
they were at their homes in Maryland.
— In the local newspapers of June 5th it was an-
nounced that the government had purchased the
THE CIVIL WAR.
769
steamer " Keystone State," which had formerly plied
between Philadelphia and Charleston, S. C, and which
carried the Pennsylvania delegation to that city to
attend the Democratic national convention, with the
view of converting her into a gun-boat, to be com-
manded by Commander S. D. Trenchard, carrying
thirty-two-pounders and two nine- inch guns.
— Early in June, Governor Curtin appointed a
commission, consisting of B. Haywood, Jacob Fry,
Jr., Charles F. Abbott, Caleb Cope, and Evans
Rogers, to investigate the alleged frauds in furnish-
ing supplies to the troops at Philadelphia.
— Orders were received at the navy-yard on the
5th directing that the work of constructing one of
the new sloops-of-war ordered by Congress should be
commenced forthwith. The vessel was to be con-
structed after the drawings and models of the " Wyo-
ming,'' one of the finest ships ever launched at this
yard.
— At a special meeting of the Democratic City
Executive Committee, held on the 5th of June, to
take aetion concerning the death of Senator Stephen
A. Douglas, a series of suitable resolutions was
adopted, and it was determined to send a copy of
them to the family of the deceased '' as an evidence
of the sentiments of his party in Philadelphia."
Similar action was taken in Common Council on the
6th of June.
— The field and staff officers of the Philadelphia
Light Artillery Regiment, which had been accepted
by the United States government for three years or
the war, were announced on the 6th of June to be the
following : Colonel, Max Einstein ; Lieutenant>Colo-
nel, Charles Angeroth; Major, William Schoenleber;
Adjutant, Shreve Ackley ; Aide-de-Camp, Charles K.
Doran, M.D. ; Quartermaster, Frederick Breitinger ;
Surgeon, H. Heller; Assistant Surgeon, M. Heller,
Jr. ; Sergeant-Major, Worthington Cromline, Jr. ;
Quartermaster-Sergeant, B. Reiter ; Commissary-
Sergeant, A. Gollem ; Regimental Ensign, Herman
Heymann ; Drum-Major, C. Bassler.
— On the 7th of June four companies, mustered into
the service of the State under the command of Capts.
J. C. Chapman, John H. Taggart, C. S. Preall, and
Casper Martino, left the city for Camp Curtin, Har-
risburg.
— The United States sloop-of-war " Jamestown,"
Capt. Charles R. Green, left the navy-yard on the 9th
of June for the Gulf of Mexico to form one of the
blockading squadron there.
— On the 11th of June a public reception was given
to Lieut. Slemmer, commander at Fort Pickens, at
Independence Hall. At eleven o'clock Col. Small's
regiment formed on Ninth Street near the Continental
Hotel, and Company G, Capt. Adams, was detailed
as a guard of honor. Lieut. Slemmer was escorted
to Independence Hall, where he was received by
Mayor Henry, to whose address of welcome and con-
gratulations the lieutenant briefly replied. Before
49
leaving the hall he recorded his name directly after
that of Maj. Anderson.
—A regiment raised by Col. John K. Mur- [1861
phy was accepted by the United States War
Department on the 10th of June. The commander was
Col. Murphy ; Lieutenant-Colonel, Charles Parham ;
Major, Michael Scott. On the 11th of June, Col.
Einstein's regiment paraded for the first time, and
was presented with the national and State colors by
Moses A. Dropsie on behalf of the lady friends of the
command, the ceremony taking place at Franklin
Square. Lewis C. Cassidy responded on behalf of
the regiment. Company F (Harrison Guards), Capt.
Spering, was selected as the color-guard.
—On the 12th of June news was received of the
death on the previous day of Lieut. John T. Greblej
of Philadelphia, who was killed during the Big Bethel
affair. Lieut. Greble was a son of Edward Greble,
and a member of the Second United States Artillery.
Lieut. Greble's remains reached Philadelphia on the
following day, and on the 13th the funeral services
were held at the residence of his father, No. 128
South Nineteenth Street, after which the body was
escorted to Independence Hall by a committee repre-
resenting the City Councils, and Company G, Capt.
Goodfellow, of Col. Small's regiment. From the hall
it was conveyed to Woodland Cemetery, escorted by
Col. Small's regiment, Sharp's Rifle Guards, Capt.
James Alexander, Union Artillery Guard, the
Quaker City Artillery, Capt. T. W. Miller, and other
organizations.
— The Keystone Regiment was organized in June
and accepted by the War Department. Its officers
were : Colonel, Peter Fritz ; Lieutenant-Colonel, Ed-
mund R. Badger ; Major, William C. Rice ; Quarter-
master, Lewis W. Ralston ; Surgeon, John H.
Packard.
— On the 13th of June a large number of persons
called upon the Hon. George M. Dallas, ex-minister
to England, who had just returned from Europe, in
order to pay their respects and express their ap-
proval of his course. Col. J. Ross Snowden addressed
Mr. Dallas on behalf of those present, and Mr. Dallas
replied, expressing his gratification at the cordial
welcome which had been extended to him, and his
devotion to the cause of the Union.
— On the 15th of June the State and national
colors were presented to the regiment commanded by
Col. William F. Small, at the residence of George
F. Jones, on Girard Street. The State flag was the
gift of three daughters of Mr. Small, and the na-
tional colors were obtained through the instrumen-
tality of Mrs. Finletter and the wife of Col. Small.
The national flag was presented by Thomas K. Fin-
letter, and the State flag by George A. Coffey, both
of whom addressed the regiment. A suitable reply
was made by Col. Small.
—The advance-guard of Maj.-Gen. Patterson's
force, consisting of ten thousand men, arrived in the
770
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, Va., on the 15th of
June. The place had previously been evacuated by
the Confederate troops. The First Division,
1861] under Gen. Cadwalader, crossed the Potomac
on the 16th, the troops wading the stream up
to their waists in water, covered by two pieces of the
Rhode Island Battery, which had been planted on a
bluff near Williamsport.
— Thomas Young was arrested on the night of June
16th on the charge of inciting to riot, and was taken
before Mayor Henry for a hearing. It was alleged
that Young had declared in public, in front of the
Methodist Episcopal Church on Green Street above
Tenth, that privateersmen should not be regarded as
pirates and hung, and that the shooting of Col. Ells-
worth was justifiable under the circumstances. These
assertions greatly excited an assemblage which had
gathered in front of the church, and Young was
finally compelled to take refuge in a neighboring
house, whence, having been discovered by the mob,
he was taken to the station-house under a strong
guard of policemen. Mayor Henry decided that
Young could not be held, as he was simply exercising
the right of free speech, and therefore discharged
him.
— On the 17th of June the two Philadelphia regi-
ments, commanded by Cols. Small and Einstein, left
Philadelphia, the former for Baltimore, and the latter
for Chambersburg.
— The Light Infantry Corps, composed of students
of the University of Pennsylvania, were presented, on
the 17th of June, with a national flag by Professor
Coffee, on behalf of Mrs. George H. Boker.
— On the 19th of June it was announced that
Philadelphia had ten regiments in the field, under
Cols. Francis E. Patterson, William D. Lewis, Peter
Lyle, William H. Gray, John F. Ballier, T. G. More-
head, Charles P. Dare, Joshua T. Owen, William F.
Small, and Max Einstein. These regiments num-
bered in all about ten thousand men. Col. Dare's
regiment was originally sworn in for three months,
but the larger portion of the command had already
decided to enlist for the war. The lieutenant-colo-
nel, David B. Birney, assumed command under the
new organization. In addition to these, Col. E. D.
Baker's California Regiment, at New York, had been
reinforced by some nine hundred Philadelphians.
Gen. Sickles' brigade also received large accessions
from Philadelphia, and the Garibaldi Regiment of
New York had at least four hundred Philadelphians in
its ranks. Including Capt. McMullen's Independent
Rangers, eighty-four men, and the First City Troop,
one hundred men, the number of Philadelphians
then in the field was about fourteen thousand. At
this time five new regiments, which had been ac-
cepted by the government, were in process of forma-
tion, viz.: Col. Peter Fritz's Keystone Regiment,
Col. J. K. Murphy's Jackson Regiment, Lieut.-Col.
Stees' Cameron Life Guards Regiment, Col. William
E. Seymour's Chippewa Guards Regiment, and Col.
Chantry's regiment.
— The " Commonwealth Artillery," mainly com-
posed of Philadelphians, was stationed at Fort Dela-
ware. The officers were : Captain, James E. Mont-
gomery; First Lieutenant, Francis A. Lancaster;
Second Lieutenant, Archibald McL. Roberts; En-
sign, John W. Kester, Jr.
— The military hospital on Christian Street above
Ninth had sixteen patients in it on the 20th of June.
— The new wing of St. Joseph's Hospital (the
corner-stone of which was laid on the 19th of July,
1860) was blessed on the 20th of June by the Right
Rev. Bishop Wood. The new building was four
stories in height, facing Girard Avenue, with Nine-
teenth Street on the west.
— The Twenty-ninth (New York) Regiment, com-
posed principally of German residents of New York
and Philadelphia, arrived at the latter city on the night
of the 21st of June. The Turner Society marched to
the depot at the foot of Washington Street to re-
ceive the regiment, to which it presented a handsome
flag.
— An association of residents of southern Phila-
delphia, formed for the purpose, rendered valuable
service by supplying soldiers passing through the
city with food. A lot at the corner of Swanson and
Washington Streets was secured, and here the troops,
on their arrival at Washington Street Depot, were
provided with substantial food and coffee.
— The Philadelphia Battalion, composed of the
third company State Fencibles, Capt. J. F. Nagle;
Wetherill Blues, Lieut. J. Book commanding; Gre-
ble Guards, Capt. O. B. Griffith ; and the second com-
pany Garde Lafayette, Capt. Theodore H. Peters,
were attached to Col. D. H. Williams' regiment of
Pittsburgh.
— On the 22d of June the " People's party" con-
vention for the Second Congressional District met
and nominated Charles O'Neill for Congress, and
adopted resolutions denouncing the Rebellion and
pledging the support of the members to the Federal
government. The Democratic convention met on
the 24th, adopted similar resolutions, and nominated
Charles J. Biddle. The Constitutional Union conven-
tion, which met on the same day, adopted a resolution
requesting Mayor Henry, Theodore Cuyler, Charles B.
Trego, Horace Binney, Henry C. Baird, Morton Mc-
Michael, Robert P. King, Joseph P. Loughead,
James Traquair, Benjamin F. Brewster, Samuel H.
Perkins, William L. Hirst, Henry M. Watts, Benja-
min Gerhard, George W. Biddle, Samuel W. De
Coursey, Daniel Haddock, Samuel Sparhawk, Dr.
Samuel Jones, Wetherill Lee, J. Price Wetherill,
Hon. Oswald Thompson, and Hon. George Shars-
wood to act as a committee of citizens, irrespective of
party, in nominating a candidate to represent the
Second Congressional District. " The qualifications
of said nominee to be : first, ability for the duties of
THE CIVIL WAR.
771
the position ; second, unfaltering devotion to the
union of the States and the maintenance and sup-
port of all its laws." The committee subsequently
nominated Hon. William M. Meredith, who, however,
declined to serve.
—The Philadelphia Merchant Troop, Capt. E. B.
Martin, which was attached to Col. W. H. Young's
Kentucky regiment, was inspected by the regimental
commander on the 25th of June.
— The ship " Amelia," Capt. Kenzie, which sailed
from Liverpool on the 23d of April with a cargo of
iron, camp-ovens, camp-equipage, etc., for Charleston,
and was captured off the latter port while attempting
to force the blockade by the United States gun-boat
"Union," arrived at Philadelphia on the 26th of
June in charge of an officer of the navy. The
"Amelia" was a large and valuable vessel.
— The Seventy-first Regiment Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers, or the California Eegiment, was raised by
Col. Edward D. Baker, who had been a resident of
California from 1852 to 1859, and who was senator
from Oregon at the outbreak of the war. He raised
" the California Regiment" partly in New York and
partly in Philadelphia, and gave it that name in allu-
sion to his former residence in California. The regi-
ment arrived on the 29th of June, and encamped at
Suffolk Park. The lieutenant-colonel, Isaac J. Wis-
tar, and the major, R. A. Parrish, were Philadelphians.
On the 30th a flag was presented to the regiment by
Lieut. Todd, of Company C, on behalf of Mrs. Yeager,
whose husband was a member of the company. The
regiment proceeded southward on the 4th of July,
and was sent to Fortress- Monroe. Col. Baker was
killed at Ball's Bluff on Oct. 21, 1861.1
— There was a pension board established in Penn-
sylvania by acts of March 31, 1812, and Feb. 26, 1813,
for soldiers in the Pennsylvania line during the Revo-
lutionary war who were regularly discharged, and
who, "from bodily infirmity or other cause, were un-
able to earn a living." This provision was extended,
Feb. 7, 1814, to soldiers who were wounded during
service in the Pennsylvania line, and who did not
have property sufficient to maintain them. By act of
May 15, 1861, widows of soldiers who died after being
mustered into the service of the United States, or of
this State, were entitled to pensions if they had
1 Col. John W. Forney, in his " Recollections of Public Men," thus
graphically deBcribeH a scene that took place in the United States Senate
between Col. Baker and Hon. John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky :
" Perhaps the most dramatic sceDe that ever took place in the Senate-
chamber— old or new— was that between Breckinridge and Col. E. D.
Baker, of Oregon, on the 1st of August, 1861, five days before the ad-
journment sine die, in the darkest period of the war, when the Rebellion
was most defiant and hopeful. . . . Breckinridge rose to make bis last
formal iDdictment against the government. Never shall I forget the
scene. Baker was a Benator and a soldier. He alternated between his
seat in the Capitol and his tent in the field. He came in at the eastern
door (while Breckinridge was speaking), in his blue coat and fuligue
cap, riding-whip in hand. He paused and listened to the ' polished
treason'— as be afterward called it— of the Senator from Kontucky, and,
when he sat down, he replied with a fervor never to be forgotten."
minor children under the age of fourteen years, and
were to receive eight dollars per month until the chil-
dren were fourteen years old. By act of March
27, 1865, any honorably-discharged officer [1861
or soldier, including volunteers, militia, or
drafted men, since the 4th of March, 1861, disabled by
any wound received or disease contracted in the ser-
vice of the United States, are entitled to eight dollars
per month or less, according to circumstances, the pen-
sion continuing during the existence of said disability,
or until the party receives a gratuity or pension from
the United States. By act of March 13, 1866, gratui-
ties, or pensions, on account of the services of soldiers
in the war of 1812, were restricted to soldiers who had
served at least two months in said war, or who were
wounded or disabled in said service, or to their widows
who had not married. A gratuity was given of forty
dollars at once, and forty dollars per annum. By act
of March 24, 1868, the provisions of the law were ex-
tended to soldiers who had not been in service two
months, but who had been in any actual engagement
with the enemy. By the same act the term " necessi-
tous circumstances" was construed to mean " not to
be possessed of real or personal estate to the value of
five hundred dollars."
— In June two regiments of the Home Guards were
organized, one of artillery and the other of infantry.
Besides these there were a number of unattached
companies organized in the different wards, the total
force footing up nearly five thousand men.
— The remains of Commander James H. Ward, who
was killed on the steamer " Freeborn" on the 27th of
June, while attempting to cover the landing of troops
at Mathias' Point, were brought to Philadelphia on
the 29th. On the following day they were transferred
from the undertaker's to the foot of Walnut Street,
to be conveyed by the Camden and Amboy Railroad
to New York, and thence to Hartford, Conn., where
Commander Ward was born. The body of Assistant
Surgeon William N. Handy, of Col. Lyle's Philadel-
phia regiment, who had died in Baltimore of apo-
plexy, reached Philadelphia on the 29th, with an
escort of twenty men, two from each company of the
command.
— On the 1st of July, Mr. McMurtrie, the prize
commissioner, filed in the United States District
Court his report of the testimony taken in the case of
the ship " General Parkhill," seized off Charleston,
S. O, for attempting to violate the blockade. The
owners of the vessel, Messrs. Patterson & Stock, ap-
peared through their counsel, Messrs. Wharton, Har-
rison, and Guillou, and presented their claim. The
point was raised by Mr. Harrison, whether the block-
ade was lawful, and, if lawful, whether the ship was
endeavoring to run it. No authority, he argued,
could be found in the Constitution permitting the
President of the United States to establish a block-
ade, and the owners of the vessel, who were citizens
of the United States, had a perfect right to question
772
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
the legality of the blockade. Chief Justice Taney
had decided in the Merry man case that the President
had no power to declare martial law and sus-
1861] pend the writ of habeas corpus, and it followed
that he had no more right to issue the procla-
mation under which the " General Parkhill" had been
captured and brought into court.
— The election to fill the vacancy caused by the
resignation of E. Joy Morris, congressman from the
Second District, which was held July 2d, resulted in
the choice of Col. Charles J. Biddle, Democrat, over
Charles O'Neill, People's candidate; Hon. William
M. Meredith, nominated by the Citizens' Committee,
selected by the Constitutional Union party, having
declined to serve. The vote was, Biddle, 3937 ;
O'Neill, 3694; Biddle's majority, 243.
— Col. Baker's California Regiment left Suffolk
Park on the 3d of July with the intention of pro-
ceeding to Fortress Monroe on the steamers " Vir-
ginia" and " Richmond," but after a portion of the
command had gone on board, a dispatch was received
from Washington directing it to proceed to Balti-
more. Accordingly the regiment left on the night of
the 3d for Baltimore by rail.
— The Fourth of July was celebrated with more
than usual spirit this year, one of the features of the
day being an imposing parade of the local military
organizations. The line was formed at seven o'clock
in the morning on Broad Street, the right resting on
Ridge Avenue. At the head of the line marched a
platoon of policemen, following which came the First
Regiment, Gray Reserves (Col. P. C. Ellmaker), and
next the Blue Reserves under Lieut.-Col. Taylor.
The battalion of Light Infantry followed, consisting
of the Boys' Own Infantry, Capt. Isaac Starr, Jr.;
University Light Infantry, Capt. J. D. Hartranft ;
Commonwealth Light Infantry, Capt. Sutherland
Prevost ; Quaker City Artillery, Capt, Frank Miller ;
National Guards Cadets, Capt. Bland; Pennsylvania
Cadets, Capt. John Sword; Garde Lafayette Cadets,
Capt. E. J. Hincken. Next came the first battalion
of the First Regiment of Rifles, Capt. John A. Koltes ;
First Battalion Second Regiment of Rifles, Capt.
Charles E. Graeff ; First Regiment Infantry of the
Line, Col. J. M. Bickel; Second Regiment Infantry
of the Line ; battalion of the Third Regiment of the
Line, Capt. L. B. Thomas commanding; First Bat-
talion First Regiment of Artillery, Capt. Matthew
Hastings commanding ; Battery of Field Artillery,
Capt. Chapman Biddle ; first squadron, First Regi-
ment of Cavalry, Capt. John Bavington. The column
was reviewed by the mayor and City Councils at
Penn Square. A salute of thirty-four guns in honor
of the day was fired by the French ship " David,"
Capt. Barron, lying at Lombard Street wharf. The
compliment was returned by a number of custom-
house officers, who procured a cannon and, having
run up the French flag, saluted it with twenty-one
guns.
— The general business prostration caused by the
war had already occasioned much distress among the
workingmen, and on the 8th of July a mass-meet-
ing of unemployed mechanics and laborers of the
Fifteenth Ward was held, with James Bigger as
chairman, at which it was resolved to call upon
the City Councils "to pass, without delay, an ordi-
nance authorizing the several departments to proceed
forthwith to execute such work as must be done some
time, and which can now as well be done as at any
time in the future, such as the laying of gas-pipes,
water-pipes and mains, grading of streets, building
of school-houses, improvement of the public park,
and such other work as Councils may in their judg-
ment determine upon." In Select Council, on the
11th of July, Mr. Dickson, of the committee ap-
pointed to devise work for the unemployed of the
city, reported an ordinance appropriating money for
the prosecution of various public works.
— The Twenty-second Regiment of Infantry, Penn-
sylvania Volunteers, known as the Philadelphia Light
Guard, and commanded by Col. T. G. Morehead,
was accepted July 15th by the Secretary of War for
three years' service.
— On the 15th of July, Lieut. McFarland, of Com-
pany A, Third Pennsylvania Regiment, arrived in
Philadelphia from Martinsburg, Va., with five Con-
federate prisoners, who had been captured by the
Third Pennsylvania Regiment while performing
picket duty. They were taken to Fort Delaware.
— There was a large gathering on the 15th at Engel
and Wolf's farm of the friends of Col. Schimmel-
pfennig's regiment, which was about to leave for the
seat of war. The Young Maennerchor, Teutonia,
Saengerbund, Germania, Orion, and Orpheus singing
societies, and the Maennerchor Rifles, Citizens' Rifles,
Sharpshooters, Turners' Home Guard, Hlasko Cadets,
Blucher's Home Guards, Capt. Schoeminger, Louis
Winter's pupils, and Hildebrandt's Gymnastic Zou-
aves were present. The day was spent in military
exercises, singing, dancing, and theatrical perform-
ances.
— The First City Troop, Home Guard, having been
fully equipped, offered their services to the govern-
ment, but were informed by the War Department
that no more troops would be accepted unless author-
ized by Congress. The Lincoln Legion, under the
command of Col. Romaine Lujeane, received their
mustering orders about the same time. The Legion
had their encampment on the Judge Peters farm, on
the Schuylkill, a short distance above Columbia
bridge. It was known as Camp Sweeney.
—The Philadelphia Merchant Troop, Capt. E. B.
Martin, was sworn into the service of the United
States on the 18th of July.
— In response to a letter to Gen. Scott from a num-
ber of prominent citizens, expressive of their appre-
ciation of his distinguished services, the following
reply was received and published on the 19th of July :
THE CIVIL WAE.
773
" Washington, July, 1861.
"Gentlemen, — Of the testimonials with which I have at different
times been honored by portions of my countrymen, not one has been
more precious to me than that I had the happiness to receive from you,
my esteemed friends of Philadelphia. It cannot be long before my
public acts will be reviewed by posterity, when its judgment, I humbly
hope, may be Bomewhat colored by the partiality that now cheers my
declining years. I have the honor to remain, gentlemen, your grateful
servant, Winfield Scott.
" Messrs. Alexander Henry, Horace Binney, Uichard Vaux,
"William Mereditu, and two hundred and five others."
— Committees appointed by the companies of Home
Guards, Reserve Blues, Reserve Grays, and Zouaves
favorable to the formation of a regiment to be offered
to the general government for active service, met on
the 18th at Saranac Hall and received reports from
the different companies. Several of the companies
were still in their infancy, but their officers felt con-
fident that they could have the requisite number of
men within ten days. It was determined by the meet-
ing that each company should immediately open
muster-rolls. Capt. E. M. Gregory was chairman of
the meeting, and Lieut. William Chapman secretary.
— The encampment of Col. J. K. Murphy's regi-
ment, located four miles west of the Schuylkill, be-
tween Haddington and Hestonville, was visited daily
about this time by large numbers of persons. A
dress parade took place every morning and afternoon.
The last company of Col. J. W. Geary's regiment was
mustered in on the 18th, at Camp Coleman, Oxford.
— In the case of the ship '' General Parkhill,"
Judge Cadwalader rendered a decision on the 19th
that the owners of the vessel, Messrs. Stock & Pat-
terson, could not appear as claimants, because they
were residents of an insurgent State, — South Carolina,
— and consequently had no standing in a prize-court.
It was ordered, therefore, that the necessary steps be
taken to condemn the vessel and sell it for the benefit
of the government.
— The Cameron Dragoons, Col. M. Friedman, had, it
was announced on the 22d of July, been accepted by
the Secretary of War, and were going into camp as
fast as the members were mustered in, on a lot oppo-
site the depot of the Ridge Avenue Railway Company.
— Monday, July 22d, was a day of intense excite-
ment, owing to the reception of news of the battle
of Bull Run and the repulse of the Federal army
under Gen. McDowell. An immense number of
extras were sold, and the newspaper offices and the
streets in their vicinity were crowded throughout
the day and until late at night by people anxious to
obtain the latest intelligence from the seat of war.
The news had a depressing effect on the citizens gen-
erally, but stimulated recruiting. Squads were sent
out by the recruiting officers, each headed by a drum
and fife, and a number of volunteers fell into line at
different points. Great activity also prevailed in for-
warding troops and supplies to the front. At a meet-
ing of the Councils Committee on the Defense and
Safety of the City, held on the 22d, it was determined
to order two batteries of Parrott guns from the Cold
Spring Foundry, near West Point, N. Y., for the use
of the city. Regiments partially formed several
weeks before filled up rapidly, and steps were
taken to organize new ones should the gov- [1861
ernment call for additional troops. Drs.
Joseph Heritage, T. S. Reed, John Gegan, Jr., John
Sterling, D. Jameson, Jr., and William P. Henry, and
Mr. and Mrs. Savery volunteered their services as
surgeons and nurses about this time, and having been
accepted, left at once for the seat of war. A member
of the Sixty-ninth New York Regiment, who was in
the engagement at Bull Run, was in Philadelphia on
the 23d, and on making his appearance on Chestnut
Street, was surrounded by a crowd, which soon became
so large that he took refuge in a store.
—On the afternoon of the 23d, Col. Dare's regi-
ment Pennsylvania Volunteers returned, their term
of service — three months — having expired. Although
no public announcement had been made of their
expected arrival, a large crowd had collected at the
depot, and when the men alighted from the cars
they were greeted with cheers. Nearly every soldier
brought with him some trophy from Harper's Ferry,
and several had secession flags, which attracted no
little attention. The men marched to the arsenal
where they deposited their muskets, after which they
were allowed twenty-four hours in which to see their
relatives and friends. The regiment had been ac-
cepted for three years, fully two-thirds of the men
having re-enlisted. Hildebrand's Gymnast Zouaves
were added to the regiment to make up its comple-
ment, and the command was given to Lieut.-Col.
Birney.
— The manufacture of wagons for the government
had now become an important industry, over six hun-
dred men being employed day and night in the two
establishments which had the contract for furnishing
them. About one thousand knapsacks were also
turned out daily at one of these factories. Philadel-
phia was also largely interested in furnishing other
supplies to the government.
— It was announced on the 24th of July that a
number of members of the Philadelphia Rifle Club
had decided to enroll themselves as a company of
sharpshooters, to tender their services to the govern-
ment. Their shooting-master was T. F. Kolb. Only
such riflemen were accepted as could hit the target
ten times in succession, at a distance of two hundred
yards at rest within five inches of the centre, or off-
hand within eight inches of the centre.
— Col. Francis E. Patterson's regiment, Pennsyl-
vania Volunteers, reached the city on the 25th. They
were received with a salute of thirty-four guns, and
were escorted by the Gray Reserves, Col. P. C. Ell-
maker, to Washington Square, where they were for-
mally dismissed. The term of service for which the
regiment had enlisted having expired, the command
was reorganized and accepted by the War Department
for three years.
774
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
— Gen. George Brinton McClellan, who had been
appointed to the command of the Army of the
Potomac to succeed Gen. McDowell after
1861] the latter's disastrous defeat at Bull Bun,
arrived in the city from Pittsburgh on the
25th of July. A large assemblage had collected at
the Pennsylvania Bailroad Depot, Eleventh and
Market Streets, through which he and Mayor Henry,
who had come to meet him and tender the hospi-
tality of the city, had some difficulty in making
their way to the carriage which awaited them. Gen.
McClellan, Mayor Henry, and Oapt. Desilver, of the
Home Guards, occupied seats in the carriage, which
on reaching Broad Street took its place in the line
which had been formed by the Gray Reserves, who
acted as an escort. The cortege proceeded down
Chestnut Street to Third, down Third to Walnut,
and up Walnut to the residence of Gen. McClellan's
brother, Dr. JohnH. B. McClellan, on Walnut Street,
near Eleventh, where a large crowd had collected.
As the general stepped from the carriage he was
greeted with enthusiastic cheers. A few minutes
later, in reponse to loud cries from the assemblage,
he appeared on a balcony and expressed his gratifica-
tion at the warmth of his reception, which he said he
knew was not intended so much for himself as to
mark their appreciation of the services of the men
who had fought so bravely in Western Virginia.
Gen. McClellan left soon after for Washington. Gen.
McClellan was the son of Dr. George McClellan, of
Philadelphia, and was born at the southwest corner
of Seventh and Walnut Streets on Dec. 3, 1826. Dr.
McClellan was born in 1796, in Connecticut, and his
wife was a Miss Brinton, of Philadelphia.
— In Select Council on the 25th, an ordinance was
adopted appropriating a further sum of one hundred
thousand dollars for the relief of families of volun-
teers, which, with the sums previously appropriated,
made three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars
devoted to this purpose, of which $58,881.22 had been
expended. Resolutions eulogistic of Gen. McClellan
and his soldiers in the engagement at Beverly, and
proposing to purchase a sword with a suitable inscrip-
tion, to be presented to the general, which had already
been adopted by the Select Council, were concurred
in by Common Council.
— The three months for which most of the regiments
had volunteered having expired, large numbers of
troops were now arriving almost daily on their way
home. As the different regiments arrived at the foot
of Washington Avenue, they were received by the
Refreshment Committee and provided with food, etc.
The Volunteers' Refreshment Saloon at Delaware
Avenue and Washington Avenue, and the Cooper
Shop Refreshment Saloon on Otsego Street below
Washington Avenue, under the control of William M.
Cooper, were in constant operation. The articles fur-
nished were coffee, bread and butter, cheese, ham,
sausages, and other substantials.
— A regiment named the McClellan Regiment, in
honor of Gen. McClellan, was raised during the latter
part of July, with the following officers : Colonel,
Jacob Zeigler ; Lieutenant-Colonel, Samuel C. John-
son ; Major, John C. Johnson ; Adjutant, Benjamin C.
Brooker; Quartermaster, William Sharkey ; Surgeon,
H. B. Linton ; Assistant Surgeon, Philip Leidy, Jr.
— The Sixty-ninth New York Regiment, which be-
haved so gallantly at the battle of Bull Run, arrived
on the 26th, era route for New York. A large crowd
gathered at the depot at Broad and Prime Streets,
exhibited great enthusiasm, and when the regiment
reached the wharf at the foot of Washington Street,
the soldiers were treated with marked kindness by the
committee in charge of the refreshment depot.
— On the 27th of July, Col. Geary's regiment left
Oxford Park for Harper's Ferry. Four of the com-
panies were organized in Philadelphia. The field
officers were : Colonel, John W. Geary ; Lieutenant-
Colonel, Gabriel de Korponay ; Major, Hector Tyn-
dale; Adjutant, John Flynn ; Surgeon, Henry Ernest
Goodman; Assistant Surgeon, Samuel Logan ; Chap-
lain, Charles W. Heisley ; Quartermaster, Benjamin
F.Lee; Sergeant-Major, Samuel D. McKee; Quar-
termaster-Sergeant, David B. Hilt ; Commissary-Ser-
geant, John P. Nicholson; Regimental Postmaster,
Thomas B. Hurst; Wagonmaster, George W. Keller.
— By the end of July most of the three months' vol-
unteers had returned/and many of them-had promptly
re-enlisted. The Philadelphia Fire Zouave Regiment,
Col. Baxter, and Col. D. B. Birney's regiment (for-
merly Col. Dare's) were organized almost immediately
upon the return of the soldiers from the South. The
Twenty-first Regiment, Col. Ballier, reached the city
on the 29th, and the Scott Legion, Col. Gray, on the
30th. The Twenty-first halted in front of Gen. Patter-
son's residence, on Locust Street, between Thirteenth
and Broad, and were addressed by the general, who
warmly praised their conduct during the Valley
campaign.
— A meeting of the friends of the National Guards
Begiment, Col. Peter Lyle, was held on the 30th of
July, to make arrangements for a reception of the
command on its return to Philadelphia from Balti-
more, Md., where it had been stationed for some
time. George S. Adler presided, and A. J. Wester
acted as secretary. It was determined to furnish an
escort of Home Guards and citizens, and to provide
a collation at the National Guards' Hall. George S.
Adler was appointed chief marshal, with the follow-
ing aids : John Fenlin, Jacob Crawford, Joseph Del-
avau, John Hill, G. Collins, and Isaac McBride.
The National Guards reached the city on the night
of the 31st of July. They were met at the depot by
the First and Second Regiments of Infantry, Home
Guards, Companies A, B, C, and D, German Rifles,
and Company A, First Regiment of Cavalry, which
acted as an escort. At the armory the returned sol-
diers were handsomely entertained.
THE CIVIL WAR.
775.
— Prince Napoleon and suite arrived in Philadel-
phia on the 31st of July from New York en route for
Washington. On the following day he visited the
park and various public institutions.
— Maj.-Gen. Robert Patterson was serenaded on the
night of July 31st at his residence, Thirteenth and
Locust Streets. He was introduced to those present
by Benjamin H. Brewster, who warmly eulogized his
military services while in command of the Pennsyl-
vania troops in Virginia. In replying, Gen. Patter-
son thanked the assemblage for the confidence in
himself which their compliment expressed, and said
the Pennsylvania troops had behaved with conspic-
uous skill and courage. Col. Francis E. Patterson,
the general's son, also made a brief address. The
Twenty-fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers,
Col. Owen, paraded on the 1st of August, and pro-
ceeded to the residence of Brig.-Gen. J. D. Miles, on
Franklin Street, near Noble, where they halted, and
Gen. Miles, appearing in full uniform, delivered an
address welcoming them home. Col. Owen, in reply-
ing, said he could promise that the Twenty-fourth
would enlist for the war.
— The brig " Herald," laden with tobacco and naval
stores, was brought to the navy-yard on the 1st of
August in charge of a prize-master, having been cap-
tured off Cape Hatteras by the United States frigate
" St. Lawrence" while attempting to run the blockade.
— In response to a call signed by a number of citi-
zens for a meeting of those opposed to the system of
partisan nominations, which had previously been in
vogue in the city, a large assemblage collected on
the 1st of August at the Merchants' Exchange. Wil-
liam Welsh was called to the chair, and the follow-
ing vice-presidents were selected : First District,
John G. Davis ; Second, S. H. Perkins ; Third, H. J.
Williams ; Fourth, Benjamin Gerhard. Frederick
Fraley and John B. Kenny were appointed secreta-
ries. A series of resolutions, proposed by E. Spencer
Miller, were adopted, in which it was declared that
no reverses could shake the determination of those
present to support the Federal government at any
sacrifice, and that to weaken and divide this support
by renewing party issues, which had become subordi-
nate, was as dangerous as to obstruct the government
by direct opposition. It was also determined that
a committee should be appointed, consisting of two
persons from each ward, who should make nomina-
tions for all the offices to be filled in the ensuing
October.
— In the Common Council on the 1st of August an
ordinance from Select Council appropriating an ad-
ditional sum of two hundred thousand dollars out of
the loan of one million dollars for the benefit of the
families of volunteers was concurred in. A resolu-
tion from the same chamber providing for the ap-
pointment of a committee to memorialize the Federal
government to make the Philadelphia navy-yard a
first-class naval station was also agreed to.
—The United States steamer "Albatross," Capt.
George A. Prentiss, arrived on the 2d of August, hav-
ing in charge the schooner "Enchantress."
The latter vessel had been captured on the 6th [1861
of July two hundred and sixty miles south-
east of Sandy Hook by the privateer " Jeff Davis,"
which placed on board a prize crew composed of
Walter W. Smith, of Savannah, Ga., prize-master;
Eben Lane, of West Cambridge, Mass. ; Thomas Quig-
ley, of New York ; Daniel Mullings, of Charleston,
S. C. ; and Edward Rochford, of Liverpool. The
steamer " Albatross," however, overtook the " En-
chantress" while on her way to Charleston and recap-
tured her. The " Enchantress" had a cargo of as-
sorted goods suitable for the army. The prize crew
were placed in irons and brought with the vessel to the
navy-yard, whence they were taken to Moyamensing
jail.
— The Twenty-ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers, known as the Jackson Regiment, and com-
manded by Col. John K. Murphy, left for Harper's
Ferry on the 3d of August. On the same day the
National Guards, Col. Lyle, were reviewed in front of
the custom-house by the City Councils, and Theodore
Cuyler, president of Select Council, as the representa-
tive of Mayor Henry, who was unavoidably absent.
After the command had performed various evolutions
Mr. Cuyler briefly welcomed them back to the city.
Col. T. G. Morehead's regiment paraded on the after-
noon of the same day.
— On the 5th of August, Mr. Chew, of German-
town, applied to Judge Ludlow for an injunction to
prevent Senator Mason (of Mason and Slidell noto-
riety) from taking money out of the estate in which
he was interested, located in Philadelphia County. In
asking for the order, Mr. Chew said, " I apply to your
Honor for an order to prevent James M. Mason from
taking out of the jurisdiction of the court funds
which the trustees have invested under the order of
the Orphans' Court. Already a very large sum has
been taken out of the State by that very remarkable
traitor, and I have no prospect of ever getting retri-
bution if the balance of the funds is taken away."
Judge Ludlow suggested that a citation might issue,
and notice could be given by publication.
— The field officers of the Third Regiment, Reserve
Brigade, held an election on the 1st of August. C.
M. Eakin was chosen colonel, John C. Paynter lieu-
tenant-colonel, and T. Gordon Miller major. The
officers of the Twenty-third Regiment, as announced
on the 7th of August, were : Colonel, David B. Birney ;
Lieutenant-Colonel, Charles Wilhelm ; Adjutant,
John E. Collins; Surgeon, Samuel W. Gross; Ser-
geant-Major, J. Adams; Quartermaster-Sergeant, T.
W. Jones ; Commissary-Sergeant, W. Shipman.
— On the 6th of August the crew of the schooner
"Protector," belonging to Philip Fitzpatrick, of
Philadelphia, which was captured off Hatteras on the
28th of July by the Confederate privateer " Gordon,"
776
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
arrived in an open yawl-boat from Newbern, N. C.
The "Protector" was commanded by Capt. Linna-
kin, and the crew consisted of Thomas Ross,
1861] James Quomoe, and David Hart, of Phila-
delphia. After the capture they were taken
to Newbern, placed in the yawl-boat, supplied with
provisions, and told to make their way home as best
they could.
— The steam gun-boat " Flag," Capt. Sartori, ar-
rived at the navy -yard on the 7th of August from the
Gulf of Mexico, having on board the officers and part
of the crew of the Confederate privateer " Petrel,"
which was sunk by the frigate "St. Lawrence" off
Charleston. The commander of the " Petrel" was
Capt. William Perry, whose lieutenants were R. W.
Harvey and Charles Campbell. The gunner was
Auguste Peyresett. Eight of the crew were either
killed by the fire of the "St. Lawrence" or drowned
when the vessel sunk. The prisoners were taken to
Moyamensing jail.
— A hearing in the case of the Confederate prize
crew of the " Enchantress," charged with piracy, was
held on the 7th of August before United States Com-
missioner Heazlett. Eben Lane was represented by
F. Carroll Brewster, and the other four prisoners by
N. Harrison. The hearing was continued on the 8th,
when the prisoners were committed, without bail, to
answer the charge of piracy at the next term of the
United States Circuit Court.
— The Twelfth Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve
Corps, opened recruiting stations in Philadelphia
about the 7th of August. The commander of the regi-
ment was Col. John H. Taggart.
— On the 9th of August, Thomas J. Armstrong was
executed for the murder of Robert Crawford on the
night of the 21st of September, 1860. The crime was
one of peculiar atrocity. Crawford was invited by
Armstrong to take a ride in the latter's wagon, and
while in the wagon was murdered and robbed, his
body being afterward thrown upon the highway.
Armstrong before his death made a confession im-
plicating two other parties, who, however, were shown
to be innocent.
— After the battle of Bull Run a, letter to Gen.
Winfield Scott was written and signed by the mayor
and a number of leading citizens, expressing their
unbounded confidence in his wisdom and courage.
— The Independent Rangers, Capt. William Mc-
Mullen, reached the city on the 12th of August,
from Sandy Hook, Md. A large number of friends
of the members and others assembled at the Broad
and Prime Streets Depot to witness their return, and
a company of the Scott Legion Regiment, under com-
mand of Capt. Crossin, and one of Col. Patterson's
regiment, under Capt. Bassett, were present as an es-
cort. The procession halted in front of the residence
of Gen. Patterson, who, accompanied by his son, Col.
Patterson, came out upon the steps in full uniform
and made a brief address of welcome.
—A further hearing of the cases of the crew of the
privateer " Petrel" was had by United States Com-
missioner Heazlett on the 14th of August. N. Harri-
son and John P. O'Neil represented thirty-three of
the prisoners, and Charles W. Brooke and George W.
Arundel appeared respectively for two of the others.
United States District Attorney Coffee was assisted
by George H. Earle. The prisoners waived a hearing,
and on the 17th the commissioner, after hearing the
evidence of Capt. Sartori, commander of the United
States steamer " Flag," committed them for trial.
— The First City Troop, Capt. James, was escorted
to its armory on the 14th of August by the First
City Troop, Home Guard, Capt. Bavington, the Sev-
enteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col.
Patterson, the Independent Rangers, Capt. McMullen,
and a battalion of Gray Reserves Under Col. Snow-
den. On the right of the troop were several of its
members who had not been in active service and who
were dressed in the holiday uniform of the command.
The troop during their absence had been chiefly em-
ployed in Virginia, in the neighborhood of Harper's
Ferry.
— The ship " General Parkhill," which was cap-
tured while running the blockade off Charleston and
brought in as a prize, was sold on the 15th of August,
at public auction, for seven thousand four hundred
dollars to Workman & Co., of Philadelphia, for
Holmboe & Co., of New York.
— Two United States gun-boats, in course of con-
struction at the ship-yards of Jacob Birely and
Hillman & Streaker, were announced on the 16th
of August to be rapidly approaching completion,
although work had been begun on them only about
two months before. About the same time Matthews
& Moore completed the casting of a large cannon at
their works on Bush Hill, from Reading iron. The
gun weighed about five tons, and projected a nine-
inch shell.
— On the 17th of August it was stated that the
following regiments were in process of formation:
First Artillery, Col. Patterson ; McClellan Regi-
ment, Col. Ziegler; Thomas A. Scott Regiment,
Col. Conroy ; Keystone Regiment, Lieut.-Col. Bad-
ger; Washington Legion, Col. Harvey; Fire Zou-
ave Regiment, Col. Baxter; Zouave Regiment, Col.
Gosline; Scott Legion Regiment (no colonel then
named); Twenty-fourth Regiment, Col. Owen; Penn-
sylvania Legion Regiment, Col. Koltes; Andrew John-
son Regiment, Col. Kirk; Twenty -third Regiment, Col.
Birney ; the Cameron Regiment; the Eighteenth Reg-
iment, Col. Miller; Col. Gregory's regiment (Home
Guard) ; Col. Morehead's regiment ; Col. Fritz's regi-
ment; Col. Chantry's regiment; Col. Lujeane's regi-
ment; Col. Rush's cavalry; Col. Chorman's Mounted
Rifle Rangers ; Col. Friedman's cavalry ; Col. John
Richter Jones' regiment; two German regiments and
the Washington battalion, Col. Williams. Recruiting
was also going on for Maryland and Delaware regi-
THE CIVIL WAR.
777
merits, and to fill up Col. Small's, Col. Baker's, and Col.
Geary's regiments. There were several encampments
within the city limits, two on the Wissahickon, one
at Hestonville, one at Suffolk Park, one at Camac's
woods, and several elsewhere. Col. Henry Bohlen's
regiment, in process of forming, was located at Heston-
ville.
— Such was the magnitude of the operations at the
Philadelphia navy-yard at this period that seventeen
hundred mechanics and laborers were employed.
—An order from the War Department directing that
troops, including those of regiments not fully organ-
ized, should be forwarded to Washington as soon as
possible, created great activity and excitement during
the latter part of August. Col. Edward D. Baker of
the California Regiment came with authority to raise
a brigade, and accepted Col. Baxter's Fire Zouaves,
Col. Gosline's Zouaves, and Col. Owen's Irish Regi-
ment. A movement was commenced at the same time
to form a new artillery regiment based on the Com-
monwealth Artillery Company, Capt. Montgomery,
which had been stationed at Fort Delaware. The
Scott Legion was reorganized with Edwin E. Biles
as colonel.
— Pierce Butler, a well-known citizen, was arrested
on the 19th of August at his residence on Walnut
Street, by order of the War Department, and sent to
Fort Hamilton, N. Y. Mr. Butter was charged with
having left for the South just after the attack on Fort
Sumter, taking with him a number of secession cock-
ades, pistols, etc., and it was claimed had returned to
the city for the purpose of aiding the Confederates.
— In view of the urgent demand of the government
for more troops, the Home Guards and Gray Reserves
took into consideration the question whether they
would offer themselves for active service of a tempo-
rary character. On the 21st of August, however, a
dispatch was received from Hon. Simon Cameron,
Secretary of War, stating that the department would
not, in any event, call on the Home Guards or Gray
Reserves for temporary service.
— Butterfield & Co., who were extensively engaged
in furnishing arms to the general government and
State of Pennsylvania, obtained patents for a breech-
loading cannon and a breech-loading musket, which
were regarded as great improvements on weapons of
the same character then in use.
— The schooner " G. G. Baker," which had been
captured by the United States steamer " South Caro-
lina," and subsequently by the Confederate privateer
"York/' but afterward recaptured by the United
States steamer " Union," arrived at the navy-yard on
the 22d of August, in charge of Prize-master John
White, of the United States frigate "Minnesota."
The vessel was loaded with coffee, sugar, and rope.
—Thomas J. Carson, Walter W. Kelley, and Wil-
liam M. Pegram, who had been arrested in Harris-
burg on suspicion of being Confederate spies, were
on the 22d of August committed for a hearing.
—By direction of the President of the United
States, United States District Attorney Coffee, on
the 22d of August, gave directions to the
United States marshal to seize all copies of [1881
the New York Daily News, New York Bay-
Booh, New York Journal of Commerce, and Philadel-
phia Christian Observer, under an act of Congress
authorizing the President to stop all transporta-
tions of aid and comfort to those in rebellion. The
Christian Observer office was first visited, and the
types seized. A force of officers stationed at Walnut
Street wharf examined the bundles of newspapers
upon the arrival of the mails from New York, and
seized all copies of the newspapers mentioned.
— On the 22d of August the following. permanent
officers of the " No-Party" convention were elected :
President, A. J. Derbyshire ; Vice-Presidents, John
Agnew and John Thompson ; Secretaries, John Lam-
bert and William McGlensey.
— The Councils Committee on the Safety and Pro-
tection of the City were induced by the result of the
battle of Bull Run to take energetic measures for
defense. Twelve Parrott rifled cannon (twelve- and
twenty-pounders) were purchased, and twelve rifled
pieces were also ordered to be cast at Phcenixville.
A steel cannon, made in Paris, was presented to the
city by George McHenry, and three more of the same
pattern were purchased by private individuals. Ap-
plication was also made to the general government
to put the river and harbor defenses in complete
order.
— The United States sloop-of-war " Tuscarora" was
launched at the navy-yard on the 24th of August.
The keel of the "Tuscarora" was laid on the 26th of
June, and the vessel was built under the direction of
Naval-Constructor Hoover. Her length between per-
pendiculars was one hundred and ninety-eight feet
eight inches, and she was thirty-three feet beam, and
fifteen feet hold. Her engines were built at the
foundry of Merrick & Son. The " Tuscarora" was the
first launched of six sloops provided for by Congress.
At the launch, Miss Margaret Lardner, daughter of
Commander Lardner, christened the vessel.
— Judge Ludlow, on the 24th of August, made an
order in accordance with the prayer of Mr. Chew, in
regard to the transfer of the funds of the Chew estate
to James M. Mason, in Virginia, to be used in the
interest of the rebels. The order in effect tied up the
estate until the meeting of the Orphans' Court in Sep-
tember.
— The Chasseurs d'Afrique, a zouave corps, com-
manded by Capt. Charles H. T. Collis, left on the
25th of August for Fort Delaware, where it was ex-
ercised in skirmishing and artillery practice, prelimi-
nary to its departure for the seat of war.
— On the 25th of August, William Johnston, a
nephew of the Confederate Gen. Johnston, and an
officer in the Southern army, was arrested at the
Pennsylvania Railroad Depot. He had been in Phila-
778
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
delphia, stopping at the house of a relative, about two
weeks. A Dumber of letters were found in his trunk
directed to parties in the seceded States. He
1861] was held for trial. Samuel Eakin, arrested
on the charge of being an agent for the Con-
federate States, was taken to Fort Lafayette on the
26th of August, by order of the War Department.
— The Confederate privateer " Sumter," which had
begun to attract general attention on account of the
boldness of her operations, was built in Philadel-
phia, by Birely & Lynn, after models made by John
W. Lynn, a member of the firm. Her machinery was
constructed by Eeany, Neafle & Co., of Philadelphia.
The vessel was built originally for James Connell &
Co., of New Orleans, to ply between that port and
Havana. She was launched on the 18th of May,
1855, and was named the " Habana.'' She was noted
for her speed, having on one occasion made sixteen
miles in fifty-eight minutes on the Delaware.
— Another prize, the schooner " Albion," arrived at
the Philadelphia navy-yard on the 31st of August,
in charge of Prize-master Stephen S. Russell, of the
United States ship "Seminole." The " Albion" was
captured off Charleston, S. C, while attempting to
run the blockade. She was laden with sugar and
coffee.
— On the 31st of August the remains of Gen.
Lyon, who was killed at the battle of Wilson's
Creek, Mo., while gallantly leading his men, reached
the city on the 1st of September from Pittsburgh
en route for New York. They were in charge of
H. A. Conant, of Gen. Lyon's staff; Capts. Plum-
mer and Edgar, of the United States army, and
Lieut. Clark and eight privates of Col. McNeil's
regiment, Missouri Volunteers. At the depot, Elev-
enth and Market Streets, they were received by a
company of the Home Guards, Capt. Hartings, who
acted as a guard of honor. Col. Dare's regiment was
also present and formed part of the funeral cortege,
which proceeded up Eleventh Street to Arch, down
Arch to Fifth, and up Fifth to the Kensington Depot.
Flags were displayed at half-mast in various portions
of the city.
— At a meeting of the Councils Committee on the
Safety and Protection of the City, held on the 31st of
August, a resolution was adopted requesting the mayor
to devise some plan by which the ranks of the Home
Guard might be increased and made more efficient.
A resolution was also adopted inviting delegates from
all the steam fire-engine companies in the city to
meet the committee for the purpose of participating
in the formation of artillery companies for the pro-
tection of the city if needed.
— August Douglass, charged with attempting to
induce soldiers to desert, was tried on the 4th of
September before Judge Ludlow in the Quarter Ses-
sions and acquitted.
— The one hundredth anniversary of the opening
of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church was cele-
brated on the 4th of September in the presence of a
large assemblage. Among the officiating clergy were
Bishops Potter (of Pennsylvania), Delancey (of New
York), and Odenheimer (of New Jersey). A sermon,
reviewing the history of the church, was preached by
Bishop Delancey.
— R. S. Perkins, chief armorer of the United States
Arsenal at Bridesburg, and Robert Bolton, who was
engaged in the manufacture of patent primers at
Frankford, were arrested on the 4th of September
on the charge of furnishing arms and munitions of
war in the month of April, 1861, to persons then en-
gaged in open rebellion against the United States ;
but were discharged for want of evidence showing .
guilty intention.
— The " Abbie Bradford," a vessel which had been
captured by the privateer " Sumter," but had been
recaptured by the United States vessel " Powhatan"
off the mouth of the Mississippi, was brought to the
city on the 4th of September in charge of Jacob
Stevens, prize-master. All the "Sumter's" men on
board the " Abbie Bradford" were placed in irons on
the " Powhatan," with the exception of one named
Evans, who was placed in Moyamensing prison.
— Work on the Chestnut Street bridge was com-
menced on the 4th of September by the city engineer
and surveyor, who, with the contractors, arranged the
lines of approach, and made the necessary prepara-
tions for the excavation of the abutments.
— A seizure of tobacco, the property of S. M.
Bailey, of Richmond, Va., was made at the warehouse
of J. R. Sank & Co., in Water Street, on the 5th of
September. On the same day the collector of the port
seized three schooners at the wharves which were
owned in part by rebels, — the "Emma Amelia," of
Boston, Capt. Harding ; the " Henry Cole," Capt.
Hazleton, and the " Eagle," Capt. Taylor. The loyal
owners were afterward permitted the use of the ves-
sels on payment of the amounts held by Southern
parties.
— In the newspapers of September 7th was pub-
lished the reply to a letter addressed to Lieut.-Gen.
Winfield Scott by Hon. Joseph R. Ingeraoll and
others, expressing their confidence in his military ca-
pacity and patriotism. In acknowledging the receipt
of the letter, Gen. Scott wrote, " Twice within a short
time rolls of my fellow-citizens of Philadelphia, in-
cluding many personal friends, have overwhelmed me
with testimonials of their distinguished approbation
and esteem. The second of these addresses has reached
me through your honored hands. Such, I feel, are
the rewards which cheer and render happy the close
of an old soldier's life, now, by Divine goodness, much
extended beyond the usual age of man."
— Col. Francis E. Patterson was elected brigadier-
general by the officers of the regiments of reserves on
the 5th of September.
— The sword designed as a gift from the city of
Philadelphia to Col. Robert Anderson for his defense
THE CIVIL WAE.
779
of Fort Sumter, was stated on the 9th to be nearly
ready for delivery. It was of the Damascus pattern,
with an eagle and " E Pluribus Unum" on the blade.
The handle was set with four amethysts, surmounted
with diamonds. The scabbard was of solid silver,
plated with gold, and bore the inscription,— " The
City of Philadelphia to Robert Anderson, U.S.A.
May 22, 1861. A loyal city to a loyal soldier,— the
hero of Fort Sumter." The sword to be presented to
Gen. McClellan was straight, and set with diamonds
and pearls. On the handle was the figure of an
American eagle attacking a serpent. The total cost
of the two swords was about eleven hundred dollars.
— On the 16th of September one thousand Enfield
rifles, purchased by the Committee of Councils on the
Safety and Defense of the City, were distributed to a
light infantry regiment, comprising, among other or-
ganizations, the Maennerchor Rifle Company, the
Freeman's Rifle Company, and the Citizens' Rifle
Company, forming part of the German Battalion.
— During the early part of September the work of
strengthening the defenses at Fort Mifflin was com-
menced under the direction of Lieut. McCallister, of
the United States engineer corps. The old wooden
lining of the ramparts was removed and brick-work
substituted. All the guns were dismounted, and the
largest of .them placed so as to defend the land ap-
proaches, while new ones of heavier calibre were sub-
stituted on the side commanding the river.
— In Select Council, on the 12th of September, Mr.
Ginnods offered a series of resolutions, which were re-
ferred to the Committee on the Safety and Defense of
the City, calling upon citizens for the purpose of pre-
paring against a threatened Confederate invasion, to
close their respective places of business at four o'clock
p.m. daily, and recommending that all who were
capable of bearing arms should assemble in their re-
spective wards and precincts for such instruction in
military drill as to be ready at a moment's warning
to shoulder their muskets and meet the enemy. The
resolutions also urged the citizens to press most zeal-
ously " the necessity of sustaining and building up the
several bodies of troops dwelling in our midst for the
safety and defense of our city."
— A meeting of citizens favorable to the formation
of a new regiment, to be known as the Commonwealth
Regiment, was held on the 12th of September. Lieut.
Robinson was called to the chair, and Capt. James E.
Montgomery, of the Commonwealth Artillery, stated
the object of the meeting. The proposed organiza-
tion consisted of one thousand and forty-six infantry,
together with two companies of light artillery. A
series of resolutions were adopted approving the ob-
ject of the meeting, and the selection of Capt. Gib-
son, United States army, as colonel.
—William H. Winder, of Philadelphia, brother of
Gen. John H. Winder of the Confederate service, was
arrested on the 11th, on the charge of treason, and
sent to Fort Lafayette.
—During a performance of " The Tempest" at the
Continental Theatre, Walnut Street above Eighth,
on Saturday evening, September 14th, the
dress of one of the ballet-girls, Hannah Gale, [1861
caught fire in one of the dressing-rooms.
There were nineteen other young women in the room
at the time, all of whom wore light, gauzy costumes.
Many of these caught fire. The girls ran in every
direction, screaming from pain and fright. Some
rushed to the windows and jumped out into the street,
while others ran along the landing and sprang down
upon the stage, with which it communicated. The
house in front was filled with spectators, who were sud-
denly startled by the appearance of one of the girls,
Anna McBride, who, screaming and in flames, rushed
before the foot-lights for assistance. She was imme-
diately covered with cloth, torn from the stage, and the
flames extinguished, but not before she had been fa-
tally injured. The curtain was lowered hastily, and
the scene hidden from the excited audience, many of
whom, hearing the screams of the unfortunate girls
and not knowing the extent of the mischief, rushed
toward the exits. Mr. Wheatley, the manager, ap-
peared before the curtain and stated that in conse-
quence of the accident the play would not go on, and
requested the audience to retire in good order. The
request was complied with, and the theatre soon
emptied without any one being injured. Six of the
girls died soon after the accident, viz., Hannah Gale,
Phoebe Forden, Adeona Gale, Mary. Herman, Anna
Devlin, and Anna McBride. Abbie Carr, Ruth and
Zela Gale, Kate Harrison, and Margaret Conway were
more or less seriously injured. Ruth Gale died on
the 17th, Zela Gale and Abbie Carr on the 25th of
September.
— The Fire Zouaves, Col. Baxter, left, the city on
the 16th. A stand of colors was presented to the regi-
ment by the Fire Department. The regimental flag,
of blue silk with the coat of arms of the United States
on one side, and the coat of arms of Pennsylvania
on the other, bore the inscription, "The Philadelphia
Fire Zouaves by the Fire Department of the City of
Philadelphia, Sept. 16, 1861."
— Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the United
States Navy, visited the navy-yard on the 14th of
September, and in company with Commander Lard-
ner inspected the work-shops, ship-houses, vessels in
course of construction or undergoing repairs, etc.
— The schooner "Mary Wood," charged with
blockade running, and captured by the squadron off
Hatteras Inlet, was brought as a prize on the 16th of
September.
— Tbe seventy-fourth anniversary of the adoption of
the Constitution of the United States was celebrated by
an imposing demonstration on the 17th of September.
Although the stores were not closed, the streets wore
a holiday appearance, and the national colors floated
from all the public buildings and many private resi-
dences. At sunrise a salute was fired from the navy-
780
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
yard, and later in the day a parade of the Home Guards
and cadets took place. The line was formed on Twelfth
Street, with the right resting on Callowhill,
1861] and moved up Callowhill to Fifteenth, down
Fifteenth to Walnut, and down Walnut to the
residence of the orator of the day, George M. Dallas,
on Walnut near Tenth Street, whence Mr. Dallas was
escorted to Independence Square. Seated in the car-
riage with Mr. Dallas was Theodore Cuyler, president
of Select Council. Opposite the square the military
came to a halt, and Mr. Dallas was escorted to the
platform erected for the officers of the day, orator, etc.
The platform was decorated with American flags, and
across the front was displayed the inscription : " The
Union and the Constitution must and shall be pre-
served." Although it was raining, an immense as-
semblage had congregated in the square. The fol-
lowing persons were selected as officers of the day :
President, Alexander Henry, mayor of Philadelphia ;
Vice-Presidents, Samuel Breck, Henry J. Williams,
John Graeff, Peter Williamson, John C. Farr,
Thomas Dunlap, William Musser, Col. J. S. Eiley,
Daniel Paul, Peter P. Gaskill, Thomas Tasker, J.
Edgar Thomson, Horace Binney, J. R. Ingersoll,
John B. Myers, John C. Cresson, Caleb Cope, Joel
B. Sutherland, John McCrea, Benjamin Rush, Col.
John Thompson, Charles Macalester, William M.
Meredith, Commodore Charles Stewart, Thomas A.
Budd, Joseph Wayne, Sr., Franklin Peale, John G.
Watmough, Charles S. Coxe, James Dundas, Simon
Gratz, Thomas I. Potts, John Welsh, S. M. Felton ;
Secretaries, Benjamin Gerhard, George W. Budd,
John Carter, William Botch Wister, H. C. Primrose,
Isaac Hazlehurst, William H. Merrick, John E. Ad-
dicks, Joseph T. Thomas, Charles Gilpin, Samuel C.
Perkins, Samuel B. Miller, Alexander Whillden. The
Junior Maennerchor Rifles, Freeman Rifles, and the
male members of the Handel and Haydn Society, as-
sisted by a full band under the direction of Professor
Birgfeld, sung the ode, "'America,' — Our country,
'tis of thee," after which Rev. Reuben Jeffries, D.D.,
offered prayer. Mayor Henry then made a patriotic
address, and after the singing of " Old Hundred," a
series of resolutions, adopted by the City Council,
providing for the celebration, and reaffirming the de-
votion of the people of Philadelphia to the Constitu-
tion, were read. Mr. Dallas then delivered his ora-
tion. The ceremonies concluded with the singing of
the " Star-Spangled Banner." The anniversary was
also celebrated by the James Page Library Company
of Kensington with a display of fire-works and a
salute of thirteen guns. An address was delivered at
the hall of the company, the front of which was dec-
orated with transparencies by Col. James Page.
— In Select Council, on the 19th of September, on
motion of Mr. Fox, it was resolved that in accordance
with the recommendation of the President of the
United States, Thursday, the 26th, should be observed
as a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting.
It was also determined that the usual meeting of
Councils held on that day be dispensed with, and that
the municipal offices be closed.
— The Ladies' Aid Society, it was announced on
the 20th of September, had secured the voluntary
services of ladies in Washington, and such facilities
from the United States government as would enable
them to distribute promptly and carefully such arti-
cles of food and clothing, not furnished by the gov-
ernment, as would promote the care and comfort
of sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals. The
officers were Mrs. E. P. S. Jones, president ; Mrs.
John Harris, secretary ; Mrs. Stephen Colwell, treas-
urer.
— The vote for brigadier-general of the Home
Guard resulted as follows: A. J. Pleasonton, 1302;
Henry Coffee, 292; C. P. Dare, 280.
— Sharp and Rankin's breech-loading fire-arms
manufactory, situated on the west bank of the Schuyl-
kill below the wire bridge, was busily engaged at this
time in the manufacture of patent breech-loading
rifles for the United States navy. Three different
sizes of Sharp's four-barreled pocket-pistols were also
made in large quantities. The manufacture of cav-
alry and infantry swords and sabre-bayonets was
actively carried on at the Frankford factory of Sheble
& Fisher, and a number of Philadelphia firms were
engaged in the manufacture of projectiles for the
War Department, cavalry-spurs, belt-plates, sword-
and bayonet-scabbard mountings, tent-cloth, and
other supplies for the army.
— In the latter part of September the City Coun-
cils Committee on the Safety and Defense of the City
employed persons to make a topographical survey of
the Susquehanna River with the view of erecting, if
necessary, fortifications to prevent a Confederate in-
vasion of eastern Pennsylvania. The engineering
party commenced operations near the mouth of the
Juniata, and completed their work before the close of
the year. For the purpose of creating an additional
corps for home defense, the same committee suggested
to the steam fire-engine companies the feasibility of
organizing themselves into an artillery corps. In ac-
cordance with this suggestion a meeting of delegates
was held on the 25th of September, at the headquar-
ters of the Home Guard, State-House row. Peter
A. Keyser, of Northern Liberties Fire Company, No.
1, presided, and George F. Borie, of Decatur Fire
Company of Frankford, acted as secretary. After a
statement of Gen. Pleasonton, it was determined to
postpone action until a future meeting. Various
meetings were held from time to time, but nothing
definite was done until the 11th of October, when it
was determined " to recommend to the fire companies
of this city to form from their own companies and
members who may join them, an artillery regiment,
to be composed of a company from each fire district,
and that the several fire companies throughout the
city be requested to report, through their delegates at
THE CIVIL WAK.
781
a meeting to be held on Wednesday evening next,
how far they can aid in this endeavor." At the meet-
ing held on the 16th, in accordance with this recom-
mendation, a number of those present stated that
they had been instructed by their companies to report
that their horses would be placed at the disposal of
the new regiment ; and that although many of their
men were already enlisted for active service, there still
remained a few who were willing to join the regiment
and render what service they could.
— Capt. T. F. Dupont, commandant at the Philadel-
phia navy-yard, having been ordered South, took
leave of the workmen at the yard on the 23d of Sep-
tember. In bidding them farewell he congratulated
them on having done a thing unprecedented in naval
history, in constructing a sloop of war in fifty-eight
days.
— James Haig, of Baltimore, F. Wyatt, clerk in an
iron store in Water Street, and William Gilchrist,
dealer in cutlery in Commerce Street, were arrested
on the 23d of September, on the charge of aidiDg the
Confederates, and furnishing them percussion-caps,
primers, and other supplies. They were sent to Fort
Lafayette.
— A number of changes in the list of officers of the
Reserve Brigade were announced on the 24th of Sep-
tember. Maj. N. B. Kneass had been unanimously
elected lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment in
place of Col. R. H. Rush, who had resigned for the
purpose of entering into active service. Capt. Alfred
Day was unanimously elected colonel of the Second
Regiment, and Capt. N. Hicks Graham major. Col.
C. M. Eakins, of the Third Regiment, appointed B.
Andrews Knight adjutant of the Third; and Col.
W. H. Yeaton, of the Fourth Regiment, appointed
Charles C. Knight adjutant of the Fourth.
— Matthews & Moore succeeded in casting at their
works at Bush Hill, on the 24th of September, an im-
mense Dahlgren gun, weighing about ten thousand
pounds, which was sent to Washington in the rough.
Up to this time the firm had cast eight guns, the
lightest weighing seven thousand pounds.
— The ship "Marathon," which arrived on the 23d
of September, was seized by the custom-house au-
thorities on the ground that two-thirds of the vessel
was owned by residents of New Orleans. The prize-
ship "Amelia," captured off Charleston on the 21st
of June, was sold by the United States marshal on
the 25th of September.
— William B. Wood, a veteran actor and manager,
died on the night of September 24th, in the eighty-
third year of his age. Toward the close of the eigh-
teenth century he became a member of the company
at the Chestnut Street Theatre, and shortly after
the beginning of the present century, assumed the
management in company with Mr. Warren. On
the 2d of April, 1820, the theatre was destroyed by fire
while the company was playing in Baltimore. A new
theatre was erected and opened on the 2d of Decem-
ber, 1822, on which occasion Mr. Wood delivered the
address. During the management of Messrs. Wood
and Warren a number of the most celebrated
English actors were introduced to the Phila- [1861
delphia public, among them Cooper, Cooke,
Kean, Macready, and Booth. As an actor Mr. Wood
was very successful, and a great favorite with Phila-
delphians.
— Pierce Butler, James W. Wall, and George L.
Browne were released from Fort Lafayette on the
24th of September, after Messrs. Wall and Browne
had taken the oath to support the Constitution, and
Mr. Butler had taken a pledge not to act hostilely to
the United States, or visit South Carolina without a
passport.
— On the 27th of September it was announced that
there were then in the field the following regi-
ments from Philadelphia : Twenty-third, Col. Birney ;
Twenty-fourth, Col. Owen; Twenty-sixth, Col. Small;
Twenty-seventh, Col. Einstein; Twenty-eighth, Col.
Geary ; Twenty-ninth, Col. Murphy ; Thirtieth, Col.
Chantry ; Thirty-first, Col. Williams ; Thirty-second,
Col. Lujeane; Fire Zouaves, Col. Baxter; California
Regiment, Col. Baker ; Forty-fifth, Col. Koltes. Be-
sides these regiments of infantry, Philadelphia had
contributed one full regiment of dragoons under Col.
Friedman, the greater portion of Young's so-called
Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, and the Lincoln Cav-
alry. The regiments of infantry commanded by
Cols. Mann, Sickles, and March had each three or
four companies raised in Philadelphia. Recruiting
for the Excelsior Brigade of New York, commanded
by Gen. Sickles, was very active in Philadelphia, but
it was not definitely known how many of the men
came from the latter city. Capt. C. H. T. Collis'
company of Independent Zouaves, which left the city
on the 25th of September, was also recruited in Phila-
delphia. In addition to the Philadelphia organiza-
tions actually in the field, a number of commands
were in process of formation. Col. Lyle had enrolled
between seven and eight hundred men, who were
being drilled at Oxford. Col. McLean had nearly a
full regiment encamped on the Schuylkill near the
mouth of the Wissahickon. Col. Gosline's Zouave
Regiment was full, but it was determined to increase
the force to one thousand five hundred men. Col.
Gregory's regiment, which was in camp, was rapidly
filling up, and Col. Ballier's regiment, stationed at
Girard Park, was nearly ready to leave for the seat
of war. Col. Bohlen's command, at Hestonville, was
also nearly full, and Col. Wallace, whose regiment
was encamped on the Islington Lane, opposite the
Odd-Fellows' Cemetery, was busy recruiting in Phila-
delphia. The Fifth Regiment, Baker's brigade, Col.
Morehead, was encamped in West Philadelphia,
awaiting orders to move southward ; and Col. Jones'
regiment was encamped at Roxborough. Col. Conroy
was engaged in raising the Thomas A. Scott Regi-
ment, and Col. Dunn a regiment to be connected
782
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
with the Irish Brigade. The Commonwealth Eegi-
ment, and three regiments of mounted men — Col.
Chorman's Mounted Eifle Hangers, and Cols.
1861] Bush's and Price's cavalry regiments — were
also being organized. Baron Vegesack, a
Swedish nobleman, who had been commissioned by
the War Department, was given command of the bat-
tery of flying artillery attached to Col. Birney's regi-
ment, the Twenty -third Pennsylvania Volunteers.
— During the summer and fall of 1861, the gov-
ernment purchased a number of vessels at the ship-
yards, with the purpose of fitting them up as trans-
ports and gun-boats. Among them were two side-
wheel iron steamers built by Neafie & Levy, a hull
built by Simpson & Neill, which was converted into
a gun-boat, another hull built by Williams & Son,
and also converted into a gun-boat, three schooners
fitted up for similar service, and the fine iron steam-
ship " St. Mary," of about eleven hundred tons bur-
den, built at Wilmington, Del.
— Thursday, September 26th, was generally ob-
served as a day of fasting and prayer, in accordance
with the recommendation of the President of the
United States and a special resolution of the City
Councils. Most of the places of business were closed,
as well as the courts and public offices, and special
services were held in the churches of all denomina-
tions.
—A stand of colors was presented to Col. Bohlen's
regiment at the residence of the colonel, Walnut and
Juniper Streets, on the 27th of September, by Hon.
Joseph E. Chandler on behalf of Mrs. Sophia Bohlen.
The colors were received by Lieut.-Col. Mahler, and
after the ceremony the regiment started for Wash-
ington.
— A new department for the manufacture of army
clothing having been established at the foot of Chest-
nut Street, Schuylkill, there was a rush of applicants
for work on the 27th of September, there being at one
time over five thousand women in front of or near the
building. Such was the pressure of the crowd that a
number of women fainted.
— On the 28th of September a stand of colors was
presented to Col. Baxter's regiment of Fire Zouaves
by their brother firemen, through I. Newton Brown.
The ceremony took place in front of the La Pierre
House. The colors were received on behalf of the
regiment by Eichard Ludlow, Jr.
— The mayor received notice on the 28th of Sep-
tember that two steel rifled cannon, made in Prussia
and a gift from James Swaim, had arrived at New
York. They were six-pounders, and the first of the
kind exported from Prussia. The only condition
attached to the gift was that they should always re-
main the property of the city of Philadelphia.
In their final presentment, on the 28th of Sep-
tember, the grand jury of the Quarter Sessions stated
that they had examined the charges of fraud in con-
nection with the furnishing of clothing to the troops,
and were constrained to say that they " had no evi-
dence of any fraud having been perpetrated upon
this commonwealth in the supplies furnished to the
troops, nor of any frauds on the part of those per-
sons, official or unofficial, engaged in the manage-
ment of the interests of the commonwealth." It was
admitted that mistakes and irregularities had oc-
curred, but it was believed that no frauds had been
committed.
— On the 29th of September the news reached Phila-
delphia of a lamentable catastrophe that had befallen
the Philadelphia regiments commandedby Cols. Baker,
Baxter, Owen, and Friedman. During the advance of
the Federal army on the Falls Church from Chain
Bridge, Va., on the night of the 28th, Col. Owen's
Philadelphia Irish Eegiment, in the darkness of the
night, mistook for Confederates Capt. Mott's battery,
which was in the advance, sustained by Col. Baker's
California Eegiment (largely composed of Philadel-
phians), Col. Baxter's Philadelphia Fire Zouaves, and
Col. Max Friedman's Philadelphia Cavalry, and fired
a full volley into the approaching troops, killing and
wounding a large number. The California Eegiment,
not knowing whence the firing came, returned it with
disastrous effect. The horses attached to Mott's
battery became unmanageable, and the tongues of
the caissons were broken, owing to the narrowness of
the road. Lieut. Bryan, having command of the
first section, ordered the guns to be loaded with
grape and canister, and soon had them in range to
rake the supposed enemy, when word was sent him
that a blunder had been committed, and that the
attacking parties were friends. Of Capt. Mott's bat-
tery Timothy Eay was killed outright, and Corp.
Bartlett and private Cilley were fatally wounded.
Of Col. Baker's California Eegiment the killed were
Edwin Morris, of Company I ; Joseph Pascoe and
Joseph White, of Company H ; and Alexander Phil-
lison, of Company M. A number were more or less
seriously wounded. In Col. Baxter's regiment none
were killed, but several were wounded. John Doran,
John McGuire, and private Williams, Company I,
First Pennsylvania Dragoons, were mortally wounded.
Of Col. Owen's Irish Eegiment, Sergt. Gillon, Com-
pany B, was killed, and Sergts. W. B. McCann and
Charles Shields, of Company E, were wounded.
— In the newspapers of October 1st it was stated
that Dr. William Frishmuth, of Philadelphia, who
was already a member of the United States detective
service, was about to organize a field gendarmerie
(mounted) of two hundred picked men for the ser-
vice of the United States government. In a few days
the complement of men had been secured. About
the same time the Light Cavalry Eegiment of Col.
Eush, encamped on Second Street above Nicetown
Lane, was ready to take the field. The field and
staff officers were, Colonel, Eichard H. Eush ; Lieu-
tenant-Colonel, J. H. McArthur; Major, C. Boss
Smith ; Quartermaster, Thomas E. Maley ; Adjutant,
THE CIVIL WAR.
783
F. C. Newhall ; Surgeon, Dr. Moss ; Assistant Sur-
geon, Dr. Ellis.
— The United States gun-boat "Itasca," built by
Hillman & Streaker, at their ship-yards, Kensington,
was launched on the 1st of October. She was one
hundred and fifty tons burden, one hundred and sixty
feet long, twenty-eight feet beam, and twelve feet
hold, and was pierced for eleven guns. She was
armed, however, with a large rifled cannon on the
forecastle deck, and a pivot gun amidships, together
with four eleven-inch guns. The gun-boat " Wissa-
hickon," a vessel of about the same size as the
" Itasca," was launched on the following day from
the yard of John W. Lynn, at the foot of Reed
Street.
— Prizes made by United States vessels continued
to arrive in port every few days. The schooner
" Extra," captured in the Rappahannock by the gun-
boat " Daylight," reached the city in charge of
Prize-master L. C. Wood, on the 30th of September.
On the same day the schooners "R. W. Tull" and
" Clare" and the bark "Isaac R. Davis" were seized
on the ground that they were owned either in whole
or part by citizens of the rebellious States. On the
2d of October the schooner " Harmony," captured off
Hatteras Inlet by the United States gun-boat " Gems-
bock," and the bark " Macon," captured off the mouth
of the Mississippi by the sloop-of-war " Brooklyn,"
were brought into port.
— A frame building, thirty by twenty feet, and one
story high, designed for use as a military hospital,
was erected during the month of October on the east
side of Swanson Street, below Washington Avenue.
The corner-stone was laid on the 2d of October with
appropriate ceremonies. Ex-Governor Pollock pre-
sided, and made an address, in which he said that the
enterprise had originated with the men and women
who had conceived the idea of providing refresh-
ments for the volunteers on their way to the seat of
war. No less than ninety thousand soldiers had been
fed at the saloon adjoining, but the originators of the
refreshment saloon felt that they were not doing
enough in feeding the soldiers, and had resolved to
build a hospital for the sick and wounded.
— Early in October, Point Breeze Park was tendered
to the city authorities for a parade-ground, and for
the drilling of troops, including the artillery arm of
the Home Guard organization.
—The prize-ship " Amelia," which was captured
June 18th off Hatteras Inlet, was sold at auction on
the 8th of October to Peter Wright & Sons for eleven
thousand five hundred dollars. On the same day the
schooner " Ocean Wave," of Washington, N. O, from
the West Indies with sugar, salt, fruit, etc., which
was captured off Hatteras Inlet, was brought to the
navy-yard in charge of a prize-master.
—The annual election for judges of the District
and Common Pleas Courts, city and county officers,
members of Councils and ward officers was held on
the 8th of October and passed off quietly. There
were three tickets in the field,— the Democratic,
People's, and Union.
— Owing to alleged irregularities in taking [1861
the votes of Philadelphians who had enlisted
in the army, and who were then in camp, the result
was not ascertained until several weeks after the elec-
tion, and not until after much litigation in the courts.
The frauds said to have been perpetrated in counting
the army vote were brought, about the same time, to
the attention of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
and the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia. In
the suit of Robert Ewing, Democratic candidate for
sheriff, against Charles D. Knight, and others, asking
for an injunction to restrain the prothonotary of the
Court of Common Pleas from sending to the return
judges of Philadelphia a fraudulent return purport-
ing to give the votes of thirteen companies of the
Thirty-ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, the
Supreme Court decided in favor of the petitioner and
granted the injunction asked for. Judge Ludlow, of the
Common Pleas Court, however, decided that his court
had not the power to grant a similar petition for an in-
junction to prevent the counting of the same return
and of one from certain companies of Col. McLean's
regiment. At the same time he advised the prothono-
tary as a ministerial officer to see that the returns
made to him were according to law, and if he had
evidence before him establishing fraud to withhold
the certificate. If there was any doubt in regard to
the fraud, he was not to solve the doubt, but to certify
the paper. On the 12th of November the prothono-
tary, Mr. Knight, certified to the return judges the
votes cast by the soldiers, but, it being claimed that
he had omitted certain returns about which there
was no suspicion of fraud, an application was made to
Judge Ludlow for a mandamus to compel him to cer-
tify them. The judge decided that the prothonotary
was simply a ministerial officer through which the
returns were sent. to the judges, and that the latter
had power only to count up the returns thus sent
them. They could not decide upon the authenticity
of a paper certified to them by the prothonotary.
The effect of the prothonotary's action was to ex-
clude the votes of all companies belonging to regi-
ments which had been raised independently of the
Governor's authority and directly under the author-
ity of the War Department at Washington. The
court ordered the prothonotary to send in the ex-
cluded returns. When the return judges met on the
13th, a writ of mandamus was served, commanding
them to include in their count of the army votes
certain returns which had been sent to them by the
courts, but which had not been counted. The judges,
however, refused to recognize or count the returns,
and a writ of peremptory mandamus was applied for
and granted by Judge Ludlow, to compel them to
compute the votes certified to by the prothonotary,
under penalty of attachment for contempt. On the
784
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
following day the court was informed that the return
judges had determined to comply with the order. At
a meeting of the board, held on the 17th of
1861] November, it was determined that the clerks
should proceed to write down the votes in the
following order : First, the city vote of Oct. 8, 1861 ;
second, the volunteer vote first sent and certified to
by the prothonotary ; third, the volunteer vote sent in
under the direction of Judge Ludlow. The returns
thus tabulated were, —
Army.
City.
Under
Protest.
Not
Under
Protest.
Total.
President Judge Common Pleas Court.
Oswald Thompson, People's candidate
1275
2088
1253
2098
3329
2070
2086
1273
1200
1298
2091
2093
1264
5
2098
1261
2135
1235
3
2116
1240
2
615
236
280
330
277
346
627
345
340
279
283
266
366
343
279
357
269
352
280
353
274
105
47
32,114
28,626
31,395
29,204
59,059
28,713
28,519
32,056
32,080
30,492
30,346
29,166
28,352
2,928
29,833
30,709
29,698
28,196
2,523
29,642
27,830
2,859
7,628
6,635
36,669
31,059
Associates,
Joseph Allison, People's candidate
32,925
31,648
Thompson's majority, 2616; Allison's,
1277.
President Judge District Court.
63,015
Associates.
31,128
30,945
J. I. Clark Htire. People's candidate-
George M. Stroud, People's candidate.
Hare's majority over Otterson, 2663.
Stroud's majority over Bateman, 2525.
Slieriff.
John Thompson, People's candidate,..
33,608
33,053
32,056
32,803
Ewing's majority, 747.
Register of Wills.
31.602
Samuel Lloyd, People's candidate. ...
F. S. Wol gamut h, Union candidate
McCullough's majority, 1707.
Clerk of Orphans' Court.
29,895
2,933
32,288
W. C. Stevenson, People's candidate...
Lawrence's majority, 49.
City Treasurer.
32,239
32.185
Henry En mm, Peoplt-'s candidate
James S. Biddle, Union candidate
McClintock's majority, 2474.
City Commissioner.
29,711
2,526
32,111
29,344
Edwin McCalln, Union candidate
Johnson'B majority, 2767.
State Senator from the Third District.
2,861
8,148
M. H. Dickinson, People's candidate..
Donovan's majority, 1230.
6,918
The certificates were made out for the successful
candidates, and to each certificate was attached a pro-
test setting forth that on the 12th of November there
were twenty-one certificates which the prothonotary
sent into the board as.legal returns, and subsequently
the prothonotary, by direction of Judge Ludlow, sent
seventy-nine other returns which were not certified to
be copies of returns of volunteers in actual military
service of the United States in conformity with the
law and which last-mentioned returns were received
by the board under protest, and afterward computed
by the board by compulsion in obedience to a writ of
a peremptory mandamus issued by said Hon. J. B.
Ludlow. This protest was signed by the members of
the People's party, the Democratic members signing
a counter-protest in which they declared the protest
to be an insult to Judge Ludlow and to the Court of
Common Pleas.
— A new regiment of light infantry was organized
during the early part of October by Col. John F.
Staunton, and encamped at Camac's woods. Two
companies belonging to the late regiment of Col. P.
Conroy were attached, by order of Governor Curtin,
to Col. Staunton's command.
— The Pennsylvania Zouaves, Col. JohnM. Gosline,
left their camp at Hestonville on the 12th of October,
and marched to Broad and Prime Streets, where they
took the train for the South.
— The " James S. Chambers" was launched on
the 11th of November, at the ship-yard of Charles
Williams, at the foot of Queen Street. Her dimen-
sions were one hundred and twenty-five feet in length,
twenty-nine and a half feet beam, and twelve feet
depth of hold, and her rig that of a three-masted
schooner.
— In the United States Circuit Court, on the 14th
of October, Assistant District Attorney Ashton an-
nounced that he had received an order from the As-
sistant Attorney-General of the United States to
withdraw the suits against the Jeffersonian of West
Chester, Pa., and the Christian Observer, two news-
papers charged with publishing articles with intent
to aid and abet the insurrection in the Southern
States. Counsel for the owners of the papers sug-
gested that the claim for restitution of the property
should be allowed, and an order to that effect was
granted by the court.
— On the 12th of October a flag was presented from
a lady of Eoxborough to the National Regiment, Col.
J. Richter Jones, at Camp Roxborough. The pre-
sentation was made by Horatio Gates Jones, a brother
of the colonel, and the flag was received on behalf
of the regiment by Capt. Montgomery Martin.
— The United States gun-boat " Scioto" was
launched at the ship-yard of Jacob Birely, Kensing-
ton, on the 15th of October, after which she was
taken to the ship-yard of I. P. Morris & Co. to re-
ceive her machinery. She was one hundred and
sixty feet long, twenty-eight feet beam, and twelve
feet hold. Her armament was similar to that of the
" Itasca."
— George W. Peterson, of the well-known publish-
ing firm of T. B. Peterson & Brothers, died on the
16th of October.
— The sword voted by the City Councils to Col.
Robert Anderson was presented to him privately at
Washington on the 16th of October.
— During October the City Councils adopted reso-
lutions of thanks for gifts of cannon to the city of
Philadelphia, from James Swaim, of Philadelphia,
and James McHenry, of London.
THE CIVIL WAR.
785
— Up to October 18th, the Committee of Councils
on the Safety and Defense of the City had purchased
one thousand Enfield rifles with sword bayonets, six
hundred Prussian rifles and five hundred Prussian
muskets, thirteen hundred patent breech-loading mus-
kets with Maynard primers, two hundred and fifty
sabres, three hundred pistols, five thousand infantry
and artillery accoutrements, two hundred and ten sets
of harness for artillery purposes, and carriages, cais-
sons, forges, etc., for twelve pieces of cannon purchased
by the committee. From the City Councils permission
was obtained for the use of the market-house at
Broad and Eace Streets as an armory for the local
military organizations.
— The corner-stone of the Burd Female Orphan
Asylum of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church
was laid on Sunday afternoon, October 18th. The
services were conducted by Bishop Potter, of Penn-
sylvania, Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, and Rev. H. W.
Ducachet, of St. Stephen's. The site on which the
buildings were afterward erected was a lot of ground
situated on Market Street, in Delaware County,
about three and a half miles from the Schuylkill.
There were four buildings, connected by inclosed
corridors, and all in the Gothic style of architecture.
The material used was stone quarried on the ground.
The entire front, including the main building, wings,
and corridors, was two hundred and sixty-one feet.
The depth of the wings, exclusive of the piazzas, was
one hundred and one feet. The chapel connected
with the asylum was capable of seating four hundred
persons, and the dining-room two hundred.
— By the explosion of a steam-boiler on the 19th
of October, at the engine-works of I. P. Morris &
Co., at Richmond and York Streets, Patrick O'Neill
and Thomas Hibbert were killed and John Parker
seriously injured.
— William W.Smith, one of the Confederate prize-
crew from the privateer " Jeff Davis," who was cap-
tured on board the schooner " Enchantress," was
put on trial in the United States Circuit Court before
Judges Grier and Cadwalader, on a charge of piracy,
on the 22d of October, and was convicted.
— An election for assistant bishop of the Protestant
Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, in place of Eight
Rev. Samuel Bowman, D.D., deceased, was held at
St. Andrew's Church on the 23d of October. The
convention of the diocese which assembled for this
purpose was opened with the usual service, after
which Rev. Dr. Stevens, rector of St. Andrew's, de-
livered a eulogy of the dead bishop. A series of
resolutions expressing the regret of the members at
Bishop Bowman's sudden death and condoling with
the family were adopted. The first ballot taken by
the clerical delegates resulted as follows : Revs. James
May, 53; A. C. Coxe, 29; William Bacon Stevens,
24; H. J. Morton, 27; M. A. De Wolfe Howe, 6; D.
R. Goodwin, 4; G. E. Hare, 2; S. H. Weston, 2; D.
W. C. Morris, 1 ; George Leeds, 1 ; Charles Mason, 1 ;
50
blank, 3; making a total of 153 votes cast ; necessary
to a choice, 77. On the third ballot, taken on the fol-
lowing day (October 24th), Dr. May having
withdrawn, Rev. Dr. William Bacon Stevens [1861
received 85 votes and Rev. Dr. Leeds, 50;
scattering, 14 Dr. Stevens was confirmed by the lay
delegates by the following vote: for approval, 84;
against, 37 ; divided, 2. Bishop Potter then declared
Dr. Stevens elected assistant bishop.
—Col. James Page, Col. Philip S. White, John
Thornley, and Jacob Seitzinger, a committee ap-
pointed for the purpose, visited Washington on the
23d of October, and presented a handsome flag and
pair of pistols to Col. Williams, commanding the
Thirty-first Pennsylvania Regiment.
— The body of Lieut. Joseph D. Williams, of
Company A, California Regiment, who was killed
at Ball's Bluff on the 21st of October, reached the city
on the 24th, in charge of his brother, a guard detached
from the company acting as escort. The remains were
conveyed to the late residence of the deceased at
Frankford, and were buried on the 27th at Cedar Hill
Cemetery. During the same engagement Col. E. D.
Baker, commander of the California Eegiment, was
killed, and Lieut.-Col. Wistar and Capt. Markoe, of
Philadelphia, were wounded, the latter being taken
prisoner. Charles C. Ferguson, of the same regiment,
was mortally wounded, dying within a few hours.
His remains reached Philadelphia on the 25th. A
number of other Philadelphians were more or less
seriously wounded. Capt. Wm. Otter was shot and
drowned in endeavoring to escape by swimming the
river.
— The United States steamer " Keystone State" ar-
rived on the 25th of October, having in tow the block-
ade-runner "Salvor," a valuable steamer laden with
contraband goods, and captured while on her way
from Havana to Tampa Bay. Her cargo consisted of
six hundred pistols, five hundred thousand percussion-
caps, six hundred dozen felt hats, eight cases of shoes,
four hundred thousand cigars, four hundred bags of
coffee, cases of dry-goods, etc.
— On the 26th of October the bodies of A. J. Hooper,
of Company A, and James Coggswell, corporal of
Company C, of the California Regiment, arrived.
John Johnson and Henry Booth were also killed at
Ball's Bluff.
— The following dispatch was received by telegraph
from the mayor of San Francisco, Cal., by Mayor
Henry on the 26th of October :
" To the Mayor of PuiLAnELrniA:
" San Francisco to Fhiliidelphiasonds groeting, and congratulates her
on tho completion of tlie enterprise wliicli connects the Pacific with the
Atlantic. Mny the prosperity of both cities be increased thereby, and
tho projectors of this important work meet with honor and reward.
" H. S. TF.8CIIMUEU,
" Mayor of San Francisco, Cal."
The following reply was sent by Mayor Henry :
786
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
*' Office of the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia,
" October 26, 1861.
" To the Hon. H. S. Teschmkee, Mayor of Son Francisco :
" Philadelphia reciprocates the kindly greetings of San Fran-
1861] Cisco. May the Pacific Telegraph ever interchange between
the two cities messages of loyalty and good-will.
" Alexander Henry,
" Mayor of Philadelphia."
— An application for a new trial for W. W. Smith,
convicted of piracy, was filed in the United States
Circuit Court on the 28th of October. On the same
day, in the same court, Thomas Quigley, Edward
Rockford, and Daniel Mullins were placed on trial
on a bill charging them jointly with Smith and Lane
with piracy, and were convicted.
— In the latter part of October, Merrick & Son
received a contract from the United States gov-
ernment to build an iron-clad frigate of three
thousand five hundred tons, the hull to be con-
structed by Cramp & Son, Kensington. The vessel
was two hundred and forty feet long, fifty-eight feet
beam, and thirty feet deep. The plates of iron with
which she was protected were twenty feet long,
eighteen inches wide, and four and a half inches
thick. The spar-deck was of iron, and the guns
were placed on the lower deck. The hull was of the
most substantial character, the timbers being very
heavy and placed close together. The machinery was
constructed by Merrick & Son. Her armament con-
sisted of sixteen rifled cannon of the largest size.
This ship was afterwards known as the " New Iron-
sides."
— On the 30th of October, Craig's woolen-mills, at
Twelfth Street and Washington Avenue, were de-
stroyed by fire, involving a loss ofeone hundred thou-
sand dollars. Several buildings in the vicinity were
damaged.
— Eben Lane, one of the crew of the Confederate
prize "Enchantress," was tried in the United States
Circuit Court, before Judges Grier and Cadwalader,
October 29th and 30th, and acquitted, on the ground
that as navigator of the " Enchantress" he had en-
deavored to steer the vessel so that she would not
reach a Southern port, in the hope that in the mean
time she would fall in with a United States cruiser,
which eventually happened. Lane alleged that at
night he navigated the vessel north, and in the day-
time south.
— The hospital of the Cooper-Shop Volunteer Ee-
freshment Saloon, situated immediately north of the
saloon, the entrance to which was on Otsego Street,
below Washington, was dedicated on the 31st of Oc-
tober, in the presence of several hundred ladies and
gentlemen, who had assembled in the large mission-
room over the saloon. Rev. Mr. Perry, pastor of the
Mission Church, presided, and a choir, under direction
of Professor Warden, rendered a number of vocal se-
lections. Addresses were made by Rev. Dr. John
Chambers, Dr. Brainerd, Hon. William D. Kelley, and
others. The hospital was a two-story frame structure.
— A number of the employes of the Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad Company signed a paper in the
latter part of October and early in November to the
effect that they would devote every month a dollar or
more of their wages in subscribing to the new govern-
ment 7-30 loan, the interest accruing to be reinvested
in the same way, the whole investment, principal and
interest, to be sold as soon after the termination of the
war as might be decided on, and the proceeds to be
divided among the subscribers in proportion to the
amounts and duration of their subscriptions. The
president and treasurer of the road acted as trustees.
On the 4th of November it was announced that five
thousand four hundred dollars had already been sub-
scribed through Jay Cooke, the government agent,
by one thousand out of the fifteen hundred employes
in the transportation department. In the roadway
department five hundred had given notice of their
intention to subscribe.
— When Capt. Perry and Lieut. Harvey, of the
Confederate privateer " Petrel," were arraigned for
trial in the United States Circuit Court on the 4th of
November, Judge Grier said he could not understand
why the regular court business should be interrupted
any further with the trial of such cases. It seemed
to him that as the rebellion had assumed the propor-
tions of a civil war, humanity dictated that captives
taken at sea should be treated like those taken on land.
He could not understand why these men, captured at
sea, should be hanged while other prisoners were
held or discharged as prisoners of war. He was tired
of it, and did not think he could give any more of
his time, which was required elsewhere, to these
trials.
— In view of the frauds alleged to have been com-
mitted in taking the votes of Philadelphia soldiers in
camp at the October election, the Democratic conven-
tion of the Third Senatorial District, at a meeting
held on the 5th of November, resolved that " we will
not submit to our constitutional rights being tram-
pled under foot by political villains who choose to
make false returns of elections purporting to emanate
from the army, frauds so glaring that if we submit
thereto we do not deserve to be freemen ; but we will
not submit to such outrages, and we call upon the
freemen of Philadelphia opposed to such frauds to
rally, and meet in Independence Square on Friday
evening, November 8th, and if we are trampled under
foot, it will be at the precincts of Independence Hall,
battling unto death for our rights." In accordance
with this recommendation, an immense assemblage
collected at Independence Square on the night of
November 8th. Charles Ingersoll presided, and ad-
dressed the meeting. Speeches were also made by
Hon. William H. Witte and John C. Bullitt, and a
series of resolutions offered by E. R. Helmbold, in
which the alleged frauds were specified and de-
nounced, were adopted, after which the meeting
adjourned.
THE CIVIL WAR.
787
— By an explosion of fulminating powder at the
Bridesburg arsenal on the 5th of November, P. Coney
and Joseph Nail were instantly killed and F. Bilhart
was seriously injured.
— Up to November 7th the following Confederate
prizes had been brought to the city: ship "General
Parkhill," captured by the United States steamship
"Niagara;" ship " Amelia," by gun-boat "Union;"
brig " Herald," by frigate "St. Lawrence;" steamer
"Salvor," by steamer "Keystone State;" schooner
" Abbie Bradford," by frigate "Powhatan;" schooner
" Fairwind," by frigate " Minnesota ;" schooner
"Prince Alfred," by steamship "Susquehanna;"
schooner " Harmony," by gun-boat " Gemsbok ;"
schooner " Albion," by ship " Seminole ;" bark
" Maco," by sloop-of-war " Brooklyn ;" schooner " G.
G.Baker," by frigate " Minnesota ;" schooner "San
Juan," by gun-boat "Union;" schooners "Ocean
Wave," "Susan J. Nevis," and "Harriet Byan,"
by sloop-of-war "Pawnee;" schooner "Mary Wood,"
by gun-boat " Gemsbok ;" schooner " Extra," by gun-
boat "Daylight;" schooner "Specie," by sloop-of-
war " Dale." The first prizes brought in, as hereto-
fore stated, were the " Delaware Farmer," " Mary
Willis," and " Emily Ann," which were released by
Judge Cadwalader on the ground that they had not
violated the blockade, and are, therefore, not included
in the foregoing list.
— The remains of Col. E. D. Baker, who was killed
at Ball's Bluff on the 21st of October, reached Phila-
delphia on the 7th of November, in charge of M.
E. Flanagen, of San Francisco, W. H. Wallace, of
Washington Territory, and E. M. Barnum, of Oregon.
Preparations for their reception had been made by
the civil and military authorities, and a large number
of citizens had assembled at the depot, Col. Baker
being well known and highly esteemed. As the
train entered the depot the City Guards, Capt. Bar-
ney, formed in line upon the platform. The body
was conveyed from the train to the hearse in waiting
by eight members of the California Regiment, which
Col. Baker had organized mainly in Philadelphia;
Maj.-Gen. Patterson, Brig.-Gens. Patterson, Reilly,
Miles, Cadwalader, and Pleasonton, and Col. Dare
and Maj. C. W. Smith acting as honorary pall-bearers.
The funeral procession passed over the prescribed
route in the following order : one hundred policemen,
band (playing a dirge), Second Regiment Home
Guard, First Regiment Home Guard, a battalion of
Col. Gregory's regiment, about a dozen officers and
men who were in the engagement in which Col.
Baker was killed, the hearse drawn by six black
horses, officers of a number of volunteer companies,
carriages containing the mayor and other representa-
tives of the city government, the officers of the Gray
Reserves on foot, and a platoon of policemen bring-
ing up the rear. On reaching Independence Hall,
which had been tendered for the purpose by special
resolution of City Councils, the remains were placed
on a bier. The face was then uncovered, and citi-
zens admitted to view it. The remains had been
embalmed, and the face retained much of its
natural appearance. A constant stream of [1861
people passed into the hall up to nine o'clock
in the evening, when the doors were closed and
the remains left in charge of a military guard. On
the following morning the doors were reopened,
and the remains were viewed by thousands dur-
ing the day. At eleven o'clock both branches of the
City Councils met and paid an official visit to the
hall. On Saturday morning, November 9th, the body
was taken to New York, accompanied by Capt. Bar-
ney, two corporals and two privates of the City Grays,
and Lieut. Newkumet, of the Second Regiment of
Home Guards, in addition to the committee which
had come on from Washington.
— The Councils Committee on the Safety and De-
fense of the City determined early in November to
put the battery, consisting of six brass cannon, into
the hands of the artillery companies attached to the
Home Guards. These companies were under the
command of Capts. M. Hastings, C. Biddle, and J.
M- Biddle, of Germantown.
— Hon. Joel B. Sutherland died at his residence, 1716
Pine Street, on the 15th of November, in the seven-
tieth year of his age. He was educated for the medi-
cal profession, but gave up practice early in life and
engaged in politics. After holding a seat in the State
Legislature for several years he was elected to Con-
gress as the Democratic candidate from the First Dis-
trict, and continued to represent that district until
1837. He also held the position of associate judge
in the Court of Common Pleas, and for a short time
was resident physician at the Lazaretto. He took an
active part in the war of 1812, and subsequently in-
terested himself in the effort to secure pensions for
those who enlisted in the service of their country at
that time. He was prominently identified with a
number of local enterprises, and was one of the
originators of the Lafayette Cemetery. During his
career in Congress he published a work on parliament-
ary proceedings, which was almost universally used
as a work of reference.
— The side-wheel steamer " Miami," intended for
the service of the United States government, was
launched at the navy-yard on the 17th of November.
The "Miami" was two hundred and twenty feet in
length, thirty-three feet beam, and twelve feet hold,
with a rudder at each end to obviate the necessity of
turning her, and was provided with a heavy battery,
the object being to use her both as a transport and
war vessel.
—On the 9th of November J. P. Benjamin, Acting
Secretary of War of the Confederate States, issued
an order to Brig.-Gen. Winder, who had charge of
the Union prisoners at Richmond, instructing him to
choose by lot from among the prisoners of war of the
highest rank one who was to be confined in a cell
788
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
appropriated to convict felons, and who was to be
treated in all respects as if he were such convict,
and to be held for execution in the same
1861] manner as W. W. Smith, of the Confeder-
ate privateer "Jeff Davis," who had been
convicted of piracy in Philadelphia, and was then
in Moyamensing under conviction. On the 10th
Gen. Winder made the selection, the prisoners draw-
ing a ticket from a can. Col. Corcoran, of the Sixty-
ninth' New York Regiment, was selected as the
hostage for Smith. Thirteen other prisoners of war,
the highest in rank, were ordered by Mr. Benja-
min to be selected by lot and kept in close confine-
ment, to be treated afterward as the Confederate
privateersmen then in prison in New York were
treated. The list of thirteen drawn comprised the
names of Cols. Lee, Coggswell, Wilcox, Woodruff, and
Wood ; Lieut.-Cols. Bowman and Neff ; Majs. Potter,
Revere, and Vodges ; and Capts. Ricketts, McQuade,
and Rockwood. Smith occupied a cell with his com-
panion, Rockwood, on the second corridor in the " un-
tried department" of the county prison, and was
treated in all respects like the other prisoners in the
same department. He was allowed to see any of his
friends, and was permitted to receive any articles from
them except such as the rules of the prisou prohibited.
In accordance with the custom in Pennsylvania he
was treated as though he were an untried prisoner,
although he had been convicted, because sentence
had not been passed upon him.
— On the 21st of November City Councils passed
an ordinance making a further appropriation of two
hundred thousand dollars for the relief of families of
volunteers then in the service of the United States.
Up to the 16th the sum expended was two hundred
and fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and forty-two
dollars. The weekly expenditures amounted to about
eleven thousand dollars, distributed among nearly
eleven thousand persons.
— In the latter part of November five cavalry regi-
ments were in process of formation in Philadelphia, —
the Curtin Hussars, Col. Frismuth ; the Irish Dra-
goons, Col. Gallagher ; Col. R. Butler Price's regiment,
and Col. Rush's regiment.
— At a meeting of the Board of Trade, held on the
25th, it.was resolved that " the river and bay defenses
are entirely inadequate and need to be immediately
and largely increased ;" that " it is the duty of the
United States government to superintend and effect
such an increase at such points as a competent corps
of engineers may indicate with the least possible
delay," and that "the ardent patriotism aud efficient
services of Pennsylvania in the work of suppressing
the Southern Rebellion give her the right to demand
from the national government adequate protection to
her seaport, Philadelphia."
On the 26th of November the question as to who
should enter security as sheriff, and as clerk of the
Orphans' Court, was decided by the Court of Common
Pleas in favor of Messrs. Ewing and Lawrence, Demo-
cratic candidates for the respective offices. Petitions
contesting their election were filed on behalf of
Messrs. Thompson and Stevenson, the opposition
candidates.
— St. Paul's Catholic Church, Christian Street be-
low Tenth, was destroyed by fire on the 26th of No-
vember. It was one of the largest and handsomest
religious edifices in the city, and cost about seventy-
five thousand dollars. Its erection was commenced
in 1843, but was not finished until several years later.
During the anti-Catholic riots of 1844 fears of its de-
struction were entertained, and a military company
guarded it for several days.
—At a meeting of officers of the Home Guard, held
on the 26th of November, the commander, Gen. A. J.
Pleasonton, stated that about four thousand men had
been enrolled as active members, and that the money
expended on their account for parades, advertising,
etc., amounted to only one dollar and forty-one cents
per man. Being under the control of the city, and
entirely independent of the State, the Home Guard
had received no benefits from the latter. Both Gen.
Pleasonton and Col. J. Ross Snowden advocated
making an application to the City Councils for an
appropriation for the maintenance of the Home
Guard. In accordance with these suggestions a series
of resolutions were adopted requesting that three
hundred dollars be furnished each company for ar-
mory rent and expenses ; that uniform coats, over-
coats, and army hats be furnished the active mem-
bers ; that suitable halls be provided by the city for
regimental and battalion drills; that a sum equal to
the amount allowed by the State be paid to each com-
pany for expenditure for parade; and that measures
be taken at the next session of the Legislature to
change the name of the force to that of the City
Guard of Philadelphia.
— A resolution from Select Council complimenting
Capt. Charles Wilkes for his courage and determina-
tion in arresting Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the Con-
federate commissioners, was adopted by the Common
Council on the 27th of November.
— At the annual meeting of the Central Republican
Club of Philadelphia, held on the 27th of November,
it was resolved that " whereas there has existed for
some time a civil war within the jurisdiction of the
United States, caused by. the slave power," it was the
deliberate opinion of the club that " the surest method
to crush the Rebellion would be for Congress, at its
next session, to pass a law embodying the policy of the
Fremont proclamation, to wit : That the slaves of all
persons taken in arms against the authority of the
United States shall by law be declared free."
— Thanksgiving-day (November 28th) was observed
this year by the usual services in the churches and by
a parade of the Reserve Brigade, Gen. Francis E.
Patterson, in the morning, and' of Col. Rush's cav-
alry regiment in the afternoon. Company B, Capt.
THE CIVIL WAR.
789
Hastings, of the First Regiment of Artillery, also
paraded in the morning with a battery of six pieces.
— Col. John G. Watmough died at his residence in
Germantown on the 28th of November, at an ad-
vanced age. Col. Watmough took an active part in
the war of 1812, and was wounded during the attack
on Fort Erie. In 1830 he was elected a member of
Congress, and subsequently was made high sheriff of
Philadelphia. At one time he also held the position
of surveyor of the port.
— Robert Ewing, the Democratic candidate, re-
ceived his certificate as sheriff of Philadelphia from
Governor Curtin on the 29th, and took charge of the
office on the following day.
— The schooner " Fannie Lee," captured off Darien,
Ga., arrived in charge of a prize-master on the 24th
of November. Another prize, the British schooner
" Mabel," was brought into port on the 1st of Decem-
ber. The " Mabel" had sailed from Havana for
Savannah, Ga., with a cargo consisting of blankets,
cloths, saddles and bridles, coffee, pistols, and cavalry
swords.
— The sloop-of-war "Hartford," flag-ship of the
East India Squadron, arrived from the Cape of Good
Hope on the 4th of December. On the same day
Lieuts. W. F. Glassel, A. M. Dubree, and Julian
Myers, of the " Hartford," and D. A. Forest, of the
sloop-of-war "John Adams," who had been trans-
ferred to the "Hartford," were arrested on the charge
of disloyalty, in having refused to take the oath of
allegiance-, and sent to Fort Warren. Three of them
were natives of Virginia and one of Georgia. On the
7th the United States steamer "Keystone State,"
Commander LeRoy, sailed under sealed orders, and
the sloop-ofwar "Tuscarora," Capt. A. M. Craven,
left for New York to receive a portion of her arma-
ment.
— Early in December an organization known as the
" Soldiers' Relief Association of the Episcopal
Church" was formed, for the purpose of providing
articles for the relief of sick soldiers not supplied by
the government.
— The colored residents of the city about this time
petitioned the managers of city passenger railways
for the privilege of riding in the street-cars. They
represented that they suffered great inconvenience
and hardship in being excluded from the cars; that
in all the principal Northern cities except Phil-
adelphia the colored people were permitted to ride
in them, and that they paid more taxes than the same
class in any Northern city.
— Two interesting flag presentations occurred on
the 6th and 7th of December. On the 6th the Phil-
adelphia regiments commanded by Cols. Gregory,
Rush, Lyle, Staunton, and Jones assembled in a field
opposite the Odd-Fellows' Cemetery to receive from
Governor Curtin the flags purchased with the State
appropriation and the fund provided by the Society
of the Cincinnati. A platform was erected for the
Governor and staff and members of the society and in-
vited guests. Among the prominent military men pres-
ent in uniform were Gen. Robert Patterson,
Gen. George Cadwalader, Gen. Francis E. [1861
Patterson, and Gen. A. J. Pleasonton. The
regiments to which the colors were presented were
drawn up in the following order in front of the plat-
form: Ninety-first Regiment, Col. Gregory; Sixty-
seventh Regiment, Col. Staunton ; Ninetieth Regiment,
Col. Lyle; Fifty-eighth Regiment, Col. Jones; and
Sixth Regiment Cavalry, Col. Rush. In order to re-
ceive the colors the colonels of the different regiments
rode up in front of the platform, and were addressed
by Governor Curtin, who then handed each the flag
belonging to his command. Dr. McEuen, vice-presi-
dent of the Society of the Cincinnati, also delivered an
address. On the 7th a flag made by the sailors and
marines of the United States vessel " Hartford" was
presented to the city of Philadelphia at Independence
Hall. The sailors and marines formed in line at the
navy-yard and marched to the hall, bearing the flag
spread out. Their spokesman, a sailor named Samuel
H. Adams, presented the flag to Mayor Henry, ac-
companying the act with a brief and patriotic speech,
which was responded to in suitable terms by the
mayor.
— The new gun-boat " Itasca," Capt. C. H. B. Col-
well, left the navy-yard December 7th. On the fol-
lowing day the steamer "Delaware," built at Wil-
mington, Del., and purchased by the government,
sailed.
— On the 5th of December it was announced that
the United States government had leased for hospital
purposes the railroad depot at the southeast corner
of Broad and Cherry Streets, the large manufactory
corner of Twenty -second and Wood Streets, a build-
ing at Twenty-third and Lombard Streets, and Dun-
lap's carriage- factory, Fifth Street and York Avenue.
These hospitals were fitted up under direction of Dr.
John Neill, surgeon United States army, who had
previously established a hospital at Moyamensing
Hall, which at this time was in active operation.
— The regiment of cavalry or lancers commanded
by Col. Richard H. Rush paraded on the 10th of
December, preparatory to their departure for the seat
of war. The men were armed with lances in addition
to their pistols and sabres, each lance having a small
red flag or pennon near the end, presented by lady
friends of the regiment.
— Horn R. Kneass, a well-known member of the
bar, died on the 12th of December. He had for
many years been an active member of the Demo-
cratic party, and was twice nominated for district
attorney. The first time he was declared elected, but
the opposing candidate successfully contested the
election. At one time Mr. Kneass held the office of
Grand Master of the Independent Order of Odd-Fel-
lows in Pennsylvania, and also Grand Sire of the
order throughout the Union.
790
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
— December 14th it was announced that Christ
Church Hospital, on Forty-eighth Street below Cum-
berland, which was commenced in 1856, had
1861] been entirely finished. The grounds attached
to the building covered an area of one hun-
dred and eighteen acres. The edifice was of solid gray
stone, covered by a heavy slate roof and surmounted
by handsome towers and steeples.
— Capt. Wilkes, of Mason and Slidell fame, ar-
rived here on the 12th of December. Seated nearly
opposite Capt. Wilkes at the supper-table in the
Continental Hotel on the following evening was
Hon. Charles J. Faulkner, of Virginia, ex-minister
to France, who had just been released from Fort
Warren, where he had been confined as a prisoner-
of-war. Mr. Faulkner during his stay in the city
visited Moyamensing prison, in order to examine
into the condition of the privateersmen imprisoned
there. He afterward stated that the prisoners had
expressed themselves as perfectly satisfied with the
treatment they had received.
— William Sharkey, of the crew of the Confederate
privateer " Petrel," was released in two thousand
dollars bail about December 15th on account of the
delicate state of his health. He was quite young,
and claimed to have been impressed into the ser-
vice.
— In the latter part of December the construction of
the iron submarine battery presented to the United
States government by E. A. Stevens, of Hoboken, was
completed. The battery had originally been the iron
steamer " Quinnebaug," but after Mr. Stevens' offer
had been accepted by the government the vessel was
brought to the ship-yard of Neafie & Levy, where her
engines were overhauled and new boilers placed in
her. At Bordentown, N. J., to which place she was
taken from Neafie & Levy's yard, bulwarks of white
cedar were added, two feet thick outside the hull and
one foot thick inside, extending three feet ten inches
above the deck and four feet below. The bulwarks
were covered with plates of wrought iron, and the bow
of the vessel was protected by a mass of timber and
iron four feet thick and four feet above deck, placed
at such an angle that a ball, if it struck this part of
the vessel, would glance off without doing material
damage. By means of water-tight compartments,
into which water could be introduced, the vessel
could be submerged until there was seventeen inches
of water over the deck, so that nothing was visible
to the enemy but the outline of the hull, marked by
the bulwarks unsubmerged and the single gun which
constituted the vessel's only armament. This gun, a
one-hundred-pounder of the Parrott patent, was
placed in the centre of the vessel upon a dais, sur-
rounded by a high combing to prevent the water
from reaching it. The gun-carriage, which was the
design of Mr. Stevens, was so arranged that the gun
recoiled on a centre-piece, upon which was placed
gutta-percha sufficiently heavy to receive the whole
force of the concussion, permitting the gun to move
only a trifling distance. The gun was loaded by men
standing in the hold ; the muzzle being lowered to
the combing and the ammunition put in and rammed
home. The gun was then elevated and fired by the
man on deck. The vessel had two engines, each
working independently and each giving power to a
screw-propeller, so that by reversing one engine
and moving the other ahead the vessel was turned
round almost within her own length.
— Up to December 23d the following war-vessels
had been built at Philadelphia since the commence-
ment of hostilities: at the navy-yard the sloops-of-
war "Miami" and " Tuscarora,'; finished, and the
" Juniata," nearly ready for launching ; at private
ship-yards the gunboats " Wissahickon" (built by
John W. Lynn), "Scioto" (built by Jacob Birely),
and the " Itasca" (built by Hilltnan & Streaker), a
bark built by Charles Williams, purchased by the
government, and fitted out as a gun-boat, and the
"Stars and Stripes," built by Simpson & Neill, and
transformed into the gun-boat " Kittanning." The
keel of the sloop-of-war " Monongahela" had also
been laid at the navy-yard.
— In reply to a letter from Mayor Henry inquiring
what provision could be made by the State authorities
for strengthening the defenses of the city, Hon. Wil-
liam M. Meredith, Attorney-General of Pennsylvania,
stated that besides the arms which in the course of
the previous summer had been distributed among the
border counties, and those with which portions of the
State's quota of volunteers had been supplied, the
State had still about nineteen thousand muskets and
rifles, and it was thought that probably some ten thou-
sand more could be collected. Five thousand of these,
he added, would be promptly furnished to volunteer
organizations formed in Philadelphia on a basis ap-
proved by the Governor. Of artillery the State had
still fifty-seven pieces, varying from twenty-eight-
pounders to six-pounders, of which as many as might
be needed would be sent to the city. A sufficient
supply of fixed ammunition could be furnished from
the arsenal at Harrisburg. With regard to the de-
fense of the maritime and harbor approaches of the
city, he stated that it was the intention of the Gov-
ernor to visit Washington to urge an increase of the
appropriation by Congress, and an extension of the
plan for such defenses. On the 27th of December,
Mayor Henry received a letter from Attorney-General
Meredith stating that Governor Curtin had obtained
a promise from Gen. Totten, at the head of the En-
gineer Department at Washington, that one hundred
and thirty -five large guns and twenty flanking twenty-
four-pound howitzers would be mounted on Fort Del-
aware and forty-seven large guns on Fort Mifflin.
— The market-house and hall at Seventeenth and
Poplar Streets was completed in the latter part of
December. The building had a front of fifty-four
feet on Poplar Street, and a depth of ninety-three
THE CIVIL WAR.
791
feet to Seventeenth Street. The lower story was used
as a market, and the upper story as a hall.
—On the 27th of December, Col. Mulligan, of the
Missouri Irish Brigade, who had distinguished him-
self at the battle of Lexington, Mo., on the 12th of
September, delivered a lecture at National Hall de-
scribing that engagement, for the benefit of St. John's
Orphan Asylum. He was enthusiastically received.
— The banks of Philadelphia, in common with
those of New York and Boston, suspended specie
payments on the 30th of December.
1862.— Right Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D.D.,
was consecrated assistant bishop of the Protestant
Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on the 2d of
January, at St. Andrew's Church. The sermon was
preached by Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, and the
bishop-elect was presented to the presiding bishop
by the bishop of Pennsylvania, Right Rev. Alonzo
Potter, D.D., and the bishop of New York, Right
Rev. Horatio Potter, D.D.
— On the 6th of January the drug-store of G. W.
Lewis, 45 South Fourth Street, and the establishment
of William Mann, stationer and blank-book manu-
facturer, were damaged by fire to the extent of
seventy-five thousand dollars.
— Gen. James Shields arrived on the 6th of Jan-
uary with three companies of regular troops from the
Pacific coast. He supped at the Cooper-Shop Re-
freshment Saloon, and at the invitation of the mana-
gers inspected their hospital.
— The new City Councils, which met on the 6th of
January, organized by electing Theodore Cuyler
president of Select, and Wilson Kerr president of
Common, Council. In the latter body two sets of
officers were elected at first, the Democrats choosing
Wilson Kerr, and the People's party J. A. Freeman,
as president. The double election resulted from a
disagreement as to the result of the election for
councilmen in the Nineteenth Ward. The members
of the People's party had the certificates of election,
but the Democratic members claimed the seats as
having been legally elected, with the fraudulent army
vote thrown out. A proposition was finally adopted
by which the claimants from the Nineteenth Ward
withdrew and allowed the organization to be per-
fected by the election of the Democratic nominees,
with the understanding that the question as to who
were entitled to the seats should be referred to a
committee for its decision ; the claimants decided
against reserving the right to contest their claim
under the act of Assembly. This committee subse-
quently reported in favor of the Democratic claim-
ants, who were admitted.
— Two bomb-boats for the United States service,
the "George Maughan" and "Adolph Hugel," were
fitted out at the navy-yard, and received their mortars
and stores early in January.
— At a meeting of the survivors of the war of 1812,
held on the 8th of January, William T. Elder pre-
siding, Col. Childs presented the heading of a muster-
roll of a company of volunteers to be formed out of
the surviving soldiers of that war. It was
stated that a number of signatures had been [1862
obtained, and several members of the associa-
tion expressed their willingness to shoulder a musket
and march wherever their country needed their ser-
vices.
— In a report of the work accomplished by the
Union Volunteer Refreshment Committee, which was
published on the 14th of January, it was stated that
meals had been furnished to over one hundred thousand
soldiers, and that five hundred sick and wounded had
been cared for. The report was signed by Arad Bar-
rows, chairman, and J. B. Wade, secretary.
— The train from Baltimore that reached Philadel-
phia at noon on the 15th of January brought about
two hundred and thirty released prisoners, captured
by the Confederates at Bull Run. The men were met
at the depot by a committee from the two volunteer
refreshment saloons, to which they were escorted, and
where they were entertained.
— Owing to a reduction of wages ordered by Con-
gress, the ship-carpenters and other mechanics at the
navy-yard struck on the 16th of January, but resumed
work on the 22d.
—The United States gun-boat " Rhode Island," S. D.
Trenchard, lieutenant-commander, which sailed from
New York on the 5th of December on a cruise to the
Gulf of Mexico, arrived at the navy -yard on the 17th
of January. The " Rhode Island" had captured, off
Galveston, the Confederate schooner "Venus," the
crew of which she had on board, together with her
passengers. A number of United States naval officers
came on the " Rhode Island" as passengers, having
been transferred from other vessels. A number of
invalids — soldiers and sailors — were sent home on
the " Rhode Island" in care of Dr. W. Lamont
Wheeler, United States navy.
— The Philadelphia Associates of the Sanitary Com-
mission, about the middle of January, adopted a
series of resolutions urging the reorganization of the
Army Medical Department, so that in addition to the
proper regulation of a well-selected corps of surgeons,
the military rank of the superior medical officers
might be elevated and an adequate staff of hospital
and camp inspectors of suitable standing and au-
thority provided. Senator Wilson's bill, then before
Congress, was indorsed as being a move in the right
direction, and a committee was appointed, consisting
of Morton McMichael, J. I. Clark Hare, Dr. John H.
McClellan, Dr. F. Gurney Smith, John Welsh, and
Dr. Alfred Stills, to proceed to Washington with a
copy of the resolutions and submit them to the proper
authorities.
—The Fifty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers, Col. J. R. Jones, was filled up to the standard
by consolidating with it the regiment commanded by
Col. Curtis. The other Philadelphia regiments, or-
792
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ganized by Cols. Gregory, Lyle, Staunton, and Price,
were filled up with troops from other commands by
order of Governor Curtin.
1862] —The sloop-of-war " Hartford" sailed for
the Gulf of Mexico on the 19th of January,
under the command of Capt. R. Wainwright, as the
flag-ship of Commodore Farragut's squadron.
— On the 23d of January it was announced that a
reward of five hundred dollars would be paid by
Mayor Henry for the discovery of the persons impli-
cated in the murder of John Connelly, who was
fatally stabbed on the night of January 8th at the
corner of Twenty-fourth and Biddle Streets. On the
12th of February, John Malloy was arrested on the
charge of being concerned in the murder.
— The Count of Paris, one of the Orleans princes,
who was serving on the staff of Gen. McClellan, vis-
ited the city on Sunday, January 26th, in com-
pany with Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of
State, and remained several days. During his stay
he visited the grave of Benjamin Franklin, in Christ
Church burying-ground.
— The first train passed over the new bridge of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Gray's Ferry, and
down to Washington Street wharf, on the 27th of
January.
— The United States steamer "Miami" sailed on
her trial trip on the 29th of January. The vessel
carried a heavy armament, one of her guns being an
eighty-pound rifled cannon and another an eleven-
inch-shell gun. Her broadside battery consisted of
four twenty-four-pound howitzers. The commander
of the " Miami" was Lieutenant-Commander A. D.
Harrall.
— William Gilchrist, who was arrested in Septem-
ber, 1861, on the charge of having sold munitions
of war to the South and sent to Fort Lafayette, and
afterward to Fort Warren, and upon his release by
order of the government rearrested in Boston and
committed for trial, was before Judge Cadwalader
on the 29th of January on a writ of habeas corpus.
Gilchrist was remanded to stand his trial at the fol-
lowing term of court.
— In his annual message to City Councils, submit-
ted on the 30th of January, Mayor Henry stated that
the sum of $138,506.36 had been expended during
the year for the purchase of arms, ammunition, and
other requisites of military service, and that the en-
tire disbursement from the relief fund amounted to
$356,612.78. With regard to the finances of the city,
the mayor stated that at the beginning of the year
1861 the loans of the city were readily sold at a small
premium, but as national disorders became more im-
minent their market value depreciated, particularly
when forced into competition with a United States
loan yielding seven and three-tenths per cent, interest.
An ordinance approved June 8th gave authority to
borrow $1,000,000 to make provision for the defense
of the city, and for the relief of the families of vol-
unteers, without the usual limitation to a par value,
and of such loan $498,500 was sold as needed at the
average rate of ninety-two and one-tenth per cent.,
producing $459,690 net avails. A further loan of
$42,500 was enacted by ordinance of May 3d, to be
borrowed at not less than par, and by ordinance of
December 14th, a loan of $1,200,000 was created;
$117,000 thereof for the construction of Chestnut
Street bridge, and the remainder for the payment of
deficiencies without restriction of price.
— In a report to Mayor Henry in January, Gen.
A. J. Pleasonton, commander of the Home Guard,
stated that the organization then numbered some four
thousand men, comprising three regiments of infantry
of the line, two battalions of rifles, three companies of
artillery, and one squadron of cavalry., With regard
to the artillery arm of the service Gen. Pleasonton
said, " Two batteries of Parrott's rifled cannon, each
of six guns, have been purchased by the committee,
one battery being of ten-pounders, the other of twenty-
pounders. Both these batteries can take the field at
once. There are also two cast-steel Prussian rifled
guns, which were presented to the city by Mr. James
Swaim, gun-carriages and caissons for which have
been bought by the committee. James McHenry, of
Liverpool, also generously presented to the city a cast-
steel rifled gun of the Blakely pattern, the carriage
and caisson for which Henry Simons patriotically
tendered as a gift to the city."
— The United States sloop-of-war "St. Louis,"
Capt. Matthias C. Marin, went into commission on
the 31st of January, and left the navy-yard for Fort
Mifflin, where she took on her powder, preparatory to
sailing for the Mediterranean, there to cruise for the
protection of American shipping.
— Governor Curtin, Hon. Simon Cameron, and
Senator Cowan arrived on the night of Friday, Jan-
uary 31st, and took quarters at the Continental Hotel.
On the following evening Governor Curtin was pres--
ent by invitation at the Commercial rooms to meet
a number of merchants and leading business men,
who had assembled there to receive him. There
were no formal ceremonies, but the Governor was
introduced to those persons with whom he was not
previously acquainted, and, in response to a toast
proposed by the president, William B. Hart, made a
brief speech, chiefly in reference to the existing
Rebellion and the means which Pennsylvania had
adopted to aid in its suppression. Addresses were
also delivered by Charles Gibbons, Thomas Smith,
Morton McMichael, Charles Gilpin, William J. Wain-
wright, Henry D. Moore, Craig Biddle, William S.
Smith, Thomas Webster, William Devine, Dr. H. G.
Smith, Col. Chambers,'and others. All the speakers
bore the strongest testimony to the zeal, diligence,
ability, and success with which the Governor had
discharged his duties.
— On the 3d of February, United States Marshal
Millward received orders from the Secretary of State
THE CIVIL WAR.
793
for the removal of the crews of the privateers " Petrel"
and "Jeff Davis" from Moyamensing prison to Fort
Lafayette, where they were to be treated as prisoners
of war. George M. Wharton, counsel for the prisoners,
sued out a writ of habeas corpus, and they were taken
before Judge Cadwalader, who asked whether any of
them objected to the transfer. All of them answered
that they did not object, and nothing further was done
under the writ of habeas corpus. On the 5th they were
taken to Fort Lafayette. There were thirty-eight in
all, three less than were captured. One of them, a
young foreigner named Francis Alba, died during his
imprisonment, another, William Sharkey, was in the
hospital, and a third, Eben Lane, had been released.
— On the 5th of February about two hundred and
fifty sick soldiers arrived from the South, and were
taken to the government hospital at Broad and
Cherry Streets, previously the depot of the Reading
Railroad Company. The hospital was capable of ac-
commodating five hundred patients.
— The lager-beer brewery of John Lips, in the
rear of Seventeenth and Buttonwood Streets, was
damaged by fire on the 5th of February to the extent
of seventy thousand dollars.
— The United States steamer "Suwanee," one of the
transports of the Burnside expedition, arrived from
Fortress Monroe on the 8th of February, bringing
the bodies of Col. Joseph W. Allen and Surgeon F.
S. Weller, of the Ninth New Jersey Regiment, who
were drowned in the storm off Hatteras. The vessel
was badly damaged in the storm.
— J. Murray Rush, son of Richard Rush, and a
prominent member of the bar, died on the 7th of
February. Before the passage of the law providing
for the election of district attorneys Mr. Rush held
the position of assistant under Attorney-General
Kane, and discharged its duties with marked ability.
He was in his forty-ninth year.
— The fitting up of the different military hospitals
was completed early in February. The surgeons and
their staffs were : General Hospital, Broad Street, —
Surgeon in Charge, Dr. John Neill; Assistant Sur-
geons, Drs. Yarrow, Woodhouse, Harrison Allen, and
H. M. Bellows; Medical Cadets, George W. Shields,
E. R. Corson, J. W. Corson, James Tyson, and W. R.
D. Blackwood ; Hospital Stewards, John Patterson
and William H. Evans.
General Hospital, Fifth Street, — Surgeon in Charge,
Dr. Meredith Clymer; Assistant Surgeons, Dr. R. J.
Dunglison, Dr. William M. Breed; Medical Cadets,
J. A. McArthur, C. M. King; Hospital Stewards,
Lea Nichols and Frederick Brown.
General Hospital, Christian Street, — Surgeon in
Charge, Dr. John J. Reese ; Medical Cadets, R.
Kelly, Edward Brooks ; Hospital Steward, Benjamin
Hallowell.
The medical cadets were students of medicine, who
were provided with quarters and rations, and were re-
quired to assist in dressing wounds, etc.
—On the 8th of February a delegation from the City
Councils visited Washington, and, accompanied by
Gen. Pleasonton and Hon. William D. Kel-
ley, waited upon Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, [1862
Secretary of War, in relation to the com-
paratively defenseless condition of Delaware Bay and
River. The Secretary stated that the subject had al-
ready received the attention of the War Department,
and urged the delegation to address themselves to the
task of arousing the capitalists of their city and State
to the importance of upholding the credit of the gov-
ernment, with the assurance that every dollar placed
at the disposal of the War Department would be in-
vested in arms and ammunition for the defense of the
Delaware and the Union.
— The company organized by the veterans of the
war of 1812 was known as the Pennsylvania Veterans.
The first meeting of the company was held on the
11th of February, at the armory of the Philadelphia
Grays. Col. John S. Warner presided, and Charles
Lombard acted as secretary. A committee was ap-
pointed to draft by-laws for the regulation of the
company. There were then seventy-six names on
the roll.
— A sword to be presented to Maj.-Gen. N. P.
Banks was manufactured by Lambert & Mast. The
scabbard, of silver, heavily plated with gold, bore the
inscription, " Presented to Major-General Banks by
Col. J. K. Murphy, Major M. Scott, Captain L. C.
Kinsler, of the 29th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun-
teers." The hilt was of solid silver, and bore the
initials " N. P. B."
— Early on the morning of February 17th news
was received of the surrender of Fort Donelson.
Extras were issued, and great excitement prevailed
throughout the city. In the Court of Quarter Ses-
sions Judge Allison had the news read by Mr. Dare,
the court crier, remarking that he felt justified in
interrupting the regular proceedings, as every loyal
man would be glad to know that the Union arms were
victorious. The announcement was greeted with cheers
by those present. In the District Court also Judge
Hare directed that the news be announced, and a
similar scene of enthusiasm followed. On the 19th
salutes in honor of the victory were fired at the navy-
yard and at Broad and Spring Garden Streets.
— The Bridesburg arsenal was damaged by fire to
the extent of about five thousand dollars on the 18th
of February.
— The One Hundred and Twelfth Pennsylvania
Regiment, Co]. Charles Angeroth, was filled up early
in February, and was awaiting marching orders at
its camp, near Camden, N. J.
—Washington's birthday was celebrated this year
with unusual spirit and eclat. The morning opened
with the ringing of bells and discharges of artillery,
which continued at intervals until sunset. At eleven
o'clock the members of City Councils proceeded to
Independence Hall, where Governor Curtin and
794
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
members of the Legislature were in waiting. On ar-
riving at the hall, Mr. Cuyler, president of Select
Council, delivered an address to the Gov-
1862] ernor and members of the Legislature, wel-
coming them to the historic spot. Lewis
W. Hall, Speaker of the Senate, responded, after
which the Governor and suite and the members
of the Legislature and City Councils were escorted
to a platform erected in front of the Academy of
Music, from which they witnessed the military re-
view. The line of the First Division, Pennsylva-
nia Militia, was formed on Broad Street, the right
resting on Walnut, and the volunteer regiments re-
cruited for active service were assigned the right of
this position. When the whole column was formed
it extended from Market Street to Prime, a distance
of more than a mile. The volunteer regiments (re-
cently recruited) in line were Col. Price's cavalry,
Col. Angeroth's Heavy Artillery, and Cols. Lyle's,
Staunton's, and Stainrook's infantry regiments. The
First Division proper comprised the First Brigade,
Gen. Cadwalader ; Second Brigade, Lieut-Col. Den-
nis Heenan commanding ; Third Brigade, Capt. H.
Rogers commanding ; Reserve Brigade, Brig.-Gen.
Francis Patterson; Home Guards, Brig.-Gen. A. J.
Pleasonton ; and the First, Second, and Third Regi-
ments infantry of the line, together with various
minor organizations. The park of artillery secured
by the city by purchase and gift attracted much
attention. There were fourteen guns in the line.
As the troops filed past the platform on which
Governor Curtin was seated they honored him
with the usual marching salute. Maj.-Gen. Robert
Patterson, who was the chief in command, was fre-
quently cheered along the route. After the review
the Governor, members of the Legislature, Mayor
Henry, members of the Councils, and invited guests
entered the Academy of Music and took seats upon
the stage, after which the building was thrown open
to the public. Mayor Henry opened the proceedings
with the announcement that for the first time in the
history of the nation the President of the United States
had issued a special proclamation, inviting the people
to meet together for the purpose of observing the
birthday of the father of his country, and of listen-
ing to the reading of his Farewell Address. Prayer
was then offered by Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D.,
bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Penn-
sylvania, after which Washington's Farewell Ad-
dress was read by Professor Allen, and the audience
dispersed. At six o'clock the Governor and members
of the Legislature were entertained at dinner at the
Continental Hotel by the City Councils. Theodore
Cuyler presided, and among the toasts were, — "The
Memory of Washington ;" " The President of the
United States," which, on motion of Gen. Patterson,
was greeted with nine cheers ; " The Governor of the
State of Pennsylvania,'' responded to by Governor
Curtin, who stated that Philadelphia had already
furnished twenty-seven thousand three hundred and
fifty men in addition to the eight thousand well-
equipped troops whom he had reviewed some hours
before ; "Gen. George B. McClellan, the pride of our
city and our State, the master-spirit of the cam-
paign," a sentiment that was received with nine
hearty cheers ; and " The army of the United States,"
responded to by Gen; Robert Patterson. Gen. Kelly,
of the army of Western Virginia, was called upon at
this point, and made a brief address, after which Mr.
Cuyler proposed "General Kelly, — may his honora-
ble wound soon be healed," a toast which was drank
amid much enthusiasm. Mr. Cuyler now broke in
upon the regular order of toasts to say that they had
among them a representative of loyal Virginia, — Mr.
Frost. The latter, being called for, expressed his
gratification at a compliment intended not for him
personally, but for the loyal men of whom he claimed
to be a representative. The other toasts with the
names of those who responded were : "The Navy of
the United States," Senator McClure; "Pennsyl-
vania,— the Keystone of the Federal Union," Mr.
Clymer, of Reading ; " The Union, — traitors cannot
destroy,' — patriots will ever uphold it," Hon. William
H. Witte ; " The Constitution, — the great guarantee
of our liberties; it shall ever be maintained inviolate
so long as the sons of Pennsylvania have an arm
or a dollar," Judge Woodward ; " The^ Legislature
of Pennsylvania," Hon. John Cessna ; " The volun-
teer soldiers of Pennsylvania ;" " The press ;" and
" Woman, — to her arms only do we surrender."
In addition to the observance of the day by the
city authorities and military, the survivors of the
war of 1812 met at Independence Hall, Maj. B. H.
Springer presiding, and adopted resolutions referring
to the anniversary and the victories which had re-
cently crowned the army of the Union, after which
the veterans proceeded to the Continental Hotel and
paid their respects to Governor Curtin. At night the
newspaper offices and many stores and private houses
were brilliantly illuminated.
— On Monday, February 24th, the schooner "Alex-
ander," of Port Richmond, sank during a storm in
the Patapsco River and two sons of Capt. Shelhorn,
aged fourteen and sixteen, were frozen in the rigging.
The captain and Joseph H. Shropshire, one of the
crew, were also badly frozen.
— A number of Philadelphians on Western gun-
boats participated in the attack upon Fort Donelson.
A letter received in Philadelphia on the 25th of Feb-
ruary from Benjamin S. Edgar, Jr., one of the crew
of the gun-boat "Carondelet," stated that himself
and three or four other townsmen were at a gun that
burst, and that Solomon Elwell, a young man named
McBride, William Rorey, and himself were more or
less injured. The only Philadelphians killed on the
" Carondelet" were William Duff and J. G.Leacock,
both of whom had their heads crushed by the same
ball which took off the arm of another comrade
THE CIVIL WAR.
795
named McFadden. The remains of Duff and Lea-
cock, with those of Charles W. Baker, also one of the
crew of the gun-boat "St. Louis," were buried near
Fort Donelson.
—The One Hundred and Twelfth Regiment Penn-
sylvania Volunteers (heavy artillery), under the com-
mand of Col. Angeroth, which had been encamped
for some months near Camden, struck tents on the
25th and crossed the Delaware on the way to the
seat of war.
— On the 27th of February a large meeting of
ladies was held at the hall of the German Library,
Seventh Street above Chestnut, for the purpose of
forming an association in aid of the German Hospi-
tal. The society, which was designated " The Ladies'
Aid for the German Hospital of Philadelphia," was
organized by the election of the following officers :
President, Mrs. Dr. Henry Tiedemann; Vice-Presi-
dent, Mrs. Charles Wilhelm ; Secretary, Mrs. Oswald
Seidenstricker ; Treasurer, Mrs. I. Kohn.
— By an explosion in the Japan varnish manufac-
tory of James L. Wright in the rear of Sixth Street,
between Meetler and Diamond, on the 27th of Feb-
ruary, Mr. Wright was killed, and Adam Herbott
seriously injured.
— In 1740 five hundred acres of land in Bucks
County were bequeathed by James Logan to the
Philadelphia Library. In accordance with the terms
of his will, it was leased at the rate of about twenty-
two cents an acre for a term of one hundred and
twenty-one years. The will provided further that, at
the end of that period, the land should be valued by
disinterested persons, and the interest calculated at
six per cent., and that the rental for another term of
one hundred and twenty-one years should be deter-
mined by adding the amount thus obtained to the
rate previously paid. Charles H. Muirheid and
David Landreth were appointed by the Library Com-
pany, and Benjamin S. Rich and William T. Bogers
by the land-holders a committee to determine the
rental, but up to March 1st several trials had been
made without result. One of the tracts lying near
New Hope contained about three hundred acres, the
other tract at Paxson's Corner, Bucks Co., about two
hundred acres.
— A number of members of the California and other
regiments, who had been confined at Richmond, Va.,
arrived in the city on the 1st of March, and were
enthusiastically greeted by relatives and friends.
— A meeting was held at National Hall on the even-
ing of March 3d, to take into consideration the con-
dition of the colored people at Beaufort, S. O, who
were suffering for food and clothing. Bishop Potter
presided, and made a brief address, urging immediate
action for their relief and instruction. Addresses
were also delivered by Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng
and Professor Lindsay, who had recently visited
Port Royal, and who related his experiences at the
South. Resolutions were adopted recognizing on the
score of humanity the claims which had been pre-
sented, and declaring that those present would co-
operate with the government and with all
benevolent people in efforts to provide for [1862
the wants, and to promote the welfare, of the
colored people. A committee was appointed to re-
ceive contributions of clothing, etc., consisting of
Stephen Colwell, Philip P. Randolph, James L.
Claghorn, Rev. Thomas Brainerd, James A. Wright,
Mordecai L. Dawson, Benjamin Coates, J. M. McKim,
Rev. Dr. Newton, Ellis Yarnall, E. W. Clark, Rev. J.
Wheaton Smith, Charles Rhoades, J. Huntington
Jones, and Francis R. Cope.
— Commodore Samuel Mercer, United States navy,
died in Philadelphia on the 16th of March, in the
sixty-fourth year of his age.
— Remington Ackley and Charles Hamell were
killed on the 8th of March by the explosion of a
bomb-shell at Parson & Smith's Hotel, Camden,
N. J. The shell had been sent North by a member
of a New Jersey regiment, who stated that it had
been thrown into the camp of the regiment by the
rebels on the Potomac, and that the load had been
withdrawn. Just before the explosion Mr. Ackley
placed a lighted paper in the shell, which burst, kill-
ing himself and his companion, and demolishing the
walls of the room and the furniture.
— The United States frigate " St. Lawrence," Capt.
H. Y. Purviance, which had been damaged in the
naval engagement between the " Merrimac" and the
Union fleet off Newport News on the 8th of March,
arrived at the navy-yard on the 14th for repairs.
— On the 18th of March a meeting of the respec-
tive committees on Federal relations of the Legisla-
tures of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with Gov-
ernors Curtin and Olden, was held at the Continental
Hotel, for the purpose of taking into consideration
the subject of the defense of the Delaware Bay and
River. Governor Curtin presided and S. Tuttle acted
as secretary. Mayor Henry, Gen. Pleasonton, and
the committee of Councils on the defense of the city
were present. After several addresses, it was resolved
that the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and New Jersey
and the executive of Delaware should urgently me-
morialize Congress and the President to immediately
provide suitable and sufficient defenses for Delaware
Bay and the harbor of Philadelphia, and that, if ne-
cessary to induce and enable the government of the
United States to enter upon that work immediately,
Congress be requested to authorize a special loan for
that purpose, the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and Delaware to take up the loan among them.
— During the annual session of the Methodist Epis-
copal Conference of Philadelphia, which commenced
at the Union Church, Fourth Street, below Arch, on
the 19th of March, the question as to whether the
members sustaining superannuated relations were
loyal to the Union was raised by Rev. William
Bishop, and debated at length. It was finally deter-
796
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
mined to refer the subject to a committee to be ap-
pointed by the bishop.
— The United States steamer "Rhode Is-
1862] laud" arrived at the navy-yard on the 19th
of March, with a large number of Confeder-
ate prisoners from prizes and from the privateer
"Beauregard," who were taken to Fort Lafayette.
On the following day the United States sloop-of-war
" Juniata" was launched at the yard, Miss Turner,
daughter of the commandant, performing the cere-
mony of " christening." The dimensions of the " Ju-
niata" were, — length, two hundred and five feet;
beam, thirty-eight feet; depth of hold, sixteen feet.
— On the 26th of March the remains of Col. John
S. Slocum, Maj. S. Ballou, and Capt. Levi Tower, of
the Second Rhode Island Begiment, who were killed
at Bull Run, reached the city, en route for Prov-
idence, R. I. They had been buried on the field, but
were exhumed under the personal direction of Gov-
ernor Sprague, of Rhode Island, and members of the
Second Rhode Island Regiment. They were met at
the depot by Col. Staunton's regiment and escorted
to Independence Hall, where they remained until the
following day, when they were taken East.
— At the meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Con-
ference, on the 28th of March, it was resolved, "That
we not only declare our loyalty to the Constitution
and government of these United States in the pres-
ence of Almighty God and these witnesses, but that
we declare our willingness to swear or affirm the same
whenever it shall be required by those who have the
rule over us."
— On the 28th of March a party of ninety-one " con-
trabands," or negroes, freed by Union troops, arrived
in Philadelphia from Eastern Virginia. They were
furnished with breakfast by the Refreshment Com-
mittee, after which they were provided with tempo-
rary homes.
— An explosion in the cartridge manufactory of
Professor Samuel Jackson, at Tenth and Reed Streets,
on the 29th of March, resulted in the death of sixteen
persons, and the more or less serious wounding of a
number of others. Edwin Jackson, son of the pro-
prietor, Yarnall Bailey, and Benjamin Whitecar were
instantly killed, and the following persons died from
their injuries: John H. Mooney, John Logue, Lo-
vinia Norritt, Richard J. Hueston, Horace L. Sinnex-
son, Washington Black, John McDonald, Edwin
Shaw, Allen Knowles, Lewis Brown, Ann McKernan,
Rebecca Emerick, Ellen Lynch.
— Matthew H. Haggerty, who had been connected
with the Public Ledger for six or seven years before
his death, died on the 29th of March. Mr. Haggerty
was a native of Ireland. Under President Taylor he
was an officer of the customs, and was connected for
some time with the Episcopal Recorder. He was also
publisher of the West Philadelphian.
— The killed and wounded of the Pennsylvania
regiments in the battle of Winchester were brought
to the city, April 2d, the Legislature having made
an appropriation for that object. The bodies of
the ten killed were embalmed in this city, and were
then sent to their relatives in the interior of the State.
The wounded, numbering fifty, were conveyed to St.
Joseph's Hospital.
— The United States steamer "Bienville," Com-
mander Charles Steedman, arrived at the navy-yard
on the evening of April 4th, having on board the re-
mains of Lieut. T. A. Budd and acting master L. W.
Mather, who were killed at Mosquito Inlet March
23d. They were in command of the steamers " Pen-
guin" and " Mary Andrew," and were instructed to
establish an inside blockade. Exceeding their in-
structions, they exposed themselves to the fire of the
Confederates, and, together with three of their men,
were instantly killed. Both officers, though not resi-
dents, were generally known in the city. The " Bien-
ville" remained at the navy-yard for repairs, having
been damaged while ashore at Fernandina. She
sailed again for Port Royal on the 9th.
— The grand jury in their final presentment at the
close of the February term of the Quarter Sessions,
on Saturday, April 5th, stated, in reference to the
frauds committed in counting the vote of the army,
that " they fear the law is powerless to punish such
offenses or to reach and punish the offenders. . . .
The grand inquest, in view of these practices, are so
well satisfied of the impossibility of conducting elec-
tions among soldiers in camp with fairness and im-
partiality, that they are forced to call public attention
to the law providing for such elections as fraught with
danger to the best.interests of the citizens, and highly
injurious to public liberty.
" The elective franchise is too sacred a right, and
its establishment cost our fathers too much to be thus
disgraced and violated; and the best interest of so-
ciety, in the deliberate opinion of the grand inquest,
require that this law permitting elections in camps,
far away from the participation and the supervision
of the citizens, should be erased from the statute-
book."
Judge Allison, referring to the matter set forth in
their presentment, gave his reasons for sustaining the
demurrer to the bill of indictment against a defendant
for illegal voting on the ground of the unconstitu-
tionality of the law, and expressed the hope that the
Legislature would repeal it.
— A salute of one hundred guns was fired by a de-
tachment of Company C, of the Reserve Brigade, at
Broad and Locust Streets, in celebration of the Union
victory at Corinth, Miss.
— The steam-engine and hose-carriage of the Hi-
bernia Fire Company was taken on the 17th to
Fortress Monroe, accompanied by Messrs. Peter
Anderson, William Dixon, David A. Nagle, William
J. Power, Richard Water, Henry Arenfeldt, John
Bock, and James McShane, as a board of engineers
to superintend the workings of the engine.
THE CIVIL WAR.
797
—On the 17th of April the Rev. W. G. Brownlow
(" Parson Brownlow") arrived. The following morn-
ing he was escorted from the Continental Hotel to
Independence Hall by a committee of Councils,
where he was welcomed by Mr. Trego, and in response
made a long and patriotic address to several thousand
people who had assembled to see him.
— Religious services were held for the first time in
the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, on Easter
Sunday, April 21st. The building was not yet com-
pleted, nor had it been consecrated, and consequently
mass was not said. The services, however, were of
the most impressive character. It was estimated that
at least five thousand people were inside the building,
while as many more were unable to gain access. The
Right Rev. Bishop Wood was the celebrant, assisted
by the Rev. Dr. O'Hara. Deacons of Honor, Rev.
F. Barbelin, of St. Joseph's, and Rev. F. Strobel, of
St. Mary's Churches; Deacons of Vespers, Rev. J. F.
Brannagan and Rev. Mr. Kiernan ; Masters of Cere-
monies, Mr. Hennessey and Mr. O'Neil. After several
addresses Bishop Wood bestowed the Papal benedic-
tion on those present.
— Lieut.-Col. W. Brooks, Second Artillery, was as-
signed to Philadelphia as military commander in the
latter part of April.
— The body of Lieut. Orlando B. Wagner, who had
been killed in a reconnoissance before Yorktown, ar-
rived from Fortress Monroe, April 25th. His funeral
took place on the 28th, and was largely attended.
— William H. Crump, long identified with news-
paper work on the Inquirer, died at Camden, N. J.,
April 27th.
— A submarine irou propellor, built by Neafie &
Levy, was launched at their works May 1st, and
towed thence to the navy-yard. She was sixty-five
feet long, six feet deep, and five feet broad, nearly
cylindrical in form, but sharp at either extremity.
Twelve propellors or paddles projected from each
side, and she was intended to be hermetically closed,
then sunk below the surface by water-ballast. By
means of the paddles she could then be propelled in
any direction. Mr. Villeroy was the inventor and
designer.
— The remains of Maj.-Gen. Charles F. Smith, of
Philadelphia, who died at Savannah, arrived in this
city May 3d, and were received by a committee of
Councils and the Girard Home Guards, who escorted
them from the depot to Independence Hall. The
funeral took place on Tuesday, the 6th, and was
attended by all the regular military in the city.
— The iron-clad frigate "New Ironsides," the third
model iron-clad that theNavy Deparment had ordered,
was launched from the yard of its builders, Messrs.
Cramp & Sons, on May 10th. This was the first large
iron vessel that the firm had built. She was two
hundred and forty-five feet long, fifty-seven feet
six inches breadth of beam, and twenty-five feet
depth of hold. In spite of her heavy armor she
was calculated to draw but fifteen feet of water.
Her sides, above water, were at an angle of about
forty degrees, in order to deflect projectiles,
and she was armed with a powerful ram com- [1862
posed of her armor-sheathing prolonged from
the bow. The launch was witnessed by thousands of
people, every available point being crowded with spec-
tators. The ceremony of" christening" was performed
by the venerable Commodore Charles Stewart (" Old
Ironsides"), assisted by Commodores Marston and
Montgomery, Capts. Turner and Fairfax, and Chief
Engineers Wood, Danby, Stewart, and Newell.
—On Monday, May 11th, the schooner " E. W.
Pratt," loaded with coal-oil, accidentally took fire
while lying at Lombard Street wharf. For a while
the blazing oil threatened a general conflagration,
but with the exception of damaging the ship " Gray
Eagle," it was confined to the " Pratt." Freeman T.
Robins, steward of the " Pratt," was drowned while
attempting to escape the flames. The prize steamer
" Bienville," loaded with gunpowder, lay adjoining
the " Pratt," but fortunately escaped damage.
—On the 13th the propeller " Whillden" arrived at
Philadelphia with one hundred and seventy-five sick
and wounded soldiers from Fortress Monroe. The
soldiers were in charge of Surgeon-General Henry H.
Smith, assisted by a delegation of Philadelphia sur-
geons. Under their care they were conveyed to St.
Joseph's Hospital.
— Hon. Charles Jared Ingersoll, one of the most
prominent members of the Philadelphia bar, died
May 14th, in the eightieth year of his age. He had
represented the city in Congress in 1812, was United
States district attorney under President Madison, and
was nominated minister to France by President Polk.
Owing to political reasons this last appointment was
not confirmed. He was well known in the literary
circles of Philadelphia.
— City Councils, at a meeting May 15th, passed an
ordinance leasing to the Pennsylvania Railroad the
City Railroad on Market Street, from the bridge to
Broad Street, for thirty years, at an annual rental of
one thousand dollars.
— The transport steamer " John Brooks," Capt.
Layfield, arrived May 20th, with seventy-six wounded
soldiers and sixty prisoners. The prisoners were
lodged in Fort Delaware, and the sick and wounded
soldiers removed to the United States Hospital at
Broad and Cherry Streets.
— A detachment of six hundred and forty sick
and wounded soldiers were brought to the city May
21st, from Yorktown, Newport News, and Williams-
burg. The men were conveyed to the hospitals at
Broad and Cherry and Christian Streets. On the fol-
lowing day two hundred and fifty more passed
through Philadelphia to New York, the hospital
accommodations being exhausted.
— The well-known comedian John Drew died sud-
denly May 21st, at his residence. Mr. Drew was born
798
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
in Dublin, Ireland, Sept. 3, 1827. He appeared at
the Bowery Theatre, New York, in 1845, as Doctor
0' Toole. On the 27th of July, 1850, he mar-
1862] ried Mrs. Mossop, who made her appearance
when a child under her maiden name, Louisa
Lane. Mr. Drew opened at the Chestnut Street The-
atre, Aug. 28, 1852, as Trapanti in " She Would and
She Would Not." He became a great favorite. With
William Wheatley he became lessee of the Arch Street
Theatre in August, 1853. Two years afterward he went
to England. He first appeared in San Francisco in
December, 1858. He was in Australia in the succeed-
ing year ; came back to the United States in 1862 ;
made his last appearance on the stage May 9, 1862.
—The funeral of Col. J. P. Vanleer, of the Sixth
New Jersey Eegiment, took place May 22d, with
military honors.
— Judge Woodward, of the Supreme Court of Penn-
sylvania, rendered a decision on an appeal declaring
the law allowing the vote of soldiers in camp to be
counted at their homes to be unconstitutional. The
results of the election for two officers, that of the
clerk of Orphans' Court and that of the sheriff, were
affected by this decision, and steps were taken to
have the contest in both cases reopened. In the case
of Lawrence against Stevenson, candidates for the
clerk of Orphans' Court, the judge decided, after a
long debate, that they still had jurisdiction, and on
June 9th rendered a decision excluding the army
vote, and giving the office to Mr. Stevenson.
— On receipt of the news of the retreat of Gen.
Banks from the Shenandoah Valley, Governor Cur-
tin issued an order on May 26th to all military
organizations of the State to hold themselves pre-
pared to move to Washington at once. This order
produced great excitement, especially among the
military and their relatives. The Committee of De-
fense and Protection passed a resolution on the fol-
lowing day offering the Home Guard, fully equipped,
to the service of the State, and another authorizing
the purchase of horses for the artillery. The National
Guard and the State Fencibles both filled up their
ranks and prepared to leave the city on the receipt of
orders. The alarm, however, subsided with Jackson's
retreat and McClellan's successes.
— The Protestant Episcopal Convention of the
Diocese of Pennsylvania was opened May 27th in St.
Andrew's Church, Bishop Potter presiding.
— The prize steamer " Cambria" arrived at the
navy-yard June 1st. She was a fine iron propeller,
and was laden with Enfield rifles and other valuable
war material. She had been captured by the United
States ship " Huron" off Charleston.
Augustus De Kalb Tarr, a well-known member
of the Philadelphia bar, died June 1st, aged fifty-four
years.
On the 4th of June the " Whillden" again arrived
from Fortress Monroe with one hundred and sixty-six
Pennsylvania soldiers wounded at the battles on the
Chickahominy. The detachment was in charge of
a delegation of Philadelphia surgeons. Two dead
bodies, those of Lieut. William B. Kenny and of
Private Washington Agar, were also brought upon
the steamer. Four days later the transport " R. S.
Spaulding" arrived with three hundred and thirty-
four wounded soldiers from the battle of Fair Oaks.
— One of the most peculiar and boldest attempts at
jail delivery recorded in Philadelphia history occurred
June 3d. United States Marshal Millward received a
letter purporting to come from the War Department
at Washington, and written on the official paper of
that department, signed by the Assistant Secretary of
War, directing him to prepare an application for a
pardon, and have it signed by the proper officials, for
Col. J. Buchanan Cross, a well-known forger then in
the penitentiary, as the department had urgent need
of Cross in a military capacity. He was directed to
perform this duty secretly and expeditiously, and then
personally present the application to Governor Curtin,
who would be directed how to act. Governor Curtin
received a, similar letter; and on the marshal's presen-
tation of the application a pardon was immediately
issued and delivered to the marshal. No suspicion
was entertained of the genuineness of either letter,
but on account of the urgent character and apparent
gravity of the necessity for Cross, the marshal did not
deliver the pardon to him, but took personal charge
of him, and guarded him carefully until they reached
the war-office at Washington. Here it was quickly
ascertained that both letters were forgeries, and that
neither the Secretary of War nor his assistant had
ever heard of Cross. It was believed that he himself
had forged the letters in the penitentiary. How he
had obtained the official paper remained a mystery.
Cross, with the boldest effrontery, finally admitted
that the letters were forgeries, but protested against
being returned, on the ground that the pardon was
genuine.
— Mayor Weightman, of Boston, on behalf of the
city of Boston, presented a sword to Capt. Wilkes, of
Mason-Slidell fame, at the Continental Hotel.
— On the same date the various State hospitals
were formally transferred to the United States. This
change was effected to simplify the routine of ad-
missions, and did not affect those in charge of the
hospitals. Dunlap's carriage-factory, at Fifth and
Button wood Streets, was used as a United States army
hospital for sick and wounded soldiers from Feb. 16,
1862, to Jan. 31, 1863.
— The steamship " Norman," long of the Boston
line of steamers, was launched June 11th.
— The thirteenth annual meeting of the Pennsyl-
vania State Medical Association was held at the
Pennsylvania University June 11th. Dr. E. Wallace,
of Reading, was president.
— The United States transport " Louisiana" arrived
from Fortress Monroe June 12th, with three hundred
and sixty-four sick and wounded soldiers.
THE CIVIL "WAR.
799
— " Parson" Brownlow was given a reception by a
number of prominent citizens at the Academy of
Music on the 12th. Mr. Brownlow made a charac-
teristic speech.
— A special meeting of Councils was called by the
mayor, on June 17th, to consider the advisability of
the purchase of League Island by the city, and of
presenting it to the government for the purpose of a
navy-yard. The island was offered to the city by the
Pennsylvania Company for Insuring Lives and Grant-
ing Annuities and a private individual for the sum
of three hundred and ten thousand dollars. After
considerable debate an ordinance was passed, direct-
ing the mayor and a committee of both branches of
the Councils to accept the offer. Another ordinance
was then passed, directing the mayor to make a con-
veyance and grant of League Island to the govern-
ment, on condition that it should be accepted for the
location of a navy-yard.
— The apparatus of the Hibernia Fire Company,
which had been in service for three months at Fort-
ress Monroe by the order of the Secretary of War,
returned June 24th, and the engineers who had ac-
companied it were given a reception by the other
members of the company.
— Dr. Owen Still6, surgeon of the Twenty-third
Pennsylvania Regiment, died at Fortress Monroe June
22d. Alderman Hugh Clark died June 20th.
— Four hundred Confederate prisoners passed
through the city June 25th en route for Fort Dela-
ware.
— The funeral of Col. Ellet, commander of the
rams on the Mississippi, occurred June 27th. The
Keystone Artillerists acted as body-guards.
— On June 28th the transport steamers " State of
Maine" and " Whillden" arrived with about six hun-
dred sick and wounded soldiers from White House
Landing. They were distributed among the various
military hospitals.
— On the 2d of July the President, by the advice
of the Governors of eighteen of the States (of which
Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, was one), issued
another call for three hundred thousand men. Much
excitement was, however, caused by the proclamation.
Recruiting began at once and continued through the
summer. The news of the six days' fight before
Richmond was not received until July 3d, and the ac-
count was so meagre as to cause considerable anxiety
and excitement.
— Large numbers of Pennsylvania troops were
wounded in the six days' fighting before Richmond.
The first hospital boat to arrive in Philadelphia with
the wounded was the " Daniel Webster," which
reached the city July 7th, with about two hundred
and fifty wounded, under the charge of assistant-
surgeons A. G. B. Hinkle and H. C. Eckstein.
— The new United States sloop-of-war "Monon-
gahela" was launched July 10th at the navy-yard, in
the presence of a large number of spectators. She
was christened by Miss Emily Virginia Hoover. The
" Monongahela" was two hundred and twenty-five
feet long, thirty-eight feet beam, and seven-
teen feet two inches depth of hold. She was [1862
about fifteen hundred tons burden, and was
pierced to carry six guns.
— On the 10th another detachment of two hundred
and fifty-four wounded and invalid soldiers were
brought on the propeller " John Brooks," under the
charge of Dr. Lloyd W. Hixon. Five deaths occurred
on the passage. The following day sixteen members
of the Weccacoe Fire Company, volunteers in Baxter's
Fire Zouaves, arrived, and were taken to the Cooper-
Shop Hospital.
— Hon. John Foulkrod, for many years State rep-
resentative and senator, died at Frankford July 11th,
of apoplexy.
— Governor Curtin issued a proclamation on July
21st, apportioning the quota of companies to be raised
in each county of the State. The quota of Philadel-
phia was placed at fifty companies of one hundred
men each. The new regiments were to enlist for
nine months, those joining old regiments to serve one
year.
— A meeting of citizens was held at the Board of
Trade room July 24th to take into consideration the
best means of assisting the State government in pro-
viding the contingent of troops from Pennsylvania.
Mayor Henry presided. The greatest enthusiasm was
manifested, and on a call for subscriptions to a fund
to be used as a bounty to volunteers, forty-three thou-
sand one hundred dollars was at once subscribed. A
general mass-meeting to further the object was ordered
to be called at Independence Square on the 26th. On
the same day City Councils appropriated five hundred
thousand dollars to a bounty-fund ; the Pennsylvania
Railroad subscribed fifty thousand dollars ; the Read-
ing Railroad, twenty-five thousand dollars ; and the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad,
three thousand dollars. By the following day the
total private subscriptions had reached one hun-
dred and fifty-eight thousand eight hundred dollars.
On Saturday one of the largest mass-meetings that
had ever been held in the city took place in Inde-
pendence Square. Three stands were erected from
which speeches were delivered. Mayor Henry pre-
sided over the mass-meeting and made an address,
appealing to the citizens to strengthen the hands
of the government by their services or money.
Resolutions were adopted, demanding that the war
should be prosecuted with all the power and means
the executive could command, thanking the Presi-
dent for recent exercises of authority, approving the
call for troops, repelling foreign intervention, and
finally ratifying the proceedings at the meeting at
the Board of Trade. Hon. William D. Kelley, Ex-
Governor Pollock, Daniel Dougherty, J. Wheaton
Smith, Capt. E. W. Powers, Rev. J. Walker Jackson,
George H. Stuart, Edward C. Knight, Rev. J. W.
800
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Jackson, Hon. Isaac Hazleliurst, Col. Small, James
Chauncey, Dr. Morwitz, Hon. E. W. Davis, Rev. Mr.
Oliver, William B. Mann, John W. Forney,
1862] Washington L. Bladen, and others made
addresses. Additional subscriptions to the
amount of about fifty thousand dollars were obtained.
The effect on recruiting was very marked, the recruit-
ing stations being filled with volunteers. The mem-
bers of the Corn Exchange subscribed ten thousand
dollars toward fitting out a special regiment to be
known as the Corn Exchange Regiment.
— The transport steamer " Spaulding" arrived July
25th with two hundred and forty-three sick and
wounded soldiers from City Point.
— The following day the transport " State of Maine"
arrived with one hundred and twenty-five more
wounded soldiers. She had disembarked two hun-
dred and twenty-five invalids at the United States
hospital at Chester. She was followed by the " Com-
modore" and the " Daniel Webster'' bringing about
four hundred more. The hospitals in Philadelphia
were at this time taxed to their utmost capacity.
— Rev. Erastus De Wolfe, rector of St. Barnabas'
Protestant Episcopal Church, died, August 4th, from
the effects of exposure in camp.
— The three new turbine-wheels at the Fairmount
Water- Works were set in motion for the first time in
the early part of August.
—The United States transport " C. Vanderbilt"
arrived, August 7th, with four hundred and fifty sick
and wounded soldiers. The weather was extremely
hot, and no less than thirty deaths occurred on the
passage.
— War meetings continued to be held in various
parts of the city and suburbs to encourage enlist-
ments. One of the most enthusiastic was that of the
Germans to fill up the regiments under Gen. Sigel,
and a regiment of " Sigel Sharpshooters'' was raised
in the city and accepted by the government.
— The proclamation of the President for the first
draft was issued Aug. 4, 1862. On the 8th of August
proclamation was issued that no citizen of the United
States liable to military duty should go abroad before
the draft was made. In Pennsylvania the draft was
made in the fall months of the same year. There was
no draft in the city, in consequence of the raising of
a bounty-fund. The men from the interior of the
State commenced arriving at Camp Philadelphia, near
Haddington, October 27th. The act of March 3, 1863,
called the Conscription Law, authorized the enroll-
ment of all male able-bodied citizens and all aliens
who had declared their intentions, and who were be-
tween the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. If
negroes were at that time, in any of the States, recog-
nized citizens, they were liable to enrollment and con-
scription, if of the proper age. On the 10th of Feb-
ruary, 1864, Congress put an end to all doubt on this
subject by passing an amendment to the law, which
declared that all able-bodied male colored persons
between twenty and forty-five years of age should be
liable to enrollment for service. The recruiting of
persons of African descent as soldiers was authorized
by act of Congress of July 8, 1862, and two regiments
of them were ready in the fall of that year in Massa-
chusetts. In Pennsylvania black regiments were re-
cruited many months before the close of the war, and
colored men were recruited by the United States gov-
ernment for the regular army in 1862-63, in Maryland,
in Missouri, and in Tennessee. In December, 1863,
there were over fifty thousand colored soldiers in the
United States service, and before the end of 1864 there
were over one hundred and fifty thousand in the ser-
vice, beside what were among the State troops. The
Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the
United States was not adopted until 1870, five years
after the war was closed. The draft under the Con-
scription Act of March 3, 1863, began in the Fourth
Congressional District July 15, 1863 ; draft in the
First and Second Wards, Feb. 23, 1865; Third,
Fourth, and Seventh Wards, February 24th ; Fifth
and Eighth Wards, February 25th ; Sixth and Ninth
Wards, February 27th ; and Twenty-fifth Ward, March
22, 1865.
• — On August 10th four transport steamers arrived,
having on board over thirteen hundred sick soldiers.
The majority of the men were suffering from camp
fevers, dysenteries, and other diseases incident to
camp life.
— The effort to evade the draft which was threat-
ened unless Philadelphia's quota was furnished caused
a curious scene at the sailing of the ship " Zerah" for
Londonderry August 12th. The provost marshal and
his guard, assisted by a squad of policemen, took pos-
session of the wharf and vessel before the passengers
embarked. No person was allowed to sail unless he
was provided with a passport, and a large number of
intended runaways were turned back.
— On the 12th three more hospital-ships, the "S. B.
Spaulding," the "Elm City," and "St. Mark's,'? arrived
with about eleven hundred more invalid soldiers from
Harrison's Landing and Fortress Monroe. They were
distributed amoug the various hospitals and in tem-
porary quarters in every section of the city.
— The Norristown Railroad bridge over the Wissa-
hickon Creek was destroyed by fire August 12th. The
mill of Andrew Robinson, occupied by John Dobson,
was also totally destroyed.
— The transport " Kennebec" arrived August 13th,
with two hundred and eighty sick and wounded.
Eight deaths occurred on the voyage.
— A championship sculling match took place on
what is now known as the national course on the
Schuylkill August 13th, between Joshua Ward and
James Hammill. Hammill won by thirty yards.
On the following day Hammill again won.
— The transport " Commodore" arrived on the 18th,
with about two hundred invalid soldiers. Four deaths
occurred on board.
THE CIVIL WAK.
801
— Brig.-Gen. Corcoran, of the Irish Brigade, on his
return from the South, where he had been held pris-
oner, was given a reception in every city from Wash-
ington north. Delegations of the City Councils met
the general at Baltimore, and accompanied him to
the city. The reception was most enthusiastic. He
was met at the depot, and escorted to Independ-
ence Hall by the One Hundred and Fourteenth,
the One Hundred and Sixteenth, and the One
Hundred and Seventeenth Regiments, the Fenian
Brotherhood, the Pike and Hurling Club, the Hiber-
nia Society, and other organizations, together with
members of City Councils and prominent citizens.
He was welcomed at the Cooper-Shop Refreshment
Saloon by Dr. Andrew Nebinger, and again at Inde-
pendence Hall by Mayor Henry. The general re-
sponded in a patriotic speech. In the evening he was
serenaded.
— On the following day another exchanged prisoner,
Col. John K. Murphy, reached the city, and though
his arrival was unexpected, a spontaneous reception
was given to him no less enthusiastic than that to
Gen. Corcoran.
— Rear- Admiral George C. Read, commandant of
the Naval Asylum, died at that institution August
22d, aged seventy-five years.
— A grand mass-meeting of the Democratic party
was held at Independence Square August 22d, Peter
McCall presiding. The gathering was one of the
largest ever seen in Philadelphia. The meeting was
addressed by Francis W. Hughes, Peter McCall,
William H. Witte, Charles Ingersoll, Joseph A. Clay,
and John Bell Robinson. The resolutions adopted
denounced secession and abolition doctrines as equally
subversive of the Constitution ; denounced, likewise,
the suppression of freedom of speech by the govern-
ment and the abolition of the habeas corpus law in
the loyal States as in violation of the Constitution;
urged the prosecution of the war for the suppression
of the Rebellion, and tendered the thanks of the
party to the prominent generals and numerous mem-
bers of the party in the ranks.
—On August 23d and 24th the Thirty-fifth Massa-
chusetts, and the One Hundred and Eleventh and the
One Hundred and Seventeenth New York Regiments
passed through the city, in addition to numerous
squads designed to fill the ranks of old regiments in
the field.
— The day following the Democratic mass-meeting
one of the speakers, Charles Ingersoll, was arrested
by the provost marshal, on the affidavit of Edward
Willard, for uttering treasonable language. The lan-
guage as set forth in the affidavit was as follows :
" The despotisms of the Old World can furnish
no parallel to the corruptions of the administration
of Abraham Lincoln. They can imprison us as they
like for the exercise of the right of free speech, as
in the case of a citizen of the Twelfth Ward ; but
what does that amount to if they have to feed, clothe,
51
and lodge us; and in these hard times that is quite a
consideration." Mr. Ingersoll was released on one
thousand dollars bail to appear before the
United States marshal. 1 1862
— The funeral services of Rear-Admiral
Read took place August 26th, .in the United States
Naval Asylum. The ships in the harbor had their
flags at half-mast, and minute-guns were fired at noon
by the "Princeton." The pall-bearers were,— Rear-
Admirals Charles Stewart and Lavalette, Commodores
Inman and Nicholson, and Gens. Montgomery, Cross-
man, Cadwalader, and Patterson.
— The Democratic nominating convention met
August 26th, 27th, and 28th, and nominated a full
city ticket, Daniel M. Fox being the candidate for
mayor. On the 26th Amos Briggs declined the nomi-
nation of the Republican party for the mayoralty.
— Charles Ingersoll, after a preliminary examina-
tion before the marshal, was committed to the charge
of Deputy Marshal Schuyler, who, however, was di-
rected to accompany him wherever he chose to go.
Mr. Ingersoll immediately prayed for a writ of habeas
corpus in the United States District Court, which was
granted forthwith. The marshal's deputy asked for
delay, which was finally granted, the writ being made
returnable on the following day. During the night
of the 28th Mr. Ingersoll's mother died. By mutual
consent it was agreed to defer the hearing until
Monday following. On that day the writ of habeas
corpus was obeyed. Mr. Ingersoll being produced,
the marshal announced the receipt of orders from
the Secretary of War ordering Mr. Ingersoll's release.
As the plaintiff was thus at liberty, the marshal's re-
turn to the writ was accepted, and the proceedings
ceased.
— The National Union party, without reference to
theRepublicans, nominated a full party ticket, headed
in the city by Alexander Henry for mayor.
— On the 29th of August the deputy marshals,
engaged in making the enrollment of citizens liable
to the draft, were attacked by a crowd of men and
women on Milton Street above Eleventh. The mar-
shals succeeded, after some difficulty, in arresting one
man, Patrick Blue. A file of soldiers was detailed
to guard the street and disperse the mob.
— At a meeting of the Republican convention,
which had adjourned after nominating Amos Briggs
for mayor to await the action of the National Union
party, a speech was made by Dr. Gregg, strongly
condemning the action of Judge Briggs in declining
the nomination of the party. A resolution was
passed denouncing the action of the National Union
party in refusing to co-operate with the Republicans,
and especially a resolution passed by the former ap-
pointing a committee to wait upon the President to
ask him to remove every employe1 of the United
States who did not support the National Union ticket.
No action was taken on the proposition to nominate
a third ticket.
802
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
— The movement and battles at Manassas Junction
and the second battle of Bull Run caused a great deal
of anxiety and excitement, the strict cen-
1862] sorship exercised by the government over
dispatches to the papers causing a paucity
and delay in the announcement of news, and giving
rise to numerous rumors and surmises. On the 1st
of September the excitement culminated when the
Tribune published a "special dispatch" announcing
that Gen. Banks' army was cut to pieces, and that
the President had removed Gen. McClellan and de-
nounced him as a traitor. The city was in an uproar,
which was pacified by a complete and circumstantial
contradiction of the rumor, and the suppression of the
Tribune by order of the government.
— Col. Prevost's and Col. Tippen's regiments left
on the 1st of September, and Col. Ellmaker's fol-
lowed on the same night. The Twenty-second New
York Regiment, returning homeward, met the One
Hundred and Twenty-first New York on their way
south at the Cooper-Shop Refreshment Saloon on the
same day.
—On September 2d and 3d, Col. Heenan's regi-
ment left for the seat of war. Before its departure
a handsome sword was presented to Col. Heenan by
some admiring friends.
— During September 3d about seventeen hundred
sick and wounded soldiers arrived, and were dis-
tributed to the various hospitals. It was impossible
to obtain sufficient accommodations for them all in
the regular hospitals, and the National Guards' Hall,
on Race Street, and the Weccacoe Engine-house, were
temporarily fitted up for their accommodation. Four
hundred had been left at the Chester General Hospi-
tal. The remains of Col. John A. Kolter arrived the
same day. His body was escorted to Independence
Hall, and thence to the grave, on Friday, by a guard
of honor of the Seventy-third Regiment and a bat-
talion of rifles.
— -The enrollment of the city having been com-
pleted, it was announced that there were 99,701 men
capable of bearing arms, of which 19,228 had already
enlisted, which was much less than the actual number.
— The Twelfth New Jersey, One Hundred and
Thirty-fifth New York, Thirty-ninth Massachusetts,
and the One Hundred and Twenty-third New York
Regiments passed through the city September 7th,
beside numerous detachments, making in all about five
thousand men. They were all entertained at the Vol-
unteer Union and Cooper-Shop Refreshment Saloons.
— Independence Square was converted September
8th into a grand recruiting camp. The interdict
placed by the United States marshal on travel, by
demanding passports from all travelers, was removed
by orders from Washington September 6th.
— Governor Curtin appointed commissioners to
supervise the draft, under the provisions of the draft
law, on September 8th.
—A double collision occurred September 9th on
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail-
road, near Baltimore, by which three soldiers were
killed and about twenty injured.
— The invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania by
the Confederate troops created great excitement.
Councils passed resolutions on the 11th to further
enlistments, and to place the Home Guard on a
better basis. On the same night the mayor issued
an urgent appeal for volunteers, in obedience to a
telegram from the Governor, stating that the Confed-
erate army was already on the move for Harrisburg
and Philadelphia, and begging for all available
troops to be forwarded at once to Harrisburg. The
mayor called for minute-men to assemble on Friday
for the defense of the State. He also called a special
meeting of Councils to consider the emergency. A
terrible storm raged over the city on Friday, but it
did not deter the assembling of the people. Great
numbers of Workingmen and others offered them-
selves in bodies, as did likewise the various militia
organizations. The employes of the Baldwin Loco-
motive Works, two hundred in number, offered them-
selves at once, as did those of Morris & Tasker, and
other large establishments. Councils passed a resolu-
tion giving to the mayor and a committee of defense
and protection full power to defend the city as might
seem best to them, and appropriating five hundred
thousand dollars for that purpose, to be drawn by the
mayor as necessity required. Later in the day the
news was more reassuring, which somewhat allayed
the excitement.
— Nearly five hundred more wounded men arrived
in the city on the 11th of September, but as there
was not sufficient hospital accommodation here they
passed on to New York.
— In consequence of the storm, serious floods oc-
curred in the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers and
in several of the creeks, especially Cohocksink and
Frankford. The Cohocksink Creek culvert burst
during. the height of the storm, destroying a large
amount of property, flooding the neighborhood, and
drowning five persons.
— The official enrollment figures were published
September 14th, and showed a total liable to military
service of 106,806 persons. Of these were in Penn-
sylvania regiments, 17,670; navy and marine, 1744 ;
and in regiments of other States, 1489 men. Accord-
ing to the records of the War Department these fig-
ures were incorrect, 29,194 having been on the War
Department rolls. This left but 4220 to fill the quota
of the city.
— Throughout Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Mon-
day troops were moved to Harrisburg as rapidly as
possible. By the 16th, four days after the call, it was
estimated that fifty thousand men were encamped
near that city. The howitzer battery at the navy-
yard and the city battery of ten brass guns were
also taken to Harrisburg. By the 16th the news of
the defeat and retreat of Lee restored confidence.
i 01D&H44,.
THE CIVIL WAR.
803
—The Hibemia Fire Engine was again called on
by the Secretary of War to proceed to Washington to
perform duty there. The apparatus, under the charge
of William Dickson, chief engineer, and seven mem-
bers of the company, left the city on the 17th.
— The Twelfth New York and the Eighty-seventh
Ohio Regiments, which had been captured and paroled
by the Confederates at Harper's Ferry, passed through
Philadelphia on their homeward journey.
— News of the dangers and of the safety of the
various Philadelphia organizations, alternately ex-
cited and relieved the city for several days after the
battle of Antietam. The Corn Exchange Regiment
suffered most severely, Col. Prevost being wounded
and about two hundred and thirty men of the regi-
ment killed or wounded. Col. Neill, Twenty-third
Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. Anderson, United
States army, and Lieut.-Col. Hector Tyndale were
among the wounded, and arrived in Philadelphia on
the 22d. The militia who had gone to Harrisburg on
the call of the Governor began to return on the 22d,
their services not being required.
— A quarrel among some of the troops en route for
Washington occurred September 23d on Washington
Avenue, resulting in the wounding of some twenty
soldiers. The provost marshal made some arrests
and restored order.
—The President had issued a proclamation on the
24th of September, depriving persons arrested by
military authority for treason of the protection of
the habeas corpus law. The case of Isaac C. Thomas,
arrested in Bucks County by the United States
marshal, charged with discouraging enlistments, was
brought before Judge Cadwalader on a petition for
a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was granted and
obeyed, but the marshal proposed to quash the in-
dictment on merely proving the arrest under the
President's proclamation. Judge Cadwalader, how-
ever, admitted the prisoner to bail and continued
the case, in order to consider the question and give an
opinion on the three points, —
1st. Has the marshal of the district any official
authority to make a military arrest by virtue of his
office as marshal ?
2d. Has he any authority to make such an arrest
as the agent of the Secretary of War in a place
where the courts of the United States are open, and
the course of justice unimpeded, or in a place where
actual hostilities are not being waged, nor in actual
military occupation ?
3d. Has the President the power to suspend the
writ of habeas corpus without legislative authority as
to cases of persons arrested by an alleged military
authority in a place where the courts of justice are
unobstructed, or not in military occupation, or where
actual hostilities are not pending?
On the 30th, before the judge had delivered any
opinion on these points, the marshal announced that
he had received orders to discharge the prisoner;
and so, without conceding that one under a military
arrest by him for treason can be relieved of that
arrest by a writ of habeas corpus, the pro-
ceedings ceased, and the case was dismissed. [1862
— Between four hundred and five hun-
dred wounded soldiers arrived from the battle-field
of Antietam, September 26th, and were taken to the
military hospitals. An accident to a train contain-
ing a number of Philadelphia soldiers occurred on
the Cumberland Valley Railroad near Harrisburg on
the same day, causing seven deaths and injuring
about forty men.
— The United States revenue-stamp law went into
effect on the 1st of October. The supply proved in-
sufficient for the demand, and much dissatisfaction
resulted, especially as there was more or less doubt
as to the special applicability of the law to certain
cases.
— About two hundred and sixty wounded soldiers
arrived from Hagerstown and Antietam on the 1st.
— The election on October 14th was very quiet and
orderly, and resulted in a victory in the city for the
National Union party. Mayor Henry had five thou-
sand and eighty-eight majority, the remainder of the
city ticket about three thousand majority. In the
State 'the Democrats were successful, electing their
State candidates by about five thousand majority.
Alexander Henry, who was distinguished during
the war for his cool, careful, wise, and strong manage-
ment of city affairs, was born in Philadelphia April
14, 1823. He was a son of John Henry, and a grand-
son of Alexander Henry, who, in his time, was a most
prominent and honored citizen. Mr. Henry received
an academical and collegiate education. He graduated
with distinguished honors from Princeton, his prelimi-
nary training having been derived from local schools.
After leaving college he began the study of law, and
was admitted to the Philadelphia bar April 13, 1844.
He speedily established a remunerative law practice,
and in 1856 and 1857 represented the Seventh Ward
in Councils. In 1858, nominated as the standard-
bearer of the People's party, composed of Whigs and
Republicans, Mr. Henry became a candidate for the
mayoralty. Richard Vaux was the Democratic nom-
inee. The election, as we have seen, in May, 1858,
resulted in a victory for Mr. Henry, the vote being :
Henry, 33,772 ; Vaux, 29,039. In 1860 he was again
elected, defeating John Robbins, Jr., by the follow-
ing vote: Henry, 36,658 ; Robbins, 35,776. In 1863
he defeated Daniel M. Fox, the vote being, — Henry,
37,249; Fox, 32,161. In 1866 he declined a renomi-
nation, taking the ground that it was wrong for one
man to serve in such a position too many terms, and
Morton McMichael succeeded him.
During the civil war, as we have seen, he managed
the city affairs with consummate ability, and under
his administration the efficiency of the police force
was raised to a high standard, and the reserve
corps, which had been organized under his prede-
804
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
cessor, Mayor Vaux, was made an effective arm of
the service.
Mr. Henry at various times held the fol-
1862] lowing additional public and semi-public
positions. He was trustee of the University
of Pennsylvania, member of the Park Commission,
director of the Fidelity Insurance, Trust, and Safe
Deposit Company, and of the Philadelphia Saving-
Fund Society, and inspector of the Eastern Peniten-
tiary, which latter office he had held at the time of his
decease twenty-eight consecutive years.
As a member of the State Board of Centennial
Supervisors, he was an active factor in the preparatory
work of the great International Exhibition as chair-
man of the Executive Committee ; and on May 29,
1874, upon the resignation of ex-Governor Bigler, to
take a seat in the Centennial Board of Finance, Mr.
Henry became president of the Board of Supervisors.
In this latter position he labored with great vigor and
efficiency, materially aiding to secure the distinguish-
ing success which characterized the magnificent ex-
position, particularly so far as Pennsylvania's exhibits
and interests were concerned.
The most recent mention of Mr. Henry's name in
connection with a political office occurred during the
memorable struggle for the United States senatbrship,
which terminated in the election of John I. Mitchell.
Upon several occasions Mr. Henry received a number
of complimentary votes.
About four years ago, Mr. Henry's son and only
child died, and the shock greatly impaired the father's
health. In the spring of 1883 he visited Europe, and
remained there until late in the succeeding fall. He
returned from abroad much benefited in health. On
Nov. 28, 1883, however, within a month from the date
of his return from his European trip, he became ill,
and died early in the morning of December 6th, the
immediate cause of death being typhoid pneumonia.
As a mark of respect to the memory of the de-
ceased the flags on Independence Hall, the mayor's
office, and a number of business establishments were
placed at half-mast. Mayor King addressed a mes-
sage to Councils, notifying them of the death of ex-
Mayor Henry, and expressing his high appreciation
of the character of the deceased. Resolutions of re-
spect were passed by both chambers, and a joint com-
mittee was appointed to make arrangements for at-
tending the funeral. The obsequies took place on the
following Saturday at the late residence of the de-
ceased, in Germantown, the interment being made in
Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Mr. Henry was a man of sterling character, com-
manding the respect of his fellow-citizens, and the
hearty affection of his numerous friends. In early
life he was married to a daughter of Comegys Paul,
who survives her husband.
Rev. William Metcalfe, said to be the oldest
ordained resident minister in Philadelphia, died Oc-
tober 16th.
— In the contested election case of Thompson vs.
Ewing, for the office of sheriff, the judge delivered
an opinion October 18th, giving the office to Mr.
Thompson. Mr. Ewing obtained a writ of certiorari
in the Supreme Court, and in the mean time retained
his office. In accordance with the decision of the
lower court, Governor Curtin issued a commission
to John Thompson, which was read, October 22d, in
the Court of Quarter Sessions, and Mr. Thompson
took the oath of office the same day. Mr. Ewing
declined to give him possession of the" sheriff's office
until the case should have been decided by the Su-
preme Court, and applied to that court for an injunc-
tion to restrain Mr. Thompson from taking possession.
The judges not having time to hear the case, the pro-
ceedings ceased by mutual consent to allow the case
to be heard on the writ of certiorari.
■ — A new military hospital, capable of accommo-
dating about one hundred and fifty patients, was
opened at Twelfth and Buttonwood Streets on Octo-
ber 22d. A flag-raising was held, and the hospital
was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies.
— Camp Philadelphia, near Haddonfield, was se-
lected as the mustering ground for the drafted men
of Pennsylvania's quota, and on October 25th one
hundred and fifty men from Bucks County went into
camp there. The camp comprised thirty acres, which
was afterward increased to seventy, and was very
beautifully situated. By the end of the month there
were nearly seven thousand men in camp, Col. Mc-
Clure's regiment of volunteers being encamped on a
portion of the ground. The camp was a favorite
resort for Philadelphians.
— The Democrats held a jubilee in Independence
Square over their recent victories in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and Indiana on October 30th. Charles J.
Ingersoll was present, and addresses were made by
Francis Hughes, Eobert E. Monaghau, of Chester,
and John O'Byrne and Samuel J. Randall, of Phil-
adelphia.
— The commissioners for supervising the draft held
a meeting on the 2d of November, at which it was de-
cided that under the law Philadelphia's quota had
been filled by voluntary enlistments, and that conse-
quently no draft was necessary at this time. This
result was received with much satisfaction by every
one.
— On November 7th, Commodore Pendergrast, com-
mandant of the navy-yard, died, aged sixty-two. He
had been in the United States navy nearly fifty
years. His funeral occurred on the 10th, and was at-
tended by all the officers of the navy in port and a
company of marines. The pall-bearers were Com-
mander Ramman, Maj. Zeilin, and Capts. Adams,
Ingle, and Rolando.
—The announcement, on the 9th of November, of
the removal of Gen. George B. McClellan from the
command of the Army of the Potomac created great
excitement, which in the evening centred at the
THE CIVIL WAB.
805
Continental Hotel, where it was expected the gen-
eral would arrive. It caused almost universal dis-
satisfaction even among those who had been con-
sidered his opponents. Newspaper comments at the
time were cautious, on account of the strict censor-
ship exercised by the government. On successive
days large crowds gathered about the railroad sta-
tions when it was rumored that he was to arrive in
Philadelphia, but on both days met with disappoint-
ment. Resolutions complimentary to his services
were passed by Councils, and by a meeting of non-
commissioned officers and privates of veteran regi-
ments in Philadelphia.
— The fly-wheel of the large engine at the rolling-
mill of William Rowland & Co., on Frankford Creek,
burst November 10th, wrecking the building and
killing Samuel Hamilton, an employ^.
— By general agreement among the various street
railways the fare was raised to six cents. It had pre-
viously been five, but the cost of materials required
by them had so increased, on account of the war, as
to justify this increase in fare.
— Rear-Admiral Elie A. F. Lavalette died Novem-
ber 18th, in his seventy-third year. He had joined
the United States navy in 1812, and had consequently
been in active service over fifty years. His funeral
took place on the 22d.
— Brig.-Gen. Frank E. Patterson, son of Maj.-Gen.
Patterson, died in camp at Fairfax Court-House No-
vember 21st, and his body was removed to Philadel-
phia. He was a brave and accomplished officer, had
served with the United States army in the Mexican
war, and was one of the first to take to Washington
the regiment he then commanded. His funeral took
place on the 26th, and was attended by the First
Regiment Infantry Reserve Brigade, two companies
of the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Regiment
Pennsylvania Volunteers, the Washington Grays, a
battery of two guns, Home Guard Artillery, the
First City Troop, and convalescent soldiers. Many
officers of the army and navy also accompanied the
funeral.
— The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania quashed
the writ of certiorari, and dissolved the injunction in
the case of Thompson vs. Ewing for sheriff of Phila-
delphia on November 25th, thus affirming the deci-
sion of the lower court, and giving the office to Mr.
Thompson.
— The One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Pennsyl-
vania Regiment, Col. John Nyce, left Camp Phila-
delphia for Washington November 27th. It was
followed by the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth and
the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth on the following
day.
— Capt. Benjamin Snell, the oldest shipmaster in
Philadelphia, died November 29th, in his eighty-
sixth year.
— On December 5th the wall of the North Broad
Street Presbyterian Church fell while masons were at
work upon it, killing Jeremiah Burke, and injuring
Thomas Mackney.
— The Corn Exchange Association held a [1862
meeting on December 8th, to devise measures
to raise funds to relieve the suffering poor of Lanca-
shire and other manufacturing districts of England.
The destitution there was frightful, on account of the
shutting down of the cotton-mills, caused by the
American war. A subscription-list, which was started,
received fourteen thousand dollars before the meeting
adjourned. It was concluded to send, in conjunction
with the cities of Boston and New York, a ship-load
of provisions to be distributed among the poor.
— The United States sloop-of-war " Shenandoah"
was launched at the navy-yard December 8th. She •
was two hundred and forty-three and one-half feet
over all, thirty-eight feet four inches beam, and sev-
enteen feet depth of hold.
— On three successive days, December 12th, 13th,
and 14th, a total of fifteen hundred sick and wounded
soldiers arrived.
— The strict government censorship over the news
caused so little to be known concerning the battle of
Fredericksburg that the wildest rumors circulated on
December 14th. The excitement was intense as the
news became gradually known of that disastrous
battle. Col. Dennis Heenan, Lieut.-Col. St. Clair,
A. Mulholland, and Lieut. S. G. Willauer, of the One
Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment, who had all been
wounded in the battle, arrived on the 16th, and
brought partial tidings of the Philadelphia soldiers.
Five hundred and twenty-five sick and wounded ar-
rived on that day, followed by a large number on
the 18th, and eight hundred and fifty on the 20th.
As the Philadelphia hospitals were now crowded, all
but thirty of this last detachment continued their
journey to New York.
— The steamer " Niagara," with five companies of
the Fiftieth Massachusetts Regiment, forming a por-
tion of the so-called " Banks expedition," arrived in
Philadelphia December 16th. The officers stated
that the steamer which had been purchased by the
government was in a totally unseaworthy condition.
In spite of perfectly calm weather, it was so leaky
that they put into the Delaware breakwater, where a
slight breeze damaged her upper works and compelled
her to come to Philadelphia. Her timbers were en-
tirely rotten, and her upper works excessively frail.
The United States inspector condemned her on the
following day, and the men were given temporary
quarters at the Cooper-Shop Refreshment Saloon.
— On December 23d over three hundred wounded
soldiers arrived. On the following day one of the
new monitors, which had been built at Wilmington,
arrived at the navy-yard to take in stores ; and her
appearance caused much curiosity.
— On the 30th of December, James Coxe, for nine-
teen years president of the Lehigh Navigation Com-
pany, died.
806
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
— Schofield's large woolen-mill, on Willow below
Thirteenth Street, was destroyed by fire on the last
day of the year, causing a loss of eighteen thousand
dollars. Mrs. McCauley was burned to death.
1863] — On the organization of Councils, Jan.
5th, both political parties claimed a majority.
In Select Councils the Democrats, with the assistance
of Mr. Brightly, elected the president, Mr. Lynd
(Brightly 's candidate), and officers after a prolonged
dead-lock. In Common Council each political party
organized, both claiming a quorum, and electing
officers. Both these bodies sent messengers to the
mayor, but he refused to recognize either of them on
the ground that some of the seats in each of these
bodies were contested, and that omitting these neither
of them had a quorum of members. It is unneces-
sary to attempt to unravel the legal complication
to which this action of the Councils gave rise. For
several days both parties met at the same hour, and a
ridiculous farce of two presidents and two bodies,
both claiming to pass resolutions and appoint com-
mittees, was indulged in. By the decision of the
court the matter was finally adjusted, and Mr. Kerr
(Democrat) elected president.
— An explosion occurred at the Bridesburg arsenal,
on January 7th, by which eleven men were seriously
burned.
— The body of Maj. Thomas Hawksworth of the
Sixty-eighth Kegiment, who died on the 6th from the
effects of wounds received at Fredericksburg, lay in
state at Independence Hall. He was buried on the
11th with military honors.
— On January 10th Col. C. Buchanan Cross, whose
bold attempt to escape from the penitentiary has al-
ready been described, applied to the courts for a dis-
charge on the ground that the Governor's pardon was
legal, although issued on fraudulent grounds, and that
therefore his detention was illegal. The pardon,
however, had never been delivered, and was recalled
by the Governor. The court held the matter under
advisement, but finally refused the application.
— A bold robbery of five thousand dollars in gold
was perpetrated by a beggar at the office of Jay Cooke
& Co., bankers, on the 19th of January. The thief
was captured the same day, and all but one hundred
and sixty dollars recovered.
— The new Chestnut Street Theatre, on Chestnut
Street near Twelfth, was opened for the first time on
the evening of January 26th. Edwin Forrest played
"Virginius," with McCullough as " Icilius." The
house was crowded, the manager having received over
eight thousand dollars in premiums for reserved
seats.
— On January 28th the provost-general caused the
arrest of Albert D. Boileau, publisher and editor of
the Evening Journal, aDd took him to Fort McHenry,
Baltimore, where he was confined. The provost guard
seized the office, and the afternoon edition of the
paper was suppressed. On the following day Judge
Ludlow charged the grand jury concerning the
"abduction," directing them to make inquiry as to
the cause and legality of the arrest. The grand
jury summoned the provost, Gen. Montgomery, and
his marshals, who made the arrest, and other wit-
nesses. On January 30th they made a special pre-
sentment detailing all the particulars of the affair.
By this it appeared that the Evening Journal had been
suppressed and its editor arrested by command of
Maj. -Gen. Schenck, transmitted to Provost-Gen.
Montgomery, and executed by Howard Livingstone,
and to Gen. Montgomery and Lieut. Michael Coster,
of the provost guard, on account of an editorial
headed " Davis' Message." This editorial, it was
alleged, was highly eulogistic of the Confederate
President's message to the Confederate Congress as
well as of Davis himself, and drew unfavorable com-
parisons to President Lincoln. Judge Ludlow di-
rected the district attorney to examine the present-
ment and frame such bills of indictment as he might
find necessary to prevent infraction of the laws of
Pennsylvania and of the Constitution of the United
States. On the following day Judge Allison, in
charging the grand jury of the February term, re-
viewed Judge Ludlow's actions, which he described
as surpassing his powers. He did not touch upon the
merits of the original charge, but held that Judge
Ludlow had no power to charge the grand jury to
examine into a matter not brought before its notice
by a regular channel. He therefore directed the
grand jury to ignore all bills of indictment concern-
ing the case. On the 1st of February, however, Mr.
Boileau wrote an apologetic letter promising to con-
duct his paper more moderately in the future, and
was thereupon released.
— Hon. Hopewell Hepburn, for many years associate
judge of the District Court at Pittsburgh, died Febru-
ary 14th. After retiring from the bench he practiced
law up to the time of his death.
— Washington's birthday was celebrated on Mon-
day, February 23d, with appropriate ceremonies. The
new post-office building, on Chestnut Street below
Fifth, was opened on that day for public inspection,
and taken possession of by the post-office authori-
ties. There were present Postmaster-General Blair,
Governor Curtin, Mayor Henry, Justices Strong,
Bead, and Thompson, members of the Corn Ex-
change, and others. A. J. Cattell, of the Corn Ex-
change, presided. Mr. Blair made an address on
receiving the building, and was answered by Mr.
Cattell, who returned the thanks of the city to the
Post-Office Department for the improvement. Late
in the afternoon a banquet was given at the Girard
House. The post-office was opened for the transaction
of business on the 27th, and was the first owned by
the United States in the city, the department having
previously rented apartments in the Exchange build-
ing and elsewhere. It was a brick building faced
with marble, and continued in use until 1884, when
THE CIVIL WAR.
807
the building at Ninth and Chestnut being finished, it
was taken possession of.
— On the 27th of February Dr. R. Bournonville, a
native of Lyons, France, but for thirty-five years a
resident and practitioner of the city, died at an ad-
vanced age.
— Congressmen Vallandigham and Pendleton, of
Ohio, arrived March 6th, and were serenaded at the
Girard House. Mr. Vallandigham attempted to
deliver a speech in support of his opinions concerning
arbitration and peace, but was very frequently in-
terrupted by the mixed political character of his
audience.
— On the 7th an important seizure of contraband
goods was made by the chief of police, at the Adams
Express Company's office.
— The National Union Club of Philadelphia was
organized March 11th, and the event was made the
occasion of a grand Union festival. Governor Cur-
tin presided, and many prominent men were present.
Addresses were made by Governor Curtin, Senator
Doolittle, of Wisconsin, H. B. Wright, B. H. Brews-
ter, and Governor Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee.
— On March 14th, Charles J. Ingersoll delivered
the first of a series of lectures on politics before the
Democratic Club, on the subject of "State Rights."
— A boiler in the forge-shop of the boiler-works of
Richard Norris & Sons exploded March 16th, killing
William Rodgers, the engineer.
• — The chief of police, Benjamin Franklin, sent to
Fort Delaware W. Crawford, on the 1st of April,
charged with attempting to smuggle contraband
goods into the rebellious States. Four cases were
captured at the Adams Express office filled with
contraband articles.
— A "signal-train" of six cars, fitted up with the
newest telegraphic instruments and apparatus for sig-
naling, which had been built in Philadelphia, was
dispatched to Gen. Rosecrans on the 8th.
-r-On the 9th of April, Philip Huber, Augustus F.
Illig, Gabriel Filbert, and Harrison Oxensider were
brought before the United States Commissioner on
complaint of William Y. Lyons, charged with belong-
ing to a secret organization for the purpose of op-
posing the government of the United States. All the
parties were well known in and about Reading, Pa.,
where the alleged meeting was said to have occurred.
The testimony elicited was very doubtful as to the
intent of the organization, and after a prolonged ex-
amination all but Huber were released. The trial
excited a great deal of bitter feeling and much
excitement.
— The new Ericsson monitor built at Chester made
her trial trip the following day, and returned for
her stores.
— A fire at Allison & Murphy's car-factory, at Nine-
teenth and Market Streets, May 2d, resulted in a loss
of one hundred thousand dollars.
— Mr. Cyrus W. Field arrived, and addressed a
meeting of prominent citizens at the Board of Trade
rooms, May 11th, on the feasibility and advantages
of an Atlantic cable. He was listened to
with much interest, and a committee ap- [1863
pointed to aid the project.
— The United States transport steamer " Wyalus-
ing" was launched from Cramp's ship-yard May 12th.
On the 16th the United States gun-boat " Pontiac"
was launched at the yard of Birely, Hillnlan & Co.
— On the 1st of June the Democrats held a mass-
meeting in Independence Square to protest against
the violation of the Constitution witnessed by the
arrest and court-martialing of Mr. Vallandigham, of
Ohio, on the charge of " implied treason." The as-
sembly is reported as one of the largest ever seen,
in that inclosure. Ellis Lewis was elected chair-
man. The speeches were very bitter, and the resolu-
tions denounced the arrest as a violation of the Con-
stitution. They declared, however, the proper and
legal remedy to be in an appeal to the ballot-box,
and deprecated any violence or appeal to force of
arms as likely to do more harm than good. Col.
Charles J. Biddle declared the arrest to be on a
charge, the trial by a tribunal, and the verdict of a
character never before known to the laws of the
United States. Among the speakers were ex-Gov-
ernor William Bigler, Col. Charles J. Biddle, Peter
McCall, George W. Biddle, and Charles Buckwalter.
The meeting was undisturbed, but some slight dis-
turbance occurred after it adjourned.
— Col. J. Richter Jones, Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania
Regiment, was buried June 3d, after lying in state
in Independence Hall, with appropriate military cer-
emonies. The First Regiment Reserve Brigade,
Companies A, C, and D of the First Regiment Artil-
lery, the Philadelphia Home Guard, the Provost
Guard, the Invalid Corps, and a squadron of Connec-
ticut Cavalry served as an escort.
— On June 3d the great grain-elevator of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company at the foot of Washing-
ton Avenue was put in operation for the first time.
— F. M. Drexel, the founder of the great banking-
house, was run over June 5th by the cars on the
Reading Railroad, and died the same day.
— What was described as the longest train of pas-
senger cars that ever entered the city arrived June
9th with two thousand four hundred Confederate
prisoners ; seven hundred and sixty-six more arrived
on the 14th under proper guard. The prisoners were
conveyed to Fort Delaware by steamer.
— The Democrats of Ohio had nominated Vallan-
dingham for Governor in the ensuing election, and
this news, which was published on the 12th, created
much excitement in Philadelphia, as it was regarded
by some as a direct assault upon the United States
government which had sentenced him to exile, and
by others as a courageous vindication of the rights
of free speech to which he was held to be a martyr.
The Public Ledger, commenting on this "martyr-
808
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
dom," says, "It was a great political blunder such
as a military man might commit heedlessly, but
into which a shrewd politician ought not
1863] to have fallen ; to raise a new popular is-
sue when the administration had posses-
sion of the popular feeling, and one so repugnant
to the feeling of a free people as the suppression, by
military authority, of free speech and trial by jury
for offenses against the civil law." The issue was
fortunately shifted to the support or opposition to the
general government in the prosecution of the war.
Vallandigham was badly defeated, and thus a most
unfortunate complication which might have involved
the whole country was prevented from interfering
with the question of the day.
— The news that Lee was advancing into Maryland
arrived simultaneously with the proclamation of
President Lincoln calling for one hundred thousand
men, and apportioning fifty thousand as Pennsyl-
vania's quota, and created intense excitement. Gov-
ernor Curtin issued a, proclamation June 15th calling
for fifty thousand volunteers for six months, which
was afterward modified to a call for volunteers for the
emergency. A special meeting of Councils was called,
and they immediately passed a resolution granting
five hundred thousand dollars to be used by the
mayor, with the assistance of the Committee of De-
fense and Protection, to defend the State, and asking
the Governor to proclaim martial law. The mayor
issued a proclamation calling upon business men to
close their places of business, and with their employes
to connect themselves with the various military or-
ganizations. At three p.m., on the receipt of urgent
telegrams from Governor Curtin, the State-House bell
rang out a general alarm. In a very few minutes
Chestnut Street was packed with an excited crowd,
centring at the State-House. The courts were ad-
journed, business places deserted, and every one
crowded to the State-House. Such a scene of appre-
hension and alarm was never before witnessed in the
city. An impromptu meeting was at once organized,
and from a table on the State-House pavement the
crowd were addressed and the situation explained to
them by Col. Small, William B. Maun, Col. Neff, and
others. Minute-men were called for, and the trans-
portation to Harrisburg of those willing to go was
commenced at once and continued through the night.
News was received during the progress of the meeting
that two of the New Jersey regiments, which had just
returned home, had re-enlisted for the emergency and
were on their way. At eight p.m. the Seventh New
York Eegiment arrived from New York on their way
to Harrisburg. The excitement on the following day
was unabated, and the news was scarcely less alarm-
ing. By the 18th the excitement had in a measure
subsided, but the recruiting of minute-men continued.
From that time until the battle of Gettysburg it is im-
possible to describe the state of anxiety that existed.
The fact that the Confederates were on Pennsylvania
soil and actually threatening the State capital, that the
Army of the Potomac was far away in Virginia, that
neither natural ramparts nor any considerable or vet-
eran forces existed between the Confederates and our
city, conspired to produce a feeling of depression and
alarm scarcely to be conceived. The optimist, who
hoped that the Confederate advance was not so seri-
ous as it was made to appear, was confronted every-
where with tangible signs of the gravity of the situa-
tion. One of the curious sights which confounded
the hopeful man was the appearance of a tremen-
dous concentration of the rolling-stock of the Penn-
sylvania Eailroad, which was hurried from the West
to Philadelphia as rapidly as possible.
In the mean time the passage of troops homeward
from the seat of war continued. Some effort was
made to detain them, but it succeeded only in a few
cases. The Fifteenth New York and the Thirtieth
and Thirty-first New Jersey passed through on the
17th, the Sixty-ninth, Seventy-eighth, and Fifty-
second New York on the 23d, the Sixth and the Thir-
teenth New York on the 24th, and the Fifty-fifth
New York on the 25th. Two regiments, the Twenty-
second and Twenty-third New Jersey, and the Sev-
enth New York went at once to Harrisburg.
As the Confederate approach became more and
more imminent, the mayor issued a proclamation on
the 29th of June for all citizens not able to leave the
city to enroll themselves for home defense. The fa-
mous "fortifications,'' which served so long not for
the defense but for the ridicule of the city, were
commenced on the northern and western approaches.
Maj.-Gen. N. J. T. Dana was appointed to take
charge of the defenses and to organize the Home
Guard. By the 1st of July all the principal places
of business were closed, and the preparation for
the defense and protection of the city was the only
business of the hour. Governor Curtin arrived on
the 1st to stimulate the citizens to renewed exertion,
and made perhaps the most stirring appeal uttered
during the war from the balcony of the Continental
Hotel. His entreaty was not unsuccessful, as over five
thousand men enlisted for the emergency on that day.
The rumors of the great battle of Gettysburg began
slowly to arrive, and their contradictory and uncertain
character roused excitement and alarm to a pitch never
before seen. The 4th of July passed in gloomy uncer-
tainty, the wildest rumors prevailing. Of course there
could be no public celebration of that usually joyous
anniversary. Only enrollment and enlistment contin-
ued, and now and then a fresh bulletin from the very
unreliable "reliable correspondent" from the seat of
war. Indeed, these bulletins were most depressing, for
they beganto tell now of the particulars of Beynolds'
repulse on the first day of the battle. But on the 5th of
July the news of the retreat of Lee's army was made
certain by the official dispatches of Gen. Meade, and
by the arrival of many of the wounded from the battle-
field. The relief from the suspense now gave rise
THE CIVIL WAR
809
to feelings of thankfulness mingled with great anx-
iety for the safety of the Philadelphia soldiers en-
gaged in that great struggle. On the 5th Maj.-Gen.
W. S. Hancock arrived, having heen wounded in the
leg, and with him five hundred wounded soldiers.
They were followed on the 6th by another detach-
ment of five hundred, and the wounded continued to
arrive daily in great numbers for nearly a week. On
the 9th over two thousand arrived, and on the 12th
eight hundred more.
On the 7th came the news of the fall of Vicksburg,
and caused a revival of the excitement and joy. At
two o'clock the State-House bell rang out merrily,
cannon were fired, and the steam whistles and hose-
carriage bells combined to express the people's joy at
this additional victory. An immense crowd surged
before Independence Hall cheering and rejoicing.
The remainder of the day was given up to holiday
rejoicing. The Public Ledger of the 8th says, " Never
since the commencement of the Rebellion were the
people of Philadelphia so excited and filled with joy
as yesterday on the receipt of Admiral Porter's official
announcement of the surrender of Vicksburg. The
news following so soon on the brilliant victory of
Gen. Meade electrified everybody. In addition to the
spontaneous celebration at the State-House, at two
o'clock, when the bells were rung and the cannon
fired, there were exhibitions of the joy of the people
all over the city, the news having spread with won-
derful rapidity." At five o'clock occurred a most in-
teresting ceremony. About five hundred members of
the Union League assembled at their headquarters,
and, headed by Birgfeld's band, marched to Independ-
ence Square. A large crowd were soon attracted, and
the Eev. Dr. Boardman invoked the blessing of Al-
mighty God, and recognized His hand in the recent
glorious victories. Charles Gibbons followed with a
patriotic address. At the conclusion of Mr. Gibbons'
speech the band, which had been stationed in the
steeple, gave " Old Hundred," and the enormous
crowd joined in singing it, producing a most im-
pressive effect. Eev. Kingston Goddard dismissed
the people with a benediction. In the evening a
number of establishments were illuminated.
— On the 9th the President issued a proclamation
for a draft of three hundred thousand men to serve
for three years. On the 15th the draft, under the
President's proclamation, commenced in the Four-
teenth Ward. A great deal of interest was excited,
but there was no trouble of any kind. The drawing
was made in the open air at Broad and Spring Garden
Streets, and was finished in about three hours. The
draft continued daily, until August 5th, in the vari-
ous wards of the city, and was never interrupted by
the slightest disturbance. Occasionally incidents
would occur to cause considerable merriment, as
when, as occurred in one case, the dravyer unfolded
his own name.
— The emergency troops from New Jersey and New
York commenced to pass through the city for their
homes on July 16th. Some had been called on by
the government to suppress the draft riots
in New York City on July 11th. These with [1863
Philadelphia troops and others from Wash-
ington whose terms of service had expired, filled the
city with soldiers for several days. On the 18th the
Forty-sixth Pennsylvania, the Tenth New Jersey, and
the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania ar-
rived. On the 19th the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh,
and the Twenty-second New York, and the Fifty-first
Massachusetts, and Fourteenth Vermont Regiments
passed through. On the 20th the Forty-third and
Forty-sixth Massachusetts and the Sixth New York,
and on the 22d the Sixty-ninth New York followed
them.
— Col. William B. Thomas' regiment, with the Gray
Reserves and the Blue Reserves, which had all en-
listed for the emergency, returned to the city on the
27th, and were enthusiastically received. Stands of
regimental and national colors were presented to each
of the last-named regiments in Independence Square,
with appropriate addresses and ceremonies.
— On August 1st the One Hundred and Seventy-
fifth Pennsylvania, the Fifth Wisconsin, the Twen-
tieth Indiana, and the One Hundred and Seventy-
fourth Pennsylvania arrived, and all but the last
regiment passed through for their homes. It was
impossible to procure railroad accommodation for the
last regiment, and it remained at the Volunteer Re-
freshment Saloon until the following day.
—The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul was
opened for public inspection on August 6th, and
Bishop Wood made an address to the visitors, num-
bering about two thousand. The cathedral was un-
finished, but it presented a most imposing appear-
ance.
— On the 9th of August, William Wright, for many
years a member of the firm of Wright & Hunter, and
the president of the West Philadelphia Passenger
Railway, died.
— The Keystone Battery returned to the city on the
14th, followed a week later by the Second Keystone
Battery.
— A collision occurred at Frankford road and
York Street between a train on the Philadelphia and
Trenton Railroad and a Second Street Railway car
on the 9th, by which A. J. Clay was killed and sev-
eral persons injured.
— The German Volksfest was held at Washington
Retreat on August 24th, and was the largest for many
years.
—On August 27th a conflict occurred between
some of the conscripts at Camp Philadelphia and
some of the neighboring farmers, on whose lands they
had been trespassing. One of the farmers, William
Baines, was shot and instantly killed.
— In a suit brought to claim exemption from the
draft, Judge Cadwalader, in the United States Dis-
810
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
trict Court, affirmed on September 9th the constitu-
tionality of the conscription act.
— A destructive fire broke out in the store-
1863] houses at the navy-yard on the 13th, which
destroyed one hundred thousand dollars of
government property.
' — The President had issued a proclamation suspend-
ing the operation of the habeas corpus law in the case
of all drafted men. In a case brought before the
United States District Court, on September 18th,
Judge Cadwalader affirmed its constitutionality, and
its application to all drafted men, even though not
yet summoned by the provost marshal.
— FraDcis J. Grund, a well-known journalist and
politician, died suddenly on the evening of September
29th. Mr. Grund had been the editor of the Age, a
Democratic paper, but on account of not agreeing
with the publishers in politics, resigned. Mr. Grund
was a highly educated man, was our representative
in Havre and Antwerp for many years, and was uni-
versally respected.
— The rebel ram " Atlanta" and her captor, the
steam-frigate " Powhatan," Capt. Steadman, arrived
at the navy-yard October 2d.
— The State election held in October was for State
senator, representatives, mayor and city officers, and
councilmen. The contest was altogether on- national
issues, and was marked by some curious features.
Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, had in 1861 issued an
address in favor of the right of slavery. This docu-
ment was circulated in pamphlet form as a "cam-
paign document" by the Democrats, and called forth
a protest signed by Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania,
and about thirty Philadelphia clergymen. This in
turn called forth a response from Bishop Hopkins,
and all were utilized by the respective party lead-
ers.
— On the 10th of October, Governor Curtin arrived,
and was escorted by about fifteen hundred horsemen
and two thousand foot of the Union League from the
railroad depot to Independence Square, where he
made an address. After the meeting the League
made a torchlight procession, ending in a display of
fire-works at Penn Square.
— The election on the 13th was comparatively quiet,
although there were many arrests. The city gave a
larger majority than ever to all the Union candidates
except in a few wards, the majorities ranging from
6000 to 7200. The Unionists had a majority in both
branches of Councils, and elected the State senator
and thirteen out of the seventeen representatives.
— Dummy-engines commenced to run for the first
time on November 7th from Berks Street to Prank-
ford. They proved very satisfactory.
— On November 11th the Supreme Court rendered
a decision in the case of three drafted men, who had
prayed for an injunction to prevent the provost mar-
shal and the draft commissioners from taking them
to the army, on the ground that the conscription act
was unconstitutional. The decision was rendered on
four points, and affirmed, —
1st. That the power of Congress to raise and sup-
port armies does not include the power to draft the
militia of the States.
2d. That the power of Congress to call out the
militia cannot be exercised in the form of this enact-
ment.
3d. That a citizen of Pennsylvania cannot be sub-
jected to the rules and articles of war until he is in
actual military service.
4th. That he is not placed in such actual service
when his name has been drawn from the wheel and
ten days' notice thereof has been served upon him.
Chief Justice Woodward's decision continues : "The
Constitution of the United States defines how the
militia is to be called forth to repress insurrection and
to repel invasion, and requires that they shall be offi-
cered by the respective States. The act of Congress
does not call forth the militia under the above provi-
sion, but drafts them into the military service of the
United States. . . . When a State is called upon for
its quota of militia it may determine by lot who of
the whole number of enrolled militia shall answer
the call, and thus State drafts are quite regular, but a
I Congressional draft to suppress insurrection is an inno-
vation that has no warrant in the history or text of
the Constitution. Either such a law or the Consti-
tution must be set aside. They cannot stand to-
gether."
Justices Woodward, Lowrie, and Thompson affirmed
the decision, Justices Bead and Strong dissenting. It
was expected that the case would be appealed to the
Supreme Court of the United States, but such was
not its termination.
— November 19th was observed as a fast-day on ac-
count of the dedication of the National Cemetery at
Gettysburg. The flags were half-masted throughout
the city, and very many citizens were present at the
ceremonies.
— Thanksgiving-day was celebrated with more than
usual joy on account of the fall of Chattanooga, which
was announced on that day.
— The President's message, which was received on
the 10th, occasioned a good deal of comment, especi-
ally the clause referring to the manner of reconstruc-
tion to be allowed in the rebellious States.
■ — The Twenty-ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers returned home December 23d on thirty days'
furlough, having re-enlisted for three years. Their
reception was most enthusiastic. They were escorted
to the National Guards' Hall and given a collation
before being dismissed.
— On the same day the western end of Gray's
Ferry bridge was destroyed by fire. The loss was
about five thousand dollars.
— On December 30th, Townsend Sharpless, a well-
known and much-respected member of the Society of
Friends, died, aged seventy-one years. He was the
THE CIVIL WAR.
811
founder of the firm of Sharpless & Sons, and a direc-
tor of the Apprentices' Library Company.
1864— The Sixty-seventh New York Regiment
arrived on its way home on the 5th of January, and
was escorted to the Reireshment Saloon by the
Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania Regiment,' Col. McLean,
and Birgfeld's band. On the 8th the Ninety-first
Pennsylvania, which had re-enlisted and returned on
furlough, arrived. The military of the city served as
escort, and the reception was very hearty. They were
followed by Col. Geary's old regiment, the Twenty-
eighth, which had also re-enlisted, on the 10th.
Owing to a misunderstanding, no formal reception
was given them, but an immense crowd welcomed
them home.
— On the 12th of January, Gen. Meade, who was
on a visit to the city, was serenaded, and responded
in a brief speech. Admiral Dupont, who was with
him, refused to speak, saying he was a man of action
rather than words.
— A destructive fire occurred on January 14th,
which totally destroyed the New Market drug-mill,
belonging to N. S. Thomas, at Germantown road and
New Market Street. The loss was over fifty thousand
dollars.
— A meeting of merchants and manufacturers was
held on January 15th to consider the subject of a
transatlantic steamship line between Philadelphia
and Liverpool. The Pennsylvania Railroad promised
to give wharfage and accommodations free if five
hundred thousand dollars were subscribed to the pro-
ject, and to enter into a mutual arrangement with the
steamship compa,ny in regard to carrying passengers
and freight. A resolution was adopted accepting the
proposition of the railroad company, and to appoint
a committee to solicit subscriptions to the desired
amount. One hundred and one thousand dollars was
subscribed on the spot.
— On Dec. 30, 1863, a motion had been made be-
fore the Supreme Court to dissolve the injunction
placed by the court on the draft commissioners in
November. The draft commissioners were represented
by Judge Knox, who argued for the constitutionality
of the conscription act. In the mean time Justice
Lowrie had resigned, and his place was filled by Jus-
tice Agnew. On January 16th the court rendered its
decision dissolving the injunction and affirming the
constitutionality of the law. Each of the judges de-
livered an opinion, Justices Strong, Agnew, and Read
in the affirmative, Justices Woodward and Thompson
dissenting. Judge Agnew, reviewing the constitu-
tionality of the law, held " that these United States
are a nation and sovereign in the powers granted
them. They possess all the functions of a nation in
the law-making, executing, and judging powers. A
nation' carries with it the inherent power to carry on
war. The power to declare war necessarily carries
with it the power to carry it on, and this implies the
means. The right to the means carries [with it] all
the means in the possession of the nation. But the
power to carry on war and to call the requisite force
into service inherently carries with it the
power to coerce or draft. A nation with- [1864
out the power to draw forces into the field,
in fact, would not possess the power to carry on
war. The power of war without the essential means
is really no power, — it is a solecism. Voluntary en-
listment is founded on a contract. A power to com-
mand differs essentially from a power to contract.
The former flows from authority, the latter from
assent. The power to command implies a duty to
obey, but the essential element of a contract is freedom
of assent or dissent. It is clear, therefore, that the
power to make war without the power to command
troops into the field is impotent; in point of fact, [it]
is no governmental power, because it lacks the au-
thority to execute itself."
Chief Justice Woodward, in his decision, reiterated
his views as to the unconstitutionality of the law as
given in his previous decision, and also reviewed the
legal points in reopening a case without further tes-
timony before a court which had already adjudicated
concerning it.
— The Eighth Regiment Colored Volunteers left
the city January 16th for the seat of war.
— The Seventy-fifth Regiment returned from the
West on the 24th, and was given a reception at the
Turner Hall, on Third Street. It was followed
on the 26th by the Seventy-third Regiment, which
had re-enlisted. At the reception given them at
Turner Hall they were formally welcomed by Dr.
Uhler, of Select Council. The Curtin Light Guards,
One Hundred and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment,
returned on the 30th, and on the 4th of February the
Ninety-eighth Regiment, Col. John F. Ballier, reached
the city. Both these regiments had re-enlisted, and
had returned to recruit. Col. Ballier's regiment was
composed of Germans, and their reception in the
Northern Liberties was very enthusiastic.
— On the 1st of February, President Lincoln issued
a proclamation increasing the draft ordered in July
to five hundred thousand men. By this order Phila-
delphia's quota was over thirteen thousand. Vigorous
efforts were made by citizens in the various wards to
raise this number by volunteering, and with consider-
able success.
— A public reception was given to Maj.-Gen. Meade
by the Councils of the city on February 9th. He
was welcomed by Mayor Henry in a suitable address,
to which the general briefly responded. Many thou-
sands pressed to see him, but his health being still
delicate, it was necessary to bring the ceremonies to a
conclusion.
George Gordon Meade, descended from an old
Philadelphia family, was, by his military education,
almost a stranger in Philadelphia until after the civil
war had demonstrated his remarkable ability in the
line of his profession. His father, Richard W. Meade,
812
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
was American consul and navy agent at Cadiz, in
Spain, and there George was born on Dec. 31, 1815.
After the return of his parents to Philadel-
1864] phia, he was sent to a school in Georgetown,
D. C, then taught by Hon. S. P. Chase, after-
ward chief justice of the United States. He was after-
ward a student at Mount Airy military academy near
Philadelphia, and in 1831 entered the United States
Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated
on July 1, 1835. He entered the army as brevet second
lieutenant in the Third Artillery, and served in the
Seminole war in Florida. He was promoted to a full
lieutenant at the end of a year. During the service
his health became seriously impaired, and on Oct. 26,
1836, he resigned his commission in the army. After
his recovery he went into
the civil service of the gov-
ernment as engineer, sur-
veying the Mississippi Del-
ta, the Texas boundary,
and the northeastern boun-
dary of the United States,
in 1837 and 1838. On May
19, 1842, he re-entered the
army as second lieutenant
of topographical engineers,
and was employed in the
great survey from Lake
Superior to the Gulf of
Mexico. When the Mexi-
can war broke out he was
on the staff of Gen. Taylor,
in Texas, and participated
in the earlier battles of
that war, and distinguished
himself in the actions of
Palo Alto, Eesaca de la
Palma, and Monterey. He
afterward served on the
staff of Gen. Scott. For
his gallant services at Mon-
terey the government pro-
moted him to the brevet
rank of first lieutenant,
dating from Sept. 23, 1846, and upon his return home
the citizens of Philadelphia presented him with a fine
sword. After the war he was engaged as an engineer
on several public works, always using much skill and
judgment. On Aug. 4, 1851, he was made first lieu-
tenant, and May 19, 1856, promoted captain for four-
teen years' continuous service.
At the time hostilities commenced Capt. Meade
was in charge of the surveys of the Great Lakes,
with headquarters at Detroit, Mich., and was imme-
diately ordered to Washington. On August 31, 1861,
he was commissioned a brigadier-general of volun-
teers, and took command of the Second Brigade
of the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps. His
life then became one of incessant activity and most
r^
valuable service until the end of the war. In the
battles of the Virginia Peninsula, in June, 1862, he
was conspicuous, and was severely wounded at Glen-
dale, June 30th. At the terrible battle of Antietam,
on September 17th, he commanded Gen. Hooker's
corps of the Army of the Potomac. On November
29th of that year he was commissioned a major-gen-
eral of volunteers. He was active in the campaign
in Virginia late in the year, and in the battles at
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville he commanded
the Fifth Corps. At Frederick, Md., on the 28th of
June, 1863, when the Union army was falling back
before the advance of Gen. Lee, he was placed at the
head of the Army of the Potomac, and three days
thereafter the great battle of Gettysburg opened, which
he gained, and turned the
tide of war in favor of the
Union. On June 18, 1862,
he was promoted to major
of the United States army,
and on July 3, 1863, to
brigadier-general, and on
Aug. 18, 1864, to major-
general.
He continued in com-
mand of the Army of the
Potomac after April, 1864,
under direction of Gen.
Grant as commander-in-
chief of the armies, until
the close of the war, show-
ing great skill and courage
in the battles from the san-
guinary one in the Wilder-
ness until the surrender of
Gen. Lee, April 9, 1865.
After the close of the war
he was assigned to the com-
mand of the Military Di-
vision of the Atlantic ; but
in 1868 he was transferred
to that of the Third Mili-
tary District, comprising
Georgia, Florida, and Ala-
bama. In the following year he returned to the
command of the Atlantic Division, with headquar-
ters at Philadelphia. He then lived in a house on
Delancey Place, presented to his wife — a daughter
of Hon. John Sergeant — by his fellow-citizens, in
grateful recognition of his eminent ability and ser-
vices devoted to the welfare of his country.
For several years before his death, which occurred
on Wednesday evening, Nov. 6, 1872, he was an
efficient commissioner of Fairmount Park. The
funeral took place at St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal
Church on Monday, the 11th of November. The
public and private honors paid to the remains of
the deceased were most conspicuous. General-in-
chief William T. Sherman officially announced his
^^-V« //%C&&~4?C^
THE CIVIL WAR.
813
death to the army, and directed Gen. McDowell to
make arrangements for his funeral at the public ex-
pense, consulting Mrs. Meade in everything, " whose
wishes," Sherman said, "shall be sacred." All
business in the city was suspended. There was an
immense military and civic procession. The Presi-
dent of the United States, with several of his cabinet
ministers, were present, so also was the Governor of
Pennsylvania and his staff, the mayor and Councils
of the city, and a very large number of army officers
and distinguished citizens. The pall-bearers were
Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan, Maj.-Gens. Humphreys, Parke,
and Wright, of the army, and Bear- Admirals Turner
and Lardner, and Commodores Scott and Mullaney,
of the navy. The pastor of General Meade (Rev.
Dr. Hoffman) officiated. Bishops Whipple, Oden-
heimer, and Stevens, and about twenty local clergy-
men were present, and a funeral dirge was played by
bands of musicians. The body was deposited in
Laurel Hill Cemetery.
— The captured rebel ram "Atlanta," which had
arrived October 2d, having been fitted up at the navy-
yard, sailed February 11th as the United States gun-
boat " Atlanta."
— On the 12th the Ninety-ninth Regiment, Col.
Leidy, and the Eighty-eighth, Col. Wagner, arrived,
and were given a cordial welcome.
— The Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of
Representatives visited League Island and Chester
on the 13th, to examine the relative advantages of
sites for a naval station for the building of iron-
clads. The committee were entertained at a banquet
in the evening.
— The furlough of the Ninety-first Regiment having
expired, they left the city on the 16th.
— George A. Coffey, United States district attorney,
died on February 20th. Mr. Coffey was a native of
Indiana, had studied for the ministry, but had taken
up law later in life. He had been district attorney
for about two years.
— Washington's birthday was celebrated with more
than usual enthusiasm. A parade was made by all
the military of the city, including the Blue and the
Gray Reserves and other Home Guard organizations,
the veteran troops home on furlough, the invalid
corps, and the newly-recruited soldiers. The parade
was reviewed by Maj.-Gen. Hancock and his staff.
On the same day the veterans of 1812 held their
usual reunion.
— On the following day the One Hundred and
Eighty-third Regiment, Col. McLean, left for the
war.
— Maj.-Gen. Hancock, having recovered from his
wound, was given a public reception by Councils in
Independence Hall. The general was welcomed by
Mayor Henry, and made a brief reply.
— On the 14th, Frederick Brown, druggist, died.
He had been established at the corner of Fifth and
Chestnut Streets for more than forty years.
— The time-honored custom of ringing the State-
House bell for alarms of fire was abolished by Mayor
Henry on the 1st of March.
— About one thousand rebel prisoners, on [1864
their way from Camp Chase, Ohio, to Fort
Delaware, passed through the city on March 2d.
— The Sixty-ninth Regiment, having re-enlisted
for the war, returned home on March 7th, on furlough,
to recruit their ranks. Only about one hundred and
fifty men remained in the regiment, which had served
for three years through most of the battles in Vir-
ginia. The regiment was entertained in the Refresh-
ment Saloon, and afterward dismissed at Independ-
ence Square. The Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry,
which had also re-enlisted, returned on the 10th.
They were welcomed home by Mr. Hoffman, of the
committee of Select Council, and entertained at the
Refreshment Saloon. They were followed on the 13th
by the Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, which had
been recruited from all over the State. The Fifty-
sixth made its headquarters in this city, and was
given a reception on the day after its arrival, be-
fore the departure of the various companies to their
homes. This regiment also re-enlisted.
— The Supreme Court rendered, on March 14th,
two decisions in two cases where money was sought
to be recovered from the city for services ordered by
departments of the city government which had been
issued without the order or sanction of Councils.
The court decided in both cases that the expendi-
tures were illegal, and that Councils, and Councils
alone, had the right to legally appropriate the city's
money, and that consequently the city was not liable
for those debts.
— On the 15th the President issued a proclamation
for a draft of two hundred thousand men as soon
after April 15th as possible. An uncertainty existed
as to the extent of Philadelphia's quota under this
call, but recruiting was stimulated in the hopes of
avoiding it.
— Several hundred Confederate officers passed
through the city from Camp Chase, Ohio, to Fort Del-
aware on the 17th. They formed a marked contrast
to the squalid condition of the captive privates as
usually seen.
—The gun-boat " Yankee," five hundred tons bur-
den, was launched at the navy-yard March 19th.
She was one hundred and eighty feet long, twenty-
nine feet beam, and twelve feet depth of hold.
—The furlough of the Seventy-third Pennsylvania
Regiment having expired, it left the city in detach-
ments on the 19th.
—On the same day Dr. Franklin Bache, the learned
author of the " United States Dispensatory," and one
of the oldest physicians in the city, died. Dr. Bache
was a descendant of Benjamin Franklin. He had
occupied for many years the chair of Chemistry in
the Jefferson Medical College, had been president of
the American Philosophical Society, and was con-
814
HISTOKY OP PHILADELPHIA.
nected with many of the learned and charitable so-
cieties of Philadelphia and other cities.
— In a few days after Dr. Bache's death,
1864] on March 24th, Dr. John Redman Coxe, also
a famous and aged physician, died, aged
ninety-oneyears. He had been port physician, physi-
cian to the Pennsylvania Hospital, and professor of
chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. Dr.
Coxe's name is illustrious as having been one of the
first to introduce vaccination into this country. Per-
haps "Coxe's Hive Syrup," so familiar to domestic
medicine, has done more to make his name remem-
bered than his scientific achievements.
— About five hundred rebel prisoners passed
through the city on March 21st, from Indianapolis,
Ind., for Fort Delaware. On the journey some of
the prisoners attempted to escape by cutting through
the floor of the car. The guard fired upon them,
dangerously wounding one.
— The Twenty-fifth Ohio Regiment passed through
the city, on March 21st, for the seat of war, followed
by the Fifty-sixth Massachusetts, on the 22d, and the
Twenty-fourth Maine on the 23d. While the Mas-
sachusetts regiment was being entertained at the Re-
freshment Saloon, some of the men obtained liquor
from a neighboring tavern. The colonel of the regi-
ment thereupon raided the tavern, destroyed the stock
of liquor, and carried the proprietor, Henry Brown,
and his bar-tender, in irons to Baltimore. They were
there released by the provost marshal and allowed to
return home.
— The Sixty-seventh Regiment, Col. Staunton, re-
turned from the war on April 5th, and were given a
reception at the Refreshment Saloon.
— A boiler exploded at Merrick & Son's foundry, at
Fifth and Federal Streets, cm the 6th, killing Daniel
McLaughlin, the engineer, Patrick Brennan, fireman,
John Webb, John Dougherty, James McGowen,
Jahel Wisner, Edward Bannen, and Alexander Fer-
ris, and wounding thirteen others. The boiler was a
new one, built at the foundry.
— The monitor "Saugus," Capt. Calhoun, arrived
on the same day from Wilmington, Del., where she
had been built, and came to the navy-yard to receive
her stores.
—The Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. L. B.
Pierce, and the Forty-third United States Colored
Regiment, both left the city on the 18th.
— The candle- and oil-factory of Grant & Co., at
Twenty-third and Hamilton Streets, was destroyed by
fire on the 20th. Loss seventy-five thousand dollars.
— A committee of Councils, appointed to visit
Washington to ascertain the proper quota of men
due by Philadelphia under the last drafts of the Presi-
dent, made a report on the 21st, by which it appeared
that while some of the wards had more than filled
their quota, others were slightly deficient. The com-
mittee recommended that the wards be requested to~
transfer the excess to the deficient wards, so that the
entire city might avoid the draft. This arrangement
being accepted by the government, it was adopted by
all except the Twenty-fifth Ward in the Fifth Con-
gressional District, where a draft for three hundred
men was held on June 1st. The Fifth Congressional
District included a portion of Bucks County as well
as the Twenty-fifth Ward.
— On April 23d the Thirty-second Colored Regi-
ment, the Fourth and Eighth Regular Infantry, the
Fourteenth Heavy Artillery, and a company of the
Invalid Corps passed through the city, and were en-
tertained at the Cooper-Shop Refreshment Saloon.
— A terrific boiler explosion occurred at the chan-
delier and gas-fitting establishment of Cornelius &
Baker at Eighth and Cherry Streets, which literally
demolished the boiler-house, damaged several build-
ings, and killed Thomas H. Albertson, William Bar-
tholomew, Albert Shaffner, John Fry, Samuel Davis,
George Scanlan, and John Porter, and wounded
several others. Porter was at work at Eleventh and
Cherry, but was struck by a portion of the boiler,
about twelve feet in length. Another huge piece was
hurled to Filbert above Eighth, where it crushed
through the roof of avstable of the William Penn
tavern, falling into the cellar, killing a horse and
wounding a man in its passage.
— The following day the Ninety-seventh Regiment,
Col. Guss, and the Sixty-seventh, Col. Staunton, left
the city for the army. The news of the terrific strug-
gle of the Wilderness began to arrive, and aroused
intense excitement from thelarge numberof our troops
who were with Grant, and from the terrible loss of
life involved. Dispatches were slow and indefinite
until Grant's famous dispatch that he " intended to
fight it out on that line if it took all summer," and
giving fuller accounts of his operations. The wounded
began to arrive on the 11th, when five hundred were
received at the hospitals. On the 15th one thousand
arrived, and on the 18th nine hundred and seventy-
eight more.
— The city was somewhat agitated by the bold for-
gery published in the New York World on the 18th,
purporting to be a call by the President for four hun-
dred thousand men, but the denial of its authenticity
was so prompt that it had the intended effect but par-
tially. The provost guard took possession of the office
of the Independent Telegraph Company on Chestnut
Street above Fourth.
— The funeral of Lieut. -Col. Thomas Kelly, of the
Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, took place from
the Cathedral Chapel on May 19th, Bishop Wood of-
ficiating. A firing party was composed of the provost
guard.
— Wounded soldiers continued to arrive in great
numbers from the battle-fields: on the 20th about
one thousand, on the 27th six hundred, on the 29th
five hundred, and on the 31st one thousand and five,
making, including small dBtrolrnrents7~ nearly five
thousand men during the month of May.
THE CIVIL WAE.
815
— On the 29th the sixty citizens of Fredericksburg,
held as hostages for the soldiers betrayed into the
Confederate hands by the mayor of that city, arrived
in the city and were conveyed to Fort Delaware.
— On the 31st of May the Twenty-seventh Regi-
ment returned from the war, and were escorted from
the depot by a cavalcade of German citizens.
— The great central fair of the Sanitary Commission
of the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Del-
aware was opened on the 7th of June with appropri-
ate ceremonies. The project of a fair similar to those
held in other cities had been on foot for about six
months, and the arrangements were very elaborate and
the contributions correspondingly generous. Many
of the large establishments in the city set aside " one
day's receipts" as a contribution, as did all the street
railway companies and many private individuals. By
this means the commission was able to build an
enormous temporary building covering Logan Square.
This space was arranged in corridors corresponding
to the four streets and the walks in the
square, on the sides of which were ar-
ranged booths, picture-galleries, etc. In
the interior space was arranged a smoking
divan, a horticultural exhibition, a re-
freshment saloon, and a brewery, and
every portion was tastefully and appro-
priately decorated. The main avenue
through the centre of the square, from
Eighteenth to Nineteenth Streets, was
covered by arches in a gothic form, and
was known as Union Avenue. From it
branched corridors to the other portions
of the buildings. The contributions em-
braced every variety of object, either of
curiosity, use, or artistic value, and in- '
eluded both articles for sale and merely
for exhibition. The gross receipts were
turned into the fund of the Sanitary Commission for
the use of the sick and wounded of the army and navy.
The fair was opened on the 7th of June. President
Lincoln was unable to be present at the opening cere-
monies, and deputed Bishop Simpson to act for him.
A large stand was erected at the western extremity
of Union Avenue for the speakers and the committees
of the commission. There were present Governor
Packer, of New Jersey, Governor Cannon, of Dela-
ware, and Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, Chief
Justice Woodward, and Justices Strong, Read, and
Thompson, representing the State judiciary, Maj.-
Gen. Cadwalader and staff, representing the army, and
Admiral Dupont, representing the navy, as well as
Mayor Henry, members of Councils, and many
prominent men.
Mayor Henry presided, and, on taking the chair,
said, " We enter to-day upon the realization of the
zealous efforts which humanity and patriotism have
alike invited, and as we stand upon the threshold
of an enterprise rarely equaled in extent, never sur-
passed in the grandeur of its purpose, we may rejoice
at the rich promise of its success, while we are yet
mindful of the sad urgency that called it
forLh. Gratitude and sympathy have before [1864
them full scope for their most generous and
untiring exertions. No claims more sacred, no appeals
more powerful were ever addressed to a loyal people
than come to us this hour from the maimed and suf-
fering defenders of our Union. The gigantic contest
that is now being waged between loyalty and rebel-
lion is as pre-eminent in magnitude as are the rivers
and plains that behold its deadly strife.
" No military resources, however well directed, can
adequately provide relief for the thousands of brave
men who have sunk under the fatigue and privation
of the march, or have been stricken down upon the
many fields of battle. In this emergency the noble,
heaven-prompted associations of the Sanitary and
Christian Commissions offer to you wide channels
through which the oil and wine of soothing kindness
SANITARY FAIR BUILDINGS.
and of strengthening cheer may flow from the plenty
of your homes to the need of the sick or wounded
soldiers. Of these organizations the Sanitary Com-
mission is the chosen dispenser of the liberal offer-
ings which the people of our own and of two sister
States have brought hither in this holy cause. En-
larged views, refined taste, and unflagging energies
have originated, planned, and matured this grand
undertaking. All that may delight the senses and
gladden the heart has been gathered into this spacious
temple, dedicated to loyal benevolence, or has been
stored in its numerous courts. The eye will wander
with pleasure over each attractive scene and brilliant
group, the ear will drink in the surging melody of the
joyous voices with which these arches will reverberate
while yet each passing moment may add new claim-
ants of your benefactions from among the heroes who
even now are assailing treason in those last strong-
holds which, by God's blessing and man's valor, shall
witness the death-throes of the Rebellion."
Bishop Stevens followed with a prayer. The build-
816
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
ings were then formally transferred by John C. Cres-
son, of the committee of arrangements, to the ex-
ecutive committee. Mr. Cuyler, on behalf
18641 °f ^e executive committee, accepted the
buildings, and presented them to Bishop
Simpson as the representative of President Lincoln.
Bishop Simpson then made a short address apolo-
gizing for the President's absence as unavoidable,
and accepting the buildings on his behalf to be dedi-
cated in the name of the people to the use of the
sick and wounded of the Union army and navy. Ad-
dresses were also made by the Governors of Penn-
sylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, and the ex-
ercises concluded by the entire audience singing
the " Star-Spangled Banner." A large flag was at this
moment raised upon the central flag-staff, and was
saluted with thirteen guns. An accident caused by
the breaking of a platform slightly marred the exer-
cises.
President Lincoln and his wife visited the fair on
June 16th, on which day the crowd was so great that
it was almost impossible for him to pass through the
various departments. He was entertained by the
committee, and responded to a toast in his usual
felicitous manner.
The fair was the great object of attraction for not
only Philadelphia but all the surrounding country
from its opening until its close, on June 28th. It real-
ized for the commission over one million eighty thou-
sand dollars. After it closed the remaining articles
were sold at auction, which drew large crowds, until
finally on July 6th, at midnight, the auctioneer sold
the last article, an oil painting of the famous " Sani-
tary Fair."
The main building was five hundred and forty feet
long and sixty feet wide, with an elevation from the
floor to the point of the arch of fifty feet. The archi-
tect of this building was Strickland Kneass, the build-
ers Messrs. Burton & Quigley. The other buildings
were erected by B. H. Shedaker, under the direc-
tion of John Welsh, chairman of the executive com-
mittee, and J. C. Cresson, chairman of committee of
general arrangements. Henry E. Wrigley was the
architect for several of the buildings. The aggregate
length of the fair-buildings was six thousand five hun-
dred feet, or more than a mile, and one million five
hundred thousand feet of lumber was used in their
construction. The work was completed within forty
working days.
The following is a summary of the receipts and ex-
penditures of the Philadelphia agency of the United
States Sanitary Commission to Jan. 1, 1866 :
The total amount in cash contributed to the treasury of the
Philadelphia agency, including the proceeds of the Great
Central Fair $1,186,545.14
The total amount in cash contributed to the Relief Com-
mittee of the Women's Pennsylvania Branch, including
82,651.50 received from the treasurer of the Philadelphia
agency, and $1,681.31 received by them from contractors
for work done 29,744.00
Total amount of cash received by the Philadelphia agency. $1,216,289.14
Cash value of hospital supplies, clothing, etc., received by
the Philadelphia agency $306,088.01
Cash value of four hundred tons of coal, received by the
Relief Committee of the Women's Pennsylvania Branch. 3,000.00
Estimated value of volunteer labor, and railroad and other
facilities rendered free of charge 40,000.00
Total contributions of all kinds to the Philadelphia agency.. $1,565,377.16
This sum was distributed as follows :
For the support of the work of the Sanitary Commission in
Philadelphia and its vicinity, including cash remaining
in the hands of the treasurer of the Philadelphia agency. $303,654.63
For the general work of the Sanitary Commission 1,261,822.52
$1,565,377.15
— The Twenty-sixth Eegiment arrived from the
war on the 6th of June, and was received by a com-
mittee of Councils and the Home Guard, and enter-
tained at the Refreshment Saloon. On the following
day the First, Second, and Ninth Regiments Penn-
sylvania Reserves returned after three years' service.
They were received by a tremendous crowd and were
escorted from the depot by a committee of Councils,
the Invalid Corps, One Hundred and Eighty-sixth
Pennsylvania Reserves, discharged oflBcers and men
of the division, the Hibernia, Moyamensing, and
Northern Liberties Engine Fire Companies, and am-
bulances for the disabled. The reception was very
enthusiastic, fire and church bells being rung and
cannon fired along the route of the procession. They
were followed on the 8th by the Third and Fourth
Regiments of the same division, but, owing to a mis-
understanding, these received no general celebration.
— About one hundred and thirty-five men, all that
were left of the Seventy-first Regiment Pennsylvania
Volunteers, formerly known as the First California
Regiment, arrived in the city June 16th. The regi-
ment, which was raised in the city, left for the seat
of war fifteen hundred strong, but five hundred were
afterwards transferred to another regiment.
— Governor Curtin called for twelve thousand vol-
unteers on the 5th of July, as it was supposed a new
invasion was contemplated by the Confederates. He
asked for one hundred days' men, and as the emer-
gency became more urgent he increased the number
necessary to twenty-four thousand. Liberal volun-
teering began at once.
— The excitement concerning the Confederate raid
through Maryland increased steadily, though it never
reached the proportions it did the previous year. On
the 11th a party of guerrillas penetrated nearly to
Havre de Grace, and cut the telegraph wires and tore
up the Baltimore railroad, severing all communication
with Washington. As it was now uncertain what
might follow, Mayor Henry issued an urgent call for
minute-men. In response an enormous war-meet-
ing was held on the 12th in Independence Square.
Judge Knox served as chairman, and the meeting
was addressed by Judge Kelley, Frederick Fraley, J.
M. Scovel (of New Jersey), and Col. Montgomery (of
Vicksburg). A large number immediately enrolled
themselves. The Confederates soon retired and the
excitement subsided.
THE CIVIL WAE.
817
— The President's proclamation for five hundred
thousand men was issued July 18th. Philadelphia's
quota under the call was estimated to be thirteen
thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, of which
about four thousand had already enlisted volun-
tarily.
— An accident caused by the falling of a portion of
tb e building used as the Female Insane Department of
the Blockley Almshouse resulted in the death of fifteen
of the inmates and the wounding of twenty more, on
July 20th. The coroner's inquest developed the fact
that some workmen, about sixteen years before the
accident, in putting in boilers for heating, had cut
away the brick piers supporting the chimneys, which
was the cause of the disaster.
— A disastrous fire at Second and Huntingdon
Streets destroyed the wagon-works of Henry Simons
on July 22d, with a loss of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars.
— The re-enlisted Twentieth Regiment, under com-
mand of Col. W. B. Thomas, left for Washington
July 23d, being the first regiment to leave under
the one hundred days' call. The regiment was drawn
up opposite the custom-house previous to its departure,
and was addressed by Professor Saunders. Col.
Thomas responded in a brief speech, and afterward
the regiment was entertained at the Refreshment
Saloon.
— The destruction of Chambersburg, Pa., by Con-
federate raiders at this time, aroused great feeling in
the city.
— The Fifth Union League Regiment (National
Guards), Col. Harmanus Nefi, left Philadelphia July
28th. Previous to their departure they made a street
parade, and were presented by the Union League
with a stand of colors. The presentation was made
by Col. Cressman on behalf of the League, and Col.
Neff made an appropriate response.
— A special election was held August 2d for the
purpose of confirming three amendments to the State
Constitution. They were, —
1st. Whenever any of the qualified electors of this
commonwealth shall be in actual military service,
under a requisition from the President of the United
States, or by authority of the commonwealth, such
electors may exercise the right of suffrage in all elec-
tions by citizens, under such regulations as are or
shall be presented by law, as fully as if they were
present at the usual place of voting.
2d. No bill shall be passed by the Legislature con-
taining more than one subject, which shall be clearly
expressed in the title, except appropriation bills.
3d. No bill shall be passed by the Legislature grant-
ing any power or privilege in any case where the au-
thority to grant such power or privileges has been, or
may hereafter be, conferred upon the courts of this
commonwealth.
The election was exceedingly quiet, little or no in-
terest being excited. The vote on the two last was
52
almost unanimous, and the first received a majority
of 17,281 in the city.
— John Grigg, a well-known merchant, [1864
died August 2d, of apoplexy. He founded
the firm of Grigg, Elliott & Co., booksellers, which
became by his retirement, in 1850, the present well-
known firm of J. B. Lippincott & Co.
— On August 3d a public meeting was held at the
Board of Trade rooms, to devise means of relief for
the suffering people of Chambersburg. A. G. Cattell
was chairman, and introduced the Rev. Mr. Warner,
who stated that eighteen hundred persons were home-
less, and of these fourteen hundred were utterly des-
titute, their entire property having been destroyed.
Mr. Shriver, of Chambersburg, John W. Forney, and
0. W. Davis also addressed the meeting. A commit-
tee was appointed to procure subscriptions.
— Governor Curtin, upon receiving intelligence of
another rebel raid, issued a call for thirty thousand
militia on August 5th, but they were never ordered
into service.
— Baxter's Philadelphia Fire Zouaves returned
August 12th, after three years' service, and were
given a magnificent reception by the firemen. The
streets along the route of the parade were crowded
with people. The regiment numbered only two hun-
dred and ten men, although it left the city at the
breaking out of the war fifteen hundred strong. It
was received at the depot by members of Councils,
who escorted it to the Refreshment Saloon. In the
afternoon they paraded with the volunteer firemen,
making one of the largest turnouts ever witnessed in
the city. As the procession passed St. Peter's Church
the chimes played " Auld Lang Syne." At Indepen-
dence Hall they were formally welcomed by Dr. Uhler,
of Select Council.
—A portion of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry re-
turned after three years' service, August 14th. The
remainder of the regiment had re-enlisted.
— Col. Benjamin Chew, a veteran of the war of
1812, died at the old Chew house at Germantown,
August 18th.
— The Twenty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Vol-
unteers returned to the city August 25th. Trys regi-
ment, known as Birney's Zouaves, was a very strong
and popular regiment, and was given a reception by
the committee of Councils and the military. They
made a street parade to the National Guards' Hall,
where they were formally welcomed and dismissed.
By an unfortunate accident, James McGinnis, pri-
vate, was killed just as the train was entering the city.
— The One Hundred and Sixth Regiment Pennsyl-
vania Volunteers returned August 29th, and was re-
ceived by a committee of Councils, who escorted it
to the Refreshment Saloon. Here it was received by
Col. Baxter's Fire Zouaves and the Henry Guards.
It made a street parade to National Guards' Hall,
where it was formally welcomed by Mr. F. A. Wolbert
and Col. Small.
818
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
— The proceedings of the Democratic national con-
vention in Chicago aroused great interest in the city.
It was generally believed before the conven-
1864] tion met that Gen. McClellan would be the
Democratic nominee for President, and his
nomination was received with great satisfaction in the
city of his birth.
— A national salute was fired in the First Ward on
September 5th, on the receipt of the news of the fall
of Atlanta. The President issued a proclamation on
the same day announcing the victories, ordering a
national thanksgiving on Sunday, September 11th,
and requesting the thanks of the nation to Farragut,
Canby, Granger, and Gen. Sherman and his army.
— The reception of the Eighty-second Regiment
Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. Bassett, was held Sep-
tember 7th. The escort consisted of the committee
of Councils, the Twenty-third Regiment, the Henry
Guards, and the South Penn Hose Company. They
made a street parade to National Guards' Hall, where
they were welcomed and the regiment dismissed.
— The National Union party held a mass-meeting
in Independence Square, September 10th, to ratify
the nomination of Lincoln and Johnson. Hon. Simon
Cameron presided.
— Two trains arrived September 12th containing
nine hundred and ninety-seven wounded soldiers,
who were distributed to the Germantown, Chestnut
Hill, and Nicetown hospitals.
— The Democrats held their ratification meeting
September 17th in Independence Square. Four
stands were erected, and speeches were made from
each. The meeting closed with a display of fire-works.
— The Sixth Union League Eegiment, Col. H. G.
Sickel, left for Baltimore September 18th.
— On September 22d the Two Hundred and Third
Pennsylvania Regiment, known as Birney's Sharp-
shooters, commanded by Col. John W. Moore, left
Camp Cadwalader for the seat of war.
—The National Union party made a torchlight
procession September 24th, ending with a display of
fire-works at Independence Square.
On September 24th a aeries of iron rafters, which
were being placed in position at the Philadelphia and
Erie Railroad Depot, Sixteenth and Market Streets,
fell before they had been properly secured. Two
men, William Young and John Kane, were killed,
and five others injured.
—The One Hundred and Ninety-ninth Pennsyl-
vania Regiment, Col. Lechler, which had been re-
cruited in the interior of the State, left Camp Cad-
walader for the front September 31st.
The Italian frigate " Principe Umberto" arrived
at the navy-yard October 3d, and was received with a
national salute. She carried fifty-two guns, and her
crew numbered six hundred men, including eighty-
four midshipmen.
The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was formally
opened on October 4th.
— On October 5th, Commodore Stribling, com-
mandant of the navy-yard, left this port on the
steamer " Neptune," to assume command of the East
Gulf Squadron as rear-admiral. The United States
steamer " R. R. Cuyler" sailed on the same day.
— The Keystone Battery returned from Chambers-
burg on October 7th, having filled their one hundred
days' service under the State call.
— The National Union party held a grand torch-
light procession and mass-meeting at Independence
Square, Mayor Henry presiding. As the procession
reached the square there was a grand display of fire-
works.
— The State and county elections were held on
October 11th, and resulted in this city in a sweeping
victory for the National Union party. The impor-
tance of the election hinged on its influence on the
Presidential election held a month later. The citizen
vote (as distinguished from the soldiers' vote) resulted
as follows :
Congressional.
1st Dial, Randall (Dem.), maj. 2167 over Butler (Nat. D.).
2d " O'Neill (Nat. U.), " 4169 " Riley (Democrat).
3d " Myers " " 1105 " Buckwaltor "
4th " Kelley " " :12Y9 " Northrop "
5th " Thayer " " 955 " Rose (Dem.), in city portion.
County.
State Senator, C. M. Donovan, Democrat, Third District.
Representatives, National Union, 16 ; Democratic, 2.
Sheriff, Howell (Nat. TJ.), majority 7726.
Register of Wills, F. M. Adams (Nat. TJ.), majority 7571.
Clerk of Orphans' Court, Merrick " " 7572.
Receiver of Taxes, C. O'Neill " " 7610.
City Commissioner, T. Dixon " " 7148.
In Select Councils the National Union party elected
10 members, the Democratic party 2.
In Common Councils, National Union 18, Demo-
cratic 7, and Independent 1.
It required several days to receive and count the
army vote, but it was finally announced October 29th.
The general result was not affected. The city major-
ities were increased, and varied from 8946 for sheriff
to 8313 for city commissioner. State Senator Dono-
van's majority was reduced by the army vote to 257.
There were only changes in the vote for repre-
sentatives.
— On October 13th the United States frigate " Chat-
tanooga" was launched from the ship-yard of Messrs.
Cramp & Sons. This was the largest vessel built at
Philadelphia up to this time, measuring three hun-
dred and thirty-six feet over all, forty-four feet breadth
of beam, and twenty-one feet depth of hold. She was
christened by Miss Turner, daughter of Commodore
Turner.
— Maj.-Gen. David B. Birney died in Philadelphia
October 18th. Gen. Birney was born in the city, and
previous to the breaking out of the war practiced
law. He had been connected with the militia during
this time, and immediately on the breaking out
of the war volunteered in the Twenty-third Regi-
ment, of which he was elected lieutenant-colonel.
THE CIVIL WAR.
819
Returning at the end of his term of service he raised
the regiment known as Birney's Zouaves, one of the
largest that ever left for the seat of war. He was
soon given more important command, serving with
marked distinction in the Army of the Potomac,
in which, for some time, he commanded the Tenth
Corps. He returned on sick-leave, and, after re-
maining only one week, died at his home. Coun-
cils passed appropriate resolutions of regret, and
placed Independence Hall at the disposal of the
family for a public funeral. The funeral was con-
ducted, however, from his own house. Detachments
of the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth and One Hun-
dred and Eighty-seventh Regiments Pennsylvania
Volunteers, two corps of the Gray Reserves, and
a company of marines, with the First City Troop,
served as the military escort. Besides these a large
delegation of the recently returned Twenty-third
Regiment and many officers of the army, including
the general's personal staff, attended the funeral.
— The largest torchlight procession probably ever
seen in the city up to this time was made by the
members of the Democratic party on October 29th.
The number of men in line was unknown, but it is
said it was six to seven miles long. A slight disturb-
ance in the course of the parade occurred at Sixth
and Chestnut Streets, in which an old man, James
Campbell, was knocked down. In falling he received
a concussion of the brain, from the effects of which
he died in a few minutes.
— Seven companies of Col. Thomas' regiment re-
turned on the 30th of October. Their coming was
unexpected, and there was no escort. The remainder
of the regiment returned on the following day with
Col. Neff's Union League regiment and made a street
parade. Both regiments were composed of one hun-
dred days' men.
— The emancipation of the slaves of Maryland was
celebrated November 1st by the Committee on Re-
cruiting Colored Troops, and two salutes were fired.
The committee exhibited, in front of their rooms on
Chestnut Street, a very large transparency contain-
ing appropriate designs and mottoes. In the even-
ing a meeting was held at which addresses were
made by Judge Kelley, Mr. Trimble, of Tennessee,
and others. Appropriate services were also held at
all the colored churches.
— The Presidential election occurred on the 8th of
November. The vote of the State showed an in-
crease in the total number of votes cast, and a cor-
responding increase in the Union majority. In the
city 9508 majority was given for the Lincoln electors,
while the majority for Howell (sheriff) in October
was 7726. The total citizens' vote was 93,602. The
soldiers' vote brought Lincoln's majority up to 11,762.
— The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul were
solemnly blessed according to the ritual of the Cath-
olic Church on November 20th. The ceremony waB
dignified by the presence of three archbishops, twelve
bishops, and several hundred clergymen, besides about
five thousand spectators. After the usual ceremonies
high mass was celebrated by Bishop Wood,
and a sermon was preached by Archbishop [1864
Spaulding, from Ephesians v. 25-28.
— In the latter part of November a scheme was dis-
covered to defraud the United States by carrying
away and disposing of stores consigned to the navy-
yard. Arrests were numerous, and great excitement
was caused by the apparent completeness of the
scheme and the prominence of some of the parties
implicated. But few convictions were ever secured,
many of the accused escaping on technical grounds
and for want of evidence.
— Sixteen officers and twenty-six privates of the
Ninetieth Regiment (National Guards) returned to
the city November 30th, their term of service having
expired. The remainder of the regiment had re-en-
listed in the field. The returning men were received
by a committee of Councils, the Henry Guards, the
old members of the National Guard, the Southwark
Hose, Franklin Engine, and Diligent Hose Com-
panies, and escorted to National Guards' Hall, where
they were dismissed.
— Capt. Winslow, of the " Kearsarge," was given a
public reception at the Commercial rooms on De-
cember 13th, in honor of his victory over the " Ala-
bama." In the evening he was given a dinner at the
Continental Hotel by the Board of Trade. Morton
McMichael presided, and many prominent men were
present, including Maj.-Gen. Cadwalader, Gen. Cam-
eron, and Cols. Olcott and Morgan.
George Cadwalader died Feb. 3, 1879, aged seventy-
two years. He was a grandson of John Cadwalader
of the Revolution, the second son of Maj.-Gen.
Thomas Cadwalader of the war of 1812, and brother
of Judge John Cadwalader of the United States Dis-
trict Court, who died Jan. 26, 1879. He was born in
Philadelphia in 1806. He graduated at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania in 1823, and assisted his father
in the management of the Penn family estates in
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Subsequently he
became the agent of those estates, and was in no
other business for many years. He inherited the
military tastes of his family, and at the age of
eighteen years joined the First Troop of Philadel-
phia City Cavalry. This was in 1824. In 1832 he
was elected captain of the corps of Philadelphia
Grays. In this position he attracted much attention
by the thorough discipline in which he held that
company. Being a man of wealth, he spent much
money in promoting the equipment, drill, and effi-
ciency of the corps. The Grays, under his auspices,
were organized as a company of flying artillery. The
drill and exercises of this company usually took place
on the west side of the Schuylkill, on the hills beyond
Harding's Upper Ferry Tavern, upon a large field,
which has since been cut up and built upon, and is
at this time one of the finest portions of West Phila-
820
HISTOKY OF PHILADELPHIA.
delphia. The company was exercised with six or
eight light artillery pieces, each of which, together
with its caisson, was drawn by four horses,
1864] so that the company, upon parade, made
a very formidable appearance. The officers
and men became very proficient in unlimbering,
loading and firing, advancing and retreating, with
great quickness, and the drills of the Grays were
usually witnessed by a large number of spectators.
In 1842, Capt. Cadwalader was elected brigadier-
general of the First Brigade, First Division,1 and
held that rank until after the commencement of
the war of the Rebellion, still retaining for some
years the captaincy of the Philadelphia Grays, to
which he devoted much time. During the riots of
1844 Gen. Cadwalader was second in command of the
volunteers whose services were necessary to put down
those outbreaks. He was conspicuous at Kensington,
and at the riots at Second and Queen Streets, South-
wark. The merit of his services on that occasion was
a matter of strong criticism and difference of opinion
at the time. A number of citizens, who believed that
his skill and gallantry were of value, subscribed a
sufficient amount to procure an elegant silver vase,
which was presented to him as a testimonial of ap-
proval of his conduct during those disturbances.
The memorial was over two feet in height, deco-
rated with military emblems, and a suitable inscrip-
tion, with the motto, " The defense of the laws is the
hero's highest glory." At the breaking out of the
Mexican war Gen. Cadwalader was appointed briga-
dier-general of the regular army, his commission
bearing the date of March 1, 1847. He commanded
1 By act of Assembly, 1793, the city and county of Philadelphia were
constituted the First Division, with two brigades. The following were
major-generals of the First Division: 1793, James Irvine; 1794, Wal-
ter Stewart ; 1796, Thomas Proctor ; 1800, Thomas Mifflin ; 1800, Thomas
Proctor; 1802, John Shee; 1807, John Barker; July, 180S, Isaac Wor-
rell; 1824, Thomas Cadwalader; 1833, Robert Patterson; 1807, Charles
M. Prevost; 1875, John P. Bankson; 1877, Russell Thayer, Robert M.
Brinton. Brigadier-generals of the First Brigade were as follows : 1793,
Thomas Proctor; 1796, William Macphorson; 1799, Francis Gurney ;
1802, John Shee ; 1803, John Barker ; 1807, Michael Bright ; 1812, Rob-
ert Wharton ; 1814, George Bartram, Thomas Cadwalader ; 1824, Robert
Patterson; 1828, Andrew M. Prevost; 1842, George Cadwalader; 1S65,
John P. Bankson ; 1875, Henry P. Muirheid; 1876, Robert M. Brinton,
Russell Thayer; 1877, E. Wallace Matthews. Second Brigade (County
Brigade) brigadiers : 1793, Jacob Morgan ; 1802, Isaac Worrall ; 1807,
Michael Leib; , William Duncan; 1814, Thomas Snyder; 1821,
Samuel Castor; , John D. Goodwin; 1842, Thomas W. Duffield,
Augustus L. Roumfort; , John Bennett; 1856, William F. Small,
John Tyler, Jr. ; , John D. Miles ; , J. William Hofmann : ,
Russell Thayer; 1877, Edwurd DcC. Loud. Third Brigade brigadiers :
.Horatio Hubbell, elected 1842; John Sidney Jones, William M. Reilly,
De Witt C. Baxter. Fourth Brigade, William B. Thomas; Fifth Brig-
ade, Louis Wagner; Reserve Brigade, Frank E. Patterson; Home
Guard Brigade, Augustus J. Pleasonton. The First and the Second
Brigades were dissolved by the National Guards act of Aug. 28, 1S78.
By order of Governor Hoyt, July 9, 1881, the five brigades in the State
were reduced to. three brigades, and the First Brigade was composed of
Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, and part of Schuylkill Counties,
Major-General (commanding the National Guard of Pennsylvania),
John F. Hartranft; Brigadier-Generals (1881), First Brigade, George
R. Snowden ; Second Brigade, James A. Beaver ; Third Brigade, Joseph
K. Siegfried.
a brigade composed of the Eleventh and Fourteenth
Infantry and a company of voltiguers, of which
Charles J. Biddle was captain. He served under
Gen. Scott, in Mexico, in the battles of Contreras,
Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, San
Cosme, and city of Mexico, and was brevetted major-
general for gallant service at the battle of Chapul-
tepec. In November, 1847, he was made military
governor of the city and valley of Tolusca. On his
return from Mexico he was received at Philadel-
phia with a grand parade, and was presented with
a sword by the city. At the conclusion of the
war the United States government conferred upon
him the full rank of major-general, dating from the
battle of Chapultepec, Sept. 13, 1847. After his re-
turn to Philadelphia, in 1848, he was elected presi-
dent of the Mutual Assurance (Green Tree) Com-
pany, which position he held until the time of his
death. At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion
he was appointed major-general of the Pennsylvania
troops, and accompanied the State volunteers to Bal-
timore, and commanded at Annapolis. He was in
the Shenandoah Valley campaign under Maj.-Gen.
Robert Patterson. On the 25th of April, 1862, he was
commissioned by the United States government major-
general of volunteers, and commanded the Second and
Sixth Divisions of the Army of West Tennessee, in
garrison at Corinth, Miss. At the close of the war
he was honorably mustered out of service, and en-
gaged in civil pursuits. In 1874 he was chosen presi-
dent of the Society of Mexican Veterans, and was for
some years commander of the Loyal Legion of the
United States. Gen. Cadwalader's mother was Mary
Biddle, daughter of Col. Clement Biddle of the Revo-
lution, and his wife was a daughter of Dr. James
Mease, of Philadelphia, a physician and writer upon
historical, medical, and scientific subjects. She was
a sister of Pierce Butler, who married Fanny Kemble,
the actress, and of Col. John Butler. These sons of
Dr. Mease had their names altered to Butler by act
of Assembly, in compliment to their mother, a daugh-
ter of Pierce Butler, who was a patriot of the Revolu-
tion and United States senator from South Carolina.
Mrs. Cadwalader survives Gen. Cadwalader, but they
had no children.
— The Swedish frigate " Vanadis" arrived off the
navy-yard December 18th, and was received with a
salute from the " Princeton." She was a steam-frig-
ate of about two thousand tons, and carried twenty-
two guns.
— On December 20th the President issued the final
call for three hundred thousand men, to be filled by
draft, Feb. 15, 1865, if not provided for by voluntary
enlistments. Under this call Philadelphia's quota
was announced by the adjutant-general to be eleven
thousand four hundred and eighty-six. The city's
overplus on the previous draft and new enlistments
amounted to nearly two thousand, leaving about nine
thousand to be provided for by draft.
THE CIVIL WAR.
821
— A great deal of excitement was caused December
30th by the announcement of a heavy robbery in the
custom-house. About eighty or ninety thousand dol-
lars in gold and currency was abstracted.
— On the last day of the year, George M. Dallas,
ex-Vice-President of the United States, died at his
residence, aged seventy-two years. A meeting of the
members of the bar was held January 3d, Chief Jus-
tice Woodward presiding, when addresses eulogistic
of Mr. Dallas were delivered by Joseph R. Inger-
soll, David Paul Brown, George M. Wharton, and
Charles Ingersoll. Appropriate resolutions were
adopted.
His funeral took place January 4th. In accord-
ance with his request, it was as simple as possible.
His body was taken to St. Peter's Church, Third and
Pine Streets, where it was interred with the usual ser-
vice of the Episcopal Church. The pall-bearers were
William H. Seward, Secretary of State, George W.
Woodward, chief justice of Pennsylvania, Joseph B.
Ingersoll, John Cadwalader, Alexander Henry, Col.
James Page, J. Pemberton Hutchinson, and Henry
J. Williams.
George Mifflin Dallas, second son of Alexander
James Dallas, was born July 10, 1792. His father
was a noted lawyer and Secretary of the Treasury
under President Madison. The son was educated at
Princeton College, and after graduation commenced
the study of law in his father's office. He volunteered
in the war of 1812, but was allowed to resign to accom-
pany Albert Gallatin to the mission to Eussia, which
resulted in the peace and treaty of Ghent. Dallas,
however, returned to the United States before this
occurred, bearing private dispatches to the President.
In 1814 he again settled down to the study and prac-
tice of law in Philadelphia. He soon took a promi-
nent part in politics, and became successively district
attorney and mayor of the city, United States district
attorney, and United States senator. At the close of
his senatorial term he was appointed attorney-general
of Pennsylvania, but resigned to become minister to
Eussia. Recalled, at his own request, in 1839, he was
elected, in 1844, Vice-President of the United States.
As Speaker of the Senate, he gave the casting vote in
favor of the low tariff of 1846, explaining his action
in an excellent review of the whole question of pro-
tection. During Buchanan's administration he was
minister to England, returning to his native city on
the breaking out of the civil war.
1865.— Four memorable " New Year's gifts" marked
the liberality of citizens. On January 2d (which was
celebrated as New Year's day) the Philadelphia Board
of Underwriters presented a magnificent gold watch
to Capt. John A; Winslow in recognition of his
services in sinking the Confederate privateer "Ala-
bama." On the same day a committee of private
citizens presented to Mrs. Gen. U. S. Grant the fur-
nished house No. 2009 Chestnut Street for her resi-
dence. The house was newly built, and was elegantly
and completely furnished. A few days later, Janu-
ary 6th, a house was presented to the widow of Maj.-
Gen. Birney, on Kingsessing Avenue, in West
Philadelphia. " [1865
Differing from these in its object, but re-
dounding still more to the credit of the community, was
the meeting held January 10th, to devise means of
relieving the sufferers from the war at Savannah, Ga.
Subscriptions were secured without difficulty, and a
ship-load of provisions was sent to their relief.
— An explosion of fire-works in a small factory in
West Philadelphia occurred January 25th, causing
the death of Philip Flyhouse, a recently-discharged
wounded soldier, John McCue, Joseph Kane, and
Edward Colwell, and destroying the entire building.
— On the 2d of February the fare in the street-cars
was further increased to seven cents. The admis-
sion of colored persons to ride in the cars was being
agitated, and the passenger railway companies, in
deference to the demand, put the question to the vote
of its patrons. This proceeding was not acceptable to
the agitators, and proved a farce. The great major-
ity of the riders refused to vote at all. One railroad
reported that only three hundred out of over four
thousand votes were in the affirmative. The Fifth
and Sixth Street line abolished the order, but at the
end of four weeks' trial reported that the admission
of colored people caused such a serious pecuniary
loss that they were compelled to refuse them there-
after. To accommodate them, however, one out of
every four cars was set apart for colored people, but
they very generally declined to accept the privilege.
— One of the most frightful conflagrations ever
known in the city occurred February 1st in an oil
warehouse of Messrs. Blackburn & Co., at Ninth Street
and Washington Avenue. There were over fifteen
hundred barrels of petroleum stored in the ware-
house, and the bursting barrels scattered the burn-
ing oil far and wide. In a very few minutes the
streets in the vicinity were a sheet of living flame
surrounding dwelling-houses, setting them on fire
and cutting off the escape of the inmates. Fifty-
one houses were destroyed, and at least eight or ten
lives were lost.
— In accordance with the President's proclamation
the draft commenced February 23d in the First and
Second Wards. It was continued day after day until
the Eleventh Ward was finished, on February 28th.
At this point, on the personal application of Professor
Saunders and other prominent citizens, it was stopped
until an opportunity could be allowed for the wards
to fill their quota by enlistments. An arrangement
was made to provide a certain quota each week, and
by means of liberal bounties offered by the city and
wards the quota was provided and the draft prevented.
A draft took place on the 22d of March in the
Twenty-fifth Ward, just before the fall of Richmond,
and was the last held in the city.
— Several of the volunteer fire companies attended
822
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
the second inauguration of President Lincoln. They
returned to Philadelphia on the 6th of March, and
were received by a number of companies, and
1865J together made a large street parade.
— An accident occurred on the Philadel-
phia and Trenton Railroad, near Bristol, on the 7th
of March. An express train filled with a large num-
ber of Union soldiers, released from Libby prison, ran
into a damaged train standing on the track. Five
men were killed and forty-eight seriously wounded.
— The Seventh Union League Regiment and the
Two Hundred and Thirteenth Pennsylvania Volun-
teers left on March 11th for the seat of war.
— " The 3d of April, 1865, will for all coming time,"
says the Public Ledger, " be a memorable day in the
local history of Philadelphia. The hopes and fears
of four years were set at rest by the brief announce-
ment at eleven o'clock, ' Richmond is ours.' Doubt
and apprehension pervaded every mind early in the
morning. The fact that our soldiers had been fighting
for three days and had succeeded in securing substan-
tial tokens of victory was satisfactory in part, but
there was still a lingering fear that a blunder might
yet occur to send the troops once more back to their
intrenchments. Four years of war have taught even
the most sanguine of the friends of the cause to
moderate their transports over army intelligence, and
there was a general disposition to be sure before
giving vent to any public demonstration of rejoicing.
When at last the official bulletin announced the
probable evacuation of Richmond, men gathered in
groups about the newspaper offices, anxious to hear
the next dispatch confirmatory of the intelligence.
In less than an hour came Gen. Weitzel's dispatch
announcing his entry into Richmond. Then all
doubt vanished, the long pent-up enthusiasm of the
people burst forth, and cheer after cheer went up
from Third Street, to be sent along the line of Chest-
nut Street far up toward the public offices. Men in
their joy clasped strangers by the hand and congrat-
ulated them on the consummation of Grant's strat-
egy. Those who were acquainted met each other
and indulged in the most extravagant expressions of
joy. Traveling up the street, the news soon reached
the courts. Judge Allison, in the Common Pleas, had
public announcement made of the fact, and the people,
forgetting the court and its officers, gave hearty
cheers. Judge Allison himself felt the impossibility
of transacting business amid such excitement, and at
once adjourned the court. In the other courts the
news was received speedily, and soon the judges
were left without juries, witnesses, and attorneys,
and an early adjournment was a necessity.
" The spread of the news could be plainly mapped
out by the display of bunting. From the State-
House steeple the city could be seen gayly dressed
out with American flags, as the local telegraph
soon transmitted the news to every station-house, to
be again spread by the people of each section of the
city. At twelve o'clock Mayor Henry . received a
dispatch from Secretary Stanton confirming the
news, and immediately the mayor gave orders that
the bell in the steeple should ring out the joyful in-
telligence. Men in the belfry were anxiously waiting
for this signal, and soon a merry peal was rung out.
The State-House bell was answered from almost every
bell in the city, — Moyamensing Hall, Fairmount
Engine, Spring Garden Hall, and Germantown Hall,
with others, assisted to spread the news.
" The State-House bell had no sooner commenced
ringing than an immense concourse of people gathered
in front of Independence Hall. Those who witnessed
the excitement attendant on the announcement of the
capture of Vicksburg can form some idea of the scene,
but the crowd and the demonstrations of joy at this
time exceeded any former occasion. Cheer after cheer
went up from the people on the sidewalks. The ring-
ing of the bell was to them a confirmation of the news
that had been circulating on the streets, and no man
could then doubt that Grant had been successful.
Ladies gathered at the windows of the American
Hotel and the buildings in the neighborhood, and
took part in the general rejoicings by waving hand-
kerchiefs and small flags.
" The buildings opposite the State-House were
gayly dressed with bunting, one store having hun-
dreds of small flags streaming from the numerous
windows. All the row-offices brought out their flags,
and the officers hurriedly sent for additional bunting
in order to make a fine display. In front of the
sheriff's office an excited officer appeared with a din-
ner-bell, and with mock gravity announced to the
multitude a sale of the Southern Confederacy. Sub-
sequently a placard at the same office announced that
four cents per pound would be paid for Confederate
bonds. These were but a few of the exhibitions of
good feeling and general satisfaction over the news.
As in the Vicksburg excitement, the ringing of the
State-House bell soon brought the firemen to Inde-
pendence Square. Curiously enough, the first hose-
carriage on the spot was the ' America,' quickly fol-
lowed by the ' Columbia.' It appeared as if the
entire department had turned out to take part in the
demonstration.
" The springing of the bells, the blowing of the
steam-whistles, the clangor of the State-House bell,
the cheers of the men, with the occasional booming
of a cannon heard above the din, made up a scene to
be remembered for a lifetime. For over two hours
there was no intermission in the enthusiasm. After
exhausting themselves in the demonstrations in front
of the State-House, it was suggested that the firemen
form in procession and pass over the city. Col. Neff
aided to give this direction to the crowd, and a pro-
cession was soon formed by members of the companies
and passed over a portion of the city.
" While the great demonstration was centred in
front of Independence Hall, the citizens elsewhere
THE CIVIL WAR.
823
were not unmindful of the great event. Cannon of
all sizes were brought out to the sidewalks, and
salutes fired throughout the day. The Evening Bul-
letin proprietors had a cannon placed on top of their
building, and salutes were fired until late in the after-
noon. A large crowd of the citizens of the Second
Ward formed in procession about two o'clock and,
headed by fife and drum, marched up Third to Chest-
nut Street, and from Chestnut through a number of the
principal streets, cheering and making other demon-
strations of satisfaction. The firemen kept up the
bell-ringing and whistle-blowing while on their way
back to their respective houses, and in this way aided
to increase the excitement.
" The people generally appeared to have made the
day a holiday. Shops and stores were deserted, and
little business was transacted anywhere.''
The navy-yard was closed, and the employes, two
thousand five hundred in number, formed in proces-
sion, headed by the Marine Band, and marched over a
large portion of the city. The Corn Exchange and
Board of Brokers adjourned almost immediately, and
the feeling at the Gold Exchange was intense.
The excitement in the evening had in no whit
abated. The multitudes of people about the news-
paper offices increased rather than diminished, and
extra editions were sold by tens of thousands. Crowds
thronged Chestnut Street until late at night. In dif-
ferent parts of the city bonfires were made, and the
night was an admixture of New Year's eve, Christ-
mas eve, and Fourth of July combined.
Sufficient time was not allowed to get up a general
illumination, but there were very brilliant displays
in various parts of the city. All the engine and hose-
houses were brilliantly illuminated and decorated
with flags.
— A meeting was held at the Merchants' Exchange
under a call of Mr. George H. Stuart, chairman of
the United States Christian Commission, to raise
funds for the immediate relief of the wounded in the
battles before Richmond, in the afternoon of the same
day. The meeting was addressed by Rev. Dr. Pat-
terson, who had just returned from the front, and who
described the situation before Richmond, and made
an eloquent appeal for help. Addresses were also
made by Mr. Cattell, George H. Stuart, and others.
Subscriptions to a very large amount were received,
and an open air meeting brought a large additional
amount of smaller contributions.
— The Union League celebrated the fall of Rich-
mond by solemn ceremonies on April 4th, in front of
Independence Hall. Addresses were made by Charles
Gibbons and Rev. Dr. Brainerd. Prayer was offered
by Rev. Phillips Brooks, and after the immense audi-
ence had sung the Doxology, the ceremonies closed
with a benediction by Rev. Mr. Thomas.
On April 7th nearly one thousand sick and
wounded soldiers arrived from Washington. On the
following day the Eighth Union League Regiment
left for the front. The regiment had been waiting
orders several days.
—The Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter and [1865
St. Paul was opened permanently on Palm
Sunday, April 9th.
— The news of the surrender of Lee's army was
received in the city about nine o'clock Sunday,
April 9, and created great excitement and joy wher-
ever it became known. Immediately after the re-
ceipt of the official gazette a copy was sent to Fifth
and Chestnut Streets, and by means of the local tele-
graph the news was at once sent all over the city.
Dispatches were also sent to the churches within
convenient reach, and the glad tidings announced
from the pulpit. At the hotels, the Union League
house, and the National Union Club house the news
created intense excitement, and at once the crowds
started for the newspaper offices to learn further in-
telligence. As the news spread over the city the
citizens turned out en masse and congratulated each
other upon the near approach of peace. In front of
the State-House the scene of the previous Monday
was repeated. The firemen came out with their ap-
paratus, and by the ringing of bells and the blowing
of steam-whistles increased the excitement. Most of
the companies went over their districts spreading the
news, and wherever a crowd was congregated the
tidings were received with cheers.
The uproar continued until after midnight, and
increased with each hour. An extra issued from one
of the newspapers was eagerly bought from the news-
boys at ten cents a copy, as each individual desired
to read for himself the dispatch announcing the vic-
tory. Impromptu illuminations were gotten up in
various parts of the city, and altogether the night
was one never to be forgotten in Philadelphia. Men,
women, and children came upon the sidewalks and
took part in the grand demonstration. Every street
was thronged with people on the way to Chestnut
Street, and Chestnut Street itself never contained a
greater crowd of pedestrians than it did at this time.
By midnight the roar of cannon was added to the
other demonstrations of joy, and it seemed as if every
individual in Philadelphia felt called upon to add his
voice to the general rejoicings. Gens. Grant and
Meade were remembered everywhere, and the mention
of their names was sufficient to bring forth cheer after
cheer. Bonfires were lighted in various parts of the
city, and long after midnight there was no appearance
of a diminution in the vigor of the demonstration.
The celebration continued on Monday, and business
in great measure was suspended. In some places im-
promptu meetings were held to give utterance to the
great joy that must have vent by speech. Cannons
and pistols were fired, and a salute of two hundred
guns was thundered forth by order of the Union
League.
The Corn Exchange Association organized a patri-
otic meeting, and at the Board of Brokers it was al-
824
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
most impossible for business to be transacted. The
courts adjourned on account of the excitement.
— The news of the assassination of Presi-
1865] dent Lincoln followed closely upon the news
of the success of the Union arms. The news
was announced on the morning of April 15th, and
created a consternation well remembered, but impossi-
ble to describe. The sudden revulsion of feeling, the
horrible and treacherous character of the crime, and
its total unexpectedness aroused the most mixed feel-
ings of fear, horror, indignation, grief, and rage. A
popular outbreak was feared, but none occurred. The
various courts were adjourned, as were all the public
offices. Spontaneously the work commenced of shroud-
ing buildings of all kinds — theatres, hotels, stores, fac-
tories, and dwelling-houses — in black. It was a matter
of surprise how rapidly this was done. The streets
wore an unusual appearance of woe and regret. Coun-
cils passed appropriate resolutions ordering the State-
House to be draped in mourning, postponing the il-
lumination ordered for Monday night, and pledging
the loyalty of the city to Vice-President Johnson as
the legal successor of President Lincoln. Appropriate
services were also held in every church in the city on
Sunday.
On Monday meetings were held by the members of
the bar, the Union League, the Board of Trade, the
Board of Surveys, and various other organizations, at
all of which appropriate resolutions were passed and
addresses made.
The mayor issued a proclamation requesting busi-
ness men to close their places of business on the 19th
and attend their respective churches, where appro-
priate religious services would be held.
On April 19th the funeral services of President
Lincoln began in Washington. Philadelphia was
draped in mourning, and the day was one of fasting
and prayer. The universal feeling was simply that
of sorrow. The excitement had in great measure sub-
sided, as it was seen that the plot included only a few
individuals. All business was suspended, even the
street-cars being stopped for a period of two hours.
Appropriate services were held in all the churches,
which were everywhere crowded. Salutes were fired
by both the army and the navy at sunrise and sunset.
On Saturday, the 22d of April, the remains of Presi-
dent Lincoln arrived in the city. The ceremonies of
their reception were grand, solemn, and impressive.
The mournful spectacle was witnessed by a greater
concourse of people than ever before assembled in
the streets. The preparations had commenced as
soon as it was known that the remains would pass
through this city, and were most elaborate. Not a
house in Philadelphia but was draped in mourning,
until the gloom of the city was intense. Business of all
kinds was suspended, and the highways were packed
with people. On Broad Street the crowd was the
greatest, but the adjacent streets were also fairly
packed.
Away from the point of excitement the day was as
quiet as a Sunday except as some organization
marched on its way to join the procession. At half-
past four the deep booming of the minute-guns an-
nounced the approach of the train with the remains
of the dead President. Soon the answering toll of
the State-House bell and the sound of the various
church bells gave notice to all that the body of the
President had entered the city. Christ Church, St.
Peter's, and St. Stephen's chimed their bells, pro-
ducing a most mournful effect.
The remains were accompanied by a few relatives
and family friends, a guard of honor, a Congressional
committee, a delegation from the State of Illinois,
and the Governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and Iowa, with their respective staffs.
The funeral was accompanied by the military of
the city under Maj.-Gen. Cadwalader, and with the
visiting delegations they escorted the hearse. They
were followed by a civic procession several miles in
length, and including all the United States, State,
city and foreign officials, veteran and invalid sol-
diers, firemen, and almost all the social and bene-
ficial societies of the city. The body was escorted
from the Baltimore Depot at Broad and Prime
Streets, to Independence Hall, where it lay in state
in the room where the Declaration of Independence
was signed. At ten o'clock, everything being in
readiness, the hall was thrown open to such persons
as had tickets issued by the committee of arrange-
ments. The hall was closed at midnight, though there
was no cessation in the vast crowd of applicants. At
half-past four on the following morning there was a
vast crowd assembled, although the doors were not
opened until six o'clock. Tbe crowd constantly in-
creased from that time until in the afternoon, when
a military guard had to be summoned to clear Chest-
nut Street from Fourth to Eighth Street to relieve
the tremendous pressure. When the doors were
closed at midnight there was yet a line of applicants
several squares long. It was estimated by counting
that eighty-five thousand persons passed through the
hall in the eighteen hours during which it was opened.
At fifteen minutes of three, on April 24th, the re-
mains were removed from the State-House and es-
corted to the Kensington Depot by the military and
firemen.
Meetings were held on the same day by the Meth-
odists at the Union Methodist Church, and by the
pupils of the Boys' High School, and Girls' High and
Normal Schools, at their respective buildings, to ex-
press their feelings on the assassination of the Presi-
dent.
On the same day the President, Andrew Johnson,
issued his proclamation, designating May 25th as a
day of mourning for the late President. He after-
wards changed the date to the 1st of June.
— The Two Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment
Pennsylvania Volunteers, known as the Ninth Union
THE CIVIL WAK.
825
League, left the city on the 26th for the South. This
was the last regiment to leave Philadelphia for the
war, recruiting having been stopped. It was com-
manded by Col. Francis Wistar.
— The new Municipal Hospital, at Lamb Tavern
road and Hart Lane, in the Twenty-eighth Ward,
was formally opened April 27th. Dr. John B. Biddle,
president of the commission, delivered the opening
address, in which he reviewed the history of the city
hospitals, and gave a description of the present one.
Dr. McCrea, president of the Board of Health, ac-
cepted the building on behalf of the citizens of Phila-
delphia, and an address was also made by Dr. Wilson
Jewell, chairman of the Sanitary Commission.
— An attack was made April 27th on Edward In-
gersoll, a well-known citizen, on account of some
offensive language used by him in a speech delivered
in New York. Mr. Ingersoll defended himself first
with a cane, and finally drew a pistol. He was then
arrested and taken to the Spring Garden Hall, where
he was confined on charge of assault and battery. An
excited crowd gathered about the hall, and threats of
lynching were frequent. His brother, Charles Inger-
soll, arrived for the purpose of giving bail, but a
further charge of treason having been preferred, bail
was refused. On leaving the hall, Charles Ingersoll
was assaulted by the crowd and much bruised, but not
seriously injured. Edward Ingersoll wa3 quietly re-
moved from the hall to Moyamensing prison to pre-
vent any further breach of the peace.
— A telegram was received on April 30th from
Washington, stating that a plot had been discovered
to burn the city on that night. The statement created
great excitement, but every precaution was taken to
prevent its execution. Nothing of a suspicious char-
acter was noticed, but precautions were continued
several days.
— The Twenty-fourth Regiment United States Col-
ored Troops left Camp William Penn May 3d for
Washington.
— The transport steamer " Benjamin Deford"
brought three hundred and fifty-one wounded sol-
diers from Gen. Sheridan's army on May 8th. On
the same day the army hospitals at Broad and Cherry,
South Street, Filbert Street, Germantown, Turner's
Lane, Haddington, Beverly, and Pittsburgh were
finally closed, and their remaining patients trans-
ferred to other hospitals.
— The Sixty-second New York, the first of the re-
turning regiments from the seat of war, passed through
the city May 10th.
—A hurricane passed over the city May 11th, and
did considerable damage, wrecking houses and un-
roofing buildings. Several persons were injured, but
no lives were lost.
— The new building of the Union League, at Broad
and Sansom Streets, was opened on the same date
without formal ceremonies.
— The Lincoln Monument Association was organ-
ized May 22d, with Alexander Henry as chair-
man.
— At the convention of the Protestant Epis- [1865
copal Church the division of the diocese was
finally agreed to on May 26th.
— The Pennsylvania troops began to arrive imme-
diately after the general review at Washington. The
Two Hundred and First and Two Hundred and
Second arrived on May 27th, and proceeded one to
Mauch Chunk and the other to Fort Delaware. On
May 31st the first of the Philadelphia troops arrived
home. It was the One Hundred and Fourteenth
Regiment, known as Collis' Zouaves, and was given a
hearty welcome. The men were entertained at the Re-
freshment Saloon, and, after a street parade, encamped
at Camp Cadwalader.
— Thursday, June 1st, was observed as a national
fast day, and as a day of national mourning for
President Lincoln. No business was done, and the
churches held appropriate services.
— A general reception and welcome of Philadelphia
troops was held June 10th, Gen. Meade commanding.
The troops were reviewed by Governor Curtin and
Mayor Henry, proceeding to the Volunteer Refresh-
ment Saloon, where the men were dismissed. The
review was held at a grand stand erected at Penn
Square, and there were present many prominent army
and navy officers. The welcome was somewhat im-
paired by an unexpected rain, which fell almost in
torrents for several hours. Besides the soldiers, the
city firemen paraded, a delegation being present from
each company. Maj.-Gen. Meade and his staff,
escorted by the First City Troop, led the column, and
was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Follow-
ing the general were a number of retired officers of
the city and State, mounted, and a detachment of
the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and other cavalry
regiments.
There were in line the One Hundred and Four-
teenth Regiment (Collis' Zouaves), commanded by
Brevet Brig.-Gen. C. H. T. Collis-; the One Hundred
and Sixteenth, Col. St. Clair A. Mulholland ; the
One Hundred and Eighteenth (Corn Exchange),
Brevet Brig.-Gen. Gwyn ; the One Hundred and
Twenty-first, Brevet Col. West Funk ; the One Hun-
dred and Ninety-eighth (the Sixth Union League),
Brevet Brig.-Gen. H. G. Sickel, and detachments of
the Second Pennsylvania Artillery, the One Hundred
and Eighty-second, the Eighty-sixth, the Ninety-
first, the Ninety-eighth, and the Ninety-ninth In-
fantry Regiments.
—The steamship " Bosphorus," the first of a line of
steamers intended to run between Philadelphia, Bos-
ton, and Liverpool, arrived on the same day.
— On the same day Gen. Grant was given a formal
reception at the Union League house. His reception
was very enthusiastic, and the general was nearly
three hours engaged in shaking hands with his
visitors.
826
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
— A writ of habeas corpus having been issued by the
Supreme Court in a civil suit against Col. Frink, the
provost marshal, the sheriff announced on
1865] June 30th that the marshal resisted the order
of the court, and refused to appear to answer
the writ. He stated to the sheriff's deputy that he
was acting under orders from the Secretary of War.
On the following day Col. Frink answered the writ,
and produced the applicant in court, having recon-
sidered his refusal. Chief Justice Thompson held him
as being in contempt of court, and refused to recog-
nize his reconsideration until he had purged himself
of the contempt. After some discussion the explana-
tion of the sheriff was received, and his return to the
writ accepted.
— The Ninety-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, for-
merly commanded by Brig.-Gen. John F. Ballier,
arrived July 1st, and was given a hearty welcome by
the German population. It was followed on the 3d
by the Ninety-ninth Regiment, Col. Biles, and the
Eighty-eighth, Col. Wagner.
— The Fourth of July was enthusiastically cele-
brated. Owing to the desire for economy the city did
not indulge in any costly celebration, but private in-
dividuals and organizations made up for the neglect
of the city authorities by increased zeal. The Union
League had an especially enjoyable celebration at the
Academy of Music. In the evening the League gave
a fine display of fire-works at Penn Square.
— The last of the prize vessels of the war arrived
July 13th. They were the tug-boats " Fisher," the
stern-wheel steamer " Cotton Plant," and the steam-
boats " Egypt Mills" and " Halifax." They had been
captured in the Roanoke River several months
before.
— A tremendous rain-storm passed over the northern
part of the city July 16th, causing a freshet along the
Wissahickon and Schuylkill. Three bridges were
swept away, and all the others more or less damaged.
The damage was also considerable along the Schuyl-
kill.
— A large sale of government vessels took place at
the navy-yard August 10th. Eight steamers, eight
tugs, five schooners, a brig, and a bark were sold.
—The Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, bishop of the
Diocese of Pennsylvania, of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, was buried from Christ Church August 12th.
The services were extremely solemn and affecting.
The committee of the Diocese of California, in which
diocese the bishop had died, presented a letter of
condolence on their loss of the bishop, and were pub-
licly thanked by Bishop Stevens for their care and
kind words. The burial service of the church was
conducted by the Rev. Mr. Washburne and Rev. Mr.
Atkins. Rev. Dr. Howe and Bishop Lee each made
addresses on the life and character of the deceased
bishop. Among the congregation were his brother,
Bishop Potter, of New York, and very many of the
clergy of the diocese.
— Throughout the months of June and July the
passage of troops continued through the city return-
ing from Washington after the grand review. It is
estimated that three hundred regiments or portions
thereof were entertained at the Refreshment Saloons.
The strain upon these institutions was severe, and
they were open night and day to accommodate these,
visitors. Toward the close of July the stragglers of
the grand army remained, and from that time until
their close the saloons were relieved very consider-
ably.
— The Cooper-Shop and Volunteer Refreshment
Saloons, having fulfilled their mission, were formally
closed August 28th, after four years and three months
service. The event was made the occasion of a grand
demonstration at the Academy of Music. This great
building was crowded to its utmost capacity by an
audience that included every prominent citizen of the
city. Ex-Governor Pollock presided, and on assuming
the chair gave a short history of the work of the two
saloons. One million two hundred meals were served
in the two saloons in the course of the war. Hon.
Henry D. Moore and Hon. James M. Scovel also
made addresses complimenting the committee on the
close of their successful labors. The buildings were
kept open for transient soldiers until December 1st,
when they were finally closed, and on the 21st of the
same month they were sold at auction.
— An extensive fire at the drug and paint establish-
ment of French, Richards & Co., at Tenth and Mar-
ket Streets, on October 3d, destroyed the entire build-
ing, involving a loss of about three hundred thousand
dollars.
— The General Convention of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church was held in Philadelphia, commencing
its sessions October 4th, and ending on the 24th of
the same month.
— On October 5th the steam-frigate " Neshaminy"
was launched at the navy-yard in the presence of an
immense crowd. She was christened by Miss Hull,
the daughter of Commandant Hull.
— At the election held October 10th the Union
party carried nearly every office by majorities of from
5000 to 9000. The majorities were as follows :
Auditor-General, Hartranft
(D.), maj. 8812 over Davis (Dem.).
8826 '
Linton
"
5869
' Fox
"
7866
' Johnson
"
1301
' Given
(XL).
9710
' Brown
(Dem.)
7216 '
Koilly
"
8661 '
Vogdes
"
8242 '
Biddle
"
Surveyor-General, Campbell " "
Mayor, McMichael " "
City Treasurer, Bumm " "
City Commissioner, Weaver (Dem.), "
District Attorney, Mann (U.), "
Prothon. C't Com. Pleas, Wolbert " "
City Controller, Lyndall " "
City Solicitor, Brewster " "
In Select Council the Union party elected all seven
candidates, and in Common Council the fifteen mem-
bers. State Senators Ridgway and Connell, both
Union, were elected, and the only Democrats elected
were three assemblymen out of eighteen representa-
tives.
— One of the finest displays of the kind ever wit-
THE CIVIL WAR.
827
nessed was the parade of the firemen October 16th.
The day was by common consent made a holiday, and
the city was dressed with flags ; visitors were attracted
from every portion of the adjacent country, and from
New York and Baltimore, to view the procession.
Beside volunteer firemen of Philadelphia, numerous
companies from New York, Boston, Buffalo, Newark,
Albany, Jersey City, Lebanon, Allentown, Camden,
Reading, Harrisburg, Washington, and other cities
participated. The procession occupied more than two
hours in passing a given point, and was a complete
success in every way.
— The Freedman's Aid Commission was organized
October 11th, and the Pennsylvania branch of the
American Union Commission on the 17th. Both or-
ganizations had for their object the improvement of
the condition of the South.
— A fair was held at the Academy of Music com-
mencing October 23d, to aid the Soldiers' and Sailors'
Home. The parquet was floored over, and space thus
secured for the exhibition of goods. The inaugura-
tion ceremonies were conducted by Maj.-Gen. Meade,
president of the fair, Lieut.-Gen. Grant, Admiral Far-
ragut, and an executive committee, including the most
distinguished officers and civilians. As Gen. Meade,
Gen. Grant, and Admiral Farragut appeared together,
the entire audience, which filled the balconies, rose
and saluted them with long-continued applause.
Bishop Simpson opened the proceedings with prayer,
and was followed by Gen. Meade, who made a short
appeal to the charity of Philadelphia in aid of the
thousands of destitute soldiers and sailors wounded
in the war. Gen. Grant and Admiral Farragut were
introduced to the audience, and Hon. William D.
Kelley, George H. Stuart, and others made addresses.
The fair proved a great success, and at its close,
November 4th, the gross receipts were stated at
$100,369.60, and the net proceeds at $88,354.60.
— The Tunisian embassy, consisting of Gen. Oth-
man Hashen, special ambassador from his Highness,
the Bey of Tunis, Col. Ramiro Gaita, aide-de-camp to
the general, and Chevalier Antoine Conti, secretary
and interpreter, accompanied by Amos Perry, Esq.,
United States consul to Tunis, passed through Phila-
delphia, and examined the principal objects of inter-
est, October 24th and 25th.
— The funeral of Col. Ulric Dahlgren, son of Ad-
miral Dahlgren, who was shot in a raid before Rich-
mond, took place November 1st. Col. Dahlgren was
a student of law when the war broke out, but imme-
diately joined the army in the Ordnance Department
at Washington, D. C. In 1863 he commanded a raid
on the city of Richmond, with the alleged design of
seizing Jefferson Davis. His command penetrated
the outlines of Richmond, but Dahlgren was killed
Tjy the local militia.
The funeral took place from Independence Hall,
and after lying in state the body was escorted to the
grave by three companies of marines, the First City
Troop, and a battalion of the Seventh Regiment
Seventh Army Corps.
—On October 30th, Maj. Weaver, the [1865
Democratic candidate for city commissioner,
filed a petition in Common Pleas Court asking that
the certificate granted to John Given be revoked on
account of fraudulent returns in the soldiers' vote, and
alleging that he [Weaver] had a legitimate majority
of 1301 votes. The petition was signed by members
of both political parties. After a long contest Maj.
Weaver received the position.
— Washington L. Lane, for many years managing
editor of the Public Ledger, died November 14th, in
his fifty-second year. He had been connected with
the Ledger for twenty-eight years.
— A boiler explosion at the Penn Treaty Iron-
Works resulted in the death of Patrick Finnegan
and injuring three others.
— J. A. Van Amburgh, the famous wild beast tamer,
died in Philadelphia November 29th. Van Amburgh
had spent his entire life in the collection and exhibi-
tion of wild animals, and was remarkably successful.
— The monitor "Tunxis" was launched from the
yard of Messrs. Cramp & Sons November 30th.
— The President's message, received December 6th,
excited very general interest in Philadelphia. His
policy toward the South, as indicated in the message,
was very generally approved.
— The Public Ledger of June 10th, said, " As our
citizens will feel a great interest to-day in the Phila-
delphia regiments furnished during the war, we pre-
sent the following list. It is not unlikely that a few of
them may be omitted, as the difficulty of tracing them
up is very great. In a large majority of cases the
regiments named were recruited (entirely) from our
own citizens. In some cases, however, they were
partly recruited here and partly from the interior of
the State. Of the colonels that have commanded them
at different times, at least fourteen were killed in bat-
tle, and two died ' with their harness on' in the ser-
vice. Eighteen of them reached the grade of briga-
dier-general, and two became major-generals. Many
of them, however, who did not receive promotion were
much better entitled to it than some of those who were
accorded their star.1
THREE MONTHS' MEN— (April and May, 1861.)
17th P. V., Col. F. E. Patterson.
18th P. V., Col. William D. Lewis, Jr.
19th P. V., Col. Peter Lyle.
20th P. V., Col. William H. Gray.
21st P. V., Col. John F. Ballier.
22d P. V., Col. T. G. Morehead.
23d P. V., Col. Charles P. Dare.
24th P. V., Col. J. T. Owen.
THREE TEARS' MEN.
23d, Col. D. B. Birney (Birney's Zouaves), subsequently Cols. Thomas
A. Neill and John Ely.
26th P. V., Col. William F. Small, subsequently Col. B. C. Tilghman.
27th P. V., Col. A. Buschbeck.
1 Many of these officers afterward received brevets of major-general
and brigadier-general.
828
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
28th P. V., Col. John W. Geary, subsequently Cols. Korponay and
Ahl.
29th P. V., Col. John K. Murphy, subsequently Col. William Rich-
ards, Jr.
31st P. V. (2d Pa. Reserves), Col. William B. Mann, subsequently
Col. McCandless.
32d P. V. (3d Reserves), Col. H. G. Sickel.
33d P. V. (4th Reserves), Col. R. G. March, subsequently Col. A. L.
Magilton and Col. Woolworth, the latter killed in Grant's Chickahominy
campaign.
41st P. V. (12th Reserves), Col. John H. Taggart, subsequently Col.
M. D. Hardin.
44th P. V. (1st Cavalry Reserves), Col. George D. Bayard, killed at
Fredericksburg, subsequently Cols. Owen Jones and J. P. Taylor.
58th, Col. J.'Richter Jones, killed near Newbern, N. C.
59th (2d Cavalry), Col. R. Butler Price, subsequently Col. J. B.
Brinton.
60th (3d Cavalry), Col. W. W. Averill, subsequently Col. J. B. Mcin-
tosh and Col. E. S. Jones.
01st P. Y., Col. 0. H. Rippey, killed at Fair Oaks, subsequently Col.
George C. Spear, killed at Chancellorsville, and Col. George F. Smith.
67th, Col. John F. Staunton.
68th (Scott Legion), Col. A. H. Tippen.
69th, Col. J. T. Owen, subsequently Col. Dennis O'Kane.
70th (6th Cavalry, Rush's Lancers), Col. R. H. Rush, subsequently Col.
Charles R. Smith.
71st (California Regiment), Col. E. D. Baker, killed at Ball's Bluff,
subsequently Cols. I. J. Wistar and Richard Penn Smith.
72d (Fire Zouaves), Col. D. W. C. Baxter.
73d, Col. John W. Koltes, killed in battle Aug. 22, 1862. The regi-
ment was afterward commanded by Cols. Muhleck and Moore.
74th, Col. Alexander Scbimmelpfenig.
75th, Col. Henry Bohlen, killed near Rappahannock Aug. 22, 1862.
The regiment was afterward commanded by Cols. Schapp and Mah-
ler.
88th, Col. George P. McLean, subsequently Col. George M. Gile.
89th (8th Cavalry), Col. E. G. Chorman, subsequently Cols. D. M.
Gregg and P. Huey.
90th, Col. Peter Lyle.
91st, Col. E. M. Gregory.
95th, Col. John M. GoBline, killed at the battle of GaineB' Mills, sub-
sequently Col. G. V. Town, killed at the second battle of Fredericks-
burg.
98th, Col. John F. Ballier.
99th, Col. Thomas W. Sweeney, subsequently Cols. A. S. Leidy and E.
R. Biles.
106th, Col. T. G. Morehead.
109th (11th Cavalry), Col. Josiah Harlan, subsequently Col. S. P.
Spear.
Col. H. J. Stainrook, killed at Chancellorsville. This regiment
was subsequently commanded by Col. Ralston.
110th, Cot. W. D. Lewis, Jr., subsequently Col. James Crowther,
killed at Chancellorsville, and Col. Rogers.
112th, Col. Charles Angeroth, subsequently Col. A. A. Gibson, Col.
JameB L. Anderson, killed near Petersburg, and Col. McClure.
113th, Col. William Frishmuth, subsequently Cols. Pierce and Reno.
114th, Col. Charles H. T. Collis.
115th, Col. Robert E. Patterson, subsequently Col. F. A. Lancaster,
killed at Chancellorsville.
116th, Col. Dennis Heenan, subsequently Col. St. Clair Mulholland.
]17th (13th Cavalry), Col. James A. Gallaher, subsequently Col. M.
Kerwin.
118th, Col. Charles M. Prevost, subsequently Col. James Gwyn.
119th, Col. Peter C. Ellmaker, subsequently Col. Gideon Clark and
Maj. William C. Gray.
121st, Col. Chapman Biddle, subsequently Col. A. Biddle.
149th, Col. Roy Stone.
150th, Col. L. Wistar.
180th (19th Cavalry), Col. Alexander Cnmmings, subsequently Lleut.-
Col. J. C. Hess.
183d, Col. George P. McLean, subsequently Col. John F. McCullough,
killed in Grant's Virginia campaign, and Cols. James C. Lynch and G.
F. Egbert.
198th, Col. H. G. Sickel (one year).
213th, Col. John A. Gorgns (one year).
214th, Col. David B. McKibben (one year).
215th, Col. Frank Wistar (one year).
" To the above should be added the eight or ten
regiments of colored troops recruited in the city, the
designations of which are unfortunately not to be
found in our State Eeports. The first five regiments
of Philadelphia colored troops are numbered the
Third, Sixth, Eighth, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fifth
United States.. We have not included the regiments
of militia and the independent companies and bat-
teries which volunteered during the several invasions
of the State. These organizations, as well as we can
recall them, are as follows :
30th Pennsylvania Militia, Col. William B. Thomas.
31st Pennsylvania Militia, Col. John Newkumet.
40th Pennsylvania Militia, Col. Alfred Day.
47th Pennsylvania Militia, Col. J. P. Wickersham.
49th Pennsylvania Militia, Col. Alexander Murphy.
51st Pennsylvania Militia, Col. 0. Hopkinson.
52d Pennsylvania Militia, Col. Wm. A. Gray.
59th Pennsylvania Militia, Col. George P. McLean.
60th Pennsylvania Mdtia, Col. William F. Small.
Col. N. B. Kneass.
City Troop, Capt. Samuel J. Randall.
Battery, Capt. E. Spencer Miller.
Battery, Capt. Landis.
Battery, Capt. Hastings (one year).
Company of Police, Capt. John Spear.
Independent Company, Capt. William B. Mann."
During the summer of 1865 the great armies were
disbanded, and the victors and vanquished returned
to their homes to resume the work of peace. On Dec.
1, 1865, President Johnson annulled the suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus, and on April 2, 1866, he
announced by proclamation that the rebellion had
ceased. On July 4, 1866, Pennsylvania closed her
record made during the progress of the great rebellion.1
" Her flags,'' says the Public Ledger, " carried thou-
sands of miles by her sons, and always borne side by
side with the foremost in the strife, were on that day
returned to the State, to remain as glorious memorials
of Pennsylvania's devotion to the Union. These
flags, with their inscriptions alone, tell the history of
the part enacted by the State during five years of war,
and it was therefore fitting that when returned to the
commonwealth they should be accompanied by all the
solemnity which such a record deserves. The Legis-
lature at an early day determined that this should be
the case, and the appointment of a committee to
arrange for the presentation was the first step in the
movement which culminated in the grand spectacle
witnessed in Philadelphia on that occasion. The
fact was announced throughout the State, and no
event ever created more excitement among the citi-
zens of Pennsylvania than did this, and crowds came
from every direction to take part in the pageant or to
1 New York State sent into the army, during the war, 455,468 men;
termB of all reduced to three years' service, 380,980. The population of
New York in 1860 was 3,851,563 ; proportion of whole number of soldiers
to population, 1 in 8.45; proportion of three years' service, 1 in 10.12.
Pennsylvania sent into service 366,323 soldiers ; terms reduced to three
years' service, 267,558; population in 1860, 2,906,115; proportion of
whole number of soldiers to population, 1 in 7.92; proportion to
three years' soldiers, 1 in 10.08. Pennsylvania, therefore, furnished
more soldiers, in proportiou to her population, than New York.
THE CIVIL WAE.
829
witness it. Every train reaching Philadelphia, com-
mencing as early as Sunday evening and continuing
as late as "Wednesday morning, was filled to its
utmost capacity. Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster,
Pottsville, and other large and small towns sent their
quota to swell the throng. The people of other
States were not less curious, and hundreds came from
New York, Baltimore, Wilmington, and Trenton, and
towns at a less distance. Hotels were all filled, and
storekeepers did a thriving business in providing for
the wants of the strangers. The soldiers, too, came
from every direction. They came once more, and for
the last time, to march with the flags they had so
often rallied around on the battle-field.
" The day was everything the most exacting could
desire.
" At daybreak the national salutes announced the
advent of the Fourth of July, and citizens prepared
to give the finishing touches to decorations com-
menced previously. Everywhere the display of bunt-
ing was profuse. The national colors were thrown to
the breeze from flagstaffs and windows, or were used
to decorate the fronts of houses, and the result was
that on all the main thoroughfares, and especially on
the streets on the route of the parade, the ' red, white,
and blue' were the predominating colors, and gave to
the city a gala appearance such as has rarely hereto-
fore been witnessed. It was truly a flag -jubilee,
and every individual seemed to consider it his indi-
vidual duty to assist to the full extent of his power in
making the day one long to be remembered. The
number of magnificent displays at private dwellings
exceeded any previous attempt in this city, while the
larger stores on Chestnut and Arch Streets made dis-
plays of corresponding magnificence. . . .
" At ten o'clock the procession moved, headed by
a detachment of police mounted, in the following
order :
" Henry GuardB, Capt. Spear.
Maj.-Gen. W. S. Hancock and Staff.
Detachment of City Troop, mounted.
Headquarters flag, marked 2d Army Corpa.
First Division.
Gon. J. S. Negley and Staff.
Headquarters flag, marked 2d Army Corps.
Mounted and dismounted officers, under command of Gen. E. L. Dana.
Logan Guards of Lewistown, Col. Selheimer.
Washington Artillery of Pottsville, Capt. James Wren.
National Light Artillery of Pottsville, Capt. E. McDonnel.
Allen Infantry of Allentown, Lieut. J. T. Will.
Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading.
Second Division.
Maj.-Gen. Patterson and Staff.
23d Regiment, Col. Glenn; 26th Regiment, Gen. Bodine ; 28th Regiment,
Gen. Flynn; 29th Regiment, Col. J. K. Murphy; 72d Regiment;
71st Regiment; 73d Regiment; 00th Regiment, Gon. Peter Lylo ;
98th Regiment, Gen. Ballier ; 99th Regiment, Col. Peter Fritz ; 09th
Regiment ; 95th Regiment; 118th Regiment, Col. O'Ncil ; 119th
Regiment, Col. G. Clark; Pennsylvania Reserves; and 81st, 82d,
81th, 87th, and 91st Regiments.
Third Division.
Gen. Charles T. Campbell and Staff.
101st Regiment, 101th, 114th, 118th, 119th, 121st, 159th, 157th, 152d,
Veteran Artillery Corps, with cannon, and 195th Regiment.
Fourth Division.
Maj.-Gen. D. McM. Gregg and Staff.
Headquarters flag of the Second Brigade.
Gen. Leiper and Staff.
6th Regiment Cavalry, Maj. B. H. Herkness; 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry,
Maj. CharleB Treichel; 2d Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. W. W. Saun-
ders; 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Maj. W. A. Come; 5th Pennsyl-
vania Cavalry, Col. Klientz; 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Lieut.-Col.
J. H. Dewees; 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. C. M. Betts.
Color Guard, armed with sabres.
Maj.-Gen. George G. Meade and Staff.
Battle-flag of the commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Escort of cavalrymen, under the command of Col. Dewees.
Invalid officers in carriages.
The Scott Legion, 168th Pennsylvania Regiment, Col. A. H. Tippen.
Fifth Division.
Maj.-Gen. John W. Geary and Staff.
The White Star Division colors and Color Guards, who did not parade as
regiments or detachments.
United States Marines, Maj. Thomas S. Field.
Sixth Division.
Maj.-Gen. S. W. Crawford and Staff.
Hon. Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of Pennsylvania, and Staff, preceded
by an orderly carrying the State flag.
The Soldiers' Orphans — Guard of Honor.
Seventh Division.
Maj.-Gen. John R. Brooks and Staff.
Gray Reserves, Col. C. M. Provost.
" The reception of the flags took place at Independ-
ence Square, and was very impressive. After this cere-
mony Gen. Henry White, chairman of the committee
of arrangements, made a brief address. After prayer
by Rev. Dr. Brainerd, Gen. Meade advanced with the
colors of the Eighty-second Regiment in his hand,
and in a. formal address delivered them to Governor
Curtin. Governor Curtin then made a brief reply
and received the flags on behalf of the State. The
meeting then adjourned with a benediction by Bishop
Simpson."
The Christian Commission. — Philadelphia, lying
in the immediate pathway of the troops from the
North to Washington, was not slow in showing her
interest in their welfare. The first recorded public
movement in the city for the relief of the soldiers is
to be found in the following letter, which was read by
Rev. Dr. W. J. R. Taylor, then pastor of the Third
Reformed Dutch Church of Philadelphia, to his con-
gregation on Sunday, April 21, 1861 :
" Philadelphia, April 20, 1861.
" Rev. Me. Taylor :
" Dear Sir, — It is understood that a hospital will be forthwith opened
in this city for the reception of the sick and wounded of our army, and
it is proposed that the ladies of the several churches should meet next
week to make arrangements for the preparation of bedding, bandages,
lint, etc. To perfoct such arrangements and Becure concert of action, it
is requested that in each church one or more ladies should be appointed
to attend a general meeting, at such time and place as shall be made
known through the papers.
"This work of charity has received the hearty approval of many
ladies, but was proposed too late for a notice in the evening papers, and
as the suddenness of the emergency forbids the delay of another week,
the notice from the pulpit, if not the best, is now the only practicable
plan. You are therefore respectfully requested to call such a meeting
of the ladies of our church.
" Very respectfully,
" Mrs. Israel Bissell, Miss Eliza Austin, Mrs. S. Calhoun,
per E. M. Harris, 1116 Pine Street."
830
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
The call was cordially responded to the next morn-
ing by a number of ladies, who met in the lecture-
room of the church. The meetings were continued for
several weeks, until the Ladies' Aid Society, which
made its headquarters at Dr. Boardman's church, ab-
sorbed this and the local church efforts in its broad
charities. The Philadelphia Ladies' Aid Society was
one of the first in the field, and managed its affairs
with great success. Over twenty-four thousand dollars
in cash were raised and expended, beside large sup-
plies of stores, averaging in value over twenty thou-
sand dollars each year. The labors of its secretary,
Mrs. Dr. John Harris, and her associates in the armies
in the East and the West, are deserving of all praise.
On April 22d, John Patterson visited the army to
minister to the soldiers, probably the first in the field
for this benevolent purpose. The Philadelphia Young
Men's Christian Association soon after organized an
army committee for local work. Auxiliary associa-
tions of women were formed in all of the Northern
States, and when wounded and sick soldiers appealed
for relief, a few weeks later, a general system for the
purpose was so well organized that all demands were
at first promptly met.
The Young Men's Christian Commission of Phila-
delphia reorganized their army committee on July 4,
1861, with P. B. Simons as chairman. The commit-
tee did a large local work, and became a valuable
auxiliary of the Christian Commission. On Oct. 28,
1861, George H. Stuart, chairman, John Wana-
maker, corresponding secretary, James Grant, John
W. Sexton, and George Cookman, of the Young
Men's Christian Association of Philadelphia, issued
a call for a convention to be held at the-rooms of the
Young Men's Christian Association of New York,
on November 14th, " for the purpose of systematizing
and extending the Christian efforts of the various
associations among the soldiers of the army." At
the time appointed the convention met, with dele-
gates from various cities, and the following from
Philadelphia: George H. Stuart, Rev. S. J. Baird,
D.D., John Wanamaker, and A. M. Burton. Upon
the organization of the convention George H. Stuart
was elected president, and John Wanamaker was ap-
pointed on the business committee. After a session
of two days the Christian Commission was organized,
with George H. Stuart and John P. Crozer as mem-
bers from Philadelphia. At the first meeting of the
Commission George H. Stuart was elected perma-
nent chairman, and B. F. Maniere secretary and
treasurer. As soon as the Commission was organ-
ized it received the official indorsement of the gov-
ernment at Washington. The headquarters of the
Commission were first established at No. 2£ Wall
Street, New York, but in September, 1862, they were
removed to the office and store of the chairman, 13
Bank Street, Philadelphia. At the same time Jay
Cooke was appointed on the Commission, in place of
B. F. Maniere, resigned, and Joseph Patterson, of
Philadelphia, was made treasurer. During the war
the Commission show a total of receipts and values
of $6,291,107.68. In the first year the receipts
amounted to $231,000 ; in the second year they were
$916,837; in the third year they were $2,882,347;
from January to May, 1865, one-third of a year of
active campaign, they were $2,228,105, which rate,
continued twelve months, would have given for the
last year $6,684,315. The total cash received from
Philadelphia for the uses of the Commission was
$860,306.85, being nearly three times as large as the
receipts from any city in the country.
^y?*^Ya&Zc
<XSis/~^^
On Dec. 1, 1865, the executive committee passed a
resolution to terminate the labors by the United
States Christian Commission and close its offices on
Jan. 1, 1866. The executive committee again met
Jan. 11, 1866, and arrangements were made for hold-
ing a final anniversary of the Commission, in Wash-
ington, on February 11th. Before terminating its
existence the committee appointed George H. Stuart,
Joseph Patterson, Stephen Colwell, John P. Crozer,
and Matthew Simpson, D.D., trustees, "to receive
and hold the funds now in the treasury and all that
may hereafter be given to the Commission," etc. Mr.
Crozer died on the 11th of March, 1866, and on the
13th Horatio Gates Jones was chosen to fill the va-
cancy, and also elected secretary of the board.
The final meeting of the executive committee took
place in the E Street Baptist Church, on Feb. 10,
1866. After some preliminary business was trans-
acted, the following complimentary resolution was
voted to the chairman, and in the evening the Com-
mission finally adjourned:
"The executive committee feel it a duty and a pleasure to place on
record their high appreciation of the able and faithful service of their
chairman, George H. Stuart. His liberality in furnishing office and
store room, and at times the services of his clerks, was of great value,
especially in the early days of the Commission. His business talent and
skill enabled us to purchase cheaply and well, and to keep all the ac-
counts of our extensive and diversified operations in the most thorough
manner. His unbounded enthusiasm was communicated not only to us,
THE CIVIL WAR.
831
but to all who came near him, and enlisted the sympathies and aid of
thousands in our work, while his personal intercourse with us, in all
our long and trying deliberations, has been delightful. As we separate,
our prayers go up to our Father in heaven that his days may be many,
useful, and happy." 1
The Cooper-Shop Volunteer Refreshment Sa-
loon took its name from the cooper-shop of Messrs.
Cooper & Pearce, which stood about fifty yards south
of Washington Avenue on Otsego Street. It was a
two-story brick building, with a front of thirty-two
feet on Otsego Street, with a depth of one hundred
and fifty feet. Before the war it was used for the
manufacture of snooks for the West Indies sugar
trade. At the instigation of William M. Cooper and
his partner, H. W. Pearce, it was fitted up as a vol-
unteer refreshment saloon, and during the war dis-
tributed refreshments to over six hundred thousand
topher Jacoby, James Tosing, E. S. Cooper, Joseph
Coward, J. T. Packer, Andrew Nebinger, and Robert
Nebinger. The names of the ladies who originated
the saloon should also be preserved in Philadel-
phia history. They are as follows : Mrs. William M.
Cooper, Mrs. Grace Nickels, Mrs. Sarah Ewing, Mrs.
Elizabeth Vausdale, Miss Catharine Vausdale, Mrs.
Jane Coward, Mrs. Susan Turner, Mrs. Sarah Mellen,
Mrs. Catherine Alexander, Mrs. Mary Plant, Mrs.
Mary Grover, Miss Clara T. Cooper, Miss Mary Ann
Haines, and Mrs. Capt. Watson.
The first body of troops fed at the saloon was the
Eighth New York Regiment, numbering seven hun-
dred and eighty men, commanded by Col. Blenker,
while on its way to Washington on May 27, 1861 ; the
last regiment fed was the One Hundred and Fourth
COOPER-SHOP VOLUNTEER "REFRESHMENT SALOON.
soldiers passing through the city to and from the seat
of war. The saloon was opened in May, 1861, under
the management of Messrs. William M. Cooper, H.
W. Pearce, A. M. Simpson, W. R. S. Cooper, Jacob
Plant, Walter R. Mellon, A. S. Simpson, C. V. Fort,
William Morrison, Samuel W. Nickels, Philip Fitz-
patrick, T. H. Rice, William M. Maull, John Grigg,
R. H. Ransley, L. B. M. Dolby, Capt. A. H. Cain,
William H. Dennis, Capt. E. H. Hoffner, L. W.
Thornton, Joseph E. Sass, T. L. Coward, E. J. Her-
rity, C. L. Wilson, and Rev. Joseph Perry. The fol-
lowing were afterward added by election : B. G.
Simpson, Isaac Plant, James Toomey, H. H. Webb,
William Sprowle, Henry Dubosq, G. R. Birch, Chris-
1 Annals of the United States Christian Commission, by Rev. Lemuel
Moss.
Pennsylvania, Col. Kephart, numbering seven hun-
dred and forty-eight men, on Aug. 28, 1865.
The managers of the Cooper-Shop Eefreshment
Saloon also established a hospital for those soldiers
who were sick or wounded, and who were unable to
leave Philadelphia, and who required rest, or nursing
and medical attendance, to restore them to health
and duty. The hospital was under the charge of Dr.
Andrew Nebinger, assisted by his brother, Dr. George
W. Nebinger, and Miss Anna M. Eoss. After the
death of Miss Eoss, Mrs. Abigail Horner became the
lady principal of the " Cooper-Shop Hospital."
On May 17, 1863, the Cooper-Shop Refreshment
Saloon Committee received as a donation from Rob-
ert P. King, president of the Mount Moriah Ceme-
tery, a large burial-lot for interment of the remains of
such patients as might die in the hospital.
832
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
At various times the following ladies assisted in
the management of the hospital: Mrs. J. Floyd, Mrs.
J. Perry, Mrs. R. P. King, Mrs. E. Roberts, Mrs.
William M. Cooper, and Mrs. P. Fitzpatrick.
To provide a home for disabled soldiers the Cooper-
Shop Soldiers' Home was chartered by the Court of
Common Pleas for the county of Philadelphia on
Feb. 15, 1862. The following gentlemen were con-
stituted by the charter the first board of managers :
William M. Cooper, Cornelius'V. Fort, William M.
Maull, Adam M. Simpson, Arthur S. Simpson, Henry
W. Pearce, William H. Dennis, J. B. M. Dolby, R. H.
Rausley, Philip Fitzpatrick, B. Frank Palmer, E. S.
Hall, W. R. S. Cooper, R. G. Simpson, William Sprole,
and H. R. Warriner.
The following members of the committee of the
Cooper-Shop Refreshment Saloon were also members
of the corporation : Thomas Smith, C. W. Nickels,
Dr. A. Nebinger, L. W. Thornton, Capt. A. H.
Cain, Capt. R. H. Hoffner, H. H. Webb, E. J. Heraty,
Jacob Plant, James Coward, Jr., Tyler L. Coward,
W. R. Mellen, Isaac Plant, Henry Dubosq, George
R. Birch, Thomas H. Rice, J. P. Dettra, George
Lefer, James T. Packer, William Morrison, James
Toomey, Edward Whetstone, Robert P. King, Wil-
liam Struthers, Joseph Perry, Evan Randolph, George
D. Hoffner, Charles Spencer, Charles C. Wilson, H.
A. Wetherill, Thomas M. Coleman, J. D. Watson,
Charles Ide, J. Gates, James Sullender, C. L. Pascal,
Joseph E. Sass, John L. Neill, John Grigg, Capt. A.
D. Davis, S. Morris Wain, Daniel Smith, Samuel
Welsh, William Bucknell, George F. Lewis, John T.
Lewis, J. P. Crozer, E. Wallace, M.D., Caleb Cope,
M. L. Hallowell, Thomas Sparks, Jr., G. K. Ziegler,
and Joseph Jeanes.
The first meeting of the managers was held on
June 5, 1862, but they could not obtain a suitable
building until September, 1863, when they took pos-
session of one that had been used for hospital pur-
poses, at the northwest corner of Race and Crown
Streets. After necessary repairs the home was opened
on Dec. 22; 1863, with appropriate ceremonies. By
an act of the Legislature the Cooper- Shop Soldiers'
Home was afterward merged into "The Soldiers'
Home of Philadelphia."
The Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon was
originally organized in May, 1861, as the Volunteer
Refreshment Saloon. A boat-house was secured at
Washington and Delaware Avenues, and on June 1st
a lease was obtained and the building appropriately
fitted up for a soldiers' refreshment saloon. To accom-
modate the sick a hospital was opened, and placed
under the charge of Dr. Eliab Ward, who gave his
services throughout the war free of charge. Nearly
eleven thousand sick and wounded in the progress of
the war were nursed and received medical attendance
at this hospital, and nearly twice that number had their
wounds dressed, and over forty thousand had a night's
lodging. The necessities of the association soon out-
grew the building first taken, and additions were
made until a space ninety-five by one hundred feet
was covered, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Bal-
timore Railroad leasing the ground and refusing any
compensation. In its enlarged dimensions twelve
hundred men could be supplied at once, and fifteen
thousand have been received in a single day. An
accurate record was kept of all its operations, and
the books show that over 800,000 soldiers were re-
ceived, and 1,025,000 meals were furnished, the entire
amount of money expended being $98,204.34, and
material estimated at $30,000, an aggregate of
$128,204.34, all of which was received by voluntary
contributions. The following were the officers of
this noble charity: Chairman, Arad Barrows; Re-
cording Secretary, J. B. Wade; Treasurer, B. S.
Brown ; Steward, J. T. Williams ; Physician, E.
Ward ; Corresponding Secretary and General Finan-
cial Agent, Samuel B. Fales.1
Committee of Gentlemen, Arad Barrows, Barzilla
S. Brown, Joseph B. Wade, Isaac B. Smith, Sr.,
Erasmus W. Cooper, Job T. Williams, John W.
Hicks, George Flomerfelt, John Krider, Sr., Isaac
B. Smith, Jr., Charles B. Grieves, James McGlathery,
John B. Smith, Curtis Myers, Dr. Eliab Ward, Chris-
tian Powell, W. S. Mason, Charles S. Clampitt, D. L.
Flanigan, Richard Sharp, James Cassel, Samuel B.
Fales, Robert R. Corson, and John T. Wilson.
Committee of Ladies, Mesdames Mary Gro ver, Han-
nah Smith, Priscilla Grover, Margaret Boyer, Eliza J.
Smith, Annah Elkinton, Ellen B. Barrows, Mary L.
Field, Ellen J. Lowry, Mary D. Wade, Eliza Plum-
mer, Mary A. Cassedy, Mary Lee, Emily Mason,
Mary Green, Eliza Helmbold, Elizabeth Horton,
Sarah Femington, Kate B. Anderson, and Hannah
F. Bailey, and Misses Sarah Holland, Catherine
Bailey, Amanda Lee, Anna Grover, Martha B. Kri-
der, Annie Field, and Mary Grover,
Southwark, where the Cooper-Shop Volunteer Re-
freshment Saloon and the Union Refreshment Saloon
were founded, has been divided into parties as to
which was the first established. They both opened
almost simultaneously at the same time by a natural
impulse, in which the women of Southwark are en-
titled to the greatest distinction. They saw the sol-
diers landing at Washington Street wharf in the early
days of the war hot, dusty, tired, thirsty, and hungry,
with no supplies of their own, and without the means
even of obtaining a drink of water. They rushed to
1 Soon after the close of the war the United States offered to give to
the friends of Mr. Fales one of the columns of the Bank of Pennsyl-
vania to place on the battle-field at Gettysburg. It was to have a tablet
in bronze, with an inscription of the services of Mr. Fales as the founder
of tho Union Refreshment Saloon ; but Mr. Fales, who always avoided
publicity, objected, and so the project was not carried into effect. The
government did, however, give to the saloon the column, and it is now
in possession of B. D. Baker Post, No. 8, G. A. R., which intends to erect
it over the graves of their comrades in Glenwood Cemetery. Mr. Fales,
who was a man of large means and scholarly tastes, gave his almost ex-
^ elusive attention for over four and a half years to this work.
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
833
their own homes, and from their family supplies —
not over-abundant — brought forth food, coffee, and
other comforts, and proceeded at once to cook and
prepare repasts. What they did was approved by
their fathers, husbands, and brothers, and the regular
organization of associations to manage the refresh-
ment saloons followed.
CHAPTER XXVII.
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
We purpose, in this chapter, to give a brief sketch
of the history of the city during the period succeed-
ing the war down to the present time. Events crowd
so thickly upon us in those years, and most of them,
by the recency of their occurrence, are fixed so firmly
in the memory of Philadelphians, that it is necessary
to dwell upon those only which are of particular in-
terest as a matter of historical record. Our narrative,
therefore, for this period, will be concise and lacking
in the detail which, in the earlier and less familiar
years, was indispensable to a thorough knowledge of
the city's affairs, its progress, and its public men.
Pains have been taken, however, to omit reference to
no event which had an important bearing on our
municipal development, or which, at the time of its
happening, created a feeling of interest among our
population.
The year 1866 was one of intense excitement
politically. The tendency of the Johnson Republi-
cans, or Conservatives, as they styled themselves, to
coalesce with the Democrats was the cause of no small
concern to the Republican leaders who supported the
reconstruction acts of Cougress. The followers of
President Johnson, by their skillful use of the Federal
patronage at their command, did much to strengthen
his policy among the politicians. Nor were they at
all slow in appealing directly to the people through
popular methods of campaigning that attracted wide-
spread attention. The celebrated " arm-in-arm con-
vention," which met on the 14th of August, with dele-
gates from every portion of the country, served not a
little to intensify the agitation that was then prevailing
throughout the Union. With Gen. John A. Dix as
its temporary chairman, and Senator Doolittle as per-
manent chairman, it remained in session for three
days in a peculiarly constructed building on Girard
Avenue, between Nineteenth and Twentieth, known
as the " Wigwam." The epithet by which this con-
vention was long afterward known, arose from the
fact that ex-Governor James L. Orr, of South Caro-
lina, and Gen. Couch, of Massachusetts, on the first
day of its meeting, walked down the aisle to their
seats with their arms interlocked. Such was the
bitterness of feeling which this gathering of Union-
ists and ex-Confederates excited that it was necessary
53
to keep an artillery company under arms in order to
prevent its sessions from being broken up by a riot.
Two weeks afterward President Johnson himself
arrived in the city, accompanied by Secretary Seward,
Gen. Grant, and other distinguished men. This was
a portion of the famous tour which, in the nomen-
clature of national politics, was described as " swing-
ing around the circle." Mr. Johnson was received
by a great procession of the militia and firemen. He
made an earnest speech from the balcony of the Con-
tinental Hotel.
The Republicans who were opposed to the Presi-
dent, in order to counteract the effect of these dem-
onstrations, had called a convention of Southern
loyalists, which met at National Hall on the 3d of
September, and also a convention of Northern loyal-
ists at the Union League House. James Speed, of
Kentucky, presided over the former, and Andrew G.
Curtin over the latter. The result of these gatherings
was to heaten the political campaign of the autumn
to a high degree of intensity. In the election John
W. Geary, the Republican candidate for Governor,
obtained over Heister Clymer, Democrat, a majority
of more than 5000 votes. Joshua T. Owen, who
headed the local ticket, was elected recorder of deeds
by 1329 majority, and Mr. James McManes, who had
not yet become so powerful in the politics of the
community as he was in no long time destined to be,
was chosen prothonotary of the District Court by a
majority which was only a little less than that of
Gen. Geary.
The coldest day ever known in Philadelphia was
the 7th of January, 1866, when the thermometer at
the Merchants' Exchange fell as low as eighteen
degrees below zero. The Delaware River was frozen
over, but the temperature soon began to moderate,
and the ice gave but little of the trouble that was
caused in the terrible winter of 1856.
The murder of Miss Mary L. Watt, on Queen
Street, Germantown, by Christian Berger, on the 6th
of January, together with the discovery of the dead
body of Berger in his cell while he was awaiting the
death sentence, and the brutal killing of Mrs. Eliza-
beth Miller, at her house on Buttonwood Street, by
Gottlieb Williams — a crime for which Williams was
hanged on the 4th of June of the following year
— created much excitement. But the feeling caused
by these deeds was as nothing when compared
with the horror of the community on learning that
Christopher Deering and his family had been slain
on the 10th of April in their house on Jones' Lane
in the "Neck." This was the most terrible murder
that had ever been perpetrated in Philadelphia.
Deering, his wife, four children, Elizabeth Dorian,
and Cornelius Carey were the victims of a hired man,
Anton Probst. It was not until the 12th of April
that Probst was accidentally captured, and public
feeling ran high against him. There was a great
funeral procession which followed the bodies of the
834
HISTORY OP PHILADELPHIA.
murdered family from the undertaker's, at Thirteenth
and Chestnut Streets, to St. Mary's Cemetery on Pas-
syunk Avenue. Probst was speedily convicted. He
made a confession, stating that the monstrous crime
was all his own work, and on the 8th of June he was
hanged at Moyamensing prison by Sheriff Howell.
The attempts which were made by the Fenian
Brotherhood in the United States to invade Canada
had not a few sympathizers in Philadelphia. They
demonstrated their friendly feeling by a mass-meeting
at Sansom Street Hall, on the 22d of January, 1866,
at which well-known members of the Fenian order
from all portions of the country were present. Several
months later, James Stephens, the head centre of the
brotherhood, paid a visit to Philadelphia, and deliv-
ered an address at National Hall. For the next two
or three years such meetings were frequent. Per-
haps the most notable demonstration made by the
Fenian societies during this period of agitation was
the public funeral procession, on the 8th of January,
1867, when five thousand men followed hearses on
which were displayed the names of Allen, Larkin,
and O'Brien, who had been hanged by the English
government.
A fire, which destroyed a million dollars' worth of
property at the dry-goods house of James, Kent,
Santee & Co., on Third Street, above Race, occurred
on the 26th of February, 1866. Another disastrous
conflagration of this year was the destruction of the
Tacouy Print- Works of A. S. Lippincott, by incen-
diaries, on the 12th of July, causing a loss of upward
of a million dollars. On the 4th of August the old
Moyamensing Hall, on Christian Street, above Ninth,
was set on fire and partially destroyed.
The last-named fire grew out of the alarm which
an epidemic of Asiatic cholera had excited. The
disease was first discovered in the city about the 1st
of July, and rapidly spread. When the authorities
wished to use Moyamensing Hall as a hospital, the
turbulent population in the neighborhood threatened
to burn it down, and they carried their threat into
execution. The city was not rid of the dread disease
until the 28th of November, when the Board of Health
made a declaration to that effect. The number of
victims to the pestilence was eight hundred and
ninety-nine.
On the 23d of June, 1866, Chestnut Street bridge,
on which work had first been begun Sept. 19, 1861,
was opened by Mayor McMichael, City Councils, and
the chief engineer, Strickland Kneass.
An extraordinary event was the killing of George
Ellar in the Quarter Sessions court-room on the 20th
of February, 1867. Nearly a year before Ellar had
committed an outrageous assault on a daughter, aged
twelve years, of Thomas Leis. The father, maddened
not less by the nature of the offense than by the law's
long delay in punishing the perpetrator, drew a pistol
on Ellar when he was finally put on trial before Judge
Ludlow, and killed him almost instantly. Public
sympathy was strongly on the side of the avenger,
and a month later he was acquitted on the ground of
insanity.
A terrible disaster took place on the 6th of June,
1867, when a boiler in the steam saw-mill of Geasy
& Ward exploded with tremendous force. The mill,
which was located on the south side of Sansom Street,
above Tenth, was almost totally demolished and made
level with the pavement. Twenty-two dead bodies
were taken out of the ruins, and pieces of the boiler
were found as far distant as Eleventh and Chestnut
Streets. On the night of the 19th of June the New
American Theatre, on Walnut Street above Eighth,
conducted by Robert Fox, was destroyed by fire. A
performance called " The Demon Dance" was going
on when the flames were discovered ; but everybody
in the theatre succeeded in escaping. After the fire
had been raging a short time the front wall fell out
into Walnut Street and ten men were killed. The
theatre was rebuilt during the summer, and was
opened again on the 19th of September.
The prosperity which had attended the Public
Ledger under George W. Childs' management, after
his purchase of it from William M. Swain, was such
that its old quarters at Third and Chestnut Streets
became too restricted for its business. At the south-
west corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, during
1866-67, he established one of the finest and largest
newspaper buildings in the United States. It was
opened on the 20th of June, and Mr. Childs signal-
ized the occasion by a memorable banquet at the
Continental Hotel, which was attended by six hun-
dred distinguished citizens. On the following 4th of
July he gave to the newsboys in the new building
one of the first of the dinners which afterward became
one of the most pleasant of the regular features of
Philadelphia Fourth of July celebrations.
What has since been frequently spoken of as "the
great hail-storm'' occurred on the afternoon of the
27th of September, when a gale suddenly broke over
the city, accompanied by a fall of hailstones, some of
which were three inches in diameter and a quarter of
a pound in weight. It was estimated that more than
half a million panes of glass were shattered in the
storm. On the 8th of May, 1870, there was another
fall of hail almost as equally violent and destructive.
The Philadelphia Democracy in October, 1867,
were greatly elated at the victory which they won in
the city. Their whole local ticket, which was headed
by Peter Lyle for sheriff, was elected by an average
majority of four thousand votes. Judge Ludlow,
who was voted for by many Republicans on the prin-
ciple that partisanship should not enter into the
choice of members of the judiciary, — a doctrine
which then was not regarded with so much favor as
it was a little later on, — was re-elected by a majority
of five thousand five hundred and sixty. There was
much brawling in the course of this campaign, but
there was no event of important interest.
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
835
In the summer of 1868 the confusion into which a
great city may be thrown by an unexpected inter-
ference of the workings of some of the improvements
of modern civilization was illustrated by a strike
which was started by the firemen, stokers, and other
employed at the gas-works. On the night of the 17th
of July the city was in total darkness. The possible
dangers of such a state of affairs were too many for
the citizens to allow the city to be unlighted by gas for
another night, and on the following day the demands
of the strikers were promptly complied with.
On the night of the 12th of June, 1868, Timothy
Heenan, a brother of the well-known pugilist, John
C. Heenan, was shot down and killed while in the
company of a party of Democratic politicians, at
Fifth and Spruce Streets. Gerald Eaton was convicted
of having committed the crime, and soon afterward
he was sentenced to be hanged on the 8th of April,
1869, together with George S. Twitchell, Jr. Twitch-
ell had been convicted of the murder of his mother-
in-law, Mrs. Mary E. Hill, at the northeast corner of
Tenth and Pine Streets. The crime, which was per-
petrated on the 22d of October, 1868, was involved in
mystery, and occasioned wide-spread comment. On
the strength of circumstantial evidence Twitchell was
convicted on New- Year's Day, 1869. He was to have
been hanged on the same scaffold with Eaton, but
having Bwallowed poison, he was found dead in his
cell on the morning of the day fixed for the execution.
Eaton suffered death, and when his remains were de-
livered to his friends, they endeavored to restore life
by means of electrical appliances. Prior to his suicide
Twitchell had made a " confession," in which he tried
to fix the blame of Mrs. Hill's murder upon Mrs.
Twitchell, who had already been found not guilty.
The progress of these trials was attended with an ex-
citement which has not since been manifested here to
such a degree in any case of murder.
The Presidential campaign of 1868 was character-
ized by several great public demonstrations. Chief
among these was the reception given on the 1st of
October to the "Boys in Blue," forerunners of the
Grand Army of the Republic. They held a conven-
tion in National Hall, and in the evening Inde-
pendence Square was the scene of an outpouring of
the people to welcome the great soldiers, Burnside,
Sickles, Kilpatrick, and other noted commanders.
On the afternoon of the following day there was
a long parade of soldiers and sailors, under the
marshalship of Gen. Joshua T. Owen, and at night
there was a torchlight parade, which included also
many political campaign clubs. The object of these
meetings and parades was to influence voters in
favor of the Republican candidates at the impending
October election, and of Grant and Colfax at the
November election. A counter demonstration, under
the auspices of the Democrats, was the reception
given to Gen. George B. McClellan, on the 8th of
October. It was a most imposing affair. A great
day procession was marshaled by Gen. William
McCandless. Gen. McClellan reviewed the procession
from the balcony of the Continental Hotel, and
made a speech to the multitude which thronged the
streets. On the 30th of October, Horatio Seymour,
the Democratic candidate for President, was wel-
comed by the Democrats at the Academy of Music.
They had in October carried their ticket in the city
by very small majorities, Daniel M. Fox, the candi-
date for mayor, running ahead of most of his associate
candidates. The State, however, had gone Repub-
lican, and when the city, in November, gave the
Grant electoral ticket five thousand eight hundred
and fifteen majority, the Presidential battle had
already been virtually decided.
The result of the October elections as to the city
ticket was not accepted by the Republicans, however,
as conclusive. Charges of gross fraud were made,
and during the greater portion of the year 1869 con-
tests for the positions of city solicitor, district attor-
ney, and judge of the District Court were carried on.
Thomas Greenbank, who had been returned as judge,
was obliged to vacate his seat in favor of M. Russell
Thayer, and on the 18th of October Furman Sheppard
retired from the district-attorney ship in order to make
way for Charles Gibbons, who, upon a legal contest
and examination, was subsequently displaced in turn
by Mr. Sheppard.
The officers of the United States government met
with much opposition during 1869 in their efforts to
collect the whiskey taxes. In order to compel the
submission of the owners of distilleries in the Port
Richmond district, it was necessary on one occasion
to secure the services of a force of marines and "raid"
those establishments. The liquor men displayed
much hostility toward the revenue officers all through
the summer, and it finally culminated in a deadly
attack on James J. Brooks, a faithful government
detective, and afterward chief of the Secret Service at
Washington. Brooks was at the point of death for
several weeks, and the feeling of the public against
the " Whiskey Ring," which, it was believed, had
hired ruffians to assassinate him, was very strong.
About a month after the assault Hugh Mara, Neil
McLaughlin, and James Dougherty were arrested in
New York. On the 20th of November Dougherty
and Mara were convicted, and were sentenced to an
imprisonment of a little less than seven years each.
The Mercantile Library Company on the 15th of
July, 1869, removed from their building at Fifth and
Library Streets to the spacious Franklin market-
house, which had been erected in 1860, on Tenth
Street above Chestnut, at the time of the anti-shed
agitation, and which had not proved altogether a
profitable investment. It was easily converted into a
fine library building, and has been occupied as such
ever since.
The election of 1869 was preceded by a short but
sharp campaign, the contest between John W. Geary
836
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and Asa Packer for Governor attracting the most at-
tention. The Republicans in Philadelphia gave Geary
a majority of 4400, and elected their city ticket by
majorities which did not greatly vary from that
figure.
Among the principal local events of this year were
the dedication, on the 1st of March, of the new hall
of the Commercial Exchange Association, at Second
and Gothic Streets; the robbery, on the 4th of April,
of a million dollars in bonds belonging to the Bene-
ficial Savings-Fund at Twelfth and Chestnut Streets ;
a meeting, at the Academy of Music on the 30th of
April, of sympathizers with the Cuban insurgents ; the
parade of Odd-Fellows, on the 26th of April, commem-
orating the semi-centennial anniversary of the order
in the United States ; a dedication of a monument to
Washington and Lafayette in Monument Cemetery on
the 29th of May, one of the first of " Decoration Days ;''
the destruction by fire, on the 4th of August, of Wm.
C. Patterson's bonded warehouse, at Front and Pine
Streets, with a loss of two millions of dollars; the
scarcity of Schuylkill water in August, and the use
of steam fire-engines to pump water into Fairmount
basin ; the laying of the corner-stone of the Hum-
boldt monument, in Fairmount Park, on the 13th of
September ; the dedication of the Washington monu-
ment in front of the State-House on the 5th of July ;
the great picnic of the public school children in the
Park on the 8th of September ; and the funeral, on
the 10th of November, of Admiral Charles Stewart,
whose body lay in state in Independence Hall. The
public school picnic was repeated in the autumns of
1871 and 1872.
In February, 1870, the colored people held a mass-
meeting, at which it was determined to celebrate the
adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Consti-
tution of the United States. On the 26th of April
of the same year they made an imposing demonstra-
tion of their joy at the new privileges which the
national government had conferred upon them. At
the Union League House, Charles Gibbons presented
the representatives of their civic societies with a
banner, which was received by Octavius V. Catto.
It was carried in a lengthy procession, of which
Thomas Charnock was the chief marshal. In the
evening there was a mass-meeting at Horticultural
Hall, presided over by David C. Bowser, and at
which addresses were made by Frederick Douglass,
Galusha A. Grow, Robert Purvis, Jacob C. White,
Jr., Louis Wagner, and Gen. Harry White. A short
time afterward, on the 5th of May, the remaining
members of the old Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery So-
ciety came together, and declaring that their work
had been done, formally disbanded.
There was a fine parade of firemen on the 22d of
February, 1870, to celebrate the dedication of a monu-
ment to the memory of David M. Lyle, who as chief
of the Volunteer Fire Department had been exceed-
ingly popular. Lyle, who died on the 23d of Novem-
ber, 1867, had been buried in Old Oaks Cemetery
with distinguished military and civic honors. The
parade of February, 1870, was under the marshalship
of William F. McCully, who had been active in en-
listing the attention of the volunteer firemen to the
project of a Lyle monument, and Charles W. Brooke
delivered the oration. §
In the election of 1870 the Republicans were vic-
torious, their local ticket headed by William R. Leeds
for sheriff1 receiving a majority of 6907 votes, and
William M. Bunn for register of wills a majority of
4349. At the same time a vote was taken on the
question of a preference for Penu Squares or Wash-
ington Square as the site for public buildings. The
former location was voted for by 51,623 citizens, and
the latter by 32,825. This proved to be the virtual
conclusion of an agitation between the advocates of
the respective sites, which had been kept up for many
years, and which, during 1870, had been attended
with much bitterness.
The rowdyism which was conspicuous in political
campaigns for some time after the war was illustrated
on the 13th of October, 1870, when, at a meeting of
the judges of election returns, a crowd of roughs burst
open the door of the apartment in which they were in
session. In the course of the affray Alexander Craw-
ford, one of the judges, shot down John C. Nolen,
a Democratic politician, who died of his wound three
days afterward. An attempt was made to connect
William B. Mann with an assassination plot, and he
was even brought before Judge Allison by his polit-
ical opponents. A coroner's jury found, however,
that Crawford had acted entirely in self-defense.
The trial of John Hanlon, who, on the 6th of Sep-
tember, 1868, had outraged and murdered Mary Mohr-
mann, seven years old, attracted great attention in
November, 1870. The public mind was aroused to a
high pitch of indignation over this crime, and there
was general satisfaction when Hanlon was executed,
on the 1st of February, 1871.
The Volunteer Fire Department prepared to go
out of existence in the winter of 1870-71, during
which time the commissioners of the municipal (then
called the " paid") fire department held their first ses-
sions. On the 15th of March, 1871, the new depart-
ment was formally put in service by Jacob Lauden-
slager, the first president of the commission ; but some
of the volunteer companies could not refrain from
turbulent efforts to prevent the establishment of the
reform. It was not very long before the city adapted
itself to this change in the fire service. The first chief
engineer of the Paid Fire Department was William
H. Johnson.
The progress of the Franco-Prussian war had been
watched with intense interest by the large German
population of the city. When the news had been
received, on the 3d of September, 1870, of the over-
throw of McMahon's army at Sedan there was intense
excitement among them, which vented itself, two
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
837
nights afterward, in a torchlight parade. But it was
not until the ascendency of the German arms had
been established and peace declared that they allowed
their feelings of joy to break forth. Hardly a man,
woman, or child of German extraction seemed to have
failed to interest himself in the celebration which
took place on the 15th of May. The day was virtually
a holiday. A procession nine miles long passed
through the principal streets of the city, marshaled
by Gen. John F. Ballier. It was one of the half-
dozen particularly noteworthy parades that have
taken place in Philadelphia since the close of the
war of the Rebellion. The representation of trades
and industries was a memorable one. The decorations
on edifices of a public character were numerous and
elaborate. There was a great gathering of German
citizens at Penn Square, which was presided over by
Gen. Robert Patterson, and at which Dr. Godfrey
Kellner delivered the oration. The next day there
were festivities at the new park of the Philadelphia
Rifle Club. The whole affair was indeed one of the
most enthusiastic, most interesting, and most suc-
cessful of public demonstrations ever known in this
city.
The year 1871 was one of numerous disturbances,
murderous assaults, and other infractions of the peace.
This was due largely to the inferior and undisciplined
character of the police force during the three years
that followed Mr. Fox's election as mayor. Political
excitement, occasioned in the lower sections of the
city particularly by the recent enfranchisement of
the colored citizens, was responsible for much of this
disorder. On the night before the election in October,
Jacob Gordon, a colored man, was killed at Eighth and
Bainbridge Streets. The next day a riot broke out in
the Fourth and Fifth Wards. Its force was directed
chiefly against the negroes. Nearly a score of them
were wounded, and among those who were shot down
and killed were Isaiah Chase and Professor Octavius
V. Catto, in the neighborhood of Eighth and South
Streets. During the progress of the election in the
Fifth Ward, the mayor was obliged to call upon the
military to be in readiness to assist him. The shooting
of Catto awakened a bitterness of feeling in his race
which was not allayed for years afterward. Its im-
mediate effect was exhibited at a mass-meeting in
National Hall, over which Henry C. Carey presided,
and which warmly denounced the atrocious outrage.
The funeral of Professor Catto, who was also a militia
officer, was followed by a large procession of military
and civic organizations.
In the election of October, 1871, the Republicans
elected their whole ticket by majorities which greatly
varied. The State candidates were elected by 11,000
majority ; William S. Stokley over James S. Biddle,
for mayor, by 9080; William B. Mann, for district
attorney, by 2027 ; James T. Mitchell, for judge, by
10,361 ; Charles H. T. Collis, for city solicitor, by
9902 ; and J. G. L. Brown, for coroner, by 15,601.
The visit of the Grand Duke Alexis to Philadel-
phia caused a flutter chiefly in official circles and in
fashionable society. The young Russian, on the 4th
of December, was entertained at a breakfast in Bel-
mont Mansion, Fairmount, at which Gen. Meade
presided. Later in the day he was received in Inde-
pendence Hall, and in the evening a ball was given
in his honor at the Academy of Music.
Before the close of the year 1871, half a million
dollars had been collected in a few weeks for the re-
lief of the sufferers in the Chicago fire. At the citi-
zens' meeting held in Mayor Fox's office, on the 11th
of October, just after the receipt of news of that tre-
mendous catastrophe, one hundred thousand dollars
were raised on the spot, and collections were soon
afterwards taken up in all the churches.
Considerable interest was taken by the Masonic
fraternity in the dedication of a monument in Mount
Moriah Cemetery, on the 24th of June, 1871, to the
memory of William B. Schnider, long a well-known
Tyler of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Pennsylvania.
On the 22d of September the Lincoln monument in
Fairmount Park was unveiled in the presence of a
great crowd. There was a fine military parade, and
Col. William McMichael delivered an oration.
The Presidential campaign of 1872 was opened in
this city on the 5th of June at the Academy of Music.
The nomination of Gen. Grant, which was unani-
mously effected on the following day, had been so
generally anticipated that comparatively little excite-
ment attended the sessions of the convention. Morton
McMichael, of this city, was temporary chairman, and
Thomas Settle, of North Carolina, permanent chair-
man. The only subject of contention was the nomi-
nation for Vice-President, which was finally given
to Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, after a
warm fight on behalf of Schuyler Colfax. On the
22d of August, what was known as a " Convention
of Labor Reformers," representing a large number
of organizations, met at the Washington House and
nominated Charles O'Conor, of New York, for Presi-
dent, and Eli Saulsbury, of Delaware, for Vice-Presi-
dent, a movement which had but little effect on na-
tional politics.
A practical plan of benevolence which contributed
much to the relief of the sufferings of the poor was
started in the summer of 1872, under the name of
the " Children's Free Excursions." During July
and August fourteen excursions to Rockland, in Fair-
mount Park, and one to Pennsgrove, New Jersey,
took place under the auspices of good-hearted men
and women. Nearly thirty thousand poor people, of
whom the greater number were young children, par-
ticipated in these pleasure trips, and it was generally
acknowledged that the lives of many infants were
saved by this excellent charity, which cost altogether
less than ten thousand dollars, excluding the dona-
tions that were not in cash. After several years
these excursions became neglected by the charitable,
838
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
but they were instrumental in directing the attention
of the rich to other forms of summer benevolence
toward the poor, such as seaside sanitariums, the
" country week," etc. The interest that was felt in
this scheme of philanthropy arose from alarm at
the awful bill of mortality which was caused by
the intense heat in the summer of 1872. Thus, in
July seven hundred and forty-six deaths were re-
ported for one week, the greatest number ever known
in the city for the same period of time.
The formation of the "American Steamship Com-
pany" was expected to be of great service in building
up a foreign trade for Philadelphia. It was, therefore
with no little pride that the mercantile and business
interests hailed the launching of the steamship
" Pennsylvania," at Cramp's ship-yard, on the 15th
of August, the "Ohio" on the 30th of October, and
the "Indiana" on the 25th of March, 1873. On the
5th of May the "Pennsylvania" made her trial trip,
and on the 22d of May she sailed for Liverpool,
making the voyage, after an accident, in fourteen
days. On the 7th of June the " Illinois" was
launched at Cramp's, and in the early part of 1874
all four of these fine steamers were sailing under the
American flag. For ten years the supporters of this
enterprise endeavored to keep it up as a distinctly
American organization. They soon found, however,
that they were not sustained as they should be, and
in 1883 they abandoned their first-class passenger
traffic altogether.
The formation of a Citizens' Municipal Reform
Association in 1872 was the precursor of the " Com-
mittee of One Hundred," a voluntary organization
for " the purification of politics" established in a
later year. But at that time the name of reform
was more apt to be derided than applauded. The
demand for some concessions to the better senti-
ments of voters was recognized by the Republican
local leaders in their adoption of the " Crawford
County System" of making nominations by a direct
vote of the Republicans at the primary elections,
without the agency of conventions. This method
was first tried on the 25th of June, when thirty-nine
thousand votes were returned, but it was found to be
as productive of improper practices as the old system.
After being in use for a year or two it was discarded.
The political campaign of 1872 was fiercely con-
tested. The most eminent orators of both parties
from all portions of the country appeared in Phila-
delphia in the course of the summer and autumn.
The popular feeling was, as usual, that the verdict of
Pennsylvania would decide the Presidential election,
and particular pains were therefore taken on behalf
of Gen. Hartranft, the Republican candidate for
Governor, whose nomination had at first threatened
Republican disaffection. The majority in Philadel-
phia for him was returned at upward of twenty
thousand. A citizens' reform ticket for local officers
polled only about three thousand votes. The Demo-
cratic-Liberal party was much discouraged at these
results, and in November it polled only 23,410 votes
for Greeley and Brown, against 68,856 for Grant and
Wilson.
Toward the last of October a disease known as the
epizooty made its appearance among the horses, and
during the next four weeks there was hardly one of
these animals that was not affected by it to some de-
gree. Travel on some of the passenger railways was
entirely suspeuded, and men and boys, during the
month of November, had to make themselves useful
in drawing carts and wagons through the streets.
The Fifth and Sixth Streets Railway Company en-
deavored to accommodate its passengers by running
steam " dummies."
The burial of Gen. George G. Meade at Laurel
Hill, on the 11th of November, was the occasion of
much public mourning. Gen. Meade was the one
conspicuous Philadelphian who stood out above all
other Philadelphians in the civil war, and in the
years after the Rebellion he was an object of admira-
tion to the people of the city. His death was re-
garded as a genuine public loss, and his funeral was
attended with most impressive ceremonies. The pro-
cession contained many of the greatest soldiers and
civilians in the country, chief among whom was Presi-
dent Grant. A week later, at the Academy of Music,
there were solemn services in honor of the memory
of the dead soldier.
The members of the convention to revise the Con-
stitution of Pennsylvania, who had been elected at
the October election of 1872, held their first session
in Philadelphia on the 7th of January, 1873, in the
Sixth Presbyterian Church building, on Spruce Street
below Sixth, which had been specially fitted up for
their use. Here they continued the work of framing
a new Constitution until the 3d of November succeed-
ing, when, a draft having been adopted, it was deter-
mined to submit it to a popular vote on the 16th of
December. At the election on that day the majority
in this city for the instrument was 34,120, only 24,994
votes being cast against it.
The great financial panic of 1873 was precipitated
upon the country from Philadelphia, where the
banking-houses of Jay Cooke & Co. and E. W. Clarke
& Co. closed their doors on the 18th of September.
The usual symptoms of fear and agitation spread
through the community with wonderful rapidity.
Before the day was over " runs" were made on the
banks. The heaviest pressure was upon the Fidelity
Safe Deposit and Trust Company and the Union
Banking Company. The latter organization on the
20th was unable to meet the demands made upon it.
It began the long list of failures which made the next
three or four years so dark to trade and industry.
Not among the least of the financial disasters which
followed was the failure of the Franklin Savings-
Fund, in which many thousands of the poorer people
of Philadelphia were interested, and which was ad-
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
839
judged by the United States District Court on the 6th
of February, 1874, to be bankrupt.
The new Masonic 'Temple, at Broad and Filbert
Streets, was dedicated by many and peculiar ceremo-
nies during the last week of September, 1873. Emi-
nent members of the Masonic fraternity from all
parts of the country were present. On the 25th of
September there was a tournament of Knights Tem-
plar at the Academy of Music and Horticultural
Hall. On the next day eleven thousand Masons
walked in procession in honor of the dedication of
their magnificent building. The Grand Chapter of
Pennsylvania dedicated Renaissance Hall to the uses
of Royal Arch Masonry on the 28th, and ten days
afterward two thousand three hundred Knights Tem-
plar participated in the dedication of the asylum by
the Grand Commaudery.
On the 31st of January, 1874, the House of Correc-
tion, built near Holmesburg, was opened. One hun-
dred and thirty-six of the inmates of the Almshouse
were immediately removed to the new institution.
A case which attracted attention in 1874 all over
the English-speaking world was the abduction of
Charles Brewster Ross, on the 1st of July of that
year. The lad, who was four years old, was enticed
into a carriage by two men. They also carried off
his brother Walter a short distance, and then allowed
him to go home. The younger of the boys was never
afterward heard of. His father, Christian K. Ross,
immediately started upon a search which he kept up
with great activity for several years, and which he
did not entirely relax until within a very recent
period. Almost every appliance that human in-
genuity could devise for the solution of such a mys-
tery was carried into execution. All over the United
States the police of the various cities were notified of
the abduction, and many men who were not profes-
sional investigators of crime became amateur de-
tectives in this case. Innumerable clues were dis-
covered, but they all proved to be fruitless of results
to Mr. Ross, except in restoring very many other lost
children to parents from whom they had strayed or
had been stolen. On the 14th of December, William
Mosher and Joseph Douglass, the men who had stolen
the child, were killed while attempting to rob the
house of Judge Van Brunt, at Bay Ridge, L. I., and
the hope was revived that the boy would be found
somewhere in the vicinity of New York. But the
secret of his whereabouts seems to have perished
with the death of the kidnappers. In the following
year William A. Westervelt was arrested on the charge
of being a party to the conspiracy, and on the 9th of
October was sentenced to an imprisonment of seven
years.
The corner-stone of the new Public Buildings on
Penn Square was laid on the 4th of July, 1874, accord-
ing to the rites of the Masonic fraternity, by represen-
tatives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Ben-
jamin Harris Brewster delivered the oration.
It was about this time that the study of Revolu-
tionary history and the desire to commemorate the
leading events of the colonial era began to be mani-
fest. Everybody in Philadelphia was full of enthu-
siasm over the centennial idea. For two or three
years there had been many public meetings of the
citizens who were interested in the project of the exhi-
bition that was to be consummated in 1876, and many
delegations from Congress, the State Legislatures, and
the principal cities had visited the city on behalf of it.
The celebrations of historical events were intended
to increase the popularity of the centennial project.
First among them was the Boston Tea Party at the
Academy of Music and Horticultural Hall on the 17th
of December, 1873. The centennial commemoration
on the 5th of September, 1874, of the meeting of the
First Continental Congress in Carpenters' Hall, was
signalized by the delivery of an oration by Henry
Armitt Brown. On the 19th of October following
nineteen delegates from the Philadelphia Baptist As-
sociation held a memorial service at the same place
in honor of the nineteen Baptists who, in 1774, peti-
tioned Congress to grant universal religious liberty.
The centennial anniversary of the formation of the
First City Troop was celebrated November 15th, 16th,
17th ; on the first day by religious services in St.
Peter's and St. Clement's Protestant Episcopal
churches ; on the second by the dedication of the new
armory of the Troop, and on the third by a parade of
militia, which was reviewed by Governor Hartranft, of
Pennsylvania, and Governor Parker, of New Jersey.
A notable exhibition, which did much to prepare
Philadelphians for the part they were to play in the
World's Exposition, was that of the Franklin Insti-
tute, which was held in the autumn of 1874, at the
old freight depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com-
pany, Thirteenth and Market Streets. There was a
fine display of local arts and industries, which, be-
tween the 6th of October and the 12th of November,
was visited by nearly three hundred thousand people.
Among the many local improvements that were
effected in 1874, in anticipation, to a large extent, of
the centennial year, was the opening of the new
bridge over the Schuylkill at Girard Avenue on the
4th of July. This handsome structure is one hun-
dred feet wide, and was believed at the time to be the
widest bridge in the world. It cost a little less than
a million and a half of dollars, and for some years
afterward charges of corruption, which was alleged to
have attended the work, were freely discussed.
It was in the winter and spring of 1874 that a
number of Philadelphia ladies, in imitation of the
praying bands that had caused much excitement in
Ohio, organized a " Women's Crusade" on the liquor
saloons. They visited several saloons, prayed, sang
hymns on the sidewalks, and remonstrated with the
keepers of the establishments. But none of them
closed their doors, and in a short time the agitation
died out.
840
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The first of the municipal or February elections,
under the new Constitution, was held on the 17th of
February, 1874. The campaign was waged between
the Republicans on the one side, and the Democrats
and Independent Reformers on the other. William
S. Stokley, the Republican candidate, was re-elected
mayor by 60,128 votes to 49,133 for A. K. McClure,
Independent; and C. H. T. Collis, Republican, was
elected city solicitor, and Thomas J. Smith, Republi-
can, receiver of taxes, by majorities somewhat larger.
It was also in this year that the " fall election" was
changed from October to November. The progress of
the reform sentiment among the Republican voters
was noticeable in the election of Furman Sheppard
and Kingston Goddard, both Democrats, as district
attorney and coroner, respectively, while the Repub-
lican State ticket had a majority in the city of 13,000
votes.
On the 20th of January, 1875, Frederick Heiden-
blut was hanged at Moyamensing prison for the
murder of Godfrey Kuhnle, a baker, on the 31st of
December, 1873. Kuhnle kept a baker-shop on Frank-
ford road, below Girard Avenue, and Heidenblut was
in his employment.
The establishment of The Times daily newspaper on
the 13th of March, 1875, under the editorial direction
of A. K. McClure, was an event which had more in-
fluence on the development of Philadelphia journal-
ism than anything else that had taken place in that
department of industry since J. W. Forney's establish-
ment of The Press, in 1857. The general tone of the
newspapers of the city up to 1875 had been quiet, cau-
tious, reticent, and conservative. The new journal,
however, was bold and incisive in its utterances, ag-
gressive in its policy, and enterprising in the collec-
tion of news. Before the year was out its influence
was second only to that of the Ledger, and it had be-
come widely known as an authority on Pennsylvania
politics. It may be said to have communicated a
new spirit and vigor to almost every other daily
newspaper, and to have enlarged very materially the
field of the local press.
There was a great religious revival in Philadelphia
during the winter of 1875-76, caused by the visit of
the famous evangelists, Messrs. Moody and Sankey.
The old freight depot at the southwest corner of
Thirteenth and Market Streets was converted into a
spacious auditorium for their use, and the first meet-
ing in it was held on the 21st of November, 1875,
when nearly twelve thousand persons were present,
and many were unable to get into the building.
Every day and night until the 28th of January, of
the following year, these meetings were continued,
and they had the effect of increasing the membership
of the Philadelphia churches by many thousands of
converts. It was estimated that this revival in the
old depot was attended by nearly one million people.
Soon after the final meeting Mr. John Wanamaker,
who had taken a lively interest in these religious ser-
vices, made preparations to change the building into
a grand bazaar or emporium, which has since become
one of the city's peculiar institutions.
The Market Street bridge was destroyed by fire on
the evening of Nov. 20, 1875. In less than thirty-
four days afterward, railway-cars and freight-trains
were running across a substantial new bridge. This
remarkable achievement was the work of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company. A few days after the
fire that company caused a light temporary bridge to
be thrown across the river for the accommodation of
its traffic, and it then made a proposition to Councils
to replace the old one, which proposition was accepted
by the passage of an ordinance to that effect on the
2d of December. The celerity with which this bridge
was finished, in twenty-one days, was not less praised
at the time than the return by the company to the city
of several thousand dollars of the money which Coun-
cils had appropriated, the cost being a little more
than fifty-six thousand dollars. The experience which
the municipality had recently acquired in the building
of bridges at South Street and Girard Avenue caused
this feat to be commented upon with general surprise
as well as with gratification.
The remains of Henry Wilson, Vice-President of
the United States, who died in Washington on the
22d of November, 1875, were brought to Philadelphia,
and were carried to Independence Hall by a torchlight
procession on the night of the 26th. There they lay
in state on the following day and were viewed by
thousands of citizens. On the same day the body
was escorted to the Germantown Junction of the
New York Railroad by the city authorities and a cor-
tege of military and civic organizations.
The centennial year, 1876, was a period of unpre-
cedented activity in Philadelphia. It gave an immense
impetus to the progress and development of many of
its industries, and widely extended its building oper-
ations. The whole population seemed to have its
interest unanimously enlisted in the great exhibition.
The year was ushered in with unbounded enthusiasm
by vast multitudes of people who filled the principal
streets and gathered near Independence Hall to hear
the State-House bell ring in the advent of the cen-
tennial year. The illuminations, bell-ringing, cannon-
firing, whistle-blowing, hurrahing, and many other
forms of spontaneous joy made this night a memor-
able one in the city's history. The winter proved to
be an unusually mild one. No snow fell until the
month of February. There was but little interrup-
tion in consequence to the progress of the work on
the Centennial Buildings at Lansdowne, and some
people of both a religious and patriotic turn of mind
thought they saw in this a Providential dispensation.
During the previous three years the proposed cen-
tennial celebration had been the subject of upper-
most interest in the minds of Philadelpbians. About
the year 1870 the idea of an industrial exhibition first
began to be actively discussed in the press. It was
842
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
on the 9th of March that Daniel J. Morrell, a rep-
resentative from Pennsylvania, introduced in Con-
gress a bill which provided for the holding of an
exhibition in this city, but which had been so trans-
formed by amendments that when it passed, almost a
year later, all the provisions for the practical execu-
tion of the law had been cut out of it. In the mean
time a special committee on the celebration of the
centennial anniversary had been appointed in City
Councils, with John L. Shoemaker as chairman, and
it was due much to his zealous and untiring labor
that no little of the popular interest in the under-
taking was aroused. The visits of delegations from
several of the State Legislatures also did much to
attract attention to the enterprise.
On the 4th of March, 1872, the Centennial Com-
mission, representing the various States and Terri-
tories, as provided by the act of Congress, convened
in this city at Independence Hall, and at a later ses-
sion it was agreed, on the 24th of May, that the ex-
hibition should be opened on the 19th of April, 1876,
and continued until the 19th of October of the same
year, a resolution which, in the winter of 1875, it was
found necessary to change, as to the dates, to May 10th
and November 10th. A committee of three hundred
was also organized in the same year to raise subscrip-
tions. On Washington's birthday, 1873, an enthusi-
astic meeting in behalf of the proposed exhibition was
held at the Academy of Music. Senator Simon Cam-
eron presided, and it was reported, amid tremendous
applause, that $1,784,320 had been subscribed. On the
27th of March the Pennsylvania Legislature provided
for an appropriation of one million dollars, and on
the 4th of July the Fairmount Park Commission for-
mally conveyed to the Centennial Commission and
to the Centennial Board of Finance, which, with John
Welsh at its head, comprised the men who really
pushed the project through to a successful consum-
mation, four hundred and fifty acres of land at
Lansdowne. Secretary Robeson, on behalf of the na-
tional government, read President Grant's proclama-
tion commending the exposition to the people of the
United States and of foreign nations.
John Welsh, the president of the Centennial Board
of Finance, and for over half a century one of Phila-
delphia's leading merchants, was born on Nov. 9, 1805.
His ancestry were early British and Swedish settlers
in America. Having received a preparatory educa-
tion, he entered college, but left before he graduated
and began his commercial career in a mercantile
house of high standing, in which he afterward be-
came a partner. Subsequently he entered into part-
nership with his two brothers, Samuel and William
Welsh, and for over half a century the house of S. &
W. Welsh has maintained a very high character.
While actively engaged in business, Mr. Welsh
has not been unmindful of his duties to the public,
and has served them in many important positions of
honor and trust. He has been a member of the Select
Council two years, president of the North Pennsyl-
vania Railroad one year, commissioner of the sinking
fund of the city twenty years, president of the Board
of Trade fifteen years, president of the Merchants'
Fund fifteen years, trustee of the University of Penn-
sylvania twenty years, and commissioner of Fair-
mount Park sixteen years. Besides holding these
distinguished positions, Mr. Welsh served with
marked ability as chairman of the executive com-
mittee having in charge the management of the Great
Central Sanitary Fair, held at Logan Square in 1864,
which realized over one million dollars for the relief
of the soldiers and sailors of the Union. As the suc-
cess of this great charity was largely due to the labors
of Mr. Welsh, at the close of the fair he was presented
with ten magnificently bound volumes of souvenirs of
the enterprise. In the first volume is inscribed the
following tribute: "These memorials of the Great
Central Fair, and of our country's indebtedness to
her heroic defenders, are presented to John Welsh by
his fellow-laborers and associates, in token of the zeal,
urbanity, and devotion with which he presided over it
from its inception to its successful termination."
When the Centennial Board of Finance was created
by act of Congress, passed June 1, 1872, Mr. Welsh
was chosen its president, and until the successful
close of the great exposition, in the fall of 1876, he
contributed largely to its success. As an evidence of
the directors' appreciation of his services, on July 4,
1876, they presented him with a magnificent gold
medal, and, as a further testimonial of his worth, his
fellow-citizens contributed a fund of fifty thousand
dollars to endow the " John Welsh Centennial Pro-
fessorship of History and English Literature" in the
Pennsylvania University. This pleasant event took
place at the University on Feb. 22, 1877, where
addresses were made by ex-Mayor Morton McMichael,
Governor John F. Hartranft, Provost Charles J. Still6,
and Mr. Welsh.
As a recognition of Mr. Welsh's distinguished
public services, on Oct. 30, 1877, President Hayes
appointed him envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary of the United States at the court
of St. James. Before his departure for England,
on Not. 28, 1877, Mr. Welsh was given a banquet
at the Aldine Hotel as a testimonial of the esteem of
his fellow-citizens and as an evidence of their appre-
ciation of the .high honor conferred upon a repre-
sentative Philadelphia merchant. A large number
of the most distinguished men of this city were
present, and complimentary speeches were made by
Hon. Morton McMichael, Joseph Patterson, Daniel
J. Morrell, Frederick Fraley, Professor William
Pepper, M.D., Hon. Craig Blddle, John W. Forney,
and Daniel Dougherty.
Mr. Welsh sailed from New York for Liverpool two
days later, amid great demonstrations of popular
esteem, having previously been presented with con-
gratulatory addresses from various public bodies in
--W hi, j,?h> "■ --■■',':
/n^M£^J
PHILADELPHIA APTEK THE CIVIL WAR.
843
Philadelphia and New York. Upon his arrival in
Liverpool, the American minister was welcomed with
numerous manifestations of cordiality, particularly
from the leading commercial bodies of that maritime
centre. Among many congratulatory addresses was
one by a prominent free-trade advocate, who said he
trusted the American envoy would aid in securing a
reduction in the duties levied by the United States
government upon certain commodities, with a view to
a wider commercial reciprocity between Great Britain
and America. The impromptu, but felicitous, reply
of the plenipotentiary, who spoke as a representative
of the protection spirit of the American government,
brought down the house, and the comments of the
Liverpool press on the following morning had a ten-
dency to materially increase the popularity of the
American minister. Mr. Welsh's diplomatic service
was characterized by the occurrence of no extraordi-
nary international emergencies, and few perplexing
problems in diplomacy. Such questions as did arise,
however, were met and arranged with complete satis-
faction to the American government. The courtesy
and urbanity with which Mr. Welsh discharged all
social duties incident to his occupancy of the mission
received the encomiums of all citizens of the United
States who visited England. A London correspond-
ent of an American journal, under date of Jan. 9,
1879, wrote the following concerning the home-life of
Mr. Welsh : " There is an easy grace and hospitality
ever pervading No. 37 Queen's Gate. The ' Star-Span-
gled Banner,' from the citizens of Brotherly Love,
always hangs simply beside the Union Jack on the
walls of Mr. Welsh, and is his only heraldic design,
to which I might add, —
" His coat of arms, a spotless life,
An honest heart his crest ;
Quartered therewith was innocence,
And thus his motto ran, —
' A conscience void of all offense,
Before both God and man.' "
On May 10, 1879, Minister Welsh acquainted Presi-
dent Hayes with his purpose to resign the English
mission and return home. In reply, President Hayes
addressed him a very complimentary private letter,
urging him to reconsider his determination. Mr.
Welsh had, however, definitely resolved to return to
America, which resolution he carried into effect in
August. The London Daily News, under date of July
28, 1879, thus refers to the approaching departure of
the American minister: "Our readers will learn with
regret that Mr. Welsh, the United States minister
here, has resigned his office, and will probably sail for
America on or about the 20th of August. Domestic
bereavements have, we believe, led to Mr. Welsh's
approaching retirement. Mr. Welsh will carry away
■with him the cordial regard and respect of all in
England with whom he has been brought into social
and official relations." An editorial in the London
Times, a few days later, was even stronger iu its terms.
Mr. Welsh has had, at various times, many honors
conferred upon him, besides those incidental to offi-
cial place. Among such have been the following :
The degree of LL.D., by the University of Pennsyl-
vania, and also by the Washington and Lee Uni-
versity of Virginia; Knight Commander of the order
of St. Olaf, by the king of Sweden and Norway; Com-
mander of the order of the Rising Sun, lay the emperor
of Japan ; Grand Officer of the order of Nizan Ifta-
kan. by the Bey of Tunis ; and Chevalier d'Honneur
ordre de Melusine, by her Royal Highness Marie
de Lusignan, Princess of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and
Armenia.
Mr. Welsh has contrived to find time, although
apparently overwhelmed with a multiplicity of busi-
ness and official cares, to devote considerable atten-
tion to literary pursuits, preparing and delivering
many monographs and addresses upon various eco-
nomic and other subjects.
On the 30th of April, 1829, he married Miss Re-
becca B. Miller, a daughter of Alexander J. Miller,
by whom he had two children, both daughters, of
whom one is now living. Mr. Welsh's first wife
having died in 1832, he married, on the 6th of Feb-
ruary, 1838, Mary Lowber, a daughter of Edward
Lowber, by whom he has had nine children, six sons
and three daughters, of whom seven are now living.
In August forty-three plans were submitted to the
Centennial Commission for the erection of buildings,
and in November a sub-committee reported in favor
of a pavilion as embodied in the plan of H. A. and
J. P. Sims. It was to be a building two thousand and
forty feet long, six hundred and eighty feet wide, and
covering forty-four acres, but this plan, together with
others that were then adopted, was subsequently
very much modified. At the same time there was
much opposition to the enterprise throughout the
country, and where there was no active opposition
there was either jealousy or apathy. It was found
that, outside of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, mate-
rial aid was exceedingly scanty, and the leading men
of Philadelphia soon came to the conclusion that they
must bear the burden on their own shoulders. On
the 16th of March, 1874, there was a meeting in Inde-
pendence Square, at which it was resolved that the
construction of the building should begin without
delay, and that the citizens were ready to pledge
themselves for another million dollars in addition to
what had already been secured. This earnest declara-
tion had much effect in stimulating the Board of
Finance and the Centennial Commission to renewed
exertions, and on the 1st of July it was formally an-
nounced that a contract for the erection of the main
buildings had been entered into with Richard J. Dob-
bins. On the 4th of July ground was broken at Lans-
downe, and the vast series of building operations
which, in a little more than a year, completely changed
the aspect of the whole region around George's Hill,
began with great vigor.
844
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
A year later the enthusiasm of the people broke
out in one of the most impressive Fourth of July cele-
brations for many years. Fully two hundred thou-
sand persons congregated in Fairmount Park. In
the morning Gen. Hawley, of the Centennial Com-
mission, reviewed a parade of the First Division of
the National Guard of the State at Belmont Mansion ;
then the site of the statue of Eeligious Liberty, to be
erected by the Jewish order of B'nai Berith, was dedi-
cated with addresses by the Eev. George Jacobs, Eev.
M. Jastrow, Lewis Ellinger, of New York, and Lewis
Abrahams, of Washington. The colossal figure of
Columbia, on Memorial Hall, was next unveiled by
Charles S. Keyser ; ground was broken for the
Catholic Total Abstinence fountain by Dr. Michael
O'Hara, addresses being made by John H. Campbell,
Joseph E. Chandler, Eev. James O'Reilly, Eev. Pat-
rick Byrne, and James W. O'Brien. This memorable
day closed with a review of the Schuylkill navy,
balloon ascensions, and a display of fire-works.
In order to show the leading men in the national
government what had been done, and to secure their
support of a bill making an appropriation to the
Board of Finance, President Grant, members of his
cabinet, and a large number of senators and representa-
tives in Congress were brought to Philadelphia to in-
MEMOMAL HALL.
Mayor Stokley. At the same time there was a con-
cert in Machinery Hall by public-school children
in the presence of twenty-five thousand spectators.
At noon the site of the monument to Christopher
Columbus was dedicated by Italians, with addresses
by Mr. Viti, the vice-consul, John A. Clark, Chev-
alier Secchi de Casali, and Father Isoleri. Simulta-
neous with the ceremony was the breaking of ground
for Agricultural Hall by Mayor Stokley, the exercises
including the reading of the Declaration of Independ-
ence by Amasa McCoy, of Chicago, and the delivery
of an oration by Frederick M. Watt, the United
States Commissioner of Agriculture. In the after-
noon the site of the Humboldt monument was dedi-
cated, with addresses by Dr. Godfrey Kneller and
spect the Centennial buildings on the 18th of Decem-
ber, and were entertained at a banquet in Horticultural
Hall. On the 11th of February, 1876, after no little
opposition, a bill passed Congress appropriating one
million five hundred thousand dollars.1 During the
i Ad appropriation was the meaning of the act, it was supposed; but
after the exhibition was closed claim was made on behalf of the United
States that the transaction was only a loan. The United States Court at
Philadelphia decided that it was a gift. But the Supreme Court of the
United States reversed the judgment, and the entire sum, one million
five hundred thousand dollars, was paid into the national treasury, so
that except what the Federal departments appropriated for their own
special displays, the exhibition did not cost the government a cent.
The whole burden was placed on the people, to the extent of a partial
individual loss upon all subscriptions to the fltock of the Centennial
Board of Finance.
PHILADELPHIA AFTEB THE CIVIL WAE.
845
winter goods from foreign
exhibitors arrived in large
quantities. Much atten-
tion was attracted to the
French ship " Labrador,"
which was four hundred
and twenty feet long and
five thousand tons in bur-
den, the largest vessel that
had ever come up the Dela-
ware, and the Turks, Japa-
nese, Spaniards, and other
foreign artificers who be-
gan to put in an appear-
ance were objects of great
curiosity at this time. On
the 1st "of April, by order
of Mayor Stokley, a special
census was taken by the
police, and it showed that
the city then contained
eight hundred and seven-
teen thousand four hun-
dred and forty-eight in-
habitants.
At this time about one
hundred and eighty build-
ings had been erected with-
in the Centennial inclo-
sure. Outside of it and all
through the northwestern
part of West Philadel-
phia many hotels, taverns,
stores, and dwellings had
been put up in anticipation
of the multitudes that were
to come. Within the Cen-
tennial inclosure, many of
the States of the Union,
foreign governments, and
enterprising individuals
had built edifices gener-
ally remarkable for their
uniqueness. The five great
buildings, however, were
the Main Exhibition
Building, Machinery Hall,
Memorial Hall, Agricultu-
ral Hall, and Horticultural
Hall, all erected under the
auspices of the Centennial
Commission and the Board
of Finance. The Main
Building was in the form
of a parallelogram, extend-
ing along Elm Avenue for
a distance of eighteen hun-
dred and seventy-six feet,
sixty-four feet in width.
£&- >m m If,
j
and was four hundred and I structure was one story in height, the interior altitude
The larger portion of the | being about seventy feet. The framework was of iron,
846
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
and rested upon foundations consisting of six hundred
and seventy-two stone piers. The main promenades
through the nave and central transept were thirty feet
in width, and the smaller ones were half this size.
Notwithstanding the vast extent of this splendid
building, there was a lightness and gracefulness about
its architecture and its embellishments which made
it exceedingly attractive to look upon, an effect that
was enhanced by the great quantity of glass which
entered into its construction. Machinery Hall, which
was located directly west of the Main Building, ex-
tended along Elm Avenue for a distance of fourteen
hundred and two feet, and was three hundred and
sixty feet wide, covering about fourteen acres. The
interior height to the top of the ventilators over the
main avenues was seventy feet, and over the side
aisles about forty feet. The promenades in the ave-
nues were fifteen feet in width, in the transept twenty-
five feet, and in the aisles ten feet. Its general effect
was in a modified degree not unlike that of the Main
Building. North of the latter building, and facing it,
was Memorial Hall, which was also known as the Art
Gallery. It was built of granite, glass, and iron, and
was designed to be an enduring memorial of the great
exhibition, — in length, three hundred and fifty feet;
in width, two hundred and ten feet ; and in height,
fifty-nine feet. It is surmounted by a dome, on which
at one time rested a figure of Columbia one hundred
and fifty feet above the ground. The cost of the
building was upwards of two millions of dollars, and
was borne by the State of Pennsylvania and the city
of Philadelphia.
Agricultural Hall, which was located in the north-
western portion of the grounds, was built of glass
and wood, and was five hundred and forty by eight
hundred and twenty feet, and seventy-five feet in
height. Horticultural Hall, which was also designed
to be a permanent memorial, is a handsome building
of the Moorish style of architecture in the twelfth
century. No structure on the grounds was perhaps
more ornate. It is three hundred and eighty-three
feet long, one hundred and ninety-three feet wide,
and seventy-two feet high, costing two hundred and
fifty-three thousand dollars. Approached by long
flights of blue marble steps, and surrounded by a
beautiful terrace, Horticultural Hall has ever since
been justly an object of pride to Philadelphians. All
these buildings in the course of the centennial season
were temporarily enlarged by the construction of an-
nexes. No more interesting picture of human ac-
tivity has ever been witnessed than that which was
furnished in these great halls and in the one hundred
and ninety buildings of all kinds that clustered
around them. To-day only Horticultural Hall and
Memorial Hall remain as evidences of those busy
scenes, and the knots of pleasure-seekers who roam-
over the grassy grounds in the summer-time seldom
stop to think of the great events that took place there
in the summer of 1876.
The opening of the exhibition, on the 10th of May,
was marked by simple but appropriate exercises. A
crowd which numbered perhaps one hundred and
fifty thousand people gathered within the open space
between Memorial Hall and the Main Building. The
great stand on Memorial Terrace was filled with dis-
tinguished men and women, prominent among whom
were the Emperor and Empress of Brazil. Four
thousand soldiers of the local militia escorted Presi-
dent Grant to the grounds. The ceremonies began
by the performance of Richard Wagner's " Grand
Centennial March" by Theodore Thomas' Orchestra.
Bishop Matthew Simpson delivered the prayer, and a
chorus of a thousand voices sang Whittier's " Cen-
tennial Hymn." John Welsh formally transferred
the buildings, on behalf of the Board of Finance, to
the Centennial Commission, and Sidney Lanier's
hymn, on the " Meditation of Columbia," was next
sung. But nothing on that day provoked more rap-
turous applause and admiration than the singing of
the solo stanza by Myron W. Whitney, whose noble
voice rolled over the crowd to its outer edges with
grand effect. After an address by General Hawley,
President Grant, in a short speech, declared the Ex-
hibition open. A long procession of eminent citizens
and visitors then passed over to the Main Building,
and thence to Machinery Hall, where the mammoth
Corliss engine was set in motion by President Grant.
Between the opening of the exhibition and the 4th
of July, and indeed all through the summer, barely
a day passed when there was not a parade, a national
or an international convention, or some other kind of
public ceremony ; but on the 4th of July the enthu-
siasm of the people was unbounded. On the 1st of
July there was a congress of authors in Independ-
ence Hall, and the centennial anniversary of Richard
Henry Lee's resolution of independence was celebrated
in the square by music, anthems, and addresses by
John William Wallace, William V. McKean, andLev-
erett Saltonstall, of Massachusetts. On Monday, the
3d, there was a parade by the Grand Army of the
Republic, and at night there was a torchlight parade
of representatives of trades and industries, social and
political clubs, and foreign visitors. It was remarked
by judicious observers that "only the vast popula-
tions of London and Paris, when moved by some
universal impulse and by the strongest feelings, could
have presented such a spectacle." Miles and miles of
the principal streets were densely packed with people.
It was estimated that on Chestnut and Broad Streets
there were three hundred thousand people. When the
State-House bell struck twelve, and the new century
of independence had begun, the whole town seemed
to have broken out in one mighty shout. People
walked the streets or slept on the steps all night long.
The great procession, too great to be managed well,
broke up in confusion in the early hours of the
morning. The jubilee was continued the next day,
chiefly in Independence Square, under a broiling sun.
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
847
There Thomas W. Ferry, president of the United
States Senate, presided over a crowd which filled every
portion of the square. An oration was delivered by
William M. Evarts, of New York, and an original
poem read by Bayard Taylor. A feature of the
ceremonies was the performance of a Brazilian hymn
in compliment to Dom Pedro, of Brazil. There was
an imposing military parade made up of volunteers
from all parts of the Union ; the Humboldt monu-
ment and the Catholic fountain were dedicated, and
after the display of fire-works in Fairmount Park,
the people of Philadelphia were thoroughly exhausted
with their two days of almost unparalleled rejoicing.
The summer was a remarkable one for the prolonged
spell of heat, which set in about the 17th of June and
continued until about the 20th of July, during which
period there was hardly a day when the
*~ thermometer fell below ninety degrees,
while on the 9th of July it reached the
altitude of one hundred and two degrees in the
shade. The effect of this terrific and long-contin-
ued heat was to prevent for some time the large at-
tendance that had been expected at the exhibition,
and it was not until the end of August that the
number of visitors became great. During the first three months
it had averaged only about 25,000 a day, but in September it
suddenly rose to 60,000, in October to 88,000, and in November to
99,000. The most notable day of the entire period was Pennsyl-
vania Day, September 28th, when 275,000 people surged through
the grounds. The total number of cash admissions during the
entire period of the exhibition was 8,004,274, from whom was de-
rived $3,813,693. The total admissions of all kinds were 9,910,966.
The close of the exhibition on the 10th of November, a gloomy day, when the city was excited over the
result of the Presidential electoral struggle in the South, was accomplished with comparative quiet in the
presence of about ten thousand people. Addresses were made by Gen. Hawley, John Welsh, A. T. Goshorn,
and Daniel J. Morrell ; and President Grant, declaring the exhibition closed, gave the signal by which all the
machinery in Machinery Hall was instantly made motionless.
The Presidential campaign of 1876 also contributed much to the general animation which prevailed in
Philadelphia during the centennial year. On two occasions, the 4th of July and the 26th of October
("Ohio Day" at the exhibition), K. B. Hayes, the Republican candidate for President, visited the city,
and on the 21st of September (New York Day) Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate, was honored with
HORTICULTURAL HALL.
848
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
a reception. The local campaign was chiefly note-
worthy in the fact that Judges Allison and Pierce,
both Republicans, were renominated by both the
Democratic and Republican parties, and in the ex-
ceedingly vigorous opposition which was urged against
W. E. Rowan, the Republican candidate for sheriff.
The Hayes electors received a majority of upwards of
15,000, and the rest of the Republican candidates,
except one, were successful by majorities which varied
but little from that figure. The exception was in the
case of the election of the Democratic candidate for
sheriff by more than 6000 majority. Three months
later there was a coalition between Democrats and
many Republican citizens of independent tendencies,
the chief object of which was to prevent the re-elec-
tion of Mr. Stokley as mayor and to install Joseph
L. Caven in that office. This effort was unsuccessful,
Mr. Stokley being returned as elected by a majority
of 2866, the highest majority on the rest of the Repub-
lican ticket being about 5000 more.
Mr. Stokley's claim to public support was largely
based on the vigor and efficiency with which he sup-
pressed disturbances and protected property. His
capacity in this respect was put to a severe test
in July, 1877, when the great labor revolt that
sprung from the troubles between railroad com-
panies and their employes all over the country
broke out in Philadelphia. There had been some
difficulty between the Reading Railroad Company
and their employes in April of this year, resulting
in a strike, but it had been adjusted without resort-
ing to violence. When, however, the strike of the
employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh
developed into a riotous outbreak, on the 19th of
July, the same elements of discontent in this city
were kindled into activity. Before any signs of
actual disorder had manifested themselves, the First
Division of the National Guard had promptly left
the city, in response to the call for troops to put
down the disturbances at Pittsburgh. They were com-
manded by Maj.-Gen. Brinton and Brig.-Gens. Loud
and Matthews. In Pittsburgh they came into conflict
with the strikers, and five of the troops were killed
and fifteen wounded. The following day, Sunday,
the 22d, was one of intense anxiety and wild rumors
in Philadelphia. The fear was general that a bloody
riot was impending. Mayor Stokley issued a procla-
mation declaring that he would put down disorder at
all hazards, and soon afterward made his headquar-
ters, night and day, at the Pennsylvania Railroad
Depot in West Philadelphia, which was strongly
guarded by policemen.
The thousands of idlers, tramps, and strikers who
infested chiefly the western and the northeastern sec-
tions of the city were not long in waiting for an op-
portunity to perpetrate mischief. On Monday, the
23d, an oil train was set on fire on the West Chester
siding near the almshouse. The long black column
of smoke which ascended from the flames was visible
in many portions of the city, and served to intensify
the public alarm. The cunning purpose of the in-
cendiaries was to draw the police from the depot of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, and, in their absence, to
make an assault upon it. It failed, however, to de-
ceive the authorities, and the police were sent for-
ward the same evening to clear the railroad track in
West Philadelphia of the mobs. This they accom-
plished by an unmerciful use of their clubs, but with-
out the loss of life. The sharpness and vigilance
with which this work was done, at what proved to be
the turning-point of the troubles, undoubtedly saved
the city from such terrible scenes as had been enacted
at Pittsburgh.
The next morning public confidence was restored
not alone by the dispersion of the mobs, but by the
announcement of the arrival of four hundred marines
from Baltimore, and a detachment of regular United
States troops under the command of Maj.-Gen. Han-
cock. Excitement ran high, however, during the
remainder of the week, and the news of the anarchy
that was spreading in the West raised the hopes of
the strikers on various days. An attempt to hold a
" workingman's meeting" at Kelly's' Hall, on Chris-
tian Street, was suppressed by the police on the 24th,
and a similar demonstration at Beach and Laurel
Streets was put down the next day. On the 26th
hostilities between a mob and the police broke out at
Fourth and Berks Streets, and one person was killed,
and many others were injured. During this time the
movement of freight on all the railroads entering the
city was almost entirely suspended, and passenger
travel was irregular and dangerous, but by the end
of July the apprehension of any further difficulty
had nearly disappeared. There was some temporary
agitation on the 5th of August, when the Philadel-
phia militia, who were on their way home from Pitts-
burgh, were ordered, at Harrisburg, to proceed to
Scranton, to quell disturbances in the coal regions.
The return of most of the troops, on the 5th of
August, was the occasion of much rejoicing. It was
not until the 20th of September that Col. Bonnaffon's
"veteran regiment," after a service of nearly two
months, came back to the city. The effect of this
military experience among the young men of the
local militia was greatly to stimulate their enthusiasm,
and the remarkable efficiency at the present time of
the National Guard in Philadelphia may be traced
back to the rough and practical initiation which its
members received in 1877 into the duties of a soldier's
life.
On the 15th of May, 1877, ex-President Grant
started upon his memorable trip around the world.
He sailed from this port in the steamship " Indiana."
His departure attracted much attention, and on the
day previous he had held a public reception in Inde-
pendence Hall. He was accompanied down the river
on the steamboat "Twilight" by a crowd of distin-
guished citizens, among whom were Gen. Sherman,
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAK.
849
Senator Zachariah Chandler, Senator Simon Cameron,
ex-Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson, and
many other Republican leaders of eminence. His
circuit around the world was accomplished two years
and seven months later, when he arrived in Philadel-
phia on the 16th of December, 1879, from the West
on the Pennsylvania Railroad at the Germantown
Junction, where a great procession was in waiting.
All business was suspended by general consent. The
decorations along the route of the parade were un-
precedented in number, variety, and costliness. THe
procession, under the marshalship of Col. A. Louden
Snowden, took up nearly half the day in passing a
given point, and it was supposed that hardly less than
forty thousand men were in line. For several days
and nights the ex-President had hardly any time that
he could call his own ; receptions, entertainments,
banquets, and other methods of welcome and hospi-
tality being kept up in rapid succession.
A crime in which citizens of Philadelphia were in-
volved, and which caused no little excitement in the
city, was the killing of John M. Armstrong, in Camden,
on the 24th of January, 1878, by Benjamin Hunter.
He had followed his victim across the river at night
and waylaid him on the streets. His purpose was to
obtain money on policies of insurance which he had
taken out on Armstrong's life. The peculiar motive
for the crime as well as the dastardly manner in which
it had been perpetrated, and the good character which
Hunter had previously borne as a citizen, filled the
public mind with interest in the fate of the murderer.
In July of the same year, after an able defense by
ex-Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson, Hunter
was found guilty. He was hanged in the Camden
court-house on the 10th of January, 1879, and those
who saw the execution — the abject cravenness of the
condemned man, his ghastly horror, and the frightful
bungling of the hangman — had occasion to remember
it as one of the most horrible inflictions of the death
penalty ever witnessed.
During the four years succeeding the close of the
Centennial Exhibition many efforts were made, by
what was known as the Permanent Exhibition Com-
pany, to maintain a collection of industrial exhibits
in the Main Building, but the enterprise languished.
The Philadelphia merchants and manufacturers, as a
rule, were indifferent to the undertaking, and the
splendid building could attract crowds only at con-
ventions, parades, receptions, and 4th of July cele-
brations. In 1881 all further efforts to revive popular
interest in it were abandoned, and in August of the
same year the great edifice was sold at auction for
ninety-seven thousand dollars, and in a few months
had entirely disappeared.
The electric light, which many private corpora-
tions and business firms had already brought into
buildings, but which Councils did not consider the
city to be in a financial position to introduce for
illuminating the streets, came into use through the
54
agency of the Brush Electric Light Company, which,
in 1882, offered to light Chestnut Street for one year
free of cost, and which, on December 3d, brilliantly
lit up that thoroughfare with forty-nine of its lamps.
A very important movement which subsequently
attracted widespread attention, and which has since
been a most influential factor in the public life of
Philadelphia, was the organization, in December,
1880, of the Committee of One Hundred. The ten-
dency of a majority of the citizens to support the
candidates of the Republican party had for years been
strongly manifest, but in 1877 the symptoms of an in-
dependent feeling among many of that class of citi-
zens, which had displayed themselves so markedly in
the election of a sheriff in 1876, began to develop
themselves with much vigor. This was particularly
the case in the autumn of 1877, when Mr. Robert E.
Pattison, a young lawyer, but little known, was elected
city controller on the Democratic ticket by a small ma-
jority. His administration of the affairs of that office,
which had hitherto been looked upon by most citizens
as of secondary importance, was instrumental during
the next three years in revealing not a few abuses that
had grown up in the various departments of the city
government. About the same time much attention was
also given to the election of Councilmen, and although
in 1878, 1879, and 1880, the majority of the voters
still indicated their adherence to the Republican
organization as a national party, there was a per-
ceptible relaxation of party discipline. A striking
instance of this disregard of such obligations was the
re-election of Mr. Pattison as controller in No-
vember, 1880, by a large majority, at a time when
the Republican Presidential ticket was overwhelm-
ingly successful in the city. At this juncture there
were two leading causes of much public discontent,
— the making of nominations by what was styled
" Bossism," the management of the city's Gas Trust,
and the collection of taxes, together with allegations
of many other evils of minor significance. The cry
began to be raised with great vigor that local affairs
should be reformed, and that local offices should be
administered regardless of partisanship.
On the 15th of November, 1880, a few days after
the election of President Garfield, E. Dunbar Lock-
wood, a leading manufacturer, called a meeting of
citizens, at which Amos R. Little presided. That
gentleman was directed to appoint a committee of one
hundred business men, in which task he was assisted
by Joel J. Baily, Joshua L. Baily, Rudolph Blanken-
burg, James A. Wright, and Francis B. Reeves. The
following citizens were selected : George N. Allen,
William Allen, J. T. Audenreid, William Arrott,
Charles B. Adamson, Joel J. Baily, Alexander Brown,
William B. Bement, William Brockie, Charles B.
Adamson, Joshua L. Baily, H. W. Bartol, Henry C.
Butcher, John T. Bailey, James Bonbright, Charles
H. Biles, Rudolph Blankenburg, George L. Buzby,
David Branson, Robert R. Corson, E. R. Cope, B. B.
850
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Comegys, John F. Craig, George V. Cresson, Matthew
H. Crawford, Charles J. Cohen, H. T. Coates, Lemuel
Coffin, Samuel Croft, Edward H. Coates, A. A. Cats-
nach, Thomas T. Child, James Dobson, A. J. Drexel,
William P. Ellison, George H. Earle, Oliver Evans,
George W. Farr, Clayton French, John Field, W. W.
Frazier, Jr., Philip C. Garrett, Jabez Gates, R. H.
Griffith, D. R. Garrison, James Grabson, John E.
Graeff, Henry C. Gibson, Thomas Hart, F. Oden
Horstmann, Thomas S. Harrison, Samuel Hecht,
R. E. Hastings, Theodore Justice, Nathaniel E.
Janney, William H. Jenks, Eben C. Jayne, Charles
O. Knight, Godfrey Keebler, Edward Longstreth,
Henry C. Lee, Henry Lewis, Amos R. Little, E.
D. Lockwood, J. Frederick Loeble, Louis C. Ma-
deira, Thomas G. Morton, James S. Mason, Theodore
Megargee, George D. McCressy, John McLaughliD,
Aquila Nebeker, Morris Newberger, H. M. Oliver,
T. Morris Perot, James Peters, Joseph Parrish, H. W.
Pitkin, Thomas Potter, Jr., Charles Roberts, Charles
H. Rogers, Francis B. Reeves, Charles Spencer, David
Scull, Jr., William Sellers, B. H. Shoemaker, F. R.
Shelton, James Speer, Seville Schofield, Samuel G.
Scott, J. C. Strawbridge, Alexander Simpson, Jr.,
Oswald Seidensticker, William Henry Trotter, A. C.
Thomas, John P. Verree, Charles Wheeler, George
Whiting, George Watson, John Wanamaker, Edward
S. Wheeler, John C. Watt, Ellis D. Williams, James
A. Wright, William Wood, Henry Winsor, Alexander
Whilldin, E. R. Wood, and Christopher Wetherill.
The entire committee was composed of Republican
citizens, but nearly all of them were business men,
and few had held office, or had participated in politi-
cal affairs. On the 3d of December, Philip C. Garrett,
a retired merchant, was elected chairman of the com-
mittee, and John Wanamaker's resolution for the ap-
pointment of committees on finance, public meetings,
and organizations, etc., was immediately passed.
On the 20th of December the committee named
John Hunter as its candidate for tax receiver, Joseph
L. Caven for city solicitor, and William S. Stokley
for mayor, and adopted a rigid declaration of princi-
ples on the subject of reform, which Mr. Stokley de-
clined to sign. The result was the substitution, a few
weeks later, of Samuel G. King, a Democratic select
councilman, in place of Mr. Stokley on the ticket,
and a partial coalition with the Democratic party.
The movements of the new committee aroused the
liveliest interest during the winter of 1880-81. Its
members labored day and night with great ardor.
They were derided as novices in politics, but all over
the country the extraordinary spectacle of these one
hundred merchants, manufacturers, and traders com-
bating trained politicians was commented on as an
event of uncommon significance. The regular Repub-
licans in the mean time had nominated Mr. Stokley
for mayor, George G. Pierie for receiver of taxes, and
William Nelson West for city solicitor, while the
Democrats, not a few of whom were at first averse to
an alliance with the committee, had named Mr. King
for mayor, Mr. Hunter for receiver of taxes, and
Edward J. Worrell for city solicitor. This last-named
office, however, was not contested for by the com-
mittee, who confined their efforts on the city ticket
on behalf of Messrs. King and Hunter.
The campaign was fought with intense bitterness
and with much slander. It was decided on the 15th
of February by the election of Mr. King as mayor,
with 5787 majority, and Mr. Hunter as tax receiver,
with 26,586 majority. W. N. West, the Republi-
can candidate who was not opposed by the reform
leaders, obtained upward of 20,000 majority. From
that time the power of the committee in municipal
affairs became pronounced, and it has since done
much to change the condition of public life in matters
which are of such a nature that they are too recent in
their occurrence to be narrated either with a perfect
understanding of their ultimate bearing on the city's
progress, or without the' risk of making invidious
references to persons.
It is for this reason that other events of temporary
interest which have happened since the year 1880, but
which really have no permanent significance, have not
been considered worthy of description as a matter of
historical record, or which, having such significance,
have been described in special articles on the subjects
to which they relate.
How much the people of Philadelphia cherish with
patriotic pride the memory of the founder of the city
was attested in the joyous demonstrations with which
they celebrated, in October, 1882, the two hundredth
anniversary of the settlement of the city. Never did
any community manifest so earnest a spirit of grati-
tude and reverence for the work of the men who had
brought it into being. The name of William Penn,
it was plain, had doubly impressed itself upon the
popular heart. Traduced and misrepresented as he
had been in his lifetime, and dying almost forgotten
by the commonwealth which he had founded, his
fame after a lapse of two centuries was found to be
securely fixed in the hearts of the teeming population
that had grown out of his feeble enterprise.
How the great event should be commemorated was
a frequent subject of discussion during the year 1882.
An industrial exhibition was favored by many, but it
was believed, on mature consideration, that the Cen-
tennial Exposition had been too recent to cause such
a method of celebration to be regarded with interest.
It was finally decided that several days should be
given up to parades, entertainments, meetings, and
other forms of popular demonstration. This purpose
was admirably carried out by an organization of the
leading citizens known as the Bi-Centennial Associa-
tion. Under the general management of Alexander
P. Colesberry, an executive committee of this associ-
ation assumed the responsibility of perfecting the de-
tails of the celebration. The 22d of October (Sunday)
was set aside as a day of special religious services in
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
851
the churches. On Monday the celebration was in-
augurated at Chester, the modern representatives of
William Penn and his party landing at the foot of
Penn Street, where they were received by "Lieut.
Markham and a group of Quakers, Swedes, and In-
dians, appropriately dressed in the costume of the
date of Penn's actual arrival." The characters rep-
resented were assumed by members of the Chester
Dramatic Association, among whom were Messrs.
John Hare, William P. Ladomus, William H.
Schurman, J. A. Martin, Arthur Martin, H. Green-
wood, and J. F. Wright. Governor Hoyt delivered
an address, and in the afternoon a parade took place,
the procession being made up of six divisions, com-
prising the Red Men, the firemen, the beneficial and
temperance societies, the military, the industries, and
the butchers. The chief marshal was Col. W. C.
Gray, and the line occupied an hour in passing a
given point. At midnight of Monday two hundred
strokes of the great bell in the State-House were
sounded, and the German singing societies, which
had previously made a torchlight parade through
the city, sang several patriotic airs to the accompani-
ment of the bands. Maj. Louis J. Ladner was chief
marshal, and had about a thousand men under his
command.
Tuesday, October 23d, was " landing day" in Phil-
adelphia. The decorations were even more general
than during the Centennial, and the city was excited
with enthusiasm, to which the presence of fully a
half-million of strangers contributed in a large
degree. Shortly after nine o'clock in the morning the
" Welcome" (a representation of the vessel in which
Penn crossed the ocean to America in 1682) came up
the Delaware. She was received with a salute from
the North Atlantic squadron of the United States
navy, comprising the ships "Tennessee" (flag-ship),
"Kearsarge," "Enterprise," "Atlantic," "Yantic,"
"Vandalia," and monitor " Montauk." A marine
procession was formed under the command of Com-
modore James M. Ferguson, and the line of vessels
escorting the " Welcome" steamed to the foot of
Dock Street, the point where it is said Penn had
landed two hundred years previously. William Penn
was represented by Mr. Vanhorn, a local costumer,
and his suite was composed of Thomas Holmes, sur-
veyor-general, represented by William Courtright ;
Capt. Markham, Deputy- Governor, represented by J.
C. Johnson ; Lasse Cock, the Swedish interpreter, rep-
resented by Thomas Walton ; the Indians represent-
ing the Delaware Iroquois and Mengue tribes, headed
by Tamanend, sachem of the Delawares, represented
by William J. Hanger, and sachem represented by
Charles J. Hanger. Succeeding these were the Ger-
mans, Swedes, and Friends, all in the correct costumes
of the seventeenth century. They were received by
the Bi-Centennial Committee, Edward C. Knight,
chairman, and among the members of which were
Col. M. Richards Muckle, T. Morris Perot, and
Charles M. Laing. Mr. Knight spoke a few words of
welcome, and the committee and the landing party
proceeded to South Broad Street, to take part in the
grand procession that was then forming, William
Penn occupying a seat in a barouche with Messrs.
Knight, Samuel J. Levick, and James Pollock.
Penn wore a low-crowned, broad-brimmed black hat,
as shown in West's picture of the treaty with the
Indians. Beneath his long brown coat he wore a
pearl-colored waistcoat, lace frills at the neck and
wrist, a blue sash passing around the body, drab
knee-breeches, drab stockings, and low buckled shoes.
Passing up Dock Street the line halted at the Blue
Anchor Inn, where a stand had been erected, and
Governor Hoyt and staff, Clayton McMichael, and .
other members of the Bi-Centennial Association,
greeted Penn. William Penn made an address, which
was replied to by Sachem Tamanend. There were
more than twenty thousand men in the procession,
which moved from Broad Street as soon as William
Penn and his party had been brought into line. The
chief marshal was Thomas M. Thompson, assisted by
a staff consisting of Col. Theodore E. Weidersheim,
Gen. Louis Wagner, Col. R. P. Dechert, S. Bonnaffon,
Jr., Silas W. Pettit, Charles K. Ide, Alexander Krumb-
haar, Benjamin K. Jamison, Walter G. Wilson, George
S. Graham, and J. G. Ditman. The aids to the chief
marshal were Col. W. W. Allen, Maj. Louis J. Lad-
ner, Maj. Wendell P. Bowman, Maj. S. S. Hartranft,
Maj. A. L. Wetherill, Charles Laing, Charles S. Key-
ser, Clarence A. Wray, Clarence A. Hart, Oscar M.
Wilson, N. E. Janney, Carl Edelheim, George W.
Kendrick, Jr., A. J. Ostheimer, Roberts Stevenson,
Lewis Wiener, Harry Blynn, John B. Parsons, Merle
Middleion, James F. Wray, Jr., Alexander Kinier,
M. 0. Raiguel, Charles McCarthy, Caleb B. Fox, Wil-
liam H. Castle, Robert C. Bache, W. B. Cunningham,
Henry K. Fox, Edwin J. Howlett, William S. Roose,
J. Martin Yardley, H. Harrison Groff, J. C. W. Frish-
muth, H. D. C. Brolaskey, James A. Norris, F. Perot
Ogden, Henry C. Roberts, William W. Littell, B.
Frank Breneman, Harvey K. Reikert, and William S.
Schofield, who marched at the heads of respective
commands of the different divisions of the parade.
The first division, under the marshalship of James
N. Kerns, was composed of a battalion of marines
and a battalion of sailors from the fleet, three more
companies of marines, another battalion of sailors,
Rear- Admiral Cooper and staff, the Fifth Regiment of
Artillery, United States army, and employes of the
mint, the custom-house, the post-office, the arsenal,
the internal revenue office, and the United States
marshal's office. A coining-press of the mint was in
operation on a wagon, and thousands of medals struck
from it were distributed to the crowds.
The second division, of which William B. Smith
was marshal, was emblematic of the governments of
the city and State. In it marched the police, the fire
department, and the members of Councils.
852
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The third division, of which N. E. Janney was
marshal, was distinguished as containing the Penn
party. Fifty Quakers were personated by members
of the Association of the Knights of the Golden
Eagle, and twelve men, from the same order, dressed
in petticoat pants, sleeveless jackets, and loose shirts,
stood for the crew of the "Welcome." The aborigines
were done justice to by eighty-five members of the
Improved Order of Eed Men, costumed in paint and
feathers. Penn's carriage was received with applause
as quickly as the " Founder" came in sight of the
crowd.
The fourth division, Marshal John Haverstick,
" Great Mishinewa," was altogether composed of the
tribes of the Red Men. There were nearly four thou-
sand of them marching in Indian costume, and having
on floats curious and picturesque tableaux of life in
the forests prior to the advent of the whites. The
fifth division embraced the German societies, Louis
J. Ladner marshal, and was largely made up of
tableaux on floats. The sixth division was one of
the greatest events of the day. It included within
its ranks the firemen of the past and the firemen of
the present. John D. Euoff was the marshal. The
Philadelphia Association of Volunteer Firemen car-
ried the old " Hope" engine, which is said to be the
oldest in America. They had, too, the first steam
fire-engine used in Philadelphia. They were scarcely
less an object of attraction than the Volunteer Fire-
men's Association of Baltimore, who marched in
black coats and high hats, with Charles T. Holloway
at their head. The line showed the evolution of the
fire-engine from the bucket and " pump-squirter" to
the apparatus of the present time. The seventh divi-
sion consisted of a thousand butchers, with Frank
Bower as their marshal ; the eighth division, the total
abstinence societies, with Patrick Lynch as marshal ;
the ninth division, English and Scotch societies,
with George W. Kendrick, Jr., as marshal ; the tenth
and eleventh divisions, various lodges and orders, with
Lewis Linde and James A. Douglass as marshals.
The procession occupied nearly four hours and a
half in passing a given point. The streets, especially
Chestnut and Broad, were one mass of color and dec-
oration. At night the Schuylkill navy passed in re-
view before Commodore Keys, and there was a mag-
nificent display of fireworks in Fairmount Park. An
unfortunate accident occurred during the pyrotechnic
display ; six people were killed, and many others were
wounded by the bursting of a bomb.
The next day, the 26th, was a general holiday,
without any popular official features beyond the dis-
play of the employes of the factories, mills, and shops.
In this parade the numbers were quite twenty-four
thousand, and the mechanical operations that were
shown made it remarkably interesting. Walter G.
Wilson was the marshal, and the fourteen divisions
were commanded by the following marshals : William
A. Delaney, John W. Eyan, Albert J. Phillips, C. E.
Crosier, Henry Pollock, G. V. Cresson, B. P. Obdyke,
Cyrus Bergner, H. W. Gray, W. T. Cunningham, J. H.
Cooper, W. W. Jones, N. Ferree Lightner, and James
H. Larzalere.
At night the mystic pageant (a lesson learned from
the New Orleans Mardi Gras and the Baltimore
Oriole) occupied the principal streets. B. P. Obdyke
captained the display, and had as his chief aid Maj.
J. Henry Behan, of New Orleans. The tableaux
which attracted the most attention were the represen-
tations of colonial scenes, such as Penn's landing, his
treaty with the Indians, the battle of Bushy Eun, the
battle at Chew's house, Germantown, the last delivery
of beaver-skins, and Washington at Valley Forge ; the
remainder of the spectacle being chiefly devoted to
Hindoo mythology.
On the third day, Friday, October 27th, the holiday
continued, and the streets were packed with specta-
tors. Three thousand Knights Templar, under the
command of Eight Eminent Sir B. Frank Brene-
man, marched from Pine Street to Columbia Avenue,
and in the evening participated in a reception at the
Academy of Music, where Sir George S. Graham and
Sir David Macliver delivered addresses. The exer-
cises of the Welsh choirs were concluded, and the
first prize of twelve hundred dollars was awarded to
the Plymouth and Nanticoke Choral Society.
The athletic contest in the Centennial grounds,
the unveiling of the bronze statue of Morton Mc-
Michael, near Girard Avenue bridge, bicycle races,
singing festivals, and other diversions contributed to
the holiday pleasure. By this time the crowds of
strangers filling the streets were so thick that shop-
keepers began to protest that the celebration, instead
of bringing them trade, had made trade almost im-
possible by making the streets almost impassable.
The three parades had also begun to exhaust the
enthusiastic feelings of the population of the city.
But the military display on the 27th v/as, nevertheless,
the occasion of drawing out a large proportion of the
people. Fifteen thousand men, under the command
of Maj. -Gen. John F. Hartranft, were in line. About
one-half were militiamen, the others members of the
Grand Army of the Eepublic. While this procession
was marching the clouds, which for the first time in
the week had begun to lower, poured down rain on
the soldiers. The children were not without their
part to play in all these varied ceremonies, and in the
evening fifteen hundred girls from the public schools
gave a vocal concert and listened to addresses by
George S. Graham and Edward C. Knight. This cele-
bration, which took place at the Academy of Music,
had been suggested by Governor Hoyt, who delivered
the principal address. It would not be proper to
omit from this narrative the fact that the Bi-Centen,-
nial Association was originated and its first meetings
were held in the office of The Keystone, the Masonic
newspaper, at No. 237 Dock Street. J. Thomas
Stavely, one of the proprietors of the paper, was the
852b
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
niture, $5,698,280 ; horses, $2,304,965 ; cattle, $139,250 ;
carriages to hire, $119,205 ; carriages (pleasure), $653,-
205. Total, $571,483,255, an increase of $17,708,026
over the assessment for 1882. Assessment for State
tax: Moneys at interest, $49,571,325; gold watches
subject to tax, $14,645 ; silver, $366 ; other watches,
$19.
On February 20th the municipal election was held
for members of Councils, school-directors, ward elec-
tion-ofEcers, and one magistrate. The result was as fol-
lows : Vote for magistrate, John T. Thompson (Rep.),
59,264; Ebenezer Cobb (Dem., recommended by the
Committee of One Hundred), 51,167. Total vote for
magistrate, 110,531. Of eleven Select Councilmen to
be chosen, five were elected who were indorsed by
the Citizens' Committee of One Hundred, four were
chosen who were opposed by that committee. Of
fifty Common Councilmen elected, thirty-four were
indorsed by the Committee of One Hundred, and
thirteen of their candidates defeated. Twenty-fourth
Ward vote for dividing the ward, 582; against divid-
ing, 3213.
On February 28th, the receivers of the Philadel-
phia and Reading Railroad and Coal and Iron Com-
panies made a formal transfer of the property to the
president and managers of these corporations. The
Shoe and Leather Trade Association was formed by
persons engaged in those lines of business.
The Court of Common Pleas, No. 3, on March 31st,
gave judgment in the case of the Commonwealth
against David H. Lane, recorder of Philadelphia,
and gave judgment of ouster. Lane had been re-
moved by Governor Pattison, but refused to give up
the office. On May 23d the long-pending question
as to the constitutional right of the Governor to
remove Lane was decided by the Supreme Court in
favor of the Governor. On May 29th the Legislature
passed an act abolishing the office.
On July 4th the monument to the Union soldiers
of the civil war, in Market Square, Germantown, was
dedicated with an imposing military and civic demon-
stration, and an oration by Gen. James A. Beaver.
At noon on July 19th, two hundred and forty of
the operators employed in Philadelphia by the
Western Union Telegraph Company left their work
and took part in the general strike for increased pay
throughout the United States. Such of them as the
company was willing to employ resumed work on
August' 17th, when the strike was officially declared
to have failed and terminated. In this city the strike
was under the direction of C. L. Laverty, president
of the Philadelphia Assembly of the Brotherhood of
Telegraphers.
The Board of Revision of Taxes sent to the city
controller on August 15th their annual statement of
real and personal property subject to taxation in
1884, as follows : Real estate, city rate, $516,243,700 ;
suburban rate, $38,360,415; farm rate, $19,123,990.
Total real estate value, $573,728,105. Personal prop-
erty, furniture, horses, cattle, and pleasure-carriages,
$9,884,578. Total, $583,612,683, being an increase of
$12,129,428 over the valuation for 1882. On Septem-
ber 1st the annual statement of the city controller
sent to Councils was as follows : estimated expenses
for 1883, founded on demands made by the depart-
ments, $17,735,484.88, being $2,937,448.62 in excess
of all appropriations, regular and extra, for the year
1883, and $4,880,234.87 beyond the limits authorized
by the adoption of an $1.85 tax-rate. The balance
in excess ($1,878,585.08) over the regular appropria-
tions and income was made up from appropriations
from the surplus of 1880-82 remaining on hand in
the treasury. Rate necessary to raise the money de-
manded, $2.75 for $100 of valuation ; rate recom-
mended by the controller (estimates to be cut down
accordingly), $1.80, which, on the figures of the ex-
penses of 1883, would raise all that was necessary, and
$301,044.22 in excess. Estimated receipts from all
sources for 1884, $12,903,938.47 ; valuation of taxable
property, real and personally assessors, $583,612,683;
funded debt, Aug. 1, 1883, $66,779,216.24; amount in
sinking-fund, $24,264,884.41 ; excess of funded debt
over sinking-fund securities, $42,514,331.83 ; decrease
during the year in funded debt of the city, $1,069,525.
The commissioners on September 11th reported
that the number of voters in Philadelphia County
registered in 1883 was two hundred and six thousand
six hundred and two, being two thousand two hun-
dred and eighty-one less than in the previous year}
The German Bi-Centennial, or commemoration of
the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of
Germantown by the thirteen families who followed
Daniel Pastorius from Crefeld, Germany, was opened
on Saturday night, October 6th, by a grand vocal
and instrumental concert at the Academy of Music.
Sixty musicians and about three hundred singers filled
the stage. Dr. F. H. Gross, president of the Execu-
tive Committee, delivered the opening address, and
was followed by Dr. G. Kellner, who reviewed the
events of the past two hundred years. Samuel W.
Pennypacker was the orator of the evening, and in an
eloquent and highly interesting address compared the
careers of Penn and Pastorius. The concert pro-
gramme embraced Von Weber's Jubilee Overture,
Mendelssohn's "Oh, Sons of Art," the Tannhauser
Overture, Rietz's " Morning Song," Raffael's " United
Germany," and other works of the famous German
composers. The chorus and orchestra were led by
Carl Sentz and S. Behrens.
On Saturday commemorative services were held in
the Jewish synagogues. On Sunday, October 7th,
the German churches of all denominations were
thronged, and the services had special reference to
the Bi-Centennial ; the congregations joining in the
chanting of the Te Deum and " Grosser Gott."
Monday, October 8th, was the third and culminating
day of the jubilee. Not since the rejoicing consequent
upon the victorious close of the war of 1870 echoed
PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
852o
across the Atlantic, had the Germans of Philadelphia
had such a festival as that of this memorable day. The
great procession formed on North Broad Street in the
morning, with Louis J. Ladner as chief marshal, and
the following staff: Robert P. Dechert, P. N. Guthrie,
George R. Snowden, Thomas E. Wiedersheim, P.
Lacey Goddard, G. H. North, William B. Smith, and
O. B. Bosbyshell. Among the invited guests were
Carl Schurz, Gen. Franz Sigel, and Gen. John F.
Hartranft. Tableaux on floats represented Germania,
William Penn surrounded by the farmers and arti-
sans, the house of one of the early German settlers,
the Freedom of the Press, the Emancipation of the
Slaves, and Prosperity. The second division was
made up of the military, Grand Army of the Re-
public, and the carriages in which rode Mayor King
and the members of Councils. The third division
numbered two thousand members of beneficial, chari-
table, and singing societies, the Canstatter and Con-
cordia Societies making particularly superb and
picturesque displays. The Bavarian Society had a
float on which was pictured the Germantown of 1683,
with a group representing Pastorius and his little
band of pioneers. The fourth division comprised the
Camden deputation of trades and societies. The fifth
and sixth divisions included the butchers, bakers,
cabinet-makers, and barbers. As they marched they
baked bread and hammered iron in their wagons, and
the butchers made sandwiches, which they distributed
among the crowd. The brewers made up the seventh
division, and lavished a wealth of taste as well as
money on their display, a steady stream of free beer
running from the many casks they carried in the line.
The eighth and last division was a trades display, in
which a large number of manufacturing establish-
ments were represented. There were ten thousand
men in the procession, and it took up two hours and
a half in passing a given point. Much tasteful and
elaborate decoration was to be seen in the principal
streets. The celebration terminated on Tuesday,
October 9th, with a picnic in the Schuetzen Park,
when addresses were delivered by Carl Schurz, H. A.
Rollerman, Daniel Ermentrout, Judge Hageman, ex-
Governor Hartranft, Charles Wistar, and Col. M.
Richards Muckle. The Philadelphia singers, F. W.
Kuenzell director, gave a concert, and the Philadel-
phia Turn Circuit exhibited gymnastics.
On October 24th, the Bi-Centennial Association
formally presented to the Park Commissioners the
Letitia House, the cottage of William Penn, which
was built in 1682, and recently removed from Letitia
Court to Fairmount Park. The first State-House of
the province, Letitia House is also the oldest mansion
in the city.
November 6th brought around the general election
of 1883. In the city the Republican ticket was suc-
cessful by the following vote: Auditor-General : J. B.
Niles (Rep.), 75,569 ; R. Taggart (Dem.), 54,902; J.
R. Fordham (Pro.), 248; T. P. Rynder (Gbk.), 89.
State Treasurer: William Livsey (Rep.), 76,777; J.
Powell (Dem.), 54,783; E.Howard (Pro.), 252; A. T.
Marsh (Gbk.), 1056. District Attorney : George S.
Graham (Rep. and Dem.), 126,225; W. H. Peace
(Pro.), 547. Clerk of Quarter Sessions: William E.
Littleton (Rep.), 75,466; George R. Snowden (Dem.),
55,061 ; E. M. Bayne (Pro.), 216. Coroner : Thomas
J. Powers (Rep.), 73,843 ; William H. Hooper (Dem.),
55,466; S. Daggy (Pro.), 215. City Controller: E.
H. Jeffries (Rep.), 65,770; S. D. Page (Dem. and
Committee of One Hundred), 64,658; H. De Walt
(Pro.), 178.
The Protestant Christians of Philadelphia entered
with zeal and vigor into the celebration on Saturday,
Nov. 10, 1883, of the four hundredth anniversary of
the birth of Martin Luther. In the afternoon the
Quarter-Centennial Jubilee took place at the Acad-
emy of Music. The house was crowded, and on the
stage five hundred members of the English, German,
and Swedish Lutheran Churches composed a chorus
of mixed voices. The German Orchestra led the sing-
ing of appropriate hymns, and Rev. Dr. G. F. Krotel,
pastor of the Holy Trinity Church of New York City,
delivered an address upon thedife and work of Luther.
The music and singing was under the direction of
Charles M. Schmitz. Among the prominent per-
sons present on the occasion were Mayor King and
Judges Thayer, Pierce, Arnold, Biddle, and Hanna.
On Sunday, the 11th, reference was made in almost
every church of the city to Martin Luther, and the
Lutheran Churches in particular made great prepa-
rations for the celebration of their leader's nativity.
At the vesper services of St. Alphonsus Catholic
Church, the Rev. Hubert Schick sharply criticised
the reformer in a sermon upon " The Life and Teach-
ings of Martin Luther, as gathered from his own
writings." Eight lodges of the American Protestant
Association proceeded, under the marshalship of Al-
exander Crozer, to Broad Street Methodist Episcopal
Church, when Rev. W. Downey delivered a sermon
entitled " Luther, the Hero of Truth and Hated of
Rome."
One of the most exciting political contests that has
ever agitated Philadelphia culminated in the muni-
cipal election" on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 1884. Mayor
King, who had been elected by the Democrats and
Reformers in 1881, was renominated, and was indorsed
by the Committee of One Hundred as the reform candi-
date. The Republicans nominated William B. Smith
for mayor, and George G. Pierie for receiver of taxes,
but subsequently withdrew the latter and indorsed
John Hunter, who was thus on all the regular tickets.
A large number of Republicans, however, voted for
Pierie. The following shows the official count of the
votes: Mayor: Smith (R.), 79,552; King (D.), 70,-
440; E. G. Palen (Prohibition), 258. Receiver of
taxes : Hunter (R. and D.), 110,226 ; Daniel L. Leeds
(Prohibition), 6049; scattering: Pierie (R.), 26,287;
William McMullen (D.), 1586. City solicitor:
852d
HISTOEY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Charles F. Warwick (R.), 82,247; Furman Sheppard
(D.), 68,436; J. M. Washburn (Prohibition), 185.
Although party feeling ran very high, the election
passed off in comparative quiet,' and there were no
serious breaches of the peace.
There is no city, however insignificant, whose his-
tory is not instructive ; there is no history, however
feebly written, if it be a faithful record of facts, but
is fraught with profitable lessons. And whatever may
be the defects of the present work — and there must
be some — the mere events that it recites will serve to
show what Philadelphia once was, who originally
occupied it, and by what means and by whom it has
become the second metropolis upon the American
continent. The struggles of empires and the convul-
sions of nations, while they have much of sublimity,
have also much of uncertainty and indistinctness.
They are too large for the grasp of ordinary minds
or too indefinite to act on common sensibilities,
while the interests awakened by the details of local
history are such as, from the facility of comprehension
and the identity of the objects presented, must neces-
sarily come home at once to the feelings of every
reader. They place us by the firesides or walk with
us among the graves of our fathers, attaching a living
story to the thousand inanimate objects with which
they were surrounded. Change of location does not
always wean the affection away from the old fireside.
By the aid of memory we are privileged to call back
the early by-gone scenes and appreciate the lessons
we received that had so important a bearing on our
subsequent life.
The great object of local history is to furnish the
first elements of general history, — to record facts rather
than deductions from facts. Many facts, minute in
themselves, and regarded by many as trivial and un-
important, are really of great service. The details,
■which it is the appropriate province of the local his-
torian to spread before the public, are not so much
history itself as materials for history. It is the work
of the general historian, who has before him all the
particulars of the great natural and political land-
scape, to exhibit the connection of the several parts,
and to show how they depend one upon another in
bringing about the great changes which have been
taking place and affecting the condition of society.
To trace the history of our ancestors and transmit a
record of their deeds to posterity is a duty we owe to
the past and to the future. The work, however, must
be done from unselfish motives. It is useless to disguise
the fact that the labor of collecting the materials and
preparing the same for publication, brief and imper-
fect as they may be, is one of magnitude. No one,
until he has tried the experiment, can fully appreciate
the labor and patience which are requisite in connect-
ing isolated facts, and the perplexity which is caused
in reconciling apparent contradictions and removing
doubts. Such labor is never remunerative ; buf the
consciousness of having redeemed from undeserved
neglect the history of our homes and of our fore-
fathers, and rescuing from oblivion many facts which
would otherwise have been lost, will be a source of
gratification, if no other reward is received.
No people in the world can have so great an interest
in the history of their city as those of Philadelphia,
for there are none who enjoy an equally great share
in their country's historical acts and who have been
blessed with more prosperity. The original town-plat
was a parallelogram two miles long, from the Delaware
to the Schuylkill, and one mile wide, containing nine
streets east and west and twenty-one north and south.
Philadelphia outgrew all the original boundaries
many years ago, and now covers a greater area than
any other city in America. It has a full million of
population, over 170,000 buildings, and 156,000 dwell-
ings, of which 110,000 are owned by occupants, and it
is properly denominated " the city of homes." It has
1607 miles of streets, roads, and alleys, 507 miles of
which are paved, and these avenues are drained by
214 miles of sewers ; over 772 miles of water mains
and 742 miles of gas mains furnish water and light.
The city has an area of 129 square miles, guarded by
a police force of 1427 men, and is protected from fire
by 29 steam fire-engines. The street railways cover
about 352 miles, and carry about 104,648,000 passen-
gers annually. The city is educated by over 450 public
schools, which are attended by 90,000 pupils. Such
a record surely constitutes a truly "great city" in
size and in population, while the manufacturing and
commercial wealth of the city has reached gigantic
proportions.
END OF VOLUME I.
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