HORT HISTORY
OF
HILADELPHIA
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SHORT HISTORY *
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DILADELPHIA
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Theo.W.Koch.
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LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLURIBUS UNUM
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SQUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAMU
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"FULL forty years have now their changes made
Since the foundation of this town was laid;
When Jove and Saturn were in Leo joined,
They saw the survey of the place designed:
Swift were these planets, and the world will own
Swift was the progress of the rising town.
The Lion is an active regal sign;
And Sol beheld the two superiors join.
A city built with such propitious rays
Will stand to see old walls and happy days.
But kingdoms, cities, men in every state,
Are subject to vicissitudes of fate.
An envious cloud may shade the smiling morn,
Though fates ordain the beaming sun's return."
The Horoscope of Philadelphia,
Drawn by JACOB TAYLOR in 1723.

Theo W Koch
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA.
A SHORT HISTORY
OF THE
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
BY
SUSAN COOLIDGE.
BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1887.
Copyright, 1887,
BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,
UNIVERSITY PRESS.
DEDICATION.
This little sketch of the birth and growth of Philadel-
phia, the materials for which were originally collected for
the use of the Tenth United States Census, is cordially
dedicated to those many sons and daughters of Philadel-
phia who prize her welfare as their own, and whose best
energies are loyally and freely exerted to hold and confirm
her in her high place among the sisterhood of cities.
228741
!
+3
:
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. EARLY SETTLEMENTS
II. THE QUAKER COLONY
•
III. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA
IV. THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN (1701-1766)
V. OLD PHILADELPHIA (1701-1766 Continued)
•
PAGE
9
15
26
44
70
VI. THE GATHERING OF THE STORM (1766-1776) 100
VII. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1776-1783) ·
•
VIII. PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL CITY (1783-
129
1800)
IX. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (1800-1876)
X. THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION
XI. PHILADELPHIA IN 1880
160
188
210
227
AGGREGATE POPULATION
OF
THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,
ACCORDING TO SEX AND NATIVITY.
1800.
41,320
1880.
847,170
1810 .
Males
405,975
1820
63,802
Females.
441,195
1830
80,462
Native
642,835
1840
93,665
Foreign.
204,335
1850
•
121,376
1860.
•
565,529
White
815,362
1870 .
674,022
Colored.
31,808
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
T is difficult to realize, when studying any one
IT
of our large American towns, how short a time
it is since the ground on which it stands was an un-
broken wilderness, upon which eye of white man
had never rested. This is particularly the case with
those immense capitals of the West whose birth and
growth are comprised within the past half-century;
but the thought is sufficiently striking with regard to
what we term our "old" settlements. Two centuries
and a half — a mere drop in the sum of the ancient
civilizations represents all, and more than all, of
what we in America count as antiquity. Take Phila-
delphia, for instance, second in population and
importance among the cities of the United States,
and rivalling in area every capital of Europe, unless
it be the city of London: its foundation goes back
to the earliest days of our colonies; yet Rome was
ΙΟ
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
already in the decadence of age, Alexandria, Jerusa-
lem, Athens, had numbered each over two thou-
sand years, when, in 1609, the little yacht of Heinrich
Hudson, Dutch navigator, crossed the sea in search.
of a short cut to China, which that worthy com-
mander had "contracted" to discover for the use of
the Dutch East India Company.
1609.
The name of the yacht was the "Crescent,"
familiarly known to its sailors as the "Half-Moon."
Failing to find the wished-for passage, and
his crew growing rebellious, Hudson aban-
doned his quest, and pushing southward, coasted
along the New England shores. To Cape Cod,
which he took to be an original discovery of his
own, he gave the name of New Holland. Still
keeping a southwesterly course, he came, on the
twenty-eighth day of August, to a point south of the
capes of the Chesapeake, and sighted a large bay,
into which a river emptied itself. This river, now
known as the Potomac, he did not examine, though
he explored the bay for a short distance. Retra-
cing his course and keeping to the southeast, he
discovered another bay, into which emptied another
large river. This was the Delaware, and the keel
of the " Half-Moon" was the first touch of civili-
zation laid upon its waters.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
I I
Passing into the bay above Cape Henlopen,
Hudson found the land "to trend away toward
the northwest with a great bay and rivers." The
bay being shoal, and in places dangerous with
sandbanks, he again stood out to sea, and a fort-
night later discovered and ascended the noble
stream which still bears his name. In the autumn
the "Half-Moon" returned to Holland with charts,
and reports of its discoveries. In the following
year Hudson again visited the New World, to re-
new his search for the China passage. His crew
mutinied in the icy northern seas, and putting
him, his son, and seven others into a small boat,
cast them adrift. Their fate was never known.
"Alone among the great navigators of that day, he
lies buried in America, the glorious waste of waters.
which bears his name being his tomb and his
monument."
com-
1623.
Eleven years later, the Dutch Government, in-
cited by Hudson's report, incorporated a
pany for trading with the new country. Tak-
ing possession of the district lying between
New York and a point south of the Delaware, they
gave to it the name of "New Netherland."
river itself they called the " Züydt," or South, River,
in opposition to the Hudson, or North, River. In
The
12
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1623 or thereabouts they built Fort Nassau, near
Gloucester, on the Jersey shore, opposite and about
three miles distant from the present city of Phila-
delphia.
In 1637 a colony of Swedes, sent out under the
auspices of the leading citizens of Stockholm,
landed on the inland curve of Cape Henlopen, at a
point which, after their protracted voyage, seemed
to them so charming that they gave it the name
of "Paradise Point." Exactly how long they re-
mained there is not known, but by May of
1637.
the following year they had pushed up the
river as far as the site of the present town of New-
castle, and four miles above it, on Manquas Creek,
had built a fort, which they named "Christiana,"
after the young Queen of Sweden,
tained to this day. During the next eight years, a
number of other forts were erected by them on either
side the river, to which they gave the name of “New
Swederlandstream," the country in general being
called by them "New Sweden." Previously, in the
year following the visit of Heinrich Hudson, Lord
De La Warr, rediscovering the often-christened bay
and river, had called both by his own name, which
they bear at the present time.
a name re-
It is not to be supposed that the Dutch allowed
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
13
this co-occupation to pass without protest, though
the Dutch Governor lacked the necessary strength
to dispute it. Gustavus Adolphus was just dead,
his fame survived, and Sweden still ranked among
the warlike powers of Europe. So though colli-
sions, sometimes accompanied with bloodshed, not
infrequently occurred between the rival colonies,
no effectual stand was made against the Swedes.
In their dealings with the Indians the Swedes
have the credit of inaugurating that peaceful pol-
icy which afterward bore such good fruit under
William Penn. They recognized a title from the
aboriginal lords of the soil as being superior to
and extinguishing all other titles. An amicable
settlement with the savages was consequently of
the first importance with them, and they spared no
pains to secure it. The Dutch, perceiving the
material advantages of this astute and Christian
theory, made haste to follow their example, — with
this result, that whereas during their sole occupa-
tion of the district, ill-treatment of the Indians had
been commonly practised, and had led to more than
one massacre; after the arrival of the Swedes, and
during their joint sovereignty of the river, not a
single drop of Indian blood was shed along the
Delaware by either party.
14
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The jarring interests of the rival emigrants were
brought to an end in 1674 by a treaty between Eng-
land and Holland, in which all settlements.
1674.
in America were transferred to the former
power. The Swedish colonists pursued their peace-
ful course under the new government, and their
descendants are still to be found in the neighbor-
hoods of their original settlement.
CHAPTER II
THE QUAKER COLONY.
FOR more than a quarter of a century a new and
powerful influence had been working in Eng-
land to build up a sect which above all others was to
be instrumental in the civilization of the disturbed
and thinly-peopled waste over which the Dutch and
Swedish colonies were disputing. "The rise of
the people called Quakers," says Bancroft, "is one
of the memorable events in the history of man.
It marks the moment when intellectual freedom
was claimed unconditionally by the people as an
inalienable birthright." Born amid the stormy
throes of the Protectorate, feared and distrusted
alike by the Presbyterians and by the Church,
ground and tortured between the upper and the
lower millstones of contending factions, fined by
both, imprisoned by both, whipped and branded by
both, the Quakers increased and multiplied by
that strange power of growth which seems inherent
16
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1666.
in all persecuted peoples. The spirit of George Fox,
their founder, imparted its principle of indomitable
meekness to thousands of human souls, and
among the rest to the soul of William Penn,
destined to be the founder and lawgiver of the
great State of Pennsylvania.
William Penn was descended from a long line of
sailor ancestors. His father, an admiral in the
British navy, had held various important naval
commands, and in recognition of his services had
been honored by knighthood. A member of Par-
liament, and possessed of a considerable fortune, the
path of worldly advancement seemed open and easy
for the feet of his son, who had received a libe-
ral education at Oxford, continued in the schools of
the Continent. Beautiful in person, engaging in
manner, accomplished in manly exercises and the
use of the sword, fortune and preferment seemed
to wait the acceptance of William Penn. But at
the very outset of his career the Divine voice fell
"God in
upon his ears as upon those of St. Paul.
his everlasting kindness guided my feet in the
flower of my youth, when about twenty-two," he
says, and "not disobedient to the heavenly vision,"
we find him, during the autumn of that same year,
in jail for the crime of following his conscience.

THE QUAKER COLONY.
17
His
Many trials awaited the youthful convert.
father cast him off. He underwent a considerable
imprisonment in the Tower for "urging the cause
of freedom with importunity." He was fined for
contempt of court. At another time, when the jury
hesitated to convict, they were promptly remanded
to their room by the judge, with orders to stay there
till they could render a better verdict. In time
these afflictions abated. The influence of his family
saved him from the heavier penalties which fell
upon many of his co-religionists. His father on
his death-bed reinstated him as his heir. "Son
66
William," said the dying man, if you and your
friends keep to your plain way of preaching and
living, you will make an end of the priests."
1677.
Some years later we find him exerting an influ-
ence at Court which almost amounted to popularity.
It is evident that, with all his boldness of
opinion and speech, Penn possessed a tact and
address which gave him the advantage over most of
his sect in dealings with worldly people. This was
in great part, no doubt, the result of the wide educa-
tion and varied experience which preceded his con-
version. It is not given to every enthusiast to
combine with the energies of an ardent faith that
knowledge of affairs and of the minds and condi-
2

18
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
tions of men opposed to him in belief, which shall
enable him to meet them successfully on their own
ground, while still maintaining the integrity of his
own. Penn possessed this happy combination of
qualities, and he used it for the advantage of his
people and of mankind.
1680.
In 1680 his influence at Court and with moneyed
men enabled him to purchase a large tract of land.
in east New Jersey, on which to settle a col-
ony of Quakers, a previous colony having been
sent out three years before to west New Jersey.
Meanwhile a larger project filled his mind. His
father had bequeathed to him a claim on the Crown
for £16,000. Colonial property was then held in
light esteem, and with the help of some powerful
friends, Penn was enabled so to press his claim as
to secure the charter for that valuable grant which
afterward became the State of Pennsylvania, and
which included three degrees of latitude by five of
longitude, west from the Delaware.
"This day," writes Penn Jan. 5, 1681, “my coun-
try was confirmed to me by the name of Penn-
sylvania, a name the King [Charles II.] would
give it in honour of my father. I chose New Wales,
being as this a pretty hilly country. I proposed
(when the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have
THE QUAKER COLONY.
19
it called New Wales) Sylvania, and they added
Penn to it, and though I much opposed it, and
went to the King to have it struck out and
altered, he said 't was past, and he would take it
upon him ..
I feared lest it should be looked
upon as a vanity in me, and not as a respect of the
King, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often
mentions with praise."
In return for this grant of twenty-six millions of
acres of the best land in the universe, William Penn,
it was agreed, was to deliver annually at Windsor
Castle two beaver-skins, pay into the King's treas-
ury one fifth of the gold and silver which the
province might yield, and govern the province in
conformity with the laws of England and as
became a liege of England's King. He was to
appoint judges and magistrates, could pardon all
crimes except murder and treason, and what-
soever things he could lawfully do himself, he
could appoint a deputy to do, he and his heirs
forever." 1
The original grant was fantastically limited by a
circle drawn twelve miles distant from Newcastle,
northward and westward, to the beginning of the
fortieth degree of latitude. This was done to
1 Parton's "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,” vol. i. p. 368.
20
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
accommodate the Duke of York, who wished to
retain the three lower counties as an appanage to
the State of New York. A few months later he
was persuaded to renounce this claim, and the
charter of Penn was extended to include the western
and southern shores of the Delaware Bay and River
from the forty-third degree of latitude to the Atlan-
tic. It was not for the love of the land, but from
the love of the water that I desired it," says the
mild Penn; but it is easy to see how essential to the
fortunes of the infant colony was the possession of
this outlet to the sea.
66
The charter confirmed, a brief account of the
country was published, and lands offered for sale on
the easy terms of forty shillings a hundred acres,
and one shilling's rent a year in perpetuity. Nu-
merous adventurers, many of them men of wealth
and respectability, offered. Their articles of agree-
ment included a provision as to "just and friendly
conduct toward the natives." Fair-dealing and
humanity were from the beginning integral parts of
Penn's system of government.
In April, 1681, he sent forward "young Mr.
Markham," his relative, with a small party of col-
onists to take possession of the grant, and prepare
for his own coming during the following year.
THE QUAKER COLONY.
21
Penn's charter covered most of the lands occupied
by the Dutch and Swedish settlements, and Mark-
ham bore with him the following letter of reas-
surance to such colonists as were already living on
the soil.
1681.
MY FRIENDS, — I wish you all happiness here and here-
after. These are to lett you know that it hath pleased God
in his Providence to cast you within my Lott and
Care. It is a business, that though I never under-
took before, yet God hath given me an understanding of
my duty, and an honest mind to doe it uprightly. I hope
you will not be troubled at your chainge and the King's
choice, for you are now fixt, at the mercy of no Gover-
nour that comes to make his fortunes great. You shall be
governed by laws of your own makeing, and live a free,
and if you will, a sober and industreous People. I shall
not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God
hath furnisht me with a better resolution, and hath given
me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and
free men can reasonably desire for the security and im-
provement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply
with. I beseech God to direct you in the way of right-
eousness, and therein prosper you and your children after
you. I am your true Friend,
LONDON, 8th of the month called April, 1681.
WM. PENN.
"Such were the pledges of the Quaker sovereign
on assuming his government; it is the duty of
22
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
history to state that during his long reign those
pledges were fulfilled. He never refused the free
men of Pennsylvania a reasonable desire." 1
The fitting out of the emigrant ships bore heavily
on Penn's fortune and credit, and he was forced to
borrow considerable sums to meet the expense.
It
is the more to his praise that when, the August.
following Markham's departure, a trading company
offered six thousand pounds and an annual revenue,
for the monopoly of the Indian traffic within his
jurisdiction, he should have refused it. In his
straitened circumstances the temptation must have
been a powerful one; but the cherished principle
of his sect, that of equal rights to all men, forbade
monopolies. "I will not abuse the love of God,"
he writes, "nor act unworthy of his Providence,
by defiling what came to me clean. There may
be room there, though not here, for the Holy
Experiment."
Another temptation must have assailed William
Penn at this time and afterward, the temptation
of almost absolute power. How successfully he
combated it may be judged by his own noble words.
I purpose," he writes, "for the matters [or sake] of
liberty I purpose that which is extraordinary,
1 Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 364.
to
THE QUAKER COLONY.
23
leave myself and successors no power of doing mis-
chief; that the will of one man may not hinder the
good of a whole country. It is the great end of
government to secure the people from the abuse of
power; for liberty without obedience is confusion,
and obedience without liberty is slavery." These
few words contain a digest of perfect government.
"A plantation reared on such a seed-plot," says
Chalmers, "could not fail to grow with rapidity,
to advance to maturity, to attract notice of the
world."
Three ships, including that which carried Mark-
ham, sailed for Pennsylvania in 1681. In August,
1682, Penn himself embarked. His ship, the
46
1682.
Welcome," made what in those days was
considered a swift passage, nine weeks from
shore to shore; but small-pox broke out on the
vessel, and thirty of the company died. On the
24th of October, 1682, Penn landed at Newcastle in
Delaware. It was a happy circumstance that, out
of twenty-three ships which made up the emigrant
fleet, not one was lost.
News of the arrival of the "Quaker King" spread
rapidly, and a large concourse of Swedes, Dutch,
English, and Indians assembled to greet him.
There was no disposition to resist his authority.
24
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The Swedes in particular showed the utmost alac-
rity in helping to unload the vessels and provide
shelter for the new-comers. One of their promi-
nent men was deputed to wait upon Penn and in-
form him of their readiness to "love, serve, and
obey him," with the additional assurance that they
counted his coming "the best day they had ever
seen."
1682.
Under these peaceful auspices William Penn
took possession of his new government. The formal
cession of territory was made the day follow-
ing his landing by the exhibition of the royal
patent and seal on his own part, and on that of the
agent of the Duke of York by the solemn and
symbolic delivery of portions of earth and water
from the country transferred by his royal master.
A few weeks later, Penn made his famous first
grand treaty with the Indians. His title to the
lands included in the royal grant was such as is
held valid by all nations; but Penn chose to add to
it the additional right of a purchase from the Indian
proprietors. The council¹ was held under a large
elm-tree at Shackamaxon, on the borders of the
present Philadelphia.
1 The monument which now marks the site of this elm-tree
stands in the midst of a manufacturing district in close proximity
to some of the largest ship-yards.
THE QUAKER COLONY.
25
"We meet," Penn told his savage audience, “on
the broad pathway of good faith and good will. No
advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall
be openness and love." The red men were not to
be outdone in cordiality. "We will live in love with
William Penn," they swore, "so long as the sun.
gives light." They kept their oath. The peaceful
message bore peaceful fruit, and not a drop of
Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian.
CHAPTER III.
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
URVEYS for the building of a town had been
SU
The
set on foot before the arrival of Penn.
land now occupied by the city of Philadelphia was
at that time the property of the Swedish colony,
and probably for this reason the commissioners.
had decided upon a spot some twelve miles farther
up the Delaware. The present site, however, pos-
sessed advantages which could not be overlooked
by so acute an observer as Penn. The noble water-
way formed by the approach of the two rivers, the
heavy timbering of the land, the existence of large
quarries of building stone and of a heavy stratum
of brick clay,—all these considerations conspired to
fix his choice, and an amicable exchange of lands.
being effected with the Swedes, the laying out of
the city began. Philadelphia, or "Brotherly Love,”
was the name chosen for it.
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
27
1682.
"The situation," writes Penn, "is not surpassed
by one among all the many places I have seen in
the world," — and he had visited most of the
cities of Europe. Time has justified his en-
comiums. The position of the city of Philadelphia
is one of almost unrivalled advantage. Built on a
neck of land between two deep rivers which unite
to form a third water front, and barely one hundred
miles from the Atlantic, Philadelphia has all the
practical advantages of a seaport, while holding in
her hands the inland threads which link the com-
merce of the Northern and Southern States. The
peninsula which she occupies, an irregular oblong
in shape, has an average width of five miles, with an
elevation of from two to forty feet above the sea ;
but the city has long since outgrown its original
limits, and the new Philadelphia to the west of the
Schuylkill runs over heights which rise in places to
one hundred and twenty feet. Swept by freshening
winds, with a climate which pleasantly compromises
between Northern cold and Southern heat, and
an abundant water-supply, the city from its found-
ation possessed the requisites of a rapid growth.
((
The sky," writes one of the early colonists, “is
as clear in winter as in summer, not foul and black,
and the air, though cold and piercing, is so dry, that
28
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
it does not require more clothing than in Eng-
land." Game abounded; Indian corn grew wild ;
the rivers furnished a profusion of fish. A deer
could be bought for two shillings; a large turkey
for one.
Corn was two-and-sixpence a bushel.
With all these facilities, however, the privation of
the colony during the first winter must have been
great. In sharp contrast to the comfortable English
homes just quitted, the colonists were forced to make
a shift with bark-huts, or with caves which many
of them dug in the high banks overlooking the
Delaware. "I never heard them say," wrote one of
their number, who had himself exchanged a pleas-
ant home in England for a cave "I never heard
them say, 'I would I had not come,' which is worth
observing, considering how plentifully they had
lived in England." The framework of a country-
house for the Governor had been sent out by the
first fleet, but the dwelling was still incomplete
when he arrived.
"There is curious building-stone and paving-
stone," writes Gabriel Thomas, one of Penn's ship-
mates," also tile-stone, with which Governour Penn
covered his great and stately pile which he called
Pennsbury House. There is likewise iron-stone
or oar (lately found), which far exceeds that of Eng-
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
29
land, being richer and less drossy. There is also
very good limestone in great plenty, and cheap, of
great use in buildings, and also in manureing land,
if there were occasion,
but nature has made that
of itself sufficiently fruitful. Besides here are load-
stones, ising-glass, and (that wonder of stones) the
Salamander-stone, found near Brandy-wine River,
having cotton in veins within it, which will not
consume in the fire, though held there a long
time. There are an infinite number of sea and
land fowl of most sorts, and there are prodigious
quantities of shell and other fish; also several sorts
of wild beasts of great profit and good food. There
are also several sorts of wild fruits, as excellent
grapes, which upon frequent experience have
produced choice wine, - walnuts, chestnuts, filberts,
hickory-nuts, hurtleberries, mulberries, rasberries,
strawberries, cramberries, plumbs, and many other
wild fruits in great plenty, which are common and
free for any to gather. Also many curious and
excellent physical wild herbs, roots, and drugs of
great virtue, which makes the Indians, by a right
application of them, as able doctors and surgeons
as any in Europe. Indeed the country, take it as
a wilderness, is a most brave country.": 1
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 69.
30
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The city of Babylon is said to have been in
Penn's mind as a model for his proposed city.
Its area was liberally calculated. Penn's orders
were to "Lay out a town in the proportion of two
hundred acres for every ten thousand sold, of which
the purchasers of five hundred acres were to have
ten." The whole amount sold having been nearly
four hundred thousand acres, the city as thus
planned would have covered an area of eight thou-
sand acres.¹ The disadvantages of such a scheme
in a situation where the mutual protection of
close neighborhood might at any moment be of
the highest necessity, soon became apparent; and
in place of a town of twelve and a half square
miles, one of a sixth of that size was decided upon.
Later this plan was again contracted, and the boun-
daries of the city were declared to be Vine and
Cedar Streets to the north and south, and the
two rivers to the east and west.
Be sure to settle the figure of the town so as
that the streets hereafter may be uniform down to
the water from the country bounds," wrote William
Penn before his arrival, forecasting that decorous
regularity of arrangement which has distinguished
the city of his love ever since his day. "Let every
1 Barber and Howe's "Hist. Coll.," p. 90.
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
31
house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle
of his plat, so that there may be ground on each side
for garden or orchards or fields, that it may be a
green country town which will never be burnt and
always be wholesome." Such a "plat" was set
aside by the commissioners for the Governor's own
use. It was 402 feet long by 172 deep, and ex-
tended from High Street, southward on Front and
Second Streets, half-way to Chestnut. The house,
according to his wish, stood almost exactly in the
middle of the enclosure. It was of simple construc-
tion, two stories in height, and built of brick. The
cellar was dug before Penn's arrival, and the house
was probably ready for occupation during the next
year, 1683.
1683.
Penn's country-seat was at Pennsbury, on the
Delaware, above Bristol. It was the residence that
he preferred, and he came and went to and
from it as the necessities of business required,
using a barge or yacht, with a certain attention to
state and show which befitted his position. "For
although the Proprietary had adopted the simple
habits and doctrines of the Society of Friends, there
was within him much of the manner of his father's
house. Formality and a certain degree of luxury,
with attention to many worldly fashions which were
32
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
to the strictest Quakers vanity of vanities, were
kept up."
"The place was constructed at great expense for
that time, having cost £7,000. The mansion was
sixty feet in front by forty feet in depth; the gar-
den, an ornamental and sloping one, lay along the
river side in front of it. . .
Pray let the courtyard be levelled," he writes,
“and the fields and places about the house be cleanly
and orderly kept. . . . I would have a kitchen, two
larders, a wash-house, a room to iron in, a brew-
house, and a Milan oven for baking, and a stable
for twelve horses. All my rooms I would have nine
feet high. What you can, do with bricks; what you
can't, do it with good timbers. . . . There is gravel
for walks, that is red at Philadelphia, near the
Swamp. Let all be uniform, and not ascu from
the house."
These innovations brought upon him some
unavoidable criticism. In "News from Pennsyl-
vania," published in London in 1703, this descrip-
tion is given by an apostate Quaker of Penn's
manner of living during his second visit to this
country:
"Our present governor, William Penn, wants
the sacred unction, tho' he seems not to want
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
33
majesty, for the grandeur and magnificence of hist
mien is equivalent to that of the Grand Mogul,
and his word in many cases as absolute and binding.
The gate of his house (or palace) is always guarded
with a janisary armed with a varnished club of
nearly ten foot long, crowned with a large silver
head embossed and chased as an hieroglyphic of
its master's pride. There are certain days of the
week appointed for audience, and as for the rest,
you must keep your distance. His corps du
guard generally consists of seven or eight of his
chief magistrates, both ecclesiastical and civil,
which always attend him, and sometimes there
are more. When he peramulates the city, one
bare-headed, with a long white mace over his shoul-
der, 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 the Meeting House, first William leads
the van, likes a mighty champion of war, rattling
as fast the wheels of his leathern conveniency,
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.
•
The first house finished in Philadelphia was a
3
34
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
small wooden one on the east side of Front Street,
a little north of the place afterward called the
Dock. It was for many years in use as a tavern,
its sign being a blue anchor. In 1683 Philadelphia,
we are told, "consisted of three or four little cot-
tages." But word had gone out into the world
of the establishment of a city of refuge for the
oppressed of all nations, and from all parts of
Europe and Great Britain emigrants came crowd-
ing to the land of promise. "In the short space
of three years after the settlement of Penn, fifty
sail of vessels arrived, filled with passengers from
different countries." 1 From Germany they came,
from Sweden, from the Low Countries, Ireland,
Wales, and England. The rapid increase of pop-
ulation almost alarmed the Government, but it
worked no harm, and steadily and silently the new-
comers were absorbed unto the body politic, to help
on the rapid growth of the general prosperity.
In three years after its foundation Philadelphia
had gained more than New York in half a century.
"The town already contained six hundred houses,
and the schoolmaster and printing-press had be-
gun their work." No wonder that Penn should.
exultingly write to Halifax: "I must without vanity
1 "The Picture of Philadelphia," p. 31.
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
35
say that I have led the greatest colony into Amer-
ica that ever man did upon a private credit, and the
most prosperous beginnings that ever were in it
are to be found among us."
Lawgivers as well as artisans are needful for the
building of a state. Nine representatives were
elected from each of the six counties into which
Penn's dominion was divided, to frame a charter of
liberties. Penn presided over the debates, but left
the Assembly free to follow its own counsel. He
laid before them the plan of government framed in
England, but added: "You may amend, alter, or
add; I am ready to settle such foundations as shall
be for your happiness."
1683
The constitution as finally decided upon created
a Council and an Assembly. The former was to
serve three years, the latter one. One third
of the Council was to be renewed yearly. The
whole assembly was subject to an annual election.
Judges were nominated by the Council, and were
not to be removed, except in case of ill behavior, till
their term of office had expired.
the only lord of the conscience.
God was declared
The Sabbath was
set apart as a day of rest. The law of primogeniture
was pronounced invalid. The word of an honest.
man was to be evidence unaccompanied by an oath.
36
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Thieves were to restore fourfold, after being
whipped and imprisoned; if unable to do this, they
were kept in servitude till the debt was discharged.
No tax or custom could be levied except by law.
There were neither poor-rates nor tithes. Murder
was the only crime punishable by death. Every
convict prison was to be a workhouse. False ac-
cusers were to pay a double penalty. The Governor
had a negative voice in all acts of the Council,
which was, in fact, a veto on every law. Except for
this, the constitution of Pennsylvania would have
been a pure democracy. In the adjoining State,
Maryland, the Council was named by its Gover-
nor, Lord Baltimore. The appointment of all sub-
ordinate officers rested with him; he also had the
revenue of tobacco, and the State was burdened
with taxes. The same revenue was offered to Penn,
and was declined. Tax-gatherers were unknown
in Pennsylvania; the Council and all lesser offices
were voted for by the people; and William Penn
could not of his own will appoint so much as a
constable to place. It is no wonder that this char-
ter was received by the people with enthusiasm as
"one of unhoped-for liberty." Penn was no less
content. 'I desired," he said, "to show men as
free and as happy as they can be. If in the rela-
(6
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 37
tion between us the people want of me anything
that would make them happier, I should readily
grant it."
"The early minutes [of the Assembly] show
that the members in William Penn's time used to
take their dinners with them to the House (the
House being a schoolroom hired for twenty shil-
lings the session), and adjourned sometimes for an
hour to warm themselves; paid their clerk four
shillings a day, and fined absentees tenpence;
often sat in silence for a while, meditating, as at a
Quaker meeting; and passed laws prohibiting the
drinking of healths and the spreading of false
news."1
It is interesting to note the calm good sense of
the Quaker rulers when dealing with that question
of witchcraft which a few years later was to upset
all the best judgment of New England. In 1688
a woman was brought to trial as a witch. The
jury, in which Quakers predominated, - after lis-
tening to the testimony and the Governor's charge,
brought in this verdict: "The prisoner is guilty of
the common fame of being a witch, but not guilty
as she stands indicted." It was the first and last
-
1 Parton's "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," vol. i.
P. 327.
38
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
trial for witchcraft which took place in Pennsyl-
vania.
1684.
The government thus inaugurated, the courts of
law established, a peaceful settlement with the na-
tives secured, Penn's work was done, and he
prepared for a visit to England. The execu-
tive power he left in the Council, and the seal of the
State in the keeping of his friend Lloyd. He sailed
in August, 1684, leaving behind him this touching
farewell: "My love and my life are to you and
with you, and no water can quench it or distance
bring it to end. You are come to a quiet land, and
liberty and authority are in your hands. I bless
you in the name of the name and power of the
Lord, and may God bless you in his righteousness,
peace and plenty all the land over. . . . And thou
Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province,
my soul prays to God for thee, that thou mightest
stand in the day of trial, and that thy children
may be blessed. Dear friends, my love salutes
you all.”
It was Penn's hope in sailing, to return in the
course of a few months, but this hope was frus-
trated. Vexations and disappointment awaited him
at home. Charles II., the granter of his patent of
lands, died shortly after his arrival. Charles's suc-
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
39
cessor, James II., had, as Duke of York, been a warm
personal friend to Penn, and continued so after his
accession. We hear of Penn in favor at Court
during the following years, and using this favor in
behalf of the Universities and of all persecuted
sects, the Roman Catholics no less than his own
people.
1699.
On the downfall of James, Penn, in common with
all the friends of the deposed King, found himself
suspected and in disgrace. He was twice arrested
on a charge of treasonable practices, and twice
acquitted. His government was taken from
him, and again restored. It was fifteen years
before he again saw the shores of the Delaware and
the city of his planting. Great changes had taken
place during this interval. Where he left a plain,
rudely staked out with squares and streets, a few
houses finished, and a few others begun, he found
shops, warehouses, shipping. The population had
increased to forty-five hundred, with an accommo-
dation of seven hundred houses. Philadelphia, from
the outset, has been remarkable for the liberal
provision of dwellings for her people. The value
of the customs at this time, Penn calculated to be
not less than £8,000.
It was during this second visit that Philadelphia
40
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1
was "instituted a city," though it would seem in
effect to have possessed the character of one before
then, for as early as 1691 its official acts were signed
by a mayor. There were several good "schools
of learning for youth," and for which the early
chronicler gives thanks with an equal fervor —
"several cook's shops, both roasting and boyling, as
in the city of London, for which we owe the highest
gratitude to our plentiful Provider, the great Crea-
tor of heaven and earth. . . . All sorts of very good
paper are made in the German-town, as also very
fine German linen, such as no person of quality
need be ashamed to wear; and in several places
they make very good druggets, crapes, camlets, and
serges, beside other woolen cloathes, the manufac-
ture of all which daily improves. The Christian
•
children born here are generally well favoured and
beautiful to behold; I never knew any with the least
blemish." 2
A curious anecdote is told of Anthony Duché,
a respectable Protestant refugee from France,"
who was one of Penn's ship's company on this sec-
ond voyage. Duché had lent Penn a small sum of
money, about thirty pounds. On their landing,
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 25.
2 Gabriel Thomas's "Account of Philadelphia and the Province
to the Year 1696.”
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
4I
Penn offered him, in lieu of the debt, what he called
"a good bargain in land," namely, the whole square
between Third and Fourth Streets, with the excep-
tion of a small piece already occupied as a Friends'
burial-ground. Duché replied, "You are very
good, Mr. Penn, and the offer might prove advan-
tageous; but the money would suit me better."
"Blockhead!" cried Penn, "thou shalt have thy
money; but canst thou not see that this will be a
very great city in a very short time?" "So I was
paid," adds Duché, “and have ever since repented
of my folly." 1
1701.
This proved to be Penn's last visit to his colony.
He sailed for England in 1701, urged thither by
embarrassments in his affairs, and partly, it
would seem, also, by the unwillingness of his
wife and daughter to remain. "I cannot prevail
upon my wife to stay, and still less with Tishe: I
know not what to do," he writes. It was his hope
speedily to return to Philadelphia, and to make the
colony his permanent home; but these hopes were
baffled. Renewed vexations awaited him in Eng-
land. At one time he was actually in the Fleet
prison for nine months on account of debt. O
Pennsylvania," he wrote, during this period of trou-
'Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 264.
42
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
ble, "what hast thou not cost me? Above thirty
thousand pounds more than I ever got by it, two
hazardous and most fatiguing voyages, and my
son's soul almost." (This is in reference to his
eldest son, who had fallen into evil ways during his
residence in the colony.) "I cannot but think it
hard measure that, while that proved a land of free-
dom and flourishing to them, it should become to
me, by whose means it was made a country, the
cause of trouble and poverty." So great were his
necessities, that he actually negotiated for the sale
of his province for £12,000, reserving to himself
the quit-rents and estates. His mind was failing at
the time, and before the execution of the deed he
had so far lost his faculties as to be incapable of
making a legal conveyance. In 1712 he had a
shock of paralysis, and six months later another.
For six years he lingered, enfeebled in memory,
but when thoughts of business were kept from him,
"
'very sweet, comfortable, and easy, and cheerfully
resigned, and taking delight in his children, friends,
and domestic comforts." He enjoyed much seren-
ity "and continued incomes of the love of
God." He died in 1718. His work survived
him, and still survives. "The chief cause of Penn-
sylvania's rapid growth was not the pleasantness
1718.
THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA.
43
of the climate, nor the fertility of the soil, nor the
convenience of the situation, though these were
causes of its prosperity; Pennsylvania throve be-
cause William Penn had been just."
Meanwhile, twelve years before his death, in a
small tallow-chandler's shop in Boston, a boy had
been born who, next after Penn, was destined to
exert a lasting and formative influence upon the
city of his planting. Philadelphia," says Parton,
"is Quakerism mitigated by Franklin.”
CHAPTER IV.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
1701-1766.
"A SOBER and considerate perusal of all the
papers which remain at this day on the sub-
ject of Penn's government could not fail to convince
the reader that the structure of colonial governments
in general must have been of the most perplexing and
vexatious kind. They remind one of wranglesome
children, perpetually plotting and counterplotting
against each other, - 'destroying others, by them-
selves destroyed' each carrying their complaints.
and remonstrances back to the distant parents in
England, and they, equally perverse, rescinding and
counteracting the efforts of the children to be-
come their own masters. Americans, to be duly
sensible of the value of their liberation from such
harassing thraldom, should go back to the perusal
of those voluminous papers which contain the facts
so constantly afflictive to our forefathers!" 1
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 81.
THE SUCCESSORS OF penn.
45
1718.
For some time after the death of William Penn,
his widow, Hannah Penn, conducted the correspon-
dence with the colony, and in some sort ad-
ministered the government. William Penn,
the oldest son of the family, made a claim on the
colony as natural heir; but before any final de-
cision had been arrived at in the matter, his un-
worthy life had come to a close. He died two years
after his father's death, worn out by intemperance
and excesses.
By Penn's will, the Pennsylvania estate was di-
vided between the three sons of his second mar-
riage, John, Thomas, and Richard. John Penn,
dying unwedded in 1746, left his whole estate to
his brother Thomas, who thus became owner of
two thirds of the province. He seems to have
been a prudent and methodical man of business.
Richard, the youngest of the brothers, was a spend-
thrift. Both were men of inferior capacities and
narrow hearts, having inherited nothing of the wide
thought and wider humanity which distinguished
their father, and which led him to erect barriers for
the protection of generations yet unborn against
even his own authority and that of his heirs.
Insignificant among the gentry of their own
country, without either place or influence, the heirs
46
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
of Penn had yet the power to wield an almost royal
control over a territory larger in extent than Eng-
land itself. Ruling by deputy, and rarely visiting
the country which they claimed as an inheritance,
their sole care in the management of it seems to
have been their own enrichment in wealth and im-
portance. Representatives of a parent whose vir-
tues they neither understood nor imitated, and who
would have been the first to condemn their methods
of government, they used their authority to vex,
retard, and hamper a community which, regarding
them in the outset with a deep and grateful affection,
learned in the end to feel toward them abhorrence.
and distrust, as the oppressors of the very people
whom their father had given his all to make free.
Twenty-five years after the death of Penn, Penn-
sylvania contained a population of one hundred
thousand, and Philadelphia ten thousand in-
1743.
habitants. His heirs valued their American
estate at ten millions sterling. Twenty-five ship-
loads of Germans alone landed during the year 1749,
and this was not estimated above the average emi-
gration of former years. In 1731 Pennsylvania
traded in twenty-eight different articles of commerce
with England, besides exporting in considerable
quantities to Portugal, Spain, Surinam, and the Med-
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
47
A
iterranean ports, and shipping over three hundred
thousand pounds of produce to the West Indies.
Over two thousand tons of shipping were built for
sale over and above the quantity needed for the
carrying trade of the province. The heirs of Penn.
drew from the province an income of twenty thou-
sand pounds. Yet they steadily claimed the right
of exemption from all taxes, even those levied for
the protection of the territory from which this rev-
enue was derived.
"During the first year of the French war, from
1754 to 1758, the ravaged colony of Pennsylvania
contributed to the King's service in defending its
own borders and aiding other colonies to strike at
the common foe, the sum of two hundred and eigh-
teen thousand pounds sterling. Still the Proprie-
taries would not be taxed. The Crown lands and
castles, the lodges and palaces, of the King of Eng-
land contributed their proper proportion to the
revenue of the kingdom. But the proprietary estate
of these lordly brothers must still be exempt from
taxation." The sum in question was not large,
amounting to no more than five hundred and fifty
pounds a year, all of which was to be expended in
the defence of what the Messieurs Penn were mag-
1 Parton's "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," vol. i. p. 371.
48
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
niloquently accustomed to style "our province of
Pennsylvania" and "our city of Philadelphia." Yet
even when, after the defeat of Braddock in 1756,
the savage foe ravaged the outskirts of the colony,
and families were scalped within eighty miles of
Philadelphia, the Proprietaries held firmly to their
refusal. Instead of setting on foot instant measures
for relief and reprisal, the Assembly was forced to
waste valuable time in miserable squabbles with
the Governor over the point, as to whether or no
the nominal rulers of the province and those who
derived the greatest benefit from it should or
should not be forced to bear their fair share of the
expenses for its protection.
These deputy-governors, sent out from England
with sealed instructions for the management of every
possible and impossible complication which might
arise in the colony, must indeed have been a thorn
in the side of a quick-witted and ardent community
like that of Pennsylvania. They were changed as
often as the indignation of the colonists or the con-
venience of the Penns made it desirable, and their
different careers may be summed up with tolerable
uniformity. Arrival, fair promises, hopes; quar-
rels with the Assembly, growing uneasiness; then
appeals, denunciations on both sides, a tough fight
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
49
over supplies, and his Excellency This sailed for
England, while his Excellency That arrived to take
his place. It was all a hopeless muddle. More
than once the Governor's signature to bills which
had passed the House was only extorted by making
the payment of his own salary contingent upon it.
"It is a happy country," remarks Franklin dryly,
"where justice and what was your own before, can
be had for ready money. It is another addition to
the value of money, and of course another spur to
industry. Our present Proprietaries have never
been more unreasonable hitherto than barely to in-
sist on your fighting in defence of their property,
and paying the expense yourselves."
It is no wonder that Pennsylvania turned at
length against this pair of thick-headed despots,
too distant and too deaf to heed remonstrance, and
too dull to understand it. When she turned, it was
with that violence of contempt which children feel
who, after writhing under the rule of a formal old
pedagogue, realize at last his ignorance and their
own strength. But there is a melancholy side to
such a reaction. Great men are none too com-
mon in this world: their names should be held in
honor. It is grievous that the sons of a man like
Penn should have been able, by their folly and self-
4
50
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
ishness, to smirch and dim his honorable repute
with the state he so benefited, and bring down on
themselves a satire so biting and so deserved as
that embodied in Franklin's "Memorial of T. and
R. P. P. of P." (Thomas and Richard Penn, Pro-
prietaries of Pennsylvania), published in 1764.
These are the concluding sentences:
"The privileges granted by their father
They,
Foolishly and cruelly
Taking advantage of public distress,
Have extorted from the posterity of those settlers,
And are daily endeavoring to reduce them
To the most abject slavery,
Though to the virtues and industry of these people
In improving their country
They owe all they possess and enjoy,—
A striking instance
Of human depravity and ingratitude,
And an irrefragable proof
That wisdom and goodness
Do not descend with an inheritance,
But that ineffable meanness
May be connected with unbounded fortune.”
Notwithstanding these misunderstandings with
the Proprietaries, the record of Philadelphia during
the seventy years following the death of her founder
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
51
shows a steady growth in prosperity. In 1753 the
population had increased to nearly 15,000, and the
number of houses to 2,300. In 1777 the popula-
tion was 23,734, and the dwellings 5,395.
Penn's original plan for the laying out of the
streets was adhered to by his successors. Streets
fifty feet in width run from north to south and from
east to west, crossing each other at regular angles.
The streets which lead from river to river are
named, in most part, after the fruit and forest trees
which were found growing on the spot when the
first settlers arrived. The streets from north to
south are numbered in regular order from No. I, or
Front Street, upward. Each block is calculated to
contain one hundred houses, and is numbered ac-
cordingly. All dwellings above Market Street are
marked north, and all below it, south.
By this
arrangement the number of any house defines its
exact topographical situation. There are in Phila-
delphia none of those meanderings and divergences,
attributable, as it would seem, to the vagrant pro-
pensities of the Puritan cow, which make a walk in
Boston so puzzling and so interesting. All is duly
rectangular and understood. One knows before-
hand exactly what to expect at every turn and cor-
But what such an arrangement lacks in
ner.
52
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
interest is atoned for by the ease and simplicity
which make it impossible for a stranger to go astray
or to experience the least difficulty in following a
given direction.
In 1752 Philadelphia was still what its founder
desired that it should be, a “green country place,"
extending a mile along the Delaware, and about half
a mile back from its shores. The houses, built
principally of brick and stone, as to-day, stood each
surrounded by its garden. Almost every family
kept its cow, which was pastured in the outskirts
of the city. The peach-orchards bore so abund-
antly, that pigs were fattened on the fruit. There
were still persons who remembered when the site
of the city was a forest: indeed the first child
born in the colony was yet living, a man of sixty-
two. Game was plentiful in the near neighborhood;
and down to the middle of the century, wolves and
bears were occasionally shot within eight miles of
the State House.
An aged lady, still alive in 1740, could recollect
the time when she and other girls went out to gather
wild strawberries in what is now Spruce
Street, between Seventh and Eighth. The
woods there were "lofty and thrifty," and extended
all the way across to the Schuylkill. An aged gen-
1740.
1
THE SUCCessors of penn.
53
tleman of the same date "well remembered a fine
field of corn in growth on the north-west corner of
South and Front Streets." 1
The health of the city was not uninterrupted
during the first half of the century. With the in-
crease of population came an increase of disease,
chiefly of the zymotic type. In great part these
disorders seem to have had for cause a small swamp
or creek running north-westerly from the Delaware
across Second and Walnut Streets to Third, with
an arm extending as far as Spruce. This creek was
given to the city by Penn, to be kept in perpetuity
as a convenient water-way for boats of light draught,
to carry supplies from the river to the heart of the
town. The sluggish current of the creek caused
its bed gradually to fill with mud, which in time
became the receptacle of a mass of sewer-contam-
ination and garbage, and made a centre of poisonous
exhalations for that part of the city. In 1784 Dr.
Benjamin Rush pointed out this dangerous nuis-
ance, and his influence was sufficient to carry
(against strong opposition !) a law providing for the
cleansing and arching over of the creek, and the
laying out of a street above it; which measure was
followed by an immediate improvement in public
health.
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 234.
54
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
It was Penn's intention to preserve the frontage.
of the Delaware as an open esplanade, to be planted
with trees, and form an airy and agreeable walk for
the citizens. His straits for money at a later day
unfortunately led him to relax from this intention
and to sell these lots for bank vaults and stores.
It was a sore mortification to him, on his second
visit, to see the "growing deformity" of this part
of the city. 7" My necessity, not my will, hath done
this," he remarked. The abandonment of his plan
was a great and lasting loss to Philadelphia, only
partially remedied by the bequest of Stephen Girard
at a later day for the improvement of the river
front.
1702.
In 1702 the breaking out of the war between
England, France, and Spain menaced the settle-
ments on the Delaware with attack, and the
inconvenience of the Quaker doctrine of non-
resistance became apparent. For although the
original charter of Penn included a provision that
he and his heirs should "muster and train, make
war and vanquish or put to death all enemies by
sea and land,” and during the early years of the
colony something like a militia organization existed,
there can be no doubt that the Quakers were at
heart strongly opposed to anything which bore the
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
55
1706.
semblance of warlike preparations. Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor Evans, then in command, attempted to raise
a regiment for defence, which attempt was firmly
resisted by the Assembly. Four years later he
employed a foolish trick, with the hope of exciting
a public panic and forcing the Quakers to abandon
their policy of non-resistance. A forged letter was
prepared and sent into town on a market-
day, when the city was full of people, report-
ing that armed ships had entered the Delaware,
and were coming up to plunder the city. The
Governor made his appearance on horseback with
a drawn sword, and called upon the people to rise
in defence of their homes. Great alarm was ex-
cited, and the people began to remove their families.
and property; but the Quakers stood firm, and when,
soon afterward, the fraud was discovered, the storm.
of indignation that it excited was so great, that the
Penns were forced to remove Evans and replace
him with another deputy.
In 1709 French privateers actually plundered
the town of Lewes, in one of the lower Delaware
counties. From 1740 to the close of 1748
France and Spain were at war against Eng- 1709.
land, Holland, and Hungary. The American settle-
ments were of course an inviting object of attack
56
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1740.
to all the enemies of England. All the Southern
colonies put themselves into a state of warlike pre-
paration. "Pennsylvania alone was utterly defence-
less. The banks of the Delaware had not a fort,
not a battery, not a gun; and Philadelphia lay, a
tempting prize, that even a well-armed privateer
could seize and sack. There was not so much
as a volunteer company, if there were mus-
kets enough to arm one. John Penn and Thomas
Penn were not Quakers, as their father had been,
and the governors who ruled in their stead were
not Quakers; yet in the legislative Assembly the
Quaker influence so greatly preponderated, that
nothing could induce that body to vote money for
the purchase of means of defence. Not the actual
presence of a privateer in the river could move
them with such tenacity do we cling to eccentric
beliefs!" 1
:
This obstinate inactivity was at last brought to
an end by the influence of Benjamin Franklin. We
have already spoken of this distinguished man as
being, next to Penn himself, the most potent factor
in the moulding of the Pennsylvania community.
The story of his life is, or should be, familiar to
all who read these pages. There is, however, a
1 Parton's" Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,” vol. i. p. 264.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
57
surprising and growing carelessness about the lives
of even great men, as they recede into the dimness
of history. We fear there may be those, especially
among our younger readers, who, in thinking of this
celebrated character, depict him to their mind's eye
as a bland, elderly figure vaguely outlined, with an
aspect of benevolent instruction, who carries in one
hand a lightning rod, in the other a batch of prov-
erbs. For the benefit of these, if such there are,
we will venture to give a brief sketch of a career
so intimately bound up with the fortunes of Phila-
delphia, and which, taken in all its parts, is perhaps
the most noteworthy of any recorded in American
history.
Born in Boston in the year 1706, one of the ten
children of a tallow-chandler; apprenticed to his
brother at the age of twelve to learn the art of
printing, falling out with his master five years
later, and escaping from his service, our run-
away apprentice landed in Philadelphia in 1723,
being then seventeen years of age. His first ad-
ventures in the city are too well known to be dwelt
upon at length. Landing from the small boat which
had brought him down the river from Burlington,
footsore, travel-stained, and almost penniless, his
first emotion was one of surprise at the quantity
58
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
of bread given him in exchange for a threepence
"twice as much as any Massachusetts baker
would have given." Walking down grassy, tree-
shaded Market Street, Deborah Read, his future
wife, stood in her father's doorway and smiled at
the odd appearance which he made,—all of which
simple legend should be as familiar to American
boys and girls as is the history of Whittington and
his Cat. We doubt if it is so.
1724.
Seven months later he returned to Boston for a
brief visit, well dressed, with money in his pocket,
and the owner of a watch. The clever young
printer had prospered at his trade and made friends,
among them Sir William Keith, at that time gov-
ernor of the colony. This friendship proved in
the end a misfortune to Franklin. Keith, a vague,
chimerical, untrustworthy man, sent him to
England in 1724 with a commission to pur-
chase the outfit for a printing establishment of a
superior kind which the Governor desired to estab-
lish in Philadelphia. His promises as to money and
introductions were not fulfilled, and Franklin was left
to shift for himself in London, as he had done two
years before in Philadelphia. Fortunately for him,
a good printer could hardly lack for work in those
days, and he found no trouble in earning a mainten-
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
59
1729.
ance. He returned to Philadelphia in 1726. Three
years later we find him established in a con-
siderable printing business of his own, and
conducting "The Pennsylvania Gazette," the first
paper of note produced in the colony.
1731.
In 1730 he married his early love, Deborah Read.
In 1731 he started the first subscription library,
probably in the United States, certainly in
Pennsylvania. Two pounds sterling for the
purchase of books and ten shillings a year afterward,
were the terms of the first subscriptions. This
was the nucleus of the great Library of Philadel-
phia. In 1785 the number of volumes was 5,487;
in 1807, 14,451.
In 1861 it had risen to 70,000;
in 1881 to 100,000. The institution is one of
the few in America that has held on its way un-
changed in any essential principle for a century and
a quarter, always on the increase, always faithfully
administered, always doing its appointed work." 1
In 1732 was given to the world the first volume
of the renowned "Poor Richard's Almanac." This
little work, besides giving the usual informa-
tion as to moons, tides, and weather statistics,
was made the vehicle of Franklin's admirable com-
ments on the affairs of the day, of his equally admir-
1732.
1 Parton's "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," vol. i. p. 202.
60
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
able fun, and of a wealth of aphorism which still sup-
plies our memories and conversation. "Honesty is
the best policy;" "A word to the wise;" "God
helps those who help themselves." How often these
and their companion proverbs are used by us with-
out any recognition of the source from which they
come.
In 1733, having earned a certain privilege of
leisure, Franklin resumed the education which, so
far as schools go, had ended for him at the age
of ten. He learned to read fluently French, Ital-
ian, and Spanish. He made considerable progress
with Latin. He was also accomplished in music,
the master of a clear and effective English style,
and fond of the game of chess.
In 1744, when the war and the defenceless con-
dition of Philadelphia created general alarm, he
published a tract entitled "Plain Truth," in which
he depicted the horrors of war, pointed out the
danger of the province, and cited Biblical argu-
ments to show "the righteousness of self-defence.”
This tract produced a powerful impression. Within
a month after its appearance, almost every man in
the province not a Quaker had joined a military
organization and procured some sort of weapon.
Eighty companies were soon formed. Franklin was
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
61
elected colonel of one of the Philadelphia regiments,
but "thinking myself unfit," he declined. It is
probable that the younger Quakers at least secretly
rejoiced at the movement. Certain it is that Frank-
lin's share in it did not cost him his influence in
the Assembly, of which he was clerk, as had been
feared.
1747.
In 1747, Franklin, then forty-two years of age,
and in the enjoyment of an income of some £700
a year, deliberately retired from active busi-
ness for the purpose of gaining time to devote
to scientific study, notably to electricity, which was
then the absorbing topic of the day. In 1752 he
made his great discovery of the identity of the
electric fluid in the clouds with that in the electri-
cal battery. The same year he invented the light-
ning-rod. The experiment was first tried in his
own house. "The rod came into the bed-chamber
on the gable end, eastern side, and there being cut
off from its communication with the rod descend-
ing to the ground, the intermediate space of about
one yard was filled up with a range or chime of
bells, which, whenever an electric cloud passed
over the place, were set to ringing and throwing
out sparks of electricity." In this manner the
1
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 552.
62
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
philosopher played with the terrible agent whose
properties he was among the first to recognize. A
vein of poetry runs through many of his scientific
experiments. He was fond of the music of the
Æolian harp, and accustomed wherever he went to
stretch a silken string across some crevice which
admitted air, in order to produce the sounds which
delighted him. It is said that, revisiting many
years after a house in which he had lived during his
first visit to France, he found it shut up and de-
serted, under a suspicion of being haunted by spirits
who made strange musical sounds. Investigation
revealed the cause of this report, a forgotten cord
stretched by himself across the window during his
previous residence.
In 1752, through his instrumentality largely, the
Academy and Charitable School of the Province of
Pennsylvania (afterward to become the University
of Pennsylvania) was founded, and soon afterward
the Pennsylvania Hospital. It is to him that
America owes the introduction of the willow-tree,
and of plaster of Paris as a fertilizer. It was at
his suggestion that the merchants of Philadelphia,
in 1753, sent a ship to the Polar seas for the
discovery of the Northwest Passage. He first
detected the poisonous qualities of air exhaled from
1753.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
63
the lungs, and wrote effectively on the subject of
ventilation. The open stove called the "Franklin,"
which has been in use among us ever since his day,
was his invention. And it was his apt and fiery
arguments which strengthened the popular party
in Pennsylvania during their long struggle with the
Proprietaries, and sowed the seeds of that deter-
mination after liberty which carried the colony
through the hardships of the Revolution.
For sixteen years Franklin had held the place of
Postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1753 he, in con-
junction with Benjamin Hunter of Virginia, was
commissioned by the Home Government as post-
master-general for America. It was under his
administration that the mail-service first began to
yield a revenue. Some of the improvements intro-
duced by him into its management are part of our
postal system to this day.
1755.
In 1755 he gave valuable assistance in fitting out
Braddock's ill-fated expedition against Fort Du-
quesne. Visiting the camp for this purpose,
he found leisure during the journey to ob-
serve and explain the movement of one of those
spiral whirlwinds which were as common and de-
structive then as now. After the massacre of Brad-
dock's force, and the onslaught of the savages on
64
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Franklin accepted
for the emergency a military appointment, and led
a body of volunteers to the relief of the Moravian
settlement of Gnadenhütten, which had been laid
in ashes by the Indians. The record of his two
months' service in the field was so creditable to
him, that he was urged by the Assembly to accept
a general's commission and "undertake the reduc-
tion of Fort Duquesne," a proposal of which his
wisdom and modesty alike forbade the accept-
ance.
In 1757 he was sent out to England as Agent of
the Colony of Pennsylvania, to appeal against the
vexatious conduct of the Proprietaries. He
1757. carried with him a memorandum of Heads.
of Complaint, which ran as follows: Ist. The
Royal Charter gives to the Assembly the law-mak-
ing power the Proprietaries deprive them of that
power. 2d. The Charter confers on the Assembly
the right to regulate supplies: the Proprietaries
neutralize that right. 3d. The exemption of the
estate of the Proprietaries from taxation is a man-
ifest injustice. These complaints producing no
impression on the minds of the Messrs. Penn,
Franklin bent his energies toward influencing the
Lords of the Council and the Board of Trade.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
65
1760.
His mission kept him in England for nearly five
years. They were laborious and harassing years,
but they had their admixture of happiness, for the
reputation of Franklin was now world-wide, and the
best scientific and literary society of London wel-
comed him with open arms.
In its main object his
errand was a failure. The Proprietaries proved im-
practicable, and their influence prevailed with the
authorities. In 1760 a committee of the
Privy Council had a Report actually prepared,
by which his Majesty was recommended to repeal
the Bill which had passed the Assembly for the
equal taxation of all estates. This was equivalent
to a decision in favor of the Penns. Here the in-
imitable tact and dexterity of Franklin stepped in.
He contrived so far to influence the committee as
to secure an alteration in the terms of the Report,
by which the King was recommended to repeal the
Bill, unless the Assembly made certain alterations
and concessions therein. This was, in effect, spik-
ing the enemy's guns, for the Assembly found it
easy to procrastinate, and evade the fulfilment of
the conditions until the matter had passed out
of men's minds and the immediate consideration
of the Privy Council.
It may as well be said here that these feuds with
5
66
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
the Proprietaries were not finally ended until the
breaking out of the Revolution put an end to all
property titles based on grants from the English
Crown.
1764
One
year after Franklin's return to his own coun-
try, these discontents culminated. A majority of the
Assembly signed a petition praying the King
of England to take Pennsylvania under his
protection as a Royal Colony. "On the twenty-
sixth day of October they elected Benjamin Franklin
as their agent, and in spite of the bitter protests
of his opponents he sailed for England with the
sacred charge of the liberties of his country in his
custody."
'1
"Six times Franklin presented the petition of the
province to the King; six times the Penns so opposed
it that the appeal came to nothing. When the final
disruption occurred, the Penns, being still in pos-
session of the province, contrived to sell what they
could no longer retain. The State of Pennsylvania
voted them £130,000 sterling, and the British Gov-
ernment settled upon the head of the family a pen-
sion of £4,000 a year. They deemed the price far
too small; but they nevertheless deigned to accept
it, and Pennsylvania was rid of them forever.” 2
1 Bancroft, vol. v. p. 220.
2 Parton's "Life of Benjamin Franklin," vol. i. p. 464.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
67
The agitation caused by the passage of the Stamp
Act, the following year, also operated to hamper
Franklin's negotiations. He continued in London
as representative, first for Pennsylvania, and later
for the thirteen original colonies, for ten years, until
the very eve of the great struggle of the Revolu-
tion, and until every hope of averting that struggle
was past. He himself, in his own person and as
the agent of his country, had been subjected
to a public insult at the hands of the King's
Solicitor-General, Wedderburn, in a speech before
the Privy Council in 1774. Horace Walpole's epi-
gram on this occasion will be remembered.
"Sarcastic Sawney, swol'n with pride and prate,
On silent Franklin poured his venal hate ;
The calm philosopher, without reply,
Withdrew, and gave his country liberty."
1773.
The "calm philosopher" might not reply, but
neither did he forget. "I am not insensible to
injuries,” he told a friend in after life, "but I never
put myself to any trouble or inconvenience to re-
taliate." Five years later, on the day when the
Treaty of Alliance between France and the United
States of America was signed at Paris, it was ob-
served that Dr. Franklin had put on the same suit
1
68
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
of
1778.
(C
Manchester" velvet which he wore on the day
when he stood to be baited by Wedderburn, amid
the applause of a great concourse of lords. He
never wore it again, and he never remarked on the
coincidence; but there can be no doubt that
even the philosophic mind found satisfaction
in linking together by this little act the day when,
in his person, his country was humiliated, and that
on which, through his assistance, she secured a
powerful ally, and sprang into a new position of
power and menace before the eyes of England.
Franklin's presence in France was in itself a
triumph to the colonies."1 A member of the famous
Congress of 1776, he was sent out to Paris in the
autumn of the same year as Commissioner of the
United States, and remained there until after the
Treaty of Peace in 1782. His high repute in sci-
ence and letters, his eloquence and dexterity, and
his inimitable tact, contributed largely to the suc-
cess of the negotiations and the ultimate triumph
of the cause he represented. "Franklin charmed.
and captivated by a power so subtle and magnetic,
as to be well-nigh indefinable."2 His personal pop-
ularity was unbounded. "'T is the fashion now-
adays," sneered Longriet, "to have an engraving
1 Burke.
2 Rosenthal, "France and America,” p. 33.
THE SUCCESSORS OF PENN.
69
of M. Franklin over one's mantelpiece, as it was
formerly the fashion to have a jumping-jack.”1
1785.
The rest of his life may be summed up in a few
brief sentences. Returning to Philadelphia in 1785,
he was twice elected President of Pennsyl-
vania. He died, 1790, at his own house in
Market Street, being in the 85th year of his age.
Next to Washington's, his life may be said to
be that which was most useful to mankind
of any life yet lived on the American continent.
1 Capefigue, "Louis XVI.," vol. ii. p. 11.
1790.
CHAPTER V.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
Sº
1701-1766 (Continued).
O late as the year 1760 Philadelphia continued
to be an unpaved city. The soil being of clay,
the streets in the wet season became almost impas-
sable. Carts were frequently "stalled" in the mire
of the principal thoroughfares. "Filthy-Dirty " was
the jeering name given to the place by the farming
folk in the neighborhood. The roads leading to the
city were in even a worse condition. It was not an
infrequent experience to see horses struggling in
mud up to their knees. "Mr. Tyson has seen
thirteen lime wagons stopped on the York Road,
near Logan's Hill, to give one another assistance
through the mire; and the drivers could be seen
with their trousers rolled up, and joining team to
team to draw out; at other times they set up a
stake in the middle of the road to warn off wagons
from the quicksand pits. Sometimes they took down
fences, and made new roads through the fields."1
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia,” vol. i. p. 257.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
71
1752.
Even the ground about the Market Place was
left neglected until, in 1752, Franklin, "seeing with
pain the cleanly people wading in mud up
to the stalls," used his influence to secure a
pavement, and later set on foot a subscription for
having it regularly swept. The convenience of this
pavement aroused a general desire for the paving
of other streets, and made the people willing to be
taxed for the purpose.
Second Street was the first to be paved. A
prominent citizen, riding there on horseback, stuck
in the mud, was thrown from his horse, and broke
his leg. This accident drew attention to the shock-
ing condition of the street, and led to its reforma-
tion. In 1761 a lottery was announced for
the raising of $7,500, to be used in paving
the streets. Ten years later another lottery pro-
duced $5,250 for the same purpose.
1761.
The sidewalks were generally laid in brick. New
York sidewalks of the same date were cobble-stoned.
'Habit reconciles to everything," writes a Phila-
delphian about 1730. "It is diverting enough to
see a Philadelphian in New York. He walks the
streets with as much painful caution as if his toes
were covered with corns, or his feet lame with the
gout; while a New Yorker, as little approving
72
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
the plain masonry of Philadelphia, shuffles along
the pavement like a parrot on a mahogany table."
1742.
In the year 1742 the city "began to be illumi-
nated with lamps." Most of the early houses had
casement-windows fitted with leaded panes.
Sun-dials were affixed to many of the house-
fronts, and were consulted as timepieces by the
passers-by. In 1842 such a dial was still in exist-
ence on a dwelling on the north side of Pine Street,
opposite the Friends' Meeting-house. Every house-
door had its porch, under which the family sat on
pleasant evenings to enjoy the fresh air.
"It was
customary to go from porch to porch in neighbor-
hoods, and sit and converse."1 "Decent citizens.
had a universal speaking acquaintance with each
other, and everybody promptly recognized a stran-
ger in the streets."2 A watch of any kind was a
rarity; when first watches came into use, the watch-
makers found it an annoyance that they were so
constantly called on by passers-by for the hour of
the day. Carpets were scarcely known in the city
till after 1750. Wall-papers followed later, about
1790, whitewash having previously been in uni-
versal use. In 1771 the first umbrellas appeared
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 174.
2 Ibid., p. 175.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
73
in Philadelphia, and were scouted as a ridicu-
lous affectation. Blank cards seem to have been
unknown down to the middle of the century.
Playing-cards were the only ones imported, and
invitations and tickets of admission were written
or printed on the backs of these. A card for a
ball still in existence, issued in 1749 by Mrs.
Jeykill, one of the fashionable leaders of the day,
bears on its face the glaring image of the queen
of clubs.
1
Down to the time of the Revolution tooth-brushes
were unknown. "The genteelest were content to
rub the teeth with a chalked rag or with snuff.
Some even deemed it an effeminacy in men to be
seen cleaning the teeth at all." The dental art
was in its infancy. By a printed advertisement of
the year 1784, Dr. Le Mayeur, one of the first
dentists known in the city, engages to pay two gui-
neas for each tooth which may be offered him by
persons disposed to sell their front teeth or any
of them"! These were wanted for the operation
called "transplanting," by which a sound tooth is
drawn from the mouth of one living person and set
in that of another. Dr. Le Mayeur had great
success in Philadelphia, and is said to have" trans-
(C
1 Watson's " Annals of Philadelphia,” vol. i. p. 179.
74
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
planted" one hundred and twenty-three teeth in six
months.
Carriages were scarcely used in the city till after
the Revolution. "One of the really honorables of
the colonial days has told me of his mother (the
wife of the Chief Justice) going to a great ball in
her youthful days, to Hamilton's stores on the wharf
on Water Street, next to the drawbridge
she go-
ing to the same in her full dress on horseback." 1
In the year 1761 there were in the city but three
coaches, two landaus, eighteen chariots, and
fifteen chairs, making thirty-eight vehicles
in all. The rapid progress in luxury immediately
after this date is shown by the enumeration for
duties on pleasure-carriages in 1794, which shows
a list of "thirty-three coaches, one hundred and
fifty-seven coachees, thirty-five chariots, twenty-
two phaetons, eighty light wagons, and five hun-
dred and twenty chairs and sulkies." 2
1761.
1762.
,2
As late as the year 1762 the Schuylkill was still
unbridged, and was crossed by means of fer-
ries. In 1776 a floating bridge was placed
on the river; but it was not till 1804 that a perma-
nent structure took its place.
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia,” vol. i. p. 286.
2 Ibid., p. 208.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
75
In 1704 the city was divided into ten wards, which
division continued till 1800. The eastern front on
the Delaware, from Vine to Walnut Street, made
two, named the Upper and the Lower Delaware
wards. From Walnut to Mulberry and from Front to
Second Street made three more, Walnut, Chestnut,
and High. The space between Mulberry and Wal-
nut and Second and Seventh streets was formed
into the South, Middle, and North wards. Mulberry
ward occupied the space between Front and Seventh,
and Vine and Mulberry streets, and Dock ward that
between Delaware, Seventh, Walnut, and Cedar
streets. The whole number of taxable persons in
the city in 1741 was only 1621. The exports to
Great Britain in the following year amounted
to £8,527 12s. 8d., while the imports were £75,295
3s. 4d.
During the first thirty years of the century, pi-
racies along the coast were of frequent occurrence,
and kept the colony in continual alarm. In 1699
Captain Kidd was a standing menace to all sea-
going people. Four of his crew were arrested and
tried in Philadelphia. In 1717 and 1718 the
equally infamous "Blackbeard" was plundering off
the coasts of the Middle and Southern States. He
is said to have made repeated visits to Philadelphia,
76
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
and to have been countenanced and abetted by men
in respectable repute. A son-in-law of the Deputy-
Governor, Colonel Markham, was refused his seat
in the Assembly on account of his alleged connec-
tion with him.¹ Blackbeard frequented an inn in
High Street, near Second, and his vessel, which lay
off State Island, was regularly victualled and sup-
plied by a worthy Swede named Crane, who lived at
the Upper Ferry on the Schuylkill, and went off in
his boat to the pirates.
If
How great was the terror excited by this free-
booter may be guessed from the correspondence of
the times. In 1717 James Logan writes: "We have
been extremely pestered with pirates, who now
swarm in America, and increase their numbers
by almost every vessel they catch [compelling
them to enter by coercion or otherwise].
speedy care be not taken, they will become formi-
dable, being now at least fifteen hundred strong."
And later: "We have been much disturbed the
last week by the pirates. They have taken
and plundered six or seven vessels of this place.
Some of our people having been several days on
board of them, had much free discourse with them.
They say they are about four hundred strong at
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia,” vol. ii. p. 216.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
77
Providence, and I know not how many at Cape
Fear, where they are making a settlement...
The sloop that came on our coast had about one
hundred and thirty men, all stout fellows, all Eng-
lish, and doubly armed. They said they waited for
their consort of twenty-six guns, when they designed
to visit Philadelphia. Some of our masters say
they know almost every man on board, most of
them having been lately in the river. . . . They
are now busy about us to lay in their stores of
provisions for the winter." The following year,
writing to the Governor of New York, he says:
“We are in manifest danger here, unless the King's
ships [which seem careless of the matter] take some
notice of us; they probably think a proprietary
government no part of their charge. It is possible,
indeed, that the merchants of New York, some of
them, I mean, might not be displeased to hear that
we are all reduced to ashes. [Even so early, it
seems, there were jealousies of trade !] Unless these
pirates be deterred from coming up our rivers by the
fear of men-of-war to block them in, there is nothing
but what we may fear from them; for that unhappy
pardon [of Blackbeard] has given them a settled
correspondence everywhere, and an opportunity of
lodging their friends where they please, to come to
78
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
their assistance; and nowhere in America, I believe,
so much as in this town." 1 Here we have the
direct fact of Blackbeard's being then on the coast,
well armed, with a crew of one hundred and thirty
men, and waiting the arrival of another vessel, when
he meditated a visit of plunder and rapine on Phila-
delphia itself. "Think, too, of his crew being men.
generally known to captains in Philadelphia,
some
of them born among us
and the whole busily
concerting schemes to lay in their winter store of
provisions." 2
The "settled correspondence" of Blackbeard
seems to have included persons high in authority.
On his capture some months after the date of these
letters, papers were found on board his ship which
incriminated both the Governor of North Carolina
and his secretary as accessories in his infamous.
trade. They seem to have held a regular business
connection with the pirates, who were allowed to
bring their prizes into port and have them con-
demned, as though the freebooters were sailing
under letters of marque. Their booty was openly
sold, the Governor sharing in the spoils. He even
lent the countenance of his presence to the mar-
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia,” vol. ii. p. 216.
2 Ibid., pp. 218, 219.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
79
riage of Blackbeard with a young woman of good
family, who wedded him without being aware of his
character. It afterward proved that she was his
fourteenth wife, twelve others being still living! It
was not till the Governor of Virginia, moved by an
appeal from North Carolinians, "who much
distrusted their own Governor," came to the
rescue, that anything was done toward checking
this desperado.
1720.
His capture produced no immediate effect on the
spirit of lawless adventure, for in 1723 we hear of
"Lowe, the pirate, and his consort, Harris ; " in 1724
of "Sprigg, the Pirate," of the "Bachelor's Delight,"
and Skipton, of the "Royal Fortune." Justice
seems to have taken her time; but 1725 brought a
check to this nefarious trade, and gradually it came
to an end. The last executions were in October,
1731, when "Captain Macferson" and four others
were tried for piracy and hanged, after a long delay.
1737.
The low valuation of land within the city limits
so late as the middle of the century is remarkable.
In 1737 the whole square from High to
Chestnut, and from Tenth to Eleventh streets,
was leased for twenty years for the sum of forty
shillings per annum and the additional considera-
tion that the lessee should fence the plot and sow
80
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
it with "English grass." Three years later this
fortunate lessee sold out his title and interest in
the ground for the remainder of the term for £5.
William Penn is said to have offered his coachman
the whole of the square included between Chestnut
and Walnut and High and Second streets in lieu of
a year's wages. An old lady living in 1842 relates
that her grandfather was offered for £20 the whole
square from High Street to Arch Street and from
Front to Second Street, by William Penn himself.
He declined, saying, "How long shall I wait to see
my money returned in profit?" Water Street was
a fashionable residence down to the beginning
of the present century, "many of the richest and
genteelest merchants living. there."
"The ground
forming the square from Chestnut to Walnut streets
and from Sixth to Seventh, was all a grass meadow,
under fence, down to 1794 ·
The next square
beyond, westward, was Norris's pasture lot."
Except one or two brick houses on the corner of
Eighth Street, you met no other house to Schuyl-
kill." When in 1792 a house was built on Market
Street above Fifth, the owner was "almost con-
sidered as deranged for putting his building so far
beyond the seat of civilization.” 1
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. ii. p. 238.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
8I
1765.
In 1751 the Burlington and Bordentown line of
packet-boats was established for the transportation
of merchandise to New York. In 1756 a stage.
line to the same place was "instituted," to start from
the sign of "The Death of the Fox" in Strawberry
Alley, and arrive in three days. Nine years
later, a second line of stages was announced.
They were covered Jersey wagons without springs,
leaving Philadelphia twice a week, consuming
three days on the journey, and charging a tariff
of twopence a mile. The year following, the march
of improvement and the demand for rapid transit
resulted in the establishment of a third line, called
the "Flying Machine," price threepence a mile,
and warranted to push through to New York in
two days, "except during the winter season," when
three days must be allowed.
Only three newspapers were published in Phila-
delphia previous to the Revolution, the "American
Weekly Mercury," started in 1719, and discontinued
in 1746; its successor, the "Pennsylvania Journal
and Weekly Advertiser," begun in 1742, "in size a
foolscap sheet;" and Franklin's "Pennsylvania
Gazette," which dates back to 1729, and was finally
merged in 1840 into the "North American." Those
were the days when the Press was held under strict
6
82
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
censorship, both in England and America. As late
as 1719, John Mathews, a boy of nineteen, was ex-
ecuted at Tyburn for publishing a tract in favor
of the expelled Stuarts. In 1722 the Council of
Boston condemned James Franklin, publisher of the
"Courant" to jail for what was held to be a reflection
on the tardiness of the authorities in the matter of
the pirates. In 1723 they attempted to suppress the
same paper.
Private as well as public opinion bore
heavily on writers and printers, and held them to
a strict account for their utterances. There is a
droll and delightful story told of Franklin in con-
nection with this.
"Not long after Benjamin Franklin had com-
menced editor of a newspaper, he noticed with
considerable freedom the public conduct of one or
two influential persons in Philadelphia. This cir-
cumstance was regarded by some of his patrons
with disapprobation, and induced one of them to
convey to Franklin the opinion of his friends with
regard to it. The Doctor listened with patience to
the reproof, and begged the favor of his friend's
company at supper on an evening which he named;
at the same time requesting that the other gentle-
men who were dissatisfied with him should also
attend. The invitation was accepted by Philip
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
83
Syng, Hugh Roberts, and several others.
The
Doctor received them cordially, his editorial conduct
was canvassed, and some advice given. Supper was
at last announced, and the guests were invited to an
adjoining room. The Doctor begged the party to
be seated, and urged them to help themselves; but
the table was only supplied with two puddings and
a stone pitcher filled with water. Each guest had
a plate, a spoon, and a penny porringer. They were
all helped, but none but the Doctor could eat. He
partook freely of the pudding, and urged his friends
to do the same; but they tasted and tried in vain.
When their facetious host saw that the difficulty
was unconquerable, he rose and addressed them
thus My friends, any one who can subsist on saw-
dust-pudding and water, as I can, needs no man's
patronage.' He might have added, "and can
afford to print the truth and his real opinion,"
a luxury not common among editors, ancient or
modern.
'
On the 14th of May, 1729, the Assembly of Penn-
sylvania made an appropriation of two thousand
pounds for the building of "a house for the
Assembly of this province to meet in." A lot
was purchased on Chestnut Street, extending from
Fifth to Sixth Street. The building was begun in
1729.
84
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1732 and finished in 1735. Not till 1750, however,
were the tower and steeple added and the bell
procured, with its prophetic inscription: "Proclaim
Liberty throughout all the Land, and to all the
Inhabitants thereof."
It is a singular fact in municipal history that the
first house built in Philadelphia still survives. This
ancient dwelling was built in 1696 by Penn's order,
to be ready for his use when he arrived. It was
finally made part of the marriage portion of his
daughter Letitia, and was known as the Letitia
House. It stood on Letitia Street, above Second,
near Market, and for many years was occupied as a
tavern, under the name of the Woolpack Hotel. It
was recently removed from its original site and
rebuilt in Fairmount Park, where it is shown to
visitors.
Another quaint building, antedating 1700, was
the "Slate Roof House," on Second Street, at the
corner of Norris Alley, which survived till 1868.
Penn occupied this house during a part of both his
first and second visits to this country; and in it
was born his son, John Penn, the only one of his
descendants not born in England.
Of other well-known buildings in Philadelphia
which date back to the eighteenth century, we may
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
85
name the original Friends' Almshouse, built in
1729; the German Lutheran Church in Fifth
Street, built in 1743; the old London Coffee-house
on the corner of Front and Market streets, built
probably in 1702; and the Old Swedes' Church,
which antedates them all, having been begun in
1798. The First Presbyterian Church in Philadel-
phia was built in 1704. The first place of worship
for members of the Church of England was erected
in 1695. It was a lowly structure of wood, occupy-
ing the present site of Christ Church. An old negro
woman, who died in 1802 at the advanced age of
115 years, recollected its appearance. The ceiling,
she said, she could touch with her lifted hands.
The bell to call the people was hung in the crotch
of a tree near by. When it was superseded by a
more stately structure of brick, they ran their walls
up so far outside of the first church, that the worship
was continued unmolested till the other was roofed
and so far finished as to be used in its stead.¹ Facts
since brought to light seem to prove that the orig-
inal wooden building must have been a temporary
shed constructed within the walls of brick, and
used till the walls and roofing could be finished.
In 1711, and again in 1720, Christ Church re-
ceived considerable additions. The tower and
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. I. p. 379.
86
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1711.
steeple were not built until after 1744. This
church is rich in antique communion plate,
including a chalice and flagon presented by Queen
Anne in 1708. Franklin and his wife are buried.
in Christ Church graveyard, corner of Fifth and
Arch Streets.
In 1739 the famous preacher, George Whitefield,
made his first visit to Philadelphia. His eloquence
produced a deep impression, and no church
1739. could be found large enough to contain the
audiences which flocked to hear him. He accord-
ingly held forth, from the balcony of a court-house
on the corner of Second and Market streets, to a
crowd which extended eastward nearly to the Dela-
ware. Franklin calculated that at times twenty-five
thousand people may have been within the reach
of his voice. In 1740 he made a second visit to
Philadelphia, but speedily involved himself in con-
troversies with the leading people of the city, which
had the effect to impair his influence. He and his
co-evangelist, Seward, "undertook the bold meas-
ure of endeavoring to close the dancing-school,
the dancing-assembly, and the concert-room; the
two latter being kept up by subscription among
people of wealth and fashion who aspired to be
leaders of society."1 Seward writes:
1 Historic Mansions of Philadelphia," p. 157.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
87
“A friend came in and told us that some gentle-
men threatened to cane me for having taken away
the keys of the assembly-room, dancing-school, and
music-meeting, which the owner delivered to me
on my promise to pay for any damage which he
might sustain thereby. May the Lord strengthen
me to carry on this battle against one of Satan's
strongest holds in this city, supported in part too
by the proprietor, whose father bore a noble tes-
timony against those devilish diversions, which
shows us how dangerous a snare it is to our chil-
dren to leave them rich in this world's goods and
not rich in faith !
Many years later Whitefield, saw through the
light of sober experience, how unwise and unchari-
table he had been, and with ripened opinions made
the following confession: "I have carried high sail
whilst running through a torrent of popularity and
contempt. I may have mistaken nature for grace,
imagination for revelation, and the fire of my own
temper for holy zeal; and I find that I have
frequently written and spoken in my own spirit
when I thought that I was assisted entirely by
God." 1
The disfavor felt by the regular clergy toward
1 "Historic Mansions of Philadelphia," p. 158.
88
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Whitefield threatening to deprive him of the use of
all places of worship for his meetings, it was deter-
mined to erect a building which should be con-
trolled by him, and large enough to hold the vast
crowds which came to listen to his teachings.
This resulted in the building known as the Old
Academy in Fourth Street. It was begun in
1740. Whitefield preached in it during the same
year, before the roof was put on, and again in
1745 and 1746. During the week it was used as
a free school under the name of "The College
Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia."
On Sundays it was at the service of any regular
minister of the gospel who was willing to sub-
scribe to what was termed the "Whitefield creed,"
with the proviso that the Rev. George White-
field should have the free and uninterrupted use
of the building whenever he should happen to
be in Philadelphia. Later on this "Academy and
College" was merged into the University of Penn-
sylvania.
The amusements of the century were mostly of
a hearty and unrefined sort. "Bull-baiting and
cock-fighting were much countenanced." Horse-
racing was popular. "All genteel horses were
pacers. A trotting-horse was deemed a bad
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
89
breed." 1 Fairs with whirligigs and slack and
tight rope dancing were much patronized. In
winter there was a great deal of skating on the
rivers. May-days were observed with the raising
of the May-pole. It was not till 1754 that the first
theatre was opened in Philadelphia, “by a company
of comedians from London." Their first place of
exhibition was a store in Water Street. At the
date of their arrival, "popular prejudices were
powerful against every species of theatrical exhibi-
tion, and petitions were more than once presented
to the Legislature to put a stop to them. The
Synod of the Presbyterians in a general convoca-
tion, July, 1759, also lent the aid of their influence
against the theatre, by petitions to the Governor
and the Legislature, which were published.
few days later the theatrical corps announced for
exhibition, 'The Tragedy of Douglas, by the Rev.
Mr. Home, minister of the Kirk of Scotland.'"2
A
From the settlement of Philadelphia in 1682
until 1696 no public precautions seem to have been
taken against fire. In the latter year the Provin-
cial Legislature passed a law by which persons
were forbidden to fire their chimneys to cleanse
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 280.
2 "A Picture of Philadelphia,” p. 329.
90
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
them, or suffer them to be so foul as to take fire,
under a penalty of forty shillings; and each house-
owner was to provide and keep ready a swab
twelve or fourteen feet long, and a bucket or pail,
under the penalty of ten shillings. No person
should presume to smoke tobacco in the streets,
either by day or night, under the penalty of twelve
pence.
A similar Act was passed in 1700, providing
for two leather buckets, and forbidding more
1700.
than six pounds of powder to be kept in any
house or shop, unless forty perches distant from
any dwelling-house, under the penalty of ten pounds.
The law was re-enacted in 1701, and the magis-
trates were authorized to procure "six or eight
good hooks for the tearing down of houses on fire." 1
In 1718 Abraham Bickley, a public-spirited mer-
chant, imported a hand fire-engine from Eng-
land, which next year was purchased of him
by the Council. A destructive fire in 1730 led to
the purchase of three more engines by the city,
besides four hundred leather buckets, twenty lad-
ders, and twenty-five hooks, an assessment of two-
pence per pound and eight shillings per head being
made to pay for the same.
1718.
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. iii. p. 405.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
91
1733.
It
In 1733 an article appeared in Franklin's " Penn-
sylvania Gazette," on fires, their origin, and
the best methods for putting them out. This
led to the formation of the first fire company.
was incorporated in 1736, Franklin being one of its
founders. Each member at his own cost was to
provide six leather buckets and two bags of good
osnaburgs or wider linen. The bags and baskets
were for packing and transporting of goods. Upon
the alarm of fire, each member was to repair with
half of his buckets and bags to the fire, to extinguish
it, and preserve the goods. The number of mem-
bers was restricted to thirty, and this being filled
up within a year, a second company was formed,
March 1st, 1738, under the name of the Fellowship
Fire Company, with thirty-five members." 1
1742.
In 1742 a third company, "The Hand in Hand,”
was organized; in 1743 a fourth, "The Heart
in Hand;" three years later the fifth, named
"The Friendship;" and in 1751 "The Britannia,”
disbanded in the time preceding the Revolution,
probably on account of its name. Each of the com-
panies had an engine imported from England, and
these six organizations, with their appliances, were
Philadelphia's reliance for protection against fire
down to the end of the century.
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. iii. p. 408.
92
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Education was one of the earliest needs to which
the Quaker colony lent its attention. The first
English school was opened in 1683, one Enoch
Flower being its master. "The prices were moder-
ate: to read English, four shillings; to write, six
shillings; and to read, write, and cast accounts, eight
shillings; for teaching, lodging, and diet, ten pounds
per annum." 1
In 1689 the Friends' Public School,
which now stands in Front Street, below Chest-
nut, was begun. There were no separate schools
for girls until near the close of the century. In
1770 a Mr. Griscom advertises his private Academy,
"free from the noise of the city," at the North end.
It is amusing to reflect that this scholastic retreat
was situated on Front and Water streets, a little
above Vine, a spot which no student in search of
quiet would be likely to select nowadays.
1781.
The stone prison on High and Third streets was
begun in 1718, and was probably the first
built for the use of the colony. "The barbar-
ous appendages of whipping-post, pillory, and stocks
were placed full in the public eye, hard by, on High
Street, directly in front of the Market."2 These
punishments were in use till the Revolution. In
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. p. 287.
2 Ibid., p. 363.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
93
1720 the penalty of death was inflicted for the
making and passing of counterfeit dollars, — the first
case in the colony. In 1705 men were fined twenty
shillings for laboring on the Sabbath day, and ten
for being found tippling in a tavern on that same
day. Profane swearing was a punishable offence.
Barbers were indicted for shaving persons on "First
Day," and for "trimming hair." In 1731 a woman
was burned alive publicly for the murder of her
husband. It was not till after the coming in of our
own century that the present penitentiary system
was inaugurated.
Down to the Revolution, slavery was a feature of
Philadelphia life, and it was a common incident for
family servants to be sent to jail to receive a dozen
lashes as punishment for acts of insubordination. In
1762 Messrs. Willing and Morris advertised in the
daily papers the sale of one hundred and seventy
negroes just arrived from the Gold Coast. "Redemp-
tion servants," or emigrants sold for a term of years.
to defray the expense of their passage, were numer-
ous. An advertisement in 1728 reads: "Lately
imported, and to be sold cheap, a parcel of likely
men and women servants." The practice was dis-
couraged after a time, from the dread lest criminals
should in this way be imported into the county.
94
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
"In 1763 the Treaty of Peace between England
and France was signed at Paris. The savage
1763.
tribes of America, however, remained unaf-
fected by the pledges of the Christian rulers who
for years had alternately employed them. They
still continued their career of destruction, and of all
the colonies, Pennsylvania suffered most."1
Through the whole summer of that fatal year
the western frontier of the State was ravaged
by the hostile savages, till “ 'every white man in
Pennsylvania loathed the name of Indian." The
terror and indignation excited by these attacks
led during the winter to an act of unjustifiable
reprisal, if reprisal it can be called which visits on
the innocent and defenceless the wrongs of the
guilty who are out of reach.
Twenty miles from Philadelphia, near Lancaster,
there still dwelt a feeble remnant of the Costenogas,
the tribe which had been first to bid the English
settlers welcome on their arrival eighty years before,
and to agree in the Treaty of Peace. One old man
still survived who had touched the hand of William
Penn. They had kept their treaty obligations
loyally, and had always been faithful friends to the
English. In 1763 only twenty of them were left,
1 Parton's "Life of Franklin," vol. i. p. 311.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
95
seven men, five women, and eight children. "They
were still living in their village on the Shawanee
Creek, their lands being assured to them by mano-
rial gift; but they were miserably poor, earned by
making brooms, baskets, and wooden bowls a part
of their living, and begged the rest. They were
wholly peaceable and unoffending, friendly to their
white neighbors, and pitifully clinging and affection-
ate, naming their children after whites who had
been kind to them, and striving in every way to
show their gratitude and good-will." 1
Upon this inoffensive community, which had
never raised a hand against a white man, a party
of armed ruffians descended on the 15th day of
December, burned the huts, and killed and scalped
every creature in them. As it chanced, only six
of the Indians were at home that morning. The
magistrates of Lancaster took charge of the re-
maining fourteen, and placed them in the work-
house for protection.
A fortnight later, the same band of murder-
ers surrounded the workhouse. They were fifty
strong. No one dared to interfere. 'When the
poor wretches saw that they had no protection nigh,
and could not possibly escape, they divided their
1 "A Century of Dishonor," by H. H., p. 303.
96
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
little families, the children clinging to their parents.
They fell on their faces, protested their innocence,
declared their love of the English, and that in their
whole lives they had never done them injury ;
and in this posture they all received the hatchet.
The barbarous men who committed this atrocious
act hurrahed in triumph, as if they had gained a
victory, and rode off unmolested."
This tragedy could hardly find a place in a
history of Philadelphia, though belonging to its
immediate neighborhood, were it not for the con-
sequences that followed.
The massacre of these twenty harmless and
unresisting creatures seemed to light a flame of
cruelty throughout the State. Men justified the
act of "the Paxton boys;" worse, they burned to
imitate it. The efforts of the magistrates to find
the offenders were fruitless. All the Christian In-
dians were included in the unreasoning hatred of
the multitude. "Everywhere in the provinces fa-
natics began to renew the old cry that the Indians
were the Canaanites whom God had commanded
Joshua to destroy. It became dangerous for a
Moravian Indian to be seen anywhere. In vain
1 From a pamphlet printed anonymously in Philadelphia at the
time of the massacre.
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
97
did he carry one of the Pennsylvania governor's
passports in his pocket. He was liable to be shot
at sight, with no time to pull his passport out.” 1
In November an order reached the Moravian.
missionaries to bring the baptized Indians under
their charge to Philadelphia, that they might be
under the protection of the city. The Governor at
that time was John Penn the younger, who had
lately arrived from England. He seems to have
acted in good faith in this order; but he found
difficulties in carrying it out. When the little
band of Indians arrived, one hundred and forty in
number, including the aged, the sick, and little
children, they were assigned to the "Barracks
in the Northern Liberties" for shelter, but the
Highland regiment quartered in the place denied
them admission. For five hours the helpless crea-
tures stood before the shut gate, the mob increas-
ing and growing more riotous every hour, their
missionaries bravely standing by them, and trying
in vain to stem or control the insults of the crowd.
At last an order came that they should proceed to
Province Island, an island in the Delaware,
joined to the shore by a coffer dam.
They remained at this place for more than a
1 "A Century of Dishonor," p. 308.
7
98
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
month, humane people in Philadelphia sending
them provisions, fuel, and other necessaries. Mean-
while the Paxton boys, now swelled in number to
some hundreds, began to march upon the city in
two bodies, with the avowed intention of not leav-
ing a single Indian alive. The Governor issued
stringent proclamations, but had evidently no force
of will to meet the emergency. The helpless
Indians were hurried here and there, to League
Island, back again to Province Island; to Amboy,
with the intention of putting them under the pro-
tection of New York; back again to Philadelphia, —
all in the cold of midwinter. At last they were
quartered in the same barracks which had once
before refused them admittance.
News was received that the rioters in large force
were approaching. It was only too probable that,
should they enter the city, they would be joined by
many sympathizers. Bells were rung, bonfires
lighted. The whole city was in terror. Entrench-
ments were thrown up round the barracks, and
cannon planted, many Quakers assisting in the
preparations for defence. Dr. Franklin and three
other gentlemen rode out to meet the insurgents,
at the request of the Governor, all this warlike
demonstration and public fear being caused by the
OLD PHILADELPHIA.
99
necessity of protecting less than two hundred of
his Majesty's red lieges, members of the same com-
munion, and amenable to the same laws, from the
murderous assault of a body of their fellow-Chris-
tians of the same community!
1764.
The arguments of the delegation or the news.
of the defences of the city had the effect to dis-
courage the rioters, and they withdrew their
force, making no attack. The effect of the
affair on the mind of Governor John Penn was, how-
ever, unfortunate. He lost all courage and spirit
in the face of danger, and gave way to the tide of
popular feeling. Terrified, and angry with himself
for being so, he truckled to the murderers. A few
weeks after these events, he issued a proclamation,
which may justly be styled infamous, offering a
bounty for Indian scalps, one hundred and thirty-
eight dollars for that of a male Indian, fifty dollars
for that of a female, with the addition implied, if
not stated, of "no questions asked." And this
from a grandson of William Penn!
UorM
CHAPTER VI.
W
1763.
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM.
1766-1776.
HEN on the morning of the 22d day of Sep-
tember, 1763, three Lords of the Treasury
met in Downing Street, and, with little dis-
cussion and less hesitation, passed a casual
minute providing for the taxation of the American
colonies, neither of the three, as it would seem, had
the least foreboding of the storm of resentment
which the measure was to evoke. Parliament was
equally unconscious. One man alone among the
employés of the Government had an instinct of the
coming peril. Richard Jackson, secretary to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, warned his master
to lay the project aside, and refused to take any
part in furthering it.
Ignorance of American affairs," said Burke,
"had misled Parliament; knowledge alone could.
bring it into the right road." But knowledge
came, as she too often does, only in time to point
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. ΙΟΙ
a moral after evil is an accomplished fact, and its
consequences inevitable. All the colonies were in
a flame of passionate indignation; the spirit of re-
sistance, like a prairie fire, was fairly leaping over
the land, before any one in England had wasted
two thoughts on the matter, and even before the
actual passage of the Stamp Act itself in 1765.
1765.
It was an Act curiously well adapted to puzzle
and disgust the people whom it was to affect. It
imposed duties on fifty-four different articles.
All parchment and paper, all legal docu-
ments, school and college degrees, bills of lading,
licenses, bonds, leases, warrants, mortgages, all
pamphlets, almanacs, advertisements, translations,
all premiums paid by apprentices, deeds, convey-
ances, appointments to office, in short every act
between man and man which required the guaran-
tee of a signature and a seal was to be taxed at a
rate of from one shilling to four pounds each.
-
In addition, heavy restrictions on trade were im-
posed. The colonists were prohibited from export-
ing the great bulk of their produce to any country
save Great Britain. They were prohibited from
purchase, except of a few specified articles, in
other than British ports. To increase their depen-
dence on England, manufactures of various sorts
102
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
were interdicted, especially those of iron ore and
of wool.
"The colonists abounded in land, and so could.
feed flocks of sheep. Lest they should multiply
their flocks and weave their own cloth, they might
not use a ship nor a boat, nor a carriage, no, nor
even a pack-horse, to carry wool, or any manufac-
ture of which wool forms a part, across the line of
one province to another. They could not land wool
from islands in the harbor, or bring it across a river.
A British sailor finding himself in want of clothes.
in one of their harbors might not buy there more
than forty shillings' worth of woollens." 1
Printing the Bible in America was also prohib-
ited, and, except in the Indian dialects, it never was
printed there till after the Revolution. These
laws were to be enforced, not by the civil officers
only, but by naval and military officers irresponsi-
ble to the civil power in the colonies. The penal-
ties and forfeitures for breach of the revenue laws
were to be decided in courts of vice-admiralty,
without the interposition of a jury, by a single
judge, who had no support whatever but from his
own share in the profits of his own condemna-
tions." 2
1 Bancroft, vol. v. p. 265.
2 Ibid., p. 267.
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 103
Looking at the measures in the light of their
after results, it seems singular indeed that even
the colonial agents dwelling in London should
have been so little prepared for what was to fol-
low. Franklin himself seems never to have doubted
but that the tax, however unpalatable, would be
peacefully levied. Nobody could be more con-
cerned in interest than myself to oppose it,” he
writes to a friend; "but the tide was too strong
against us. We might as well have hindered
the sun's setting; that we could not do. But
since 'tis down, my friend,
before it rises again,
and it may be long
let us make as good a
We may still light can-
night of it as we can.
dles. Frugality and industry will go a great way
toward indemnifying us. Idleness and pride tax
with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments.
If we can get rid of the former, we can easily bear
the latter." To a friend he added privately, “We
are not yet strong enough to resist."
Meanwhile all America was in a ferment. In
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachu-
setts, the collectors were compelled by threats or
by the urgency of public opinion to resign their
offices. An ardor for retrenchment seized the colo-
nists. Resolutions for the practice of economy
104
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
were everywhere passed. Communities bound
themselves, by way of encouraging the production
of wool, to eat no mutton or lamb; and they re-
solved to dispense with the use of all British-made
goods.
Self-denial for the living was not enough: it
was decided to restrict the expense of burying
the dead; and accordingly in Philadelphia, that
year, “B. Price, Esquire," was buried in an oaken
coffin with iron handles, and Alderman Plumstead
without pall or mourning dresses.
In the hope of making the objectionable Act
more palatable, several of the colonial agents
in London were consulted by Grenville, the
1765.
Prime Minister, as to the choice of per-
sons to serve as stamp-collectors. Franklin, when
applied to for the choice of some one who should
be acceptable to Pennsylvania, designated Mr.
John Hughes, a respectable merchant of Phila-
delphia and an old friend of his own. His feeling
seems to have been that, the tax being inevitable,
it was wise to make the best of the matter; but at
home the action was construed as indicating a sym-
pathy with the unpopular measure, and for a time
his townspeople were very angry with him. The
unlucky Mr. Hughes, who does not seem to have
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 105
been in any way responsible for his appointment,
became the object of general execration. When
the English ships bearing the detested stamp-
paper came up the river, all the vessels in the
harbor hung their flags at half-mast, and the bells
of the city were muffled, and tolled as if for a
funeral. The stamps were not allowed to land,
and were sent back to England. A similar fate
awaited a similar freight a few months later. To
evade the provisions of the Act, the almanacs of
that year were published in advance of their usual
date; and on the day before the Act was to go
into effect the two newspapers then existing in
the city came out with black borders, a heading
of skulls, cross-bones, pickaxe, and spade, and, by
way of a tail-piece, a coffin. Several thousand
citizens assembled in the State House yard and
appointed a committee to wait on Mr. John
Hughes and request him to resign his position.
as collector. This he refused; but subsequently,
under pressure, did.
So high did popular feeling run, that the
house of Franklin himself was threatened with
destruction at the hands of the mob. It must
have been particularly trying to be misjudged by
a distant constituency at a time when explanations.
106
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
and exculpations took two, three, sometimes four,
months to cross the sea. Franklin's repute did
not, however, long suffer wrong at the hands of
his countrymen. Presently came the report of his
examination before Parliament on the question of
the day,—an examination which did much to in-
fluence the repeal of the Stamp Act, which soon
after followed; and the record of his clear, vig-
orous, outspoken explanations and replies riveted
to him afresh the affection of every loyal heart in
America.
News of the repeal reached Philadelphia in May,
through the captain of a merchant vessel.
1766.
The
overflowing and general joy expended itself
in acts of hospitality toward this bearer of
good tidings. He was escorted through the
streets, treated to punch at the Coffee-house, and
presented with a gold-laced hat. The following
day an entertainment was given in the State
House, to which the officers of the royal ships
then in harbor were invited. Mutual pledges
were exchanged, and all was amity and good will,
not in Philadelphia only, but throughout the colo-
nies. In Boston the debtors even were brought
out of prison to share in the general rejoicing.
Franklin's relief at the repeal was deep and
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 107
fervent; but he instantly wrote to warn his friends
at home not to express their gladness in a way
which should give a handle to their enemies in
England. "Our relief," he writes, is "chiefly im-
putable to what the profane call luck and the pious
call Providence." Neither he nor any American
had occasion for enduring satisfaction. Their de-
feat in the matter of the Stamp Act rankled in the
breasts of his Majesty's ministers; and a year later
the excitement and distrust of the colonies were
reawakened by the passage of an Act to tax glass,
paper, painter's colors, lead, and tea.
1767.
These duties, being only designed to produce
a revenue of some twenty-four thousand pounds,
were treated in a light and matter-of-course
way by Parliament, which ignored the fact
that the question at issue with the colonies was
the principle of taxation, rather than the avoidance
of its immediate burden.
All the agitations provoked by the Stamp Act
were at once renewed. In September, 1768, the
traders of Philadelphia, in concert with those of New
York and Boston, entered into a formal agreement
to import no goods whatever from England till the
tax should be abolished. In 1769 a vessel
freighted with English malt arrived in the
1769.
108
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
city. The brewers held a meeting, and by a
unanimous vote resolved not to purchase or use
a pound of it. In 1770 the New York traders,
under the pressure of a strong local influence, re-
ceded from the agreement, and reopened importa-
tion. This act gave great umbrage to the patriotic
Philadelphians, who, in a public meeting, agreed to
buy nothing whatever in New York,-"that fac-
tion unfriendly to reduction of grievances." The
general desire to encourage home manufactures
led in 1771 to the establishment of a flint-
glass factory near Lancaster and a china
factory in Philadelphia. In this year also a piece
of fine broadcloth was exhibited at the Coffee-house,
probably the first ever made in America.
1771.
The feeling in Philadelphia was shared or sur-
passed by the colonies in general. It was during
this period of intense agitation that Franklin, still
in London, published anonymously his famous
satire, entitled "Rules for reducing a Great Em-
pire to a Small One. Presented to a late Minister
when he entered upon his Administration."
This trenchant burlesque began as follows:
"An ancient sage valued himself in this, that,
though he could not fiddle, he knew how to make
a great city out of a small one. The science that
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 109
I, a modern simpleton, am about to communicate,
is the very reverse." Then follow the "Rules,"
which are full of humor. "A great empire, like a
great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.
Turn your attention, therefore, first to your re-
motest provinces, that, as you get rid of them, the
next may follow in order. Take special care that
the provinces are never incorporated with the
mother country; that they do not enjoy the same
rights, the same privileges, in commerce; and that
they are governed by severer laws, all of your en-
acting, without allowing them any choice of the
legislators. By carefully making and preserving
such distinctions, you will (to keep to my simile.
of the cake) act like a wise gingerbread baker, who,
to facilitate a division, cuts his dough half through
in those places where when baked he would have
it broken to pieces. Quarter troops among them,
who by their insolence may provoke the rising of
mobs, and by their bullets and bayonets suppress
them. By this means, like the husband who uses
his wife ill, from suspicion, you may in time con-
vert your suspicions into realities. Scour with
armed boats every bay, harbor, river, creek, cove,
or nook throughout the coast of your colonies;
stop and detain every coaster, every wood-boat,
IIO
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
every fisherman; tumble their cargoes, and even
their ballast, inside out and upside down; and if a
pennyworth of pins is found unentered, let the
whole be seized and confiscated. Then let these
boats' crews land upon every farm in their way,
rob their orchards, steal their pigs and poultry, and
insult the inhabitants. If the injured and exas-
perated farmers, unable to procure other justice,
should attack the aggressors, drub them, and burn
their boats; you are to call this high treason and
rebellion, order fleets and navies into their country,
and threaten to carry all the offenders three thou-
sand miles to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.
Oh, this will work admirably! If you have care-
fully practised these few excellent rules of mine,
take my word for it you will get rid of the trouble
of governing them, and all the plagues attending
their commerce and connection, from thenceforth
and forever."
This ingenious bit of fun and satirical sense had
a great run, and was copied into many newspapers
on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1770 Parliament decided to abolish all taxes
in the colonies excepting that on tea. The
concession produced no effect. The right to
levy imposts was as much involved in the taxing
1770.
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. III
of a single article as of a dozen, and the
determination to resist such a right had only
grown stronger with time. Smuggling became a
common practice. In 1771 a revenue schooner
belonging to the King made a prize on the Dela-
ware of a pilot-boat loaded with tea intended for
the Philadelphia market. A rescue party at once.
set out, boarded the King's vessel near Red Bank,
overpowered and bound her crew, and taking pos-
session of the pilot-boat and her cargo, sailed away
with her.
1773.
All the agreements for non-importation were
continued. In 1773 the East India Company
resolved to ship cargoes of tea to the princi-
pal American seaports. What this resolve led to in
Boston all the world knows.
In Philadelphia a large meeting of citizens was
held in the State House yard to protest against the
enterprise. Eight Resolutions were adopted, the
seventh of which was as follows.
"Resolved, that whoever shall, directly or
indirectly, countenance this attempt, or in any wise.
aid and abet in unloading, receiving, or vending
the tea sent, or to be sent, out by the East India
Company while it remains subject to a duty here,
is an enemy to his country."
II2
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Two months later, on Christmas Day, word came
that the tea-ship " Polly," Captain Ayres, was in the
river, and had got up as far as Gloucester Point.
Another meeting was at once called, even more
largely attended than the previous one. The Reso-
lutions it passed were curt and to the point.
"Resolved: 1. That the tea on board the ship
'Polly,' Captain Ayres, shall not be landed,
1773.
"2. That Captain Ayres shall neither enter
nor report his vessel at the custom-house.
"3. That Captain Ayres shall carry back the tea
immediately.
4. That Captain Ayres shall immediately send a
pilot on board his vessel, with orders to take charge
of her and proceed to Reedy Island next high water.
"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 bay.
"7. That a committee of four gentlemen be ap-
pointed to see these resolves carried into execution."
"Handbills and broadsides purporting to be issued
by the 'Committee for Tarring and Feathering' were
printed. They were addressed to the Delaware
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 113
pilots and to Captain Ayres himself, warning the
former of the danger which they would incur if
they brought the tea-ship safely up the river, while
Captain Ayres was threatened with the application
of tar and feathers if he attempted to land the
tea." 1
•
But Captain Ayres had landed in advance of his
cargo, had attended the State House meeting, and
needed no further warning. He discreetly took
the hint. Very little time was given him for trifling.
In two hours the "Polly" was loaded with fresh
provisions and water, her bow was turned seaward,
and Captain Ayres sailed out of the Delaware to
convey "the detested tea back to its old rotting-
place in Leadenhall Street."
"The eyes of all the world," writes Bancroft of
this period, "were riveted on Franklin and George
the Third." The former still remained in London,
though encompassed by dangers. He knew himself
in daily peril of arrest, but so long as a glimmering
hope of mediation remained he would not desert.
his post, though matters in England steadily grew
The colonies were systematically misrep-
resented, bribery was on the increase, offices and
votes were openly sold. "If America," said Frank-
1 "Guide to Philadelphia,” p. 25.
worse.
8
114
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
lin, “would save for three or four years the money
she spends in the fashions and fineries and fopperies
of this country, she might buy the whole Parlia-
ment, Ministry and all.”
1774.
Seven years of alternate usurpation and conces-
sion, hope and fear, faith and distrust, ripened at
length in the first Continental Congress. The
time had come for the fulfilment of Bona-
parte's subsequent epigram: "The youth must
become a man; the time must arrive when the
child must cease to sleep with its mother." The
Congress held a preliminary meeting in Smith's
tavern, to select a place for their deliberations. The
carpenters of Philadelphia offered the use of their
"plain but spacious hall," and the offer was accep-
ted. John Adams thus tells the story of the
acceptance :-
"We 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.
A 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 for the negative, and they were
chiefly from Pennsylvania and New York.”
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 115
Some discussion arose at the first meeting as to
whether the session should be opened with prayer.
It was at last resolved that the Rev. Mr. Duché,
rector of Christ Church, should be asked to read
prayers on the occasion. He appeared accordingly
in vestments, and read several collects and the
psalm for the day, which chanced to be the thirty-
fifth. A false rumor of the cannonading and de-
struction of Boston by the British troops had that
morning arrived, which gave to the psalm an espe-
cial significance. "It seemed as if Heaven had or-
dained that psalm to be read that morning," wrote
John Adams; "I never saw a greater effect upon
an audience."
The proceedings of this Congress were cautious
and slow. It adopted a series of "Recommenda-
tions" to the American people, enjoining economy,
self-restraint, the disuse of English goods, and the
non-exportation of sheep to the West Indies. The
time had not yet come for talk of armed resistance.
Before its adjournment, the members were formally
entertained at a banquet given in the State House,
the last time that building was used for such a
purpose. John Adams writes of this dinner: “A
sentiment was given: May the sword of the parent
never be stained with the blood of his children.'
116
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Two or three broad-brims were over against me
at table. One of them said: This is not a toast,
but a prayer; come, let us join in it.' And they
took their glasses accordingly."
1775.
On the 26th of January, 1775,- that year big
with fate, — a provincial convention was held
in Carpenters' Hall, to enforce the measures.
recommended by the Congress, and to advocate
the promotion of manufactures, especially of gun-
powder, for which, it was dryly added, "a great
necessity existed, especially in the Indian trade."
On the 24th of April came news of the skirmishes
at Concord and Lexington, and the reprisals taken
by the Massachusetts farmers upon the King's
troops. All Philadelphia was in a surge of excite-
ment. Meetings were called, and all present pledged
themselves to "defend with arms their property,
liberty, and lives against all attempts to deprive them
of it." Even the pacific Quakers shared in the
popular emotion; on "Fifth Day afternoon" they
called an assembly to consider how best to send
supplies to Boston, "then suffering for freedom's
sake." The Assembly was petitioned to raise
£50,000 for the defence of the city; militia com-
panies were formed, and exercised in all the open
parks and squares; the manufacture of gunpowder
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 117
and cannon was urged forward; and preparations
made to obstruct the navigation of the Delaware.
It was in the midst of this crisis that a strong
reinforcement to the friends of liberty landed from
England in the person of Dr. Franklin. He had
slipped quietly away from London on the 20th
of March, with leave-taking so brief, that he was
well at sea before his departure was known. To
the last there were apprehensions lest he might
not be permitted to embark. He landed in Phila-
delphia on May 5th, and was elected a member of
the second Congress on the day following.
The news that greeted his arrival stirred in him
a hearty zeal. Long residence in England had
taught him the futility of negotiations and peti-
tions, and the true character of the King and
his Ministers. Concerning the Lexington affair he
wrote to Mr. Burke: "General Gage's troops made
a most vigorous retreat, twenty miles in three
hours scarce to be paralleled in history; the feeble
Americans who pelted them all the way could scarce
keep up with them." And to some disaffected per-
son who insinuated that firing from behind stone
walls proved the cowardice of the Americans, he
shrewdly answered: "I beg to inquire if those same
walls had not two sides to them."
118
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
'With his disappearance from the scene [Lon-
don], the last gleam of a compromise vanished. Of
all men he was the friend of peace; but the horrors
of a sanguinary civil war did not confuse his per-
ceptions or impair his decision. The Administra-
tion and its followers called him insincere. But
nothing deceives like jealousy. .. The British
Ministry overreached themselves by not believing
him. Speaking the truth to them in sincerity,'
says Franklin, 'was my only finesse.'” 1
On the 10th of May the second Continental Con-
gress met in Philadelphia. A cavalcade of gentle-
men, five hundred mounted men in all, rode
1775.
six miles out of the city to meet and escort
the members. One of the first measures of Con-
gress was to reinstate Franklin in the Postmaster-
generalship, of which he had been deprived by
the British Government immediately after his ar-
raignment at the hands of Wedderburn. He was
elected "for one year, or till another is appointed
by a future Congress." In franking letters at this
time he adopted, instead of the "Free, B. Franklin,”
which he had been accustomed to employ, the form,
"B. Free, Franklin," which served at once as an
admonition and a passport.
1 Bancroft, vol. viii. p. 264.
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 119
On June 15th Washington was chosen by Con-
gress as general of the patriotic forces. That same
evening a dinner was given in honor of the event by
several prominent gentlemen of Philadelphia. At
its close Jefferson rose and proposed the health of
George Washington, commander-in-chief of the
American armies." Washington had risen to reply;
but as for the first time the new title fell upon his
ears, he lost color, and a look of awe came over his
face.
"At that moment he suddenly realized, as we all
did," writes Dr. Benjamin Rush in his Journal,
"the awful responsibility of our undertaking, and
all the difficulties which lay before us. The shock
was great. The guests had all risen, and held their
glasses to their lips ready to drink. Each one slowly
replaced his glass without touching a drop, and
thoughtfully sat down. For some moments the
solemn silence was unbroken."
The proprietary party in Pennsylvania, both at
that time and later, remained strongly opposed to
any collision or rupture with the mother-country.
Under the guidance of John Dickenson, their rep-
resentative, they held a firm check on the ardent
spirit of the colony, and retarded so far as was
possible its patriotic impulses. 'The redress of
I 20
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
grievances, together with union and harmony
between Great Britain and the Colonies," was their
policy, openly avowed and persisted in through-
out all those years of struggle and agitation which
preceded the final severance; and it was a policy
difficult to combat. "The honest scruples of the
Quakers merited consideration." The proprietary
influence was strong, and the popular resistance to
that influence had induced the habit of looking to
the King as a redresser of grievances rather than
as an inflicter of them. This division of sentiment
and interest had the effect more than once to make
Pennsylvania seem lukewarm in her response to the
appeals of her sister colonies; but the strength of the
liberal party was constantly on the increase, and in
the end it prevailed; and the Quaker colony took
her full share, and more, of the risks and hardships
of the seven years' struggle.
"The conduct of the Quakers during the Ameri-
can Revolution is inexplicable, if viewed in con-
nection with their earlier history. From the
settlement of Pennsylvania the adherents of the
Church of England, representing the interests of
the Crown, were in opposition to them. But they
were found, with but few exceptions, on the side of
the Crown, and as long as they dared they did not
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 121
hesitate to show their disapprobation of the meas-
ures of resistance to wrong which led the way to
independence.” ¹
1
1776.
Even so late as the 20th of December, 1776, an
Address was issued by the Pennsylvania
"Friends," urging upon all members of their
communion to resist with Christian firmness the
ordinances of men who assumed the power of
compelling others to carry on war. Long after the
evacuation of the city by the British troops the
Society claimed the right to "deal" with such of
their members as violated their discipline by joining
in the measures for defence or self-protection. In
1779 two worthy Friends, in the pursuance of this
policy, called at the house of Colonel Timothy
Matlack, thus to "deal" with his son, a member
of their body "on account of bearing arms." The
wrath of the warlike parent could not be restrained.
"I turned them out of my house," he says, in a
published account of the transaction, "and gave
them both in the open street, in full measure, but not
without mercy, the chastisement which their auda-
cious impudence demanded, and thus exacted from
me. As this transaction will undoubtely form
a page in the Book of Sufferings, and as Mr. F.
1" Historic Mansions of Philadelphia,” p. 322.
I22
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
and Mr. J. represent the stick used on that occasion
as a very heavy one and a mere cudgel, to prevent
the exaggeration so very common in that book, it is
necessary to say that, my horsewhip being out of
place, I was obliged to use a middle-sized walking
stick which I have usually carried for a few years
past."
>>
The members excluded from the Society by this
process of discipline were not disposed to submit
quietly to excommunication. They associated them-
selves into a separate body, under the name of the
"Free Quakers," called by outsiders the "Fight-
ing Quakers." In 1783 they built the Free Quaker
Meeting-house on the southwest corner of Fifth
and Mulberry streets. In 1786 they obtained from
the city the grant of eight lots on the west side
of Fifth, below Prune (or Locust), for a separate
burial-ground, which in after years was opened for
the dead soldiers of the War of the Rebellion. To
the last this assemblage of seceders maintained
firmly their position as true members of the Society
of Friends, but protesters against its injustice. No
man of them ever gave in. Down to 1835 the sur-
vivors of the congregation, reduced by that time to
four or five venerable men, met at the appointed
seasons for an hour of silent worship in the Free
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 123
Meeting-house. One by one they failed from their
accustomed places, but not till the last staunch
gray head was laid low was the meeting abandoned
or the protest of a half-century silenced.
"By General
Erected in
In 1840 the trustees of the Free Quakers leased
the building for the use of the "Apprentices' Free
Library," the only library of the sort in the city.
The lease was renewed in 1783. The inscription
on the building is worth recording.
Subscription, for the Free Quakers.
the year of our Lord 1783, of the Empire 8."
This is probably the only place where the word
empire" was used in reference to the new
Republic.
Petition to the King was the remedy proposed
for the pacification of all difficulties by Dicken-
son and the Assembly he controlled. A carefully
worded memorial and protest was accordingly for-
warded to London, and when insultingly rejected
by George III., a second anxiously drafted docu-
ment was drawn up, and intrusted to the hands
of Richard Penn for presentation to his Majesty.
Meanwhile the defences of the Delaware went on.
Before the year ended it was so well protected
by forts, batteries, and chevaux-de-frise, that when,
two years later, the King's ships attempted to force
124
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
((
a way up the river, they were retarded for two
months. Row-galleys," devised by Dr. Franklin,
were manned and armed; patriotic women made
provision of lint and bandages; Tories were oc-
casionally tarred and feathered by the mob. But
the influence of Dickenson and the Penns and
the Quaker party still prevailed to curb the more.
ardent spirit of the Colony and keep her in the
rearward of the movement toward revolution.
Congress meantime had appointed Washington
commander-in-chief of its army, and the battle of
Bunker's Hill had given new impetus to the de-
termination for freedom.
Dr. Franklin's humorous summing-up of the
results of the Massachusetts campaign will be re-
membered. It occurred in a letter to Dr. Priestley.
"Britain, at an expense of three millions, has killed
one hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which
At Bunker
is twenty thousand pounds a head.
Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of which she
lost again by our taking post on Ploughed Hill.
During the same time sixty thousand children
have been born in America. From these data Dr.
Price's mathematical head will easily calculate the
time and expense necessary to kill us all and con-
quer our whole territory."
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM 125
The only answer of the King to the elaborate
petition of the Assembly of Pennsylvania was his
proclamation declaring the colonies in rebellion,
and pledging the resources of the kingdom for
the suppression of it. Not even this peremptory
and insulting treatment had power to influence
the proprietary party. They still held to their pol-
icy of peace at all sacrifices, and, undeterred by
ill-success and discouragement, set about the prep-
aration of a third petition.
In this critical moment the liberal party of Penn-
sylvania decided to adopt Franklin's favorite method
of influencing public opinion, - an appeal through
the Press. Thomas Paine, then a young man, pre-
pared at their request a pamphlet, which, printed
under the name of "Common Sense," produced a
powerful impression throughout the land. In it
the whole question at issue between England and
the Colonies was argued with a masterly mixture of
eloquence and satire and clear reasoning. Eng-
land, he contended, was not the mother-country of
America. Not more than a third of the people of
Pennsylvania even were of English parentage; the
mother-country of America was Europe.
"To be always running three or four thousand
miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five
126
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
months for an answer, which, when obtained, requires
five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years
be looked upon as folly and childishness. There was
a time when it was proper, and there is a proper
time for it to cease. . . . Everything that is right
and natural pleads for separation. The blood of
the slain, the weeping voice of Nature cries, 'It is
time to part!
The success of this pamphlet exceeded the most
sanguine hopes of its originators. Edition after
edition was sold, converts to the cause of liberty
were made by thousands, Mr. Dickenson's majority
dwindled, and the Pennsylvania members of Con-
gress began to waver in their opposition.
In May, 1776, a naval engagement took place
in the Delaware between the galleys, guard-boats,
and floating batteries of the Colony, and the Brit-
ish frigate "Roebuck" and sloop of war "Liver-
pool." The King's ships were in great danger of
total destruction, and with some difficulty retreated,
and returned to their cruising-ground near the
Capes.
The same month Congress met for the third
time in Philadelphia, and adopted a preamble and
resolutions proposed by John Adams for the for-
mation of independent government in the colonies.
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 127
The publication of these was claimed by the popu-
lar party in Pennsylvania as a dissolution of the
proprietary government, and an order to frame
another under the authority of the people. On the
24th of May a town meeting was held in the State
House yard, attended by more than four thousand
people. It was called to order by John Bayard.
Resolutions were passed; but while the matter was
still under discussion, Richard Henry Lee of Vir-
ginia introduced on the 7th of June his famous
motion, 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." Consideration of the mat-
ter was postponed for a few days, during which Con-
gress debated as to the form in which the announce-
ment of liberty should be made.
During this interval the Declaration of Indepen-
dence was framed by a committee of five members,
Franklin being one. They held their meetings in
a house on Market Street, the exact site of which
is in dispute, but probably it was that on the cor-
ner of Seventh Street.
To the pen of Thomas
Jefferson America owes the immortal document.
128
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
He submitted a draft of it separately to Franklin
and to John Adams, accepted from each one or two
verbal corrections, and on the 28th of June handed
it to Congress. Debate on the document began on
July 3d. There was no excitement in Philadel-
phia during those days. Congress was in secret
session, and the people were not aware of what was
taking place.
It was not till the 6th of July that the passage
of the Declaration was made known to the city.
On the 8th it was publicly read to the people from
the observatory in the State House yard. The
reading was listened to with deep and solemn
attention. That night the King's Arms were taken
down from the court-room of the State House and
from all public buildings and places of entertain-
ment, and were formally burned, amid the hurrahs
of the mob and the blazing of bonfires, while the
Declaration of Independence was read for the second.
time on the common to the five battalions of city
associators, and the State House bell, with its pro-
phetic motto, rang out the message of freedom to
the land, and proclaimed the birth of The United
States of America.
CHAPTER VII.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
1776-1783.
URING that memorable month of July, Frank-
DU
lin, Jefferson, and John Adams were ap-
pointed by Congress as a committee to select a
device for the seal of the new confederation.
Their deliberations occupied six weeks; but the
elaborate design which they proposed did not
please the legislative taste, and only two of its
features, the Eye of Providence and the felicitous
motto, E Pluribus Unum, were incorporated into
the device finally chosen.
The summer of 1776 was one of mustering and
preparation. Lord Howe arrived from England
with a fleet of one hundred and twenty sail.
Almost every day troops from the Southern Col-
onies passed through Philadelphia on their way to
join the forces of Washington. In August came
the tidings of the battle of Long Island, and the
defeat of the American army. Three weeks later
Howe sent a paroled prisoner to Philadelphia with
9
I 30
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
a message to Congress, requesting that some of
its members might wait upon him, not in an offi-
cial capacity, but as private gentlemen, to discuss
the possibility of some amicable compromise be-
tween the British Government and the Colonies.
Congress, very properly, declined to treat on
these terms, but offered to send a committee of
their body to listen to what Lord Howe
1776.
might have to say. Franklin, John Adams,
and Edward Rutledge were designated for this
purpose, and during the month of September they
set out for Staten Island, at that time the head-
quarters of Lord Howe.
They were received with courtesy, but uncondi-
tional surrender was the only basis on which the
British commander was prepared to treat, and the
interview proved fruitless of results, except that
Adams, who on the journey had observed with
distress the lack of discipline exhibited by the
national forces, returned to Philadelphia to urge
upon Congress the absolute necessity of reform in
that particular. His representations resulted, not
long after, in the adoption of the British discipline
and articles of war, which still constitute the mil-
itary system of the United States.
The year wore on, full of foreboding anxieties.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
131
to the new-born republic. Disaster, suspense, and
material loss are often the first results of the taking
of a decided step, either by nations or by individuals.
Many who read this can recall the heartache, the
sickening uncertainty, the blind groping after coun-
sel which followed the first enlistment of troops in
1861. Such a period of suffering is the bracing
discipline which matures manly strength out of cal-
low boyhood. It is the stern March weather which
shakes and tightens the firm root-grasp of the tree.
America was waiting to see what Fate should
send her by way of a friend. England had many
enemies; those enemies were the natural allies of
England's alienated children. Already, in the
preceding year, a secret agent had been despatched
to sound the intentions of France; and now, in the
dark hour which preceded the dawn, came a letter
of hope. Muskets, cannon, army material of all
kinds had been contracted for in France. French
artillery officers of repute were ready to offer their
services to America. The French Government,
though not prepared to commit itself by giving
avowed assistance to the revolutionists, would wink
at the shipment of these and the departure of
those. It was a vague and indiscreet letter: it
promised much that was unauthorized, and hinted.
132
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
at more than it had a right to promise; but at that
moment of discouragement the vagueness and the
indiscretion passed unnoticed, and the letter was
read with an impulse of relief and joy.
On the 26th of September it was decided to
send secretly an embassy to France. Three per-
sons were chosen, Silas Deane, already in
1776.
Paris, Arthur Lee of Virginia, who turned
out a singularly bad selection, and Dr. Franklin.
Franklin was already seventy years of age. “I
am old and good for nothing," he said to Dr. Rush;
"but, as the store-keepers say of their remnants.
of cloth, I am but a fag-end, you can have me
for what you please.”
On the 27th of October he sailed, and escaping,
by good fortune from capture by the enemy's
cruisers, landed at Aunay in Brittany on Decem-
ber 3d. In his character as scientist and philos-
opher he was welcomed with enthusiasm in Paris,
though as ambassador the French Government was
not yet ready to have to do with him. Imme-
diately after his arrival came the news of Wash-
ington's second defeat by Howe and his retreat
through the Jerseys. Matters looked dark for the
United States, and her friends on both sides the
sea lost heart.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
133
It was at this crisis that the Marquis de La-
fayette, then a young fellow only nineteen years of
age, fired by the picture of endangered Freedom
which the aspect of affairs in America presented
to his mind, resolved to volunteer his services in
her aid. He sailed in May, 1777, a reinforcement of
inestimable value, from his rank, his character,
his nationality, and the general sympathy in the
American cause which his action indicated.
The battles of Trenton and at Princeton in the
closing month of the year had reanimated the spir-
its of the patriots; but matters were in a gloomy
condition with the army of defence. Washington
was adored by his own troops, and possessed the
entire confidence of the great mass of the nation;
but Congress accorded him but a half-hearted sup-
port, and Gates and Wayne and Lee, who divided
his power, were a continual check and obstacle to
the carrying out of his plans. "In Philadelphia
Toryism stalked abroad fearlessly. In May a clergy-
man had publicly read prayers for the King." The
troops were in need of clothing; supplies of every-
thing had run short; the term of enlistment for a
considerable part of the army was nearly exhausted.
The retreat of Howe from the Jerseys, however, en-
abled Philadelphia to celebrate the first anniversary
134
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
of freedom with heartiness and enthusiasm.
The
bells were rung all day and into the evening. All
the ships and galleys, drawn up in line on the Del-
aware, manned and dressed with colors, saluted the
newly chosen flag. A banquet was given to Con-
gress and the officers of the army, the troops were
reviewed, and the festivities concluded with a display
of fireworks and a general illumination of the city.
In the month of August General Howe, having
determined on the invasion of Pennsylvania, sailed
with his army from New York, disembarked at the
head of Elk River in Maryland, and ascended
1777. the Chesapeake in transports. Washington
marched southward to meet him. On the 24th his
troops passed through Philadelphia. They wore
sprigs of green in their hats, and the display was
made as imposing as possible, in order to awe the
disaffected in the city. On the 10th of September
the Battle of the Brandywine was fought and lost,
leaving the road to Philadelphia open to the British.
Washington prepared to contest the passage of the
Schuylkill at Parker's Ford, but by a feint Howe
crossed the river at Gordon's and Fatland's fords,
and on the 26th of September two battalions of
Hessian artillery marched down the road leading
to Second Street, and entered the city.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
135
The news of their advance created universal
consternation. Congress fled with inglorious haste
to Yorktown, where they resumed their interrupted
business. Valuables were concealed or buried ;
the State House bell was hurried out of town to a
place of security; the timid and vacillating made
haste to declare themselves on the side of the King.
Part of the British army was quartered in German-
town, which at that time formed one continuous
street nearly two miles long.
The ships and galleys of the State were lying
in the Delaware above Fort Island. Perceiving
that the British were erecting batteries on the
wharves, they ran up to engage them. The result
was unfortunate. The frigate Delaware ran ashore.
and was forced to strike her flag. One of the
schooners met with the same fate, and the remain-
der of the fleet was glad to retreat to their former
position under the protection of the guns of the
fort. On the 2d of October a detachment of
royal troops crossed the Delaware and made a
demonstration against the fortifications at Belling's
Port, the garrison of which fled, spiking their guns;
and faint-heartedness prevailed along the river.
On the 4th of October, at daylight, Washington
attacked the British detachment in Germantown.
136
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1777.
The morning was foggy, which should have
been favorable to the success of the move-
ment; but there were blunders, a lack of co-opera-
tion, and Washington's well-planned measures were
not carried out. The attack failed, and the British
cavalry pursued the retreating Americans for eight
miles into Whitham Township.
The day of the battle was one of intense excite-
ment to the citizens of Philadelphia. Deborah
Logan writes of it: "We could hear the firing,
and knew of the engagement, but were uninformed.
of the event. Toward evening many wagons full
of the wounded arrived in the city, whose groans.
and sufferings were enough to move the most inhu-
man 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 refreshment 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,
reproved her for so amply supplying the rebels,
whilst nothing was carried to the English hospitals.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
137
Oh, sir,' replied she, 'it is in your power fully
to provide for them; but we cannot see our own
countrymen suffer and not do something for them.'
They were not denied that poor consolation."
The Battle of Germantown had not ended victori-
ously for the Americans, but its result was the
withdrawal of all detachments within the city lines,
and the erection of a chain of redoubts, with connec-
ting abatis, from Kensington on the Delaware to
the hill at Fairmount. The British held Philadel-
phia, but the Americans held the country beyond.
The water approach to the city was closed by the
chevaux-de-frise, which cut off communication with
the English fleet. To stop the sale of provisions
to the invaders, Congress declared the punishment
of death to any person who should be convicted by
court-martial of giving them information or furnish-
ing them with supplies. Parties of militia watched
the fords of the Schuylkill so closely that before
long the enemy suffered from a scarcity of food and
forage. "The Americans were excessively severe
on market people, and Lacy burned the mills
about the city, to the infinite misery of the town
folk, to whom poor salted beef was now publicly
distributed. Galloway says it was usual to give
two hundred lashes to the market-people caught
138
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
coming into town, or to send them in to Howe with
G. H. branded on their flesh with a hot iron." 1 The
British army was in effect a beleaguered force.
This result had been foreseen by Franklin. "Well,
Doctor," said an English sympathizer to him in
Paris, "Howe has taken Philadelphia." "I beg
your pardon," replied the astute philosopher, "Phil-
adelphia has taken Howe."
Philadelphia had taken Howe, and for ten long
months she held him fast. All things considered,
the citizens fared better than could have been
expected. The city, though very dirty, was not un-
healthy. There was scarcely anything to sell in the
shops when the British entered, and prices were
enormous. Paper money was worth almost nothing.
Two pieces of silk on sale at that time commanded
one hundred dollars a yard, and tea was fifty and
sixty dollars a pound.
On the 21st of October the British fleet made an
attempt to get through the chevaux-de-frise. Three of
the ships went aground, the Pennsylvania batteries,
galleys, and fire-ships cannonaded them, and
1777. in the end the fleet was compelled to drop
down the river again, with the loss of two frigates,
the "Augusta" and the "Merlin," blown up and set
1 "Pennsylvania Ledger," No. 153.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
139
on fire.
Meanwhile the Hessian grenadiers and
chasseurs under Colonel Donop, crossing the river
in boats, assaulted the fort at Red Bank. The
assault was repelled, Donop killed, and the British
forces retreated, with a loss of four hundred in
killed and wounded.
After the affair of Germantown, Washington had
retired to a range of hills northeast of Whitemarsh,
and about fourteen miles from Philadelphia. Early
on the 4th of December, a severely cold morning,
he was attacked by Howe with an army of fourteen
thousand British troops. Washington had not more
than seven thousand effective men, but so ably did
he handle his force, that after four days of skirmish-
ing, Howe, baffled, returned to Philadelphia, where
he passed the rest of the winter behind his en-
trenchments.
It is in connection with this sortie that the story
of Lydia Darrach is told, a story legendary rather
than historical, but probably resting on a sufficient
foundation of fact to entitle it to a brief mention.
She and her husband, members of the Society of
Friends, are said to have dwelt in Second Street,
near the military headquarters of General Howe.
One of her back rooms had been hired by the
British officers as a place for private counsel and
140
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
deliberation. On the 2d of December, her suspi-
cions being excited by a peremptory order that she
and all her household should retire early to bed,
she listened at the keyhole of the council-chamber
and overheard the plans then under deliberation for
surprising the army of Washington at Whitemarsh.
Much agitated, she retired to her chamber. When,
an hour or two later, an officer knocked at her door
to request her to extinguish the lights they had been
using, she kept him waiting some moments, feign-
ing to be awakened with difficulty from a deep sleep.
Next day she obtained a pass from Sir William Howe
to go to Frankford for flour, and, leaving her bag at
the mill, hastened through the lines, and meeting
a company of the American light-horse, called their
commander aside, told her secret, and obtained his
promise to communicate it to Washington. Her
warning gave time to make needful preparations for
the repulse of the British attack. Lydia returned
home; she heard the British march out of town by
night; she heard them return; but she dared not
ask a question. The next day she was sent for by
the adjutant-general and closely questioned as to
whether any of her family were up on the night of
the officers' meeting. "You, I know, were asleep,"
he observed; "for I knocked three times at your
chamber-door before you heard me."
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
141
Such is the legend of Lydia Darrach, and
though dates and circumstances contradict it in
part, it invests with a certain interest the house
No. 177 South Second Street, in which she is
said to have lived.
The American officers taken prisoner in the
battles of the British occupation were at first con-
fined in the long upstairs room in the State House,
afterward used for Peale's Museum. For privates,
the building afterward called the Walnut Street
Prison was employed. At one time not less than
nine hundred prisoners were confined there under
charge of a cruel warder, Captain Cunningham,
who had previously exhibited his inhumanity as
the provost of New York. At the hands of this
wretch the unhappy inmates of the jail were sys-
tematically tortured. Numbers died of cold and
starvation, being tantalized by the sight of food
which they were not permitted to touch. They ate
grass, leather, chips, pieces of rotten pump, were
frequently beaten with the butt-end of Cunning-
ham's whip, and in every way insulted and abused.
Economy was become not only the law of con-
science, but the law of necessity, in Philadelphia.
Tea, if sold at all, was sold in sealed papers
under the name of "cut tobacco," or some
1777.
142
IIISTORICAL SKETCH.
other disguise. Those who indulged in it did so
secretly, taking it from a pitcher or water-pot, and
keeping a coffee-pot always on the table, to disarm
suspicion. A lady of Philadelphia, writing at this
date to an officer in the British army who had
been intimate with her family before the war, says:
"Though we consider you as a public enemy, we
regard you as a private friend; and while we detest
the cause you are fighting for, we wish well to your
personal interest and safety. I will tell you what I
have done. My only brother I have sent to the
army with prayers and blessings; and had I twenty
sons and brothers, they should go to emulate the
great examples before them. I have retrenched
every superfluous expense in my table and family.
Tea I have not drunk since Christmas, nor bought
a new cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington.
I have the pleasure to assure you that these are
the sentiments of all my sister Americans." 1
The reduction of the fort at Mud Island had
now become a matter of prime importance with
the British. By the 10th of November they had
completed their batteries on the morass of Pro-
vince Island, about five hundred yards distant from
the American works, and opened a heavy fire. For
1 "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. ii. p. 328.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
143
five days the fort, whose garrison was less than
three hundred men, held out; then the "Vigilant,"
a twenty-four gun ship, was warped up so near
the American works as to be able to throw hand-
grenades into it, while marksmen from the masts
could pick off its defenders. On the sixth day
only fifty men available for duty were left. The
works were fairly knocked to pieces by the enemy's
fire, the palisades beaten down, the parapet in
ruins, and the guns dismounted. The remnant of
the brave little garrison had, therefore, no alterna-
tive but to abandon the position, and, setting fire to
all that was combustible, they crossed the Dela-
ware in boats, and joined the forces at Red Bank.
This disaster opened the Delaware to the Brit-
ish fleet, and put that of the Americans in peril.
The best hope of the latter was to gain the waters
of the Upper Delaware; but to do that it was ne-
cessary to pass the city. On the 19th of December
thirteen galleys and twelve row-boats succeeded in
doing this under cover of night. The following
night the remainder made the same attempt, but
with less success. Two vessels were driven ashore,
and nine were perforce abandoned and set on fire.
A Philadelphian, living till nearly the middle of
our own century, recollected seeing six of these
144
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
"vessels of defence' ""float by High Street all in
flames, their magazines blowing up as they went,
- an awful spectacle!"
The fort at Red Bank was next invested and
taken by the British. On the 26th of November
frigates and transports from below arrived at the
docks of the city, causing great joy to the inhab-
itants and the royal troops, for provisions were
become scarce and exceedingly dear, beef selling
at a dollar a pound.
Early in January took place what was facetiously
called "The Battle of the Kegs." These kegs
were constructed in Bordentown, and floated
1778. down the Delaware for the purpose of de-
stroying the British shipping. They were charged
with gunpowder, and arranged to explode by a
spring lock the moment they should touch the keel
of a vessel. They did not do the damage that was
intended, but they created a general panic, and an
apprehension which was slow to subside.
No other skirmishes of importance occurred dur-
ing the remainder of the winter or the spring.
"Howe left the famous camp of Valley Forge
untouched, whilst his great, brave, and perfectly
appointed army fiddled and gambled and feasted
in Philadelphia.” 1 The British officers, following
1 Thackeray, "The Virginians."
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
145
the example of their general, a man of noto-
riously dissipated habits, amused themselves in
various ways, of which the least questionable were
balls, parties, cock-fightings, and gambling. Twice
a week entertainments were given at the theatre,
which some of their number had assisted in decor-
ating. Major André painted the drop-curtain.
In May arrived the stirring news of the alliance
between the United States and France negotiated by
the American Commissioners in Paris, and signed on
the 6th of February previous. On the 18th of the
same month the famous tilt and tournament called
the "Mischianza" took place. It was given in
honor of Sir William Howe by the officers of his
army, on the occasion of his recall to England,
superseded in his command by Sir Henry Clinton.
The scene of the festival was Walnut Grove, the
residence of the Wharton family, on the Moya-
mensing Road, just outside the city limits. Major
André was one of the givers of the entertainment,
and “the charm of the company.” He, with the
assistance of Captain Oliver Delancey, painted the
chief of the decorations, which included a magnifi-
cent supper-room, two hundred and ten feet in
length, ornamented with a design of vine-leaves
and festoons of flowers; a ball-room, with walls.
IO
146
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
painted in imitation of white and black marble,
with blue and gold and garlands, and eighty-five
mirrors borrowed for the occasion, trimmed with
rose-silk lilies and artificial flowers; a card-room, on
whose ceiling was depicted, over the entrance door,
a cornucopia filled with roses, while over that by
which the unlucky gambler left the room one
quite empty was displayed; and two magnificent
arches, which served as entrances to the lists, and
which celebrated the (somewhat scanty) naval and
military exploits of Admiral and Sir William
Howe. Neptune mounted guard over the Admi-
ral's arch, while Fame presided over that of the
General.
The entertainment began with a superb regatta.
The invited guests, who were almost entirely ladies,
were escorted in a long procession of galleys, flat-
boats, and barges, with bands playing and colors
flying and cannon saluting, from Knight's Wharf, in
the Northern Liberties, to the old Fort, or Associa-
tion's Battery, afterward the site of the United
States Navy Yard. "Everything was loyal and en-
thusiastic, all but the tide, which, being composed
of 'rebel floods,' was not disposed to hold back its
regular course, even to favor the commander-in-
chief of the British army.
The flood-tide became
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
147
too strong for the galleys to advance, and all the
generals and admirals and colonels and captains
which they contained were compelled to remove
from the grand and exclusive means of conveyance
in which they had started, and empty themselves,
with undistinguished people of less degree, into
the ordinary barges." 1
When landed, the company proceeded in due
order to the tournament grounds. Seven "Knights
of the Blended Rose," fantastically arrayed in
white and red silk, their horses similarly capar-
isoned, encountered seven "Knights of the Burn-
ing Mountain" in black and orange; while their
respective ladies, in "Turkish habits" of black
and white and white and pink, designed after
drawings by Major André, sat by to "rain in-
fluence" upon the combat. Each knight bore a
device in honor of his chosen demoiselle. One of
the "Ladies of the Burning Mountain" was Miss
Shippen, afterward the unhappy wife of Benedict
Arnold. Her cavalier, Lieutenant Winyard, bore
as his emblem a bay-leaf, motto, "Unchange-
able." Heralds trumpeted defiance, and made
their proclamations; gauntlets were flung down;
the knights met in mid career and shivered harm-
1 "Historic Mansions of Philadelphia," p. 473.
148
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
less lances; a magnificent display of fireworks
took place; and while they thus feasted and jousted
and fiddled, Captain Allan McLane, a dashing
dragoon of the Continental army, who had not
been invited to the Mischianza, was occupied with
firing the abatis north of the city by means of
camp-kettles filled with combustibles and cun-
ningly disposed along the lines. The timbers
blazed, the long-roll sounded, cannonading began,
there was general alarm throughout the city, and
the fair ladies at the fête were sorely affrighted.
Their partners, however, with great presence of
mind, explained to them that these sounds only
indicated a further demonstration in honor of the
tournament. So the dancing recommenced, and
the sound of the violins drowned the beat of hoofs
as the British horse hastily sallied forth in pursuit
of the audacious McLane, who, having done as
much mischief as he possibly could, took the Wis-
sahichon Road, swam his horse across the Schuyl-
kill, and made good his retreat without a scratch.
Looking at this picture of senseless display on
one hand and military incapacity on the other, it is
easy to see why the British occupation of Philadel-
phia was so void of result. In a derisive pamphlet
published a few months later in London, under the
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
149
title "Strictures upon the Philadelphia Mischianza;
or, the Triumph of leaving America Unconquered,"
the writer speaks of the pageant in this wise:
"What are we to think of a beaten general's debas-
ing the King's ensigns for he had none of his en-
emies' by planting all the colors of the army in a
grand avenue three hundred feet in length, - for
himself and his brother to march along in pompous
procession, followed by a numerous train of attend-
ants, with seven silken Knights of the Blended Rose,
and seven more of the Burning Mountain, and their
fourteen Turkey dressed damsels, to an area of one
hundred and fifty yards square, lined also with the
King's troops, for the exhibition of a tilt and tourna-
ment, or mock-fight in honor of this triumphant
hero? And all this sea and land ovation made
not in consequence of an uninterrupted succession
of victories like those of the Duke of Marlborough
but after thirteen colonies wretchedly lost, and
a three years' series of ruinous disgraces and
defeats!"
The festival was scarcely over, when Howe,
learning that Lafayette, with twenty-five hundred
men, had crossed the Schuylkill and taken up
1778.
a post on Barren Hill, resolved, in the hope of
winding up his American career with éclat, to move.
150
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
upon and capture him. Lafayette, however, availed
himself of a lower ford to recross the river, and got
his force over without the loss of a man.
A few days after this useless demonstration, the
British troops were marched to the lower part of
the city, crossed the river in boats, and quitted
Philadelphia, never to return. They did not go
away," wrote an eye-witness," they vanished."
(6
It was on the 18th of June that the British
evacuated Philadelphia. Washington made haste
to intercept them on their way across the Jerseys,
and on the 27th the battle of Monmouth was
fought, which, disastrous to the American troops
in the outset, under the unskilful or treacherous
command of Lee, was turned into a decisive victory
by the energy and courage of the commander-in-
chief.
"Tell those Philadelphia ladies," writes General
Wayne, "who attended Howe's assemblies and
levees, that the heavenly, sweet, pretty red-coats,
the accomplished gentlemen of the Guards and
grenadiers, have been humbled on the plains of Mon-
mouth. The Knights of the Blended Roses and
of the Burning Mount have resigned their laurels.
to rebel officers, who will lay them at the feet of
those virtuous daughters of America who cheerfully
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
151
gave up ease and affluence in a city for liberty
and peace of mind in a cottage."
Close upon the footsteps of the retreating invaders
came Colonel Allan McLane with his rangers, and
immediately after him, General Benedict Arnold,
sent by Washington to take possession of the city
as military governor. His first act was to issue a
proclamation declaring the town under martial law,
and ordering that until further instructions all stores
should be closed and all sales cease excepting the
sale of provisions in the markets. The why and
wherefore of this remarkable order was not made
known till a much later period, when a secret con-
tract was discovered, signed immediately on Ar-
nold's arrival in the city, between himself and the
Clothier-General, by which these worthies agreed to
make purchases of goods, ostensibly for the public.
stores, but in reality for sale for their joint benefit,
and this cessation of commerce was employed by
them in purchasing and storing articles to be
sold at a profit as soon as the embargo should be
removed.
The law continued in force for eight days, to the
infinite discomfort of Philadelphia, and would proba-
bly have continued longer, had not the Supreme
Executive Council of the State interfered by a
152
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
message demanding of General Arnold his reasons.
for ordering the shops to be shut. These reasons.
he dared not give, and finding that he could no
longer persevere in the measure without exciting
suspicion, he issued a proclamation re-opening
retail commerce.
"There were no means by which Arnold could
obtain money that he hesitated in embracing."
Soon after taking command of the city, he mar-
ried Miss Shippen, one of the chief belles of the
place, and a favorite toast with the British officers.
Their mutual extravagance and love of show and
luxury led to constant embarrassments for money,
and Arnold resorted to all manner of question-
able methods of raising it. Public stores he treated.
as his own property. In the matter of the "Active"
privateer, he bought of her seamen their claims
for prize-money at a small rate, and then used
his influence with Congress to get the claims al-
lowed in full. He smuggled goods for his own
private profit into Philadelphia by means of army
wagons, and charged the transportation to the
Government.
"Both Colonel Pickering and myself had no
confidence in Arnold, whom we had detected in
scandalous transactions. . . . I left fifty thousand
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
153
dollars under Arnold's orders toward payment of
the [Government] clothing and stores. He seized
the articles, and never paid for them, but converted
the money, or great part of it, to his own purposes,
among others, to buy the country-seat of Mr. Mc-
Pherson on the Schuylkill. Colonel Pickering and
myself detected him in ordering stores, provisions,
etc., out of the public magazines, to fit out privat-
eers for his own account, and for his family use ex-
travagantly. We gave orders to counteract him.
This produced an entire breach. When his traitor-
ous conduct at West Point became public, neither
Colonel Pickering nor myself was the least surprised
at it." 1
After a twelvemonth the Executive Council be-
gan to take note of these transactions. A paper of
accusations was drawn up by them and laid before
Congress. Arnold was tried by court-martial in
1780, and was sentenced to receive a reprimand at
the hands of the commander-in-chief, a sentence.
which, mild as it was, in comparison with his of-
fences, embittered him for life, and strengthened.
the determination already forming in his breast, to
sell himself to the British on the first convenient
opportunity.
1 "Life of Timothy Pickering,” vol. i. p. 228.
154
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
After the exposure of his treason and his flight
Mrs. Arnold returned to the protection of her own
family in Philadelphia. But her loyalty was dis-
trusted, and the city authorities were not content to
have her remain. Within a month of her arrival
the following notice was served upon her.
IN COUNCIL, Friday, October 27, 1780.
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 dangerous to the public safety, and
this Board being desirous as much as possible to prevent
any correspondence and intercourse being carried on with
persons
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 thereof, and that
she do not return again during the continuance of the
present war.
Mrs. Arnold's family and friends made strong
intercession for her with the authorities; but their
efforts were unsuccessful, and she was forced to
depart at the time designated.
In 1778 the United States were forced to close
the campaign before the end of the summer for
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
155
lack of funds with which to carry on operations.
The continental money was become practically
worthless. In 1779 a dollar in specie was worth
$2,593 of the paper currency.
In 1780, $7,400.
In 1781 no dealer would receive it. As an exam-
ple of the straits to which our ancestors were
reduced at this time of national depression, we
copy an original bill of the year 1781:
COL. A. MCLANE.
I pair boots
Bo't of W. NICOLL.
$600
634 yds. calico at $85
per yard
752
6 yds. chintz at $150
do.
900
42 yds. moreen at $100
do.
450.50
400
32
ΙΟ
4 handkerchiefs at $100
8 yds. quality binding, at $4 do.
I skein of silk
If paid in specie £18 10s.
Received payment in full, for Wm. Nicoll,
$3144.50
JONA. JONES.
To complicate the money question, each State
had an irredeemable paper currency of its own to
compete with the national currency. The confusion
and unsettlement of values caused by these mixed
issues can easily be imagined. The vague and
uncompacted form of government which made of
156
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Congress rather an ill-assorted body for consultation
than a central power, added to the hamper and
bewilderment of public affairs in all departments.
"The Congress," wrote Greene, toward the end
of June, 1780, "have lost their influence. I have
for a long time seen the necessity of some new plan
of civil constitution. Unless there is some control
over the States by the Congress, we shall soon be
like a broken band."
The first vehement impulse toward the consoli-
dation of the States into the federal Union was
given by Robert Morris. By birth an Englishman,
he had removed to America in his boyhood, and in
1733 had settled in Philadelphia. Averse, in the
first instance, to the idea of a rupture with the
parent country, his growing patriotism so far over-
came this original reluctance, that we find his name.
among the signers of the Declaration of Independ-
ence. From the very opening of the Revolutionary
struggle he was foremost in sustaining all patriotic
measures. A member of the Congress of 1776,
and again of that of 1778, he was placed on that
committee, most important of all, which was charged
with the expenditure of moneys for the secret ser-
vice, and was appointed its special commissioner to
negotiate bills of exchange, and take other meas-
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
157
ures for raising funds. In February, 1781, he was
made Superintendent of Finance, in which position
he did not hesitate to pledge his private credit for
the relief of army emergencies.
1
"As it has been said that Washington was the
Sword of the Revolution, so it may be said that
Morris was the Purse." Again and again, when
clothing and military stores were exhausted in
Washington's camp, this generous friend came to
their rescue. At one time, when cartridges had
entirely given out, a seasonable supply of lead came
in as ballast in one of Mr. Morris's ships, and was
at once turned over by him to the use of the army.
It was Morris who raised on his own notes and
credit, the sum of half-a-million for the transporta-
tion and supply of the national army to Yorktown,
where the battle was fought which brought about
the end of the struggle and secured the peace.
1780.
In June, 1780, steps were taken at Philadelphia,
under his influence, for the founding of a
bank with the power to issue notes. This
was the Bank of the United States, whose fortunes.
were destined to have a considerable influence upon
the prosperity of the city. It opened on the 7th of
January with a capital of $400,000, of which Morris
1 "Historic Mansions of Philadelphia,” p. 354.
158
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
took one half as an investment of the United States,
paying for it in their currency.
1781.
Congress resumed its sessions in Philadelphia
soon after the departure of the British. On Octo-
ber 4, 1781, was fought the decisive battle at
Yorktown, followed by the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis and his army. The news came to Phil-
adelphia by express at midnight, and the watchmen,
when crying the hours as usual, roused the city by
adding to their usual call of "Twelve o'clock and
all's well!"—"And Cornwallis taken!"
When the letters of Washington announcing the
capitulation reached Congress, that body, with the
people streaming in their train, went in procession
to the Dutch Lutheran Church to return thanks
to Almighty God. Every breast swelled with joy.
In the evening Philadelphia was illuminated with
greater splendor than ever before. Congress voted
thanks to Washington, to Rochambeau, and to
De Grasse, with special thanks to the officers and
troops." 1 A marble column was to be erected
at Yorktown, with emblems of the alliance be-
tween the United States and his most Christian
Majesty.
On November 30, 1782, the definitive Treaty of
1 Bancroft, vol. x. p. 523.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
159
1782.
Peace between England and America was
signed at Paris. When the news was con-
firmed, the joy in Philadelphia was unbounded. “A
great flag was hoisted on a lofty mast on Market
Street Hill, and the people fastened their eyes on
it by the hour, transferring to the emblem the ven-
eration they felt for the achievers of the peace.
Great fireworks were prepared up High Street, and
the crowd being immense, when the arch took fire,
and the rockets flew down the street among the
people, a great panic ensued, and many contusions
and accidents. The houses at night were illumined
generally, save those of the Friends, which, of
course, afforded fine sport for the rabble in break-
ing in the dark panes." 1
1783.
It is a singular coincidence that the first Amer-
ican flag ever displayed in the Thames at London
floated from the mainmast of the ship "Wil-
liam Penn" in the spring of the following
year. The sight caused so much excitement and
vexation in the city, that the ship's crew was forced.
to keep vigilant watch at night, lest the vessel should
be mobbed, an odd result of the exhibition of that
pacific name!
1 Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," vol. ii. p. 33².
CHAPTER VIII.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL CITY.
1783-1800.
IMMEDIATELY after the departure of the Brit-
ish army, Congress resumed its sittings in
Philadelphia, and remained there till June,
1783.
1783. During that month a mutinous out-
break occurred among the Pennsylvania soldiery.
About three hundred of them left their barracks in
the Northern Liberties, and, joined by two newly
arrived companies, marched to the house of Robert
Morris, and demanded their arrears of pay, which,
from the necessity of the times, and, it might be
added, the incompetency of the Congress, had been
withheld from them. Morris received them with
tact and forbearance; he even offered to allow their
sergeants to examine his books; but he was forced.
to confess that the public coffers were empty.
Thereupon the mutineers left him, and marched
to the State House, where Congress was in session.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL.
161
1783.
General Hamilton was sent out to address
and conciliate them; but they were so deter-
mined in their behavior, that he lost hope, and
returning to the hall, calmly advised his fellow
members to "think of eternity, since he firmly
believed that within the space of an hour not an
individual of them would be left alive." It was
feared that the insurgents would attack the National
Bank; but force enough was collected to overawe
them, and in the end they returned quietly to
their barracks, where, a day or two later, they were
surrounded and disarmed by a force under Major-
General Howe, who had been sent for to quell the
mutiny. Congress, however, could not forgive the
insult to its dignity, and removed without delay,
first to Princeton, and shortly after to New York,
where it remained until the adoption of the Fed-
eral Constitution in 1790, when it was determined
that Philadelphia should be the seat of govern-
ment for ten years, while preparations were mak-
ing for its final establishment in the District of
Columbia.
"Morris had hitherto strongly advocated the
claims of Philadelphia to be the permanent metrop-
olis; and he now shrewdly concluded," President
Duer observes, "that if the public offices were once
11
162
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
opened in that city they would continue there, as
but for the silent influence of the name of Wash-
ington, whose wishes on the subject were known,
would have been the case."
In December, 1783, General Washington passed
through Philadelphia on his way to Annapolis, to
resign his commission into the hands of Congress.
'The roads were covered with people who came
from all quarters to see him, to get near to him, to
speak to him," says Bancroft. Alone, and ready
to lay down in the hands of Congress the com-
mand that had been confided to him, he appeared
even greater than when he was at the head of the
armies of the United States. The inhabitants of
Philadelphia knew that he was drawing near, and,
without other notice, an innumerable crowd placed.
themselves along the road that he was to pass.
Women, aged men, left their houses to see him.
Children passed among the horses to touch his
garments. Acclamations of joy and gratitude ac-
companied him in all the streets.
Never was
homage more spontaneous and more pure. The
General enjoyed the scene, and owned himself by
this moment repaid for eight years of toil, and
wants, and tribulations.
"At Philadelphia he put into the hands of his
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 163
comptroller his accounts to the 13th of December,
1783, all written with minute exactness by his
own hand, and accompanied by vouchers conven-
iently arranged. Every debit against him was
credited; but as he had not always made an entry
of moneys of his own expended in the public
service, he was, and chose to remain, a consid-
erable loser. To the last he refused all compensa-
tion and all indemnity, though his resources had
been greatly diminished by the war."
1787.
In May, 1787, the delegates chosen by the States
to decide upon a constitution and rule of
government met at the State House in
Philadelphia. Much agitation and fluctuation of
feeling preceded this important meeting. "Shall
we have a king?" asked John Jay, and himself
answered, "Not, in my opinion, while other expe-
dients remain untried." Washington, in the quiet
of Mount Vernon, was studying the matter, read-
ing Montesquieu, and soliciting the opinions of the
ablest men in public life; and as the result of re-
flection and opinion he drew up three separate
outlines of a constitution, differing widely from
each other, but all designed to consolidate a union
of the conflicting interests of the Thirteen States.
1 Sparks, vol. ix. p. 510.
164
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Many and various were the points in debate.
Should the chief executive authority be vested in
one person, or in two or three? Should an equal
number of senators be sent by each State, or
should they be distributed pro rata according to
area or population? How should representation
be apportioned? How should the separate State
Governments be made to work in harmony with
the General Government? The questions of sla-
very and the slave-trade, of finance, of the public
debts, of taxation, of commerce, of the Indians, -
each in turn formed menacing points of difference
and collision which required the utmost wisdom,
moderation, and gentleness of treatment. At last,
on the 17th of September, the Constitution as it
now stands, with the exception of its modern
amendments, was resolved upon, with the unani-
mous approval of the eleven States represented in
the Convention.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania was at that time.
in session, and felt it desirable to secure the ratifi-
cation of the Constitution without delay.
1787. A resolution for the calling of a State con-
vention was passed by them. The enemies of the
new measure were in a minority; but, determined to
retard it as much as possible, they resorted to the
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 165
scheme of defeating action by preventing the at-
tendance of a quorum. This scheme was frus-
trated by the decided step of seizing two of the
refractory members at their lodgings, carrying
them forcibly to the House, and there detaining
them until they had by their unwilling presence
contributed to the passage of the unwelcome
Act.
As the last signature was appended to the docu-
ment, Franklin, looking at the emblazoned sun
on the President's chair, remarked to those near
him "In the vicissitudes of hope and fear I was
not able to tell whether it was rising or setting;
but now I know that it is the rising sun."
Franklin was right; but the sunrise which he
rejoiced over had in it the menace of storms. In-
trigues against the Constitution and attempts to
alter or annul its provisions began before the doc-
ument was fairly laid before the people. Patrick
Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and others of the
Southern leaders, exerted themselves strongly in
opposition. "But the influence of Washington
outweighed them all. He was embosomed in
the affections and enshrined in the pride of the
people of Virginia; and in all their waverings
during the nine months following the federal
166
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
convention he was the anchor of the Constitu-
tion." 1
The extraordinary intelligence and virtue dis-
played by the Continental Congress was recognized
by sagacious and dispassionate observers through-
out the world. Mirabeau spoke of it as a company
of demigods; and William Pitt exclaimed: "I must
declare that in all my reading and observation, for
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom
of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult
circumstances, no body of men could stand before
the National Congress of Philadelphia.”
1788.
The final adoption of the Act was celebrated in
Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1788, by the
most magnificent procession ever known in
the city.
From five to seven thousand persons
took part in it. All the Trades were represented,
and all the Societies. Ten white horses in the
middle of the column drew a dome, supported by
thirteen columns, which bore each the name of a
State, and held up a cupola with the figure of Plenty
and the motto, "In Union the fabric stands firm."
Another display was "The Federal ship 'Union,'"
also drawn by ten horses, and manned by a crew of
1 Bancroft, "History of the Constitution of the United States,”
vol. ii. p. 233.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL.
167
twenty-five men, who flung the lead as they passed,
cried the soundings, and trimmed the sails to the
wind.
(C
This beautiful little vessel had been barge to the
Serapis," captured from the English by Paul Jones
in 1779. She was thirty-three feet in length. From
under her keel, canvas, painted to represent the
waves of the sea, hung over and concealed the
wheels of the car.
A smaller vessel followed her,
and a procession of pilots.
The Declaration of Independence, The Definite
Treaty of Peace, The French Alliance, The Con-
vention of the States, The Constitution, The New
Era, were represented by some of the principal
citizens in emblematical costumes. The Constitu-
tion was personified by a lofty car in the form of
an eagle, drawn by six horses, in which sat Judge
Atlee and Judge Rush in their official robes,
carrying the Constitution, framed, and mounted
on a staff, which bore a Liberty Cap and “The
People," in gilded letters. Each Trade had its car,
on which skilled workmen exhibited themselves
busied in their different employments. The black-
smiths displayed a forge, with men engaged in the
symbolic labor of beating swords into ploughshares ;
the printers and bookbinders a stage, on which was
168
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
a press, where odes were printed and thrown out to
the crowd. After the procession was over, all its
members sat down to a plentiful dinner, at the con-
clusion of which the whole great company "with-
drew to their homes by six o'clock in the evening,
all sober, but all joyful," a sight to rejoice the
spirit of the city's friendly founder.
That same year saw the first steamboat on the
Delaware. Its inventor, John Fitch, had con-
ceived the idea in 1785, but, being a poor man, was
for a time unable to carry it out. He applied
to Congress for assistance, and was refused. A
company was at last organized, by the aid of which
the first rude idea of what has since become the
modern steamboat, was built and launched. It was
a singular craft, with two sets of paddles on either
side set within a framework, and worked by an en-
gine placed near the stern. Gilded chains were
hung over the sides as an ornament to the boat,
whose rate of speed was about eight miles an hour.
On the 6th of April, 1789, General Washington
was elected the first President of the United
States, and on the 16th he left Mount Vernon
for his inauguration in New York. His desire was
to travel quietly; but this the irrepressible enthu-
siasm of the people would not permit. On the con-
1789.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 169
fines of Pennsylvania he was met by two troops of
cavalry and a large concourse of citizens, who had
quitted Philadelphia the day before, and waited all
night for his appearance. He was obliged to leave
his carriage and mount a white horse, which was in
readiness for the purpose; and so, escorted by a
throng which increased with every mile, was con-
ducted through avenues of just-transplanted laurels
and under triumphal arches across Gray's Ferry
and into the city.
"As he passed under the last arch, a youth con-
cealed in the foliage, let down, with the aid of some
ingeniously constructed machinery, a beautiful orna-
mented wreath of civic laurel, which, before the hero
was aware, embraced his head." Thus crowned,
with twenty thousand adorers crowding about him,
the great man made his way to the City Tavern,
where all the dignitaries of Philadelphia and a su-
perb banquet awaited him. The festivities closed
with a magnificent display of fireworks.
A year later Congress returned to Philadelphia,
which for the next decade served as the capital
city of the nation. All the principal officers
of the government took up their residences.
there. The Supreme Court sat in the hall on the
southeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets.
1790.
170
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The Treasury Department used the old Clark
mansion on the southwest corner of Chestnut and
Third. Congress was accommodated in a building
which had been erected for use as a county court
house on the corner of Sixth and Chestnut. In
this building, known as Congress Hall, Washington
and Adams were inaugurated for the second term
of their Presidency and Vice-Presidency in 1793,
and Jefferson in 1797.
In a letter from Philadelphia, dated August 10th,
1790, we find the following:
Some of the blessings anticipated from the
removal of Congress to this city are already begin-
ning to be apparent; rents of houses have risen,
and I fear will continue to rise, shamefully; even
in the outskirts they have lately been increased
from fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen pounds, to
twenty-five, twenty-eight, and thirty. This is op-
pressive. Our markets, it is expected, will also be
dearer than heretofore. I am convinced that if
things go on in this manner, a very great majority
of our citizens will have good reason to wish the
government settled at Conococheague long before
the ten years are expired."
Robert Morris's house in Market Street, between
Fifth and Sixth, had been secured by the corpora-
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 171
tion as
was a large marble house, built in the plain
a residence for the President. It
1790.
style of architecture which at that time and since
has been characteristic of the Quaker city. An-
other and finer house in South Ninth Street was
proposed and urged upon the acceptance of Wash-
ington by the Legislature of the State, but was
declined, on the ground that he would by no means
consent to live in any house which was not hired
and furnished from his own means. The Morris
house was three stories in height, and thirty-two
feet wide, with eleven windows in front and a door
furnished with three stone steps. It had formed
part of the marriage portion of the wife of Richard
Penn, son of the last Proprietary, and for some
years was occupied by him. During the British
occupation it was the headquarters of Lord Howe.
The rent paid by General Washington for the
house was $3000.
From the letters of Washington at this time to
his private secretary, Mr. Lear, we get an exact
and curious picture of the minute regularity with
which he acquainted himself with his affairs in
their smallest particulars. It was the exactitude,
not of a petty mind, but of an intellect so compre-
hensive in grasp that it could include little things
172
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
as well as great, and whose first and most urgent
desire was for justice.
•
“I am, I must confess, exceedingly unwilling to
go into any house without first knowing on what
terms I do it; and I wish this sentiment could
be again hinted in delicate terms to the parties
concerned with me.
Mrs. Morris has a man-
gle (I think it is called) for ironing clothes, which,
as it is fixed in the place where it is commonly used,
she proposes to leave, and take mine. To this I
have no objection, provided mine is equally good
and convenient; but if I should obtain any advan-
tages, besides that of its being up and ready for use,
I am not inclined to receive it. . . . They will also
leave a large glass lamp in the entry or hall, and
will take one or more of my glass lamps in lieu of it.
.. I have no particular direction to give respect-
ing the appropriation of furniture. . . . I approve,
at least till inconvenience or danger shall appear, of
the large table ornaments remaining on the side-
board, and of the pagoda standing in the smaller
drawing-room. Had I delivered my sentiments
from here respecting this fixture, that is the apart-
ment I should have named for it. Whether the
green which you have, or a new yellow curtain,
should be appropriated to the staircase above the
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 173
•
hall, may depend on your getting an exact match,
in color and so forth, of the latter. For the sake
of appearances one would not, in instances of this
kind, regard a small additional expense. .. Would
not a stand like that for castors, with four aper-
tures for as many kinds of liquors, each aperture
just large enough to hold one of the cut decanters
sent by Mr. Morris, be more convenient for passing
the bottles from one to another, than the handing
each bottle separately — by which it often happens
that one bottle moves, another stops, and all are in
confusion. Talk to a silversmith, and ascertain the
cost, and whether they could be immediately made,
if required, in a handsome fashion. . . . Upon ex-
amining the caps of Giles and Paris, I find they
(especially that of Paris) are much worn, and will
be unfit to appear in with decency after the jour-
ney from here is performed. I therefore request
that you will have two new ones made, with fuller
and richer tassels at the top than the old ones
have. That the maker of them may have some
guide as to the size, the enclosed dimensions of
their heads will, I presume, be sufficient."
The President and Mrs. Washington arrived in
Philadelphia on the 28th of November, and took
possession of their new residence. Tuesday was
174
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1790.
selected as the reception day for all "respect-
able citizens and strangers properly intro-
duced." These receptions were held in the dining-
room on the first floor. From three to four the
President stood surrounded by the members of his
Cabinet, bowing courteously as each new-comer
was named to him. He never shook hands on
these occasions, even with his most intimate friends,
and he rarely forgot a name that had once been
mentioned in his hearing. On Fridays Mrs. Wash-
ington held her levees, at which the President
appeared as a private gentleman and conversed
without restraint. Formal dinners were given
every Thursday, "at four o'clock precisely, never
waiting for any guests."
At twelve every day it was the President's cus-
tom to walk forth and set his watch by Clark's
Standard, southeast corner of Front and High
Streets. All the passers-by took off their hats
and stood uncovered till he turned and went back
again. He always returned these salutations by
lifting his hat and bowing low. On fine days he
went out to walk, attended by his two secretaries,
one walking on either side of him. They were
never seen to talk to each other. On Sundays he
drove to Christ Church in a cream-colored coach
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 175
with enamelled figures on the panels. (The car-
riage is still preserved in Philadelphia.) All his ser-
vants wore liveries of white cloth turned up with
scarlet or orange.
A very elegant and refined circle led society in
Philadelphia at this time, and the coming of Con-
gress gave the city the air and tone of a capital.
"There was more attention paid then to the dress
of servants and the general appearance of equi-
pages," says Samuel Breck, in his entertaining
"Recollections;" "dinners were got up in elegance.
and good style. Besides Brigham and Morris and
the President, who had French cooks, as well as
most of the foreign ministers, there was a most
admirable artist by the name of Marinot, who
supplied the tables of private gentlemen, when they
entertained, with all that the most refined gour-
mand could desire.
"General Washington had a stud of twelve or
fourteen horses, and occasionally rode out to take
the air with six horses to his coach, and always two
footmen to his carriage. He knew how to main-
tain the dignity of his station. None of his suc-
cessors, except the elder Adams, has placed a
proper value on a certain degree of display that
seems suitable for the chief magistrate of a great
176
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
nation. I do not mean pageantry, but the decent
exterior of a well-bred gentleman."
1793.
The inauguration of Washington for his second
Presidential term was soon followed by the French
Revolution and the proclamation of the Re-
public. The enthusiasm excited in the
United States by the news was almost universal.
"There seems to be something infectious in the
example of a powerful and enlightened nation.
urging toward democracy, which imposes on the
human mind and leads human reason in fetters,"
says Sparks; and this feeling was deepened to
Americans by the fact that France was but follow-
ing the example which themselves had so recently
given, and that it was a spark from our own torch
which had set the Old World in a blaze.
"In its first stage, but one sentiment respecting
it prevailed;" but the excesses which followed set
serious men to thinking, and in the minds of a
small, but influential minority, reaction began.
Washington was of this minority. Entertaining
the strongest affection and gratitude toward the
French nation, and sympathizing in its desire for
liberty, he yet felt the necessity of cautious action
on the part of the United States. In April, 1793,
1 "Life of Washington,” vol. v. p. 388.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 177
came the declaration of war made by France against
Great Britain and Holland. "The situation of
America was precisely that in which the wisdom
and foresight of a prudent and enlightened govern-
ment was indispensably necessary to prevent the
nation from inconsiderately precipitating itself into
calamities which its reflecting judgment would
avoid" and the Government at Philadelphia at
once issued a carefully worded proclamation of
neutrality, which gave equal offence to the French
and to their hot-headed sympathizers in the just
United States.
1793.
At this crisis arrived "the Citizen Genet," ambas-
sador from the Republic of France. He reached
Philadelphia on the 16th of May, and was
received with enthusiasm. The church bells
were rung, a public address was made him, demo-
cratic societies were founded in imitation of the
Jacobin clubs, and the French frigate "L'Ambus-
cade" came up the river, her masts decorated with
the red caps of liberty, and flags bearing republican
mottoes, and her guns saluting a vast crowd on the
Market Street wharf, who answered each discharge.
with deafening hurrahs. On the 18th a dinner
was given to Genet by the democrats at the City
1 "Life of Washington," vol. v. p. 402.
12
178
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Tavern, and on the 22d another, at which each
guest in turn put the bonnet rouge on his head and
offered a "patriotic sentiment." "The term 'cit-
izen' became as common in Philadelphia as in
Paris, and in the newspapers it was the fashion to
announce marriages as partnerships between Citi-
zen Brown, Smith, or Jones, and the citess who had
been wooed to such an association.
+
"At a dinner where Governor Mifflin was present,
a roasted pig received the name of the murdered
king; and the head, severed from the body, was
carried round to each of the guests, who, after plac-
ing the liberty-cap on his own head, pronounced the
word 'Tyrant!' and proceeded to mangle with his
knife that of the luckless creature doomed to be
served for so unworthy a company. One of the
democratic taverns displayed as a sign a revolting
picture of the mutilated and bloody corpse of Marie
Antoinette!"
This frenzy of welcome had its natural effect
upon the intellect of the French ambassador. On
his first visit to the President he took umbrage at
perceiving in the vestibule a bust of Louis XVI.,
and stigmatized it as "an insult to France." Other
causes of complaint were not lacking. The "Little
1 "The Republican Court," p. 295.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 179
Sarah," an English merchantman captured by a
French frigate, was brought into the port of Phila-
delphia and equipped as a privateer. Her arma-
ment was on board, her crew enlisted, and she was
about to sail on a cruise under the name of "Le
Petit Démocrat," when the Governor interfered,
and requested M. Genet to defer the sailing of
the vessel until the President, then at Mount Ver-
non, should return to the city, and the Cabinet
should sanction her departure.
Genet in a fury threatened "to appeal from the
President to the people." In defiance of the Gov-
ernor's prohibition and of the half-promise extorted
from Genet, "Le Petit Démocrat" sailed before
the arrival of the President.
The condemnation of this act on the part of the
Government, and the steps taken to prevent the
departure of other privateers then in process of
being fitted out, excited a tumult of popular wrath
which in every way was fostered by M. Genet.
His letters to the President and other officers of the
Government were couched in terms which bordered
on insult. Before the end of the year Mr. Morris,
our Minister at Paris, was instructed to request his
recall. But the flame of sedition and discontent
lit by him burnt on, and embittered the closing
years of Washington's Administration.
180
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The yellow fever made its appearance in Philadel-
phia during the summer of 1793, and raged with
fearful violence. During the months of Au-
1793. gust, September, October, and November, the
deaths in the city amounted to 4002 out of a popu-
lation of 30,000.¹ Congress adjourned to German-
town, which from the healthfulness of its situation
was exempt from the scourge. Down to that year
this suburb of Philadelphia had retained its German
character to a remarkable degree. All the public
preaching was in German, and most of the conversa-
tion. After the influx of strangers caused by the
fever, many persons chose Germantown as a summer
residence, and the use of English rapidly increased.2
"The horrors of this memorable affliction were
extensive and heartrending," says Breck, "nor were
they softened by professional skill. The disorder
was in a great measure a stranger to our climate,
and was awkwardly treated. Its rapid march, being
from ten victims a day in August to one hundred
a day in October, terrified the physicians, and
led them into contradictory modes of treatment.
They, as well as the guardians of the city, were
1 "A Picture of Philadelphia,” p. 37.
2 The changes effected by the lapse of a century in the character
of the Germantown population was marked in 1883, at the celebra-
tion of the bi-centennial of its founding by Pastorius, when less than
a hundred German citizens could be found to take part in the
ceremonies.
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 181
taken by surprise; no hospitals or hospital-stores
were in readiness to alleviate the sufferings of
the poor.
For a long time nothing could be
done other than to furnish coffins for the dead,
and men to bury them. At length a large house.
in the neighborhood was appropriately fitted up
for the reception of patients, and a few preem-
inent philanthropists volunteered to superintend
it. In private families the parents, the children,
the domestics, lingered and died, frequently without
assistance. The wealthy soon fled; the fearless or
indifferent remained from choice, the poor from ne-
cessity. The inhabitants were reduced to one half
their number; yet the malignant action of the dis-
ease increased so that those who were in health one
day were buried the next. . . . The Committee was
in session night and day at the City Hall in Chest-
nut Street. . . . The attendants on the dead stood
on the pavement in considerable numbers, soliciting
jobs; and until employed they were occupied in
feeding their horses out of the coffins which they
had provided in anticipation of the daily wants."
Repeated visits from this terrible epidemic in
the years 1798, 1799, and 1802, led public attention
to the investigation of causes, and to the cleansing
and filling up of Dock Creek, after which malignant
disorders of all kinds abated.
182
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1794 and 1795 were troubled years. War broke
out with the Northern Indians; and hardly was
this brought to a close by the victory of General
Wayne at the confluence of the Au-Glaize and the
Miamis rivers, than a formidable mutiny began in
the western counties of Pennsylvania against the ex-
ecution of the recent laws imposing a duty on dis-
tilled spirits. The mails were stopped and rifled,
the Government officials fired upon, the houses of
the inspectors attacked, and they themselves forced
to resign their positions. Nothing but the prompti-
tude and energy of the Government saved the coun-
try from civil war. The militia was ordered out,
Governor Lee of Virginia placed in command, the
President himself visited each division of the force
before it marched, and the insurrection was in the
end terminated without the shedding of a drop of
blood.
1795.
On the 7th of March, 1795, the "Treaty of Amity,
Commerce, and Navigation," between the
United States and Great Britain, which had
been negotiated at London by our minister, John
Jay, was received at the State Department, and on
the 24th of June the Senate, by a small majority,
voted for its ratification. "An immense party in
America, not in the habit of considering national
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL.
183
compacts, without understanding the instrument,
and in many cases without reading it, — rushed im-
petuously to its condemnation." 1
The friends of the Treaty were mobbed, and Mr.
Jay was burned in effigy in several cities. In Phil-
adelphia the mob held a meeting, at which various
demagogues made addresses, after which they
burned a copy of the Treaty under the windows of
the British minister. The determination of the
President, the calm statements and explanations
addressed by him to the people, and the strong
confidence felt by the majority in his opinion,
availed in the end to subdue opposition and secure
the final acceptance of the Treaty; but not until
his person and character had been attacked with
the utmost bitterness by the faction who opposed
the measure. He was pronounced by them to be
"totally destitute of merit either as a soldier or a
statesman." His honesty even was assailed, and his
enemies did not scruple to assert that he had drawn
from the Treasury for his private use more than
the salary belonging to his office. We are so ac-
customed to think of Washington as the recognized
model of a faultless human character, that it is
difficult to realize that he, too, bore in his time that
1 Sparks, "Life of Washington," vol. v. p. 625.
184
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
"sharpest pang" of being vilified and misrepre-
sented by those for whom he had given his best of
life and work. That, with all his dignified compo-
sure, this pang was not unfelt by him, is proved by
a passage from one of his letters, written in 1796:-
"Until the last year or two I had no conception
that parties would, or even could, go the lengths I
have been witness to ; nor did I believe, until lately,
that it was within the bounds of possibility that
I should be accused of being the enemy of one
nation, and subject to the influence of another,
and to prove it, that every act of my Administration
should be tortured, and the grossest and most in-
sidious misrepresentations of them be made, and
that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms
as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, to a notori-
ous defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket.
"But enough of this! I have already gone fur-
ther in the expression of my feelings than I had
intended."
To the great mass of the American people, how-
ever, Washington remained to the end of his life
the object of unabated reverence and affection. At
the close of his second period of office, the determi-
nation of the general body of electors to continue
him as chief magistrate so long as he would con-
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 185
sent to fill the place, was so unequivocal that even
his enemies dared not openly dissent. Only his
distinct refusal to be a candidate for renomination
laid the question at rest.
1796.
In 1796 he issued his famous Farewell Address
to the People of the United States; and the
following March, after having witnessed the
inauguration of his successor, John Adams, he left
Philadelphia for Mount Vernon, where the short
remainder of his life was spent. Dr. William Duer,
afterward President of Columbia College, was pres-
ent at his farewell appearance in Congress Hall,
and thus describes it:
1797.
"As the venerable hero moved toward the door,
there was a rush from the gallery that threatened
the lives of those who were most eager to
catch a last look of him who, among mortals,
was the first object of their veneration. Some of
us effected an escape by slipping down the pillars.
I succeeded in making good my retreat through
the outer door in time to see the retiring veteran
as he waved his hat in return for the cheers of the
multitude, while his gray locks 'streamed like a
meteor to the wind.' Seldom as he was known to
smile, his face now beamed with radiance and
benignity. I followed him with the crowd to his
186
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
own door, where, as he turned to address the multi-
tude, his countenance assumed a serious and almost
melancholy expression, his voice failed him, his
eyes were suffused with tears, and only by his ges-
tures could he indicate his thanks and convey a
farewell blessing to the people. This was the last
I saw of the most illustrious of mankind, and should
I live a thousand years, I 'ne'er shall look upon
his like again.'
1799.
In the spring of 1799 the waterworks of Phil-
adelphia were begun by the construction of
a reservoir near the banks of the Schuylkill,
and of an edifice of marble at the centre square
as a receiving fountain. These works at the outset
had little encouragement; and to induce moneyed
men to contribute their capital, they were offered
the free use of the water for a term of years. The
citizens of Philadelphia clung to their pumps, and
preferred them, until after the yellow-fever epi-
demic opened their eyes to the possible dangers of
such a supply. In 1818 the steam-engine at Fair-
mount was set in operation; and from that time on
there was a general acceptance of the Schuylkill
water.
“On the 11th of March, 1789, the Legislature of
the State had granted a new charter to the city
PHILADELPHIA AS THE CAPITAL. 187
of Philadelphia, the old one having been super-
seded by the events of the Revolution. The
Act was made applicable to the city as laid out by
Penn, the general form of administration differing
little from the old system. In the course of time,
suburbs outside of Philadelphia were created Dis-
tricts having separate municipal powers.
this system grew up a heterogeneous aggregation
of municipalities independent of each other, and
frequently discordant in policy."
"1
Under
In December, 1799, General Washington died
at Mount Vernon. The event was commemorated
in Philadelphia by a funeral procession from Con-
gress Hall to the German Lutheran Church, and
by an oration in honor of the departed leader
delivered before both Houses of Congress. Mean-
while work had been going on at Washington in
the building of the Capitol, the corner-stone of
which had been laid by Washington himself
in September, 1793. In the autumn of 1800 the
north wing was pronounced ready for occupation,
and Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of gov-
ernment.
1 “Guide-book of Philadelphia,” p. 41.
CHAPTER IX.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
1800-1876.
ABOUT the time of the transfer of the seat of
government to Washington it was decided
by the legislature of Pennsylvania to remove the
State capital to Harrisburg.¹ Philadelphia,
1800.
thus shorn of both her dignities, was left to
work out her own development through a course of
prosperous though uneventful years.
The discovery of the value of anthracite coal
about the year 1814 gave an immediate impetus to
manufactures of all sorts. The existence of this
coal had become known as early as 1792, when
the "Lehigh Coal Company" was started, with a
very small capital. The property owned by this
company was on Summit Hill, nine miles from
Mauch Chunk; but the difficulty and cost of trans-
portation were such as to dishearten the stockhold-
ers; and for some years the mine was suffered to
lie idle. The coal was used to a small extent for
1 The State capital was removed to Lancaster in 1799, to Har-
risburg in 1812.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
189
the forge-fires of the blacksmiths in the neighbor-
hood, and in Philadelphia a few persons burned it
in their grates; but rather as a curious experiment
than from any sense of its full utility. Even so
late as 1807, the Coal Company gave a lease of
one of their veins gratis to a firm of iron manufac-
turers, in hopes of securing the utilization of the
mineral; but the attempt proved a failure.
1810.
In 1810, however, an Englishman, whose name
has not been preserved, made an analysis
of the coal which convinced him of its value
for all purposes of combustion. He built a small
furnace for experiment, which was quickened by
three strong bellows, and succeeded in getting a
heat from the coal which was sufficient to melt
platinum. This experiment paved the way for a
more general use of the anthracite; but even SO
late as 1818, 365 tons carried to Philadelphia "com-
pletely stocked the market," and was with difficulty
disposed of. In 1825, however, the consumption
amounted to 28,393 tons, and by 1839 to 221,850
tons. In 1841 the Schuylkill mines produced a
million tons of anthracite alone.¹
Coincident with the discovery of coal, and co-
operating with it, came the employment of steam.
1 The total amount of anthracite coal sent to market during
January, 1884, is 1,482,151 tons!
190
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
-
Steamboats began to ply regularly on the Delaware
by 1808, in which year the "Phoenix," built in New
Jersey, was successfully brought round to Philadel-
phia by sea. Turnpikes and bridges came to rank
as prime necessities, not in Pennsylvania alone, but
all over the country. In 1789 the traveller from
Boston to Philadelphia was forced to pass not less
than eight rivers in ferry-boats, namely, the Con-
necticut at Springfield, the Housatonic at Stratford,
the Hudson at New York, the Hackensack and the
Passaic between Paulus Hook and Newark, the Rar-
itan at New Brunswick, the Delaware at Trenton,
and the Neshamony near Bristol, all of which,
except the Hudson, were substantially bridged by
the year 1829. Between that year and 1791 the
State of Pennsylvania expended over twenty-two
million dollars on its own internal improvements.
In 1825 the Schuylkill navigation improvement
scheme was put in operation, by which, through a
system of canals, the waters of the Susquehanna
were connected with those of the Schuylkill and
Delaware. Following this came the openings of
the Delaware and Maryland, and the Delaware and
Raritan canals, which united Philadelphia by a net-
work of water-ways with Baltimore on the one
hand, and New York on the other.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
191
The war of 1812 between Great Britain and the
United States gave but a brief check to the 1812.
progress of this peaceful growth. Volunteer
companies were formed, and the forts on the Dela-
ware strengthened. In the spring of 1813 three
companies under Colonel Lewis Rush were sent
from Philadelphia to guard the peninsula between
Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake; and two years
later twenty-one companies of volunteers from the
city formed part of an advance light brigade
serving under General Thomas Cadwallader.
1811.
The war against the Bank of the United States.
instituted by the democratic faction under Jeffer-
son was the cause of great excitement and a
considerable financial derangement about the
year 1811. The Act incorporating this Bank was
signed by President Washington on February 22,
1791, his fifty-ninth birthday. It directed the
establishment of a Bank of the United States, with
a capital not exceeding ten millions of dollars,
divided into 25,000 shares of $400 each, of which
no person should be allowed to subscribe for more
than one thousand shares, except the President of
the United States, who was empowered to subscribe
for two millions of dollars on behalf of the Govern-
ment. The subscription books were opened on the
4th of July, and before night the whole subscription
192
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
was taken. In four days the value of the scrip
was doubled; by the 4th of August it was selling
for three times its face value, and by the end of that
month for four times. This speculative spirit gradu-
ally subsided, and the stock reverted to par, where
it remained.
In 1811 the charter of the Bank expired. Jeffer-
son had been President of the United States dur
ing the time of its operation, and at the beginning
had opposed its creation. His objections to the
Bank formed part of his political creed, and his party
succeeded in preventing the passage of an Act for
its re-charter, in spite of the urgent appeals of the
Federal press and of the business community in gen-
eral. The Bank of North America, established in
1781 under the powerful influence of Robert Morris,
which had passed through a parallel crisis in 1786
and had barely succeeded in weathering the storm
of opposition, added the weight of its remonstrance.1
Its directors transmitted to Congress a memorial
pointing out the past services of the institution,
and expressing serious apprehensions as to whether
the commerce of the country could be carried on
without its co-operation and assistance. The appeal
1 The Bank of North America is still in existence, and by
special Act of Congress is the only National Bank in the United
States which is not compelled to use the word "National" in its
title.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
193
was in vain. The directors of the Bank of the
United States turned for relief to the Legislature
of Pennsylvania; but the democrats were sufficiently
strong in that body to defeat the Bill incorporating
it as a State institution, and at last, in 1812, the
friends of the Bank gave up the contest, the Bank
was closed, and its affairs finally wound up.
1812.
That same year Stephen Girard, the largest
stockholder in the Bank of the United States,
bought of its trustees the handsome building
which had been erected for its accommoda-
tion, and set up in business as a private banker.
"In fact, to all intents and purposes, Mr. Girard
became the United States Bank under another
name, though with not so great a capital." He
managed its affairs with great prudence and success.
At his death in 1831 the banking-house so long
under his control became a chartered institution by
the name of The Girard Bank. The subscription-
books were opened to the public in May, 1832, and
a scene of the most extraordinary confusion ensued;
hired bullies were employed to subscribe for citizens
who hesitated to trust themselves in the crowd,
and the stock was secured for a few hands by a
system of ruffianly violence. The grand jury
found bills of indictment against five of the Bank
commissioners; there was even talk of repeal-
13
194
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
ing its charter, and the Legislature was petitioned
to that effect; but that body refused to take action,
and in time the public indignation subsided and
the affair was forgotten.
Mr. Girard was at the time of his death in 1831
one of the richest men in the country. By
1831.
his will he left $500,000 to the city of Phila-
delphia for the improvement of the river front,
$116,000 to various institutions of charity in and
about the city, a considerable sum for the improve-
ment of the police system and the reduction of
taxes, and $2,000,000 for the erection and endow-
ment of a college for poor orphan boys, who, it
was stipulated, must be white. Explicit directions
for the building and regulation of the college
accompanied this bequest, to which was added the
remarkable proviso, that no " ecclesiastic, mission-
ary, or minister" should ever hold or exercise any
office or duty in the college, or should ever be ad-
mitted within the walls for any purpose whatever,
not even as a visitor! The orphans, at an age
between fourteen and eighteen, it was directed, were
to be bound out to suitable trades and occupations
under the direction of the Mayor and Corporation
of Philadelphia. In 1874 there were 500 scholars
in this institution; in 1883, 1,130. Its endowment
fund in that year amounted to $9,629,204, and its
gross income to nearly a million.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
195
1832.
The first railroad communication with Philadel-
phia was made in 1832 by the opening of a
short line to Germantown. In the same year
the Wilmington and Baltimore and the Camden
and Amboy roads were completed, and in 1832
the Reading Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad
was chartered in 1846.
An outbreak of cholera took place in Phil-
adelphia during the year which saw the first rail-
road brought to completion. The disease made its
appearance on the 5th of July; and between that
time and the 4th of October there were reported
2,314 cases, with nearly a thousand deaths.
1835.
In 1835 gas was first made for general consump-
tion by a private company, chartered, with
a capital of $125,000. Other gasworks were
organized in different districts; but after consolida-
tion in 1854, they all came into the possession of
the city, with the exception of the gasworks of
Kensington and the Northern Liberties.
In 1824 La Fayette, on his second visit to the
United States, was tendered a public reception
at the State House in Philadelphia. On this
occasion the condition of the building and the
changes that had taken place in its interior appear-
ance
attracted public attention. Since the year
196
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1800 some persons in temporary authority had
taken advantage of their opportunity to "modern-
ize” the fine East Room, in which the second Conti-
nental Congress and the Constitutional Convention
had held their sittings, and where the Declaration of
Independence had been signed. The ancient panel-
ling, the carvings, the old furniture, even the beauti-
ful chandelier, a relic of Colonial days, were torn
down, cast aside as useless lumber, and replaced
by something which was thought to be " prettier."
It was resolved that this room, famous as the
scene of so many important historical events,
should be restored to its original condition; and in
1833 a sum of money was voted for this purpose.
A large part of the old woodwork was found in-
tact in the lumber-rooms of the building; what was
lacking was replaced by new carvings made after
the pattern of the old; and in all important particu
lars the room now bears the aspect which it bore
when, with John Adams as President of the Senate,
the debates of the first United States Congress were
conducted with "the most delightful silence, the
most beautiful order, gravity, and personal dignity
of manner," and "three gentle taps " from the silver
pencil-case of the President were enough to compose
the most excited discussions and "restore every-
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
197
thing to repose and the most respectful atten-
tion."
In 1831 the United States Mint, which since.
1792 had occupied a plain brick building on the
east side of Seventh Street, removed to its present
situation in Chestnut Street.
Previous to the spring of 1830 only two locomo-
tives had been built in the United States. At that
date Mr. Baldwin, the founder of what has since
grown to be the colossal "Baldwin Locomotive
Works," constructed a miniature engine, with two
tiny cars capable of holding four persons, and
exhibited them on a track laid for the purpose in
Peale's Museum. The next year he received an
order from the Germantown Railroad Company to
construct a locomotive for their road. "He had
no proper tools, no patterns, no models; but confi-
dently relying on his own genius and resolution, he
went to work, and in six months had it finished
and placed on the road." Oddly enough, the
ingenious brain which was capable of planning a
locomotive failed to supply any expedient for pre-
venting the slipping of the wheels on wet rails; so
on rainy days the locomotive was left in the engine-
room, and horse-power used to drag the train.
Experiments were made for propelling trains of
198
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
cars by means of sails worked by the wind; and
various other methods were attempted. For twenty
years the portage road over the Alleghanies moved.
its cars by the use of wire ropes attached to station-
ary engines. The first stone of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad was laid on the 4th of July, 1828; but
locomotives did not run regularly over it till after
1832. In the construction of this road "Every mode
hitherto suggested by science or experience was
tested; the granite sill and iron rail, the wood
and iron on stone blocks supported by broken stone,
the same supported by longitudinal ground-sills in
place of broken stone, the log-rail formed of trunks
of trees worked to a surface on one side to receive
the iron, and supported by wooden sleepers, and
the wrought-iron rails of the English mode, - had
all been laid down, and as early as 1832 formed
different portions of the road. The first portion
completed was operated by horse-power. Finally
locomotives were adopted."1
1834.
In 1834 the Columbia Line, combined of canal
and railroad, was opened from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg, the whole making an aggregate
length of nearly four hundred miles. It was at
1 Brown's " History of the First Locomotives in Amer-
ica."
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
199
first constructed to be worked by horse-power; but
about 1836, locomotives were taken into use, to the
exclusion of horses. In 1847 a charter was granted
to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which has since be-
come one of the great agencies of progress to the
city and State.
1834.
The decade comprised between the years 1834
and 1844 was marked by a series of riots and out-
rages which were in extraordinary contrast with the
peaceful spirit usually prevalent in Philadelphia. In
August, 1834, a collision occurred between the
blacks and whites of the city. Colored people
were assaulted and mobbed, their houses were plun-
dered, and a meeting-house belonging to them near
the Wharton Market was torn down. Later in the
same year a serious riot of a political character took
place near the Moyamensing Hall in Catherine
Street, and a block of houses was burned. In July,
1835, further attacks were made on black peo-
ple and their dwellings. In 1838 this hostility
against negroes took the form of violence against
those who urged the abolition of slavery. In May
of that year Pennsylvania Hall, a large building used
for public meetings, was hired by Abolitionists:
it was attacked by a mob, fired, and totally de-
stroyed. Two years later, riots broke out in Ken-
1838.
200
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
1844.
sington on the proposal to extend the track of the
Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad along Front
Street. The rails were torn up, and buildings were
burned. In 1844 occurred the most terrible riots
that the city has ever known. Their cause
was a dispute between what was known as
the "Native American" party and the Irish Cath-
olics. A meeting of the former held on the 6th
of May at the corner of Master and Second streets
was attacked and dispersed. The persons who
composed it retreated to a market-house near by,
where they were again attacked, firearms being
used. This led to reprisals, which endangered
the safety of every Roman Catholic and Roman
Catholic Church in the city. The churches of St.
Michael and St. Augustine, with their priests'
houses and seminaries, were burned, as well as
many private dwellings, and a large number of per-
sons were killed on both sides. The military was
called out to protect the city, and remained on guard
for several days. In July further disturbances oc-
curred, and the troops were again ordered out. The
Catholic Church of St. Philip de Néri in Southwark
was attacked; but being protected by a body of
citizens, little harm was done to it. In clearing
the streets some difficulties occurred between the
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
201
troops and the people: a soldier was wounded by
a brick, and the captain in command ordered his
company to fire. Several of the rioters were killed,
others wounded.
An intense excitement set in;
the troops were attacked with musketry and can-
non, and defended themselves with artillery. For
twenty-four hours the battle continued, and lives
were lost on both sides. This was the most
formidable riot ever known in Philadelphia, and
the last of importance. Since then the peace of
the city, with unimportant exceptions, has been
unbroken.
1854.
The divided authority caused by the subdivision of
the city into many districts, all practically indepen-
dent of each other, was a serious obstacle to
the peaceful administration of the laws. "A
street became a barrier which an officer of the law
could not pass; and rogues and rioters, by fleeing
from one square to another, were free from moles-
tation. . . . The evils of this system led at last to
the consolidation into one municipality and under
one charter of the entire county of Philadelphia in
1854. By this Act Philadelphia became the largest
city in territorial area in America, and second only
to London in Europe."¹
1 History of the Pennsylvania Railroad.”
202
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
We have already mentioned the purchase of
ground for the Fairmount Waterworks in 1812.
After the failure of the Bank of the United States,
Lemon Hill, which was included among its assets,
was purchased by the city, in order to secure the
purity of the water, which might have been im-
paired, had the river bank above Fairmount been
built upon. This purchase was made in 1844, and
eleven years later Lemon Hill was formally opened
as a public park. In 1856 Sedgeley, a con-
1856.
siderable estate north of Lemon Hill, was
added to the Park; in 1866 the Landsdowne prop-
erty on the west side of the Schuylkill, later the
land along the Wissahickon, and in 1867, by the gift
of Jesse George and his sister, the eminence since
known as George's Hill. The whole forms one of
the largest public parks in the world, equalled
1857.
in extent only by Epping and Windsor forests
in England and by the Prater in Vienna, and ex-
ceeded by none in beauty of situation and natural
advantages. It contains 2,740 acres, and affords a
drive of thirteen miles in length along the beautifully
wooded banks of the Schuylkill and Wissahickon
and their tributary streams.
At Rambo's Rock, on the east bank of the Schuyl-
kill, below Gray's Ferry, stands the quaint building
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
203
known as the Court House, or Castle, of " The Fish-
ing Company of the State in Schuylkill." This asso-
ciation, originally formed for hunting and fishing,
dates back to 1732, when it occupied a house on the
western bank upon the estate of William Warner,
who received from the Company, in quittance of
annual rent, three fresh fish, the first catch of the
spring. Much humorous ceremony attended the
meetings of this Society, whose membership has in-
cluded most prominent Philadelphians since the Rev-
olutionary times, and before them. In 1789 General
Washington and a party of friends were entertained
at the Castle. In 1824 the Club gave a reception.
to La Fayette on his second visit to this country.
Two years previously, the erection of the Fair-
mount Dam rendering it necessary to change its
location, the materials of which the old Castle was
built were carried across the river and re-erected
at the present site at Rambo's Rock. The build-
ing includes a dining-room, large enough to accom-
modate eighty persons, and a large kitchen, where
the members of the Club personally prepare those
occult viands for which their reunions are famous.
On the east bank of the Schuylkill, farther north
and opposite Fairmount Park, lies a group of ceme-
teries, of which Laurel Hill is the oldest.
The
204
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
original purchase for this cemetery was in 1836,
and the first interment took place in October of
that year. It comprises but twenty-five acres ; but
is skilfully laid out and planted to make the most
of its very picturesque position. West Laurel Hill,
a mile distant, and much larger in extent, is grow-
ing into rivalship with its celebrated neighbor.
In 1829 was completed the great Eastern Peni-
tentiary on Fairmount Avenue, the corner-stone of
which had been laid in 1823. This prison was
originally intended for the system of solitary
confinement known as the Pennsylvania Plan, by
which each prisoner was kept secluded in a cell by
himself and allowed no knowledge of the outside
world. It was argued that the association of crim-
inals within the walls of a prison was productive
of much evil, and almost inevitably demoralizing to
young offenders not hardened in crime. In prac-
tice, the system of solitary confinement has proved a
failure. Insanity resulted in numerous cases, and
a gradual relaxation of the rules took place. The
system is still called "solitary;" but the prisoners
are necessarily associated to some degree in the
various handicrafts which they are taught, and in
some cases there are two occupants to a cell; they
are also allowed to write and receive letters under
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
205
the inspection of the officers, a library of six
thousand volumes is open to their use, and news-
papers are distributed among them.
1861.
The breaking out of the civil war in 1861 roused
a deep and active spirit of loyal sacrifice in
Philadelphia. It was followed within a year by
the formation of the Union League, - an organiza-
tion for the promotion and strengthening of patri-
otic feeling, and the establishment of a centre
"where true men might breathe without having their
atmosphere contaminated by treason." Beginning
with this modest intention, the work of the League
soon took a wider direction. Its example was
followed all over the land, and a host of Leagues
were formed in Pennsylvania and other States, un-
til there was scarcely a hamlet in the North which
could not point to a similar institution. Three
regiments were organized and equipped in Phil-
adelphia by the Parent Society in 1862. A Board
of Publication was established for the printing of
patriotic pamphlets, which were distributed gratu-
itously throughout the country. Committees for
obtaining employment for disabled soldiers and sea-
men, and for recruiting colored troops, were formed,
and a "Soldiers' Claim and Pension Agency" was
organized, all of which did valuable work.
206
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The Fourth Annual Report of the Union League
states that down to December, 1866, "Eighteen.
millions and sixty-four thousand eight hundred and
seventy pages of sound Union doctrine" had been
published and distributed by the Society, which at
that time numbered over two thousand members,
including most of the influential names in Phil-
adelphia.
1862.
In 1862 the great "Cooper Shop Volunteer Re-
freshment Saloon," for the feeding of United
States troops passing through the city, was
inaugurated. Beginning with the supply of a sin-
gle regiment by a few kind-hearted women, it de-
veloped into a thoroughly organized system, man-
aged exclusively through volunteer aids, by which,
in the course of the war, six hundred thousand sol-
diers were fed, nearly two thousand cared for in a
hospital managed by volunteer nurses, and several
thousand lighter cases relieved by dispensary treat-
ment. This magnificent contribution to the com-
fort and effectiveness of the national forces was
supported entirely by funds raised by private in-
dividuals, with no assistance whatever from the
Government, and by the unremitting labor of un-
paid assistants, not a few of whom laid down their
lives as a willing offering to the work.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
207
At the close of the war the Cooper Shop Volun-
teer Refreshment Saloon and Hospital was merged
into "The Soldiers' Home of the City of Philadel-
phia," an incorporated institution which is still
in active operation.
In June, 1864, a magnificent fair was held in
Philadelphia to raise funds for the Sanitary Com-
mission. By the consent of the authorities, Logan.
Square was temporarily enclosed by a huge build-
ing of glass and iron, in whose aisles grew large
shade-trees, uninjured by their brief seclusion from
the outer air. The fair lasted three weeks; and
its result was a million of dollars to augment the
treasury of the Commission.
Notwithstanding the heavy drains made by the
war in the loss of volunteer soldiers from the ranks
of her citizens, the population of Philadelphia dur-
ing the decade between 1860 and 1870 increased.
by nearly one hundred and fifty thousand. Since
the close of the war her growth has been still more
rapid, not in numbers only, but in the provision of
comfort made for her citizens. Philadelphia heads
all other American cities in the accommodation
provided for the poor man, and has thereby earned
the honorable title of "The City of Homes." The
number of dwelling-houses as computed by the
208
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
census of 1870 was 112,366, which is an average of
six persons to a house, exceeding the provision
of New York and Brooklyn put together. Nowhere
else are there such a number of small commodious
houses, each with its bath-room and water-supply,
put within the reach of the working classes. Among
more luxurious dwellings a gradual change has been
at work during the past few years. The red-brick
houses, with white freestone trimmings and white-
painted shutters, which for many years were so
universal as to seem like the Philadelphia uniform,
are gradually giving place to a more ornate archi-
tecture, carried out in a great variety of beautiful
stones and marbles, of which the quarries of the
State afford an abundant supply.
The closing hours of the century of independence
were celebrated by a grand civic pageant, in which
thousands of people took part. The grave of
Franklin was decorated with flowers and flags by
members of the Insurance patrol, among the dec-
orations being a kite formed of flowers. As
midnight neared, a vast crowd assembled in the
neighborhood of Independence Square; and when
the clock struck the twelve clanging notes which
marked the ending of the first hundred years of
American liberty, an unexpected excitement of emo-
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
209
tion took possession of the bystanders. Hardy men
were not ashamed of the sudden dew which clouded
their eyes, and there was a tremor in many voices
as they sought to utter a blessing or a good augury
for the country and the new period into which it
had entered.
14
CHAPTER X.
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
THE clock which struck the close of the first
century of American independence sounded
with the selfsame note the signal for the opening of
the year of the Centennial Exhibition. This mag-
nificent and appropriate commemoration of our
great national jubilee had long been under discus-
sion. As early as 1866 the plan had been suggested
and urged by Mr. John L. Campbell of Indiana,
afterward secretary of the Centennial Commis-
sion, but it was not till 1871 that the Bill to author-
ize it finally passed Congress; so that all the
enormous labor of preparation needed to bring so
vast an enterprise to a successful issue had to be
compressed into the short space of six years.
Of this labor a large proportion, as well as a
large proportion of the expense, fell to the share
of the city of Philadelphia. This was perhaps no
more than just, as she most largely profited by the
success of the enterprise; but the sacrifices made
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
2II
by her citizens and the arduous work accomplished
by them were undertaken in advance of the result,
when the success of the Exhibition was far from
certain, and while the rest of the country rather
stood apart, shaking its head and gloomily hinting
at failure.
The Bill passed by Congress incorporated a Cen-
tennial Board of Finance, which, acting under the
direction of the Centennial Commission, had author-
ity given it to raise $10,000,000 by an issue of
stock, with which to defray the expenses of the
Exhibition. Subscription-books for the sale of
shares not exceeding $10 in value were opened in
all the principal towns of the Union, — thus giving
to the whole nation a chance to participate, and to
the enterprise that distinctly national character
which was essential to its dignity and success.
Until the organization of the Board of Finance,
Philadelphia had defrayed the whole expenses of
the committees and of the opening of the subscrip-
tion-books. These were considerable; $25,000 at
one time, and at another $50,000, being voted for
the purpose.
By the provisions of the Bill of Authorization
passed by Congress, no formal announcement of the
Exhibition could be made by the President until
212
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
all moneys needed for the erection of buildings had
been secured. Until this formal announcement
foreign nations could not be asked to participate;
so the most strenuous efforts were made to bring
matters to this important point. Deputations from
the Centennial Committee, the Citizens' Com-
mittee, and the Committees of the Philadelphia
Council and of the Fairmount Park Commissioners,
appeared before the Senate and Assembly of the
State at Harrisburg on the 28th of January, 1873,
to set forth the benefits of the proposed enterprise
to the State as well as to the country in general,
and to urge an appropriation of $1,000,000 for its
purposes. At the same time the City Council was
asked to make an appropriation of $500,000; and
memorials and petitions in favor of the movement
were set on foot and extensively signed in all parts
of Pennsylvania, it being understood that this ap-
propriation was to be used for the erection of
buildings of a permanent character.
There were some natural misgivings on the part
of the legislators assembled at Harrisburg lest
these applications might mask a design for the
erection of a building suitable for a State house,
and the subsequent transfer of the Capital to
Philadelphia.
The general interest which about
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
213
this time was awakened in the
Exhibition,
and a great mass meeting in Philadelphia, in
which eminent men from all parts of the country
took part, and at which a large increase to the
stock subscriptions was announced, allayed these
apprehensions. On the 27th of March the Bill
for the appropriation of $1,500,000 for the erec-
tion of permanent buildings passed both houses;
and this appropriation, together with the stock
subscriptions, now amounting to $722,740, enabled
the Governor of Pennsylvania to notify the Pres-
ident that the stipulated sum had been secured.
Four hundred and sixty-five acres in the western
part of the beautiful Fairmount Park had been
chosen as the site of the Exhibition. A happier
choice could scarcely have been made, nor could
many cities of the world supply a piece of ground
so perfectly adapted to such a purpose. On the
bank of the beautiful Schuylkill, with an ample and
picturesque water frontage, occupying an undulating
surface whose average elevation above the river was
one hundred feet, with an unlimited water supply,
sward, trees, a wide off-look; at easy distance from
the city, and with a network of converging railroads
delivering passengers at its gates, — the Philadelphia
Centennial commanded facilities which have never
been equalled by any similar exhibition elsewhere.
214
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
On the 24th of June, 1873, the formal transfer
of the grounds was made in the presence of the
representatives of the National Government. The
Secretary of the Navy read the President's procla-
mation announcing and commending the Exhibi-
tion, and copies of the document were promptly
forwarded to diplomatic representatives of foreign
powers.
Through some informality of phrase, this proc-
lamation of the President was not accepted by
the various governments to whom it was sent as
an official invitation to take part in the Exhibition.
No answers, consequently, were received, and the
Centennial Commission, thus left in ignorance for
months of what might be the intentions of other
nations, experienced much delay and embarrass-
ment. The omission was rectified the year follow-
ing by a Resolution of Congress directing the
President to invite the co-operation of foreign gov-
ernments in regular diplomatic form, which had the
result of bringing prompt and cordial responses.
Mr. J. W. Forney was appointed special commis-
sioner to visit Great Britain and Europe, to awaken
public interest in the Exhibition, and to give all
the information that might be required as to its
scope and purposes.
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
215
Meanwhile every possible effort was being made
to increase the capital. In February, 1873, the
Board of Finance invited thirteen ladies, of whom
Mrs. E. D. Gillespie of Philadelphia was the head,
to co-operate with them as an auxiliary committee.
At the next session of the Commission this com-
mittee was formally recognized as a part of the
executive force under the name of the "Woman's
Centennial Executive Committee." The ladies com-
posing it went to work with that precision and thor-
oughness of detail of which woman, when at her
best, has the secret. The city was accurately dis-
tricted, committees for local and State correspond-
ence were formed, visiting and personal solicitation
was pushed vigorously forward, and in three months
the Woman's Committee were able to report sub-
scriptions from Philadelphia alone to the amount of
$42,060. It was also resolved by them to have an
exhibition of woman's work apart from all other
displays, for which purpose a special building was
provided, the expense of which, as well as of the
whole exhibit, was defrayed by the Committee, the
sum being raised by a series of public entertain-
ments of various kinds given in all parts of the
United States for the purpose.
Notwithstanding these aids, the Exhibition fund
216
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
still proved insufficient; and Philadelphia was again.
applied to for a further appropriation of $1,000,000
to erect the two halls for Machinery and Horticul-
ture. Another large public meeting was held, me-
morials were prepared, signatures secured, and the
Council promptly granted the sum required.
At the close of the year 1875, the enterprise hav-
ing again outgrown its outfit, the Board of Fin-
ance applied to Congress for a last appropriation
of $1,500,000. This was granted; though subse-
quently the Supreme Court held the appropriation
to be of the nature of a loan, to be repaid to the
United States before any division of assets to the
other stockholders was made. $649,250 were also
voted by Congress toward the Custom-House ex-
penses, those of printing the stock-certificates, and
for a Collective Exhibition of the Executive De-
partments. The plans made by Mr. Henry J.
Schwartzman for the permanent buildings were
accepted, and he was named as chief of the Depart-
ment of Engineering.
On the 10th of May, 1876, the Centennial Ex-
hibition was formally opened to the public. No
one who visited Philadelphia during the six months
of its continuance is likely to forget the spectacle
afforded by the group of immense structures with
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
217
their radiating systems of dependencies, set like
jewels in a base of smooth lawn enamelled with
blossoming shrubs and parterres of flowers, all
shining in the summer sun. A narrow-gauge rail-
way circled the grounds and carried passengers
along the line of its extent in half an hour. In the
centre of the buildings the great Corliss engine, of
1,400 horse-power, throbbed all day like the beating
of a human heart. The Exhibition had its own
police-force, its own magistrate and court, its spe-
cial fire-department and medical bureau. A stout
paling surrounded the whole vast extent, broken
by one hundred and six gates, each protected
by a strongly built turnstile; and through these
gates poured, for six memorable months, a vast
multitude of persons from every part of our country
and of the world, whose average number is com-
puted to have been not less than 62,333 per diem.
In close proximity to the grounds there sprang
up in a night, as it were, whole colonies of hotels,
boarding-houses, and shops, which at the close of
the Exhibition, their raison d'être having ceased,
vanished almost as suddenly as they came.
merous steam-vessels, large and small, brought
passengers up the Schuylkill, while a system of
light-running wagons shaded by awnings made the
Nu-
218
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
drive from the city easy and refreshing. From
tramways and steam-cars and by every species and
description of vehicle the vast living tide rolled to
and fro, and was absorbed into or disgorged from
the great central attraction. Within the enclosure
and up and down the aisles of the principal build-
ings, wheeled chairs pushed by men, and of a
pattern known since as the "Centennial chair,"
carried invalids or tired or lazy people up and down.
There could hardly be a more curious or unwonted
experience in our work-a-day American life than,
after the fresh, rapid drive from Philadelphia, to
pass the turnstile, and in three minutes be in the
midst of China or Japan, or Sweden or Russia,
with a strange language sounding in one's ears,
strange forms and garbs passing before one's eyes,
and the rare and novel products of an unknown
realm heaped and ranged about. Or, seated in
one of the luxurious "Centennial chairs," to glide
smoothly and swiftly from one part of the world
to another, out of India into Lapland, or up from
Bogota to Portugal. New knowledge, new ideas, a
wider enlargement of thought, came with each step
or turn of the wheels; and to many thousands of
the hundreds of thousands of visitors, the great
commemorative fair proved a stimulant to growth
which has gone on during these succeeding years.
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
219
It may be well, for the benefit of those who do
not recall the Exhibition clearly, or who were not
present at it, briefly to summarize its main features.
Chief among these was
The Main Building, — a monstrous structure cov-
ering over twenty acres of land, and built of wrought
iron and glass raised on a solid foundation of ma-
sonry and brick. Its length was 1,876 feet, by 464
feet of width, with transepts at both ends and in
the middle. Four square towers in the centre and
three at either end carried up the height of the
building to 120 feet, and an admirable system of
roof ventilation kept the air within singularly pure
and cool.
Within this building, which was the first reached
from the principal entrances, were the exhibits of all
nations; and it naturally formed the chief feature
as well as the chief interest of the Exhibition. An
unsuccessful attempt was made to preserve this
building, which has since been taken down.
Memorial Hall, situated north of the main build-
ing and parallel with it. This was built on a ter-
race 122 feet above the level of the Schuylkill; and
being designed for subsequent use as an Industrial
and Art Museum, was constructed in the most dur-
able manner. Three hundred and sixty-five feet
220
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
long, two hundred and ten wide, and fifty-nine feet
high, topped by an imposing dome; its materials
glass, iron, and solid masonry, supposed to be fire-
proof, this was by far the most ornate and valuable
building constructed for the purposes of the Cen-
tennial. Its use during the Exhibition was to
contain the galleries of art; but large as it was, it
proved too small for its purpose, and a temporary
building was added to it as an Art Annex."
Horticultural Hall was also designed for a per-
manent building, and its location was chosen with
a view to that end. It stands on Landsdowne Ter-
race, in full view of the Schuylkill River. The style
of the architecture is Moresque. The building has
a length of nearly 400 feet, with a width of 193,
and a height of 72. An immense conservatory,
with a gallery surrounding it, occupies the middle
of the structure, flanked on either side by four
forcing houses each 100 feet long, and by a series
of external galleries. Fountains played in the
angles of the main conservatory, and thirty-five
acres of ornamental ground, including an exten-
sive system of sunken gardens, surrounded the
Hall.
Machinery Hall was built from appropriations
made by the city of Philadelphia, its cost being, in
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
221
round numbers, $550,000. It consisted of a main
hall and an annex; the former was 1,402 feet long
by 360 feet in width, and the latter, designed es-
pecially to display hydraulic machinery in motion,
had a length of 360 feet and a width of 210. In the
Annex was a tank 60 by 160 feet in extent, with a
depth of ten feet, into the southern end of which
poured a waterfall thirty-five feet in height, supplied
by the pumps on exhibition. This vast building, of
which the great Corliss engine was the pulsing heart,
was one of the main interests of the Exhibition.
Agricultural Hall, the last of the five principal
buildings, resembled in its interior a Gothic cathe-
dral. Its great feature was a nave 820 feet in
length. This was crossed by three arched transepts,
the central a hundred feet in width, and those at
the ends eighty feet wide. Extensive stock-yards
for the exhibition of sheep, cattle, and poultry, were
attached to this building, also a race-track for the
exhibition of horses in motion. Here the display of
steam machinery for farmwork was made, and that
of the innumerable ploughs, mowers, reapers, and
patented agricultural implements.
Next in importance to the five main structures
was the "United States Government Building," in
which was displayed artillery for land and naval
222
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
service, the apparatus of the Life-saving Service,
a model laboratory of the Ordnance Department, a
model post-hospital of the Medical Department,
a display of fog-horn signals by the Lighthouse
Board, and a very complete and perfect exhibit of
"all such articles and materials as will illustrate the
functions and administrative faculties of the gov-
ernment in time of peace, and its resources as a
war power, and thereby serve to demonstrate the
nature of our institutions and their adaptation to
the wants of the people."
Among other buildings of interest was the Wo-
man's Pavilion, which covered an acre in extent, and
afforded a comprehensive and miscellaneous exhibit
of woman's work in all departments; the Judges'
Hall, for the use of the Committees, the Centennial.
Commission, and the Board of Finance; the Jury
Pavilion; the "Department of Public Comfort,"
which proved to be of the last value in further-
ing the convenience of the vast crowds; and
the separate small buildings, over two hundred in
number, erected by the States of the Union and
by various foreign Governments to serve both as
a rendezvous for their citizens and as examples of
something distinctive and characteristic in archi-
tecture. Several of these buildings, notably those
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
223
of England, Japan, and France, were admirable in
point of taste, and of marked interest.
The question of awards had been carefully studied
by the Centennial Commission. After long dis-
cussion it was decided to abolish the system ad-
opted by previous exhibitions, of an international
jury and awards by prize medals, and to substitute
awards based on reports made in writing by a body
of judges, two hundred and fifty in number, who
were carefully chosen and invested with authority.
The awards were to consist of bronze medals of a
uniform value, of diplomas signed by the executive
officers, and of certified copies of the Report of the
Judges recommending the awards. $1,000 was
allowed for the expenses of the foreign, and $600
for those of the American, judges. The judges
were required to consider impartially the interests
of all exhibitors and the merits of all articles.
passed upon by them. They were assigned, accord-
ing to their qualifications, to the various groups
indicated by the Central Committee. The recom-
mendation for each award was based upon the
examination and report of a single judge, and he
was held responsible for his recommendation; but
the whole group of judges, of which he formed a
part, were expected to pass upon his report.
224
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
A
This novel system of awards proved on the
whole a remarkable success. The judges worked
together with singular harmony, and their decisions
gave as much satisfaction, or as little dissatisfac-
tion, as was possible under the circumstances.
good deal of confusion arose from the delay of
the first exhibitors in filing their exhibits, and for
this reason the first catalogue was extremely de-
fective; but every succeeding week tended toward
the perfecting of these details and added to the
completeness of the Exhibition. In the month of
September the Centennial Commission appointed
a committee to receive appeals from exhibitors who
held that justice had not been done them, with
which Committee were associated ten judges, of
whom seven had served on previous groups. Under
the revised decision of this Committee six hundred
and twenty-eight awards were issued to exhibits
which had been originally rejected.
The pecuniary result of the Exhibition was un-
expectedly successful. From its opening on the
10th of May to its final close on November 10th,
10,164,489 persons passed through its gates, of
whom 8,047,601 paid admission fees amounting
to $3,833,636.49. The sale of buildings after
their use was past, with various concessions and
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
225
royalties on sales, swelled this amount to nearly
$5,000,000, so that after repaying the loan of
$1,500,000 made by the United States Government,
and providing for all expenses, the Board of Fin-
ance was able to allow interest at the rate of six per
cent upon all instalments paid in between May
Ist, 1873, and January 1st, 1876, and in addition
to this interest to return to the shareholders a div-
idend of $1.75 per share on each share of stock.
Of the further results of the Exhibition it would
be difficult to speak intelligently. So large a por-
tion of the good it accomplished lies in the stim-
ulus to growth in knowledge and taste which it
afforded, an influence which, while it is univer-
sally admitted, is difficult of exact formulation,—
that it is not possible fairly to represent or state
its amount. Among other results may, however,
be specified the extraordinary development of the
manufacture of earthenware and china since the
Centennial year; the great improvement in wall-
papers and carpets; the development of the impor-
tant industry of glazed and unglazed tiles; the
marked advance in architectural taste; and the pas-
sion for house-decoration and ornamental needle-
work which has led to the formation of the many
decorative art societies. Immense quantities of
15
226
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
objets d'art, both European and Oriental, were
sold from the foreign exhibits at the Centennial;
and the taste thus aroused seems to have been
constantly on the increase since that time. Phila-
delphia, always hospitable, surpassed herself in
the cordial and unstinted welcome extended to all
strangers during the Centennial summer by her
citizens, both in their private capacity and as fac-
tors in a municipality; and to their public spirit
and unwearied effort the country at large owes a
debt of gratitude. Eighty per cent of the stock
subscribed for was taken in Philadelphia; and to
the unwearied efforts of her prominent men con-
spicuously of the Hon. John Welsh - the success of
the enterprise is due. Many lives were endangered
some laid down - in the service of the Exhibi-
as is always the case with a movement so
enthusiastically shared in by a multitude of helpers,
and for the reason that it proved impossible to
make the sanitary provisions of the spot adequate
for the needs of such an immense concourse of
people. But taken for all in all, the Exhibition had
a proud and remarkable success; and though the
first, it may very probably retain the credit of being
the best planned and most fortunate, attempt of
the sort made on this side of the Atlantic.
tion,
CHAPTER XI.
THE PHILADELPHIA OF TO-DAY, 1880 TO 1886.
Location.
Philadelphia is situated on a tract of
land embraced between the Delaware and Schuylkill
rivers, which, lying to east and west of the city, and
gradually approaching one another, unite to form its
southern boundary. In the original plan, this tract.
comprised about twelve hundred acres; but the
enormous additions made during the present cen-
tury have increased this area to eighty-two thou-
sand seven hundred acres, so that the city now
covers a territory amounting to one hundred and
twenty-nine square miles, — an extent not exceeded
by any American or European capital, save the city
of London. Its precise latitude is 39° 57′ north, by
75° 09' west, from Greenwich. It is 136 miles north-
east from Washington, and about a hundred from the
Atlantic, following the Delaware Bay and River. The
site of the city is a nearly level plain, varying from
2 to 46 feet above tide-water; but in the new sub-
urbs to the west of the Schuylkill, the land rises
228
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
in places to an elevation of from 112 to 120 feet.
The total length of the city is twenty-three miles,
with an average width of five and a half between
the rivers. Having thus a large river to east and
west, and fanned by strong currents of air, the situa-
tion of Philadelphia in point of healthfulness is
most advantageous. The city is entitled to send
five representatives to the National Congress, and
eight senators and twenty-eight representatives to
the State Legislature.
Water Communication. - Philadelphia may be
ranked among the Atlantic ports. The width and
depth of the Delaware enables steam vessels of the
largest size to come up to her wharves, where there
is an extraordinary depth of water, being 57 feet at
low water at the pier-heads for more than half a
mile, and not less than 25 feet for three miles of
the river frontage. The only obstacle to navigation
is a bar in the river below the city, and on this
there is 19 feet at low, and 25 feet at high, water.
The strong current setting on the western shore
at both flood and ebb tide prevents encroachments
on the harbor by deposit; the rise of tide is but
six feet, and floods and overflows are unknown.
Wharves. The wharves of the Port of Phila-
delphia lie along the west shore of the Delaware
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
229
for miles. Conspicuous among them are those of
the Clyde Steamship Company, the Red Star line,
the America steamship line, the Philadelphia and
Southern Mail Steamship Company, and the great
ship-building yard of Cramp and Sons, where two
of the new cruisers for the United States Navy are
now building. At Girard's Point, near the junc-
tion of the Schuylkill with the Delaware, are the
docks and warehouses of the International Steam
Navigation Company, together with their two enor-
mous grain-elevators, one of which is 100 feet wide,
200 feet long, and 124 feet high to the peaks of
the roof. This stands in the middle of a wharf
500 feet long by 250 wide, with a dock of the
same dimensions on either side. The total capa-
city of this elevator is 800,000 bushels, and by its
facilities six vessels may be loaded at the same
time.
Climate and Health. The salubrity of Philadel-
phia is exceptional, the mortality being I to every
thousand persons less than that of London; 2 to
every thousand persons less than that of Paris;
and 7 to every thousand persons less than that of
New York. This is due in part to the unbounded
supply of fresh water and its universal use for
cleansing and bathing purposes, but also in a great
measure to the natural advantages of Philadelphia
in regard to situation and the sweep of fresh air
230
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
across the city from river to river. The foundation
of the city is mainly a dry, well-drained gravel,
making good sewerage an easy matter. The range
of temperature throughout the year is very consid-
erable, including all degrees, from below zero to
above 100°; but the extremes of heat and cold are
of short duration, and the average of the year is
moderate, escaping the worst evils of the Southern
and Northern climates, between which the city may
be said to lie. During the past one hundred and
twenty-two years the highest recorded summer
temperature was 101°, and lowest recorded winter
temperature 10°, the mean annual temperature
being about 52°.
Railroads. In 1880 Philadelphia had the fol-
lowing railroad communications.
The Pennsylvania Road,— to which the city owes
much of its progress in recent years. The total
number of miles operated and controlled by this
road is estimated at over two thousand. Its rolling-
stock comprises one thousand locomotives, half as
many first-class passenger-cars, and over twenty-
five thousand freight-cars. The total assets of the
Company have been placed as high as $180,000,000.
Its principal passenger-depot is on Broad Street
and Filbert, where, in 1880, was erected a mag-
nificent station. Its chief freight-depots are at
Delaware Avenue and Dock Street, Sixteenth and
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
231
Market streets, Kensington, Broad Street, and
Washington Avenue.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Passenger-
depot corner of Chestnut and Twenty-fourth
streets. It is supposed that this road, in connec-
tion with the Reading system of roads, will com-
plete a through line to New York. The tunnel
skirting the eastern edge of Fairmount Park is a
remarkable piece of workmanship.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. Pas-
senger-depots, Thirteenth and Callowhill streets,
and Ninth and Green streets.
The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore
Railroad, whose depot is at Broad Street and
Washington Avenue.
The North Pennsylvania Railroad.
The Camden and Atlantic Railroad.
The West Jersey Railroad.
The Westchester and Philadelphia Railroad.
Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railroad.
Streets. Penn's original arrangement of the
streets has been adhered to. Those running from
river to river are crossed at right angles by those
running north to south; the latter being designated
numerically from the Delaware as Front, Second,
Third, and so on; and the intersecting streets from
East to West bearing, as a general thing, the names
232
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
of trees or of persons.
The city is divided at
Market Street into North and South; all streets
above and below being known as North Third, South
Third, etc. The houses are numbered by blocks,
small intermediate streets being included in the
blocks. Each block is calculated as containing
precisely one hundred houses.
There are over two thousand miles of streets, of
which nine hundred miles are paved, and over
eleven hundred miles either unpaved or laid with
gravel. The extent of the paved streets, and the
cost per square yard of each, as nearly as it may be
estimated, is as follows:
Cobble-stones
Stone blocks
500 miles
47"
Cost, $1.25
3.00
Asphalt
2
1.60
""
Broken stone
100
""
""
1.50
Wood .
I
Rubble-stone
250
""
1.50
The gravel roads cost nineteen cents per square
yard. The Chief Commissioner of Highways says:
"Cobble-stones, when properly laid, make a durable
and cheap pavement. Rubble-stone is used in dis-
tricts where the long haul of cobble-stones would
render the cost too high; and while such a pave-
ment, laid with great care, is durable, it does not
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
233
give general satisfaction, from its rough and irreg-
ular surface. Broken stone is used in the semi-
rural sections, and is the old macadamized road,
-the merits of which are, of course, thoroughly
understood. Asphalt, in various forms and combina-
tions, has qualities which render it desirable for some
purposes; but it has not yet proved itself the most
desirable under all circumstances, which general
-
quality is found more completely in the stone block,
or Belgian pavement, to which we would unhes-
itatingly give the preference. Wood we ignore;
experience having shown that its rapid and constant
decay renders it unfit for use."
The pavements of those streets in which car-tracks
are laid are maintained in repair between the curbs
by the horse-railroad companies, while other streets
are attended to by the Highway Department, the
work being done under contract. Where the cobble-
stone pavement settles out of shape, or gets in holes
and ruts, the stones are taken up, the ground loos-
ened with picks and smoothed with shovels, a little
sand is scattered over it, and the cobbles are returned
to their place, rammed, and covered with earth.
This treatment is effective for a longer or shorter
time, according to the amount of traffic in the street.
The extent of streets paved with cobble-stones is
234
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
so great, that any attempt to replace the whole of it
with Belgian blocks would involve an enormous
expenditure of money. The great length of paved
streets to be kept in repair may account in part
for the very indifferent condition in which some of
them are.
No cobble pavement, however well laid,
can be kept properly cleaned by the means usually
applied in cities; the hollows, ridges, and ruts pre-
venting the brooms, sweeping-machines, etc., from
reaching the accumulation of dirt and filth; this
dirt being brought to the surface by rain, or when
the streets are sprinkled, only to be carried, when
dry, all over the city in the shape of dust. How-
ever, the cobble-stone pavement has been an import-
ant element in the development of the city, as its
use has rendered possible the improvement and
occupation of many miles of streets which would
probably have remained undeveloped if expensive
pavements, and the consequent high assessments
on abutting property, had been laid. A yearly ap-
propriation is now made for the replacement of the
cobble-stones with improved methods of pavement,
so that eventually they will disappear. The mac-
adamized roads and streets consist of quarried
stones placed on edge, forming a rough bottom
eight to ten inches deep, and covered, first with
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
235
coarse broken gneiss or other hard rock, then with
finer stone of the same character, and over all the
fine dust from the screenings of the broken stone.
Very little limestone is used, but in its place a large
quantity of slag from the iron furnaces, which is
very hard, and contains a large proportion of lime.
In addition to the pavements enumerated above,
many of the abutting property-owners have laid
composition-blocks in front of their respective
premises.
Street Railroads. No city in the world equals
Philadelphia in facilities for cheap transportation.
Every principal street is crossed or passed by a
tramway railroad.
There are not less than 285
miles of these railways in the city. The rate of
fare on all the roads is 5 cents (4 for young chil-
dren); and a system of exchange tickets prevails,
which, by the payment of 2 cents additional on
some lines, on others without additional charge,
enables the passenger to transfer himself to any
intersecting line of railway, so that for the sum of
7 cents a ride of many miles can be secured. The
advantage of this system in bringing working men.
into cheap and easy communication with their labor
is easily perceived; it is one of the influences which
have given Philadelphia its reputation as the best
home in the country for a poor man. There are
over two hundred miles of car-tracks in the city;
and being laid with a broad rail as nearly as possi-
236
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
ble on a level with the pavement, they do not mate-
rially injure the streets for the use of carriages.
There are more than 1,300 cars, with nearly
8,000 horses, in use, and during the year 1885
the total number of passengers carried was over
100,000,000. There are no regular omnibus lines
in the city, but there are 25 single omnibuses
and 68 hacks regularly licensed by the Highway
Department. This, however, gives no adequate
idea of the actual number of these vehicles in the
city, as a recent law permits the owners of livery
stables to run hackney-coaches upon the payment
of a State tax, without requiring a special license
from the city. Hansom cabs and four-wheelers.
have been introduced of late years.
Water Supply. - Philadelphians are noted for
their free use of water, of which the city has an
abundant supply, conducted over the city by more
than 730 miles of pipe. The smallest and cheapest
house has its bathroom, and the incessant washing
of sidewalks and doorsteps is a grievance com-
plained of by strangers who are trying to see the
city on foot. The Water Department, which is
under the control of the city, consists of the follow-
ing officers: a Chief Engineer, a Register, and a
Chief Clerk, besides a large force of draughtsmen,
clerks, engineers, and laborers.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
237
The waterworks are divided into the following
sections the Fairmount, Schuylkill, Delaware, Bel-
mont, Roxborough, and Chestnut Hill.
The Fairmount Reservoir is divided into four
basins, having a capacity of 26,896,636 gallons.
The works are run with seven turbine-wheels and
one breast-wheel, with a Worthington steam-pump
for use when the water-wheels cannot be run on
account of low water in the Schuylkill.
The Fairmount supply began with a pumping-
engine at Chestnut Street, Schuylkill, and a dis-
tributing reservoir at Centre Square, which were
commenced in May, 1799, and brought into use the
1st of January, 1801. In April, 1819, a dam across
the Schuylkill at Fairmount was begun. The first
water passed out from the new reservoir on July
I, 1823. Subsequently the city purchased the
Lemon Hill and other properties, to secure the
river from contamination, and formed what is now
known as Fairmount Park.
The Schuylkill, or "Spring Garden," Waterworks,
at the foot of Thompson Street, supply the Elev-
enth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Wards of the city. Their daily average is 5,226,008
gallons. They were erected in 1844 as independent
waterworks by the commissioners of Spring Garden
238
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
and the Northern Liberties, after an ineffectual
protest at the high rates charged to the inhabitants.
of the district as compared with those of the city
proper. They are run by steam-power, with Cornish
side-lever and compound engines.
The Delaware Waterworks are situated on the
River Delaware, at the foot of Wood Street. These
works went into operation in 1850. They supply
the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and
Twentieth wards, their daily average capacity being
4,950,709 gallons. They are run by steam-power,
with a Worthington beam and horizontal engine.
The Belmont Waterworks have their reservoir
at George's Hill, Fairmount Park. They were
built to replace the West Philadelphia Waterworks,
which went out of use in 1870. They are run by
three Worthington steam pumping-engines, and
furnish a daily average of 5,226,008 gallons.
The Roxborough Waterworks are on the east
bank of the Schuylkill, above Manayunk, on the
line of the Philadelphia and Norristown Railroad.
They were finished in 1870, are run by steam-
power, and furnish a daily supply of 2,281,287
gallons. On the completion of these works the Ger-
mantown and Chestnut Hill works were abandoned
as pumping-stations, and now receive their water
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
239
from the Roxborough Reservoir through two large
mains which cross the Wissahickon in Fairmount
Park.
The total amount of water pumped in the vari-
ous works in 1886 was 25,165,020,072 gallons, or
an average of 68,945,260 gallons per day. The
average cost of raising 1,000,000 gallons one foot
high is 4.70 cents. The total receipts of the de-
partment during 1886 were $1,797.973.81, and the
total expenditure $901,931.49.
Drinking-Fountains. — Through the agency of
the Philadelphia Fountain Society sixty-one public
drinking-fountains have been established within
the limits of the city. Seven additional fountains
have been added by the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals; they are kept in order by
a fund appropriated for the purpose.
Gas-works. —The works for the manufacture of
gas are the City, Point Breeze, Spring Garden, and
Frankford works owned by the city, and the North-
ern Liberties Gasworks, which are the property of
a private corporation.
The City Gasworks were authorized by an ordi-
nance of the Council in 1835. It had a capital
stock of $125,000; but the city reserved the right
to purchase the works from the shareholders at
240
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
any time, which right was claimed in 1841, when
it bought out the stockholders for $173,000, and
took possession of the works through the agency
of a board of trustees. In 1859 the remaining in-
dependent companies were bought out, and the
whole service, with the exception of the gasworks
of the Northern Liberties, brought under the con-
trol of the city. Great care was taken in the outset
to secure the best improvements then effected in the
manufacture of coal gas in Europe, and the Phil-
adelphia works have always furnished gas cheaper
than those of any other American city. The total
amount of gas made during the year 1886 by the
combined works was 2,946,407,000 cubic feet.
Public Buildings. The buildings owned or
occupied by the city for municipal purposes are
the State House, or Independence Hall, the County
Court-house building, the Quarter Sessions build-
ing, and the Hall of the American Philosophical
Society in Independence Square, the new City
Hall in Penn Square,¹ the House of Refuge in
Poplar Street, the House of Correction on the
south bank of Pennypack Creek at its junction
with the Delaware, the Morgue in Noble Street,
between Front Street and Delaware Avenue, the
1 Partly occupied, but not yet quite finished.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
241
Philadelphia Almshouse, with which is connected
the Philadelphia Hospital, on the west side of the
Schuylkill south of the Darby Road, and the Laz-
aretto, or Quarantine Station, on Tinicum Island.
The west room on the first floor of the State House,
in which the sittings of the Second Continental
Congress were held, was formally withdrawn from
public use about 1830, and held as a national mu-
seum, to be devoted to "dignified purposes only."
It now holds a valuable collection of relics, includ-
ing the original charter of the city of Philadelphia,
with Penn's signature and the great seal of the
State, and the Liberty Bell, now cracked and sound-
less, which rang forth the Declaration of American
Independence. The old Congress Hall was begun
in 1790 and finished in 1791. The Hall of the
American Philosophical Society was erected in
1787. The Society took its origin from Franklin's
famous club, "The Junto," established in 1743.
The new City Hall, in Penn Square, was begun in
August, 1871, and it is expected will be opened for
use a few months from this date (1880). The di-
mensions of this magnificent building are 470 feet
from east to west by 486% feet from north to south,
and the area covered by it is equal to about four
and a half acres. The building contains five hun-
16
242
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
dred and twenty rooms, and is supposed to be
absolutely fireproof.
The Philadelphia Almshouse consists of five
main buildings, each three stories in height and five
hundred feet long, and extending from a central
building. The grounds comprise one hundred and
thirty acres. The buildings, which are managed by
a board of guardians elected by the Council, are de-
voted to the poor and sick, to the insane, and to
friendless children. The guardians also grant out-
door relief in the various wards. The average daily
population of the Almshouse is over four thousand,
and outdoor relief is afforded to nearly eighty thou-
sand persons annually.
To this list of buildings for municipal purposes
should be added nearly or quite two hundred pub-
lic school buildings, the total real-estate value of
which is, comprising their furniture, nearly six
millions.
The buildings owned or occupied by the United
States Government in the city of Philadelphia
are the United States Custom House and Sub-
Treasury in Chestnut Street and Ninth; the
United States Appraisers' building on Second
Street; the Post-Office on the south side of Chest-
nut Street, between Fourth and Fifth; the United
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
243
States Courts on Library Street; the New Post-
Office on the corner of Ninth and Chestnut; the
United States Naval Hospital; the United States
Naval Asylum; the United States Navy Yard on
League Island, in the Delaware; the Schuylkill
Arsenal on the Gray's Ferry Road; the Frankford,
or Bridesburg Arsenal, on Tacony Road and Bridge
Street; and the United States Mint, on Chestnut.
Street, corner of Juniper. The Mint was estab-
lished by Act of Congress on the 2d of April, 1792.
The corner-stone of the present building was laid
in 1829. It was made fireproof in 1854, and the
interior has been frequently altered. It is a marble
building, with a Grecian portico, and contains, on
the main floor, first, the deposit-room, where gold
and silver bullion is received and weighed; second,
the copper melting room, where ingots are cast for
the minor coinage; third, the gold and silver melt-
ing room; fourth, the rolling and cutting room;
fifth, the coining room. The building contains
twelve strong vaults securely guarded, and a cabi-
net containing the largest and most valuable col-
lection of coins in the United States. The
deposits of gold of domestic production made at
the United States Mint from its earliest period to
the close of 1880 amount to $873,097,015.62. The
deposits of native silver during the same time are
$121,924,919.14.
244
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
HOSPITALS.
There are twenty-three hospitals within the limits
of Philadelphia, and thirteen dispensaries, at which
gratuitous medical and surgical treatment is given
to the poor. The list of these is as follows
The Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in the year
1752 by the exertions of Benjamin Franklin and
his friends. The western wing was not built until
after the Revolution, and the central building was
finished about 1805. This hospital occupies the
square bounded by Eighth, Ninth, Spruce, and Pine
streets, the entrance being on Eighth Street. The
entire frontage is 278 feet in width. Over one hun-
dred thousand patients have been admitted to this
hospital since its establishment, of whom more than
one half have been non-paying patients supported
by the institution.
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (male
department), between the Westchester and Haver-
ford roads, west of Forty-third Street. Opened for
the reception of patients in 1841. The principal
building and wings have a front of 436 feet, are
three stories in height, and accommodate 250 pa-
tients. The main building of this hospital was
unfortunately destroyed by fire on the night of
Feb. 12, 1885, and twenty-one patients lost their
lives.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
245
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, fe-
male department, on Forty-ninth Street. Opened
for use in 1859. It has an equal capacity with the
male department.
Philadelphia Hospital, conducted as a branch
of the Blockley Almshouse. The insane depart-
ment of this hospital contains on an average over
a thousand patients.
Wills Hospital for Diseases of the Eye, on
Race Street, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth.
Opened March 3, 1834. This institution furnishes
clinical assistance gratuitously to all who desire it.
Friends' Asylum for the Insane, Adams Street,
Frankford, founded in 1811 by members of the
Society of Friends. Accommodation for about
seventy-five patients. This institution was one of
the first for the separate accommodation of the
insane in the United States.
Preston Retreat, Hamilton Street, opened in 1866.
This is a lying-in hospital for the use of "Indi-
gent married women of good character, residents
in the city and county of Philadelphia and the
county of Delaware.”
Municipal Hospital, Hart Lane, near Twenty-
First Street, for the treatment of persons laboring
under infectious diseases.
246
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
St. Joseph's Hospital, south side of Girard
Avenue, from Sixteenth to Seventeenth Street,
under the care of Roman Catholic Sisters of
Charity, but non-sectarian in its management.
Capacity, two hundred and fifty beds.
Charity Hospital, 1832, Hamilton Street; char-
tered in 1858, and supported by private subscrip-
tion. Daily clinics given, with advice and medicine
to the respectable poor.
Hospital of Protestant Episcopal Church, south-
east corner of Lehigh Avenue and Front Street,
occupying a square of ground. This fine building,
whose doors are open to patients of all creeds and
nationalities, has a capacity of three hundred beds.
German Hospital, southwest corner of Girard
and Corinthian avenues, founded by the efforts
of citizens of German descent in 1860. Both Ger-
man and English are spoken in the institution, which
is open to the sick and injured of all nationalities.
St. Mary's Hospital, corner of Frankford Road
and Palmer Street, under the care of the Francis-
can Sisters of the Roman Catholic Church, and
entirely supported by voluntary contributions.
Jewish Hospital, Olney Road, near the York
Pike, was founded in 1866. It admits all sufferers,
without regard to religious belief, but with special
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
247
arrangements for Jewish patients, so far as regards
the peculiar observances of their religion.
Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous.
Diseases, northwest corner of Seventeenth and
The cases annually treated num-
Summer streets.
ber six hundred.
Presbyterian Hospital, corner of Thirty-ninth
and Filbert streets. Accommodation for one hun-
dred patients.
Germantown Hospital, Shoemaker Lane, near
Chew Street.
Children's Hospital, Twenty-second Street, be-
low Walnut. Children under the age of twelve
received. Accommodation for about fifty patients.
The Children's Seashore Hospital at Atlantic City
may be considered a branch of this institution.
Homœopathic Hospital, Cuthbert Street, west of
Eleventh, under the control of the Hahnemann
Medical College.
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania,
south side of Spruce Street, between Thirty-fourth
and Thirty-fifth, founded in 1871, opened partially
for use in 1874. This splendid hospital is entirely
free to all residents of Pennsylvania who may need
its services. Its endowment amounts to nearly or
quite one million dollars.
Woman's Hospital, corner of North College Ave-
248
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
nue and Twenty-second Street, under the care
of women, and for the reception of women and
children only. It was established in 1861 in con-
nection with the Woman's Medical College.
Lying-in Department of the Northern Dispen-
sary, 608 Fairmount Avenue.
State Hospital for Women and Infants, 1718
Filbert Street, now called "The Maternity."
Mission Hospital for Women and Children, cor-
ner of Eighth and Mary streets.
Jefferson College Hospital, Sansone Street, above
10th.
Dispensaries. — Philadelphia Dispensary, erected,
in 1801, on Fifth Street, between Library and
Walnut.
Eye and Ear Institute of the Philadelphia Dis-
pensary, southeast corner of Thirteenth and Chest-
nut streets.
Northern Dispensary, 608 Fairmount Avenue.
Northeastern Dispensary, corner of Tulip and
Fox streets.
Northeastern (Homoeopathic), 1520 N. Fourth
Street.
Southern, 318 Bainbridge Street.
Howard Hospital, 1518 Lombard Street.
Germantown Dispensary, connected with Ger-
mantown Hospital.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
249
Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye and Ear, 419
Wetherill Street.
Moyamensing Infirmary, at House of Industry,
Catharine Street, below Seventh.
Dispensary for Skin Disease, Eleventh Street,
above Locust.
Church Dispensary of Southwark, 1017 Morris
Street.
Philadelphia Lying-in and Nurse Charity, 126
North Eleventh Street.
ASYLUMS AND HOMES.
The number of these charitable institutions in
Philadelphia is very large. A partial list only can
be given.
Asylums for Children. — Asylum of Philadelphia
Orphan Society, Haddington, West Philadelphia,
instituted in 1814.
St. Joseph's Female Orphan Asylum (Roman
Catholic), southwest corner of Seventh and Spruce
streets.
St. John's Orphan Asylum (Roman Catholic),
Westminster Avenue, near Forty-ninth Street.
Colored Orphan's Shelter, under charge of the
Society of Friends, corner of Haverford and Forty-
fourth streets.
250
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
Catholic Home for Destitute Orphan Girls, 1720
Race Street.
Church Home for Children, Angora Station, on
Westchester Railroad.
Lincoln Institute for Boys, 308 South Eleventh
Street.
Educational Home for Boys, Greenway Avenue,
near Forty-ninth Street, West Philadelphia.
Industrial Home for Girls, Tenth Street, below
Spruce.
Northern Home for Friendless Children, occupy-
ing a square of ground between Twenty-second,
Twenty-third, Brown, and Parrish streets.
tered by Act of Assembly, 1854
Char-
Burd Orphan Asylum of St. Stephen's Church,
in Market Street, at Delaware County line, for the
support of white female orphans, not less than
four or more than eight, who have been baptized in
the Protestant Episcopal Church of Pennsylvania.
Day Nursery for Children, 410 Blight Street.
Home for Destitute Colored Children, Mayland-
ville, Darby Road, near Forty-sixth Street.
Foster Home Association, Poplar Street, near
Twenty-fourth.
St. Vincent's Home (Roman Catholic), north-
west corner of Wood and Eighteenth streets.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
251
St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum (Roman Catholic),
at Tacony.
Union School and Children's Home, southeast
corner of Twelfth and Fitzwater streets.
Union Temporary Home for Children, northwest
corner of Sixteenth and Poplar streets.
Western Provident Society and Children's Home,
Forty-first and Venango streets.
Orphan's Home of Evangelical Lutheran Church,
and Asylum for Aged and Infirm, 5582 German-
town Avenue.
Jewish Foster Home, 1431 North Fifteenth
Street.
Homes for the Aged. Christ Church Hospital,
between York and Huntington, and Forty-ninth
and Fiftieth streets. Founded in 1772. Accom-
modates one hundred inmates. The present build-
ing was erected in 1857.
The Friends' Almshouse, torn down some time
since, was on the south side of Walnut, between Third
and Fourth streets. The land for the erection of this
building was given to the Society of Friends in
1713 by John Martin, a poor man, on condition
that they would build an almshouse on the prem-
ises and would take care of him for the remainder
of his life. This old building is supposed to have.
252
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
been in the mind of Longfellow when he wrote his
description of the spot where Evangeline meets
her long-lost lover.
Indigent Widow's and Single Woman's Asylum,
Cherry Street, near Eighteenth, opened about 1820.
Penn Widow's Asylum, Wood and West streets,
Kensington.
St. Ann's Widow's Asylum, Moyamensing Ave-
nue, below Christian Street, under charge of the
Sisters of St. Joseph.
Temporary Home Association, 505 N. Sixth
Street.
St. Luke's Church Home for Aged Women, 1317
Pine Street.
Home for the Homeless, 708 Lombard Street.
Presbyterian Home for Widows and Single
Women, Fifty-eighth Street and Greenway Avenue.
Baptist Home for Women, corner of Seven-
teenth and Norris streets.
Home for the Aged and Infirm Members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, Lehigh Avenue, be-
tween Thirteenth and Broad streets.
Asylum for the Aged and Infirm of the Evangel-
ical Lutheran Church, 5582 Germantown Avenue.
Asylum of Little Sisters of the Poor (Roman
Catholic), Eighteenth Street, above Jefferson.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
253
Old Men's Home, Thirty-ninth Street and Pow-
elton Avenue.
Mapother Home, Harrowgate Lane, west of
Kensington Avenue.
Old Ladies' Home, Charfield Street and Frank-
ford Road.
Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Men and
Women, Belmont and Girard avenues.
Boarding House for Young Women, 1433 Lom-
bard Street, which provides a comfortable Chris-
tian home for members of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.
Boarding House of Women's Christian Associa-
tion, 1605 Filbert Street.
Bedford Street Mission, 619 Alaska Street; free
lodgings and baths for the poor.
Boarding Home, 915 Clinton Street, for work-
ing girls.
Asylums for the Unfortunate.
Pennsylvania
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, northwest cor-
ner of Broad and Pine streets. Founded in 1820;
finished and occupied in 1825.
Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind, northwest
corner of Twentieth and Race streets. Founded in
the year 1833.
Pennsylvania Working Home for Blind Men,
3518 Lancaster Avenue.
254
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
Pennsylvania Industrial Home for Blind Women,
2931 Locust Street.
Reformatory Homes. - Asylum of Magdalen So-
ciety for the Reformation of Fallen Women, corner
of Twenty-first and Race streets. Founded in 1800.
Home of the Good Shepherd, for the reformation.
of unfortunate women, without respect to creed, in
West Philadelphia, under charge of the Sisters of
the Good Shepherd of the Roman Catholic Church.
Asylum of the Rosine Association, Germantown
Avenue, below Rising-Sun Lane.
Howard Institution, 1612 Poplar Street.
Midnight Mission, 911 Locust Street.
Franklin Reformatory (for Inebriates), 913 Lo-
cust Street.
House of Industry, Catharine St., above Seventh.
In addition should be enumerated eight or nine
"Relief Societies," of different nationalities; ten
soup societies, for the supplying of the poor with
nutritious food during the winter months; and a
number of Fuel, Industrial Aid, Assistance, and
Humane Associations, the funds for which are sup-
plied by a number of "Trusts," managed by the
city, the capital value of which is nearly or quite
$700,000.
Mention must also be made of "The Philadelphia
Society for Organizing Charitable Relief and Re-
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
255
pressing Mendicancy," established in 1878, which
has done and is doing a valuable work.
Public Parks and Pleasure-Grounds. — Of these
the largest and most important is Fairmount Park,
which is situated on both banks of the River Schuyl-
kill, and covers an extent of 2,740 acres. Next to
Epping and Windsor forests in England, and the
Prater at Vienna, it is the largest park in the world.
It is divided by common usage into Old Fairmount,
Lemon Hill, East Park, West Park, and Wissa-
hickon Park, contains a great variety of surface,
and commands wide and beautiful views. The
number of trees and shrubs is immense.
calculated some years ago that the Park contained
thirty-four thousand trees over eighteen feet in cir-
cumference, and seventy thousand of lesser size.
It was
Hunting Park, containing forty-five acres, is sit-
uated at the intersection of Nicetown Lane with the
old York Road. It was opened for public use in
1835, and is under the control of the Commis-
sioners of Fairmount Park.
Public Squares. In founding the city, William
Penn set aside five squares as public parks or en-
closures. They were known as Northeast Square,
Southeast Square, Northwest Square, Southwest
Square, and Centre Square. Their modern names.
256
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
are as follows: Southeast, now Washington Square,
occupies the ground comprised between Sixth,
Washington, Walnut, and Locust streets. It con-
tains a little more than six acres. It was used
for many years as a burial-ground and potter's
field, and hundreds of American soldiers were
interred there during the Revolutionary War.
This use ceased in 1795, and about 1820 it was
re-opened as a pleasure-ground to the public.
Northeast, now called Franklin Square, lies be-
tween Sixth and Franklin, and Race and Vine
streets. It contains between seven and eight acres.
A portion of this square also was for a long time
appropriated for burial purposes by a German Re-
formed Congregation under a grant from one of the
Penn proprietaries; but the grant was annulled by
the city authorities about 1835, and the square
restored to its original intention.
Northwest, now known as Logan Square, extends
from Race to Vine streets, and from Eighteenth
to Logan, and contains about seven acres. It
was formerly the place chosen for public execu-
tions. In 1864 the whole extent of the square was
enclosed for the great Fair of the United States
Sanitary Commission, — already described in a pre-
ceding chapter.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
257
Southwest, or Rittenhouse Square, is comprised
between Walnut, Locust, Eighteenth, and Ritten-
house streets, and contains six acres and two roods.
Centre Square was finally given up for the occupa-
tion of municipal buildings.
Independence Square is the block of ground ex-
tending from the south side of Chestnut to the
north side of Walnut streets, between Fifth and
Sixth, and contains rather more than four acres.
The public buildings upon it have already been
described.
Jefferson Square, between Washington, Federal,
Third, and Fourth streets, contains two acres and
two roods.
Passyunk Square occupies part of the old parade-
ground between Twelfth, Thirteenth, Wharton, and
Reed streets.
Norris Square, 486 by 330 feet in extent, is situ-
ated between Diamond, Howard, and Hancock
streets, and Susquehanna Avenue.
Fairhill Square, on Lehigh Avenue, is 500 feet
by 210 in extent.
Germantown Square, one half acre, is in front of
the old town-hall of Germantown.
Places of Amusement. — Philadelphia has eight
theatres.
17
258
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
American Academy of Music, Broad and Locust
streets. Seating capacity, three thousand two hun-
dred. Opened in 1857.
Walnut Street Theatre, Ninth and Walnut.
Seating capacity, fifteen hundred. Opened origin-
ally in 1809, rebuilt and reopened in 1829.
Arch Street Theatre, Arch Street, west of Sixth.
Seating capacity, fifteen hundred. Opened 1828.
Chestnut Street Theatre, Chestnut, between.
Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. Seating capacity,
nineteen hundred. Opened 1863.
Concordia Theatre, 417 Callowhill Street. Opened
1854, burned in 1868, and afterward rebuilt.
McCaul's Opera House, opposite Academy of
Music. Seating capacity, 1,900. Opened 1826.
Grand Central Theatre, Walnut, west of Eighth.
Seating capacity, fifteen hundred. Opened origi-
nally in 1857. Burned and rebuilt in 1867.
The Bijou Forepaugh's Theatre. Opened 1854.
Chestnut Street Opera House, Chestnut, above
Tenth. Seating capacity, two thousand six hun-
dred. Opened 1881.
The Bijou, Eighth, below Vine. Seating capa-
city, six hundred. Opened 1882.
The German, Third, below Green. Opened
1881.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
259
The National, Tenth and Callowhill streets.
Capacity, fifteen hundred.
The Lyceum, Vine, below Eighth. Capacity,
one thousand.
The Temple Theatre, Chestnut, below Eighth.
One of the most beautiful in America, was de-
stroyed by fire in January, 1877.
Eleventh Street Opera House, Eleventh Street
and Marble Alley. Seating capacity, six hundred.
Opened 1854- Used for "minstrel" performances
chiefly.
Simmons and Slocum's Opera House, Arch
Street, between Tenth and Eleventh. Seating
capacity, eleven hundred persons. Opened, 1870;
burned, 1872. Rebuilt and reopened same year.
Wood's Museum, corner of Ninth and Arch
streets, besides a collection of curiosities and a
menagerie, has a regular theatrical department,
where performances are given.
The Assembly Buildings, southwest corner of
Twelfth and Chestnut streets, is used for concerts,
exhibitions, and balls. Built, 1839; burned, 1851;
rebuilt, 1852.
Männerchor Hall, corner of Franklin Street and
Fairmount Avenue, is under charge of the German.
Männerchor Society.
260
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
The Musical Fund Society Hall, Locust Street,
above Eighth, has a concert-room 60 by 110 feet in
size, which is held to be, acoustically considered,
the most perfect music-hall in the United States.
It was built in 1854, and for many years was the
fashionable public room for balls and lectures, as
well as concerts.
The Zoological Garden occupies a beautiful
situation on the banks of the Schuylkill, within
easy distance of the city, with which it is connected
by two lines of street railway and by the Fairmount
line of steamboats. The total amount of land occu-
pied by this Garden is thirty-three acres, which is
tastefully laid out, and shaded by fine forest-trees.
Within the enclosure are the following buildings:
Solitude, a mansion formerly occupied by John
Penn, now used for a variety of purposes.
The Carnivora House, with out-door cages, a
large, substantial structure.
The Aviary.
The Monkey House.
The Eagle House.
The Elephant and Rhinoceros House.
The Bear Pits; besides a large number of pens,
cages, etc. The cost of the buildings was over
a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Admission
fee, twenty-five cents; children, half price.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
261
The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is a fine
fireproof building, two hundred and sixty feet in
depth by one hundred in width, on the corner of
Broad and Cherry streets.
It is in the Byzantine
style, and built of brick and stone. The institution
was organized in 1805, and for many years occupied
a building on Chestnut Street, above Tenth. The
lower floor is devoted mainly to educational pur-
poses a director's room, a lecture and life class-
room, a studio for painting drapery and still life,
a modelling room, a library and print-room, and
galleries of casts from the antique. On the second
story are three ranges of galleries, divided by a fine
transept thirty feet in width. The collection of
paintings and marbles is large and valuable. The
six galleries on the north side contain each one im-
portant painting by an American artist, and are
known as the Alston, the Benjamin West, the Leslie,
the Stuart, the Sully, and the Neagle galleries.
The Academy of Natural Sciences, Nineteenth
and Rose streets, with a large and valuable collec-
tion.
The Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art, in
Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park.
Cemeteries. - The first movement made in Phila-
delphia for the establishment of a cemetery not
262
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
under the direct control of a religious organization.
was in 1825, when a "Mutual Association" pur-
chased a lot of ground in what is now called Wash-
ington Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth streets,
which was divided into burial lots and shared among
the members. Two years later "Ronalson's Ceme-
tery," on Tenth Street, was started; and in 1836 the
beautiful piece of ground known as Laurel Hill
Cemetery was set aside for burial purposes.
This cemetery is divided into three portions,
known as North, Central, and South Laurel Hill.
It is situated on the east bank of the Schuylkill, is
picturesquely situated, beautifully wooded, and con-
tains many fine monuments. The other cemeteries
of Philadelphia are:-
West Laurel Hill, on the west bank of the Schuyl-
kill; at Pencoyd Station, one hundred and ten acres.
Monument Cemetery, west side of Broad Street,
between Montgomery Avenue and Diamond Street.
Mount Vernon Ridge Avenue, immediately
opposite Laurel Hill.
Glenwood, northeast corner of Ridge Avenue
and Islington Lane; twenty-three acres.
Woodlands, Darby Road; eighty acres.
Mount Moriah, near Darby Road, between Sixty-
first and Sixty-fourth streets.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
263
Old Oaks, Township Line Road and Venango
Street.
Odd-Fellows' Cemetery, Islington Lane; thirty-
two acres.
Mechanics' Cemetery, adjoining Odd-Fellows.
Mount Peace Cemetery, Nicetown Lane, near
Ridge Avenue.
Greenwood, belonging to the "Knights of
Pythias," Adams Street.
Cedar Hill, Main Street, above Paul, Frankford.
Leverington Cemetery, Ridge Road, Roxborough.
Fairhill, Germantown, above Cambria, belongs to
members of the Society of Friends (Hicksite).
Cathedral (Roman Catholic), Lancaster Avenue,
between Forty-eighth and Fifty-first streets.
New Cathedral (Roman Catholic), corner of
Second Street and Nicetown Lane.
Mount Sinai (Jewish), Bridesburg.
Beth el Emeth (Jewish), corner of Fisher's
Avenue and Market Street, West Philadelphia.
Markets. The provision supply of Philadelphia
is superior to that of most cities, and her mar-
kets have always had a wide celebrity. In 1709
the first permanent market-house was erected in
High Street, west of Second. Additions were
gradually made, until the line of market buildings
264
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
extended in an unbroken line from the Delaware
to Eighth Street and beyond. In 1859 the demo-
lition of these old buildings began, and most of
them were pulled down, their place being taken
by large separate buildings in different parts of the
city. Philadelphia now contains from thirty-five to
forty public markets, of which the principal are :
The Farmers', Market Street, between Eleventh
and Twelfth.
The Eastern, at the corner of Fifth and Merchant
streets.
The Central, Market Street, between Sixteenth
and Seventeenth.
The Franklin, northeast corner of Twelfth Street
and Market.
Southwestern, corner of Market and Nineteenth
streets.
Fairmount, southwest corner of Twenty-second
and Spring-Garden streets.
the
Delaware Avenue, two buildings extending
from Delaware Avenue to Front Street,
great depot for oysters, fish, and Jersey produce.
Lincoln, southeast corner of Broad Street and
Fairmount Avenue.
Germania, southeast corner of Poplar and Seven-
teenth streets.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
265
Federal, southeast corner of Seventeenth and
Federal streets.
Callowhill Street, south side, extending from
Sixteenth to Seventeenth streets.
West Philadelphia, Market Street, between For-
tieth and Forty-first streets, Girard Avenue and
Ninth Street.
There are few cities in the world in which such
strict attention is paid to the quality of food as in
Philadelphia. The supply of butter, eggs, poultry,
and milk from the neighboring counties is almost
unlimited in quantity, and of superior quality.
Prices are moderate, and the diet of the poor is of
unusual excellence. The price of beef by the car-
cass varies at from eight to twelve cents a pound.
The principal depots for the sale of cattle, sheep,
and lambs are at the Park Drove-yards, Thirty-
second Street and Lancaster Avenue; the Abattoir;
the Stockyard, Forty-fourth Street and Belmont
Avenue; and the new Stockyards at Paschalville,
in the southwest portions of the city.
SANITARY AUTHORITY.
Board of Health. The chief sanitary organi-
zation of Philadelphia is vested in the Board of
Health, an independent body composed of twelve
266
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
members, nine of whom are appointed by the
Board of Judges of the Court of Common Pleas,
and three by the City Council. The Act creating
the Board does not designate any fixed number to
be selected from the medical profession; but at
present one third of the members are physicians.
The Board is in no way subject to the control of
the city government, except through the amount of
appropriations made by the Council. The annual
expenses of the Board, in the absence of any de-
clared epidemic, vary. For 1886 the appropriation
was $102,434. During an epidemic the Board may
increase its expenses to any amount the City Coun-
cil may approve. The authority of the Board, as
defined by laws and ordinances, is practically un-
limited over the health and sanitary condition of
the city, and the control of diseases of a contagious
nature.
The chief executive officer of the Board is the
Health Officer, who receives a salary of $2,100 per
annum, as fixed by an Act of the Assembly, and in
addition the sum of $2 for every vessel liable to
health fees,- making his yearly compensation
about $5,000. He is required to examine the weekly
accounts of the inspectors of vessels, and report
monthly to the Board; to keep a cash account of
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
267
the daily receipts as they occur; to keep a record
of all bills; to consult with the City Solicitor in
all business requiring legal proceedings; to see
that all orders of the Board regarding quarantine,
abatement of nuisances, etc., are enforced; to keep
a record of all diseases of an infectious or conta-
gious nature; to publish weekly a list of all deaths,
and annually a list of all births and marriages; and
to have a general superintendence over the registra-
tion department. The other executive officers are
the Port Physician, the Lazaretto (or Quarantine)
Physician, and the Quarantine Master, —their
duties being indicated by their respective titles.
In addition to the above, the following assistants
are regularly employed: one Medical Inspector;
one Chief Inspector of street cleaning; ten Inspec-
tors of street-cleaning and nuisances; two Messen-
gers, to collect records of births; two Inspectors of
privy cleaning; two Vessel Inspectors; and eighteen
Vaccine Physicians. All receive regular salaries,
except the last, and they are paid according to
the number of persons vaccinated. With the ex-
ception of the Medical Inspector, all the Inspec-
tors have sufficient authority conferred on them by
the Mayor to arrest parties for violating the health
ordinances.
¦
268
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
Nuisances. — Inspections are only made as nuis-
ances are reported, except when specially made in
certain localities. When a nuisance is reported, an
inspector is sent to investigate; and when the
complaint is well proved, the owner or agent of
the property is called upon to abate the nuisance.
If this is not done within the time specified in the
notice, the Health Officer does the work under
instructions from the Board; and if the owner or
agent fails to pay for the work, a lien is filed
against the property. Whenever the cost of remov-
ing a nuisance exceeds the sum of twenty-five dol-
lars, the Health Officer invites proposals, and lets
the work out to the lowest bidder. The following
is the time allowed persons for the removal of nuis-
ances after notice has been served:
To remove dead animals, slaughter-house offal,
and other matter in a state of decomposition, and
to cleanse and disinfect infected houses, twenty-
four hours.
To cleanse overflowing and leaky privy-wells
and water-closets, to disinfect foul wells, and to
cleanse slaughter-house manure-pits during quar-
antine season, three days.
To cleanse full privy-wells and manure-pits,
filthy houses, cellars, yards, alleys, and vacant lots,
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
269
and to repair and regulate surface-drainage and
leaky and defective drain-pipes, -five days.
To remove hog-pens, to cleanse slaughter-houses
and cow-stables, and to fill up drains and ponds of
stagnant water, — ten days.
For defective sewerage appeal is made to the
City Council to remedy defects through the Sur-
vey and Highway departments. Street-cleaning is
entirely under the control of the Board. There
are two ways of remedying any defects, one by
doing the work at the expense of the contractors
for street-cleaning, and the other by annulling the
contract.
The Board sees that all garbage is removed; but
its final disposal rests with the contractors who
remove it. Ordinances prohibit the pollution of
streams, and the Board has full control over the
removal of excrement.
Burial of the Dead. No interment of a body is
allowed unless a death-certificate, signed either by
a physician, a coroner, or the Health Officer, is
first obtained, to which must be appended the cer-
tificate of the undertaker. In addition, the superin-
tendent of the cemetery must furnish a certificate.
of burial. No disinterment or removal of a body
from one grave to another, in the same cemetery,
270
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
or from one cemetery to another, is allowed unless
a permit is first obtained from the Health Officer.
The undertakers are required to return all certifi-
cates and permits to the office of the Board once
a week. The burial of a body in the inhabited or
thickly settled part of the city at a distance of less
than eight feet below the surface of the ground, or
in the rural districts at a less depth than six feet
below the surface of the ground, is decided by the
Board to be prejudicial to health, and is positively
forbidden.
Infectious Diseases. - Small-pox patients are
isolated only with their own consent, being then
sent to the Hospital for Contagious Diseases, which
is situated outside the built-up portion of the city.
Scarlet-fever patients are kept at home, but without
special rules, except to the lower classes; some-
times cases are sent to the Hospital for Contagious
Diseases. During times of severe epidemics the
public schools are closed, disinfected, etc. Vaccina-
tion is only compulsory so far as children attending
schools are concerned. It is, however, done at
public expense by the physicians appointed for the
purpose.
Registration and Reports. — The registration of
all births and deaths is under charge of the Health
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
271
Officer, undertakers returning all death certifi-
cates to the Registration Office, while messengers
collect from physicians, etc., the number of births.
The Board reports annually to the Mayor, and
its Report appears in an appendix to the Mayor's
Annual Message. It is also published separately
by the Board.
MUNICIPAL CLEANSING.
Street Cleaning. The streets are cleaned at
the expense of the city by contract, the Inspectors
of the Highway Department watching and directing
the contractors. Very little of the work is done
by hand, sweeping-machines being used in all the
streets, except some in the suburban districts.
From November 1st to April 1st all the streets
are cleaned once a week, and during the remainder
of the year some streets are cleaned daily, some
three times a week, some twice a week, and some
weekly. The work is generally well done, consid-
ering that most of the streets are paved with cobble-
stones. The better-paved streets are kept in
excellent condition. The annual cost of this work,
including the removal of garbage and ashes, was
for the year 1885, $855,435.04. The sweepings in
some instances are used for grading the outskirts,
but generally are sold to farmers.
272
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
The merits of the street-cleaning of Philadelphia
rest in the simplicity of the system and the economy
of its administration. A new plan is to go into
operation next year (1881), which, it is said, will be
more economical, as it seeks to remedy defects now
existing ; — i. e., improper dumping-grounds, ineffi-
cient sweeping-machines, tardy removal of street
dirt after sweeping; also non-systematic disposal
of refuse.
Removal of Garbage and Ashes. All garbage
and ashes are removed at the expense of the city.
The work is done under contract, and the inspect-
ors of the Highway Department supervise it.
While awaiting removal, garbage is kept in recep-
tacles not larger than a half-barrel, inside private
premises, until the collector makes his visit, when it
may be placed temporarily on the sidewalks. It is
not allowed to keep garbage and ashes in the same
vessel. The garbage is mainly used for feeding
swine, a small portion of it going to rendering estab-
lishments, while the ashes are used for grading in
the suburbs. So far, no injury to health has resulted
from the manner of keeping, handling, or disposing
of the garbage; though occasionally a nuisance
does arise, owing to neglect on the part of the con-
tractors. The merits of the system are, frequency
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
273
-
and cheapness of removal; while its defect, a
non-systematic manner of disposal, will be reme-
died in the new plan to go into effect next year.
Dead Animals. - Dead horses are removed by
private parties, and the carcasses are utilized. The
carcasses of all small animals are removed by the
street-cleaning contractor and buried. Dead ani-
mals on vacant lots are removed at the expense of
the owners of the lots. The rendering establish-
ments, in which dead horses are utilized, are under
the regulations of the Board of Health. The cost
of the removal of dead animals, except where the
removal is from vacant lots, is included in the cost
of street-cleaning, etc. No record is kept of the
number of animals removed annually, and the sys-
tem is reputed as working satisfactorily.
Liquid Household Wastes. - Where sewers exist
all the liquid wastes from houses pass into them;
where there are no sewers, chamber-slop are de-
posited in privy vaults, while kitchen-slop and
laundry wastes are disposed of by surface-drainage.
No definite estimate has ever been made as to the
proportion of wastes that pass into the street gut-
ters. Dry wells are used only to a limited extent,
and they are porous, - the idea being to sink them
to gravel. The cesspools are nominally tight, and
IS
274
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
The
have overflows connecting with the sewers. They
receive the wastes from water-closets, and are
cleaned out in the same manner as vaults.
street contractors are required to flush the gutters
as often as they clean the streets. The Board of
Health reports that there have been cases in the
suburbs of the city where the contamination of
drinking water by the overflowing or underground
escape of the contents of cesspools and privy vaults
seemed probable.
Human Excreta. - The Board of Health esti-
mates, that out of the one hundred and forty-five
thousand buildings in the city, about twenty-six
thousand are provided with water-closets, the re-
mainder depending on privy vaults. Nearly all the
water-closets deliver into the sewers, either direct
or by cesspools that are connected with the sewers
by overflows; though in some of the old houses they
connect with the privy vaults. The privy vaults
are open below, with brick and mortar walls.
All vaults, sinks, and cesspools are emptied in
the daytime, by the odorless excavator process, the
persons doing the work being licensed by the Board
of Health. Privy-cleaners must obtain a permit from.
the Board before cleaning any vault or cesspool,
and this permit must be returned to the Health
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
275
Officer the day after the work has been performed.
The dry-earth system is only used to a limited ex-
tent. The night soil is generally used as a fertilizer,
in the untreated state; but none of it is so used on
land within the gathering ground of the public water
supply, as far as the jurisdiction of the city extends.
Manufacturing Wastes. All the liquid wastes
that are not utilized for other purposes flow into
the sewers. The solid wastes, if of any value, are
used, and the remainder carted beyond the built-up
portions of the city.
Police.-The Police force of Philadelphia is ap-
pointed and governed by the Mayor of the city.
The Chief of Police, salary $2,325 per annum, is
the chief executive officer, and has direct control
of the force, under the direction of the mayor. The
remainder of the force, in the several grades, and
the salaries of each, are as follows:
4 Captains,
8 Detectives,
at $1,350.00 each, per annum.
"
""
1,080.00
29 Lieutenants,
59 Sergeants,
1,200 Patrolmen
1,035.00
وو
""
""
974.16
""
""
""
""
2.25
وو
day.
1 Police Surgeon, 1 Fire Marshal, 1 Chief of Detec-
tives, 10 Patrol Sergeants, 48 Reserves. In addi-
tion, there are a lieutenant and 24 men, with 2
tug-boats, who act as Harbor Police. The force is
276
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
assigned to one Central Station and 24 Police Dis-
tricts. The Central Station is at the City Hall,
from whence it has telegraphic communication
with the district stations.
The uniform is of dark-blue, with gilt buttons,
and each man furnishes his own, the city allowing
each policeman $20 annually, in addition to the
regular pay, for this purpose. The men are equipped
with a badge, or shield, having on it the coat-of-arms
of the city, a belt, club, rattle, and revolver. The
Force in each district is divided into No. I and 2
squads. No. I squad goes on duty at 5 P. M., and
remains until midnight. No. 2 relieves No. 1, and
remains on duty until 7 A. M., when it is relieved
by one half of No. 1 squad. The first half of No. 1
squad remains on duty until noon, when it is
relieved by the other half of the squad, which re-
mains on duty until 5 P. M. Thus half the
men are on street duty at night, one half remaining
in the station-houses; and during the day one quar-
ter of the men are on duty in the streets, one
quarter having a day off every four days, and the
remainder are on duty in the station-houses. The
Police Force patrols nearly the whole area of the
city. During the past year, 1880, there were
44,315 persons arrested, the principal causes being
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
277
Some of
for intoxication and disorderly conduct.
these were disposed of by fines, and other cases
were returned to court and there disposed of. No
account is kept of the amount of property lost or
stolen in the city; but during the year the police
recovered lost and stolen property to the value of
$112,313.09, and returned the same to the owners.
The number of station-house lodgers during 1886
was 121,404.
The Police Force is required to co-operate with
the Fire Department by preserving peace at all
fires, and preventing persons from crowding on the
""
fire-grounds." Special policemen are appointed
at the request of citizens for duty as watchmen,
etc. They are paid by the persons who have them
appointed, and are required to assist the regular
Force when called on. The cost of the Police
Department, for 1886, was $1,370,301.56.
The introduction of the Patrol Service has been
of great value in the preservation of order.
Prisons. — The Eastern Penitentiary of Phila-
delphia occupies a lot of about eleven acres, ex-
tending from Fairmount and Corinthian avenues
to Twenty-second Street, and northward to Brown.
The building has a frontage of 670 feet. It was
begun in 1823, and finished in 1829. As has already
been stated, the original intention was to conduct it
278
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
on what was called the "Pennsylvania plan" of
solitary confinement; but this, carried out strictly,
proved productive of insanity among the prisoners,
and the system, though still called solitary, has
gradually been relaxed, even to the extent of occa-
sionally putting two persons into one cell. The
prisoners are taught various handicrafts, they are
allowed to write and receive letters under inspec-
tion of the officers, and a library of six thousand
volumes is open for their use.
The Moyamensing, or Philadelphia County Prison,
is situated on Passyunk Road, near Tenth Street.
The building was finished in 1836. It is solidly
built of Quincy granite, and contains four hundred
cells for male, and one hundred for female, pris-
The appropriation for the support of this
oners.
prison in 1885 was $102,608.50.
The House of Refuge occupies a lot extending
from Parrish Street to Poplar, and from Twenty-
second and Twenty-third streets. It was incorpor-
ated in 1826 for the "employment of the idle, the
instruction of the ignorant, and the correction of
the depraved." It has separate departments for
boys and girls, and a special department for colored
children. It will accommodate about six hundred
inmates.
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
279
The House of Correction is on the south bank of
the Pennypach Creek, at its junction with the
Delaware. It occupies a piece of ground from two
to three hundred acres in extent, which is in part
devoted to farming and industrial purposes. The
building is intended for the reception of vagrants,
drunkards, and persons guilty of slight offences
against the peace and good order of the commun-
ity. There is attached to it a chapel capable of
holding two thousand persons.
The number of inmates received at this insti-
tution during the year 1884 was 6,087. A new
county prison is now building near the House of
Correction.
X
Public Schools. The public schools of Phil-
adelphia are supported by taxation, and are con-
ducted for the benefit of all residents of the city.
They are governed by a Board of Education, and
there are school directors for each section, who
are elected annually by a vote of the citizens. The
schools are graded into Primary, Secondary, Consol-
idated, and Grammar Schools; there are besides, a
High School for boys, and a Normal School for
girls, — which latter is meant for the education of
young women who intend to become teachers. In
1885 the subdivisions of the educational system of
Philadelphia included the following schools:-
280
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
1 High School,
I Normal School,
I School of Practice,
1 Manual Training School,
I School of Industrial Art,
21 Night Schools,
68 Grammar Schools,
135 Secondary Schools,
256 Primary and Consolidated
Schools, -
making a total of 483. The total number of teach-
ers employed was 2,283; the total number of
pupils under instruction was 108,209. The amount
expended for the support of the schools was
$1,754,330.63, and the amount appropriated for the
erection of new school-houses, $50,722.50.
Libraries. Philadelphia is rich in public as well
as in private libraries. According to the returns of
the census of 1870, there were not less than three
thousand seven hundred libraries in the city, com-
prising 2,985,770 volumes. During the intervening
decade these numbers have doubtless increased
considerably. The Philadelphia, the most import-
ant of the public libraries, is one of the oldest in
the United States; and, so far as is known, was
the first to inaugurate the lending system, now so
prevalent. It was founded in 1731 by that "Junto"
of which Franklin was a prominent member. At
his suggestion, the members of the little club
brought each his small store of books to their club-
room, that they might be ready for consultation
and a
common benefit." Later, this plan prov-
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
281
ing to have inconveniences, Franklin started a pro-
ject for a subscription library; and from this small
beginning grew the present inestimable collection,
amounting, with the Loganian Library, which is
united with it, to over one hundred thousand
volumes.
Until 1878 the Philadelphia Library continued to
occupy the brick building on the corner of Fifth
and Library streets, erected for its accommodation
in 1790.
Its more valuable books and collections
were then transferred to a splendid fireproof build-
ing on Broad Street, bequeathed to the Philadelphia
Library on the condition that it should henceforth
be known as the "Ridgeway Library." This build-
ing has accommodation for four hundred thousand
books. The fiction and modern works are now
placed in a building designed in imitation of the
old edifice, but nearer to the centre of the city.
The Mercantile Library is located on the west
side of Tenth Street, between Chestnut and Market,
in a building three hundred feet deep by eighty wide,
erected in 1869. The number of volumes in the
Library is over one hundred and thirty thousand,
and its membership is estimated at over twelve
thousand.
The Athenæum Library and Reading-Room is
282
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
$
on the corner of Sixth and Adelphi streets, below
Walnut. It was instituted in 1813, and in 1847
removed to its present building, one of the finest
in the city.
The Apprentices' Library, on the southwest cor-
ner of Fifth and Arch streets, is the only free library
in the city. It was established in 1820 "for the use
of apprentices and other young persons, without
charge of any kind for the use of the books." It
contains some twenty-five thousand volumes, has a
free reading-room for men, and it is estimated that
nearly eighty thousand young people have, since
its beginning, enjoyed the advantages which it
furnishes.
The Friends' Library, 304 Arch Street, began
with a bequest of books from Thomas Chalkley in
1741. It contains seven thousand volumes, largely
relating to the history and progress of the Quakers.
Friends' Library, Race Street, west of Fifteenth,
established in 1834, has an equal number of books.
Law Association Library, southeast corner of
Sixth and Walnut streets, was founded in 1802 by
members of the Bar for the sake of keeping a
complete collection of law-books within reach of
the members of the profession.
Southwark Library Company, Second Street,
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
283
below German, is a State Company, founded in
1822, and has about ten thousand volumes.
Mechanics' Institute, Southwark ; about four thou-
sand volumes.
City Institute, Eighteenth and Chestnut streets;
three thousand volumes.
Spring-Garden Institute, corner of Broad and
Spring-Garden streets; five thousand volumes.
Moyamensing Institute Library, corner of Elev-
enth and Catharine streets, founded 1852; four
thousand volumes.
Kensington Institute Library, corner of Girard
Avenue and Day Street.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 820 Spruce
Street, founded 1824; seventeen thousand volumes.
Library of Numismatic and Antiquarian Society,
southwest corner of Eighteenth and Chestnut
streets.
Library of Friends' Historical Collection, in the
Pennsylvania Historical Society building.
Library of Baptists' Historical Society, 530 Arch
Street.
Library of Methodist Historical Society, 1018
Arch Street.
Library of Presbyterian Historical Society,
1334 Chestnut Street.
284
PHILADELPHIA IN 1886.
German Society Library, 24 South Seventh
Street; ten thousand volumes.
Fire Department. - The Report of the Chief En-
gineer of the Fire Department for the year 1886
makes the Department force as follows:-
I Chief Engineer,
6 Assistant Engineers,
38 Foremen,
32 Enginemen,
32 Firemen,
38 Drivers,
6-Tillermen,
316 Permanent Hose and Ladder Men.
They are divided into 32 engine, and 6 hook and
ladder companies.
The whole number of fires during the year at-
tended by the Department was 1,005, with a loss
of property amounting to $1,909,604. These losses,
as far as could be ascertained, were covered by
insurances to the amount of $8,179,965.
INDEX.
ADAMS, JOHN, 114, 115, 126, 127, | CADWALLAder, Gen. THOMAS, 191
129, 131, 170, 185, 196
Agricultural Hall, 221
André, Major, 145, 147
Camden & Amboy R. R., 195
Campbell, John L., 210
Cape Cod, 10
Anthracite coal, Discovery of, 188, Carpenters' Hall, 114, 116
189
Apprentices' Free Library, 123
Arnold, Benedict, 151, 152, 153, 154
Arnold, Mrs., 154
Centennial Exhibition, 210-216
Charles II., 38
Chesapeake, 10, 134
Cholera, Outbreak of, 180, 195
Assembly of Pennsylvania, 35, 37, Christ Church, 85, 174
48, 61, 64, 83, 164
Ayres, Captain, 112, 113
BABYLON, 30
Baldwin Locomotive Works, 197
Baltimore, Lord, 36
Baltimore & Ohio R. R., 198
Bank of North America, 192
Bank of the United States, 157, 191,
192
Barren Hill, 149
Battle of the Kegs, 144
Bayard, John, 127
Bickley, Abraham, 90
Blackbeard, 76, 78, 79
Bonaparte, Saying of, 114
Bordentown, 144
Boston, 57
Braddock, 63
Brandywine, Battle of, 134
Breck, Samuel, 175, 180
Bristol, 31
College, Academy, and Charitable
School of Philadelphia, 88
Columbia Canal & R. R., 198
Concord, 116
Congress, 126, 130, 152, 156, 158, 160,
161, 168, 169, 170, 187, 188
Congress Hall, 187
Conococheague, 170
Continental Congress, 114, 129, 130,
166
Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon,
206, 207
Cornwallis, Lord, 158
Costenogas, 94
Cunningham, Captain, 141
DARRACH, LYDIA, 139, 140, 141
Deane, Silas, 132
Declaration of Independence, 127,
128, 156, 167
De Grasse, 158
Delancey, Captain Oliver, 145
Burlington & Bordentown Packet, Delaware, 20, 52, 54, 56, 111, 137,
SI
143, 168, 180
286
INDEX.
Delaware & Maryland Canal, 190
Delaware & Raritan Canal, 190
Delaware Bay, 20, 26, 28
De La Warr, Lord, 12
Duché, Anthony, 40, 41
Duché, Rev. Mr., 115
Duquesne Fort, 63, 64
Dutch Lutheran Church, 158
EASTERN PENITENTIARY, 204
East India Company, Dutch, 10
East India Company, English, III
FAIRMOUNT PARK, 213
Fairmount Waterworks, 186, 202
Fellowship Fire Company, 91
Fire Companies, 90, 91
First Presbyterian Church, 85
Girard Bank, 193
Girard College, 194
Gloucester, 12
Gloucester Point, 112
Grand Mogul, 33
Gray's Ferry, 202
Gustavus Adolphus, 13
HAMILTON, GENERAL, 161
Harris, 79
Harrisburg, 188
Heinrich Hudson, 10, 11, 12
Henlopen Cape, 11
Horticultural Hall, 220
Howe, Admiral, 146
Howe, General, 134, 138, 139
Howe, Lord, 129, 130, 149
Howe, Major-General, 161
Howe, Sir William, 140, 145, 146
Fishing Company of the State in Hughes, John, 104, 105
Schuylkill, 203
Fitch, John, 168
Ford, Parker's, 134
Forney, Mr. J. W., 214
Fox, George, 16
Frankford, 140
Franklin, Benjamin, 43, 56, 61, 63,
64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 82, 86,
87, 93, 104, 123, 124, 125, 126,
129, 132, 138, 165
Franklin, James, 82
Friends, 121
Friends' Almshouse, 85
GALLOWAY, 137
Gasworks, 195
Genet, Citizen, 177, 179
George III., 123
German Lutheran Church, 85, 187
Germantown, 40, 180
Germantown, Battle of, 135, 137
Gillespie, Mrs. E. D., 205
Girard, Stephen, 193, 194
|
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, 208
Indian, 22, 24
JAMES II., 39
Jay, John, 182, 183
Jefferson, Thomas, 192
Jesse, George, 202
Jeykill, Mrs., 73
KENSINGTON, 75
Kidd, Captain, 137
LAFAYETTE, MARQUIS OF, 133, 195,
202
Landsdowne, 202
Lee, Arthur, 132
Lehigh Coal Co., 188
Le Mayeur, Dr., 73
Lemon Hill, 202
INDEX.
287
Letitia House, 84
Lexington, 116
Lloyd, 38
Logan, Deborah, 136
Logan, James, 76
Logan Hill, 70
Logan Square, 207
London, 10
London Coffee-House, 85
Long Island, Battle of, 129
MACFERSON, CAPTAIN, 79
Machinery Hall, 220
Main Building, 219
Manquas Creek, 12
Markham, Colonel, 76
Markham, John, 82
Markham, William, 20, 22
Matlack, Colonel Timothy, 121
Mauch Chunk, 188
Parliament, 110
Paxton Boys, 96, 98
Penn, Governor, 28
Penn, Hannah, 45
Penn, John, 45, 84, 97, 99
Penn, Richard, 45, 50, 123
Penn, Thomas, 45, 50
Penn, William, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20,
21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32,
33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41,
42, 43, 44, 51, 53, 54, 80, 94, 159
Penns, The, 60, 66
Pennsbury House, 28, 31
Pennsylvania, 19, 36, 41, 42, 46, 47,
48, 49, 50, 56, 125, 126, 138, 188
Pennsylvania, The Colony of, 64, 66
Pennsylvania Hall, 199
Pennsylvania Gazette, 91
Pennsylvania R. R., 199
Pennsylvania, The University of, 62
McLane, Captain Allan, 148, 151, 155 Pickering, Colonel, 152, 153
Mifflin, Governor, 178
Mint of the U. S., 197
Mischianza, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149
Money, Paper, 155, 157, 160
Morris, Robert, 156, 160, 161, 173,
175, 192
Morris, Mrs., 172
Moyamensing Road, 145
Mud Island, 142
Museum, Peale's, 141
NASSAU, Fort, 12
Newcastle, 12
New Sweden, 12
New Sweederlandstream, 12
New York, 81
Northern Liberties, 97, 146, 160–195
OLD ACADEMY, 88
Old Swedes' Church, 85
PAINE, THOMAS, 125
Paradise Point, 12
Pickering, Timothy, 152
Philadelphia, City of, 9, 26, 27, 34,
38, 39, 46, 48, 51, 52, 54, 56, 77,
78, 81, 89, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99,
106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 116, 126,
127, 129, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138,
142, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163,
166, 169, 170, 186, 201
Philadelphia, Postmaster of, 63
Polly, The, 112, 113
Potomac, The, 10
Priestley, Dr., 124
Princeton, Battle of, 133
Prison, Walnut Street, 141
Privy Council, 65, 67
Proprietaries, The, 47, 48, 49, 65
Province Island, 98, 142
QUAKERISM, 43
Quaker King, The, 21, 23
Quaker-Meeting House, The Free,
122
Quakers, 15, 32, 37, 54, 55, 56, 116
19
288
INDEX.
Quakers, Fighting, 122
Quakers, The Free, 122, 123
RAMBOS ROCK, 202
Reading R. R., 195
Red Rank, 111, 144
Revolution, American, 73
Revolution, The French, 176
Riots, 199, 200
Rochambeau, Count, 158
Ronalson's Cemetery, 262
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 53
Rutledge, Edward, 130
SALAMANDER STONE, 29
Schuylkill, 27, 52, 134, 149
Schuylkill Mines, 189
Schuylkill Navigation Improvement
Company, 190
Serapis, The, 167
Shackamaxon, 24
Shippen, Miss, 147, 152
Skipton, 79
Slate-roof house, 84
Soldiers' Home, 207
Sprigg, 79
Stamp Act, 101, 102, 105, 106, 107
State House, 52, 83, 115, 163, 195,
196
State-House Bell, 84, 128, 135
State-House Yard, 111, 127, 128
St. Augustine, Church of, 200
St. Michael, Church of, 200
St. Philip de Néri, Church of, 200
Strawberry Alley, 81
Swedes, 12, 13, 24
Swedish, 14
THOMAS, GABRIEL, 28
Treaty of Alliance, 67
Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and
Navigation, 182, 183
Treaty of Peace, 68, 94, 158, 167
Trenton, Battle of, 133
Trusts, Public, 264
Tyson, Mrs., 70
UNION LEAGUE, THE, 205, 206
United States, 132, 154, 176
University of Pennsylvania, 88
VALLEY FORGE, 144
Vigilant, The, 143
WALNUT GROVE, 145
Washington, George, 124, 139, 140,
150, 157, 158, 162, 163, 168, 172,
173, 174, 175, 176, 183, 184, 185,
187, 191, 203
Washington, Mrs., 173, 174
Wayne, General, 150, 182
Wedderburn, 67, 68
West Indies, 47
West Laurel Hill, 204
Wharton Market, 199
Whitefield, Rev. George, 86, 87, 88
Whitmarsh, 139, 140
Wilmington & Baltimore R. R.
195
Wissahickon Road, 148
Wissahickon, The, 202
Woman's Pavilion, 222
Woolpack Hotel, 84
YORK, DUKE OF, 20, 24, 39
Yorktown, 135, 158
ZÜYDT, II
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