cte ^"'y^ "Boole . fiopyiielir]^" ■ '.^^ COFBRIuIIT DEPOSn CoPU ^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ^n^ (30|ii|ri3^ l^u Shelf..... UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 1892 Columbian Year 1893 Executive and Legislative Branches OF THE Government of Philadelphia AND World's Fair Commissioners iIi:Aii (i|- riii-. Cnv ( hivkknmknt. i:i>WlX S. STUAltT, Mnyiir of tlic City of Pliiladr'nhia. PtTCR liONROt Joint Spkciai, Committki-: ok Pmi,Ai)Ki.riiiA ('(UNcii.s on Woim.p's Citi.i mim an I.xim.m i hn. eiv^t i .icKCa .loiNT Sl'IXIAI. CoMMlTTKi: oK I'll I I.A lii:i.lMl I A CdINCH.S ON Wdlll.D's ( < Jl.CM 111 AN" ExrOSlTIOX. 4r ■\ 1>1-\\SVI.V\\IA's HkIMIKSKNTATIVKS on TIIK XATIONAI. ('(.UMr.IAN ( (.MMISSIDN. Fhtki; a. I*.. WiDKM'.K, ( '(.iiiiiiissioiKT-:it-lar,i,'i'. Col.. K. ISincK Hkkktts, .lollN W. WooDSlDK, National < 'oiiinii>si(>nci-s. Select Council FOR THE Year Commencing First Monday in April, 1893 James L. Miles, President. * WAKDS. I. PENROSE A. McCLAlX, 153."> iMoyanioiising Avenue. 2. JAMES IIAC.AN, 912 Cliiistiaii Street. 3.1 HARRY HUNTER, 7:V2 Simtli Twelt'th Street. 4. WIIJ.IAM Mc.MlM.l.EX, C)!!! South Ninth Street. 5. JAMES B. ANDERSON, 204 W. Washington Square. 6. THOMAS J. RYAN, 244 Crown Street. 7. SAMUEL F. HOUSEMAN, 1411 Uonitiard Street. 8. THEODORE M. ETTINCi, Room 7'-'5, Drexel Building. 9. ROBERT R. BRINGHURST, 38 North Eleventh Street. 10. F. A. BALLTNGER, 21G N. Thirteenth St. II. WILLIAM P.BECKER, 151 Fairniount Avenue. 12. FRANK .SCHANZ, 13. .FAMES L. MILES, 414 Green Street. 524 Walnut Street. 14. Wl LLIAM G. RUTHERl'ORD, G70 Bankson Street. 15. FRANK A. GILBERT, 1727 Faiiinouiit Avenue. 16. HENRY CL.\Y% 9flC) North Si.xth Street. 17. CHARLES KITCHEXMAN, 322 Thompson Street. 18. ISAAC D.HETZELL, :!22 Riclinionil Street. 19. THOMAS J. ROSE, 14:i Sus(|uohanna Avenue. 20. t W.M. RODENHAUSKN, 1445 Franklin Street. AVARDS. 21. JOSEPH I\r. ADAMS, l.'i) Seville Street, Manayunk. 22. WJI. F. BROWN, 0249 North 27th St., Cjiestnut Hill. 23. J. EMORY BYRAM, 4645 Penn Street, Frankfonl. 24. SGEORtJE W. KENDRICK, Jr.. "507 Baring Street. 25. WILBUR F. SHORT, 2915 Kichmond Street. 26. THOMAS B. McAVOY, 1 52(5 South Broad Street. 27. EDWARD W. PATTON, 3926 Walnut Street. 28. WILLIAM McMURRAY, 1:M5 Arch Street. 29. JOHN F:. HANIFEN, Tlionipson and Savery Streets. 30. WILLIA.M .McCOACH, 1607 Sansom Street. 31. WATSON D. UPPERMAN, 2359 E. Susqiiehani a Ave. 32. FRANKLIN M. HARRIS, 1011 Filbert Street. 33. :milton s. apple, ■ 2864 North Fifth Street. 34. ♦[W. HARRY STIRLING, il Strawberry Street. 35. EDW.VRD MORKELL, 505 Chestnut Street. 36. HUGH BLACK, 1133 South Twenty-I'ourtli Street. 37. CHAS. A. SCHAUFLER, 915 Dauphin Street. JOSEPH H. PAIST, Chief Clerk, 1821 Mount Vernon Street. HENRY W. ROBERTSON, Assist. Clerk, 1915 Market .St reel. JAMICS FR.VNKLIN, Scrg't-at-Arms, 1.523 Christian Street. * Succeeding James It. (iaies, who retired Ajiril, 1S93. ■]■ Succeeding Peter Monroe, who retired April, l.>93. « I Succeeding Thomas M. Hamiuett, who retireil .\iiril, 1S93. i. Succeeding John Morrisson, who retired .\pril, 1893. 1[ Succeeding B. S. C. Thomas, who retired April, 1S93. Common Council KOK TIIK \yee\r (2osr\sx\Gi^Gh^g ^Irsf ^y)or%4^y h^ ^Jbril, ^^93. iA^EISCei- HTXRTTUVKN. PREsioeNT. WARDS. 1. WILLIAM A. MILLER, IRIi) South Fourth Street. JOHN M. .STKATTON, Uil.i Pussyuiik Avenue. JOSKPH V. PORTKR, i:ilO South Fourth Street. A. M. L()UUENSLAt;i:U. :v::i Oii-com street. . JUDSON C. KHITH, lsi7 South Seventh Street. ROBKRT DKNNY, 1 12(1 South Sixth Street. SAMUEL L. KlNG.Wl Reed Street. 2. CHARLES F. ISKMINGER, (i28 Federal Street. ANDREW W. FALBEY, 'i:!:! Federal Street. •lOllN L. HAROLD, !I17 P;is3yuiik Avenue. 3. HIRA.M BOWMAN, 801 South Filth Street. 4. SA.MUEL W. BAIZLEY, 117 CoiiRress Street. 5. JOHN F. REIDENBACH, 1'27 Swauwiek Street. CHARLES W. NAULTY, 2M Pine Street. 6. WILLIAM VAN OSTEN, 10 North Filth Street. 7. CHARLES SEGER, 40 South Sixth Street. GEORGE II. WILSON, 1130 Lombard Street. ANDREW F. STEVENS, Jr., I:i45 Lombard Street. (1) 8. WENOEL HARTMAN, 125 South Seventh Street. CHARLES Y. AUDENR1ED,50d Chestnut Street. 9. CHARLES ROBERTS, 1716 Areh Street. 10. NATHAN T. LEWIS, 222 North Ninth Street. BENNETT L. SMEDLEY, 2050 Vine Street. WILLIAM H. GARRETT. 146 North Thirteenth Street. 11. WILLIAM J. CARTER, :t49 North Front Street. 12. WM. A. I,. RIEGEL, M.D., 468 North Fourth Street. (2) 13. JAMES C. COLLINS, 327 North Front Street. ELLSWORTH H. HULTS, 863 North Seventh Street. 14. JOHN T. STAUFFKR, 333 N. Twelfth Street. JOHN N. HORTON, 1318 Spring Garden Str-!et. (3) JOHN A. FOREPAUGH, 1333 Brown Street. 15. USELMA C. SMITH, 707 Walnut Street. ALE.XANDER COLVILLE, 528 North Twenty-second St. DAVID C. CLEAVER, 1825 Spring Garden Street. CHARLES L. BROWN, 523 Chestnut Street. HENRY W. LAMBIRTH,«31 North Nineteenth Street. (4) JOSEPH F. Stt'OPE,403 Glrard Building. (4) 16. SAMUEL S. LOWENSTElN,it44 North Filth Street. CHARLES J. H AUGER, 1139 St. Jolin Street. 17. JAMES E. McLaughlin, 220 Oxford Street. JACOB ROTH. 1318 Germantowu Avenue. (.")) 18. JOSEPH H. STRAUB, 113 South Fifth Street. J. F. HENDERSON, 6.16 Hockley Street. WILLIAM ROWEN,2ol East Girard Avenue. AGNEW MacBKIDE, 401 Drexel Building. 19. THOMAS FIRTH, 123 Susquehanna Avenue. ROBERT MARKMANN, 2425 North Seventh Street. WILLIAM M. GEARY, 11126 North Third Street. G. EDW. SCMILEGKLMII.CH, 1714 Frankford Avenue. J. GOlilx.iN SlIOWAKER, 2362 Fairhill Street. (6) EDWARD BUCHH(1LZ,2(107 Gerniantown Avenue. (I.) ROBT W B. CORNELIUS. M. D., 2512 North Sixth Street. 20. A. ATWOOD GRACE, 523 Chestnut Street. CHARLES K. SMITH, 123 Arch Street. MORRIS M. CAVEROW, 970 Hutchinson Street. HAKKY P. CBOWELL, 1731 North Eighth Street. . GEORGE HAWKES, 1.508 North Seventh Street. GEORGE W. CONRAD, 1411 Frankin Street. (7) 21. WM. F. DIXON, 102 Leverington Ave., Manayunk. JOSIAH LINTON, 112 N. Front Street. A., ELT..WOOD JONES, 26 Sum.ao Street, Manayunk. (8) 22. THOMAS MEEHAN, Chew St. below Gorgas Lu., Gtn. GEORGE E. FORD, 927 Chestnut Street. (9) JACOB J. SEEDS, 115 North Seventh Street. SAMUEL GOODMAN, 621 Chestnut Street. JOHN W. DAVIDSON, 4529 Rubicam Ave., Gtn. (10) WARDS. 23. WILLIAM HORROCKS, 4431 Frankford Avenue. JONATHAN HAERTTEK, 4535 Mulberry St., Frankford. 24. JAMES M. WEST, N. W. Cor. 4th & Chestnut Sis. PHILIP RUDOLPH, 306 North Fortleih Street. WILLIAM A. PORTER, 515 North Thirtythinl Street. GUSTAV R. SCHAEFER, 29S Bullilt P.uil.liiig. (II) FREDERICK W. EGGELING, Cor. Aspen & Brooklyn (11) JOHN McPARLAND, 622 Brooklyn Street. 25. WILLIAM R. KNIGHT, Jit., 355.5 Kensington Avenue. HUGH T. PIGOTT, 2756 Church St., Bridesburg. FREDERICK C. SIMON, 22 North Seventh Street. FRANKLIN REED, 3170 Richmond Street. (12) 26. EDWARD A. ANDERSON, 206 South Seventh Street. THOMAS HUNTER, M. D.. 1500 Wharton Street. CHRISTOPHER C. B ASTIAN, Passyunk Av. S. of loth St. S. C. AIMAN. 1604 S. Sixteenth Street. (13) 27. LEWIS W. MOORE. 108 South Fortieth Street. JOHN M. WALTON, 4205 Chester Avenue. J. WARNER GOHEEN.227 South Sixth Street. (II) CHAS. E. CONNELL, 60th and Greenway Avenue. 28. HIRAM A. MILLER, 1609 Allegheny Avenue. JACOB T. ROSSELL, 408 North Third Street. Vacancy. GEORGE J. JF.WILL, 2208 North Eighleenlh Street. (15) (15) 31. FREDERICK STEHLE, .3426 Ridge Avenue 29. ELIAS P. SMITHERS, 219 South Sixth Street, JOHN L. BALDWIN, 1530 Stillnian Street. WILLIAM B. SOUDER, 2410 Columbia Avenue. JOSEPH MARTIN, M. D., 2009 Columbia Avenue. CLAYTON M. HUNSICKER, 1842 Master Street. WILLIAM H. SHOEMAKER, 2033 North College Avenue. 30. WM. J. POLLOCK, 7.34 S. Seventeenth Street. JOHN IRVINE, 1538 South Street. WILLIAM H. WILSON, 2222 St. Alban's Place. ROBERT S. LEITHEAD, 2024 Otis Street. JOHN PALLATT, 2301 E. Cumberland Street. WILLIAM C. HADDOCK, 2219 East Y'ork Street. GEORGE \V. KNOLL, 2620 Coral Street. 32. WILLIAM H. JAMES, N. E. Cor. Fifth and Chestnut Sts, FREDERICK A. WHITE, M. D., 1812 N. 27th Street. ROBKRT W. FINLETTER, 1937 N. Twelfth Street. NORRIS E. HENDERSON, 1929 North Twelfih St. 33. R. C. HORR, 2728 North Broad Street. SAMUEL LAMOND, 433 East Somerset Street. JOHN STEWART, 2710 Fairhill Street. AK'IHUR T. WADSWOKTH, 922 West Cambria St 34. THOS. L. HICKS, 23 North Juniper Street. JOHN T. STRICKLAND, 303 North Sixly-nfih Strei JOSEPH II. BROWN, Holmesburg. JAMES BAWN,1M9 Federal Street. SAMUEL K. STINGER, 3124 \l-barlon Street. ARfHUR R. H. MORROW, 2039 Morris Street. JAMES B. WALLS, 2421 North Tenth Street. AUSTIN W. BENNETT, 1035 Dauphin Str.et. (16,1 35. 37. JOHN ECKSTEIN, Chief Clerk, I.505 Cenlennial Avenue. GEO. W. KOCHERSPERGER, Assistant Clerk, 1903 N. Eleventh St.eet. GAVIN NEILSON, Assistant Clerk, Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Gerniantown. W. H. FELTON, Assistant Clerk, 860 North Forly-second Street. GKORGK W. JOHNSON, Scrgeanl-at- Arms, 2312 Parrlsh Street (I) Succeeding Audrew Kinkaid. who retired April, 1893. (2) Succeeding James H. Linn, who retired Ai.ril, 1893. (3) Succeed- ing Samuel H. Fisher, who retired April, 1H93. (4) Siiceeertiug William E. Lindsley and Michael J. F«hy. who retired April. ih93. (5) Succeeding Sebastian Seiberlich, who retired April, 1893. (6) Succeeding William Deacon and Robert Ingram, who retired April 1893. (7) Succeeding WilliHm Rodenhausen. who retin-d A|.ril. 1H93. (8) Succeeding C. P. Cnnnany, who retired April. Is93. (9) Died. April, 1893. (10) Suereedins Geiirgg B. Eilward-. who retired April. 1893. (11) Succeeding George W. Keudrick and W ui Griffith whoretir.d April. 18;)3. (i2) Succei-ding Coura 1 S. Wilson, who retired April. 1x93. (13) Succeeding A. J. Wliitiinehnm who retired April, \>'.a. (14) Succeeding William M. Smith, who died, April. 1892. (15) Succ.eding John D. Heins and Albert!). WilH(m, who retired April. 1893. (16) Sueeeertaino(l hy the census, was almost .sixty-li\'e million souls. Of its political (lixisions, consisting of forty-four States, six Territories and the District of C'olunil)ia, in which was located its capital, moi-e than half the number, formei'ly composiuL;- the unsurveyed and un- broken West, had been admitted into the Union of States within lifty years. Tlie atlvent of railroads in the new land had given an unwonted stimulus to the ])rogress of the people ; and the new cities of the western jiortion of the country Avere hurried into being and then into full growth with a rapidity that left them without the usual ex})erienee or the memories of youth, thus adding to the map of the Republic, from time to time, towns unknown save to contemporaneous history, which, in some instances, aspired to a rivalry with renowned cities of the East, the advance and develoi)ment of which were the work of centuries. That the new but quick-maturing cities were not disturbed by the prospect of standing in full stature before the eyes of famed and culture(l towns invested with the prestige of the historic achievements and the social eminence of nine generations, l)ut acce])ted without concern, the situation of their sudden evolution from the original settler's hut to a comparison in size and wealth with the oldest and ])roudest of their sisters, is a fact that loses its novelty in the consideration of the char- acter of the ])eo])le and of the condition of the times. It may, ])erha})s, be regarded as not remarkable that the thoughts and modes of life of the citizens, especially in the newer section of the land, kept pace, in a measure, with the growth of tlieir towns while not sei'N'ing to render them unimpressionable on the subject of the country's past, nor to make it difficult to arouse in their minds a sense of the pro])riety of commemorating nota]>le occurrences in its history. Tlie 8])irit of universal consent in which the 2)roposal to celebrate the event of the discovery was received throughout the nation illustrated the -bound land was not uncommon in those of his race. \\"\\]\ the image of the form of Erie looming from his ancient boat on the cold Northern sea and gazing with curious eyes on the strange shore of Greenland, in the year eight hundred and seventy-six, the mind is prepared to receive without surj)rise the next important view that arises through the mist of cen- turies from the procession of Discovery. Greenland had been known to man for one hundred and twentv-four vears. Eric's fame as its dis- 10 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. <'<»\-civi' lived ill tlic ;iiiii;ils ot' Icchnid and Noi'way. The land had heeii largely peopled l)y IcelandiTs, and even from lar Norway came voyagers and settk'rs. Tlie movement was downward, .southward, toward the unknown continent that still slumbered in silence and mystery. In the vast solitude of an age and clime, unrelieved by flashes of knowledge, or by the light of recorded history, the image of Bjorne, the Icelander, arises, his anxious eyes peering through the mist, as his vessel tosses on the inhospitable sea, in a vain gaze for the sight of that land, discovered by the famed Eric the Red, and on which now resides his father, who had emigrated from Iceland. The year was one thou- sand. The storm, which can be no stranger to Bjorne, rises and sweeps his vessel far beyond Greenland, until he comes within view of a coun- try without snowy mountains, and which he soon discovers is not the place he seeks. He does not attempt to land, but turns his boat north- ward, anxious no doubt, in view of the fact that he has sailed far out of the way of the object of his search, and after bearing for three or four v the coast of Itliode Island, near Newport, though some writers are disposed to believe its location was on the spot known as ^Martha's Mnc^yard, on tlie Massachusetts coast. The return to Spain of Columbus after his first voyage and dis- covery of what may l)e termed the Southern gateway of the Western Continent, the I]ahama Islands, five centuries after Leif l^rikson had 12 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. beheld its Northeni coast, resulted in stirriiiij; U]) the adventurous spirits of Europe. The SoutluM-n countries especially were prolific in the production of exj)lorers who, actuated by various motives, set out with one or more shi})s for the new world. Not alone Spain, but Portugal, Italy and France i)articipated in the benefits of the discovery and added their cpiota (o tlie expeditions that s})rcad over the smooth ex- panse of the Southern sea. It remamed, however, for a land in the North to act more ])romptly than others in taking advantage of informa- tion derived from tlie Columbian event. Tliis country was England. Henry \"II was on the throne and the nation had begun to recover from the devastating effects of the bloody series of Wars of the Roses. Five years after Columbus had landed on the islands off the Southern portion of the Continent, or in fourteen hundred and ninety-seven, the Enoiish monarch sent out John and Sebastian Cabot with two shi])s and a considerable ]^arty also on a voyage of discovery. Up to this time Columbus and all Southern Europe reposed under the impression that the newly discovered country was a portion of India. It was in the hope of reaching that land of storied wealth by a short route that Columbus had originally set out from Spain. When he arrived at the islands on his first voyage, the spirit of elation and thanksgiving which he is reported to have displayed was due to the belief that he had reached the Western shore of India. The several natives whom lie had persuaded to accompany him to Spain were at once called Indians and by that name the original occupants of the new continent have been known ever since. The Cabots took a Northward course, and after sailing for many days through icebergs they reached the coast of what is now known as Labrador. While there was doubtless little in the inhospitable snow- covered hills of that dreary land to command admiration they experi- enced the satisfaction of recording their first discovery and continued their exploration, 'i'hey next sighted the shores of what appears on the map of North America as Newfoundland. After familiarizing themselves with the peculiarities of the new lands and their products and inducing several of the natives to accompany them, they sailed for England, taking with them also specimens of animals and fowl cap- tured on the strange shores. One year after the Cabots had discovered the northern coast, Columl)US sailed for the third time westward. On his second voyage, he had revisited the islands previously discovt'red, including those designated on the charts of to-day as Ilayti, San Domingo, and Cuba. With reference to the first named of the grouj), a melancholy revelation COLUMBUS AND THE CABOTS, 13 had a\vaitc'(l him. ()iii' (jf his ships having hcuii wrecked on tlie lirst voyage, lie left its crew, consisting of thirty-five persons, as a colony in possession of the island, whicli he had iianieil Jlispaniola, and when he returned, it was found all had heen slain hy tlie natives, whose anger they had provoked hy their injustice and cruelty. That he had been shocke(l and distresst'd l)y the news, it may he justly imagined in view of the impulsive temperament of the nmii, and of the undoubtedly fine sensibilities of liis nature. The third and most momentous of his expeditions found him with more experience with the climate, the latitude and the natives, and less dis})osed to tarry among the islands already taken possession of in the name of the sovereigns of .Spain. He sailed southwest, still resting under tlie delusion that he had reached the western coast of India. To a mind imlnied with the spirit of modern times, having in view the methods in use for the C|uick dispatch of business, the rapid adaptation of means to ends, and the readiness of men to seize and possess themselves of things of worldly value to which tlie consideration of priority of right may justify tlieir claim, even though the worth of what they strive for may not attain to that of an entire continent, it would appear singular that six years had been allowed to 2^f^ss, and three voyages had been made, before the discoverer and the nation wdnch supported his undertaking ascertained the stupen- dous truth, that the numerous islands disclosed to their eyes had no connection with India, and that a few leagues further west lay the greatest of the continents of tlie world. The result of this third voyage was the discovery of the main land of the new country at the mouth of the Orinoco River in South America, on the coast of what is now Venezuela. In the meanwhile, the English voyagers, the Cabots, had been more successful in the space of time employed, if not more enterprising. Their first voyage had resulted in the discovery of the continent itself, at its northern coast, or in its rediscovery, since they had followed the course of the hardy Norwegians under Leif Erikson, tive hundred years before. They had returne(l to their native clime with the story of their voyage, its products and its results ])efore Columbus descried the lower portion of the continent, and })rior to the astounding revelation, to the people of Southern Euro])e es})ecially, that tlie strange land was not India, but a new world hitherto unknown to Eastern civilization. The return of the ('al)ots to England and the arrival subsequently of Columbus in Spain from his third voyage, with its momentous results were sufficient to excite and dazzle Europe. Thenceforth for more than one hundred years, history presents the spectacle of an 14 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. iiiibroktMi })r()cc'ssiun of I'xploix'i's, advciiturcrs, capitalists, and royally coniinissioiicd agents pouring into tlic new land, and taking tlicii' ways in many and various directions. Up great rivers, through luibroken wilds, across ruuued mountains, around vast lakes and over barriers seem- ingly impenctral)le, daring men made their journeys, fighting peaceable natives and })er})etrating upon them glaring atrocities in some cases; assailed and massacred by tlie original possessors of the soil in others; one expedition plundering and murdering the red men ; another seeking to pacify and to convert them to the religion of the Roman Churcli ; one band with prayer book and the offerings of peace; the othei' with sword and torch and the ever ready proclamation of indiscriminate war. From the swift infiux into the new land with its hapless people, of civilization with its benefits and its evils, the mind may digress long enoush to note a touch of human nature in connection with an incident tliat led to an important development. Among the early emigrants from Spain, who sought to improve their condition on the isles discovered l)y Columbus on his first voyage, was Nunez de Balboa. He landed at Hispaniola and began life there in a small way as a farmer. The venture proA^cd unfortunate, the emigrant farmer becom- ing involved in debt. With creditors about him, and the spectacle of a Spanish dungeon before his eyes, the bankrupt induced some sympa- thizing friends to hide him in a hogshead, label it "victuals," and place it on board a ship bound for the Gulf of Mexico. A\dien the vessel was at sea, beyond the reach of the money lenders, the fugitive pushed the lightly fcistened head from the cask, and rose before captain and crew a towering, living, human form, much to their astonishment, and, as history records, not a little to their fright. He reached the Isthmus of Darien, now Panama, where he landed, and having made himself agreeable to the Indians, married a Princess of one of the tribes and thereby became rich in gold and silver, a condition doubtless not unwelcome after his exi)erience at Hispaniola. In the course of time he heard the natives speak of a great ocean to tlie west, and being of a roving disposition, and perhaps fired with a zeal to distinguish himself by some important discovery, he set out with a large expedition, and after many hardships, reached a point from which was spread before his wondering eyes the vast Pacific. In the true spirit of the explorer of the day, he called upon the mem- bers of his party to witness that he took possession of the ocean in the name of the King and Queen of Spain. This was in fifteen hundred and thirteen, or fifteen years after the third voyage of Columbus, Avhich had resulted in the discovery of the main body of the continent. IIri()i- to llie suceess of his efforts to even secure some slight consideration ol' tlic ])rqject whicli I'esulted in the discovery of an cntii-e hcniisplicrc, ha.d possessed a natui'c* less Ix'uevo- lent and simple, it is ])r()l)ahle lie avouM have died amidst riclies and luxurv, and Ixhmi hornc^ to tlic tonili with the honoi-s Ix'tittino' his genius, ami tlic inestimal)le ^■alue of liis services to Spain and to the 'work], instead of departing- his hfe in t'xile and ])Overty, witli his remains late(l to tind a resting place, tin'ough tlie heneticence of charity, on one of the islands wliich 1ns enterjM'ise and his ])atience had addearall('l in the history of the world, tlie figure of the original voyager was lost, and his acts for a time ol)scured l)y the magnificence of the shining I'iches which usurped his })lace in the mind of mankind. It wouM ])erliaps be accepted as a measure of satisfaction if history could record that the land whidi liis patience and fortitude revealed to civilization, had honored his achievement by adopting his name, but even this slight solace to the memory of one who died a victim of monstrous ingratitude was denied. In the year fourteen hundred and ninety-nine, one year after Columbus had made liis third voyage and discovered the main body of the country, a clever Florentine, Amerigo A\'s]:)ucc-i, ])aid a visit to what is in this day the shore of South America, and returning home, ])ublisluMl a descrip- tion of the new land and also a ma}) of the coast. Ho was the first person in Europe, according to (•ont(Mn])oraneous authority, to exjjre.ss the ])clief that the strange territory was not a portion of Asia, but a separate continent. This view of the subject turned the title of o[)inion in the old world, and its truth having been soon veritietl, the name of Amerigo in connection with the Columbian laml supplanted in tlie minds of the Euro})eans that of ("olumbus itselt'. During the entire ])(>rioarbar- ous assailants could not follow them. Cortez then plundered the city, taking all the gold and silver to be found, and formall}^ possessed him- self of the country of tlie Aztecs in the name of the King of Spain. The example set by this butclier and rol)l>cr was worthily imitated nine years later by Francis Pizarro. AVith a band of S])anish soldiers lie invaded Peru, and finding there a peaceful, intelligent race of peo- l)le ruled by Kings or Incas, he i)ut thousands of them to the sword, killed the King himself, and seized the land and untold quantities of gold and silver, in the name of the Sovereign of that same nation which ■ •■' .M^--^- ■/^V.■■• THE ATROCIOUS ACTS OF COKTEZ. 21 produced the bloody Cortcz. Tlicst> ancient people were further ad- Viinced in the arts and sciences and in government than any other of the races discovered l)y the Europeans on the new continent. They had cities, temples of worship, gardens and eultivati'd farms, the }tur- suit of husbandry being attended by intelligent methods, especially in the matter of the irrigation of the soil and in the care of its products. Their skill in the manufacture and decoration of pottery remains to this day reasonable cause for astonishment on the part of civilization, which seeks in vain for the source of their art, as well as for the deri- vation of their race. How long they had lived in j^eace and content- ment, worshipping in their temples, observing obedience to their laws or customs, free from the influence of the more complex civilization before the Spaniards came upon them and with a savagery that iinds few^ instances to equal it in the world, destroyed their homes, laid waste their lands, })illaged their towns and murdered their rulers, remains a mystery to this hour. If any doubt existed as to the purely mercenary object of the in- vaders or on the question of the appalling cruelty of their character, it would be in all probability speedily dispelled by the reflection that although a body of six hundred men accompanied Cortez on his expe- dition against the Aztecs of ancient Mexico, and a following almost equal in number was led by Pizarro in his invasion and conquest of Peru, there is not in existence at this clay out of the entire ([uota, a single recital tending to show the habits, the customs, or tlie manners of the people whose hospitality they enjoyed, and whose routine of life and domestic economy were so fully open to their judgment and obser- vation. The world might in a degree mitigate its censure upon the merciless acts of these blood-stained Spaniards, if there remained any trace of a redeeming feature in the nature of their expeditions, any evidence of a reluctance on their ])art toward resorting to the deeds of infamy which stand in their name, or of some slight disposition among them to pause in tluMr tierce ])ursuit after gold to note and retain for the benelit of civilization, the modes of life ami tlie jx'culiai" cliaracter- istics of the iiniocent, i)ut ancient jx'ople, their contact witli whom afforded sucli rare o])])ortunity for ol)taining some clue to their age and origin. Columbus on his retui'u from his first voyage cai'ried with him several of (lie natives of the newly discovered islands, treated them kindly, and presented them l>eforethe Sovereigns of Spain. That Cor- tez or Pi/.arro evinced the slightest interest in the history or in the character of the unfoi'tunatc race which tlieir barbarities exterminated, there remains not the faintest evidence, bnt in y Columbus in the first instance on his voyage of discovery, their confidence and their hospitality were not abused by the memlx-i's of the ex})edition under Ponce do Leon. Li the feeling of exaltation and unalloyed de- light experienced liy the S[)anish chief, it is not dillicult to realize the plausibility of the story that he was led to believe there existed some- where in the beautiful land a fountain whose waters jjossessed the vir- tue of restoring youth to the aged, and that he and his followers searched r-'^^^ .«»^ THE EXPEDITION OF 1)E SOTA. 25 lono; and earnestly for the magic spring and returned to their native hind keenly disappointed over tiieir failure to discover its location. The character of the man who now, after a lapse of seventeen years, sailed from S{)ain with a i)owerful and splendidly caparisoned band of followers for the land first revealed to Ponce de Leon, was some- what different from that of the veteran companion of Columbus. His expedition included priests with the emblems of the church and black- smiths with ample means for providing shoes for the horses of the sol- diers, and for repairing and sharpening their weapons. They likewise brought with them a herd of swine with which to furnish subsistence in the strange and untried land. Tlie party reached Tampa Bay on the west coast of the Peninsula in the year fifteen hundred and thirty-nine. De Soto made no effort to conceal to the minds of the natives the ftict that he came among them for conquest. The gay plumes, shining armor and gorgeous banners of the soldiers and the high fioating image of the cross carried by the priests in their sable garljs must have produced a remarkable effect upon the simple-minded savages who were numerous on every hand. They met the Spaniards at first in a spirit of submission and awe and offered to worship them. The stern de Soto with his eyes bent solely on dis- covery and conquest did not delude them, Init commanded them to "pray only to God in Heaven." True to his training under the blood- stained Pizarro, the Spanish leader treated the natives with the greatest cruelty. Many were killed, their villages burned and their possessions, wdien they were of value, taken by the ruthless hands of the soldiers. The acts of de Soto soon aroused the hostility of the natives. The ex- pedition finally reached the section of country now embraced in the State of Alabama, and on the site of the })resent City of Mobile a battle was fought with the Indians, which proved most disastrous to the na- tives. Eighteen Spaniards were killed and the number of natives slain was upward of two tliousand five hundred. The event occurred in the year fifteen hundred and forty. The adventurers javssed on in the direction of northwest, seeking for gold and silver and failing to find any. Tn the yi'ar fifteen hundred and foi1y-oiie they came to tlie bi'oad Mississippi, and tliere de Soto re- corded the discovery of what proved to be the largest river in the world. He did not survive to enjoy the honor of conveying the news of his achievement to S[)ain, l)ut was seized with a fever, the result of enfeebled healtli arising tVoin worry and (hsap))ointiuent owr the failure of cher- ished exi)ectations in eonneetion with his search for gold, and in a few days expired on tlie bank of the great stream. His i-oinpanions, after 26 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. the solemn rites of the chureh hud been performed over his remains, wrapped liis mantle about him, and taking the body out to the middle of the river, smik it in the unsounded depths that it might not fall into the hands of the Indians. There are few things in the history of the Western Continent more impressive or tragie than the melancholy ending of tlie great expedition of de Soto. The high expectation and the pride of Spain were centred in the undertaking. Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru had found gold and silver in quantity almost fabulous, and for years the Spanish ships groaned with the weight of the precious metals which were trans- ferred from the ownership of an inoffensive and once happy people to the gaping coffers of the Spaniards. De Soto had feasted his eyes on the untold wealth of shining metal in Peru, and doubtless acquired the notion that other and equally rich races or communities of people were to be found all over the vast area of the New World. That others, including the rulers of Spain, were possessed of the same idea there can be no reasonable ground for doubt. The previous discoveries had daz- zled their eyes and intoxicated their senses. Nothing in the shape of an expedition to the new country was too rash to propose or too expen- sive to undertake. The trappings of wealth and the emblems of grand- eur and i)ower whicli characterized the array of de Soto were evidence of the gracious favor in which he and his object were held by the Span- ish crown. That the prayers of the accompanying priests were at once a solace to their misfortunes and an incentive to their hopes there can be no question ; nor can it be doubted that, after weary months of journeying through seemingly endless wilds, encountering wondering natives destitute of the riches which the eager hunters sought, the Spaniards Ix'canie irritable, and were only too })roneto perpetrate U})on the innocent objects of their disappointment the atrocities which every- where mark their progress from Tampa Bay to the eastern shore of the great river, where their leader yielded up his life and whose waters received his mortal remains. The death of de Soto occurred in tlie year fifteen hundred and forty-two, or three years after his dei)artui'e from Sjjain. His unfortu- nate companions, long since discouraged and no more deluded by the expectation of finding gold, thought only of their native land and of how they could best get out of the accursed country. They crossed the river, well knowing it would be death to all to return by the way they came, since they had comiuitted so many acts of crncliy upon tlie na- tives, and after wandering for months through trackless forest and en- during almost incredible hardships, they finally reached the plains of RETURN OF THE SURVIVORS. 29 what is now the vast state of Texas. Disheai-teiied, hrokcii in health and witli little ho])e of seeing- ever again tlicir homes in Spain, they turned in a northeasterly direction and after many weeks of travel through swamj) and jungle and unhroken \\ilds, tluy eame once again to the shore of the great Mississij)|)i. V\"\{\\ fei'veiit tliaiikfulness and renewed hope they set to work, constructed boats, embarked on the rapid, unknown river and after many perils reached the coast of Mexico and ultimately the West Indias, the pai'ty num])ering about one-half the band which had set out from Spain three years before with such bright dreams of conquest and glory in connection with their inva- sion of the new land in which their leader had found not gold and silver, but an unknown grave. '^ CHAPTER II. Enterprise of the P'rexcii ix the Xew Lani>— Expeditions of Yerrazani and Cartier — Second Voyaoe of Sebastian Cabot — Discovery of the St. Lawrence —France forms the First Colony in the New Country which Proves Tem- porary — ^Eassacrk of French Settlkks by the Spaniards — The Act Avenged BY the French. IX the process of colonization experienced by the new land during the period of one hundred and ninety years, or from the time of the first voyage of Columbus until the date of the founding of Phila- delphia, the methods and the traits of the several enlightened nations of the Old World were illustrated with unusual clearness and force. The attempts in the earlier instances to form settlements and the failures were not confined to any single nationality, — the Spanish, the French, the English, the Dutch, and the Swedes alike encountering ol)stacles and sutfering misfortunes of a grave and discouraging nature. The Spaniards, at the outset, were favored with the distracting and pleasing experience of having spread before their eyes and placed within the ready grasp of their power the immense treasure of Mexico and Peru, and such ideas and plans as they may have previously entertained in connection with the forming of colonies and tlie establishing of their authority in tlie vast territory that began with the peninsula of Florida, were supplanted for a numl^er of years by the occupation, more imme- diately profitable, of unearthing and transporting gold and 'silver in untold (quantities to tlic shores of Spain. In the glare of the suddenly discovered riches and in tlie ielicity of realizations beyond the scope of their previous imagination, they lost sight of the importance of continu- ing the exi)loration of the new world and of insuring for the Spanish crown the great area of land reaching from the Mexican Gulf north- ward to the clifls of Maine ; a land which they could, without difficulty, have seized and posses.sed, notwithstanding the tact that other nations of Europe were at this time sending expeditions to different points on the coast of North America. Tlie vSpaniards claimed, it is true, the entire region of Florida, on the inviting shore of which Ponce de Leon luid lirst laid eyes in tiftccii liundrcd and twelve, seven yeai's before the invasion of Mexico by Cortez. The return of the old Spanish chief to liis native clime and the lapse of several years had not sufficed to ex- tinguish ill his mind tlie vearning to live over again the delightful (33) 34 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. experience of his first visit to the fragrant land, and he iinally eaiae back at the head of a company with the pleasant expectation of found- ing a colony. The cruelty of some of his countrymen who had visited the coast a short time before his arrival, and seized a number of the natives and carried them to San Domingo where they were sold into slavery, had changed the disposition of the red men, and, to the surprise and dismay of the old Columbian voyager, instead of finding himself and his party received with the friendliness and hospitality of former years, they were confronted by a band of fierce and determined warriors, and compelled to fight for their lives. In tliat battle Ponce de Leon and almost all his companions were killed. This disaster had a discouraging ettect on the purpose of Spain, and no further effort was made to estal)lish tlie power of the crown in the new land until the time of the arrival of de Soto at Tampa Bay in fifteen Innidred and thirty-nine. The tragic end of this chief and the failure of his expedition had left the Span- iards forty-seven years after the first expedition of Columbus without a permanent foothold anywhere on the soil of North America. In the meantime, while the S})anish ships were employed carrying gold and silver from IMexico and Peru to enrich the kingdom of Spain, a formidable rival was steadily acquiring a lodgment on the new con- tinent. The power and the interests of France demanded a share of its vast territory ; and in the year fifteen lunidred and twenty-four Verrazani, a Florentine captain, sailed from the country of the French witli an expedition consisting of four shi})s and several hundred men, with authority from Francis I. to explore in the strange land. Arriv- ing off the shore of Florida, he proceeded in a leisurely way to famil- iarize himself with the coast of all the country northward. His voyage extended to Labi'ador, and was attended by some remarkal)le discover- ies. It is recorded that off the coast of what is now New Jersey one of his sailors undertook to swim ashore, but upon his close ap})roacli he found the l)ank thronged with wondering natives, and, in his endeavor to return, he l)ecame exhausted, and was tossed on the beach in a state of unconsciousness. The red men revived him, treated him kindly, and allowed him to return to his shi}). His account of the people aroused the curiosity of W'rrazani, who })resently visited tlie shore in person, and was received with friendliness and hospitality by the Indians^ with whom he spent some time trafficking and gathering knowledge of the country. When he sailed away he rewarded their confidence and good offices l)y stealing and carrying off a native child. Ignoring the pretensions of the S})aniards who claimed the whole of the new country without having seen any portion of its coast beyond Florida, the com- .Mi;s. J5KTSY l\Oss, wliii (iL'siuiu-il aiiil iiiailf tlu- first American tiasj, in Piiilalclphia, in 1777 THE VOYAGE OF YERRAZAXI 37 mandcr of t]u> lirst Freiicli cxpCHlitioii fonnally took j)OSsessioii of the entire hind, iioitli of tlie i-coioii discovercMl l»y I'ouce de Leon, in tlie name of the sovereign of France. The voyage of \''errazani and its results were hailed as a great achievement in l^'i-anci", and served to further stimulate the French in their desire to contirm in a practical way tlieir claim to the greater portion of the distant country. Domestic troubles engrossed the atten- tion of the government, however, and prevented the immediate fitting out of a second expedition. The tardiness of the Spaniards, whose in- terest was wholly absorbed in the riches of Mexico, precluded the possi- bility of interference from that cj^uarter with the plans of the French, who could, without opposition, have established their power substan- tially along the vast stretch of coast from the northern boundary of Florida to Labrador. The English, who had sent the C'abots to the new land in the year fojurteen hundred and ninety-seven, when they discovered Labrador and New Foundland, had shown no disposition up to the time of A^errazani," and for a period long subsequent to the expedition of the French under that leader, to enforce any claim or to extend their powder in the new couiitry. That they had not lost sight of the probability of the arrival in the future of an opportunity to assert themselves on the AVestern continent, was evident from the fact that Sebastian Cabot, in the year fifteen hundred and eighteen, twenty years after his first voyage to Labrador and six years prior to the expedition of Verrazani, had revisited the shore of the new land, explored tlie coast from Labrador to Florida, and with grave formality had claimed the entire country for the English crown. •^ Here then were the ])ases of a dispute, of a conflict of claims be- tween two of the most advanced and progressive nations of Europe, the direct consequences of which, in the course of one hundred years, proved a})palling and dreadful. From the results of these expeditions of Sebastian Cabot and Verrazani, sprang a series of the fiercest and most bloody wars known in tlie history of the new world. Long after tlie adventurous navigators and the youngest of the voyagers who had sailed with theiu had })asse(l away, and the eai'ly achievements and ])ower of Spain in the land had bei'U forgotten, their acts on behalf of their re- spective sovereigns bore fruits of blood and slaughter, the horror and enormity of which cause civilization to shudder at their contemplation even to this day. Li that era of l»loodshed, the most repellant of all the })eri()ds in American history, the mind may accord to the French the ])eculiar distinction of having availed themselves of the most barbarous methods eoneeivabli' against their foes anse before the French undertook to contirni by a second exj^editiou their claim to the new land. In tlie year fifteen hundred and thirty- four, the government sent out another exploring party under the com- mand of Jacques Cartier. This leader possessed some of the character- istics of his Florentine predecessor, one of which was an inclination to l)ractice bad faith in dealing with the natives. He sailed along the coast of the new country until he reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence, when he displayed the quality of the explorer and of the daring navi- gator alike, by entering the unknown estuary and voyaging onward. Ascending the swift-flowing river St. Lawrence he came finally to an Indian settlement on the site of the present city of Montreal. The spectacle of the wondering natives, dressed in the skins of beasts, living in tents, or luits made from the bark of the birch tree, and wearing ornaments fashioned from the shells of fishes and the bones of animals, was sufficient to attract the attention and arouse the curiosity of the French, and they decided to proceed no farther. It was the beginning of winter when they arrived at the native town and they resolved to remain until spring. The Indians received them hospitably, provided for their wants, traded with them and in various ways manifested toward them a friendly spirit. The stay of Cartier and his party with these friendly peo]>le who were ruled by a Chief and who were well supplied with food and means of shelter, during the long and rigor- ous months from autumn until spring was productive of an unusual amount of valuable information in connection with that portion of the country, its resources and its population. It might be supposed that on leaving the hospitable tribe, there would be displayed on the part of the French some evidence of gratitude. Cartier evinced his sense of the oljligation incurred by seizing the Indian Chief and forcibly carrying him to France. In tlie meantime, he had with the usual formality, laid claim to all the land in the name of his sovereign. The supine attitude of the Spaniards, and the absence of opposition from the English, emboldened the French in their schemes in the new land. They not only regarded themselves as masters of all the terri- tory north of l^'lorida, but tliey began to display evidence of a disi)o- position to include in their possessions a ])ortion of Florida itself. In the course of time they made preparations to form colonies in the strange country, and while it was the fate of the French, after the 'k^^!' THE FUKNCn PROTESTANTS. 41 lapse of a little iiinrc than a century, to be eoiiipelled to reliiKiuisli every foot of ground they })ossessed in the new world, they are entitled to the credit of having established the first settlement on the soil (jf North America, and of having constructed on the strange land the earliest stronghold, notwithstanding the fact that the colony was not permanent. The persecution of French Protestants about the year tifteen hun- dred and sixty, produced a state of terror and dread on the part of a considerable element of the people and the glowing accounts wdiich the voyagers gave of the attractions of the western world, caused the mem- bers of the unhappy sect to look with longing eyes toward the shores of the land where they could live in peace, and worshi}) in accordance with the promptings of their s})iritual nature. In the year fifteen hundred and sixty-two a large party of Protest- ants, under a commander named Ribault, sailed from France and landed on the northern portion of Florida. The place selected for the settlement was along the banks of the pleasant river St. John. While the colonists occu})ied themselves building houses and taking up land in the balmy region Ribault proceeded to the island of Port Royal, off the coast of the present State of South Carolina, and constructed a fort which he named Port Carolina. Having completed his work and sur- veyed it to his satisfaction, he conceived his mission in the new land complete and sailed for France. The departure of the leader from the shore of the wild country, and with him the power and prestige of the mother land, produced a sense of loneliness and desolation on the helpless colonists, and, after yearning for their native clime for the period of a year, they set to w^ork, constructed a ship and sailed for France. The vessel was faulty and the provisions scarce, and but for the timely appearance of an English man-of-war it is probable tlie unfortunate settlers would not have survived to relate their experience on the banks of the St. .John. They were taken on board the English vessel in a half-starved condition and in the course of time were landed on the soil of France. The fiiilure of the first attempt to found a colony on the distant land did not discourage the boundless enterprise of the French. With the experience of the original party, scarcely a year removed, a second company sailed for the new world under the leadership of Laudonnier. and, governed by the })revailing notion that the region of the St. John was the most desirable situation for a colony, they established themselves near the site of the former settlement. The venture proved successful, the colonists were reasonablv contented, the soil was fruitful 42 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. aiul new accLvs.sion.s were received to their iiunil)er. There was every promise of the ultimate prosperity and of the extension of the settle- ment when an unexpected occurrence changed the prospect of peace and liappiness and produced in its i)lace bloodshed and slaughter and the total extinction of the colony. The Spaniards, who had neglected for so long a period of time to enforce their claim to the right of possession of the new country, received information of the existence of the settlement of French Protestants in Florida. The knowledge was sufficient to incense a race peculiarly jealous of its rights, and imj)atient, in the conscious- ness of priority of discovery, of interference, and in the year fifteen hundred and sixty-five a fleet was dispatched from Spain under Me- lendez with orders to drive the intruders from the land. The expe- dition reached a harbor in the Gulf of Mexico, where Melendez, as a preliminary step to the assertion of the power of Spain, proceeded to build a fortress. When the work was finished the place was designated as St. Augustine, and thus was laid the foundation of the present city of that name. The Spaniards were now fully aroused to the impor- tance of enforcing their former claims which had so long languished, and to the necessity of establishing colonies in Florida. With the building of the fort at St. Augustine was also formed the nucleus of a settlement under the auspices and the power of S})ain. In the mean- time the progressive French had a fleet lying ott' the northern coast of Florida, south of the French stronghold at Port Royal. The Spanish ships had not been long at St. Augustine before the French vessels put to sea to attack and if possible destroy the entire expedition. To the misfortune of the French a storm arose and their ships were wrecked. The exultant Spaniards, more determined than ever to eftectually end French encroachments in Florida, made their way through the forest, reached the colony of the French Protestants, fell upon the helpless settlers and massacred them all with the exception of a few mechanics whom they reduced to slavery. This atrocious act was amply revenged three years later. In the year fifteen hundred and sixty-eight Admiral de (Jourges sailed from France with a fleet bound for the coast of Florida. He reached St. Augustine, surprised the Spanish garrison, put every Si)aniar(l to death, and hanging their bodies on trees placed upon each a })lacard inscribed, " I do this not as unto Spaniards, but as unto traitors, robbers and murderers." CHAPTER III. Advent of the English to the New Continent— Eakly P^fforts to Form New Colonies and their Failure— The Wane of the Power of the Spaniards- Disappearance OF THE Settlers at Roanoke — The First Permanent Colony AT Ja:mestown. FU()M the .staiid})oiiit of the Anierieaii race, that portion of the history of the new world in its long and troublesome period of colonization and settlement which marks the advent of the English, must ever be regarded as the beginning of a newer and brighter epoch in the experience of its slow and uncertain development under the guardianship of fretful and contentious nations, the irritant clashing of whose claims and the harshness of whose protests are not rendered more agreeable by the realization of the fact that the ever- recurring controversies are waged by dis]3utants who severally speak a strange tongue, and who are possessed of manners and customs in many respects widely different from those of the people who gave to the Americans their language, and, in the main, their customs, which are essentially the same in the lands of the two races in this day. With the massacre of the French settlers in Florida, the Spaniards disappear as important iigures in the history of the colonization of the new world. Forced l)y the aggressiveness of the French and of the English to confine themselves to their original claim of Florida, to Central and South America and to the southern portion of what is now the coast land of the American United States on the Pacific, they sub- side from the scene of the approaching investment of universal interest and tremendous action in the present English-speaking section of the Columbian land ; and as they fade from view to the narrow limits of their remote possessions on the soil of North America, the growing forms, typical of two of the most })(>werful nations of Europe, loom clear and distinct in the prospect, unyielding and menacing in the attitude of their ancient rivalry and enmity, the scope of whose infiuence and effort on the new continent is destined for the period of nearly two centuries to be only limited by the boundaries of tht> land itself. The first attempt of the P]nglis]i to form colonies on the strange territory were attemlcd not <»nly l)y failure. l>ut resulttMl in di.>^aster to the settlers, tlie inclniicholy fate of some of whom constitutes one of the most glooniv })am's in tiie historv of the eiforts of the Anglo-Saxon (45) 46 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. race in tin- diroetion of colonization in the new clime in the closing years of the sixteenth century. A })erio(l often years had elapsed from the time when De Gourges avenged the murder of the French colonists hy the massacre of the Spanish garrison at St. Augustine. The English throne was occupied by Elizabeth, and the time had come when the nation under this strong-minded (^ueen was ])i-epared to take the initial step towards asserting its right to the hnid first beheld l)y Sebastian Cabot in the year fifteen hundred and eighteen. Sixty years from the date of that voyage, in fifteen hundred and seventy-eight, the Queen granted to one of her subjects, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a patent to a large })ortion of territory lying along the xVtlantic coast north of Florida. An English expedition had visited the land in tliis section of the new country, and the accounts which its members gave of the distant shore on tlieir return to England a|»pear to have impressed Elizaljeth. Her unmarried state suggested a name for her new possessions and the des- ignation, A^irginia, was accepted by the nations of Europe during the reign of this sovereign as another and more specific title for the greater known portion of tlie distant territory. Tlie first expedition sent to the new coast l)y Gilbert was wrecked, and all those who sailed on the unfortunate voyage perished. This disaster produced a feeling of dread and dismay on the English people, the passage of ships to and from the strange land being regarded as a feat attendes of these unfortunate early colonists. The ships which carried this second party of emigi-ants to the strange shore returned to England and there was no further communi- cation b}^ the mother country with the A]l)emarle colony for the })eriod of three years. Fn the year fifteen hundi'ed and ninety some English vessels ai'rived with lettei's and jirovisions. The melancholy revelation of a settlement without the trace of a ibinier inhahitant, and with every evidence of ruin and decay, was not calculated to furnish cheerful in- telligence to cari'v back to I^ngland, especially when it is considere(l that the destroyed colonists ha stuiUous mind will note the cliaracter of these first English colonists, the circumstances under which they were promi)ted to leave their native shore, and will be impressed, in a retrospective view of the development of the American race from the standpoint of this day, by the fact of the marked difference between the Jamestown settlers, the founders, i)ractically, not only of Virginia but of the Southern race in the United States, and tlieir ruritan fellow-countrymen, who followed them to the new land, but not to the same genial and inviting region on its soil. If, in the course of several centuries, the outcropping of sharp antagonism between the descendants of the two sets of colonists is noticed, the fact should be recalled of the difference in the character of the men comi)Osing the first two English settlements in America, although natives of the same soil, and of the dissimilarity of motives which prompted them to emigrate from the mother land. CHAPTER IV. TuE High Plack in the History ok Exploration and Discovery on the New Con- tinent Occupied by the Italians— Their Intelligence and Exemplary Con- duct—The Advent of the Dutch and the Puritans— Penn and the Founding of Philadelphia. IN the era of early exploration and discovery on the New Continent the impartial mind, in a review of important events and large revelations transpiring before the wondering gaze of Europe, must invariably concede no small share of credit to be due on the part of civilization to the Italians. Their performance in the vast field of action, the development of which in a measure changed the history of the W(H'ld and marked a distinct epoch in the progress of mankind, places the sons of the descendants of the Ca3sars in advance of the other races of the earth with respect to the original conception and the de- monstration of great truths relative to the existence and to the nature of the new land. Columbus, the Italian, conceived and carried into effect, by means of immense patience and perseverance, an idea so original and novel tliat his simple statement of its nature was sufficient to arouse a doubt in the matter of his sanity. The trials he experi- enced and the steadfast adherence to the truth of his convictions he exhibited under circumstances that appeal to the humane and softer traits of the nature of man, are not to be contemplated without realiz- ing a sense of strong emotion. The story of his discouragements, his rebuffs, his disappointments, and of the patience and unwavering faith in the justness of his belief and of the cause that cost him so much misery of mind and soul, and finally of tlie stu})endous triumph of his idea and of his efforts, is without parallel perhaps in the history of mankind. If Italy had dune no more than contribute to the welfare of the world the genius of this patient and persevering man, its claim to the gratitude of the human race, as well as to the place of honor among the nations of tlie eartli, would have been com])lete. 'As if to })resent before the eyes of the woi'ld, howcxcr, an I'xample of the spirit and the fibre of the descendants of the ancient liomans, an inexorable fate seems to have decreed that those nations of the earth which were destined to possess for a period of almost two centuries the entire extent of the Western Continent should stand in the relation of debtors for their vast ac(iuisition, to the iutelligence, the Ibresiglit, the 62 THE STORY OF AX A.MEUICAN CITY. integrity and llic undaunted daring of the Italians. Directly in the wake of Columbus, inspired by the results of his first voyage, arise the figures of John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son, Venetians, known to the shipj)ing interests of Bristol, England ; and soon their several ships are ploughing the seas under a royal commission from Ileniy Vll in searcli of unknown lands, islands or provinces. Their undertaking involved many risks, grave responsibilities, and a large outlay of money none of wdiicli was furnished by the Crown, the commission stipulating that the explorers should voyage at their own ex})ense, a condition which does more credit to the shrewdness and thrift of the English king than it does to his benevolence. The Cabots reached the main- land at Labrador in June, fourteen hundred and ninety-seven, one year and two montlis before Columbus reached the continent on his third expedition, and thus discovered the eastern coast line of the new land, which w^as afterward fully explored on a second voyage by Sebastian. This voyage of the Italians gave to England its claim to the greater portion of the continent. Two years after the first discovery by the Cabots and six months from the time of the third voyage of Columbus, another native of Italy, possessed of much of the same studious and j^jhilosophic quality of mind as the latter, created through- out Europe a sensation equal to those })roduced by his three fellow- countrymen by a voyage of exploration to the new coast which resulted in enlightening the world and revealing to civilization one great fact in connection wnth the Columbian land. Amidst the confusion and the excitement in Europe incident to the discoveries by Columbus and by the Cabots there was one mind which remained calm and collected, suspended judgment on the question of the identity of tlie strange territory, and finally, to satisfy all doubt, undertook a voyage to the distant coast. Landing on its southern portion, Amerigo Vespucci pursued a careful investigation into the nature and the climate of the new shore, and in the course of time am})ly confirmed the belief he had entertained that it was in no way connected with India. Having thus taken tlie most direct means of settling the (piestion he I'eturned to Europe, an country from 6() THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. Florida to New Fouiulkuul, not alunc ((ftlic Euolisli, but of the J)utcli and the Swedes, the latter two i-aces of which have a place of iiu])oi-- taiice almost cijunl with tliat of the English in tlie colonization of what are now the Eastern Middle States. In the perception of the advan- tages offered bv the new countrv to trade and to commerce the Dutch were esjx'eially (juick and (■iit('r[)rising. A\"ith tlie exani})le before their eyes of the London Company and its colony at Jamestown engaged in tlie business of raising tobacco, some thrifty men in Holland organ- ized a corporation to be known as the Dutch Company, and sent forth to the shores of the new land an experienced Dutch navigator nametl Henry Hudson. He saik'\c of travel ami ay a later decree for insuring the colonists against the contaminating intluence of the objectionable sect, and any magistrate or ofJicial vested with authority could have the satisfaction of exercising one of the functions (.)f his otiice by boring a hole in the tongue of a <^>iiaker witli red hot iron if tlie intruder was 70 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY, iiiiliu-ky eiU)Ui»h to lu' apprclu'iide*!. Baj)tists and Ji'suits were like- wif^c under the ban of Puritan disjileasure, the wliippino- post l)eing reserved for the forniei-, while the latter, in the event of their retni-n after having been once (h'iven out, were to be put to deatli. Thus the seeond English colony on the Western World evinced its disposition to avail itself of the opi)ortunit y which the new land afforded to hve and worship according to its doctrines, free from tlie persecution of the ffinatics of its native soil. The records of its progress are so re- plete with accounts of the apprehension, the trial anroblem. In the year sixteen hundred and twenty-two, fifteen years after the landing on the shore of the James, the settlement possessed four thousand persons. Two years later the colony had been reduced to eighteen lunidred inhabitants. There were new accessions in the year sixteen lunidred and forty -four, when a con- sidei'able foive was sent over by Cromwell. The difficulties which had hai'as-ed the Virginia settlers however, did not end with this infusion of new life and s]iirit into their colony, and as latt' as six years prior to the landing of Penn on the shore of the Delaware, and sixtv-niiie vears after the founding of the settlement in Virccinia, the Indians, bv theii' (K'predations, brought about an uprising of the S(^ttlers, who made war against theiu contrary to the wishes of UerkeKy. the (iovernor of the Province, the direct result of which was the burniuo- and total de- 78 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. .struction of Jamestown. The sccoikI lOiiglisli colony, that of the Turi- taiis at I'lynioulli, likewise encountered a harsh and trying experience. Their troubles with the natives were numerous and tlieir sufferings from the rigors of the climate severe. In the winter of sixteen hundred and twent}'-nine, nine years after the landing of the Puritans, two hundred settlers died in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and one lumdred more, disheartened at the prospect and having no faith in the future of the New England settlement, returned home. Two years later, in sixteen hundred and thirty-one, a number of colonists were frozen to death, while others died from the lack of proper food and nourishment. In marked contrast with the ex})erience of the first two English colonies in the New World is the history of the greatest of purely American cities. The dej^arture from his native land of the proprietor of Pennsylvania and the founder of Philadelphia was followed directly by a w^ave of immigration of such force and volume as to somewhat embarrass the surveyor and his assistants who were engaged to lay out lots on the site of the future town. The person entrusted with this work, Captain Thomas Holme, had jireceded Penn about six months, having sailed from England under commission as Surveyor General of Pennsylvania on the 23d day of April, sixteen hundred and eighty-two. In the meantime, the cousin of the proprietor, who had been commis- sioned Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, William Markham, had reached the distant land in October of tlie previous year. The mission which had taken him to the new shore in advance of the surveyor and of the proprietor himself was not without weight and responsibility ; and it is not improbable that if an accurate record of the experience of the Deputy Governor in the pursuit of his task of buying from the Indians and the Swedish settlers the claims held l)y them to various tracts of land embraced in the proposed l)oundaries of the new city, could l)e given in detail, history would be enriched and much that is now in doubt concerning the state of advancement and the extent of the pojuda- tion of the Swedes, wdio had been in the land for u])wards of fiftv' years, would be rendered more clear. The history of Philadelphia and of Pennsylvania, on a strict con- struction of the sense of the word, ])ropcrly l»fgiiis with certain actsand l)reparations on the part of the })roprietor in tlie Old World. jNlucli has been written in the course of two hundred years concerning William Penn. A study of his character as it is manifested in his letters and in those of his friends and above all in the provisions embodied in his " frame of government," the laws devised by him for use in the colony to which h - gave his name, assuredly does not present him in the light THE CHARACTER OF PENN. 81 ot" (lie still', t'oniial jxTsoii i'('[in'.st'iitc'(l in various oil paiutiiif^s, cny,rav- iiiii's and aiu'it'ut pfiiits. W^r'u lie visited America in the year sixteen hundred and eiglity-two he was not over thirty-nine years of age. He was of titled stock, his father, Hir William Penn, having Keen vice-admiral in the English navy. A handsome young man, faultless in form, face rather })ale and features clear cut, witli deep, hrown, earnest eyes and dark hair — such is the picture of William I'eim at thirty-nine as re|)resented in authentic family portraits. Of deep ndigious feeling, he turned from the gayeties t)f a life at Court, nuu'h to the chagrin of his father, who had high worldly hopes in con- nec-tiou with his career, and became affiliated with the Society of Friends. The utmost severity on the part of the stern old admiral, the harshness and the petty persecutions of the English bailiffs and Justices of the Peace failed to turn the young man from his chosen religion. He travelled in Germany, in Switzerland and in other lands in Continental Europe, seeking out the persecuted of various forms of belief and extending to them comfort and aid. His work for a time was that of a missionary. He published tracts and circulated them widely, employ- ing his own means to spread the doctrine of the Society of Friends, suffering odium and ex}»eriencing many petty annoyances on account of his zeal and his earnestness in ui)holding the religion of a sect that was despised. In spite of the difference in character and in religious belief between Penn and the reigning house of England, he was liked by King Charles II and by his brother James, Duke of York. His father, the admiral, had rendered some service to the King, and after the death of the elder Penn it appeared the Government was indt'bted to his estate to the amount of about eighteen thousand pounds. The grant of a patent for the land embraced in the tcM-ritoiy of PcMuisylvania was tlie l)ayment of this obligation. The character of Penn subsequent to the grant of this land seems to present itself in a new aspect. He bends his energy in the direction of gathering into one nuiltitude all the persecuti'd and the wretched of whatever nationality and colonizing them on his American possessions. In view of the benevolent nature of the man, of his past service to them in their hour of disti'ess and of his well-known di.si)osition as the friend of the ()[)pressed the peo,ile eagerly read his })ani[)hlets and circulars which describe the advantages of the soil and the climate t)f Pennsylvania. In his colonization scheme the wai'inth of his natuiv, his enthusiasm and also his disposition to be cai'rie*! away somewhat by his sanguine temjH'rament are clearly illustrated. The Pennsylvania grant is not the 82 THE STORY OF AX AMERICAN CITY. only land he possesses in America. Ho ])urchased several years Ijcfore an interest in West New Jersey, and at the time of the i^ranting of the }>ateut by Charles he was one of the proprietors of the section men- tioned. The colonization scheme of Penn rings throughout the com- munities of the persecuted in whatever country. From quiet C'refeld on the banks of the Rhine come some German weavers and craftsmen, Quakers and Mennonites, with their families. This was the beginning of the movement in the way' of German immigration, which resulted in the founding of Germantown. If tlie rapid growth of Philadel})hia should seem to ])e a matter of surprise it will not Ije out of place to call attention to the number and the variety of the races of Europe represented in the j)ersons of the hardy immigrants who rushed to the Pennsylvanian shore. First there were the English Quakers, Penn's friends and neighbors ; tlie AVelsh Quakers, tlie German Quakers, the Irish, the Scotch-Irish, the Swiss, the Belgians, a few French and some of the Dutch. They represented many different forms of belief. The sect of the Quakers was, of course, predominant. There were also Mennonites, Tunkers, Calvinists, Huguenots, Catholics and memljers of the English Church. A fact in connection with the incoming of the original Philadel- })hian stock is worthy of notice. The settlers did not voyage to the new shore with any false notions with reference to the land or the climate. They knew what to expect in Pennsylvania. The proprietor had represented nothing on an extravagant scale. His pamphlets and his circulars were tlie honest work of a man inexorably honest and j ust. The emigrants came prepared to work and not to consume their time in idleness. In a brief period of time after the arrival of the first })arty, the town and the country surrounding were well supplied with skilled and industrious workmen at almost every useful trade. Wages were high and there was plenty of work for all. There were millers, brewers, bakers, blacksmiths, butchers, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, cabinet makers, spinners, weavers, wheelwrights, wagon builders, clock makers, stone masons and bricklayers ; an immense aggregation of brain and muscle, of skill and industry, of energy and of praiseworthy ambition, and behind them all the impelling motive to improve and enlarge their possessions in land within and about the borders of the city, the location and environs of which gave promise from tlu^ first stage of its existence of its future greatness among the commercial and social centres of the World, hi any considei-ation of tlie cliaracter of tlu^ j)eo2)le wlio thus laid the foundation of rhiladel[)hia the fact should be ever borne in mind that they were all thrifty and that many of them were compara- THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 85 tivfly we'll oil' ill the oM worM. Tlicy cainc with money, .some ■with a considerable amount, othci-s with not .so much and others yet with a very Httle. The fact should not be overlooked that no sm;dl nundjcr of these first Philadelphians had bought their land from i'cnn in Europe, dealing either with the proprietor of INiuisylvania direct or with his agents. There was no room for impecunious settlers or for sqviatters. The latter class could find no ])lace on the site of the coming city. The just but businessdike })roprietor valued that portion of his territory which was to be the scene of his future city too highly to encourage any class of people as immigrants save those who had eitlier the means to buy wdien he sold the land so cheaply, or wdio had with their industry and frugal habits the promise of success in obtain- ing means which would enable them to possess a home and obtain a comfortable livelihood in the new world. The wide range of choice which Penn exercised in promoting immigration to his colony and the judicious character he displayed in selecting the fields of operation speak nuich for the liberality of his mind as well as for his knowledge of human nature. He seems to have been wholly devoid of narrowness and of |)reju(lice. The brother- hood of humanity was strongly illustrated in his acts and in his deal- ings with men. It mattered not that persons spoke a language different from that of his own land if they were persecuted, devout and lowly, seeking to rise from the condition in which the circumstances of the times had placed them. He offered asylum to them all, and when the current of innnigration started in the several countries of Europe and converged at Philadel[)lua, on the western shore of the Delaware, resulting in the almost magical rise of that great city, there was the first realization of wliat afterwards bi^came a fact of universal recogni- tion and of patriotic sentiment, the demonstrable truth that America was the home of the ])ersecuted of every clime. The benevolent lieart and the generous mind of Penn gatheref riiiladelphia in (he early pi'riod nf its existence, fi'om whatever standpoint, as well as the correspondence of the day, abound with e\iilence of the delight ex[»eriencetl 1)V strangers on first beholding the city and its surrounding territory. The care with which it was jtlanned, the regard disi)layed for the health and the comfort of 86 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. the iuli;i])it:ints and the interest evinced lor the well'ure of citizens t;ene- rally, arc among the most creditable and the most praisewortliy of the traits of character exhibited by Penn. In his consideration of the oiiginal [)lan of the city he sought to |)reserve for each h(juse a spacious yard " tliat it may be a green country town whicli will never ])Q burnt and always b(,' wholesome." It would |)erhai)S l)e difficult to tind words of equal lunnber which could serve to more clearly or more graphically illustrate the high and the unselfish ideas of the proprietor of Pennsyl- vania in connection with the construction of Philadelphia. Tlie health, the comfort and the welfare of the people for all time were uppermost in the mind of Penn when the city was projected and the example thus set by the proprietor himself has been followed ever since by the descendants of the early citizens and contemporaries of the leader of the Quaker sect. It is not alone the unrivalled location of the city, with its background of gentle, wooded elevations to the north and to the west and the broad, stately stream on the east curving slightly south- west and then with faint deflection southeast and forming a i)erceptil)le bow of the opposite New Jersey shore, but the cliarm of the shaded streets, the sj)lendor of its spacious and well-planted squares, the ever fresh and cleanly appearance of its houses which attract the attention and captivate tlie fancy of visitors, of tourists, and of its own citizens who may roam over the world and return with the consciousness that its like has not been seen and that its beauty never wanes. From the date of the formation of the city almost it l)ecamc great and famous. The character of the peoples who came to the Pennsyl- vanian shore both at the time and in the wake of the arrival of Penn was a guarantee of the success of its future. With the numerous skilled and industrious craftsmen belonging to the most thrifty and most ingenious of the races of the earth pressing forward, eager to work with hands and brain and clear the land and make valuable the homesteads they had Ijought, it cannot be surprising that Philadelphia easily became, in less than six years from its beginning, the greatest city in ^\.merica, as well as the largest centre of manufacture, a position she has maintained ever since. To Penn the rapid growth of the town seems to have been ever a source of surprise. Pie had not l)een on the soil of his new j^ossessions one year and the city had not celebrated its first anniversary when the proprietor wrote to the Marquis of Halifax : " I nuist without vanity say that I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did ujton private credit and the most prosperous Ix'ginnings that ever were in it are to l^e found among us." This statenunit, betokening so much satisfaction on the i)art of the MILLS AND .MAXrFACTORIES. 89 proprietor over the condition of the new city, was made when Phihi- (lclj)hia was in the heii^ht of activity as a young, })ushing, hoi)eful heginner. In the year in whieli it was lounded, sixteen hun(h'ed and eighty-two, which was also the year of Tenn's arrival from England, twenty-three ships hringing colonists, chiefly from English jjorts, sailed uj) the Delaware ; and the records show that there were more than one tlimisand persons landed at the several newly-constructed wharves ht'fore the begiiniing of sixteen hundred and eighty-three. The colonists arrived so ra})idly that houses could not he found in sufficient nund)er to shelter them, and, adapting theuLselves to the condition of the time and the spirit of the occasion, they dug caves in the high hanks of the Delaware and of the Schuylkill and lived in reasonable comfort until they were able to secure or to construct dwellings. The beginning and the subseciuent rapid growth of the manufac- turing interests of Philadelphia were natural results of the wisdom dis- jilayed in the selection of the colonists in the old world. It seems almost incredible, in view of the length of time required for the establislnnent on a firm basis of the colony at Jamestown and the settlement in Massachusetts, that within seven years after the founding of Philadelphia a number of mills and factories had been constructed and were in operation within what are now the limits of Philadel[)hia. The list included a paper mill on tlie Schuylkill, where William Bradford and Samuel Carpenter produced the heavy fibrous material which attest the skill and honesty of tlie workmanship and material employed in some of the carefully preserved old publications to be seen in several of the libraries of Philadelphia to-day. There was also a mill for the manufacture of woolen goods ; and the disposition of the people to encourage such enterprise was shown by the maintenance at the connnon exi)en.se of a flock of sheep which was herded on the meadows in the town by a regularly em})loyed she|)herd and several assistants. Among other industries was a notable list of flouring mills, the city antl the surrounding country carrying on a brisk commercial trade in this article and in other j)roducts with the West Indies and other islands southward. Almost every stream, especially about Germantown and Chester, was the scene of an active Inisiness in this line of enterprise ; the Swedes bi>ing good farmers ;ind l.ii'ge jirodueers of grain. There was likewise a mill which pro(hu-ed a speeies(»f oil used as a lubricant ; and in adtlition to these larger means of manufacture there were hun- dreds of spinning-wheels in tlie country (.'Ugaged in the inanufaeture of stuff from hemp, a work which was universal and not eonlined to any single nationalitv. 90 THE 8T0RY OF AX AMERICAN CITY. Witli all tlic activity on tliu jtaii of the people, iiot only in the new city hut in the .surrounding villages, it is not surprising that land should rapidly advance in value. The rise in the price of ground was .something which may be fairly regarded, in this day after an ex])eri- ence of nearly two centuries, as phenomenal. Sixteen years from the date of the founding of Philadelphia, or in sixteen hundred and ninety-eight, tracts were sold for forty dollars per hundred acres, a rise in ^■alue in twelve years of more than one thousand per cent. In the meanwhile every ship captain who came to the town to trade or to bring settlers was an involuntary land promoter. He sailed away and told the .story in ports of various countries of the rapid growth of Philadel})liia. Captain Richard Norris, in the year sixteen hundred and ninety, being newly arrived from England, observes with wonder the change in the appearance of the city since he saw it last. So many houses had been built in his absence that the ground facing the Dela- ware river was enclosed, save the passage ways of streets running at right angles with the brick w^alls. " The Bank and River street is so filled with houses," he write,s, ''that it makes an inclo.sed street with the Front in many })laces which before lay open to the river Delaware." CHAPTER XL THK Al'I'ltOACH OF TIIK REVOH'TIOX — WaXIXG PoWEK ()!•" TlIK I'KNX.S — TROI'IJLKS WHICH ISkset the ForxDEK— offkh of the Soxs to Mediate between America axd F.XGi.AXD — The Stamp Act and its Effect — First Move for the Union of the Colonies. THERE is so much to say about this ucw city tbuuded Ijy Pcuu — this magical settlement in the wonderland, as it seems to the Europeans. Pemi himself is a busy figure in these early days. He Hits hither and thither, now addressing a Quaker meeting at Upland or at Southwark and next conferring with the Deputy Gov- ernor and liis Council and others whom he has placed in authority. There is no rest for this man of high hopes and aspirations. The proprietor and universal benefactor of a colony that is rapidly growing too lai'ge and too complex even for one possessed of so much executive capacity and tact as himself, he finds unlooked-for difficulties arising here and there and much to annoy and harass his cheerful spirit. Some of the order-loving Quakers, craving the sound sleep which the maxim-makers attril)ute to a good con.science, find their peace disturbed by certain " disorderly bands of wild Indians," who ap})ear to have acquired the habit of coming to town for the sole object of partaking of that fiery li(|uid, tlie accompaniment of civilization, which burns but (pienches not thirst, the effect of which upon the uncultured savages is such as to cause the grievously annoyed wearers of drab to complain to the Council and ask that something be done to i)ut a stop to the acts ol' " these yt'lling Indians wlio go tlu'ougli the streets and disturb tlic I'cst of ]»eo|)le at nigiit."" Pciin, tlie proprietor, nuist not oidy respectfully lu'ar this and kinelted and feted, gets into the company (if a vathei- wild set and distinguishes himself by beating the night watch who had cautioned him to b(^ more orderly on the street, for which act he is presented at court and indicted for assault by the severe and mirth-condenniing Friends, much to the grief of his father, who feels that his family deserved better from the hands of the men whom he led into the American wilderness. It appears also he has a son-in- law, one Aubrey, a mean-spirited man, who marries his daughter Letitia, called by her father "Tisli," and wlio becomes angry when he finds he cannot sell ra})idly enough the lots near the Delaware front which Father-in-law Penn gave to his daughter as lier marriage por- tion, and he e(|ualizes matters by charging his wife's father interest on the momw unrealized as yet from the sale of the land. That Penn should ])ecome angry at the baseness of this son-in-law, as we read, it is not strange, nor can it seem surprising that, in view of the troul)Ies and the cares which possessed him, aggravated by the bickerings and dissensions among the colonists and the officials over them, his mind should give way some time before his death in England, in the year seventeen hundred and eighteen, ^\^■ll was it for the pious and noble- hearted son of tiie old admiral, the al)used and j^ersecuted seceder from the Church of England, that his earthly course closed wlien it did, for there was the shadow of a black cloud rising over tlie fair prospect of Penn and of his native clime. — a cloud destined to sweep over all the American land with cyclonic fury, tearing away and bearing in its grasj) the rights of kings and of royally chartered j)roprietors alike, never to be restored so long as the ringing words of a Dt'claration of Iiulejiendence and the bell-tones of a proclamation of lilicrty have meaning and force, ^'ct what troultle is entailed Uj)on the descend- ants of the generoiisdi called proprietor — the sons by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill — who inherit the American possessions! Lonely and care-l)urdened Avoman ! She sees the growing feeling of unrest among the colonists as the rapidly expanding city of riiiladelphia in- creases in size and in commercial importaiun', and she becomes dis- pleased at tlie governor, Sir William Keith, whoa}»pears to truckle to the po]»ulace and to not display the concern he should for the interests of the family of Penn. Furthermore, there has lately come to Philadel- WANING POWER OF THE PENNS. ])liia a mischievous spirit, a young New England printer hailing from Boston, one Benjamin Franklin, who seems to have an unusual amount of curiosity, and toward whom the governor seems to show ratlier too much consideration. This Franklin is a ready writer, and has the making of a busy man of affairs. Altogether there is about him a tlioi'oughly American spirit, and if ])ersons |)0ssessed of the gift of divination look deeply enough tliey may see in him traces of a con- tempt for I'oyalty as well as for royally connnissioned proprietors of .American colonies. But what is this Franklin's object ? He cultivates everybody, makes friends every where, but is not found making any ])artienlarly extravagant professions of friendshij:* for the Penn family. If Hannah Penn distrusts him, it may be her woman's intuition tells her that the development of too much freedom of thought and action in an American colonv is not alone bad for the authoritv of the kino;, but likewise detrimental to the rights of the proprietor of the land Avho enjoys his possessions by the grace of the sovereign. And the young man Franklin stands typical of American independence and self-reli- ance, — a rather unpleasant figure for those who dwell aeross the water and desire their authority to be respected in the American wildei'ness. All the more unpleasant since the background to his towering figure is a raw, uidjroken country not to the liking of this second wife of Penn any more than it is to her daughter '' Tish," both of whom im- portuned the proprietor to return to his native land after his second visit to his possessions in sixteen hundred and ninety-nine, not content to s})end their days in the new country. Tlie sojoui'n of nearly two years at the manor house, Pennsbury, in Bucks County, proved enough for the tenderly reared wife and daughter of England, and with busi- ness complications in Europe added to their entreaties the active and patient founder of America's greatest colony yielded to their wishes and sailed away, nevermore to behold the land of his fondest hopes and most cherished ol)jects. Never! lieless, the colonists are i)eo])le of honor. Tlu'V will not disregard ]>i'oi)rietary rights unless there shall be great jtrovocation. With all the growth and expansion of Pliiladeli)hia and the colony of Pennsylvania, the interest of the Penns were respected up to the time of the l)reaking out of the war of the Revolution. In the year seven- teen hundred and sixty-seven Thomas Penn, who, with Piehard, be- came ])ro])rietor of IV'unsylvania, speaks of the colony Avishing to buy them (tilt, thus making cNideiit tlie fact that up to within a very short period of the date when circumstances brouglit about the Declaration of Independence the patient colonists still respected the rights of the 98 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. Penns. Tliero is sonietliiiig sad in the S2:)ectaclc of the waning influ- ence and the diniinisliing figui'cs of these sons of Penn as tliey stand on the verge of the Revolution, looking tliis way and tliat, as men bewildered, not knowing what to do or whither to turn, but finally coming tv their senses sufficiently to face the thoroughly aroused and angered American i)opulace, and request in calm, quiet tones to be allowed to art as mediators between England and the colonies ! Philadel- phia, the city their father had founded, was the seat of the Revolution and, as it afterward was called, the Cradle of Liberty. It was truly a stiff-necked band that had settled the greatest of American })rovinces. The new city in the colony, whose founder had stood so close to the king, was the scene of the lirst American Congress ; it was the scene of tlie adoi)tion of the Declaration of Independence, of the proclamation of the liberty of all the colonies, of the devising and the adoption of the national emblem after Britain's ensign had been cast to the winds, and linally it was the spot which gave birth to the American Navy which did such aggressive work against the sea rovers of the mother land at a later period. Well might the Penn boys feel exercised over the situation, and natural it was they should wish to mediate. But the days for mediation had passed, as well as the days for obedience to the voice of a pro}»rietor of Pennsylvania. The last tones of the sons of Penn in their plea for peace is drowned by the roar of musketry at Lexington and Concord, and their rai:)idly vanishing faces are obscured by the dust raised by the foaming steed of Paul Revere in his long, mad ride on his mission to arouse the Colonies, from Boston to the (Quaker City on the Delaware. One more glance at ancient Philadelphia beibre it assumes its position of pre-eminence as the seat of a new national government and finds its peaceful past obscured by the blinding storm of a fierce Revolution. Its rajjid growth and development as a commercial city has been mentioned. In com})arison with the otlier two colonies — Jamestown in \'irginia and Plymouth in Massachusetts — its jirogress seems magical. It })rovided a means for tlu' education of its cliil- dren one year after the city was founded, or in sixteen hundred and eighty-three ; and jNIaster Enoch Flower, was engaged to teacli the young for a small consideration. Later tluTe was started an institu- tion destined to V)eeome famous, to which the i)ro})rietor gave tiie use of liis nami'. Thus the William Penn Cliarter Sehool, standing as living, vital evidence of tiie high estimate [»laeed by the original Pliiladelphia Quakers on the training of the minds of their youth, and rearing its modern walls of sub-stantial brick alongside the ancient TlIK WILLIAM I'KXX CHARTER SCHOOL. 101 stniclui'c that scrwd its ])ur]i(isc u[>uiilil within a ivoeiit jteriod in tliis ^vneration, was started inulcT the patronizing eye of tlic founder seven yeai's after the settlement of tlie city, or in sixteen hundred and eiglity- nine. Ami so fully did it meet the ajijU'ohatioii of iV-nn — who looked upon it apparently as a })i'oud sponsor would regard a youtliful name- sake — that on the last of the three occasions Avlien lie was called upon to charter it, in the years 1701, 1708 and 1711, he graciously set forth that, '' I hcrehy will and ordain and Ijy these presents do assign, nomi- nate, c-onstitute and a})})oint my trusty and well-heloved friends Samuel Carpenter, the elder Edward Shii)pen, Griffith Owen, Thomas Storey, Anthony Morris, Richard Hill, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, Jonathan Dickenson, Nathan Stanbury, Thomas ]\f asters, Nicholas Wain, Caleb Pusey, Ivowland Ellis and James Logan to be the present overseers of the said school. In A'irginia there was no printing-press until after the lapse of a period of more than one hundred years after the settle- ment at Jamestown ; in New^ York there was none nntil seventy-three years from tlie time of its colonization, and j\Iassachusetts lacked the same instrument of civilization for a period of eighteen years from the date of the landing at Plymouth Rock, while Philadelphia had a press and an intelligent printer in the person of Willir.m Bradford within four years of the time of the settlement of the city. In the various branches of industry she likewise took the lead of all other cities. She had brickyards, cotton mills, paper mills and woolen factories before they were known in any other }>ortion of tlu' continent, and her enterprise in this respect has continued, enabling lier to still keep lier place as the largest manufiicturing city in America. Thus for her ins attempting to eome into j)ort with cargoes are warned that thev had best seek other water.s. The Ilibernia Fire ComiKUiy 102 THE .STUKV UF A.X A.MEILICAN CUV. hiis resoKcti, tVy an extraordinary state of things, since it is not aifparent that the members of the company were transformed into eitliei- vegetarians or total abstainers, l)nt only acted thus '• in order to reduce the present high j)rice of nuitton and encourage the breweries of Pennsylvania." Franklin, the pi'inter, foreign agent of the C\)lonies in London, had eiven bis fellow Americans their cue in his answer duriuii; his examina- tion before the House of Commons in connection Avith suntlry coiitro- A'ersies over the Stamp Act : '' AVliat used to l)e the ])ride of the Ameri- cans?" he was asked ; and the answer came as neatly as if the question had l)een previously Jitted to it: "To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain." "What is now their jtride?" "To wear their old clothes over again until they can make new ones." A certain John Hughes has been appointed stamp distributor, but the jieojtle will not let him touch the ol)noxious things. They have burnt him in etligy, and it is not unlikely that if he falls into their hands ther(> will be an incineration of a genuine sort. When the stamps finally reach New Castle lie is afraid to touch them. A mol) surrounils his house, beats muffled di'ums, jeers and taunts him, and demands that he resign the hated office. The son of Chief Justice Allen leads the band, and thus arovinces, merchants and traders are signing agreenK'Uts not to impoi-t anything from aln()ad. The Philadelphians sign the comitact in October, eonnteimaiiding all orders for Briti.sh goods until the Stamj) Act shall have Ixm rt'iteale(l. That the agreement may lie carried into effect and not be a mere empty thiiiL; a ( 'Minniittee is ap])ointed, niad(^ up of Thomas \\'illing. Sainuel THE STAMP ACT AND ITS EFFECT. K).") Mitlliii, 'riidiiias M(>iiti;oim'i'y, Sanniel Howell, Saiiiucl Wharton, John Ivhra, William Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Peter ChevaHer, Benjamin Fuller and Abel James. The relailers Hkewisc take similar action and a})point as their Committee John Ord, Francis AVade, Joseph Deaue, David Deshler, (feorge Bartram, Andrew Doz, George Schlosser, James Hunter, Thomas Paschall, Tliomas West and Valentine Charles. Blanks were ])rinted countermanding orders for goods, and with the signatures of the dealers attached were forwarded to the respective houses with which they dealt in England. There is something ]n'actical in this universal non-importation agreement. Bf)un(l hy nuitual grievances and mutual interests, the colonies are steadily, though imperceptibly, pre})aring for nltimate union. The year seventeen hundred and seventy finds the retaliation scheme disturbed. New York recedes from all the non-importing agreements save those relating to tea, and forthwith the blood of Pliiladel[)hia is aroused. Philadelphia's anger finds vent in an indig- nation meeting in the State House, at which one Joseph Fox presides, and puts resolutions denouncing the action of New York as "sordid and Avanton and tending to weaken the Union of the Colonics." Non- intercourse with New York is resolved upon and a card is published in one of the newspapers with the ironical proposition : " The inliabitants of the city of Philadelphia present their compliments to the inhabitants of New York and beg they will send their Cld Liberty Pole as they can, by their late conduct, have no further nse for it." Thus does the city of Penn pay. its respects to its rival, whose " Liberty Pole " seems not inappropriate in the possession of the town which already has what is destined to be known throughout civiliza- tion as the Liberty Bell, a relic to be preserved and revered l)y future generations and not, like the aforesaid Liberty Pole, forgotten or mis- laid in the hurry and activity of varied mercantile and connnercial pursuits, alike di.^tracting and jirofitable, notwithstanding the lack of stinudating effect ])ro(luced by the elimination of tea from the house- hold luxuries of the New York trader. CHAPTER VII. The Golden Era of the Prixtek— American Spirit Aroused in Philadelimiia— No Compromise aa-ith the Tea Commissioners— Threatening and IxrENDiAUY IIand-isills— Hard Fate of the Ship "Polly" and her Captain— A IIkm'ing Hand to Boston— iNArouRATiNti the Move for the First Congress. E\^ERY\M1ERE in the American Colonies now men are rising and asserting the superiority of connnon rights over the decree of despotic power. There is niueli speech-making, many infiammatory appeals, and the printers were never so husy ; likewise there is an abundance of epistolary talent shown, and an unusual amount of irony and sarcasm which- might otherwise have lain dormant. New York with its Liberty Pole, which emblematic piece of wood seems to have lost something of its virtue since the thrifty- minded traders of that city broke their pledge in connection with the non-importation agreement, is not the only target of the satirical and incendiary patriot. He directs his batteries on the tea commissioners, on the customs officers and on the captains of merchant ships. There are many anonymous handbills, replete with threats of a nature to curdle the blood and to make strong men hesitate. A certain Ebenezer Richardson, a Boston customs officer, having come to the city of Penn to exercise his official functions, was so thoroughly denounced by the press and by the ever ready handbills that he found it prudent to fly the city to escape the discomfort and ignominy of a coat of tar and. feathers. Then there was the sensational event in connection with the ship "Polly," which lost all the affectionate significance of tlie diminutive in its name by reason of the fact that it sailed from London with a load of tea and was in due time expected up the Delaware. The " Polly," in the long weeks intervening from the time of her leaving port in the Thamc>s to the date of her expected arrival at Philadelphia, assumed as many hated forms as the fabled monster of old, and in her invisi- bility produced the effect of lashing the patriot American into the vi'ry white heat of fur}', as well as creating an era of glory for the printer, being good for so many different handbills launching forth invectives and threats of dire ininishment tliat the press is kei)t busy night and day and the skilled operator can have practically his own terms. There are posters and circulars address(Ml to various elnssi's of eitiz'-ns. (109) 110 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. Uiio I X I'll 1 1, A DKM'IIIA. 113 oljstiiiate as to complete your voyage by bringing your shii) to anchor in tliis port you may run such a gauntlet as M'ill induce you in your last moments most heartily to curse those wlio have made you the du]>e of tlu'ir avarice and ambition. What thiid< you. ( ai)tain, of a luiltcr round your neck, ten gallons of liquid tar decanted on your pate, with the feathers of a dozen wild geese laid over tliat to enliven your aj)- pearance? " It does not ai)i)ear that the captain finds himself able to answer the proposition so cheerfully submitted to his consideration, but tliere is some reason to believe that he does not relish tar, and that if anv decanting is to be done he would prefer it should be in a social way in the security of his cabin, or in the office or house of some gentleman who will observe the amenities of life. The gleeful printer keeps on with the work which an impatient public provides for him. A card follows the circular to the captain, bearing the "compliments of the public to Messrs. James & Drinker," and notifying them that they are ex]>ected to withdraw as consignees of tlie tea. It is quickly followed by another l»ill addressed to the pilots and assuming to give a careful description of the much-talked-about "Polly:" an erroneous impres- sion having got abroad concerning her build and appearance. It seems she is not a three-deck A'essel, "but an old black sliip without any head oi' ornament. The captain is a shoi't. fat fellow, and a little ol)stinate withal. So much the worse for him ; for as sure as he rides rusty we shall have him keel out and see that he be well rubbed and lived and i)aid "" — nautical terms which, doubtless, have a terrible mean- ing for the ears of the captain, l)ut which are unfortunately lost on laymen. " We know him well," says this fright-breeding circuhir, "and have calculated to a gill and a feather how much it will take to tit him for an American Exhibition." Amidst all the fire and inflammation of human passion and .spirit the thoroughly notorious "Polly" arrives at Chester — on a Christmas oston, after the closing of their port by royal order, to secure help was charged to go to the city of Penn. He was received with o[)en-hearted hospitality and a meeting was called on the day after his arrival in the city tavern. The town was s(^ thoroughly American, so tlioroughly patriotic, and so palpably determined to resist injustice and o})})ression that the other cities and colonies received in- spiration and coui-age from lier example and learned to look to her for aid, for counsel and for su})port. Momentous movement this, inagu- rated by the meeting in the city tavern ! Charles Thomson, .John Dickinson, Joseph Reed and Thomas Mifflin w^ere prominent figures in the affair ; the former two proceeding cautiously and with conservatism in order to make a favorable impression on the Quakers, wdiose assist- ance they needed, both active and passive. Likewise they wanted an extra session of the Legislature called and issued a i)etition to the Gov- ernor asking him to convene that body, a rec|uest which was at first refused but which found the object it sought accomplished two or three days later, when the executive convened the law-making chamber os- tensibly for the })urpose of taking action on matters connected with Indian raids on the border, — a circumstance which proved that the Governor, with his large number of conservative Quaker constituents who did not believe in extraordinary sessions of the legislative body, was something of a diplomat as w^ell as a politician. At the meeting in the city tavern tliere was fbniie(l a committee on correspondence entrusted with the duty of writing to the difierent colonies and espeeially to the people of Boston. When Paul Revere left for his Massachusetts home he carried with him not only a grateful impression of the hos{)itality and good will of the peoj)le of Philadel- phia, but a letter tendering to the citizens of his town their sympathy, and their connnendation of the conduct of the descendants of the Puri- tans for the fortitude they had shown in the period of their troubles and distress. Boston li;iurgi'sscs in A^irginia set the example of the ])rivilege which a suhjcct, cs[)ecially an American subject, may avail himself in the way of denouncing the king? Not strange, then, that tradesmen and mechanics should also Ije fired by something of the same spirit which })rompted the \'irginian orator to speak as he did. Here, fol- lowing on the heels of tlie departure of Paul Revere for Boston with his consolatory letter, is another meeting of Philadelphians in session on this eighteentli day of June, j^ear seventeen hundred and seventy- four. The mechanics, who are a large and influential l^ody, especially the .Vssociation of Carpenters — having a fine brick hall of their own in a good location — have appointed a committee to confer and co-operate with the merchants' committee, the mechanics' representatives being .John lioss, William Rush, Plunket Fleeson, Edward Duffield, Anthony Morris, Jr., Robert Smith, Isaac Howell, Thomas Pryor, David Ritten- liousc, A\'illiam Masters and Jacob Barge. Let the reader note care- fully the proceedings of this meeting, or rather of the series of meetings which began on the lOtli of June. On that day representative Phila- delphians have asseml)le(l in Philosophical Hall, the head-quarters of the society found eR TIIK FIRST CONGRESS. 121 tineutal Congress. Philadelphia, tlirough its tuwii luecting, is t'uUiUiiig its ])romise to Paul Revere and the people of Boston. The Puritan ('it\- WMUtcd sN'uipathy and (•ointincnt of delegates to the Congress, and further to solicit sul)scrip- tions for the relief of the sufferers in Boston. The session closes, and the Committee on correspondence begins its work. Its first meeting is in Carpenters' Hall, on the fifteenth day of July, Thomas ^\1lling, presiding, and Charles Thomson, secretary. There are ringing de- clarations of rights in this convention, and much plain speaking. The English Parliament is condemned, the united action of the colonies and a colonial Congress are recommended, and Pennsylvania is pledged to co-operate with the other provinces. Also, the Assemljly is ref[uesteo accepted as an example of sympathetic ami jiractical co-o})cra- tidii witli the (>|i|)()nents of tea in their crusade ag'ainst the mild IteNcraiie, thouuh it must in fairness be admitted that the members of the Ilibernia are not making a sacrifice equal in degree with that of the tea-drinkers, for, wliile tliey have resolved to abstain from di-inking '' tbi-eign beer," they have also decided to " encourage the brewers of Pennsylvania," an act of magnanimity and patriotism which cannot be enuilated by the drinkers of tea since Pemi's province is unhappily not able to produce the fragrant herb that has lately been so waste- fully bestowed u{)on sharks and other marine monsters of the harbor of Bo.ston. There is so much to do in these exciting times when things are moving so ra))idly toward a great culmination. The Quaker city finds hei-self the centre, the vortex of Revolutionary passion, the rendezvous of patiiots and agitators alike, the seat of colonial revolt, the ver}^ roof- tree of the vastly aroused American populace that looks toward her hospitable and liberty-loving spirit and fixes its hope for the future on the wisdom and courage of her citizens. So, now as the mcmoral)le fourth day of September approaches in the year seventeen Iiundred and seventy-four, when the first Continental Congress shall meet to discuss the state of affairs and take into consideration the question of a plan of action, public interest is at fever heat and the eyes of the world are turned toward the Amei'ican city on the Delaware. Never before in the ninety-two years of its history has the town of Penn been calle(l ui)on to meet an emergency like this. It must {)rovide for the comfort and eiitei'taimnent of a general Congress, at which will be j)rell)h, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Jay, and many others. The Congress assembles in Carpenter's Hall, the State House being occupied by the Provincial Assemlily then in ses- sion and therefore not available. Delegates are present from eleven colonies out of thirteen. They are (piartered chiefly in the City ASSEMBLING OF THE FIRST CONGRESS. 129 Tavoi'ii, (HI Second f^tivet aljuvc W'aliiul, the lio.-^telric ol' -wliicli riiila- (l('l|)liia boasts yince it is considered tlie finest hotel in America. At ten o'clock in the morning of the eventful day tlie delegates meet there and Avalk to the hall which is to be the scene of their deliberations. The citizens are out in force with open, eager eyes and faces betokening niicontro]lal)le interest in tlie strangers and in tlie work they have bel'ore tliem. Of all the visiting delegates, those who attract most attention are the Virginians. Fine, tall men, ot courtly bearing and dignified manners, their de])ortment gives an air of grandeur and impress! veness to the assemblage which marks it as a distinguished affair from the beginning. The importance of the Virginian delega- tion, the representatives of the oldest American colony, is at once con- ceded in the election of IVyton Randolph as President of the Congress, while Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, is made Secretary. A much interested Philadelphian, writing to a friend, says : " We are so taken up with the Congress that we hardly think or talk of anything else. Aliout fifty have come to town and more are expected. There are some fine fellows come from A^irginia but they are very high. The Bostonians are mere milkso|)s to them. AVe understand they are the capital men of the colony both in fortune and understanding." It is not improbable that the men from Virginia, who are so (' very high," are impressed with their importance as delegates from the oldest American province, and are prepared to assert their riglits in matters of precedence. The selection of one of their number for President of the (Congress doubtless satisfies them, as there is no evidence of any disatfection on any point from their quarter. The Congress organizes with the oiheers mentione(\irs at the ap- 230 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. pointi'd tinio with this c-lcrks and in his {)ontilical robe's and reads several j)ra_vi'rs in the rstalihshiMl t'orni. Things are getting out of the hands of the niol) into those of a reeognized rejirc'sentative l)odv. The Congress fulfills the need and the po])ular desire of the tinu's. Tlir pcopU' observe it moves slowly and with dignitv anEXTX(iTOX. 133 tile t'ciTV. Ill s|)ito (if tlic action of llic (onLiToss in jictilicjiiinw- the KiiiU' tor a n'(lrrs.s of uricvaiu'cs tilings arc .i;oiiio- torward in a wavtliat Would sfciii to show hltlc t'aitii in the considcratfiicss of the royal per- soiia^c. ( )ru'anizati()n,s arc hciiiL:,- formed for the cnc(juragement of donu'stic manufactures ; gunpowder heing especially an article the pro- (hieti(»n of which interests the riiiladelphiaii pnhlic. A society is founded early in the year seventeen hnndic(j and seventy-five to eiuMiurage tlie manufacture of woolen goods. Invention is Ijeginning to show itself in the I'eiinsylvanian eolony. Jana-s Ila/el offers to exhil)it to tile Wool Manufacturing Society an apparatus that will enahle a girl ten years of age to tend forty-eight spindles and card three hundred and sixty pairs of cards. Other inventors appear also with machines: and Jolm Hague and("hri.stopher Tulley are fortunate eiiougli to get fifteen pounds each as a gift from the Asseml)ly for ])ro- ducing machines intended to faciliate the spinning of cotton. Tlie Society finds })lenty to do, and finally a factory is secured at Ninth and Market streets, where farmers are invited to bring their wool and flax. Trade in tlu^ colony is flourishing and scarcely a week passes in which some hrancli of manufacture is not established in Philadel})hia. From domestic trade and its condition the mind is diverted l>y the sound of hoofs travelling rapidly from an easterly direction. A horse- man from 'rr(Miton gallops into town. It is five o'clock in the afternoon of the -?4tli of A})ril, year seventeen hundred and sevent3'-five. The rider has startling news. General Gage marched out of Boston on the night of the isth of A])ril with his soldiers and crossing to Gam- bridge tireil u[)on and killeut now there is something ol" iiore immediate importanci' calling for attention. Men must \>o drilled, they must he eipiipped with arm-. The crisis ];";4 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY, is oominc; niid all may sc^c it. 'I'lic (iirollincnt of lucii Ix'uins ;it oiicc. The ( "oiiimittcr 111! ( '(ii'iTsj)(iii(l('iicc ciills ii|i(iii cxci'vlxiily who has anus to let the tad ]>r known. Two ti-oo|>s of huht horse, two c-(»in|>aiiies of rilleinen and two eonipanies of artillery with hrae admoni>lied. The-e eii-ing brelhivn must be reclaime(l and shown the eiror of their wa\s, in atfection and V)rotherly love. They have joined as.sociations and given ])ledges and engaged in ])ublic affairs such as lead them to deviate from Pknnsyi.vania r.iii.i)iN"s Fai;. (Miiciiiio, 1^!'.!. Tdwor llioilflrd iit'ttT lliul of Iml iH'inlciicc II:lll. THE SECOND SESSION OF CuXGRESS. l:y, our religious priiu'ipk's, which ti'ach us not to (•oulciul lor anvtliiui;- at alK uot evru hlicrty. it is a part of tlic !)ivinc |irinci|.ic> we prot'css to avoid auytliing k'udiug to disairrctioii to ilic King and the legal autlioi'ityol" liis government ; we must not apiH'oach Inm Kni with loval and respectful aiMresses." And following this avowal of loyalty the testimony was moved ''l)ul)liely to declare against every usurpation of power and "autiiority in opposition to the laws and government and against all combinations, insurrections, conspiracies and illegal asscnddies." includiui;- tlie Con- gress its(df. Strange words to read on tlie eve of a I)('claration o|' Indejuii- dciice whicli, going forth, thrills tlie worlil. ^^•t, did not the (Quakers come honestly l)y their })rinci[>les of non-resistance V Tlieir patience and meekness of spirit had heen proved by the thumb-screws and at the whipping-posts of England and did they preserve their belief through all their tril>ulations and distress in the land of tlicir origin only to surrender it now in a clime where theii- lot was >o nnich happier and their condition so much impr(»ve(l? Manv of the non- resisting sect who were averse to aiding the i)atriots publiclv did so secretly ; and one of them, Samuel Wetlierill, spoke jdain words against the ■•testimony" [.ut out by the Friends' meeting, telling his brethren in In'ief terms that man was not iidallible and he was not ri'ady to attirm his belief that the }iatriots were wrong and tlie I-'riends right. Non-resistance I What a small, almost iidinitesimal, speck the image of the word makos on the lowering, angiy horizon of this vigor- ous, growing, aggressive city of Philadeljthia at this time, when the news of Lexington and Concoi-d is fresh in the ears ! Beneath the calm exterior of the representatives of the }>eoj.le, composing the Connnittee on ( 'orresj>ondence and other jiatriot bodies, there is tlie consciousness of a growing jtowerhil force generated by the hopes, the exiiectations and the angry impatience of the masses, who will have no liackward course. Tlieii- faces ai'e set towards lilierty and independence and thi'V are readw \villing, eagei' to sacrifice their lixcs for tlie jirinciples in which they belicNc, but there nnrst be no temporizing, no betrayal of their cause. Woe to the man, or the committee of men, who mav attempt to act treacherou-ly ! Tiie srciaid s;.-,-.i(,ii of tin- ('.»ngrt'ss will begin on the loth of Maw year se\-ent;'en hundicd and seventv-live, and the State Jbuisr i> already being got in trim for the notable evi'ut. 'I'his ( 'ongi'css is doing Wonders for I 'lnladel|iliia, — ■»■ is rhiladel|ihia iloin^' Wonders for the ( 'ongress ".' Ileri' i< the jirincipal citv in America l;',S THE STORY OF AX A.M KKK'AX CITY. - t'niindcil as the seat of the peace-li»viii^. non-resisting sect, and yet what an cxaiuiile of aggressiveness ami organi/A'd, armed resistance it is setting loi' the cities and towns of the other colonies ! There is reason to hchevt' that tlic Congress hkes the atnios]»hci'c of tlie stii'ring, imlc- pendcnt city, and that the whitfs of gunpowder wliicli now and then touch its nostrils are not at all displeasing l)ut I'ather have the cllect of causing some of the ]\hissaehusetts and ^'il■ginian meml)ers to look at each other slyly and snap the hils of one eye together furtively, if anv of the gi'Utlemen composing such a distinguished hody may be sup- posed to ever indulge in acts that hordei- so closely on levity. Surely the ('(ingress is feeling its way, slowly, cautiously : doing nothing in haste or rashness, but keeping an eye on tiie tem}»er of the people and avoiding every issue but the supreme one. Did not the Massachusetts Baptists come before it at this second session and demand a cliange in the statutes of tliat Puritan stronghold in order tliat they might enjoy more liberty and justice, and did not John Hancock, John Adams and other mem])ers of the State's delegation in Congress tell them sharjily that it was not a Congressional matter ])ut a matter belonging to the colony itself — the first instance on record of the assertion of the doc- trine of State rigiits in America. With all the prejiaration for the Congress and the agitation of great questions and the burning excitement of the times in this feverish, violent transition period the industrial growth of Philadelphia con- tinues witli amazing rapidity. John Elliott and Company stait a glas.sworks in Kensington ; William Calverly begins to make iine carpets in Loxley's Court ; Richard ^^'ills builds and operates a sperma- ceti works at Sixth and Arch streets, and l)rewer Hare is turning out excellent American porter. What is more to the point, there springs into luMugagooil many manufacturers of saltpetre, and powder ami lend ai-e treasured as they have never been before. Amidst all the excitement of the approaching session of the Con- gress, and the drilling of newly-enrolleil bauds of militia, a work which had been going on ever since the receipt of the news tVoui Lex- ington and Concord, the city was thrown into a delirium of joy over an unexpected, most aus})icious occuri-ence — tlie arrival home of TJen- jamin Franklin from his long residence abi'oad as foi'cign agent of the Colonies. It was e\euiug on the hfth day of May when the })hiloso- pher, statesman, and man of universal affairs reached the city which had acquired so nuich that was 1)eneficial and progressive from th<' former service (»f this citizen of stu|ieudous executive and business ca- pacity and supi'cme mastery of details. Absent from his native shore TIIK COMMITTEE OF SAFETY ORGANIZED. I \[ f<^i" :i I'lTioil "f ciulitcfii years and lattci-ly l)a< leered, |)cstciv«l and l)cdcvi!l('d l)y tlic l-jiulisli Pai-lianicnt ami its ao(.n(.s for liis staunch |K)s-iti()ii on the iiucstion of Ainciican atfaii's. and Ins protests iui-ainst oppression and injustice, lie had returned at the rit!,ht time, — the man for the hour. l''orth\vitli patriotic I Miihidelphia shines witli ilhimina- tiou, the name of Fi'anldin is heard on every liand, and the citizens o-o faii'ly wilit in tlieir trans[)orts of joy. The ghul words •' Frankhn is here I l''i'ankHn is liere ! "' are echoed in every .sti-cet as the jovous news Hies frani house to house, ddie Pi'ovincial .Vssemhlv is in session and its first act on the morning following FrankliiTs ai-i-i\al is to elect him a delegate to the Congress -which will meet in the ensuing M-eek. At once (diaos assumes tlie semlilance of order, excitement cools and the influence of this wonderful man is felt on evei'V side. Fresh from the source of all colonial trouhles the great American knows the temper of the enemy, has foreset'U its plans and sets himself to work to meet and cope with them. First he organizes the Commit- tee of Safety, the members of which are appointed hy the As.nsiendent colonies, South ( 'arolina heing the third to cut adrift from the govermnental craft of King (Teorge. Tlu' ("ongress in the meanwhile has ke})t (juiet, doing nothing overt or rash, hut watching the colonies dro}) from the parent stem as the skilled physician might watch his patients leap into strength after he has administered a pott'ut stimulant. The winter passes and Mas- sachusetts, New irampshire and South Carolina stand as the three indc[)endent colonies out of tlie thirteen. Congress on the tifteciith day of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-six, feels that the time has come to givt' an im})etus to the movement for independence. Accordingly on this day it aclare the united colonies free and inde])en(lent States, absolved from all allegiance to or ir sovereign and likewise honored him in the designation of their town, Jamestown I Yet. many things have happened since that memorable day: one hundre(l and sixty-nine years have come and gone and the A'irginian colony, become great througli hardships and much tribulation, looks back already with that reverence evoked by age on the name and memories of Jamestown. Perhaj)s those memories stir the emotions of this descendant of the early settlers as he pens the memorable words, "These united colonies are and of right ought to be free and inde- pendent states;" and as lie rises in tlie Congress — j'ct in its inj'ancv and feeling its way at every ste]) — in Philadelphia's State House, and reads the ins[)iring words small wonder if all other business be forgot- ten and the Congress, througli its best and ablest repre.sentatives, debates the matter all the following day and then refers it to the Com- mittee of the Whole, Penjamin Harrison, of A^irginia, Chairman. The Committee (lel)ates it all the following day. Saturday, and reports })rogress and asks leave to sit again on Monday. .AFomentous f|uestipn ! Can any one foresee the outcome? On the eventful ]\h>nday the debate is renewed and continues for liourswhen Pdward Putledge. patriot of South ( 'ai'olina. creates consternation in the breasts of some of the warmest a.sliire. (iive them a little time, for tlie outcome is .'^ure. Accordiii'.dv the resolution <:(>es over until Julv 1st, Init not without a 146 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. provision which anticipates its adoption and plca.-cs IJicliaid Henry Lee exceedingly — a rcsohition setting fortli that '■ in the iiicanwlnle tliat no time he lust in case the Congress agree thereto, that a ( 'uinmittee he a])pointed to prepare a di'claration to the effect of the first said resolution.'' A wise and fit ])r()visi(m and one whicli ^\■ill niakt' tlie resohition all tlie more impressive and weighty when ado})ted. The Congress next day selects tlie Connnittee, Thomas Jefferson, the youngest of the N'irginian delegation, who wields a rea called into l)eing on this western continent. Will the Congress fail? — will it refuse to move the lever and thus disa])[toint the hopes of the ])Cople? Three weeks ])ost])onement ! To the impatient patriot it seems like an age. There ai'e so many risks invoh'ed — so many little slips in the ])atliway of this cherisheritisli constitution and the rights of human natiu'e.'"" He asks }>ardon of Congress and will not rellecl upon it again. An- other unsymjtathizing and talkative person confesses he was nnicli to blame for having spoken slightingly of the cause of liljerty and inde- pendence, and he promises to do better henceforth. Still another who has vilitieil ("ongrc^ss is held U]) as a spectach^ before the populace and compelled \n beg pardon of the respc'ctable and iuiportant bodv in ses- sion at the State House, and to promise to not again be guiltv of the same otl'ence. Thes(> nndtifarious duties of tlu' Connnittee of Safety assurcdlv keep it l>usy and inspii'e a wholesome dreail of its power in the minds i:,() TIIK STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. of the iion-synip;itlii/crs. TIil- ('oiiniiittcc likewise keeps act ively at Work enrolling new reeruits in tlie militia, t'oniiin.i;- a local navy, fixing the j)riee of tile neces^^ai'les of life in order tliat nioiio]iolists may not take advantage of tlie time and the situation and exact exorhitant rates from the jieople for supplies. With such an alert, vigilant and capable l)oily looking alter allairs in the city and so zealously protect- ing its good name the ( 'oiigress can occupy itself Avith matters of more weighty, moiv general and more lar-reacdiing etlect and impor- tance. Through all this seething, foaming and raging of the vast aggre- gate of excited humau passion the (Jongre.ss nun'es i)lacidly to the event- ful datt', the lirsl day of July. A vast crowd of citizens of all classes is as.semhled ahimt the State House in the morning, as the meml)ers slowly wend their way to tlie place of meeting. There is something ■elei-trical, jnagnetii-, contagious in the expectation and excitement of the great throng. The memljers see it and feel it. The Congress liaving come to order the icsolution of Richard ILenry Lee " respecting inde- pendence " is reported l)y Benjamin Harrison, C'liairman of the ( oni- mittee of the Whole. South Carolina asks tluit it be laid over until the following day. nnicli to the thsappointment and chagrin of the pa- triot nniltituile outside. The Carolinian State is all right, nevertheless ; only wishes to have the thing more secure by giving her own people ort it IVom the ( 'onnnittee of which he is Chairman. I'^or three days the notable ])a])er is discussed in ('onnnit- lee of the Whole. .Iidy iM, 8d aud 4th. ..'olin i)ickinsoii speaks against it. The Heclaration will not add a single soldier to the patriot cau.^e. John Adams rises, and with all eyes fixed njxm the massive foi'ehead and the thj)tt'v niic Congress for Lancaster — Washing- ton AND Yali.ey Forge— I'liii.ADKi.riiiA's Sky again Brightens— Its Great Industhial Gkowth Foreshadowed. RADICAL and ivvolutionary act, Philadelphia! Of all Ijold things just now occurring on old Earth's crust, or having occurred and left some recollection thereof in the minds of men this Declaration is ahout the boldest, and will be attended l)y the most momentous and far-reaching effects. Among American cities in this eventful year of seventeen hundred and seventy-six this city of Penn stands pre-eminent, having out-Americancd them all and brought on a pretty crisis, thanks to her exceptional foresight two years ago when she suggested tiiis idea r)f a Congress of the Colonies and having seen it carried out thereafter took tlie Congress under her wings and sternly suffered no one to speak disrespectfully of the distinguished body, but compelled all within the range of her influence to conform with its decrees and recommendations. Here, then, is tlio Congress, full-grown, and these restless, dissatis- fied and revolutionary Philadelphians may contemplate its latest work. the logical fruit of tJicir work. They wanted independence and now they have it, by formal, heroic, official proclamation of that able assem- blage which they gathei-ed together from all the colonies, beneath their own roof-tree, and wliich seems to like the location so well it has got into the habit of ()ccu})ying their Slate House regularly every year. Xot only do they have independence l)Ut they have a terrific war on their hands and on those of their fellow-colonists, their antagonist being a big fighting nation wliich has won a proud record in many contests both on land and sea and which displays a formidable band about its girth labelled "Conqueror." Tlie Congress has been egged on to do this astounding thing and now Philadel})hia, Avhich is in reality at the bottom of it all, must stand by it and see that it is \n-o- tected. Slie is the staundi jiillar against which the Congress nuist lean, and if she topples all goes over, in which event it would be better if the Congress had never existed. The Congress finds, however, it is resting on a sub.stantial suppoi-t. Philadelphia, havinu" shouted itself hoarse over the Declaration and (i:,7) 158 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. matle its jov Iicinl to tlic fartlu'st coniors of tlio earth, even King Cioorge's ears not bciii^' sparcil, comes back to urgent business witli a ].ronii)tness and coolness that nuist astonisli tlie Congress itself. Only foni- (lays after the signing and i)runuilgaLing of the Declaration Philadelphia and Penn-^yhania are holding an election in the State House for the |air|tose rovince of Peini display such unseianly liaste in donning the gaii) of Statehood — indei)endent Statehood — that the objectionable costume shall clothe theii- dcliant figures before the old colonial garments are decently put out of sight? Well might the King and the Parliament feel an addi- tional tlnill of auger at tlie spectacle of this impetuous rush to clear away all the vestiges of royal authority. I>ad as it is, however, the Ayorst has not yet developed ; for, when the convention meets a few days later and organizes by electing that formidable American, Benjamin I'ranklin, President, it forthwith assumes executive and legislative power in Pemisylvania, su])[)lanting both Governor and Proyincial Assembly, for Franklin is nothing if not radical and courageous. He has taken into his own hands it a})pears, all law and authority, swung PennsyKania into aecoi'd with the Congress and, like a stout son of ^'ulcan, is mauling and welding the two bodies into unity and har- mony regardless of their })reyious condition severally and of the foreign ingredients which made up their composition. This nniscular business of Jtdinmcriii;/ out a State does not please the Tories nor yet the Moder- ates nor the Quakers, who protest loudly, but Franklin, the chief artisan ill the eoiistruction of the new governmental fabric, does not mind them, but goes on with his work and the Congress applauds him. It is one of the noticeable things m this trying time that the I)atriots are philosophic and unterrified. If they have to fight King Oeorge's armies anyho\y for their acts they might as well stand in the ranks of battle as huge violators of royal authority as face the warlike array in tlie character of small recalciti'ants, especially since the effect will be the same and musket-balls will not be influenced one way or other by the question of tlu' degi-ee of the offences committetl. Therefore, Franklin and his (Mi-workers take all the desperate chances the situation ofiers and hanie a Constitution which is en- forced despite the fact that the people reject it. The war clouds are lowering rapidly ; George \\'ashington vacates his seat in Congress as nieml.>er from Mrginia to accei)t the post of Commander-in-Chit'f of the American Army. Through the stormy Revolutionary period the S a LOWEIUXU OF THE WAR CLOUDS. 161 services of the uiii'ixallcd I^'ranklin in the cause of iiis »State ami of liis coiintrv sliiiie resplendent, wlietlier on liis native soil or "wliether rc[)i-csenting the interests of the nation at tlie Court of the Frencli IJepuldic. P'roni tlie joyous days innnediately followinu- tlie date of the Declaration of Inde])endence the observer of tlie happenings and events in this notal)le year of seventeen huiKh'cd and seventy-six will gradually find his thoughts moving in a nioi'e sober, if not more sombre, channel as the shadow of approaching ills becomes more clearly marked and defined. Britain's fighters have their eyes on the rel)ellious city, the scene of the Revolutionary Congress and of all revolutionary edicts, including tlie most noted one, penned by Jefferson. As the year passes and the new one approaches there are many evidences of a desire on the part of the British commander to invade and occupy the most famous of American towns, and Washington himself antici- pates the event. Why should Britain's General not wish to move against Philadol|)hia ? It has been the seat of all the troul)le Avliich has harassed the King and the Parliament, the most indepen- dent, most aggressive and, the King and his ministers may well say, the most disloyal. The black day of reckoning comes only too sure ; wherewith on the sixth day of September, year seventeen hundred and seventy- seven, General Howe, with liis cavaliers and troi)})ei-s rides into the town at the head of a big army, after having had a vigorous l)out with Washington and his lighters on the banks of the Brandywine. Patriotic Philadelphia receives the enemy in silence and with much secret heart-burning ; unpatriotic Philadelphia, the Tories, turn out with music and illumination and many transports of joy. The Con- gress has adjourned to Lancaster ; the Liberty Bell, sacred emblem of independeiiee, and the chimes of Christ Chureli. wliieh have also been guilty of '• proelainiing liberty" — on that day when the Declaration was signed, — have likewise departed the town on a brief vacation tri]), to be spent under the turf of a certain ])icturesque churchyard in Allentown, their destination, however, being unknown to General Howe. Previous to and attending the departure of noted men. Con- gressmen and others, gloom reigns unchecked and the hoi)0 of the patriot is at a low el>b. Even the great Jolni Aihnns is movi'd to lament foi- lack of "one great soul who could extricate the best cause from that ruin which seems to await it ;" and (lesi)airful Parson Muhlenberg cries, "Now Pennsylvania bend thy neck and prepare to meet thv God !" I(j2 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. Not yet, friend Muhlenberg ! IJi-ilaiiTs war-iloo-, indolent, well-led, panipi red, luxurious in liis liabits, fond of gaming, a devotee of pleasure in faet, .spends the Autumn, Winter and 8[)riiig comfortably enough in the rebellious city, toasted and cajoled by the Tory residents who are in a lii^li state of joy. W^ashington with his ai'iny in the nieaiitinie is at \'alley Forge and vicinity ; not so well (juartered and provided for as his British antagonist, siuee the bleeding, unshod feet and ragged garb of liis soldiers are an actual sight there and not a picture of fancy. The winter wears away, the luxurious Howe doing nothing brilliant; occu- pying his time gaming and banqueting and making one or two feints at attaeking the patriot ( leneral, none of which amounts to anything — save perhaps the l)a(tle (if (Jennantown — until the arrival of May, when an order comes relieving him of the command and placing Sir Henry Clinton in charge. Before another month has passed Britain has marched out of Philadeljihia across the Jersey sands, closely pursued by the patriot General and his troops. It was night of the eigiiteenth day of June, year seventeen hun- dred and seventy-eight, Avhen the last of the " King's hated troops " made their way across the Delaware, and, landing at barren Gloucester Point on the New Jersey shore, looked back on the long dark front of the patriot city, silent, ominous, portentious in the waning vision and shrouded in the mystery of an unrevealed destiny, world-tilling in its historic greatness and civic grandeur. A ])roud night and a glad one for the great American town, so still there in this eventful hour under the clear June starlight, reflected in the myriad undulations on the broad, restless, ever-heaving Delaware stream ! Now friends of Britain, including the whole family of Torydom in Philadelphia, wdiose coun- tenances are so forlorn on this night when patriots devoutly rejoice, well may you borrow and paraphrase that exclamation wrung from much agony of soul of good Parson Muhlenberg nine months ago, for nothing will better fit your own case ; you, who have been, during tlie.se long months of " l^ritish protection," at once informer and ca.stigator, inquisitor and jailor, under whose revengeful and cruel hands so many of your jiati'iot fellow-eitizens have suffered. With Britain's rear-guard clind)ing the banks on the opiwsite shore, — even before they have all depai-ted from Philadelphian soil, — the patriot troops press into the town. Onward, inq)etuous and eager the hurrying throngs in uniform of the " Gontinentals," and — alas ! many almo.st in rags, unshod and lean, but with patriot hearts beating beneath the worn faded garb, swarm on the trail of the retreating foe so mnnerou.sly they seem to ri.se from the earth. As the last of PHILADELPHIA'S SKY AGAIN BRIGHTENS. 165 iJritaiii's lutst tuinl)l('.s into its boats the jtatriot cavalry, under the vahant C'a[)tain AUcn McLanc, [)resses on its rear so closely an ditl'ei'eiit is tlie situation of Ih-nrv Miller, tlie (Jerman printer, whose office, the flnest in America, was seized and looted, the spoils going to James Robertson, the Tory printer of the Pennsylvania (iazcfte, who carried off the property in the King's 2(j,; THE STORY OF AX AMERICAN CITY. wno-ons, alU'uin^' that ({oncral Howe had o-ivcn it to him as com})ensa- tidii lor the loss of liis own printnio- ])ro])ertv at All)aiiv, which had ht'cn taken h.v the patriots; all of which make it evident that tlie fraternal feeling and " honor among the craft" had not reached that complete state of development which has later resulted in a sense of recognition of the rights of property. Torydom in Pluladeli»hia in now travelHng a thorny road ; the rttnure.^^s and the Sui)reme Executive Council having taken up its case with a determination to make some wholesome examples that the ])atriotic may find encouragement and the uni)atriotic be taught a lesson not soon to be forgotten. Enemies within as well as without the American household must be looked after. Accordingly, in this summer of seventeen hundred and seventy-eight, a military court- martial and ("liief Justice Thomas McKean in the Court of Oyer and Terminer are both l)usy with cases, the former dealing with British si)ies and deserters from the American army while the latter is engaged with numerous cases involving the charge of high treason. Some hun- dreds, iiiiiiKhng persons of position as well as thrifty artisans and tradesmen, have been attainted by the Congress as traitors, and jiroclamations are issued commanding them to come forward and .stand trial. A nuinbcr of tlie accused do not appear and cannot be found for the excellent reason that they have fled for England on the British fleet, having been taken as refugees, leaving land and property ])ehind to be confiscated and applied to the use of the State. Those who are within reach are brought to trial; some acquitted, others found guilty and im])risoned. banished or heavily fined, while several are hanged — the execution of .Vl)raliam Carlisle, a carpenter, who had kc])t one of the city gates for the British, and John Roberts, a miller, who had enlisted in the army of the enemy, l)eing the most notable of the several cases of capital punishment inflicted by the patriots anf ITS (iKi;.\T IXDUSTKIAL GROWTH FORESHADOWED. KJO guard-boats in tlio river off (lloucestcr. Patrick McMullcii, a closcrtcr, having been convictcil liy tlio court-martial, meets a like fate. In the mcanwliilc, tlic Congress having attainted a number of citizens as traitors and orderctl ihcm into exile on the eve of tlio entrance of the British into the city, now that the enemy has departed and it tinds itself back in its old (juailers in the State House, grows more lenient and issues a proclamation allowing the exiles to return. Among those who are thus permitted to come back to the city of inde- })endence are John Penn and Benjamin Chew — late Chief Justice of till' })rovince — who have been detained by Congressional order at Hun- terdon, New Jersey. Likewise there appear a number of Tories and Quakers who had been banished to Staunton, and some of whom have aged consideraljly during their enforced sojourn among the Virginian mountains. Patriotic Philadelphia is now established more firmly than ever on her bed-rock principle of liberty and independence. She has shown her capacity for suffering in the patriot cause and the obstinate Briton, even as he shook the dust of her streets from his shoes and betook himself eastward across the Jersey low lands, is forced to confess himself vanquished. There is no persuading such a stiff-necked people, and the King might as well give them up as a band of unruly traitors. Philadelphia, again the seat of government, sliines forth to the world as the unyielding American city, and patriots and loA'ers of liberty everywhere conjure with her magical name. AMth the storm-centre of war removed from her locality her commerce, her industries and her richness of inventive faculty, bound once more into active, vigorous life. Manufacture in many and various branches is stimulated and developed ; gx'nuis and thrift assert themselves and the (Quaker city, in the rapid expansion of business interests, the increase in the number of factories and mills, attracts attention as the centre of productive industry in America. Within her boundaries in these closing years of the eighteenth century, even while war is raging- throughout the colonies, she manufactures enough cotton goods, })aper, glass, leather. Hour and other articles usually include and the modekn clty presented in contrast— Electrk'Ity and Steam— Early Experiments of Oliver Evans with the Tredecessor of the Locomotive — The Age of Steam. IN all this talk about Philadelphia in the throes of revolution and of an era formative, as well as a period of transition and experiment, the mind should keep in view the undoubted fact that the mortal of the closing years of the eighteenth century, the time of soul-harrow- ing trials and ordeals, who should by any supernatural agency be transported back to the earth and landed in his old al)iding-place in the city of Penn in this four hundredth Columbian year — and a half- year over — would, unless having received previous warning, take fright and find himself in "a state of nerves" which only the most abundant reassurance and 2)roof of good faith on the part of his host or guide, could overcome. If, for example, he should appear about the noonday hour .in the centre of Philadelphia with its far-reachino- boundaries of more than one hundred and twenty-nine square miles and its streets and thoroughfares teeming witli the life and activity of a ])opulation exceeding twelve hundred thousand souls, and find as tlie initiatory i)erformance greeting his advent, the simultaneous outburst of all the shrill and resonant screamers whicli attest tlie i)owcr and utility of steam, with their ten thousand variations, it is hardlv a question admitting of argument that he would at least be startled and probably experience a desire to return whence hv came. J low like and how unlike the old Thilailelphia I Tlie ]»eo])le from the be^iiiiii no- were a charital)le set ; could hear of no calamity befalling their fellow- men in other ])arts of the world without being iiioved to hold meetings, appoint committees, raise money and supplies and forward the proceeds of the people's bounty to the victims of distrt'ss. Thus, wlien Ports- mouth, in the State of New PTampshire, on a cold Januarv ni city of Penn no sooner heard tlic news than liei- eitizens asseml)led in publie mt'et- ing, subscriptions wciv slartc(l and a i'uwil oC nliiiost ten thousand dollars in cash, l)csides loor the method of using anthracite coal as fuel for mills and factories was unknown. The ears of the peace-loving Quakei's were not disturbed by the shrieking of whistles as they announced the arri\al of the morning or of the noonday or the evening hour. The craft that lloated on the broad Delaware, silent witness of the growth of Philadeli)hia from its beginning, were devoid of the power to shriek the warning note when keel ai)proached keel and threatened disaster created consternation on deck. ( 'liangerain of Franklin delving into the mysteries of nature, of chemistrv and of the science of mechanics. With such a busy, thrifty, industrious, comjdex po^ndation of a city where it was wont to ])e the boast, even lu'fore the days of the Declaration of Independence, that ''half the property owners in Philadelphia wear leather aprons " — thus preparing the way for the later equivalent expression — " city of homes." Can it lie supposed that new and useful things shall not be discovered and apj)lie(l ; that the city of Penn shall give no account of herself to the world ? Especially since there is a (pieer person with a ([ueer theorv wvn now causing some stir in the city ; — a respectable but somewhat vision- ary man named Oliver Evans. There is nothing the matter with him ; he means well, but he has a hobby, l)?ing possessed of an idea that he can impi'ove, even revohitioni/.e. the method of ti'ans])ortation of persons and ])ro])erty nuich to the annisement of the tui-npike com- panies and th(^ operators of lines of stages. This odd man who i^ro- fesses to belieVe that stupendous things may l)e done through the agency of the vapory element jiroduced by boiling water, is before the judilic a good deal in these early years of the cenlur\- : his fi'iends politely listen to him wilh atfected interest ;is he dilates u])on the potency of steam ami its power to serve man. and they ti-\- at least to not di^coui'agc him. Tln' newspaj)ers tolerate his tIieor\- and describe 178 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. sonic of liis latest contrivnnc-cs in the same spirit in wliieli they would exploit a eoniinii- halloon ascension. Meanwhile the })ersistence in which inventor Evans presses liis idea on the public is heoinning to make peo])le talk a good deal ; if there is anything of niei'it in his theory, whieli is (lonl)tful, it will intei'- fcre somewhat with the traffic of the stage lines. Yet the men of the stage coaches hiugh and nudge each other as the inventor with his .steam-liobbv comes in siglit ; this steam theory may l^e all right in its pi'iipci' place, whic-h seems to ])e in its a])j)licatioii to l)oats where the genius of Fulton and Fitch has demonstrated its practicability, but what is this talk of the hobby-ridden Evans about a land carriage to be drawn by steam? Fie actually makes a proposition in this year eighteen hundred and four to the leading turnpike company — Phila- delphia and Columbia — to build an engine and a carriage for freight under certain conditions set forth, the most salient of which appears to be a re(juirement that twenty-five hundred dollars shall be advanced, fifteen hundi'cd to be applied to the building of the aforesaid engine, five hundi'cd to the production of the carriage, wdiile the remaining five hundred >jiall be held in reserve for ''unforeseen expenses." In retuin for the capital advanced the invcntoi' will agree that the car- riage atorementioned shall be capable of carrying one hundred barrels ot fiourat a speed of two miles an hour, thus performing in two days the journey, with the stated amount of freight, from Philadelphia to Cohnnbia, a work which requires, under existing conditions, three days, twenty-five horses, five wagons, and an expenditure of three thousand three hundred and four dollars, actual rates. 1 lie Turnpike ('onipany declines to advance the money, doubtless l»eing conscious of the fact that it is doing well enough with its wagons and its horses and its live days' time. But thereafter this nian {'.vans is a person to be avoided, lie is in search of capital for his visionary schcnic and his friends and actjuaintances, when they see hnii ai)i)roac]nng, are overtaken by the sudden recollection of a matter ol business across the street or around the coriun- which renders them unable to meet the man with the steam-hobby and exchange the greetings of the day. lias he not been advocating his peculiar idea lor years, literally since the year seventeen hundred and seventy-three. at least in its ap]ilication to the use of boats, and since seventeen and seventy-eight in the matter of its ai)])licabi]ily to carriages on land ! If tlie tiling i)ossessed any merit should it not have been demonstratt'd long l)efore tliis yeai- of gi'ace eighteen liuned "Invention" — of great things to be accomplished on earth among the races of civilized men. Have people not learned that they are not all-knowing, that mucli yet remains unrevealed and that pre- eonceive(l opinions and prejudice and self-interested bias of mind are not true knowledge? So many persons have been ready to laugh to scorn — nav ! have lauuhe(l to seorn — this earnest, nainstakine- man of the steam theory ; some even believing that he was lacking in mental equilibrium. Is not the question of transportation already solved, in this year, eighteen hundred and four? — when a stage coach depart.^ once a week from Phila(leli)hia tor Pittsburg, leaving Hotel-keeper Tom- linson's jflaee on Market street and reaching its destination bevond the high-Hung Alleghenies at the picturesque confluence of the Alleo-henv and the Monongahela, in the space of .seven days ! Persons who liave tried the journey have written to their friends dilating ujion the pleasure they ex}»erieneey steam engines at fifteen to twenty miles an houi'. .V earriage will leave W^ishington in the morning, breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia and suj) in New York on the same day. Railways will be laid of wood or iron, or on smooth paths of In-oken stone or gravel, to travel as well by night as by da\'. A steam engine will drive a carriage one hundred and eighty miles in twelve hours, or engines will drive boats ten or twelve miles an hour, and hundreds of boats will run on the Mis- sissippi and other waters as was prophesied thirty years ago (by Fitch), but the velocity of boats can never be made ecpial to that of carriages upon rails because the resistance in water is eight hundred times more than that in air. Posterity will not be able to discover why the Legis- lature or Congress did not grant the inventor such protection as might have enabled him to put in operation those great improvements sooner, he having neither asked money nor a monopoly of any existing thing." Words of true pro])hesy, long since fulfilled I — though in the ful- tilling too late to rekindle the spark of satisfaction and joy wliich men knew so well, flickering in the deep, earnest eyes of the untiring enthusiast, working so hard for the faith that is in him, with the charm and attractiveness even of gentle woman in aroused sineerity aiul zeal, and thrice foreeful and ap[»ealing to the memory in view (»f the patient and cheerful perseverance, albeit unrewarded, as the closing- words, almost j)atlietic in their mild reproach, so eloquently attest. Yet, it is, perha[)s, as well, for the way is still long and tedious for the development of this (dierished theory of steam, the combined influences of ignorance, prejudice and self-interest being yet to overcome. Plow the powerful trio struggle and l»attle with the genius of va|)or through a long course of years and how they are aie in the month of .Ianuar\-, vear eiuhteen hun- 1 «0 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. (li-('«l and twriity-livc, at which assemblage are present such noted figures as Genei-al Thomas Cadwahider, Matthew Carey, Joliii Sei'geaut, Samuel Chew, Jr., Thomas liiddle, Josiah Randall, Samuel Archer and Charles J. Ingersoll. Chief Justice Tilghman jjresides and Nicholas l>iddle is Secretary. Public interest is strongly aroused now over a certain seheme to dig a (Janal from the Sus(|nehanna to the Allegheny and thence to Erie's lake ; the meeting a|)})oints a committee to take said proposed im})rovements into consideration. Railroad asks to be included in the subject matter of the Committees' deliberations, its siiokesman, Mr. Ingersoll, presenting a motion " directing the Com- mittee to inquire into the expediency of railroads." The Committee takes the matter in hand and discusses it and ponders over it for several weeks. An adjourned meeting is called, 0])portunely at a time which fits in nicely with the enthusiasm and felicitations of the friends of the Canal idea who have just completed the Schuylkill navigation enterprise and are prepared to show the public that, as means of transportation of both persons and freight, nothing can excel it. The Committee files in with all the importance in expression and bearing usually attaching to such bodies, and presents its report. Canal shouts in triumph through ever}^ line of the interesting document. If the Committee did obey the motion to " inquire into the expediency of railroads " it says nothing about it, and Ivailroad must sit silent and chagrined and witness its potent rival carry otf the honors of tlie occasion. Yet it is fighting a slow, cautious battle. It has its friends here and there, and it entertains no notion of retiring from the field. The meeting appoints Chief Justice Tilghman a Committee of One to address a memoi'ial to the Legislature on the subject of internal improvements. The Committee's report, which sets forth " That, in the opinion of this meeting, a communication by water, between the Susquehanna and the Allegheny rivers and between those rivers and Lake Erie ought to be 0})ened with all practicable expedi- tion at such points as a suitable board of skillful and experienced engineers may select," recommends that the thing be done at the public expense, as the work would l)e "regarded with jealousy in the hands of an individual or corporation." Meanwhile, the Committee is experiencing an educational process which disposes it to give audience to Railroad. The latter is trying to make the public understand it ; and the jjublic, whether because of the din and cry made by Canal in its irre})ressible war against its rival, or whether from the novelty of the subject, finds its comprehension of the thing somewhat slow. The Committee jtublishes an address giving THE AGE OF STEAM. 189 inloiiiiutiuiL as to the proper way to construct n I'aili'oail : wlici-cupon, a few days afterwards another publication a])))('ais fioiii an uiikiiowii source urging the importanco of increasing canal accoinniodalions in tlie State. One of tlie facts in coiniection with coininei'cial statistics brought out by tlie agitation is the former superioi'ity ol' riiila(lel})hia over New York as a ])lace of export ; the figures showing that her shipments to foreign ])()rts liad been forty per cent, in excess of those of the city on the Hudson until the Canal system, inaugurated in the former province of the Dutch, was develo[)ed under ]h' Witt (Tniton, since which event New York is rapidly approaching Thiladelpliia in commercial greatness. All the more reason why the nuich talked of internal improvements of the former i)rovince of Penn should be decided upon and vigorously pushed. In this conflict in the public mind between the canal and the rail- road it is worth while to observe that the canal is already estaljlished, in places, wliile the raili'oad is an unknown, unseen and unseeable thing. Nobody can tell much about it save what they read in the European })rints concerning George Stephenson's experiments in Eng- land about this time. The canal has had its "opening day," its occasions of honor, and has been toasted, feted and flattered l)y dis- tinguislied i)eople in several instances as Philadelphia recalls to her glory. Did she not entertain De Witt Clinton during a recent visit as the guest of the city, fresh from tlie scene of the triumph of his great undertakings in the way of internal improvements in New York, — entertaining him to the length of taking him down the Delaware to inspect the recently completed Delaware and Chesapeake Canal? And now that the Schuylkill Navigation Company's enter])rise is completed, is it strange that the friends and stockholders of tlie canal companies are i)leased and — what is more to the point — determined not to allov/ this idea of a railroad to interfere with tlieir business and their profits? That Court house Committee meanwhile seems to be losing sight of the interest of the canal companies. Here, in the month of INIarch, year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, it is in reality i)ublishing an article on railroads with a plan tliereof taken iVoin a ]^uro})ean source. The Fnited States (lazctfc, wliich a[)pears to give both sides of the ever vital (juestioii impartially, })ublislies a description of a railroad in use near Philadelphia, at Leiper's stone (juarries in Delaware County. Likewise it has a description of a steam carriage with Www wlieels. invented by a certain T. W. Parker, of Edgar County. State of Illinois, whicli might as well have been Egy})t at this time, in view of the lack of means of rapid conunnnication. l\\i(lently the genius of in- 1 latter stream to Lake Erie. Only Ibr a brief time, however ! — the railroad is here in convention also, and has its friends. By a strange coincidence there is published at tliis time, almost in the very hour of the adoption of the canal reso- lutions, a paper fi'om A\'illiani Strickland, the gentleman who was st'ut abroad by the "Pennsylvania Society for Internal Improvements" for tlie purpose of discovering the best means of transj)ortation, and making report thereof. He stands forth in the report as a vigorous cliam]ii(in of i-aili-oads. ^\'riting from I^(lilllMll■^■ in the month of June, r.WALS AND RAILROADS. 195 ho says, trenchantly: "I state distinctly my full conviction of the utility and decided superiority of railways above every other mode as means of c-onveyance, and one that ought to command serious atten- tion and adoption by the jteo{)le of Pennsylvania." The chani])ions of the railroad derive fresh encouragement from this letter. The canal men are ecjual to the occasion, liowever, and an article appears in the United States Gazette, reprinted from the AVil- liamsport Gazette, in which the writer argues that railroads are inex- })e(hent in Pennsylvania, and canals are much more economical. Again the railroad men meet the challenge, and in the Gazette of tlie day following the })ul)lication of the article mentioned, is published a long letter in iwxov of their method. The movements in connec- tion with railroads is drawing recruits. Here, two months hiter, in October, is .James Buchanan — afterwards President of the United States — attending a meetiug of citizens in Columbia, and making a speech in favor of railroads. Grievous as it is to relate that charter of the Legislature giving to .John Stevens and his friends the right to build a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia has not amounted to anything, the supposition being strong that all the proposed under- taking lacks is money, and that no body of men can be found willing to advance a sum sufficient for an enterprise so great and co.stly : or, is it money in reahty that is lacking, or faith ? Is not there one among those incorporators and directors named Stephen Girard, slirewd and thrifty Philadelphian merchant and wealthiest man in I\mnsylvania ? If an individual of so much sound judgment and known enterprise in business allows this Railroad scheme, with which his name is officially connected, to languish, can it be expected that persons outside, with money to invest, will stej) forward and risk a ])enny in the thing now or hereafter? AVherefore it appears that this ])ersistent and importu- ncte visitant, Railroad, which has been knocking at the doors of the Legislature and at those of the counting-rooms of merchants and bankers, is under some suspicion, an unwelcome character at the tem]>les of the monej'-lenders, and altogetlier uncertain, unreliable ami unprofitable. The conservative opinion of the day frowns upon the newcomer, and they who advocate its claims I'isk nnich in the estimate of those who have made a success in the world of l)usine.ss and whose disai)proval of any given undertaking means nnicli in dc- tennining \\\v popular judgment. Truly tlie man of faith in new and novel things, devised for the benefit of mankind, has a rugged road as he threads the pathway of a varying public ojjinion founded on pre- conceived notions, prejudice, force of habit and real ignorance. Things 194 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. arc invented of ^reat worth, as was Oliver ICvans' '' aiiipliihions dijirg-er," but the inventor is in advanrc ot" liis day, and his l>rothcr-in- niisci'w the pi'oiiiotcr, l»('c'onu's a I'aiiiihnr and not in the least aceept- ahle ligure at the haunts of capitalists and of persons of worldly inllucnce, cndcavorino: in his strong persuasive way to secure some slig'lit rt'cognilioii and support, only to discover in many cases that Ids hobby excites doid)t and distrust, because, for one reason, it is some- thing new, as if e\'erything in the way of man's handiwork was not new at one time or other ! Nevertheless, the inventor and the promoter go on over their tliorny road, the real pioneers in all industrial progress, and in the course of years if life continues, they find their fellow-men educated up to their ideas, and gladly utilizing that which cost them so nuich labor and patience, — utilizing it sometimes to their })i'oiit, oftener alter all ho]:)e of reward is gone and only the realization of disap})oint- ment and keen regrets is left as their portion for the weary toil and effort. How many efforts shall begin and fail before Capital in this State of I'enn gives countenance to the l\ailr()ad? Here in this session of the ht'gislatnre, which grants the incorporators of the Philadelphia and (Columbia scheme, their charter is another measure in the uncer- tain scale of senatorial deliberation, ])roviding for the construction of a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburg ; originating in tlie Senate only to fail in the House. Stevens a^d his friends having failed to make use of the charter given them by the Li'gislature the State finally takes the matter in hand, constructs the road itself from the Lancastrian city to Plnla- delphia, overcoming the problem of obstructive hills by estaldishing incline planes, creating a necessity for many transfers Ijut pleasing the peoi)le and the shippers of goods immensely. From such small l)egin- ning the railroad develops gradually, its j)owerful rival, the Canal system, receding from ])ublic favor as the utility of the steam-|)ro])elling method advances until the Delaware, and not alone the Ohio and the Monongahela, but the great lakes and the gigantic Mis.sissi})])i are joined l^y the vast system of the company which bears the name of the old Province of Penn and verifies the prophecy of tlie clear-sighted Oliver Evans, spoken in an ei'a of experiment and speculative; thought when mortals knew not their })owers of nund — save the i)rophet him- self — but were groping for that which came with time and circum- stances in the first half of the great luneteenth century to revolu- tionize — the greatest revolution of all — the state and condition of that being called man, as they had been lor all the centuries of which civilization has note. ■^ir " * ;*>H » ..»i'^'" ' t " " fLgyj ' . ■^-r/- '" ^ ■:. -^J CHAPTER XT. TiiK Duel between the Caxal and thi: Uaii,i;(iai) sri'i'LK.MKXT::i> u\ a Long and Tedious Stru«(;i.e ijetween Gas axd a Poi^ular Prejudice rv which the former comes out Victor — First (Jas Pipes ix America laid ix Piiiladehmiia. IX all this striving and struggling between the as})iring deviet-s of men, clanioi-oiis for recognition, for utilization in the great in- dustrial hurly-burly which is evolving each day some new idea or proclaiming some fresh discovery for the benefit of mankind, there is one thing to be observed in the ever-growing and constantly vital- izing Philadelphia : every man has an opinion on the subject of the numerous innovations coming up and lie takes position either for or against them. This prolonged and uncertain duel between the Canal and the Railroad is at the outset greatly to the advantage of the former since its claims are self-evident, demonstrable to the averao-e reason, and extremely simple. Besides, included among all its ready-made converts there are its hosts of especial friends and zealous advocates in the persons of those who live along or contiguous to navigable streams, which being available as feeders to the Canal and likewise indicating in their own smooth flow the most practicable and economical of routes, make it reasonably certain that the much-desired water-wav will operate in close proximity to their homes and render them easily accessible to the large centres of })0[)ulation. The untried and untested Railroad, in its early struggle with its antagonist, commands no such simple and ready means of accommo- dation. It is an undemonstrated, perplexing, occult thing, especially in the matter of this incomprehensible theory of steam. The average mind cannot fathom the intricacies of an engine, and thei-efoi-e it is that the business of an engineer is a skilli'd trade. The Canal recpiires no more than a huge ditch filled to a certain dei)th with water, and its simple locks and wings operating openly before the eye are cli'arly under.standable. But this Railroad idea is dee}) — too deep for the average comprehension of the people, and thus the glad promoters of the water-way idea of transportation lind the majority largely on their side, and for a number of years they hold the disputed ground. The clear-minded, far-seeing ()liver Kvans is not here in this yt'ar of grace eighteen lunidred and twenty-live \\ lun " internal im}>rovements " is the U})})ermost thought in Philadelphia., and when the Canal and the Kail- road are having their, for a time, unetjual struggle. (1!)7) 2<)S THE STORY OF AX A.MHRICAN CLTY. Yet tluTt' is another tiling- clicitiiii;' attention in tlu'se ])rogressive days when the city is growini;- s;) ra[»i(Uy and innovation is clamoring for aihnittance at all its doors, d'lie suhjeet of illuniinating the streets and iiouses with gas is ever coniing nj), ii-repressihle, nndisposable, botliorsonie. There has been reforeiice made hitherto to tlie fact of the vast debt owed l>y Americans, by modern civilization for tliat matter, to the advanced minds, the ingenuity and the liberal cliaracter of the Italians. The members of the politer and philoso|)hic race are ever coming up apparently when there is occasion to mention the discovery or the introduction of some great boon to mankind. Not alone CVd- umbns and Vespucci in their large sphere of action, involving the finding and the accurate description of a new world, Ijnt })ainstaking Italian scientists and demonstrators have a leading part in the enrich- ment of the jieople whose existence on American soil in this era was made jMissible by the Columbian event. Thei'o was tlie firm of jMichael Ambi'oise & Co., Italian fire-workers, who had an aniijliitheatre for exhibitions on Arch street, near Ninth, in the year seventeen hundred and ninty-six, wlu'u they created something of a sensation by the dis- play of inllanunable gas; representations of "temples, mosc^ues, masonic eml)lems and allegorical devices," according to Westcott. The siirht of the " inflammal)lo air" was enouo'h to arouse the curiositvand the interest of citizens avIio regarded it as a great novelty. The inno- vator on the subject of gas apj^eared seven years later, or in eighteen hundred and three, in the form of J. C. Henfrey, wdio proposes to the Councils that for a consideration he will light the city by gas lights "burned in high towers" — evidence clearly that the modern electric- light tower can not lay claim to strict originality. The Council refuse the proposition, of course ; there is not enough knowledge of the nature and ways of this gas* to justify so much risk to life and property. Yet the gas question, like the later question of the Eailroad, will not rest. Refusal of privileges does not silence it. Another applica- is before Councils fourteen years later, in the year eighteen hundi'ed and seventeen ; — i)etition of James McMurtrie who wishes to introduce gas lighting. Twenty-one years from the date of the Ambroise demon- stration, and fourteen years from the time Ilenfrey proposed to illu- minate the town with gas from towers, and no gas plant yet ! The wheels of ])rogress, ra})id as they seeme(l to move in tliese olden days, are verily at a standstill before the eyes of the American of tlie ( 'ohim- bian year in this nineteenth century. There was J)r. Charles Kugler, one year befoiv James Mc.Mnrlrie's application in eighteen hnndred and sixteen, exhibiting to th'_^ }»ublic STRUGGLE BETWEEN GAS AND POPULAR PREJUDICE. 201 ill P(>ale's ^^useuln iii the State Ilou.se "^as li^lits and lamj)S l)unr;ii^ witliout wicks or oil;" the effect of which is so satisfactory tiiat \\'arren & Wood introduce the gas hght at their new theatre, quite a safe venture since the doctor lias a gas ap[)aratus himself with which he has heeii providing tlic nieans of illuniination for his own house for some months ])ast. it is considered a strange thing that Councils at this time and for years thereafter refuse to sanction any production of gas under numicipal privilege. There are times when the Councils arc more liberal in their views on the subject, and again there are oc- casions when they look upon it wdth disfjxvor. For example, Peale, who has been lighting his Museum in the State House w4th it for several years past, finds the Councils objecting to its continuance in the year eighteen hundred and eighteen, and he tlierefore dispenses with it, muchto the regret of his patrons. Meanwhile the inflammable mystery is Ijeing used in ^hisonic Hall, which has a small manufactory producing it for its own service, and continues to be used there until the ninth of March, year eighteen hnndred and nineteen, wdien the hall is burned, and gas is supposed to l)e responsible for the disaster. Yet the Masons are not ready to do awav with it, and wlien their hall is rebuilt, in the vear eighteen hun- dred and twenty-two, it also has a new gas-works attached. The ]\[asons have faith in the thing; desire to lay pipes in the streets to furni.sh otlier consumers, Init Councils refuse })ermis.sion. Had the privilege been allowed the Masons would liave furnished the new" ( 'hestnut Streat Theatre witli illumination, but as a consequence the theatre is lighted in the old way with oil lamps. The struggle between gas and the })opular prejudice continues. Even in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, wdien tlie Canal and liailroad are Itegiiining to know each other better as antagonists, gas has its own battle in the more restricted territory of the city. An effort is maile in the Legislature in this year to pass a bill to incorporate the Phila- delphia (Jas Light Company with power io manufacture and furnish gas and lay })ipes in the streets. This measure is fair game for all the 0})i)onents of gas, including the Councils, which becomes thoroughly aroused and op})oses the pro})osed legislation so vigorously it is (lereate(L Meantime the j)ublic has been busy with protests through (lie nieibuni of the newspa[)ers. ( )n(^ eiti/.eii, writing 'o the United States (jazcttc, denounces the proposition to light the streets and houses with gas as " a folly, unsafe, unsure, a trouble and i'ivilege asked, Init ho does not avjid liiiiiself of it. Tlie ( 'oniicils have grown familiar witli the sul)ject, and tlie more they know ol' it the more liberal they are becoming. In fact, the jteople who are oi)posed to gas niid who swayed the Councils by the vigor of their belief for so long a time nvo Ix^oinning to call the Councils hard names as they find they are more favorably disposed toward gas. Tlieir action does not deter the Councils, however. They have a committee a[)pointed especially for the iturpose of dealing with this gas question ; committee being instructed to ascertain the cost of erecting and ojierating a works with a ca]nicity sufficient to supply the city, 'file committee, goes to work with zeal and reports the result of CiiKSTNiT Sti;ki;i\ iuum Ij;iii,i;i; I'.rii.iUNc,. Sixtli and (iK^tnut Stitelt^, ]<,(.kiiig ^v^.■^t. FIRST GAS-PIPES IX AMERICA LAID IN PHILADELPHIA. 205 its iiivcstipitioiis and calculations. The business-like proceedings of tli(> Councils on the gas (jucstion still further displeases the citizens wlio are oi)[)oscd to the thing. liemonstrances begin to flow into the chambers of the Councils. One of the members of the op})osition, in his remonstrance, ])rotested again,st " the i)lan now in agitation of lighting the city with gas as one of the most inexpedient, offensive and dangerous nature ; in saying this we are fully sustained l)y the accounts of explosion, loss of life, and great destruction of ])roperty whci'c this mode of lighting has been adopted. We consider gas to be as ignitible as gunpowder and nearly as fatal in its effects." I'apei's are submitted likewise in favor of the introduction of gas; documents embodying statistics from cities and towns abroad, showing the benefit of the thing. AVliile the purpose of the Councils to so legis- late as to make the City the owner of the proposed gas-works is clearly foreshadowed applications from private persons still flow into the two Chaml)ers. i\Iark Richards and James J. Rush write to the Councils that they are authorized to offer, in return for the privilege they seek, to light four lamps in every square free of charge ; they only desire the right to lay pipes and supply consumers. Rejected. D. B. Lee and W. Beach propose, in this year eighteen hundred and thirty-four, to erect a tower and supply the light therefrom at a moderate cost^ — the second occasion in which the towei- figures in this gas controversv. Rejected. The Councils this year, still non-connnittal, resolve to send an expert to Europe to make inquiry as to the use of gas there. The emissarv chosen is Samuel A\ Merrick. He sails at once and returning in October, eighteen hundred and thirty-four, makes a report strongly favorable to gas. This practically settles the controversy. The two Chambers in March, year eighteen hundred and thirty-five, jiass an ordinance for the ''construction and management of the Philadcli)hia Gas Works," and the city has. through all the long siege of i)rivate applicants and enterprising i)romoters, come out victor in a matter atl'ccting every person and household within her limits. In this out- cf)nie the City of Penn takes lier place among her sister towns of the land as the first to lay gas mains, erect a [dant, and hirnish to the ])ublic the new system of illumination, — a precedent entirelv fit and pro])er in the leading American city and the i)lace of birth of the nation. ■II' MANri-'ACTrKEKs' Ci.ii:, Walnut and I'.road Streets. ("iiaptp:k XII. TlIK TAST in ("ONTIiAST WITH TIIK KaIU.Y YKAKS OF THK GOLUKX ERA — PlIH.ADKLl'IIIA OF Ufvoutionaiiy Kays and of iiif. Days of Great Industrial Development FNIIKU THK iNFI.l'ENCK OF THE AGE OF INVENTION— TlIE ("ENTENNIAL OF l.S7(i. IT is now the staid "oldest Philadelphian,'" willi liis set ways, rigid habits, personal reeollections of Revolutionary days — of the first Congress and of great deeds attending the birth of a big nation in a new world, with Liberty and Independence expressive of its funda- mental principle — finds himself, as it seems, a stranger in the city of his l)irth, with its stirring memories of devoted patriotism, of self-saeri. fice and unfaltering courage and faith through all the ills in the power of a despotic foe to inflict. New things are dawning before liis failing vision and he gazes uncertain, perplexed and doubtful as he rubs his strong-bowed spectacles, scarce knowing whether he is sleeping or awake. For, the forces of nature, compounded, united, diffused and directed by the power of man are doing things in these days, as the years approach the towering milestone of the half-way point in the century, which in a less enlightened era would l)e ascribed t<^ the might of Satan himself. What means that black, bulky tiling of iron. Hying over earth's plane with a lot of wooden carriages in its wake, taster than the driven clouds of the heavens, with its long, serpentine trail of smoke, slowly ascending and black against the sky in the fading evening light? And now — liai'k I a long, loud, ear-piercing shi'iek as the flying, steaming thing ap})roaclies the old city of Penn, makes it more than ever sure that this aged citizen of heroic memories has lived to see strange times and things undreamt of in his earlier days. No longer is this renowned revolutionary city, rearing its head erect and impressive before the wondering gaze of nations, tlie quiet, ]>eaceful town of the "Night watch," and of the banquets at that famous City Tavern with AVashington, Lafayette, Jolin Adams, Koehambeau, M. de Luzerne (the French minister), linn old Chief •lustiee jMcIvean, Robei't Morris, Franklin, and the whole ])atriot host. so grand and stately in the memory witli tlieir high aims and lotty principles, gi'acing the liospitabU' board and pledging with the sj)arkle of good wine tlie weal and ]irosperity of the new-born nation. A new day lias conie to the American City of Independence as to all cities where civilization holds sway ; and the man of Vivirs. as lie gazes U]ion (•J()!i) 210 'fllK STUllY OP AX AMKRICAN CITY. the sti'iuige foces and the figures tliat jostle hiiu on tlie street, fresh from the uttcnnost [)arts of the hind whence they departed only a few days ago, shakes his head sadly and re})airs to his old style home to broofl and mecHtate, reviewing ouce more in his memory tlie patriot troop in patient, toilsome j)rocession as it moves on that eventful march which had its culmination at Monmouth ; oi', later, as with j faces hent southward, it streams into town by way of Trenton, Wash- I ington, Rochambeau, Chastellux, Knox and IMoultrie, with the cheer- ! inu' thousands on all the streets, the dignified Congress and J\[. de | Luzerne viewing the s[)ectacle from the State House, with De Soisson- nais' brilliant French regiment, with " facings of rose color and white I and rose colored plumes in the caps of the grenadiers " creating wild i enthusiasm on that memorable and world-thrilling move against Corn- I wall is at Yorktown. Well may tlie aged citizen muse and yearn for things as he knew them of yore. This new world is not his world ; the new day which j has dawned is strange and unseemly. Old land-marks are going and ! the memory of old things, of great deeds, will be lost in the hurry I and confusion of these new and migainly contrivances of men, level- ling the earth, penetrating the liills and making people so active I and busy they scarcely have time to exchange the courtesies of the i day with the ceremonious manner of the olden time. He sees old \ structures demolislie(l ; the street along which AVashington and his troo])s marched has changed, lost its identity, and the rows of grand | buildings wliicli now face it from either side are not the ones he knew ! in his younger days. The Delaware front is changed ; great wharves, ' far-reaching with theii- tedious miles of "bolted and girded capacity ; for ships " stand l)oldly against the deep and restless tidal stream. He j walks along Chestnut sti-eet — historic thoroughfare — gazes at the i massive buildings of marble and granite and sighs for the old brick ' structures so familiar to his younger days, and tlien turning, faces the State Plouse I Grand, imposing edifice ! It stands as of yore, and ' beneath that memorable dome hangs the world-fame(l bell, unite symbol now of an act so sinqtle, yet so great and momentous in its effect ui)on the destiny of such a vast and important portion of man- kind. So stands, likewise, venerable Carpenters' Hall, scene of the first meeting of the Colonial Congress and ever a monument to the thrift aiul |)rosperity of the condition of the riiiladelphiaii mechanic. With all the improvement, the innovations, industrial expansion, consolidation of districts and extension of streets — until out of twelve hundred miles thereof nine hmi huge victory of the American arms and the presence of the great i)latoon of deserters from the enemy are enough to make the dignified Congress go into rhaj>sodies and to re})air for the puri)0se of a litting cclcl)ration. both of the amiiversary of the great day and of the late victory, to that poi)ular hostelry on Second street, the City Tavern ; th(^ Congress having previously been thoughtful enough to recommend to the people, in vit'W of the scarcity of candles and the heat of the weather, that there be no illumination. How this Fourth of July anniversary, celebrated thus by the Con- gress and the people of the patriotic American city, Philadeljdiia — who of all i)eoi>le had the right to celebrate it — has stamped itself 214 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. d(H'i) on tlic lu-art of every Ainerieuii I Tlirougliont tlie space of tlie mighty laml. w itli its almost seventy luillioii souls, — nay, l)eyon(l wide seas \vhere\ei- I lie Aiiieriean roams, — he knows that wondrous day and i(>els th(^thriU in every libru as he recalls to memory the deed enacted ill tlif time of (lie tottering infancy of his nation in the old tal)leted building of brick, to lie known ever alter as Tnde})en(lenco Hall, in the iVmerican town on the bank of the Delaware. What memories the dav recalls and what a vast amount of history of this American nation is nai-rated when the ivason for its celebi'ation and the consequences of tlie thing which was done on that day arc faithfully told ! Small wondei' then, if the aged Philadelphian, nearing liis earthly goal in the dawn of the golden era of railroads, telegraph and the countless a sheltered the first American Congress, guarded tlie weal of the infant nation, caught with glad surprise the first note of Fame's trum})et wlu'U it jiroelaimed the greatness of Washington, and bei'ii from those stirring davs tlu' Meeea of all whose eyes brightend at the rays of her patriotism an chief portion to the la1)or em- ployed, the sum of twenty million dollars. Not uncared. for and nei;- lected hv the jealous municipality are these miles of ever-growing habitations of the people: the gas main, t lie water and the drainage l)ipes are eonstanlly, watchful an'ears of eventful existence nothing has been pursued more persistently and effectually than her schemes for the education of her youth ; public and private schools, academies, colleges, univer- sities and institutes having taken root and llourished in every quarter of her spacious territory. Two hundred and twenty-nine public school buildings, exclusive of public high schools and normal schools ! Then there is the vast mai-ble edifice which stands a monument to the ben- evolence and wisdom of Stephen Girard ! — its ori)haned boys by thous- ands filling positions of eminence, of trust, of profit and responsibility in the city and State of its location in this day, thi'ough the beneficence of the old merchant and trader who, in the ever-constant evidence of the eniliiring character of his work, seems to preside in the spirit with benign satisfaction in front of the towering Corinthian pillars of the vast pile, so stately in its commanding ])rospect, day by day through tiio years, witli tlie inirth-driven peal of the active, buoyant figui-es. whose hearts have Ix'en lightened and futures assured throuirh his iM.iinty. ever rising from the green in the noon-day or evening liour until the still, pallid face of rock set'ms to smiU'. Could the old J*hiladeli)hian return in this day and behold the ell'ect of his post- mortem iiiHuence he would perhaps ieel that life to him had been a source of good, and that the AVealth, accunmlated by so much calcu- lating, self-denial and personal sacridre, had not been bestowed with- out wise discrimination and judgment. Far-sighted, kindly soul! man of grand beiiefieence who, tui-ning his back on liis own France, journeys beyond the sea to the new land, anatiiots and chivalrous champions of human rights in all tlie years of opposition and distress in the colonies. No sooner does the grim tocsin of war rive the throb- bing air than forth strides Avith di'awii sword and martial purpose the noble Lafayette, throwing to the winds the luxuries and the solt blandishments of his wonderful Paris, and wafted by proj)itious breezes, lauds on the patriot soil and fortliwith repairs to the camp of the valiant Washington. \\'ashington ! Lafayette ! what stout, unyielding links in the bond of friendship between two great nations do these names ty})ify ! Gallant, self-sacrificing, noble and chivalrous Frenchman ! How bright seem the legions, the gaily uniformed infantry and the plumed grenadiers as they move in columned hosts with steadfast tread and even ranks, so imposing and gloi-ictus in the memory, causing Phila- delphia's streets to resound with elieers from the assembled thousands in that eventful time after Moiunoutli wlieii ])atriot hearts ever\-\\here beat high, and only the un])atriotic, the foes of lil)erty, were de|)ressed. Never were Frenchmen so dear to Americans as on that joyous dav, .so remote fi-om the ad-lands of a soil unknown and strange. A di'(\u'v lapse of time liad intervened sinee that event, ami France itseii had recorded its exj)erii'iice with exi)lorers and diseoverers long enouo'h before these gratefid and a])iireciative Americans, who are so happy in their relations of fi-iendship and amity with the descendents of the- ancient ( iauls, had any name oi' existence. Even in the seeminglv distant day of the Revolution, when Washington and Lafayette and the whole grand host of patriots struggled and fought for independenee. they could look back to the days of Golumbus and marvel at the 222 THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CITY. imiiu'iisc stride in liuiiiaii progress since that memorable discovery at the iiKuilli of tlio Orinoco; they, whose stately figures loom dim and misty ill the reach of years which, to tlie modern man, seems to relegate things of only a century ago to the ancient and endless past, there to have companionship with Eric and his Norwegians, of an era no less distant than ten centuries. Thus measuring events affecting this hemisphere, the figures of \\'ashington, Lafayette, Rochambeau, Steuben and of the long array of ])atriots born of the Revolution, seem quite near and distinct, and the hiiitlierly service done by France appears a thing sufficiently recent to cause the grateful American of this day to rise hastily, forgetful of the slight lapse of years, and experience a desire to at once tender to the friendly nation his warmest thanks. That it should be always thus it is to be devoutly hoped, for when gratitude to France dies, American ])atriotism dies. The reader of his nation's history then, shall continue to feel himself strangely thrilled when there arises in his mind's eye the figure of the courtly M. de Luzerne, the French Minister and the friend and sympathizer of the Congress in all its movements ; will experience a tlirob of delight as he reads of the celebrations of im})or- tant victories by the Congress at which M. de Luzerne was honored with the seat at the right of the President, and will dwell with gladness on the i)ages which tell of the unprecedented honors paid to Laf\\yette on the occasion of his several visits to the country after its government had become stable and well established. Fitting and proper it seems that if Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are to be indebted to one of foreign birth for the greatest of American philanthropic institutions, that one should be, of all nationalities in the world, a Frenchman. Xnr sli;ill the satisfaction of the descendents of Peiui be less marked by tlie rellection that the Frenchman in question died an American by adoption, a compliment to the peoj)le among whom he dwelt, charac- teristic of his race. El f Pa>Nll»'> h- .: ■ ' », ("irAPTER XTIT. TiiK City of Pknx axd its (uti.ying Sections— Historical Philadelphia with INDL'STRIAI. PlIII.ADKLlMIlA AdDKI) — CroWTII InWkAI.TII AXI) CoXSTAXT IxCREASK IN POPrLAIIuN. THE City of the Kevolutioii, and the great American city of this Continent, JMiilaersonally saw that his idea of " a green country town which should never be burned but always be wholesome " was faithfully carried out. The man of small means was given unusual inducements to buy property for a home ; spacious boundaries were set tliat theie might be room for all and the i)roi)ortion of colonists who did not avail themselves of the offer to buy was so small it is scarce worth mentioning. It was essentially a buyers' colony and not a renters" ; tlie exemplification of the cardinal idea of the founder who wislicd to see all those who cast their lot with liim possess their homes, that they might feel more free and inde})endent. As the keel of the colonization craft was laid so it has remained. Look at the statistics of house-erecting in the city ! — the growth of the town through a series of years. Four thousand three hundred and ninety houses built within the boundaries of the city in the 3'ear eigliteen hiiiKh-ed and eighty-three ! A'-et more marvellous still the numl)er one year later — four thousand nine hundn'd and thirty-eiglit ! Ti'iilv the s])irit of growth is witliin her and continues to be, as the record for the year eighteen hundred and eighty-five proves. Tlie num])er of houses built in these twelve months is six thousand three lunidred and twenty-six. And yet the increase with every year continues — lSS(j, 7,561 houses; 1887, 7,695 ; 1888, 8,337 ; 1889, 10,122 ; 1890, 10,287. jNIarvellous increase and growth ! Yet men complain that tlic city of IndeiK'ndence docs not display a scene of bustling activitv such as may be witnessed in a town of contracted hmits and scarcitv of room for operating its business. This citv of Penn is a larut' citv, (225) 226 THE STORY OF AX AMERICAN CITY. SO lari;v that days may bo oecu})ie(l in niakiiig a tour of lirf industrial places to till' exclusion wholly of the s two or three times a year. That the city of Penn may be thoroughly known the stranger should prepare for a stay of some length of time ; he or she should visit the great cities, the outlying limbs of the city, where manufacture and industry mcessant, unwearying and endless send forth their music in an atmos})liere electrical, vibratory and resonant with the vitalizing subtlety and force of combined bu.sy mechanical and human action. The civil- i/.eride and glorification, put their hands into their pockets and ei'ect at joint expense a sort of Temple of Freedom or Exchange, in which structure all may meet and transact business. Thus in late yeais the city of Penn has witnessed the rise and development of tlie fainons l')nilders' Exchange, wliidi has proved to be the i)recursor to a general consolidation of many and varied great interests into one institution of such magnitude and impor- tance as to place it, when complete*!, beyond anything of the kind in the world. Great have been the prepai'alioiis for the construction of the Philadelphia Bourse, and immense will he the benefit to the world of business when it shall rise a finished product of the builders 2;;() THE STdKY i)F AX AMERICAN CITY. stupendous work. Ea'ct restless" and progressive, the city of Tndopond- enee, with Iici' (■(Uiiillcss iii(histrios, boundless faeilitii'S lor coiiiiiicrcc •and untold I'csourccs. Hies to tJic business (»!' huildini:,' ;inatriotism and universally renewed interest and zeal in the task of historical research, if good fortune shall take you to the scene of that greatest of World's cele- brations in the city of Chicago, so eloquently described and so vividly lectured by Philadelphia's talented son, Colonel Alexander K. McClure. where nations from the uttermost i)arts of the earth are meeting in glad reunion in honor of this wonderful America, on the occasion of the four hundredtli anniversary of its discovery by the })atient and tar-seeing Italian, Columbus, fail not to wend your way to a certain towered building, so like tlie old Hall of American Independence, which men know well ; and in the stately structure devoted to the use of Pennsylvania's citizens gaze on the historic bell which })ro- claimed tliat lilierty which made the American nation free, as it sits there in thes})acious rotunda, exhibited to the world under the aus})ices of Philadelphia's Joint Special Connnittee of Councils, and likewise view the relics of the days of Penn and of the later jjcriod of the devolution, and in their mute eloquence read the heroic and salient things oi' Amei'ican historv. ( li;i;.M A.NloW N (KK Kl.r Cl.l K. COMMUIA Cl.rU, AtIII.KTU' ("MB OK THE SCIIT VI.K I I.I. N.WY, Broad antl O.xford Streets. Ari-h Street, near Seveiiteentli. Ni'.w r.rii.DiNi; oi" WoMKN's Ciiimstian Association. KiLrlitcfiiili :nnl Arrh Sinvts. -'WJ^ MM ^- — * ~ * ^^ '^'^''- I'j ^' ■S ' ''« a^'^'rr I- l'"i^' i:. l-"ii:i A\i> i'.\ ri;,ii. M.\Ti,i N>. I u ml ic: li >i rrc; Uriir.x z:^ '■■■ III II' ^nrr^r •^i^V^ ■■rs\ ^^-"^^ ^^' "^ ,.v (li i;i>' NdKMAl. Scilnol.S. New S<-lii)(>l. 'riiii-tci'iUli and S]>riii<; (lanlfii Siivcls. Old !!^oliool, Srvi'iiU'ciitli iitul Spriiiir (iardcii Stroots Iaiim:.mann IIo.muioi' a imk ((ii.i.i.i;!'; anh 1 Iosimtai,, I'.nia.l hcmi- Uarc stn-rt. IJROAl) Street, IVoni coiiur ot' Walnut. I.icikiii- Ndrili lowanls I'ity Hall. -■'jmm. u ^^ Ja'. "% / BW IE». ^ ^ ff^"^ . if i if - % N n > ^ « > 1 i #.?*.'/ RJ_j, .„^ - , \1 1-? \ s \ >v r^ i 1^^^ -^^^ ^ .r^iv^:::^^^ /? Coi.ossAi. Stah i: m- Wii.i.ia.m I'inn. u> siiiiimhiiii ilic Towit ct tlic Citv ]lall. 2 r ^