B8 
 
 
 fj.iJi^oi^lg'SI 
 
ANNUAL 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 THE 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 OF 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 OCTOBER 24, 1831. 
 
 '/ 
 
 BY JOB R. TYSON, ESQ. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 E. L. CAREY & A. S. HART. 
 Mifflin 8c Parry, Printers. 
 
 1831. 
 
V 
 
 V (50 
 
At a meeting of "The Historical Society of Penn- 
 sylvania," held at Philadelphia, on the 24th day of 
 October, 1831, it was 
 
 Resolved, That the acknowledgments of the So- 
 ciety are due, and they are hereby presented to 
 Job R. Tyson, Esquire, for his instructive and able 
 discourse this day pronounced, and that he be desir- 
 ed to furnish a copy for publication. 
 From the minutes. 
 
 T. M. PETTIT, 
 Secretary, pro tern. 
 
ANNUAL mSCOUESK, 
 
 Gentlemen op the Historical Society: — 
 
 The honour which you have conferred upon me in 
 the invitation to deliver your Annual Discourse, 
 cannot but excite a lively anxiety and deep solicitude. 
 To say that I distrust my ability to meet the most mo- 
 derate expectations which may be formed, would but 
 feebly express the sensations of diffidence with which 
 the task is undertaken. These apprehensions are in 
 no degree diminished by the recollection of the learn- 
 ed and distinguished gentlemen who have preceded 
 me in the performance of this duty; nor by a refer- 
 ence to the fact that the most splendid and captivating 
 portions of Pennsylvania story, have been appropri- 
 ated in a manner which renders a further attempt at 
 elucidation alike presumptuous and unnecessary. Re- 
 lying however upon the favourable consideration 
 which your selection bespeaks, I shall throw myself 
 upon your indulgence while surveying a period 
 which from its recency, its importance, and the 
 moral fruits it has produced, must ever challenge 
 the admiration of civilized and enlightened man. 
 
 It 
 
Whatever attractions the early history of provin- 
 cial Pennsylvania may present^ the period of the 
 revolution is big with wonders, whether we regard 
 it in relation to the events which occurred and the 
 impression it has produced, or as the era for the es- 
 tablishment of a new and independent government 
 and the principles which thence emerged into 
 practice. The patriarchal government of Penn, 
 which excluded all commotions save occasional con- 
 troversies terminating at most in an angry debate or 
 a copious effusion of ink, gave place to a scene which 
 was at once novel and perilous. Pennsylvania was 
 not unacquainted with the foundations of her politi- 
 cal rights, nor was she wanting in moral courage to 
 assert and sustain them. Her enlightened freemen 
 were sensible, that as the Charter of the Province 
 emanated from the Royal prerogative, an attempt to 
 impose burdens by the authority of Parliament was a 
 palpable and unrighteous usurpation. The spirit 
 which was kindled at this appearance of oppression, 
 was the same spirit of liberty which, under another 
 form, had resisted the encroachments of proprietary 
 privilege, and manifested itself from the earliest stage 
 of our provincial existence, in a noble jealousy for 
 those immunities which were originally reserved in 
 the social compact. It was that identical spirit which, 
 whether true or false, examined with scrutiny the 
 acts of Penn and his successors, and submitted to 
 nothing which bore the least semblance of political 
 
^nci'oachment or violated law. But when the flame 
 of the revolution burst out, it was a wordy alterca- 
 tion no longer. The proprietary and popular par- 
 ties crumbled into embers; — old feelings, antipathies, 
 and prejudices ceased — or were so modified and 
 changed that the traces of former differences were 
 entirely obliterated. New views and opinions — 
 hatreds more embittered, and friendships more deep- 
 ly rooted — with their train of consequences, succeed- 
 ed. It cannot be surprising, that on a question so 
 momentous as that which involved the sudden dis- 
 ruption of political ties, there should be diversities of 
 sentiment ; nor that with a people who had enjoyed 
 almost without interruption the pleasures of peace, 
 there should be felt a repugnance to war. Attach- 
 ment to the parent country as well as to existing es- 
 tablishments, was natural where both are recommend- 
 ed by the recollections of a free and happy ancestry, 
 sanctified as these are by all those associations which 
 render them endearing. If tyranny had left its im- 
 press upon domestic happiness or interfered with the 
 civil immunities of the people, the passions of resent- 
 ment and animosity might easily have been excited 
 into action. But the war of the revolution was essen- 
 tially a war of principle, less for injuries inflicted 
 which could be felt, than in anticipation of evils that 
 were meditated or intended. In a contest of such a na- 
 ture, which appeals only to the higher sentiments of 
 enlightened reason; in a quarrel upon a provocation 
 
scarcely affecting the rights of property, and not 
 violating those of persons ; it requires an elevation 
 of moral character, an energy of political principle 
 to enter the arena. To perceive abstract truth as 
 reflecting men, and to reason upon indications as 
 practical philosophers, is seldom given to a commu- 
 nity at large. No higher evidences can be demand- 
 ed of the moral and intellectual superiority of Penn- 
 sylvania and the other colonies, than the determined 
 union of all classes against a gigantic power, for the 
 purpose of effecting the recision of a law, which, in 
 its operation, was hardly perceptible. 
 
 Numerous, however, as were the adherents to 
 the cause, and firm as were most in their alle- 
 giance to liberty, the feeling in Pennsylvania was 
 not universal; and some from inveterate attach- 
 ment to England, and more from the inflexibility 
 of religious opinions, refused all participation. Fac- 
 tions of course, in a brief period, arose; and the 
 whigs were sufficiently proscriptive to denounce 
 as tories all who did not join the belligerent par- 
 ty. The Friends or Quakers, who formed the 
 largest portion of those who declined, were inimical 
 to war upon a ground of religious belief, that non- 
 resistance was a cardinal duty. But the furious spi- 
 rit of the times was unable to brook any appearance 
 of neutrality — they were upbraided as tories or stig- 
 matized as traitors, and two individuals were doomed 
 
to the sacrifice. Let me not be understood as re- 
 llecting censure upon the court which pronounced 
 their culpability, nor as questioning the expediency 
 of measures of sufficient rigour to paralize any ten- 
 dency which may have appeared to insurrection and 
 rebellion. Situated as was the country in a war, the 
 unfortunate issue of which would have degraded and 
 ruined those who fomented it, it was necessary for the 
 purposes of example, to restrain a spirit which no 
 doubt existed, destructive of the high-minded pa- 
 triotism and chivalrous designs of its magnanimous 
 leaders. But this spirit was con jfined to a few. Its 
 prevalence was naturally magnified at a stormy period, 
 when * the approach of tyranny,' as Burke expresses 
 it, ^was snuffed in every tainted breeze,' and sectarian 
 scruples had the opprobrious and alarming name of 
 popular defection. Subsequent writers, particularly 
 those of other states, have tried the virtue of repeti- 
 tion to perpetuate the error. Those of the Quakers 
 who are obnoxious to the censure of actively oppos-^ 
 ing the colonies, or secretly abetting the enemy, are 
 freely surrendered to just scorn and merited repro- 
 bation. But the number is diminutive, and itshould 
 no more be visited upon the sect at large than upon 
 the reputation of the colony that was so unfortunate 
 as to own them. If, as it has been contended, a spi- 
 rit of opposition was more extensively discernible 
 among the Quakers than among the other religious 
 sects, it is rather attributable to a false application of 
 
10 
 
 fundamental principles than to the influence of affec- 
 tion for the parent country. As Christians they be- 
 lieved themselves bound to the preservation of peace, 
 and the notion of considering an existing government 
 in the light of an ordinance of God, worthy of obe- 
 dience where it is just, and to be quietly submitted 
 to where it is inequitable, involved the necessity of 
 their taking no part in the quarrel.* Whatever may 
 have been the sentiments entertained of Great Bri- 
 tain in attempting to tax the colonies without their 
 consent, it would have been incapable, upon the 
 ground they assumed, to influence their demeanour 
 in reference to either of the conflicting parties. They 
 were constrained to stand aloof from both, or which 
 was tantamount in their estimation, their acts of 
 friendship for one or the other, had no relation to the 
 position of either, considered as belligerents. It pre- 
 sents a striking analogy to the case of oaths, which, 
 independently of the truth of the testimony, as they 
 are held by the Quakers to be forbidden, must in any 
 event be peremptorily declined. In the extensive 
 diffusion of the fact, that the Quakers as a body, did 
 not participate in a sanguinary conflict, it seems to 
 have been too frequently forgotten, that the business 
 of a soldier is totally inconsistent with Quakerism, 
 and that its assumption would imply the dereliction 
 of a testimony which they hold to be sacred. Com- 
 mon justice requires that as well the reasons of their 
 
 * Vide Appendix, Note 1. 
 
11 
 
 abstinence should be known, as that their forbearance 
 was reciprocal, and only amounted to a strict and ri- 
 gid neutrality. 
 
 Other circumstances have contributed to the perpe- 
 tuation of this injustice, than those to which I have 
 ventured incidentally to allude. The national feel- 
 ing which was engendered by Pennsylvania's being 
 the principal theatre of war — by being the locality 
 of the first Congress — and by being the place whence 
 emanated the Declaration of Independence — almost 
 absorbed provincial attachments and local sympa- 
 thies. Sectional predilections were exchanged for 
 the brighter and more transcendant glory of the 
 whole confederacy. The wise providence of her 
 sisters in arms, while animated by the patriotic fire 
 which sought to destroy the pretensions of l^ritain 
 over the Union, did not permit them to be frigid 
 upon the subject of their own reputations. They 
 have blazoned their exploits in a hundred narratives 
 and histories, and perhaps too sedulous of fame, have 
 sometimes despoiled Pennsylvania of the laurels by 
 which her brow should be adorned. Not content 
 with assuming merits and gallantry which, perhaps, 
 they legitimately claim, the disposition has been fre- 
 quently observed to filch from Pennsylvania some of 
 ^ the mighty meed of liei^ large honours,' by attribut- 
 ing to cowardice or toryism the effect of religious 
 tenets, and by ascribing to the state at large the dis- 
 
12 
 
 affection of a few. During all this period — a period 
 beyond half a century — we have so far acquiesced 
 in the justice of these reproaches as to maintain the 
 profoundest silence; and though vii-es acquirunt eun- 
 do, not a production has appeared which aspires to 
 the dignity of defending the purity and patriotism 
 of her course by an authentic narrative. The mate- 
 rials for a history lie scattered in the richest profu- 
 sion over works which, to the burning shame of our 
 patriotic sensibilities, be it spoken, are seldom ex- 
 amined. That part of our story which is interwoven 
 with the country, is accessible in every form in which 
 it can be presented, by compilations of original docu- 
 ments — the attraction of personal memoirs — and the 
 graver productions of elaborate histories. But where 
 are the narratives of Pennsylvania in particular, sub- 
 sequent to the year 1775? The total absence of any 
 sober and authentic development of her transactions, 
 sufferings, and services, has not been without its ef- 
 fects upon the currency of opinions involving the de- 
 triment of her revolutionary fame. Of the two his- 
 tories which are extant, the one by Proud nominally 
 terminates in 1770, and that by Gordon ends with the 
 year 1775. It was reserved to Ebeling, a German, to 
 illustrate the stirring events of the revolution, and to 
 deduce our domestic annals to a recent period. 
 This work, so little known to English readers 
 except that small portion of it which is seen 
 through the medium of an excellent translation by 
 
13 
 
 the venerable Duponceau, terminates in 1802. 
 However worthy of commendation it may be re- 
 garded, considered in the light of a literary produc- 
 tion, it was intended only to be general and succinct^ 
 and is the composition of a foreigner, who, removed 
 from the scene of action and partaking of little of 
 the spirit of the times, must frequently be at a loss 
 to account for obvious occurrences, and can impart to 
 the subject little of that glowing interest of which, 
 in the hands of an American, it is naturally suscept- 
 ible. Just thoughts and harmonious periods can 
 scarcely compensate for the absence of that vis vi- 
 vida with which it should be drawn and coloured. 
 The amusing and vivacious memoir by Graydon, is 
 too loose in its facts and too rambling in their devel- 
 opment and discussion, to supply so serious a desi- 
 deratum. 
 
 The absence of a formal history during and since 
 the revolution, has not only proved injurious to the 
 fame of our civic patriotism, but it conveys a really 
 mortifying reflection upon our indilTerence to na- 
 tional glory. From the labours of tliis society; the 
 accumulations of Mr. Hazard; and the curious re- 
 searches of Mr. Watson; the historian can labour 
 under no paucity of materials. The selection of an 
 individual who is competent to such a task, by the 
 charms of an elegant and finished English style — by 
 philosophical studies — by liberal and enlarged views 
 
 c 
 
-is a matter of very general, even public con- 
 cern. The reputation of a country and the moral 
 influence of her example upon her cotempo- 
 raries and posterity, must essentially depend upon 
 the ability of her historians. How can the one or 
 the other of these be effected, but through the me- 
 dium of a performance whose intrinsic and superior 
 merits shall command the esteem of other countries 
 and of other times? The brilliancy of great events, 
 or the glare of imposing successes and dismal catas- 
 trophes, is not necessary to the preservation of a 
 people's memory or the perpetuity of a people's 
 influence. The nation whose opening effulgence 
 and meridian splendour are embalmed in the pages 
 of a Livy, and whose decrepitude and decline are 
 recorded by the pen of a Tacitus, is less indebted 
 for her fame to the power of her arms and the wis- 
 dom of her counsels than to the elegance of lier his- 
 torical authors. Would not the bays of ancient 
 Greece long since have been faded or obscured, if 
 the genial and kindly influences of Homer, Hero- 
 dotus, and Thucydides had been withdrawn? Such 
 events as the Persian and Peloponnesian wars and 
 the expeditions of Alexander, which comprise the 
 principal exploits of that celebrated people during 
 the lapse of three centuries — illustrious as they are, — 
 may have been surpassed by nations whose memory, 
 not perpetuated by genius, is lost in the mists of 
 remote antiquity. A smile may perhaps be excited 
 
15 
 
 at an allusion to the ever enduring fame of Greece 
 and Rome, witli relation to the domestic transactions 
 of Pennsylvania; but it would not be improper be- 
 fore the contemptuousness of ridicule be indulged 
 that our history, before, during, and since the revo- 
 lution, be fairly examined and truly known. Genu- 
 ine philosophy unfettered by the trammels of educa- 
 tion and uninfluenced by eclat, will coolly scan 
 premises and investigate facts, before she will pro- 
 nounce a decisive judgment. In imitating this 
 prudence let us be guided by no blind or vainglo- 
 rious partiality, but contemplate with calmness, 
 some of the broad lines of the image which it will 
 be the duty of our historians to exhibit. 
 
 It is not my intention here to advert to her early 
 history, nor to refer to the noble-minded pioneers 
 of the wilderness to descry the germ of a race, des- 
 tined to an elevation of fortune remarkable through- 
 out future time. I am to speak of her history from 
 that period when her existence as a separate nation 
 commenced — when there was a dissolution of former 
 ties — and when new sympathies and connexions 
 sprang into being. The revolution in Pennsylvania, 
 by a self-devotion to the cause which could only 
 have originated in the conviction of its justice, was 
 marked by domestic distresses, both personal and 
 pecuniary, which would have cooled the ardour of 
 any people in whose breasts liberty was not an 
 
16 
 
 unextinguishable principle. The general destitu- 
 tion and unfitness for war, has been well described 
 by the Canada Major in Graydon, that we possessed 
 ''^commissaries without provisions; quarter masters 
 without stores; generals without troops; and troops 
 without discipline." Notwithstanding all these 
 motives to despondency, which from the actual 
 presence of the enemy must have operated more di- 
 rectly in Pennsylvania than in the sister colonies, 
 tlie flame that was kindled diffused itself with 
 incredible rapidity, and burnt with a bright and 
 constant lustre. She offered herself for immolation 
 upon the altar of liberty, and was a consenting victim 
 to the sacrifice, if it should be necessary to the sal- 
 vation of the country. But though the revolution 
 itself, both for the purposes of truth in the removal 
 of unmerited obloquy, and the exhibition of our 
 civic spirit under the pressure of calamitous times, be 
 a glorious theme for historical narrative and com- 
 mentary, yet it is but an epoch whence commences 
 a new order of things equally calculated to elicit the 
 admiration of the world. 
 
 The Congress of the United Colonies, having de- 
 clared their independence, recommended by a mani- 
 festo that conventions should be held to establish 
 their respective governments upon a republican 
 basis. The same month witnessed a compliance 
 with the recommendation by Pennsylvania, and the 
 
17 
 
 Constitution of '76 which was the consequence, 
 recognised those great principles of political right 
 whichj in all natural codes, must be regarded as 
 fundamental. Four years afterwards, in further vin- 
 dication of those immunities which, in common with 
 the confederated colonies, she had solemnly declared 
 were inalienable, means were taken to annihilate the 
 odious incongruity of legal bondage by conferring 
 upon negroes and mulattoes, the boon of liberty and 
 the privilege of denization. It may create surprise 
 that this act of justice was so long delayed, but the 
 extensive prevalence of slavery seems to have ren- 
 dered our commonly just and clear-sighted progeni- 
 tors, for a long period, indifferent to its flagrant 
 inconsistency and odiousness. Even a majority of 
 the quaker sect so late as the year 1688, declined 
 responding to the sentiment entertained by a num- 
 ber of their brethren in Germantown, that slavery 
 was inconsistent with the Christian faith; and it was 
 not until 1696 that Keith and his adherents de- 
 nounced the institution as unjust and irreligious. 
 As soon as its impropriety became apparent, this 
 great object employed the pens and tongues of our 
 philanthropists with the fervour and animation of 
 a good cause, and all who have investigated the his- 
 tory of its progress will ascribe to the efforts of 
 Friends successively aided by Southeby, Sandiford, 
 Lay, Wool man, and Benezet, the merit of its final 
 accomplishment.* 
 
 * Vide Appendix, Note 2. 
 
18 
 
 Soon after the struggle had terminated by the 
 recognition of independencej Pennsylvania, true to 
 the principles of her early policy, began to remodel 
 her civil jurisprudence by rendering it more conso- 
 nant with the suggestions of unsophisticated reason, 
 and the practical doctrines of modern times. The 
 common and statute law of England blended to- 
 gether as they are — administered in different tribu- 
 nals under the guidance of different and conflicting 
 principles — and handed down from ages character- 
 ized by quaintness and absurdity — was thought in 
 many of its features to be unsuitable to a country 
 whose political maxims and forms of government 
 were so contrariant and dissimilar. By virtue of 
 the charter granted by Charles 2nd to William 
 Penn, the criminal code and those civil regulations 
 of Great Britain which were applicable to the con- 
 dition of a new country, were to prevail till changed 
 by the colonial legislature. Numerous alterations 
 were made, which display the republican tendencies 
 of the province, and the views that were enter- 
 tained in relation to the laws of England. The 
 refusal to erect a Court of Chancery; the destruction 
 of the rule of primogeniture; the declaring of navi- 
 gable rivers public highways; the provisions in re- 
 lation to wills and testaments and the registry of 
 deeds and mortgages; altered the complexion of the 
 English code in most of its distinguishing features. 
 It was not deemed necessary, immediately after the 
 
19 
 
 I'evoliition, to do more tlian re-enact what had 
 existed before, and to leave to observation and ex- 
 perience the labour of correcting further impro- 
 prieties and abuses. By the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence the force of British authority as such, was 
 destroyed in the United Colonies, and of course 
 British adjudications made subsequent to the 4th of 
 July, 1776, had no validity in our Courts of Justice. 
 The improvements since introduced into this state, 
 are so numerous and various that it would require a 
 volume to define and expound them with that per- 
 spicuity and precision which the magnitude of the 
 subject implies. Suffice it that the abscision of that 
 chain of legal figments which are requisite to sus- 
 tain the action of ejectment in England — the intro- 
 duction of short pleading — the permission to file a 
 plain statement of the cause of action in lieu of a 
 technical declaration — the ample provisions which 
 liave been made for amicable and compulsory arbi- 
 tration — and the ingraftment of the principles of 
 scientific equity into the body of the Common Law, — 
 have contributed to render the forms of our juris- 
 prudence less entangled and perplexed to the 
 popular vision, and more conformable to the common 
 sense of mankind. In the prosecution of that re- 
 form whose spirit is so observable in each successive 
 act of the legislature, it would not be surprising if a 
 great and fundamental change should be made in 
 the administration of civil justice. Without ven- 
 
20 
 
 tiiring to express an opinion whether codification so 
 popular at the present day, should be ultimately- 
 adopted or be really desirable, we may confidently 
 leave it to the very able jurists, to whose hands is 
 committed the preparation of a modified system. 
 As it stands with all its imperfections, it has re- 
 ceived the involuntary homage of English lawyers, 
 in the proposition to transfer without acknowledg- 
 ment, many of its provisions into their own jurispru- 
 dence. The most beautiful feature in the scheme 
 perhaps, is the combination of the rules of Chancery 
 with the doctrines of the Common Law, by which 
 most of the benefits of equity proceeding, are 
 realized and secured without any of the inconve- 
 niences arising from a separation of the two juris- 
 dictions. The origin of this incorporation has been 
 ascribed to the establishment of a provincial judica- 
 ture which, in the year 1684, amalgamated the prin- 
 ciples of both. No evil should be more vigilantly 
 guarded against, than opposition in the sentiments of 
 a community to the legal system; and what has a 
 stronger tendency to create disrepute than the 
 spectacle of two tribunals, acting upon inimical prin- 
 ciples and arriving at opposite results? The max- 
 ims which govern a court of Equity are frequently 
 incompatible with the rigid doctrines of the Com- 
 mon Law, and the decrees of the Chancellor are 
 sometimes found in direct contravention of the de- 
 cisions of the ordinary tribunals. It has been the 
 difficult task of our judiciary slightly assisted by the 
 
21 
 
 legislature, to reconcile these discordant elements, 
 and to reduce them into a harmonious union. 
 
 By a long succession of decisions the two have 
 been combined upon systematic rules, adequate to 
 almost every emergency, and yet not encroaching 
 upon the established landmarks of the law. The 
 chancery powers to perpetuate testimony; to obtain 
 evidence out of the state; to superintend the persons 
 and property of non compos me?itis; and to compel 
 indirectly the specific performance of a contract; are 
 powers in habitual exercise, and all except the last, 
 conferred by the Constitution. It is true, we do not 
 possess the chancery appeal to the co7iscience of a 
 defendant, except so far as relates to affidavits of de- 
 fence; nor the prohibitory writ of injunction, except 
 the legislative writ qK estrepemcnt issued during the 
 pendency of an ejectment to prevent the commission 
 of waste. But the loss of these is seldom felt in prac- 
 tice, since they are partly supplied by the provisions 
 referred to, and the flexible nature of the system it- 
 self which would, no doubt, enable the Court to apply 
 a remedy where otherwise there would be a failure 
 of justice. To perfect what his predecessors had 
 begun, the late learned and amiable Chief Justice of 
 Pennsylvania, lent all the resources of his well dis- 
 ciplined and discriminating mind. Without enter- 
 taining any wild and chimerical notions of equity, 
 inconsistent with the general doctrines of a technical 
 
 D 
 
^2 
 
 science, he strove to attain all the advantages while 
 he studied to avoid the imperfections, resulting from 
 the separation of the two tribunals. In reserving the 
 application of equity to those anomalous cases which 
 the general law did not seem to contemplate, or to 
 which it had denied a remedy, he has attempted the 
 erection of a structure laid upon the most solid and 
 broad foundations. It only remains that the distin- 
 guished individuals who survive him upon the bench, 
 or who have been subsequently appointed, shall pro- 
 secute what has been so nobly begun, and nothing 
 can prevent its attaining the ultimate end of all law 
 — the dispensation of substantial justice. 
 
 But it is not merely the civil branch of our juris- 
 prudence upon which we can dwell with complacen- 
 cy. Our criminal system has undergone revision and 
 amendment, and presents in its punitory features a 
 spectacle which is certainly pleasing^ when compar- 
 ed with the sanguinary inflictions which at once de- 
 form and disgrace the European codes. I would not 
 be understood as attributing the origin of this re- 
 formation to the revolution, for mild punishments 
 have always been acceptable to Pennsylvania, and 
 existed from the settlement of tlie province to the 
 year 1718, Upon the death of Penn the vindictive 
 rigour of the English penalties was substituted for a 
 code, the lenient provisions of which excluded the 
 punishment of death from all offences except the most 
 
23 
 
 flagitious grade of felonious homicide. Soon after 
 the authority of the mother country winch imposed 
 this odious system upon her infant charge, was abo- 
 lished, the legislature complied with an injunction 
 of the Constitution of 1776, touching the mitigation 
 of her penal enactments. The act of 1786, besides 
 assuaging the punishment of crimes which were not 
 capital before, and removing the penalty from three 
 high offences, rescinded those foul provisions of Bri- 
 tish law which denounced confiscation for death by 
 casualty, and the forfeiture of the estate of a/e/o dese. 
 The humane clemency of this law was not only pre- 
 served in the succeeding acts of 1790 and 91, which 
 accelerated the work of reform so propitiously ad- 
 vanced, but the latter, with a laudable boldness and 
 praiseworthy liberality, struck from existence the ri- 
 diculous crime of conjuration, and the barbarous pro- 
 ceedings of the law of England in cases of muteness 
 and contumacy. For the purpose of aiding the legis- 
 lature with the voice of experience, a legal gentleman 
 well fitted for the task, was appointed to report upon 
 the operation of the mild laws which had already been 
 enacted. The report presenting such a mass of facts 
 in reference to the diminution of crime, and pervaded 
 as it was by philosophical remarks upon the legiti- 
 mate objects of punishment, elicited the great revo- 
 lutionary statute of 1794, which changed the whole 
 aspect of our penal jurisprudence. The unwarrant- 
 able distinction between petit treason and ordinary 
 
24 
 
 murder was stricken from the statute-book, and death 
 was reserved for that felonious atrocity which is 
 displayed in the commission of deliberate and pre- 
 meditated homicide.* Recent circumstances have 
 shown that, notwithstanding the inefficacy of this 
 kind of retribution as a remedy; its repugnance 
 to the sentiments of the people; and the great exam- 
 ple of the Duke of Tuscany, in whose dominions it 
 is repealed; our legislature is not prepared to efface 
 the blot from our code. But it must not be forgotten 
 that those improvements in our penitentiary disci- 
 pline, vvliich have led to an abridgment in the terms 
 of incarceration, suggest additional reasons for the 
 abolition of so odious and revolting a punishment. 
 
 As a consequence of this penal reform, at once 
 concomitant and inevitable, the economy of prison 
 police, claimed early and lively attention. After in- 
 tense labour and large expenditure, philanthropists 
 have been gratified with the recognition of the prin- 
 ciple of total seclusion in the erection of buildings de- 
 voted to this object. A history of the efforts made to 
 accomplish this great undertaking, and the distrust 
 which is still manifested in relation to its ultimate ef- 
 fects, would furnish an instructive commentary upon 
 those tendencies of the human mind to adhere to opi- 
 nions founded upon a plausible theory, or recommend- 
 ed by a high antiquity. The plan of separate con- 
 finement originated with ^'The Philadelphia Society 
 
 * Vide Note 3, in the Appendix. 
 
25 
 
 for alleviating the miseries of Public Prisons,''' whose 
 birth was so early as 1776; but the prosecution of its 
 benevolent designs being obstructed by the British 
 army, it languished till 1787, when it was re-organ- 
 ized under the title which it still retains. The 
 perseverance of the beneficent Howard in so unin- 
 viting a sphere, is not more remarkable than the 
 indefatigable philanthropy by which the members of 
 this association have ever been animated and dis- 
 tinguished. Many of the meliorations in our crimi- 
 nal polity are justly attributable to their exertions, 
 as well as that improvement in prison discipline to 
 which I advert. — For the purpose of ascertaining the 
 nature and importance of the alterations which were 
 from time to time introduced, as well as the charac- 
 ter of what is now accomplished, it is indispensable 
 to refer to the old system in vogue. Under the san- 
 guinary code of Great Britain it was thought unne- 
 cessary to devote much attention to the internal 
 economy of prisons, since, to great numbers of their 
 inmates, they were merely anti-chambers to the gal- 
 lows. To many they were places of very temporary 
 residence — the sojournment of a few brief nights. 
 The unfortunate, but perhaps respectable debtor; 
 the depraved and abandoned felon ; the young de- 
 linquent; the hardened offender; and all, without 
 distinction of crime or sex; were immured in a close 
 and corrupting assemblage. The only consequences 
 of an intercourse so promiscuous, unnatural, and dis- 
 
26 
 
 gusting, were the increase of guilt and the destruc- 
 tion of innocence. Though the advantages of com- 
 plete separation, of entire solitude, were perceived 
 at an early period, the Society was satisfied with the 
 removal of the debtors, the separation of the sexes, 
 and the classification of the prisoners, according to 
 their ages, and the turpitude of their offences. These 
 alterations, and others of minor magnitude, were ac- 
 complished by the several Acts of Assembly passed 
 in 1786, ^90, and '95. Posterior statutes for the 
 erection of a Bridewell, and the slight modifications 
 in prison police, all looked with an unwavering eye 
 to the great object of hard labour and unmitigated 
 privacy. It was not until the year 1818, that the 
 legislature recognized the principle of solitary con- 
 finement, by appropriating money for a penitentiary 
 upon that basis, for the western extremity of the 
 state. That penitentiary, and the one commenced in 
 the year 1821, at Philadelphia, are now in success- 
 ful operation, silently eloquent by their effects in re- 
 moving the doubts of the timorous, and demolishing 
 the fallacies of the unfriendly. A paramount diffi- 
 culty which the adherents of solitary confinement en- 
 countered, was, to defend it against the advocates of 
 the Auburn prison at New York — a plan which is 
 borrowed from the Maison de Force of the Nether- 
 lands, and which has received from its friends in 
 Europe the most unqualified approval. While it may 
 be admitted to be superior to the European establish- 
 
27 
 
 ments, and possessing recommendations of an impos- 
 ing order, it need not be concealed that in some of 
 its features it is opposed to the spirit of Pennsylvania 
 policy, and that the adoption of it here would have 
 been a positive retrogression. The discipline is en- 
 forced by severe flagellation, inflicted for the slight- 
 est violation of prison law, which prohibits all ocular 
 and oral communication among the prisoners. Ac- 
 cordingtothe practice in Pennsylvania, ever since the 
 year 1794, the intercourse had not been constant but 
 occasional, since confinement to solitary cells had form- 
 ed a portion of almost every judicial sentence. The 
 ignominy of corporal correction, so revolting to the 
 natural sensibilities, and so inimical to the genius of 
 our institutions, was abandoned with disgust by our 
 legislature, as early as 1795. As the prevention of 
 intercourse at Auburn is proved to be impracticable 
 by its continuance in the face of the most relentless 
 rigour, the scheme was believed to have defects which 
 we sought to obviate, and to possess but the single 
 advantage of separate dormitories over the old one 
 prevailing in Pennsylvania. The experience of 
 nearly two years, during which period the Eastern 
 Penitentiary has been the recipient of convicts, has 
 been shown, from abundant testimony, to justify 
 the sanguine predictions of its friends. The mental 
 power remains unaffected by privacy, except that 
 the heart is chastened and the passions are subdued. 
 The health is invigorated, and industry confirmed 
 
28 
 
 by toil volautarily pursued to beguile the tedium and 
 drive away the ennui, inseparable from idle seclu- 
 sion. As the persons of the unfortunate criminals 
 are unknown to each other, no obstacle upon en- 
 largement, can prevent the establishment of charac- 
 ter, nor the reduction into practice of those virtuous 
 resolutions which were suggested and formed in the 
 retirement of solitude.* 
 
 But the historian of Pennsylvania will not mere- 
 ly do justice to her prowess, patriotism, and suffer- 
 ings during an eventful era, and illustrate the 
 symmetry of her political form, her civil jurispru- 
 dence, her criminal code, and penitentiary disci- 
 pline — but with a more comprehensive eye he will 
 survey the peculiarities of her physical and mental 
 condition as displayed in the facilities presented for 
 internal commerce and the conveniences of life — in 
 the refinement of manners and cultivation of literature 
 and the arts. He will look abroad for those exhibi- 
 tions of enterprise or indications of sloth, those 
 monuments of taste or memorials of barbarism, which 
 lie scattered over the physical surface in the forms 
 of thoroughfares, improvements, and pursuits ; or 
 are buried in the maxims upon which social conduct 
 is regulated, and the various performances emitted 
 from the press. This opens to a liberal mind a wide 
 
 * See Note 4, in the Appendix. 
 
29 
 
 field for bold conjecture and philosophical commen- 
 tary. It must try, to their utmost tension, the pow- 
 ers of description and narrative, and put in requisi- 
 tion all the resources of study and thought. In at- 
 tempting a rude sketch of the extensive region he 
 must explore, I can only exhibit some faint concep- 
 tions of the scene which may be drawn by a compe- 
 tent pencil upon a larger canvass. 
 
 The physical arts which administer to the neces- 
 sities and conveniences of life, are pursued with ar- 
 dour and success in all their diversities. From the 
 manufacture of the simplest instrument of labour up 
 to the great designs of architecture and ship-build- 
 ing, the ingenuity of our mechanics and artists sug- 
 gests a theme for the proudest eulogy. Those por- 
 tions of the soil which present inequalities of sur- 
 face, and are not teeming with vegetable esculents, 
 abound in rich and precious minerals. In a country 
 whose territory is so extensive, and whose sources of 
 wealth lie in distant places and almost impervious 
 tracts, it seemed necessary that nature should be as- 
 sisted by the exertions of genius and art. To give 
 these facilities the internal improvemenU of the 
 state were commenced, and to her may be ascribed 
 the distinguished honour of having expended more 
 than any state in the Union in these improve- 
 ments, and of setting a splendid example in 
 the construction of turnpikes and bridges, of ca- 
 
30 
 
 *■ 
 
 nals and rail-ways. It has been estimated that since 
 the year 1791, the disbursements of the trea- 
 sury and of corporations for these objects, have 
 amounted to about 37,000,000 of dollars. Since the 
 year 1792, 168 companies have been incorporated 
 for the purpose of constructing turnpikes, and it has 
 been calculated that passable roads have been made 
 by these societies to the extent of about 3000 miles. 
 The first turnpike commenced in the Union is said 
 to be that which extends from Philadelphia to Lan- 
 caster, and by its connection with roads subsequent- 
 ly made, a cuntiiiuous line of turnpike now extends 
 from Trenton upon the Delaware to Steubenville in 
 Ohio. The cost of this thoroughfare which stretches 
 a distance of 343 miles, including the bridges on the 
 way, has been ascertained to transcend the celebrat- 
 ed road of Napoleon over the Simplon. The number 
 and superiority of the bridges of Pennsylvania, have 
 given rise to the appellation, ^The State of bridges.' 
 Upwards of 70 corporations exist in different 
 sections of the state, and by those which have gone 
 into operation, 63 bridges* have been erected at an 
 expense exceeding 83,000,000. Of all the struc- 
 tures of this kind in America, the Permanent Bridge 
 over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, erected by a so- 
 ciety incorporated in 1798, is the most substantial 
 and magnificent. The foundation of the western pier 
 is laid more than 40 feet below the level of the river's 
 surface — a depth surpassing any bridge of modern 
 
 * See Appendix, Note 5. 
 
31 
 
 times. It may be observed that the introduction of 
 chain bridges into Europe^ where they have wonder- 
 fully multiplied, was induced by the success of a 
 novel enterprise undertaken in 1816, by Messrs. 
 White and Hazard, who suspended a bridge com- 
 posed of iron wires over the Schuylkill, in the form 
 of a catenary curve. The idea of facilitating com- 
 munication in Pennsylvania by means of canals, 
 though not carried into execution until after the 
 revolution, was suggested by the genius of her 
 Founder. With a sagacity which nothing could 
 elude, Penn discovered the feasibility and foresaw 
 the importance of connecting ^by water' the river 
 Susquehanna with a branch of the Schuylkill. The 
 suggestion is the more remarkable since at that early 
 period canals and turnpikes were unknown in Great 
 Britain. The distinction of introducing the subject 
 of canals to public attention has been conferred 
 upon Pennsylvania by a writer of very respectable 
 authority.* Without mooting the question whether 
 the completion of any of these undertakings was 
 anterior to all others in the United States, it is suf- 
 ficient to mention as some evidence of the spirit 
 which animated Pennsylvania, that David Ritten- 
 house and Dr. Wm. Smith in 1762 levelled and 
 surveyed the route for that communication by water 
 which has since been accomplished by the Union 
 Canal; and that the Philosophical Society in 1764 
 ordered a survey for a canal to connect the waters 
 * Appendix, Note 6. 
 
32 
 
 of the Chesapeake and Delaware. The projectors 
 of the former work entertained views of the most 
 imposing and gigantic description. They had the 
 boldness to contemplate a junction of the eastern and 
 western waters of Lake Erie and of the Ohio and De- 
 laware, a distance of 580 miles, — opposed as was the 
 project by the intervention of the Alleghany moun- 
 tains, and by the difficulties of penetrating the almost 
 illimitable wilds of the great valley of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi. In the year 1791, about a century af- 
 ter the idea of water communication had been started 
 by Penn, the actual commencement may be dated of 
 those daring projects in Pennsylvania, which now 
 intersect and unite almost every important part of 
 the country. The first act passed in America for 
 the construction of a railway, was that by our legis- 
 lature in granting permission to Mr. Stevens and 
 others to connect Columbia on the Susquehanna with 
 Philadelphia. This enterprise, which the state has 
 completed in consequence of its abandonment by the 
 individuals to whom the authority was given for its 
 execution, was only the precursor of others which 
 shall connect, by a continuous railway, the Delaware 
 with the Ohio and the lakes. 
 
 This reference, meagre as it is, to the practical ca- 
 pabilities of Pennsylvania, and the liberality which 
 has marked her career in public improvements, fur- 
 nishes some index to the manners and intellectual 
 
33 
 
 condition of her people. It is a subject of surprise 
 and regret, that an opinion so erroneous should pre- 
 vail in some of tlie other states of the union in rela- 
 tion to her character in both. Is it not a solecism to 
 suppose thata legislature whose history is distinguish- 
 ed by undertakings so vast, and expenditures so daring, 
 should have no intrinsic greatness of materials ? Is 
 it reasonable to imagine that the people from whom 
 its members must emanate, and from whom is prima- 
 rily derived the conception of enterprises so glorious, 
 have no mental elevation, no sound intelligence? If 
 the principle be just, that the tree is known by its 
 fruits, the character of our state should be exalted in 
 a judicious estimation far beyond that of her revilers. 
 The ignorance which is imputed to the state at large 
 is a partial ignorance of the English language among 
 that handful of a worthy race in the interior of Penn- 
 sylvania, so respectable for their industry and lauda- 
 ble for their virtues. As the purposes of life require 
 that there should be ' hewers of wood and drawers 
 of water,' so in contributing to the public weal by 
 the fulfilment of their lots as plodding farmers or la- 
 borious artizans, they merit the encomiums as they 
 must receive the respect of patriots. 
 
 Upon a comparison of the number of newspapers 
 now published in the state with what were issued at 
 the revolution and are now printed abroad, we shall 
 find that the common mind of Pennsylvania cannot 
 
34 
 
 languish or decay for want of a generous sustentation. 
 Between the settlement of the province and the year 
 1775, there had sprung into heing about sixteen 
 newspapers in the English and German languages, 
 but few of these were destined long to illuminate the 
 colony. Lights which shone vividly for a time, were 
 soon extinguished for want of the necessary aliment, 
 and these were succeeded by others which, after dis- 
 pensing a flickering and momentary glare, were des- 
 tined in their turn to go out for ever. It was seldom, 
 and for brief periods, that more than three or four 
 existed simultaneously, and from 1762 to 1773 only 
 three papers were circulated at Philadelphia. Ac- 
 cording to Thomas's History of Printing, the year 
 1775 gave birth to five newspapers and a magazine; 
 but the war suspended or terminated the publication 
 of the latter and two of the papers — a third was de- 
 stroyed by fire — and of the two remaining;, one sur- 
 vived till 1778 and the other finished its career in 
 four years afterward. The magazine is pronounced to 
 have been meritorious for the character of its literary 
 contents, though its principal contributor was a per- 
 sonage neither greater norless than the notoriousTho- 
 mas Paine. But that age was not without luminaries 
 of a superior order. Dickinson, to whose ' Farmer's 
 Letters,' Ramsay ascribes the impulse of the revolu- 
 tion, Rittenhouse, Franklin, Rush, Evving, Hopkin- 
 son and Galloway, formed a constellation of no ordi- 
 nary magnitude. They surrounded that day with a 
 
35 
 
 splendour, and gave to it a celebrity which must ever 
 reflect a brightness upon Pennsylvania.* To enable 
 us to ascertain with some little precision the charac- 
 ter of our intellectual advancement, we must take 
 into consideration the condition of a new country, re- 
 quiring the application of its energies to subjects un- 
 congenial with erudite researches and literary suc- 
 cess. Though many of the writers, who have since 
 acquired distinction, flourished during the revolu- 
 tion, and may be classed with either division, I may 
 perhaps be justified in referring to Parke, Gray don, 
 Samuel Stanhope Smith, West, Fulton, Dennie, 
 Linn, Brown, and Godman, as authors and geniuses 
 who belong more particularly to a subsequent period. 
 So many circumstances may operate adversely to the 
 display of great powers in literature — the diversion 
 of the public mind to practical objects, and a tempo* 
 rary indifi"erence in the public taste to the elegancies 
 of literary composition — that an entire destitution 
 of eminent men should furnish no criterion of the na- 
 tional intellect. The commanding eminence of the 
 bench and bar of Pennsylvania, the learning and 
 acuteness which have marked the medical profession, 
 the erudition and eloquence of the clergy, the high 
 estimation of our various seats of learning, and above 
 all the unrivalled reputation of a great medical uni- 
 versity, indicate no dearth of talents, no want of de- 
 votion to study. Public libraries are to be found, 
 
 * See Note 7, in the Appendix. 
 
36 
 
 perhaps, in every county of the state, and the athe- 
 naeums established in petty villages, evince a diffusive 
 zeal for knowledge and an ardour of liberal inquiry, 
 to which it is difficult to point out a parallel. Among 
 the literary institutions of the United States, the 
 Philadelphia Library, and the American Philosophi- 
 cal Society, deserve a prominent station, if indeed, 
 they be not altogether unrivalled and transcendant. 
 The library which, in its inception and early pro- 
 gress, had to struggle with very restricted and even 
 contemptible resources, has assumed a magnitude 
 which in the number and value of its books, surpass- 
 es any collection on this side the Atlantic. Though 
 its existence was so early as 1731,* the number of its 
 volumes in 1785 did not exceed 5,487. In 1806 
 they amounted to 14,218, showing an augmentation 
 in twenty-one years of 8,731 books; and in the twen- 
 ty-five years which have since elapsed the amount 
 is more than quadruple — the number being now esti- 
 mated at more than 37,000 volumes. A cursory in- 
 spection of the voluminous catalogue will suffice to 
 discover the character of its ingredients, and to 
 exhibit in its contents as well the rarest gems of an- 
 tiquity as many of the useful and elegant productions 
 of all nations of modern and subsequent times. 
 The American Philosophical Society was originally 
 established at Philadelphia in the year 1743, and 
 formed a junction in 1769 with another literary 
 
 * See Note 8. 
 
37 
 
 association of similar objects and design.* Though 
 at first devoted to the natural and mathematical 
 sciences, it now embraces in its circle of investigations 
 the antiquities, topography, geography, statistics, 
 and history of the state and country. Little need 
 be said of an institution which can display in im- 
 posing succession upon its scroll of Presidents, 
 such names as Franklin, Rittenhouse, Jefferson, 
 Wistar, Patterson, Tilghman and Duponceau. The 
 ten volumes of Transactions published, including 
 the volume which has been issued by the Com- 
 mittee of History, demonstrate an ardour of lite- 
 rary enterprize and a depth of research, a plenitude 
 of mind and a variety and profundity of attainment, 
 which reflect the highest credit upon the country. 
 The contributions of Franklin and Rittenhouse, of 
 Dr. Smith and Francis Hopkinson, are characterized 
 by a native amplitude of soul, capable of adding 
 to that science which looks into tlie sublime and 
 awful mysteries of nature, a comprehensiveness of 
 conception and a boldness of discovery, which lie 
 beyond the grasp of the narrow, the timorous, and 
 the weak. But, undazzled by the splendour of a 
 philosophy which penetrated into tlie immeasurable 
 regions of the planets and the countless wonders of 
 the galaxy, and that which subjected to human con- 
 troul the terrific lightnings of heaven, let us be just 
 to the more homely, but not less practical monu- 
 
 * Note 9. 
 P 
 
38 
 
 ments erected by patient thought and sedulous read= 
 ing. It is to these fruits of genius and toil, we are 
 indebted for the speculations of a learned and inge- 
 nious philologist, which unfold to us the amazing 
 beauty and very artificial structure of the Indian 
 idioms, and which plausibly exhibit perhaps con- 
 clusively prove, that the red men of the American 
 forests, however separated by distance and marked 
 by contrariety of habits, are united by the relation- 
 ship of a common ancestry — by the ties of an identi- 
 cal origin. If, before and during the revolution, 
 Pennsylvania could boast, in this institution, of a 
 Godfrey born, and a Franklin educated and adopted, 
 we may yet claim a Rittenhouse, a Wistar, a Patter- 
 son, a Tilghman, and a Godman — not to mention 
 many eminent survivors, contemporary with that il- 
 lustrious grmip. 
 
 Taking the relative number of periodical works 
 as a guide by which to estimate our advancement 
 or recession, we have every reason to be satisfied 
 with our lot — every inducement for the indulgence 
 of national complacency. In the year 1775, in- 
 cluding the periodicals which then had commence- 
 ment with those which existed antecedently, the 
 aggregate number of published sheets and maga- 
 zines did not exceed ni7ie. In 1810, they had in- 
 creased to seventy -one, and in 1828 they amounted 
 to one hundred and eighty-five, a number greatly 
 
39 
 
 exceeding the ratio of augmented population, and 
 more than equal to any two states in the Union, with 
 the exception of New York. The number of literary 
 works annually published at Philadelphia, not only 
 transcends that of any other city in the Union, but is 
 estimated to be nearly equal to tliem all united. 
 These comprehend native works, and reprints of that 
 endless variety of productions with which the Eu- 
 ropean press is teeming, from the lightest novel and 
 poetry of the day, up to the most daring reaches of 
 philosophy and the nicest points of philology and 
 criticism. The reasonable proportion of these upon 
 music and the fine arts, attests the tendencies of the 
 public taste, and indicates that stage in the educated 
 mind when it has received the last impress and 
 polish of refinement. It argues that beauty of men- 
 tal perception and exquisite delicacy of feeling, which 
 are connected with elegance of manners, and the 
 highest culture of the understanding. 
 
 Though it forms no part of the business of an his- 
 torian, in recording past and present events, to look 
 forward to the future, we may not deny to ourselves 
 the pleasure of contemplating in prospect the high 
 destiny to which Pennsylvania is hastening. Unos- 
 tentatiously she has been constructing a system of 
 politics and jurisprudence founded upon the rights of 
 man and the true interests of human nalurcj the as- 
 perities of a wilderness have been smoothed — its 
 
40 
 
 wildncss subdued; and her skill, her resources, and 
 her talents, are in a course of development by the 
 application of means the most judicious, because the 
 most easy and natural. Eschewing those follies in 
 civil jurisprudence, and those abuses in criminal 
 punishment, which had their origin in the dark and 
 barbarous ages of Europe, and disdaining all shackles 
 upon liberty but those imposed by reason and nature, 
 what can prevent the attainment of that mental keen- 
 ness and moral elevation, which effect such glorious 
 triumphs and produce such superior results? If 
 the other states who are behind, shall be emulous of 
 her high example, this confederacy may disclose to 
 the world, if not the military achievements of Greece 
 and Rome, at least the peaceful virtues by which 
 they must ever inspire the admiration of posterity. 
 Shall I be told that the anticipation is too flattering? 
 Is there a probability that it will prove illusive ? 
 No: while the old world is sinking down the politi- 
 cal and intellectual horizon, beneath the accumulated 
 weight of years and of vices, America may be seen 
 rising from her ruins, fresh as the morning and tow- 
 ering as the eagle, to run her race of virtue and of 
 glory ! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 (Note 1. p. 10.) — William Penn has very laconically 
 but clearly expressed the belief of his sect upon the sub- 
 ject of government, in his second reply to a committee of 
 the House of Lords, appointed in 1678. "First," says 
 he, " we believe Government to be God's Ordinance; and 
 next, that this present government is established by the 
 Providence of God and law of the land, and that it is our 
 Christian duty readily to obey it in all its just laws; and where- 
 in we cannot comply, through tenderness of conscience, in 
 all such cases, not to revile or conspire against the govern- 
 ment, but with Christian humility and patience tire out all 
 mistakes against us, and wait their better information, who, 
 we belive, do as undeservedly as severely treat us; and I 
 know not what greater security can be given by any peo- 
 ple, or how any government can be easier from the subjects 
 of it." In conformity with these principles, and their tes- 
 timony in relation to peace, Friends, during the progress of 
 the revolution, instituted examinations into the conduct of 
 their members, and all who were found to take part either 
 with the Americans on the one side, or with the British on 
 the other, were without exception disowned. For the pur- 
 pose of showing the sentiments upon this subject, of an en- 
 lightened foreigner who travelled through this country in 
 the year 1788, 1 translate from a book entitled, "Nouvcau 
 Voyage dans les Etats-unis dc I'Amerique Septentrion- 
 ale fait en 1788; par J. P. Brissot (Warvillc,) Citoyen 
 Fran(;ais," certain portions of long passages which arc unac- 
 countably omitted in the English translation of that work, 
 
42 
 
 published at London in 1792. I need not apologise for the 
 length of the following passages which I translate. 
 
 " It was at this epoch, particularly (a cette epoque surtout, 
 meaning the revolution,) that an animosity was excited 
 against them (the Quakers) which is not yet entirely allay- 
 ed. Faithful to their religious principles, they declared 
 they could take no part in the war, and disowned or ex- 
 communicated every member of their Society, who either 
 served in the American troops or British army. I must 
 confess that thoroughly assured of that sacred and divine 
 principle which authorises armed resistance to oppression, 
 and entirely convinced that here the oppression was mani- 
 fest, I could not avoid blaming the neutrality preserved by 
 the Quakers whilst their brethren were struggling for the 
 acquisition of independence. But notwithstanding my 
 principles, I do not the less think that the violent persecu- 
 tion of the Quakers for their pacific neutrality was essen- 
 tially wrong. 
 
 " If their refusal had been the first of this kind; if it had 
 been only dictated by their attachment to the British cause; 
 if it had only served them to conceal the secret proofs which 
 they might have given of this attachment; certainly they 
 had been culpable and perhaps persecution had been lawful. 
 But this neutrality was enjoined upon them by the religi- 
 ous opinions which they profess and have practised from 
 their origin. But exclusive of this, whatever prejudiced or 
 ill informed writers may have asserted, the truth, which I 
 have taken great pains to obtain, is, that the majority of 
 the Quakers did not incline more to one party than to the 
 other, did good indifferently to both, and in fact to all those 
 who stood in need of assistance. If some of the society of 
 Quakers served in the British army, there were some like- 
 wise who served in the American army — and amongst 
 others may be mentioned the names of the Generals Green^ 
 Mifflm, and Lacy, but the society excommunicated indif- 
 ferently all those who took up arms. * * * * * * 
 
43 
 
 " I have heard no one speak with more impartiality of the 
 Quakers than this celebrated man (alluding to Washington,) 
 whose spirit of justice is particularly remarkable. He ac- 
 knowledged to me that in the course of the war, he had 
 entertained an unfavourable opinion of the society; he 
 in fact knew little of them, because at that period there 
 were but few members of this sect in Virginia. He at- 
 tributed to their political sentiments what was the effect of 
 their religious principles. When he encamped in Chester 
 County, principally inhabited by Quakers, he supposed 
 himself to be in an enemy's country, as he could not in- 
 duce a single Quaker to act for him in the character of a 
 sp)^ But not one served as a spy against him in the em- 
 ploy of the British army. 
 
 *' You will nevertheless find a fact contrary to this asser- 
 tion advanced by the detractors of the Quakers; but the 
 source of their error is easily discovered. As the Quakers 
 frequently travelled through the midst of both armies with- 
 out passports, and as they were ultimately looked upon 
 without umbrage by both, the spies, to transact their busi- 
 ness with more safety, disguised themselves in the dress pe- 
 culiar to Quakers. Many were hung in this habit, and from 
 hence arose their accusation against the Friends. 
 
 " General Washington having since better understood the 
 spirit of the Society, concludes by esteeming them. He 
 acknowledged to me that on considering the simplicity of 
 their manners, their fondness for economy, the excellence 
 of their morals, and the good example they afforded, joined 
 to the attachment they showed for the constitution, he re- 
 garded them as the best citizens of the new government, 
 which required a great degree of obedience and the banish- 
 ment of luxury. 
 
 " It was not under this point of view that they were consi- 
 dered by the Congress who laid the foundation of Ameri- 
 can Independence. Furious at the resistance which the 
 Quakers opposed to them, they joined the people who per- 
 secuted them; and it must bn allowed that they banished 
 
44 
 
 without any foundation, to Stanton in Virginia, to the dis- 
 tance of two hundred miles from their families, the heads 
 of the Society who were the most offensive to them. Their 
 defence was not heard and they submitted, &c." 
 
 (Note 2. p. 17.) Perhaps the first act of any government 
 admitting slaves to any thing like an equal participation in 
 ordinary rights, is the law of Rhode Island, made in the 
 1562. It pi'ohibits under a penalty the retention of slaves 
 for a longer period than ten years, and requires them to be 
 manumitted at the age of 24 if introduced into the colony 
 before 14. When England, who has never very anxiously 
 promoted the cause of liberty out of her own insular bound- 
 ary, has cast a compassionating glance upon the West In- 
 dies, and when the despotic government of Austria has 
 proclaimed freedom to all slaves, not only those who tread 
 her soil, but to those who stop in vessels within her har- 
 bours, we may hope that human rights will one day be re- 
 spected and acknowledged even throughout our republic. 
 Slavery in the United States is more repulsive in its fea- 
 tures than in any country of ancient times. The Helotes 
 of Sparta were less the property of individuals thati of the 
 Commonwealth; they were capable of acquiring estates; 
 nnd could be enfranchised upon evidence of unmerciful 
 treatment. In Crete, Egypt, and Rome, they had privileges 
 which protected them from the tyranny of their masters. 
 Among the Hebrews the Pentateuch required the liberation 
 of a slave at the end of six years, and by the adoption of 
 that part of the laws of Moses into the preamble to the 
 code of Alfred, a longer period was prohibited among the 
 Saxons. But with us the slave is completely subjected to 
 the power of his legal owner — his servitude is intermina- 
 ble — and he transmits his degradation and misery to his pos- 
 terity for ever. 
 
 While upon this subject it may not be improper to remove 
 a charge affecting the fair fame of early Pennsylvania, but 
 
45 
 
 more particularly the humane character of her Founder. I 
 allude to his imputed, and no doubt, actual participation in 
 the act of 1700, prescribing to negroes Si. peculiar trial and 
 punishment. Those who have studied^Penn's civil polity 
 and laws must sensibly feel any injustice that may be done 
 to either, exalted as is the lawgiver in the estimation of 
 most, above Lycurgus or Numa, Charlemagne or Alfred. 
 A few words, therefore, may be pardoned, since without 
 some explanation, it might be deemed not only at variance 
 with his usual forbearance and characteristical clemency, but 
 a feature of peculiar rigour in our domestic system of sla- 
 very. 
 
 A very slight reflection will convince us that this act of 
 the provincial legislature originated in a benevolent desire 
 to assuage the miseries of unqualified servitude. Slavery, 
 with much of its arbitrary cruelty, prevailed in Pennsylva- 
 nia at that early period. Though the belief was formally 
 expressed in 1696 by a few persons, that the institution was 
 unjust, we may suppose the opinion neither universally ob- 
 tained, nor greatly mitigated the hardships to which ne- 
 groes had been exposed by the prevalence of a difierent 
 doctrine. They were still subjected to the power of their 
 unrelenting superiors — not merely as the ministers of a 
 fickle and varying volition, but as the victims of a sore and 
 oppressive tyranny. Notwithstanding the solicitude of 
 many, and the active guardianship of some, in regard to 
 their physical welfare, they seem, in particular cases, to have 
 sufiered from their unfeeling masters, thus constituted the 
 absolute disposers of their happiness — the potent and uncon- 
 trolled arbiters of their destiny. 
 
 In bondage thus hopeless and unlimited, they became de- 
 praved in morals and low in intellect. To soften their hard 
 fate, Penn was willing to substitute the provisions of legis- 
 lative authority for the invidiousness of arbitrary or person- 
 al caprice — in a word, to restrain by legal prescription those 
 who had defied it. Hence his acquiescence in the act of 
 1700. Though in its features it accorded with the erro- 
 
 G 
 
46 
 
 neous opinions which prevailed respecting the ingenerate"^ 
 depravity of negroes, and the necessity of subjecting them 
 to severe inflictions, it was intended to be and actually 
 proved beneficial to their interests. In effect it palsied the 
 uplifted arm of a cruel and despotic master by interposing 
 the shield of legislative uniformity and certainty. That a 
 regard to their welfare was the principle upon which it was 
 ratified, is evident from the anxiety of Penn to alleviate 
 their physical discomforts, and to arouse their moral and re- 
 ligious sensibilities. His efforts to engage in their behalf 
 the more lively sympathy of Friends in a monthly meeting 
 held at Philadelphia,* and his presentation of a bill to the 
 assembly ' for regulating negroes in their morals and mar- 
 riages,'! — both in the year 1700 — bear emphatic testimony 
 to the philanthropy which dictated, and the motives which 
 induced his concurrence in the act referred to, since it was 
 presented to the assembly in the same year and about the 
 same period. 
 
 (Note 3. p. 24. ) — The distinction of murder into degrees 
 was introduced into Pennsylvania by the act of 1794, and 
 has subsequently found favour with Louisiana, Maryland, 
 Ohio, Virginia, and perhaps some other states. The honour 
 of originating it is perhaps ascribable to William Bradford, 
 Esq. successively a federal Judge and Attorney-general of 
 the United States and of this state, who wrote his ' Enqui- 
 ry' in the year 1793. The penalty of death is affixed only 
 to murder of the first degree which consists in the inten- 
 tion to kill, manifested by circumstances, or the use of a 
 mortal weapon with malice prepense or aforethought; or 
 in the attempt to perpetrate arson, or other heinous offences 
 enumerated in the act. If the intention be not to termin- 
 ate life but merely the infliction of some great corporal in- 
 jury, the offence is reduced to murder of the second degree, 
 
 * Proud's History of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1. p. 423, 
 j Gordon's History of Pennsylvania, p. 115, 
 
47 
 
 an offence which is punished in Pennsylvania by imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 (Note 4. p. 2S.) — The eastern penitentiary received its 
 first prisoner on the 25th of October 1829, and according to 
 Dr. Bache's letter to Roberts Vaux, Esq. written a year ago, 
 the average number of inmates for the previous six months 
 might be stated at 32. Br. Bache, whose professional con- 
 nection with the prison enables him to speak with confi- 
 dence and authority, says that ''the entire seclusion of 
 criminals from all association with their fellow criminals, 
 is altogether compatible with their profitable employment 
 at useful trades, and with the preservation of health." As 
 Roscoe and La Fayette, the Prison Society of Boston and 
 friends of Auburn, have united their voices against the hu- 
 manity of the system of solitary labour, a very brief ex- 
 tract from Dr. Bache's letter referring to the treatment and 
 conveniences of the prisoner, may be pardoned." "The 
 criminal is placed in a room, well warmed and ventilated, 
 quite adequate in dimensions for the sleeping and working 
 apartment of one person, as it contains more than thirteen 
 hundred cubic feet of space. He is furnished with sufficient 
 clothing and a good bed, with wholesome but coarse food, 
 and with the means of keeping his person neat and clean; 
 "and he enjoys the privilege, whenever the weather is fa- 
 vourable, of exercising one hour daily in his exercising 
 yard. He is furnished besides with work, &c." This ac- 
 count comprises every peculiarity of his condition, except 
 that he has frequent intercourse with his keeper, and with 
 moral and religious persons, besides having access to suita- 
 ble books. The intercourse between the criminal and those 
 individuals who are permitted to approach him, is not in- 
 consistent with such a species of solitude as is necessary to 
 amendment. The society of his fellow prisoners is prohi- 
 bited less for the purpose of punishment than because it 
 will prove injurious to his moral health, and be subversive 
 of the design to make him a useful member of society. Is 
 
48 
 
 there a hope of future effort from that offender whose name 
 is known and whose infamy is notorious among his fellow 
 prisoners ? Where will he seek refuge from the pos- 
 sibility of a visit from his fellow convicts and the conse- 
 quent ruin of his credit for probity? The consciousness 
 of a blasted character will paralize the virtue that would re- 
 deem it. The number of inmates since the correspondence 
 between Mr. Vaux and Dr. Bache has been gradually in- 
 creasing, and now amounts to 77. Neither insanity 
 nor detriment to health has yet been discoverable, but on 
 the contrary, not a case of mental ailment and few of 
 bodily sickness have occurred. 
 
 The notion of the great expense attending the mode of 
 treatment, for which Roberts Vaux contended in the con- 
 troversial discussion between him and William Roscoe of 
 Liverpool, is very satisfactorily shown to be erroneous. I 
 quote from Mr. Vaux's first letter: 
 
 "By separate confinement, other advantages of an eco- 
 nomical nature will result; amongst these may be mention- 
 ed a great reduction of the terms of imprisonment: for, in- 
 stead of from three to twenty years, and sometimes longer, 
 as many months, excepting for very atrocious crimes, will 
 answer all the ends of retributive justice and penitential ex- 
 perience, which on the actual plan, the greatest detention 
 in prison altogether fails to accomplish. — Besides this abate- 
 ment of expense in maintaining prisoners, very few keep- 
 ers will be required on the new system, and as the females 
 should be entrusted wholly to the custody of suitable indi- 
 viduals of their own sex, their services can of course be se- 
 cured for less compensation than men. Such of the 
 prisoners as may be employed, will necessarily labour alone, 
 and the kinds of business in which they will be engaged, 
 not being rough and exposing as those now adopted, the 
 expenditure for clothing must be much diminished. On 
 the score of cost, therefore, if that, indeed, bean object in a 
 work of this magnitude, the solitary plan recommends itself 
 
49 
 
 to the regard of the public economist. But the problem of 
 expense in my opinion, can only he truly solved, by 
 showing the cheapest m,ethod of keeping prisoners to be, 
 that which is most likely to reform them, to deter others 
 by the imposing character of the punishment, from prey- 
 ing upon the honest and unoffending members of socie- 
 ty, afterwards involving heavy judicial costs to establish 
 their guilt — and becoming at last a charge to the coun- 
 try as co7ivicted felons." 
 
 (Note 5. p. 30.) — The county bridges are not included in 
 this estimate. Some have been constructed at an expense 
 of from 30 to 40, and even 60,000 dollars. 
 
 (Note 6. p. 31.) — Reference is made in the text to George 
 Washington Smith, Esq. whose minute and extensive ac- 
 quaintance with the internal improvements of the country, 
 is well known. He uses the following language in his 
 * Notes, &c.' published in the first volume of Hazard's Re- 
 gister, on the subject of Pennsylvania's first interesting the 
 public mind upon turnpike roads and canals. 
 
 "Numerous letters are extant which are peculiarly inte- 
 resting, not merely from the character of their writers, but 
 for the perfect originality of the views contained in them. 
 They prove beyond all possibility of doubt, that the Union 
 is indebted to Pennsylvania for the first introduction of 
 canals and turnpikes to the public attention. It has been 
 the policy of some other states, not only to assume to them- 
 selves the credit of originating these means of commercial 
 intercourse, but to add insult to injustice by ceaseless eflbrts 
 to depreciate the enterprise of Pennsylvania in order to ex- 
 alt their own reputation." 
 
 (Note 7. p. 35.) — Several poets of inferior note are 
 spoken of who lived about this time. David James Dove 
 was a schoolmaster of Philadelphia and a dealer in the mi- 
 
50 
 
 nor kind of satirical poetry. He taught about the period of 
 the revolution, and is ludicrously introduced in a book en- 
 titled ' The life and adventures of Chevalier Taylor, ' This 
 Taylor be it remembered, is spoken of as a talker of Latin 
 in Boswell's life of Johnson. 
 
 Kinnesley was an English teacher and an Anabaptist Cler- 
 gyman who lived about the same time, and from his devo- 
 tion to electricity is thought to have contributed in no small 
 degree to certain discoveries in the application of the prin- 
 ciples of that science ascribed to Dr. Franklin. 
 
 John Beveridge contemporary with these was a classical 
 teacher, whose Latin poetry published in 1765 has been 
 commended for the mechanical correctness of the versifica- 
 tion, but it is deficient in all that constitutes poetry. He 
 was mean enough to solicit of Thomas Penn, a few of the 
 many acres which the proprietor possessed on the shores of 
 the Delaware, reminding him that Ajax, ^neas, and Mae- 
 cenas were immortalized by the strains of Homer, Virgil, and 
 Horace. I quote the passage last alluded to in exemplifica- 
 tion of the vanity which could suggest a parallel between 
 the praises of those mighty geniuses and his own muse; 
 
 " Quid foret jEneas, et magni nominis Ajax, 
 Atque alii quorum sunt nomina multa virorum; 
 Ni foret et vates divini carminis auctor 
 Maeonides, sacro qui primus vertrce Pindi 
 Deduxit faciles Phocbo plaudente, Camoenas? 
 
 Vel quid Maecenas, animi mentisque benignae 
 Ni benefacta sui celebrasset carmen Horati, 
 Et Maro munificum cecinisset gratus amicum?" &c. &c. 
 
 Some of the ushers of this pedagogue were superior to him- 
 self. Patrick Alison, afterwards a Presbyterian Clergyman 
 of Baltimore, of more than common reputation, James 
 Wilson, afterwards a distinguished judge of the Supreme 
 Court of the U. S. , and John Andrews, afterwards Doctor 
 Andrews of the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
51 
 
 (Note S. p. 36.)— The first Directors of the Philadelphia 
 Library were Benjamin Franklin, "William Parsons, Thomas 
 Godfrey, Thomas Cadwalader, Robert Grace, Thomas 
 Hopkinson, Philip Syng, Jun., Anthony Nicholas, John 
 Jones, Jun., and Isaac Pennington. They were appointed 
 in November 1731. In 1777 the institution was enriched 
 by the munificent bequest of the Hon. James Logan, with 
 3944 volumes, most of them old authors of sterling merit. 
 An act of the Legislature in 1791 annexed the Loganian to 
 the Philadelphia Library, and the books were placed in the 
 same building in May, 1794. 
 
 (Note 9. p. 37.)—' The American Philosophical Society 
 for promoting Useful Knowledge,' was formed by the^junc- 
 tion of two societies, the one called ' The American Philo- 
 sophical Society,' and the other 'The Junto, or Society for 
 promoting Useful Knowledge.' The former was instituted 
 in 1743, and the latter was in existence in 1758. I per- 
 ceive that Dr. Mease in his excellent ' Picture of Philadel- 
 phia,' has dated the origin of this society in 1766, but a mi- 
 nute-book of proceedings is extant reaching so far back as 
 1758, and it is probable the Junto had a still earlier com- 
 mencement. The union was formed by combining the 
 names of both associations, and exchanging lists of the mem- 
 bers of each. The combination took place in December 
 1768, and Dr. Franklin was elected first President of the 
 united society. It was incorporated in 17S0. In 1816 a 
 seventh committee on the history and antiquities of the state 
 and country was added to those originally appointed, at the 
 instance of the late Dr. Caspar Wistar. 
 
 Before this discourse went to press I diligently searched, 
 but in vain, for the minutes of the Philosophical Society 
 before its junction with the Junto. It is believed that these 
 minutes are not now in existence. A learned friend has 
 just put into my hands the following letter from Dr. Frank- 
 
52 
 
 lin to the Hon. Cadwallader Golden, of Coldenham, relat- 
 ing to the first organization of the Society. By this letter 
 it appears that the first President of the Philosophical So- 
 ciety was Thomas Hopkinson, father of the celebrated 
 Francis Hopkinson, and grandfather of the present Judge 
 Hopkinson of Philadelphia. I am informed it was ori- 
 ginally published in 1812, in Dr. Hosack's American Me- 
 dical and Philosophical Register — there is no doubt about 
 its being genuine. 
 
 New York, April 5, 1744. 
 Sir — Happening to be in this city about some particular 
 affairs, I have the pleasure of receiving yours of the 28th, 
 past, here; and can now acquaint you, that the Society, as 
 far as it relates to Philadelphia, is actually formed, and has 
 had several meetings to mutual satisfaction. As soon as I 
 get home, I shall send you a short account of what has been 
 done and proposed at these meetings. The members are: 
 
 Dr. Thomas Bond, as Physician. 
 
 Mr. John Bartram, as Botanist. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Godfrey, as Mathematician. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Rhodes, as Mechanician. 
 
 Mr. William Parsons, as Geographer. 
 
 Dr. Phineas Bond, as General Nat. Philosopher. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, President. 
 
 Mr. William Coleman, Treasurer. 
 
 B. F , Secretary. 
 
 To whom the following members have since been added, 
 viz. Mr. Alexander, of New York; Mr. Morris, Ch. Jus- 
 tice of the Jerseys; Mr. Home, Secretary of do. ; Mr. John 
 Coxe, of Trenton, and Mr. Martyn, of the same place. 
 
 Mr. Nicholls tells me of several other gentlemen of this 
 city that incline to encourage the thing; and there are a 
 number of others, in Virginia, Maryland, and the New- 
 England Colonies, who we expect to join us, as soon as 
 they are acquainted that the Society has begun to form 
 itself. I am. Sir, with much repect, your most humble 
 servant. B. FRANKLIN. 
 
 The Hon. Cadwallader Colden, Esq. 
 
HBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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