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Gc 974.8 W26w 2003024
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01202 7816
Warwick's Keystone Commonwealth
A Review of the History of the Great State of Pennsylvania, and a Brief Record of the Growth of its Chief City, Philadelphia- Cities
BY CHARLES F. WARWICK EX-MAYOR OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA And Author of the following Works:
MIRABEAU AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, DANTON AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, ROBESPIERRE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND THE END OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
1913
78 7337 14
Warwick, Charles F Warwicks Keystone commonwealth (Pa.)
Palm Beach
2003024
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/warwickskeystone00warw
COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY ELLA K. WARWICK, Administratrix PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER 1.
Conditions in Europe in the Seventeenth Century
8 CHAPTER II.
Dutch and Swedes. Arrival of English 15
CHAPTER IN.
Penn Secures Charter of Pennsylvania 24
CHAPTER 1\'.
Mennonites, Tunkers and Schwenkfelders
CHAPTER V.
Volunteer Fire System. Market Place 58
CHAPTER V1.
Contention Re the Boundary Line of Pennsylvania
CHAPTER VIL.
Penn's Will. Benjamin Franklin
79
French and Indian Wars
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IN.
Rapid Development of the City
CHAPTER X.
107
CHAPTER X1.
Famous Stamp Act of 1765 11.4
CHAPTER X11.
Passage of the Declaration of Independence 126
CHAPTER XIII.
Philadelphia Made Seat of National Government
CHAPTER XIV.
Indian Insurrection
150
Removal of National Capital
CHAPTER XV. 165
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47
91
98
State House and Its Bell
141
CONTENTS .- Continued.
PAGE. CHAPTER XVI.
War of 1812 179
CHAPTER XVII.
The Bench and the Bar 192
CHAPTER XVIII.
Theatres and Street Scenes 199
CHAPTER XIX.
Music, Medicine and Art
. 211
Introduction of Railroads
CHAPTER XX.
.. 219
Election of Andrew Jackson CHAPTER XXI. 220
CHAPTER XXI1.
Philadelphia, A Literary Centre
2.41
Slavery and Race Riots
CHAPTER XXI11.
CHAPTER XXIV'.
Act of Consolidation 256
CHAPTER XXV.
Agitation of Slavery Question
266
CHAPTER XXVI.
Opening of the Civil War
CHAPTER XXVII.
Development after the War
283
Peace Jubilee Celebration
CHAPTER XXVIII. . 291
CHAPTER XXIX.
Manufacturing and Educational Interests
205
Biography 209 429
In Memoriam 430
Index to History 436
Index to Biographies 438
.
273
CHARLES F. WARWICK.
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1
1
PREFACE.
T HIS is not a history of deep research. My physical condition has been such that during its composition I have been con- fined to my room, indeed much of the time to my bed, and consequently have been unable to visit the libraries and other institutions, to delve in and dig up original matter, and to read and study original letters, manuscripts and documents.
My work has not been burdened with schedules and statistics, for my purpose has been to give to the reader a history of principal events, and to take him as it were, into the very atmosphere of the times de- scribed, drawing pen portraits of prominent men and pictures of past incidents, showing the vocations of the people, their amusements, their habits, customs, attire, every day street scenes and manner of living, and at the same time showing the gradual growth and development of the city and state and how they have been affected by national conditions.
In accomplishing this task I have used a mass of material which ! have collected from time to time in years gone by; I have also drawn extensively from notes, private letters and memoranda and have con- sulted such works as: Thomas Proud's History of Pennsylvania ; Wat- son's Annals; Thompson Westcott's History of Philadelphia ; John Rus- sell Young's Philadelphia ; The Making of Pennsylvania, and the Penn- sylvania Colony and Commonwealth by Sydney George Fisher; Dr. Ellis P. Oberholtzer's History of Philadelphia; Pem's Letters in the
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WARWICK'S KEYSTONE COMMON WEALTIL.
Evening Bulletin ; and the many sketches on the history of our city and state from the pens of Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker and Hon. Hamp- ton 1. Carson.
The reader will not find a profound work, but I trust that it will be of interest. The disadvantages under which the book has been written must serve as a partial excuse for my failure to more faithfully cover the subject.
CHIAS. F. WARWICK, Philadelphia, Pa.
CHAPTER I.
POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS OF EUROPE IN THE SEVENTEENTII AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
P ENNSYLVANIA, one of the original thirteen states, is the Keystone of the Federal Arch. Her position and power give to her this distinguish- ing. designation. With New York and New England lying on one hand, and the Southern states on the other, she separates them, but at the same time serves as a bond to unite them in a fraternal union. She was founded by an enlightened statesman, and peopled by liberal settlers, who, escaping from religious tyranny, brought with them to the new land a spirit of freedom and toleration. Keeping her treaties faithfully with the Indians, her people were never compelled to carry firearms on their way to church or to the meeting house, as were the Pilgrims of New England, to repel the attacks of savages. Her in- habitants were imbued with the spirit of liberty and political equality which made them more liberal in disposition than the Puritans. They too were without those aristocratic features that characterized the cavaliers of the South.
It was fortunate for America, for her future growth and development, that the settlements were made at a time when the political and religious tyranny and the oppression of the old world sent out emigrants who sought liberty and an opportunity to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Although they brought with them in many instances a spirit of bigotry and intol- erance it is remarkable in view of what they had suffered how liberal they were under all the circumstances. It was fortunate too that the political and religious conditions of Europe forced them to emigrate, for they came not with the pur- pose of adventurers who were simply to explore and exploit a new land, but, with the intention of settlers who were determined to establish permanent homes.
To cite, for example, the case of the Pilgrims. They landed on Plymouth rock in 1620, in December of that year. The weather was unusually severe, and they suffered great hardships, so that when Spring arrived half of the colony were in their graves. When the "Mayflower," however, returned to England in May of 1621, not one of the Pilgrims sailed with her. They had come to stay. They were willing to suffer the discomforts and privations of a new land rather than subject themselves again to the tyranny and persecution from which they had escaped.
The settlers that came to North America were brave and resolute men, with the courage of their convictions. They adhered to their faith in spite of persecution ; in fact, persecution only intensified their loyalty and devotion .. They were imbued with the spirit of martyrs and they were willing to face the terrors of an unknown deep and the perils of a savage and an unexplored country in order that they might secure liberty of conscience.
The Puritans in New England, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Catholics
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WARWICK'S KEYSTONE COMMONWEALTHI.
in Maryland, the Cavaliers in Virginia, and the Huguenots in the Carolinas were mighty architects of a mighty empire.
The first English settlement planted in North America, was that of Virginia, at Jamestown, in 1607. The Dutch settled in New York in 1614, then came the settlement of Massachusetts by the Puritans at Plymouth in 1620. New flamp- shire and Maine were settled in 1623, New Jersey in 1624, Delaware in 1627, Connecticut in 1633, Maryland in 1634, Rhode Island in 1636, North Carolina about 1640, and South Carolina about 1670. Pennsylvania was permanently settled by the Quakers in 1682 and Ogelthorpe planted his English colony in Georgia in 1733.
These settlements were made mainly by the English together with an admix- ture of Germans and Scotch Irish. New Jersey was settled by the Dutch, Swedes and English, and Delaware by the Swedes alone.
In order to understand the causes that induced the emigration of these people it is necessary to consider the political and religious condition of Europe in those days. The seventeenth century was one in which the absolutism of kings ob- tained full sway and which was characterized by religious intolerance, bigotry and superstition. The glory and the power of the English commonwealth had ended with the death of Cromwell and the Restoration under Charles II. had returned the Stuarts to the throne, who revived in its full strength the doctrine of the divine right of kings. The puritanism and austerity of Cromwell's rule were immediately succeeded by a licentiousness that leaped over all bounds and men under the influence of the reaction threw off not only the profession but every semblance of virtue and piety. Morality was reviled and ridiculed as cant and hypocrisy. Revelry and drunkenness spread throughout the kingdom and men held continued orgies while drinking the health of the king. The "Merry Mon- arch" himself set the example for the free and riotons living that prevailed among the people.
Charles II. was succeeded by James II., who after a vain effort to establish the Roman Catholic Church in England was compelled to abdicate and in turn was succeeded by William and Mary who effected what is known in history as the "Glorious Revolution of 1688."
France, under the reign of Louis XIV., was the leading and most influential state on the continent of Europe. In the king centered all the power and dignity of the state. There were no constitutional barriers between him and the people. His declaration that he was the State, was not a mere idle boast, but an absolute truth. "The government of Louis is a great fact," says Guizot, "a powerful and brilliant fact, but it was built upon sand." He was despotic, bigoted and intoler- ant, ignored the rights of man and by his extravagance and the prosecution of useless wars hurried the nation into bankruptcy: llis reign was signalized by the revocation of the Ediet of Nantes, a liberal act passed under Henry IV. that had given to the Huguenots relief from persecution.
Spain, under the rule of Philip IT. had grown to vast dimensions but her power suddenly dwindled and the sceptre passed from her grasp. It was her proud boast in the days of her glory that the sun never set upon her possessions. Macauley, in commenting upon the importance and extent of Spain, says: "That the empire of Philip IT. was undoubtedly one of the most powerful and splendid
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WARWICK'S KEYSTONE COMMONWEALTHI.
that ever existed in the world. In Europe he ruled Spain, Portugal, the Nether- lands on both sides of the Rhine, Franche Comte, Roussillon, the Milanese and the two Sicilies; Tuscany, Parma and the other smaller states of Italy were as completely dependent upon him as the Nizam and the Rajah of Berar now are on the East India Company. In Asia the King of Spain was Master of the Philip- pines, and all of those rich settlements which the Portuguese had made on the coast of Malabar and Coramandel, in the Peninsula of Malacca, in the Spice islands of the Eastern Archipelago. In America his dominion extended on each side of the equator into the temperate zone. It is no exaggeration to say that during several years his power over Europe was greater than even that of Na- poleon." But this vast and mighty empire soon crumbled and fell into decay and in the seventeenth century her influence in European politics in a great measure had departed. The Spaniards made no settlements in the new world to escape persecution. When they came they were actuated by other motives.
The Spanish sokliers and adventurers of that period were undoubtedly brave and daring explorers but cruel and inhuman masters. To be sure they carried the cross in one hand but they wielded the sword in the other and ignored the influ- ence of the former by the cruel and desperate use of the latter. The greed of the Spaniards in America for gold, deadened every sentiment of humanity. There was no desert too broad to cross, no mountain too high to climb, no river too swift to ford, no wilderness too deep to penetrate in their desperate hunt for wealth, They were lost to every impulse of human sympathy in their treatment of the poor natives. They scourged and drove them under the lash and sword to dig and delve in the mines in search of the precious metals. The only purpose of the Spanish adventurer at that period was to discover a fountain of perennial youth or a mine of perpetual wealth.
Bartolomeo Las Casas, an earnest and a most devout Spanish priest who undertook to carry the Christian faith into these benighted regions, soon began to protest against the savage treatment of the natives at the hands of his fellow countrymen. In his account of the Spaniards in the Island of Cuba he relates that a certain Cacique named Hatbuey had unfortunately fallen into their hands and was burned alive. While in the midst of flames, fastened to a stake, he was promised eternal life if he would believe. "Hatbuey reflecting on the matter as mmich as the place and condition in which he was would permit, asked the friar that instructed him, whether the gate of heaven was open to the Spaniards, and being answered that such of them as were good men might hope for entrance there, the Cacique without any further deliberation told him he had no mind to go to heaven for fear of meeting so cruel and wicked a company as they were, but would rather go to hell where he might be delivered from the troublesome sight of such kind of people." This is the testimony of a devoat and an earnest priest who, making every sacrifice, carried to these simple people in the new land the Gospel and the cross of Christ. It was fortunate that Spain did not obtain a dominating or permanent influence in the settlement of the North American provinces. To be sure she early founded the town of St. Augustine, but Florida became in time but a nest of pirates, robbers, desperadoes, outlaws, wandering Indians and runaway negroes. Uniting their forces they made con- stant forays and massacred the planters of Georgia, burned their buildings and
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WARWICK'S KEYSTONE COMMONWEALTHI.
destroyed their crops. Then fleeing to the thickets, morasses and swamps of Florida they were safe from attack. These outrages continued for years and were beyond the control of the Spanish authorities and at last, Spain, to relieve herself of the burden sold the province in 1819 to the United States for the sum of $5,000,000.
Germany had passed through the horrors of the Thirty Years' War, a relig- ious strife that involved all Europe in a relentless and desperate fury. "The whole land," says Carlyle, "had been tortured, torn to pieces, wrecked and brayed as in a mortar." Prussia was but a spot on the map and without influ- ence until the Great Frederick lifted her to a commanding position.
The Dutch Republic "powerful by its waters, its union and despair" after passing through the terrors of Alva's rule and the cruel persecution of the in- iquitous Inquisition, attained great prominence and political importance and became the most powerful maritime nation in the world, holding the position of mistress of the seas for a century, which England does to-day. Sweden under the wise reign of Gustavus Adolphus and the able administration of Count Oxen- stiern, rose to the height of her power. Portugal virtually was without influence and Italy was divided into fragments, her thrones occupied by foreign princes.
Europe had emerged slowly from the stupor and darkness of the Middle Ages. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in the 15th century, dis- persed the learned men of the East, and thus was revived in Western Europe the literature and culture of Greece and Rome. The printing press too aided in the dissemination of learning by the multiplication of books. The religious Reformation preached by Wickliffe was in turn followed by that of John Iluss. Then came Martin Luther, who appeared one hundred years after the latter, and whose famous ninety-five propositions aimed at indulgences and at what he called the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Under the influence of these con- ditions a revolution was created in the thoughts of men, and their minds, released from a long captivity, demanded the reason of things and would not accept as a verity mere dogma and doctrine. Sects sprang up in every direction, like mush- rooms over night, and many of them were so evanescent that they passed away without history even recording their names. So numerous were the followers of these doctrines, that they all but threatened the disintegration of the Roman Church, and at once that great institution, in order to create a reaction and to stem the tide, began a system of persecution, and although it lessened the number of heretics, even exterminating them in some localities, it could not prevent the growth of heresies, the whole Christian world was thrown into strife and con- tention, and the precepts of the gentle Teacher of Nazareth were ignored and forgotten by his followers. It was an age of intolerance; men's minds were blinded by bigotry and superstition the twin daughter of ignorance, but the spirit of intolerance was not confined to one sect nor to one state, it controlled all classes of Christians. For example, under the provisions of the edict of 1550 against heretics enacted at the instance of Philip H., no citizen was allowed "to print, copy, conceal, sell, buy or give any book or writing made by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, or any other heretic or to hold or attend any meeting where heretics teach." The punishment prescribed for any violation of this act was death by sword, by fire or by burial alive. A like punishment was inflicted
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WARWICK'S KEYSTONE COMMONWEALTH.
upon those who would dare to lodge, shelter, entertain, nurse, feed or clothe a suspected heretic. In answer to this inhuman edict a law was passed in the reign of Elizabeth which provided that "if any heretic shall convert a Pro- testant to the Roman Catholic Church they shall both suffer death for high treason." These acts will show more than anything else the spirit that pre- vailed, a spirit that compelled the persecuted to seek a refuge in the new world.
These acts were not exceptional in character, the statute books at that age were crowded with like enactments. The Anglican and Calvinist were as intolerant as the Romanist. After Calvin had escaped from martyrdom and found refuge in Geneva he sent Servetus to the stake. The Church of England pursued the. Puritan and the Quaker with the same rancor that the French Cath- olies did the Huguenots or the Spaniard did the Dutch Protestant. Coercion in- stead of persuasion was the means adopted to convince the minds of men. The stake, the gibbet, the rack and the thumb screw were the implements used to en- force obedience and to reclaim heretics.
It seems strange in the light of present civilization that it was ever con- sidered possible to change an opinion of the mind by the torture of the body ; terror may regulate the conduct but cannot control the consciences of men. Spinoza in commenting upon this matter says: "Men are so made as to resent nothing more impatiently than to be treated as criminal on account of the opinions which they deem true and charged as guilty for what simply wakes their affection to God and men. Ilence, laws about opinions are aimed not at the base but at the noble, and tend not to restrain the evil-minded, but rather to irritate the good and cannot be enforced without great peril to the govern- ment. * * What evil can be imagined greater for a State than that honorable men, because they have thoughts of their own and cannot act a lie, are sent as culprits into exile! What more baneful than that men for no guilt or wrongdoing but for the generous largeness of their minds should be taken for enemies and led off to death and that the torture bed, the terror of the bad, should become, to the signal shame of authority, the finest stage for the public spectacle of endurance and virtue." There is nothing, strange to say, that creates so bitter a contention as religious discussion, and yet there are no ques- tions that should be so calmly considered as those relating to relig- ious belief. Even political differences do not create so great an ani- mosity or so deep a hatred. A pronounced partisan in politics is mild in his opposition as compared with a bigot in religion. After all, nine times out of ten, religious belief is but a matter of early education and training, and a bigot in one faith would be just as intolerant as if he had been born and edu- cated under another creed. Why should difference of opinion between men on a dogma or a doctrine induce one man to persecute his fellow? The stake and the rack have no logic that can convince the mind, no argument that can persuade the reason. Torture of the body may effect a verbal recantation but never change a heart. As Penn wisely observed, "If men would once consider one another reasonably they would either reconcile their differences or maintain them more amicably."
The early settlers in America were men who were actuated by principles as dear to them as their life's blood, and men so controlled are willing to
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WARWICK'S KEYSTONE COMMONWEALTHI.
suffer without murmur the privations that must be undergone in the settlement of new lands in a new world. America lighted the torch that became a beacon to the oppressed of all nations and provided an asylum where all men could worship God according to their own fashion and without fear of molestation. To be sure there were some acts of intolerance passed by the Legislature in the early days of the province of Pennsylvania, but never was there a decree or a statute that in any way interfered with freedom of worship.
If the conditions, such as we have described, had to exist it was fortunate for America that the settlements were made at a time when the political and religious tyranny and oppression of the old world sent out emigrants who sought liberty and an opportunity to worship God according to the dictates of their own consicences. Had it not been for the oppression of the old world, the new world, doubtless, would not have been peopled so soon nor with the classes of immigrants that came. If there had not been oppression, these men, per- haps, would not have left their old homes and the associations so dear to them for a new land that at first was not inviting, whose shores were bleak, whose forests were dense and whose inhabitants were savage. It was because of the conditions that prevailed in Europe that America secured her freedom; other- wise, the country might have been settled by mere adventurers, bent only upon the exploitation of the resources of a new land.
CHAPTER II.
THE DUTCH AND THE SWEDES-ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH.
T IIE earliest settlers of Pennsylvania were the Dutch, who, in the year 1623, located on the shores of the Delaware. Here they remained for a period of fifteen years, when the Swedes established them- selves in Pennsylvania and were in possession for seventeen years. The Dutch at the end of this time reconquered the country and retained control unil the English, under the Duke of York, established dominion, and it was so held until the advent of Penn and the Quakers in 1082.
Henry Hudson, an Englishman by birth, a hardy and venturesome sailor, was originally in the employment of the Muscovy Company, a Russian corpora- tion organized for the purpose of extending commerce and of finding a north- western passage to India. As early as 1607 Hudson started out with the inten- tion of reaching the north pole, but met with adverse winds which greatly im- peded his course, and as he sailed north, ice so blocked his way that he was com- pelled to return to Europe, which country he reached in September. Still in the employment of the Muscovy Company he made another attempt and sought to find a northwestern passage to India, but was again frustrated in his plans by the presence of great quantities of floating ice along the northern coasts of Europe. He made close observations and his expeditions specially fitted him for the work he was yet to accomplish. After severing his connection with the Muscovy Company, he was employed by the Dutch West India Company to explore the new land for the purpose of advancing the commercial interests of the corporation. By this time his reputation as a daring explorer had spread all over Europe. He sailed from Amsterdam, in Holland, early in April of 1609, in a vessel of eighty tons burden, called the "Halve-Maan" ( Half Moon. ) The crew consisted of sixteen or eighteen Dutch and English sailors. The vessel was about the size of one of our ordinary two-masted coasting schooners. It was remarkable what long and dangerous voyages were taken by the seamen of those days in their explorations. They ventured out on comparatively unknown seas and in their small barks faced with intrepidity the perils of the deep. Their ships were mere pigmies as compared with the great ocean steamers that plough the seas to-day. Without steam, and driven alone by the winds, they encountered storm after storm in their lengthy voyages, for in coming from the old world to the new the shortest voyage occupied the space of about two months, while mishaps and adverse winds would greatly prolong the time. For instance, the Pilgrims left Plymouth in the summer of 1620 and did not reach the New England coast until December of the same year. They were on the sea for a period of nearly five months. Today, experienced and cour- agcous sailors would hardly think of taking such chances as were taken by the early explorers. The largest boats of these intrepid navigators were mere shallops as compared with the Lusitania and the Olympic of our times, and too it
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