USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > A discourse pronounced on the inauguration of the new hall, March 11, 1872, of the Historical society of Pennsylvania, No. 820 Spruce street, Philadelphia > Part 5
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" Let us then," in the language of another, whose name gives recent honor to a sister state, but whose ancestry in times past belonged in part to ours,* " let us all strive in this our day and generation to collect every memorial of our fore- . fathers which time may have spared. Having rescued these memorials from oblivion, let us place them, as far as may be practicable, beyond the reach of accident. In this work let us labor unceasingly till it be accomplished. Give the future historian of our state no cause to reproach us, for having left him nought but arid chronicles of events; but let him find, among the fruits of our humble toils, mate- rials, not only for faithful narrative, but for a philosophical exposition of the conduct and principles, and institutions of our ancestors."
* William G. Goddard, of Rhode Island, Political and Miscellaneous Writings, Providence, 1870, vol. i, p. 26.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
THE OBJECTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES
AS SETTLED IN THE YEAR 1825, WITH THE NAMES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE MEMBERS.
1. On the national origin, early difficulties, and domestic habits of the first settlers.
Joseph P. Norris,
Jacob S. Waln,
Nicholas Collin,
Thomas H. White,
Roberts Vaux,
Charles Yarnall,
Daniel B. Smith,
Reynell Coates,
Zaccheus Collins,
John Singer,
Thomas F. Gordon,
John F. Watson.
2. On the biography of the founder of Pennsylvania, his family, and the early settlers.
Roberts Vaux,
Samuel R. Wood,
Edward Penington,
Ellis Yarnall,
Algernon S. Logan,
William Maule,
Ellwood Walter,
John Poulson.
Charles Lukens,
3. On biographical notices of persons distinguished among us in ancient and modern times.
William Rawle,
William Smith,
Roberts Vaux,
George W. Toland,
Joseph Sansom,
Samuel Morton,
Clements S. Miller,
Thomas Evans.
4. On the Aborigines of Pennsylvania, their numbers, names of their tribes, intercourse with Europeans, their language, habits, characters, and wars.
Peter S. Duponceau, Benjamin HI. Coates,
Thomas M. Pettit, Joseph Roberts, Henry J. Williams,
James J. Barclay,
Charles W. Thompson,
Isaac Norris,
T. Pennant Barton,
William H. Keating.
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5. On the principles to which the rapid population of Pennsylvania may be ascribed.
Charles J. Ingersoll,
James N. Barker,
George M. Dallas,
Thomas A. Budd, William B. Davidson,
George Randolph, James C. Biddle.
6. On the revenues, expenses, and general polity of the provincial government. -
John Sergeant,
Samuel B. Morris,
Benjamin R. Morgan,
William M. Meredith,
Joseph R. Ingersoll,
William S. Warder.
Clement C. Biddle,
7. On the Juridical History of Pennsylvania.
William Tilghman,
John Purdon,
Thomas Duncan, Thomas Bradford, Jr.,
Joseph Reed,
Edward D. Ingraham,
William Rawle, Jr.,
David Paul Brown.
8. On the Literary History of Pennsylvania.
Joseph Hopkinson,
Thomas I. Wharton,
Robert Walsh, Jr., Edward Bettle,
George W. Smith, John M. Read,
Gerard Ralston, John Vaughan.
9. On the Medical History of Pennsylvania.
Thomas C. James,
Samuel Jackson,
Caspar Wistar,
Caspar Morris,
J. Rhea Barton, Benjamin Ellis,
Isaac Snowden. 1
10. On the progress and present state of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, in Pennsylvania.
Nicholas Biddle, C. M. Pennock, Reuben Haines,
Stephen Duncan,
Charles A. Poulson,
William M. Walmsley, Thomas Biddle,
George Stewardson,
John Hare Powell,
Roberts Vaux,
.
Samuel Wetherill,
Samuel Breck.
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No. II.
Reference was here made to the admirable speech of Mr. Alexander HI. Stephens, of Georgia, on Secession, in the Couven- tion of the State of Georgia, when the secession from the Union was there proposed for that state.
" This step once taken can never be recalled ; and all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow (as you will see) will rest on the Convention for all coming time.
" When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will inevitably invite and call forth ; when our green fields of waving harvests shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land ; our temples of justice laid in ashes ; all the horrors and desolations of war upon us, who but this Convention will be held responsible for it ? and who but him who shall have given his vote for this unwise and ill- timed measure, as I honestly think and believe, shall be held to strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, and probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all coming time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate.
"Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourself in calmer moments-what rea- sons you can give to your fellow sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it ? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case ; and to what cause or one overt act can you name or point on which to rest the plea of justification ? What right has the North assailed ? What interest of the South has been invaded ? What justice has been denied ? and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld ? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong delibe- rately and purposely done by the Government of Washington of which the South has a right to complain ? I challenge the answer.
" While, on the other hand, let me show facts. (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not here the advocate of the North, but I am here the friend, the firm friend and lover of the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus plainly and faithfully for yours, mine. and every other man's interest, the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state facts which are clear and un- deniable, and which now stand as records authentic in the history of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years ?
" When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not granted ? When we asked and demanded the return
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of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 ? But do you reply, that in many instances they have violated this compact, and have not been faithful to their engagements ? As individuals and local communities, they have done so ; but not by the sanction of Govern- ment, for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another fact.
" When we have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, out of which four states have been carved and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act, do not destroy this hope, and, perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation which may reasonably be expected to follow.
" But again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the General Government ? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive Department. So of the Judges of the Supreme Court-we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North ; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the court have always been from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the legislative branch of government.
"In choosing the presiding Presidents (pro tem.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House we have had twenty-three, and they twelve. While the majority of the Representa- tives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country.
"Nor have we had less control in every other department of the Gen- eral Government. Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but tive. Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business which de- mands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal em- bassies, so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar, on the best possible ternis.
" We have had a vast majority of the higher officers of both army and navy, while a large proportion of the soldiers and sailors were
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drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and comptrollers filling the Executive Department ; the record shows for the last fifty years that of three thousand thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white popu- lation of the republic. Again, look at another item, and one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest ; it is that of revenue, or means of supporting government. From official documents we learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the sup- port of government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important items.
"Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in war with the North ; with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle and offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition-and for what we ask again ? Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity ? And, as such, I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its meas- ures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of Heaven ever shone upon.
"Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century -- in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our do- mestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquillity, accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unas- sailed-is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote."
No. III.
The chair in which, by good tradition, Hancock sat as President of the Congress of 1776, is still in Independence Hall. It has carved on the top of its back, and gilded, the image of a sun half in the sea ; whether rising from the sea, however, or setting in it is not so clear. We know that Washington, as President of the Convention of 1787, sat in this same chair, from an incident thus recorded in Mr. Madison's debates at the close of the Convention, and after the Constitution had been adopted. Mr. Madison (Madison Papers, vol. iii, p. 1624) says :
" Whilst the last members were signing, Dr. Franklin looking towards
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the President's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have (said he) often and often in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising not a setting sun."
It may be here remarked that Colonel Trumbull's picture of the Dec- laration in the rotunda at Washington does not represent the chair which we know, on good tradition, that Hancock sat in. In mere ac- cessories of the pictures, the artist doubtless took such freedom as gave the body of his work the best effects.
It is to be regretted that we have no historical painting of the second great event which gives glory to the Hall of Independence. The late Mr. Rossiter, an artist of no mean accomplishment, had devoted much time to the execution of such a work, which he entitled, "The Signing of the Constitution." His- "study " was completed, and he had discovered portraits of all the members of the Convention of 1787 (as of Major Jackson, its Secretary), with the exception, I think, of three, not distinguished members, whose averted or shaded figures in the picture, assisted to give it right effects. He visited Washington soon after the close of the war which preserved to us the blessings of the Constitution, and with a view of inducing Congress to order the execution of the picture on a large scale for the Capitol, exhibited his study along with some other historic sketches, in one of the rooms of that building. But the nation was groaning with the weight of taxes which the rebellion had caused, and the moment was not propitious to the arts. His death soon after put an end to hiis patriotic design. But what he did do ought not to be lost, and I trust that it may not be. Any such work as Colonel Trumbull's or Mr. Rossiter's-the last, es- pecially, as of a subject less dramatic than the former-is necessarily un- grateful. But allowing for the immense difficulty of giving effect to a picture of a body of men much in repose, where no female figure im -. parts grace and where impressions from color are largely excluded, Mr. Rossiter's study, with some variations from it which he meant to in- troduce into the larger painting, would have given us, I think, a pic- ture of value. Our city or our citizens should still perhaps look after it.
No. IV.
In what place the seat of the General Government should be seems to have been a matter of jealousy between different cities, even in the days of the Provincial Congresses. When the Convention of 1787 met to frame a new Constitution, and a bicameral Legislature and a Supreme
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Court were spoken of, I suppose that Philadelphia saw that if she wanted to be the seat of government, she would have to erect the buildings neces- sary for its use ; for she had at the time none of her own suitable. With the view chiefly, as I suppose, of securing the seat of government, though not with an avowal of that purpose, the county built what was formerly known as "Congress Hall, " at the southeast corner of Sixth and Chest- nut, it being certain also that the building could be made useful for county purposes even if Philadelphia should not be the seat of govern- ment. The figures 1787, indicating; I suppose, the year of foundation, are upon the front marble string-piece. The building, I judge, was not finished in 1787 ; for the third session of the First Congress, which session assembled here, sat, like the Provincial Congress of 1774, I think, in Carpenters' Hall.
From the "History of Congress "" we learn that on the 6th December, 1790, a letter from Messrs. Evan Thomas and Andrew Geyer, in behalf of the Commissioners of the City and County of Philadelphia, was pre- sented by Mr. Morris to the Senate, offering "the County Courthouse in Philadelphia to the representatives of the Union, for their accommo- dation during their residence in the City of Philadelphia, " and that on the following day the Senate ordered the following reply to be addressed to the Commissioners :
GENTLEMEN :
The Senate have considered the letter you were pleased to address to the Senate and House of Representatives on the 6th inst., and they entertain a proper sense of the respect shown to the General Government of the United States by providing so commodious a building as the Commissioners of the City and County of Philadelphia have appropriated for the accommodation of the representatives of the Union during their residence in this city.
I have the honor to be
Your most humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS,
Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate.
A similar communication from the Commissioners was made to the House of Representatives on the 11th December.
So, also, for its own uses chiefly, but with a chamber designed for the Supreme Court of the United States, the city, as I conjecture, performed its part and built, about the same time, the "City Hall, " as it was for- merly called ; the building I mean at the southwest corner of Fifth and Chestnut.
1st. As to the Congress Hall. We know certainly that the large room, still existing in the second story, south side (now or lately Dis- trict Court Room, No. 1, and previously the Circuit Court of the United
* Page 106.
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States), was, as it now stands, the old Senate Chamber of the United States. This is certain. The further and whole disposition of this story appears, as I suppose, from the diagram annexed.
-
D
E
N
B
C
A
.
V.P.
A, Senate Chamber ; V. P. being the Vice-President's or Speaker's scat.
B, the present Law Library, communicating with the S. nate Chamber, and, in the judg- ment of Mr. HI. A. Sims, the well-known architect, formerly a room of state, probably the Vice-President's. The cornice is very rich.
C, now the East Room or Conversation Room of the Law Library. Formerly, perhaps, the Secretary of the Senate's.
Dand E, formerly, perhaps, Committee Rooms of the Senate ; or if the House of Representa- tives had no rooms on the first floor, or in the " Row," then existing, though in a form dif- ferent from the present one, Committee, or Clerk, or Speaker's Room of the House. That there were, prior to the now existing divisions in the north part of the second story, rooms of the same width as Band C, is shown by the course of the cornices in the little entries or "cut- off's" north of those two rooms, B and C.
There was no gallery originally to the Senate, its discussions not having originally been public. After Congress came to this city and it was determined that the Senate proceedings should be public, it was
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate request the Commissioners of the City and County of Philadelphia to cause a proper gallery to be erected for the accommodation of an audience.
A gallery was accordingly constructed on the north side. The entrance was by a small stairway in a room north of the Senate and on the cast of the main building, since called the "Conversation Room " or "East Room " of the Law Library.
As to the House of Representatives. This covered, according to the
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best testimony, more than that part of the building lately used by the Court of Quarter Sessions, and now sometimes by the Court of Common Pleas. It came across the now existing entry from Sixth Street, and occupied not only it, but part of what is now the Tax Receiver's room. The following diagram indicates what I suppose up to 1800 was the dis- position of this floor.
D
T
V
N
L
0
0
R
0
0
U
S
D, main entrance, on Chestnut Street, into a large vestibule.
V, this vestibule.
L, logia, entered from the vestibule by a green baize door, general entrance into the House and logia for spectators.
$, Speaker's seat. The fact that the Speaker looked east has been stated to me by a most trustworthy witness, now in his ninety-third year, who heard Marshall speak in the Jonathan Robbins ease, and who was aware of the now existing recess in the south wall, which seems to have been there originally and to have made that the most proper place for the Speaker. An engraved caricature, made January 15th, 1798, which I have, indicates the same thing. R, the four reporters' places, indicated on this caricature.
U, large exterior vestibule, shown on a print of the State-house, supposed to be of about A.D. 1795, and probably connected with the Row offices, then existing in another form from now.
I think it probable that the northern part of the Congress Hall, espe- cially the ground floor, may have been much altered more than once. I suppose it possible that the now north wall of the Quarter Sessions, which, in the opinion of Mr. R. L. Nicholson, a very good judge, though not an expert (and who thinks that there are no brick walls on the second story*), is not an original wall, was put where it is soon after
* Wooden pillars of ancient date, though how old I do not know, support the whole second story from the ground floor, notwithstanding this brick wall.
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Congress went away, in 1800 ; the east and west sides of the remaining space left north being converted into offices, with a passage between them which led from the Sixth Street door to the Quarter Sessions. The now existing Sixth Street entrance is said to be of more recent date. It is probable that when that Sixth Street entrance was put in, the two large rooms now on the north part of both the first and second stories were put there by tearing these offices down. A skilful builder, upon a view of the corpus, would soon settle a good many things. I conjecture ignorantly every way, and with no leisure just now either to examine for myself or to ask those competent to inform me what, after thorough examination, is their judgment.
2d. As to the Supreme Court of the United States. The original min- ute-books at Washington show that the court, except during February and August Terms, 1791, and the same terms in 1798, when nothing is said which would indicate that it was held in a different place, always met "at the City Hall." Two days only are excepted. These are March 14th, 1796, when the minutes mention that "pursuant to ad- journment the court met in the Common Council Room of the Corpora- tion of Philadelphia," and Friday, August 5th, 1796, when it is men- tioned that they met at "the State-house, " no cause for the change of the place of meeting being mentioned in either case, and it having been in both cases but for the day. The City Hall is the building at the southwest corner of Fifth and Chestnut. There are two fine chambers on the south side of that building. One, down-stairs, I suppose to have been, in early times, the Mayor's Court ; the one up-stairs, still retain- ing much of its original style, I take to have been the place where sat the Supreme Court of the United States.
For some other particulars about the Congress Hall I am indebted to two letters, one from Mr. John McAllister, Jr., now in his eighty- sixth year, the other from Mr. Francis Gurney Smith, in his eighty- ninth. An article from Poulson's American Advertiser-one of . a number signed Lang Syne-is as valuable as either. The author was Mr. William McKoy, a teller in the Bank of North America, well known to Mr. McAllister, to whom I am indebted for a copy of it. ITis account being that of a man comparatively young, and who wrote within less than twenty-five years of the time which he described, is particularly valuable He died, Mr. McAllister tells me, January 28th, 1833. Mr. McAllister writes thus to me :
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PHILADELPHIA, February 19th, 1872.
MY DEAR SIR:
In reply to your letter to my son, I give you my recollections of the building at the southeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets.
The door of entrance was on Chestnut Street, the same as is now the en- trance to the Tax Receiver's office ; south of this was the Hall of the House of Representatives ; to the left of the passage, say on the east, was the stair-
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case up to the Senate Chamber, which was the same room now or lately one of the District Court Rooms. The Vice-President had his seat at the south end of the room, near the windows looking out to the State-house yard; in front of him sat Samuel Alyne Otis, the Secretary, then a handsome elderly gentleman. The spectators' gallery was a very narrow place, scarcely more than six feet wide, extending from the east to the west end of the room; it was supported on pillars, and beneath this gallery was the only entrance to the Senate chamber. When I was in the habit of going to look at Congress, in 1798 and 1799 (when I was twelve or thirteen years of age). Mr. Jeffer- son was Vice-President. According to my present recollections he was tall ; his face, as I can recollect, did not at all resemble the likeness of him as given in Miss Randolph's book on the " Domestic Life of Jefferson." Very few persons were to be found in the Senate gallery. I do not remember that it had any chairs or seats of any kind. I recollect seeing William Duane (father of W. J. Duane, Secretary of the Treasury under President Jackson) on one occasion taking notes. He sat on one of the steps, and had a book on his knee to hold his sheet of paper. I cannot remember any of the Senators whom I then saw, except Mr. William Bingham, a represent- ative from our own State.
The Representatives had on the first floor their room. I remember that the spectators had a lobby of perhaps fifteen or twenty feet wide, but I think the arrangement of the chamber was altered. There was, I believe, a mov- able wooden rostrum for the Speaker and clerks, which, I think, was at some time near the west end or side of the chamber, probably eight or ten feet from the west wall, where were the fireplaces in which wood was burned, bat I think this wooden stage or rostrum was at another time at or near to the south end of the chamber, and again I think I have seen it near the east end. I heard John Marshall, of Virginia (afterwards Chief Justice), de- liver a speech of one or two hours in the case of Jonathan Robbins, who had been engaged in a mutiny on board a British ship of war, and who was given up by President Adams on the call of the British government. On that occasion John Marshall was defending the administration from the at- tacks of the Democrats in Congress. During his speech I well remember that he was not very remote from the Sixth Street wall. My father and myself were in the lobby and near to Marshall. The speech occupied the whole afternoon ; indeed, candles were lighted before the close of it.
There was no door on Sixth Street until long after Congress had left Phila- delphia. When that was put in, a passage was made through to the east end, occupying what had been the spectators' lobby.
That the members of Congress might have access to their hall without the use of the front door on Chestnut Street, there was a small vestibule erected in the eastern passage. It was removed or taken down after Congress went away. A view of it is introduced on an engraving of the State-house, which I send you. When the building was altered this was removed, the wall of the county building was disfigured, and it was plastered over, and the plas- tering seems to have been carried up to the eaves. This plastering is now to be seen.
I have no recollection about the Supreme Court of the United States, and cannot tell you whereabouts it sat.
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I regret that I do not remember more particularly the matters about which you inquire.
I am, dear sir, Very respectfully yours, JOHN MCALLISTER, JR.
MR. J. W. WALLACE.
Mr. Smith writes thus :
The building you allude to was occupied by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. All the lower floor was used by the latter, and the entrance thereto was by a vestibule on Chestnut Street. The south part of the second floor was occupied by the Senate, and although I have been in it, I do not know where the staircase was that led to it, nor do I know how the north half of the building was occupied. I was in the House of Representatives when John Adams was inaugurated President of the United States. He delivered his inaugural address from the Speaker's chair on the west side of the room, and Jonathan Dayton, the Speaker of the House, sat in the clerk's seat below, General Washington sat on the right of Mr. Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, Vice-President-elect, on his left. Gen- eral Washington in a coach and four stopped opposite the door of Inde- pendence Hall and walked through an avenue (formed by the crowd) to the door of the ouse of Representatives, amid the hearty cheers of the people. Two brass field-pieces were stationed in Potter's Field, now Washington Square. At twelve o'clock they fired a salute, and John Adams rose and delivered his inaugural address.
Mr. McKoy, who, under the signature of "Lang Syne," wrote, as I have mentioned, for Poulson's Advertiser about forty years ago, says as follows :
Here is an inside view of the plain brick building at the southeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets. In this limited inclosure the representatives of the people in former days viewed themselves as surrounded by uncommon elegance and decoration in their discussions, they being "fresh from the ranks of the people," actually so, and unused to legislative splendor other than had been exhibited by the old Congress of 1776 in the east wing of the State-house on Chestnut Street. Prior to their removal South they passed unanimously a vote of thanks to the authorities of Pennsylvania for having done the thing so very handsomely.
The House of Representatives, in session, occupied the whole of the ground floor, upon a platform elevated three steps in ascent, plainly carpeted, and covering nearly the whole of the area, with a limited " Logia " or promenade for the members and privileged persons, and four narrow desks between the Sixth Street windows for the stenographers, Lloyd, Gales, Callender, and Duane. The Speaker's chair, without canopy, was of plain leather and brass nails, facing the east, at or near the centre of the western wall.
The Senate convened in the room up-stairs, looking into the State-house garden. It has since been used by Judges Washington and Peters as the Federal Court.
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In a very plain chair, without canopy, and a small mahogany table before him, festooned at the sides and front with green silk, Mr. Adams, the Vice- President, presided as President of the Senate, facing the north. Among the thirty Senators of that day, there was observed constantly during the debate the most delightful silence, the most beautiful order, gravity, and personal dignity of manner. They all appeared every morning full powdered and dressed, as age or fancy might suggest, in the richest material. 'The very atmosphere of the place seemed to inspire wisdom, mildness, and condescen - sion. Should any one of them so far forget for a moment as to be the cause of a protracted whisper while another was addressing the Vice-President, three gentle taps with his silver pencil-case by Mr. Adams immediately re- stored everything to repose and the most respectful attention, presenting in their courtesy a most striking contrast to the independent loquacity of the Representatives below stairs, some few of whom persisted in wearing, while in their seats and during the debate, their ample cocked hats, placed " fore and aft " upon their heads.
A correspondent of the "Sunday Dispatch, " of 25th January, 1872, signing himself "Sexagenary," says, referring to the building :
The only entrance to the building was through the door on Chestnut Street, now leading to the office of the Receiver of Taxes. Between 1815 and 1821 I resided within a square of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, and recol- lect that the entrance on Sixth Street was made during the latter part of that time-and, I believe, the present staircase also. A passage ran from the door on Chestnut Street to the room of the House of Representatives, now the Court of Quarter Sessions. The late Thomas Bradford, Esq., occu- pied a room on the west side of this passage as a law office about the year 1818.
No. V.
PROPOSALS FOR THE PRINTING OF A LARGE BIBLE, BY WILLIAM BRADFORD.
These are to give Notice, that it is proposed for a large house-Bible to be Printed by way of Subscriptions [a method usual in England for the printing of large Volumes, because Printing is very chargeable] therefore to all that are willing to forward so good (and great) a Work, as the Printing of the holy Bible, are offered these Proposals, viz.
1. That it shall be printed in a fair Character, on good Paper, and well bound.
2. That it shall contain the Old and New Testament, with the Apocraphy, and all to have useful Marginal Notes.
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3. That it shall be allowed (to them that subscribe) for Twenty Shillings per Bible: [A Price which one of the same volumn in England would cost.]
4. That the pay shall be half Silver Money, and half Country Pro- duce at Money price. One half down now, and the other half on the delivery of the Bibles.
5. That those who do subscribe for six, shall have the Seventh gratis. and have them delivered one month before any above that number shall be sold to others.
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6. To those which do not subscribe, the said Bibles will not be allowed under 26 s. a piece.
7. Those who are minded to have the Common-Prayer, shall have the whole bound up for 22 s. and those that do not subscribe 28 s. and 6 d. per Book.
S. That as encouragement is given by Peoples subscribing and pay- ing down one half, the said Work will be put forward with what Expedition may be.
9. That the Subscribers may enter their Subscriptions and time of Payment, at Pheneas Pemberton's and Robert Halls in the County of Bucks. At Malen Stacy's Mill at the Falls. At Thomas Budds House in Burlington. At John Hasting's in the County of Chester. At Edward Blake's in New-Castle. At Thomas Woodroof's in Salem. And at William Bradford's in Philadelphia, Printer & Undertaker of the said Work. At which places the Subscribers shall have a Receipt for so much of their Subscriptions as paid, and an obligation for the delivery of the number of Bibles (so Printed and Bound as aforesaid) as the respective Subscribers shall deposit one half for.
Also this may further give notice, that Samuell Richardson and Samuell Carpenter of Philadelphia, are appointed to take care and be assistant in the laying out of the Subscription Money, and to see that it be imploy'd to the use intended, and consequently that the whole Work be expedited. Which is promised by
William Bradford.
Philadelphia, the 14th of
the 1st Month, 1688.
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